Joanne,

Thanks for your response.  I feel completely overwhelmed, too, with trying to
plan, trying to learn to use a new Web page program and get things online for
my fall grammar class, etc.

By the way, although Teaching Grammar in Context offers research, some teachers
and teachers-to-be prefer my edited, practical book, Lessons to Share:  On
Teaching Grammar in Context.  I've even decided to use the later book and two
Web-posted chapters from the former in the online course I'll be teaching on
teaching grammar, next summer and fall.  Meanwhile, I am struggling with such
basics as getting my printer to work again, and leaving in a few minutes for a
conference!

Connie

"Joanne W. Sandhu" wrote:

> I, too, plan to use Noden's book, Image Grammar, which I am now reading as
> well as your book, Connie, Teaching Grammar in Context.  Let's keep this
> topic on the list, if you would, so all can benefit.  And Gretchen, thanks
> for your suggestion of Rief's book, Seeking Diversity, which I am also
> reading.  So much to absorb and plan, so little time, even though it is
> summer!  Anyone else feel that way?  And how does one deal with curriculum
> demands when trying to implement workshop?  I feel caught in the middle of
> old expectations and new ideas....
>
> Thanks,
> Joanne
> sandhu!cyberis.net
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Connie Weaver <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, July 23, 2000 1:48 PM
> Subject: Re: Connie Weaver's minilessons
>
> > This message is for Gretchen.  I apologize if I've already sent it, but I
> found
> > it in my drafts folder.
> >
> > Connie Weaver
> >
> > Gretchen, your immediately previous post brought tears to my eyes.
> Clearly you
> > are a WONDERFUL teacher; I only wish that I, and my son, had had teachers
> like
> > you!
> >
> > It's uncanny how much your experiences in teaching writing parallel my own
> at the
> > college level--especially in teaching developmental writing classes, but
> also in
> > teaching teachers-to-be and even practicing teachers.  No matter how
> effectively
> > I think I'm teaching grammar and editing (through individual conferences
> too), I
> > succeed better in all the other aspects of teaching writing!
> >
> > I will cut and paste below the mini-lessons I've been using in my
> undergrad/grad
> > course Grammar for Teachers.  I've required the students to work in groups
> to
> > teach the mini-lessons themselves.  This has helped a great deal in that
> most
> > everyone has learned one set of concepts well!  But one set is hardly
> enough.
> > Because my class meets only once a week for 3 1/2 hours, there are too
> many
> > mini-lessons in one class session.  Furthermore, since the students are
> eager to
> > demonstrate their new knowledge, the mini-lessons tend to be longer than I
> want.
> > (Someday I will have the courage just to cut them off.)  Last semester,
> one
> > cluster of students was particularly resistant to the repeated teaching of
> > mini-lessons, and I can't say I blame them.  They claimed they liked my
> own
> > teaching of certain aspects of grammar better, but in truth, I don't think
> I
> > could/would sustain my best teaching throughout all those concepts.  (True
> > confession again.)
> >
> > Beginning in the fall, however, I'm going to try something different.  I'm
> going
> > to use Harry Noden's Image Grammar for one strand of the course.  I think
> I'll
> > still have mini-lessons on some aspects of editing, but I'm not sure what
> I'll do
> > about the practice of having everyone participate in teaching some kind of
> > mini-lesson.  There's a possibility that we might have an "electronic
> classroom"
> > for English Education by this fall, though I'm not holding my breath on
> that
> > one.  But if we do have laptop computers hooked up with a display
> computer/screen
> > in the classroom, and hooked up to the Internet as well, then the teaching
> of
> > mini-lessons can be enlivened still more, and we can even use the CD
> accompanying
> > Harry Noden's book to access photos and other things, as well as to access
> > various Web sites dealing with grammar.  Will all of this enhance
> learning?  I'd
> > like to think so, but I don't know.
> >
> > The references to TGIC in the list below are references to my Teaching
> Grammar in
> > Context.  I also have the bookstore order one of Diana Hacker's handbooks
> for
> > writers, plus books of readings for my students.  This year I'm going to
> try a
> > "Professional Book Club" approach as yet another strand of the course.
> Students
> > will choose from among about a half a dozen books, then meet in groups
> weekly to
> > discuss what they've read in the books.
> >
> > I hope my posting the following sequence of mini-lessons on the listserv
> will
> > encourage others to share their own sequences of lessons, as Jeff too has
> > recently done.  (The advice on resources is for my students, and I confer
> with
> > the groups, too, to suggest other resources.)
> >
> > Gretchen, wouldn't it be fun for the two of us to keep in touch this fall
> as we
> > teach with Harry Noden's book?
> >
> > Connie
> >
> > Grammar minilessons
> >
> > 1 Understanding subject-verb agreement (see TGIC Appendix, pp. 198-199) [I
> will
> > already have taught subjects and verbs, or rather an introduction to them;
> like
> > others, I use a slot-and-filler approach mostly]
> >  2 Understanding S-V agreement when a prepositional phrase modifies
> >     the subject (see TGIC Appendix, pp. 199-200)
> >  3 Understanding other S-V agreement situations (See Hacker, pp. 121-127)
> >
> >
> >  4 Connecting independent clauses (see TGIC Appendix, pp. 200-201)
> >  5 Understanding independent and dependent clauses and the concept
> >     of fragment (see TGIC Appendix, pp. 201-203)
> >    [Locate the relevant pages in Hacker or in another book, and study]
> >
> > 6 Eliminating run-ons and comma splices (see TGIC Appendix, pp. 203-204)
> > 7 Making limited use of comma splices (see TGIC Appendix, pp. 204-205)
> > 8 Phrases versus clauses (see TGIC Appendix, p. 205)
> > 9 More on fragments (see TGIC Appendix, pp. 205-207)
> >     In the Appendix, there is also an alternative sequence of lessons,
> >       on pp. 207-209; see also the relevant pages in Hacker
> >
> > 10 Introducing participial phrases (see TGIC Appendix, pp. 214-217)
> > 11 Using participial phrases as free modifiers (see TGIC pp. 217-218)
> > 12 Creating participial phrases and absolutes through sentence-combining
> >     (see TGIC Appendix, pp. 218-221)
> > 13 Appreciating and using absolutes (see TGIC Appendix, p. 221)
> >
> > 14   Moving a medial modifier (see TGIC Appendix, p. 223)
> > 15 Given/new information (see TGIC Appendix, p. 223-224)
> > 16 Using the passive (TGIC Appendix, p. 227)
> > 17 Using WH-word or It-transforms (TGIC Appendix, pp. 224-225)
> > 18 Using It and there transforms (TGIC Appendix, pp. 226-227)
> >    Also, please look at the lessons on pp. 241-242 of the Appendix
> >
> > 19 Connecting clauses with conjunctive adverbs (see TGIC Appendix, pp.
> > 209-211)
> >  20 Comparing 3 kinds of connectors (see TGIC Appendix, pp. 211-213)
> >
> > 21 Using the colon (see TGIC Appendix, pp. 237-239) & using dashes (see
> > Hacker)
> > 22 Punctuating restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses (see TGIC Appendix,
> pp.
> > 239-241)
> >
> > 23  How to punctuate quotes and how to include and punctuate references to
> > sources
> > 24  How to do bibliography items and bibliographies
> >