Hello, everyone,

I just joined this group yesterday, as recommended by Dr. Ed Vavra's web
site. My I just say that I hope the tone and content of the recent exchanges
have been atypical.

I teach English at an all-boys prep school, grades 7-9, and my greatest
delight is showing kids how to make the connection between grammar and their
writing. When the seventh graders read Call of the Wild, the focus is not on
how to treat your dog, but on the style. Inspired by Jack London's sentence
patterns, presented using the simple Christensen method of numbering the
base clause and the free modifiers, these kids reach heights even their
mothers had not thought they could. As one youngster said, "It makes you
feel like you're a good writer!"

Are there other disciples of Francis Christensen out there?

Don Stewart