Nancy,

I understand your frustration completely and commend you on
all you are doing to help your middle school students work
with our language.

As for how to motivate them, I hope I can give you one way.
I "graduated" from teaching middle school myself years ago
to becoming a trainer specializing in communication skills.
Therefore, I teach writing, speaking, and grammar (both
written and oral) to employees in the business world.
Corporations, government agencies, etc., will not accept the
kind of writing your students would like to see you
validate.  They expect their paid employees to write and
speak as correctly as possible.  Habits are so easy to form
but so hard to break, so the more your students can get into
the habit of writing correctly now, the more this will
benefit them in the future.

Since I don't know your students, I don't know if painting a
corporate picture with them in it will connect with them,
but if even a few can relate, that's a start.

Good luck in the trenches; you're fighting a worthwhile
battle!

Linda Comerford

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