> Gretchen,
   I always start with an exercise I got from Max Morenberg's Doing
Grammar; I think he credits Paul Roberts. You give them 25 words and
ask them to put them into groups of five and order the groups in such a
way that one word from each group will always give you a sentence. I
don't have the words with me, but the categories are as follows: Group
one--proper names (like Sally) and nominal pronouns (he, she, I...);
group two-frequency adverbs, like always, often, seldom, never,
sometimes; group three-transitive verbs, past tense, like washed,
broke, smashed, touched, liked; group four--words that can act as
determiners, like a, the, his, my, this; group five--common nouns, like
car, goldfish, window.
   You give them the words in mixed up order and ask them to sort them
into these groups so they can make a "sentence machine."  (If I do it
in class, I do it as group work.) You end up with great (playful)
sentences like "George always washed my goldfish," or "Sally seldom
stroked my window." I always ask them to find an additional word to put
in each group and then ask them what we might call the groups if we
were inventing a way to talk about language and how it works.
   In college, it always works to get everyone involved and start to
convince them that it is their language we are investigating, and we
want them to look at their own internalized grammar as a source of
insight. The grammar is in us, not the books; the books just try to
make sense of it.
   An exercise I used last fall that worked enormously well in a writing
intensive literature class--every student had to find a word that had
at least two parts of speech (they are enormously common, which is a
revelation right away), look it up in the OED (we have it online on our
campus), and see if they can find the core meaning of the word,
additional meanings that grew up over time, the shift from one part of
speech to another, and what all this tells us about language and how it
changes and grows. On this one, I graded on effort. Is that too tough
for middle school? Maybe you could select a word or two as a group and
make it a group project. I was astounded at how much fun they seemed to
have and how much they felt they got out of it. I told them if they
ever want to impress an English teacher, just say "I looked it up in
the OED." But they seemed to come out of it understanding that the
language is synamic, and it is made by the people, not by the rule
books.
   All the research I'm doing now into the new psychology of language
seems to say language is learned in communicative context. I don't
think that means we can't and shouldn't reflect upon language, but that
we let them know that it's all about a richer understanding of the way
people interact with each other and make sense of our shared world.
   The new thinking seems to be that there are "constructions" rather than
rules and that these are learned on a much more local level. Grammar is
not innate, and it is not neutral. The construction itself adds meaning
to the expression. If we generalize too much with the rules, we run the
danger of pulling language out of its real world context and distorting
it in the process.
   I love the idea of teaching grammar as an elective. I think you should
set the tone as--you guys are going to be amatuer linguists. Ask them
to record conversations in the lunch room. (But not embarass anyone?)
Give it a seminar feel and not a remedial one.



Craig
> In a message dated 6/28/2007 6:48:48 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> I can  give you some general advice that I hope is helpful: Students at
> this
> age  learn best by doing, not by listening. So lots of exercises is the
> key in
> my  mind. If you try to lecture, you lose them. Exercises that relate to
> their  everyday experiences are also especially  effective.
>
>
>
> Thanks, Marshall. That tracks with my experience. That's why I'm  looking
> for
> hands-on stuff that makes sense outside the narrow Warriner's view  of
> grammar that is still so prevalent in middle school.
>
>
> Thanks,
> Gretchen
>
>
>
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