grammar – Teaching The Outsiders (and more)

grammar, Stories of Seventh Grade

A New Part of Speech

mrC

Today, we were working on dependent and independent clauses. The bonus question on the warm up was: When you use a dependent clause as a “sentence,” that mistake is called a ________ . The answer we are looking for is “fragment.” Ok, so… One of the things I like to do is give hints about […]

grammar, kids today

There’s Hope for the Youth of Today After All

mrC

This story comes from my daily skate, rather than the classroom, but it’s one of those aw shucks stories, and I have been a little crabby lately, so I needed something like this to restore my faith in America’s youth. English Quiz: We have been working on simple, compound, and complex sentences for the past […]

grammar, Schoolhouse Rock, Seventh Grade Behavior

Please Explain This Phenomenon

mrC

Update: The standing girl from yesterday finished day two today. She mixed it up a bit with some one foot for about ten minutes here and there. She said she doesn’t do it in other classes. Hmmm. Clue one. She said she will do it again tomorrow. Inspired another kid in that class to […]

grammar, Seventh Grade Behavior

“In your face!” (More Commas.)

mrC

Before we start: This is the third year of this blog. I’ve run out of ways to refer to the current group of students. This year’s bunch, the current crop, this year’s geniuses, the current crew, etc. I’m getting tired of coming up with new ones. I have to come up with a nickname, a […]

grammar

Before the But.

mrC

OMG. These kids do not know from commas this year. Some years, they use commas like salt: they just sprinkle them everywhere. Sometimes it seems, there’s even a little pile of commas for dipping here and there. This year, it’s run-on sentences and single paragraphs as far as the eye can see, with no room […]

grammar, Tom Sawyer, Wiki

1903

mrC

When I tried to put the ellipsis dots (…) as a title, my blog software couldn’t cope, and title in the permalink became 1903. So I’ll just call this entry 1903… Today I witnessed another sign of the continuing de-evolution of seventh graders — isn’t each succeeding generation supposed to get smarter? We were working on […]

grammar, Stories of Seventh Grade, student work

I Got Nothin’

mrC

After almost 20 years of doing this job, I’d like to think I sort of know my way around the junior high psyche. Plus I remember 7th and 8th grade like they were yesterday, and some might still accuse me of being a seventh grader yet. But every now and then…well, I got nothin’. Sometimes […]

grammar, Seventh Grade Behavior

Sunny

mrC

I have one class that has 20 girls and only 7 boys in it. Obviously this class has a different dynamic, as they say, from my other classes… (Grammar Tip: I just backspaced, and changed “different…than” to “different…from.” It’s “larger than,” and “different from.” It’s kind of the same as… If you’re old enough to […]