March 27

This week I started with the Anderson readings.  I guess this week's theme is going to be verbs.
in the first lesson 4.1 he discusses subject verb agreement.  Personally, I do not know how large the problem is with high schoolers and this topic, but I do not really recall having a problem.  But then again I could make this mistake and then not know I made it either.  The second part of this lesson dealt with correct tenses.  Again, I felt that was a little bit of a no brainer. 

Actually as I started to page through these lessons, many of the lessons seem logical-- when writing.  But Anderson specifically notes, this is what kids 'say'.  Which makes me wonder if the kids are writing the same way.  Same way with texting I guess.  But my dad will say "Imma be right back" but if he were to write down the phrase it would be "I will be right back." or some of my residents will say "That party be off the hook last night man!" but I would hope they would write out, "The party last night was crazy!"

This small tangent brings me to the question:  should we as teachers be correcting our kids speech? Is there a danger for students to start writing as they speak. 

The shifting tenses section 4.4 I am ashamed to say that I missed the error... this has to be my weak spot in my writing.  The only thing is the mini lesson Anderson suggested would not have helped me.  I would have asked for clarification, I do not like vague.  But he's suggesting I do that to my student to help foster their own. 

I'm beginning to realize I am the annoying little student... dang it and I am sorry.

Okay now for chapter 3 of Noden The Artist's Rhythms

okay now for parallel structure, a term I have never heard before, Noden defines as identical grammatical structures that add rhythm and balance to images.  Kinda like writing things down in a series.  Or at least that is my understanding so far.  It could be a whole bunch of symilar words in a line or a phrase repeated over the course of a paragraph but it helps create a flow and mesmerizing quality to writing. 

Noden notes that while these phrases/paragraphs/sentences are beautiful crafted and read they are also very powerful spoken.  This is a funny contrast to the point I made above.