Unleashing Your Language Wizards: A Brain-Based Approach to Effective Editing and Writing
- By John Crow
- Pub. Date: Jul 14, 2009 by Allyn & Bacon.
- More Info
- Copyright 2010
- Dimensions: 7-3/8" x 9-1/8"
- Pages: 216
- Edition: 1st.
- ISBN-10: 0-13-702003-1
- ISBN-13: 978-0-13-702003-4
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John T. Crow
Unleashing Your Language Wizards: A Brain-Based Approach to Writing and Editing, First Edition
Unleashing Your Language Wizards breaks new ground by presenting a research-based, active-learning approach to teaching lasting sentence management skills that taps into students’ natural learning abilities. To guide teachers in grades 3-12 to effective teach editing and writing, this book introduces the basic principles, specific examples, and sample activities--all of which teach the most important language concepts from a variety of different angles and approaches--to help students conquer their written language issues. It focuses on three areas of knowledge–referred to as Wizards–that all students must possess to communicate effectively: Grammar Wizards, Sentence Wizards, and Rhetorical Wizards.
"[The book] positively shines, as it helps to frame issues that are so important to address in the grammar/writing classroom but that are difficult to explain without clear pathways laid out...the more ways to get students physically engaged and mentally engaged in grammar learning, the better—the activities here seem designed well to engage students and provide them with good practice in the concepts...the author lays [everything] out in a methodical way that gets to the heart of [learning grammar]." - Jennifer Powers, Green Mountain College
"The content and process to teaching grammar explicitly from a brain-based approach is without exception, timely, in light of the recent recognition of the type of students who make up the achievement gap in the Untied States...This is excellent information to consider pedagogically. [The book] will generate much discussion on how teachers can make...[grammar] strategies more interesting and engaging...for English learners." - Catherine Elise Barrett, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
John T. Crow is a professional development consultant focused on applied linguistics and ESL. His thirty years classroom experience give him a unique perspective on teaching language and composition that he shares with educators across the country.
Table of Contents
| Table of Contents | |
| Acknowledgements and Dedication | x |
| List of Tables | xiii |
| List of Illustrations | xv |
| Preface: Introduction & Overview | xvii |
| Section 1: The Grammar Wizard | |
| Chapter 1: Background | |
| PC? | 2 |
| Processional Caterpillars | 4 |
| A Classroom Example | 5 |
| Student Reactions | 7 |
| What Is Grammar? | 8 |
| Traditional Grammar | 11 |
| The Grammar Wizard | 11 |
| What Students Already Know and Don’t Know | 12 |
| To Teach or Not to Teach | 13 |
| Discussion Questions | 15 |
| Chapter 2: Meet Your Grammar Wizard | |
| Native vs. Non-Native | 18 |
| English Speaker Competencies | 19 |
| Meet Your Grammar Wizard | 20 |
| Word List Demonstration | 21 |
| Chunking | 23 |
| Phrase Building Demonstration | 27 |
| Colorless Green Ideas Demonstration | 29 |
| Movement Demonstration | 30 |
| Letter Scrambling Demonstration | 31 |
| Reversal Demonstration | 32 |
| Where Is My Grammar Wizard? | 33 |
| Discussion Questions | 33 |
| Chapter 3: Brain-Based Learning and TGP | |
| Traditional Grammar and Traditional Grammar Pedagogy | 38 |
| TGP—Historically Speaking | 38 |
| Brain-Based Learning | 40 |
| Types of Memory | 42 |
| Your Grammar Wizard | 44 |
| Natural vs. Rote Learning | 45 |
| The Natural Learning Process | 46 |
| Depth of Processing | 50 |
| Methods of Presentation | 51 |
| Natural Learning and TGP | 52 |
| Brain-Based Learning Tenets and TGP | 53 |
| Moving On | 54 |
| Discussion Questions | 54 |
| Chapter 4: The Grammar Wizard Approach | |
| Grammar Wizard Basics | 68 |
| Wrapping Up | 77 |
| Discussion Questions | 78 |
| Section 2: Using the Grammar Wizard | |
| Chapter 5: Grammar Wizard Tests | |
| What Are Grammar Wizard Tests? | 86 |
| How Do I Present Grammar Wizard Tests? | 87 |
| Parts of Speech | 89 |
| Nouns | 90 |
| Verbs | 90 |
| Adjectives | 91 |
| Adverbs | 91 |
| Pronouns | 92 |
| Prepositions | 96 |
| Possessives | 98 |
| Recursiveness and Elaboration | 102 |
| Discussion Questions | 106 |
| Chapter 6: Grammar Wizard Activities | |
| Introduction | 118 |
| Brain-Based Checklist | 119 |
| Body Grammar | 120 |
| Tag Questions | 124 |
| Yes-No Questions | 127 |
| Manipulatives | 130 |
| Index Cards—Possessive | 131 |
| Noun Phrase Building | 133 |
| Reading Rods Sentence-Construction Kit® | 136 |
| Velcro Punctuation | 137 |
| Games Based on Existing Games | 138 |
| Grammar Charades | 138 |
| Mad Libs | 139 |
| Grammar Jeopardy | 139 |
| Hollywood Squares or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? | 139 |
| Discussion Questions | 140 |
| Chapter 7: Grammar Wizard Toolbox | |
| Introduction | 149 |
| The Joshua Tree Syndrome | 152 |
| High Yield Strategies | 153 |
| Participle Phrases | 154 |
| Gerund Phrases | 161 |
| Appositive Phrases | 164 |
| Infinitive Phrases | 168 |
| Parallelism | 169 |
| Nominative Absolute | 175 |
| Adjectives Out of Order | 178 |
| Inclusive Activities | 180 |
| The I Am Poem | 181 |
| Mini-Revisions | 182 |
| Literary Goldmines | 184 |
| Discussion Questions | 185 |
| Chapter 8: Punctuation | |
| Introduction | 193 |
| Traditional Comma Explanations | 195 |
| Voice Commas and Voice Periods | 196 |
| Voice Commas & Introductory Elements | 198 |
| Voice Periods: Recognizing Comma Splices and Run-Ons | 201 |
| Other Commas | 203 |
| Series Commas | 203 |
| Adjective Commas | 204 |
| Essential-Non-essential Commas | 205 |
| Contrary Commas | 206 |
| Commas between Clauses | 207 |
| Serial Semi-Colons | 207 |
| Colons | 208 |
| Hyphens | 210 |
| Apostrophes | 211 |
| Dashes and Parentheses | 212 |
| Discussion Questions | 212 |
| Section 3: The Sentence Wizard | |
| Chapter 9: Bridges | |
| Introduction | 224 |
| Recognizing Sentence Boundaries | 226 |
| Recognizing Incomplete Sentences | 228 |
| Joining Sentences “Legally”—Bridges | 230 |
| Step 1—Connectors | 231 |
| Step 2—Bridges and Non-Bridges | 232 |
| Step 3—Center Bridges (Coordinating Conjunctions) | 234 |
| Step 4—Center Bridges (Continued) | 235 |
| Step 5—Swinging Bridges (Subordinating Conjunctions) | 236 |
| Step 6—Floating Connectors (Conjunctive Adverbs) | 239 |
| Step 7: Floating Connectors (Conjunctive Adverbs) | 240 |
| Summary | 242 |
| Terminology | 242 |
| Recursiveness and Elaboration | 244 |
| Exercises | 244 |
| Graphic Representations | 245 |
| Literature | 245 |
| Student Writing | 246 |
| Bridge Commas | 246 |
| Discussion Questions | 248 |
| Chapter 10: Sentence Fluency | |
| Sentence Fluency Definition | 261 |
| Sentence Wizards Revisited | 262 |
| The Christensen Perspective | 266 |
| Sentence Beginners | 268 |
| Recursiveness and Elaboration | 272 |
| Sentence Interrupters | 275 |
| Sentence Expanders | 280 |
| Sentence Length | 288 |
| Discussion Questions | 290 |
| Section 4: The Rhetorical Wizard | |
| Chapter 11: Rhetorical Choices—Mechanics and Word Choice | |
| Introduction | 301 |
| Registers | 303 |
| Rhetorical Choices | 307 |
| Punctuation | 307 |
| The Rhetorical Comma | 307 |
| Semi-Colons | 309 |
| Dashes and Parentheses | 309 |
| Word Choice | 312 |
| Confusing Word Pairs | 314 |
| Slang or Regionalisms | 316 |
| Misused Words | 317 |
| Overly Fancy Words | 318 |
| Discussion Questions | 319 |
| Chapter 12: Rhetorical Choices—Structure | |
| Given vs. New Information | 322 |
| Movement | 324 |
| Participle Phrases | 324 |
| Appositives | 325 |
| Swinging Bridge Clauses (Subordinate Clauses) | 326 |
| Fronted Elements | 327 |
| Active vs. Passive Voice | 329 |
| Banning Passives? | 330 |
| Primary Uses | 330 |
| Sentence Length | 333 |
| Intentional Fragments | 335 |
| Voice | 337 |
| Reading and Writing | 340 |
| Discussion Questions | 341 |
| Glossary | 345 |
| Works Cited | 349 |

