Brushing Up on Grammar: An Acts of Teaching Approach

Author Beatrice Joy Chute said, "Grammar is to a writer what anatomy is to a sculptor or the scales to a musician. You may loathe it, it may bore you, but nothing will replace it, and once mastered it will support you like a rock." Thankfully, the key to that mastery is now at hand.|Teachers will use this book as a quick but intensive way to brush up on their grammar skills and a guide to hands-on ways to teach grammar concepts.| Brushing Up on Grammar: An Acts of Teaching Approach is grounded in a belief that grammar should be taught within the context of writing and reading. Of course, teachers need to know grammar to be able to teach it, something that has become harder as topics like sentence diagramming and parts of speech have disappeared from curriculums in recent years. This book provides the solid grammar foundation so necessary for teachers in the field of English/language arts.|| Brushing Up on Grammar illuminates the five meanings of grammar; identifies six key grammar characteristics; and covers all of the categories and labels, rules and history, research, and etymologies relative to the subject. The examples and connections here are designed first and foremost as verbal clay. With them, educators can help students mold, probe, shape, reshape, and above all, enjoy their acts of language.|âe¢ Offers both background knowledge of English grammar for teachers and strategies and lessons for instructing today's students on grammar concepts|âe¢ Covers such basics as parts of speech, phrases, clauses, punctuation, and diagramming|âe¢ Relies on a practical, classroom-tested methodology|âe¢ Draws on the instructional strategies developed by Joyce Armstrong Carroll and Edward E. Wilson, well-known Texas educators|âe¢ Includes sample lesson plans and strategies for teaching each content piece |âe¢ Presents eight cartoons and six drawings |âe¢ Offers student samples and test applications