Teaching the fundamentals like grammar, punctuation, and syntax can be a quick ticket to “Snooze-ville” for our students and a surefire way to bore them stiff.
This is why I tend to gamify a lot of my instruction when it comes to teaching the basics.
The other day I posted a little something about how I use Strunk & White “Write It Right,” which is a free composition manual that you can locate online. In it, they assert that there are twelve different ways to write a single sentence.
While their explanation is fantastic and a game changer, they fall short in terms of demonstrating how to teach the concept so that students can transfer this knowledge into their writing.
In a new YouTube video I just posted, I present a game that really gets students to look at how to create voice, rhythm, and flow by steering them away from those wicked long successive sentences they sometimes are overly prone to write.
My previous video explored how to move them away from overusing the short-simple-declarative sentence. Check out my YouTube channel for the details of how I gamified that concept using Hollywood Squares.
Some of you may be familiar with the game Plinko from The Price Is Right.
That’s what I have in this video – a competitive albeit collaborative game that teaches students how to manipulate all twelve sentence constructs.
It’s silly … your students will have a lot of fun … but most importantly … they’ll learn a vital skill as far as composition goes.
Check out the video to get the full gist of how I structure this exercise.
Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvlzXs03KuY&t=7s
If you would like the PowerPoint game, feel free to email me at [email protected] and I’ll send it your way.
And lastly, I wanted to invite any super gung-ho teachers looking to do a bit of PD while learning my templates and methodologies to check out my Teach It “Write” 5-Week Mastermind. As most of you know, Timm Freitas and I are collaborating on a textbook and this course largely comprises what I will be contributing to the book.
Here’s a link for more information: https://teachinghow2write.com/teach-it-write-mastermind/
Hope you and your kids enjoy this one.
Happy teaching and happy writing!
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