My First Post

My first post. Only one year and seven weeks past when I'd planned on starting, but here I am now. I had a nice moment today in class, and one slight light bulb moment this evening. In class, it was nice to be able to make a connection between what we've been studying in English for the past few days -- putting sentences into normal word order -- and our homework assignment about the difference between the active and passive voices in writing. If students will simply apply what they've learned in class, the homework assignment should be easy. Then, this evening, a little thought flashed through my head, something I remembered from workshops about teaching students how to read: whole to parts to whole. That's exactly what I've been doing this quarter with grammar, and I'm seeing it start to come together, at least with the students who've made a sincere attempt to internalize and apply what I've been stressing to them. In general, I'm pleased with how I've structured my grammar lessons this year. It was a good plan to pull the best worksheets which would directly get the desired results and put them in an order which seemed logical to me. It's also been a little exciting and validating because my colleagues are also on board with what I'm doing. After last year, with all new material, we all realized we were not getting the desired results, so it's nice to have assessed what did and didn't work, and to cooperate together for a more successful outcome this year. GW