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Jan
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Verbs (Grammar in general)
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  • I am new to a rural school. They definitely "teach to the test" here. It works for writing I guess, they had no students below proficiency level last year. One problem, though-I have those same kids to teach this year. We were doing a recent unit on helping and linking verbs. I was totally unprepared for the fact that some of these 6th and 7th graders cannot even locate the verb in a sentence. So, I am going to start at square one. The problem is that our text assumes skills that these kids don't have. Does anyone know of any good verb lessons I can use instead?


  • Teaching to the test: In this state there are "Assessed Objectives" at each grade level. Unfortunately there is also a lot that kids should be learning at this level that is not directly assessed (parts of speech) and therefore put on the back burner, often moved to the end of the year. The thinking seems to be that if you get to it, great, and if you don't, oh well.

    What parts of speech do you think have been left out of the state exams that are not taught at any grade level?

    By the way, what state are you referring?


  • Go to www.reall-languages.com, follow the loink to English and Dr R's grammar games. They take a while to load as they are PowerPoint, but the kids love them - especially competitive boys. Great for the interacive whiteboard.


  • When I was in high school, our government and economics teacher did what I would refer to as teaching to the test. He would give us dittos at the beginning of the lecture. These dittos would have the lecture he was going to teach for the day with some blanks for us to fill in. He would always overemphasize the words that were to go in the blanks. After the lecture he would review our answers with us to make sure we had everything right. He then would warn us about a quiz or test the next day and tell us to study our worksheets. The test would be exactly the same as the dittos we had gone over in class. If we wanted to, all we had to do was memorize the answers for the blanks in order. On test day we would just have to fill in the blanks. He had other ways of teaching but all of the classwork, homework, etc. were this easy. Believe it or not, some people still failed his classes. Mostly because we had some major passage to memorize (like the preamble to the constitution) and some of the students would not memorize it. One day I asked him why he made his class so easy. He replied that he had to make it easy for kids to graduate and even though he didn't like it he had gotten accustomed to it and basically didn't want to stir up trouble.

    Sad, huh?


  • Everyone always talks about "teaching to the tests," but I have never understood what that means. If the standard states (as it does in California):

    Teaching to the test: In this state there are "Assessed Objectives" at each grade level. Unfortunately there is also a lot that kids should be learning at this level that is not directly assessed (parts of speech) and therefore put on the back burner, often moved to the end of the year. The thinking seems to be that if you get to it, great, and if you don't, oh well.


  • If you are referring to the state tests, exactly how does one "teach to the test"? Do you have the actual test questions, for which you have the students memorize the answers?

    Everyone always talks about "teaching to the tests," but I have never understood what that means. If the standard states (as it does in California):

    Identify the forms of fiction and describe the major characteristics of each formp,

    and I teach my students how to describe the major characteristics of each form of fiction, am I "teaching to the test?" If so, is that a bad thing?

    So, I am going to start at square one.

    Just make sure that you get out of square one quickly, otherwise you run the risk of re-teaching second grade all over again. I wouldn't spend no more than fifteen minutes of class time re-teaching simple verbs.


  • When I was in high school, our government and economics teacher did what I would refer to as teaching to the test. He would give us dittos at the beginning of the lecture...

    Sure, but I was specifically referring to state exams.


  • There's a great grammar program called Stephenson's (I think that's how it's speeled, we've used it for so long I don't even pay attention anymore) Grammar. This program starts at the beginning and rather than diagramming sentences you analyze them. One activity I do to reinforce what a verb is is a verb line - all students stand and "do" something. If it's a "mental" do, they have to say (thinking, daydreaming, etc.). Kids have fun with this, but give them some time to brainstorm and then pick 2 favorites, in case someone takes theirs. Good luck!







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