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1. Kids share their grammar pet peeves
2. Discussion: Does grammar say anything about your education? Do people judge you on your grammar? If so, how can good or bad grammar affect their judgment of you?
3. Lecture: Grammar, class, and race--> language matters
4. Read Culture of Power by Lisa Delpit
5. Students must collect questions from columns about grammar such as the word column in the back of the Atlantic, "grammar rants" from Dear Abby, etc.
6. Students must analyze what the language that the writers use says about them, and whether or not they (the students) identify with the writer. Then, the students must analyze why or why not. This step would be in writing and it would be nice if it could take place on a blog with links to the articles themselves.
7. Students must reflect on what they think their own dexterity with "proper english" says about them. Do they choose to speak or write in a certain way? If so, why? If not, what do they think the way they speak or write says about them as individuals?
Here is the link to the lesson that gave me the idea. As you can see, I've expanded it a bit. In retrospect, it might just be good to go with the lesson on ReadWriteThink, but then again, it's great to get the kids deeply engaged in this.
Lesson #2
1. Students view various music videos of artists like Madonna, Britney Spears, and Lil Wayne to analyze
a) who the video is trying to appeal to
b) what ideals the video is promoting
c) how the video contributes to or changes the artist's image
2. Students decide write an argumentative essay that takes a position about whether or not they think the image that the video presents is helpful or harmful for society and support their opinion.
3. The students then turn their essay into the script of a P.S.A. in which they attempt to use film to inform the audience of their opinion. The students must also utilize information about persuasive speech to make their video both argumentative (it takes a position) and persuasive (it attempts to persuade others of this position).
2 comments:
Great ideas! I think with the grammar one, it would also be interesting to look at figures in popular culture (celebrities, hip-hop artists, etc.) and look at their language use. Another idea, is you could somehow find sound clips of people (maybe famous people) talking and have the class make predictions on what they think that person is like just by hearing them talk. I think it would provide an interesting and eye opening discussion along with what you are already thinking.
I think it’s a great idea to ask kids to analyze their own speaking and writing habits in relation to grammar by examining what other people say about proper uses of grammar. It’s difficult to engage kids when teaching grammar, and using a hook like this to encourage kids to feel invested in learning grammar is important.
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