I taught sophomore English, Communication Arts II (CA II) for 15 years at Webb City High School. In those years, one of my top priorities was teaching students how to write a solid essay complete with a spicy title (I am well known for this term), varied transitions (another strong point of mine), and correct commas. Early in my career, I taught an ACT English class, and I did not have the best methods for instructing that class that soon in my teaching. However, when I tutored later for ACT, I was much more effective. One tutoring session involved the comma rule dealing with essential and non-essential phrases. This young boy with blond curls on top needed a way to remember that if you put commas around the phrase, it cut it out of the sentence. That was one way to "check your work" like math, but in English class. On that afternoon, the ditty "Commas Cut It Out" was born. Imagine me playing a guitar and banging my head, singing "'Commas Cut It Out' I said. "Commas Cut It Out."
Flash forward to about four years ago, I decided to create an entire rap that covered all the comma rules. Then, no matter where they were, they could carry the comma rules with them. You may check it out here.
We left off a couple of rules and tried to add them in my last year, but it just didn't have the same rhythm. I truly enjoyed making this, and I realize now that I have changed levels, that there is a business for this kind of thing. I think it is called Flocabulary. Who knew my dream of wanting to write advertising jingles would come in handy in teaching?
Punctuation and language standards are still high on my mind as tomorrow, we will determine which Standard English rules fit at sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. The Missouri Language Standards decided to leave our language standards, so we are developing our own. I can't wait to find new ways in the future to incorporate music into our language curriculum.
P.S. I can drop a beat on conjunctions as well. For, and, nor, but, or, yet, so . . . .
P.P.S. My favorite Halloween at WCHS was when the entire English department all wore punctuation t-shirts. I was an exclamation point! I know you are shocked.
All in all, "using commas makes your writing better." Word to your English teacher.
Word. I think I enjoyed this more post-meeting than I would have pre-meeting! Today was possibly my favorite core team meeting ever. Thank you for inviting me. Also, I think you need to come teach commas in my classroom next year. :)
ReplyDeleteP.P.S. This reminds me of High School Musical when the basketball team wears shirts that say G-O D-R-A-M-A C-L-U-B and the last kids is exclamation point!
I think you reinvented the Shurley Method with your rap song!!! LOLOLOLOL
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