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This is what teachers and students are saying about X-word Grammar
| I do want to report that our school hosted a group of French students and their English teacher last month. She marveled at my students' English (I had them give the French students a tour). I invited her to my class and gave her some examples of my x-word lessons, and she liked them a lot, especially the Jingle Bells song! -- Andrea Lynes |
| To: Effie Cochran Subject: Thank You. Hello Professor ! It's Laskmi from your summer ENG 396 class and I just wanted to say thank you. I did my first paper for the semester and I got an A+. I could not have made such major changes to my writing if it weren't for your guidance, as well as Professor Deakins. I just wanted to thank you and let you know that, that class was absolutely worth it. It should be required for all students to take. Hope the semester is going well for you. Please tell Professor Deakins I said thank you for all her help over the summer. All the best. -Laskmi Hamnauth |
"I set the stage for future instruction by telling my students that we will be diving into a really cool pool of predictable English rules - they were ecstatic (and surprised). "
XWord Grammar makes a surprise appearance at NY TESOL! Many thanks to Tamara Kirson!
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Comments from A Workshop Participant Tamara Kirson's X-word grammar workshop, English Language Studies, The New School October 2012
I went to school on Monday equipped with X-word cards, question cards, and handouts. I told my students (writing 3) that I just spent two weekends learning a new approach to teaching them grammar, and that I was reaaaaaly excited to share it with them. (They looked at me funny - excited??) I said, "Yes, I'm really pumped!" This followed by explanations of what 'pumped' means. They got a kick out of it.
I told them that they are to put everything away and that we're going to play. I was getting more buy-in. Then the party began - I explained, they stood up, made sentences, yes/no questions, and completed some of the handouts, organized the cards on the teacher's table in groups. We sang the song (eyes closed, eyes opened, reading the handout, I even memorized it!
Within about 2 hours we managed to cover the Q hand, the information questions, and the VXO, VXD and VXS. I loved the "AHA" in their eyes. It was wonderful not to follow every step of the explanation with “but ..... there are exceptions...." Rather, I followed it with " Always, always, always"
The funniest feeling I got was the clarity in my own head - suddenly I wasn't just reciting what I learned and regurgitating back to my students. It was clear even to me!! It made sense, and I was now able to comfortably tuck the patterns into my collection of predictable spidergrams, where families of ideas reside. I was very relieved. It was a great lesson and I'm excited to continue my quest and learning, and so are my students!!.
I know that there is much more to learn if I want to really implement the concept, so, count me in for any upcoming workshops you're doing (and I would love to join you for your presentation in Albany!) |