Captain's Log: October 21, 2015
On Tuesday, the crew submitted their outlines and themes. As you might recall they were to discuss three messages contained in the five adult short stories. Hopefully, the discussion in the literary circles and, then, an open discussion about possible messages in the previous Thursday’s class would provide sufficient material for them to write the paper.
I could tell there was sense of relief by many of them when they submitted their work. This was their first assignment in which I would grade the content presentation and mechanics presentation.
Upon garnering the papers, I turned my attention to the mechanics. There was a sheet that I had given them a few weeks ago. It had a compilation of various grammatical errors they had made on the first paper submitted. No names were attributed to any of the errors. I had them get into the same literary groups (I believed that familiarity would be good in this case). Then, they worked to correct the errors.
I walked around listening to their efforts to figure out what the errors were and how they should be corrected. Very seldom did they ask me for help. Great! The only way anyone could really learn, s/he must actively be in the process of trying to learn (figuring it out for himself/herself) after guidance has been given. I had given this guidance in an earlier crew meeting. Furthermore, with the written work submitted, I would point out and identify the mechanics errors and suggest chapters in the handbook they should consult that explained the error and how it could be corrected. So, I made certain crewmembers were not left in an academic canoe without a resourceful paddle.
I timed the discussion for the different errors, beginning with those with a comma. Then, after each timed interval, groups would share their answers. I would let them know if they were correct and make certain they knew WHY they were or were not correct. This proved valuable. So, toward the end of this Tuesday crew meeting, I instructed that they come to the Thursday meeting prepared to continue the discussion about the other errors.
On Thursday, they did. They got back into their groups. And the same format of timed discussions, sharing of answers, and receiving of my feedback occurred. When we moved to the errors that involved pronouns and verbs, I took more time giving feedback. I pointed to them how they could avoid, for example, unclear antecedent errors and pronoun-antecedent errors. These have always been the bane of many crewmembers past and present.
Another major issue has been the difficulty with the use of 3rd person singular verbs and present and past participle verbs. And these errors have become more pronounced when crew members would write sentences containing irregular verbs. It's not uncommon to have have sentences like the following: “I seen the man”; “I done seen the man”; “I did saw the man”; “I have took the job”; “She has wrote the paper.”
All grammar textbooks address these issues. Bare Essentials, 15th edition, the one used by this captain does so, too. It has an extensive list of irregular verbs in their four major groups and the helping verbs that go with each group as well noting the one group that does not ever have a helping verb before it.
One example would be the following:
Group One Group Two Group Three Group Four
see saw seeing seen
The list of helping verbs for each Main Group is presented, for example:
Group One Helping Verb Group Three Helping Verb Group Four Helping Verb
do is has/have/had
There is a note making it clear that no Group Two Main Verb has a helping verb before it.
So, in this way, I explained and justified why some of the structures commonly written were not correct Standard English dialect structures. Yes, note that I use the term “Standard English dialect.” I believe very strongly that other dialects are very legitimate and are more than appropriate to use. Still, I have made it clear that the academic cruise line I am hired by requires that I teach them to master the Standard English dialect.
Like it or not, this is the dialect one needs to master to navigate successfully in continued academic work and in corporate America. Still, I encourage that they learn and appreciate various dialects and know when it is appropriate to use different dialects, depending on the environment they are a part at a given time.
The ability to code switch should be a language skills they learn to implement. And throughout my teaching, I continuously code switch while conducting sessions. Still, they were grasping the necessity to understand the rules of the dialect this cruise line commissioned me to teach.
Yes, there are the helping verbs if one would choose to use the passive. I note that “is seen” is correct. Yet, since writers should avoid the use of passive voice structures, it is preferable for the crew to implement the use of active voice structures when writing. So, for the Group Four Main Verbs, I encourage them to use any of the Group Four Helping Verbs with the Group Four Main Verbs that will keep their verbs in the active voice.
In about midpoint of this crew session, I gave them back their outlines and themes. Oh, for the most part, they did well. The mechanics corrections they saw on their papers began to mean even more, and the discussion I had presented about the verbs and pronouns became even more relevant to them. Then, I encouraged and answered questions they had about their own particular papers.
Next, as the session was getting close to the end, it was time to move to a different writing assignment that was to be submitted at next week’s Tuesday meeting—comparison and contrast. I have taught this method so many times—lecture, provide the sample in the handbook, entertain questions, and give the assignment. I did not follow this pattern. I wanted to see just how well they would use their critical thinking skills with the help of the discussion and sample outline and theme provided in the handbook.
After reading the children’s short stories and poems in Community College Students’ Literary Collage, they were to choose from one of the following:
- Compare and Contrast two characters in any of the short stories;
- Compare and Contrast two poems from that same book;
- Something different, choose from the over 40 color images on the pass-protected site of Bare Essentials and compare and contrast any two of those images—their choice of images.
So, I was doing something totally different. I wanted them to use their inductive reasoning skills to develop the outline and paper based on what the handbook presented without my lecture. Um, let’s see what will happen!
Now, let’s look back when I was an academic fledgling/student teacher in Sheffield, England at Jordanthorpe and, yes, mishaps did occur that had little to do with teaching but a lot about learning how to live and take responsibility for these mishaps.
Dear Diary, February 24, 1971
The discussion on drug addiction wasn’t so successful. They [4/5s] had not read up on the issue as I had suggested. However, I shook them up a bit. I really enjoy teaching.
Ash Wednesday—I fasted.
I started it off with a splash. I didn’t plug my hot water bottle tightly [to make a long story short, during my stay I slept with a hot water bottle since there was no heat in the bedroom]. I woke up this morn with a soaking wet bed and me. Of course, Mrs. Hendy [her name was Mrs. Henderson; she and her husband were whom I stayed with during my exchange visit; she preferred to be called “Mrs. Hendy”; she and her husband were very nice.] was panicked when I told her. However, when I returned home from a day of teaching, the mattress was dried and ok. I offered to pay for it; however, she said it was ok.
Mr. Pinion came in to see me teach and was pleased. He gave me some good points of criticism.
Dear Diary, February 25, 1971
Another hardworking, however, rather satisfying day. I presented ROMEO AND JULIET to my 4/5s. I used the album WEST SIDE STORY with it. They really appreciated it, and they learned something, also. That’s the most important thing.
For years I have thought of teaching it this way and, now, I know it really works.
Ok, let’s see what happens next week in 2015 and what occurred so many years ago. Every experience leads to growth.
