Grammar Challenges

Long hiatus.  Fall quarter swept by without any writing here, and I've missed it.

As we rolled into Winter quarter, I had two major revisions I wanted to implement in my fully online English 101 courses:

• revamp my group project
• update my grammar assignments

To prepare for the start of the quarter, I just scrubbed my course shells of all tasks related to those two facets, and figured I'd add in replacement content as the quarter hummed by.

I'm now doubting whether I'll be able to implement a new group project, at least this quarter.  I think I need more time to ponder my options, and pick the brains of others, before I continue with it.  In the meantime, I'll build assignments in that can replace the learning objectives there.

I have, however, invested a good bit of time into the grammar assignments, and those I'm pretty pleased with.  This said by the woman who's in the "honeymoon" period of a new idea, before the real-life challenges have yet to rear their ugly heads, I know.

How much grammar to implement in a 101 course is one of those questions that's sure to lose you some friends at your next department meeting, no matter how you answer it.  Some feel that grammar is the structure of all language, and so improvement of writing can't happen before grammar is addressed.  Others go to the opposite extreme, championing ideas over syntax and ever in fear that grammar correction will stifle academic progress.

As usual, I'm somewhere in the middle.  I think it's important, but what a person writes matters more.  Ultimately, grammar is a matter of confidence--give students the tools to master the mechanical challenges, and they'll feel more comfortable expanding their writing in other directions, too.

I've had a set of "Grammar Revision" assignments in my classes for the past four or five years, where students take pieces of their own essays and take a closer look at the structure of sentences, comma usages, and higher-end punctuation in three different assignments through a quarter.  Those are somewhat successful, and I think they do well in focusing on writing the students have already created, rather than abstract sample sentences that someone else has written as an exercise, completely out of context.   But they reward those who are already comfortable with the basic structures of rules, and lead to anxiety for those who don't.

Here's my plan for addressing that: instead of three one-size-fits-all assignments, this quarter, I'm creating a list of options for students to choose from.  They'll have to complete 4 "Grammar Challenges" through the quarter: 2 tied to each of the first 2 essay assignments of the quarter.   The first one for each essay will be open choice, whatever they want.  The second will be one of 2-3 I suggest when I grade the essay and return comments.  They will be able to duplicate challenges between the two essays, if they want further practice with a concept.

So far, I've built the following:

• Run-on Sentence Challenge
• Fragment Challenge
• Writing Numbers Challenge
• Apostrophe Challenge
• Semicolon Challenge
• Hyphen & Dash Challenge

I have plans for several comma challenges, as well as others devoted to other punctuation, like semicolons, etc.

What I ask you--any ideas to round out this list even further?  I figure I'll keep adding options into the mix throughout this quarter, and likely into future quarters, as well.