Response to Chapter 4 of Mechanically Inclined

First I love this quote:Wall charts are more than decoration; they’re brain magic. Very well put and so true. It's even better when the student's have created the "Brain Magic" that the room is decorated with. The students then can record the things that they need specifically to help them remember rules and guidelines within their writing. It also makes it much more special and meaningful for students to have their own creations and work surrounding them in the classroom.

I did however love these questions that he asked himself before he made "Brain Magic" to put on the walls:

• What do my students need in order to communicate their thinking?
•   What effects are they trying to create as writers? •
• What craft would help students more fully express themselves in writing? 
• What are the “big-ticket” items? (The grammar and mechanics rules that mean the most—have the highest payoff.) 
•  How much context can I include and still have the poster be visible from a distance? Since the brain searches for patterns, it is the English teacher’s job 

You can really see that he is putting a lot of thought and care into what would be beneficial for his students to see and have as reminders. I think even taking a poll of what students forget or struggle with most and then creating the appropriate material to put on the walls that fits that would also be cool. 

I thought it was really interesting when he was talking about brains and how they search for patterns and so even when students aren't paying attention to you and they may be staring off into space looking at the walls at least the content on the walls will still be education and can still stay in their brains. I then got thinking to posters and wall charts within the classrooms I am currently teaching at and I can think of some of what they say on them, even if some of them are clique. Crazy how that works.

I also thought it was really helpful when he distinguished between the wall charts and the posters. He talks about wall charts never being finished and how you can always add to them but posters are supposed to be concrete and already have the necessary information established on them. I had never really thought about that before or realized that their was a difference.

Response to Teaching Grammar in the Context of Writing

I though this article was very...different. At time I didn't know whether to be refreshed or horrified.


I the very first quote used was so strange to me "Grammar is taught with the purpose of making clear to the students the orderly structure of their language, a picture of God's orderly plan for the world and for their lives". I don't really even know what to think of this. I think grammar does have the purpose of showing students the orderly structure of their language but to compare grammar to to God....something doesn't feel right with that.

I was blown away by the part that talked about research not really showing that formal grammar being taught in classrooms didn't really have an effect on students composition. This made me think that well maybe grammar is a waste of time. But then I thought well their has to rules and guidelines to written language or it would all be a mess and nobody would understand each other.
It has to be taught for people to effectively communicate with one another or you end up with situations like this:



It did get me thinking though, are there other ways to teach this without formally teaching it in the classroom. There must be otherwise formally teaching would have an effect one way or another on a student's composition. Student's must be learning it from somewhere.

I loved it when Weaver talked about the flaws of behaviorist theory and how if you make students practice practice practice good grammar they will understand and repeat good grammar but that's not the case. Like I always say practice makes permanent not perfect. Forming ones own theories, making assumptions, thinking critically and assessing ones knowledge on a particular subject or topic such as grammar is much better than repeated lower order thinking practice.