23 Sep 2005 - 20:56

grammar school

So, yes, I am now in the grammar instruction business, too.

Ed asked Christopher last night what the subject and predicate were in the sentence, I ate too much food, and Christopher didn't have a clue.

He flat out couldn't say what the subject was, and he thought the predicate was 'too much food.' Then, when Ed corrected him, he sobbed for 15 minutes.

Middle school stinks.

We're only....3 weeks in? Already I've got at least 4 crying children stories, 4 that I can remember, anyway; there may have been more. Today Christopher's close friend M. started crying when the math teacher docked him a point on his math test for telling his twin brother, 'It's easy, you can do it.'

M. protested that he had only been telling his brother he could do the test, and the teacher said that didn't matter, he could have been cheating.

So back to grammar, Christopher has no clue what a subject and a predicate are. He rejected outright Ed's claim that 'I' was the subject: How can 'I' be a subject??????' Then collapsed into sobs brought on by the sudden realization that the reason he 'put the line in the wrong place' was that he didn't know where the subject ended and the predicate began. A classic example of a child not knowing what he doesn't know, which Willingham has written about. (Why Students Think They Understand—When They Don’t and How To Help Students See When Their Knowledge is Superficial or Incomplete)

I'm guessing Christopher probably thinks 'subject' means 'topic,' as in the topic of an article or book; and, by extension, 'predicate' means the topic of the second half of the sentence. Which would pretty much rule out pronouns & verbs as subjects & predicates, respectively.

Christopher is 11.

His school has two hours of 'English language arts' a day, TWO. And in two hours a day this teacher--this tenured, health insuranced, pensioned individual--did not manage to teach Christopher what a subject and a predicate are.

Teaching math is hard. I'm not going to be wildly critical of a math teacher who is trying. (A math teacher who docks a twin a point because he might have been cheating is another story.)

But teaching subject and predicate to a bright child with a good attention faculty whose strength is English language arts.......

Rolling off a log.

And I'm the one who's going to be doing the rolling.

I'm not happy.

update

I just thank God I started teaching Christopher spelling when I did.

Back to main page.

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How could you, Catherine? Don't you know his little middle school brain has come to a grinding halt?

Seriously, these things go down so much easier in grade school. Now you'll get the middle school reisistance that comes in the form of, "When will I ever use this stuff in real life?" which is usually reserved for all things mathematical.

I wonder if part of the problem with learning basic grammar in middle school is that they're already reading and communicating at a much higher level. It probably feels like baby stuff that is very disconnected to the way they talk and communicate. It's much easier with grade schoolers because they usually write simple sentences with few modifiers.

It can go quick, though. A simple, "Find the verb/verbs first always. Then ask 'what' or 'who' before the verb. The word that answers the question is the subject." I think I said this a million times, but I think they finally know that the first thing to do is find the verbs. From there all will be revealed.

-- SusanS - 23 Sep 2005

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How could you, Catherine? Don't you know his little middle school brain has come to a grinding halt?

Yeah, well, mine's about to max out, I can tell you that.

-- CatherineJohnson - 23 Sep 2005

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We went through The Grammar Bible (it really is the Bible) tonight, with eye-rolling & rudeness aplenty.

-- CatherineJohnson - 23 Sep 2005

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Oh it was fun, alright.

-- CatherineJohnson - 23 Sep 2005

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Subject and predicate.

You know what? Two things (at least) were completely out of fashion when I was in school: one was geography, and the other was grammar.

As a result, I are an ignoramus. I sounds pretty good, but I don't knows what I'm doing, really.

-- CarolynJohnston - 24 Sep 2005