Does Mrs. Liner know it all?

Walking down the halls, I find myself correcting student's grammar in casual conversations. The one that comes up the most is:

"Mrs. Liner! I think I did good on your test."

"You mean you did WELL on my test?"

"Yea, that's what I said."

While I understand that we do not speak and write in the same voice, there are some things I just can't let go.

We have been working on new writing assignments this week and the writing conferences have gone well. :-)

In both writing conferences and class discussions about grammar/writing, I get questions like:

"Do you know everything about grammar?"

While my standard answer is, "Yes. Of course I know it all. I'm an English teacher." I am just being funny. Of course I don't know it all. I do read a few ELA teacher blogs, etc. One is particular that I love is Grammar Girl.

Check it out!

10 Grammar Mistakes

As we become more and more dependent on technology, our habits of "what is grammatically acceptable" change as well. Text message lingo finds its way into our writing more and more. I warn students of this habit on a daily basis. E-mails (especially to teachers/administrators, etc), essays and tests are not the proper place to find this new "language." Here's an article that struck my interest:

10 flagrant grammar mistakes that make you look stupid

Welcome back!

Welcome to my English 8 class. I hope you have had a great summer. I enjoyed lying by the pool and soaking up the beautiful sunny days with my husband and kids, reading all those Chick Lit novels I have been wanting to read, shopping and traveling. I'm really excited to see what's in store for our class this school year. We're going to be changing up things around the English department in the Middle School and this is a place where both you and your parents can find out what's going on in our class. I'll also be posting interesting things such as articles, links, etc. that may pertain to our discussions about novels, writing or grammar.

So what are the changes being made?

• You will have English for 1.5 hrs everyday with one teacher instead of 45 min with 2 teachers.
• This time period will consist of both English and Foundations for Learning.
• We will be covering novels both in literature circles and as a class.

What will remain the same?

• We will still be writing and covering grammar.
• We will still be using our SPECS logs to communicate about our novels.
• Our writing will be related to topics/information covered in our novels, as well as other core classes.

I hope this gives you a small hint of what's to come in your last year of middle school. Email me if you have any questions. marja.liner@parkviewbaptist.com

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