The Rules of Sentences

Today I gave my students five simple rules:
1) A sentence is a complete thought.
2) A sentence has a subject and a verb.
3) A sentence starts with a capital letter.
4) A sentence ends with an end mark.
5) A sentence makes sense.

Students at the emerging level of written language always seem to struggle with sentence writing, and as they mature, and their spoken language increases in complexity, it sometimes doesn't get any easier for them. Run-on sentences and sentence fragments are a constant bane to middle school writers (and the teachers who read their work).
After giving the kids these rules, I asked them to write five sentences. Upon evaluating the sentences, I told them which rule they had violated, and they were quick to make their corrections.
Later, when they were working on the class blog, they suffered greatly from run-on-itis. I simply asked them to take a close look at the loooonnnnnggggg sentence, and pick out one part of it that made sense. Once they had a part, I told them to use rules 3 and 4 on that part. We went through the entire thing until they were doing it on their own. Our class blog post is run-on free. All sentences have capitals and ending punctuation. And on a strictly grammatical level, it makes sense.

Back-to-School

I have always looked forward to the beginning of a new school year. For many years, my anticipation has been enhanced by the fact that I had spent a lot of my summer hours doing curriculum mapping, developing lesson ideas, trying out science demos, visiting potential field trip locations, and many other preparatory activities that I seldom have enough time to do thoroughly after the school year starts. These things have never been drudgery for me, and I've never begrudged the time spent doing them - in fact, I enjoy them, as they are an outlet for the creativity and fun that make teaching such a joy for me.

Due to some unfortunate circumstances a few years ago, I found myself spending the last few summers either teaching in a year-round program that had no significant break, or looking for a new job. In the latter case, it's nearly impossible to use summer to prepare for fall, since there's no way of knowing what fall will bring.

This year I was fortunate enough to find a teaching position in a district that hired early. I have been able to spend the past several weeks preparing, brainstorming new ideas, researching, and creating.

Next week is crunch-time. Am I ready? I hope so. There will be much to learn of a new community, school procedures, and lots and lots of new names and faces. But I am once again facing this new beginning inspired and excited to implement the ideas I have been working on.

I will miss sleeping after 8am. I will miss spending lazy afternoons out at the stable, reading in the shade while my horses graze. I will miss the spontaneity with which I can decide to go to the city, or the flexibility with which I can schedule a game of golf. And, sadly, once again there are a dozen projects that either never got finished or never got started.

But school starts next week, and I CAN'T WAIT!