Don't blame technology for poor student grammar; instead, use technology intentionally to reach students and actually improve their writing!

Jeremy Hyler is a middle school English teacher and a teacher consultant for the Chippewa River Writing Project, a satellite site of the National Writing Project. He is co-author with Troy Hicks on Create, Compose, Connect: Reading, Writing, and Learning with Digital Tools (Routledge, 2014).

Troy Hicks is a Professor of English and education at Central Michigan University, and Director of the Chippewa River Writing Project. He has authored or co-authored nine books, and over 30 journal articles and book chapters for teachers and other educators.

Notes on the Book

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Meet the Authors

Foreword by Liz Kolb

Chapter 1 - What's the Matter with the Teaching of Grammar?

• The Great Grammar Debate, Part 1: 1890s to 1990s
• The Great Grammar Debate, Part 2: 100 Years and Counting
• The Great Grammar Debate, Part 3: Here Comes the Common Core
• Rethinking Grammar Instruction in a Single Year: A Guide to the Rest of the Book

Chapter 2: An Approach to Teaching Grammar with Digital Tools

• What the Research Says: The (Non) Effects of Text Speak
• Redefining Grammar Instruction in a Digital Age
• Triple E Framework: Engage, Enhance, Extend
• Tools of the Trade: Technologies for Digital Grammar Instruction
• Beginner: Getting Started with Screen Capture, Screencasting, and Annotation
• Intermediate: Sharing Media and Assessing Students' Understanding
• Expert: Producing and Publishing More Enriched Media
• And...We're Off... Ready, Tech, Go!

Chapter 3: Learning the Parts of Speech with Flipped Lessons

• What is Flipping the Classroom, Exactly?
• Critiques of the Flipped Model
• Digital Tools for Flipping Grammar
• Building a Flipped Video Lesson
• Working Through the Video: Steps for Student
• Using Flipped Videos from Other Sources
• Breaking it Down: Pronouns of the Personal Type
• Before the Flipped Lesson
• During the Flipped Lesson
• After the Flipped Lesson
• Building a Personal Grammar Guide
• Adverbs and Adjectives
• Final Thoughts and What's Next

Chapter 4: Learning Sentence Style with Formal and Informal Writing

• Code Switching
• Compound, Complex, and Complete: Making Sentences Matter
• Sentence Combining with Lino
• I Tawt I Taw a Tweet Sentence
• Sentence Hacking
• Putting Lexile Leveling to Use for Writers
• What's Next

Chapter 5: Enlivening Vocabulary

• The Struggle is Real
• Building Vocabulary with Quizlet
• Building "Study Sets" in Quizlet
• Building Toward Assessment with Quizlet
• Extensions for Quizlet
• Breathing Life into Vocabulary with Video
• The Vocabulary Video Assignment
• Extensions and Adaptations
• Student Vocabulary Growth Over Time
• Final Thoughts

Chapter 6 - Mastering Mechanics: Capitalization and Punctuation

• Capitalization
• The Dreaded Pronoun: "i"
• Capitalization Extensions
• The Paradox of Punctuation
• Taking Time to Pause with a Comma
• Is it a Period? Is it a Comma? No, it's a Semicolon!
• Extensions and Adaptations
• Final Thoughts

Chapter 7 - Assessing Grammar in a Digital Age

• From Texting to Teaching: Four Tips
• Dealing with Assessments
• Summative Assessment through Portfolios
• Student Reflections
• Students Raise Their Voices: Asking For and Implementing Their Feedback

Afterword: Navigating Your Own Grammatical Journey

References