Teaching Grammar Through Writing

Dr. Keith Polette is a Professor of English at the University of Texas at El Paso. Dr. Polette received the UTEP College of Liberal Arts Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research, the UT System Chancellor’s Council Award for Excellence in Teaching, and was recognized by the Texas State Reading Association as an Outstanding Texas Author. Prior to moving to El Paso in 1995, Dr. Polette was a Mentor Teacher and an English/Language Arts teacher for both remedial and gifted students in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Polette has published over thirty articles in professional journals, eight books on teaching, and two books for children. His most recent publications are Read and Write It Out Loud: Guided Oral Literacy Strategies, Isabel and the Hungry Coyote, Paco and the Giant Chile Plant, and Moon Over The Mountain (Raven Tree Press). For the past twenty years, Dr. Polette has given keynote addresses and been a featured speaker at national, regional, and state literacy conferences, and at schools throughout the United States and Canada.  

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1      

Word Works I: Nouns

Word Works II: Verbs

Word Works III: Pronouns

Word Works IV: Adjectives

Word Works V: Adverbs

Word Works VI: Prepositions

Word Works VII: Conjunctions

Chapter 2      

Sentence Works I: Absolute Phrases

Sentence Works II: Gerund Phrases

Sentence Works III: Infinitive Phrases

Sentence Works IV: Prepositional Phrases

Sentence Works V: Participial Phrases

Sentence Works VI: Appositive Phrases

Sentence Works VII: Adjective Clauses

Sentence Works VIII: Adverbial Clauses

Sentence Works IX: Noun Clauses

Sentence Expanding

Sentence Combining

Sentence Matching

Sentence Sense

Chapter 3      

Punctuation Points

The Comma

The Apostrophe

The Colon

The Exclamation Point

Quotation Marks

The Semicolon

Special Focus: The Comma Splice

The Hyphen

The Dash

What Is a Sentence?

Sentence Subjects

Sentence Predicates

Compound Subjects and Predicates

Direct Object

Indirect Object

Predicate Noun

Predicate Adjective

Parallel Structure in Sentences

Sentence Structures

Ten Sentence Patterns to Imitate

Sixteen Kinds of Sentences: Different Constructions for Different Purposes

Figurative Language

A Note on Voice

 

Chapter 4      

Passages to Edit

Reading Closely and Carefully to Find and Fix Errors

Chapter 5      

Poetry Patterns

Build-a-Name Poetry

Diamante

Wishing upon a Poem

Bio-Poem

Night Poem

Alliterative Poem

Alliterative Character Poem

Parts of Speech Poem

Adverb Poem

Another Parts of Speech Poem

Prepositional Phrase Poem

Participial Phrase Poem

Sentence Pattern Poems

Syllable Poems

Syllable Question Poem

Text Message Poem

Chapter 6      

Acts of Writing: Putting It All Together with Process Writing

Five Recursive Steps in the Writing Process

Activities and Ideas to Support Poetry Writing

Writing Extensions

Appendix A   

Ideas for Writing in the Content Areas

Writing about a Nonfiction Topic Using an Alliterative Pattern

Writing about Frogs (or a person, animal, object, or place): Alternative Acrostic Poems

Writing about Two Animals with a Contrast Pattern

Writing about People, Things, or Animals: So You Want to Be

The Five Good Things Pattern

Writing about a Nonfiction Topic Using an Informational Paragraph

The Contrast Paragraph

Writing a Character Analysis/Personality Trait Paragraph

Multi-Modal Character/Person Analysis Paragraph

Biographical Writing: Who Is the Real Walter Frederick Morrison?

Appendix B   

Writing in Response to a Prompt: What Is a Hero?

Appendix C   

Reproducible Masters

Works Cited