QCC Course Assessment Form (short) QCC COURSE ASSESSMENT FORM Fall 2004, Rev. 6/15/07 Date: May 7, 2013 Department: Academic Literacy Course: BE203‐Intermediate Composition for Non‐Native Speakers Curriculum or Curricula: LA PART I. STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES For Part I, attach the summary report (Tables 1‐4) from the QCC Course Objectives Form. (See Table #5 for Student Learning Objectives for Actual Assessment Assignment) TABLE 1. EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT BE 203 is intended for students who are judged to need additional preparation before taking the advanced ESL composition course, BE‐205 and their placement is based on the results of the departmental examination administered in BE 201 or their scores on the CATW exam. The emphasis in this intermediate composition course is on intermediate grammar, paragraph development, and writing the short compositions. Students must demonstrate competence in writing a short composition to pass a departmental examination before taking BE 205. TABLE 2. Curricular Objectives Note: Include in this table curriculum‐specific objectives that meet Educational Goals 1 and 2: Curricular objectives addressed by this course: 1 Prewriting: Students will use a variety of techniques, including brainstorming, free writing, outlining mapping and debating, as preparation for writing on a variety of topics. 1(24) 2.Rhetoric : Students will demonstrate facility in writing reading‐response essays that have an introduction, body paragraph(s) and a conclusion. Students will demonstrate competency with paragraph unity; using topic sentences when needed; the appropriate level of relevant supporting details; and concluding sentences. Students will analyze and summarize a variety of texts, identifying one important idea from the text and relating this issue to another reading or personal experiences. Students will use their understanding of the writing process to complete assignments , i.e. planning, drafting, proofreading, and rewriting. 3.Communicate Effectively: Students will demonstrate competency with peer editing/review of short essays. Students will demonstrate listening comprehension when listening to students’ writing and introductory college‐level texts. 4.Grammar and mechanics: Students will demonstrate competency with basic conventions of Standard Written English (SWE), which include (a) command of sentence boundaries, plural noun endings, (b) subject‐verb agreement, and (c) improved command of simple, compound, and complex sentences, and their use of these structures will have improved since the beginning of the semester. Students will demonstrate the ability to observe the stylistic conventions of word processed academic papers, such as capitalization, double spacing, spaces between periods and new sentences, etc. TABLE 3. General Education Objectives, based on draft Distributed at the January 2010 Praxis Workshops To achieve these goals, students graduating with an Associate degree will:
1.
Communicate effectively through reading, writing, listening and speaking.
2.
Use analytical reasoning to identify issues or problems and evaluate evidence in order to make
informed decisions.
3.
Reason quantitatively and mathematically as required in their field of interest and in everyday
life.
4.
Use information management and technology skills effectively for academic research and lifelong
learning.
5.
Integrate knowledge and skills in their program of study.
6.
Differentiate and make informed decisions about issues based on multiple value systems.
7.
Work collaboratively in diverse groups directed at accomplishing learning objectives.
2(24) 8.
Use historical or social sciences perspectives to examine formation of ideas, human behavior,
social institutions, or social processes.
9.
Employ concepts and methods of the natural and physical sciences to make informed judgments.
10.
Apply aesthetic and intellectual criteria in the evaluation or creation of works in the humanities or
the arts.
General educational objectives addressed by this course: Select from preceding list. Gen Ed objective’s ID number from list (1‐10) 1 (1.)Students will write coherent and convincing paragraphs and short essays. 1 (2.) Students will use writing to create and clarify meaning. 1 (3.) Students will articulate and support their ideas in group work and in class discussion or debate. 1 (4.) Students will use writing to create and clarify meaning 1 (5) Students will write with increased control of grammar, diction, and punctuation, editing as necessary. 2 (6) Students will interpret texts critically. 2 (7) Students will evaluate the quality of evidence in discussions, reading, and writing. 7 (8)Students may write or make a presentation based on group work. 7 (9)Students will work in groups to accomplish learning tasks and reach common goals. 7 (10)Students will demonstrate interpersonal skills and accountability working in diverse groups. TABLE 4: Course Objectives and student learning outcomes Course Objectives and Desired Outcomes 1.Students will use prewriting techniques to generate ideas for essays. 3(24) 2.Students will create thesis statements that express the central point of an essay. 3.Students will write introductory paragraphs that prepare readers for what is to come. 4.Students will write topic sentences that support the thesis of each essay. 5.Students will support topic sentences with unified, coherent, and well developed body paragraphs. 6.Students will write concluding paragraphs that provide a sense of closure and remind the reader of the intention of the essay. 7.Students will use a variety of simple, compound, and complex sentences. 8.Students will use consistent and appropriate diction. 9. Students will demonstrate an ability to use transitions effectively within and between paragraphs. 10. Students will demonstrate a command of sentence boundary punctuation. 11. Students will write using a basic command of grammar. 12. Students will proofread effectively. PART ii. Assignment Design: Aligning outcomes, activities, and assessment tools For the assessment project, you will be designing one course assignment, which will address at least one general educational objective, one curricular objective (if applicable), and one or more of the course objectives. Please identify these in the following table: TABLE 5: OBJECTIVES ADDRESSED IN ASSESSMENT ASSIGNMENT Course Objective(s) selected for assessment: (select from Table 4) 1. Students will write using a basic command of grammar. 2. Students will proofread effectively. 4(24) Curricular Objective(s) selected for assessment: (select from Table 2) 1. Grammar and mechanics: Students will demonstrate competency with basic conventions of Standard Written English (SWE), which include (a) command of sentence boundaries, plural noun endings, (b) subject‐verb agreement, and (c) improved command of simple, compound, and complex sentences, and their use of these structures will have improved since the beginning of the semester. General Education Objective(s) addressed in this assessment: (select from Table 3) 1.
Students will write with increased control of grammar, diction, and punctuation, editing as necessary. Student Learning Outcomes: 1. Students will identify basic subjects and verbs in each sentence of a literary paragraph. 2. Students will proof‐read for errors in subject‐verb agreement in each sentence of a literary paragraph. 3. Students will correct errors in subject‐verb agreement in each sentence of a literary paragraph. In the first row of Table 6 that follows, describe the assignment that has been selected/designed for this project. In writing the description, keep in mind the course objective(s), curricular objective(s) and the general education objective(s) identified above, The assignment should be conceived as an instructional unit to be completed in one class session (such as a lab) or over several class sessions. Since any one assignment is actually a complex activity, it is likely to require that students demonstrate several types of knowledge and/or thinking processes. Also in Table 6, please a) identify the three to four most important student learning outcomes (1‐4) you expect from this assignment b) describe the types of activities (a – d) students will be involved with for the assignment, and c) list the type(s) of assessment tool(s) (A‐D) you plan to use to evaluate each of the student outcomes. (Classroom assessment tools may include paper and pencil tests, performance assessments, oral questions, portfolios, and other options.) Note: Copies of the actual assignments (written as they will be presented to the students) should be gathered in an Assessment Portfolio for this course. 5(24) TABLE 6: Assignment, Outcomes, Activities, and Assessment Tools Briefly describe the assignment that will be assessed: Students will be taught to edit a passage for subject‐verb agreement. This is a basic grammatical skill that many BE203 students do not apply consistently or may not understand. Passages used in the unit are taken from literary writing. Briefly describe the range of activities student will engage in for this assignment. What assessment tools will be used to measure how well students have met each learning outcome? (Note: a single assessment tool may be used to measure multiple learning outcomes; some learning outcomes may be measured using multiple assessment tools.) Day One 1. Students will be given a pretest (Article 1, Part A) requiring them to identify and correct errors in subject‐verb agreement in a passage of about 160 words. Answers will be recorded on scantron sheets to facilitate statistical analysis. The initial and final scantron results will be compared to assess any improvement in students’ accuracy in detecting and correcting subject‐verb agreement errors. Desired student learning outcomes for the assignment (Students will…) List in parentheses the Curricular Objective(s) and/or General Education Objective(s) (1‐10) associated with these desired learning outcomes for the assignment. a. Grammar and mechanics: Students will demonstrate competency with basic conventions of Standard Written English (SWE), which include (a) command of sentence boundaries, plural noun endings, (b) subject‐
verb agreement, and (c) improved command of simple, compound, and complex sentences, and their use of these structures will have improved since the beginning of the semester. (Curricular 2. In the first part of the lesson the instructor will lead the class through an analysis of the subject‐verb pairs in Article 1, Part B, a passage of about the same length as the pretest. 3. In the second part of the lesson, students will work in groups to find and correct subject‐verb errors in a passage from a different article 6(24) (Article 2, Part 1) of approximately the same length. Objective 4) b. Students will write with increased control of grammar, diction, and punctuation, editing as necessary. (Gen. Ed. Objective 1) 4. Faculty will distribute a fourth handout as a homework assignment. Students will be told to find and correct any errors in subject‐verb agreement. Day Two 1. The faculty will review the homework assignment, using strategies consistent with their established practices. 2. In the latter part of the class, faculty will administer the assessment. Again students will identify subject‐
verb errors in a passage of professional writing. Answers are to be recorded on scantron sheets and will be collected and sent to the Assessment Committee. No names are to appear on these answer sheets. 7(24) Part iii. Assessment Standards (Rubrics) Before the assignment is given, prepare a description of the standards by which students’ performance will be measured. This could be a checklist, a descriptive holistic scale, or another form. The rubric (or a version of it) may be given to the students with the assignment so they will know what the instructor’s expectations are for this assignment. Please note that while individual student performance is being measured, the assessment project is collecting performance data ONLY for the student groups as a whole. Table 7: Assessment Standards (Rubrics) Describe the standards or rubrics for measuring student achievement of each outcome in the assignment: Pre and post tests of basic subject‐verb recognition and subject‐verb agreement were created by a team of experienced educators. These tests were based on professional literary paragraphs used in both BE203 and BE111 classes. Certain plural nouns were intentionally made into singular nouns as certain verbs were also changed. Students who complete the exams will need to recognize the subjects and the verbs as well as detect whether or not they agree. In some cases, students will also need to correct subject‐verb agreement errors. After the pre and post‐tests have been completed, the results will be compared to examine the impact of the lesson on the students’ ability to locate and correct subject‐verb errors. Part iv. assessment results TABLE 8: Summary of Assessment Results Use the following table to report the student results on the assessment. If you prefer, you may report outcomes using the rubric(s), or other graphical representation. Include a comparison of the outcomes you expected (from Table 7, Column 3) with the actual results. NOTE: A number of the pilot assessments did not include expected success rates so there is no comparison of expected and actual outcomes in some of the examples below. However, projecting outcomes is an important part of the assessment process; comparison between expected and actual outcomes helps set benchmarks for student performance. TABLE 8: Summary of Assessment Results (Part of TABLE 9’s focus is subsumed in this section.) The committee started with the assumption that scores would increase as a result of (a) the lesson, and (b) multiple exposures to the new skill in a variety of situations (solo, group, and class‐wide experiences). However, there were no specific expectations about the degree of individual improvement or the percentage of the students who would improve. The largely positive results seem to indicate a highly successful unit. 8(24) Student achievement: Describe the group achievement of each desired outcome and the knowledge and cognitive processes demonstrated: (NOTE: Dr. Jed Shahar is to be commended for his in‐depth analysis of this data.) The lesson had one desired outcome: to improve students’ ability to edit writing for subject‐verb agreement. The following statistical analysis indicates a significant level of success. The pretest established a baseline data to compare the students’ incoming knowledge so that to observe how the lesson enhanced the students’ proficiency at editing for subject verb agreement. For example, if an overwhelming majority of students, or even a majority earn high scores on the pretest, the value of the lesson would be reconsidered. However, only 18% of students were able to identify all, or all but one, of the main verbs in the pretest (see Table 2). The overall pretest performance for all sections was 59.6% (see Table 1). This suggests that the participants were not able to correctly identify 40% of the main verbs in the pretest. It is worth noting, that there is a range of performance on the pretest with the lowest‐performing class only identifying 48% of the main verbs, and the highest‐performing identifying 77% of the main verbs (see Table 1). Overall, the posttest analysis demonstrates that the lesson was effective in helping students identify main verbs. The overall performance increased from 59.6% to 67.5%, an approximate 13% improvement (see Table 1). There was, however, variability in how much improvement occurred. For example, on the pretest, Section A identified 77% of the main verbs accurately, but their overall performance decreased to 74%. However, when Section A was analyzed to determine the percentage who answered all or all but one question correctly, they evidenced a higher degree of mastery because in the pretest, only 28% fell into this category. In contrast on the posttest, 45% earned this distinction (see Table 2). In Section E, the same 45% level was observed on the posttest for mastery, but that percentage increased from the 4% in the pretest (see Table 2). Overall, the number of students who had mastered the skill of identifying the main verb nearly doubled from 18% to 32% (See Table 2). (Note: Dr. Regina Rochford is to be credited with assisting me with putting the data into an easily readable APA style table.) 9(24) Table 1
BE203
Section
Pretest n
Pretest
score
%
correct
Posttest n
Post-test
%
correct
A
18
138
77
20
134
74
B
21
122
58
24
132
61
C
13
73
56
15
71
53
D
23
143
62
26
171
73
E
24
114
48
25
160
71
Total
99
590
59.60%
110
668
67.47%
Table 2
%
correct
n students
who got all or
all but one
right on
posttest
%
correct
BE203
Section
Pretest n
n students
who got all
or all but
one right
on pretest
A
B
C
D
E
18
21
13
23
24
5
5
3
4
1
28
24
23
17
4
9
7
1
9
9
45
29
7
35
45
Total
99
18
18.18%
35
31.82%
This assessment also allows a comparison between BE 111 and BE 203 sections, classes with identical objectives that are meant to prepare students for the upper‐level writing sections. The primary difference between the two sections is that BE111 is for native speakers and 203 for English Language Learners (ELL). Interestingly, BE 111 students who participated 10(24) the same assessment in 2012, earned lower scores on the pretest which ranged from 49% to 60%. However, in the end, both populations improved their overall performance by about 15%. It should be noted that the ELLs demonstrated greater mastery of this skill than the native‐
speaking population, which was 32% to 25% respectively, although hardly any native speakers who took the pretest displayed mastery of the skill. TABLE 9. Resulting Action Plan In the table below, or in a separate attachment, interpret and evaluate the assessment results, and describe the actions to be taken as a result of the assessment. In the evaluation of achievement, take into account student success in demonstrating the types of knowledge and the cognitive processes identified in the Course Objectives. A. Analysis and interpretation of assessment results: See section 8 above. B. Evaluation of the assessment process: What do the results suggest about how well the assignment and the assessment process worked both to help students learn and to show what they have learned? The choice of subject‐verb agreement as the target skill for the assessment was the result of the committee’s belief that mastery of this subject can provide a foundation for other important skills covered in BE203: writing complete sentences (with subjects and verbs), punctuating to signal sentence boundaries, thoughtful choice of verb tense. Additionally, teaching such attention to detail early in the semester can facilitate students’ increased attention to grammar as a whole and to careful word choice. Both of these clusters of skills enhance a writer’s ability to clearly transmit his/her ideas, a central goal of Educational Objective 1. The assignment does suggest increased mastery of the target skill. The assessment process allowed for unambiguous, easily tabulated results. C. Resulting action plan: Based on A and B, what changes, if any, do you anticipate making? The strong showing on the retest suggests the lesson is an effective way to teach subject‐verb agreement although this skill is an introductory level task that should lead to greater sentence structure development. It appears that explicit teaching of grammar in the context of engaging professional models does lead to enhanced ability to edit for subject‐verb agreement. BE203 faculty can be encouraged to use both this method and the early timing of the unit as they fine tune their courses and advance their students’ skills throughout the term. Future assessments using this lesson may enrich this data by including both subject‐
verb agreement and sentence boundary questions in the pre‐ and post‐tests. As the 11(24) assumption is that better verb identification skills will lead to improved subject‐verb agreement and sentence boundary sensitivity, this theory could be tested with and without explicit connections between verb identification with these skills. However, even though this lesson was successful in teaching students to improve their editing skills in the area of subject‐verb agreement, it is recommended that this assessment be expanded to include additional grammatical areas to ensure that this population is indeed ready to advance to the next level of instruction. It is crucial that ESL students who are taking Intermediate Composition have a solid understanding and control over grammar before they advance to the last level of ESL writing, BE205. In our most advanced level of ESL writing, BE205 students are required to pass the CUNY‐wide writing test‐ the CUNY Assessment Test for Writing (CATW) exam. If students who have an inadequate control over grammar are prematurely passed from BE203 to BE205, the BE205 instructor will be forced to dedicate an inordinate amount of time teaching basic grammar instead of preparing students for the crucial task of passing the CATW test, which requires them to write a long composition in a brief amount of time. This type of situation can have dire consequences. Therefore, it is vital for our Department to ascertain which students are fully prepared and ready to be promoted to BE205 so that the students who enroll in BE205 will be successful in both their coursework as well as passing the CATW. This approach will also reduce the number of BE205 students who must repeat the course after they fail the CATW exam. Additional areas of assessment to consider in the future may consist of the following: 1. Students may be assessed on their ability to use the correct verb tense in varying time‐based situations. 2. Students may be assessed on verb tense consistency. 3. Students may be assessed on their knowledge and application of standard word order and word form in English, although this skill is difficult to assess because every learner would require a paper English dictionary. Closing the Loop Although this assessment addressed a very specific area of grammar, it can be used as a starting point in the process of beginning to close the assessment loop of BE203 and to ensure that our assessment is meaningful. As was previously mentioned, it is vital that BE203 students be fully prepared to move onto the next level of instruction, which is BE205. One way to promote this goal is by using these assessment results as part of an updated or revised rubric for evaluating essays, which will be designed over the coming summer to help determine which students are allowed to advance and which are not. This new rubric would use the CATW rubric guidelines, but because it is very vague in the area of grammar, this aspect would be clarified. Over the summer, a group of experienced writing instructors will adjust the grammar section of the rubric so that it 12(24) details more specifically what each student must score in a given criteria area to be ready to pass BE201 and 203 classes. The rubric will then be revisited by the Assessment Committee in early September 2013 to make revisions. Then, one member who is part of the Assessment Committee and who is teaching the course (BE203) will train BE203 teachers in how to conduct a norming session whereby the rubric will be used both at mid‐term and then again at finals to help instructors formally decide which students are ready to be promoted to the next level. In addition, this Committee will select model essays from a collection of sample essays that are ranked as “high” passing, “passing”, “weak passing”, and “failing”. These papers will be used to help instructors fully understand the criteria of a “passing mid‐term” and “passing final.” Addendum: Documents Used in the Spring 2013 Assessment of BE203 The paragraphs referred to in the lesson and assessment are reproduced at the end of this section. (Note: Credit is to be given to Dr. Jed Shahar for devising an effective lesson plan on subject‐verb agreement.) Day 1: The Lesson (Instructors’ Script) STEP 1: “We are administering a test lesson in all over our BE 203 section to see how effective it is. In this lesson we will be learning how to identify main verbs in sentences. We will be learning this skill so that we can better understand how to punctuate sentences, meaning we will have a better sense of where periods go. Before we get started on the lesson, it is important for us to see how much you already know about identifying verbs. I will now pass out a pretest to determine how well you can find main verbs in sentences before the lesson. You should not write your name down on the answer sheets.” 13(24) STEP 2: Handout the pretest (1a) and scantron sheets. Give the students ten minutes. Collect their responses. STEP 3: (30 MIN) “OK. Now we will begin with the lesson. First we will start by saying what a verb is. A verb is a word in a sentences that expresses an action or state‐of‐being. So in these sentences, what is the verb?” Write on the board: The distracted student dropped his cell phone. The cell phone is now in pieces. “In the first sentence, there are two words that look like verbs “distracted” and “dropped.” “Dropped” is the action expressed in this sentence. In other sentences it is possible to use “distracted” to express an action, but in this sentence “distracted” is only modifying student. “Distracted” is an adjective. In the second sentence “is” expresses the state‐of‐being for the cell phone.” “So for the first part of this exercise, we are looking for signs that something IS a verb, as opposed to looking for clues that something isn’t a verb.” “The simplest way to identify a verb is by looking for forms of “be” and “have” in a sentence. As simple as this sounds, it’s a little tricky. Both “be” and “have” can be main verbs, but they can also be helping verbs.” Write on the board: 14(24) What’s a helping verb? What’s a main verb? “The main verb is the verb in the sentence that needs to be there for the sentence to make sense. The helping verb is a verb that slightly alters the meaning of the main verb. In the sentences that I will write on the board, when the main verb is removed, we have a sentence that makes no sense. However, when we remove the helping verb, the sentence still makes sense. MV stands for main verb while LV stands for linking verb.” Write on the board: The bowling ball was rolling to the gutter.  LV MV The bowling ball was to the gutter.  LV no MV The bowling ball rolled to the gutter.  MV no LV “Before going any further, it’s also important to be able to recognize the different forms of “be” and “have.”” Write on the board: BE HAVE 15(24) AM, IS, ARE, HAS, HAVE WAS, WERE HAD BEEN, BEING HAD, HAVING “So stepping back to where we started, identifying forms of “be” and “have” is important, but we still need to be able to identify whether the verb is being used as a helping verb or a main verb. How can you tell?” “Well you can be sure that a form of “be” or “have” is the main verb, and not a helping verb, if it is followed by a noun or a preposition.” Write on the board: The tacos that you are looking for are on the table. Those tacos have guacamole on them. “In the first sentence on the board, the second “are,” is definitely a main verb because it is followed by a preposition “on.”” “In the second sentence “have” is followed by the noun “guacamole,” so we can be sure that “have” is being used as a verb.” “On the other hand, when forms of “be” or “have” are being used as helping verbs they are almost always followed by other words than end in “—en” or “—ed” or “—ing.” In other words, when “be” and “have” are being used as a helping verb, they are followed by verbs.” “Looking at the first sentence from above, we can see that the first “are” is a helping verb; it is followed by a verb “look” ending in “—ing.”” The tacos that you are looking for are on the table. “So when you find forms of “be” and “have”, you have either identified a main verb from the sentence or a helping verb that should point to the main verb in the sentence.” “There are other verbs, listed below, that will also point you to the main verb. I will talk about these a little bit more later on.” Write on the board: may, might, can, should, shall, will, could, would, do “Now let’s look at a paragraph from the pretest. Let’s underline all of the verbs in this paragraph.” Lately I’ve been thinking of the things my parents taught me — all those habits that were handed over to me one by one when I was a child. These are the sorts of thoughts I always have when I’m teaching writing, which is partly the act of revealing bad habits to their surprised owners. What 16(24) got me thinking this time was the discovery that I’ve been tying my shoes wrong for more than half a century. “So in this paragraph there are 11 main verbs. The first one is “thinking,” and this can be identified by the “been,” or the form of “be,” before it. “Handed” can be identified by the “were” before it, and then “was” is a main verb too. In sentence two, “are” and “have” are both main verbs, and “teaching” is preceded by a shortened form of “am”, “’m.” The last verb in the second sentence is “is.” In the last sentence, “was” is a main verb and “tying” is preceded by “been.” The only verbs that cannot be identified by finding forms of “be,” “have,” or other possible helping verbs are “taught,” and “got.”” “So now, what are you supposed to do with the other main verbs in sentences? How do you find them if there aren’t any helping verbs? Well the next step relies on your choosing a word that may or may not be a main verb, meaning you have to make an educated guess. It’s like your going fishing and you don’t have the patience to wait for fish to take the bait. You throw a net into the sea and haul it in, figuring you’ll take whatever you can scoop up and sort through it later. I call this casting a wide net.” “If you find a word that you think might be a main verb, but there is no helping verb, try inserting a helping verb. If the sentence no longer makes sense, then the word you’re looking at is not a verb, and you can throw it back. But if it does make sense, then the word you are looking at is probably a verb, and you can keep it.” “Let’s try this with two sentences from the paragraph above. Now let’s circle “taught,” “thinking” from the second line (NOT THE FIRST ONE) and “wrong.”” Lately I’ve been thinking of the things my parents taught me… What got me thinking this time was the discovery that I’ve been tying my shoes wrong for more than half a century. “These underlined words are potential candidates for main verbs. The first word “taught” doesn’t have a helping verb before it, but if I put one there, “have” works most easily, the sentence still makes sense.” Write on the board: Lately I’ve been thinking of the things my parents have taught me.  “The next word to check is “got.” Again by putting in a helping verb we can check if this is a main verb. Now I am going to use “do” as my helping verb and this allows me to change the verb form. If the sentence still makes sense, then we have found a main verb.” Write on the board: What did get me thinking this time…  “Again, this works.” “Now let’s try this with the word “thinking.” “Thinking” is a reasonable candidate for a main verb since “thinking” expresses an action. However, observe how silly this sentence sounds when we add a form of “be” before “thinking.”” 17(24) Write on the board: What got me was thinking this time was the discovery… “This doesn’t make any sense. So we can say that in this sentence “thinking” is not being used as a verb. THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT “THINKING” CANNOT BE USED AS A VERB. It just means that in this specific sentence, “thinking” is not being used as a verb. Throw it back into the sea.” “The last word we are considering that might be a verb is “wrong.” Again, let’s try to add a helping verb and see if the sentence makes any sense.” Write on the board: I’ve been tying my shoes have wronged for more than half a century.  I’ve been tying my shoes were wronging for more than half a century.  “Neither of these sentences makes sense. This tells you that “wrong” is not being used as a verb here. Back into the sea it goes.” “To review, identifying verbs is a critical skill since so much of a sentence’s meaning and grammar is determined by the verb. The first step you should follow to identify verbs in sentences is to look for forms of “be” and “have” and other possible helping verbs. If you find forms of “be” or “have,” you have to determine whether they are helping verbs or main verbs. If they are main verbs great, you’ve found a main verb. If they are not main verbs, then they are helping verbs, and great they are pointing you toward main verbs. After this process look for any other words that may be verbs (cast a wide net). To find out if these other words are main verbs insert helping verbs (and maybe change the form of the verb) to see if the sentence still makes sense. If it does, you’ve found a main verb. If not, you are not dealing with a main verb.” “On this handout is a flow chart that graphically represents this summary. It may seem confusing to some, but if you understand what’s going on in the flow chart, you’re ready to roll.” Hand out handout. (See next page.) 18(24) Flow Chart for Identifying Main Verbs in Sentences Step 1: Identify all forms of “be” and “have.” Step 3: Identify all helping verbs beside “be” and “have.” Step 2: Is “be” or
“have” used as a
main verb?
Step 4: Cast a wide net, and pick other words that you think might be main verbs. Step 5: When you insert any of the helping verbs before your possible main verb, does the sentence make sense? Note: You may N
Y
You found a main verb. That’s OK. The helping verb should direct you to the main verb. have to change the form of the verb you’re looking at. Y N
The word isn’t a verb in this sentence. 19(24) “Now, just as it’s very important to be able to identify the verbs in a sentence, it’s also very important to not misidentify verbs in a sentence. Below are three simple rules that will help you not pick out words as verbs that aren’t really verbs.” “A very simple rule is that if a word that you think might be a verb comes after the word “to,” then the word is NOT a verb. Why? That’s a complicated question to answer. The shortest and simplest answer is that a word with “to” before it will never be able to be the only verb in a sentence.” Write on the board: Han Solo kissed Princess Leia.  Han Solo to kiss Princess Leia.  To kiss Princess Leia, Han Solo needed to struggle against the guards.  “Notice that even in the third sentence when there are two words, “kiss” and “struggle,” that may be used as verbs, the sentence still needs a verb like “needed” to make sense.” “Now, recall from earlier in the chapter we considered a sentence that had the word “thinking” in it. We decided that it was not being used as a verb because we could not put a helping verb before and still have the sentence make sense.” Write on the board: What got me thinking this time was the discovery that I’ve been tying my shoes wrong for more than half a century. What got me was thinking this time was the discovery… “This leads us to a very simple rule about words ending in “—ing.” If a word ends in “—ing” and it does not have a form of “be” before it, the word is not being used as a verb. Notice in the sentence below that the “—ing” form of “tie” does have a form of “be” before it. It is a verb here.” 20(24) Write on the board: I’ve been tying my shoes wrong for more than half a century. “Finally the last way you can be sure that something is definitely NOT a verb is if the word does not have an “–ing” form. So for example if you read the sentence below, and think that maybe “for” or “than” might be verbs. You can quickly decide that they are not verbs because there are no such words as “foring” or “thaning.”” Write on the board: I’ve been tying my shoes wrong for more than half a century. “An important point to remember is that just because something does have an “—ing” form does not necessarily mean that it is a verb in a sentence. You can only eliminate words as not verbs only if they do not have “—ing” forms.” “To review” Write on the board: 1. Words that follow the preposition “to” are not main verbs in a sentence. 2. Words that end in “—ing” are not verbs if they do not have a form of “be” before them. 3. Words that do not have “—ing” forms cannot be verbs in a sentence. 21(24) STEP 4: Pass out exercise (1b) with students. Go over with students, letting them answer. (10 minutes) STEP 5: Break the students into groups of three or four. Pass out exercise (2a). Give the students 10 minutes to do the work in groups. Ask students to bring up the work when they are done. Check their work but do not mark what is right or wrong. Just tell them how many (NOT WHICH) they have wrong. Asking them to rethink their answers. STEP 6: Go over exercise (2a). (5 minutes) STEP 7: Repeat steps 5 and 6 with (2b). If time permits. STEP 8: Pass out exercise (3a) for homework. Day 2: The Assessment STEP 9: Review HW for 10 minutes. STEP 10: Administer assessment (exercise (3b)). No names need to collected. Ask the students to identify main verbs. Give them 10 minutes. 22(24) The Paragraphs: Article 1 Part A Lately I’ve been thinking of the things my parents taught me — all those habits that were handed over to me one by one when I was a child. These are the sorts of thoughts I always have when I’m teaching writing, which is partly the act of revealing bad habits to their surprised owners. What got me thinking this time was the discovery that I’ve been tying my shoes wrong for more than half a century. I’ve been tying a granny knot in my laces, a lopsided knot that tends to come untied even when doubled. It’s the knot my mother taught me. But thanks to a tip on the Internet, I learned that if I wrap the lace around the first bow the opposite way, I get a reef, or square, knot, which lies evenly across the shoe and doesn’t come untied. I believe that if my mother had known about the reef knot, she would have taught it to me. Article 1 Part B My dad taught me how to adjust the sideview mirrors on a car. In their reflection, I learned, I should be able to see the edge of the vehicle I’m driving — as though vertigo might set in if I couldn’t locate a mechanical version of myself in the mirror. But this is exactly the setting that creates a blind spot on both sides. There’s a better way. I’ve been using this new setting on the freeways of Los Angeles, and I realize now that I’ve been driving with my mirrors improperly adjusted for more than 40 years. These are small things. They’re also deeply embedded and as close to unconscious as learned acts can be. To tie a reef knot in my laces, I have to try to tie a reef knot. That means beginning to do what I’ve always done and then undoing it — reefing the granny, in other words. I’m sure my dad didn’t want me to have blind spots. He simply passed along the blind spots he’d inherited. Now I’m having to learn to trust what the mirrors show instead of what they don’t. Article 2 Part 1 I’ve just opened up the hive of bees that died over the winter. For several years, I’ve left all the honey for them in hopes of making a hard season easier to bear. In a winter as cold as this past one, it’s possible for bees to cluster so tightly, trying to keep warm, that they’re unable to move to their stores of honey a few inches away. I had planned to prepare the hive for new bees. Inside I found over a hundred pounds of honey waiting to be harvested, honey bequeathed to me by the citizens of a vanished monarchy. There is something beautiful, at once frugal and profligate, in the sight of a frame full of honey just as the bees have left it, each hexagonal cell carefully capped. This was last September’s honey, made when the goldenrod was still in bloom. It had over‐wintered, aging and darkening as the days passed and the temperature dropped and its makers died. Its taste has been affected only by the thought of losing the bees that made it. 23(24) Article 2 Part 2 The other surprise was the unexpected reawakening of the beekeeper in me. I’ve ordered three new packages of bees, and when they arrive at the end of May, they’ll go into new hives designed to let the bees produce their own comb instead of building on a foundation of wax or plastic. In fact, it has been a week of surprises. Honey is slowly filtering through sieves and waiting to be bottled. Beeswax is waiting to be melted in the sun. And one evening, an hour before dusk, I looked out the window and there was the barn cat — not seen since January — sitting on the deck waiting for his milk. He looked at me as though he was wondering where I’d been, a question for which I had no very good answer. Article 3 Part 1 The house is surrounded by icicles. Looking out my office window, I feel as though I’m living in the maw of some fabulous fanged beast readying to devour the rest of the day. This is the day that is unimaginable in July — 14 degrees and more than two feet of snow on the ground, a female cardinal resting among the magnolia buds, her feet tucked into her under‐down. The horses think nothing of the weather, though I have trouble persuading myself of that. Yesterday, they ran bucking and kicking into a level patch of sunshine, and when Remedy lay down for a rest — flat‐out — he almost disappeared beneath the snow‐line. Ida curls up in the snow as cat‐like as a horse can be. Nell looks like a four‐legged Yeti. I wade knee‐deep to the chicken house. I shovel. I plow. I make great heaps of snow with the tractor, the kind I used to tunnel through as a kid. I have the illusion of shaping my environment, putting a sharp edge on the cut‐bank path. I defy the elements, and they defy me, and when we’re done, I crawl inside a sleeping bag to get the heat back in my body. Article 3 Part 2 I’m in no rush for things to change. Partly it’s the clarity, the way the most muted colors become more intense against the snow. It’s also the glacial blue when light pierces the snow in the tractor‐
bucket raised against the sky, the berg‐ish way the snow breaks off as I shovel, the avalanche that falls when I rake the roof. I like the endurance this weather demands. There’s a pleasure in carrying 50‐pound bags of layer mash on my collarbone through two feet of snow, huffing and puffing. I’ve come to like seeing the light from the chicken house almost obliterated by blowing snow at dusk. I wait for the moment when a chill settles all the way through my bones, and then I know I’ve earned the woodstove and the sleeping bag and the next book on my pile. 24(24)