9-20-09

I’ve found these last lessons much more beneficial and outside my intrinsic knowledge of grammar than previous weeks. Although not entirely a new concept to me, our work with transitive and intransitive verbs was clarifying if nothing else. That seems to be a more subtle and therefore difficult understanding of our language and how it functions.
“My quivering flesh secretes delight,” “he made secret love on the kitchen table” and “his turgid pleasure rod filled her” were some of my group’s examples for transitive verb usage which quickly showed itself as a more common usage of the verb. More difficult to comprehend and define for me was the intransitive verb. Nonetheless we created some good examples in our magnetic poetry exercise--working with limited words, though we were. “She came,” was a simple example of an intransitive. No less dirty, I might add.
Otherwise, I’ve been noticing the teaching style of these grammar lessons and, like last blog entry, have been trying to see the bigger picture and the applicable aspect of this grammar course with the mantra that we cannot teach grammar, grammar has to teach itself. Intransitive and transitive verbs could very well make me gouge out my eyeballs whilst crying a sea of bloody tears if taught properly. I can see in Barbara’s activities how to make these grammar lessons, the ones that require some focused attention for our classes, into something at least bearable and more often rather than less often, enjoyable. That is definitely the biggest piece I am taking from this class, the creative aspect of teaching that can sustain the goodness of our subject and why it is enduring as an educational necessity. Someone loved it at the beginning and if it isn’t our sole job to foster love of English, it is our job to not foster loathing for it and, in turn, loss of the practicality which is absolutely a need of every budding young mind and body.
Another interesting note, although outside our grammar focus, is my take on the Socratic circle. I found that self-guided/group-guided method of teaching an exciting and useful teaching exercise. It was something I had experienced in high school once or twice and in context of a teaching class, remembered its effectiveness.
Again, I’m actually seeing slight improvements in my grammar through our focus on understanding difficult rules rather than memorizing them. Thanks Foreman Barbara!

Question: Isn’t the word “law” usable as self-pluralizing, so to speak? Like “deer” or “fish.”

p.s. Sorry this installment of my super interesting grammar blog is late. I’m a spacey sort of guy.