Why Daily Oral Language (D.O.L.) Doesn’t Work
Most teachers are familiar with Daily Oral Language, abbreviated as D.O.L. or under the guise of similar acronyms. Teachers like the canned program because it requires no teacher preparation, it...
View ArticleSentence Lifting: D.O.L. That Makes Sense
Sentence Lifting (click to see instructions and example) is a whole class instructional activity that takes 15 minutes to complete and is designed to be used twice per week as direct instruction in...
View ArticleThe Great Grammar Debate
Although not as contentious as the debate on how to teach children to read, the debate on how to teach grammar* has its moments. In fact, elements of the reading and grammar debate do have similarities...
View ArticleWhy We Don’t Teach Grammar
First of all, grammar is a lot like Kleenex®. This brand name has been associated with many other similar products. If I ask my wife to “Please pass a Kleenex®, I would probably get irritated if she...
View ArticleHow to Teach Essay Strategies
What first pops into your mind when I mention essay strategies? Fair to say that many of us would think of the the characteristics and/or structure of a particular genre (domain), say a persuasive...
View ArticleFree Grammar and Mechanics Resources
How do most teachers teach grammar and mechanics? Frankly, many of us just are not teaching these subjects, except as a few weeks of drill and kill worksheets prior to the standardized test. Teachers...
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Grammar Openers
District administrators and teachers are digging into the newly adopted Common Core State Standards and finding some unexpected buried treasure: the Language Strand. Of course, one’s pirate’s treasure...
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Problems with Daily Oral Language (D.O.L.)
I’ve already detailed sixteen reasons Why Daily Oral Language (D.O.L.) Doesn’t Work in a related article; however, readers of my blog have added “fuel to the fire” by identifying two more problems with...
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Why D.O.L. Does Not Transfer to Writing
“I greatly prefer D.O.L. over isolated study because it addresses all the issues at once, not just commas or just capitalization or just subject-verb agreement. Kids have to consider all those, just...
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Why Grammar Doesn’t Stick
Last Wednesday, one of my favorite eighth grade English-language Arts colleagues burst into my fifth period seventh grade class. Herding ten of my previous students through the door to stand in front...
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The Four Myths of Grammar Instruction
In the 1980s, a multi-dimensional educational philosophy captured the minds and hearts of American educators. This philosophy developed into the whole language movement. Although widely discredited...
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How to Teach Interactive Grammar
If I’m going to entice you to read this article by offering some how-to’s and free resources to teach grammar interactively, we had best get on the same page about what we both mean by grammar. I like...
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Grammar | Teaching in the Social Context
Language Conventions Academic Literacy Centers If we consider the traditional four communicative contexts of English-language arts (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) and add on a fifth, the...
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Grammar Quiz for Teachers
Grammar Quiz for Teachers See how much you know about grammar by taking the 10 Question Grammar Quiz for Teachers. Don’t worry; I’ll dispense with the usual “If you score 9 or 10 out of 10, you are…”...
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Don’t Teach Grammar Mini-Lessons
Don’t Teach Grammar Mini-Lessons Don’t teach grammar mini-lessons for two reasons: this instructional methodology is implicit and ineffective. Currently, the top Google search for “new research on...
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