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Before you read the rest of this, open Microsoft Word, click on Tools, then Options, then the Spelling & Grammar tab and see whether "Show readability statistics" is checked off or not. If it isn't, put a check in the box. Now you are all set to try for yourself what I had my younger (7th & 8th grade) writing students do today and the day before.
If you write a sentence in Word, and then do a spelling & grammar check, you will then be presented with a Readability Statistics box. The last line will give your sentence a grade level, from 1 to 12, based on the complexity of your sentence. Simple sentences like "It is hot today" will be measured at about a 1st grade level while a compound-complex sentence full of "big words" supposedly reflects something a high school senior should be capable of. Now, Miscrosft Word is not a writing teacher- it will not be able to determine whether your sentence truly makes sense or whether you're using the word "admonish" correctly, for instance- what it does is measure quantity of words per sentence, quantity of letters in each word, etc. and it does not take into account grammar or spelling (presumably you've already corrected your sentence prior to this step). However, if the savvy Writing teacher builds criteria into this process of elevating grade levels of student writing by insisting that use of specific details, more adjectives and adverbs as well as incorporating better vocabulary are the keys to improving the grade level measurements, then you have students effectively expressing themselves better in writing as well as enjoying themselves watching their grade levels rise with each addition (or edition) to their sentences (and/or paragraphs- you can highlight anything from a sentence to an entire document).
So yesterday and today my 7th graders were provided with simple 1st grade level sentences that I wrote (along the lines of sentences they may too often ordinarily compose) and were instructed in how to improve them with the criteria I listed for you.
Check out the following transformations, each written by a different student.
McDonald's is gross.
McDonald’s is despicable because they use vegetable oil to burn their food and prove that it is fatality concealed in food form.
I lost my key card.
The key card to my undersized yet radiant and charming room has gone astray and now I must journey to the dorm office to obtain a new and improved key card.
This summer was fun.
This summer was full of swimming and laughing, sitting in the sun and singing, swinging and sleeping, but it did not matter what you did, it mattered whom you were with when you did it.
Yoda is cool.
To his Jedis, the gnome-like Yoda may appear as either very austere or like a grandfather, testing them to mental and physical extremes one moment and showing warmth the next.
3 comments:
Once again, Professor Westcott has provided his earnest and eager readership with several inspiring moments of pleasant and informative diversion.
That's cool but please let your students know that if they wish to become news reporters, they will have to do the opposite!!
Adjectives are usually O_U_T
;-)
Hello, Geo, whose face I last saw, natch, grinning at me from a newspaper article I was glancing at while dropping a student off at the Spfld. train station. Yep, I taught the school newspaper class for half a year last year and wised them up to the traditional inverted pyramid style, removing bias and redundancy, etc. But to be honest, I was glad to hand it off to someone else, especially since it meant freeing up my schedule for my Musical Expression class. Now, in my Writing Workshop classes, we only spend a week on practicing journalism writing. It would be nice if we could do more but then you have your persuasive essays and college application essays and MLA format research papers sucking up the majority of the time.
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