My topic for the Teacher Inquiry Project is syntax. I have no problem with correcting papers and telling students what they are doing wrong, but I am currently on a journey to find a blueprint for exemplary sentences that can show students the formula for putting every word in its proper place. Many of my students come in and they do not even know what a clause is. After I explain to them the difference between simple (I love him), compound(I hove him and I love his dog) etc... they all shake their heads as if they understand me vividly. As soon as I send them home to analyze a short article in the AM New York or Metro newspapers, I realize that definitions of terms are not enough.
In one session, a student was working with me (on an extra assignment outside of her FIQWS class) and I asked her to write 5 simple, 5compound and 5complex sentences and explain to me the subject and predicate in each. She confused a simple sentence with a complex sentence because the simple sentence had a relative clause that referred back to the subject. Because I did not explain relative clauses to her I realized that the simple sentence might not be as easy as I thought it was. I'm taking it upon my self to use this assignment to study every type of sentence that can possibly be constructed. I have been speaking English for most of my life and I personally feel humbled when I cannot find the verbiage to tell my students exactly what to do to become better writers. Oh well that's why I'm in grad school....to learn-lol-
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