Lesson Seventeen: Variations on the Simple Sentence

Today’s PowerPoint lesson gets the job done, but it would benefit from some minor tweeking.

Instead of incorporating practice exercises in the slideshow like I usually do, with today’s lesson I have students complete corresponding exercises in the textbook. I would like to add some additional slides which show the sentences in the book, so that while students are giving their answers, we can see the key elements of the sentences on the screen. Again, anytime I explain something orally without a visual aid, several students seem unclear about the answers and the explanations. These slides can be added quite quickly, but I just have not had time to add this material for today’s lesson.

Note to Researchers: Due to time constraints, I do not routinely give a lesson on verb types and verb errors. Even though this is the entry level developmental course at our college, I find that only a few students have chronic verb usage issues. I have a terrific resource on the class website that allows these students to work independently on fortifying their verb usage. I launched this “self-service” resource last semester and was thrilled to observe an almost total success among the students. To review this resource, click on GRAMMAR at the class website, then “I Can Fix It Myself” at the bottom of the left-hand column. (I would like to add to this resource three or four PowerPoint self-tutorials on verb types, subject-verb agreement, tense consistency, and use of the past participle with the perfect form. We will be able to develop these self-tutorials this summer.)

Final Note to Researches: It’s minutes before class, and I’ve just spent a half hour adding the desired slides that I mention in the first paragraph above. I am very confident that these extra slides (showing, dynamically, solutions to the textbook exercises) will make a significant different in the students’ learning curve and the transition from lecture to practice.