Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer's Workshop

Some teachers love grammar and some hate it, but nearly all struggle to find ways of making the mechanics of English meaningful to kids. As a middle school teacher, Jeff Anderson also discovered that his students were not grasping the basics, and that it was preventing them from reaching their potential as writers. Jeff readily admits, “I am not a grammarian, nor am I punctilious about anything,” so he began researching and testing the ideas of scores of grammar experts in his classroom, gradually finding successful ways of integrating grammar instruction into writer's workshop.

Mechanically Inclined is the culmination of years of experimentation that merges the best of writer's workshop elements with relevant theory about how and why skills should be taught. It connects theory about using grammar in context with practical instructional strategies, explains why kids often don't understand or apply grammar and mechanics correctly, focuses on attending to the “high payoff,” or most common errors in student writing, and shows how to carefully construct a workshop environment that can best support grammar and mechanics concepts. Jeff emphasizes four key elements in his teaching:short daily instruction in grammar and mechanics within writer's workshop;using high-quality mentor texts to teach grammar and mechanics in context;visual scaffolds, including wall charts, and visual cues that can be pasted into writer's notebooks;regular, short routines, like “express-lane edits,” that help students spot and correct errors automatically.

Comprising an overview of the research-based context for grammar instruction, a series of over thirty detailed lessons, and an appendix of helpful forms and instructional tools, Mechanically Inclined is a boon to teachers regardless of their level of grammar-phobia. It shifts the negative, rule-plagued emphasis of much grammar instruction into one which celebrates the power and beauty these tools have in shaping all forms of writing.

• Patterns of Power: Inviting Young Writers into the Conventions of Language, Grades 1-5
• Write Like This: Teaching Real-World Writing Through Modeling and Mentor Texts
• Study Driven: A Framework for Planning Units of Study in the Writing Workshop
• Teaching for Joy and Justice: Re-Imagining the Language Arts Classroom
• Reading, Writing, and Rising Up: Teaching About Social Justice and the Power of the Written Word
• 180 Days: Two Teachers and the Quest to Engage and Empower Adolescents
• Revision Decisions: Talking Through Sentences and Beyond
• Everyday Editing: Inviting Students to Develop Skill and Craft in Writer's Workshop
• 10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know
• Image Grammar, Second Edition: Teaching Grammar as Part of the Writing Process