I am a fan of FANBOYS. It is quite a great tool to remember coordinating conjunctions. However, while I love the tool, it is not new to me. In my blogs, I have detailed the new aspects of grammar that I have learned thus far. Even so, this is not to say that I have not learned something infinitely valuable in the past few days. I have learned something that has everything to do with this class and my future as a potential educator and citizen.
I have learned about the evils of elitism. As our class looked at student writing, something happened that I see now as insidious. We made fun of the writing, bashed our heads against the tables and groaned. It seemed like simple, innocent fun, but it was representative of that “teacher’s lounge” elitism that makes educators unapproachable and devalues the potential of the student.
I did not see this right away, but after receiving an email from our teacher – Barbara Monroe – I was humbled to a great degree. It was as if I had been goliath, and a measly rock slung from a small David had taken me down to size. Now I see that David is king, and students should be our focus. Monroe made a great point when she wrote that it isn’t the fault of the students that they have not perfected writing. It is our job to teach them, and re-teach them if we have to. As educators we should be civil servants, not pompous puritans.
It strikes me as odd that many of us approached the student writing the way we did. Teaching was supposed to be of interest to everyone in the room. Instead, the only thing that seemed of interest to many of us was bullying these children behind their backs. I for one, am ashamed of myself. When we make fun of the work of students we are not TEACHERS; WE are scoundrels.
To play the devil’s advocate, I am sure none of us would treat children this way in the classroom, but it is a slippery slope. One moment, we are joking with our contemporaries, and the next moment we are ruining the English educations of this nation’s youth. I am so sorry.
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Is there ever a time when a sentence can be started with the word, ‘because?’
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ReplyDeleteDan,
ReplyDeleteI think a sentence can be started out with the conjunction BECAUSE just as it can be started out with the coordinating conjunction AND as we discussed in the previous week. However, as I understand, the conjunction BECAUSE is not recommended to be the first word in a sentence in college writings.
For example, the sentence below is grammatically correct.
"Because I was late, I only had enough time to answer half of the questions on the final exam."
However, I would not start out with BECAUSE on my college essays. I would rather revise it while still keeping the same meaning.
"Since I was late, I only had enough time to answer half of the questions on the final exam."
"Being late, I only had enough time to answer half of the questions on the final exam."
I think the difference between these senctences is the choice of words. For the reason that (because), the conjunction BECAUSE has been over used; therefore, college writings expect college students to be more precise and selective with their words. That is all!
You probably know this already!
As we'll discover this week, we also have SUBordinating conjunctions--of which BECAUSE is one. And yes, you can begin a sentence with BECAUSE...if you realize that the BECAUSE clause still needs an independent clause to attach itself to.
ReplyDeleteAs for making fun of student writing: don't worry about it. Sometimes, it's just so hard not to! So we need to show ourselves the same compassion we're saying we should show our students.
I'm still kinda wondering why that student wrote "BillGates" like that--twice. Do you think that maybe he's only heard the name and never realized it was two names?
That's the only explanation I can come up with.