Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Today, we are playing the game, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"

As you come into the classroom today, pick a post-it note and write a number on it from 1-20 in the order of people coming in.

We'll do a lottery (one student will choose a number from 1-20), and the person who wins is selected to become a millionaire: You'll get 10 comic slides with grammar mistakes in them to be displayed on the Smartboard, and you have to find the mistakes in front of the class. The good thing is, you have three JOKERS:

1) you can ask the audience (everyone gets a sheet of paper, and each individual student will write the answer he/she thinks is right on it in fat letters).

2) you can call someone you know on your cell phone, read the text to him/her, and get the answer this way.

3) you can ask the instructor ONE question of the following:
a) Which speech bubble is the mistake in?
b) What kind of category is the mistake?

For each right answer you give, you receive one piece of candy. If you give a wrong answer, you're out, and the person with the lottery number following immediately yours will get to take your place. You are allowed to keep the candy you have already won up to the point where you made the mistake. If you get all 10 questions right, you're the candy millionaire of ENGL300 ;-)

Here is the link to the slide show of 20 comics with grammar mistakes.
We can play the game twice.

The Peculiar Language of the Amish

I chose to read the article "The Peculiar Language of the Amish" not only for its interesting title, but also because I find the Amish culture compelling and interesting. Here in Southern Illinois, in fact, here on the outskirts of Carbondale are a group of local Mennonites. Mennonites are not exactly the same as the Amish, but their upbringing, beliefs, and religion are fairly similar.

In the article, Amish language is discussed at great length. They speak a blend of English and Pennsylvania Dutch or Pennsylvania German with every fifth or so word in English. Because of this immersion of English in their language, American people can typically follow along with what they are saying in the flow of conversation. However, PA Dutch is a highly unwritten language. Typically, when the Amish send letters or write they compose them in English. Likewise, English is used as a base language in their schools. However, growing up, Amish children do not know or speak English until they reach school where they are taught their lessons in English.

The Amish are not only bi-lingual, however, but tri-lingual. They can also speak High German, which is what most of their Bibles are written in and what most of their church services are spoken in. The Amish have a very advanced knowledge of Germanic languages because of this.

The Amish are not the only ones who speak PA Dutch, however. As I mentioned before, Mennonites also speak PA Dutch, as well as non-Amish in the southeastern region of Pennsylvania.

In-Class Activity, April 7th: Readability (Fry Graph)

IQ question: Who can guess at what readability level newspapers in the U.S. are written???

Today, we are going to assess our READABILITY, which means the personal grade level we are writing at. We are going to do this by means of a formula developed by Edward Fry: the so-called "Fry graph."

What we need:

3 text samples written by you with EXACTLY 100 words each.

STEP 1: Go to your class blog, and find three of your comments (or your own reading summary, if you have written one already). Copy and paste the three texts into a blank Word document.

TASK 1:

Now, cut down each of these three 100-words samples down to EXACTLY 100 words. You can use the word count of Microsoft Word by pasting your blog comment into a Word document, or you can copy and paste it into the word count tool. Simply delete all the words over 100, even if you have to stop in the middle of a sentence.

TASK 2:

1) Count the number of sentences in your 100 words sample. (If you had less than 100 words, add more by either inventing them, or pasting another one of your blog comments right behind it. The content does not matter, only the number of words (100). If you had more, just stop after having counted up to 100, and delete the rest.) Estimate the length of your last sentence, even if incomplete, to the nearest 1/10. Example: 5.4 sentences for your first sample of 100 words, 3.7 for your second, and 6 for your third.

2) Count the number of syllables in your 100 words sample. You can use the syllable count tool again to count your syllables.

3) Make a table as seen in these INSTRUCTIONS. Draw this table on the handout I give you, because you will receive points for it, and I will collect it at the end of today's lesson!

4) Do the same for your second and third 100-words sample.

5) Total your numbers, and average them. (A little bit of math ;-)). You can use the Microsoft calculator ;-)

7) Make ONE SINGLE dot on the FRY GRAPH I distributed in class where your personal readability lies. Write your name on the handout with your graph and your table, and submit it to your teacher for grading (I'm not grading the height of your readability, only the fact that you participated and understood the procedure!) There are no make-ups for this assignment.

HOMEWORK for Friday, April 9th (although we won't have class, since I'm at an NCATE meeting!!!):

Post a comment to this blog (100-250 words) about what you think about your personal readability level. Do you believe the Fry graph correctly displays the grade level you're writing at? Why, or why not? What could be missing? What could the readability level be used for? Will knowing your personal readability level change anything about your future writing? Do you think you have a different readability level when you blog than when you write a research article like you did for this class?