Just now a group of 6th graders in an afternoon class was having trouble focusing. I told them, “The cat isn’t giving the book to the dog.”
They wondered what I meant. I said, “Take your composition books out and write that sentence in French.” Then I wrote the sentence in English on the board with a big line under it, like on a worksheet.
Then I wrote the words cat, to give, book and dog on the board next to the sentence.
They had three minutes in complete silence to translate the sentence into French. Then we spent twenty minutes with me in full grammar mode, getting in their grills, a mode of teaching I enjoy more than any other, to be fully honest on that point. (I don’t do it because it doesn’t work, not because I don’t enjoy it.)
The point here is clear, right? When I threatened them with the second sentence when the first was done, they promised that if I did a story they would:
1. do their jobs right.
2. stay out of the L1.
3. use the stop sign.
4. follow the Classroom Rules
Since we are on a block schedule, we had time for a story and they were very much wanting to prove themselves.
The result was one of the best stories of the year.
The morale here is that if the car engine is not running well, put it up on the grammar rack for an attitude change. It works.
A second morale is to remember that children can behave, but if they sense that they can get away with not behaving, they will do it. That is why we have grammar.