I don’t know about you, but when I am working with students and trying to help them comprehend what they read and to be able speak and to write with expertise, I would prefer their brains be adept at this kind of analysis! Can you see how a student’s Word Smarts and Logic Smarts can benefit from this kind of thinking? I consider it nothing less than brilliant. Students, using the Q & A Flow, determine that the word basketball, in this context, is really an adjective.
We cheered loudly at the basketball game! For example, take a look at the following sentence: But with the Q & A Flow, students begin to think in terms of the attributes of a word and its use in the context of a sentence. You see, by the old system, the word basketball is just one of the words that fits into a Noun list. Instead of grouping words into lists that have parts of speech headings, students learn to evaluate how specific words are actually functioning in a sentence, based on context. With the Q& A Flow, something quite different and extraordinary replaces that old system. Compared to the way English grammar was always taught years ago, students learned to classify words, but usually only so that they fit into a static list of seemingly unchanging vocabulary. Students learn to classify the words in a sentence based upon the specific questions they answer from the Q & A Flow. We call this Sentence Classification, but it goes way beyond just determining if the sentence is a statement or a question.
I call this kind of questioning “Thinking Out Loud.”Īfter much practice and rehearsal, using the Q & A Flow, the students then know how to analyze every word in a sentence. Yes…Shurley English teaches kids to talk to themselves rather, to ask themselves questions-questions that elicit logical answers that their brains know to be correct, based upon what they have learned from the jingles. The Q & A Flow is a simple, pattern-based system of questions that the students learn to ask aloud orally. Now, I would like to take it just a bit deeper into the next level in Shurley English.Īfter students master the Shurley English Jingles, the jingles become a fertile knowledge base upon which the Question and Answer Flow (Q & A Flow) is built. I discussed how the Shurley English Jingles give the intelligences of Word Smarts, Picture Smarts, and Body Smarts a workout. In a previous post, I shared my keen interest in Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. This is a skill that they can take with them into their future college and career adventures!ĮXTEND THE LESSON: Why not make this a group activity?!? Here's an idea to get you started. We invite you to participate in the conversation FebruFebru/ Jamie Geneva Subject-verb agreement refers to the special way in which a subject and verb work together to make a correct sentence. Any pronouns or verbs used at the end of the sentence should agree with whatever is mentioned last.Īs your students grow in their abilities to use correlative conjunctions effectively, they will show an increased level of maturity in their writing. Its all about educators helping educators on the English Shurley Blog. His big brother will be here soon.īoth Henry and his big brother will be here soon.ĭon't forget to mention to your students that both sides of their sentence should be parallel in structure when using correlative conjunctions. Neither Maria nor Tammy can go to the game tonight.īoth – and can show a link between two words or phrases. Neither – nor can show the absence of choices. The cat made a mess in the kitchen.Įither the dog or the cat made a mess in the kitchen. Here are three examples to model for your students that will show them how to associate two ideas in a logical manner. Remember, the reason for the correlation determines which pair of correlative conjunctions to use. degree in Elementary Education and her M.Ed in Public School Administration from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, OK.Today, we will focus on connecting two nouns for the purpose of simplification.
She loves spending quality time with her family, traveling, reading, cooking, and staying connected on social media. Jamie and her husband, Garret, live in the foothills of eastern Oklahoma. That’s because she’s recorded Jingles, Q&A Flow Sentences, and other Shurley English content for many, many years. You might not recognize her face, but her voice could certainly sound familar. Over the years, her various roles have included teacher, presenter, state representative, consultant, manager, and most recently, a Shurley English Digital Assistant. Her career with the company began during the days of the Shurley Method binder, which was pre-1st Edition, and has spanned across three decades. Jamie Geneva is the Senior National Consultant at Shurley Instructional Materials and is a seasoned subject matter expert in the realm of English Language Arts.