Handbooks and Guides for Students
Handbooks and reference works you can use with students learning to write academically.
grammar
A People’s History of the English Language: Dialect Communities
by Matthew Sergi, English
Composition students tend to approach punctuation, grammar, usage, and spelling standards through unquestioning (and usually futile) rote memorization…In my R1B section, I combined Howard Zinn’s People’s History techniques with a traditional History of the English Language syllabus, demonstrating to my students that the rules of good English have always been, and are still, changing and subject to conflict, politics, and urgent debate.
Teaching the Ancient Greek Optative and Subjunctive by Staging Cultural Practice
by Timothy Pepper, Classics
The Greek institution of blood sacrifice, adapted to the classroom as a melon sacrifice, provided the framework as an institution that was differentiated into separate stages and involved actions well suited to optative and subjunctive constructions.
Giving a New Tune to Grammar
by Hélène Bilis, French
I discovered that music was a way of drumming (so to speak) grammar into students while teaching them about the rich diversity of contemporary French culture and some of the concomitant issues usually completely absent from grammar books. But, most importantly, teaching grammar through contemporary music dramatically changed the atmosphere in the classroom.