Grammar in Music

I am a musician. As a songwriter, I know it is virtually impossible to write a complete song with correct grammar, simply because there are so many other goals that require more focus for song writing such as rhythm and timing of the lyrics. Knowing this, and knowing how much people love music, regardless of whether they are a musician or not, such an idea can be integrated into a lesson plan!

After focusing on the rules of grammar and spelling for several weeks, I think a good assignment that can close a unit on grammar is allowing students to edit their favorite songs.  Firstly, I would ask every student to choose a song that is appropriate and free of profanity. Secondly, I would ask every student to identify and circle every grammatical error within their chosen song. Thirdly and finally, I would ask the students to rewrite the song, using correct grammar. For the song rewrite, the lyrics no longer have to rhyme and can even be written in a standard paper format.

Below is a link to a website that I found very amusing, as it points out songs that have the most atrocious grammar. If students have difficulty finding their own songs for this editing project, I would provide suggestions from this site.

20 Songs With Really Bad Grammar

http://www.myhmphs.com/?p=524

Grammar in Real Life

It was John Dewey who theorized that students learn best when they are taught using real life situations. I highly agree with this theory and believe the English classroom should require more than reading, grammar rule memorization and spelling tests. So often, the routine of a typical English classroom becomes so boring, students learn to shut down. Teachers wonder why students perform poorly on tests, and it is because students never learned the information in the first place because of the ineffective approach of lecturing and a typical quiz assessment. The following is an assignment I would use after introducing a new set of vocabulary words and grammar rules to my students. Often times, students will learn the meaning of their vocabulary words but are unable to use those words in correct sentences. This assignment is meant to help students understand the context in which they can use their new words:

Write a Letter to a Friend. You can write this letter to someone in class or someone you do not see very often. You can choose the topic of your letter, but I want you to use ten vocabulary words in this letter. Be sure to correctly punctuate your letter and proofread for spelling errors. For every error in grammar, spelling or punctuation, one point will be docked.

Remembering Grammar for Life

I notice that so many people these days have difficulty remembering the rules of grammar. Like any skill that is developed early in life, when one stops practicing for so long, eventually those skills slowly deteriorate. In my preservice experience, I even noticed many English teachers who struggled with spelling and grammar, yet we wonder how students all around the world don’t speak English correctly.

Firstly, I think it is crucial within the English classroom setting to have grammar drills daily. However teachers choose to approach this is entirely up to each individual teacher. I believe that even just a little grammar review every day is none at all. My personal approach was having a focus every week. For example, one week would be dedicated to capitalization, the next week would be commas, etc.

Secondly, memorizing the 150 prepositions should be a goal for every English teacher to assign their students. Such a state of familiarity with prepositions would allow students to know how to write sentences that do not end with prepositions. Even in the professional world, emails, letters and presentations will often include sentences ended with prepositions.

Prepositions

Thirdly, and as a former journalism student, I think all papers should be docked points for incorrect grammar, spelling and punctuation. The initial shock factor of the first low grade will allow students to be on the look out for spelling and punctuation rather than fecklessly disregarding the rules of grammar. For example, it is absolutely unacceptable to give an A on a term paper that speaks against ‘gorilla warfare’ (guerilla).

http://www.rmbeditorial.com/grammar.pdf