Programs and Areas
First Year Writing Program
Teaching Resources: Grammer
Tried & True Home
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Grammar Top Ten | Teach Each Other | Passive and Active Voice | Punctuation | Grammar Game
Let the Students Teach Each Other
Time: 1 hour
Skills: Writing Analytically's “Basic Writing Errors”
This activity puts the burden of responsibility on your students to teach each other the “Basic Writing Errors” from Writing Analytically. Oftentimes, the best way to learn a skill is to teach it to others.
Pedagogical goals:
- To encourage active learning by asking students to explain an error and how to fix it to other students
- To have students translate the definitions of error into terms they and their classmates will understand
- Divide students into nine groups (one per “BWE”). Give each group a blank sheet of overhead paper and an overhead marker. If you are in a computer classroom, ask students to do this project in Powerpoint.
- Assign each group one “Basic Writing Error” from Writing Analytically and ask them to make up a fun activity to teach their classmates how to identify and revise those particular errors. You might want to give the class a common theme (like Elvis, or McDonald’s or something) to use in their examples.
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Reconvene as a large group and ask each small group to present their “Basic Writing Error” to the class.
A note of caution...
- Make sure to check their overheads and PowerPoints before they teach the error
- Sometimes students simply repeat the definition from the book without understanding the definition (for example, do they know what a predicate is?)
- Refer them to the glossary of terms at the back of Writing Analytically
Have an idea for Tried and True? Send it to fywp@osu.edu!
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