I spoke with another colleague from this class. It appears that neither of us has a crystal clear idea what is expected from this assignment. I thought this was basically 20 min of me explaining grammar a la lecture. She seemed to think this was a lesson with activities for students. I didn't remember hearing that; perhaps I missed that.
I told her I've been teaching grammar for so long, I'd much prefer to teach something new to me, where I'm learning something. I mentioned sentence building, since that's at least sentence level. I said I wasn't sure that would wash, since it's not about addressing student grammar errors. She said she thought mine was a great idea, and that she planned to steal it! I said I'd send my thugs to break her knees.
The biggest question is audience. We learned the folly of teaching grammar to FYE students because there are so many types of students in one class, each with his/her specific grammar needs; what's fascinating for one is baffling to another or just overkill and boring the yet another.
If sentence building is not an option, I would like to teach something to AUGMENT their writing, not merely explain why it's broken and repair it. Working with idiomatic expressions would be fun, but I'm not sure where to begin.
I think I might be able to humor myself by focusing on a list of confusing count/noncount words that deserve special attention. For example, sometimes "crime" is noncount, sometimes it's count. Why?
Similarly, the use of any/some often needs some explanation.
Do you want some coffee? No I don't care for any.
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