NPR recently broadcasted an interview with Mr. Fish on Talk of the Nation which can be streamed here:
They have also included an article about the book which can be read here:
"Think You Know ‘How To Write A Sentence?" (includes streaming audio and transcript of the story).
"Think You Know ‘How To Write A Sentence?" (includes streaming audio and transcript of the story).
As a teacher of English at a middle school, I never enjoy teaching sentence diagramming, subject verb agreement, subjects and predicates – basically most grammar activities. Additionally, I’m sure I do not do a good job of it either. Why? Probably because my heart isn’t in the lessons, probably because I hated it when I was in school, and probably because it is just teaching a hard set of rules that are no fun to memorize.
This year I have been taking a different approach to sentence teaching. The students have not been made to work out of a grammar book; I haven’t even brought a single book in the classroom. Instead, we’ve been using the novels we read in class to look at examples. Additionally, I’ve been bringing in great/interesting sentences I encounter in the wild from books, blogs, and magazines (as have my students). Now according to Stanley Fish (who knows and thinks about sentences way more than I do), reviewing and studying others’ sentences is the best way to teach sentence construction.
He feels that by analyzing a sentence one can learn more about what you are reading and in turn begin to imitate those rules without necessarily memorizing all of them. Below are a few lessons he uses when teaching.
Stanley Fish Lesson Ideas (Teaching the Sentence)
One Lesson Idea
Start with a simple sentence: “Jim hit the ball.” The relationship is there: someone did something. He then asks his students to do simple things and everyone in the class writes short students and the point is made: “there are innumerable contents that can fill the form, but the form is one.” Students learn the form and thus can begin creating endless amounts of content based on that form.
Teach the form by having students look at examples first and then begin imitating that form.
Another Lesson Idea
Look around the room and pick out 4 or 5 items. Make a list. Then take time to form as many sentences as possible containing all of those words.
The discussion that follows is explaining that sentence relationships between those words. When sentences fall apart it is because the relationship that are failing.
Another Lesson Idea
Have students go through the poem “The Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll and substitute words for the nonsense words.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
As a result, the sentences will start to make better sense. You then ask the students “what did you do” and “why did you do it.” The hope is that they will begin to understand that the form is already present in these sentences and they can develop all types of content within that structure. The students begin to understand “that form comes first, and content follows.”
A complete copy of Lewis Carroll’s poem “The Jabberwocky”
These are just snippets of lesson ideas from the interview, I am sure the lessons are explained in greater detail in his book.
Mr. Fish’s approach can be summed up by this quote from the interview:
“I have my own formula, which is sentence craft - that is, learning what it means to put a sentence together - then leads to sentence appreciation; that is, admiration for the sentences that great authors have put together; and then leads to sentence comprehension.”
I never thought I’d be interesting in reading a book about sentences, but I am. I have already added this book to my Kindle queue.
