Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer's Workshop

In MECHANICALLY INCLINED, Jeff Anderson tackles the issue of grammarphobia and edit-phobia head on. You know the diseases. They are endemic in English classrooms everywhere. Anderson advocates using "mentor" sentences and paragraphs taken from books that interest students. He also details how to set up a writer's notebook where kids can write freely without fear of the Red Pen (which, to them, is like an invader from the Red Planet, as narrated by Orson Welles). The notebook includes sections for creativity, exploration, modeling, and copying well-written sentences and paragraphs. I especially like Anderson's idea for the Editing Checkout, where students "scan" work looking for specific skills, then create a "receipt" of their findings. NATIONAL ENQUIRERS are not necessary for this activity. The kids will get a kick out of it and (not too loud, now) will learn something about editing (with one pen, two pens, red pens, or blue pens) while they're at it. What more could a teacher ask for? (OK, don't answer that...)

This is a must read for any pre-service English teacher or, for that matter, any English teacher. No more correct-alls and sentence diagramming. Anderson's unique and energetic approach to teaching grammar and mechanics will inspire you and get your students to engage in text as if it were play!

Anderson explains how to show students the practicality of grammar and how to teach it in context rather than isolation in a way that middle school students will not only understand but also enjoy. He provides lists, lessons, examples, and everything needed to take this approach and immediately implement it in the classroom. This is one of the best-written and most helpful books I have read in years.

I absolutely adore this book! It's incredibly user friendly, and I didn't feel stupid about grammar while reading it. The first half of the book sets up the lessons. The second half is the lessons. It's obvious Jeff uses a writer's notebook and writer's workshop. He truly makes 'grammar in context' a meaningful and attainable way to teach. I have used several of the lessons with my fourth graders and they love it. I think only a book like this, and Jeff himself, could get someone like me to yell AUWWBIS like a farmer's pig call. It's fun and effective - get this book!

This book provides strategies to help teachers "merge grammar and mechanics with craft in the context of meaningful writing", and it does exactly that! It outlines how to use mentor texts to teach students how to write well-written sentences. paragraphs and essays.