Friday, October 3, 2014

Are There Any Quotation Marks in This Cookie?

"Hey," said Mr Mattson, as I passed him in the Upper School Commons, "I've got some students who need some practice with integrating quotations, smoothly and grammatically, into their sentences. Do you have that exercise you always use?"

"What exercise is that?" Mr Johnson asked, as he came out of his classroom and walked with us towards the Library.

"Oh, Nygaard has this overly-complicated but funny and creative quotation-integration exercise that I sometimes use in my classes," Mr Mattson said, peering down at his shorter colleagues as the three of us entered the Library.

"I'd like a copy of that, too," Mr Johnson said.

"Okay," I said, "I'll share it with the entire Department."

"What's up?" Ms Stiles asked enthusiastically from the table where she was working in the Library. "What are you sharing?"

I answered her. "We're talking about helping students learn how to avoid dropping quotations." 

Ms Stiles scowled. "Oh! When I see a dropped quotation, it sets my teeth on edge." She got up from where she was sitting to join us.

"I know," I said, "That's why I take two points off every time I see one." 

"I thought Mr Lockhart said there were cookies in here." Mr Mattson looked all around. "Oh! Here they are, in the back room."

"Are there any peanut butter cookies?" Mr Johnson asked? "Hey," he said, "You should turn that exercise into a short-story contest." "Look," said Mr Mattson, "There are quotation marks--I mean--chocolate chips in that peanut butter cookie!"

"What great ideas," I murmured to myself, thinking about both short-story contests and chocolate chip peanut butter cookies, as Mr Mattson and Mr Johnson both reached for the last cookie. I left them to fight over it, and wondered if some faculty and staff members might also be interested in entering the contest...
Photos from Unsplash.com are licensed under the CC0
designation; they are in the public domain & don't require
any permission! I would prefer that you always indicate the
source with a link to that site, as I did here.


"What we need now is some coffee," I heard Mr Johnson say, as he and Mr Mattson brushed the crumbs off their clothes. 

"Describe this exercise." Ms Stiles said, as she and I exited the Library. 

"It's kind of a weird multiple choice logic test, combined with fill-in-the-blank options," I said, talking with my hands. "You have to see it to understand it, and the directions are a bit complicated. I've noticed that my students aren't in the habit of reading directions completely or carefully, so this could be really challenging for them."

"Good! That's great." Ms Stiles said, as we walked off down the hall.

***
In the text above, there are eight dropped quotations. Can you find and fix them? Do so in a comment. There might be extra credit in it for you, 1 point per fix.

And now, here's the exercise, below. Work with your partner and complete it by [due date TBA].  



 I would be happy to see what any faculty/staff members come up with, if they want to try it...

3 comments:

  1. One dropped quotation: "I answered her. 'We're talking about helping students learn how to avoid dropping quotations.'"
    Correction: I answered, "We're talking about helping students learn how to avoid dropping quotations."
    Another: "Ms Stiles scowled. 'Oh! When I see a dropped quotation, it sets my teeth on edge.'"
    Correction: Ms. Stiles scowled and said, 'Oh! When I see a dropped quotation, it sets my teeth on edge."
    Another: "'I thought Mr Lockhart said there were cookies in here.' Mr Mattson looked all around.
    Correction: "I thought Mr. Lockhart said there were cookies in here," Mr. Mattson said as he looked all around.
    Another: "'Describe this exercise.' Ms Stiles said, as she and I exited the Library."
    Correction: "Describe this exercise," Ms. Stiles said, as she and I exited the Library.
    Another: "'Good! That's great.' Ms Stiles said, as we walked off down the hall."
    Correction: "Good! That's great," Ms. Stiles said, as we walked off down the hall.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Incorrect: "It's kind of a weird multiple choice logic test, combined with fill-in-the-blank options," I said, talking with my hands. "You have to see it to understand it, and the directions are a bit complicated. I've noticed that my students aren't in the habit of reading directions completely or carefully, so this could be really challenging for them."
    Correct: "It's kind of a weird multiple choice logic test, combined with fill-in-the-blank options," I said, talking with my hands, "You have to see it to understand it, and the directions are a bit complicated. I've noticed that my students aren't in the habit of reading directions completely or carefully, so this could be really challenging for them."
    Incorrect: "I thought Mr Lockhart said there were cookies in here." Mr Mattson looked all around. "Oh! Here they are, in the back room."
    Correct: "I thought Mr Lockhart said there were cookies in here," Mr Mattson looked all around, "Oh! Here they are, in the back room."
    Incorrect: "What's up?" Ms Stiles asked enthusiastically from the table where she was working in the Library. "What are you sharing?"
    Correct: "What's up?" Ms Stiles asked enthusiastically from the table where she was working in the Library, "What are you sharing?"
    Incorrect: "Are there any peanut butter cookies?" Mr Johnson asked?
    Correct: "Are there any peanut butter cookies?" Mr Johnson asked.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete