Teachers can build writing competence a sentence at a time

If I were dropped back into a high school English classroom tomorrow (the horror!) I would find ways to focus student attention at the start of class by projecting a sentence or two on the screen and invite the students to analyze what was said and HOW it was said.

I know I would likely need to provide context and answer various questions, but we don't need to turn to the Classics for examples of fun with language. And we don't need to read entire essays or novels to explore the rhetorical choices we all can make.

From a recent "For the love of sentences" feature, by Frank Bruni:

In The Philadelphia Inquirer, the sports columnist Mike Sielski weighed in on the playoffs and World Series performance of the outfielder Kyle Schwarber, invoking the memory of the band Led Zeppelin: “It’s not enough to call him the Phillies’ tone-setter. He’s not so much setting a tone as he is crashing through the front door, grabbing the first pair of drumsticks he sees, and going full John Bonham as his teammates reach for their guitars.”

I have no problem with sports writers reaching for comparisons from non-sports events and figures -- after all, sports stories are really just STORIES with sports as context -- but this sentence refers to a drummer who died in 1980. I wouldn't say there are NO readers under age 60 who would immediately grasp this reference, but this sentence might stand as Exhibit A when we talk about how old newspaper readers are.

A more contemporary reference came from Nick Welsh, the executive editor of The Santa Barbara Independent, who reflected on the attack on Paul Pelosi and the misinformation that both preceded and followed it, observing that “our national political discourse has grown indistinguishable from zombie apocalypse TV shows” and wondering “whether we are what we watch or watch what we are.” 

One of the narratives about the midterms, where many voters seem to have set the floor for what sorts of craziness they will tolerate, is that "we have reached our limit" in terms of dealing with constant terror and conspiracies. Our students may or may not connect with THAT idea, but they may find a discussion on how much our actions reflect TV shows vs. how much TV shows are designed to reflect reality.

 

In The Washington Post, David Von Drehle described the lure of the Powerball lottery: “In the infinitesimal space between zero chance and the tiniest of chances, a lot of dreams can gather.”

A standard motivational phrase for students is "you can do anything you put your mind to." That is obviously an exaggeration, and may end up creating endless disappointment. But everyone likes to daydream a bit about "what if," as in "what if I suddenly had a billion dollars."

Poking fun at clichés, sportswriting and the intensifying American fascination with an oddly named game, Caira Conner wrote in The Atlantic: “Watch the highlight reel of the 2022 U.S. Open Pickleball Championships and your jaw … might stay right where it is.”

Pickleball is enjoying a moment right now, but high school P.E. classes have been playing it for decades now. It doesn't take up that much space, the rules are simple, and the equipment needed minimal. But it's hard to argue with flipping the "jaw dropping" cliche when it comes to describing actual matches.

Also in The Atlantic, Elaine Godfrey described a rally that Barack Obama attended in Pennsylvania: “When the 44th president came onstage, the crowd greeted him like a long-lost friend — or a favorite teacher who’d returned after a series of varyingly unimpressive substitutes.” 

That final reference should connect with almost any reader, as everyone has had frustrations with substitute teachers in their own schooling. Students want their teacher... the one who will ultimately determine their grade and the one who they can count on for a period of time.