Mad Libs

In preparation for the upcoming PRAXIS II exam on English Content (I am a religion major, after all, not an English major), I have been studying a bit of grammar. Bought two books, one called (appropriately for me) Grammar Sucks! and the other, the recently popular "Eats, Shoots and Leaves."

I've also been reading a book called "The Passionate Teacher," all about teaching strategies that foster student driven projects and independent critical thinking. One idea for a project for students to learn the basics of grammar is to have them construct and then fill out a Mad Libs- you know, those quirky little books from when we were kids, the ones that required you to fill in "Nouns", "Pronouns," "Adjectives," etc. into a passage, and then read the ridiculous outcome... By having students construct a Mad Libs- perhaps they could get an article, progressively remove word classes that I assign them to (like Nouns, for example), and then have another group of students "fill out" the Mad Libs. It's an exercise in grammar for both the students as they construct the puzzles, and for the students as they fill them in. And the often silly outcome makes the project entertaining. Imagine that! Grammar, entertaining?!

... but jeez, I am tired. The test will be demanding, and I haven't invested much time studying... Looks like I will be winging it, for the most part. The part that I really dread is the Essay section. 4 questions, 30 minutes apiece, on various topics. Analysis of a prose piece, analysis of a poetry piece, something else... But then again, I like a challenge. And I miss the essay exams from my college days- now THOSE were real terrors!