Caught'Ya !: Grammar With a Giggle

Rating:
Summary: disturbed
Review: Although this book is a wonderful resource in technique in teaching grammar to high school students, I am disturbed by the
model story offered as practice. The story is a modern day "Romeo and Juliet". As I was preparing a lesson, I came upon the word "cretin" as a vocabulary word. I knew that a cretin was an undesirbable, but looked up the word for the dictionary definition and found the following:

see cretinism

Main Entry: cre·tin·ism
Pronunciation: -t&n-"i-z&m
Function: noun
: a usually congenital abnormal condition marked by physical stunting and mental retardation and caused by severe hypothyroidism

Once I had discovered the origin of the word, and why it means what it means, I was appalled.

I am also disturbed, as I have gotten into the model story, that it is as violent as it is. Granted, Shakespeare's work is violent,but not gratutious violence. Taken out of context, as this story is, is really not what I want to exemplify to my students.

My advise is that this book offers good technique, but an extremely inadequate model for practice.

Dianna Morton
English Teacher


Rating:
Summary: Works with High School Students, too
Review: As a high school teacher, I thought that my subject area, English, meant teaching literature and working on developing mastery in writing. When I discovered that many of my students had trouble putting together complete sentences, I knew that I had to do something to reinforce grammar skills, but I dreaded worksheets, etc. When I found Kiester's book I decided to give it a try. The beauty is that this approach works with all levels of students and can be tailored to focus on your class' needs. I loved the results--especially seeing the vocabualry appear in their papers. I recommend this for any teacher who struggles with basic grammar and punctuation at a high school level.

Rating:
Summary: Caught'Ya!: Grammar With a Giggle
Review: Before I found Jane Bell Kiester's books, I didn't have a clear path to follow when teaching writing. The Caught'Ya books solve the problem of teaching your students grammar and mechanics. Each day students are given a sentence that adds to a story line appropriate for their age group. Students become engaged in the learning process throughout the story and often can't wait to see what happens next. Students become intimately involved in the story as they become part of the story when the teacher inserts their name as a character in the story. Although Caught'Ya's are integral to the teaching of grammar and mechanics, the greatest bonus I found in using these wonderful sentences was the fact that students naturally and easily learn to paragraph appropriately. This is a difficult task to teach and for students to understand. Caught'Ya's solve this for teachers and students alike. If you can't purchase any other resource this year, you must purchase one of Jane Bell Kiester's Caught'Ya books! Your students will learn to write in a way that will improve all test scores! Do not hesitate! This is the perfect purchase.

Rating:
Summary: Caught'Ya!: Grammar With a Giggle
Review: Before I found Jane Bell Kiester's books, I didn't have a clear path to follow when teaching writing. The Caught'Ya books solve the problem of teaching your students grammar and mechanics. Each day students are given a sentence that adds to a story line appropriate for their age group. Students become engaged in the learning process throughout the story and often can't wait to see what happens next. Students become intimately involved in the story as they become part of the story when the teacher inserts their name as a character in the story. Although Caught'Ya's are integral to the teaching of grammar and mechanics, the greatest bonus I found in using these wonderful sentences was the fact that students naturally and easily learn to paragraph appropriately. This is a difficult task to teach and for students to understand. Caught'Ya's solve this for teachers and students alike. If you can't purchase any other resource this year, you must purchase one of Jane Bell Kiester's Caught'Ya books! Your students will learn to write in a way that will improve all test scores! Do not hesitate! This is the perfect purchase.

Rating:
Summary: Caught Ya' Grammar With a Giggle
Review: I began using Caught Ya' Grammar with a Giggle with my second grade students almost nine years ago. I found it to be the very BEST way to teach grammar to children. My second graders were hooked immediately. Mrs. Kiester makes grammar a cooperative learning experience by involving the entire class in the process. The one thing my students love most is the way she incorporates a story line into the day-to-day grammar lesson. They also learn some wonderful vocabulary words which begin to appear in their own writings. I am now a third grade teacher and I continue to use all of Mrs. Kiester's books with my students. They enjoy grammar so much that when they go to fourth grade, they insist that their fourth grade teachers use the Caught 'Ya books. I often comment in jest that if the school were to catch fire, I would see that my students were safely out of the building but I would grab all of my Jane Bell Kiester books as I exited the building. I am very proud to say that after sharing with Mrs. Kiester the excitement my students now have for grammar, she included a short story about my second graders in the preface of her book, "Elementary My Dear." I look forward to reading and using anything Mrs. Kiester writes. As a classroom teacher, she understands what makes learning fun for students and teachers. Throughout the year I conduct many workshops in my district both for classroom teachers and university pre-service teachers. I never conclude a workshop without sharing Mrs. Kiester's books.

Rating:
Summary: Caught Ya' Grammar With a Giggle
Review: I began using Caught Ya' Grammar with a Giggle with my second grade students almost nine years ago. I found it to be the very BEST way to teach grammar to children. My second graders were hooked immediately. Mrs. Kiester makes grammar a cooperative learning experience by involving the entire class in the process. The one thing my students love most is the way she incorporates a story line into the day-to-day grammar lesson. They also learn some wonderful vocabulary words which begin to appear in their own writings. I am now a third grade teacher and I continue to use all of Mrs. Kiester's books with my students. They enjoy grammar so much that when they go to fourth grade, they insist that their fourth grade teachers use the Caught 'Ya books. I often comment in jest that if the school were to catch fire, I would see that my students were safely out of the building but I would grab all of my Jane Bell Kiester books as I exited the building. I am very proud to say that after sharing with Mrs. Kiester the excitement my students now have for grammar, she included a short story about my second graders in the preface of her book, "Elementary My Dear." I look forward to reading and using anything Mrs. Kiester writes. As a classroom teacher, she understands what makes learning fun for students and teachers. Throughout the year I conduct many workshops in my district both for classroom teachers and university pre-service teachers. I never conclude a workshop without sharing Mrs. Kiester's books.

Rating:
Summary: new teacher
Review: I discovered this book while completing my Master's in Education. I was lucky enough to be a student teacher in Ms. Kiester's middle school classroom, where I watched her in action. During grammar lessons, she often had every student's attention. This book is a valuable tool for new and experienced teachers.

Rating:
Summary: This book changed the way our high school teaches grammar!
Review: I had the honor of meeting Jane Bell Kiester at the NCTE conference in Washington, D.C., several years ago. Seeing her presentation changed the way I thought about grammar. The book is easy to use and fun to incorporate into the classroom. Students find the grammar corrections challenging, and even the most unmotivated students often find themselves discussing basic elements of grammar (to comma or not to comma?) amongst themselves--often discussions in which I am not even peripherally involved. I have shared this method of teaching grammar and writing skills in my district, and am proud to report that almost all of the English department is now using "Caught'ya's" on a regular basis. The only argument I have with the book is that I don't always agree with Kiester's corrections, and some of the written paragraphs are too short. However, I think it must be stated that most English teachers have differences of opinion regarding paragraph length and proper punctuation, so my disagreements with the corrections should in no way reflect on the content of the book. I highly recommend this book to veteran English teachers, foreign language teachers who need to teach grammar skills, and anyone just starting out in the language arts.

Rating:
Summary: very cool
Review: i teach high school english, 10th grade honors, to be exact. our school has no real grammar program -- and it shows! i've struggled with what to do about grammar, because de-contextualized grammar doesn't work and in-context takes longer to work than i have with my kids. i see almost no improvement. i grant that my situation is particularly abominable, but the point is: i got this book this summer and i have been doing it and i talked two of my colleagues into doing it with me and right now i don't even know where my book is because my dept seems to be sharing it. i haven't been doing it long enough to be sure, but i think this is going to work. it feels like it. it feels good so far. i think some stuff has already started to stick. that's cool.

Rating:
Summary: very cool
Review: i teach high school english, 10th grade honors, to be exact. our school has no real grammar program -- and it shows! i've struggled with what to do about grammar, because de-contextualized grammar doesn't work and in-context takes longer to work than i have with my kids. i see almost no improvement. i grant that my situation is particularly abominable, but the point is: i got this book this summer and i have been doing it and i talked two of my colleagues into doing it with me and right now i don't even know where my book is because my dept seems to be sharing it. i haven't been doing it long enough to be sure, but i think this is going to work. it feels like it. it feels good so far. i think some stuff has already started to stick. that's cool.