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Responsible Grammar Rebels
Author(s) -
Simmons Amber M.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of adolescent and adult literacy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.73
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1936-2706
pISSN - 1081-3004
DOI - 10.1002/jaal.449
Subject(s) - grammar , trilogy , clarity , set (abstract data type) , meaning (existential) , linguistics , construct (python library) , psychology , style (visual arts) , dystopia , consistency (knowledge bases) , pedagogy , computer science , art , literature , artificial intelligence , philosophy , biochemistry , chemistry , psychotherapist , programming language
Building off of students’ interest in popular apocalyptic/dystopian literature, this article explores how passages from Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games trilogy aided in teaching students how to successfully rebel against traditional grammar rules, looking at fragments as intentional stylistic choices. Employing the values of systemic functional linguistics, students embraced the view of grammar as a set of choices made by the author to construct meaning rather than a set of rules, as evidenced by student discussion and writing samples. This reflective practitioner piece suggests that after engaging in the learning activity, students’ use of fragments indicated an ability to control the English language and understand of the complexity and nuance of language and structure. Furthermore, the use of fragments added style and depth to students’ writing and did not detract from the clarity of their prose or the integrity of their responses to writing prompts.