Gamification in Education: Using GameMaker to Make an Educational Game

Using Free GameMaker:Studio to Create an Educational Game

In early 2014, I began reading about gamification in higher education.

I read that it was "more than just a fad" on eCampus News.  I read on the Association of College and Research Libraries Web site that a game "motivates" students.  I read on the Top Hat blog that incorporating games into learning isn't really all that hard, and games as homework can help keep students engaged in content after classes have ended.

After thinking long and hard about how to better incorporate games into the core curriculum courses that I teach, I decided to expand on one of my specialties, sentence diagramming.  I jumped in with both feet, and for the past two weeks I have been attempting to teach myself to create a game using the free game engine, GameMaker: Studio.  Into week three, I think I have some solid advice for any faculty member wanting to attempt this, as well.

First Bit of Advice: Game Concept

The best advice I can give to a faculty member attempting this process is to first have a game concept in mind.  In order to successfully learn how to create the game, the mechanics of the game have to be visualized, and maybe even literally drawn out in storyboard sequence.  "Kinda" doing this won't cut the mustard, though.

For instance, I knew I wanted a game where students would move the word "noun" to the place on a blank diagram where the subject is supposed to go, and then they'd get some points.  Good enough, I thought, to get on with.  Not so, however.  I never stopped to think about what each moment would look like.  When the word got to the spot, what would the screen do?  How would the points appear? All of that should have been planned.  Instead, I've been getting on with it by trial and error.  I wouldn't say I'm wasting time because it's time spent learning the software, but I should have done more planning.

Second Bit of Advice: Tutorials

Learn to create a space-shooter game with Shaun Spalding.

The next best bit of advice I have for teacher-turned game developer is to follow the video tutorials created by Shaun Spalding.  They are thorough and well-paced, and his tutorials are created to be "learn by doing" lessons.  The series entitled "Making Your First Game" walks viewers through creating a complete asteroid-shooter game, which introduces viewers to all sorts of tips and tricks and bits of useful code.

And speaking of code: Don't skip those parts of the tutorials.  Write it down, if you must, because it is useful - even if a bit intimidating and difficult to absorb and makes your brain shut down.  Write it down, anyway.

Third Bit of Advice: Outcomes

The last bit of advice I have for an educator wanting to create an educational game is to stick to one of the things educators know best: assessment of learning outcomes.  When in doubt, return to the objective or outcome or goal for the game.  Focus on what it might be the student should gain from the game and how the game might influence the outcome.  Want students to be able to classify? Identify?  Solve?  Predict?  Think of ways to "see" those actions in action within your game, and work toward those actions.  Want to think in terms of "leveling?"  Think in terms of learning levels.

In the parts of speech game I'm creating, for example, the goal is to reward students who can construct a sentence diagram one part of speech at a time.  When they complete that objective, they are rewarded with points.

The purpose of gamification, from this professor's standpoint, is to help students engage in course material even when outside the classroom and outside the scope of regular ol' homework.  Yes, it would be easier to simply create sentence diagramming worksheets for students to complete as homework, but it just wouldn't be as fun - either for them or for me.

"Gamifying" sentence diagrams gives me something new to learn to do, too.

Want to read more about pedagogy and teaching?  Try

Student Engagement and Writing
Student Centered or Curriculum Centered?
A Playful Lesson for the Composition Classroom



Copyright Amy Lynn Hess.  Please contact the author for permission to republish.

Character Study: Unctuous, Oily, and Overly Flattering

I'm the kind of person who likes to delve into how characters work or what makes them tic, whether "good" characters or "bad" characters.  I like to find ways to pinpoint characters' traits, motives, and methods.  One way to get started with this type of character analysis is to simply find the most appropriate word to describe that character. 

One of my favorite words to more accurately describe "bad" characters is unctuous.

Merriam-Webster's online dictionary defines unctuous as "revealing or marked by a smug, ingratiating, and false earnestness or spirituality."  The key to understanding unctuousness is to remember that it is usually obvious to other characters or to the audience that the unctuous character is not sincere, therefore the character is unpleasant and untrustworthy.  

When we watch unctuous characters on television or in the movies, we get a sense that they are untrustworthy, lack goodwill, or are in some other way "oily."  As a matter of fact, the etymology of "unctuous" points back to the Latin word that meant to anoint with oil, then later to the Medieval Latin word for "greasy."

Three examples of unctuous characters from television, literature, and film are Eddie Haskell, Draco Malfoy, and Obadiah Stane.

Eddie Haskell from Leave It to Beaver

Eddie Haskell, played by Ken Osmond from 1957-1963, was the smooth-talking, over-flattering friend of Wally Cleaver.  Always trying to impress Mr. and Mrs. Cleaver with his obsequious small talk, one of his lines goes like this:

"Wally, if your dumb brother tags along, I'm gonna - oh, good afternoon, Mrs. Cleaver. I was just telling Wallace how pleasant it would be for Theodore to accompany us to the movies."

As you can see, he stops mid-sentence to shift his tone to impress June Cleaver.  It doesn't work, by the way, as Mrs. Cleaver, played by Barbara Billingsley, generally reacted politely, yet unfavorably, to Eddie's unctuousness.  Because these scenes with unctuous Eddie were ironically humorous, his scenes were always punctuated with audience laughter.

Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter 

Draco Malfoy, who appears in each of the Harry Potter books, is also unctuous on occasion.  For example, we see he flatters both Professor Snape and Professor Slughorn in order to win favor, not to mention how he brags about his family's favorable relationships with Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge and Undersecretary Dolores Umbridge.  

Malfoy desires favor with Snape and Slughorn because favor from these faculty members can earn him better marks and preferential treatment: He also believes they can help raise his social status.  On the other hand, he behaves disrespectfully toward Rubeus Hagrid, a half giant, because Malfoy believes he is inherently "better" than Hagrid.  Draco Malfoy is certain that flattery toward Hagrid would not get him any closer to the top of the social ladder.  Instead, he disparages Hagrid as a way to try to elevate himself.

Of course, the reader can discern Malfoy's insincere flattery and selfish, one-sided desires, especially after he realizes he no longer needs Snape's favor to achieve a higher status with the big baddie at the top, Voldemort.  In the end, Malfoy learns that this favor he seeks might not be so favorable,  but in the meantime, he is pretty unctuous when he wants to be.

Obadiah Stane from Iron Man 

Jeff Bridges plays Obadiah Stane in the the 2008 Iron Man film.  In this film, Stane is Tony Stark's longtime mentor, having been a friend and business partner with his father, Howard Stark.  Stane frets over Stark's health when he returns from the cave, puts his arm over his shoulder like a father figure, and psychologically manipulates him into making business decisions that help Stane reach his own goals. Yet, behind the scenes he was the person who attempted to have Stark assassinated.

Stane's lines in the film show both his admiration (flattery) of Tony Stark's abilities, and his own "oiliness," and villainy. For example, as he accepts an award in lieu of Stark, he states: "Thank you, Colonel. This is beautiful. Thank you all very much. This is wonderful. Well, I'm not Tony Stark. [laughter] But if I were Tony, I would tell you how honored I feel, and what a joy it is to receive this very prestigious award. Tony, you know, the best thing about Tony is also the worst thing - he's always working."  While he admires Stark's abilities and calls him a "golden goose," he also tells Stark: "For thirty years, I've been holding you up! I built this company up from nothing! Nothing's gonna stand in my way - least of all, you!"

Stane is certainly both over-flattering at times, and an "oily" super villain. 

Summary

Unctuous is a wonderful character word, as it implies a whole lot more than just "good" or "bad."

Calling a character "unctuous" means we know he or she is "oily," an insincere flatterer, and that perhaps the other characters know as much, as well.  Beyond that, unctuous characters make for interesting study, as we can attempt to pinpoint their motives and understand their choices.  It could be they appear as ironic comic characters, like Eddie Haskell.  It could be they are on their own character arcs, learning about life as they try to win favor, like Draco Malfoy.  Or, it could just be they are super villains out for revenge and power, like Obadiah Stane.  

Can you think of any other unctuous characters from television, literature, or film?  Do you have a character word you like to use to better describe "good" characters or "bad" character?  Feel free to share in the comments!  



Copyright Amy Lynn Hess.  Please contact the author for permission to republish.

Project 333 Math: Making My Own Rules

Midprocess Project 333 Sorting

Have you read about the Project 333 challenge? Have you seen the beautifully staged pictures from other people's 33-piece 3-month wardrobes? Have you seen the gorgeous Pinterest pins? The blogs, slideshows, and online videos? Have you glimpsed the Polyvore collections?

They all look like the picture-perfect wardrobes of college students, or the wardrobes of people who work at Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, chic one-off boutiques, or cute little coffee shops on well-manicured street corners.

Nowhere to be seen online are the wardrobes of people like me, who wear clothes to frigid meat-lockeresque workplaces where we have to dress according to a dress code that hearkens back to 1985 (think shoulder pads and Kmart pumps) that contractually binds us into leaving our houses looking like mutant Alaskan well-diggers crossed with our frumpiest old aunties.  Nowhere to be seen are the wardrobes of late-30's professionals who come home, throw the bra in the laundry, and go out to work the garden or head to the dirty local pub.

Well, I decided to give it a try, anyway.

No Fashionista Here

I tried tried tried to build up my wardrobe the "fashionista" way and follow all of the original Project 333 advice and rules, but my wardrobe is too fragmented, and I just couldn't put this Humpty together, again. As a result, there are still 104 articles of clothing hanging in my closet (along with 1 box of vacuum-bagged winter clothes), 22 pairs of shoes and boots in various places around the house, a plethora of jewelry options in a case on my dresser, 23 sweaters and 6 pairs of pants stored in the dresser, 10 scarves on the back of my bedroom door, and, of course, all of that other stuff that gathers, like underwear, socks, pajamas, flannel things, old t-shirts, and yoga pants.  And I'm fine with that.  I call it success!  Did you hear that?

Success!

I've met my own guidelines for . . . you know, the challenge of choosing a limited number of items of clothing, shoes, and accessories to wear for a few months and having those and only those hanging in my closet to make my life easier by streamlining my wardrobe options.

Amy Lynn's Project 333 Rules

1. Although the original rules tell me to do so, I'm not boxing up any more of my clothes to have to find a place to store them because that's what closets and dressers are for, and space is a hot commodity in my house. Therefore, all clothes are being stored in my closet and dresser.  The caveat is that they all have to fit in the closet or dresser and on me, or they get donated immediately.  Did I mention how much I love those vacuum-sealing space-saving bags?

1.5 Clothes that are simply being stored in the closet and dresser do not count toward my 333 items.  Did I say 333?  Silly me.

2. Go-to-work clothes that I would never wear out of the house on a non-work day don't count towards my items because I hate them, yet I have to wear them or spend money I don't have replacing them, so it would not be fair to me to have to count them as part of my wardrobe. They really belong to my work persona, not to me.  (Furthermore, if I get rid of them I will get in trouble at work for being partially naked.)

3. Gardening and yard work clothes do not count.  The original rules state that workout wear doesn't count, but I don't "workout." I do garden, and it's good exercise. Therefore, gardening and yard work clothes do not count.

3.5 Gardening and yard work clothes may be worn at any time besides for gardening or yard work, but then they do have to count.  It is strictly against the rules, however, to wear them past my property line (or the neighbors' property lines) unless they have been washed after the previous gardening or yard work session.

4. Clothes that do count as part of the wardrobe must meet three conditions: A) It is something that makes me happy by making me look and feel good about myself, B) it is "in season" and not "being stored," and C) . . . .  There really is no "C)."  I just like to group things by three.

5. Anything new that gets added to my closet or dresser or jewelry box or shoe areas must be offset by a donation of 2 like items.  By the by, I donated a little bit of everything this go-round, and I only came back from the thrift store with 3 items that I really like.  Yay, me!

6. The Oprah Clause is enacted: Anything I do not wear for a year (and isn't sentimental or worn only for special occasions) should be seriously considered for donation.

7. Jewelry doesn't count.  That's just dumb.  I can't count all of that, and even if I did, I wouldn't know whether to count earrings as 1 pair, 2 items, or 4 things.  Right?  Do the backs count?

8.  Anytime sorting of clothing becomes too onerous (such as when piles include gardening/ yard work, gardening/ yard work casual casual,  go-to-work only, go-to-work and maybe church, go-to-work and maybe out, artsy, vacation only, Halloween only, Halloween only except special occasions, special occasions only, really cold days, really hot days at home, really hot days on vacation, really hot outside but really cold at work, long day out, etc.), sorting will be discontinued.

9. Any "feeling bad about myself" for having more than 33 items ready to wear will be discontinued immediately.

10.  When in doubt, rely on my gut feelings about what I "need," and when possible temper that with what I "want."

Your Own Project 333 Rules

In conclusion, what I'm really saying with all of these snarky comments about paring down my own wardrobe, is that no matter our original intentions sometimes of jumping on the minimalist bandwagon, sometimes the time just isn't right for ditching the things we use each and every day. Stressing ourselves out about what we have and what we use and how we can Sudoku and Tetris our wardrobes into someone else's idea of "simplicity" isn't simple at all.  We have complicated lives, and we need to give ourselves the permission to have wardrobes no more or less complicated than having what we need when we need it, and not over-shopping ourselves into disorganization.

Seriously, I am paring down slowly, and replacing items I don't like slowly, without the need to head to the store and shop to replace what I'm giving away.

Have you had a mind-blowing experience trying to follow the Project 333 guidelines (which is great for some people, by the way, and I am in no way saying it isn't a worthwhile endeavor if your life "fits" the rules)?  Share in the comments!




Want to read more blog posts like this one?  Try

Stitch Fix Review: Styling at 40
Life Lessons from a Ukulele Learner
Arts and Crafts and Healing
Using the Nice Dishes
Instead of Watching Television





Copyright Amy Lynn Hess.  Please contact the author for permission to republish.

Diagramming Hamlet: To Be or Not To Be

Analyzing Shakespeare's Hamlet by Diagramming Sentences

When diagramming a sentence, a writer must not only consider the content of the sentence, but the punctuation of that sentence, as well. The punctuation of a sentence can greatly change its meaning. 

Below are two diagrams, both of the first line of Hamlet's famous soliloquy, "To be, or not to be, that is the Question."  Both diagrams take into consideration the content of the line, an independent clause, but one takes into consideration the punctuation of the clause while the other does not.  Can you tell which is which?

Before choosing your answer, take a careful look at this version of the line from the 1623 First Folio, with its original internal punctuation:

To be, or not to be, that is the Question:

"That" As an Appositive    

"To be, or not to be, that is the question:" "That" as an appositive.

In this first analytic diagram, "To be or not to be" is a compound subject: The infinitives "To be" and "to be" are joined by the conjunction "or." The second infinitive in the compound subject is modified by the adverb "not."

"That" is an appositive pronoun that renames the compound subject.  "Is" is the linking verb, and "Question," its importance denoted by capitalization, modified by "the," is the subject complement, a predicate nominative.

In this interpretation of the clause, both the compound subject and the word "that" = "the Question." "To be or not to be" = "the Question," and "that" = "the Question."

This, then, is Hamlet's "Question" with a capital "Q."  Should he "be," or should he end his "be" -ing by suicide?

"That" as a Verbal Complement

"To be, or not to be, that is the question:" "That" as a verbal complement.

In this second diagram, "that" is a verbal complement, completing the compound verbal subject, "To be or not to be."  "That," in this interpretation of the clause answers the question what?  What is it that Hamlet wants to be or not be?  Well, if we diagram this clause with "that" as the verbal complement, what Hamlet is questioning is whether or not he wants to be "that."  

The subject of the clause then becomes "To be or not to be that," and that entire phrase is linked to its subject complement, "the Question," as in "To be or not to be that" = "the Question."  

And as we all know, what "that" is, is alive.  Hamlet, in this soliloquy is asking the grand Question (with a capital "Q"): Should he exist, or should he end his existence by suicide?

So, which analysis of this famous Shakespearean soliloquy is correct?  Is "that" renaming the "Question" about his very "be" -ing, or is "that" what he is "to be" or "not be?"

The Punctuation of the Clause 

When we take into consideration the punctuation of the clause from the First Folio, we must concede that although the second interpretation is clever, the first is more accurate.  The parenthetical comma appears before the word "that," signifying that it is not part of the infinitive phrase, but apart from it.  

We read, "To be (short pause), or not to be (long pause), that (emphasis placed on the word) is the question.  We do not read "To be or not to be that (pause), is the question."

Have any of your own questions?  Feel free to ask in the comments!  

Want to learn more about diagramming sentences?  Try 

Multiple Base Lines for Multiple Independent Clauses

Prepositional Phrase or Phrasal Verb?

Want to learn more about diagramming sentences?  

Take my complete online course, "Sentence Diagramming: From Beginner to Expert in 12 Lessons" on Udemy, or purchase my text, Diagramming Sentences: A Playful Way to Analyze Everyday Language (affiliate link) on Amazon.

Copyright Amy Lynn Hess.  Contact the author for permission to republish.

If I Were 22 Challenge

if i were 22 from Amy Lynn Hess

"If I Were 22" is a new project started by the social media site, LinkedIn.  In this series of memoirs, articles, or blogs, people from all ages and all walks of life are looking back to when they were 22 and offering advice to their younger selves.

I challenged myself to complete this very difficult piece of self reflection, and what emerged was a poem.  I'd started with an outline for an exceptionally long essay, but in the end, continued to par down my ideas until they were the very few that I could honestly say wouldn't change my life.  Why wouldn't I change my life, correct my mistakes, and live an alternate reality?  Well, because I'm pretty happy, and I believe things happen for a reason.  So, I guess I cheated and didn't really give my younger self advice so much as I offered hints.

At any rate, I whittled it down to 80 words.  Can you?  Do you accept the challenge?


if i were 22 i'd
tell myself      that people
are really        tiny
and really
fragile             and
really
beautiful

be nice

be frugal generous grateful

travel              but
make home home

solve problems                           be independent

listen            be still                    eat fruit and
ice cream

listen to Tom Waits
do yoga or go swimming            repeat

grieve without fearing loss

read Mina Loy and all Kurt Vonnegut's books in order

make mistakes

and change your mind                sometimes
because people are tiny and
fragile
and beautiful




Copyright Amy Lynn Hess.  Please contact the author for permission to republish.

Sentence Diagramming: Multiple Base Lines for Multiple Independent Clauses

Independent Clauses for Independence Day
By USFWS Mountain-Prairie, Credit: Kate Miyamoto, USFWS (Presentation of the Colors)

Sentences made up of multiple clauses will be diagrammed on multiple base lines.  Let's practice!

Let's practice diagramming multiple base lines by analyzing the following sentence made up of two independent clauses: 

"The boys lifted the flag, and the people placed their hands over their hearts and recited the Pledge of Allegiance."

Step One: Identify the Clauses

Picking out Nouns

Let's start by labeling all the nouns.  This will help us narrow down which words are used as subjects, objects, or complements.

Picking out Verbs

After we pick out the nouns, we should identify all the verbs.  Once we identify the nouns and verbs that work together to create kernel sentences, or mini-sentences, we can identify the clauses.

In this case, the kernel sentences are "boys lifted," and "people placed and recited."  The first clause has a simple subject and predicate.  The second clause has a simple subject and a compound predicate.

Both of these clauses are independent clauses because they both contain subjects and verbs and make complete thoughts.  The two independent clauses are joined by the coordinating conjunction, "and." One kernel sentence appears before the "and," and the another appears after the "and."

Step Two: Diagramming the Clauses

Diagramming the First Independent Clause

Because there are two clauses in this sentence, we will draw two base lines.  The first base line is for the first clause.

Diagramming the Coordinating Conjunction

We use the "stair step" dashed line to connect the verb in the first clause with the verb in the second clause.  Any of the FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) coordinating conjunctions used to connect clauses will be diagrammed on this same type of "stair step" dashed line.

Diagramming the Second Independent Clause

We diagram the second clause on the lower base line, adding the conjunction to the compound predicate as we normally would add it, on the straight dashed line linking the two verbs.

How'd you do?  Please feel free to ask questions in the "Comments" boxes, or take a look at my additional posts, my online classes, or my textbook!

Enjoy!

Want to learn more about diagramming sentences? 

My textbook, Diagramming Sentences: A Playful Way to Analyze Everyday Language, is available on Amazon in both ebook and print formats.

Want something more interactive?  Preview and enroll in my online video courses on Udemy! Diagramming Sentences: From Beginner to Expert in 12 Lessons.  








Copyright Amy Lynn Hess.  Please contact the author for permission to republish.

Medieval Era Morality Plays

Everyman Fighting with Death

The Morality Plays of the 14th Century were didactic, relied heavily on allegory, and were a transition between the liturgical drama of the early Medieval Era and the secular drama of the 15th Century.

To Teach a Moral Lesson

Medieval Christians were exceptionally concerned with death and the afterlife.  Reminders to save one's own soul by thinking and behaving properly were everywhere: What we might consider "too macabre" by today's standards was commonplace during the late 14th Century.  For example, "In the visual arts, death's heads, skeletons, and similar devices were prominent" (Brockett & Hildy, 2008, pg. 94).

This concern for people's souls in the afterlife lead to a greater popularity in teaching lessons about morality, about how to live more virtuous lives and not fall victim to sin.  The Morality Plays, instead of being about the Bible, the Saints, or the life of Christ, were about people and  how they did or did not suffer when they did or did not lead virtuous lives.

Reliance on Allegory

Because of the preoccupation with saving one's soul from damnation, there was a trend in Morality Plays to represent virtue and sin on the stage.  Allegorical characters began appearing in the plays to help teach moral lessons.  Death, Money, Knowledge, and Piety might become intricately costumed and masked characters on the stage, either temping the main character to sin and be driven to Hell, or convincing the main character to lead a pious life and thus earn a glorious afterlife.  The characters that appear in Everyman, for example, include Death, Kindred Cousin, Goods, Knowledge, Strength, Beauty, and the main character named Everyman.  As explained in The Compact Bedford Introduction to Drama (Jacobus, 2013, pg. 133), "Each character does not just stand for a specific quality; he or she is that quality.  The allegorical way of thinking derived from the medieval faith that everything in the world had a moral meaning."

From the Liturgical to the Secular

Performers

When moments of dramatic dialogue were first introduced into the Catholic Mass during the early Medieval Era (10th Century), the people responded favorably, and the practice of adding bits of dialogue to the Mass continued.  In the beginning, these moments were sung by clergymen during the Mass, but over time, short, staged performances moved outside the walls of the church.  Full performances grew out of these humble beginnings, and the actors in the performances became not clergymen, but members of the community and amateur actors.  As time went on, the performances and performers became more professional.

Language

During the Medieval Era, the Catholic Mass was conducted in Latin.  Latin, however, was not the everyday language of the people.  As performances moved outside the walls of the church, so did the language of the performances.  The Morality Plays were produced in the vernacular, or everyday language, of the people.  This made it much easier to use the plays to teach a moral lesson, as everyone in the audience could understand what was being said by each of the characters!

Content

The shift from clergymen to professional performers and the shift from Latin to the vernacular were taking place concurrently with a shift from religious content to more secular content.  The content of the plays became less about the lives of Jesus or the Saints, no longer relied on stories of the Bible, and were more about saving the souls of men and women.  These changes were reflected in the scripts as well as in performance.  For example, the Morality Play, Mankind, incorporated time for the actors to ask for contributions during the performance. Furthermore, with its addition of song, dance, and comic interludes, its purpose seems to have shifted from that of teaching a moral lesson to entertaining an audience and making a living (Brockett & Hildy, 2008, pg. 95).

The Morality Plays of the Medieval Era were a transitional drama that helped usher in the drama and theatre of the 16th Century.    Stemming from the tropes, or songs, delivered as dialogue during the Catholic Mass, Morality Plays focused on teaching people how to live more virtuous lives and gain entry into heaven.  These plays took place outside both the walls and the language of the church, which eventually allowed for the further evolution of drama as secular entertainment.

References

Brockett, O. G., & Hildy, F. J. (2008). History of the Theatre (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Jacobus, L. A. (2013). The Compact Bedford Introduction to Drama (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Bedford/ St. Martin's.




Copyright Amy Lynn Hess. Please contact the author for permission to republish.

Sentence Diagramming: Diagramming Subject Complements

A subject complement is a noun or an adjective that follows a linking verb and tells us more about the subject.  The linking verb acts like an equals sign between the subject and the complement.

There are two types of subject complements, predicate adjectives and predicate nominatives.

It's easy to remember how to diagram a predicate adjective or predicate nominative if you remember that it points back at its subject.

Diagramming Predicate Adjectives

When a linking verb is followed by an adjective, like "happy," we identify it as a predicate adjective. In the following example, the subject, "Sue" equals "happy."  Other linking verbs that might appear in this sentence are "seems," "feels," or "sounds."  Can you see how no matter which of these linking verbs we use, Sue = happy?

When we diagram the subject complement, we place it in the third segment of the base line, following the linking verb.  The line that separates the verb from the subject complement leans back an angle . . .

as though it is pointing back to the subject.

Diagramming Predicate Nominatives

Linking verbs can also be followed by nouns.  In this example, "Sue = nurse."  "Nurse" is the subject complement.  Because this subject complement is a noun, we identify "nurse" as a predicate nominative. 

Again, when we diagram this sentence, we place "nurse" in the third segment of the base line and draw the division between the verb and the predicate nominative at an angle pointing back toward the subject of the sentence.

Think you've got it?  Try to following quiz to self assess your understanding.

Quiz Yourself on Subject Complements

1. What are the two types of subject complements?
2. What is the subject complement in "Sal seems content"?
3. What part of speech is "content"?
4. Diagram the sentence "Jose is a teacher."
5. In which segment of the base line does the subject complement appear?

Ready to check your answers?  Scroll down a bit . . .

keep going . . . 

almost there . . . 

Okay?

Click on the image to see if your answers are correct.

Want to read more about diagramming sentences?  Try

Diagramming Gerunds
What's an Object Complement?
Prepositional Phrase or Phrasal Verb?
Wise Words Wednesday

Want to learn more about diagramming sentences?  

Take my complete online course, "Sentence Diagramming: From Beginner to Expert in 12 Lessons" on Udemy, or purchase my text, Diagramming Sentences: A Playful Way to Analyze Everyday Language (affiliate link) on Amazon.

Copyright Amy Lynn Hess.  Please contact the author for permission to republish.

Yarn as Memory and Memory as a Gift

My WIP is a "Stashbuster"

I'm an avid crocheter, and my most recent work-in-progress (WIP)  is a "stashbuster," a project where I use up as much of my scrap and leftover yarn as I can to clean up my "stash."  

Digging down into the depths of one of my storage containers today to find a few more scraps for my project, I came across a warm red yarn, soft and crooked from end to end from years and years of being packed underneath new skeins.

This warm red yarn, soft and crooked from end to end from years of being packed underneath new skeins was given to me by my grandmother when I was about 10 years old, back in the 1980's, at a time when I was a beginning avid crocheter. I was constantly making clothes for my dolls, little crocheted animals, bracelets, and little granny squares; so often, in fact, my dad and stepmother expressed concern about the amount of time I spent crocheting. This yarn, I remember, I used to make a dress for my Crystal Barbie, my favorite Barbie doll at the time.  I made her a knee-length dress with a square neckline and poofy off-the-shoulder sleeves out of that red yarn.

I made that dress for my Crystal Barbie at a time when I was determined to be as good a crocheter as my grandmother, and as I said, I crocheted nonstop. I crocheted so much I began having nightmares about everything in the real world being made of crochet, including, as I vividly remember, my teeth and my toothbrush.  As horrifying as it was at the time, I can now share that memory with my husband and laugh about it.

I'm not sure what prompted me to look in that container today and find yarn I've carried with me, packed in a storage container for 30 years, but I did, and finding it was a gift.  It's two years to the day my grandmother died, and at least for a few minutes today, I was able to hold onto real evidence of that time in my life and those memories, and I was able to laugh.  As the yarn slipped through my fingers, soft and growing smaller while the work grew larger, it felt like a hug from my grandmother, and I was encouraged to pass that hug on to you.

Want to read more about crochet?  Try

Arts and Crafts and Healing
Learn to Crochet for Stress Relief
Product Review: Lion Brand Yarn Ergonomic Crochet Hook Set

Want to leave a comment about crochet?  

Please leave a comment below, and I will respond in a day or two.  : )  Thank you!




Copyright Amy Lynn Hess.  Please contact the author for permission to republish.

The Power of Story: The Power of Narrative

Stories invite people in.

Stories are powerful.  Stories can paint detailed pictures of lives, places, people, and events.  They convey character, insights, motives, and give us the opportunity to feel complex emotions or empathize with others.  Stories can help us remember, and stories can help us heal.

Several times over the past month I have been reminded of the power of stories, and I have also had a few realizations about how we use stories and narratives in our day-to-day lives.   Stories are an important part of successful business practices, interpersonal communications, and spiritual health.

Narrative as Part of Successful Business Practices

The purpose of narrative in business is to help businesses shift from selling widgets or services to selling possibilities.  I have been hearing about the power of storytelling in business for several years, but I think I finally understand it.  Instead of a business trying to persuade a customer or client to part with money in exchange for an item or a service, a business can use the power of story to to help the customer or client become a character in a "success narrative."  In such a "success narrative" the business creates for the customer a scenario in which all the customer's hopes and desires are fulfilled.  The fulfillment of those hopes and desires is somehow linked to the product or service offered by the business.

One example of a successful business narrative comes from John Hagel.  Hagel's example is based on Apple and their slogan "Think different" (2013, para. 7):

Very few companies have in fact developed powerful narratives. One of the best, in my mind, is Apple.  Their narrative is condensed into the slogan, 'think different.' Unpack the narrative and it goes something like this: there’s a new generation of technology that for the first time in history has the potential to free us from the constraints and pressures to fit into mass society and that makes it possible for us to express our unique individuality and achieve more of our potential.  But this is not a given – it depends on one thing: you have to think different. Are you willing to do that? Apple’s narrative is about us and what we need to do; it’s not about Apple.  

Narrative in Interpersonal Communications

Have you ever been at a loss when you've tried to tell someone else exactly what it was like to be in a particular situation or to feel a certain way?  That actually happens a lot. There is no one-to-one correlation between the meaning of a word or phrase and what that word or phrase represents.  For example, if I say "fish," you could think of a salmon swimming upstream, a card game, or a microwaved fish stick.  I have to be more specific and detailed in order for you to understand I mean a 4-inch long butterfly koi fish with white, orange, and black markings.  Now, what if I say "love?"  Do you know exactly what I mean?

Narratives, stories, allow us to not only explain rational ideas in detail, like "fish," but irrational ideas, like "love."  When we tell stories, we can use figurative language and detailed descriptions of events to help us explain irrational ideas more deliberately and thoroughly than we can with other types of writing.  Can you imagine if all we ever understood about "love" was its dictionary definition?  In order to understand what different people mean by "love," we need to hear their stories, feel their descriptions, and place ourselves in their various situations.  Narrative allows for this and allows us to better understand one another's experiences and emotions.

Narrative for Maintaining Spiritual Health

Something I read lately about spiritual health and the power of narrative really resonated with me, as well.  Dr. Alan Wolfelt (n.d., para. 16) writes:

Part of your self-identity comes from the relationships you have created with others. When someone with whom you have a relationship dies, your self-identity naturally changes. As bereaved persons move forward in their grief journeys, many discover that some aspects of their self-identities have positively changed. For example, you may feel more confident or more open to life’s challenges.

Not only does this imply we can overcome grief and loss by rewriting our own narratives, it implies that in order to heal our spirits after experiencing other traumas or life-changing events, we can rewrite our own narratives and adapt our characters.

Furthermore, when our spirits or souls are ill, we can change the stories we tell from stories that paint negative pictures of the world to positive pictures of the world.  For example, if I tell you a story about a traumatic event, I can choose to emphasize regret, rage, bitterness, or sadness (a negative emotion), or I can choose to emphasize awareness, forgiveness, or perseverance (a positive emotion).  Of course, the event still occurred, and the emotions surrounding the event were probably at least a little negative.  However, focusing on positive emotions as we tell our stories of those events can help heal our souls.

In sum, applying the power of story to aspects of our daily lives can help us lead more successful lives.  The power of story can help us run more successful business, have deeper and more meaningful relationships with others, and help us regain or maintain our spiritual selves.

Want to read more about narrative?  Try

The Narrative Frame: Prewriting a Narrative Essay

Why Write a Narrative Essay?

References

Hagel, J. (2013).  The Untapped Potential of Corporate Narratives.  Retrieved from http://edgeperspectives.typepad.com/edge_perspectives/2013/10/the-untapped-potential-of-corporate-narratives.html

Wolfelt, A D. Ph.D (n.d.). Helping Yourself When Someone You Love Has Died. Retrieved from http://www.catholicmortuaries.com/en-us/library/article/name/gml-when-someone-you-love-has-died



Copyright Amy Lynn Hess.  Please contact the author for permission to republish.

Student Engagement and Writing

Student Engagement in Literature and Writing

In a 2011 blog post called "Death to High School English," writer Kim Brooks argues that middle and high school English classes, as they are now taught, are ineffective.  

She implies that focusing on "fun" projects, like acting out scenes from books and plays or keeping journals to the exclusion of a focus on the hard work of writing a paper, is doing our college-level students no favors. They enter college with no knowledge of basic grammar and mechanics, no knowledge of how to evaluate or incorporate source content, and no understanding of basic organizational structures.  These students, with skills lacking that used to be taught from grade school through high school, are then placed in a composition class at the college level with so many skills lacking that faculty don't even know where to begin teaching.

The question Brooks investigated was why this isn't happening.  Why aren't these skills being taught?  To paraphrase the answer: Students don't view writing as fun, which means administrators who think "fun" is the same as "engaging" encourage "fun" over research and writing, which means teachers are so overwhelmed with fun remediation of basic skills they never get around to teaching research and writing. Oh, and class sizes have grown so large that the individualized attention the students need in order for remediation to stick has become an impossibility.

But the story doesn't end there: The students can't write cover letters, resumes, or professional email messages.  They fail to communicate effectively.  They cannot comprehend trade magazine articles or essays.  They come to college and fail, not because they don't have the capacity to understand college-level material, but because they can't read or write about college-level material at a college level.

Engage With the Material

What a mess, right?  But Brook's reaction to "We don't teach writing because it's not fun," is priceless: "Sometimes we do things not because they’re fun but because they’re important."  And therein might be part of the solution.  Even if I don't want to do the dishes, they need to be done, so I do them.  I engage with the dishes.  Once they are done, I am fulfilled - at least a little.

There are two different dictionary definitions of  "engage."  One definition is to capture someone else's attention, and the other is to get involved (understood you).  In other words, the first is what the course material should do (with some help from the teacher), and the second is what a student should do.  In the classroom, both of those definitions must be met for real engagement to take place.

Students must engage with the course content, not just the teacher.

As a college-level composition teacher, I cannot change what my students did or did not experience in high school, but I can make sure I remediate the skills necessary to make writing engaging, if not always fun.  I can help my students learn something about writing, find some success, and therefore be fulfilled - if only a little. That's the essence of engaging. They, the students, must engage with the material in a way that is fulfilling.

Beyond the Dictionary: Defining "Engagement"

If engagement was as easy as opening the dictionary, however, good writing wouldn't be an issue, so what else can we do?  How can we dig deeper?

The University of Exeter has what is called a "Student Engagement and Skills Hub" online.  They offer worksheets and examples for institutions to use to help define engagement and engagement strategies at the department and university level.  The worksheets and prompts can also be used to help teachers define personal philosophies of engagement on a class-by-class basis.  For example, in my introductory literature course, I take silent students and furrowed brows as a sign students are engaged in the material.  Personally, I do not want to capture a student's attention in that class; I want the material to capture a student's attention.  I am not the star of the class, the literature is the star in that class.

Here are the roles we all play:

1. I choose and present literature I believe will capture the attention of the specific group of students in a particular section of my course.  In order to do that I must pay attention to my students; I must engage with them.
2. The students then engage with the material through the step-by-step process of active reading. They put their heads down, furrow their brows, and ponder the greater meaning of what they've read. They tell me and one another, in writing, how they've engaged with each reading.
3. I allow students to engage with each other and with me (to a lesser degree) when we discuss the literature.

Here is an anecdote: A student once actually told me he wasn't looking forward to taking my classes because he had seen these behaviors, silence and perseverating looks, from previous students through my classroom windows.  Once he was in the class, however, he admitted his preconception and laughed.  "They were just genuinely interested in learning something," he said.  "They were thinking about the stories."  In just that moment, he said something momentous: Engagement is not about entertainment or "fun-ness." Engagement is about being genuinely interested in the class content, in the act of learning something. Students are engaged with the material and the process of learning because learning the material, pondering or contemplating it, is also somehow fulfilling.

An outsider may believe furrowed brows and silent students are signs of a disengaged class, but in my very particular class these are generally signs students are engaged with the material, even when the students are not being entertained by the teacher, videos, multi-media presentations, cartoon characters on worksheets, songs, dances, games, or other fun stuff.

The trick, if it can be called a trick, is to make certain the students not only understand the material, but know, on some level, that understanding the material and learning about the material will somehow be fulfilling to them.  Some call this the "What's-in-it-for-me?" (WIIFM?) principle, others refer to this idea as "making the content relevant" to students' lives, some study this concept as a method of contemplative education, and still others make it happen without ever referring to it directly.

And the neat thing?  All of this can happen in writing classes when we make the learning, the hard work of writing a research paper, worth the effort.  We have to make the students want to contemplate the material, ponder their own questions, remember the impetus or genuine inquiry that made them choose a particular writing topic in the first place.   There's no amount of song and dance or fun and games that can help a student engage in his or her own writing material.  Songs, dances, fun, and games, help students engage with a teacher, but they can't take the teacher with them to the next class, the next job interview, or through a degree program.

Need some more ideas for student engagement? Try

Motivate the WIIFM? Student With a Learning Audit Assignment
Student-Centered or Curriculum-Centered?
The Benefit of Play in the Composition Classroom

References

• Brooks, K. (2011). Death to High School English.  Retrieved from [Blog]
• University of Exeter. (n.d.). Student Engagement and Skills Hub. Retrieved from [Exeter Web Site]

Copyright Amy Lynn Hess.  Please contact the author for permission to republish.