Super Grammar: October 2012

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Free Worksheets / Our Letter to Teachers

Hey everybody,

Here's a free (print-it-yourself) Super Grammar poster and three activity worksheets, compliments of our good friends at Scholastic. All you need to do is download the high-resolution PDF file and print!

Here's the link: http://www.scholastic.com/supergrammar/sg.pdf

Where did it come from? Well, earlier this year, Scholastic asked us if we would help them put together an official Super Grammar promotional poster for educator events and conventions. Their idea was to make a large (17"x22") double-sided poster which educators would be able to use in their classrooms or libraries in two different ways. We thought that this was a great idea, so we agreed to help make it happen.

We immediately got to work, and with the additional help of our super talented art team, Jenny Hanson and Joe To, we soon put together everything that we needed to complete this poster. It was a lot of work to do in a very short amount of time, but we all knew that it was going to be helpful to teachers, so we were very happy to do it. And now that the work is finished, we are even happier to learn that this poster is now available to anyone who wants to grab the download!

The front side of the poster features the Subject and the Predicate joining forces in order to form a complete sentence. Here's how it turned out:
The back side of the poster is designed to function in a completely different way. It is comprised of four different (8.5"x11") pages which all connect together to form the larger sized poster, but each of these pages acts as a separate Super Grammar activity sheet.

Most of these pages are Super Grammar worksheets which can be photocopied by teachers and handed out to their students. There are three worksheets in total:
  1. The Completion Team Challenge
  2. The Noun Team Challenge
  3. The Double Negative Team Challenge. 
All three of these worksheets are included as part of the free downloadable pdf from Scholastic.

There is also a fourth page on the back of the poster, but this fourth page is not a worksheet. Instead, it is a letter (from us) addressed to teachers. Having the opportunity to write this letter was really great for us because it gave us a chance to explain what Super Grammar is all about. Unfortunately, the original text which we wrote for this letter was a little too long for the space that was available on the page for the poster, so it had to get edited down. But since space isn't an issue on our blog, we'd like to end this post by sharing with you the complete and unedited version of our letter addressed to teachers:

Teachers of the world,

It’s no secret to us that teachers are really superheroes.

You all possess extraordinary powers which allow you to inspire large groups of children. You all have the amazing ability to transfer knowledge directly into the minds of your students. And we’re also pretty sure that most of you have eyes in the backs of your heads.

But we also know that, even with these tremendous superpowers, teaching the subject of English grammar can be a difficult task.

Knowing this dilemma, we’d like to offer you our super assistance in the form of our book: Super Grammar. Super Grammar is a very fun, super visual, and highly engaging approach to teaching English grammar using superheroes and supervillains.

In our experience, the best learning tools have always included these three things: word association, visual aids, and superpowers. For this reason, we’ve taken all the major elements of grammar and have personified them with the identity of either a superhero or supervillain, and we’ve taken their word functions and have transformed them into superpowers. 

So with Super Grammar, you won’t just learn about an ordinary part of speech called an adverb. Instead, you will actually meet the vibrant superhero called the Adverb, and you’ll learn about her awesome ability to modify verbs and other adverbs.

Also, you won’t simply be told that you shouldn’t use a double negative in a sentence. Instead, you will actually meet the sinister twin brothers that make up the supervillain team called Double Negative, and then you’ll learn why you shouldn’t let them trick you into falling for their double-talk!

And as you meet these super characters, there will also be illustrated and colorful example sentences that will help you practice and remember the grammar that you are learning. But Super Grammar will never use run-of-the-mill, textbook examples like, “Jane washed her hands before dinner.” No! Super Grammar will only use Super Examples like, “The masked hero rescued the crowd.”

In fact, Super Grammar’s superhero format is consistent throughout the entire book. From parts of speech, through punctuation, and in every one of the example sentences—the superhero tone and humor will always prevail!

So, good teachers of the world, when it comes to teaching English grammar—have no fear. Super Grammar is on the way, and we’re here to help!

Sincerely,