This blog series is written by Julia Domenicucci, an editor at Macmillan Learning, in conjunction with Mignon Fogarty, better known as Grammar Girl.
To kick off the new year—and a new semester—this blog post will look at suggested Grammar Girl podcasts within Achieve for English products.
While both English LaunchPads and Achieves include collections of assignable, ad-free Grammar Girl podcasts, this post will focus specifically on Achieve. If you are not currently using Achieve but are interested in learning more about it, please visit the Macmillan Learning catalog or speak with your sales representative.
If you are using LaunchPad or are just looking for assignment ideas, be sure to check out the other Grammar Girl blog posts from the Bits Blog. Recent blog posts include:
Using Grammar Girl Podcasts in an Online Classroom
Grammar Girl & Ideas for Teaching Online
Using Grammar Girl Podcasts for Fun, Low-Stakes Activities
Using Grammar Girl Podcasts with Literature & Fiction
Using Grammar Girl Podcasts to Reflect on Writing & Accomplishments
How to Find the Suggested Grammar Girl Podcasts in Achieve for English Products
Starting with copyright 2021, Achieve for English products contain a folder of 25 suggested Grammar Girl podcasts. These are easy to add to your course and can be used in a variety of ways!
If you are using a pre-built course: Many pre-built courses include the folder “Grammar Girl: 25 Suggested Podcasts” toward the top of the Course Content list. (See “Start with a Pre-built course” for more about the pre-built course option.)
If you are building a course from scratch or your title does not include the folder in the pre-built: Look for the folder “Grammar Girl: 25 Suggested Podcasts” toward the top of your Resources list. You can add one or more podcasts to your course as you would any other piece of content from Resources. If you wish to add all 25 podcasts, consider creating the suggested folder structure you see in the Resources for your own course. (See “Add Resources to your course” for help.)
By default, the 25 suggested Grammar Girl podcasts will be visible to your students once they are added to your Course Content. You can change the default settings depending on how you wish to use them in your course. If you make no changes, and have all 25 podcasts in your Course Content, students will be able to browse and listen to the podcasts as they wish.
In the default organization, the 25 suggested podcasts appear in sub-folders that cover Style and Word Choice, Logic and Argument, Common Grammar Issues, and Common Punctuation Topics.
- Style and Word Choice
- Grammar Girl Podcast: Affect versus Effect
- Grammar Girl Podcast: Bad versus Badly
- Grammar Girl Podcast: Parallel Structure: Patterns Are Pleasing
- Grammar Girl Podcast: The Difference Between Disinformation and Misinformation
- Grammar Girl Podcast: Well versus Good
- Grammar Girl Podcast: Which versus That
- Grammar Girl Podcast: Who versus Whom
- Logic and Argument
- Grammar Girl Podcast: Begs the Question
- Grammar Girl Podcast: What Is a Straw Man Argument?
- Common Grammar Issues
- Grammar Girl Podcast: A versus An
- Grammar Girl Podcast: Active Voice and Passive Voice
- Grammar Girl Podcast: Adverbs Ending in -ly
- Grammar Girl Podcast: Articles and Determiners before Nouns
- Grammar Girl Podcast: Comparatives versus Superlatives
- Grammar Girl Podcast: It Is I versus It Is Me
- Grammar Girl Podcast: Just between You and Me
- Grammar Girl Podcast: Misplaced Modifiers
- Grammar Girl Podcast: Only: The Most Troublesome Misplaced Modifier
- Grammar Girl Podcast: Sentence Fragments
- Grammar Girl Podcast: Top Ten Grammar Myths
- Common Punctuation Topics
- Grammar Girl Podcast: A Common Comma Error: The Comma Splice
- Grammar Girl Podcast: Serial Comma
- Grammar Girl Podcast: When to Use an Apostrophe
- Grammar Girl Podcast: Where Do I Use Commas?
- Grammar Girl Podcast: Your versus You're
Ideas for Using the 25 Suggested Podcasts
Use them as is: Include all 25 podcasts in their default structure. Do not assign them, and leave them all visible. Tell your students about the resource and let them know they can browse the podcasts if they wish to or if they are looking for additional support.
Integrate them into your course structure: Move podcasts into folders for specific chapters or weeks, depending on how you have set up your course. Consider if you wish to integrate all 25 or a smaller selection.
Assign some or all of the podcasts: You can assign some or all of the podcasts to your students. This allows you to add a due date for students to listen to the podcast by. You can assign items for points (use the Graded or Extra Credit options) or not (use Ungraded). See “Assign an item or change assignment settings” for more information on assigning items in Achieve.
How to Find All Grammar Girl Podcasts in Achieve for English Products
Achieve for English products contain more than just 25 Grammar Girl products, however! If you want to explore the full collection, add more podcasts to the suggested 25, or are using an Achieve from before copyright 2021, follow the steps on the support page "Add Grammar Girl and shared English content to your course" or look for the "Quick Start Guide: Grammar Girl and Question Bank" in your Welcome Unit.
If you have used or plan to use Grammar Girl podcasts in Achieve, we would love to hear about it! Leave a comment with how you’re using these podcasts in your teaching.
Credit: "reading ipad with headphones on" by cclogg is marked with CC0 1.0
