I shared this story in part via Facebook earlier this week, but it's too good not to share here, too:
On their vocabulary quizzes each week, my students write sentences to demonstrate understanding of several words. Last week's quiz included the word "discern." The result was one of the most classic student-written sentences ever:
"I can't discern my girlfriend's baby daddy just from looking at it, so I guess I'll have to trust her."
As if the sentence alone wasn't ridiculous enough, I started thinking of all the different interpretations of the pronouns. Who is "it"? Who is "her"? Why do I even care?
7 comments:
LOL! You have some great ones come across your desk. At the same time, these "little ditties" really make me self-conscious about posting a comment.
No one should ever feel that way! I love to hear from everyone.
My students know I talk about them, but they know it's out of love (most of the time).
It is good for me. I need to think about my grammar and punctuation. :)
I kind of feel that this sentence should be used in an upcoming lesson about the importance of clarity in pronouns.
(And I forgot to mention that it's a hilarious sentence.)
I'm not sure what's saddest about the sentence--the idea of "my girlfriend's baby daddy," or the grammar. Hard work can help grammar, but maybe parenting classes for the "baby daddy"?
Wow, Rachie. It's kinda sad that the kid even has to think about whether or not he trusts his girlfriend to tell him the truth about who's her baby's daddy. The trusting part freaks me out, and so does the high-schooler-with-a-baby part. Yikes.
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