Thoughts on "Aaawwubbis" and introductory clauses

It was really helpful to learn about conjunctions. Whenever I use to think of conjunctions I would think “and, but, or.” So this lesson was really interesting, and I really think it was beneficial to learn about subordinating conjunctions and “aaawwubbis” (after, although, as, when, where, until, before, because, if, since). In some papers, I use subordinating conjunctions a lot. So, it was good that as a writer I learned exactly what I was doing. That happens so often, we learn how to do something after years of writing, but we don’t know what we are doing. Thankfully, knowing what structures we’re using isn’t necessary to write.
After learning about subordinating conjunctions we got to learn the names of clauses: independent versus dependent, main versus subordinate, and sentence versus dependent clauses. I think that in essence there are really two types of clauses. So it was neat to learn that, although they can be called by different names in different contexts, they are really the same thing.
I asked a question about the difference between “though” and “although.” Barbara had told the class that we tended to use them in the wrong places, and mix them up. Since I tend to use “although” a lot, I wanted to know if I was using it wrong. I learned that “although” is an “aaawwubbis” and that “though” is an introductory element. We also learned that subordinating clauses are different from introductory clauses, and that introductory clauses require a comma.
Shannon and Stephanie gave a good lesson on introductory elements. I have used introductory clauses for a long time and, while I don’t think I have used them wrong, I can now say with certainty that an introductory element, or clause, is not crucial to the sentence and is not a complete thought.
I really enjoyed the week. I learned about “aaawubis” and introductory elements. In the future I hope to continue to have questions answered that I may not know I have. I would never have thought to have asked about “though” and “although” had the subject not come up in class.
Question: What is the difference between saying “you did really well”, to “you did really good.” I believe good is wrong, why?

That Punctuating Mechanism

I enjoyed the second half of reading about Dora, and the research done on children’s growth as writers. I liked the idea that if we pay attention then we can see what our students have, or have not learned. In addition, learning the idea of sentence structure is such a long and difficult process. I learned that it is going to take students a long time to put their finger on just what it is that they are trying to do, and that it is the teacher’s responsibility to help them do this. However, as teachers we are also in a difficult position. Much of this learning process seems like it needs to be learned by the students in their own time and each individual student will have their own way of responding to the idea of sentence structure.
I don’t remember very much of my own learning process, except for bits and pieces of what I learned each year. However, there is that “punctuating mechanism” within me that makes me want to put a comma here, and not right there. It’s interesting to think of all that now, because everyone has that punctuating mechanism that makes us want to punctuate something the way that we do but each person’s is probably quite different.
One of the reasons that I choose to use a comma in a sentence is because of the pause I hear as I silently read it. Though, there are times that I read a sentence out loud and then choose to take the comma out. I’m honestly not that sure of what makes the mechanism tick, but learning the technicalities now makes me more confident in my punctuating choices.
I’m glad that we were able to briefly go over semi-colons. That was a neat idea to go through the text we were reading and make a lesson out of the writers’ punctuation techniques. I hope we can go over them more in the future, as well as the colon, but it was a good start.

Question: If you had a student who had a tendency to make run-on sentences, what technique could you teach them to help them notice their mistake, and to stop?