Grammar 101....

Having observed Mr. Livingston's class at Crosswinds, I found the Fulwiler and Harper pieces to be extremely useful, practical pieces of information.  Students in his class were involved in the process approach, encouraged to continually revise, edit, and improve on their writing.  I found the "thoughtshots" and "snapshots" concepts to be particularly useful for them, although I'm wondering if the same concept would transfer to a high school classroom.  Perhaps just doing away with the camera drawings and cartoon bubbles on peer edits might be enough, keeping the overall concept in place.  Overall, I found that by giving examples of these particular revision tools, exactly what was meant by each one, students were able to understand the information, and lo and behold, transfer these concepts into their own writing!  Yay!

However, the same cannot be said for their grasp of grammar, spelling, sentence structure, etc.  I can't tell you how many times I cringed reading the responses to some of the topics during intersession.  It got to be so distracting that often times I would focus more on the fact that an eighth grader was spelling so poorly that it became difficult to look past it to the content of their ideas.  However, only having eight days with these students and with much bigger battles to face (hello, classroom management!) Jonesy and I decided to let this one slide.  It just got me so irritated though about what these students had been taught thus far.  How did it get to this point?  I understand the issue of " not using red pens" and focusing on content and process over correctness, but where do we draw the line?  As Jago suggests in "Papers, Papers, Papers," we need to "make the paper bleed" so students are aware of their errors.  I have to admit, I agree with her.  I think it's necessary to make students aware of wherever their writing can be improved.  Not necessarily doing the work for them, but drawing their attention to specific sentences or words that need fixing.  I do believe whole heartedly in saving this until the final draft though, which urges students to produce high quality, polished pieces of writing.  I think that the rough draft(s) should be a place where students feel free to experiment and make mistakes.  But I also believe in making good writing habitual.  I really think that students need to be practicing good grammar and spelling all the time, not just when they're being graded on it.  But will peer editing be successful if the peers don't know what to look for? How do I teach this?  Will mini-lessons do it?  Seriously, can I make grammar fun so it will stick?

It also doesn't help that I am entirely intimidated by the prospect of teaching grammar because I don't understand it myself.  You should have seen me attempting to study for the writing portion of the Praxis II.  And here I'm trying to teach this?  Even reading the snore-bore of a chapter in the Dornan et al. text, I was looking up "gerund" and "nominal clause."  On top of it all, I was so bored reading that chapter, even I was skipping over paragraphs.  Wow.  So how on earth am I supposed to make my students understand this, let alone want to learn it?  The point is, it's boring, but I feel it is absolutely necessary to learn, as it all comes back to mastering Standard English.  Collegiate, business, and professional writing all require a mastery of grammar and spelling.  Like me with the Crosswinds students, no one is going to take your ideas seriously if they're all misspelled.  It basically comes down to convincing my students that S.E. = college/job = money.  Period.

I apologize.  I realize this blog has more or less turned into a rambling of my thoughts on grammar.  Mostly because I'm so frustrated with the subject because it's a huge issue that I need to address, but I don't know if I'm prepared to teach.  I have a feeling the "Mechanically Inclined" book may help me with some of this.... perhaps I should get on that.

Links:

#1.  Woe Is I:  The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English

This is a book that was required for my Literary Non Fiction course.  I have found it extremely helpful in explaining affect/effect, where adverbs go, and what a gerund is.  Plus, it attempts to be fun (chapters like "Comma Sutra: The Joy of Punctuation", "Verbal Abuse: Words on the Endangered List", and "Death Sentence: Do Cliches Deserve to Die?") by putting the language into simpler terms.  I also think this would be an excellent resource to have in the classroom for students to have access to when dealing with some of these grammar issues.

#2.  Grammar Girl

Website containing free podcasts on grammar rules and ways to improve your writing.  Like me (and I'm assuming most of you too), the website shares my low tolerance for poor grammar and spelling (check out podcast #149: "Top Pet Peeves of 2008".)