I hate to admit it to the cohort, but Williams actually made sense to me, and was really helpful in helping me think about grammar. I'm embarassed to say, I have never thought about the difference between usage and grammar and reading Williams made a light bulb go off in my head. Our students do know a lot about English (the native speakers, anyway) implicitly. They know about the conventions of speech, which can help them with the conventions of grammar. I really liked that Williams thinks that teaching usage is equally as important as teaching grammar. I also agree with him that students need to expand their reperatiore of writing skills and conventions using indirect and direct instruction. I like asking students to become researchers of the language as they interact with people day to day.
My 10th grader is doing the dumbest grammar in his LA class. It's based on Latin roots and is vocabulary with virtually no context. It's hard for me and impossible for him to make sense of. That's one reason my mind was blown when I found out why. "English is a Teutonic language and is not based in Latin, which raises one of the more troubling difficulties with traditional grammar- it doesn't fit English very well." I just can't understand why schools continue to push traditional grammar when it seems clear from years and years of research that it doesn't work.
Dean comes to the same conclusion as Williams, that asking students to name the parts of speech or their functions doesn't matter. However, Dean and Petit show just how difficult teaching grammar is. Neither offer even a glimmer of a suggestion that makes any sense, on how to teach grammar or usage.
My 10th grader is doing the dumbest grammar in his LA class. It's based on Latin roots and is vocabulary with virtually no context. It's hard for me and impossible for him to make sense of. That's one reason my mind was blown when I found out why. "English is a Teutonic language and is not based in Latin, which raises one of the more troubling difficulties with traditional grammar- it doesn't fit English very well." I just can't understand why schools continue to push traditional grammar when it seems clear from years and years of research that it doesn't work.
Dean comes to the same conclusion as Williams, that asking students to name the parts of speech or their functions doesn't matter. However, Dean and Petit show just how difficult teaching grammar is. Neither offer even a glimmer of a suggestion that makes any sense, on how to teach grammar or usage.
The conventions trait of the 6+1 traits addresses the grammar/usage issues fairly well. I've included a link to writingfix.com that will help plann lessons teaching convention http://www.writingfix.com/6Traits/Conventions.htm
2 comments:
Love it! I also had a lightbulb moment when talking about grammar and usage. And I think that this is something that my students can think about as well. If we give them the knowledge in a meaningful way, not drills and worksheets, they can make informed choices about their usage in their writing. And tell Dean I'm sorry that he's got so much dumb grammar!
People should read this.
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