After our discussion today on the more technical aspects of writing, I'm posting the link to our class website where you can find links to other universities' writing centres. The rules of grammar, spelling and punctuation are here and you can test your knowledge: Writing Links .
Next Tuesday, July 3rd, we will have our first Lesson Presentations. For those groups who are presenting on that day, please e-mail me your full lesson plan to be shared on our website. Have a great long weekend!
16 comments:
I was heartened to hear that I'm not the only person with a shaky understanding of grammatical rules. I guess as a native English speaker, I internalized rules and haven't taken the time to learn the underlying framework. I thought I was the only English major who fell through the cracks. I plan to check out the online resources to brush up on those skills. How can I persuade students to learn to use these rules when I cannot articulate them?
I think someone said it best in class, we all know the rules of grammar, but as native speakers and having forgotten school lessons on them or having not been taught them properly, we just have not made them explicit. That's really all we need to do.
I liked our discussion on Bill Shakespeare's plays/Bard on the Beach. In particular, I liked our discussion on the ending of Taming of the Shrew. I thought that since the ending seems to defy a singular interpretation that excludes other possibilities, then the play could be used as an example of the problem with trying to arrive at only one interpretation of texts. Its a good example of how difficult can be and that the ending of the play can be very different depending on how the end is interpreted.
During my High School education, the word grammar was one that I felt a strong aversion to and a part of the curriculum that I dreaded each passing year. Grammar education consisted of a booklet that we were given. We had three to four days to look at it and fill out it. I did not come out of these short exercises with confidence in my ability to decipher how to apply grammar rules or how to identify the mechanics of sentences. As others noted in the class, we do know how to fix sentences but we do not know how to identify what is wrong. For native English speakers this is not a problem, but for ESL and/or FSL learners it is another story. These non-native English speakers tend to learn and understand more about grammar than the native English speakers. It is interesting to note that the issue and/or concern for most native speaking English students are spelling and grammar. In my High School experience, it was the content that my classes tended to focus on. The material was the majority of the mark and the grammar was only a fraction of the mark, thereby, most of the time we spent developing content and drawing on textual examples for support.
I think that grammar is a big part of education that we need to teach students in school. During this last semester, I have seen very unique ways of teaching grammar that are practical and fun. The exercises seem to have an element of collaboration and group work. One of the grammar exercises that my PDP partner, Sarah K, did was an exercise on complete sentences. She cut out words from magazines and stuck them into bags. The group task was to make as many complete sentences as they could in a number of minutes. She said that it did not matter how crazy they were because the object was to create complete sentences. It was interactive and fun. I am looking forward to using these types of exercises to get students interested. By changing the angle that we look at grammar from, maybe the students will find the study of it more relevant and practical.
Grammar is one of those tricky things in that you can be a decent (or even good) writer without knowing much about the technical aspects. I've been contemplating whether or not it's necessary to teach technical grammar in schools. Working with on of my SAs, I had to teach technical grammar twice a week. The students' writing didn't improve (and I proved with my frequent mistakes that good writers don't need to know grammar!) So unless the point is to improve students writing, I'm not convinced it has to be taught. Rather, I would think the focus should be on writing and communication. Practical application is something I can work with, and I have seen students respond to is as well. Lisa gave a great example that is both fun and practical, and I think that is the direction I'll be going with my future classes.
Marie, you ask an interesting question - "How can I persuade students to learn to use these rules when I cannot articulate them?" I wonder that same thing. Because I have internalized them I do not see the value in doing the worksheets etc.. I know that it is important for students but I don't know why. I haven't bought in completely to teaching grammar. I wonder how many teachers like to teach grammar? Not me! On the other side of things it is nice when I do get a little something or am able to help some one with their writing and I am able to tell them why and what is wrong...instead of just saying, "it just sounds wrong". I think that grammar for ESL is so crutial - why should I have different requirements for those students. I have so much more to learn about grammar and should really take the time to do it to help my students.
I haven't had the chance yet to test my grammar skills, but I was really interested last class in our discussion about grammar. I was particularly interested in the often contrasting views we had as a class about the amount of time and effort we should focus on grammar, and our class’ line of questioning regarding grammatical expectations (and whether there are times when we as teachers should be more lenient). I think I do agree with the point made in class that in “first draft” assignments, our focus should be more on content.
During my practicum, I had many discussions with a number of the English teachers about this issue. There seemed to be a unanimous consensus that content was most important in “first draft” papers, so long as the grammatical errors were not infringing too much on, and significantly distracting, the reader. On the other hand, I remember finding papers (which I also discussed with an SA about) which were very grammatically strong and used a lot of flashy, advanced vocabulary – but on a closer read, lacked a lot of substance and were quite meaningless.
I suppose, just as with most things, there is a fine balance of strictness and leniency to teaching and evaluating grammar and language.
Like many of you, I have also internalized the rules of grammar. I know how to use the rules when I am writing or speaking, but I don't always know exactly how to explain them. This is funny, considering that I am an ESL teacher. However, this is where I find worksheets and grammar textbooks helpful. Many of my students know that I am not a grammar expert and I think this helps them to be at ease when we are learning it, because they know that I am learning at the same time they are.
I agree with many of you about internalizing the rules of grammar. In high school, my teacher incorporated grammar into things we were already doing, thereby making it more relevant. However, I have had quite a bit of ESL training, and I found it has helped ever so much. One of the main things ESL students don't like about their teachers is the fact that they can't usually help them with specific problems, because we just know it's wrong and we know how to fix it, but we can't explain it! This must be very frusterating for them. I would advocate for teachers (especially for high school) a bit of formal ESL training, as it makes both the student's and the teacher's life much easier!
I don't really remember the grammar portions of my high school language arts... but I'm sure there was some. However, what I DO remember is the grammar that I had to do in French Immersion. It was my least favourite part... everyone's least favourite part. The funny thing is, we were all HIGHLY fluent speakers of the French language, but when writing, many of us struggled with the technicalities of grammar.
I think that grammar is largely intuitive, when speaking, but its in the writing that it can be problematic. I think that if I end up teaching grammar, I will try to use group work and fun, engaging activities, rather than worksheets and drilling. I also think that focusing on developing an intuitive understanding of the rules is probably more important than knowing and memorizing every technical term.
I am slightly frightened, however, at hearing that students are getting even worse with their grammar these days (in the age of computer chat and text messaging)!
One more thing... I think that grammar (like spelling) can largely be internalized by READING VORACIOUSLY! Yet one more reason to encourage reading.
Alexis, I totally agree! I think we need to approach grammar with an open mind. It can be taught in a whole range of ways including a lot of reading.
I do think that grammar is an important thing to teach. I think that those of us who don't have a strong understanding of grammar would benefit from knowing more than "something sounds funny". Grammar is an important tool and an understanding of it can improve writing. As teachers I think our understanding has to be a little more conscious than subconscious.
I also think that ESL is a helpful world to know about. ESL teachers have been looking for ways to make grammar fun for years and their resources can easily be found on the web. A lot of the ESL grammar games may not be appropriate for the regular classroom, but they can help to get the creative juices flowing on different ways to approach a pretty dry subject.
I had to teach grammar in my first practicum and I attempted to make it fun by combining it with creative writing. To teach prepositions, I asked the class to collaborate on a story using a list of prepositions. The story genre was action and we focused on a chase scene so there would be a lot of prepositional phrases having to do with time and space. I think this is an interesting idea, although it did bomb in practice. I think these kinds of grammar activities may be the way to go, but I realized in trying it out that my students needed the activity to be a lot more structured than I thought.
Lisa’s suggestion to make a game out of grammar is great. That is often how French is taught these days too. I think grammar is best taught through the use of a language, be it reading correct grammar in fiction or hearing correct grammar spoken. Doing an entire grammar unit, as some classes do, is probably the quickest way to turn students off and create that knee-jerk reaction to the word ‘grammar’. Making it fun and putting it in the context of language in use is the best way in my opinion.
I too Marie am "shaky" in my understanding the rules of grammar. What I have done to brush up on my grammar skills is I have taken a couple of grammar intense books from the school in which I did my practicums to do practice questions. I have had these books for about three months now and I am more confident in my undersstanding of grammar now then I was during my years as a university student and even during my practicum.
I think Grammar is best taught through integration within your units. Automatically, if you teach Grammar as a distinct unit, I think you will lose your students. Units such as poetry, short stories with dialogue, essay structure, and oral presentations, all offer opportunities to deliver the messages and rules of proper grammar, while keeping it in a relavent context.
I have a bit of a problem with the Grammar portion on the provincial exam, as I see it as being unneccessary. Students get so stressed about that one section, and I think that their grammar skills can easily be assessed through the written composition part of the exam. What are we really assessing here,their ability to effectivley communicate throught the correct use of grammar? How effective are multiple choice questsions for that purpose?
I have been teaching ESL for 7 years, and I have taught in English immersion schools, and I still struggle with ideas of the most productive way to present grammar. WHile I think that children under the age of 10 learn best in immersion settings, how much grammar to give to older students still remains a mystery. I have known students who need grammar, can absorb it, and apply it appropriately. But others struggle and teaching them tons of grammar rules only confuses them. And of course, with native speakers, most of them just don't care (I know I didn't). So how do differentiate appropriately?
I do think the point that was brought up about reading is integral. Those who are strong readers, tend to have the mechanics of language come more naturally to them. I really believe that getting your students to read is one of the best ways to help improve grammar intuitively.
Grammar is a hard topic to cover. Not only is it not popular with students, it isn't that popular with teachers as well. I think that the real problem with grammar today is that we focus too much on the student's ability to memorize rules and not enough on explaining to students what grammar is supposed to help them do. It isn't about filling out worksheets on where to put a semicolon, but knowing how to organize your writing with the right about of breaks and pauses that makes it easier for your reader to understand. Grammar is supposed to aid you in giving form to your thoughts, but most students don't recognize that because their experience has been very limited.
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