Sunday, March 16, 2014
Memo One
I’m fascinated by grammar because of its intricacies and the fact that I am terrible with grammar. I can vividly remember sitting through grammar drills in elementary school and hating it. Now I wish I had English classes like that, because at thirty-two I have forgotten the basics. I am really curious to find out if grammar is still being taught and if so at what grade level. As I start this I- Search project I am a firm believe it should be taught because it is a valuable asset to writing. I am very interested to see if my opinion changes at the end.
The first re-connection I had with grammar in the classroom is when I volunteered in a seventh grade ESL classroom, and the teacher taught grammar every day!! I thought what she was doing seemed important and necessary in developing great writers. She made grammar fun and exciting and I loved her approach to it all, she was the self-proclaimed “Grammar Queen” and wore a tiara during her lessons, the students thought that was great! I wanted to emulate her because of the value she placed on grammar and the importance of it. Although her lessons where short, she made sure that she devoted 10-15 minutes of class time to diagramming sentences and teaching them about prepositions, verb tenses, commas, etc. She believed that grammar was just as important to a story as the content and I agree. With this being said if I am not able to find the answer I am seeking I hope that I will find the answer that will justify the reason why grammar is or is not being taught. I plan on speaking with teachers and students from all grade levels about their experience with grammar. I’m thinking the easiest way and most efficient way to do this is by creating a survey about their experiences. It will be interesting to have both a teacher and students perspective. By doing this I hope to gain further insight to my question of should grammar be taught??
This is where I am currently in my project. I am also in the middle of reading two secondary articles regarding the teaching of grammar in schools. I will post my findings shortly.
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Karen,
ReplyDeleteI think this is a very interesting topic. Like you, I also believe that grammar should be taught regularly, because it is very important and some students do struggle with grammar. I am curious to know what grade grammar instruction stops at now. Like you mentioned with the ESL teacher, even devoting a very short amount of class time to grammar could greatly benefit students.
Jay,
DeleteFirst off,I can't find your blog can you send me the link for it ?? Secondly, I wanted to give you some info. From everything that I have been reading grammar instruction was primarily taught in "grammar" school, aka elementary school. However over the last decade or so it has been pushed to seventh grade specifically. Although, I am finding more research that it should be taught at every level of education including college! this news makes me very happy!!!
Sorry, just seeing this now. My blog is forget-the-five.blogspot.com. Also, good to hear that grammar is being taught past grammar school.
DeleteYes, I agree with you I do think grammar is a very important part of our writing lives. Especially with all of the new technology and acronyms we (and our students) learn everyday. Grammar should be taught everyday like that teacher did but I do think that getting students prepared for standardized testing puts a damper on that.
ReplyDeleteKaren,
ReplyDeleteI think that you are absolutely correct, standardized testing has become more important than teaching our students.It's a shame because I feel that students education is being sacrificed for monetary and statistical gain!!
Karen!!!! I love your video! It was very fun to watch. I agree with everyone, we should be learning grammar all the way til 12th grade. Even if it is 5 minutes at the beginning of class. I wish my teachers had put more emphasis on grammar because I am the worst at it. I think the survey is a wonderful way to get mass amounts of information about your topic.
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