Tantillo Using Grammar to Improve Writing

Recipes for Action
1. Auflage 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5439-3259-1
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet/DL/kein Kopierschutz

E-Book, Englisch, 304 Seiten

How we frame grammar instruction matters. If you view it as 'fixing incorrect sentences,' you teach it that way. If you view it as 'building strong, compelling sentences,' you take a different approach. Using Grammar to Improve Writing explains a new way to teach grammar-systematically and purposefully-in order to strengthen student writing. It offers detailed guidance on which grammar standards to teach when and how to use grammatical forms to capture ideas. This new approach will enable students to write more efficiently and effectively.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Tantillo, Sarah

Leseproben

chapter
ONE What should we STOP doing? If you ask most people to define “grammar,” they will probably rattle off a list of items such as parts of speech, punctuation, capitalization, subject-verb agreement, syntax, sentence structure, and maybe “gerunds, but I can never remember what they are.” The sad truth is that most people view grammar as disconnected from writing. One could even argue that the Common Core State Standards have reinforced this distinction by listing grammar standards separately from writing standards. So it should be no surprise that for decades (or longer), teachers have tended to address grammar in isolation, as in, “Today is Tuesday, so we’re doing prepositions. Turn to page 57 in your grammar book.”4 Which is not exactly a motivational approach. Here’s another non-surprise: When grammar is taught this way, students do not apply grammar rules in their own writing. In fact, considerable research has shown that teaching grammar in isolation does not improve student writing.5 And yet, unsure how else to proceed, many teachers have continued to take this approach. This book is about choosing a different approach—a different set of recipes. It’s a truism that when you want to make a change, you must first acknowledge there is a problem. We have now done that. The next thing you must do is stop doing things that don’t work. I’ve identified four key things to stop doing immediately. Note: You might think something on this list “worked” when you were a student. Keep in mind that some people can learn things no matter how they are taught. Considerable research shows that these four items do not help most students learn how to apply grammar rules in their writing. Number one: Stop launching lessons where you make students copy down the rules or definitions for grammatical terms first. I’ve seen many teachers start grammar lessons this way; possibly they believe they are building students’ background knowledge before discussing how to use whatever grammar concept they want to introduce. But this approach does not work—because telling is not teaching. Students are not empty vessels that we pour knowledge into. Taking notes without processing the information does not lead to learning. And if you explain a rule or definition first, you’ve killed any suspense or motivation to learn more. So even a few minutes later when you show some examples of the concept, students are like, “Meh.” They are not invested because you have not inspired their curiosity. There is no mystery, nothing to figure out. They don’t see what’s in it for them. It’s just another rule, which they might or might not want to follow. Just to be clear: I’m not saying we should never mention rules or definitions, only that we shouldn’t lead with them. In the next chapter, we’ll talk about how to flip the script in a way that’s more effective. Number two on the hit list is the “Daily Oral Language” (DOL) approach, in which teachers provide sentences riddled with random errors and students are supposed to correct them. Reading specialist Mark Pennington enumerates sixteen reasons why DOL doesn’t work, and I agree with each one. He points out that DOL is proofreading, not sentence construction; that it tries to teach writing without actually having students write; that it uses bad writing models to teach good writing; and that it doesn’t teach the whys and hows of grammar and mechanics.6 Requiring students to fix grammatically incorrect sentences might be a form of assessment, but it is not instructive. Students who know the relevant grammar rules will do fine; the ones who don’t will not learn the rules. We must teach before we assess. Even worse, some teachers implement this weak approach incorrectly. I cannot overstate the horror I’ve felt while watching students copy down incorrect sentences first—practicing the wrong thing!—and then struggling to keep up as the class went over the corrections; those students were actually damaged because all they walked away with was a list of ungrammatical sentences. One day as I was explaining the problems with DOL to a group of teachers, one woman raised her hand and said, “Wait. I’m the Grammar Queen. Let me tell you what I do.” I listened. She explained that if she were teaching, say, misplaced modifiers, she would give students a sentence with a misplaced modifier and ask them to correct it, to see if they could. My response was twofold. First, if you want to use grammatically incorrect sentences for diagnostic purposes, that’s OK as long as the sentences manifest only the one error that you’re trying to diagnose. DOL sentences typically contain four or more errors, all arbitrarily strewn throughout the sentence like dirty socks. And second, it would be better if you gave students two sentences instead—one with a misplaced modifier and one without—and asked students to explain what was different about the two sentences, identify which one was incorrect, and explain how they would fix it. Students sometimes offer the correct answer (“I think you need a comma there?”) without knowing what they’re talking about. We must push them to explain their ideas to demonstrate understanding. Number three: Stop drilling. Again, just because students can “circle the abstract nouns in the sentences on page 45,” it doesn’t mean their writing will include such nouns. In these types of activities, students often guess. The other day, I sat in the back of a classroom where a boy identified “Brazil” as an abstract noun. The teacher said, “Try again,” and he offered, “Concrete?”—clearly uncertain even though it was the only other option. There is no way such exercises will translate into effective writing. So stop. Please stop. Last, but definitely not least: Let’s stop over-editing student work. Many English teachers spend hours and hours marking up students’ papers (I personally lost years of my life to this grueling exercise), and when they hand those papers back, the students simply glance at the grade and do nothing with the feedback. The result is that the teachers become highly skilled at copy editing and their students’ writing does not improve. So here’s some good news: You don’t have to lose entire weekends to paper grading anymore. Instead, you must decide this: What do you want students to do with your feedback? If they are not going to use it to revise, then notes are not really necessary—and even if students are going to revise, those notes don’t have to be extensive. Over-editing is also pointless because editing marks alone can’t teach grammar rules; at best, they remind students of rules they already knew. As we’ll discuss in Chapter 2, your feedback should be timely and strategic—in short: targeted. Consider using the following “Essay Writing Rubric,” which includes space for brief, targeted remarks and a separate section for “Self-Improvement Goals” that students can set in each subsequent paper, using your comments as a guide. You can weight the skills you’ve taught more heavily, and you don’t have to assess all aspects of the rubric every time. Essay Writing Rubric:7 NAME: ASSIGNMENT: WRITING STANDARDS PTS. COMMENTS INTRODUCTION: ENGAGING HOOK 1-2 SUPPORTING STATEMENTS THESIS/MAIN ARGUMENT THESIS SUPPORT STATEMENT TOPIC SENTENCES: TRANSITION from previous paragraph Provide ARGUMENT for the paragraph that answers “HOW?” and “WHY?” in response to the thesis EVIDENCE: Use ACCURATE information and detailed support to prove thesis and topic sentences, including: CONTEXT surrounding quote (who, what, where when, why?) QUOTE/PARAPHRASE EXPLANATION of quote and how it illustrates/proves the point CONCLUSION: Draw logical,...