In the article entitled “How to Teach Grammar, Analytical Thinking, and Writing”, Lynn Sams (2003) voiced and suggested methods on how grammar and writing should be taught in the classroom. This article was published in the English Journal by the National Council of Teachers of English. Sams based her research on her 16 years of experience as a high school teacher and the instructional approaches she used with her sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth grade classes. Sams refers to grammar as “the relationship between structure and meaning” (57). The information in this article demonstrates processes of analyzing the structure of sentences and suggests students cannot completely understand writing without first understanding the basic concepts of grammar.
Sams explained that both traditional and in-context approaches to teach grammar are unsuccessful because “they treat grammar as something that exists apart from and outside of the writing process itself” (57). When referring to grammar and writing, Sams suggests “to study one is to study the other” (57). Sams explained that she first emphasized the process of drafting and revising. Sams’s instruction included the students working together and sharing their ideas and feedback during the drafting process. However, Sams realized that this process would not be successful without first teaching the students how to revise. Sams then based the instruction on the concept that the students needed to organize their work in a reasonable order that can be understood by others. Sams explained that to organize ideas, the students needed to be able to understand “how their ideas relate to one another” and how to separate “main ideas and supporting details” (58). However, to separate main ideas from...
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...Grammar Alive (2003) discuss the use of sentence diagrams to provide students with visual displays of the material. According to the authors of Grammar Alive, “many students do indeed find the diagrams helpful in seeing the relationships among sentence elements” (75). The use of questioning strategies in this process can ensure that students learn the content and can encourage critical thinking. Teachers should provide interesting and challenging questions designed to engage students thinking. Creating a classroom environment in which thinking and analyzing are valued is important to the success of all students. This process is definitely a process I would use in my classroom to improve the students’ understanding of grammar and writing. With improvement of grammar and writing, the students’ written work will improve and evolve to a more professional level.
In his essay, "Teach Writing as a Process not a Product," Donald Murray outlines the major difference between the traditional pedagogy that directed the teaching of writing in the past and his newly hailed model. Traditionally, Murray explains, English teachers were taught to teach and evaluate students' writing as if it was a finished product of literature when, as he has discovered, students learn better if they're taught that writing is a process. For Murray, once teachers regard writing as a process, a student-centered, or writer-centered, curriculum falls into place. Rules for writing fall by the way side as writers work at their own pace to see what works best for them.
Her friend gave her support and allowed her to realize different perspectives to incorporate into her writing. Duffy’s sophomore year English teacher, gave her the guidance to improve her skill. Therefore, the methods teachers approach teaching their subject matter is imperative to their students’
Throughout High School, going to English, there were always four questions that crossed my mind. Are we reading a book? Watching the movie of this book? Writing one essay on the motifs of the book? And lastly, I thought this was English so why aren’t I being taught English? My High School experience is a prime example of what Stanley Fish and Maxine Hairston mean when they say that teachers are spending too much time on things that will not benefit students writing skills. Stanley Fish wrote in the New York Times, “What Should Colleges Teach?” and Maxine Hairston wrote in College Composition and Communication, “Diversity, Ideology, and Teaching Writing.” Within both of these articles, Hairston and Fish agree with each other and my High School experience that Composition classes are not focusing on the right things.
Writing is an important and useful way to communicate with people. Without an essential writing skill, people may have difficulty communicating with others. In Pace University, English Department focuses on improving students writing by adding a workshop class to improve students ' writing. Over the course of the semester, I have learned a better technique and tips from Professor Boylan, reading an essay from authors and class discussion. Writing had always been one of my weaknesses, but it was challenging to take that initial step past high school. When I am first taking English 120, I have decided to take all the help that are available to minimize grammar mistakes, better sentence structures, and better vocabularies usage. Reading an article or essay before every class improves my vocabulary usage, Doing discourse community essay shows me a way to express my feeling about being
From the teacher: Cat's interest in the subject of this paper was sparked by her consulting clients repeated requests to have her "just go over the grammar" in their papers. She wondered what they meant by that. Why were they so concerned about grammar? As a result, she decided to investigate how students are instructed in grammar. This paper, her final presentation for the Peer Writing Consultant course, grew out of her research.
Although adequate writing skills are indispensable for life, leisure, and employment, quite a few students do not learn how to write effectively. Since writing is an exercise in thinking, it is important to balance the process of writing with the mechanics of writing. The areas of the brain involved in the writing task are varied yet interrelated; therefore, a student’s individual needs will determine the method of instruction they receive. Many students who have low expectations for their own academic success will not make even minimal efforts to complete a...
The first thing I think of when I try to define good styles of writing is a knack for grammar and vocabulary. These are the most important aspects of writing when it comes to getting oneÂ’s message across. Without proper grammar, confusion and misinterpretation reign supreme. Strunk and White feature an entire chapter exclusively to the practice of using the correct grammar (Strunk and White chapter 4). Williams, meanwhile feels that the rules are not necessary to dwell on ever, and breaks rules down into three ways: rules that "No native speaker of English has to think about", rules that educated writers only think about "when they see or hear them violated" and finally, rules that are apparently there for grammarians to find faults in writing, and that educated writers generally accept that these rules can be ignored (Williams 176).
“To Teach Or Not To Teach Grammar In The Primary School Classroom: That Is The Question”
If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.
Teaching Grammar as a Parent As a parent how do you teach grammar? Children learn from their parents; what they do and how they do it. Of course, children learn from their teachers, as well as, other children.
Grammar has two primary approaches—prescriptive and descriptive. Prescriptive grammar is the general approach of right versus wrong, and historically the kind of approach overzealous English teachers apply to their students. Popular culture has lovingly deemed the rigid prescriptive grammarian the “Grammar Nazi,” which actually refers to the grade school graduate who clings tightly to the Latin based traditional rules and enforces those rules online. Due to these perspectives and due to various studies performed in classrooms, many have been rebuffing the study of grammar in schools. Some critics suggest that understanding grammar is ineffective and harms more than it helps writing. Contrary to the backlash against grammar studies, “grammar” encompasses a broader swathe of scholarship, and although prescriptive grammar drills may not be the most effective route, grammar studies do present several potential benefits for aspiring writers. In this paper, I will provide theoretical background concerning the study of grammar; then I will apply those theories to my own writing. Although not an instantaneous solution, grammar studies do facilitate “good” writing by providing writers the tools that they need to gainfully improve and revise writing.
When discussing the teaching of grammar, it is crucial to realise what the exact meaning of grammar is because grammar is more closely related, in instructors’ perspectives, to language pedagogy than of other modalities (Hudson,2012). In other words, to understand this study and its purposes to distinguish what pedagogical grammar methods should be implemented and what aspects of grammar teachers instruct in class, it is worth accentuating its definitions first. Consequently, it seems sensible to contemplate meanings regarding the term “grammar” with a view to finding out what the most common understanding of grammar is as there is lots of diversity in the usage of this term. Demystified by Ur (2012,p. 82-84), the
Many teachers have some general knowledge on how to assess vocabulary and grammar when it comes to testing and also vocabulary and grammar is the form of testing that it is most used by teachers. There is more to just applying a test, as a language teacher you need to be aware of diverse factors that are considered when testing. The following summary was based on a webinar titled “Understanding grammar and vocabulary assessment: what every teacher should know” where many key points and tips of assessing grammar and vocabulary were developed. In the following summary you will be able to read about these main questions related to assessing grammar and vocabulary: Why is assessment of vocabulary and grammar one of the
Few would argue with the statement that writing skills are in state of decline. It is readily apparent that something needs to be done to resolve the issues that are preventing students from grasping the fundamentals of composition. However, there is a divergence of opinion when it comes to determining the cause of the nation’s writing ails. Many blame technology, giving cell phones and television particular attention. Others give technology a more indirect blame, claiming that email, instant messaging, and cell phones have robbed students of a desire to learn proper writing skills. While these ideas may bear some truth, the root of the problem lies within the instruction of writing, which to a large extent is ineffective. The writing problems faced by students and adults alike are the direct result of ineffective methods of instruction in composition.
Students should be able to know grammar well enough to teach it to another as that is a test of proficiency, comprehension, and true understanding. The end goal of grammar instruction is lifelong grammar proficiency and understanding. As an English Instructor, there is a lot to keep in mind in terms of keeping grammar in context. Students should have big takeaways they keep for life from grammar class as writing is essential to everyday life as an adult. And finally, It should