Reach Teach!

Williams, Dean, and Petit all agree on one thing: grammar needs to be taught, but not in the traditional way that is still found in most high schools, “Teaching grammar is not bad, learning grammar in the traditional way is bad� (Petit).

Because of the traditional way that grammar has been taught and because of how it is treated in society, many people know of several grammar terms/rules, but lack the ability or memory to apply them in real life situations. Grammar has been taught out of context as individual worksheets for years. I relate well to this experience as I remember some of my ninth grade year doing mindless grammar exercises which we did not address again or relate back to during the rest of the year. These rules were left forgotten and I deemed them “unimportant�, after all, I felt like I knew how to write.

Deborah Dean suggests teaching grammar without the grammar terms/rules, but rather through modeling good sentence structure. Every day she models sentences to her students who are asked to imitate the sentence structure as they create a new one. This is helpful to the students because she often makes those sentences meaningful and related to the context of class discussion. Dean should, however, consider the fact that students will most likely, especially if college bound, be asked to define their sentence structure. While Dean gives them different examples of sentence structure, she does not provide them with proper names, such as what clauses connect where. Maybe after the students have modeled the sentences, you can provide them with the adequate terms to describe the sentence structure.

Petit offers an exceptionally interesting workshop of how to teach grammar to students: as a rhetorical choice, as a style. Students can look at grammar not as rules or restrictions hindered upon them as writers, but rather as choices they can use as writers to make their writing more powerful and meaningful. In studying grammar as a choice, Petit also connects the study to real life context as they examine grammar choices in current texts they are reading and in revision projects in the classroom.

Grammar taught the traditional way is disengaging and lacking in real life connection. It is time we change grammars’ reputation. We need to look at new ideas such as Petit’s and Dean’s and keep strategizing to figure out how to best help students in their academic need of grammar.

The following web page provides examples of traditional grammar exercises that do not connect to real life context:

http://www.smic.be/smic5022/exercisesgrammar.htm

The following web page provides traditional grammar taught through games…much more engaging than worksheets….

http://www.funbrain.com/grammar/