Blog for 10/24 Here we go again...

This grammar thing eludes me--completely. I was just discussing (persuasively) my opinions on the old paradigm vs. the new one today; once with a round-table conference of teachers (pretty cool that I can do that now) and my Mom--who was wishing to know why I was being called in for my son. This issue continuously pops up in my life now, and just when I thought my stance was concrete, Hartwell sheds doubt on my confidence in the new paradigm. I mean, I will always feel that grammar can be taught through writing and it should be, but he did remind me of why we taught grammar the old way to begin with: We can learn a lot through writing, but we can't learn everything all the time. Touche

The old method worked. Somehow, we learned this boring, drone subject while sitting in a chair, taking notes, quizzes, exams, etc. But we still learned it. As Hartwell points out "Those of us who dismiss the teaching of formal grammar have a model of composition instruction that makes the grammar issue 'uninteresting' in a scientific sense. Our model predicts a rich and complex interaction of learner and environment in mastering literacy, an interaction that has little to do with sequences of skills instructions and such." (WTL, 200)

I do realize that the new paradigm will shake the foundations of the tried-and-true, old school philosophy.However, we will be able to incorporate grammar instruction within the writing process, thereby making it easier and more FUN to learn. As I read the text and realized that I do still hold fast to the ideology behind teaching grammar in a formally structured approach, I will readily embrace the "rich and complex interaction" of learning and teaching the process methodology. Remember, the key word here is "fun". We may have learned grammar the old way, but how many of us really remember exactly what it is that we learned about it? As it is, I can't even remember half the stuff I read in this chapter about the many different forms of grammar. I wonder we can't just integrate both methods, while focusing on new and inventive ways of teaching the subject.

I speak to people all the time who speak and write effectively, yet they can't even remember the definition of grammar. And I will admit that up until a few semesters ago, I was one of them. Chomsky, Lester Christensen and Britton's analogies made perfect sense. Maybe we don't need Grammar 2 in order to learn to write and produce effective results. As Smith reiterates "The major problem with formal statements about punctuation is that they require an understanding of what they are supposed to explain in the first place. They may also require an understanding of grammatical terminology, which itself is explained with respect to punctuation--complete circularity." (Smith, 201)I can't tell you how many times in my life this was true. Why, just this week I found myself grammatically confused and upon looking up the first answer, I had to utilize my dictionary and several other books to clarify the meaning of the definition. I was exhausted to say the least--never mind my frustration...

Regardless of the structure in the old method, something is wrong with the system. If we can't teach students that writing and grammar (ugh!)can be fun, (and slightly easier to learn than in my story above) we're not doing our job. Our students won't remember it later on and we'll just be earning a paycheck rather than teaching--we'll be wasting our time. This is not why I want to teach. We dicussed in class this week that only a small percentage of students in this country actually graduate from college. What about the other ninety-something percent that don't or can't go? Once they graduate from high school,(if they make it that far)they won't have anyone making them write and so they won't. We are the ones who need to change this mindset (and unfortunate statistic) and although we may not have all the details right, we need to try. I don't need research to know I'm right...I've performed the experiment several times, and to me, it's already proven--especially as I struggled through the WTL text. (yawn)