I'm not sure we can discuss this topic without defining "direct instruction"
and "grammar."  Are elementary children taught the conventions of written
language, for example.  Of course they are.  And much of that is done
through direct instruction, what I heard someone call "full frontal
teaching."  The teacher stands up at the front of the class and tells
students that the first letter of the first word of a sentence gets
capitalized and, look, see how all the sentences in th Clifford books are
capitalized...

Are students taught parts of speech?  Every one of my students has had that
kind of direct grammar instruction before they reach my classroom.  In fact,
most American school children get that type of grammar instruction,
sometimes every year, sometimes every couple years, depending on the
teacher.  But I have 8th graders who don't know what a noun is and get
terribly frustrated when they think I'm going to go over that same stuff again.

Susan Ohanian points out that the common language arts experience for
children in this country is still highly traditional, which means students
receive what I suspect you are referring to as direct grammar instruction.
That direct grammar instruction doesn't sink in is rather obvious.  I mean,
just because you teach it doesn mean the kids learn it.  You could say that
kids don't learn these lessons because there are no good teachers.  You
could say they don't learn these lessons because kids today are slacker
weasels and won't work.  Or, we could take an honest look at the way grammar
has been taught for the past hundred years and realize that direct
instruction probably isn't the best way to teach grammar.  I want to point
out that I received my first grammar lesson in second grade, and then I got
the same lessons year after year after year.  I suspect that if students had
learned grammar the first time around, it would not have been taught again
and again and again.

Now, do I teach grammar?  Yes.  Do I use direct instruction.  Of course.  Do
I teach grammar traditionally?  No.

Nancy

Nancy G. Patterson, PhD
English Department Chair
Portland Middle School, Portland, MI

"To educate as the practice of freedom is a way of teaching that anyone can
learn."

--bell hooks

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http://www.npatterson.net

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