For the past seven years, I have been winnowing down the "essentials of
grammar" for my teacher candidates who must learn as much as possible about
grammar and the teaching of grammar in one semester.  In regard to the
argument now current on our listserver about traditional vs. modern methods,
it is something of a toss-up in my class.  I have reverted largely to
traditional terminology and the students must memorize the terms.  For
instance, verbs are not "action words."  They are "verbs." On the other
hand, I refuse to define these terms except through context.  Traditional
definitions seem to do very little but confuse.  Instead, I mix traditional
and modern again.  First, the students must memorize a few simple sentences
that provide a minimal context for the grammatical function/constituent I am
attempting to teach.  Then, before they forget these sentences, they must
relate them to more complex sentences in the real world (from their reading
and speaking). Thus, curmudgeon meets relativist.

My students are, by the way, retaining approximately 80% of what they learn
during a semester long enough to prove it on the final exam.  I am noted as
one of the toughest graders in the humanities division and in my grammar
class, the same students who went from 30% knowledge/comprehension on my
preassessment to 80% on my post assessment are averaging 88% (B+) as a class
for final grades. Not bad in a discipline that (according to certain
"scholars) can't be taught. (I will be the first to admit that I experience
a few horrendous failures, students who do worse on the post-test than on
the pretest.  I'm reteaching one of them this summer, one lesson at a time,
mostly oral, a Gardnerian exercise.)

I believe that one of the most dangerous things teachers can do is to become
believers in a system to the extent that they cannot be pragmatic.  It seems
to me that the correspondents on this listserver do not occupy this terrain,
but I fear that we pump a large number of such teachers into the system
every year.  Knowledge is power.  The skills for acquiring new knowledge
later on is even more power.  We can provide both to our students.

Jeff Glauner
Associate Professor of English
Park University, Box 1303
8700 River Park Drive
Parkville MO 64152
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http://www.park.edu/jglauner/index.htm

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