At 09:02 PM 6/14/01 -0400, you wrote:
>>>>
Geoff,  I was under the impression that not all grammarians believed that
grammar  instruction will improve writing, and that many of those who were
"consumed"  with the belief were reacting to the NCTE anti-grammar stance.
At least  I don't have to defend it as writing process, which I know will
get me in  trouble with the masses.

I wanted to change that "consumed" line, but failed to do so.  I guess I
was trying to get across the point that many people (like me), who think
grammar is important, can't quite accept the "anti-grammar" position, even
though years of research and in my case personal experience tell us
otherwise.  Peraps quixotically, I do want to defend grammar as being
helpful to the writing process, all the while not getting myself in trouble
with "the masses."

I have found that the only way to connect grammar with writing is to
de-emphasize the definitions and teach instead the usage and usage in a
very particular way - namely, having my students learn how writers create
meaning.  It seems to me that writers create meaning - and, similarly,
readers create meaning from writing - only by using grammatical
constructions that can be taught, but do not necessarily have to be named
and analyzed.  To continue with the tool analogy, you don't have to know
that a drill is called a drill in order to use it, although if you use one
enough you'll probably want to find out.

This is where I have come up with what I call my "sentence stuffing" idea
(I'm working on a book!) that requires students to use specific grammatical
constructs to create meaning - again, the "crying baby" sentence is the one
I start with.  Once a student gets going, all of a sudden dependent
clauses, prepositional phrases, appositives, adjectives and adverbs are
flying all over the place - all used correctly even by the most marginal
students.

I now have hope that English teachers, just like the Washington
politicians, can finally stop our bickering and have a bipartisan agreement
on the value of grammar!

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