Dear ATEGers,

The NCTE convention was held this year in Milwaukee the weekend before last.
ATEG's session was scheduled at a miserable time--4:45 pm on Saturday--and
yet about 40 people showed up for a discussion on "Grammar Education for
Teachers and Students."  I spoke about ATEG and the position of grammar in
the current English mainstream, and then we all discussed approaches to and
difficulties with teaching grammar.  I am grateful to Jeff Glauner for
helping with discussion.  Jeff's roundtable on grammar the previous day was
heavily attended.  But aside from one other roundtable and a session someone
told me about on "Grammar with Humor" (!), we were the only sessions on
grammar out of several hundred programs.

Next year's NCTE convention will be held in Baltimore, on their usual
weekend, the one before Thanksgiving.  The deadline for convention proposals
is January 19; information can be found at ncte.org.  I encourage ATEG
members to consider grammar presentations.  After attending this convention,
I have a better sense of the tensions between the NCTE program and grammar,
ones that Martha Kolln has been expressing for years (but you have to be
there, and read the literature, to really get it).  In brief, grammar is
perceived as contrary to encouraging students to write fluently, and
contrary to cultural diversity.  Program proposals that take an integrative
approach on these two fronts might stand a chance.  Some approaches or
topics you might consider if you are interested in offering a grammar
program include: Showing students how to discover the rules of grammar for
themselves; Using grammar in the classroom to appreciate diverse
dialects/languages; Using grammar to help students read
poetry/Shakespeare/literature; Options for Revisions.  I and Martha and
others will be proposing a session on our 3S report as a work-in-progress.

Brock Haussamen

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