I don't have the details from Amy yet, but apparently our proposal for
NCTE endorsement of a more systematic instruction in grammar never made
it out of committee.
   My guess is that people don't know how to differentiate between
different approaches, and an endorsememnt of grammar seems like an
endorsement of this "back to basics" grill and drill pattern. Maybe we
need a full scope and sequence before people can imagine a reasonable
alternative.
   In keeping with the holiday, let's give thanks for ATEG and for each
other.

Craig >

In a message dated 11/20/2007 1:00:02 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> Basically, everything I saw at NCTE this year points unquestionably to  a
> rising interest in grammar.
>
>
>
> Dawn,
>
> I would agree with that. Unfortunately, some of the teachers I  talked to
> are
> looking for help, not to help their students understand the way  language
> works, but in an attempt to find the magic bullet that will raise test
> scores
> and save their jobs.  I heard many horror stories about schools who
> aren't
> making their AYP numbers having gone "back to basics" in a big way -
> drill and
> kill worksheets both for language arts and math.  They are being  held
> responsible personally by their administration for their students'
> numbers,  and they
> are desperate for something - anything - to help their kids pass those
> tests.
> Direct grammar instruction has that cachet for administrators -  take all
> that messy, time consuming talk about language out of the room and use
> the time
> to fill out worksheets that drill "correct" language into their  heads.
> Maybe
> then the scores will come up and the school will avoid being  taken over.
>
> I'm the assistant chair of the NCTE's middle level steering  committee,
> and I
> personally know teachers who have quit rather than teach this  way.  One
> teacher told me of her school, where 16 special education  students didn't
> pass
> the tests, and thus the whole school failed to make AYP.  The anger and
> the
> despair in these teachers was disheartening in the  extreme. In many ways
> it was a
> very sad convention.  While there are  signs in Washington the NCLB
> doesn't
> have the wholehearted support it once had,  there wasn't enough momentum
> to
> pass even minimal changes.  So it stays in  effect as is.
>
> I hope that the teachers I talked to are the exception, and lots of  them
> are
> excited about returning to grammar because of what it adds to the
> conversation about language.  That just wasn't my admittedly limited
> experience.
>
> ~Gretchen
>
>
>
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