Lis,
Unfortunately powerpoint presentations on line can only be read using
Internet Explorer 3x or higher. Do you have IE?
I'd send as an attachment, but attachments are tricky things on e-mail
discussion lists and shouldn't be sent. Plus (the real reason here), for
some reason I can't get the file to attach. For what it's worth, there are
some techie tweaks that will allow Netscape to read PP slides, but I can't
get the tweaks to work.
The articles appear in the March 2001 issue of Voices from the Middle,
NCTE's middle school journal. The entire issue is devoted to grammar. I
write a regular column for the journal--Tech Connect--which my co-editor and
I always linked to the theme of the issue.
Nancy
At 01:11 PM 6/30/01 -0400, you wrote:
>Nancy--I am the director of the Bluegrass Writing Project and am fascinated
>by your description of your presentation. However, when I try to open it,
>Netscape shuts down. Could you e-mail it to me as an attachment? Also,
>I'd be very interested in reading your articles--can you share the
>citations? Thanks. Liz Spalding
>
>
>At 08:50 AM 6/30/01 -0400, you wrote:
>>Just a couple of comments here. "Don't think; look" seems to reflect one
>>theory regarding literary criticism--New Criticism. It's not that academics
>>who embrace a different theory disregard thinking. Their thinking goes in a
>>somewhat different direction. And while there are certainly a lot of New
>>Critics still out there, other lit crit theories have taken hold, theories
>>that respect the reader as an agent in the meaning-making/literature-making
>>process. Many of you probably earned your bachelors degrees when New
>>Criticism was king. I did. I actually loved it. But waiting in the wings
>>was a more powerful, I think, theory driving lit crit, one that would be
>>embraced by the growing number of academics who came from different
>>cultures. And certainly there were more women entering the academy. These
>>women were reading
>>Cixous, Rosenblatt, and Kristeva, not to mention Bakhtin, Derrida, and
>>Barthes. Different voices, different ideas, different schemas. These
>>academics were looking for lit crit theories that weren't so eurocentric, so
>>(sorry) phallocentric.
>>
>>When you are talking about reading, you really cannot avoid talking about
>>writing too. As I explain it to 7th graders--all reading is writing. All
>>writing is reading. But we also need to understand that reading and writing
>>are both psycho-sociolinguistic process that are, in many respects, similar.
>>So when we look at grammar in the context of an already written text, we
>>have to remember that text is called into being by a reader who brings to
>>the text experience as a writer. That text does not stand alone. And if we
>>look at the cognitive processes of writing and reading, we see some
>>similarities. And, both processes are transactive. They require a
>>gathering of thoughts, if you will, a pre-engagement process. And both ask
>>the reader/writer to constantly predict and adjust.
>>
>>If you are looking at a k-12 language arts curriculum (and I realize some of
>>you are thinking in a more post secondary mode) grammar should be just one
>>of many conversations that happen. As a teacher, my job is to engineer
>>conversations and experiences for my students. Text is always the topic of
>>conversation, whether it is oral, written, or visual texts.
>>
>>A couple days ago I was a keynote speaker for a national writing project
>>site at Michigan State. I was invited to talk about grammar because of two
>>articles I had published. My powerpoint presentation for the keynote is now
>>on-line and you are welcome to look at it. Remember that my audience was
>>k-12 teachers. Some of them had a fairly good knowledge of grammar. Others
>>did not know what a preposition was. So, the writing invitation at the end
>>(which incorporates a poem by Gary Snyder) deals with grammar at a basic
>>level. Some of you no doubt will cringe, either at the research and theory
>>I cite, or the way I contextualize a grammar lesson into a larger
>>conversation/experience about written language and how it works.
>>
>>But you are welcome to look at it. I plan to add a couple slides to the
>>writing invitation since I cannot provide directions or discussion prompts
>>in the moment they way I could during the presentation itself.
>>
>>Enjoy or cringe as your experience and philosophy tell you.
>><http://www.npatterson.net/rcwp/grammarrcwp.htm>
>>
>>Nancy
>>
>>At 11:59 AM 6/30/01 -0400, you wrote:
>> > Paul's example is a fine one--starting with the students' perception
>> >of a certain general characteristic in the style of the text, and tracing
>> >that charactertistic back to a grammatical feature. This seems to me to be
>> >what "discovering" grammar is about. It could be extended to many responses
>> >that students have to texts, maybe even the vaguest ones, such as "it's
>> >descriptive" and "it's hard to follow." Traditionally, it seems to me,
>> >classroom discussions of literature move toward interpretation and become
>> >quite general quite quickly; students often get into discussions and simply
>> >stop looking at the book. (I tell them, as a professor of mine did once,
>> >"Don't think; look.") The awareness of style and its effects is not a
>> >particularly strong thread in English education. But the language arts
>> >goals stress the value of meaningful discusssions of language, and so
>> >students should have practice in articulating their impressions of a style
>> >and then understanding the qualities, including the grammatical ones, that
>> >create the style. Not always easy to do. Thus Paul's comments are helpful.
>> >Maybe to teach confidently this way, teachers would benefit from a greater
>> >repertoire of "grammar in the context of literature" examples.
>> >
>> >On another aspect of grammar and reading, I recall some discussion on this
>> >listserv a few months ago suggesting anecdotally that going over basic
>> >sentence patterns during a reading course had improved reading comprehension
>> >among weak readers (native English speakers). That is something I want to
>> >try the next time I teach developmental reading. If it is true, it seems to
>> >me very significant. (The reverse is very likely true--the more one reads,
>> >the easier it is to grasp sentence patterns, and grammar in general. But we
>> >would expect that.) If some formal exposure to sentence structure
>> >configurations helps weak readers, that seems to me as important as the
>> >saying that knowing grammar improves writing--and may be just as elusive to
>> >prove one way or the other.
>> >
>> >Brock Haussamen
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>Nancy G. Patterson
>>Portland Middle School, English Dept. Chair
>>Portland, MI 48875
>>
>>"To educate as the practice of freedom is a way of teaching that anyone can
>>learn."
>>
>>--bell hooks
>>
>> [log in to unmask]
>>http://www.msu.edu/user/patter90/opening.htm
>>http://www.npatterson.net/mid.html
>>
>>To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
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>
>Dr. Elizabeth Spalding
>Assistant Professor
>Department of Curriculum and Instruction
>309 Dickey Hall
>University of Kentucky
>Lexington, KY 40506-0017
>Phone:(606)257-4127
>Fax: (606)257-1602
>[log in to unmask]
>
>To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
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>
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>
>
Nancy G. Patterson
Portland Middle School, English Dept. Chair
Portland, MI 48875
"To educate as the practice of freedom is a way of teaching that anyone can
learn."
--bell hooks
[log in to unmask]
http://www.msu.edu/user/patter90/opening.htm
http://www.npatterson.net/mid.html
To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
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