Re Fr. Laurence's posting:

WOW! What a terrific program he is implementing. I think it is a
wonderful model for grammar teaching. Strong points I find are:

- 'top-down' analysis: starts with a whole and looks for large-size
parts (i.e. not necessarily one word; phrasal parts)
- steadily adds complexity as simpler structures are clearly understood
- relates meaning ('information') directly to structure
- works with content that interests students
- gives students an opportunity to use what they learn creatively in
composition and imitation exercises
- uses a form of diagramming which is useful instead of adding to the
confusion and difficulty.

If I may be so bold, I'd like to suggest that Fr. Laurence take things a
step 'higher' and investigate with his students the relation between
text structure (paragraphs and larger) and sentence-level choices. There
are two good questions to start with:
a) How does (or just 'does') the choice of subject in each sentence help
maintain topic and subtopic thread by naming a topic/subtopic?
b) Are there consistent grammatical roles used to maintain mention of
already-introduced ideas/entities vs. to introduce new information about
them (the 'news' or ideas about the topic(s) that the writer wishes to
convey)? And to connect the new ideas to the correct topics/subtopics?

OK, a third one:
c) How does changing the patterns you find in answering the above
questions change the stylistic effect of the text?

It seems to me that kids who have the abilities Fr. Laurence describes
would be able to do this intelligently and perhaps profit from it.

If I may, Fr. Laurence, I will store up your message for our 3S work. It
provides what I think is an excellent model to discuss under method.

And a query: Where might I be able to find examples of the diagramming
method you use? It sounds a lot like what I developed for my courses/book.

Johanna

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue  • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184  •  Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone.  756-259
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] •  Home page: http://www.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
                                       **
"Understanding is a lot like sex; it's got a practical purpose,
but that's not why people do it normally"  -            Frank  Oppenheimer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~