At 12:11 AM 9/25/97 +0000, Paul E. Doniger wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender:       Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
>              <[log in to unmask]>
>Poster:       "Paul E. Doniger" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject:      Re: Teaching Tips?
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>At 08:13 PM 9/23/97 +0000, you wrote:
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
>>              <[log in to unmask]>
>>Poster:       EDWARD VAVRA <[log in to unmask]>
>>Subject:      Teaching Tips?
>>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>-
>>
>>This list has been very quiet thus far this year. Was it
>>mentioned here that at the last ATEG conference
>>Martha suggested a book -- a collection of teaching
>>tips related at least indirectly to grammar?  Martha,
>>perhaps you want to comment on this?
>>
>>Just trying to keep us going,
>>Ed V.
>>
>Ditto this idea!  I, for one, would like some suggestions regarding methods
>to teach grammar to low-achieving students in such a way that they enjoy it
>AND learn.
>
>Paul E. Doniger
>[log in to unmask]
 
Yes, at ATEG this summer we did decide to look into a publishing
venture--we hope with NCTE--in which we put together materials on teaching
grammar.  I hesitate somewhat to use the word "tips"--that sounds too much
like bits and pieces.  What I'll be proposing--and asking for when I start
working on the project in 1998--is for submissions that describe ways in
which grammar can be integrated into comp classes, language arts classes,
reading,  the writing process, whole language.
 
 I don't think we'll ever get grammar into the curriculum as a separate
class or unit--that sounds too much like the "skills approach."  So we want
to get grammar there as a tool for writers and readers.  Maybe we should
call it the "tool approach."  And--this is important:  The project must be
based on sound scholarship.  It's way past time for us to move beyond the
time when learning grammar meant learning definitions for eight parts of
speech!
 
That's the plan.  You'll hear--and read--more about it next year--in early
spring.
 
Martha Kolln