>
Gretchen,

   I’m afraid I may have been more critical than helpful, so I thought I
would shift toward practical suggestions, at least for commas.
   I don’t think you should give up on commas just because it’s such a
difficult area. The ultimate goal is not to learn commas by the end of
seventh grade, but to do so by the time the student becomes a
functioning adult in the culture. And if we have some sense of the
KNOWLEDGE base needed for that, you can begin building toward that
goal.  It’s a matter of having realistic standards (goals) and a
thoughtful approach to accomplishing them.  The current standards don’t
do well on either count. I’m not sure if this is appropriate for
seventh grade, but this may be an alternative frame of reference.

Goals and Approaches:  Understanding and using commas.

1)	Students will be INTRODUCED to the syntactically based rules governing
the use of commas in a typical handbook or style manual, like the Chicago
Manual of Style, and will be INTRODUCED to an appropriate metalanguage for
understanding those rules and reading those handbooks and manuals. That
would include compounding and coordination, including the special case of
compound sentences. Subordinating and coordinating conjunctions.
Introductory word groups (before the grammatical subject of the main
clause) and their rhetorical function.  Coordinate adjectives.
Restrictive and non-restrictive modification and the word groups related
to that (prepositional phrases, appositional phrases, relative clauses,
participial and infinitive word groups.) Parenthetical interrupters and
sentence modifiers.  Cases where commas help anticipate contradictions,
resolve ambiguities, and prevent misreadings.

2)	Students will be introduced to working examples of professional writers
who use alternative approaches, but do so systematically. This should
include differences in British standards and practices.

3)	Students will be introduced to the intonation unit as it functions
within speech and as that carries over into writing.  They will explore
ways in which commas help orchestrate intonation and portion out a meaning
in ways a reader can assimilate effectively. (Commas after introductory
word groups, in non-restrictive modification, with parenthetical
interruptions, and with contradictions.)

4)	Students will have an opportunity to explore alternative sentence
structures and alternative punctuation practices in their own writing.
Punctuation will be taught as a means toward meaningful and effective
writing. Sentences will be judged on how well they help carry out the
evolving purposes of the text.

5)	Students will be encouraged to assess their own progress toward
effective use of punctuation.   This would include what they already know
well as well as areas where they still need some work.

    Though knowledge of syntax and punctuation may be presented in direct
instruction, it will always be done as an aid toward effective reading
and writing, not as a matter of correctness.

   It will be taken as a given that students maintain ownership of their
own writing.  Revisions will be presented in discussion and as
suggestions, not simply as corrections.

   We need a way, I think, to move a student along without pretending that
everyone will get there and without avoiding accountability.

   On the basis of what you are doing already, I don't see this as a
greater level of difficulty.  I know it's hard to do at the college
level, so I have great respecdt for the difficulty of the task.

Craig




Hi,
> Several of you have asked what the sixth and eight graders are  being
> expected to master, so I went to the state website and copied it  below.
>
> I just object to the whole mess.  Expecting me to teach  commas, for
> example,
> in one year is ridiculous.  It's one of the most  complex decisions a
> writer
> makes.  I've spent the entire year trying to  show my kids that language
> comes
> in chunks that we can move around to improve  meaning. To do that we've
> looked a prepositional phrases, verbals, appositives,  participial
> phrases,
> infinitives, etc., but it was all with an eye towards  improving their
> writing.
> We've written participle place poems, pronoun  story books, and all manner
> of
> projects around grammar; again, the emphasis has  been on what these
> various
> pieces do to our writing and meaning  making.
>
> One of the best days of the year came Thursday when we were looking  at
> some
> sentence imitating from a sentence combining book I have, and one of my
> kids
> called out, "Hey, Mrs. Le, look up there. He started the sentence with a
> participial phrase to make us see the action he was doing!  Just like us
> yesterday." We another had a great discussion about how moving the
> participial  phrase
> around changed the sentence and the meaning the reader got from  it.
>
> Now I'm being presented with this disconnected and seemingly random  list
> of
> things that I'm responsible for, and I'm at a loss.  How much time  do I
> spend
> dragging them through parts of speech so that each and every one of  them
> "knows" the parts of speech.  (How many discussions here on the list  are
> about
> the function of a word and how we'd classify it?  How much is  enough for
> seventh grade?)  What do I leave out to make time to do  that?  I have no
> problem
> teaching participles and infinitives (I just  finished a section on
> those), but
> is that all?
>
> I'm back to my basic gripe, though.  If not this, then  what?  My school
> wants to put up our benchmarks and standards on the  website so that
> parents know
> what we do.  What do I give them instead of  this mishmash?
>
> Did I mention that I have a whole 1.5 hour meeting to thrash this  out
> with
> the sixth and seventh grader teachers?
>
> ~Gretchen
>
> Sixth Grade:
> Students write and  speak with a command of standard English conventions
> appropriate to this grade  level.
> Sentence  Structure
> 1.1 Use simple, compound, and compound-complex sentences; use  effective
> coordination and subordination of ideas to express complete thoughts.
> Grammar
> 1.2 Identify and  properly use indefinite pronouns and present perfect,
> past
> perfect, and future  perfect verb tenses; ensure that verbs agree with
> compound subjects.
> Punctuation
> 1.3 Use colons  after the salutation in business letters, semicolons to
> connect independent  clauses, and commas when linking two clauses with a
> conjunction in compound  sentences.
>
> Eighth Grade:
> Students write and  speak with a command of standard English conventions
> appropriate to this grade  level.
> Sentence  Structure
> 1.1 Use correct and varied sentence types and sentence  openings to
> present a
> lively and effective personal style.
> 1.2 Identify and  use parallelism, including similar grammatical forms, in
> all written discourse  to present items in a series and items juxtaposed
> for
> emphasis.
> 1.3 Use  subordination, coordination, apposition, and other devices to
> indicate clearly  the relationship between ideas.
> Grammar
> 1.4 Edit written manuscripts to  ensure that correct grammar is used.
> Punctuation and Capitalization
> 1.5 Use  correct punctuation and capitalization.
>
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