In our English Education preservice teacher program at the University of
Pittsburgh, we require two methods courses related to the one you are
proposing. We require a course entitled Teaching Writing and another
entitled Teaching Grammar and Usage. Some topics covered in the classes
overlap, of course.  We're about to change the title of the second course to
better reflect the broader approach we take to teaching about language in
the context of English Language Arts classes.

The texts we use are:
Language and Learning by Elise Trumbull & Beverly Farr. Pub: Christopher
Gordon: 2005: ISBN # 1-929024-80-0
 
Grammar Alive! by Brock Haussamen, et al. Pub: NCTE: 2003: ISBN#
0-8141-1872-0.
 
Systems in English Grammar by Peter Master. Pub: Prentice Hall Regents:
1996: ISBN # 0-13-156837-X.

M.A.K. Halliday, ³Uses and Users of Language²

L. Wong-Fillmore & C. Snow, ³What Teachers Need to Know about Language²

Diane Larsen-Freeman, ³Teaching Grammar²

NCTE Guideline ³Some Questions and Answers about Grammar²
www.ncte.org/about/over/positions/category/gram/107646.htm
<http://www.ncte.org/about/over/positions/category/gram/107646.htm>
 
Guadalupe Valdes, ³The World outside and inside Schools: Language and
Immigrant Children² Educational Researcher, 27, 6, 4-18.
 
Starla H. Anderson; Syd Butler, ³Language and Power in the Classroom: An
Interview with Harold Rosen² The English Journal, 71, 3, 24-28.

The film _American Tongues_.

Topics covered include:
 
    Uses and Users of Language
    Why Teach Grammar?
    Language, Culture and Society
    Language Acquisition and Children
    English as another Language (ESOL/ESL/ELL)
    Second Language Acquisition (SLA)
    Language and Literacy
    Instructional Strategies
    Language and Assessment

Students also do work (through the Master's text) on understanding how parts
of sentences function and explaining these to students (particularly English
Language Learners).

-Amanda


 
On 11/21/05 10:00 AM, "Craig Hancock" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>     I am in very preliminary discussions about developing/teaching a
> graduate level course in grammar and writing, essentially for current
> and prospective teachers.  Is anyone currently teaching such a course?
>  If so, would you have a course description and/or syllabus you could
> pass on?
>     As I had the need described to me, these students tend to see
> grammar in largely prescriptive terms and don't have a base of
> understanding sufficient to carry out even that limited agenda. The
> people considering supporting the course want an approach that wouldn't
> contradict progressive practices or diminish the whole enterprise of
> writing.
>     My first thoughts are that there's too much to cover in a single
> semester without some sort of strategy for limiting it down.  I'm
> wondering if anyone else out there has faced this problem and come up
> with solutions. Is this a somewhat standard course anywhere in the U.S.?
>  Should it be?
> 
> Craig
> 
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*****
Amanda J. Godley, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
English Education
University of Pittsburgh
412-648-7313
    

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