In a message dated 11/20/2007 1:00:02 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

Basically, everything I saw at NCTE this year points unquestionably to  a 
rising interest in grammar.



Dawn,
 
I would agree with that. Unfortunately, some of the teachers I  talked to are 
looking for help, not to help their students understand the way  language 
works, but in an attempt to find the magic bullet that will raise test  scores 
and save their jobs.  I heard many horror stories about schools who  aren't 
making their AYP numbers having gone "back to basics" in a big way -  drill and 
kill worksheets both for language arts and math.  They are being  held 
responsible personally by their administration for their students' numbers,  and they 
are desperate for something - anything - to help their kids pass those  tests.  
Direct grammar instruction has that cachet for administrators -  take all 
that messy, time consuming talk about language out of the room and use  the time 
to fill out worksheets that drill "correct" language into their  heads.  Maybe 
then the scores will come up and the school will avoid being  taken over.
 
I'm the assistant chair of the NCTE's middle level steering  committee, and I 
personally know teachers who have quit rather than teach this  way.  One 
teacher told me of her school, where 16 special education  students didn't pass 
the tests, and thus the whole school failed to make AYP.  The anger and the 
despair in these teachers was disheartening in the  extreme. In many ways it was a 
very sad convention.  While there are  signs in Washington the NCLB doesn't 
have the wholehearted support it once had,  there wasn't enough momentum to 
pass even minimal changes.  So it stays in  effect as is.
 
I hope that the teachers I talked to are the exception, and lots of  them are 
excited about returning to grammar because of what it adds to the  
conversation about language.  That just wasn't my admittedly limited  experience.
 
~Gretchen



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