Dear ATEGers, The NCTE convention was held this year in Milwaukee the weekend before last. ATEG's session was scheduled at a miserable time--4:45 pm on Saturday--and yet about 40 people showed up for a discussion on "Grammar Education for Teachers and Students." I spoke about ATEG and the position of grammar in the current English mainstream, and then we all discussed approaches to and difficulties with teaching grammar. I am grateful to Jeff Glauner for helping with discussion. Jeff's roundtable on grammar the previous day was heavily attended. But aside from one other roundtable and a session someone told me about on "Grammar with Humor" (!), we were the only sessions on grammar out of several hundred programs. Next year's NCTE convention will be held in Baltimore, on their usual weekend, the one before Thanksgiving. The deadline for convention proposals is January 19; information can be found at ncte.org. I encourage ATEG members to consider grammar presentations. After attending this convention, I have a better sense of the tensions between the NCTE program and grammar, ones that Martha Kolln has been expressing for years (but you have to be there, and read the literature, to really get it). In brief, grammar is perceived as contrary to encouraging students to write fluently, and contrary to cultural diversity. Program proposals that take an integrative approach on these two fronts might stand a chance. Some approaches or topics you might consider if you are interested in offering a grammar program include: Showing students how to discover the rules of grammar for themselves; Using grammar in the classroom to appreciate diverse dialects/languages; Using grammar to help students read poetry/Shakespeare/literature; Options for Revisions. I and Martha and others will be proposing a session on our 3S report as a work-in-progress. Brock Haussamen To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/