Nancy--I am the director of the Bluegrass Writing Project and am fascinated by your description of your presentation. However, when I try to open it, Netscape shuts down. Could you e-mail it to me as an attachment? Also, I'd be very interested in reading your articles--can you share the citations? Thanks. Liz Spalding At 08:50 AM 6/30/01 -0400, you wrote: >Just a couple of comments here. "Don't think; look" seems to reflect one >theory regarding literary criticism--New Criticism. It's not that academics >who embrace a different theory disregard thinking. Their thinking goes in a >somewhat different direction. And while there are certainly a lot of New >Critics still out there, other lit crit theories have taken hold, theories >that respect the reader as an agent in the meaning-making/literature-making >process. Many of you probably earned your bachelors degrees when New >Criticism was king. I did. I actually loved it. But waiting in the wings >was a more powerful, I think, theory driving lit crit, one that would be >embraced by the growing number of academics who came from different >cultures. And certainly there were more women entering the academy. These >women were reading >Cixous, Rosenblatt, and Kristeva, not to mention Bakhtin, Derrida, and >Barthes. Different voices, different ideas, different schemas. These >academics were looking for lit crit theories that weren't so eurocentric, so >(sorry) phallocentric. > >When you are talking about reading, you really cannot avoid talking about >writing too. As I explain it to 7th graders--all reading is writing. All >writing is reading. But we also need to understand that reading and writing >are both psycho-sociolinguistic process that are, in many respects, similar. >So when we look at grammar in the context of an already written text, we >have to remember that text is called into being by a reader who brings to >the text experience as a writer. That text does not stand alone. And if we >look at the cognitive processes of writing and reading, we see some >similarities. And, both processes are transactive. They require a >gathering of thoughts, if you will, a pre-engagement process. And both ask >the reader/writer to constantly predict and adjust. > >If you are looking at a k-12 language arts curriculum (and I realize some of >you are thinking in a more post secondary mode) grammar should be just one >of many conversations that happen. As a teacher, my job is to engineer >conversations and experiences for my students. Text is always the topic of >conversation, whether it is oral, written, or visual texts. > >A couple days ago I was a keynote speaker for a national writing project >site at Michigan State. I was invited to talk about grammar because of two >articles I had published. My powerpoint presentation for the keynote is now >on-line and you are welcome to look at it. Remember that my audience was >k-12 teachers. Some of them had a fairly good knowledge of grammar. Others >did not know what a preposition was. So, the writing invitation at the end >(which incorporates a poem by Gary Snyder) deals with grammar at a basic >level. Some of you no doubt will cringe, either at the research and theory >I cite, or the way I contextualize a grammar lesson into a larger >conversation/experience about written language and how it works. > >But you are welcome to look at it. I plan to add a couple slides to the >writing invitation since I cannot provide directions or discussion prompts >in the moment they way I could during the presentation itself. > >Enjoy or cringe as your experience and philosophy tell you. ><http://www.npatterson.net/rcwp/grammarrcwp.htm> > >Nancy > >At 11:59 AM 6/30/01 -0400, you wrote: > > Paul's example is a fine one--starting with the students' perception > >of a certain general characteristic in the style of the text, and tracing > >that charactertistic back to a grammatical feature. This seems to me to be > >what "discovering" grammar is about. It could be extended to many responses > >that students have to texts, maybe even the vaguest ones, such as "it's > >descriptive" and "it's hard to follow." Traditionally, it seems to me, > >classroom discussions of literature move toward interpretation and become > >quite general quite quickly; students often get into discussions and simply > >stop looking at the book. (I tell them, as a professor of mine did once, > >"Don't think; look.") The awareness of style and its effects is not a > >particularly strong thread in English education. But the language arts > >goals stress the value of meaningful discusssions of language, and so > >students should have practice in articulating their impressions of a style > >and then understanding the qualities, including the grammatical ones, that > >create the style. Not always easy to do. Thus Paul's comments are helpful. > >Maybe to teach confidently this way, teachers would benefit from a greater > >repertoire of "grammar in the context of literature" examples. > > > >On another aspect of grammar and reading, I recall some discussion on this > >listserv a few months ago suggesting anecdotally that going over basic > >sentence patterns during a reading course had improved reading comprehension > >among weak readers (native English speakers). That is something I want to > >try the next time I teach developmental reading. If it is true, it seems to > >me very significant. (The reverse is very likely true--the more one reads, > >the easier it is to grasp sentence patterns, and grammar in general. But we > >would expect that.) If some formal exposure to sentence structure > >configurations helps weak readers, that seems to me as important as the > >saying that knowing grammar improves writing--and may be just as elusive to > >prove one way or the other. > > > >Brock Haussamen > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >Nancy G. Patterson >Portland Middle School, English Dept. Chair >Portland, MI 48875 > >"To educate as the practice of freedom is a way of teaching that anyone can >learn." > >--bell hooks > > [log in to unmask] >http://www.msu.edu/user/patter90/opening.htm >http://www.npatterson.net/mid.html > >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/ Dr. Elizabeth Spalding Assistant Professor Department of Curriculum and Instruction 309 Dickey Hall University of Kentucky Lexington, KY 40506-0017 Phone:(606)257-4127 Fax: (606)257-1602 [log in to unmask] 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/