Amanda,
   Since composition is my primary field, I understand how full a semester that would be (the one course in teaching writing) just surveying the history of the field and trying to present reasonably tested and accepted approaches.  Since gramamr has NOT been well integrated into the field, I would assume that would be part of what might get admitted; that we haven't worked out an accepted way within the field to adequately integrate grammar instruction into the teaching of real writing, and we haven't found ways to square holistic assessment with standardized testing and its strong focus on error.
    It seems to me that the grammar course you are currently offering focuses more on THEORIES about grammar teaching than it does on an understanding of grammar.  (You address the later at the end of  the list, and then pretty much as an afterthought.) Am I right in interpreting that you do not advocate, within this course, the actual teaching of grammar to native speakers?  Do you find that the students/prosepctive teachers who come into the course have sufficient grounding in grammar to allow them to leave with a reasonably full understanding of syntax while doing all this additional thinking and reading?  
   I don't mean this as a criticism of the course as its taught, just a way of talking about the kinds of terrible choices we have to make if we try to design a single course to accomplish very complex goals.  
   I am beginning to wonder if we aren't becoming "enablers" of sorts, allowing the status quo to continue unchallenged.
1)  The progressive position is that teaching grammar is harmful.
2)  Since teachers won't be asked to teach grammar (do harm), it is less important for them to know grammar than it is for them to know the reasons why they should be very careful about teaching it.
3)  Exception is made for non-native speakers.  There's not room for full ESL training, but some accomodation to differing needs?  
     The official position is that grammar is best taught "in context", but does anyone know of a place where that is actually happening?  
    Is this a matter of pretending that it isn't broke in order to avoid having to try and fix it?

Craig

Amanda Godley wrote:
[log in to unmask]"> 
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

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/
    

 
*****
Amanda J. Godley, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
English Education
University of Pittsburgh
412-648-7313
    

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/

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/