I assumed you wanted a private reply. 
 
Thanks for the compliment on my post--I am as much impressed by many of the people on this list as you are and after reading their messages for several years now, I feel I almost "know" these people, especially the regulars like you, Paul, and Johanna ( I really love her posts--she must be an incredible instructor).
 
As to my approach--well, I have quite a bit of latitude in my school.  We are very small, rural, and few people take language arts seriously, so I get away with quite a bit.  However, I am pleased to say that I have a very good reputation for preparing students adequately for the colleges they attend, and over the years I have had students attend in colleges, both private and public, from Florida (e.g, Pensacola) to Washington, and even West Point.  So, yes, I do have my school's support, and since we are rural, my district tends to be mo! re traditional (you know, the 3 R's), English wouldn't be English to my parents without the teaching of grammar.
 
I really just teach from the heart--common sense stuff--and have a great respect and love for languages in general--my maternal grandparents were Russian-German immigrants to this country, my husband's family are from Applachia, and my siblings are spread from one coast to another, so I have a great understanding of dialect and communication confusion!   I have received instruction from both camps--pro- and anti-grammar--and firmly believe that, whether conscious or subconscious, good writers are good grammarians, and the best writers know how to break, bend, or comply with the "rules" of grammar--they are true masters of the language.
 
What I meant by layering is that each year I try to take two steps back and one step forward, expecting students to review and master previously-taught concepts (! for example, I will not "teach" parts of speech to 10th-graders--how absurd and, really, not that helpful) and when I do review that concept, I throw in the "tests" that most textbooks do not contain (e.g. nouns can be made plural, can follow determiners alone, etc.) nor will I drill them (I do teach them, though) on parts of the sentence because I don't think that level of grammar helps much in writing or speaking.  I also use a math formula (if/then, P + N, etc.) approach (again, not in textbooks) to teach phrases, clauses, parts of the sentence, even parts of speech.  This approach does work better with older students who have mastered algebra.  However, I will focus strongly on usage (not in a strict prescriptive sense), which is a broad term and varies from textbook to textbook, but usually covers informal word choice vs. formal word choice, proper use of modifiers (e.g. less/fewer, etc.), at every grade level, reaching the final limit when I work ! with my seniors on what I consider higher-level usage (e.g., proper use of prepositions following verbs.  Do I say "explantion of" or "explanation for,"  or "make amends with" or "make amends for"   By the way, I have never found a high school textbook that addresses this area of usage--I always have to refer to a usage handbook).  I had a wonderful linguistics professor in college who came from a transformational grammar background and I throw in lots of stuff I learned from him--my students all know what a determiner is and I frequently argue with textbooks that confuse verbs with participles (predicate adjectives) and reluctantly use the Reed-Kellog method of diagramming (I am an X-bar fan, or tree diagrammer).  I also stress agreement, logical use of subordinating conjunctions, and teach puncutation from a grammatical perspective--for example, it's much easier to teach the use of semicolon and colon if students have an understanding ! to independent clause or verb/object first.  Each year, the amount of time I have to spend on review decreases as student cognitive ability increases.  I don't drill on tenses until the senior year--by then, they can understand mood, tense, and aspect so much more quickly.  Younger students can memorize irregular verb forms but I don't think they really understand when to use the perfect tense--their knowledge is simply mechanical.  My older students, who are writing quite critically by that time, see the real need to use tenses and aspect correctly in order to convey the meaning intended.  Same goes for many subordinating conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs, which express relationships that require critical thinking that many younger students simply do not have. 
 
I don't know if that really explains to you what I do--so much of teaching is second nature and arises to address the need before ! us rather than from a prescribed curriculum.  My best description to people who ask how I teach is that I go back and forth, in and out, up and down with whatever I am teaching--writing, reading, or grammar.  My teaching is linear, but not perfectly so.
 
thanks for asking--I look forward to your future posts!
 
 
 
 
 
My supervising teacher during my student-teaching had spent a year in Australia where, at least then, they delayed grammar instruction until late high school because so much of grammar is highly abstract. I believe that.  

Craig Hancock <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
I was away from my mail for a day or so, so I'll reply to a number of
posts in one message.
Paul, I very much enjo! yed your "rant" (much more sensible than the term
implies.) It would be nice to have a sense of scaffolding so that
students entering high school would have a solid base of knowledge
about language to build on.
Cynthia, I was impressed as much by the tone of your post as I was by
its substance. I would love to know more about your approach and how
you layer things in over those three grades. Are you supported by the
school?
Jan, Allison, I'm sorry if I created the impression that a scope and
sequence draft already exists. What I was hoping to say, no doubt
awkwardly, is that we should make it a very open process, and that
everyone should have a chance to read it and comment on it as it
unfolds. The ATEG website would be a natural place.
A good place to start for reading about grammar would be Grammar
Alive, put together by ATEG members and published by NCTE. It lacks
scope and sequence sections because, if I understand this correctly,
! NCTE would not have published it if it had. You can't do wrong with
Martha Kolln's two books (Understanding Grammar and Rhetorical
Grammar.) A book I have found enormously rich and helpful is
Halliday's Introduction to Functional Grammar, now in its third
edition. It's not easy going, but I much prefer it to the softer
explanations I have looked at so far. My own attempt at a new kind of
synthesis (Meaning-Centered Grammar) is now in print. It's aimed at
being a text for a college course in grammar, but I'm hoping it's
readable and accessible. Ed Schuster's Breaking the Rules... casts a
critical eye on entrenched practices and includes advice about
teaching the rest. Lots of people like Joseph Williams' Ten Easy
Lessons in Style and Grace (It comes in a few different forms with
different titles.) All of these are easily googled and all are readily
available from Amazon. I'm sure other people on the list could add
their own suggestions.A good next step for the project would be to divide it up into smaller
units, delegate responsibilities, and sign people up. The SCOPE
section will be critical:it should include what a well educated
citizen ought to know (on graduation from high school.) The SEQUENCE
section would give advice for parceling that out (scaffolding) over
various age levels. We should have an OFFICIAL POSITION, a clear and
direct alternative to the position of NCTE. We need to make
recommendations for ASSESSMENT, which should include a position on
standardized testing practices and procedures. We should make
recommendations about TEACHER TRAINING, the preparation that would
help teachers confidently carry this out. I would also suggest
recommendations for CURRICULAR PRACTICES, including ways in which
grammar instruction should be integrated with critical reading and
writing. Obviously, each of these sections should work in harmony with
the others.
Anyone who! want to be a part of it should let me know and let me know
your preferences and what you bring to the project.

Craig

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