I'm on my way to the glorious Outer Banks of North Carolina, or else this post would be longer.> I have been looking at state standards for a number of states, and this is the norm rather than the exception. Our own Scope and Sequence recommendations (when we get them done) have a chance to be a beacon of clarity in a dark and foggy world. I think it helps to have a clearer sense of what KNOWLEDGE is aimed at and what BEHAVIORS are aimed at and how the one is or is not connected to the other. Mastery of commas, for example, is connected to very complex rules of syntax, and anyone who thinks you can get there easily or without a complex metalanguage is downright wrong. We should say that and either do what needs to be done or drop it as a goal. Anything short of that is a continuation of deep hypocrisy, standards that are there to pretend we are doing something important. We also need to make a distinction between knowledge that allows us to write and read with some effectiveness (which would include knowledge of how and why the passive evolved, how it works in context)and knowledge that allows us to follow what people AGREE on as reasonable conventions(and awareness that many "Rules" have been seriously challenged as "mythrules" and as highly dysfunctional, forbidding the passive among them.) Is being correct more important than being thoughtful? The early consensus on list is that we should aim at a rhetorically-focused grammar. If that's our standard, then this list is woefully inadequate. It looks like standards by committee in a twenty minute brainstorming session. Whimsical. Disconnected. In case I haven't made my point: Nonsense of the highest order, very clear evidence of what has gone absolutely wrong in the teaching of grammar. If you use these as a guide to your teaching, you will harm your students. Craig In a message dated 3/31/2006 5:34:14 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, > [log in to unmask] writes: > > Question: did a note accompany this draft in which the committee > appologized > for the draft's roughness and asked for revision suggestions from > teachers? > I hope so. > > > > Jeanne, > > These were cut and pasted directly from the California State Standards. > This is what every seventh grade teacher in California is responsible for > teaching. > > ~Gretchen > > 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/