What I meant by those "tools" is grammar/punctuation knowledge on the part of the teachers so they can feel confident teaching it to their students.  Given the overly crowded schedule language arts teachers face, they would probably be more inclined to teach what is most is their comfort zone.

I wonder, though, if teachers have a syllabus requiring them to devote so much time each year to grammar?  Maybe some junior high, middle school, or high school teachers on this listserv could answer that.  If they do, then they need tools to help them even more.

As I mentioned previously, the textbook I had to use to teach my students when I taught junior high (decades ago) was very confusing in its explanations.  Worse still, the exercises included maybe 10 sentences enforcing whatever concept was being taught followed by 15 sentences of exceptions.

I still remember my sister faxing me an exercise her daughter, a junior in high school, had to do:  find 25 adjectives in a paragraph.  My niece and my sister could find only 19.  Guess how many more I found?  Only 3, and I'd been teaching grammar for years.  My niece learned one lesson from that exercise:  that she couldn't find adjectives (if she even knew why her teacher assigned that exercise, which goes to your original point).

As a consultant, I go to major corporations and government agencies teaching adults how to write, edit, and speak correctly.  Guess how they report learning to use commas?  Their teachers taught them, "Where you pause, put a comma."  Yikes!  I reply that whether they run marathons or, unfortunately, have asthma, they will pause in different places.  I tell them that a better guideline is putting commas based on the 12 or so rules associated with them so their readers will pause in the best place for easy reader comprehension.

On this listserv, we've been exchanging many messages about nouns and verbs.  My participants are excited and relieved to learn a simple rule for using commas in compound sentences.  Here's a sentence I use to illustrate that:

Linda teaches grammar, and she always enjoys working with great groups like you.

They identify the subject and verb before the "and," the subject and verb after the "and," so they then know to put a comma before the "and."  (I also let them know that the same is true for other coordinating conjunctions that we call the FANBOYS:  for, and, nor, but or, yet, and so.)  They finally understand why finding subjects and verbs is important to helping them punctuate correctly, and they are delighted to know they can easily follow that rule.  As reinforcement, they all write a compound sentence relating to their jobs, read theirs aloud, and are so proud when they are told they punctuated correctly.

The most common reactions are, "This is so simple!  Why didn't I ever learn this in school?"  Or, "Why didn't my teacher ever make it so easy?"  From there, we move to the option of replacing the comma and one of the FANBOYS with a semicolon.  More lightbulbs of learning result.

Herb, I really appreciated the exercises you posted earlier.  Sharing activities is a real bonus to participating in this listserv.  I'd love to see more from all of you too!

Regards,
Linda

"Stahlke, Herbert F.W." wrote:

Linda,

Perhaps I'm interpreting "the tools to build well in that area" to narrowly, but, from what I see with my UG grammar students, no one has taken the time to demonstrate to them the relevance of grammar to anything.  This is a terrible defect in grammar education, rather like teaching high school physics without a Bunsen burner, if they still use them.  They understand the relevance of all the other areas, or so I assume, but since grammar has not relevance they won't waste time with it, and I can't blame them for the decision.  I can blame their teachers, though.

Herb

-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Linda Comerford
Sent: Mon 8/28/2006 1:56 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Grammar tests for Grammar Teachers

Scott,

You've just indicated one of the biggest problems language arts teachers face--at least I did when I taught junior high.  I had five classes of 30 students for 45 minutes five days a week.  During that time, I was supposed to teach:

*       Reading
*       Spelling
*       Vocabulary
*       Literature (poems, short stories, novels)
*       Writing (compositions, book reports)
*       Grammar
*       Speech (if I had time for that)

I understand that some schools have started allowing two periods of language arts per day, but even then squeezing in all of those subjects can be overwhelming.  Is it any wonder teachers may not emphasize grammar--especially if they may lack the tools to build well in that area anyway?

Linda Comerford
Comerford Consulting

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