Dear Ateg List:

I teach at a small, private college (Heritage College) located on the Yakama
Indian Reservation.  The majority of our students are ethnic minorities
(Native American, Hispanic), first generation college students, rural and/or
low-income and are thus considered high-risk students.  (This may not be
relevant, but I am also an enrolled member of a federally recognized tribe,
although I am not Yakama.)

I teach a variety of classes, but since about 1992, I have found myself
primarily teaching students who plan to teach ESL, Bilingual Education,
Secondary English, Language Arts, etc.  I teach Introduction to Language
Studies, History and Structure of the English language, Modern Grammar,
Teaching Composition, and English Teaching Techniques.  I also teach
technical writing, and I am working on some ESL classes for newly enrolled
students.  Well, basically, the only classes I avoid are literature other
than ethnic and multicultural.  I don't feel I have the background to teach
Shakespeare, etc.

The grammar class is a 400 level class.  I teach a variety of functional
grammar, with Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech and Svartik as my reference.  The
majority of my students have had relatively little grammar instruction of any
sort prior to enrolling in my class.

In the past I have taught the class as primarily for the purpose of
increasing the prospective teacher's overall knowledge of the English
language.  I don't expect or encourage my students to try to teach this
material to their students (although it is probably possible).  Rather, I
encourage them to use this knowledge to inform the way they teach English.  I
have encouraged my students to accept language variety and to see knowledge
of 'Standard English' as probably necessary but also as simply one variety
among many.

I would like to add that my students work very, very hard and have been
willing to struggle with very difficult concepts.  They are also (perhaps
surprisingly?) quite enthusiastic.  I always have several students who want
to pursue further investigation of syntax.

However, Washington State has recently developed and mandated a set of
Essential Learnings.  Public school students will be tested on their mastery
of these (this has already started), and teachers must be able help students
achieve this mastery.

This semester, I am not teaching the grammar class.  I have decided to
attempt to correlate the mandated English language skills and concepts (most
of which revolve around writing and which require standard usage and
conventions) to the grammar concepts that I teach.  I hope that this will
help my students make a practical connection between what they learn in my
class and what they are required to do in their classrooms. I don't actually
know how this will work out.

Would anyone be interested in seeing what I come up with?  I would be glad to
post it as I progress.  If nothing else, you could tear it to shreds!

Let me know

Janet Castilleja
Heritage college
Toppenish Washington
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