John,
Nice question. Before I explain my own specific position, let me note that I would be thrilled if ATEG could come to any agreement, even if it does not accord with my own view. Should such an agreement be achieved, it would fall upon me to try to make the KISS Approach meet the agreement.
What I would propose, more specifically, are main and subordinate clauses. This would include coordinated main and coordinated subordinate clauses, but I'm not sure I see the necessity for teaching "relative." Almost all subordinate clauses can be discussed in functional terms of adjectives, adverbs, and nouns, and it seems to me that "relative" is a sub-category of adjectival clauses. Note that I do not object to teaching relative clauses ¯ I'm just saying that they would go beyond the minimum.
Why do I want main and subordinate? First of all, when I asked the group about main and subordinate in "He thought she would be a good president," if I remember correctly, most of the linguists said that the whole sentence is the main clause. I agree, and so would, I would suggest, Hunt, O'Donnell, and Loban. Thus, subordinate clauses are parts, sub-assemblies of main clauses. From here I go in two directions. First, the problem of errors. Many errors, fragments, comma-slplices, run-ons, are clause boundary errors. Thus students who can identify main and subordinate clauses will be able to understand the errors, and why they are errors, etc. (Yes, I know that not all fragments are errors, but the point is that students would be able to discuss such questions intelligently.) From the perspective of errors, the ability to recognize subordinate clauses enables students to recognize (and discuss) a subordinate clause fragment when it occurs.
The other direction is style. Hunt, O'Donnell, Loban, etc. discussed "T-units," but a T-unit is a main clause, defined as including all the attached subordinate clauses. In other words, students who can deal with main and subordinate clauses can literally analyze their own writing and match what they find against the results of these researchers. When my own students do this, some of them find that they use very few subordinate clauses, and no subordinate clauses with subordinate clauses. Others find that they have subordinate clauses within subordinate clasues that are within subordinate clauses. (In other words, they write extremely complicated sentences which are sometimes difficult to read.)
In sum, I am suggesting the subordinate / main distinction because students who understand it, and can identify such clauses, can do a great deal with that knowledge, both in terms of errors and style. I hope this helps.
Ed
P.S. I admire what Bill McCleary is suggesting in his proposal, but I'm wondering what, if any grammatical terms students would be expected to be able to use. I would love to see the curriculum for grades 4-9 developed in detail, but I can't picture what he has in mind. In one sense, that curriculum could deal exclusively with linguistic principles, and totally exclude analytical ability on the part of the students. Which is more important, that students be taught morphology, or that they be taught to identify subjects and verbs? Does what Bill is proposing include both? That would be great.
>>> [log in to unmask] 01/20/04 02:20PM >>>
Ed,
You wrote: "Many years ago, at an ATEG conference, I suggested that the
group pass a resolution to the effect that every high school graduate should
be able to identify the subjects, verbs, and clauses in a typical passage
written by a high school student."
I couldn't agree more with you. I request one point of clarification: When
you say "identify . . . clauses," do you mean being able to identify a
dependent clause from an independent one or do you mean something more
specific (subordinate, coordinate, relative, etc.)?
John
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