Gretchen,
In response to your question, "What do I do on the first Monday of the new school
year?  And the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday after that," here is what I do.

I begin by asking students which they would rather do - talk or write, and why.
In the discussion, they realize that talking and writing involve different
situations and structures.  I point out that we talk in chunks (phrases and
clauses) and write in sentences.  This talking/writing framework sets the stage
for the course.  Benefits:

1. It begins with what students already know.

2.  When students realize that writing and talking are two different structures,
they recognize that run-ons, fragments, and rambling discourse are the results of
writing the way they talk.

3.  When they understand that talking and writing involve different situations,
they begin to realize that punctuation is not an arbitrary system of rules to be
imposed on top of sentences, but a system of signs to readers.

The textbook takes the words, phrases, and clauses of talking and shows students
how those ideas are presented in sentences.  In the process, students learn that
a basic sentence consists of a subject and predicate (please see earlier post on
this) which connect to form a stable structure.  Students then see how this
stable structure can carry additions: starters and interrupters.   The textbook
(Rhythms of Writing, Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 0-395-91807-3) is part of the college
division (developmental writing) at Houghton Mifflin, but would work well in the
middle school grades.  I wrote it, so it feels a bit strange to recommend it, but
it provides a systematic approach to grammar that students understand.    Pam

Pam Dykstra
South Suburban College
15800 S. State Street
South Holland, IL 60473




Gretchen Lee wrote:

> In a message dated 6/20/2000 9:03:57 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> << Much of our debate about whether to teach grammar has centered on its
>  utility, on whether it is a means to other ends such as improved writing
>  skills. >>
>
> Hello,
>
> With great fear and trepidation, I take er, keyboard in hand.  I have taken
> heart lately from several mentions of getting teachers at the middle school
> level involved in grammar education.  Here's your chance - a living breathing
> (trembling) middle school language arts teacher.
>
> I've followed this thread with great interest.  I've taken workshops from
> Connie Weaver and Harry Noden and loved them, read Ed Vavra's stuff with
> great interest, and limped along through some transformational theory.  I
> read and enjoyed Jeff Glauner's website.  I have no formal grounding in
> grammar of any ilk (except for traditional school grammar of the 50s), but
> I've subscribed to this list for about a year.
>
> I taught "traditional" school grammar for four or five years, and I was upset
> by seeing it not transfer to my kids' writing skills.  I stopped that and did
> research.  Weaver, Noguchi, Krashen, Noden, and lots of others. We tried
> sentence combining, and I saw some improvement, but not enough.  I've been
> workshopping writing recently, using minilessons as Connie Weaver suggests,
> but I'm frustrated at the hit-or-miss aspect of it all (almost certainly
> because of my implementation).  I loved Image Grammar, and I did see a lot of
> transfer, but I'm still unsatisfied at the "big picture." Probably the
> shortcomings are mine, but the frustration remains.
>
> What's a middle school teacher to do?  My goals are to help my students write
> better.  I know that not all linguists/grammarians think this should be the
> reason to learn grammar.  Some kids (who go on to teach English, I'm guessing
> - I loved it!) like grammar for grammar's sake.  But, to use a cliche, what
> do I do on the first Monday of the new school year?  And the Tuesday,
> Wednesday, and Thursday after that?
>
> How do I teach grammar to improve writing on a middle school level in an
> integrated fashion that works without boring my kids into unconsciousness?
>
> I'm happy to take advice from all corners. This subject has fractured our
> middle school faculty more than once.  What advice would you all give an
> in-the-trenches middle school English teacher about teaching grammar?
>
> I appreciate any advice and apologize if this post is not on target for this
> list.  I just feel very frustrated, and I'm coming to the experts.
>
> Thank you,
> Gretchen Lee
> Old Orchard Upper School
> Campbell, CA
>
> [log in to unmask]