Thank you, Gretchen, for your frank and honest letter. I second your
experiences, only I am now teaching at the high school level (9th and 10th)
after more than twenty years in middle school.

As a child of the 50s and 60s, I never learned how to teach writing.  My
teachers pretty much assigned a topic and a due date-oh yes, they usually
told us about how long "it" should be-and that was it.  We just did it.  So
I have very little knowledge base to build a writing instruction program.
Traditional grammar was easy for me but never really consciously affected my
writing.  Words and syntax have always been fairly natural and flowing for
me, so how to connect with the struggling student writer is often difficult

My frustrations with my students' writing, especially their poor performance
in conventions on the state assessments, led me to a sabbatical project this
past year to study the relationship of grammar and writing. At last I have
had time to read what has been going on outside my classroom!  It has been
wonderful, and I am excited to return to my kids in the fall. I am inspired
by the psychology of Wm Glasser (Choice Theory in the Classroom) to
recognize my students' (and my own) needs for belonging, power, freedom and
fun. Parker Palmer's little book, The Courage to Teach, elevates my soul as
a teacher.  Jim Burke, Tom Romano, Fran Claggett, Joyce Armstrong Carroll
and Eddie Wilson, Peter Elbow, Donald Graves, and others have opened new
doors to my teaching.   Nancie Atwell has inspired me to try a workshop
approach.   I want to try Noden's and Weaver's ideas, (I love reading your
posts, Connie, and many others).  I have only a couple years to retirement,
but I want them to be the best yet.  Teaching has always been a passion for
me, and I have always wanted to find new and better ways to connect language
and literature with kids.  But over the years I got worn down, exhausted
even, and lost touch with that calling I once felt so powerfully.
  "Teaching" up to 180-200 students in six classes, with increasing pressure
from parents, government and our own district, and with smaller budgets than
ever-all these have hit my profession hard.   Often I feel like a juggler
with too many balls or with only one hand.  Sadly, those elements in our
culture that could uplift teachers and the joy of learning (not only the
economic value)-media, politicians, schools themselves-too often do quite
the opposite.  So I am thankful indeed for this year of refreshment.

 I will be watching with interest responses from the members of this
listserv to your request. Even with my reading this year, I am far from
"settled" in just what and how I will teach day to day.  I  do know that it
will be different.

Forgive me if I have gone too far afield for this list.
Thanks.

 Joanne Sandhu
McNary High School
Salem, Oregon
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----- Original Message -----
From: Gretchen Lee <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2000 11:08 PM
Subject: Getting Grammar back into the Curriculum


> 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]
>