Bill,
    I think I am beginning to understand what you are trying to do, but I'm still not totally sure. Are you offering to propose a "public domain" set of curriculum materials? Or are you looking toward a publishable book?

 Might I suggest the following:

1.) Can we find some short public domain texts that we can both work into our exercises. Stories, poems, students' writing (?), paragraphs from essays? I could develop as syntax/grammar exercises, and you could develop them as writing examples (or models) and/or as illustrations of various other rhetorical / linguistic topics? Not every text, of course, should be looked at from all angles, but sometimes it may be helpful to look at one text from several perspectives. Among other things, it may help the students integrate the perspectives.

2.) Do you know of, or could you help create, a public domain list of writing topics/assignments for specific grade levels? I have found at least one such list on-line, but it is a commercial site. I can, of course, link to it, but several members of the KISS list would prefer printable books. I'm working in that direction * they will be free, printable textbooks with instructional material and exercises, probably in pdf format. I'd like to include writing suggestions in them, but don't have the time to develop such lists.

3.) Are you developing materials on prefixes, suffixes, and roots? There is some very brief material on this on the KISS site, but again it is something that I don't have time to develop. I have found some material on this on the web, but if we (you, Marcia, and anyone else who is interested) want to create some public domain materials ???? This topic came up in the debate with the linguists, but I really don't see that we need linguistic theory as much as we need to emphasize the exercises and provide lesson materials. I note the need for this because today I received an e-mail asking me why "strengthless" is not in the dictionary. (We were reading "To an Athlete Dying Young.")

4.) I also have questions about when and how appositives should be introduced in the curriculum. I have theoretical problems about trying to get primary or even middle school students to use them in their writing, but these students almost certainly need to be able to decode them in reading. Yesterday one of my classes was discussing Donne's "Batter my heart." It did not particularly bother me that no one could identify "viceroy" as an appositive in

Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend.

It did bother me very much that none of the students understood that "reason" and "viceroy" are being equated in that line. 

Thanks,
Ed

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