Ed

I agree that the standards as posted don't seem to say much about grammar,
and this is one of the problems.  Teachers are not being given much specific
information about what kids will be tested on, but they have to try to make
sure students can pass the tests.  Washington has already started testing
using these standards, but it seems to be fairly difficult to get sample
tests.  Teachers have told me that the fourth grade tests require students to
know, for example, prepositions and gerunds.

Writing is part of the required testing.  Teachers are expected to be able to
teach students what they need to know in order write a passing essay.  As is
clear from reading the postings on this list, there isn't really a lot of
consensus on just how to do this.  Should teachers just leave kids alone and
let them write naturally?  Should kids be taught formal, traditional grammar?
 Should functional grammar be taught?  How much does explicit grammar
knowledge help writers?  How much grammar should K-12 teachers know?

What makes these standards a problem is that they are both vague and
mandatory.  In my part of the state, scores on these tests have been
relatively low.  There is a plan in place to require a grade twelve exit exam
in a few years which could prevent people from graduating from high school if
not passed, so teachers (and kids) are feeling a lot of pressure.

The writing standards state throughout the document that students will "know
and apply correct spelling, grammar, sentence structure, punctuation and
capitalization."  Here is what I hope to figure out:
1.  What exactly is meant by correct grammar?
2.  What exactly is meant by correct sentence structure?  and
3.  What do my students need to know in order to help their students achieve
these?

I am assuming that in order to teach students to write complete sentences,
the teacher needs to both be able to recognize a complete sentences and know
why it is complete.  I have met many people who can recognize complete
sentences, but don't know what makes them complete.  I want to try to
identify what a teacher needs to know about grammar in order to help students
achieve the standards mandated by the state.

I have looked at some of the material my local school district is providing
teachers to help them with these standards.  These also seem quite vague.
There seems to be an assumption that people will know what correct grammar is
and that expectations needn't be explicitly stated.  For example, one grading
sheet states that students will use "correct grammar" and "sound usage" with
"some sophisticated punctuation attempted."  What on earth does this mean?
Will my ideas of sophisticated punctuation cause my students to fail the
state test?

So, anyway, these are the kinds of things I'm looking at.  I am assuming that
the people who wrote the standards are working from a fairly conservative
view of what constitutes correct grammar and sentence structure which will be
reflected in the texts that are used in the schools.  I think that even
though I might disagree with the theory behind those texts, if my students
are expected to teach from those texts, they better understand the
grammatical concepts in them.

Janet Castilleja