Ed,
     These are good questions. As a general response, I can say that I
haven't planned that far ahead. I have a general plan, but I find
that the specifics of a teaching situation always contain factors I
hadn't considered, such as whether teachers already have textbooks
that they must use. I'll answer your questions below as best I can.

>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?

My original plan was to figure out, through trial and error, how to
do this task. Then we would need to decide whether to put it on the
web in public domain or to publish in textbooks. I originally
anticipated that we would want to have textbooks and that there would
be a book for each grade level we wanted to cover. We would make a
proposal to a textbook publisher and, if accepted, the publisher
would hire freelancers to write the books. That's how such textbooks
are done. They are seldom written by the authors listed on the
series, for no one would have time to do so much writing. The
ostensible authors are really more like editors.

We will just have to see how things go.

>  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.

Finding public domain texts is easier said than done. If anyone knows
how to do it, I would be grateful for the help. I have done what you
did, which is to take examples from state tests and exemplars used in
training raters. I also borrow exemplars from the NAEP reports on
their writing tests.  The problem with such examples is that they are
almost all first drafts; they are useful for giving students practice
in seeing weaknesses and suggesting improvements, but not for much
else.

In addition, I have done what Marcia is doing--using materials from
the newspapers. Some newspapers, such as our local daily, permit
nonprofit use of articles as long as they are notified and proper
credit is given. The same is true for some professional journals.
Government documents provide another source.

In past books I have always tried to use both student and
professional examples.  It's not too hard to get student examples,
but professional writers want to be paid. So either the publisher
paid them or I paid out of royalties.

Because of these problems, I often write my own examples, both
professional and student. I have become adept at imitating students.
Perhaps it's a result of a misspent career of reading thousands of
student papers.

>
>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.

Finding writing assignments is not hard. They exist in the many
textbooks on our shelves and in the state curriculums that can be
found on the web, so I could easily collect some and rewrite them to
suit the grades levels and materials we have in mind. Then teachers
would probably need to adapt them even more to suit their own
situations (textbooks, library holdings, other classroom materials,
etc.).

>
>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.")

My plan is to base this part of the curriculum (and an introduction
to grammatical concepts and the history of English) on study of the
dictionary. The need to be able to get the most benefit from a
dictionary thus becomes the first practical reason why such knowledge
is useful. Ultimately, these concepts would be applied to students'
reading and writing. Improving one's reading and writing skills
becomes another practical reason for the study. There will probably
need to be exercises at both ends and to make a bridge between the
dictionary and reading/writing. i haven't yet thought enough about
how this is all going to be done, however, although the materials
that Johanna recently sent us have given me some ideas.

>
>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.

The issue of appositives is another one I haven't gotten into yet.
However, I'm not at all surprised that none of your students could
make a connection between the two words. They probably have never
heard of a viceroy before; many adults ask me to spell that word in
my email address and then ask where I got it and what it means. (I
got it from the butterfly; I only vaguely remember what it meant
originally.) They also probably haven't had much experience with
referring to "reason" as a process instead of a thing. Finally, there
is the problem of using "me" in the subject position. Lines like that
make people regard poetry as a puzzle instead of an art. One of our
goals is to change that attitude by giving people enough knowledge
about grammar and related language skills to enable them to decode
poetry quickly enough to enjoy the ride.

To sum up, i don't have an elaborate plan for how to write the
materials we need. I will be making much of it up as i go. It's
usually worked for me before. Think of it as the "process approach"
to curriculum writing.

Bill

>
>Thanks,
>Ed
>
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