Janet Castilleja wrote:

>  Teachers have told me that the fourth grade tests require students to
> know, for example, prepositions and gerunds.

What does this mean here?  Every 10 year old native-speaker KNOWS how to
use gerunds and prepositions.

Does "know" mean to identify them?  Does "know" mean to write a sentence
with them?


>
> 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.

This is really problematic in how "complete" sentences are defined in
grammar handbooks.  I recommend consulting Noguchi's NCTE text,
DeBeaugrande, R. (1984). Forward to the basics: Getting down to
grammar.  College Composition and Composition, 35,  358-367 or a paper
Jim Kenkel and I gave at ATEG in the early 90s on how to use tag
questions and yes/no questions to determine whether a string has an
independent tensed clause.
>
> 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?

Excellent question.  What comma use is "sophisticated"?  Is the
semi-colon sophisticated?  What about a colon?

You might want to consider Hairston's article on grammar judgment and a
paper by Kantz and Yates (available on the ATEG site) on the most
"stigmatized" non-standard forms.

Bob Yates