In a message dated 6/20/2000 9:03:57 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
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<< 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

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