I'm Going to Use Proper Grammar On You

One would like to think that teaching children about writing has progressed past the typical grammar drills and red pen corrections, however, some parents still demand this be taught in the classroom. I recently read a blog posting from Writers Who Care called “Does Bad “Grammar” Instruction Make Writing Worse?” and it goes into depth about the new generation’s way of teaching students about grammar in their writing. While parents may remember grammar quizzes and grammar drills in the classroom, they may not remember if the drill or quiz made their writing better. In fact, in the blog post, it discusses the multiple studies that have been done to test the effectiveness of grammar drills  and it has been found that these grammar drills do not make students better writer, but it often makes their writing worse. 

In an article written by Susan Jones, Debra Myhill, and Trevor Bailey, it is explained that the best way to teach students about grammar is to contextualize it within the student’s writing. This allows for students to connect the grammar teachings with their actual writing, rather than just teaching the student’s isolated facts that they may forget or be unable to incorporate into their writing. This means that isolated grammar lessons should be avoided in the classroom, no drills about what to include the “s” to make something plural and no lessons about when to use a comma versus a semi colon. 

This is an unheard of way of teaching grammar in school compared to the way that parents and grandparents experienced it. While student’s writing may be improving, parents will be confused as to why their child isn’t coming home with red markings and corrections covering their paper when there are clearing some problems with their child’s grammar. It is the job of the teacher to explain to the parents the grammar has not been taken out of the curriculum but instead, it has been reworked, so that students may understand the context of grammar within writing rather than understanding it as something separate. 

Good Literature=Good Writing

Literature is not something that should be examined as something completely separate from writing. As most teachers know, to be a good writer, one must also be a good reader. I recently looked at a chapter from Tom Romano’s book Clearing The Way in which he talks about how had been working feverishly to intertwine literature with writing in the classroom. It begins simply with students writing their own versions of literature, as one says, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. However, the students are expected to go beyond the typical “imitation” of a literary work, but the student must become so well versed in literature that he is able to create a work in the form of any genre on his own. 

This is something that is constantly pushed on students, even when students reach college. Multi-genre projects always seem to trickle their way into the syllabus of each freshman level english class. My first semester at Western I took freshman english and of course, there was a multi-genre project that was required by the end of the semester. This project was my dream project as I was able to create any genre that I pleased and anyone who has been versed in literature, knows how many options there are for genre. I toyed with the idea of many different genres but eventually chose to make a children’s fairytale picture book. 

Interestingly enough, as I am teaching an introductory course to freshman english, a multi-genre project is also required of the students. This makes one question, why do multi-genre projects continue to show up not only in high school classrooms but also in college class? Romano explains it quite well, he states that when students are able to create the genres they study on their own and attach personal importance to them, they have dug much deeper in their learning than just simply imitating the work of the author (136). 

For this reason, I highly encourage teachers to expose their students to all different kinds of literature, not just the typical “classics”, not all students are going to be in interested in the complexity of Animal Farm or care about the class differences in The Great Gatsby, thus students should be exposed to all kinds of literature, both contemporary and classic. A great resource for teachers to find many different books to teach or recommend to their students is Good Reads. Check it out if you need a little brain boost for the classroom. 

Response to "The Red Pen Blues"

After reading “The Red Pencil Blues” by Susan Tchudi and Stephen Tchudi, I have began to question the feedback I have been giving my students. It is my goal as a teacher to make my students better writers. In doing this, I stress the importance of the revision process to them. As the Tchudi’s mention in “The Red Pencil Blues”, many students to not understand the difference between revision and correcting. High School students typically think of revision as fixing grammar mistakes and changing words that have been spelled wrong. However, this is not the case. Revision involves looking at the content of writing and adjusting the paper based on that. 

One suggestion that the Tchudis make to get students to present their writing for feedback is to put them into writing groups. I love this idea, it is something that I am currently doing with my ENGL 1000 students, as I believe that students learn a lot from one another, possibly just as much if not more than they can learn from me. While I love the suggestion of students in writing groups, I was not fond of the suggestion to allow for students to pick the groups themselves. While some students may do great in a group with their friends, others may not. It is possible that students get off task easily or not take their peer’s writing seriously. I also fear that not all students will be welcomed into a group. Those who do not find a group as easily could feel like they are simply an add on and not feel comfortable talking about their writing in the group. This may not be as applicable to my ENGL 1000 class because they did not know one another previously, but could be very applicable in a high school classroom. 

There is also another suggestion made by the Tchudis about teachers responding to student writing. I have spent hours giving students feedback on drafts but give little to no feedback when I give students their final grade. I do this for the reason that I have said all that I need to say about their paper in the previous comments I have left on their drafts. Mr. and Mrs. Tchudi present the idea to allow for students to tell the teacher the kind of feedback they are looking for on their drafts. Meaning that students can say they want their paper read but they would not like any feedback about it. I do understand that feedback can be hard for some student’s to take but it is a disservice to a student to not help them improve their writing. It is important to pay attention to the student you are giving feedback to and recognize what kind of feedback they will be able to handle, but allowing them to ask for no feedback is ridiculous to me.