Monday, September 17, 2007
Teaching Grammar in the Context of Writing Response
“Teaching Grammar in the Context of Writing” by Constance Weaver was not as affective an article in my opinion. I do agree that it is easier to teach grammar in the context of writing, but I am not sure if Weaver gave the best examples of how to do so. Weaver had a long article considering the amount of useful content of her article. Do not misunderstand me though, I do not think it was a bad article, but I did not find it as affective as some of the other assigned. Weaver did state that “teaching grammar in context of writing is more effective then isolating grammar as its own subject.” This I can certainly believe. The idea of knowing grammar is that you may produce more effective writing. What better way is there to learn grammar than incorporating it with what it will be later used for. “Teach minimum of grammar for maximum benefits.” This I also agree with because as stated in Fraser and Hudson’s article, we want to teach students to control their language. What I found to be the best part of Weaver’s article was the listed goal for teachers: “Have students use grammar more effectively and conventionally in their writing.” This is why we teach grammar is it not!!!
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7 comments:
I think it is important to teach grammar through diagramming sentences along with putting it in the context of writing. The danger with teaching it in context alone is that students may know how to use correct grammar, but not understand the logic behind it. First, teach the technical aspect of grammar. Then, put it in context.
I'm going to have to disagree and say that the article was informative and useful. As someone who has no plans to teach, especially grammar, at any level it is interesting to learn about the lesson planning and theories behind teaching. The article may have been more interesting if it had included an actual lesson plan to show how to effectively incorporate grammar into the planning of classroom activities. It is easy to talk about teaching grammar in context, but an example of how you plan for context would have been helpful.
Writing is an effective way to learn grammar, however I feel as though learning grammar in isolation gives students a better understanding of how to write. I had taken grammar classes in gradeschool which have stuck with me ever since. Learning how to diagram sentences is useful in knowing that every word has its place, name, and function within a sentence. It is important to learn what each kind of a word does and its purpose without just putting together what sounds good. It is easy to make up something that sounds good (I still do it!), and put it down on a piece of paper and hope that it makes sense. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, and if you're lucky with your guess, you will never know why, and it will always just be that way...I may not be making much sense, but hopefully someone is picking up what I'm putting down. Either way, without ever really learning grammar and how to digram I feel as though I would be throwing around words and not using them correctly. Learning grammar goes hand in hand with writing, obviously, otherwise what good is it to learn something and not actually apply your knowledge? But before we write, we must understand how to do it...and not kill two birds with one stone.
I believe that this article was useful to a certain extent. It is easier to incoporate grammar into the lesson plan, beause it gets the kids involved and keeps them motivated. However, if you do this right away they may not understand the concept of grammar, you should as a teacher discuss the basic format before jumping ahead, otherwise they will never understand grammar and just be confused for the rest of their lives and grow to hate it. I know I have.
Grammar in the context of writing.
When I learned how to play the saxophone, it was within the context of playing in band. I learned which scales were played where by the experience of the dissonance when I played wrong notes. Similarly, I learned the basic skills of horsemanship in controlled environments, but with a horse under me nonetheless. It is absurd to think that I would not learn the rules of my language without writing and reading it. It is only common sense to learn it through using it. A mistake that is made and corrected is less likely to be made again. Therefore, it’s no argument that grammar should be taught experientially.
Jason Valentine
I think in teaching grammar that it should be all spread out in different parts not all in one big part. It is better for the students so they get a feel of how grammar works. A lot of times you may even tech yourself some rules of grammar, because it may come to you naturally. A techer should just incorprate the lesson in the lesson plan as time goes by so students understnad better of how grammar works. Make learing and teaching grammar fun.
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