GRAMMAR, GOOD WRITING, AND CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

A little quiz:

1. Studying grammar makes students better writers. True False

2. Few students recognize their grammatical errors in writing. True False

3. Grammar worksheets and exercises have little effect on students’ writing abilities. True False

4. Most grammatical problems in writing are random and due to students’ carelessness. True False

5. Students who speak different American English dialects commonly have less

knowledge of grammar. True False

6. Nearly all of the errors that ESL students make are due to differences between the

grammars of their native language and “standard English” grammar. True False

7. Students learn to apply grammatical rules best by going over their own writing

with a partner and making corrections. True False

8. All students tend to make the same types of grammatical errors. True False

9. By the time students reach high school, they’ve learned all the grammar they can. True False

10. It’s more effective for students to work on grammatical issues in their writing

when they reach the editing stage of a written project. True False

SOME APPROACHES TO TEACHING GRAMMAR

The sequential grammar system:

First step: Have students put parentheses around prepositional phrases (helps students—especially ESL students—to identify right or wrong preposition)

Second step: Have students label subjects, verbs, and simple complements. (helps students correct errors in subject-verb agreement)

Third step: Have students identify subordinate clauses (helps students eliminate fragments, run-ons, and comma splices—N.B. supply students with a “common errors” sheet)

Fourth step: Have students identify gerunds (helps students eliminate dangling and misplaced modifiers)

Minimal marking:

Supply students with a “common errors” sheet. When you (or a peer) goes over a student’s draft, you (or the student’s partner) writes in the number of the error in the margin to the left of the lines where errors appear. You (or the partner) return(s) the draft to the student, and she goes over her draft, identifying the errors and correcting them.

Reflection exercises:

Following a writing assignment’s completion, ask students to list or identify in writing three or four grammar issues that they discovered they have problems with, copying down an example (both the error and the correction) from their own work. As follow-up, students may be asked to help other students in a later writing assignment, to find those same errors.

PARTING THOUGHTS

What other kinds of interactive activities do you already do—or could you come up with—to raise students’ awareness of “Standard English” grammar?