The responses are due on Monday, March 30th, at class time.
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by Julia Longueville
All of us from time to time have wondered why we need to know the rules of grammar. While proper sentence structure and grammar are important for good writing, is it really necessary to know the names of prepositions, subjects, adjectives, etc? While some people believe that these terms are important for communicating about writing, the author of “Grammar Without Grammar,” has her doubts.
This particular teacher started out being forced to teach grammar. Her students did not grasp it well and she even had some bad reviews from the parents about it. They did not understand how learning this information made them into better writers, especially since they were having such a hard time applying this knowledge to their own writing. Throughout the next couple of years, this teacher tried many different methods of grammar instruction, desperate to find something that worked that would help her students! Finally, she found a winner.This teacher, like most good teachers, was mainly focused on making her students’ writing better.
In order to do this and teach proper grammar, she decided to take the drills out of her grammar instruction. She dropped all of the terms. Her main form of grammar instruction was through something called imitation. Sentences from different magazines or novels from the class were taken and one by one put up on the board. The students would be given a moment to analyze these sentences and then were instructed to created a sentence in the same format.
By imitating different styles and sentence patterns, these students began to realize what a more effective sentence looked like. They did this everyday, each time creating more and more types of sentences that they could use in their writing. Sure enough, they began developing more complex sentences and understood what and was not acceptable in sentence structure.This particular teacher believes her tactics of using imitation to be a success. She claims that although her students do not know the terms of grammar they know how to use it.
Is knowing how to use grammar properly in writing the only thing that is important in grammar instruction? Do you think that imitation is an effective tool in teaching grammar? Are old-school grammar drills a thing of the past? How will you teach your students?
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11 comments:
Knowing how to use grammar properly is far more important than knowing the words for the correct grammar. After reading this article, I do believe that imitation can be a good way of teaching correct grammar skills. I believe that old-school grammar drills, are becoming a thing of the past. The times are moving, and so is the way grammar is being taught in schools. If I were to be a future teacher, I would teach my students by means of imitation. Learning grammar hands on, is far easier to learn rather than the boring textbook language.
The teacher's style is unique. I don't know if I agree with it fully. Student's need to know what they are learning and why they are learning it. It can't be "just because this is how it is written here." I agree with different ways of teaching the children other than the traditional way, but they students need to understand why it is important as well. It is interesting that the students do know how to use the grammar, which is the main point of teaching grammar, but it still needs to be explained. Incorporating other ways of teaching with the imitation might have an even high success rate of well written papers.
I really like the way this teacher is teaching her students, I think it is a fun way of learning grammar, and is going to keep the students interest far longer than having them recite definitions! Old-schoold grammar drills are becoming a thing of the past, when I become a future teacher I am going to try the best I can to make sure my students know what grammar is, how to use it, say it, and be able to write a great essay! If they can do that, who cares how they learned it! :)
I like this teachers approach to teaching her kids. It keeps the learning fun and keeps the kids interested in grammar, which is hard to do. Grammar is not the most interesting part of English or language, but the students need to learn it so a creative way to learn it makes it easier to learn.
I agree that knowing how to use grammar is more important than drilling the names of rules into students. I like the how this teacher found a way to teach her students grammar through imitation rather than by rote memorization.
Grammar is an important part of English. Knowing the aspects of grammar allows for one to properly speak, understand, and write. I agree with the way the teacher is teaching her students in this article. When one has to read the context directly from the book, it can sometimes be repetitious and boring. Her approach allows for the students to engage in a more interesting way. Drilling methods are far beyond a thing of the past.
I believe that the old style teachings of grammar is becoming outdated. Education is revolving and memorization is becoming non-existant. I like this teachers method of teaching grammar through imitation. This is a form of hands on which should be necessary with grammar skills.
I definitely think that imitation is an effective way to teach grammar. I think that it would be more interesting and more benficial. Old-school drills are boring and students just rush through them. They don't learn anything this way.It becomes more tedious than informational. I think that the drills need to be discarded for a new and innovative way to teach grammar like imitation. However, I think imitation is good up till a point. I think that it is necessary to know the terms in grammar also. This helps to explain and categorize. One should know fully what they are talking about. I think that imitation should be taught to get the students to be familar and to give them an understanding of grammar. Then they need to be given the names for the things that they are doing. We can't not just pretend that these things do not have names.
Using grammar correctly in writing is not the only important feature that should be taught to students. I think with most children (and people in general) learn best with repetition. With imitation along with it, I think that it will benefit the teacher and students to use both together. Regardless of how old a teaching method is, it still can be of use. If it is effective, why not use it? It's hard to narrow down a teaching strategy with out seeing how my students learn best. For example: I wouldn't want to have my students listen to proper grammar, if they are visual learners.
Imitation is a very interesting way to teach proper grammar to students. "Monkey see, monkey do" has been a standard for teaching since early times. I believe that this method, paired with other methods of teaching would be very effective at getting students to truly know the content that they're learning.
I believe that using old fashioned drills is an effective method of teaching grammar. I learned more by drill and practice in grammar than by any other manner; although, I could see where the imitation method would be effective as well.
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