When we were discussing “Dora” in our fishbowl discussion, I found myself reassured with the fact that teaching is a delicate process. A good teacher can encourage without putting acknowledgement of mistakes at the forefront. Dora’s teacher gave her the liberty of figuring out mistakes on her own, while encouraging her for the thing she was doing right. I think that this approach has applications to teaching high school as well, to a degree. Students can get scared off by writing if we shove too much at them at once before they have a chance to process it.
While I was thinking about grammar in my free time today (yes, I sometimes even think about English Ed while fishing) and realized that students of all age groups know more than they give themselves credit for. I knew the words, “running, eating, sleeping,” etc. before I knew that the “ing” form of these verbs were called gerunds. I knew “to be, to smile, to concentrate” before I knew that these forms were called infinitives. It just then occurred to me why grammar terminology shouldn’t be forced upon students all at once: they already know all of these words and how they fit into the English language. Students have been speaking them since they were four or five years old. They already have a working understanding of these concepts and when we as teachers come along and label the concepts with frighteningly large polysyllabic words, writing becomes a science, even though they thought they already understood the concept, breeding insecurity and self-doubt. Insecure students sacrifice receptiveness to learning and growing out of fear of making beautiful mistakes.
I don’t think that the educational and developmental aspects of writing are intended to be standardized, because everyone develops at a different rate. I was always the student that sought help from teachers if I didn’t understand something, but usually at the end of a tutoring session I still flat-out didn’t “get it.” So I put some more thought into the problem, whether it was math or whatever, and there came a certain point where understanding just snapped into my brain. It wasn’t in the classroom, it didn’t happen overnight, but through working at it and putting forth some real effort, students can learn on their own and that will stick with them for a long time.
Here’s a broad question that I’m working on wrapping my brain around: for high school students, how do we introduce grammar in a way that sticks with them and really sinks in?
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This is the same question I have been struggling with all semester. I feel like it is a mix between the two ways I have experience grammar teaching. All through my academic career, grammar was not talked about until you received your paper back with corrections on it from the teacher. I always felt cheated or that they had taught it behind my back and I missed it. I had trouble applying it to my papers, even though I understood it within that one instance that I was corrected in. The other way I have seen grammar taught was when I did my T & L 317 practicum. The students are taught grammar everyday of English class, so they know the rules before the teacher even teaches it. But the students still have a hard time in their actual writing. I think it is largely based upon what you talked about, their self-doubt.
ReplyDeleteSo I feel like unfortunately there is no easy answer to your question. But I feel like addressing things after you realize it is a problem, but not grading the students down for it may work, or giving them little rules at a time and then apply them in their writing directly after they learn it. I think it is one of those questions we won't know the answer to it until we all try it! But definitely a good one for us all to be thinking about along the way.
This question has been nagging at me the whole semester. After learning teaching methods over the last five weeks, I now understand that teaching students grammar within the context of writing is the best method to do so. Although, there is a major concern that comes along with this methodology: Students will not be adequately prepared for their lives as readers and writers. I think it’s important students know the different word classes and can identify a comma, semicolon, and colon, along with other basic punctuation marks. I also believe there are too many incidents when teachers don’t focus enough on practical applications of grammar and get hung up on students knowing the right rules. I think grammar should be worked on in simple steps. I like the idea of doing a mini-lesson and/or fun activity (like magnetic poetry) to teach students grammar, then fixing their writing after teaching that subject matter.
ReplyDeleteAlso, as you pointed out, it’s important not to force too much information on students and discourage their writing ability. If teachers are constantly focusing on grammar and sentence structure, they are working on specific rules of writing rather than broader processes that should be worked on first, such as the writer’s ability to keep ideas focused, organized, and on topic. Students categorize themselves early as “good” and “bad” writers, which is in large part due to teacher’s criticism and praise. English teachers should help their students become more comfortable and confident with their written voice, not scared of receiving a bunch of squiggly lines and two word grammatical phrases they don’t understand.
Very well said. Students have to get this image of themselves as "bad writers" from somewhere. Teachers should be able to help set these insecurities at ease, certainly NOT be the cause of them.
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ReplyDeleteAs a current high school student, I believe that what you have said is very much true about students feeling insecure about their writing. I think they feel insecure because they do not know what is the correct way and what is the incorrect way of writing. I am trying to teach myself grammar and the hard part is knowing, is this correct? You could look at one example, but when you make another example, is it correct or incorrect?
ReplyDeleteWhy is this? For me at least, it seems like what whit-harm said about teachers teaching us these things and we missed it. For me, I was never taught any grammatical lesson until 8th grade. By then, I was far behind and felt I should have learned this. To correct this, I think teachers should teach this in elementary school. Take it step by step and teaching them sentence structure as well as building a larger vocabulary. By the time they enter high school, they would have a feel for knowing the "correct" grammar and by then maybe learn the terms of indefinite and definite articles and other more complicated words to express the simple grammar that they already know. I don't know if you have heard of Singapore math, but it applies this same simple of taking it step by step and building on what you already know. I think that it would give you the practice that people need as well as introducing new things to keep the brain fresh. But as a teacher teaching a student that has no concept of grammar at all, I think it would best to try and go a little step at a time in those 180 days that you are given. But it depends on the class, as well as the student. Some are willing to come in and learn all they can from you while others just want to get through school and be done. It also depends on the class because some already know grammar, which is great, so then it is a matter of teaching them new things and letting them build off the knowledge that they already know.
Sorry this is long, but I think grammar and correct writing are somethings that makes us more knowledgeable as well as helping us succeed as people in the future.