Josie Wood
Dr. Lawrence
ENGL 319
Philosophy Essay
Grammar Philosophy Essay
When teaching grammar, my main emphasis in a classroom would be on teaching
students to use grammar rather than just identify grammatical structures. While most traditional
grammar instruction is done through direct teaching and worksheets, I want to use real life
examples of grammar in both literature and other forms of popular culture to let students see that
grammar really can be applicable to their lives. By teaching grammar using examples from
student writing, I think students will both be able to understand grammatical concepts and also
put them into practice.
In order for students to feel comfortable writing and experimenting with grammar, there
has to be some direct teach time involved. Students can’t go into a paper having been instructed
to “experiment” and not have any idea how to start experimenting. Ideally, direct teach time
should include more examples of the use of the grammatical concept than instruction. I think
topic sheets are a good to help students get a basic mastery of the concept. I would read over the
topic sheet with my students and then we would look at examples together, including examples
that used the concept incorrectly. After doing practice exercises, I think the best way for students
to go about learning the concept is to practice using it in their own writing.
After students have written an essay, I think it is important to use that essay as a learning
tool rather than just a definitive grade. I don’t want to sit down with a red pen and mark every
single mistake that a student has made in a paper because I don’t think that is beneficial to
learning at all. Doing this would make students feel self-conscious about their writing and
feeling embarrassed about their writing wouldn’t encourage them to become better writers.
Grammatically, I think most essays should be a form of formative assessment. While the content
Josie Wood
Dr. Lawrence
ENGL 319
Philosophy Essay
can be a summative assessment, the corrections that I make on the grammar should be teaching
students rather than encouraging them to just change corrections for a better grade. Weaver
believes that teachers should be focused on creating better writers instead of better papers (37),
and I agree. Ultimately, a single paper won’t make much of a difference in a student’s life, but
helping them to grow and become a better writer will help them throughout their educational
career.
Weaver discusses the idea of having a low “affective filter” in her text. Students must
have a low affective filter to be willing to risk making a grammatical mistake and to not worry
about being incorrect (157). While this applies especially to non-native speakers of English, it
also applies to students that are learning to experiment with grammar. Teaching students to
experiment with grammar after they have been taught their entire lives that there is only one
correct way to write might be difficult. Students must learn that mistakes are part of the learning
process. Grammar can be used to make writing more interesting. While it may be easier to write
a series of simple, short sentences, it isn’t as interesting in a piece of writing. Students that focus
on correctness rather than on the benefits grammar can have on style won’t be using grammar to
their full potential.
When teaching grammar in conjunction with writing, I think it is important to put
emphasis on revision, rather than on correctness in a first draft. Students should feel comfortable
making mistakes with their grammar, then learning to fix those mistakes after their first draft. If
students learn that making a grammatical mistake isn’t the worst thing that can happen with a
paper, they will be more open to trying different grammatical structures and experimenting with
grammar. For this reason, I plan to incorporate conferencing in my classroom. While it probably
Josie Wood
Dr. Lawrence
ENGL 319
Philosophy Essay
isn’t realistic to do a complete conference with every student on every paper, conferencing is a
tool that can help students recognize the mistakes in their writing. If a teacher can sit down in a
conference and help a student work through the mistakes in one grammatical area in a paper, that
student will be more likely to learn and be able to pick out the mistakes themselves next time.
Another important aspect of teaching grammar is recognizing that there are situations
where proper grammar isn’t the only appropriate way of communication. I will be teaching
students from all sorts of different backgrounds and cultures. In no way do I want to discredit
their background or the language they use at home. If I tell them that the way they speak is
inherently wrong, they won’t be receptive to learning the things I want to teach. However, if I
don’t judge them or belittle their experiences with language, I believe they will be more
receptive to learning “formal” English and using it in their writing.
From a practical standpoint, I find sentence combining to be the most useful activity to
teach grammar in a classroom. Sentence combining helps students to learn new ways to put
sentences together and also helps students to practice putting sentence together themselves. In
Weaver’s text, she gives the example of taking a passage from literature and breaking it down
into choppy simple sentences, then allowing students to rebuild the sentences into more complex
structures. After the students have finished the revision activity, the teacher will show them the
actual passage, and they can discuss as a class the way that the author combined the sentences
and the way that the students themselves combined the sentences (56). This activity would be
incredibly helpful in a classroom because students would be both practicing their skills, but also
seeing a model that an author created.
Josie Wood
Dr. Lawrence
ENGL 319
Philosophy Essay
One issue that I think students will have a difficult time using correctly is punctuation. I
think the activity that we did in class using “Puff the Magic Dragon” would be helpful teaching
students about punctuation. Using a popular song would get students interested in the activity
and using song lyrics that they are already familiar with can help them remember the activity.
Since song lyrics aren’t usually meant to be written out, students can add or delete words as
needed. This activity would both interest students and teach them at the same time.
Teaching grammar in a classroom has historically been separate from teaching about
literature or teaching about writing. However, in order to teach grammar most effectively, the
three have to be brought together and taught as connected subjects. Grammar is an effective tool
to make writing stronger and more interesting. Literature can serve as a model for grammar of
how grammatical structures can add style and detail to writing. When teaching grammar,
teachers should allow the three to work together so students can get the most out of the lessons.
Josie Wood
Dr. Lawrence
ENGL 319
Philosophy Essay
Works Cited
Weaver, Constance. Grammar to Enrich and Enhance Writing. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2008.
Print.