Grammar and the Teaching of Writing

Grammar and the Teaching of Writing
Author: Rei R. Noguchi
Publisher: National Council of Teachers of English (Ncte)
Total Pages: 140
Release: 1991
Genre: Education
ISBN:

Intended for practitioners, this study has three principal aims: (1) to reduce the breadth of formal grammar instruction by first locating those areas where grammar and writing overlap and then identifying those kinds of writing problems most amenable to treatment with a grammar-based approach; (2) to decrease the classroom hours spent on formal grammar instruction by showing how to capitalize on the already acquired yet unconscious knowledge that all native writers have of their language; and (3) to make this streamlined "writer's grammar" more productive by showing how to integrate it with style, content, and organization. The book is directed toward teachers of writing who, to varying degrees, struggle with the unwieldy partnership of grammar and writing. Chapters 1 and 2 serve to examine some probable reasons why grammar instruction has failed to improve writing quality, to delimit radically the scope of grammar instruction, and to identify specific areas where a knowledge of a minimal set of grammatical categories might be of help. Chapters 3 and 4 focus on the use of native-speaker abilities in place of formal grammar instruction to treat certain kinds of sentence-level writing problems. Chapter 5 suggests a promising way to integrate the diminished focus on grammar with style, content, and organization. Finally, chapter 6 summarizes several pragmatic paradoxes that currently beset grammar instruction in the schools. (MG)

Grammar Lessons and Strategies that Strengthen Students' Writing

Grammar Lessons and Strategies that Strengthen Students' Writing
Author: Laura Robb
Publisher: Scholastic
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2001
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780439117586

Engaging, explicit lessons using mini-excerpts from books and students’ writing show you how to teach grammar strategically. Zero in on the common grammar glitches, and model for students how to use nouns, verbs, and adjectives effectively, catch mismatched pronoun references; make prose lively with clauses and phrases, use the active voice, and more. From learning the parts of speech to the skill of paragraphing, this book covers it, and gives you what you need to teach grammar in the context of reading and writing. For use with Grades 4-8.

Tools, Not Rules

Tools, Not Rules
Author: Tommy Thomason
Publisher: Strategic Book Publishing
Total Pages: 142
Release: 2010
Genre: English language
ISBN: 1609110951

If you want to start an argument in a teachers' lounge, bring up the topic of how best to teach grammar. There is a wide spectrum of opinion. Traditionalists claim that we must explicitly teach grammar. Students drill the basics and diagram sentences. Sometimes their study and drills take the place of writing, but these teachers claim that good writing demands good grammar. At the opposite end of the spectrum are teachers who claim that the best way to learn grammar is to write, thereby being forced to use grammar in writing and editing. They reason that students will learn grammar in the context of actually using it, without all the drills and worksheets. They trust the writing process to instill an appreciation for grammar, instead of actually teaching it. Teachers on the write-to-learn-grammar side claim that students who are only taught grammar rules might pass tests, but since they didn't learn in the context of writing, they typically don't apply the rules when they write. Grammar traditionalists say students in writing classes never learn grammar at all, because it is not explicitly taught. In Tools, Not Rules, authors Tommy Thomason and Geoff Ward take the middle-ground position that grammar should be taught as part of the writing process. Tommy Thomason is a veteran journalist and university journalism professor at TCU. Geoff Ward is a well-known Australian professor and associate dean from James Cook University in Townsville. Both have written several books and work extensively with American teachers. Publisher's website: http: //www.eloquentbooks.com/ ToolsNotRules-TeachingGrammarInTheWritingClassroom.html

Best Practices in Writing Instruction

Best Practices in Writing Instruction
Author: Steve Graham
Publisher: Guilford Press
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2013-03-19
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1462508715

Highly practical and accessible, this indispensable book provides clear-cut strategies for improving K-12 writing instruction. The contributors are leading authorities who demonstrate proven ways to teach different aspects of writing, with chapters on planning, revision, sentence construction, handwriting, spelling, and motivation. The use of the Internet in instruction is addressed, and exemplary approaches to teaching English-language learners and students with special needs are discussed. The book also offers best-practice guidelines for designing an effective writing program. Focusing on everyday applications of current scientific research, the book features many illustrative case examples and vignettes.

From Texting to Teaching

From Texting to Teaching
Author: Jeremy Hyler
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 153
Release: 2017-05-08
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1317363299

Don’t blame technology for poor student grammar; instead, use technology intentionally to reach students and actually improve their writing! In this practical book, bestselling authors Jeremy Hyler and Troy Hicks reveal how digital tools and social media – a natural part of students’ lives – can make grammar instruction more authentic, relevant, and effective in today’s world. Topics Covered: Teaching students to code switch and differentiate between formal and informal sentence styles Using flipped lessons to teach the parts of speech and help students build their own grammar guides Enlivening vocabulary instruction with student-produced video Helping students master capitalization and punctuation in different digital contexts Each chapter contains examples, screenshots, and instructions to help you implement the ideas. With the strategies in this book, you can empower students to become better writers with the tools they already love and use daily. Additional resources and links are available on the book’s companion wiki site: textingtoteaching.wikispaces.com

The Place of Grammar in Writing Instruction

The Place of Grammar in Writing Instruction
Author: Susan Hunter
Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books
Total Pages: 280
Release: 1995
Genre: Education
ISBN:

In this book, the crucial questions about the place of grammar in the writing classroom are asked and answered. Teachers and researchers explore the role of grammar in the teaching of writing and describe ways that grammar instruction has been, is, and should be used in our writing programs. The contributors share their insights from a variety of perspectives: as college composition teachers, as writing center directors, as rhetoricians, as students, and as writers themselves. They are not grammarians in the conventional sense. Rather, they are voices from various writing settings who show college writing teachers how to reconnect writing and grammar. Divided into three sections, the book allows for a progressive observation of the places of grammar in writing instruction. In the section on past attitudes toward grammar instruction, the contributors discuss the history of teaching grammar as it relates to teaching writing. In the section on present concerns, contributors re-evaluate the belief that little grammar instruction is needed to teach writing. In the final section, contributors evaluate what we have learned with a view to what we need to learn or teach the next generation of writing teachers about the role of grammar.

Write Like this

Write Like this
Author: Kelly Gallagher
Publisher: Stenhouse Publishers
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2011
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1571108963

If you want to learn how to shoot a basketball, you begin by carefully observing someone who knows how to shoot a basketball. If you want to be a writer, you begin by carefully observing the work of accomplished writers. Recognizing the importance that modeling plays in the learning process, high school English teacher Kelly Gallagher shares how he gets his students to stand next to and pay close attention to model writers, and how doing so elevates his students' writing abilities. Write Like This is built around a central premise: if students are to grow as writers, they need to read good writing, they need to study good writing, and, most important, they need to emulate good writers. In Write Like This, Kelly emphasizes real-world writing purposes, the kind of writing he wants his students to be doing twenty years from now. Each chapter focuses on a specific discourse: express and reflect, inform and explain, evaluate and judge, inquire and explore, analyze and interpret, and take a stand/propose a solution. In teaching these lessons, Kelly provides mentor texts (professional samples as well as models he has written in front of his students), student writing samples, and numerous assignments and strategies proven to elevate student writing. By helping teachers bring effective modeling practices into their classrooms, Write Like This enables students to become better adolescent writers. More important, the practices found in this book will help our students develop the writing skills they will need to become adult writers in the real world.

Writing for Pleasure

Writing for Pleasure
Author: Ross Young
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2020-12-29
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1000298841

This book explores what writing for pleasure means, and how it can be realised as a much-needed pedagogy whose aim is to develop children, young people, and their teachers as extraordinary and life-long writers. The approach described is grounded in what global research has long been telling us are the most effective ways of teaching writing and contains a description of the authors’ own research project into what exceptional teachers of writing do that makes the difference. The authors describe ways of building communities of committed and successful writers who write with purpose, power, and pleasure, and they underline the importance of the affective aspects of writing teaching, including promoting in apprentice writers a sense of self-efficacy, agency, self-regulation, volition, motivation, and writer-identity. They define and discuss 14 research-informed principles which constitute a Writing for Pleasure pedagogy and show how they are applied by teachers in classroom practice. Case studies of outstanding teachers across the globe further illustrate what world-class writing teaching is. This ground-breaking text is essential reading for anyone who is concerned about the current status and nature of writing teaching in schools. The rich Writing for Pleasure pedagogy presented here is a radical new conception of what it means to teach young writers effectively today.

Breaking the Rules

Breaking the Rules
Author: Edgar Howard Schuster
Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2003
Genre: Education
ISBN:

The author examines the topic of grammar, suggesting ways of teaching grammar rules that should never be broken, and identifying what he calls "myth rules" that are commonly taught but infrequently followed, and that can hinder students' interest in writing.

Teaching Grammar in Context

Teaching Grammar in Context
Author: Constance Weaver
Publisher: Boynton/Cook
Total Pages: 310
Release: 1996
Genre: Education
ISBN:

Weaver extends her philosophy by offering teachers a rationale and practical ideas for teaching grammar not in isolation but in the context of writing.