The reading summary is done by: Terrance Peacock (ENGL300-1) and Nathan Pearce (ENGL300-2)
Due by class time on: Friday, March 11th, 2011
The responses by the whole class are due by class time on: Mon., March 21st, 2011 (right after spring break!!!)
The text you need to read is here.
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By: Alisha Robinson
Many teachers do not define their student's success by the test scores. Instead they value the knowledge a student has learned overall. In the article entitled, "Grammar without Grammar: Just Playing around, Writing", author Deborah Dean secretly teaches her students grammar.
When Dean first started teaching she recalls going by the book and teaching the districts objectives. She taught her students how to identify adjectives, adverbs, diagram subjects and direct objects. Because she was a new teacher she never ventured outside of those guidelines, devoting a total of four hours just to grammar. She realized that this was not enough, the kids needed more help with their writing. Her students could not list the parts of speech or do sentence sequencing. Dean tried different teaching methods after reading a book by Edward P.J. Corbett and Robert Connors, entitled, "Classic Rhetoric for the Modern Student". Her idea was to try an older method of instruction called sentence imitation. After making the sentences more relatable to the kids they began to get the hang of it.
After practicing using sentence imitation the students began to explore different ways of expressing an idea effectivly. They would pick a part sentences, for example, "the alley endeed at an empty, padlocked garage." The different parts would be: 'the alley ended', 'it ended at a garage', 'the garage was empty', and 'the garage was padlocked'.Some of the kids were able to find more ideas than others, but Dean's purpose was to show the kids that you may "innately embed several smaller ideas and not even realize it". They would have to then rearrange each sentence to create something similar to the first model.
The entire exercise was meant to improve their writing. Dean incorporated this into drafting essays, allowing her students to practice and for her to visually examine progress of their sentence structures. They can see what they say and how. And view the changes of sentencing from simple to complex.
At the end of the instruction Dean asks her students to name the parts of speech or their functions, however her kids were unable to do so. This is when Dean reaches a monumental place in her teaching career, she realizes that even though her students cannot identify the parts of grammar they have still learned something. She ends her article by saying, "they [students] know grammar -they just don't know that they do."
I think it was a smart choice for Dean to break down sentence structuring the way that she did. Although the way she does it makes progress seem slower, by having students pick out ideas in the sentence it inevitably teaches them how to write. I know when I learned how to write sentences on a sort of either you get or you don't process. I feel if I had learned the way that Dean taught it may have worked out a little easier than I and I might even have better sentence structuring.
ReplyDeleteIn ways, people know what they are doing, the people just may not know all the technical terms associated with what they are doing. Just because you do not know all the technical terms does not mean people are not smart enough to construct a proper sentence. The aspect of not knowing all technical terms could hinder the person from being able to explain why they wrote the sentence the way they did.
ReplyDeleteI liked this article, because I liked how Dean approached the issue of teaching grammar. I agree, that is more important for students to be able to write well than being able to identify the terms of how they do so. Moreover, students being able to identify writing/grammar terms is not as important as being able to write, because identifying terms is a matter of memorization. Furthermore, writing takes practice, time, skill, and not mindless memorization.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this article. As I've said before I love it when teachers challenge themselves to teach in a more effective way. It is much easier to teach through objectives and hope for the best. However, at some point one has to reevaluate the progress their students are making. I agree with Dean in the choice to switch paths and try something else. I think that the only way one learns to write is to constantly practice. I also think that drills are helpful. It truly does “drill” the concepts in your mind. It is forced memorization; which is sometimes necessary when dealing with children.
ReplyDeleteI like the approach used in this article. I have no idea what most of the parts of speech are, and could probably only find a noun and verb in a sentence. This method helps to eliminate the blank stare that follows the lists of grammar terms by using imitation. I can see how this would be hard to teach without using the actual terms, but would be very helpful in lower grade levels. Once the students make it to the upper level classes, after learning how to put sentences together, they may be able to learn the parts a little easier with the better understanding they have of structure.
ReplyDeleteI think Dean did a great job by breaking the sentence structure. It was a great method and the kids got the hang of it pretty quick. Most important thing is for the students learn how to write well rather than knowing all the terms of how to do so. Smart and valuable article because its great to have new ways of helping struggling students. Great summary as well.
ReplyDeleteI think that since teachers are so focused on getting their students to get good grades on standardized tests that teachers don't get creative with their lessons and try something new. Dean wasn't one of these teachers and noticed that her students needed more help than what the curriculum was offering. I think what Dean did with her students and changing how she taught grammar was super beneficial and sets a great example for teachers all over.
ReplyDeleteDeborah Dean has describing her teaching grammar experience in the article “Grammar without Grammar: Just Playing around, Writing” She found that her students cannot point out what grammar is involved in a sentence or a passage when she command them to do. They may include the same grammar skill with their essays but they don’t know they know them. Like me, I can find what grammar I have used after I have taken language analysis course. I may know some of them already, but I don’t know their proper names as well. It is true that we can’t name all the grammars we have used when we are writing. Thus, it is no necessary to “know” much grammar but just use grammar in proper.
ReplyDeleteI think that since teachers are so focused on getting their students to get good grades on standardized tests that teachers don't get creative with their lessons and try something new. They may include the same grammar skill with their essays but they don’t know they know them. Like me, I can find what grammar I have used after I have taken language analysis course. Using exercises that relate to grammar, in my opinion, are very helpful and easy to understand. It makes writing an essay easier rather than not knowing anything at all about grammar.
ReplyDeleteThe author addressed alot of issue about writers and how to write properly. there were alot of techniques discussed in this article as well. I enjoyed reading about the importance of constructing a sentence properly. It was great. Great summary as well.
ReplyDeleteThe articles that were written were great, I believe that teachers are so focused upon getting their students to get good grades on test that teachers do not get creative with on going with their lessons and due to that try to do something new. With this being said they try to include the same grammar skill with their essays but may not know anything about them. Due to this issue I can relate that I found grammar that I used after I have taken language analysis courses. Lastly, it is very helpful and easy to understand when using grammar exercises. Grammar exercises makes writing easier to write an essay rather than not comprehending.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting concept for an article because Dean had to find another way to teach her students. This article would be helpful for anyone planning on going into teaching for a living because of the way she explains her scenario with how children learn. By making the subject more relatable to the students, she secretly taught them grammar, which is interesting, because they are capable of learning it, but are too lazy to do so because it doesn't interest them.
ReplyDeleteI think the articles were well written and the each students did a good job or summarizing them. I have been feeling this way about certain teachers for awhile now. That they're just stuck on trying to get students to get good grades and their not even trying to take the time to see if the student understands the material. If the teacher tries new techniques to help students catch on quicker, maybe their would be a better outcome. These techniques can be used to assist students in their writing and grammar skills.
ReplyDeleteI like the perception Dean had, I know for me personally I will understand concepts and I have a harder time retaining the exact terms. Also this has some relation to the next article ( blog 22) where teachers are asked to question what they value for a student's education as far as holding terms on a higher pedestal than concepts. And I have to argue that while I do feel remembering a concept is at higher value than remembering a term, the education system seems to be the opposite. It seems like it is all based off of a point system rather than a students ability to explore with in the mind.
ReplyDeleteThis article is about how teacher, Deborah Dean decided to take a different approach to teaching after she realized that her students were not learning grammar. She decided to do a new technique called sentence imitation, where students were taught to look at sentences a different way. I think that this was a good idea because when students are taught a different way to look at things and learn them it helps catch on easier. This is because it helps students to be more engaged because it is something new instead of the same thing that we have been going through since we were first taught grammar. I wish that when I was learning grammar I could have been taught this way, instead of the old boring way.
ReplyDeleteAuthor and teacher, Deborah Dean, instructs in a more student-interested manner. Her methods range from: choosing sentences and finding the ideas within the sentence and not using grammar terminology. The idea seems to reflect on how students react to certain teaching techniques and quickly adjusting to what might gain their interest. Dean's approach is a more modernistic approach to teaching English. She was very considerate of which sentences she chose. Dean seems like the type of teacher who really wants her students to learn.
ReplyDeleteThe ability to break up sentence structures allows for students, and teachers, to see a different prospective of how and why sentences are put together the way that they are. This article raises some great points on how this can be beneficial for all parties involved in the learning process. There are many things to be learned from breaking a sentence apart, and it also makes finding parts of speech a whole lot easier.
ReplyDeleteI like the article because it shows how teachers need to understand that sometimes their teaching styles does not always work. I like how she realized that her students was not understanding the material and took a different approach at teaching her class I beleve that more teachers should do the same thing. I believe that this article would be very informational for both teachers and students.
ReplyDeleteDean brought an original style to teaching grammar to kids. She did it in a way that taught kids stuff without them actually realizing it. Breaking up sentence structure and explaining how/why the sentences were put together gives students the opportunity to understand the structure of sentences. Dean chose to teach grammar in a unique way.
ReplyDeleteI think there are some interesting points in this and the teacher's experiences are informative. I agree that by far the most important thing is to be able to write well, even if you don't necessarily know all the parts of speech, the difference between a clause and a phrase, etc. However, knowing these things can be very useful if you want your writing to be as precise and correct as possible, as knowing what these things are and how they function is the best way to make sure you are using them correctly.
ReplyDeleteIn this article, author and teacher, Deborah Dean, discusses techniques that students might be more interested in. These different approaches to English composition can help writers improve their own English composition. The article was interesting and the conclusion was great.
ReplyDeleteI thought this article was nice to read. The summary was well written as well. I liked this article because it showed how differing teaching methods can positively influence learning. The students learned more when it wasn't the same old drill they were use to. By switching from methods which have been used over and over again in education, positive things can happen. It can engage the students more, and keep them interested by keeping them on their toes.
ReplyDeleteThis article was very enjoyable to read because its refreshing to see a teacher challenge themselves to improve as an effective teacher. I agreed with Dean when he talked about the choice to switch paths and try something else. The key to learning something is practicing. Dean’s method of breaking sentence structure was effective because the kids got the hang of it pretty quickly. I think the most important thing for the student to do is learn how to write rather then knowing the terminology. Teachers are mostly focused on standardized testing and how he or she will look, but Dean totally was not like that. He made changes to himself to help his students succeed.
ReplyDeleteAfter the many articles I have read I have learned that it is difficult to teach grammar to a class. As a future English teacher it is one aspect that worries me. This article was very interesting and the tactics that the teacher took and used to help her students learn grammar were very compelling. I hope that one day I can teach my students grammar using the same techniques as her. The summary for this article was very detailed and to the point; overall great job.
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