Grammar/Teaching Philosophy

"Grammar is the greatest joy in life, don't you find?"

--Lemony Snicket, The Wide Window

                Do you remember the third book in the Series of Unfortunate Events series, when Aunt Josephine used grammar as a secret code to tell the Baudelaire children where she was hiding? She knew that "correct" grammar was powerful, but also that there could be uses and reasons for "incorrect"  grammar as well. This idea--that there is a time and place for every type of grammar--is a lot of what we'll be talking about in class this year. Hopefully, by the end of second semester, we'll all be comfortable enough with the times and places for different types of grammar that we'll never commit a faux pas like the one that convinces Count Olaf to throw Aunt Josephine into Lake Lachrymose!

                Grammar instruction has a long history, and a lot of that history has been spent dictating "correct" and "incorrect" grammar (Dean 1). However, thinking about grammar in these terms implicitly assumes that there is a "right" and a "wrong" in grammar--and that one way of speaking is superior to other ways of speaking. However, we know from our everyday lives that this isn't necessarily true. Think about the way that you speak when you're talking to your grandmother or other important elders in your life. Now, think about the way you speak when you're texting or sending a Snapchat to one of your friends. These grammars are probably significantly different, but both of them get the job done. Would you want to use your texting grammar with your grandmother or your grandma-speaking grammar in your texts? Probably not. Each discourse is appropriate for different times and reasons. The question is, which grammar is best for which contexts?

                These questions get at the root of the ideas of functional grammar, and this is what we'll spend a lot of time thinking about this year. Functional grammar is a way of looking at language that says that the types of language used are determined by context. Thus, if you decide to use informal speech when texting, you are making that decision based on your perception of what would make sense for your audience and medium. We will focus on looking at language, always asking what is appropriate for the current situation. Because of this, our ways of thinking about grammar and language will be influenced by our perceptions of what is "effective" and "ineffective," not what is "right" and "wrong." Language, after all, is far too complex to have one right and one wrong way to go about using it. With these different types of languages, though, it's common to think that one type of language is implicitly better than others; for instance, like Standard English is better than Southern Accented English or Californian English. We'll try to get at the heart of these types of stereotypes through our class texts  1984 and Things Fall Apart. With these works, we'll talk about the ways that language is used to control and define peoples. What does it mean to have a "standard," and what does that take away from others? What are the strengths of a "nonstandard" language? How does it allow us to express ourselves or our ideas differently? We'll also discuss the ways that we, as a society, intrinsically make assumptions about people based on the ways that they speak. Like Mr. Ramsey's class, studied in Jill Ewing Flynn's article, "The Language of Power: Beyond the Grammar Workbook," we'll have discussions about these languages, making sure to treat each way of speaking as what it is--a strategy that people use in legitimate ways to communicate with each other. No version of English is inherently better than any other (Flynn 2).

                Of course, there's a legitimate caveat to this approach to grammar. It's the fact that you all need to take--and pass--a state-mandated test at the end of next year. That test is going to ask you the "correct" ways to phrase and punctuate ideas, so we'll also have to deal quite heavily with standard grammar expectations. However, as a class, we are going to want to be very careful about the ways that we talk about standard grammar. After all, knowing standard English is a very useful skill to know, even beyond a public school testing context. Standard English is the language you will want to use when you are applying to colleges or jobs someday, and it's the language that people will expect you to use when you are in professional contexts for the rest of your life. However, I pledge to do my best to make sure that we aren't learning this grammar in stiff ways that feel inapplicable, because, as Bonnie Mary Warne points out in her article "Teaching Conventions in a State-Mandated Testing Context," trying to teach grammar when it means nothing to students doesn't do anything useful. It is only when students want to learn skills that they will internalize them (Warne 25). To learn Standard English in interesting, useful ways, we'll approach it from the standpoints of readers and writers. However, to make sure that we are ready for standardized testing next year, we'll also do practice drills and spend some time looking at the ways they format their questions on the test.

                Much of our strategies and views on looking at grammar from a reading and writing perspective will be drawn by the principles of Harry R. Noden in his book Image Grammar: Teaching Grammar as Part of the Writing Process. Because we are looking at grammar in a functional way--thinking about the ways that we can benefit from using different types and dialects of English to be effective or ineffective--we'll also think about grammar and punctuation as a tool that we use to communicate something about ourselves. Noden writes a lot about how different grammatical styles add a certain flavor to a work: for instance, how run-ons and fragments add variety and a sense of wildness to a piece that perfect, "grammatically correct" sentences can't quite equal (107). Similarly, we'll talk about how sentence structure contributes to the meaning of a piece. When we are learning about correct comma usage in lists for the standardized test, we'll talk about the benefits and disadvantages of the Oxford comma, and when we're learning about passive and active voice, we'll discuss instances where both constructions are appropriate. Much of our discussion will be fueled either by what we read or what we write. While we make our way through our class texts, we will come across opportunities to use the talents of the authors to understand the benefits of different grammatical structures. We also, as Weaver, McNally, and Moerman advocate in their article "To Grammar or Not to Grammar: That is Not the Question!",  will repunctuate paragraphs in these works with sentence-combining exercises to gain ideas of how small changes in writing can make large differences in tone or meaning. We may sometimes find that we like our versions better than the professional author's, and that's okay. This will help us gain perspective in to different voices and styles (Weaver, McNally, and Moerman 6). In addition to approaching grammar from a literature standpoint, we will also utilize a writing approach with a personal portfolio project.

                Our writing assignments will be spread throughout the year, and we will approach them with plenty of time for significant planning, writing, and editing. For planning, we will frequently use writing prompts from Image Grammar  to try and unlock new and inspiring tones, ideas, and descriptions. Then, we will prewrite, testing out four to five specific  grammatical constructions. In the editing stage, it will be up to you to choose the constructions that you like and the ones that you think create the most effective piece of writing. You may use nonstandard English in these pieces, but I will ask you to defend your choices in our writing conferences.

                In addition to these more creative pieces, we will also dip our feet in texts from other disciplines, like technical writing, scientific writing, and newspaper writing. In each of these cases, we will study a professional document from these fields, discuss the specific attributes of its grammar, and then attempt to mimic it with our own subjects. This will hopefully give you some experience writing in other genres, as well as help you see how the audience and purpose makes a difference in what type of writing you choose to use in your work.

                In the end, I hope that these methods of approaching grammar will help you start thinking about grammar as a tool that can be manipulated, not a set list of rules that must be followed. While we will spend quite a bit of time on Standard English, as it will help you in your professional and scholarly lives, we will also look at other varieties of English and gain familiarity with the appropriate times to use them. You will always have the freedom to use nonstandard forms of English in your creative writing samples, as long as it is done effectively and you can make a good argument for your decisions. If you can come out of this class able to make effective grammatical decisions for a variety of different reasons and purposes, and feel like you have control over your words and can express yourself in the way you like, then this year will have been very successful by my standards. Just remember: if you can determine when to use different types of grammar effectively for different purposes, then you'll have a leg up on Aunt Josephine--and hopefully won't be thrown to the leeches in Lake Lachrymose.

 

 

Works Cited

Dean, Deborah. "Shifting Perspectives about Grammar: Changing What and How We Teach." English Journal 100.4 (2011): 20-26. Proquest. Web. 29 April 2014.
 

Flynn, Jill Ewing, and Lisa Storm Fink. "The Language of Power: Beyond the Grammar Workbook." English Journal 100.4 (2011): 27-30. Proquest. Web. 29 April 2014.

 

 Noden, Harry R. Image Grammar: Teaching Grammar as Part of the Writing Process. 2nd ed. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2011. Print.

Snicket, Lemony. The Wide Window. New York: Scholastic, 2001. Print.
 

 Warne, Bonnie Mary. "Teaching Conventions in a State-Mandated Testing Context." English Journal 95.5 (2006): 22-27. Web. 7 April 2014.

 

Weaver, Constance, Carol McNally, and Sharon Moerman. "To Grammar or Not to Grammar: That Is Not the Question!" Voices from the Middle 8.3 (2001): 17-33. Proquest. Web. 23 April 2014.