OMG: Oh, No! Not Again?

Question: What is an issue about grammar that we do not need to bring up for another go-round?

Answer: The idea that first students study grammar before, finally, learning how to write whole compositions. I never thought this idea would appear in print again. The last time we believed that sequence was fifty years ago, postponing most students’ learning to write until grammar had been exhausted. Please! Not again. Teach grammar and writing at the same time! Then you have a chance at least to help students apply it to their writing. RayS.

Quote: “After graduating from Pottsville Area [School District] in 2003, she learned to diagram sentences at Shippensburg University, where she graduated in 2007.

                “ ‘Now at Pottsville Area, we are trying to get back to teaching the grammar first, then encourage them to do compositions and editing.”  Breanne Frandsen, an English teacher at Pottsville Area’s D.H.H Lengel Middle School.

Comment: ARRGHHHHHH! RayS.

Title: “Wats a Teacher 2 do? L Hammering Grammar in the Age of Texting.” Stephen J. Pytak. The Philadelphia Inquirer (Tuesday, March 13, 2012), 82C.