Identify the two most significant influences on how you teach grammar. Place your dots on the charts accordingly.

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• Identify the two most significant influences on
  how you teach grammar. Place your dots on the
  charts accordingly.
• Chart Headings
• The way I was taught and learned grammar
• The textbook
• Student writing
• District/Parent expectation

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MORE Unconventional Approaches to Grammar
Conventions

• Tracey Bressman Teacher, PLV
• Marilou Jasnoch Consultant, ESU 3

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Our Time Together

• Introductions
• Goals
• Lenses
• Why the Brain
• What and How the Strategies
• Action Your Plan

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What might be influencing our decisions about
grammar instruction?

• The belief that we learned practical things about
  sentence structure, style, and editing from doing
  exercises and worksheets
• The tendency to teach the way we were taught
• Pre-service teacher training limited to
  traditional grammar instruction
• Expectations from parents and/or administrators
• Lack of support resources to move away from the
  traditional approach, and toward best practice

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The Research

• Overall, the findings on grammar instruction
  suggest that, although teaching grammar is
  important, alternative procedures, such as
  sentence combining, are more effective than
  traditional approaches for improving the quality
  of students writing.
• Graham Perin, 2007

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The Research

• It traditional grammar instruction does not
  improve reading, speaking, writing, or even
  editing, for the majority of students nor does
  the teaching of English grammar necessarily make
  it easier for student to learn the structure of a
  foreign language (indeed, many students who have
  studied English grammar learn the structure of
  English consciously for the first time when
  studying a foreign language).
• Weaver, 1998

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How students often perceive grammar study

• Grammar is a gotcha
• Mechanics are mistakes paraded with red
  streamers
• Conventions (grammar, usage, mechanics,
  spelling)are a stump the student experience
  for many learners

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Grammar
WHY do so many struggle?
on the brain

• Grammatical concepts are very complex

• Traditional approaches for teaching
  grammatical concepts are not learner friendly

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Putting Grammar into Perspective

• Man has been speaking for well over 700,000
  years. Man has been practicing alphabetic
  writing only for about 3450 years. Man has
  punctuated, in the modern sense, for less than
  250 years.
• Whitehall, 1963

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Stages of Learning

• Discovery
• Trial and Error
• Implementation
• Improvisation

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Instruction Designed for Learning Grammar
Traditional Instruction
Non-Traditional Instruction

• Behavioral Psychology

• Cognitive Psychology

• Creates Habits

• Enables Hypotheses

• Practice in isolation

• Practice in context

• Anchored in RULES Teach Practice Use

• Based on RULES Minilesson Model Apply

• Decontextualized assessment often summative

• In context of student writing formative and
  summative

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There are no miracles here. teaching grammar in
the context of writing will not automatically
mean that once taught, the concepts will be
learned and applied forever after.
On the contrary, grammatical concepts must often
be taught and retaught, to individuals as well as
to groups or classes,
and students may long afterward continue to need
guidance in actually applying what they have, in
some sense or to some degree, already learned.
There is no quick fix.
Constance Weaver, 1998
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What? When? How?

• Relevant concepts
• Review student samples for errors
• Identify the concepts most appropriate for your
  students
• Timely teaching grammar does NOT require a
  sequence
• Use the Framework

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What do you notice?
Where Will You Start?
Does it make sense to wait til the chapter on
sentence structure?
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Framework for Teaching a Concept

• Awareness SHARE A MODEL
• Good examples
• Non examples
• Explicit teaching with student friendly words
• What do you notice?
• First Attempts CREATE ANOTHER MODEL
• Teacher students
• Partners
• Small groups
• Independent practice
• Minilessons
• Rehearsal
• Strategies
• Contextual with feedback/conferencing
• Checkpoints
• Implementation
• Student writing
• Varied in-context opportunities

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Making sure the pieces of the plan are there
Lets look at a few lesson ideas
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Grammar Lessons in Action
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Punctuating Dialogue

• Research shows that anchoring new learning in
  associative thinking increases retention so that
  the student can implement the learning
  independently.
• From Heads or Tails Stories from the Sixth Grade
  by Jack Gantos.

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Planning for Learning
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Sample Dialogue
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Sample Dialogue
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Mad-Libs
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Too Good Not to Revisit

• Last years lesson ideas

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Sentence WritingInfusing grammar instruction
with writing activities

• Two-word sentences (Mechanically Inclined)
• Fragment Fun
• Sentence Copying (Grammar for Middle School)
• Student samples

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From students

• She sat.
• She sat for three hours.
• She sat for three hours in the airport.
• In the airport, she sat for three hours until her
  plane was finally ready to board.
• - By Molly

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• Adam waited.
• Adam patiently waited.
• Adam patiently waited to hear the news.
• Adam patiently waited to hear the weather
  forecast on the news.
• Hoping for a snow day, Adam patiently waited to
  hear the weather forecast on the news.
• - By Marshall

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• Fragment perfect skin
• Sentence Perfect skin comes from using
  Clearasil. (Nick)
• Fragment keeping us connected
• Sentence Cox Communications is keeping us
  connected. (Nico)
• Fragment Vicks apology
• Sentence Vicks apology offended dog lovers.
  (Tiana)
• Fragment televisions toughest tough guys
• Sentence Televisions toughest tough guys are
  on ABC.

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Parts of speechInfusing grammar instruction
with writing activities

• Verbs How do you come into a room? (from
  Breakthroughs)
• Word choice
• Subject/verb agreement
• Verb tense
• Student samples

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From students

• Alex crashed into the room.
• Nyabuom tore noisily into the room.
• Dustin cart-wheeled in to the room.
• Kevin picked the lock, broke the security chain,
  shoved open the door, and illegally let himself
  into the room.
• Darrian G-walked into the room much to the
  pleasure of the girls and to the dismay of the
  teacher.

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Parts of speech Infusing grammar instruction
with writing activities

• Preposition strings
• Subject/object pronouns
• Transitions
• Student samples

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From students

• David traveled to Australia on a plane with
  snakes and Samuel L. Jackson in the morning on
  the most important day of his life.
• Brian tip-toed through the tulips, over the
  rainbow, into the woods, with his best friend,
  without any shoes, until twilight settled in the
  August sky.
• Emily went to the ball park with her team early
  in the morning before the big game versus their
  arch rivals.

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From Students

• In the midmorning sunlight, the puppy scrambled
  after its ball. (Peyton)
• Until he met the teacher in person, Nick thought
  she might be the sister of Satan.
• Under the darkness of night, the thief climbed
  the trellis to the balcony and broke into the
  master bedroom. (Kayla)

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What do you notice?
Where Will You Start?
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Making sure the pieces of the plan are there

• Partners or Table Groups
• Identify a hot spot for learning
• Generate a Lesson Planner for the learning topic
• Be prepared to share

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A Final Thought to Share

• Children learn to write by frequent writing.
  The value and knowledge of writing is as much
  caught as taught by teachers who value writing in
  their own lives.
• C. Brennan (1988)

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• Thank you

For trying an unconventional approach to teaching
conventions