Wow, grammar is obsolete. I would have given argument to that before reading this article, but after reading it, I think I knew it all along. What place does grammar hold in the teaching of writing? Throughout the reading, I referred back to my own teachings and experiences and I think I agree with Hartwell. For example, as part of a Daily Oral Language warm-up activity, my students correct incorrect sentences (The boy take a bath). Everyone one of my students can tell me 'take' should be 'takes', but there is almost a daily routine where I am pulling my hair out asking over and over again, "WHY? COME ON, YOU KNOW THIS! WHY?" Exactly, why? Why do they need to know this? They fix the sentences, as readers, they know the rules, why do they have to know why? I only know because my first year teaching, I looked it up. As a 23 year old with degrees in creative writing and elementary education, I had absolutely NO IDEA why. Should my ten and eleven year olds?
I like Hartwell's rule Grammar 1. Like the rules above, native speakers naturally know certain rules, even if they can't tell you the Grammar 2 reason. An example of this is student writing. Students write quickly, like a race to get the words out of their heads and onto the paper. There are A LOT of mistakes. But if that student stands up to read that mistake filled story to the class out loud, he will naturally correct most of the mistakes and the listeners won't even know about the written errors. I have seen this countless times as well. The writer (now reading aloud) inherently knows how it is supposed to sound, and reads it correctly, despite the grammatical errors in the actual writing. They know Grammar 1 and could care less about Grammar 2 and only care about Grammar 4 on the rubric and their grades.
I think one of the best points Hartley made was in his description of the study done in the New Zealand High School. "After two years, no differences were detected in writing performance... after three years small differences...these were more than offset by the less positive attitude they showed toward their English studies" (Hartley, 206-707). Grammar 2 and 4 are boring and make kids hate writing. When I'm pulling my hair out asking my students WHY, their eyes are rolling back.
This really has opened my eyes a bit about my teaching practices and the emphasis I put on certain concepts. Will I throw out all grammatical concepts? No way, cold turkey never works. But I will be more conscientious about what I am teaching and how it will make my students better writers.
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Todd- So maybe you don't teach the rules per se, but, seriously, I think that being able to spot grammatical mistakes is still a really important skill. Ok - so who cares if a 5th grader (or a 12th grader) can explain why. The question then becomes...what do you do with the kids who cannot spot those grammatical mistakes?
You wrote: '"WHY? COME ON, YOU KNOW THIS! WHY?" Exactly, why? Why do they need to know this? They fix the sentences, as readers, they know the rules, why do they have to know why?'
You used quotes, commas, question marks... someone has taught you grammar. I think some of the "Whys" of grammar are important. Why do we use quotes? To denote someone is speaking, this is a very important aspect of reading/ writing that is not seen in kids' wring until it is taught to them.
If students can fix their mistakes when reading their work out loud, certainly they should be able to sit down and correct it on paper afterwards. I completely understand the necessity to quick jot down thought on paper before they go away... but there is nothing saying students can't go back and correct for errors.
Like you, there are rules of English grammar that I never even knew existed until I taught ESL. My students would ask me to explain something, and I would have no idea what to tell them.
So the big question is why do we continue to focus the teaching of writing so much on Grammar 2? Maybe because it is easy to teach rules and measure adherence to those rules. There's got to be a better way.
Using correct grammar that communicates your message seems to be most important in assessing grammar. The "why" will be forgotten even as the rule is applied? I have to repeat myself...using the rule as rote often is more important than the reason (and in English there often is no reason, just exceptions). With spell check and grammar check, a student who can recognize the error can make an educated correction not accept that "seem" and "seam" both fit the sentence. Knowing the basics of grammar enables the student to realize that just because "the" is at the beginning of a line the word may not require capitalization.
I believe concentrating on grammar tests are a way for school districts and funding sources to focus on rules, not creativity. Grammar will help get across an idea, but creativity and a love of writing will open our world to possibilities. They both are important to Composition.
Oddly, I would have corrected the example sentence as "The boy took a bath." So if I differ, yet have a degree in writing (I do), how well did I learn the rule and why should we expect you kids to get it.
Also, in the above paragraph, quotation marks were used, but not to denote someone speaking, Robin. What does that say about the rule for quotation marks? HMMMPONDER.
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