Teaching Grammar in Context

Teaching Wonders

There has been quite a bit of debate about how to best teach students
grammar and have them be the best writers that they can be. Evidence from
fifty years of research seems to point to the attitude that grammar taught
in isolation (worksheets where students are asked to pick out nouns and
verbs, having no actual connection to student writing) has no effect on
student writing, and may in fact be harmful to student writing. This begs
the question then, why do so many teachers persist in using exercises such
as DOL (Daily Oral Language) or grammar worksheets? Teaching grammar in
context is not always an easy task, and I'm sure that I don't do as well
with it as I should. But, when I do focus mini-lessons on issues of craft
and grammar, I find that student writing is better.
Teaching grammar in context requires a commitment to teaching (and reading)
student writing. It also requires a commitment, in part, to a writing
workshop approach in which you are able to conference with students and
identify the issues in their writing that most need to be addressed. Grammar
mini-lessons should be targeted to trends that you see in general, and then
specific instruction would be given to individual students.
The following are some links to research advocating for the teaching of
grammar in context:

The Role of Grammar in Improving Student Writing-by Beverly Ann Chin,

which provides an over-view of research and several activities to help
teachers implement grammar-in-context.

The Role of Grammar in the Language Arts Classroom-Nancy Patterson

Grammar: Meaning and Contexts-Nancy Patterson

Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve the Writing of

Adolescents in Middle and High Schools-A 77-page pdf research report
from the Carnegie Corporation of New York which includes a section on
grammar instruction, showing that traditional grammar in isolation
produces a statistically significant negative effect on student
writing.

Grammar Resources from the National Writing Project-A collection of

links to articles published in NWP journals.

Teaching Grammar in Context: A Summary of the Research-Lisa Segrue and

Susan Bruce's work for the Fox Valley Writing Project. They provide an
overview of the research as well as activities for the teaching of
grammar in context in a 10 page Word Document.

Teaching Resource Center /Grammar-NCTE's page on the teaching of

grammar. There are links to activities to use in your classroom, as
well as links to pdf files that are articles and chapters of books
published on the teaching of grammar in context.

Working with Grammar in Conferences with Student Writers-at Richmond

University

Last Updated April 11, 2011

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