In Deborah Dean’s article, Focus: Shifting Perspectives about Grammar
she explains how her points of view on teaching grammar has shifted. While at
first she believed on teaching based on the textbook, she learned that that
only taught teaching in one light—right or
wrong. [Dash to add emphasis to right and wrong] Although teaching from the textbook and having her students point
out only what different parts of speech were was the curriculum she was told to
do, she realized it wasn’t working for her students. [AWUUBUS to have two
different types of information in one sentence] Next she had her students write
sentences using specific forms of grammar. This made her think about writers
though; Writers don’t sit down and think “and now I think it’s time for a
simple sentence” they just write. Her focused shifted to teaching based on
genre. Her shifts between how she taught still had the air of “right or wrong”
which is STROL as a whole. It’s not saying “while writing a professional piece
you only use these forms of sentences” or “during a creative piece is the only
time you use participles” because this isn’t true. I will need to remind myself
that as a teacher it is not my job to tell my students when something is right
or wrong, but to guide them with how grammar can be used as a tool.
As a
future educator, I have found how important it is to not teach your students
what is right and what is wrong. Shutting down a students’ writing consequentially
makes the student not want to write and/or allow students to not take risks in
their own writing. I know from personal experience that if a student doesn’t
feel comfortable using a form of punctuation, they won’t use it. Or if a
teacher teaches their students to write long sentences and those will be seen
as “good sentences” teaches the student to write run-on sentences. What a
teacher says to their students has a major effect on the rest of their
curriculum, and grammar is a touchy subject. With teaching STROL I have learned
that it is important to teach other people’s cultures, but in a way that doesn’t
make a student feel like an object, but so you can help them learn their culture
and that it is okay to write different than other students. I have also learned
to not be one of those teachers to just redline. It is important to keep in
mind with your students that you are not there to tell them right or wrong, but
to educate them and help them get better. Each student has their own creative
voice and it is important to keep this in mind. For me, in my papers, I use
simple sentences to show my reader that I think this is an important part of my
paper. But some teachers do not appreciate that and mark that down (as you can tell I’m a bit bitter—it happened
recently). [Parenthesis used to show my irritation and dash to emphasize when it happened] Appreciating a student’s
individual voice and marking on content versus grammar is key in teaching.
Grammar can be taught and can help a teacher see what they need to work on—it is
not a negative thing. It is a way for teachers to know what they need to teach.
As a future educator, I need to keep in mind that content is more important and
to use a student’s incorrect grammar as useful.
