Rachel Stewart

English 375
Activity and Analysis

Exploring Grammar in the Classroom

Sara Trechter, Grammar is the math of English. This statement has proved to be true

for me. Throughout my academic career I have continuously struggled with math. I never

enjoyed math, and left each class with a lack of understanding. This same lack of understanding

reappeared with Grammar class. The failure to understand grammar sits heavily on my shoulders.

The question that engulfs my mind is, If I cant understand grammar how will I be able to

effectively teach grammar to my future students? This question cannot be ignored. Language

and grammar go hand in hand, therefore I believe in the importance of effectively and thoroughly

teaching grammar.

For my paper, I used the prompt that allowed me to create an interview questionnaire.

This questionnaire highlights approaches to grammar in the classroom. I gave my questionnaire

to three high school English teachers and one junior high History teacher. I included the junior

high teacher in my analysis to provide a perspective on grammar in a classroom other than

English. I chose this prompt with the idea that it provided me with the opportunity to gain the

most knowledge and growth out of the assignment. I feel interviewing current educators on their

approaches to grammar would provide me with valuable insight on what I should focus on in the

vast contexts of grammar. I also hoped this assignment could shed some light on the

expectations regarding grammar that I will have as a future educator. I decided to interview

multiple teachers to compare and contrast their methods on grammar in the classroom. I sent out

the questionnaire via text and social media. I put no limit on how long or short the answers

should be, just that they answer the questions to the best of their ability.
Grammar Interview Questionnaire:

1. Do you address grammar conventions in the classroom?

2. How do you go about teaching grammar in your classroom?
3. What methodologies do you use?
4. What do students respond best to?
5. Whats the biggest area of struggle with grammar? And what do they do well?
6. How can teachers improve grammar?
7. What is the importance of grammar to you?

Answers:

Shelly (HS English): As a dept. we struggle with how to teach grammar. I do a couple
things. I have writers conferences with my AP class where I meet with them one on and
one and address those issues individually. With my regular English 12, there are some
grammar lessons that go along with our writing process. We usually focus on different
types of sentences. I try to find real examples from an article or literature to use as
models.

They struggle with applying a worksheet to their own writing. They see it as two separate
things. Does that make sense?

I think varying their types of sentences.

Derek (HS English): With grammar, it really depends on the students I have in the class
and what I've seen in their writing. I try to assess their writing early in the year to see
what their conventions look like. Often times the biggest struggle I see is students writing
in sentence fragments or run on sentences. With anything in teaching I think students are
most successful when they feel confident in their abilities, so scaffolding is important.
Consistency is key as well as students need repetition and practice so grammar warm up
activities have shown to be effective for me.

Emily (HS English): I teach grammar through my vocabulary every other week. I give
students 10 vocab word that they have to use in a sentence and each week I'll require
them to preform a different convention each week. Right now students must write vocab
sentences in present tense.

I find students do best with conventions by focusing on a couple at a time. When I grade
papers I'll tell them I'm looking for two specific conventions (like present tense and
complex sentences) and I will only grade those two things. It means more to them to
focus on a couple things rather than get back a ton of notes about everything.

Daniel (JH History): Every single day, that's the first thing I do in the morning. I use it
as my warmup.

Disclaimer, I'm not an English teacher. So, I am doing the best I can as I go.
 Grammar requires repetition. Seeing it done correctly and seeing mistakes. I use
sentences that are full of grammatical errors. Students correct the sentences on their own,
then we correct them as a class. We turn it in to a discussion about how to write the
sentence using different strategies, as long as they are grammatically correct.

I find the practice gives students to confidence and seeing and hearing the difference
between the correct version and the incorrect version also helps.

I find that concrete examples and direct instruction gives students confidence and should
be done prior to expecting students to practice.
Combination of direct instruction, regular practice, and student led discussion sets
students up for success and allows them to grow and be confident.
I don't really find one area of struggle, it is completely on an individual basis.

I think the biggest thing teachers can do is to not assume that students come to their
classroom with all they need to know. Most teachers already do this to a degree, but often
times we have so much content to cover that things like grammar get neglected. Often
times grammar is assumed as prior knowledge when most students need the review and
many need to be retaught completely.

I think grammar is important because it gives people options. People need to be bilingual
in English. Academic, and social. I care very little how people use grammar in casual
conversation, but if people don't have he ability to use proper English and grammar, they
severely limit their options and their ability to be taken seriously by employers and have
their concerns taken seriously by government and other bodies.

Since there are many observations to be made over these answers I chose three that are

the most important to me. The first observation that caught my attention was three out of the four

teachers talked about repetition being important for students to understand and learn grammar.

This is also an aspect of math, repetition. Seeing it done correctly and seeing mistakes, is what

helps students grasp grammar conventions. This stuck out to me for my own learning practices.

Repetition of grammar will result in knowledge of grammar. The second observation was the

different activities the teachers do to teach grammar in their classrooms. Shelly approaches her

students with conferences, lessons directed towards the students writing process, and real world

examples relatable to the students. Derek and Daniel seem to have the same approach with warm
up activities, and repetition. Emily seems to teach grammar the most. She gives her students ten

vocabulary words where each week they will perform a new convention, as well as giving her

students a few conventions at a time, and telling them thats what she will be looking for on their

papers. I find Shelly, Derek, and Daniels approach to problematic. Repetition, examples, and

warm ups are important, but I think their students are exposed to too many conventions at once. I

think the best teaching approach comes from Emily. Grammar is vast in context, and it is

difficult to tackle multiple conventions all at once. She does a little bit at time, allowing students

to fully understand conventions before moving on to more. My third observation is the struggles

with grammar in the classrooms are applying grammar conventions to their own work,

fragmented and run-on sentences. Part of this problem is fragmented sentences, meaning students

are not using a subject and a verb in their sentences. This is a problematic observation; students

cannot create a complete sentence at a high school level. It makes me wonder if texting plays a

part in this problem. As a quirky observation, Daniel the junior high school History teacher gave

me the most thorough answers. He also answered all the questions I gave to the teachers.

I think that Daniel had the best answer to why grammar is important, I think grammar is

important because it gives people options. People need to be bilingual in English. Academic, and

social. I care very little how people use grammar in casual conversation, but if people don't have

he ability to use proper English and grammar, they severely limit their options and their ability to

be taken seriously by employers and have their concerns taken seriously by government and

other bodies. Daniels answer is why grammar is important to the public sphere. Grammar

embodies options, and the way we can manipulate language.