Engl 326 Applied Grammar for Teachers

Fall 2010 CUE 416

Barbara Monroe * bjmonroe@wsu.edu* (509)432-6941(cell)

1:15-2:30 outside our classroom CUE 416 * anytime by appointment * office Avery 225

course website www.wsu.edu/~bjmonroe

class email address: yoteach@lists.wsu.edu

Course description

"Grammar" alone does not a good writer make. In fact, just the opposite may be true. Grammar instruction in schools too often undermines students' linguistic confidence, implicitly teaching them to write safe, simple sentences, ones they can punctuate correctly. Instead, by encouraging risk-taking, we may initially see more "error"--but we will also see more syntactic growth in the long run.

Our approach will be descriptive rather prescriptive. Instead of just learning THE RULES that supposedly tell us what's correct and what isn't (that's the prescriptive approach), we'll be working to observe and describe the "rules" that individual writers have apparently (and mistakenly) internalized. We'll also see that writers aren't so "individual" in the kind of errors of they make; in fact, "errors" are signs of developmental growth that all writers at the same stage tend to make.

The overarching goal of this course is to learn how to teach sentence fluency and explain grammar/conventions to middle- and high-school students and to give them practice in mastering these areas in liberating, rather than debilitating, ways. We need to be able to nudge them along in their natural development as writers, helping them to expand their stylistic inventories as they come to write ever more syntactically sophisticated sentences--which in turn require more than a passing acquaintance with the conventions of Edited American English (EAE), the written dialect used in educational, professional, civic, and journalistic writing. We can only accomplish this goal by teaching sentence fluency and grammar/conventions within the context of students' own writing and other authentic examples from professional writers--not by using worksheets. We will develop the pedagogical skills integral to this approach by looking at our own writing, experiencing for ourselves how this approach works--and feels, on the receiving end, as writers ourselves.

Yes, we will attempt to learn traditional grammar terminology, including word classes, sentence parts and patterns, clauses and phrases--although most of us will not master these terms. So our focus will be on how to explain sentence-level issues with minimal or no grammatical terms.

Learning Targets

By the end of the course, we will

• improve our own sentence fluency and mastery of the written conventions of EAE in our own writing
• ditto for our students
• have practiced in identifying patterns—patterns of error, syntactic patterns, and grammatical patterns—in real student writing
• have developed sound pedagogical tools for teaching grammar/conventions
• explain to our future colleagues and administrators, citing research, why we're teaching grammar this way—and not with workbook drills.
• respect students' home languages and rhetorics and learn how to use them to teach EAE and school discourse
• know the major events and consequences of those events in the history of our language [as required by the state's Performance-Based Competencies for all English teachers]

Required Texts/materials

• Fine, Edith and Judith Josephson. More Nitty-Gritty Grammar. Ten Speed Press, 2001.
• Course Pack [$7, payable to Barbara, who will pick up all the coursepacks and distribute)

o $7 (payable to Barbara, who will do our shopping for us) for communal scrapbook supplies, which includes scrapbook paper, construction paper, plastic covers, and glue sticks (or you may purchase or use your own supplies and not pay into the communal supply)

o 1/2" three-ring binder, markers, and any other incidentals you want for your scrapbook

Major Assignments/Components and their relative weight (see links online for details on each component)

20% Weekly Blogs

20% Daily Grade Average

20% Student Writing Analysis + Minilesson

40% Living Grammar Scrapbook

Point/Grade Scale

100-93 = A

92-90 = A-

89-87 = B+

86-84 = B

83-80 = B-

79-77 = C+

76-74 = C

73-70 = C-

Attendance

You can miss two class periods without penalty. It doesn't matter if your absences are excused or not: you are not here and therefore not contributing to our collective efforts. Every additional absence beyond the first two will lower your grade by three points.

Tardiness

Two tardies count as one absence. You are considered tardy if the roll sheet has already been circulated before you arrive and can sign in.

Late Work

No late work accepted—except at Barbara's discretion and then only in extreme cases on major assignments. Daily work cannot be made up.

A Word about English 202

Upon completion of this course, you'll be eligible to be hired as tutors for English 202, a course in EAE conventions.

WSU Disability Statement

I am committed to providing assistance to help you be successful in this course. Reasonable accommodations are available for students with a documented disability. Please visit the Disability Resource Center (DRC) during the first two weeks of every semester to seek information or to qualify for accommodations. All accommodations must be approved through the DRC (Admin Annex Bldg, Rooms 205). Call 509 335 3417 to make an appointment with a disability counselor.

Academic Honesty
All students are expected to act in accordance with the WSU policies on Academic Honesty found in the Student Handbook. These policies include falsification of information, fabrication of information, plagiarism, multiple submission, and various others. Information about these policies can be found in the Handbook. For additional information on the plagiarism, see this great site: http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/plagiarism/