ENGL300-1: Kristen Andrews
ENGL300-2: Tyana Battle
The article, Grammar without Grammar: Just Playing, Around, Deborah Dean talks about her experience as a teacher doing assignments with adverbs, adjectives, subjects and direct objects. She found that her student’s performance in writing decreased when grammar was taking out of her curriculum by the district—a change she thought she would welcome. Dean set out to change her once stultifying grammar exercises into fun, educational assignments. Reviewing many books by many publishers, Dean resolved to try sentence imitation in her classroom. During sentence imitation, Deborah Dean was able to teach her students grammar without naming the parts of the sentence structure. Dean found that “these imitation activities were a way for students to work with language, to consider different ways of expressing an idea, and to begin to understand that many options for expressing an idea or thought exist-and that they had the ability to work to find more effective constructions”(87).
Dean’s objective in the classroom was to have her students think about how sentences are formed without putting them to sleep with stultifying exercises. She also helped her students grasp the concept of grammar without grammar by encouraging her students to pick their own sentences from their favorite children’s books and also from the books that they read as a class. Through constructing sentences and figuring out how many single ideas exist in one of the sentences the students learned “to see new ways to combine their ideas in their own writing” (Dean 88). In the end, Dean’s students learn to write better and identify parts of the sentence grammatically without ever knowing they learned to write more grammatically correct. In the end Deborah Dean states of her student’s progress, “My students are writing, and they are trying to write more effectively, and they understand how to look at what they read as a model for what they want to say. They know grammar-they just don't know that they do” (88). Her objective was met. She was able to teach her students to use grammar effectively without having to teach them standard grammar.
By:Tyana Battle
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I really like the idea of having students imitate 'model' sentences. Through this imitation, students might learn (by doing) advanced technical skills in writing. I think this will help students learn how to use the em-dash, which is something that I didn't acquire working knowledge of until college. The idea of having students bring in their own sentences is also interesting--as well as having students find sentences in the literature that they are supposed to be reading.
ReplyDeleteI think it is important to use methods of teaching that work for the students. Often times teaching students trough imitation is better than using technology. I remember in my fashion merchandising class my teacher used a lot of technical vocabulary to describe what she wanted them to sew. The class had no idea what she was talking about, except me, and after she explained what she wanted, the entire class would circle around my desk and I would teach them, through imitating me, what she meant to tell them.
ReplyDeleteImitation is the best way to remember something. Vocabulary is important, but a lot of times it frightens students and they lock up. They focus more on the definition of what the word means rather than applying it to their writing, which is the goal of the teacher.
Just Playing Around Writing by Deborah Dean is a short account of the difficulties she experienced when she first starting teaching. When she first started teaching English, she tried to expose the children to grammar, then incorporate that grammar into writing lessons. Instead of traditional teaching methods, she used creative and fun ways of teaching grammar (e.g. writing bubbles for comics). This did not work: parents complained about how much grammar the kids had to deal with, even if it was fun.
ReplyDeleteAfter her failures with grammar, grammar was conveniently dropped from the mandated objectives, so she dropped it from her curriculum. Even though this seemed to be a godsend, it turned out to be a challenge: without grammar, children could not figure out how to formulate and pattern their sentences. She tried to teach without it, but met nothing but blank faces and distant snores from the back of the classroom. That is, until she found Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student by Edward P.J. Corbett and Robert Connors. This book gave Dean the answer she had been searching for: sentence imitation.
Through this approach, Dean broke down sentences into pieces and had students imitate them. As they progressed, she had them write their own "impressive" sentences, identify other ones in literary works, and break down her examples into different details. She also reduced the time that they focused on sentence imitation: it reduced from hours to mere minutes at the beginning of class. This helped the children get faster, learn to incorporate their new skills into writing, and understand what they were wring. Through sentence imitation, Dean unconsciously taught her students grammar without spending time on teaching them the actual terms.
In this article, Dean makes a really good point: as long as students are succeeding, it doesn’t matter if they understand all the technicalities of grammar. I’m currently observing a 10th grade grammar class. The students in the grammar class seem to be really bored and unengaged. I think this is so, because the students don’t realize the relevancy of grammar. I like Dean’s method of sentence imitation a lot, because it gets the students to apply the rules of grammar in an interesting and fun context. I appreciate Dean’s honesty the struggles of teaching grammar and instituting new methods. I’m finding that grammar instruction is a lot harder than I thought it would be.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of this fun way of learning grammar. To give the students opportunity to learn with their own favorite "material" is a good idea. I think it is good not to all at once fill a kids mind with the technical terms of grammar and let them work it out themselves. I also found it interesting that she would welcome the idea of not having grammar instruction, only to see their writing abilities slip.
ReplyDeleteI think it is important to use methods of teaching that work for the students. Teachers somehow need to learn to incorporate their new skills into writing, in order to help students understand what they were learning. Through sentence imitation students are engaged whole heartedly, because it does not seem like the traditional read, comprehend, and writing its more hands on.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of teaching grammar without actually going through the structure of grammar is awkward to me. I'm not sure how you are supposed to teach you students the skills if they do not know the foundation. Dean finding out ways to teach her students grammar in a fun way is extremely well thought out. I really believe that students respond best to being actively involved and challenged in a fun way. At least I do.
ReplyDeleteI like this style of teaching the students grammar rather than what I learned in school. It is sometimes a difficult subject for some people to grasp because of the many different styles that are needed to be taught. It is a neat idea to have them learn what to do with it and not get confused by the wording of the different subjects.
ReplyDeleteIn this article the author, Deborah Dean discusses many of her unique methods for teaching grammar. She has implicated many ideas into the classroom to make grammar more interesting to students. One of these ideas was having students pick sentences to examine from their favorite books. I love that Dean tries to spice up her classroom. There are many school lessons that can be boring, but passionate teachers always make it fun.
ReplyDeleteI believe Deborah Dean’s idea of modeling sentences is beneficial. Some people are visual learners and seeing an example then imitating it reinforces the knowledge. I also like leaving out the technical terms. By not focusing on the technicality, students are given more time to focus on the actual task at hand. When students get away from the technical language, it is less pressure to memorize multiple words and meanings. This idea is the same with math problems, you can hear the technical terms but for most, until you see the problem being done working it out for yourself is hard. Focusing on the desired tasks will help allow them become more natural and easier to complete.
ReplyDeleteThis article portrays how important teaching sentence structure is in school. By using exercises like having the students choose their favorite sentences in a book that they enjoy and have them work on grammar exercises on them helps the children learn about grammar in a way that they like. It is important to include ways that will keep the students attention while still teaching them as well.
ReplyDeleteDeborah Dean dis an excellent jot with the teaching of grammar in her classroom. More teachers should do what she did, and that was learn her students and the way her students learn and teach off of that. She noticed that her students wasn't learning grammar through text books and exercises so she went a different route. I feel that their is no point to keep teaching a class a certain way if you can tell the class is not learning the way you are teaching it so I like the way Dean changed it up to make her class better.
ReplyDeleteThe article, "Grammar Without Grammar:Just Playing, Around," decribes the importance of grammar. Deborah Dean explains how she was so happy when she first heard she could spend more time teaching the students to write rather than teaching them grammar rules. What she didn't realize was that the students ability to write suffered greatly without grammar lessons. Dean found herself having to slip in grammar lesson just to teach students to write properly. I agree that grammar should not be taken out of schools. If anything, teachers should spend more time on grammar because without it a paper has no cridential. No one will ever respect research or any writing if there are elementry grammar errors. I also enjoyed how Dean used her own methods of teaching grammar.
ReplyDeleteThis article explains just how important grammar really is. Deborah Dean explains that when the administration said that she no longer had to teach grammar, she thought it would be a good thing. As soon as she really began to get into her lesson plans she realized how badly we need grammar. She struggled as well as the students did with the lessons. She then started her own methods of teaching grammar. I don't think that grammar should ever be pulled from the curriculum. It just makes things more difficult.
ReplyDeleteThe article "Grammar Without Grammar" by Deborah Dean states the importance of making grammar fun for students. I really enjoyed her ideas on incorporating tangible objects into learning, it was creative. It was nice to read about her struggles with teaching grammar because, this is a factor I will have to overcome as an elementary education English teacher. I always appreciate learning new ways to teach lessons.
ReplyDeleteThe article wants to make grammar fun in order to make students want to learn it more. It is really important that students learn grammar, by making it enjoyable they might be more willing to learn. Grammar needs to keep being taught otherwise students will never learn.
ReplyDeleteIn this article a different style of teaching grammar is introduced because of a change in the curriculum. I found it quite interesting to see how this teacher ended up incorporating grammar into her lessons without directly teaching grammar. Students learn in varying ways and this teacher found a way that encompasses a lot of students at once. It is always refreshing to see teachers approaching old lessons in new and exciting ways. It shows that they understand their students needs are changing, and so should their methods of teaching.
ReplyDeleteThis article discusses the experience the author,Deborah Dean, had teaching English grammar assignment in her classes. The idea of having students model assignments is very interesting. I believe that it could be affective for certain students who are more hands-on learners. It also seems to be a fun and creative way to teach, the students wouldn't seem to be board because they are interacting with the lesson.
ReplyDeleteI think that this might be a smart way to teach children grammar. It incorporates grammar without the class even knowing it. The methods are different but I think it would keep a class interested. It is good to have hands-on kind of learning material because it teaches the children through experience about grammar. This might help the grammar stick with them.
ReplyDeleteThe article, "Grammar Without Grammar:Just Playing, Around," is about Deborah Dean's experience with teaching grammar. After focusing on writing rather than grammar, Dean discovered that her student's grammar skills were lacking. She taught her student's these skills through imitation and discovered that the children were doing better with their writing. I agree that grammar lessons should be taught all througout high school to improve student's writing and comprehension.
ReplyDeleteThe most important part of this article is that students were learning grammar. The second most important was that they were thriving in an alternate setting than the norm. Rather than noun, verb, adjective, adverb worksheets she was able to go outside the box and teach students by just replaying sentences for them. This is an excellent idea that I am for because in way to make grammar instruction more fun is a welcomed cause.
ReplyDeleteI like that this article mentions, "the combining of ideas." This is what grammar, at its best, does in good writing. This is the idea behind grammar that goes unrecognized by those looking only at the finished product; good writing. Kudos to this teacher for realizing that grammar was directly correlated to good writing. I would be interested to see exactly what is meant by "sentence imitation." I wonder if it is as literal as it sounds.
ReplyDeleteIn the article, "Grammar without Grammar: Just Playing Around, Writing," author, Deborah Dean describes a classroom where grammatical terms weren't used. Through this classroom, the students wrote two to three sentences per day, which matched the model sentences found on the board. These students were creating grammatically correct sentences without realizing what types of grammar terms they were using. I don't see this as helpful at all. It's not a miracle it worked just to teach these kids by having them copy sentences off a board. The challenge will be when those students leave that classroom and are asked to complete different grammatical assignments and they are lost at the terms.
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ReplyDeleteThe article “Grammar Without Grammar: Just Playing Around, Writing” by Deborah Dean did an excellent job of explain the difficulties of grammar, in a peculiarly fun way. Many agree the way Dean conducted her classroom is inspiration enough to future teachers to follow. Dean’s fun and exciting methods of teaching grammar increased her student’s ability to retain the content. Thus, the complex rules of grammar were easily understood. I really enjoyed Dean's views & ideas on incorporating physical objects into her learning; very interesting and creative.
ReplyDeleteDean's approach to teaching grammar was interesting. It was also satisfying to know that it worked for her students. Maybe that's the key. Since many people don't like the idea of grammar, teaching grammar without calling it grammar could be useful. Dean's article sounds similar to one of the article I read for my research essay. In that article, the author/teacher was able to teach her students grammar and make them understand it by using what they were reading to teach them. Now that I have read, from two articles, that this approach works, maybe teachers today need a new approach. This way their students understand and grow in their abilities as writers.
ReplyDeleteIn the article "Grammar without Grammar:Just Playing Around by Deborah Dean, Dean talks about her difficulties when she first began teaching her students grammar. Dean talks about how students seemed bored and uninterested while learning grammar and she felt that they weren't picking it up. Dean explains that engaging students in creative activities that deal with grammar usage is a better way to teach them. This approach keeps students engaged and ready to learn. I agree with the author of this article and I believe that students do better when learning grammar in a creative and interesting way rather than a technical way.
ReplyDeleteIn the Article, I agree with Dean’s objective, as far as having her students think about how sentences are formed without putting them to sleep with stultifying exercises. I like the fact that she helped her students grasp the concept of grammar without grammar by encouraging her students to pick their own sentences from their favorite children’s books and also from the books that they read as a class. This is a good way to engage the students by learning grammar without learning grammar. I'm not sure why it is so hard to teach students grammar but I am all for teachers teaching grammar which ever way they have to. Some people believe that grammar is a lesson whereas either you get it or you don't. I do not believe this. I think no matter how old you are, or where you from, if you're taught something and practice it enough of times, you will achieve and learn it well.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this reading in that it somewhat tied into the prior one because this teacher was trying to help find a way to effectively teach students also. I believe that the fact that the teacher had picked sentences that the students would be interested in helped them learn the material because people especially teenage students will pay more attention if they are discussing things of their interest. I think that this is an interesting article and that this teacher is truly committed to enriching these student's grammar ability.
ReplyDeleteMaking learning fun is the best way to teach children,they learn without knowing. Specially, grammar which can be difficult for many students to understand all grammar rules. This article brings out a great new technique for teachers to help their students use skills to incorporate into their grammar knowledge.Also by allowing students to choose their favorite book sentences, they can become more engage in the material.
ReplyDeleteThis article mentions that not focusing on the technicality, students are given more time to focus on the actual task at hand. When students get away from the technical language, it is less pressure to memorize multiple words and meanings. As soon as she really began to get into her lesson plans she realized how badly we need grammar. She struggled as well as the students did with the lessons. She then started her own methods of teaching grammar.
ReplyDeleteIn this article titled Grammar without grammar it talked about Dean's way of teaching it which was a fun way of doing it. Students understood it better that way. This was the best way for them to learn these techniques versus trying out an different way to learn it. Everyone may not know how to teach students grammar using an different method.
ReplyDeleteI think that "Dean's way" of teaching is a good way to teach grammar without the pressure of the technical side of grammar. There is no one correct way to teach grammar or anything. Learning by having fun is the best way because the person does not know that they are learning and its not boring.
ReplyDeleteI think the articles were well written and the each students did a good job or summarizing them. I have been feeling this way about certain teachers for awhile now. That they're just stuck on trying to get students to get good grades and their not even trying to take the time to see if the student understands the material. If the teacher tries new techniques to help students catch on quicker, maybe their would be a better outcome. These techniques can be used to assist students in their writing and grammar skills.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading about the techniques in this article. I think that making learning fun is the only effective way of teaching students. When students do not feel the pressure of having to constantly memorize and get every single technical aspect then they are more likely to learn. I wish that the teachers I had when growing up would have taught more like this, then, perhaps, I would have had some prior knowledge of grammar coming in to college. What I know I have just kind of picked up and the few rules I know I have only just learned this semester. I think using literature to teach grammar is a great method.
ReplyDeleteIn this article the author talks about different techniques to make sure students understand the material and also making learning more fun. The "Deans way" focusses on getting away from the technical aspect, and getting rid of the pressure allowing students to have fun while learning.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of giving the students models of sentence to rewrite. I also like the transitioning that the author gave the students,which made them more comfortable with writing as school went on. I think that made writing more interesting to the students and giving them a subject to write about that they understood and already had experiences with was also great. There wasn't much research involved in their writing but that was good because they were getting the basics down and later on in schooling. Overall I like the article and felt it was a good guideline for future teachers to follow.
ReplyDeleteI believe that giving the students anything to help them learn will be a good thing. Any hands-on activity will always help a student learn. They have to be involoved in what they are doing, and if they are, they will be more interested in the topic. If the topic is grammar it can seem very repetitive and boring, but in making it more interesting and fun, the students will appreciate it and will learn much more out of the subject.
ReplyDeleteDean makes a very valid point in this article: as long as students are succeeding, it does not matter if they understand all the technicalities of grammar. I am currently observing a senior English class. The students appear to be bored when the teacher discusses the topic of how to use proper grammar when speaking and when writing. I believe that this is due to two factors: one, because the teacher does not make the subject matter interesting (simply because she does not involve them in discussion/activity), and two, because the students do not realize, or understand, the significance of grammar. Dean’s method is interesting, because it allows the students not only to apply the rules of grammar in an interesting way, but also allows them to engage in a fun environment. I am aware of the struggles of teaching grammar to students, particularly the high school students. While observing, I have found that instruction in grammar is much more complex than what I initially thought.
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