[LIT] grammar curriculum advice needed

[Rita Doyle]

Hi!

This is Erica, I lurk more than I post too, but I have a suggestion  
for you that has worked very well with us, which is to use Constance  
Weaver's books on grammar -- Teaching Grammar in Context and the  
Grammar Planbook. She has the MOST fabulous way I've ever seen for  
talking about sentence patterns in the context of great writing, and  
it really works!  The students feel SO empowered, and it gives us all  
a common language to discuss the trait of "sentence fluency" -- we use  
6+1 traits at our school too. We use it with our 9th and 10th graders,  
and it's appropriate for middle grades.

The link at heinemann is here:  http://books.heinemann.com/products/0375.aspx 
.  It might be a great tool to help update your LA curriculum.

Good luck!

Best,
Erica
Vanguard High School, NYC

On Jul 17, 2008, at 9:33 AM, Stephanie Griffis wrote:

> Hi, everyone!  I lurk more than I post, but I need some advice.  My  
> department is working on our Language Arts curriculum.  It was  
> written ten years ago to our state standards, but it needs  
> updating.  Yesterday we got into a discussion about the teaching of  
> grammar, which is always a hot button topic.  One major issue  
> another teacher and I have is that the way our curriculum is written  
> now we are supposed to teach sentence patterns--transitive,  
> intransitive, and linking verb constructions.  She and I want this  
> gone; we don't see how it helps students with anything (no one is  
> ever going to say, "This paragraph would be much more interesting if  
> you used more transitive verb sentences!")  The curriculum  
> coordinator thinks it should stay in.  What are your thoughts?  If  
> there are valid reasons for it to stay, I'd love to know what they  
> are.
>
> Thanks!
> Stef
>
>
>
>
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