Revising+Grammar+Instruction

Barnitz, J. G. (April 1998). Revising Grammar Instruction for Authentic Composing and Comprehending. //The Reading Teacher//, //51//(7), 608-611.  Barnitz’s article recommends reexamination of one’s experiences and understanding of grammar, as well as identifying the connection, if any, with the way that the instructor was taught grammatical skills and the development of the ability to create and understand written texts. He suggests that the best way for students to understand sentence structure and expand their own writing abilities is to expose them to authentic communicative situations in which they have opportunities to listen, speak, read and write. Much like Asselin’s article asserts, Barnitz points out that authentic context is important when providing instruction in grammar. He further explains that the explicit teaching of grammar merely instructs students to view reading and writing as parts of language rather than a whole dialogue. Accordingly, “too much classroom time spent on grammatical analysis is time not spent on writing and reading natural discourse of authentic texts, so necessary for literacy abilities and literate language skills to be acquired. . . [and] learning language functions and strategies” (p. 610). As students need to become phonemically aware as when they first begin school in order to attain the necessary skills to be able to read and write; as students grow older, they need to become syntactically aware in order to attain higher levels of comprehension and application of their literacy skills. Barnitz helpfully offers some suggestions for engaging students in learning literacy skills in authentic contexts, including using reflective journal entries that mirror the syntactic designs of works read in class, i.e. “I Have a Dream,” in which students would complete an entry that began with “I have a dream, that one day….” Further examples of practicing complex syntactic designs include reading and writing song lyrics, poems, and even parodies to put these literacy skills in authentic contexts. Barnitz asserts “teachers and learners can find many models of language in the rich anthologies of literature, music, and inspiring speeches. Syntactic abilities are enhanced by reading and listening extensively to stories, participating in choral readings and Readers Theater, writing stories following patterns, and adapting texts to and from other media. . . all of which have the syntax and texture of their own sign systems” (p. 609). I enjoyed this article particularly because it further put the practice of utilizing grammar instruction as part of the whole of literacy skills instruction into a clear perspective for me. Barnitz uses dialogue journals between teachers and students quite a bit to accomplish this goal in a more informal manner, but I would rather take more of the assignments a step further and not only provide authentic context, but an authentic audience. I think that having an audience, whether it is of peers, parents, community members, etc., provides a necessary impetus to improve literacy skills as well as a source of reinforcement that using literacy skills is a worthwhile task and pursuit. I think that publishing works as part of an online wiki or in some other sort of manner would be an excellent means of providing a varied audience for the students to write for—this seems especially ideal particularly after the experiences that I have had in utilizing a wiki in order to put my own knowledge of educational practices in context. I think that when students are able to write and communicate in that sort of context, it will increase their awareness of particular aspects of communication, such as the manipulation of syntactic structure in order to clarify meaning. In doing so, students would learn an array of designs and transformative practices that can be applied to basic sentences. Overall, I can see how easy it would be to use this methodology in not only the Language Arts classroom, but in other classes, such as Social Studies and Science, because this would provide students with a broader base of knowledge to draw from when attempting to apply their literacy skills. The more opportunities for the practice of literacy skills that students have available to them, the more easily will they be able to attain greater levels of mastery. I believe that it is very important that literacy skills become reinforced across the curriculum because those skills are authentically utilized in that context. As educators, we need to guide students into seeing the connection as well as applying that connection across the curriculum, thus providing further authentic contexts that they can draw from while reading and writing in their various classes.