Comments on: Education Nation: Revived support for grammar instruction

By: Nancy Schadt

Nancy Schadt — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 18:09:29 +0000

I completely agree with Sandy Hughes. I took four years of Latin in high school and learned the meaning of Latin/Greek prefixes and suffixes, as well as diagramming sentences, in elementary school. I enjoyed diagramming and the clarity of knowing the function of every word, phrase and clause when I finished. As a former high school English teacher and current English adjunct, I am appalled at the ignorance of American students, when they enter college, about the fundamentals of their own language. I cannot accept that, in some form, “traditional grammar instruction and diagramming sentences doesn’t work.” It worked for me, and it certainly worked better than whatever passes for grammar instruction now. “Explicit grammar instruction” is an essential part of a child’s education; currently, the “system” is cheating all American children of their basic right to speak and write their language correctly.

By: Barbara Stuckey

Barbara Stuckey — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 23:00:32 +0000

Winning a patent in writing, I’ve spent twenty years establishing follow-up track records and outcomes in closing the achievement gaps in schools and the collaboration and writing gaps in the professional workplace. (Of course those students struggling in schools become adults struggling in college and workplaces and taking careers they think will not require writing.) With our approach, we’ve seen remarkable outcomes in times from 2 weeks to 7 months with 70 trained teachers and, as well, for professionals suffering from struggles with writing. The approach ties to intuitive thought, organizes English as a binary system with no exceptions, concentrates on context meaning “between the lines.” Not a gimmick, it enhances and does not impugn other approaches and applies a binary explanation for grammar as well as writing and thinking. Please see our film, documentary work-in-progress, All Boats Rise, http://www.vimeo.com/29894561. Please consider staying in touch. Adding blogging, on-line articles, and conversations with educators would add the perfect component to our current, very-small-company national expansion. Best regards. Hoping to hear from you. Barbara Stuckey Please see P.S. below

P.S. My only hesitation in this reply is that under the tab Outcomes and Results, the web designer misspelled Magic as Majic and Achievement as Achievenent – two disasters I will have corrected post-haste.

By: Estados Unidos revive la enseñanza de la gramática | Educación a Debate

Estados Unidos revive la enseñanza de la gramática | Educación a Debate — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 00:50:03 +0000

[...] más bajo que se ha tenido desde que en 2006 se incluyó esta asignatura en el examen.Publicado en Hechinger Report Sin embargo, con la adopción del Common Core (núcleo común de enseñanza) por parte de 45 [...]

By: Sandy Hughes

Sandy Hughes — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 18:19:45 +0000

As a Latin and English teacher, grammar such as diagramming sentences and understanding our words are used is the way students really understand English. Hooray!