Grammar without Grammar: Just Playing around, WritingAuthor(s): Deborah DeanReviewed work(s):Source: The English Journal, Vol. 91, No. 2 (Nov., 2001), pp. 86-89Published by: National Council of Teachers of EnglishStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/822351 .

Accessed: 07/03/2013 16:14

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

National Council of Teachers of English is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toThe English Journal.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded on Thu, 7 Mar 2013 16:14:50 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Grammar without Grammar:

Just PlayingAround, Writing

DEBORAH DEAN

hen I first started teaching, grammar education was specifically addressed in my district's learning objectives: students will identify adjectives and adverbs; they will diagram subjects and direct objects. As a new teacher, I did my best to meet

the objectives. I tried to make the content interesting and, somehow, connected

to writing: we wrote clues for treasure hunts using prepositional phrases and descriptions of

our own "wild things" (a la Maurice Sendak) with elaborate adjectives. Once, I spent a week

teaching verbals with comic strips to a ninth grade honors class, only to receive a scathing

letter from a parent condemning me for spending "countless hours on stultifying grammar exercises." Although we had spent around four hours total-

hardly countless-and although I didn't think

writing bubbles for comics counted as stultifying exercises, I could see the parent's point. How did this help my students with their writing?

When the district dropped the grammar items from the mandated objectives, I dropped the

grammar units from my curriculum. I mentally rubbed my hands together: now I could spend more time on writing. Yes! But then I found that when my students' writing needed help, we didn't have a common vocabulary to discuss the prob- lems. I bumbled around for a few years, trying first one strategy and then another, hoping to find a way to solve this dilemma, not wanting to return to what I hadn't seen work (and what research had been telling us for years did not work) but not

knowing exactly what else to do, either. I tried some sentence combining; there was some im-

provement. Eventually, I came across a book by Edward P. J. Corbett and Robert Connors, Classi- cal Rhetoricfor the Modern Student, and I decided to try an even older method than traditional gram- mar instruction-sentence imitation.

Starting Out

I started badly. I did so many things wrong that it's a wonder the strategy ever really worked. On the first

day, I brought in a model sentence written by George Orwell-one from Corbett and Connors's book: "The gallows stood in a small yard, separate from the main grounds of the prison and overgrown with tall prickly weeds." I asked students to look at the sentence on the overhead screen and analyze its construction-list the parts of speech or the parts of the sentence in sequence. They looked at me blankly.

I plunged on. I identified some: "Okay, it be-

gins with a noun for a subject. What is the subject?" Silence.

I prompted: "What is this part of the sentence

-'separate and overgrown'?" I began to notice eyes rolling back in students' heads. When I thought I heard a faint snore coming from the class, I changed my tactics.

"Okay, never mind the grammar. Look at my imitation: 'The invitation lay open on the table, taunting me with its promise and frightening me with its potential.' Do you see what I did?" Then I

explained the structure of the sentence without grammatical terms: "See? This first part is just an

0 novemBer 2001

This content downloaded on Thu, 7 Mar 2013 16:14:50 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

observation-something is there that we can see- and the second part has two descriptors, each with a little section adding more detail about the de-

scriptive word. The two descriptors are like each other in how they are worded." I started to see life in a few eyes instead of that glassy stare.

We never mentioned subordinate

clauses or parallel structure, but

my students laughed at my

sentence, and then went to work

on their own, using both

constructions.

Then, on the spur of the moment, I made up a sentence about what they were feeling-in the same structure as the sentence we were modeling: "The students stared at the screen, confused by the

assignment and wondering about this strange new task." I even underlined similar parts of the sen- tences with different colors of ink.

Finally, students started sitting forward; there were a few questions and some comments to neigh- bors. Then, pens started scratching. I said, "Try to write two sentences, at least." They were writing. Granted, the situation was somewhat removed from what we might call "real" writing, but that would get worked in later. They were getting involved with a sentence style that was unlike their usual writing.

As I thought about imitating, I knew that I wanted to be sure my models were not all descrip- tion, to have more of the models be useful in the writ-

ing my students might do in exposition or persuasion. Those structures seemed the least familiar to them, and models in those areas would work well in the kind of writing we would be doing eventually. The next day, the sentence was also from Orwell, but not descriptive: "If one must worship a bully, it is better that he should be a policeman than a gangster." I came prepared with two imitations-one about some generic topic, and one that applied to us as a class.

My students really liked the personal one: "If Mrs. Dean continues to require such strange tasks, it is

good that responses are scored more for participa- tion than for quality." We never mentioned subordi- nate clauses or parallel structure, but my students

laughed at my sentence, and then went to work on their own, using both constructions.

Playing Around

As the days progressed, we practiced different con- structions in the first minutes of class. We never

again brought up parts of sentences in grammati- cal terms. Each day, students would write two or three sentences patterned after the models, and then some would share their sentences. With few

exceptions, all could follow the structures without

knowing the names for them. Sometimes, some of the attempts were awkward or clumsy, but those

examples were often more useful for discussion, as students suggested ways their peers could revise or

rephrase what they had written. This was a time to

experiment, and no one seemed to feel threatened once they understood that this was just practice. Eventually many students started sharing the sen- tences they weren't sure worked as they wanted them to, instead of the ones they were sure of, so that the rest of the class could help them rewrite. This was a time to risk without worrying about

product-and the students really liked it. It was a kind of word game.

Generally, the students wrote their sentences about what they knew-the school, the football team, life, current events. Sometimes sentences were about class members, which I allowed as long as they weren't hurtful. After all, it was hard to ig- nore the basketball players who had shaved their heads the night before and were sitting in the next row. They had to be the topic of some of these sen- tences. Sometimes, however, I would ask students to write three sentences and require one to be on the text we were currently reading-Brave New World or King Lear, for example. The more capable the students became, the better they were able to han- dle this introduction of required content to the task. For the most part, 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.

ENGLISH JOUrnal

This content downloaded on Thu, 7 Mar 2013 16:14:50 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

I found sentences everywhere. Reader's Di-

gest quotes were favorites, but I found several in

Sports Illustrated articles as well. Children's picture books are also good sources of great sentences that

many students may find interesting and unintimi-

dating. One good example for sentences of exposi- tion in a children's book is Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra by Andrea Davis Pinkney. It has sentences like this: "For all those homebodies out in radio-lovers' land-folks who only dreamed of

sitting pretty at the Cotton-the show helped them feel like they were out on the town." And this: "And whenever a pretty-skinned beauty leaned on Duke's

piano, he played his best music, compositions smoother than a hairdo sleeked with pomade." This book is also a gold mine for teaching about effective use of fragments (although we don't have to call them

fragments). Another favorite children's book is Va- liska Gregory's Through the Mickle Woods. A good model sentence from that book is, "They walked to-

gether through the cold until they saw a light, small as a firefly, from a cottage in the distance." Although this sentence is narrative, the potential for explana- tion is great: similes and subordinate clauses and re-

lationships explained with prepositional phrases. But I don't mention that anymore.

Additionally, this exercise gives us

an opportunity to talk about how

we innately know how to embed

in certain ways, so much so that

sometimes we don't even

realize that we are doing it.

Sometimes I let students find their own

"great" sentences instead of bringing one in for them. I find passages from writing that have nu- merous examples, and then, as I read the text aloud, I ask students to mark three or four sentences they really like. When I finish, we share our favorites. Students explain why the sentences stand out for

them. A favorite text is John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address. I usually use just the second half of it, and students find plenty of sentences in that portion to choose from. After we discuss their favorites, I ask them to write a sentence of their own modeled after the pattern of one of their favorites. Sometimes I've used this activity when we are working on a research

paper. Then, I ask students to write the sentence about the topic they have been researching. When the sentences are written, several students share theirs with the class. The sentences sound wonder- ful. In one class, a student even commented that

everyone's topics and findings sounded more im-

pressive written in these sentence structures- which led to a discussion of why every sentence need not be one of these "impressive" ones.

After my students are familiar with finding and imitating model sentences, I want them to start

thinking about how these wonderful sentences are

put together, but again, I don't want to use termi-

nology that would put them in a coma. I find pas- sages of writing that have interesting content and structure, and then we take the sentences apart. A

good text I use is Annie Dillard's book, An American Childhood. In one passage, Annie finds an old nickel in an alley and dreams of the ancient people who must have lost it there (39-41). After we read and discuss the passage, I ask students to identify sev- eral sentences they really like and tell the rest of the class why they like them. I select a sentence from the writing and tell the students that we are going to see how many single ideas one sentence contains. This sentence is an example: "The alley ended at an

empty, padlocked garage." We make this list:

* The alley ended. * It ended at a garage. * The garage was empty. * The garage was padlocked.

This is a little challenging for some students, but others are very good at seeing all the ideas nested in a nicely constructed sentence. I ask stu- dents to pick any sentence they want from the pas- sage and write all the single-idea sentences they can find in it. As they finish, I ask them to write the list of sentences on the board. For many students, this seems like a game. Invariably, they try to find sen- tences they believe will reap the longest list. When the board is full, we start looking at the lists. We dis- cover that some people find more embedded ideas

g novemBer 2001

This content downloaded on Thu, 7 Mar 2013 16:14:50 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

than others in the same sentence, which is okay; this is not an easy task, especially at the beginning. Ad-

ditionally, this exercise gives us an opportunity to talk about how we innately know how to embed in certain ways, so much so that sometimes we don't even realize that we are doing it. We try putting some of the lists back together to see if our finished sentence looks like the model sentence. Sometimes it does; sometimes it doesn't. That is not as impor- tant as what the students start to understand at a conscious level about their own grammars. Do stu- dents know the names of all the constructions they create when they embed? Not at all. But they begin to see new ways to combine their ideas in their own

writing because they have seen how such combining occurs in sentences they like.

Getting into Writing

Though these activities raise students' awareness of the power of language and increase their ability to create stylistically improved sentences, they weren't meant to be isolated from the students'

writing. They were intended to help improve writ-

ing, so, when students are working on a multidraft

essay, I start to incorporate the sentence practice into revision. After they have a draft of the paper, I ask them to revise two sentences in the final draft of the essay that follow patterns we have practiced in class. I ask them to star these sentences on the final draft so I can see their progress in stretching their sentence sense. I don't want my students to

get the idea that every sentence should be a struc- tural masterpiece; that would sound terribly con- trived and could hinder their voice and sense of control over their text.

As with any learning, the first tries aren't

always wonderful. Some of the sentences sound a little contrived anyway as students try to mold their ideas into sentence structures that are more complex than those they usually write. But they improve. And

they like trying this kind of language play. Their sen-

sitivity to language and to what it can do increases.

They see a reason to look not only at what they say, but also at how they say it. If I asked them to tell me the names of the parts of speech or their functions in the sentences they construct, they could not do it. But I think I'm finally to the place in my teaching ca- reer where I understand that this doesn't matter. 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.

Works Cited

Corbett, Edward P. J., and Robert Connors. Classical Rhet- oricfor the Modern Student. 4th ed. New York: Ox- ford UP, 1999.

Dillard, Annie. An American Childhood. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.

Gregory, Valiska. Through the Mickle Woods. Boston: Little, Brown, 1992.

Pinkney, Andrea Davis. Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra. New York: Hyperion, 1998.

Sendak, Maurice. Where the Wild Things Are. New York: HarperCollins, 1988.

A former public school teacher, DEBORAH DEAN now teaches in the English education program at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

EJ 25 YearS AGO

Literacy: An Arbitrary Point of Proficiency?

"Is it really necessary to place a point on the continuum, to say that above this point is 'literacy,' below is 'illiteracy'? ... At the root of any concern in the area of literacy is a desire-whether based on altruistic, political, or economic motives- for enabling the individual to cope better with his or her environment. Such being the case, no arbitrary point of pro- ficiency will fit all individuals."

Robert L. Hillerich. "Toward an Assessable Definition of Literacy." EJ 65.2 (1976): 50-55.

EnGLISH journa

This content downloaded on Thu, 7 Mar 2013 16:14:50 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions