Blog #3

Making mistakes is the first step to becoming an expert at a certain craft. In teaching and understanding English, it has been discovered that making mistakes and being able to identify them can play a big role in mastering the craft of written English for students. As well, it is important for teachers to understand this concept as well. Teachers must be self aware of the need to not just simply criticize and correct spelling or sentence errors. Teachers must instead encourage the students art of trying, and guide them to correctness instead of simply stating it. To only correct and come down on students in their writing does not build them to be risk takers, so instead teachers must work to constructively correct. All of these concepts and ideas are what the article "Sudden Possibilities" by Darren Crovitz touches on, and I have to say that I thought the article was a very interesting and enlightening read. Writing to the importance and making and learning from mistakes is very important to me; experiment, go out of your comfort zone, make mistakes. This is what good writing is about. Good writing is not about playing it safe, but instead about going out of your comfort zone in order to become better. Good writing leads to proper learning, and that is the ultimate goal of teaching, however it is accomplished.

The question posed in the article that moved me the most is when the author said, "How can we acknowledge the thinking that might be happening in common kinds of errors while building on this awareness to help students be more self-reflective as they encounter and interpret unfamiliar words and phrases?" (32). To me, this question is the most important that teachers can ask themselves of. As mentioned earlier, teachers must work intensively on the art of not criticizing and demeaning students writing mistakes. Instead, as the question points out, we must encourage students to be self reflective in their writing ambitions rather than ashamed. In order to do so, I believe that a good teacher would focus on the thought process that made the student arrive to an incorrect grammatical/written english conclusion. By understanding a students thought process, a teacher can understand how they learn. To understand how a student learns is to understand how to teach them. Each student learns differently, and applying the same teaching to each student only sets up few for success and many for failure. In order to avoid that, teachers must critically think about the way they critique their students, while still encouraging them to try.

My groups alternative to a typical DOL exercise is exercise 5. My exercise consists of sentence combining, in order to create more sophisticated sentences. I believe that my groups exercise relates very well to the topic of learning through error, as this exercise provides stepping stones to learning. Starting with simple sentences in the hopes of forming complex ones allows students to be able to start small and build upon their knowledge as they practice and learn through error.

Examples of simple sentences that can be formed to make sophisticated sentences:

1. The cat woke up
2. The cat became alert
3. The cat looked behind him
4. The hair on the cats back stood straight up
5. The cat noticed that the dog was intently looking towards him
6. The cat immediately stood to its feet in a desperate gallop from the area

Blog 2

Coming into an Applied Grammar class, I didn’t know exactly what to expect or had formed a real idea of what it meant to teach grammar. After reading Chapter 1 & 2 of “Grammar Alive!” and Christiansen's article, I was able to gain a better understanding of the fundamentals and key factors in teaching grammar in school. It had come to my attention already that each student should have a basic understanding of standard english despite their heritage or background. It is a commonly known goal for teachers to not allow their children to be left behind, and make sure they have equal opportunity to learn and grow. However it hadn’t much come to my attention the fact that we have to make sure students are not becoming too comfortable in their only known grammar, as they need to challenge themselves. After reading Christensen's article, I began to accept this new truth about grammar, as it has come to my attention that accuracy does not mean complete understanding.

In the chapters in “Grammar Alive”, the author addresses three goals as a means for teaching grammar[;] These goals ensure that every student gains an equal understanding of english through school, be able to apply correct grammar, and be able to use standard english at their cultural discretion while still remaining within the lines of standard english. (I thought the use of a semicolon here was appropriate, as it replaced a period and made the sentence naturally listical) Personally, I come from a family of immigrants and a multicultural background that allowed me to grow up speaking two languages. Therefore, the goal of allowing every student from every background to have the same opportunity to learn and practice standard english is one I am very much aware of and hold close to my heart. As a teacher, I want each of my students to be given a full chance at learning and understanding standard english and grammar. This section of the book confirmed my notion on what it means to teach grammar and bettered my understanding of the importance of such cause.

The goal that challenged my view on teaching grammar, however, was the concept of Goal C. The essence of Goal C is to allow students to have their freedom and discretion with standard English according to their ethnic and cultural background. While I do not oppose this, I have a hard time understanding from a teaching point of view how to identify the line between acceptable and unacceptable as pertains to this goal. Goal C highlights that while students can express themselves linguistically, they must still “as well as an understanding of language-based prejudice” (Haussamen). Combining these two ideas, while a great concept, can leave a blurred line that makes me question if I would be able to identify right from wrong.

Referring to the article from Christensen, one part that particularly drew my attention was the scenario with Fred's writing and his resistence to step outside of his comfort zone. As a student, Fred would shy away from making grammatical trial and error. He would not want to challenge his grammatical skills, instead only repeating use of skills he had already mastered. Christensen pointed out that this is more scary to see as a teacher than seeing a student continuously trying and failing. I hadn’t very much realized this reality as a teacher, and it opened my eyes to a new side of teaching grammar I hadn’t yet explored. It revealed to me the importance of making mistakes, and how as a teacher you must guide your students to be afraid of not trying instead of being scared to fail.

In comparing the chapters from “Grammar Alive” and “Teaching Standard English”, my thoughts and views on teaching grammar have both been confirmed and challenged. Both readings stress the importance of student learning, as they should be continually challenged and given equal chance to make error and correction.