In this chapter, Weaver talks about what grammar should be taught and how. There is evidence that suggests the teaching of grammar is important so that mistakes can be fixed in students' writing, but what grammar is useful to fix these mistakes is the question. She listed a couple studies that were done to point out grammatical mistakes that occur most often in student composition. It was interesting to see the mistakes that people will make constantly. For example, where a comma is necessary, it is left out, pronoun agreement is a big error, and also the apostrophe in possessives. I recently took the grammar course, and everything I learned is still fresh in my mind, so I see the mistakes the students made in the examples she listed and some of them irritated me.
I like the idea she gave about narrowing down the grammar instruction to what mistakes the students in my classroom make the most often. This way, I do not overwhelm the students, but instead, I will be helping them transform their writing into more Edited American English. Unfortunately, with mistakes written down on paper, individuals can be perceived and slightly unintelligent. That is just the way our country works because everyone worries about writing in Standard English. However, as the book pointed out, depending on where the student is from, and the region in the U.S., there are different dialects that influence the way we write.
I do not want to be a grammar nazi when I start teaching, but there are some grammar that will greatly benefit my students. I will personalize the grammar instruction so that it is best fitted for my students. If they are making reoccurring mistakes, I want to help them fix them, so that they do not translate into their writing anymore.
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