Running head: GRAMMAR TO IMPROVE QUALITATIVE WRITING 1

Implications of Integrating Grammar Instruction to Improve Students Qualitative Writing Sherie Newell Capella University ED5007 First Course Foundations of Educaitonal Leadership

Address:

524 Underhill Ave Bronx, NY 10473

Phone: E-mail: Instructor:

954-464-8688 sherienewell@yahoo.com Dr. LaTanya Sharpe

Running head: GRAMMAR TO IMPROVE QUALITATIVE WRITING 2 Introduction There is a recognizable achievement gap in Writing in my school. Being a teacher of the primary grades, I have often witnessed the cause of this failure, and it lies in the lack of grammar lessons. In an article, Christy (2005) explains the need for grammar by advising that educators can no longer afford to assume that students acquire an accurate understanding of formal language structures through reading, writing, and speaking. Thus why fifth graders in my school write grammatically incorrect statements that lack the meaning they are trying to convey because their teachers assumed that they were equipped with the tools in the primary grades. My school centers its writing curriculum on Units of Study. We have six units that we focus on throughout the year. We spend approximately six to eight weeks on each unit depending on the unit. We teach these units with the necessary elements, we introduce rubrics, and we constantly reiterate the writing process. Though a first or second grade student can write concise steps to explain an activity to do (a Narrative Procedure), the entire writing piece does not include a single iota of a capital letter where needed. This is due to a lack of grammar lessons being taught in the lower grades. Without the implementation of a specific grammar program, students writing may have the quantity (elements of the unit), but they are missing the quality. As with reading, math, science or any other subject being learned, writing is the common tool that ties them all together. Writing serves a communicative tool that an individual will rely on for the rest of his/her life and creating a solid foundation in this craft is detrimental to the individuals success in life. Thus, the basis for this inquiry project is: How can integrating grammar lessons into a writing curriculum improve second grade students qualitative writing?

Running head: GRAMMAR TO IMPROVE QUALITATIVE WRITING 3 Developing The Student Writer There is an abundance of research that speaks to developing students as writers. Coker (2007) explains that the writing process requires that children integrate many different kinds of information from many sources (p. 101). According to Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development, students are transitioning from a pre-operational (specifically an intuitive phase) to a concrete operational stage in second grade. They begin to apply lessons taught and learned as they become independent learners. Students are aware that they can use writing as a source to communicate as evidenced by drawings and scribbles in very early stages of writing. As the childs developmental skills increase and they are able to attach sounds to letters and letters to words to convey meaning in a written form, it is apparent that the child is applying what he/she has learned. During this time students are developing their logical thought processes. Developmentally, at the second grade age level, students should be able to A. Write sentences with correct punctuation and capitalization. And B. Recognize and use nouns and verbs in sentences accurately. This provides students with a solid foundation for their writing skills that they will continually build on and add to throughout their educational career. With the No Child Left Behind policy, it is the arduous task of a teacher to aide each individual learner in his/her quest to becoming a successful writer with a solid background in grammar. Integrating Grammar Into The Writing Curriculum

Running head: GRAMMAR TO IMPROVE QUALITATIVE WRITING 4 As noted above the developmental writing abilities of a second grader are grammatical competencies: write sentences with correct punctuation and capitalization and to recognize and use nouns and verbs in sentences accurately. Carroll and Wilson (1993) explain: Teachers who understand how students learn teach grammar within the writing process. They create an environment in which students write daily, without threat and with purpose. Most often this environment results in writing students care about. Because this writing means something to them, because they own it, students are open to ways to make that writing better. They are ready to learn the grammar necessary to clarify their meaning. They are ready to correct, revise, and reformulate their writing. When students do this, two important things happen: (1) They learn grammar in a context and (2) they mark up and write on their papers. The approach is not to learn grammar for the sake of grammar, but to internalize it so it becomes a lifelong skill they may securely call upon when speaking and writing (p. 184). This is what grammar instruction is all about; not isolation but integration. Writing instruction is a like a well-balanced meal with food from each food group. Its not the South Beach Diet that forbids you to consume carbohydrates, but a healthy mix of all the right stuff. For students to be successful writers, they need a complete balance of writing tools, writing instruction for the appropriate genre/unit, and grammar. The London Department for Education and Employment (2000) reiterated this same regard in their publication, as they explained that grammar is the backbone to writing; however it should not to be taught in isolation. Grammar is the prefect marriage between language and writing, and its sole purpose is to better an individuals written words (DfEE, 2000).

Running head: GRAMMAR TO IMPROVE QUALITATIVE WRITING 5 The National Writing Project, which was created to [improve] writing and learning in the nations schools defends grammar instruction whole heartedly. As a matter of fact it offers a wealth of resources and research that support grammar instruction into the writing curriculum. Tip number 19 in their Top 30 Ideas Teaching Writing is to make grammar instruction dynamic. Thomason and Ward (2009) provide some principles to consider when integrating grammar into the writing curriculum: Principle #1: Grammar is a tool for writers the purpose of learning grammar is its application in writing and speaking, not the ability to choose correct answers on standardized assessments. Principle #2: Grammar is learned through exposure to meaningful language. Principle #3: Grammar must be studied as a discipline. Principle #4: Grammar is best taught in the context of writing (p. 6 8).

As rationalized by Thomason and Ward, the approach to grammar instruction is to adopt and engulf it in its entirety and apply it instead of trying to break into pieces and segregate it from the rest of the curriculum. Moreover, another methodology to keep in mind is that grammar should be taught throughout the writing process and not only during the stage of revision. Weaver (2008) describes grammar as a means to enrich and enhance students writing by intertwining and overlapping its competencies during the drafting, revising and editing stages of the writing process.

Running head: GRAMMAR TO IMPROVE QUALITATIVE WRITING 6 Challenges With Grammar and Writing Instruction Grammar instruction has a very elaborate, interesting, complex, but also delicate history. This may sound like a maniacal description of grammars role in writing, but grammar is sometimes in and sometimes out. Once upon a time grammar was a subject in itself, and it consisted of drills and practice until someone said that method was taboo and grammar was put on the back burner (Christy, 2005). However, as future generations of school age children began to rise, they could write a story about their summer vacation from beginning to end with only one period, and it was evident that Houston, there is a problem. Hence, grammar instruction began to rear its ugly but proper head again; but then again, why should we reintroduce a strategy that did not last. Yes, there are problems with integrating grammar instruction into a curriculum, such as a students home language interfering with the rules of grammar, relying on the descriptive approach to teaching grammar, and time constraints. Children write the way they talk has been a saying that I have heard numerous times and I have witnessed myself working in an urban school setting. However, there is the endless debate that teachers should not interfere with a childs home language, but rather deliver instruction that embraces the students home language. The development of oral language is vitally important in its own right as well as being essential to success in literacy (DfEE, 2000 p.7). Grammar is about language, both spoken and written; therefore, in order to equip students with tools write grammatically correct pieces, they also have to speak grammatically correct as well. As the days of explicit grammar subjects in the school day schedule no longer exists, teachers find it hard to steer away from what they now know as the norm of teaching writing to integrate grammar instruction into their lessons. Teachers have been known to either channel

Running head: GRAMMAR TO IMPROVE QUALITATIVE WRITING 7 their practices towards a prescriptive or a descriptive approach to teaching grammar. Myhill (2005) writes that One difficulty in considering how grammatical knowledge might support an effective pedagogy for the teaching of writing is that one persistent [conceptualization] of how grammar relates to writing [centers] upon error: the deficit model of grammar teaching (p. 5). There is a middle ground for teaching and integrating grammar and it begins with assessing ones students grammatical needs and planning accordingly (Thomason & Ward, 2009). In her article, Christy illustrates how to make integration of grammar instruction easy, carefree and routine by incorporating the daily two, the weekly five and one a day (2005). As new strategies and programs are introduced and implemented, it will only be a short amount of time before all seen and unforeseen problems with grammar integration are completely eradicated and students have a complete balance to their writing life. Conclusion There is an eminent need for grammar instruction in todays classroom. As teachers, it is our sworn duty to develop and guide young minds in the right direction. In an age of technology where writing is becoming an altogether lost art; where billboards and advertisements are riddled with grammatical errors, where adolescents wear shirts that say Your mad, I got yo boyfriend!; where texting lingo is the norm, grammar is needed more than ever. High stakes state mandated exams no longer measure how well a student can use the process of elimination on a multiple choice grid, but how well can that student express him/herself in a written form. The research supports my theory that integrating grammar instruction into the writing curriculum is essential. It offers guidelines and evidence that the student writer needs to be

Running head: GRAMMAR TO IMPROVE QUALITATIVE WRITING 8 developed as a whole by providing him/her with the necessary tools. It also serves as a manual for how to go about emerging ones self into this approach. However, do not be distracted or discouraged by the obstacles that may arise, it is a work in progress. The literature demonstrates that with precise balance of grammar and writing instruction students will inevitably be successful writers.

Running head: GRAMMAR TO IMPROVE QUALITATIVE WRITING 9 References Carroll, J., & Wilson, E. (1993). Acts of Teaching: How to Teach Writing: a Text, a Reader, a Narrative. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited. Retrieved from NetLibrary database. Christy, J. (2005). To Teach or Not to Teach (Grammar)No Longer the Question. Teaching Today. New York, NY: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. Retrieved from http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/subject/to_teach.phtml Coker, D. (2007). Writing Instruction For Young Children. In S. Graham, C. A. MacArthur, & J. Fitzgerald (Eds.), Best Practices in Writing Instruction (pp. 101 117). New York, NY: Guilford Press, 2007. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/capella/Doc? id=10188989&ppg=113 Department for Education and Employment, L. (2000). Grammar for Writing. The National Literacy Strategy. Retrieved from ERIC database. Myhill, D. (2005). Ways of Knowing: Writing with Grammar in Mind. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 4(3), 77-96. Retrieved from ERIC database. Thomason, T., & Ward, G. (2009). Tools, Not Rules Teaching Grammar in the Writing Classroom . Durham, CT: Eloquent Books. Weaver, C., & Bush, J. (2008). Grammar to Enrich and Enhance Writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.