There's so much to do in a 16-week writing class. Get your hands on a basic writing textbook and flip through--hundreds of pages there covering everything from paragraphing to audience to adverbs, right? What's a teacher to do?
I always start with the course outcomes. These are those fun statements that say what the students will ultimately leave the class being able to do. Here's the outcome that addresses grammar for my school's second-level developmental writing class (the overall goal of the class is to move from paragraphs to essays):
"Use the conventions of Standard English to communicate clearly and effectively."
Hmm. Maybe the course description is more specific:
"Rules of grammar and punctuation are reviewed. "
Well then. That clarifies things.
Now, I'm not knocking our common course outline. It allows for academic freedom, and I would never diss freedom. The point is, of course, that what's discussed regarding grammar is wide open. But is it?
Anyone who has taught a couple of basic writing classes will discover very quickly that students have specific patterns of error. These patterns are individual, of course, but there are also patterns that are problems generally and are especially egregious. Based on what I've seen from students over the years, the grammar topics that I focus in on are:
1. The simple sentence (subject, verb, prepositional phrase)
2. Coordination (using words like "and") and subordination (words like "because")
3. Run-ons and fragments
4. Comma and semi-colon usage
5. Misspelled and misused words
What about subject/verb agreement? What about pronoun/antecedent agreement?? What about the rest of the parts of speech?!
Fear not, dear reader. These, among all the other grammar concepts, are perfectly worthwhile to discuss and, in fact, probably should be discussed. I'm just being honest here: these are the things I focus on, right or wrong. Also, did I mention the 16-week semester and all the other stuff that we need to get through?
So, those are the concepts that I spend the grammar-allocated class time on. Up next? What, exactly, I do.
