Jeff Anderson's Mechanically Inclined gives educators a practical and incredibly refreshing approach to teaching grammar. Instead of treating grammar as a stand alone series of lessons wherein students are mindlessly asked to correct worksheets full of poorly composed sentences, grammar is taught as an integral part of writing. Anderson encourages attention to grammar and mechanics not merely through correction but by examining how authors use grammar effectively. This shift in attitude is assuredly as exciting for teachers as it is for students because it removes all of the rote responses from grammar instruction and focuses on how to write exciting and interesting prose. Perhaps most importantly, Anderson's approach emphasizes art and play in authorship.
In my undergraduate education as an English Literature major, I wrote a lot of academic text. I remember getting through that first year of college and feeling quite proud of the improvements I had made as a writer and as scholar. However, I didn't really get writing until a particularly persnickety teacher sat me down and explained that good writing isn't just about grammar and message, it's about style. Style is what makes a paper a delight to read. Style is about using rhetoric, even in academic and nonfiction writing, to make the reader feel something. Style is essentially about manipulating the reader into viewing something from a particular perspective. Anderson's approach to grammar instruction emphasizes style in addition to mechanically correct writing. In fact, it's almost as if Anderson wants his students to believe that style and mechanics really cannot be separated. He also asks that readers collect ideas from writers and investigate how grammar works to make reading exciting. As soon as I got that advice as an undergraduate, I started regularly reading writers who wrote nonfiction prose creatively. I read the New Yorker and the Economist weekly. I read almost all of David Foster Wallace's creative nonfiction. Slowly but surely, I started seamlessly replicating a lot of the rhetorical devices these writers employed. However, as a future English teacher, it never occurred to me to teach grammar in the same way.
Until reading this text, I was fairly terrified of the idea of teaching grammar. Even for a student of English, grammar is intimidating because the rules are complex, the teaching approaches are typically dry and tired, and by the time most kids get to high school, grammar has practically become a torture devise. However, I can definitely see myself implementing a lot of his approaches on a regular basis in my future classroom because the emphasis on writing well and enjoying reading and writing as an art. In particular, my top five teaching strategies and tips are as follows:
1. Collecting great sentences or bits of writing to study and inspire. Including students' original writing in the collection of great sentences.
2. Posting great sentences on the walls around my room.
3. Sharing a "writer's secret" regularly and using the secret during writing instruction and freewriting.
4. Using the writer's notebook per the guidelines presented in Mechanically Inclined
5. Read a stimulating piece of writing before each freewriting session and build freewriting time into lessons frequently.
Rachel I really like how you focused on style. I really connected with that as well. I like how Anderson tries to get his student's voices to emerge through their writing. When he does things like the writer's eye or simply encouraging students to go where their writing takes them, Anderson really is setting up that foundation for bringing out their voice. As you have stated, having your own voice not only makes the writing delightful, but it also makes it unique. I also loved how you took the advice from your teachers and did independent research about style and non-fiction writing. Hopefully one day we can get our students to show the same initiative in improving their writing as well!
ReplyDeleteHere is a popular book about writer’s notebooks: Notebook Know-How: Strategies for the Writer’s Notebook by Aimee Buckner
ReplyDeleteI strongly recommend you read this book and do further research on writer’s notebook to help you develop a plan for implementing this in your classroom. Perhaps this could be the focus of your Plan for Teaching English assignment.
That last comment was from Anne. I was still logged in under a past class's blog.
ReplyDeleteWe my friend are in the same boat! Terrified of getting in front of my class when I feel so inadequate in the grammar skills department. Sentence stalking is definitely something I think will be highly beneficial to a classroom. This way we can text fine prose like works of art and hang them in our classroom. Developing and curating an appreciation and love of the written word.
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be an air of longing for the art of writing in your words. Your emphasis on style reminds me of the growing issue of the decline of student creativity in schools. The lack of art programs doubled with the focus on standardized tests has for some people, proved nothing. To have a book like this remind us of the need to reintroduce individual input to the mechanics involved in writing is critical for the experience of learning these concepts. Great post!
ReplyDeleteRachel, this post really shows the attention that you put into writing with correct grammar, clear message, and effective style. I appreciated the insight you provided into your own development as a writer and the emphasis you put on style as the key to good, rather than merely correct writing. This approach seems to be the heart of Anderson's book and a great way to present usage, grammar, and mechanics to students as a vital skill rather than a "torture device," as you so aptly put it.
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