Third graders find grammar easy to learn, at least according to E. D. Hirsch in What Your Third Grader Needs To Know:
Such being the case, some skeptics might ask why Bell Labs considered it necessary to spend two years in the late 1970s developing the collection of main-frame Programs called the Writer's Workbench, the first style-analysis program for writers. They might also ask why Grammatik, the grammar checker PC program based on the Writer's Workbench, has sold 5 million copies since its first appearance in 1981, with 1992 sales alone of $14 million (Walz). Presumably, these sales figures indicate a market composed of an impressive number of former second- and third-graders, who reviewed and added to their grammar knowledge annually through their senior year of high school and possibly their freshman year of college.
Apparently Bell Labs and Bruce Wampler, who spent over 12 years developing Grammatik, are helping to compensate for the general inability to apply grammar rules to the writing process. In fact, Wampler, a former computer scientist at Sandia National Laboratories, now a University of New Mexico computer teacher and writer about computer programming, told Associated Press reporter Walz:
It feels good to have done that (Walz).
It is comparatively easy for someone like Hirsch to decide what students "need to know" about grammar to improve their writing; it is quite another matter to develop effective means to really improve writing. Too often students fall in a Never-Never Land gap between what teachers teach and what students learn as revealed by NAEP writing test results showing 75 percent of high school graduates unable to meet the demands of either advanced academic writing or on-the-job writing tasks (Applebee 9).
Recently researchers have focused on developing what Robert de Beaugrande calls a "learners' grammar" as opposed to a "teachers' grammar" (66) or what others call a pedagogical grammar. Along these lines, after a comprehensive survey of grammar research studies, Hartwell concludes that students are best served by learning a functional grammar, not through studying grammar rules and terminology but through manipulating the language (125-127).
For the purposes of this paper, I shall use de Beaugrande's definition of grammar as the basis of my discussion: "all the things people do when they put words together." In addition, his definition opens instructional possibilities, based as it is upon the idea that "every learner already knows a large part of the grammar of English and shows it -- not in descriptive definitions but in patterns of activity. This basis should be harnessed for learning to write" (66).
A modern version of a proven learning-to-write process, text reconstruction (TR), capitalizes on both language manipulation and "patterns of activity" to teach grammar and other writing skills in the context of connected discourse beyond the single sentence. Thus it is a useful supplement to other methods of teaching grammar. In his autobiography Benjamin Franklin tells how he devised a form of TR to improve his writing skills. As an apprentice in his brother's print shop, he set into print the essays of Addison and Steele. He took notes from the essays by writing several words from each sentence. These he calls "short hints of the sentiment in each sentence." Next he mixed the hints into random order and set them aside.
Several weeks later he tried to arrange the hints into their original order to recreate the logical organization of the essay. He says, "This was to teach me method in the arrangement of thoughts." Then he attempted to write each sentence from just the hints, checking back to the original and noting any deviations, trying to master the vocabulary, sentence structure, and style of the writer (208-209).
A variation of TR is used in the workbook by Arthur Whimbey and Elizabeth Lynn Jenkins, Analyze, Organize, Write. The authors wrote sample papers and then jumbled the sentences within each paragraph. Students number the sentences in what they consider the best order. Then they compare arrangements and discuss differences with other students, pinpointing the information and logic they employ. Finally, they write the sentences in the order numbered.
Here is a short sample TR exercise and the instructions for students:
Instructions: Read all the sentences. Decide which should come first and number it 1. Then decide which should come second and number it 2. Continue numbering the remaining sentences in this way.
_____ Therefore, when nineteen-year-old Michael Grubbs became this year's queen, it shocked no one.
_____ One year its queen was a dog and another year a refrigerator.
_____ Rice University has had some unusual homecoming queens in the past.
_____ So Michael has agreed to give up his title and escort his runner-up, Nancy Jones, to the festivities.
_____ But Cotton Bowl rules prohibit a man from being a princess in the parade.
Check your numbers with a neighbor if possible. Where you disagree, explain to each other why you arranged the sentences as you did.
Next, copy the sentences in the order you numbered them on a separate sheet of paper. Copying sentences can be especially helpful for improving writing skills if done as Ben Franklin did -- from memory. Do not just copy word-by-word. For each sentence, follow these steps:
1. Read as many words as you believe you can write correctly from memory (usually five to ten words).
2. Write those words from memory, including all capitals and punctuation marks.
3. Check back to the original sentence and correct any errors you made.
4. Read the next group of words and repeat the steps.
Generally you will be able to read, memorize, and correctly write between five and ten words. Sometimes you may be able to remember an entire simple sentence correctly. But with a large difficult-to-spell word, you may try to write only that one word correctly from memory.
Writing from memory is a powerful technique for learning the spelling, grammar, punctuation, and word patterns used in standard written English (Linden Analytical 2).
As you can see, TR involves analyzing an author's work and copying his or her language to strengthen one's own writing skills. This method was used at the Handy Colony that produced James Jones and other successful authors. Members of the colony were assigned to read and analyze works and then to copy them in order to get the feel of finishing an extended piece of work, to handle transitions from scene to scene, and to learn conciseness. Jones himself said that one can read until his eyes are red but only by copying word for word can a person see how an author builds up his effects (MacShane 117-118).
Copying is a time-honored, recently rediscovered mode of learning. From its use by Renaissance schoolboys like Shakespeare with their copybooks (to record exercises) and commonplace books (to record passages of possible content for their own essays), copying played an important role in the education of many famous authors including Milton, Thomas Jefferson, Jack London, Malcolm X, and Joan Didion.
Arranging sentences and copying them from memory teach students how to organize and express ideas with the vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, and syntax of standard written English. For example, many students have difficulty integrating the use of separate aspects of coherence, including the use of topic sentences and topic statements, major and minor support, and transition words and phrases. They have problems, too, with coherence devices such as the use of classified lists of transitions, the repetition of key words, the use of synonyms for key words, pronoun reference, and parallel grammar forms. In short, they cannot make the most of available means to achieve sentence-, paragraph-, and essay-level coherence.
The "Homecoming Queen" exercise reprinted above illustrates, how TR enhances student understanding and use of coherence devices. The language manipulation involved in arranging the sentences teaches a functional understanding of two coordinating conjunctions, but and so, and of a conjunctive adverb, therefore. The meaning of but is reinforced by the fact that it is used as a transition between contrasting sentences. So is used as a transition between two sentences stating a cause-result relationship. Likewise, therefore, a conjunctive adverb, indicates a cause-result relationship.
However, students are unable to order the exercise sentences logically without recognizing the use of other coherence devices. Sentence 2 ("One year....") is linked to Sentence 1 ("Rice University. . . .") by the use of a pronoun its and repetition of a key term, queen(s). Furthermore, unless students notice the repetition of this key term queen in Sentence 3 ("Therefore. . . ."), they may miss the logical ordering pattern.
A more elaborate multi-paragraph exercise such as "Helpful Mapping Knowledge" below can be used to expand student understanding by illustrating the use of transition words and phrases, repeated key words or synonyms, and pronoun reference.
Directions: The sentences below can be arranged into a paper that explains the usefulness of map reading skills. Number the sentences within each paragraph so they sound best to you.
INTRODUCTION PARAGRAPH:
_____ However, a knowledge of regional or state road maps can be very helpful to a driver in three basic ways.
_____ Highway signs alone as guides for an automobile trip are of limited benefit.
FIRST BODY PARAGRAPH:
_____ In both of these cases, if the driver knows how to read a map, he can find the route he wishes to take with little difficulty.
_____ For fast and safe travel he may select the multi-lane highways, designated as such on the map.
_____ First, when planning a trip, the driver with a knowledge of maps can choose a specific route to his destination depending on how he wishes to travel.
_____ On the other hand, if time is available, he may choose a scenic route and view some points of interest along the way.
SECOND BODY PARAGRAPH:
_____ And although not every little town is indicated, most small and medium size towns are marked on the maps so that the driver may still be able to find his way by checking for various cities and towns along the route.
_____ Second, when he is traveling in an unfamiliar region, the driver can use maps to avoid getting lost.
_____ For instance, all maps show major roads in a particular area, and most maps show minor roads, making it difficult for a driver with a knowledge of road maps to lose his way.
FINAL BODY PARAGRAPH:
_____ Also, the guides often show some of the more important points of interest that the driver may wish to visit in a particular region if he finds himself with additional time to do so.
_____ Since a driver may be confused by the maze of street detours and other unforeseen obstacles in large cities, metropolitan map inserts may provide enough information to alter his route as he proceeds.
_____ Finally, a driver may use the map inserts, "points of interest" guide, and other information charts contained in most maps to modify his journey as circumstances require.
After students have ordered the sentences in the exercise, discussed their answers with others, and resolved their differing arrangements, they can copy them in order, following the directions after "Homecoming Queen" on pages 5-6. Once completed, TR exercises can serve as model papers for students' own assigned essays.
As demonstrated above, TR exercises can be designed to teach specific grammatical concepts such as coherence. For teachers who wish to create their own TR exercises, directions are given in the appendix of this paper as are sources of published TR workbooks. Moreover, Ed Vavra, Pennsylvania College of Technology, has developed a computerized version (CAOW) of the TR exercises from Arthur Whimbey's and Elizabeth Lynn Jenkins' Analyze, Organize, Write.
In textbook form TR offers several benefits such as improving thinking skills to aid writing and note taking, enabling students to recognize techniques needed for reader-based prose, improving verbal reasoning ability, helping students internalize conventions of standard written English, and serving as a starting point for student paragraphs and essays; in short, TR can be a major component in writing improvement. While it is useful with all students, it is particularly powerful for ESL and other students coming from homes in which standard English is not the primary language.
Ed Vavra discovered that in CAI form TR offers some special advantages which include teaching students "a lot about essay and paragraph structure, main and subordinate structures, and transitions"; providing for student mastery of concepts through mandatory sequencing of lessons; checking student work automatically; providing student feedback; recording dates, times, and time-on-task for assignments; recording student errors to allow for instructor intervention, advice, and individual help; enabling instructors to judge appropriate length of assignments; displaying TR paragraphs in printed form; using only a single class period for an introductory lesson after which students do the CAI assignments on their own; encouraging them to do homework; and preventing the copying of homework (Vavra CAOW).
de Beaugrande, Robert. "Yes, Teaching Grammar Does Help." English Journal 73.2 (1984): 66-69.
Franklin Benjamin. "Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin." The American Tradition in Literature. Vol. 1. 4th ed. Eds. Sculley Bradley, et al. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1974. pp. 204-242.
Hartwell, Patrick. "Grammar, Grammars, and the Teaching of Grammar." College English 47 (1985): 105-127.
Hirsch, E. D., Jr., ed. What Your Second Grader Needs to Know: Fundamentals of a Good Second-Grade Education. The Core Knowledge Series: Resource Books for Grades One Through Six. Book II. New York: Doubleday, 1991.
_____ . What Your Third Grader Needs to Know: Fundamentals of a Good Third-Grade Education. The Core Knowledge Series. Book III. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
Hoyt, Franklin S. "The Place of Grammar in the Education Curriculum." Teacher's College Record, 7 (1906): 483-484.
Linden, Myra J., and Arthur E. Whimbey. Analytical Writing and Thinking: Facing the Tests. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990.
_____ . Why Johnny Can't Write: How To Improve Writing Skills. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990..
MacShane, Frank. Into Eternity: The Life of James Jones: American Writer. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985.
Stevens Point Area Public Schools. Write Right: An English Handbook. Bloomington, IN: Phi Beta Kappa, 1980.
Vavra, Ed. CAOW. Computer software. Williamsport, PA: Rose Parisella Productions, 1994. (Based on Analyze, Organize, Write. $3 demonstration disk available. Ordering address: 30 Marvin Circle, Williamsport, PA, 17701).
_____. "CAI: Killing the Drilling in English." Unpublished Ms. 1994.
Walz, Nancy. "Pioneering Software Born at Home." Albuquerque Journal. Business Outlook. 5, Sept. 1994, 3.
Whimbey, Arthur, and Elizabeth L. Jenkins. Analyze, Organize, Write. Rev. ed. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1987.
2. Longer paragraphs can be separated into two sets of sentences which are rejoined when the paper is written.
3. Alternately, some sentences in longer paragraphs can be pre-numbered and others presorted into roughly first and second halves of the paragraph.
4. For examples see pp. 57+ of Why Johnny Can't Write: How to Improve Writing Skills from which this material is taken or Analyze, Organize, Write, both published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 365 Broadway, Hillsdale, NJ. 07642. Phone: 1-800-9-BOOKS-9. See also Whimbey, Arthur E., Williams, Eugene, Sr., and Myra J. Linden. Keys to Quick Writing Skills: Sentence Combining and Text Reconstruction. Birmingham, AL: EBSCO Curriculum Materials, 1994. (PO Box 486, ZIP 35201). Phone: 1-800-633-8623.