A Grammar Explosion!

Anderson says something in this article that seems key in understanding why some students who love to tell stories and to explore ideas still hate writing: they see writing as “a way to be wrong.”  They have spent so much time being corrected in the little spelling errors and mis-punctuation that they cannot see that writing can be a way to explore an idea or express themselves.  I don’t know how many times I’ve had a student enter a composition classroom expecting to learn about grammar, and anxious at the prospect.   They feel liberated when I tell them that I am more interested in what they have to say  than a few style errors.  Further, they seem more willing to explore complicated ideas in their writing when they don’t sense the red pen hovering over their shoulder.  The problem I run into is that I always feel like I give grammar and style short shrift in my classroom, and I know that students will need those skills. 

 

I like Anderson’s idea of the Strunk and White explosion all over his classroom.  Instead of painstakingly correcting every little mistake in each student’s draft, he surrounds them with grammar guides on posters large enough for them to read from where they sit.  I am reminded of the science lecture halls at my university, all of which had a giant periodic table permanently affixed to the wall.  After three quarters of chemistry, I rarely had to look at the chart.  But it was comforting to know it was there should I need it.  I was a better student of chemistry for it.  I wonder how I could go about creating a Strunk and White explosion in my composition course.  I can’t actually physically put posters up all over the room unless I want to cart them around all the time.  Maybe there might be a way to create a class wiki, and have the students all contribute to it.  Even if it isn’t always on the walls, it could be on our course Blackboard page.