Blog Post #8- Shifting Perspective About Grammar: Changing What And How We Teach

An amazing quote that really stood out from this article was when Ms. Dean said the following on page 24:


"This talk, essential to language learning also requires me to bring some use of grammatical terminology back into my classroom. It's difficult to explain to students why subject-verb agreement creates credibility in an online response to a news article for example if you don't know what it mean by subject or verb."

I couldn't agree with this quote much more. I think that the problem that many English teachers run into is the execution of teaching this grammar and understanding what is truly useful when doing it. 

I found what that the author hit the nail right on the head when she stated that learning grammar's verbatim is not useful. Rather, it is useful to present these grammatical terms in contexts. The author gives an amazing example of how she introducing pronouns when doing "To Kill a MockingBird," which is a grammatical term that would be extremely relevant when analyzing this text.

Overall, this article does an amazing job of enlightening teachers on how they need to to attain a broader perspective on how to use grammar creativity and in context so that it is truly effective in the classroom.

The Skin that We Speak

I really enjoyed reading this chapter because the author addresses a topic that is rarely discussed through a unique perspective. I thought that her solution in having the dominant language compromise it's power to those who haven't inherited it was so powerful. The most powerful quote that I related the most to was the following:

"The war will be won when she won is comes to speak more in her own language, and people accept her communication as valid and representative."

I thought that this quotes was the essence of a well thought out argument. This statement got me to think about how I often find myself teaching students the value of code switching, having students understand that they can't talk a certain way around certain people. I guess you can say that I am trying to teach them how to play the game. However, as the author states and alludes to, I think the greater victory would be for us as a society to change the game so that it reflects the diverse world that we live in instead of the language that a few powerful people have chosen to impose on us.

This thought sort of aligns with what Lisa Depit discusses on page 283 when she states the following:

"the rules of culture of power our a reflection of the rules of the culture of those who have power. This means that success in-institutions, schools workplaces and so on is predicated upon acquisition of the culture of those who are in power."