Teaching Grammar Within The Writing Workshop

In 2005, Professor Richard Andrews of York University conducted the largest systematic review of existing studies on the teaching of grammar and found there was no evidence that teaching grammar as a formal stand-alone exercise helped 5-16 year old write more fluently, or accurately. A most powerful and informative finding.

 By way of contrast, contextualising the teaching of grammar assists students to understand the role grammar plays in the development of an effective writer. It teaches students to produce writing that is ‘reader friendly.’ 

What it doesn’t do is divorce grammar from the actual act of producing writing. However, what also needs to be present in our curriculum planning is the awareness of the need to teach students to be meta-cognitive with respect to the writing they produce. Grammar alone just won’t cut through. 

We know that explicit teaching of grammatical rules is not necessarily matched by an ability to make corrections. There is no simple relationship between explicit rules and corrections. Interestingly, Carter’s research (1990) found that the demise of formal grammar teaching and with it the absence of a meta-language in the classroom has been disempowering, preventing learners from ‘exercising the kind of conscious control and conscious choice over language that enables them to see through language systematically and to use language more discriminatingly’.

 Any debate about grammar that discards the realities we face in the classroom is not going to be of much value. What we need is a debate that takes seriously the connection between writing and thinking. Contextualized grammar, sometimes referred to as functional or embedded grammar, show young writers what literary, linguistic and grammatical structures can do within a composition.

Research further indicates that effective teachers of writing teach grammar contextually with the clear expectation that the instruction they deliver will be meaningful. The instruction is embedded within the writing workshop and linked to literature. 

With these clear findings, it is recommended that teachers consider the following when planning and teaching aspects of grammar:

• Use writing samples and writing conferences to inform your planning around grammar.
• Confine teaching to one aspect of grammar at a time and invite young writers to apply it that same day in their personal writing.
• Regularly share examples of high quality literature where grammatical features are used effectively.
• Encourage children to look for and share examples of grammar usage found in their reading. 
• Utilize your own writing as well as the children's writing to highlight effective use of grammar and other writing craft. 
• Issue invitations to explore aspects of grammar when conducting shared reading activities.
• Adopt a 'Let's see what this does' rather than a right/wrong attitude to grammar use. Be grammar curious. 
• Mindfully teach contextualized grammar as a means to embedding a deeper understanding of grammar with the ultimate goal of improving writing quality.

When the teaching of grammar is contextualized it has a strong, positive impact on children's writing. It is both efficient and effective. Case studies indicate (Medwell et al. 1998, Langer 2001 indicate this is what the best performing teachers do. They mindfully teach grammar within the context of meaningful and authentic writing practice, give explicit instruction, and then invite children to apply the modelled technique  during that day's independent writing time. 

Alan j Wright