I recently received the following email from a teacher in Georgia (and have posted it here with her permission). I'd love to hear your thoughts on either side!
Ms. Burnette,
I'm writing you today to share an e-mail I recently sent the GA DOE
concerning its recent ELA Newsletter, which lambasted DGP and other
daily grammar warm-ups as being out-of-date and old-fashioned. I've used
DGP for years, and I've never found (in my teaching experience)
anything that works better. See my e-mail below:
Ms. Waters,
I was very disappointed to see in the latest ELA newsletter the following lines:
"For example, the use of Daily Oral Language (DOL) or Daily Grammar
Practice (DGP) does not support the CCGPS language standards. Grammar
out of context is a thing of the past."
Students must have a basis for understanding grammar, its rules and
language, before a teacher can assist with grammar within the context of
writing. For example, it would be difficult for me to teach my high
school students about the comma splices I see in their Beowulf essays if
they couldn't identify an independent clause. Daily Oral Language,
M.U.G. Shots, and Daily Grammar Practice give students a short, daily
exposure to grammar that takes up less than five minutes of class time,
while making sure they are versant in the basic concepts of grammar.
This they will need in order to understand the more intricate rules of
our language and improve their writing.
My use of DGP does not indicate that I will bombard my students with
grammar worksheets, nor will I spend two weeks covering the parts of
speech, then two weeks on sentence parts--I recognize THIS style of
grammar instruction to be outdated and out of context. However, a short,
daily exposure to grammar basics (as DGP, MUG, and DOL offer) is a
necessity for students to be able to apply more complicated concepts. As
Mrs. Burnette states in her work,
"Daily Grammar Practice is a unique, highly successful, research-based
approach to helping students understand, apply, and actually remember
grammar concepts. The program is thorough and effective, yet
surprisingly simple to implement. Daily Grammar Practice is not
"fluffy," and it's not a "quick fix." It is a simple, logical process
that actually moves grammar concepts to long-term memory so that
students can apply the concepts to their writing."
Although the CCGPS does not support "grammar out of context," it does
not explicitly deny teachers any one tool in their toolboxes for
achieving the goal of grammar-in-context, either. As Ms. Burnette states
in her introduction to DGP, such daily grammar warmups actually AID
students in writing improvement.
I will continue to use DGP in my classroom, and I hope that the writers
of the ELA Newsletter will keep in mind that ANY tool can be effective
in the hands of a good teacher who knows how to use it to meet her
students' needs.
Sincerely,
Micki Byrnes
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