Panel Title: Grammar's Back: Maximizing Student Correctness
Name: Michael R. Schiavi
Contact Address: New York Institute of Technology
Dept of English, Room 501A
1855 Broadway
New York, NY 10023
Phone: 212-261-1581
Email: Mschiavi@nyit.edu
500-WORD ABSTRACTS DUE BY SEPTEMBER 20, 2003
The purpose of this panel is to examine ways in which we make our students
conscious (and conscientious) writers and readers of language. Let's face it:
whether we teach remedial writing or doctoral seminars, we spend most of our
careers wincing at mechanical errors that mar otherwise interesting, engaged
student writing. In response, I intend this to be a "hands-on" panel/workshop.
Panelists might consider providing handouts for attendees to take and use in
their own composition and literature classrooms. Some questions/issues to be
addressed in the panel include:
" In which classes are we still teaching grammar drill? From which texts
and in which contexts? What kinds of exercises?
" Is there a point of composition instruction in which grammar review is no
longer appropriate or useful? How do we recognize that point?
" How do we combine grammar instruction with content development? Are the
two at all separable?
" What are some "proven" strategies participants have found for engaging
students in active, accurate proofreading? How do we get students to see the
mistakes that often elude them? How do we get them sufficiently invested in
their own writing to check vigilantly for errors or particular patterns of error?
How do we get them to recognize mistakes about to happen and head those
errors off?
" In composition or literature classes, how can reading assignments be
pitched toward an explicit appreciation for language as well as content?
(Specific texts and lesson plans would be most appreciated here.) Through what kinds
of exercises can students be encouraged to emulate "professional" (or, at
least, published) language patterns in their own writing?
" What are some strategies for helping students to cultivate their own
"voices" while still observing standard English mechanics?
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