Understanding Wider Perspective of Teaching

In the article “Shifting Perspectives about Grammar: Changing What and How We Teach” by Deborah Dean, the author talks about different perspective to grammar. She starts with the change in her own approach: in first, she was teaching grammar conventional way – tests and sentences that were not written by the students [A complex-compound sentence with two independent clauses and a relative (dependent) clause at the end. A colon and a dash used instead of conjunctions to connect a clause and to draw attention to the statement]. Then the curriculum changed, and this brought a new approach to teaching into the classroom. But this particular method was not ideal: students were not ready to experiment with more complex concepts. This gave the author an idea about approach to teaching sentence structures depending on the rhetorical situation: different types of audiences require different wording and phrasing, when the same approach wouldn’t be entirely effective under different circumstances. [A complex-compound sentence with two independent clauses in the beginning, connected by the colon, and dependent clause at the end connected by the subordinating conjunction]. Dean started to use models of genre to allow students construct their own sentences using same style. The downside of this approach was that the students started to identify certain patterns only with the genre, and it needed to be changed. There still were students that wanted to know “the” right answer. Others were thinking that there were no right answers at all. These two points of view represent the edges of the same spectrum and approach to teaching grammar – both needed adjustment. Further exposure students to the authentic text also helped to widen their horizon, because now they were able to see patterns used by more experienced writers. Also Dean mentions that the ability to appropriately use language represents ethos – a credibility of the writer, a power to be heard and valued.  

The approach of the author of the article to teaching grammar changed over the period of 25 years. What is written on six short pages represents a lifetime in search of the right path of teaching. The philosophy of teaching grammar in this case shows care for the students: they were not able to learn dry grammar on the abstract examples, and teaching them grammar didn’t improve their writing skills. The last statement is surprising, but when I looked at it more closely, I realized that it is true. Just teaching rules never benefits the student. Recently, one of my friends told me that she struggled with math in school. Even though she always learned the rules, it was difficult for her to solve actual problems because she didn’t have clear understanding of how to use them. Disconnected teaching, disregarded the interests of students and negligence towards their learning process can spoil any subject: math, chemistry, or physics. I always found myself struggling with the subjects that the teachers or professors didn’t quite understand themselves or didn’t care to pour the knowledge into us – receivers of that knowledge. My philosophy for teaching is going to be based on a personal approach: how do my students benefit from this pile of knowledge, while they are trying to understand new or even foreign concepts? [A complex-compound sentence in form of a question with two independent clauses connected with colon, and with subordinate clause at the end, connected with subordinating conjunction]. We teach, and we tell students that they need to care, but our task is to make them understand by showing the structure of the subject. [A complex-compound sentence with short independent clause ended with nontransitive verb, second independent clause connected to the first with a coordinating conjunction, followed by the relative clause with nontransitive verb, and with a third independent clause at the end, connected to the rest of the sentence with coordinative conjunction]. It is our clear understanding and our knowledge that shines through them. My philosophy and my approach is that students shouldn’t be scared by the complexity of the subject, because my knowledge and clear understanding will guide them through the distances, which each of them needs to cover. Some might have a better understanding, but the others might have a steep learning curve to get to the same level – my task is not to discourage them, but to show how they can arrive into the understanding of the subject. It is like a single lit candle in the dark room full of never lit candles – it needs to spread its flame to the other candles and lit up the whole room.