Hattie has spent more than 15 years researching the influences on achievement of K-12 children.

His
findings linked student outcomes to several highly effective classroom practices. Here I'd like to highlight
five of those practices:

1. Teacher Clarity

When a teacher begins a new unit of study or project with students, she clarifies the purpose and learning
goals, and provides explicit criteria on how students can be successful. It's ideal to also present models or
examples to students so they can see what the end product looks like.

2. Classroom Discussion

Teachers need to frequently step offstage and facilitate entire class discussion. This allows students to
learn from each other. It's also a great opportunity for teachers to formatively assess (through observation)
how well students are grasping new content and concepts.

3. Feedback

How do learners know they are moving forward without steady, consistent feedback? They often won't.
Along with individual feedback (written or verbal), teachers need to provide whole-group feedback on
patterns they see in the collective class' growth and areas of need. Students also need to be given
opportunities to provide feedback to the teacher so that she can adjust the learning process, materials, and
instruction accordingly.

4. Formative Assessments

In order to provide students with effective and accurate feedback, teachers need to assess frequently and
routinely where students are in relation to the unit of study's learning goals or end product (summative
assessment). Hattie recommends that teachers spend the same amount of time on formative evaluation as
they do on summative assessment.

5. Metacognitive Strategies

Students are given opportunities to plan and organize, monitor their own work, direct their own learning,
and to self-reflect along the way. When we provide students with time and space to be aware of their own
knowledge and their own thinking, student ownership increases. And research shows that metacognition
can be taught.

6. Collaborating with Colleagues

Great teachers are earnest learners. Spend some time with a colleague, or two or three, and talk about
what each of these research-based, best classroom practices looks like in the classroom. Discuss each one
in the context of your unique learning environment: who your students are, what they need, what they
already know, etc.
Common Misconceptions about Grammar

There is bad vs. good English. WRONG!

Linguists and language specialists dont actually talk in terms of good as opposed bad language; there
is no such thing. There are, however, standard and nonstandard forms, the standard being the prestige
form, more accepted as appropriate in professional settings, for example. However, even nonstandard
forms, like aint and the double negative (using two negative forms in the same verb phrase) follow
their own internal logic and structure. For example, a line from a recent popular song, I aint never
coming back to you, emphasizes through the double negative the speakers certainty in his intention of
not returning, and actually the double negative is standard to show emphasis in some languages like
French and Russian. Keeping in mind that there really is no bad English will make the teacher aware
that what seems like bad grammar, such as taked for the past tense of English irregular verb to take
actually demonstrates that the learner has internalized the -ed ending rule to show past tense but simply
has applied it inappropriately in this case.

Grammar is a matter of linguistic etiquette. WRONG!

Avoid aint. Dont use the double negative. Dont end a sentence in a preposition. Its usually better to
use whom rather than who (although exactly when is not always clear). These rules really have
little or nothing to do with actually communicatingafter all, the ultimate goal of languagebut to
demonstrate a certain linguistic etiquette that marks the speaker as a member of a certain class. This is
not to say these rules arent important, of course. Speakers who use aint may be marking themselves,
however unfairly, as uneducated and lower-class, something that ESL students should certainly be made
aware of by their educators, who should teach them the correct (or at least socially correct) form while
keeping in mind that the use of aint or other nonstandard forms really dont reflect the level of
intelligence or education of the speaker.

Teachers should always correct bad English. WRONG!

Correcting students production of grammar when they are speaking is of little or no value, not teaching
students anything about correct usage. Such correction may in fact be counterproductive, raising students
anxiety level to an extent they become unwilling to attempt to speak in their second language. Even
overcorrection of student writing is of little value, as it is too overwhelming for students to understand
how to revise and improve when there are marks all over the paperand if the instructor has corrected
the errors for them, then there is no real need for students to edit themselves anyway. More productive is
to look for the most frequent or most serious pattern of errors and write and end note for the student to
review article usage and revise, for example.
4

Grammar is primary. Meaning is secondary. WRONG!

It is common practice to introduce a unit of instruction with, This week we will learn the passive
voice. Why should we do that? Well, thats the place we are in the book. Even if it is prescribed
curriculum, students need a better reason than thats just where we are in the syllabus. We learn
the passive voice not because it is a goal in and of itself but because it is common throughout academic
language, and we need to learn it to understand our textbooks.

Once a grammar point is covered, it is learned. WRONG!

Unlike some curricula, like the number of articles and amendments to the U.S. Constitution, grammar is
not just studied and then learned. It is developmental and must be studied, practiced, and then reviewed
constantly to begin to internalize it and be able to use it automatically.

5 Best Practices for Teaching Grammar

Accept students nonstandard or developmental grammar.

Again, it may be hard, but students attempts at standard English should not be regarded as bad but seen
for what they aremilestones in developing control of their second language. The student who only
sometimes remembers the s ending on plural forms, for example, shows that in even sometimes using
it he does know the rule even if he doesnt always remember it. An end note on the students paper should
be to the effect that the student should go through the paper, looking for the plural nouns, and check if
they require a s or es ending.

Grammar is about how we combine words to make meaning.

If vocabulary is about learning new words, grammar is about how we combine those words in subject-
verb-object order in affirmative English sentences, for example, or verb-subject order for questions,
which students need to know to communicate. Focusing on large issues like thisthat language is
meaning, and grammar helps make that meaningwill keep instructors focused on teaching important
issues of grammar, like word order. rather than focusing on minor issues like the difference between
shall and will (which most native speakers dont even understand and dont need).

Not all errors should be corrected, especially in online production.

Not all errors are meant to be corrected: pick your battles, as any parent will tell you. It is too hard for the
instructor and too discouraging for the student to correct every grammar error in her paper, and teacher
correction is more a demonstration on what the teacher can do than how the student can improve her
English use, which is the goal, of course. Pick only a couple of major concerns in a paper and show the
student once how to correct it and then let her do the rest, as it is the student who has to practice editing,
not the teacher.

Meaning is foremost. Grammar is used to communicate meaning.

I wouldnt do that if I were you, for example, is a relatively common usage of the unreal
conditional. Giving a warning or making a suggestion is first, the grammar to do that is secondary. Its
more important for students to learn the language of advice or warnings than to know unreal
conditional, so focusing on functions and how we use grammar to perform certain tasks is important.

Practice of grammar is usually required to internalize it.

The point of grammar instruction, or any language instruction for that matter, is to internalize the
instruction to the extent that the student can produce it at fluently. This calls for regular and extended
practice in groups on meaningful tasks, such as using the future verb tenses to make plans, promises, and
predictions.

Best Practices in Teaching Grammar

Here are a few recommendations English teacher might consider as a starting place to enhance
both their own knowledge and teaching of grammar:

By Marlene Asseline:

1. Examine your own knowledge and attitudes to the multiple aspects of grammar.
Specifically, reflect and come to terms with your stance towards "proper English," a
standard grammar, and a grammar standard. Develop your own professional knowledge
of grammar.
2. Use meaningful language as contexts for instruction, so that instruction is informal,
needs-based and significant to students. Process writing, literature study and research
projects provide meaningful frameworks for students to learn grammar. Traditional
methods such as sentence combining are much more effective in these contexts. Expand
your teaching of grammar to grammars. Design research projects for students focusing
on grammars in their world--in their personal lives, classroom, communities and the texts
they read. Use these projects to support students' critical thinking about grammars.
3. Use instructional methods that facilitate students' own generation of grammar
conventions such as sorting activities and peer teaching. Teacher-librarians can be
primary players in students' grammar development by being aware of and acting on the
importance of regular discussion about language and frequent and extended time to read
and write.
By Constance Weaver:

Suggestions:

Promote the acquisition and use of grammatical constructions through reading. Use texts
with sophisticated grammatical structures to show the richness of syntax.

Minimize the use of grammatical terminology and maximize the use of examples.
Give mini-lessons based on a specific grammar rule using a text at hand or student writing.
Discuss and investigate with students questions of usage, the power of dialects, genre
specific grammar rules, minimize exercises from a grammar book.
Do not be afraid to experiment with various approaches to grammar as long as they are
relevant to teaching writing

According to research, children develop the knowledge of grammar both semantic and
syntactic elements unconsciously, they form hypothesis about language structures as the
language input they are exposed to become more comprehensible. It is important to remember
that childrens competence in grammar is acquired gradually, and errors are inevitable
components of learning the language.

Moreover, as children enhance their writing skills every year, their writing growth will be
accompanied by more errors: a child who may appear to have mastered sentence sense in
the fourth grade may suddenly begin making what adults call sentence errors all over again as
he attempts to accommodate his knowledge of sentences to more complicated constructions
(McCaig 50-51). Thus, the teachers should not feel frustrated seeing messiness in student
writing as it represents growth in writing. To help the student relieve his anxieties, the teacher
can encourage him to continue the experimentation and risk taking and include more than one
draft in the writing process (Weaver 70-72).

Alternatives to error hunt:

Keeping the writing process in mind, guide the students through each stage of writing,

focusing on a specific component of their writing (planning, drafting, revising), and only
when the students are satisfied with the content and organization of their writing, comment
on sentence structure and give editing suggestions (Weaver 83).
Consider enough time for all stages of the writing process, so that students can read both
formal and informal literature. The resources on grammar in your room can help students to
work with their own errors in an idiosyncratic way. Each student can spend as much time as
they need on a specific grammar issue and check off the check list as they go.
Model proofreading and editing on your own writing or bring a students paper on a
transparency, then discuss it as a class.
Hold mini-conferences with students
Help students learn to edit, e.g. read sentences from the bottom of the paper up, focusing the
attention on sentence-level errors rather than meaning.

Even students with the least command of syntax do not necessarily need an entire program in
sentence combining or sentence generating, nor will such a program necessarily benefit them as
much as extensive reading and writing, with support and guidance as needed (Weaver 137).

More tips on teaching grammar:

1. Engage students in writing, writing, and more writing.

2. Emphasize those aspects of grammar that are particularly useful in helping students edit
sentences for conventional mechanics and appropriateness. E.g.: concepts like subject,
verb, and predicate; clause and phrase; grammatical sentences vs. run-ons; usage.

3. Offer elective courses, units, or activities that allow students to discover the pleasure of
investigating questions and making discoveries about language.
4. Become a teacher-researcher to determine the effects of your teaching of selected aspects
of grammar or your students study of grammar as an object of inquiry and discovery
(Weaver 141-146).

Grammar rants as an alternative to grammar instruction

Nowadays it is very common to find alternative studies of grammar instruction (or also called teaching sentence
structure, syntax, combining sentences) that emphasize students ability to recognize issues of race and class
that determine acceptable usage and [to] learn the importance of audience in their own language use (Lindblom
and Dunn 71). The article Analyzing Grammar Rants: An Alternative to Traditional Grammar
Instruction suggests several ways to develop students rhetorical knowledge of audience and context with the
help of analyzing grammar rants.

Grammar rants are defined as complains of journalists, cultural critics, politicians about the teaching of
grammar, spelling, writing and speaking. Professors Kenneth Lindblom and Patricia A. Dunn at Stony Brook
University propose to start teaching grammar not with a list of prescriptions for language use (traditional
approach), but studying grammar rants. Grammar rants are usually taken out of authentic contexts, mass media
or home/ school discourses, therefore students are more likely to get engaged in the analysis of the grammar
rants. Second, grammar rants urge students to reflect upon the forms of language they use on a daily bases, and
to realize how the choices they make can influence the value judgments powerful people make about students
intelligence based on their language use. Lastly, these educators support inductive reasoning. They believe that
the analysis of grammar through rants will help students to be more motivated in trying to find answers to
grammatical questions, arising during the research, in traditional grammar or reference books, as the these
answers will help students to better understand real world language use (Lindblom and Dunn 72).

The analysis of grammar rants starts with choosing a grammar rant from the media and goes on to posing and
answering a number of questions related to the language use, authors worldview, social, racial and political
contexts surrounding the rant, e.g.: What does the author of the grammar rant think is important about language
and communication?, or How do the authors claims about language relate to the socioeconomic class in
which speakers and writers have been raised. After modeling the analysis of a grammar rant in class using one
of the rants, students are sent to find examples of phrases in the field by [asking] them eavesdrop on
conversations in the school cafeteria, list phrases used by friends and relatives, and note their own language
((Lindblom and Dunn 73). Their purpose is to create lists that the author of the study rant would consider as
proper and improper language usages. Then students examine what several grammar and usage hand books
say about the errors they collected. Their classroom practices show that grammar rants serve as springboard
for the in-depth exploration of specific language and that students seem to better understand the
ramifications for their use of language

Best Practice for K-3:

A Summary of Writing for Readers: Teaching Skills and Strategies

An excellent reference for teaching writers workshops in grades K-3 is Lucy Calkins Units of Study for
Primary Writing: A Year Long Curriculum. Each session contained in these books begins with a 10-15 minute
mini lesson, at least 30 minutes writing time, and 10 minutes of share time at the end. There are narratives in
the side margins where Calkins shares actual events during the workshops she conducted in classrooms with co-
teachers.

The first two books in the series are about launching the writers workshop and teaching personal
narratives. Book three in the series deals specifically with teaching punctuation and is titled Writing for
Readers: Teaching Skills and Strategies. It should be approached with verve, but you as a teacher must decide
if your class is ready to focus on improving punctuation in their writing.

The overall theme of the third book is inspiring children to write for readers. In order to do this, they must
understand that their writing requires legibility, they must have spaces between words, and the punctuation
marks they use will inform the reader how the author intended the piece to be read.

One valuable activity that Calkins asks teachers to do is separate stories into two piles: readable and
unreadable. Have your students do this, as well, and discuss what makes stories readable. Create charts
together to hang in your classroom that will enable students to recall what they need to do to make their writing
easy to read.

Other beginning lessons focus on how to stretch words to include all the letters heard when they are
spoken. Next there is guidance for teaching students how to use sight words and the importance of recalling
words instantly. Word walls are an important tool, and students are encouraged to first try to spell sight
words,then check the word wall to see if theyre correct.

Calkins stresses that it is wonderful to celebrate work that still has lots of problems. The message must be
conveyed that were always ready to celebrate hard work and progress, and perfection is not
expected. Throughout the unit children should receive the message that our attention when writing should be
balanced between content and convention. Referring back to what students learned in the Small Moments unit
is a strong reminder of this.

Session 10 marks a big change where students begin to write for their peers. They will work with partners,
forming relationships that will help them strive to write more readable drafts. There is a lot of modeling and
practice involved in this process. Students are also introduced to mentor authors at this time and are asked to
view Eric Carle, Mem Fox, Bill Martin, etc. as writing teachers. They choose authors they would like to learn
from.

Session 14 specifically addresses punctuation. After a pep talk on everything students have learned, Calkins
announces that students now have grown-up problems. The emphasis is on how capitals and periods are used
as signs to our readers to show what we were thinking as writers. Teachers may feel periods should be easy to
learn, but theyre not. We should teach that a period is not merely a pause, its tied to meaning in the
text. Determining where sentences end is complex, whereas question marks and exclamation point locations are
easier to determine.

The sixteen sections in this book conclude with an authors celebration, as do the other books in the
series. Students share their writing and then each one rings a bell in celebration of everything they have
learned in this unit.

In addition to the teaching sessions, there is an assessment rubric that can be used to check off skills your
students have exhibited during the unit, such as beginning and ending punctuation and using spaces between
words. There are also assessments after each of the sessions which will help you decide whether you should go
on to the next session or teach reinforcement lessons. Each year the way you teach the unit will look different
depending on the needs of your class.