Grammar Geek

It's time for me to admit it: I am a huge geek.

Okay, so that isn't exactly earth-shattering news to those people who know me well, but it's especially hard to deny one's geekiness when one is excited to read an article about teaching the semicolon, thinking to himself, "Yay! The semicolon is my favorite punctuation mark!" Some of us were born to be English teachers, I guess.

In undergrad, my comp professor even told me that I overused the semicolon and that I should use it maybe once per page, at most. (This general idea would later be echoed in my British Lit class, where the T.A. wrote on one of my papers, "Consider using the dash more sparingly.") They're right, of course - overuse of dramatic punctuation makes one's writing unnecessarily...dramatic. Anyway, apparently I'm not alone in my love for the semicolon; Angela Petit, author of the article "The Sylish Semicolon," talks about the effectiveness of teaching grammar within a context, using her lesson on semicolons as an example.

When it comes to grammar instruction, there seems to be two major mindsets out there of English teachers: "Oh dear Lord, this is boring. Even I'm bored. Let's either ditch this altogether or find some fun way to teach it," or for people like me, "I love grammar! The kids will see how enthusiastic I am about it and then they'll give a damn!" Neither attitude is really going to make a positive difference to high schoolers. A grammar geek has no problem discussing and analyzing decontextualized grammar, but the vast majority of teenagers do.

And why shouldn't they? Most of their grammar instruction has been done through worksheets and boring lectures - I spent most of my childhood diagramming sentences. I've talked about this before, but when grammar is learned as a series of complicated, nonsensical and yet ironclad rules, the students' engagement level is going to plummet. But if grammar can be taught with a purpose, within a context, as a way of looking at how language is put together and analyzing the reasons behind a particular usage or punctuation choice, and yes, with enthusiasm, then there may be hope for grammar instruction yet.

Resource link: Teachnology. This page has multiple links to fun and engaging grammar lessons for kids of all ages.