What can we do about the decline of grammar and mechanics skills in our students’ writing?

Forget the students--what about the adults? I can't remember the last grad class or training I had where the person leading it didn't misuse an apostrophe or twelve.

I have students practice self editing skills by basically forcing them to read their own work aloud. They DESPISE it, but it's the best method I've found.

I teach 6th grade English, and we spend a lot of time on this. The problem is there are not a lot of resources out there to help with these skills, short of worksheets. My admin hates worksheets, but you have to do what you have to do.

In a bit of irony, here's a case in point. Several years ago, on a parent letter or syllabus, something like that, she wanted us to let her read it before we sent it out to the parents. She "corrected" mine for me, by changing the "me" I had written, as an object of a preposition, to "I", as in, "return the signed syllabus to the office or me", to "the office or I"). I really considered changing it back, but decided I didn't want to pick that battle over such a little thing. However, it irked me greatly to have to send it like that. Admittedly, it almost sounds more correct to say "I", and it's a very common mistake for that reason, but it's still wrong.

In any case, grammar is just very difficult for many people, yet we are discouraged from teaching it too much. Nevertheless, we should do so. It helps students' writing, as well as their reading comprehension. Sadly, after 30 years of teaching English, I still find myself searching for ways to teach grammar and mechanics in a more engaging and memorable way.

Sadly, I think that the increasing number of educators who think it's best to "just let students express themselves" have taken priority away from these issues. I can remember when the "whole language" approach was being pushed. That is, as long as you can understand what a student is saying, the form doesn't matter. I'm not sure we ever recovered from that. I find it similar to the move away from teaching cursive, which I also think remains a mistake. Thankfully, I spent hours diagramming sentences on a catholic grade school challboard. I know students who can't define the word "noun", much less identify one in a sentence. Students are devolving into a generation of texters who have no grasp of effective communication in their own language. I have no solutions that will ever be widely accepted. Public schools will never return to the kind of language arts that would be necessary to accomplish this goal, in my opinion. I'm sad that I just wrote this paragraph.

We are using both No Red Ink and IXL to facilitate practice of GUM skills. I also have a social media editing packet that I use. It has them correct errors in actual social media posts. I then have them write their own posts with the goal being 0 errors. I alternate between doing mini-lessons and the editing. It’s like pulling teeth because their background is so limited. Having to explain the basics like verbs is frustrating in high school when I know the ACT and college expectations are looming.

I’ve seen a general decline in my advanced students’ sentence sense, ability to find subjects/verbs, and just knowing the basics about language like parts of speech. I remember learning about vowels, consonants, syllables, stressed syllables, prefixes, suffixes, the schwa sounds, blends, etc. in elementary school. In junior high and high school, we had grammar books. Yes, it was probably skill and drill, but we learned it. Maybe we didn’t expect to be entertained. In my district we are actively dissuaded from doing direct instruction beyond band-aid mini-lessons, and now we see many kids not capitalizing the first words in sentences or using end punctuation. I know they learn to capitalize the pronoun “I” in kindergarten! I’m concerned that if it’s not viewed as important, kids will have trouble in college and beyond because they’ll appear illiterate. These are intelligent kids who have great ideas. What do you do for grammar and vocabulary instruction, and what grade level do you teach?

Do you have the paid version of No Red Ink? I priced it for our school, and they wanted 5k per year! I asked them how schools fund that huge amount each year. The rep said that schools generally use “slush funds.” I proceeded to laugh and said, “Ma’am, I’ve been a teacher in public education for about 30 years, and I have never, ever seen a slush fund.” 🤣 When I requested a comprehensive vocabulary and grammar program, our LA coordinators said they don’t want grammar taught in isolation. Who ever said it had to be? My argument is that some ELA skills need direct instruction and practice. Then you hold the kids accountable. For example, teach participial phrases and how to punctuate them, then require they use 2 in their writing with correct comma placement.

I still review the 8 parts of speech with my 8th grade students over the course of the first semester-they really need it. I also do proofreading paragraphs each Monday as bell work with them. It helps them to see the mistakes in writing and they can discuss it with their peers as they work. After I get the parts of speech reviewed, I do sentence types. Then I go over the 8th grade specific grammar standards at the end of the year (active/passive voice and verbals). We are reading & writing all year long. I also use Quill minimally- but I like the diagnostics and then assign them the work they need to get better at any skill they have not yet mastered.

Since I started using Quill, my students’ grammar skills have gotten a little better. I don’t use it to teach lessons, though. It has diagnostics (5 levels I think, with pre and post) and I can assign lessons based on their needs. I require students to complete 3-4 activities each week, getting at least an 80% on each. Great for “done early” work and helps a lot of my kids boost their grade a little!

Ahhhhhh, yessss. I’m a recently retired teacher who taught 7th and 8th grade ELA for most of my career. It’s pointless. It drained, drained on me. Super happy I retired last year!!!!

We can look to the teachers. Not just the English teachers, but every teacher that has kids writing. Every teacher has to teach grammar and mechanics. However, that means that they have to have those skills also.

Probably nothing. I guess you could teach grammar and writing, but at the expense of the sacred test prep.

I have a two effective solutions which has helped my students tremendously. One is Quill,org. It's a free resource which uses AI to not only teach grammar and mechanics but also sentence structures. The other is to have student use Grammarly before submitting assignments.

As an ESL teacher, I have learned that kids do not transfer the term nouns, verbs, etc. to their writing. They complete a worksheet, get a grade, and promptly forget about whatever was taught until the next year. I now rely, and I mean rely, on Jeff Anderson's Patterns of Power and Mechanically Inclined. The gist is that kids need to be taught what is sentences that are correct, and analyze these sentences daily. Next, they need to write sentences following the model. I was and am still amazed at how much practice students need to master a sentence pattern. This system has built student awareness of sentence forms, structure, comprehension and writing fluency.

I sometimes have them go sentence by sentence, starting with the last sentence of what they have written.
They have to decide if each sentence fits into a certain category (for example evidence or explanation). They copy and paste the sentence and drop it into a box fitting that category.
There is a box for sentences that have no clear purpose, a box for sentences that don't make any sense on their own (because they are dependent clauses), etc.
It is kind of a slog and we don't do it every time but I think they catch more issues with their writing.

The root of the problem is a shift in what is considered "important" and the subsequent changes in board level expectations and the curriculums that are selected based on those changed expectations.

Still, in the classroom, teachers can compensate for this by supplementing material.

The outcomes, however, will not change unless there is a common goal. If the goal is all narrative based, with no regard for spelling and grammar conventions we will succeed in producing that outcome. If we wish for our students to learn and demonstrate core grammar and mechanic skills, we'll need to be the united source that operates in defiance of online writing rules (or lack thereof). Online, where capitalization and sentence structure rules are ignored for expediency and spelling is creative and abbreviated.

I still include grammar and proofreading skills as their bellwork(first ten minutes of class). If I see an area of concern, I’ll teach about it, not an entire day but do what I can to help them master it. For example, my classes were struggling with when to use lay and when to use lie. I mentioned it whenever possible and worked with them . They are improving.

I can’t help it. I’m old school…42 years. It is engrained in me!

Try to embed it in the curriculum you’re teaching. Pull out sentences or paragraphs to teach grammar, spelling, punctuation and syntax.

I know when I’ve tried to do this and asked kids to find a noun or verb, they just start calling out words until they hit the right one. Why we stopped teaching grammar as a distinct process is beyond me. Same with handwriting.

Thank you for this line of discussion. I teach HS ELA in a SAI direct setting. Most of the students are exactly as talked about here in numerous posts. I thought it was just my student's level, but as I read, I see we are floating down the same pathway. I will acknowledge that I am from the era of dissecting sentences and understanding POS and how to write a paragraph., but with texting, students are missing the repetition of basic skills. You all know, admin want to see data improve and sadly, sometimes by teaching to the test(s). I have thought about No Red Ink for several years but have not had the chance to implement it. We have so many students in everyone's classes that have dyslexia and we are not providing them with structured curriculum. I wish we could teach what our students need and feel good at the end of the day!

This is a sad reality. It's not just the grammar but also the spelling. That is why I keep giving my students writing activities.