Sep. 6, 2008 - I did find this interesting result included in a recent study...

Posted by drew1064

A Note About Grammar Instruction ~ Grammar instruction in the studies reviewed involved the explicit and systematic teaching of the parts of speech and structure of sentences.The meta-analysis found an effect for this type of instruction for students across the full range of ability, but surprisingly, this effect was negative.This negative effect was small, but it was statistically significant, indicating that traditional grammar instruction is unlikely to help improve the quality of students’ writing. Studies specifically examining the impact of grammar instruction with low-achieving writers also yielded negative results (Anderson, 1997; Saddler & Graham, 2005). Such findings raise serious questions about some educators’ enthusiasm for traditional grammar instruction as a focus of writing instruction for adolescents. However, other instructional methods, such as sentence combining, provide an effective alternative to traditional grammar instruction, as this approach improves students’ writing quality while at the same time enhancing syntactic skills. You can read the entire article here: http://www.all4ed.org/publication_material/reports/writing_next

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Sep. 9, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by ilovemy3angelbabies

I have often wondered this very same thing. We learned today about subjunctive, indicative, or imperative mood, verbs in active or passive context, and conjugated verbs. Tomorrow is transitive and intransitive verbs. GEEESH! Why on earth does ANYONE need to know this! lol Thank goodness for the teacher's manual! Blessings~ Laura

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Sep. 17, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by ilovemy3angelbabies

OMGoodness....I just don't get it! Everything is showing up right in my program, just the way you requested. Hmmmmm! I'm not sure what is going on. URGGGHHH! I am going to start again from scratch and see what happens. This time it will be right IN the template, one step at a time. Thanks for your COTINUED PATIENCE, Anna.....You're the BEST!!! :D (((HUGS))) Laura

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Oct. 3, 2008 - I wholeheartedly agree

Posted by srvhim4life

I have been wondering the same thing myself as my daughter asked me what an intransitive verb was or a transitive verb. Thankfully I could review with my Teacher's Manual and somehow I figured it out, but I don't remember ever learning to this extent. Honestly, I think it is more of a time issue to keep the kids busy in school. I remember at this level we did alot more writing than breaking sentences apart into foreign words...haha. As long as my daughter can identify a subject and predicate, preposition, direct object and indirect object, we're good! We go through the chapters, but I don't offer a grade for it. I agree, I believe sentence building is more important.

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