Ehrenworth, Vinton, Micciche-Delivery

What I see the main point as being in both of this week’s readings is that grammar can be powerful. Ehrenworth and Vinton touched on the fact that the English language is a living breathing thing and is evolving just as much as we are, therefore we should evolve what grammar means and how it is taught. Micciche also compared grammar to having power, and I believe this is true. Knowing standard English-that is, being able to speak it, write it, recognize it-is important in America and has power behind it, from school to the economy and up. With that being said, writing pieces don’t necessarily always have to be in Standard English. With the world evolving so much, we need to be able to teach grammar in a way that still explains how and when to use proper punctuation, but that also does not devalue creative, unique styles of writing.

Culture was brought up in Micciche’s reading and I thought that was a very important concept. This connection between grammar and culture was also recently brought up in another class I am taking related to an intro to urban schools. ELL (English language learners) students are more prevalent today in America than any other time and will only continue to get greater in size. On top of that, you have the AAVE (African American Vernacular English) speaking students, who use their own kind of “Ebonics” in their culture and thus naturally bring it in the classroom (by the way, I looked this up before I referred to it as Ebonics and it is acceptable to call AAVE this…just so I don’t offend anyone!!). My point here is that English and grammar is constantly changing so to correct ELL or AAVE students is to attempt to assimilate them and to make them conform to society or the majority.

Both readings brought up great points to grammar and how to use it as a tool when writing that best fits in the classroom in present time. When I am in the classroom, I will make sure that I allow time for my students to use their own language and time to teach them standard English as a tool to develop a sense of power in language. Grammar will be something that I will teach, but I will make sure that I design criteria that will allow them to use their own creative voices to express their points, without straying too far away from appropriateness. As far as the paper I am writing for this class, I will make sure that I use my own voice but not stray too far from standard English (it IS a research paper, after all!).