{"id":436,"date":"2020-12-29T09:10:15","date_gmt":"2020-12-29T16:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/?p=436"},"modified":"2021-07-09T18:11:07","modified_gmt":"2021-07-10T00:11:07","slug":"stop-correcting-grammar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/stop-correcting-grammar\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop Correcting Grammar! And still leave at contract time."},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFor the love of all that is holy, English teachers \u2013 stop correcting grammar on student essays!\u00a0 Okay. There I said it.<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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What happens when we don\u2019t stop correcting grammar<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Imagine this \u2026 (or perhaps you lived this just this last week.)<\/span><\/p>

You brainstormed, outlined, drafted, did peer reviews, had parents give feedback, and now students have submitted their final drafts.\u00a0 And now you are grading papers, and grading, and grading \u2013 oh the stacks of papers.<\/span><\/p>

And you get to a paper and that student has run-on sentences, uses the wrong verb tense, misses a comma in their citations.\u00a0 And you with your trusty purple pen (because we don\u2019t use red anymore) start correcting the grammar.<\/span><\/p>

I am going to urge you right now to stop \u2013 don\u2019t do that.\u00a0 Put the pen down and think about why you are doing it.<\/span><\/p>

If you are doing this because you want to show them (and maybe you are a little bit angry because a 10th grader should know to capitalize \u201cI\u201d \u2013 hey no judgment, I\u2019ve been there) \u2013 you are wasting your time.<\/span><\/p>

If you are doing this because you want students to learn grammar rules \u2013 you are wasting your time.\u00a0 They won\u2019t learn grammar rules by looking at your editing marks.\u00a0 They probably don\u2019t even know that they need a subject after that conjunction to use a comma \u2013 let\u2019s be honest, they probably don\u2019t even know which word is the conjunction.<\/span><\/p>

Now imagine this \u2026 you are a student and you get your essay back.\u00a0 The front has the rubric and your grade. You look at the grade, maybe read the comments, flip through the paper, and then throw it in the trash (or put it in your backpack to have your mom toss it later).<\/span><\/p>

Was the time you spent correcting grammar worth it?<\/span><\/p>

Probably not.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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What you should do instead<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Too often as teachers, we spend a lot of time on things that have very little impact on student learning, and I think correcting grammar is one of them.<\/span><\/p>

So what should we do instead?<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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1. Grade using a rubric.<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Yes, I think that grammar should factor into the overall grade of an essay.\u00a0 It is in the common core standards after all.\u00a0 However, grading for grammar is not the same as correcting grammar.<\/span><\/p>

I use a mastery-based grading rubric tied to standards.\u00a0 To be marked proficient in L.2 (aka grammar), my rubric says,<\/span><\/p>

\u201cFew errors. The writer shows a command over a variety of conventions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

That\u2019s all.\u00a0 Not perfect.\u00a0 Who\u2019s perfect?\u00a0 I probably have grammar mistakes in this blog post.\u00a0 I certainly don\u2019t expect a teenager to be perfect.\u00a0 When I started teaching AP Lang, it changed the way I graded.\u00a0 The AP rubrics (at the time) said that writing should be free from basic errors or any errors that detracted from the meaning of the essay.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tClick here to get my editable rubrics for FREE<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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I also want my students to show a variety of conventions \u2013 meaning that they shouldn\u2019t write in only simple sentences.\u00a0 I want to see commas, semicolons, colons.\u00a0 I want to see different types of transitions and ways to embed quotes and facts fluidly.\u00a0 In the AP world, they called it \u201csophistication\u201d when describing high scores on essays.<\/span><\/p>

So, when students would have comma splices and incomplete sentences, I would note it in my head (because come on, I can\u2019t help myself), but if it didn\u2019t hinder the meaning behind the text, I moved on.\u00a0 If I saw a student who continually had issues, I would write on the rubric something like, \u201cwork on your comma use\u201d and score them an \u201cApproaching Proficiency\u201d score and move on.<\/span><\/p>

I bet this has also happened to you.\u00a0 You correct and correct a student\u2019s paper.\u00a0 And then the student asks to revise and you are so excited.\u00a0 Only to have the student turn in the exact same paper, but with your corrections made.\u00a0 That\u2019s it.\u00a0 No actual revising.\u00a0 Just editing.\u00a0 And the student now thinks that they deserve an A, even though they may have many other issues in the writing.<\/span><\/p>

This happens because we have put so much emphasis on grammar.\u00a0 Students see all the purple marks and think \u2013 that is why they got a poor grade, when in reality it may be because they can\u2019t use relevant evidence.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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2. Instead, spend your time with writing conferences.<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Writing conferences address individual student needs when it comes to grammar, using their own writitng.\u00a0 That makes much more impact on student writing than simply marking their mistakes on an essay.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>

I always did mine during the writing workshop (more on that in upcoming posts).<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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3. Use intervention time to teach grammar.<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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If you are lucky enough to work in a school with a dedicated intervention time \u2013 use this to your advantage.\u00a0 Make a note of common errors your students are making and work with them in a small group to reteach.\u00a0 Your students will learn so much more in this format than they would be looking at your grammar marks on their essays.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Save your sanity and your time<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Helping students draft quality essays in class will shorten your grading time considerably.\u00a0 And when you stop correcting grammar, you will save oodles of time.<\/span><\/p>

And encourage quality writing, rather than simply editing from students.<\/span><\/p>

But more importantly, you won\u2019t dread grading essays.\u00a0 You\u2019ll breeze through them and be able to spend your time in activities that will help students learn writing in much more effective ways.<\/span><\/p>

In the last few years, as I have adopted the practice of not correcting grammar on essays, I have been able to leave at contract time.\u00a0 Even when teaching over 100 tenth graders.\u00a0 Even when teaching AP Lang.\u00a0 Even when it was the end of the quarter.<\/span><\/p>

Try it out the next time your students turn in their essays.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Stop\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the love of all that is holy, English teachers \u2013 stop correcting grammar on student essays!\u00a0 Okay. There I said it. What happens when we don\u2019t stop correcting grammar Imagine this \u2026 (or perhaps you lived this just this last week.) You brainstormed, outlined, drafted, did peer reviews, had parents give feedback, and now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":418,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,17],"tags":[24,25,52],"class_list":["post-436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grading","category-leave-at-contract-time","tag-contract-time","tag-grading","tag-leave-at-contract-time"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1483,"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions\/1483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationispowerful.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}