As a teacher of Bowling Green State University's English 3810, Grammar and Writing, the author is charged with teaching future language arts teachers how to teach grammar so that it actually helps their students become better writers and communicators. Because such teaching rejects the ineffective but time-honored drill-it-and-kill-it approach, in…

Explores what "grammar" means. Suggests that grammar has a place in the writing classroom and the whole-language classroom. Suggests that modifying "grammar" with adjectives such as "functional" and "rhetorical" can contribute to positive, meaningful changes in the language arts curriculum. (RS)

Maintains that whole language is not a prescriptive approach but a philosophy oriented toward student needs, inquiry, interaction, and, generally, "transaction" over "transmission." Discusses how a teacher becomes a whole language teacher, some of the difficulties of incorporating whole language into traditional curriculums, and the prospects for…

Offers the author's reflections on how and why she adjusted her limited implementation of whole language teaching by integrating literature and writing, using novels that reflect issues of significance to students, having students write for real audiences, and creating democracy in the classroom where students think, discuss, and act critically on…