How do Discovery of Competence, and Fact, Artifacts, and Counter-facts handle grammar? Is there a place for overt grammar instruction in the two course designs? Do you think students need more grammar/editing/proofreading practice than the two courses provide? What would you add to their courses?
TDOC and B&P part ways on the subject of grammar instruction. TDOC's take is to hope and pray that student writing improves by way of letter writing (handled by teacher No.3!). Simply by corresponding with a teacher who behaves like a peer and co-researcher, it's presumed student writing will tend to imitate the style and substance of the teacher's writing. B&P, on the other hand, dedicate their final chapter in F, A & C to the instruction of error analysis. Largely, this is to be carried out one-on-one with students, though occasionally, too, at the class level.
If one thing's missing from B&P's Chap. 7, it's the extension of error analysis through peer counseling. Why not pair more capable students, after they've had a few "light bulb" moments, with more struggling students, still unable to see the forest for the trees? Of course, it's a dicey scaffolding even for an experienced teacher, but, for basic students whose papers are rampant with errors, peer work could help eliminate some of the more common "first level" errors. For example, I would imagine showing 3-4 of my top students how to very simply look over a paper, find rudimentary issues (boundary issues/periods/commas) and model how to help students find their own errors through minimum invasion or prodding.
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