Kiel Creates Confusion

Jane Kiel tells us that direct instruction in grammar and spelling is more or less useless. Now I have to reevaluate. Does Kiel's position negate all of Jeff Anderson's charts and schemes? If you revamp something that doesn't work, what do you get? I suppose he still has the "in context" thing going for him. Does spelling and grammar instruction not work because schools are stuck on the worksheet style. If Kiel had looked at research on Anderson's classroom, would there have been a difference? My mind is now going in circles.

Do the rules really help? Kiel doesn't think so. She says that readers rarely remember and apply the rules. Kiel also points out that English is full of exceptions. So then, do I even bother with Anderson's posters? Grammar rules are at least more constant that spelling rules. Do kids not remember because it's not helpful or because we are teaching rules so haphazardly?

Kiel carefully takes us through language development showing us the process. I wish she had stressed how un-uniform language learning is. Everyone goes through the same basic processes, but it still is going to look very different. Just because you understand one toddler doesn't mean you'll understand another one. They all have their own idiosyncrasies, and all learn at different rates. It bothers me that Kiel makes it sound so cut-and-dry. Students are not going to arrive at our classrooms and simply fit into a language stage box.

Kiel goes through the areas of vocab, spelling, and syntax, showing that direct instruction doesn't seem to be at all effective.

Kiel stresses how much we learn naturally, making it seem like no language instruction is necessary, only language exposure. We learn most things naturally . All babies progress from babbling to talking, and from crawling to walking through exploration. I don't think we spend much more time teaching kids to walk than we do to talk. But it's still legitimate to coach kids in track and not assume that they will naturally continue to progress and become great sprinters. Is writing any different? Isn't there a point where natural learning needs aid from good coaches? I know that my progress with dashes and colons is going to be aided tremendously by looking up the rule and being coached along. Maybe I would have eventually understood and incorporated them without this class, but I doubt it. Some degree of coaching seems legitimate.

What my mom did that I know helped was not make me look up every word I didn't know. Only occasionally would I be told to look things up in the dictionary. Usually I'd make a surmise or ask and she would define it for me. Being given that free, easy access to language, really did help. If there's no evidence that it helps, there's no way I'm going to waste time making kids miserably write down spelling and vocab words.

I am conflicted about everything now!

(I used an exclamation point and dashes.)