Why Richbaub's Grammar?

When preparing to teach English grammar at the middle school level, choosing which concepts to cover and in what order to cover them is extremely complex!

If one simply decides to work through a grammar textbook or handbook, one would be hard pressed to squeeze in much of anything else, like literature and writing, for most grammar texts seem to have been compiled with one single thought in mind: What is there to know about grammar?

The Grammar Dilemma

While ELA teachers agree that grammar instruction is important, they battle to find time for grammar as it competes with reading, writing, and vocabulary for valuable instructional time.

If one tries to cover bits and pieces from a grammar textbook, where does one begin? What can afford to be cut out and what should not? In what order should concepts be taught? If you skip chapter three, for instance, will students be able to digest the important concepts in chapter five?

Also, what is most practical for students to know? Yes, the 6th grade grammar book might have a chapter on subordinate clauses, but is this a topic my 6th graders are ready to digest? Is it relevant to where they actually are in the development of their writing skills?

As a result, grammar instruction is often sporadic and piece-meal, and students' understanding is therefore shallow and fleeting. Some teachers even give up teaching grammar completely!

A New Approach

Richbaub's grammar materials go beyond the thought of “What is there to know about grammar?” because such an approach is simply not practical in today's reading and writing-focused approach to teaching English.

In developing Richbaub's grammar materials, the three most-heavily weighed considerations were:

1. What can students at the middle school level actually digest when it comes to grammar? In other words, what is developmentally appropriate?

2. What grammar, in regard to middle school writing, is most practical for middle school students to know?

3. How much time can and should a middle school teacher devote to teaching grammar in a class which also covers literature, writing, and vocabulary?

The Results

A more developmentally appropriate and more realistic scope

In each book the scope of knowledge covered is not exhaustive and not overwhelming. Concepts have been selected based on what is practical and digestible for the middle school mind in the context of today’s ELA classrooms.

A more developmentally appropriate sequencing

The sequencing of Richbaub's grammar lessons and practice exercises pays close attention to where middle school students are developmentally as well as where they are in their knowledge of grammar.

Concepts have been ordered with an eye on what makes sense to the middle school mind, not on what makes sense to the mind of a sophisticated grammarian.

In short, Richbaub's grammar resources...

• work for students because they are specifically designed for their developmental level

• work for teachers because they're designed not to dominate instructional time, but rather to easily fit beside the reading, vocabulary, and writing instruction within today's ELA curricula

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