I NEED YOUR ADVICE!
Dr. Wanda C. Phillips is the author of Easy Grammar series, Daily GRAMS series, Easy Writing: How to Write Higher Level Sentence Structures, and Easy Grammar Ultimate Series: Grade 8, 9, 10, 11, & 12 +. I love homeschoolers. Meeting them at various conferences, I frequently am told what a difference my Easy Grammar and Daily GRAMS texts have made in their children’s education. Parents often share that they, along with their children, have learned so much. When parents add that they wish this approach had been used with them, my heart is touched.
Although I support homeschooling 100%, I didn’t homeschool my children. I believe that the Lord had to place me in various positions to train me. My initial training was as a high school English teacher, where I realized that students didn’t know their basic grammar. Then, the Lord took me to an Arizona K-8 school where I taught seventh grade. (I must confess that I went “kicking and screaming,” accepting that position only when nothing else was available.) These students knew little usage as well. It was there I discovered that the elementary teachers not their students were at fault. The problem was the fact that the English texts did not teach for mastery learning.
My goal became to develop a program which would help students learn easily and at mastery level. Using the prepositional approach taught to me by Dr. Mary North, I developed strategies and ideas for excellence. I believed then, and I believe now—God gave me this expertise.
Later, with the MRI, neurologists learned how the brain learns, and new brain research experts gave us specifics guidelines. I was blessed to have already incorporated a plethora of venues— breaking major concepts into a building-block paradigm, using an escalator-style format for introducing skills, reintroducing minor concepts before major application, incorporating concrete and memorable learning, adding active learning to expedite understanding, implementing cumulative and cyclical learning for mastery, etc. Over the years, Easy Grammar teaching series, Daily GRAMS: Guided Review Aiding Mastery Skills with their daily, 10-minute lessons, and Easy Writing: How to Teach Higher-Level Sentence Structures ensued.
A few years ago, I wrote Easy Grammar Ultimate Series for Grades 8, 9, 10, 11, & 12+. I designed these texts to ascertain that students use correct grammar plus have a solid understanding of capitalization and punctuation at the high school level. With 10-minute lessons set up cyclically to promote mastery, these texts have allowed parents to focus on literature and writing while ensuring mastery in other realms. They, in fact, have become hugely popular with high school students.
Okay, Dr. Phillips, why do you now need to be advised? Thank you for asking. I need your advice concerning how to encourage parents to assess their own grammar usage. Let me explain. As another way to help students speak correctly, I wrote the book, Easy Grammar’s Guide for Parents: Improve Your Grammar in Minutes for homeschooling parents and other interested adults. Why? There is a concept that is widely known. Students learn their parents’ language usage. (When I hear students saying had went or you did good, I can almost guarantee it’s what their parents say.)
There is another concept, one that is not widely recognized. The grammar parents use—correct or incorrect—sounds right to them! It stands to reason that helping parents determine if they are using wrong words and learning correct words would be a huge step in helping their children.
Allow me to share how I tried to make Easy Grammar’s Guide for Parents appealing. I made it short; the two assessments require about 10 minutes. (The first focuses on irregular verbs; the second concerns general usage.) I shared in the first pages that this was not school. In fact, no one would know their score unless they chose to tell. My emphasis was being their “coach,” and my goal was to be their cheerleader and to help them change any incorrect words! Although the price of Easy Grammar’s Guide for Parents was $ 8.95, I offered it through www.easygrammar.com for $5, the price of a fancy cup of coffee—I told parents. My “guide” was designed for parents to complete the assessments quickly. Then, I shared strategies for change and practice sentences for only those words they had wrong.
Thinking “outside the box,” I also developed a fun, free seminar—complete with power-point presentation. My seminars were well-received by the few groups who requested them. At conferences, few attended, even though I had promised an entertaining hour. Testimonials, which actually were very positive, appeared on our website. This was only minimally successful. Therefore, I hired a videographer to tape portions of my “parent seminar.” This video, later, was deemed too long. It was cut into three 12-minute videos.
In summation, my terrific idea of parents assessing and, if needed, changing their own incorrect grammar usage has failed. However, I haven’t given up; you are my new hope. I am asking you to share your insights. Will you please send me (wanda@easygrammar.com) insights and suggestions to help me reach parents? Your perspective is highly valued and appreciated. Thank you. May God bless you and your family abundantly!