Great footnote, Luke, on whether “the rules” make sense or not. You’re absolutely right that the real “rub” in so much English teaching is in trying to help students understand relatively arbitrary (or even ridiculous) rules while trying to steer clear of the “that’s just the way it is” response–which only reinforces their suspicion that English rules are something (a) they can never understand, (b) only English teachers really care about.

Then there’s another complicating factor in teaching English (as opposed to, say, math) in ways that encourage students to draw on what they know to figure out what they need to know: If “what they know” has a lot to do with *spoken* language, which comes “naturally” to all of us, that won’t always help them figure out the rules of *written* English–all those rules about where to put commas and semi-colons (and even whether to hyphenate “eight-legged freaks”) that don’t seem to have a real corollary in *spoken* English…

I think I’ve been attempting the WCYDWT in English without naming it (or succeeding often, haha)…

I teach 2nd grade and literacy is my passion (though I’m a math fan, too, Dan!)…one of my idols is Katie Wood Ray, a writing expert (for those of you hermits who haven’t heard of her) who constantly hammers at the importance of collecting “real world writing” as mentor texts for young writers. This means scouring the newspaper, frequented blogs, magazines, and not being afraid of presenting adult-level text to young authors (7 years old). It’s thrilling. I love it.

I guess with that said, WCYDWT is more of a teaching “state of mind” that isn’t necessarily limited to a discipline. I teach all disciplines to my kids and have found that WCYDWT has seeped into every last one.

One of my good friends sent me this picture from her recent vacation…we both got a kick out of it. It would be the impetus for a meaty discussion about grammar!

http://tinyurl.com/32q8yoo