Does Writing Strands teach grammar, punctuation and spelling?
Yes, but only on a need-to-know basis. Research shows that the skills learned in abstract grammar exercises, such as those found in grammar workbooks, do not carry over into the production of written work. Children can underline nouns and verbs or diagram perfectly without learning to write an effective sentence. Similarly, research shows that spelling tests teach students to learn words only using their short-term memory, and that the spelling skills demonstrated on such a test do not help students after the tests are taken. Writing Strands believes that students, instead of doing these abstract exercises, should learn a rule of writing at the point when they need to understand it in order to do a composition exercise. The Writing Strands student books and the parents’ manual, Evaluating Writing, show how to improve grammar, punctuation and spelling as students are writing.
