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The Power of Grammar: Unconventional Approaches to the Conventions of Language
Grammar is the gatekeeper to a culture of power, yet it is also the power behind the startling beauty and robustness of the English language. In ""The Power of Grammar"," Mary Ehrenworth and Vicki Vinton show you how these two notions of power can help your grammar instruction address the practical and aesthetic needs of your student writers.
Ehrenworth and Vinton explore the impact of conventions on writing, and they offer you new and compelling ways to show adolescents how informed and purposeful grammatical choices can transform their writing from competent to original and innovative. Through contextualized lessons embedded within your writing curriculum, you'll guide students to an understanding of conventional written English, then show them how to manipulate conventions to produce artful writing.
Grounded in the latest research and tested in the field, "The Power of Grammar" also contains resources that support good teaching, including: a concise, to the point, reproducible primer that highlights and defines the most important and useful grammatical conventions in English a wealth of mentor texts that allow students to examine conventional and unconventional constructions from the work of published authors and practice composing their own sentences based on the example detailed samples of four kinds of grammar minilessons, each of which can be used in their entirety or as a template to teach any grammatical point tips for designing and aligning minilessons to those stages of the writing process where they best reinforce grammatical concepts examples of student work that show you how successful Ehrenworth and Vinton's method can be.
Ehrenworth and Vinton also share their passionate belief in the potential of adolescents. By including stories of individual students who discovered and fashioned unique voices and styles by apprenticing themselves to mentor writers, "The Power of Grammar" will renew your faith not only in your students and the English language, but in the power of good teaching to change lives.
Ehrenworth and Vinton explore the impact of conventions on writing, and they offer you new and compelling ways to show adolescents how informed and purposeful grammatical choices can transform their writing from competent to original and innovative. Through contextualized lessons embedded within your writing curriculum, you'll guide students to an understanding of conventional written English, then show them how to manipulate conventions to produce artful writing.
Grounded in the latest research and tested in the field, "The Power of Grammar" also contains resources that support good teaching, including: a concise, to the point, reproducible primer that highlights and defines the most important and useful grammatical conventions in English a wealth of mentor texts that allow students to examine conventional and unconventional constructions from the work of published authors and practice composing their own sentences based on the example detailed samples of four kinds of grammar minilessons, each of which can be used in their entirety or as a template to teach any grammatical point tips for designing and aligning minilessons to those stages of the writing process where they best reinforce grammatical concepts examples of student work that show you how successful Ehrenworth and Vinton's method can be.
Ehrenworth and Vinton also share their passionate belief in the potential of adolescents. By including stories of individual students who discovered and fashioned unique voices and styles by apprenticing themselves to mentor writers, "The Power of Grammar" will renew your faith not only in your students and the English language, but in the power of good teaching to change lives.
208 pages, Paperback
First published February 15, 2005
5 people are currently reading
107 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 11, 2019
I’ve never been more excited to teach grammar to middle schoolers, and that saying somethin’.
April 28, 2020
ESSENTIAL for anyone teaching grammar. Tangible, realistic lesson activities/groundwork planned and tested by actual teachers- teachers deeply concerned with equity and reflective of their own practices. The authors both acknowledge how grammar functions as a gatekeeper to power AND as a tool of creative writing. They balance the contradictory goals those concerned with equitable linguistics all hold for students- that they are not kept from accessing this "culture of power" but that they are not ruled by it either. Definitely non-traditional, but backed up by the results of their own students. Fantastic citations as well all worth reading on their own like Gloria Ladson Billings, Delpit, and Lipman.
July 23, 2016
This incredibly helpful book completely changed my thinking about effective grammar instruction. As a teacher who has grown weary with the traditional practices of drilling and grilling students on the hundreds of rules and exceptions to the rules, I was excited to read about Ehrenworth and Vinton’s alternative approaches to teaching students the power of grammar. The authors detail how the power behind using grammar effectively is two-fold. Those students who learn how to communicate effectively in writing by correctly use conventions in their writing are those that will have more access to achieving their goals in life. Beyond the culture of power our students can belong to, the authors underscore how grammar is part and parcel of writing craft. If we can get our students to understand that effective use of conventions directly contributes to the beauty and strength of their writing they will be more likely to see its value.
The Power Of Grammar is written with the adolescent writer and Middle/High School teachers in mind. However, I gleaned a lot of new understanding that I feel even teachers of upper Elementary aged students could benefit from reading. I think the second chapter titled Putting Conventions on our In Tray which addresses planning grammar curriculum in a systematic and intentional way would be helpful to teachers of all grade levels. The authors advocate using a combination of direct instruction, inquiry, and apprenticeship to help students learn, observe and make good decisions which impact the creativity of their writing. I loved the suggestion that when teaching a new convention that students are first expected to use that convention only during the revision stage. In the next unit they would be expected to use it during the drafting stage and in the next units of study they would be expected to use during the freewriting stage. This gradual approach helps students internalize new strategies over time.
Teachers would benefit tremendously from the ideas given in Chapter 5, The Sentence and the Apprentice. Many teachers already rely on using mentor texts to help students “apprentice” to their favorite authors with regards to writing craft. Ehrenworth and Vinton do a masterful job of tying grammar conventions to craft and so it just makes sense that one would use mentor texts to teach them! They advocate for and explain how to teach students to apprentice at the sentence level. “When we are collecting mentor sentences, we collect ones that we think are precise, poetic, or provocative. We like to gather writers who demonstrate diverse styles. We consider the structures inside the sentence...One of the great pleasures of coming to love grammar is the way it enriches our reading.”
This book truly transformed my thinking with regards to grammar instruction. To be perfectly honest, I have become one of those teachers who just threw her hands up in frustration. It is one thing to know that using Daily Oral Language worksheets and other traditional approaches to teaching grammar are not effective, but to finally have a true understanding about why teaching conventions in a more authentic manner is truly inspirational! Since finishing the book, I have found that I am paying more attention to how I can use conventions to make my own writing more innovative and powerful!
August 3, 2025
This was definitely an eye opener into how a teacher can illuminate the grammar construct as a tool for strength and purpose in writing.
July 8, 2015
Cash English. It’s a concept that I hadn’t really thought about, but if students want access to the culture of power, knowing the conventions of standard English will at least give them the option if they choose to participate. Ehrenworth gives teachers a plan for making sure that conventions are taught to mastery in contextual lessons using mentor texts.
Perhaps one of the most useful parts of the book can be found on page 44 and 45. She offers a model curriculum calendar that teachers can use to ensure that points are taught with intention and with enough exposures to ensure transfer. While the book does offer specific examples of lessons, it is intended to be a guide for how you might do the work in your classroom.
The model lessons in the book are written with three types of grammar lessons to consider:
Direct Instruction: telling students explicitly how to do something. Here’s the rule. (Explain and demonstrate how writers maintain consistent verb tense.)
Inquiry: facilitate an investigation into language. Let’s see how writer’s use this rule. (How do writers manipulate verb tenses to create specific effects?)
Apprenticeship: Moving to make style choices as a way to explore form and voice. Why did you choose to follow the rule or break it? (Otherwise known as “Love and Sedition.”)
Perhaps one of the most useful parts of the book can be found on page 44 and 45. She offers a model curriculum calendar that teachers can use to ensure that points are taught with intention and with enough exposures to ensure transfer. While the book does offer specific examples of lessons, it is intended to be a guide for how you might do the work in your classroom.
The model lessons in the book are written with three types of grammar lessons to consider:
Direct Instruction: telling students explicitly how to do something. Here’s the rule. (Explain and demonstrate how writers maintain consistent verb tense.)
Inquiry: facilitate an investigation into language. Let’s see how writer’s use this rule. (How do writers manipulate verb tenses to create specific effects?)
Apprenticeship: Moving to make style choices as a way to explore form and voice. Why did you choose to follow the rule or break it? (Otherwise known as “Love and Sedition.”)
April 15, 2014
Any book about grammar that brings the reader to tears-twice-deserves a 5 star rating. This book is a passionate discourse on what we lose by ignoring grammar and, equally important, what we lose by teaching no-nonsense, by-the-rules, worksheet-driven grammar. Instead, we can teach grammar through inquiry and apprenticeship as "an art, relying on the way art provokes responses across differences of power, knowledge, and control...Showing students how powerful writers use grammar as a transformative agent in the writing process is something we can do." Full of practical tips and structures, appendices of mentor texts and model lessons, this is a must read for EVERY teacher of writing.
August 31, 2008
Yes, I am reading a book on grammar... I am either a nerd, or a teacher, or both!- OK- I finished it and it was an enjoyable read! Really! I like the insight that knowing how to use grammar - whether you are following the rules or choosing to break them- is a way to access power. I hope I pick up more of the craft of writing when I read in the future because these authors showed how to really appreciate a sentence when it is well crafted. And of course they kept going on about on from Lolita- a book I am still conflicted about! Hmm...
October 19, 2012
Hands down the most authentic, readable, inspiring and practical guide to teaching grammar in the middle grades. It has curriculum built into the R/W Workshop curricular year and approaches conventions as a powerful way to control and manipulate writer's voice.
Want to read
September 27, 2012I predict this book will be dog-earred before long right along with my copies of Anderson's Everyday Editing and Mechanically Inclined. I'm anxious to see the impact such an apprenticeship to other's writing as Ehrenworth and Vinton suggest on my students' writing.
June 16, 2014
My big takeaway: Grammar/punctuation is not just about following the rules. It's about choice.
Many of my students suffer from flat writing. I believe using some of these ideas can help students find their voice.
Many of my students suffer from flat writing. I believe using some of these ideas can help students find their voice.
August 2, 2014
This is a super educational resource that doesn't skip the important discussions about grammar, language, power and culture. I loved that the authors used a social justice lens to model teaching about language, voice and choice in writing.
May 19, 2015
An interesting look on grammar instruction. It was easy to read and enjoyable, I really like the idea of using inquiry to teach grammar.
December 1, 2011
Watch kids! Mrs. Kurtz is trying something new next week! Grammar Charged Mini Lessons!!!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews