As my time as a doctoral student at Teachers College comes to a close, I find myself looking back with great appreciation for the opportunity to serve as a curriculum developer and instructor for the TCP. I first taught the Pedagogical Grammar course in the summer intensive program in 2013, and a few years later, redesigned the course in a hybrid format that would serve both the summer program and the new year-round program. I continued to teach the course until 2019, and during this time, I was privileged to work with many cohorts of passionate teachers and teachers-to-be. One of the most rewarding experiences for me was watching those who were self-described “grammarphobes,” or grammar skeptics, become more comfortable with—and even come to enjoy! — delving into grammar topics in an effort to reach a better understanding of how the English language works and how we can help our students master it.
As I told my TCP cohorts, in my own career as an English language teacher, I have learned a great deal from my students’ questions and insights about the grammar topics we study together. My students have pushed me to further investigate rules and patterns, refine my explanations, and develop more engaging opportunities to practice. My TCP experience offered me the same kinds of opportunities; my TCP students’ questions and insights inspired me to continue to enhance the course and find new ways to encourage what I hoped would become a lasting commitment to developing their expertise in grammar and grammar instruction.
I often began the course with a reference to Diane Larsen-Freeman’s (2003) observation that knowledge of the grammar of a language “allows us to choose how we present ourselves to the world” (p. 145).* I find great joy in knowing that TCP graduates are helping their own students harness the power of grammar to express themselves as they wish and to accomplish their goals.
*For further reading, see: Larsen-Freeman, D. (2003). Teaching language: From grammar to grammaring. Boston: Heinle, Cengage Learning.