Thankyou, Jeanne. It's a funny position, being an English teacher. I recognise that rules are important for writing. So do they. However, at any one point, they are being judged on creativity, writing and grammar, and that doesn't always hang together. We all recognise that. The new curriculum does not.
They also see things I don't. They were far more able to tell me word classes that are mutable than I was. They see that language and the rules governing it change.
I think we underestimate them. Instead of forcing grammar, as it is presented to them, down their throats, why not be honest? Why not say: THIS is the job, the letter, the email to your boss. THIS is the text, the email to your group, your board. THIS is the twitter. THIS is you using traditional grammar and subverting it in your writing to add tension.
Play with it! What irks me about the government is that it's all right or wrong. My current year 5 are facing a grammar test next year which has 60 % new content or terminology from this government. It's not fair, and most of it is antiquated. The new syllabus is all about old rules. What we should be doing is what my class naturally do: keep the useful, use the rest. That way, writing grows too. Grammar is for writing, for playing and improving writing, not for building walls or preventing writing.
If you obey all grammar rules, you loose fluidity in fictional writing. And let's not forget, the commas rules were different a mere hundred years ago. Not to mention Austen and her run ons. The government fixation with correct form is crazy.
Looking up homophones and homographs today in the dictionary, the class asked me who was to blame. The answer was immense. Anglo Saxons, French, Vikings, Samuel Johnson...