Once again, teaching material in meaningful context

I found chapter 3 in Miller and McVee particularly enlightening when it comes to how to teach grammar in different and unique ways. Bruce writes that grammar is given a negative connotation "because of the tradition of assigning exercises that disconnect language from its working contexts as has often occurred in the form of isolated grammar worksheets or sentence disgramming activities" (33). As we keep seeing within our readings and teacher education classes, it is incredibly important to make sure that you teach content so that the students know how that information connects to their lives outside of the classroom rather than the student just thinking that the material is only applicable to the classroom environment. We need to provide the students with guidance and training when teaching them something new within the classroom.  When working on any kind of activity or writing within the classroom, the students need to know how to go about "molding it, experimenting with it and shaping it with the eventual aim of telling some sort of story" (41). Using a film within the classroom to analyze how the director conveys a message is an interesting way for the students to see that messages can appear anywhere in many different forms.
The most compelling statement within the chapter was that "we can write only with what we have read, and we can read only by writing" (41). To know what writing is, we need to read writing. To know what good writing is, we need to be able to write. The idea is circular in understanding. One process leads to the other in a continual cycle of learning. Without any one step in the cycle, learning is stinted and the student must back track to regain the knowledge that they have missed out on.

What do you think? Do you agree with the Bruce's idea of writing?