Monday, January 28, 2013
The Writing Revolution
This article was an interesting read for me mainly because I was one of those kids who caught what was needed to be a decent write from the extensive reading I did growing up. It was decent, but still well below what it should have been. My twin on the other hand didn't enjoy reading and struggled with all the concepts of writing. We were home schooled all up through high school by my mother. The younger years we focused a lot on math and spelling, but sentence structure and writing was always pushed back and never given a priority. The reason for this was the need for my mom to sit down with us and teach that topic. This never happened very often because I have a special needs sister who is 3 years younger and during the time where we should have been getting the "formula" we were instead tagging along on hospital visits. Once in high school we joined a charter school program that could be done at home with the guidance of teachers. This guidance helped shape my writing and improved my brother's understanding of the basics. I really liked the quote "Give them a formula! Later, when they understand the rules of good writing, can figure out how to break them." Once I was taught the "formula" I enjoyed learning to break the rules.
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I learned writing much the same way. I did attend a formal school, but it was a religious one that didn't keep up on current public school trends (though from the article, it sounds like those schools wouldn't have helped much either). You were lucky to have eventually gotten the formulaic instruction you needed, and your brother even more so. Too many of my friends couldn't catch sentence construction and never improved.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think the quote you introduced is very important. Too many aspiring "writers" I've met think that they don't need to read and learn grammar because so many professional authors eschew many of the rules. They can only do this due to a firm understanding of the standards, not because they just decided to write however came naturally.
Kyle Knox
Very interesting. I honestly didn't think much about how all of us, sitting in the same WR 323 class experienced the formulas and structure to writing differently. We were all taught by different kinds of teachers, whether it be parents or school teachers. We were all told to do pretty much the same thing, but in different ways. I wonder if some of us were in the other teaching situations if we would have excelled more. I am learning, through the coaching I am doing that teaching in different ways is key. So your reading to learn at least helped you develop some structure, which is great.
ReplyDeleteI like that quote too. I was taught Math at a young age by my parents because English was not a fluent language in our house. So reading this article made me think back on the days of learning mathematical formulas and the rules that followed. I never really did consider writing to have its own structural formula too. I think i've been so used to having instructors butcher my writing at a young age because English was a second language to me that I just caught on to the "formula" and then when I got to high school that was when we were taught "the formula" more extensively. The high school in the article reminded me so much of my high school too. The fact that only a select amount of students were enlisted in the "special rigorous" academic program. They wanted to test out new teaching methods and see what worked and did not work.
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI am so jeaslous. I really have no idea where I might have dropped the ball or if I ever really had it. One thing I can really say has affected my writing in a positive way has been reading. Unfortunately, I started reading as an adult. It has helped me in numerous aspects. In a way I kind of do like all the reading we are doing in class even though the reading for class is with a totally different purpose.
-Laura Gutierrez-
I struggled with writing the most too. For me, as a ESL student, and growing up in the 70's in a town that lacked teachers trained to teach ESL students, we were pretty much passed on to the next grade because no one knew how to approach teaching ESL kids. In the long run, I suffered from it and by the time I was in high school, I wanted out. I went from completely loving school to hating it and I can honestly say I blame a lot of this hate to the fact I was embarrassed of my lack of reading and writing capability. I'm not sure how a program such as in this article could have helped in my school but I wish they would have tried something; anything.
ReplyDelete~Claudia Davila