Re: Welcome back Will!
William Hochman (wh14@is9.nyu.edu)
Tue, 17 Aug 1999 14:55:26 -0400 (EDT)
Actually, I just finished teaching a graduate course at NYU called "New
Perspectives in English Language Arts" and though I do see the probs with
the experience Paul describes, I still subscribe to whole language
approaches. Here's why, but don't get steamed Paul--my guess is the
teacher you have lacks the savvy to work well with your and your daughter
to *mediate* her individual learning concerns--anyway, we've found that
"drill and kill" doesn't produce learning about grammar and punctuation
very well. There's good research that shows learning language happens
most effectively as a whole experience. I still think teachers may need
to address skills and focus on them and I don't imagine that all "whole
langauge" teachers are effective because their theoretical grounding is
strong.
I don't know if JDS had many probs with English mechanics but I can
imagine Holden wanting to get beyond phony conventions...will
On Tue, 17 Aug 1999, Paul Kennedy wrote:
>
> The big buzz words were something really stupid called "Whole Language"....
> According to this crock of shit, it was tantamount to abusive behaviour for
> me to even suggest changes to her bad spelling or atrocious grammar. The
> first problem came when I asked my daughter to read me one of the wonderful
> stories she had written. She was unable to decipher the ill-ordered letters
> and words that polluted the page. I explained that if SHE couldn't read it,
> who the hell could be expected to read it....
>
> Problem # 2 began when I finally convinced one of those ill-educated oafs
> who were claiming to be 'teachers' to correct both spelling and grammar on
> the next such assignment.... You can imagine my delight when they took
> words that my genius daughter had miraculously spelled corrected, and
> "corrected" those words to make spelling mistakes....
>
> Does anybody else think there's a problem here?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Paul
>
> (And welcome back Will!)
>