Re: Welcome back Will!
erespess@inil.com
Tue, 17 Aug 1999 16:00:06 -0400
>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.
the way i have been taught about working with children to improve grammar
and spelling is to (instead of correcting them), immediately use the
correct form - for example...
speaking of her little sister, ashley says "her is hungry".
i reply, "is she hungry? maybe she should be fed."
since children learn more by example than anything else, they will hear the
corrected version, and add it to their bank of knowledge. it may take a
few times, but it does work.
one problem with this approach, however, is that it requires a lot of
one-on-one attention which today's schools rarely have the staff for.
if anyone sends this post back to me with corrected capitalization, i...
i... i don't know what i'll do.
and welcome back, will.
elizabeth