Re: Welcome back Will!
jason varsoke (jjv@caesun.msd.ray.com)
Tue, 17 Aug 1999 15:40:45 -0400 (EDT)
Cast my vote for whole language learning. I grew up in the time of
Phonics and now I have this blasted voice in my head that insists on
sounding out every word I read. It's a lot slower than methods used by my
whole language friends.
-j
________oOOOo__/~~~~__oOOOo_________________________________
Jason Varsoke jvarsoke@bigfoot.com
For good mental hygiene, shave with Occam's Razor twice daily
On Tue, 17 Aug 1999, William Hochman wrote:
> 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!)
> >
>
>