Joy, I have to agree with you as I'm one of those "old" students from the 70's. Here's what I'm thinking, though. We were told (not shown) what to write and taught how (not shown) how to write what we were told as I recall. Much emphasis was put on the formula and correctness. Many of us young writers were afraid to take risks, spell words we were unsure of, and risk getting red ink all over our papers. We were more concerned with pleasing the teacher. There were few opportunities to write for authentic purposes. It seems that today we are showing how to write and teaching in a dynamic workshop where the students own their thinking and their writing. Teachers are modeling using their own writing and the writing of gifted writers (as well as using non-examples). Students are also celebrated for taking their writing public and opportunities for students to "publish" their work starts in Kindergarten.
I've been diggin' Jeff Anderson's work and use many of his lessons to weave correctness into my writer's workshop. Check out Mechanically Inclined, Everyday Editing, or visit his website at www.writeguy.net Peace, Kathy -------------- Original message from Joy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: -------------- Ok, so I'm going to show my age. I went to middle and high school in the 70's, and I have to disagree with your take on writing instruction at that time. I had to write at every grade. I attended public schools in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Connecticut. Writing was essential. Ok, it was not the writing workshop we have today, but I remember writing in school. I remember writing poetry, essays, narratives, reports, letters, etc. We wrote all the time. Maybe > I was just lucky (I didn't think so at the time.) > > > > > > > > > > > Joy/NC/4 > How children learn is as important as what they learn: process and content > go > hand in hand. http://www.responsiveclassroom.org > > > --- On Sun, 7/6/08, Beverlee Paul wrote: > > From: Beverlee Paul > Subject: Re: [Understand] Reading/writing connection > To: [email protected] > Date: Sunday, July 6, 2008, 8:18 PM > > to Jennifer, Joy, all - > > This may be as uninteresting to you all as it is fascinating to me, but I > finally remembered (having a "senior" brain is Hell) the name of the > giant reading/writing author (along with Stauffer, Hansen, Martin, etc.) that > has had a HUGE impact on me through the years - James Moffett. He was so > revolutionary when he came out, but his influence deeply colored everything I > read through the 80s and 90s. I'm sure his influence is what made the > early research by Sulzby and Teale in emergent literacy in the mid 80s take > hold and prepare the reading world for Don Holdaway, Marie Clay, etcetera. He > certainly understood the reading/writing connection. I haven't reread Jane > Hansen's When Writers Read lately, but it was written with such a common > sense brilliance, I'll bet it greatly impacted the giants of that time > Donald Murray, Donald Graves, etcetera. Some of the early writing experts, > while certainly knowing writing inside and out, took a little longer to make > the connection to reading/writing. Jane Hansen might have been one of the > first to articulately pull out the connection and give it to the writing > world > as well as to the reading world. > > I think that maybe the greatest lasting contribution of the Reading Wars will > be that noone, but noone, talks anymore about reading without talking about > writing, and pretty much the same thing is true that very few talk about > writing without talking about reading. > > In the 70s noone really knew the connection--or at least talked about it very > little. Just look at the changes in The Reading Teacher by numbers of stories > sometime. There was rarely, really rarely, an article about writing there in > the 60s and early 70s. NCTE also was pretty straight writing, rarely > mentioning reading and not in a substantive way. > > I know it's trite, but I can't help it: We've come a long way, > Baby! When we think of Four Blocks (of which I really know not so much) or > any > balanced or comprehensive program today, we would never leave out the writing > component!! Take a look at something so basic as the name of what we talk > about: LITERACY! When I started reading research on emergent literacy in the > early/mid 80s, there was a lot of professional discussion about what to name > it, believe it or not! So we can probably all say thank you to Bill Teale and > Elizabeth Sulzby every time we talk about balanced literacy, comprehensive > literacy, or any other kind of language arts instruction in the world today, > which inevitably has the word literacy in its title. > > In those days, the ONLY writing instruction was at the senior high level, > unless someone in Birkenstocks threw in "creative" writing on Friday > afternoons. > > And yet...we've only begun to scrape the surface of the reciprocal nature > of reading/writing. > > Sunday afternoon thoughts, Bev > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > Need to know now? Get instant answers with Windows Live Messenger. > http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/connect_your_way.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_mes > > senger_072008 > _______________________________________________ > Understand mailing list > [email protected] > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org > > > > _______________________________________________ > Understand mailing list > [email protected] > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
