There are some topics that cannot be taught, they must be experienced. Writing, both academic and creative, along with every form in between is one of those areas. To say that a teacher “teaches” writing skills is a myth. Teachers who work with students in developing their writing abilities must themselves experience the writing mind. There is no recipe for learning to write, no matter what the curriculum companies and book authors want us to believe.
It is for this reason that the majority of our students and instructors fear having to write, and avoid the teaching of writing. As a result, writing instruction is too often reduced to a shallow step-by-step process that does not help the writer invest in their topic, form their opinion, or express their unique perspective. To teach writing by a rote process is like denying Thomas Edison a laboratory before creating a working light bulb. It is asking a surgeon to operate without ever having touched a real human body.
“No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.” E.B. White reminds us. Students and teachers both must be given the opportunity to experience writing in a supportive atmosphere where the students’ feelings and opinions are treated with respect. I have something to say and it is worth hearing, is the first lesson a student should practice. Once a student is confident of their ideas and enjoys putting those ideas into writing they can then sculpt the thoughts into any format they choose, from story to doctoral dissertation.
Teacher preparation courses are missing this element in their methodology classes. We teach grammar, composition, and theoretical steps to designing an academic paper. But we do not teach what it feels like to be a swimmer in a sea of prose. We do not teach that each of us has a vital contribution to make to any discourse. We desperately need a course in writing that is in essence a love letter to the act of writing. What is thought of as the most tedious of writing chores, such as an open response on the CRT test, can be felt by the author as an opportunity to create something unique, useful, and fulfilling to its creator. So essential, in fact that test adjudicators ultimately don’t matter. With the experiential writing course teachers can then re-create the learning environment in their classrooms, whether they work with kindergarteners or graduate students.
Books Every Student Should Read On the Internet there are hundreds of lists advising what books are must reads: Books for the college bound, most important picture books, the 100 most important books for teens, the list goes on and on. Any of these lists can act as a guide for reading in order to gain a broad understanding of the world we live in. British must reads for young readers is very different from what I consider to be the quintessential American canon for young people. A group of books that are considered to be an essential part of an education, both academic culture and social culture, is called a canon which is defined, as it relates to literature, as: · any officially recognized set of sacred books. · any comprehensive list of books within a field. Of course the accepted canon of literature changes with the times and the opinion of the culture. The real question is, why is it important to have read a majority of these tomes? Because it helps each of us to understand ourselves and the world we currently live in. Remember the rock band Uriah Heep? Their name is a literary allusion. To learn more about Uriah Heep read, David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens. When we understand the history of a reference or saying we understand how we as both individuals and a society came to be. It helps to plan our future. It helps us to avoid mistakes. It helps us formulate a healthy and happy persona. Instead of being a victim of circumstances we become the conductor of our own symphony. Martin Luther King, Jr., alluded to the Gettysburg Address in starting his "I Have a Dream" speech by saying 'Five score years ago..."; his hearers were immediately reminded of Abraham Lincoln's "Four score and seven years ago", which opened the Gettysburg Address. King's allusion effectively called up parallels in two historic moments. Comparing these two landmark changes in race relations guides us to make better future decisions both as individual citizens and as a government. There are four classifications of Cultural Allusions: Biblical, mythological, historical, and literary. Even picture books for young children are filled with various allusions. Here are two examples of historical allusions: · Boycott: Captain Charles CunninghamBoycott was an English land agent in Ireland. In 1880, in the midst of controversy over the “Irish Land Question,” he and his family were ostracized by the community. An organized refusal to deal with, or buy from, a given person or company is now referred to as a boycott. The club decided to boycott any cosmetics company that tested products on animals. · Casanova: Giovanni Giacomo Casanova (1725–98) was a famous Venetian adventurer and writer who romanced well over a hundred women in the course of his travels. In modern parlance, a Casanova is a charismatic man with a reputation for having many romantic conquests. I know he's a Casanova, but I can't resist those eyes. Two examples of literary allusions you probably recognize: · Peter Pan: Peter Pan, the protagonist of a 1904 play and 1911 book by J. M. Barrie, is famously a boy who refused to ever grow up. These days, an adult who acts immaturely is sometimes said to be suffering from “Peter Pan syndrome.” Let him fix his own cocoa; you don't need to indulge his Peter Pan syndrome by mothering him. · Pollyanna: The title character of Pollyanna, a 1913 novel by Eleanor Porter, was a poor girl faced with difficult obstacles who nevertheless managed to stay relentlessly upbeat. While the original Pollyanna was well aware of her challenges but chose to play the “Glad Game” of finding the silver lining in every dark cloud, the name is now applied to somebody who is blindly optimistic, or overly upbeat out of naïveté. “She's such a Pollyanna,” grumbled Mary Anne, “she thinks the IRS auditor is calling to make sure they don't owe her any money.”
I like to ask people what books from their childhood do they remember and that where important to them. Some of mine are as follows Babar the Elephant- I remember questioning the morality of trophy hunting (that is hunting for reasons other than for food) Pippi Longstocking- The first novel I read independently. I was home from school with the mumps in third grade. My Side of the Mountain-Reading this book helped me forge a strong bond with the natural world. To Kill a Mockingbird- first read out loud to me by my 5th grade teacher. (They would never be allowed to read this book now.) Brought my attention and interest in civil rights and social justice into my conscious thoughts. They are cental issues in my life choices and my work today. Books Every Student Should Read On the Internet there are hundreds of lists advising what books are must reads: Books for the college bound, most important picture books, the 100 most important books for teens, the list goes on and on. Any of these lists can act as a guide for reading in order to gain a broad understanding of the world we live in. British must reads for young readers is very different from what I consider to be the quintessential American canon for young people. A group of books that are considered to be an essential part of an education, both academic culture and social culture, is called a canon which is defined, as it relates to literature, as: · any officially recognized set of sacred books. · any comprehensive list of books within a field. Of course the accepted canon of literature changes with the times and the opinion of the culture. The real question is, why is it important to have read a majority of these tomes? Because it helps each of us to understand ourselves and the world we currently live in. Remember the rock band Uriah Heep? Their name is a literary allusion. To learn more about Uriah Heep read, David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens. When we understand the history of a reference or saying we understand how we as both individuals and a society came to be. It helps to plan our future. It helps us to avoid mistakes. It helps us formulate a healthy and happy persona. Instead of being a victim of circumstances we become the conductor of our own symphony. Martin Luther King, Jr., alluded to the Gettysburg Address in starting his "I Have a Dream" speech by saying 'Five score years ago..."; his hearers were immediately reminded of Abraham Lincoln's "Four score and seven years ago", which opened the Gettysburg Address. King's allusion effectively called up parallels in two historic moments. Comparing these two landmark changes in race relations guides us to make better future decisions both as individual citizens and as a government. There are four classifications of Cultural Allusions: Biblical, mythological, historical, and literary. Even picture books for young children are filled with various allusions. Here are two examples of historical allusions: · Boycott: Captain Charles CunninghamBoycott was an English land agent in Ireland. In 1880, in the midst of controversy over the “Irish Land Question,” he and his family were ostracized by the community. An organized refusal to deal with, or buy from, a given person or company is now referred to as a boycott. The club decided to boycott any cosmetics company that tested products on animals. · Casanova: Giovanni Giacomo Casanova (1725–98) was a famous Venetian adventurer and writer who romanced well over a hundred women in the course of his travels. In modern parlance, a Casanova is a charismatic man with a reputation for having many romantic conquests. I know he's a Casanova, but I can't resist those eyes. Two examples of literary allusions you probably recognize: · Peter Pan: Peter Pan, the protagonist of a 1904 play and 1911 book by J. M. Barrie, is famously a boy who refused to ever grow up. These days, an adult who acts immaturely is sometimes said to be suffering from “Peter Pan syndrome.” Let him fix his own cocoa; you don't need to indulge his Peter Pan syndrome by mothering him. · Pollyanna: The title character of Pollyanna, a 1913 novel by Eleanor Porter, was a poor girl faced with difficult obstacles who nevertheless managed to stay relentlessly upbeat. While the original Pollyanna was well aware of her challenges but chose to play the “Glad Game” of finding the silver lining in every dark cloud, the name is now applied to somebody who is blindly optimistic, or overly upbeat out of naïveté. “She's such a Pollyanna,” grumbled Mary Anne, “she thinks the IRS auditor is calling to make sure they don't owe her any money.”
I like to ask people what books from their childhood do they remember and that where important to them. Some of mine are as follows Babar the Elephant- I remember questioning the morality of trophy hunting (that is hunting for reasons other than for food) Pippi Longstocking- The first novel I read independently. I was home from school with the mumps in third grade. My Side of the Mountain-Reading this book helped me forge a strong bond with the natural world. To Kill a Mockingbird- first read out loud to me by my 5th grade teacher. (They would never be allowed to read this book now.) Brought my attention and interest in civil rights and social justice into my conscious thoughts. They are cental issues in my life choices and my work today.
I find it strange that for me, a writer, and one who loves a good soap box, that as soon as I start a blog page I have no idea what to write about. That is the first thought that came into my mind on beginning this new page.
I actually have multiple goals with this blog. Obviously from the title I want to write about spiritual subjects and my thirty years as a Quaker. But I also want to talk about education and the changes I am seeing. These changes are not in the students, as much as where education as a profession is headed.
I have come to realize forcefully-full in the face- that my approach to teaching is very much out of favor. Loving your students, seeing the best in them, building on their strengths is not viewed as a viable educational objective. So much so, that I feel I am being pushed out of the profession. As teachers our goal should be to ignite a passion for learning and to be making learning a wonderful part of the life journey. Students should exit a class feeling that there was some idea, some spark in the lesson meant for them. We should help them experience the satisfaction of growth and discovery. Learning is so much more than being proficient on a standardized test.
I know that it is harder to reach students today. They often have metaphorical ear buds in, even when they don’t have the real ones. But we can teach them how and why their own learning is interesting, that there is a quiet joy in exploring, discovering and experiencing the learning of any subject.
I tell them, “Learning should feel good. Not the same kind of feel good as getting a new IPod, or experiencing your first kiss, but a deep quiet satisfaction.”
At this point I won’t even start in on the over simplification of content standards and the silly ta-do over them in fear of going to work tomorrow and finding my desk cleared out.
I wish you peace- Nora
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