The story of “Dora” and her experiences of learning how to write were very interesting for me. I am an only child and as such, I had a lot of educational focus placed on me. My parents taught me how to read and write before I entered kindergarten and because of this, I don’t really remember a lot of techniques or experiences I had while learning these skills. I also didn’t have any younger siblings to watch as they learned how to write, so I have very little experience in the writing process. A vast majority of what I do remember has more to do with structure, organization, and content which I learned more in middle school and high school rather than the basic sentence formation from elementary school.
Reading Dora’s story provided me with basic understanding of the process of how one student learned to write, but one thing I thought should have been addressed is why Dora was making those decisions. The explanations that were given were the rationale of a young learner, but I feel like I don’t understand the developmental processes or WHY Dora made those choices. Did anyone else have questions like this?
I also felt a little dissatisfied in our discussion about why this information is important to secondary majors. We touched on the idea that this gives us a bit of history about how students have learned to write, but it’s only one example; there are plenty of other ways that students have learned to write. I guess the most important thing that I got out of it would be that there are different stages and comfort levels that students will reach in their writing skills, and that will hold true whether they are just starting to learn about writing or exploring the intricacies and nuances of writing. As teachers, we need to keep this in mind and encourage our students to step outside their comfort zone and try something new with their writing no matter what level they’re at.
Question of the Week: I'd never heard of a broad reference pronoun before class and it intrigues me that there are so many other things that I've thought were wrong but aren't, and this is something I've thought is acceptable, but it turns out I'm wrong. So, When is it acceptable to use a broad reference pronoun?
Question of the Week: I'd never heard of a broad reference pronoun before class and it intrigues me that there are so many other things that I've thought were wrong but aren't, and this is something I've thought is acceptable, but it turns out I'm wrong. So, When is it acceptable to use a broad reference pronoun?
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ReplyDeleteThe one thing I took from Dora and what the teacher did was how she taught. I notice that she did not simply give the answers to Dora, but rather she questioned her and let her figure it out for herself. For example, she asked Dora to read her writing out loud and asked if it sounded correct. In response Dora answered that it did sound strange. Also, Dora had more problems then only figuring out where to put a period. She was having trouble with separating the words in to individual words. Instead of addressing every problem at once she started with one and then moved to the other. I believe there are more important problems to address before certain problems a writer is struggling with. It wouldn't make sense to teach Dora where to properly put a period before she figured out that the words don't run together. As for your question at the end...thats a good question. Haha. Sorry that I cant help you out as I was gone on Tuesday.
ReplyDeletebroad-reference THIS or WHICH is fine for informal communication, written or oral--but not for academic or professional writing.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, most people in our class have broad-reference THIS in their writing. See how this issue is similar to Dora's progress--and lack thereof--with periods? Same learning process, no matter how old a writer is. Every new concept takes a good deal of effort and time to master.
[No AAAWWUBBIS clause in initial position of a sentence? Or did I just miss it?)