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| Teaching Reading And Writing, Izumiya Ichibei, 1790, Japan (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Teaching is a compassionate profession, and caring about kids' feelings should be a crucial part of helping them learn.
They were ugly and repellant organisms that lived off the nutrients of others. They conjured up images of the leeches covering Humphrey Bogart's body in The African Queen and, as the Radiolab broadcast suggested in its opening sequence, the alien that emerged from the chest of the space crew of that eponymous movie.
However by the end of the broadcast, Bob had a revelation: the relationship between humans and parasites is far more complex than he had ever imagined or his high school science teacher ever let on.
Among several enlightening aspects, the show dealt with the finding that parasites, particularly hookworms, help control hyper inflammatory response in people with allergies. To this end, scientists are experimenting with parasite therapy with fairly positive results.
What does a story on parasites have to do with the administration, teachers, and students of New Dorp High School and their writing instruction as highlighted in "The Writing Revolution" by Peg Tyre?
We suspect that Bob's initial understanding of parasites was based on a rudimentary inquiry into the subject, a reliance on what is often construed as established fact, and a desire to come to a simple, but satisfactory conclusion.
We, Stephanie and Bob, worry that the writing initiative at New Dorp is being viewed with a similar kind of narrow vision, perpetuating the simple and unhelpful dichotomies often construed as established fact in education rather than a deep inquiry into the complexities inherent in teaching and learning.
When positive change occurs in schools, there is a tendency to want to treat the experience like a controlled experiment in a lab, latch on to the latest innovation at that school, and then market it to schools everywhere.
In the case of New Dorp, it's the twin ideas of focusing on expository writing and the direct teaching of language structure. These two ideas are set in opposition to two others in the story: creative expression in writing and writing skills being "caught" (rather than "taught") in student-centered classrooms.
These dichotomies don't exist in real classrooms, nor in the theories and practices grounding powerful literacy teaching.
One example is the "structured speaking" highlighted in the article: Students were asked to respond to specific prompts during class discussions (e.g., "I agree/disagree with ____ because..."). However, similar kinds of exchanges can also be heard in student-centered reading and writing workshops, which have long embraced direct teaching of language, reading, and writing (including expository writing).
Evidence of such explicit teaching can be found in volumes of books and dozens of binders produced through New York City's own Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, arguably an epicenter of workshop teaching where it is always assumed that nothing can replace strong teaching and never assumed that writing will simply be "caught" by students.
Beyond our uneasiness with such dichotomies, we believe the key to the revolution at New Dorp is much more powerful and foundational than a particular approach to teaching writing or even an emphasis on language education.
Empowering teachers to engage their professional knowledge and intellect and take charge of their teaching and learning is the revelation we see in Tyre's article.The principal and faculty, Tyre writes, "began a detailed investigation into why, ultimately, New Dorp's students were failing."
To read further, go to: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/10/creativity-is-not-the-enemy-of-good-writing/263058/
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