I think your willingness to take risks in Russian acted to humanize
yourself for your students. There used to be an adage in education that a
good teacher didn't smile until after Christmas. This "wisdom" was based
on an authoritarian control model which, for me is antithetical to my views
on teaching.
Anyway, enjoy. I appreciate your sharing. roberto
WHOLE LANGUAGE YARDSTICKS
Boise State University Robert Bahruth
Authenticity: We can all reflect on what readers, writers, and thinkers do
in the real world to gather information, solve problems, and to communicate
ideas. Let's look at reading for an example. All fluent readers know that
reading is not a linear process. In other words, we don't exclusively move
our eyes from left to right, nor do we need to know each word in a sequence
before we can move on to the next word. We may skip a word and use the
surrounding context of the remainder of a sentence or an entire paragraph
to derive an idea about the meaning of a word. Yet, many teach beginning
readers that reading is linear. Nor should basals or other anthologies be
treated in an absolute linear fashion. When I get a collection of short
stories or professional articles, I always choose what to read according to
various criteria: my interests, favorite authors, intriguing titles,
moods, etc., and I don't always read everything! Do you?
Also, we do not normally answer questions after reading a good
novel, story, article, etc., yet we might have a conversation with someone
about it. And, when questions do come up in these conversations, we don't
normally answer them in complete sentences. Nor are the questions simply
of the factual recall type. We may reflect on what we enjoyed most/least
about the text, what other texts it may remind us of, or we may discuss the
effect the text has had on us. We may discuss style, language variety,
themes, etc.
With respect to writing, many writing teachers are "error
correctors" whose efforts are often in vain. Students quite often don't
even read the copious remarks in red ink. They merely look for the grade
at the top of the page and throw the piece away. Writing in the real world
is often for a wider audience than the teacher, it is to be published and
shared. This means that writing is to be processed for both form and
meaning before it is released for public inspection. Writing, therefore,
is not a one shot deal, so we should not grade rough drafts as though they
were final products. Red ink discourages, and often confuses writers.
Teaching students that writing is a painstaking process for all
authors helps them to understand the writing process better. Dorothy
Parker once said, "I hate, hate, hate having to write, but I love having
written!" Instead of reading Hemingway and being overwhelmed by thinking
he simply sat down and wrote his novels, students begin to appreciate what
he achieved, and they begin to appreciate that it is also within their
reach if they're willing to invest the time and effort.
My favorite quote from Donald Graves is, "Error correction is not
teaching. Never was and never will be." If, instead of error correction,
teachers and peers learn how to provide timely, useful comments along with
encouragement, in an atmosphere which promotes risk-taking and
experimentation, students will grow in their literacies. Instead of
scorning approximations, we should celebrate them, as do mothers.
Finally, cooperation is vital to progress in any area. Writing a
book requires cooperation between an author, an editor, sometimes
co-authors and illustrators are involved, layout artists, jacket designers,
researchers, typesetters, advertisers, etc. Whole language classrooms
break most sharply with traditional classrooms in that the former are
student-centered. Aspects of whole language classrooms involve peer
tutoring, instructional chains, editorial boards for in-class publications,
cooperative learning activaties, and community problem solving, with many
of these dimensions reflecting similar interaction which takes place in the
real world.
Integration: Another important yardstick of whole language classrooms is
the integrated curriculum. Reading and writing are often referred to as
the hub of a wheel while the content areas are the spokes. Such ideas are
reflected in "writing across the curriculum." Time management offers
tremendous, new potential when we stop teaching a block of language arts,
and instead, begin to use that time to broaden our treatments of content
areas while providing meaningful contexts for authentic reading and
writing. We can publish books on social studies, science, art, language
play, idioms, even math story problems. Every writer reads during the
writing process!
Relevance: Whole language teachers do not dictate what a student writes or
reads. They may promote themes, but a greater amount of decision making
freedom is given to the students. Given this choice, students can begin
writing and reading about things that interest them; that they are familiar
with; that they can relate to through their personal experiences and
backgrounds. This also leads to a sense of ownership.
Ownership: Donald Graves once commented about the success of a particular
literacy program he participated in in Australia. When asked, "What is the
essential message of your study?" he said, "When people own a place, they
look after it. When it belongs to someone else, they couldn't care less."
(Calkins 1983:23)
Demonstration: Again, to quote Graves (1981), "The writing teacher, like
the pottery teacher, must practice the craft alongside his students."
Writing teachers who don't write creatively, have know access to important
insights experienced authors share. How, then, can they share what they
don't know with their students? Students intuit more important messages
from seeing their teachers struggle with a piece they're working on; from
seeing them enjoying a good book. They intuit that reading and writing are
important in our lives as well. In contrast, reading and writing teachers
who don't read and don't write teach hypocrisy.
Intrinsic motivation: Students begin to discover the usefulness of
language for expressing thoughts and sharing ideas. They write and read
because they enjoy doing so, and not because they are required. We learn
to read and write by reading and writing, so the more students genuinely
interact with text, the better they get at reading, writing and thinking,
and the better we look as their teachers. Also, when students are
intrinsically motivated to read and write, the better they use their
academic time. Thus, we begin to see intrinsic motivation as the "ounce of
prevention," and behavior modification, classroom management, and assertive
discipline as "the pound of cure."
Critical literacy/critical thinking: As students and teachers explore
deeper dimensions of reading, writing, language and learning, they develop
a critical awareness of the myriad aspects of systems and processes. After
participating in individual and group writing conferences, they begin to
anticipate questions from peers and teacher that would enhance their work.
(Auto-conferencing). They also begin to notice more than just what a
writer says. They begin to appreciate how language is used in creative
ways to express meaning. They begin to read as writers. They begin to
appreciate metaphors. They begin to read between the lines.