RE: orality

From: Kim Cooney (KimCooney@bigpond.com)
Date: Wed Jan 05 2000 - 19:06:31 PST


Not a problem Molly - I could recount many, many more such examples from my
time spent in classrooms as a special eder in a large high school. Some
would truly make your hair stand on end!!

Regards,

Kim Cooney

KimCooney@bigpond.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Molly Freeman [mailto:mollyfreeman@telis.org]
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2000 8:41 AM
To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
Subject: Re: orality

Kim,
Thank you for the poignant example of dysfunctional schooling.
M. Freeman

Kim Cooney wrote:

> Hi Phil and all,
>
> In response to Phil's comments about the connection between orality and
> writing, I just couldn't resist offering a tidbit from one of the English
> classrooms I visit as a special education teacher.
>
> The students were asked to perform an 'oral' piece as an assessment item.
> Their lessons consisted of writing down their 'oral'.
>
> When assessment time came around, the students had to hand the teacher
their
> written 'oral' and proceed to deliver 'it' in front of the class.
Students
> also had a copy of their 'oral' in their hand. Most recited it by having
> learned it by rote and constantly looking at 'it' to remember the words.
>
> Students were severely marked down for looking at their written 'oral'.
>
> Regarding the student that I was supporting with the 'oral', I had
discussed
> the idea of her not writing hers down as she had practised (outside class
> with me) only relying on her oral memory and performance devices. The
> teacher said she would have to write 'it' down or she would fail. I asked
> why and he said it was for marking purposes.
>
> Once she did this her oral delivery in practice became stilted and 'read'.
> She delivered it word for word as on her written 'version' by memory (she
is
> autistic and has a photographic memory).
>
> On performance day a few others went before her and I noticed that in the
> marking process the teacher was marking them down severely for relying on
> their written script. Just before the student I had been supporting went
> 'on', I took her copy from her and told her to "Do it from your head".
She
> became very nervous but delivered it and got top marks for not referring
to
> her written piece. The funny thing was that it was an exact version of
what
> she had written down and absolutely nothing like the great oral
performance
> she had given in practice before the writing of 'it' was imposed upon her.
>
> Regarding the teacher's comment about the written version being 'for
marking
> purposes', I think that this relates to the need to provide accountability
> for the Head of Department. Of course you couldn't rely on a teacher's
own
> judgment of an oral performance that can't be seen later by others! Maybe
> video could overcome this need for a written text in a 'supposedly' oral
> task. I guess I'll die wondering!
>
> Kim Cooney
>
> KimCooney@bigpond.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Phil Graham [mailto:p.graham@qut.edu.au]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2000 11:15 PM
> To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> Subject: Re: Non-western science
>
> Thanks for the references Hannu.
>
> China invented the first mechanical computers too, I think.
>
> It's probably also worth noting that ancient Greece was where oral
> technologies and the written word first joined forces in full. A lot of
> people don't usually consider orality as a technology - I don't mean
casual
> converstaion, but the handing down of sacred knowledge by means of verse,
> meter, music, rhyme, etc. By splitting orality from particular people in
> orally oriented writing, thought was alienated, became an alien "thing"
> that was written down. Thoth and the dragon's teeth.
>
> I think the point at which the oral tradition of Greece mingled with the
> methods of writing developed by the ancient Persians (the Greeks stuck a
> few vowels in to adapt the consonantal script to their oral tradition) is
> the point at which thought and knowledge became seriously alienated. This
> is what marks Greece as significant to me. I think it's why it has
remained
> such a vivid force in the "West", wherever that is. I wonder why a
> flat-earth concept (viz, the east-west divide) should remain so much a
part
> of our "enlightened" consciousness.
>
> Phil
>
> Phil Graham
> p.graham@qut.edu.au
> http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palms/8314/index.html



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