Re: mock linguistic play

Phillip Allen White (pwhite who-is-at carbon.cudenver.edu)
Tue, 12 Dec 1995 15:12:15 -0700 (MST)

On Tue, 12 Dec 1995, Gordon Wells wrote:

> Point taken. But why is it, I wonder, that the "teaching" approach to
> joint bookreading spills over into the parent-child interactions rather
> than the "parenting" approach spilling over into the classroom?
>
> Gordon

Gordon, is it possible that the parents adopt the "teaching"
approach because of an understanding that _reading_ for children is an
activity that is taught and learned and practiced at school, rather than
an activity that is practiced at home.

I doubt that teachers would adopt the "parenting" approach
because of the goals for teaching reading in school, which is to use
reading in order to demonstrate to teachers - usually through writing -
what has been learned. It is highly circular - teachers teach reading
to children so that children can learn through reading what the teachers
want to teach - just as teachers teach writing to children so that
children can write what they learned from what they read so that they
could learn what it was that the teacher wanted them to read to learn.

Practically every parent I have had a conference with who was
worried about the progress their child was making in reading, was
primarily worried that if their child wasn't a successful reader that
then they would not be able to learn in the 'upper grades' - obviously
the cultural assumption of many parents is that one learns to read in
order to learn.

Does this make any sense?

Phillip

Phillip White
pwhite who-is-at carbon.cudenver.edu