How stupid are these people who are supposed to be educating children?

The Atlantic Magazine web site is down.

Found another way, a PDF format of the Atlantic article,  on the Sopris Learning site.

http://www.soprislearning.com/cs/Satellite/Teaching_Basic_Writing_Skills_Overview?cmsid=Sopris

Found two other articles, on writing -

“Why American Students Can’t Write: Responding to the Atlantic”

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/why-american-students-cant-write-responding-atlantic#ixzz28WjZWMke
Inside Higher Ed

“Oh, how we groaned when it was time to drag out the grammar text. Our copies had the sturdy canvass covers, passed from year to year, the student names trailing down the inside front. Every so often I’d get the actual book used by my older brother. Usually Mrs. Thompson ignored our moans, but if they were loud enough, she’d glare over her shoulder, even as she was drawing the basic form for subject and predicate on the blackboard with a straight, even hand.
Mrs. Thompson did not lecture, she guided. We would look at the sentences in the book and she would wait at the board, chalk poised over the surface, for us to tell her what kind of line to draw and where to fill out the diagram. If we were wrong, she would say so and then ask us why, encouraging us to (demanding that we) figure it out for ourselves instead of filling in the right answer.”

The above description brought up memories of the daily grammar lessons from grade 3 to grade 8. Sometimes, the 15 minutes felt like a hour, but even today, the lessons learned so long ago, makes me think twice of starting a sentence off with a ‘but’ or ‘and’. No-no in my day, and still is in most academic writing circles.

From a teacher - “How to Teach Grammar,
Analytical Thinking, and
Writing: A Method That Works”

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=23&cad=rja&ved=0CC4QFjACOBQ&url=http://94.23.146.173/ficheros/b3cf6df92d0c0082d6585ab1eefee846.pdf&ei=5jlwUL2pD9KEygHK6IC4Dw&usg=AFQjCNFamUNzjU-U8wR4y4-hsIoQtc9d7Q&sig2=CqKnTL_Om7zbu8HDx0OrPw

Paste the above link in the address bar, and the PDF file will be automatically downloaded.

“Therefore it is important to emphasize again
the point made at the beginning of this article about
the grammar-in-context approach. It is fundamentally flawed. It treats grammar as an isolated set of rules, thereby considering the written product under review as the only relevant context for grammar instruction. It completely ignores the context from which the rules derive, the language system itself. Quite simply, students have no background knowledge about grammar, no vocabulary, no concepts, no context, no means for understanding teachers’ explanations of rules or their application. Thus, someone who attempts to teach grammar in context, is, in effect, attempting to teach grammar in a vacuum.”

“LONGMONT, Colo., Oct. 2, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/—Sopris Learning, a provider of research-based assessments, supplemental and intervention materials, positive behavior supports, and professional development offerings, is pleased to share that author Judith Hochman and her program, Teaching Basic Writing Skills, have been recognized in the October 2012 volume of The Atlantic, an award-winning publication that focuses on current affairs and cultural trends.”
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sopris-learning-author-judith-hochman-and-teaching-basic-writing-skills-an-expository-writing-solution-recognized-in-the-atlantic-magazine-2012-10-02

I wonder when the stakeholders within the education system, will used their political clout to end the writing revolution of bringing back the basic fundamentals in writing,

In addition to the fine examination of the pedagogy of effective writing techniques/methodologies, I followed another link on the Atlantic website entitled The School Master http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/10/the-schoolmaster/309091/1/

This Altantic article is quite relevant to the problems of defining the standards.  Article focuses on David Coleman who II would characterize as having an “American Patrician” background.  Noble and idealistic in his objectives, his background is largely disconnected from the visceral reality of the classroom. This is the classic, I know what is best for you ...and ultimately he may be right. Coleman reflects a shift to principled thinking uncoupled to a degree from practical necessity.  He has grown up in a very cocooned, rigorous, academic home, school and work environment. Soon Mr. Coleman shall take up the position of the Chairman of the SAT board. As head of the SAT board, he will wield enormous influence on the curriculum of America.  In a time, where new foundations of meaning must be established, perhaps this is a good thing. America was founded on strong, classical principles. Perhaps Coleman will lead America back to the Future.

“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” - one of the many classic poems taught at the semi-rural Ontario school of the 1960s. The teacher would asked questions in the same way as Coleman has described in the article - ““Kids don’t wonder about these things,” Coleman told his audience, a collection of 300 public-school English teachers and administrators. “It is you as teachers who have this obligation” to ask students “to read like a detective and write like an investigative reporter.”

” Kids were encouraged to discuss whether they agreed or disagreed with Martin Luther King Jr.’s ideology of non­violence as articulated in his letter from Birmingham jail, but they were rarely asked to identify a particular argument King made or evidence he marshaled to support it.”

That is exactly what is happening in my child’s senior English class. Being asked to opined, rather than the content.

Far cry, from the grade 11 English class, where the teacher went off script, and taught the students how to write, forming their arguments from the content, based on students’ background knowledge. Every student’s in my child’s grade 11 English class, improve their writing, and for my child it was a 150 % improvement. Every student, eagerly came into English class, because they were learning to break down the literary content, and what evidence that the author used to support his or her stance. Bonus, students writing improve, and it certainly showed outside of the English class.
The grade 11 teacher, was transferred because she went off script, and in her replacement, the grade 12 students are not a happy lot, and have been calling English class, the history class. The mildest remark being made, and most of the harshest remarks are reserved for the English teacher. Much deserve, and I am eagerly awaiting for the phone call, but I am not holding my breathe on that one.

How I wish the Canadian public education systems, would be as advanced in their thoughts, as one David Coleman is when it comes to education policies in English curriculum. Meanwhile, in my child’s grade 12 English class, the students at every opportunity points out to the new English teacher, the faults and weaknesses of current instructional practices that are now at play in the English classroom.

At the moment, it is a standstill where students are no longer doing their homework, since it is no longer a part of the final grade in English, but more importantly, the written homework assignments, the students will not see the mistakes in their writing and have helpful suggestions of how to improve their writing. As the students say, what is the point of doing homework in English, when the students’ writing is not being read by the teacher, and putting red circles around the mistakes or remarks - not a thesis statement or a run-off sentence.

The saddest part, the grade 12 students at the local high school, are well aware of students that went onto post-secondary, and the vast majority are not doing so well in essays and other assignments that requires ‘academic writing’  structures. At the end of the article - “The gap was partly due to the different types of writing valued by high schools and colleges: while high-school teachers rewarded students for the organization and wording of their essays, college professors placed greater value on strong thesis statements backed by evidence from the curriculum. This mismatch of expectations helps explain why 20 percent of incoming freshmen at four-year colleges, and about half at community colleges, are assigned to non-credit-bearing remedial courses.” It applies to Canada as well, but I suspect it is much higher than the 20 percent and 50 percent at universities and colleges respectively. Another set of stats that are kept hidden from the public, and highly doubtful if this set is kept track from one year to the next, across Canada.

Imagine that, in the early 1970s, university professors was worried about the writing quality of students. Tests were issued for all students entering first year university, and first year students entering college. If one scored below a 80, one went to a six week remedial course in English. For students scoring below a 70 at the college level, one had to take the additional English remedial course. From what I could remember, the local Ontario school board and the other stakeholders were not paying attention to what the post-secondary professors and instructors were saying about the students’ writing quality and skills in writing. In 2012,  students’ writing skills are no longer the quality that students processed in the 1970s.