Sei's Reflection on Graves (Preface-p. 10)
After reading the preface and chapter one of Donald Graves’ book, WRITING: Teachers & Children At Work, it seems that this book will provide great information to future educators. It may give beneficial information, not only to teaching writing, but also about children and being an overall “good teacher”. To be quite honest, I find this book pretty interesting and easy to read, which is really contrary from my initial assumptions of it being a bore to read.
I was really taken back when Graves wrote that to teach writing, teachers must be writers themselves. This is very true and makes perfectly logical sense in my opinion. How can an individual possibly successfully and effectively teach a “craft” that one has not mastered himself/herself?
Yes, it’s a craft- both teaching and writing. As Graves points out, a craft is something of a process that leads towards a final product. Both writing and teaching are crafts that require practice, motivation, continual self-improvement, and so on and so forth. Basically, by reading something like this, I’d assume that educators could only be successful in teaching the craft of writing, if they, themselves, have learned to control their writing and have mastered their craft. How do we do that? The answer is simple- we keep writing, whether it’s for professional reasons or personal reasons.
Another point that Graves makes is that children like to write and oftentimes, can write to exceed the commonly mediocre expectations of many teachers. We shouldn’t “take the control away from children and place unnecessary road blocks in the way of their intentions”. Children want to write and can write, but sometimes we may overly guide them and try to mold them to our expectations too much. In those cases, they’re in some sort of a trap. They are put into a position where they’re not able to showcase their talents and we just assume that it’s because of their lack of ability. As an educator, it’s important to find a balance between giving them control of their own writing and guiding them into the right direction.
It’s critical to keep the writer in mind and then the writing. Although allowing the children to choose their own topics, may lead them to write about cartoons or Nintendo Games, it’s important to work on the level of writing that they’re at. They’d be able to best display their writing abilities when they write about something they know best and are interested in. Providing them with the topics isn’t the answer. A good educator of writing can successfully help improve their students writing even if it’s through revising drafts and drafts of a paper on Power Rangers or Sponge Bob Squarepants.
I was really taken back when Graves wrote that to teach writing, teachers must be writers themselves. This is very true and makes perfectly logical sense in my opinion. How can an individual possibly successfully and effectively teach a “craft” that one has not mastered himself/herself?
Yes, it’s a craft- both teaching and writing. As Graves points out, a craft is something of a process that leads towards a final product. Both writing and teaching are crafts that require practice, motivation, continual self-improvement, and so on and so forth. Basically, by reading something like this, I’d assume that educators could only be successful in teaching the craft of writing, if they, themselves, have learned to control their writing and have mastered their craft. How do we do that? The answer is simple- we keep writing, whether it’s for professional reasons or personal reasons.
Another point that Graves makes is that children like to write and oftentimes, can write to exceed the commonly mediocre expectations of many teachers. We shouldn’t “take the control away from children and place unnecessary road blocks in the way of their intentions”. Children want to write and can write, but sometimes we may overly guide them and try to mold them to our expectations too much. In those cases, they’re in some sort of a trap. They are put into a position where they’re not able to showcase their talents and we just assume that it’s because of their lack of ability. As an educator, it’s important to find a balance between giving them control of their own writing and guiding them into the right direction.
It’s critical to keep the writer in mind and then the writing. Although allowing the children to choose their own topics, may lead them to write about cartoons or Nintendo Games, it’s important to work on the level of writing that they’re at. They’d be able to best display their writing abilities when they write about something they know best and are interested in. Providing them with the topics isn’t the answer. A good educator of writing can successfully help improve their students writing even if it’s through revising drafts and drafts of a paper on Power Rangers or Sponge Bob Squarepants.
posted by Sei | 2:07 AM
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