Sei's Reflection to Graves Ch. 3
In chapter 3, Graves places the emphasis on the importance of allowing children to choose their own topics. According to Graves, “writers who learn to choose topics well make the most significant growth both information and skills at the point of best topic. With the best topic the child exercises strongest control, establishes ownerships, and with ownership, pride in the piece”. This is to say that children write best and learn best when they are allowed to choose their own topics. Actually, they can learn best and write best when they are taught the proper procedures of choosing the best topic.
I can definitely relate to this chapter. There have been times in the past when I had been given an assignment to write about that not only didn’t interest me, but I knew nothing about. I found myself not doing as well on these types of assignments in comparison to those that I had been given the freedom to choose what to write about or what to research. You see, it was odd for me to do poorly on writing assignments because English is the subject that I excel in. Keeping my old experiences in mind while looking at the researched facts, I will try not to make the same mistakes that my teachers have made in the past. The secret to the successful teaching of writing is being given to me by Donald Graves and I’d be an idiot not to take advantage of that opportunity.
With every positive outcome, there is a catch. This is to say that all good things come with a price. Graves goes on to say that allowing the children to choose their own topics will automatically give the teacher a bigger workload. Yes, we, as teachers, may have more work to take home or more to read, but that shouldn’t be the focus of our attention. If we were good teachers, we wouldn’t care about the extra reading or time that we would have to put into our grading as long as our students are learning to the best of their abilities. It is our role, as teachers, to provide students with the utmost mind-stimulating and beneficial education-no matter what the cost is!
I can definitely relate to this chapter. There have been times in the past when I had been given an assignment to write about that not only didn’t interest me, but I knew nothing about. I found myself not doing as well on these types of assignments in comparison to those that I had been given the freedom to choose what to write about or what to research. You see, it was odd for me to do poorly on writing assignments because English is the subject that I excel in. Keeping my old experiences in mind while looking at the researched facts, I will try not to make the same mistakes that my teachers have made in the past. The secret to the successful teaching of writing is being given to me by Donald Graves and I’d be an idiot not to take advantage of that opportunity.
With every positive outcome, there is a catch. This is to say that all good things come with a price. Graves goes on to say that allowing the children to choose their own topics will automatically give the teacher a bigger workload. Yes, we, as teachers, may have more work to take home or more to read, but that shouldn’t be the focus of our attention. If we were good teachers, we wouldn’t care about the extra reading or time that we would have to put into our grading as long as our students are learning to the best of their abilities. It is our role, as teachers, to provide students with the utmost mind-stimulating and beneficial education-no matter what the cost is!
posted by Sei | 2:08 PM
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