Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Writing instruction

From a New York Times article about different approaches to teaching writing:

Three-quarters of both 12th and 8th graders lack proficiency in writing, according to the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress. And 40 percent of those who took the ACT writing exam in the high school class of 2016 lacked the reading and writing skills necessary to successfully complete a college-level English composition class, according to the company’s data.
One of the approaches described in this article, Judith Hochman’s, was the subject of a 2012 Atlantic article.

I used to ask students in writing classes: What does it mean to go through twelve or more years of schooling and not be able to recognize a sentence in your language — or a noun, or a verb? More than a little crazy. You can guess where my sympathies lie.

Two related posts
On “On the New Literacy”
W(h)ither grammar?

comments: 0