My seven year old is wise as a seventy year old sage. I asked her how school was going. She jumped back, "The teacher is teaching us about nature, and we haven't even gone outside." I didn't have a response. My daughters attend a school in which the students attain high standardized scores yet the day to day learning is rote and dull. I am bored by the work they bring home. Would anyone want to do the same form of vocabulary work week after week? As a teacher I know why it is assigned, it is easy to grade. One of my peers had the same concern about his child's school which is otherwise held in high esteem by the community. He found his son had a pre-test on famous Americans and the actual test was identical. The questions asked the students to feed back from memory. Why can't children relate, explore and evaluate? My daughter can spit back who is Susan B Anthony, but why not consider if Ms. Anthony would be a hero today? What qualities do MLK Jr and your teacher have in common? Would you be friends with Ruby Bridges today?
In considering ELLs, if we are teaching about writing, why aren't they writing? When was the last time you read an article and thought, 'Well that had great organization. What strong topic sentences." While these are effective writing tools of a few genres, they are not why the reader keeps reading.
I don't want my daughter to say who was famous. I want her to understand the context and relevance of events as they relate to her life. I want my ELL's to write to communicate their opinions, ideas and perspectives.
