vlbrown-mzydt

Their assignment was to write a "Reading Autobiography" on pp 17, 18 of their composition books — at least 3 paragraphs of 5 sentences each. The assignment included about two dozen prompts in the form of questions to get them started.

 

Students:

"what page do we put this on?"

"how much do we need to write?"

"Do we need to answer all of these questions?"

"Do we have to do paragraphs?"

"Is that 3 paragraphs for each question?!?!"

 

I walked around and around the room, looking, encouraging, answering questions, helping…

Me:

"OK, you're supposed to write this as an essay. Read the suggested questions and use them as a starting point. Try to answer as many as make sense to you. Write in complete sentences. It's OK if you don't have an answer for some of them.

"OK… if you don't want to do paragraphs, then answer at least 15 of the questions in complete sentences. Use complete sentences. Don't just write "no" or "Yes", or "my mother". If you took this home to show your family what you did today they wouldn't be able to understand what you were writing about.

"Like this, 'I learned to read from my uncle who always asked me to try to read the street signs when we were driving in his truck'. No, I just made that up."

 

The ones who really like to read but don't much like to write (or wished they weren't in school on a hot Friday afternoon**) had trouble starting; they'd rather read than write about reading!.

The ones who don't much like to do either reading or writing (or being in school on a hot Friday afternoon) had no idea what to write and didn't want to do the assignment at all.

 

Me:

"OK, so you don't like to read for books for yourself. Why do you need to know how to _read_? What else do you read, other than books? Labels? Text messages? Assignments? Signs? Why is that important?"

 

I understand that Language Arts teachers want to instill a love of literature, but I do which they'd give the students a more generic assignment, i.e. why is literacy important? instead of one that assumes they read for pleasure. So many of the questions — do you have a favorite author What books do you remember from your childhood> Have you read an entire series for yourself?" — just make these kids tune out while others get obsessed over trying to remember "the name of the woman who write 'Wonders'" or "aren't we still in our childhood?" (Seriously, two _dozen_ prompting questions?!)

 

** It got up to 82F in the classroom by the end of the day. There were two small windows, two mediocre fans, and an AC/heating system that hasn't been turned on yet for the school.