Plus, really, we don't have the time to waste on not being respectful. Lamott says, "And I don't think you have that kind of time either. I don't think you have time to waste not writing because you are afraid you won't be good enough at it, and I don't think you have time to waste on someone who does not respond to you with kindness and respect" (170). Routman, again absolutely supports this by demonstrating "teacher talk" that invariably is focused on supporting the writer by assisting them communicate their message and in not wasting time or disrespecting a student's capabilities by doing editing that they are capable of themselves. Fox, as well, emphasizes that the most plausible way to help any student advance their literacy skills is to teach letter-sound recognition and understanding as well as word identification strategies, that there isn't the time to waste in skipping over these basic structures in literacy and there isn't the time to waste in not respecting each student enough to make sure this learning happens.
Because literacy is meaningful communication, it inherently necessitates respect, with no time to lose.
Hi Emily,
ReplyDeleteGreat point! I think it's so important that teachers recognize that the point of writing is communication. I think one of the reasons that some students become reluctant writers is that they don't feel like they have good ideas. They've gotten so used to having their conventions criticized that they give up entirely. While these things are important, I think sometimes they are over emphasized in place of ideas.
Katie
As I read this I began to wonder what would happen if I replaced the word "respect" with unbias there would be similar results. It is important to respect others and their opinions. But I think teachers are also capable of being leaners as well. Often we let our biases get in the way and we don't learn from some one who has a different view than we have. I wonder if we can really respect some one's thoughts if we let our own thoughts and opnions get in the way. One the outside we can appear to be respecting what they are doing or saying but the moment we leave we can't help but place a tag on them because they have different thoughts than our own.
ReplyDeleteTo be respectful seems to mean to me that we also need to set aside our own thoughts and opinions to get a better look at what a person is saying or writing. Kids can be very honest and creative but it might be easy to look past the quality of the work if we are bias towards it.