cw@vaxwaller.UUCP (Carl Weidling) (08/30/84)
I have an idea for a way to teach kids to write and think that I would like to propose. Divide a class into two groups and have each group experience something that it must write about. The experience could be one of a wide variety of things, see a program, be given a demonstration, take a field trip, etc, but the two halves of the class do different things. Then each member writes up a description which is read by a counter- part in the other half of the class. And the counterpart reads and critiques what was written. This would give everybody a chance to write and read and see the problems of communication on both sides. It might also take some of the load off of the teacher! I'm sure you net readers are sick of suggestions involving computers, but the kids could enter their descriptions at terminals and read and correct at terminals. This could preserve anonymity, which might be a good thing, and preserve eyesight if some of the kids have handwriting as bad as mine, and also might provide useful editing features for indicating where corrections could be made, running differences on different drafts etc. Anybody know of any schools using something like this? Anybody have any remarks on how good or bad the idea is? or how it could be improved? This idea evolved from having read an article in Scientific American a long time ago about someone doing research in how children learn to use language. The researcher had the kids facing each other, if I remember correctly, one had a picture and tried to describe it to the other. This researcher was measuring the ability, but it occurred to me something like that could be use to develope the ability. Recently a colleague mentioned that she had learned to write at a Catholic High School because the teachers didn't mind taking the time to grade essay tests, whereas underpaid normal teachers did mind spending a lot of their own time grading and so tended to use multiple choice tests. Her remark prompted this posting. Regards, Carl Weidling
hawk@oliven.UUCP (Rick) (09/06/84)
Fr. McFadden taught the Freshman English I A.P. class at Bellarmine College Preparatory. By the time we passed the class, we were all literate. Four years later, I took Critical Composition I Honors at Santa Clara University, where the standard practice was to write in class one day and edit one anothers' papers the next day. Fifty to seventy-five percent of what I edited that quarter and the following quarter would have received a big green "F" from Fr. McFadden. A teacher who cares and exacts high standards makes an immense difference. -- rick (Rick Hawkins @ Olivetti ATC) [hplabs|zehntel|fortune|ios|tolerant|allegra|tymix]!oliveb!oliven!hawk