1/29/2024 0 Comments Linguist blogsI didn’t think about this at the time, but as I was designing Liberty’s English curriculum for 7 th grade, I did not want to reinforce these misguided ideas about what language is, what English class is. Nothing creative or artistic is required to write a paper like this, but if you can do it without making a bunch of grammar or punctuation errors, you will probably get an okay grade or pass the standardized test. Teachers, and the all-important standardized tests, try to convince students that writing a good academic essay means following a strict formula ending with five boring, predictable paragraphs. The same is true when it comes to writing. Some students, like Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, actually have to pretend they don’t already know how to read so that their first-grade teacher can “teach” them. They begin by teaching reading, not always in the most sensible way. We are all artists when it comes to speaking, reading, or writing in our native language, but schools, especially the earlier grades, tend to treat students like dummies who don’t know anything when they enter the classroom. Reading this blog post by Nelson Flores a few days ago, I found myself agreeing very much with what he was saying. (I also think that they should actually teach grammar formally, but that’s a different topic.) If they would level up the challenge, give us something to think about, to be interested in, I think a lot more kids would feel that ELA is not in fact a useless waste of time. I wish that “real” schools would do the same. I think that we have achieved a good blend of traditional writing skills and techniques and creative exploration. Aside from that, I have also worked on a few essays– some of them about books we’ve read –and creative pieces. I read a book section by section, write a summary for every few chapters, answer some questions that relate to the book, and come up with a topic to discuss when we meet via Zoom. Each week, she asks me to complete a Reading Journal. My grandmother has been my English teacher. This past year, I have been homeschooled. We worked on one big project all year long, a book or poem or song, and we did a lot of free-writes and practiced coming up with creative stories. It was actually what I would expect an ELA class should be like. In 6th grade, I took a creative writing course. It seems as though it– like many other parts of the education system still are –was developed back in the 1950s when all you needed to be able to do was follow rules and work in a factory. Honestly, I’m not sure what it was meant to teach us. It was just “do the work just so” and “use this formula or you will get a bad grade.” I have always liked writing and reading. There never was any creative freedom in ELA class. A good thing to know how to do, perhaps, but it consisted mostly of kindergarten-level worksheets. We were taught a few basic formulas for persuasive essays, narratives, and informative pieces, and we were made to read books and “analyze” them chapter by chapter. When I went to a “real” school, ELA– the acronym for English Language Arts –was always unfortunately one of the least looked forward to classes. ![]() Reflection on “How About We Actually Bring the Art of Language into Language Arts?” Together they powerfully show the damaging effects of traditional approaches to language arts and point to alternatives that truly embrace the art of language. ![]() I was so moved by the responses that I asked both of them if they would allow me to share their responses on my blog. I was so honored when Rebecca emailed me to share some free writing that she had done with her granddaughter in response to the post. It was my first opportunity to think about the art of language that would eventually inspire my recent blog post on calling for the bringing of the art of language into language arts. Rebecca Mlynarczyk that introduced to the world of composition and rhetoric and its longstanding political commitment to make college classrooms inclusive of the literacy practices of all students. When I was in graduate school I had the great fortune to take a course with Dr.
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