Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Who's job is it, really, to teach the basics?

      In class, we were discussing some of the myths that are out there regarding literature. One that we did not talk about in class, but I do feel is worth mentioning is Myth #2. This myth says:
     "Students learn everything about reading and writing
                in elementary school."
I believe this statement could not be any further from the truth. Regardless of whether this statement is supposed to be true, or not, it isn't. In multiple high school English classes I've observed, teachers re-teaching basic ideas, rules and concepts that students should already have ingrained in their brains for life. It's sad, but true. As a teacher I anticipate that it may be very frustrating when you plan to teach students a new kind of writing or other new skill, but you have to put that plan on hold to reteach an earlier skill that students should already have mastered. As future teachers, we could all be faced with this issue. The question remains, will you humble yourself and go back to repair the foundations of your students, or just continue to try and teach on top of unstable "mastered" skills?

1 comment:

  1. This myth frustrated me so much! I know that in elementary school, we definitely learn the basics of how to write. But in high school, we learn to better our writing styles. We write bigger and better papers, read harder and longer books! This is not something we learn in elementary school. I like that you mentioned some teachers have to re-teach what they have already learned. I know a lot of my friends struggle with things such as grammar and spelling. We learn that when we are younger, but tend to forget it.

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