Entry #2--How I learned to write and what my experiences were

I remember as a child being asked questions over and over by my parents for clarity. I think that this helped my use of language. My mother recalls that people always used to tell her I talked like a little lady. My vocabulary was more complex than others of my age group (so they thought). I thought that it was because I was surrounded by adults. I think that having a very talkative home helped me learn more about language. However, after my readings I learned that my knowledge of learning to talk was innate.


As I was reading Essential Linguistics it was interesting to find out that the behaviorist theory of learning language by positive reinforcement had so much oppositional research. However, after reading the opposition's point of view it made much more sense to me. The studies showed that no matter what type of household a child comes from, that language development is consistent across all children.

My experience learning to write in school is hard to recall. I do not remember any formal writing instruction like I currently teach my students. I do recall making a lot of what I call "blank books" (white paper folded in half and stapled). The teacher used to let us make the books if we had finished our work or during free time. This was a time to let my imagination run wild. Not only did I get to write the book, but I also drew illustrations to go along with them. I did not have to worry about sentences or grammar. The books were mine and not graded. The teacher did let us share them, but she never criticized them.

One thing that does stick out in my mind about my elementary school years was writing to prompts. There would be a question on the board, or a story starter and we were then required to write about it. I would say that I identify with the "empty vessel" teaching style. The teacher would tell us what to do and then expect a good product. She would walk around the classroom and point out what students were doing wrong, but never really modeled what she expected of us. I remember taking standardized tests that asked us to perform the same kind of writing without any really instruction. So it makes me wonder if the teacher was teaching to the test, and preparing us for the lack of instruction and the testing setting.

In other subjects like science and social studies, writing was much more fun. The teacher would model what she expected from us. We would have science notebooks and be able to work in groups to come up with notebook entries. We would do a kind of report out or pair and share. The teacher would model the notes that we should be taking and what she expected us to have in our notebooks. In the text Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning I identified with; students reporting out on other students and student teacher talk. These strategies were used a lot during science and social studies.