Battle between Reading and Writing.

What comes first: Reading or writing?

 In the article “Write First: Putting writing before reading is an effective approach to teaching and learning”, Peter Elbow describes the connection between writing and reading. Actually it is a very difficult task to choose that whether reading is the foundation of writing or writing is of reading? I think reading and writing both goes hand in hand. They both work simultaneously to enhance the learning capabilities of a student.

As Elbow explains in case of first graders, that how they write stories about the pictures they draw, regardless of their weak positioned for reading. They can write all the words they can say. Writing allows them to understand the written language and control letters provides an understanding that they need for reading. Writing before reading gives them the sense of creativity, their own thinking and ideas. It gives them the control and ownership of the topic. In order to provoke their inner ideas and ability of creativity, writing assignments and workshops should be promoted.

However on the other hand, reading plays a vital role in flawless creative writing. If someone does not know how to read, how can he be able to use the words effectively in his writing? In order to achieve flawless writing, one has to read others’ work to see how they have written their master pieces, free of syntax and semantics error.

 It is not necessary that reading puts other people ideas in your mind and changes your point of view. But I think sometimes it gives you more understanding towards your point of view. It broadens your vision and exploration of your understanding towards a certain topic. For instance, if someone likes fiction books and wrote about the characteristics of fiction books. By reading his point of view doesn’t mean that it will change your passion about nonfiction books. But sometimes it gives you a new aspect to see why you choose that particular type? I believe it gives you deep understanding towards your point of view.

Peter Elbow doesn’t agree on this aspect either that writing should come first or reading? As he explains in the article,” I’m not arguing that reading is less important than writing.” I agree with him as well. In some cases students should be asked to write about the topic and their thoughts first before they read it while in some cases, they should read the article first and write their response about it. It helps to promote their ability to counter argue as well.

 

 

English: A Language Or a barrier

In “Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideologies in discourses”, J.P.Gee beautifully focus on the relationship of the words with their meanings. He gave the example of coffee, bachelor and work to show that words don’t have fixed meanings. According to him,” Meaning is something we negotiate and contest over socially……, two people don’t need to share a culture to communicate” (Gee, p13). I agree to him to an extent, but I believe sometimes it becomes obligatory to know the other person’s culture in order to comprehend some conversations. For instance, some words might have different meaning in one’s culture than the others. So in order to communicate, both speakers should agree on the same meanings associated to one word. Here, as we see nowadays, ‘Bad’ don’t have negative meaning associated to it as back in the days. People don’t mind to be called ‘Bad’ among friends. But for some culture, it can be an endpoint for a friendship among friends.

“Languages are always deteriorating over time because uneducated and other deliberating social forces change them. (Gee, pg. 17) “I agree with him. Language is kept on changing, but not only uneducated but some educated people are involved in this change as well. Nowadays we all observe it in all social networking sites like twitter, Facebook and instant messaging; children use codes and abbreviations instead of using the correct language. They believe that Language is just a source of communication among people, if another person can understand what these codes mean and convey our message, we don’t need to write the whole thing. But if we observe this evolution of English language on a big scenario, it becomes very difficult for the non-native speakers to speak and understand the language as the guidelines for the correct language is vanishing somewhere. English is a language that has a specific writing form. If is not followed, it will become obsolete. For the new learners that could be a challenging task.

 As in the article” From outsider to insider: studying academic Discourse communities across the curriculum”, Eleanor Kurtz uncovers,” it is not uncommon for ESOL students to attribute difficulties with academic courses- both current problem and those they anticipate having – to their level of mastery of English (Kurtz, p77). I believe teachers have a big responsibility to make the student feel an insider of academic discourse community by allowing him to share the difficult words and concepts with each other. Sharing not only helps the student to increase the understanding towards a concept but it also bridges the gap between them. Social interaction is very imperative in the development of language skills. This week, I started my field work in a public school where I came along with different ethnicities and languages spoken. I saw the ELL students struggling in conveying their thoughts to their teacher. It was very frustrating for them. But at one point, when teacher told them to share their favorite part over the summer vacation, they used their cultural words to explain the events; they used art to depict their culture. They felt the complete ownership of the topic. Their work was completely different from the work where language was a barrier and hurdle for them. It was pleasant to know new cultural words for the teacher as well. I believe that English should be used as a source of communication but other native languages should also be encouraged among students so they don’t forget their native language which helps them to make a bond and stick to their cultural roots.

Welcome to Iram's Blog

Hello everyone, welcome to my blog. My name is Iram Ali. This is my first semester in the graduate program. I am pursuing my Master’s degree in Childhood Education Mathematics.  I have completed my undergraduate degree in computer sciences. The journey from digits and computations to the world of words is a bit challenging for me but I am optimistic.

I am willing to teach all grades but I would love to teach the younger grades like 1st and 2nd grade as I wish to make a difference in their lives by being a part of their learning experiences. My dream is to make mathematics as their favorite subject. Hopefully I‘ll accomplish it someday.

          Being an educator, it is our responsibility to fulfill the learning requirements and educational needs each student has. From this class, I am hoping to learn various writing strategies that focus on learning styles especially linguistic and the techniques to incorporate writing in Mathematics to make it easier for the students to understand. I am looking forward for a wonderful semester ahead.