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RE: Active versus passive (WAS Displays versus Appears-Which One? )
Subject:RE: Active versus passive (WAS Displays versus Appears-Which One? ) From:Dan Hall <Dan -at- cooper -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 21 Dec 2000 15:05:32 -0800
Kathi mentioned that her daughter didn't know what constituted a paragraph.
This reminds me of when I was teaching 4th grade. At the beginning of my
first year, I asked incoming students a number of questions that were
intended to gauge their understanding of the grammar and structure of
English. When I asked if they knew what made a paragraph, the reply was
shocking: You can tell if something's a paragraph because it's indented!
They hadn't the vaguest idea _why_ paragraphs were indented, or why a
certain group of five sentences made a paragraph, while another five did
not.
I shook my head and spent a week or so explaining the concepts of paragraph,
topic sentences, etc. Then I doggedly spent the rest of the year working on
parts of speech, compound sentences, dialog, and so forth. By years end, the
class was right about where they should have been in September.
Unfortunately, after five years of teaching, and despite class-size
reduction and other "reform" measures here in California, the skills of
incoming 4th graders were trending downward. Every group seemed to have
fewer skills than the one before, and I decided to change professions.
All that to say: if you're a parent, don't assume your child is getting
instruction in the "basics." Ask questions of your child and their teacher.
Ask what you can do at home to help. The good ones don't mind these
questions - it shows you're concerned, and their glad for the help.
<Obligatory TW tie-in>
And if you're hiring a new tech writer, don't assume anything about their
skills. :)
</Obligatory TW tie-in>
Dan
dan -at- cooper -dot- com
All opinions in this e-mail are solely mine, and
Cooper Interaction Design disavows all knowledge
of and responsibility for them.
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