Pages 43-53

There are multiple ways to approach writing and how one teaches it. Many will teach in a way that is most comfortable not what is best for his/ her students. There are several different ways to teach writing, whether or not a teacher teaches through a method that is most effective is up to them. However I feel as if one most definitely should experiment on what methods for teaching writing work best in a classroom. For example the two approaches to writing: Bottom up and top down approaches. Analyze the two and tell which one you believe to be most effective and why?

I know we have briefly discussed the meaning of the two in a previous class, but I want to go more in depth. In my personal opinion, I feel both can be effective depending on the age group being taught. Younger students who are just beginning to read do not have the skills to take apart an entire essay and work their way down. However, if you are dealing with secondary students this may perhaps be a better approach. Current-Traditional rhetoric focuses on the bottom-up approach for teaching. This is when the instruction moves from small units to larger units. Comparing it to top down, again I believe bottom up works best for elementary students who are just beginning to read. They need to start at the beginning by learning words first. Then they are able to move on to connecting those words into sentences and sentences into paragraphs. They cannot take a paragraph and understand its true meaning without learning the meaning of words first. I am not saying one approach is better than the other, in fact I believe both are successful in different ways. Once a student learns the basics through bottom up they can then turn it around and use the top down approach.

It also depends on what you want your students to learn. Say you are teaching high school students and want them to determine structure, voice, length, standards of proof, and ways of knowing. With this you should use top down approach in which you start with the whole essay. This is in contrast to the bottom up approach.

I feel if I were an elementary student and was given an entire essay, I might run away and cry. I wouldn’t know what to do with it, especially if I was a beginner reader. Once I know how to read it won’t be as scary and I can then attempt to work backwards starting with the whole essay.

Reading and Writing

By allowing children/ students to "decode" words, has been found to be essential for teaching children how to read and learn how to comprehend what they read. How does teaching children the sounds of English (vowels, consonants, consonant blends, etc.) benefit them when they start to read on their own?

This allows children to develop skills that will help them to identify the meanings of words, especially when seeing a word for the first time. Having the ability to sound out words will help them, perhaps, recognize a word they already know but have never seen it in written form. Students with the skill of "decoding" will benefit. This not only teaches them to read but enables a child to read on their own without the help of an adult.

Even to this day when I come across an unfamiliar word on paper, I will sound it out. Most of the time I will either recognize the word or figure out the meaning to the new word I have just found. I know for myself, if I did not have the skills to determine how to say a word by sounding it out, I would not be as good of a reader as I am today. By allowing students to figure out meanings on their own, I believe also gives them independence. Every time you read something, there will not always be someone there to guide you through the unknown word/s.

I can recall in the past when I was with a child and they wanted to read a book to me, they would use these same "decoding" skills. They were able to figure out how to say the word without my help. However if they were still a little uncertain I would help them. Therefore they learn from their mistakes and will recognize the word next time they see it.