Good afternoon to all...  I suppose I'm more interested in the frame of these questions than the answers, which would probably be reiterations of categorical positions published ad nauseum.
So, what went wrong in number 6 that someone, after climbing these scaffolds of language acquisition and usage to points of complexity, finally needed a helping hand? No direct instruction suddenly until then? Seems to me the learning enough for 6 is done directly via 1 through 5.
 
I'll respectfully argue two points only, from here in the (gasp!) High School English class, 11th grade:
 
4) a. Successful student readers read consistently at a variety of levels (scholarly texts and otherwise, big L and little l). They are instructed directly by those texts, if by nothing else. Let's explore and expand what "direct" instruction really means. Beyond that, each class discussion we have builds comprehension beyond a given text and toward the next one read. Is the community of practice not an active agent of direct instruction? Ask Vigotsky.
    b. Successful student readers do bring intuitive strategies to a text; none, however, acquire and build a metalanguage about those strategies (or those we as teachers make available) on their own. They're able to read and comprehend complex texts because they've made the conscious effort or have been taught how to.
 
5) a) The least successful student writers don't read much, nor do they purpose of their own volition to write much. What would be assessed as "effective writing" for them?
    b) Just let them write... If this is true, I suppose we can eliminate all the college courses titled "Writing Effective Prose," "Comp 101," etc., since students will safely get to senior year one way or another... Let Elbow and Hillocks read and grade their papers when they get there.
  c) I teach essential grammar skills in a secondary language arts "lit" class, and I've seen and measured, formatively and authentically, how those skills help improve my students' reading and writing over time. I guess that's about as directly as I can put it.
 
 
Sincerely,
 
John
 
 
 
1) Acquiring a language is easy for a native speaker. It happens naturally, without direct instruction.
2) Achieving high levels of literacy is hard, but for the most part it happens without direct instruction.
3) Acquiring the language of Standard English is hard, but for the most part it happens without direct instruction.
4) Learning to read complex texts is hard, but for the most part it happens without direct instruction.
5) Learning to write effectively is hard, but for the most part it  happens without direct instruction.
6) Learning about language is hard. It does not happen without direct instruction.

 
> Craig
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John Chorazy
English III Academy, Honors, and Academic
Pequannock Township High School

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