At 6/27/00, you wrote:
>Dear Susan Witt,
>
>In your posting below, you seem to take the
>view that it is a relatively simple procedure to explain, one that can be
>taken care of incidentally.

After I sent it, I thought maybe it was a bit rude, and I think I should
apologize for it.  I think sometimes I get tired of hearing people
complaining about what kids don't know when they come to us -- I generally
take the attitude that you take what you get and deal with it.  However, it
was wrong of me to imply that anyone should be able to explain it easily.

I had this one job interview, and they kept asking me "whose fault" it is
that we get "at risk" kids.  They wanted to hear me say that it was the
fault of the parents, that they shouldn't feel responsible for the
problems.  I was pretty disgusted by the end of the interview.  Placing
blame is a wonderful way of not dealing with the problems.

There is a lot to be said for coming up with a general curriculum that
builds up on prior knowledge, but sometimes we spend too much energy
blaming those who come before us and not enough in figuring out how to
teach the things we think the kids should know.

When the kids have trouble understanding something, it might be because the
kids aren't smart enough to get it, or it might be that I need to keep
trying to find another way to explain it.  If the kids are really ready to
understand something, they will generally pick it up pretty easily.  If
they don't, then I can't honestly say that the teacher before me didn't
teach them what she should have.

A good example of this is when I worked with my Freshmen on understanding
inferences, or "reading between the lines," as I called it.  With a bit of
guidance these kids picked up the idea pretty easily, and they were clearly
more than ready to learn it.  However, when we began, they didn't have a
clue.  I can tell that the teachers those particular kids had prior to
being in my class, have focused mainly on fact based questions and little
to nothing on inferencing.

On the other hand, many of them have gone over traditional grammar
exercises, and not gotten anything out of it.  It is not that their
teachers have not tried to teach them, it is simply that their teachers
have not found effective ways of teaching them.  Most of them are really
sick of grammar exercises, and have had too much of something they are
simply not learning from.

At some point in time, I would like to do some doctoral level research on
some of the strategies I was playing with, but will need to find the right
college, the right advisors, and enough financial support to be able to
focus on it more intently.  At this point in time, it seems that grammar is
not a hot topic for getting financial support, and those that are
interested in it are not interested in the aspects of it I want to follow
through on.  Or else, I don't know where to look.


Susan Mari Witt



240 ERML, MC-051
1201 W. Gregory
Urbana, IL  61801

Phone:  (217) 333-1965
Fax:      (217) 333-4777

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