Module 17, Session 1 Theoretical Issues, Cultural Propensities, and Practical Concerns

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Module 17, Session 1Theoretical Issues,
Cultural Propensities, and Practical Concerns

• Angela Rickford, Ph.D.
• Associate Professor
• San Jose State University

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6Writing as different from speaking vs
writing as similar to speaking

• Shaking habits learned from oral communication
• Writers construct conversation with an invisible
  interlocutor
• Writing is socially and culturally shaped
• Writing is more complex than speaking
• We must read to children to build their writing
  skills

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Cultural Propensities

• Ethnically diverse students have a preference for
  certain expository patterns in their writing
• Spoken language characteristics of mainstream
  cultures are more compatible with what schools
  value
• Ethnically diverse students prefer contextualized
  vs decontextualized questioning patterns

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Cultural Propensities

• Diverse cultures use intonation not lexicon to
  convey cohesion, which affects writing
• Cultural congruence in literature selections
  motivates writing for ethnically diverse students

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Practical Concerns

• Grammar, spelling, and punctuation exercises are
  emphasized in low-performing schools with
  ethnically diverse students
• Writing is a social, interactive and constructive
  enterprise
• Writing needs an audience

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• Teachers role is as guide, not primary audience
• Graphic organizers teach vocabulary and concepts
  of structure.
• The more writing a person does, the better a
  writer he/she becomes

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Practical Concerns

• Teachers should avoid the red pen in writing
  conferences.
• The teachers aim is to build a students
  executive control and a set of internal criteria
  for discourse schemata.

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Four Principles of Critical Literacy

• Rhetorical techniques that support critical
  literacy can be taught at any state of literacy
  development
• Although students vary, the potential for growth
  is remarkably constant for students from varying
  backgrounds.

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Four Principles

• The key to development of intellectual potential
  is the acquisition of effective organizational
  strategies.
• Literacy requires reading, writing and an
  understanding of how language operates for
  thinking and communicating.