Blog #2

Reflect on the writing instruction you have received.
   This is a really hard question for me to answer, because I don't remember much about learning how to write. Overall, the memories are do have are traditionalist in nature. My earliest memories come from 5th grade where I had to copy definitions. I remember the word "bust." I hated copying that definition. It had like three and was really long. I did learn the meaning of the word. However, I think I have said the word maybe once in my lifetime. One instructor used the traditional writing methods of drill and practice with worksheets showing us where to punctuate when we had a series of three things, or how to change the verb tense. I don't feel like this was bad, because as I help my own students punctuate their sentences the image of this process pops in my head. Therefore, it must have worked for me. There were other times when the teacher either skipped skills or assumed I had acquired them, because I don't remember being taught how to combine clauses. It wasn't until college when I had a teacher traditionally instruct me on how to fix a run on sentence or a fragment.
   In about seventh grade, I did have one teacher who made me keep a writer's journal, and I could write whatever I wanted in it. I wrote poems, drew pictures, complained, etc. She would read it and comment on the content, but she would not correct my grammar. She was the first teacher I had that was more of the process writing framework. I could guess that as I got older, the release of responsibility and movement from traditional to acquired probably grew. However, I don't remember well enough to say that for certain.