organization

Home

Chat

Blogs

Collection

Directory

Home : 2004 : November : 24

organization
By Mary

By sixth grade, they're ready to outline. That's the ultimate organizational piece. It also is a good way to teach paragraphing, because each new Roman numeral (or asterick or bullet, or whatever) is a new paragraph. That's
probably another rant, though.
Step-Up is a program that, I agree, does teach organization, but the stilted results come with a price tag. It is true that in middle elementary school, scores will rise with this program, but they begin to drop precipitiously in middle school, when more sophistication is required. I mean, it's sad when 70 out of 100 kids, given a five paragraph essay

to write, will each write EXACTLY 25 SENTENCES because 5X5=25. Nobody writes 24; nobody writes 26.

The main bummer about Step-Up is its tenacity. It is impossible to shake those artificial transitions and wooden constructions. And I really do mean impossible. The high school teachers are screaming because they think middle school teachers are the ones teaching it. High school teachers! They're still saying "First, next, last" when they're in Senior Seminar!

Look, I'm really not coming down on elementary teachers. I understand that a lot of them are not English majors, and when I taught elementary, I sure as hell was no math major, and my math instruction was my weakest point. But my language arts rocked. Nobody's good at everything. I have the deepest respect for elementary teachers, having come from elementary. I know how hard they work, and the results they achieve are amazing. I just sure would like to see another writing program in place.