Before reading this article, I wondered if was going to give me some eye-opening information that would make me say, “OH WOW!” The article did not disappoint me. My first pre-thought was how writing stacked up against science and math. When I listen to the media and how it seems to promote math and sciences as compared to reading and writing, I see that math and science appear to rank number one. Even when someone asks you your profession, math and science category seems to get a louder WOW than the English teacher profession. To my surprise, Applebee and Langer confirm that I was somewhat right. On page 24, Kathleen Kennedy Manzo writes, “. . . although there is a rush to bolster math and science, there is reason for concern that reading and writing . . . will be left out of the mix. . . the analyses of NAEP data reported here suggest that writing may already be dropping from attention.”
For my second thought, I wondered that if this article would reveal that there may be a serious problem in in the teaching of writing and what it would suggest that English educators do to resolve the problem. The answer to this question does not surprise me. The NAEP results indicate that teachers across the nation should “enter into professional discussions about the writing skills and knowledge students will need to do well at school, in higher education, and on the job” (27).
My third and final thought was on professional development. I wanted to know how professional development helped teachers become more focused on fulfilling the core standards and supporting their student’s writing. I did not get the exact answer that I was looking for. However, I did get a partial answer. On page 25, the data findings are . . .”teachers of English language arts are by and large aware of the potential usefulness of standards and respond positively to professional development experiences that help them support their students’ reading and writing processes.”
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