blog #5

Re-Visiting Dora (again)  

                While reading the Dora article there were a few things that caught my attention when it came to the teachers teaching methods and how Dora applied what she was being told.  Reading through the lens of the day to day contact, focusing on what the learning steps were for Dora and better understanding why it was necessary for the steps to happen the way they did made understanding what works a lot easier.

                When it came down to the teacher’s day to day actions with Dora they made sure that they respected and acknowledged the natural progression of what it would take to get Dora on the right path for her writing development. The teacher also does a good job of complimenting her natural progression and encouraging her to move forward(COMPOUNDED SUBJECT WITH TWO OR MORE PERSONAL PROMOUNS. ALSO IM NOT SURE IF IM RIGHT HERE) Even when she was just acknowledging that letters go together to make words and sounds was a step in the right direction and allowed her to naturally progress to the next stages on her own without being stifled. From what I saw when the teacher did step in, she did so in a fashion that asked for the student to observe what it is she needed to work on next. The teacher, who  is to encourage and cultivate a learning environment were the students are able to rely on one another to help build their own skills with collaboration, does so by providing her students with different tools, such as a mentor text, for guidance. Not only did this interaction better the teachers ability to assess the point they’re at in their writing development it allows them the ability to asses theirs as well.  Dora and her classmates were given enough freedom to explore their sentence syntax while still having some guidance and a steady frame work to help make themselves better. The teacher then follows that up by reassuring them when something is done correctly making for a very strong writing technique in my opinion.  

                When it comes to how Dora picks up these concepts I think it’s natural that she had some difficulty with it. Turning sentence fluency and production and creating your own syntax into something that becomes a habit for you is something that takes time and practice. It’s hard to be able to pick up on the proper use of where punctuation should be placed and its purpose and the fact that Dora always keeps trying to push forward is a success in itself. Another way to look at how long it took her is that the teacher never truly gives her a direct “rule” she has to follow but instead encourages her to observe and build those writing rules for herself, which makes the time it takes her acceptable when she’s developing something from scratch(IT ALSO SEEMED TO BENEFIT DORA THAT SHE WAS NEVER GIVEN A DIRECT “RULE” SHE HAS TO FOLLOW BUT INSTEAD IS ENOURAGED TO OBSERVE AND BUILD THOSE WRITING RULES FOR HERSELF. BEING ABLE TO DEVELOP THISE RULES TAKES TIME MAKING IT FAR MORE ACCEPTABLE IN MY EYES THAT SHE MAY NOT BE CATCHING ON ALL THAT QUICKLY.) Instead of being given an archetype to follow, she’s given the opportunity to build her own and test out the boundaries making her ability to latch on to these concepts a little stronger or so it seems to me.