rebuttals
To Whitney: You have it backwards. Writer's workshop is the approach that is supported by independent research. That's because it's NOT A PROGRAM. That's why the research is independent. No one "owns" it, unlike BWS. There is no Writer's Workshop website. To research it, you have to read various peoples' work. YOU have to do the work. You are right, however, about the Council for Child Health and Human Development being behind BWS. Too bad those organizations are not made up of educators. The types of degrees found in an organization of that type are medical degrees, accounting degrees, many degrees, actually, but very few in education. That's a lot like a plumber telling an electrician how to make his wiring to code. It's not all that helpful, since the plumber doesn't understand the math behind the electrician's job, doesn't understand various levels of wire insulation, doesn't even really understand how electricity does and doesn't work. And it certainly is not all that relevant. So okay, I guess you could call their research independent, but I call their research silly--it's just not their area, and they're not the people who are qualified to make this call. Long, fancy titles behind organizations do not lend them credibility, unless viewed by the impressionable. This organization is highly respected in many fields, and is well-founded, but this just isn't where they're experts. Doctors and accountants and social workers should not be telling teachers how to teach.
Moats and Shaywitz are educational researchers, this is true. But their degrees are in Education. You may say that's what I was arguing for in the last paragraph--but that was just part one. Here is part two: Having educators do this research is far more helpful than having social workers and pediatricians do it, but it's BETTER BY FAR to have the research from people with degrees in ENGLISH. That's because English majors' work is kids' reading and writing. An educator's work is reading, writing, math, science, etc. But teaching reading and writing is what an English degree is FOR, in education. These are the people who have studied this, who have done (relevant) studies, who know what they're talking about, and their degrees are in English, not administration or curriculum development (which is an administrator's degree, also). Here is what is so disturbing about Dr. Hochman--she barely taught--she's an ADMINISTRATOR!!!! She was a superintendent for many, many years. People! Do you really think your superintendent is the one who should be writing the curriculum for your writing program? You would trust a superintendent to do that?! Superintendents deal in calendars and budgets, principals and parents, school boards and media. They are BEAN COUNTERS!!!! Dr. Hochman is not teacher of writing--she's a shrewd businesswoman who figured out how to sell a bill of goods to some school districts, and is getting fat off the profits. I have a degree in English, (which means I had 16 hours of the teaching of writing, compared to the 3 or 4 hours that someone with a degree in education has). I hold a minor in Reading Instruction--18 hours of how to do this, not the 3-5 hour offering that an education major gets. So my first day on the job, I was already WAY more qualified to teach both reading and writing than Dr. Hochman has ever been. Now that I'm getting my master's in The Teaching of Writing, I'm way ahead of her. You see, her master's is in administration and curriculum development--not the same thing, at all. As an electrician, I do NOT want this plumber telling me how to do my thing.
Rina: You belie an ignorance of what is going on in the universities--it's whole language. They may call it different names, but teachers in English programs in universities--are teaching teachers to use whole language. Programs are for teachers who have only a few hours' in their college programs for how to do this--non-English majors, non-writing teachers. It's the same reason we have all these awful basal series and reading programs floating about--most teachers don't have any idea how to teach reading. They NEED a program (note that years of experience doing something does not equal years of experience doing something WELL--many teachers have years of experience teaching both reading and writing in a very ineffective manner). If I taught a contained elementary class, and had to teach math, believe me, I'd NEED a program. I didn't have the hours in my college program dedicated to math, since I was an English major. Three or four hours' worth of practicum in math instruction did not turn me into a great math teacher, just as a few hours' instruction on how to teach reading and writing does not turn one into a great teacher of these things. In Colorado, though, there has not been a degree in education offered for many years--it's not viewed as an actual discipline here. We major in a discipline here (English, math, chemistry), and only minor in education.
Regie Routman, Donald Graves, all the people I mentioned before are English degreed people--the people who have the knowledge, experience, and yes, independent research to support what they're doing. The Teaching of Writing in the university is taught in the English department. Also, the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) and the IRA (International Reading Association) endorse and promote whole language, and believe that programs such as BWS harm good educational practice. Dr. Hochman has never been invited to speak at conventions of these organizations, not even once, but you will get the chance to hear Ralph Fletcher, Nancie Atwell, Dawn Latta-Kirby, Donald Graves. Dr. Hochman's education and administration degrees don't fly in that atmosphere.
Finally, there is a huge difference between a respected, established university (The University of Colorado, in this case) and the Windward Teacher Training Institute. If those two institutions are equal in your mind, something is very wrong, indeed. One is accredited, respected, recognized, one is, well, a teacher training place--a teacher training place run by the same clever woman who piloted the bogus program they teach. And she has teachers just lining up to be enlightened--nice. No wonder our kids can't think critically.
Writingteach: I hope you're not one of those, either.
Also, I am appalled at what seems to be a terrible lack of classroom management skills on this thread--maybe that's why some of these kids have such trouble. Some of you can't manage a class of 25 with independent work while you conference--scary. If you can't manage a workshop, you certainly won't be able to run one, so maybe worksheets are best for your kids, so you can keep them under control.
Somebody said something on this thread or a different one about their kids liking BWS so much because they were just so sick of the writing process. Oh. My. God.
