I'll talk to you the next time I see you, or TTYL

Interesting chapter. I’ve always questioned the validity of reading out loud in the classroom setting. For some reason, I’ve always found it difficult to retain focus on what I was reading. My focus was so concentrated on properly pronouncing the words, and paying attention to pauses, that understanding the text itself was immediately jettisoned. I often felt that I was the only one who wasn’t “getting it.” But as Williams points out in this chapter, this is nothing rare at all. All up-and-coming educators should pay attention to this.

It is also interesting that Williams elaborates on the political issues that have sculpted our models of teaching: phonics vs. whole language. I found one passage extremely philosophically engaging, or at the least, interesting: “students were invited to use “invented spelling,” which was understood to make writing and reading more fun, creative, and interesting for students” (156-157). I’m not exactly certain how I feel about this. As I sat at work yesterday reading this chapter, I began to debate (in my mind) when and where is the proper time to, essentially, be proper? It drives me mad decoding emails and Facebook comments from my younger relatives that appear to be written in a foreign language. It always seemed lazy. I didn’t admit defeat and begin to write “c-ya” at the close of an email until the mid-2000s, but internet lingo appeared heartless and rushed, and I refused to do it. But the problem is not laziness; it is my own desire not to adjust to it. A ;), or a TTYL, leaves nothing ambiguous at all. I can understand (if I take the time to look it up) exactly what they say. Perhaps the idea of “invented spelling” is not too far from this concept. At what point SHOULD we become concerned with technicalities rather than content? Children say the funniest things, but younger children are rarely funny when they write. Sure, some will debate me on this idea, but I am not counting adolescent “charm” within the parameter. Perhaps, it is their concern with being right grammatically that prohibits them from fluid writing (much like reading out loud can prohibit comprehension).