Return-Path: <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id iB3GFeF23043; Fri, 3 Dec 2004 11:15:40 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2004 11:15:40 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <8a.1b35e0a2.2ee1e9f6@aol.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: MWPotts2001@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-4EFF:2892] writing a wrong: students who can't X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Mailer: 9.0 SE for Windows sub 5000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Status: O Content-Length: 2917 Lines: 56 Colleagues, Below are two articles, one new and one a repeat. Both are focused on one thing: students who cannot write well enough to succeed in school or at work. How are your adult students doing in this area? Are you familiar, yet, with the EFF Performance Continuum for Convey Ideas in Writing? If not, you may want to investigate at _http://eff.cls.utk.edu/assessment_ (http://eff.cls.utk.edu/assessment) . All the Best, Meta Potts, Moderator, 4-EFF List WRITING A WRONG: TOO MANY STUDENTS CAN’T PUT PEN -- OR PENCIL -- TO PAPER Ariel Horn teaches English in a Manhattan public school. Her students revise papers multiple times as Horn advises their grammar and style. With 100-plus students, “I am personally in grading hell,” she says. But her charges do learn to write. Unfortunately, studies suggest that they're part of a small, lucky crew. As high school seniors race to meet December college-application deadlines, most face the oft-required “personal statement” with understandable dread. Only a quarter of America's 12th-graders, the 2002 National Assessment of Educational Progress found, can write tolerable essays. Only about 2% create the kind of zesty prose that makes reading worthwhile, writes Laura Vanderkam. The well-financed among the rest hire editing services such as Essay Edge or Kaplan and zoom to the top of the college admissions pile. Meanwhile, schools that fail to teach writing face few consequences. For three years, the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has held schools to strict reading and arithmetic standards. But the law is strangely quiet about the third “R” of the trio. Why stop at two of three R's? Holding schools accountable for teaching kids to write will both level the college playing field and give students a job skill they deserve. http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-11-30-writing-wrongs_x.ht m AP 9/14/04 New York Times A majority of U.S. employers say about one-third of workers do not meet the writing requirements of their positions, according to a survey by the College Board's National Commission on Writing. "Businesses are really crying out - they need to have people who write better," said College Board President Gaston Caperton. While writing has always held a spot in American education as one of the three Rs, many say writing clearly and accurately is more important than ever - and not all workers are up to the task. In a fast-paced workplace, precision and brevity are essential. For e-mails, reports and presentations, the commission found that accuracy, clarity, spelling, punctuation, grammar and conciseness ranked among the most sought-after skills. "There's no way to say that writing has gotten worse," said Susan Traiman, director of the education initiative for the Business Roundtable. Rather, "the demand has gotten greater."
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Thu Dec 23 2004 - 09:45:30 EST