Webster defines ’curriculum’ as ’a regular course of study; an accepted schedule; a routine.’ This definition implies that schools must teach their students according to these principles. If we apply this definition to the teaching practices of the average elementary school, we would find that every class indeed has a ’course of study, an accepted schedule and a routine.’

But this is not enough! For a school to properly educate children, a number of other standards must apply. Decisions must be taken as to what is to be taught; why is it to be taught; and how it is to be taught.

In addition, the skills learned in one grade should build into the next grade. Teachers must use materials that develop concepts in a manner that allows the student to build a conceptual base (understanding of concepts) while he or she develops new academic skills. Grade 2 teachers should teach concepts and skills from which Grade 3 teachers can build new knowledge and skills. There must be a sequence of the content of each grade’s teachings.

But this is impossible without decisions being made above the classroom level. Publishers commonly print excellent texts having completely different sequences of skills. If there is no general decision as to the direction, outlook and content, then individual teachers will be free to choose their own texts, whether or not they integrate from one grade to the next! In this way it may be possible for students to be exposed to multiplication before they even know how to carry or regroup in addition.

Students in such programs find it impossible to understand what they are learning. and either tune out or memorize their way to success. But this is not success! Recent research in Japan has shown that students who merely memorize skills do not develop the ability to think creatively or to problem-solve.

The job of imparting knowledge actually belongs to the teacher, but the decision as to how it should be imparted belongs at the policy level.

For example, before a school board could order textbooks or consider the scope or sequence of a reading curriculum in the primary level (grades 1, 2 and 3), they would have to make an initial policy decision as to whether their reading program would be based on a phonetical decoding method (phonics) or a holistic sight (whole language) method.

This decision must be based on an outlook, belief or philosophy and it must be specific. It would not be sufficient to say that the curriculum must teach to the ’whole child’ or that a ’quality education’ is the objective of the reading program, or even that ’the social, emotional and intellectual development of a child depends upon teaching to the actual child’s needs not just to the outline found in a textbook.’

While these statements all sound or feel good, they do not form an actual philosophy from which to develop policy about textbooks and teaching methods. In fact, history has shown us that often the very worst educational programs are preceded by these lofty, flowery and emotional statements.

The ’whole word’ reading program, known more commonly as Whole Language, was preceded by these grand claims and what did it bring? It brought new programs that allowed children to pass without understanding; programs that substituted fakery for achievement under the false claim that children must never be exposed to difficulty or failure or their self-esteem will suffer.

It substituted a reading program that now allows children to stumble into grades 3, 4 or even 5 without knowing how to read well, for one that had consistently taught children to read in Grade 1. And it continues to claim that it can provide the best education for the whole child and that today’s children have higher self-esteem as a result of these programs!

If one looks at the carnage of the public education system of today, it is hard to accept these claims.

After a philosophical decision has been taken by the board of education as to the outlook their program is to express, a joint effort involving the board, the school administration and the teaching staff must then be made to develop new programs by creating documents that explain what learning objectives are to be met; what learning skills must be mastered in order to meet the objectives; what teaching materials are to be used to teach these skills; and in what order (sequence) the skills are to be taught.

An example of this process follows:

Learning Skills: (a) students must be able to recognize and call by sound all initial, final and medial consonants; and (b) students must be able to recognize vowel sounds, and understand the ’Magic E’ and ’Two Vowels Walking’ rules.

Teaching Materials: (a) Explode the Code Phonics Workbooks; (b) sandpaper letters; (c) vowel stick men; and (d) glass analysis or blending exercises.

Sequence: (a) initial consonants; (b) final consonants; (c) short vowels in this order: a – e – o – u – i; (d) middle consonants; and (e) blending exercises.

Finally, teachers must then prepare to teach by studying the curriculum documents; creating daily lesson planners that follow the scope and sequence of the curriculum.

This work is done by professional teachers well in advance of their actual classes. The hallmark of a professional teacher is a well prepared daily lesson planner covering an entire term, if not a full school year, and both short- and long-term goals and objectives.

Teachers lacking in professional ethics will often develop their daily planner early in their career and use the same one year after year. However, true professionals use their experiences from each term to adjust, change and make their teaching methods and plans better. As teachers learn more about their own strengths and weaknesses as communicators, they understand the need to develop new skills. Experience in the classroom helps teachers to understand better the dynamics of self-esteem and classroom management.

No amount of textbook learning can compensate for the experiences of a dedicated professional. But dedication is not enough. If the curriculum has not been properly prepared to reflect the needs and standards of the community and if the objectives and skills taught in individual grades have not been co-ordinated, then the school program will fail. Even the most well meaning educators will not succeed with an inappropriate philosophy of education.

(Excerpt from Passive Minds! The Dangers of Education!! by Dr. R. N. Whitehead, Director, Oxford Learning Centres).

Using Beat Writing

Beat Writing is designed to teach both grammar and writing skills. It is not to be used as a singular program. You must use it with other Oxford Learning materials as per the Program Manual.

Beat Writing teaches —

• how to recognize complete sentences
• how to punctuate
• how to write grammatically correct sentences, including subjects and predicates; sentence fragments and run-on sentences
• how to use parts of speech, including nouns, pronouns, conjunctions and verbs
• how to use words
• how to use verb tenses.

Remember too, the study skills that we teach with every page; the application of SQRCRC, the numbering of rules and directions. As always, we teach so much more than any work sheet ever asks for.

Students who finish all the pages of Beat Writing will have an excellent basic knowledge. They will know the basic parts of speech and how to use them, as well as how to recognize the most common mistakes and, more importantly, how not to make them.

The Beat Writing Idea Bank contains 30 playful suggestions and story ideas for students to use while practicing their newly developed skills.

Use Your Skills

You will have to use your skills as an Oxford Learning teacher to help kids stay motivated. This program probably contains completely new material for our students. They may never have done anything like this before. It may seem hard to them; however, the results are more than worth the effort.

Don’t forget — it is not a long program. When these pages have been mastered, the students will be writing well, and, better yet, will have a firm grasp of the structure of our language.

Creativity

Let’s talk about creativity. There is much criticism of structured writing programs these days — they are out of vogue. Teachers want it to be “more fun” for kids. Claims are made that structure retards creativity, that programs requiring discipline retard creativity. Imagine that!

If you could ask Einstein, Michelangelo, Newton, Margaret Lawrence or Picasso if creativity required discipline, you would not be surprised at their answers. The most creative and talented humans on earth all agree; first you master the skills until they become automatic, and then you become creative.

Let us stop asking the cart to pull the horse. We must learn to use our teaching skills to teach creatively and motivate our kids while they work through this material. Once these few pages have been mastered, these kids will be able to express themselves verbally.

The Challenge

Do not begin to teach a writing program by asking kids to write, write, write. They do too much of that in school already and just entrench their mistakes. Current research shows that new cognitive patterns can sometimes be formed by very few repetitions. This means that repeating mistakes may create an automation of the task, thus burying the instructions in the subconscious. This makes it harder for the student to change.

You must begin Beat Writing at the beginning — the free form creative writing comes later. Complaints about “boredom” usually come from two sources — kids who are challenged by the precision of these new ideas and from teachers who are themselves bored. Ignore these plaintive calls and invest in making the activities fun for kids and in helping them to understand why they are learning to write correctly.

Lord Chesterton, in a letter to his son, said, “Whoever is in a hurry to finish shows that the thing he is about is too big for him.” This is apt.

Let us do this correctly by building the foundation and then freeing the spirits. Writing is an extension of the voice of the speaker. Since children sense their littleness and want to be larger and more potent, the idea that through writing, they can make their voices reach much further can be very exciting to them!

Why Can’t It Be Easier?

We commonly receive requests to make Beat Writing easier! While we sympathize with this wish — to help kids learn to write in an easy manner — it is just impossible. Clear thought requires the clean use and understanding of language: its syntax and its semantics. Our students will never write well without this training.

Sorry, it just isn’t easy. It is a task that should have been completed when they were in the primary grades. When we inherit the job, we have to do it correctly.

One of our teachers worked with a group of young high school students who had very low language and writing skills. Concurrent with the Beat Writing program (sentence structure), she expected her students to speak to her and each other in grammatically correct sentences — very difficult, at first!

Within a very few classes, these students were both writing and speaking more clearly. When she began to teach paragraph structure, she then expected them to speak in well-formed oral paragraphs, complete with a top bun, meaty details in the middle and a bottom bun. Within a short period of time, they did this as well. It works!

Years ago, we conferred with a local school teacher who was working with a Grade 10 student trying to teach her to write clearly. This teacher was using the best (Wholistic) textbook available. It contained lots and lots of “fun” activities to encourage writing.

She said that she enjoyed the book; the activities interested her; yet she could not get my student to write well. The student would not even try! In desperation, this teacher exclaimed to us, “I’m a total failure. I can’t get this kid to write!”

We looked at the student’s work and explained: “She won’t write because she can’t write a simple sentence. Teach her how to write a simple sentence well first. When she understands the structure of a simple sentence, teach her to write more complex sentences. She will then feel more like trying.”

Once the student learned parts of speech, sentence structure and basic grammatical rules, she began to write interesting stories and essays. Her mother thought we were brilliant.

Recently, I was the “expert” in a call-in radio show. Joining the host and me were the chairperson of the local board of education and another trustee. One of the calls came from a young lady. Wendy was a university student who was angry at the “creative and silly programs” that encouraged her to write but did not teach her grammar and spelling! “I am in university, and I cannot spell,” she said. “I also struggle with complicated reading passages despite the fact that my reading instruction was supposed to have focused on those issues!”

This young lady’s anger was justified. Let us not become part of the problem. We are the solution.

Beat Writing

We are frequently asked the same questions: Why do kids have to learn parts of speech? Why not just start them writing? What about creativity?

The answers should not surprise you. They are in our manuals, in our literature and in our philosophy. In a sentence: Children have to learn to stand before you enter them in a 100-yard dash.

Today’s writing programs expect kids to write without giving them the tools with which to do so. These programs entrench mediocrity and tell kids that excellence is not necessary.

They lie to kids by pretending that difficult tasks can be achieved without effort. They make it harder for kids to write well because they do not teach the necessary building blocks of writing in the early years when these skills are the easiest to learn.

In the interest of creativity, they pretend that subject/verb agreement, run-on sentences, split infinitives, misplaced modifiers, dangling participles and so on, are not important — until, suddenly, the student is faced with a teacher or a task requiring correct grammar.

There are two things missing from today’s society and from today’s education programs:

1. Respect for the amount of time required to accomplish and master a skill; and
2. A willingness to tell parents and students that some things that are worth having are hard to accomplish!

It is important to remember that Oxford Learning students attend only twice per week. Often we are asked by parents to help correct a writing problem that has existed for years. In addition, most of our kids do not like to have Oxford Learning homework added to their school homework. This means that we do not have time to add lots of frills. We have to get to the point as quickly as possible.

Next time we’ll talk about using the Beat Writing program.

“You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you’ve got something to say.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Thought flies and words go on foot. Therein lies all the drama of a writer.”
Julien Green

“The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean.”
Robert Louis Stevenson

“Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are.”
Henry David Thoreau

What Is Writing, Anyway?

Writing is the clear expression of thought. One of the worst things about the education experience, for many kids, is that learning often appears to be mysterious, meaningless, baffling and terrifying… while adults claim that it is simple, fun and self-evident.

Fun is often the operative word. As soon as kids hear the word “fun,” they begin to distrust us. In fact, many kids view an adult’s definition of fun as: F=foolish, U=unusual, N=nonsense.

Kids constantly seek the meaning, the structure, the rules. They want to understand. Just as reading is made understandable when you use phonics, so too is writing made clear when you teach structure and grammar.

Initially, your students may shy away from Beat Writing, but, when you persist, they will soon come to realize that this program opens doors for them by revealing the underlying structure of language.

Let us not forget that clear writing requires clear thinking. Today’s school programs often discourage this very practice by placing too much emphasis on the use of language for communicating, rather than thinking.

Schools teach kids how to communicate, not how to think. They teach social skills. Thinking clearly requires practice and concentration.

If you listen to kids talking to each other, you hear “like” and “as” constantly repeated. This is because kids often think in metaphor and use similes because they do not know how to use language precisely. They have learned to think in pictures because their language programs have invited this.

The difficulty they have expressing themselves in writing clearly stems from this fact. In order to write, students must express their thoughts clearly and precisely using words and language, not mental pictures. Your job is to help them understand how to do this.

Why Can’t It Be Easier? Find out that it can in our next article.