Entry #2: Reflection of writing view that most corresponds with my experiences.

The whole-language approach was in full-swing as I was attending elementary school as a child. There were still teachers who taught phonics but as I reflect based on my knowledge of teaching today, many teachers were using whole-language to teach reading and writing. My brother is a product of whole language and is a horrific speller. I am grateful to have had a blend of whole language and phonics instruction.

I enjoyed writing as a child and do not recall explicit and direct instruction on the writing process. My mother mailed some writing from elementary school and if there was planning involved, it was not evident. I remember "creative writing". The teachers would allow us to journal about topics we selected and write stories. Expository writing was virutally non-existent, unlike in today's classroom in which that is typically the emphasis.

Over Christmas break this year, my mother mailed some of my writing from elementary school. Among the writing samples my mom sent me were poems, imaginative narritives about aliens, a fictional "chapter" story I wrote in 6th grade compiled in a class book. In the primary grades I had pieces of writing about what I'm thankful for on turkey paper, journal entries about field trips, dialogue with my teacher about daily happenings, and laminated stories with old-school typeset and crayon illustrations.

In hindsight, oral language development happened at home first. I was a curious kid and asked a lot of questions. My parents were the purveyors of vocabulary. I loved words and even though shy around others, I conversed with my parents at dinner every night and was spoken to as an equal, not talked down to as a child. Through the modeling of correct grammar, engagement in scaffolded language, my parents provided me with the foundation for reading and writing.

If I didn't know what words or concepts meant, my mother would explain them to me or refer me to a book to broaden my knowledge. I don't ever remember baby-talk being used in my family. I never had any articulation or language problems, nor did I use baby talk myself. My mother was a stay at home mom until I entered school. Then she began working at the public library which became my second home.

I attribute my oral language development and writing development to being immersed in books and surrounded with opportunities to use language. Sophisticated oral language was modeled by my college-educated parents. I attended preschool in which I was given opportunities to write at my developmental level. I was provided with games, rhymes, songs, and books that helped train my ear to recognize patterns in words and allowed me to play with language. I marched to songs and played with puppets. I used finger paint to form my first letters. I manipulated refrigerator magnets. I pretended to read the newspaper with my dad. I went on fieldtrips to farms. My preschool had eggs under heatlamps that I watched hatch into baby chicks. All of these experiences that we tend to negate with the push for accountability and rushing kids to learn how to read and write were essential to my oral language and writing development.

As an educator, I need to remember that children's language is not always developed through explicit instruction but through the power of modeling, hearing language in books, and opportunities to engage with the world around them in meaningful ways.