Why American Students Can't Write: Response From A Teacher in Chile

Professor Baker's Blog:

I make my comments based only on the information given above, and as a teacher of writing in both the university and high school setting.

Let's proceed. Having said that, I question the phrase, "coherent sentences", and wonder aloud if "cohesive sentences" may have been the appropriate term, or quite likely, "grammatically correct sentences".

Not being able to write a "coherent sentence" means quite simply, the students were writing incoherent sentences, or put another way, sentences which make no sense. I wonder how true that statement is of the previous situation at New Dorp High School.

Next, we are told that a return to a focus on the fundamentals of grammar and expository essays brought tremendous improvement, described as, "soaring pass rates for the English Regents test and the global-history exam."

Related: The Writing Revolution by Peg Tyre.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at September 30, 2012 1:40 AM
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