Dora Learns to Write and in the Process Encounters Punctuation

As I was reading the story about Dora, it didn’t occur to me that some readers thought that the teacher did not do enough to help her; I thought the teacher went about teaching Dora in the most appropriate and effective way. Most people, especially children, do not react to criticism well. It can often be discouraging if you are being corrected over and over again. Dora's story is a great example of how a typically first-grader writes; ITS [possessive pronoun] content is simple and isn't always in clear-cut sentences. The way the teacher corrected Dora, WHOSE [possessive pronoun] punctuation was not used correctly, was exactly how a young child should be corrected. Not once did the teacher give her students negative feedback about THEIR [possessive pronoun] writing. I think positivity is an important factor to teaching and to learning. Instead of correcting her and going on about how her punctuation was wrong, the teacher would ask Dora to read her story out loud which helped Dora see where the periods were supposed to be. When reading her stories, the teacher smiled which gave Dora a sense of confidence and made her feel like she was doing something right.  When she came across a period that was misused, Dora was not scolded or told “that is wrong,” the teacher simply would have Dora look at a picture book she was reading and compare her own work to the book. Dora could easily point out the differences and I think it’s a great idea to have kids compare their own work to something they are familiar with, like a picture book. 

Dora was showing progress by trying out different methods of using periods. She tried putting them in between words, at the end of lines, at the end of the pages. Grammar is difficult to learn for many young children who are first starting out. The fact that Dora was trying different methods shows that she is trying to get the concept right in her mind; she knows that what she is doing may not be correct so she tries to make her use of periods more logical. Children who are first learning to write, including Dora, don’t understand the concept of sentences. Why shouldn’t they be able to put a period at the end of the line? It looks right to them. Also, there is a big difference between the way we talk and the way we write. Sometimes how we talk does not match up with the correct use of grammar. Grammar is complicated, abstract and confusing. It changes with society which makes it hard to keep up with. Reading about Dora was a good eye-opener to see how a child sees grammar and the long process it is to learn.