"Dora Learns To Write"

Barbara Monroe

English 326

Spencer Nee

September 2, 2013

Dora Part 1

            If readers read the research article carefully they can see that the teacher does do enough to help Dora.  Throughout the entire article the teacher is subtly helping Dora to understand punctuation.  The teacher is careful not to criticize Dora’s work because young writers often understand constructive criticism as failure.  The teacher also allows Dora to develop her own ideas of how to use punctuation.  As stated in the reading, “Children may interpret teachers’ questions as criticism” (Stubbs, 1976).  This is exactly why the teacher is careful when helping Dora understand how to use punctuation.  The teacher, WHOSE (POSSESSIVE PRONOUN TO  SHOW OWNERSHIP OF THE TEACHER’S IDEA)  idea is a process-based class, is always forcing Dora to think about where her periods should go in sentences because every writer punctuates writing differently.  The teacher is trying to let Dora understand periods through reading.  The reason the teacher does this is because anyone could use punctuation that is different from YOURS (POSSESSIVE PRONOUN REFERING TO ANYONE OUTSIDE OF THIS ARTICLE).  Dora begins to understand where periods should go because the teacher allows her to read her own stories.  The teacher makes sure that Dora understands that she needs to pause at a period when reading.  By explaining this the teacher allows Dora to experiment with periods.  By letting Dora experiment in her own stories the teacher helps to broaden Dora’s understanding of punctuation, especially periods in this article.

            On the other hand the teacher doesn’t seem to be very involved in Dora’s writing.  The teacher never really explains what a period is in good detail.  A period is a strange piece of grammar, ITS(POSSESSIVE PRONOUN REFERING TO A PERIOD SO THAT THE READER UNDERSTANDS HOW I THINK OF A PERIOD) sole purpose is to separate thoughts and ideas but it can be placed in different spots depending on the writer.  This could be because Dora wouldn’t understand as a first grader but it raises suspicion about how Dora is supposed to learn.  Without knowing the purpose of a period it seems like it would be pointless to use them.  How does a small dot at the end of an idea separate it from anything else?  Without further explanation I feel like I would’ve had a hard time understanding periods as a first grader.

            It takes Dora a long time to apply the concept of sentence-end marking because it is an abstract idea.  To a first grader it seems like it would be so complicated.  Why does a period have to end a sentence? Why can’t a period be wherever I think it should go?  First graders are only learning to write so they aren’t thinking about how to separate things.  Dora has a hard time wrapping her mind around the fact that periods end sentences and ideas.  Dora has to try different placements so that she can find which way she likes best.  Once she understands what purpose periods serve she does a better job of placing them in the correct place.  Learning how to punctuate properly is confusing.  Dora does a great job of correcting her mistakes and thinking about how to fix what might not sound right.  Deciding what defines a sentence is hard, which in turn makes it hard for Dora to use end-sentence marks.  Once Dora figures out what she thinks is a sentence she begins to use end-sentence marking and slowly but surely she learns how to end a sentence with a period.