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One either absorbs the grammatical principles of one’s native language in conversation and in reading or one does not
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Reading is the key, though. A kid who grows up hearing “It don’t matter to me” can only learn doesn’t if he/she reads it over and over again
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You need to take out the stuff that’s just sitting there and doing nothing
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Ask yourself what they need to get on in life, the bare minimum (like filling in a job application), and concentrate on that.
- Sean McHugh on 16 Sep 17
  
  Surely this is true of reading as well? Maybe some students need to just focus on being 'functional' readers, like reading the instructions on a job application.
  
  <div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">Surely this is true of reading as well? Maybe some students need to just focus on being 'functional' readers, like reading the instructions on a job application.</div>
  
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telling the truth is the most important thing, much more important than the grammar
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I would often ask them to describe operations that they take for granted. Ask a girl to write a paragraph on how she braids her sister’s hair. Ask a boy to explain a sports rule. These are just basic starting points, where students learn to write on paper what they might tell a friend. It keeps it concrete. If you ask a kid to write on “My Favorite Movie,” you’re opening the door to subjectivity, and hence to a flood of clichés
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See, then say
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A good reader digging into a good book is wonderful. Musical
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Reading good fiction is like making the jump from masturbation to sex
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Good teachers can be trained, if they really want to learn (some are pretty lazy). Great teachers, like Socrates, are born
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What about teaching? Craft, or art?King: It’s both. The best teachers are artists
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How Spelling Keeps Kids From Learning - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...385291 spelling

shared by Sean McHugh on 04 Aug 17 - No Cached

It’s like making children from around the world complete an obstacle course to fully participate in society but requiring the English-speaking participants to wear blindfolds
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Unlike many other languages, English spelling was never reformed to eliminate the incongruities. In a sense, English speakers now talk in one language but write a different one
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By contrast, languages such as Finnish and Korean have very regular spelling systems; rules govern the way words are written, with few exceptions. Finnish also has the added bonus of a nearly one-to-one correspondence between sounds and letters, meaning fewer rules to learn. So after Finnish children learn their alphabet, learning to read is pretty straightforward—they can read well within three months of starting formal learning, Bell says. And it’s not just Finnish- and Korean-speaking children who are at a significant advantage: A 2003 study found that English-speaking children typically needed about three years to master the basics of reading and writing, whereas their counterparts in most European countries needed a year or less.
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Schools have consequently endeavored to teach children how to read and write at younger and younger ages, but Bell says that’s problematic because children mature and learn at very different rates. It also steals time away from more developmentally appropriate activities for young children.
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