First grade is an unlikely arena for teaching the writing of poetry.
I gained this insight soon after stepping into my new role tasked with shaping a writing program for elementary students amidst the construction of new schools across the district to keep pace with burgeoning suburban subdivisions.
It was 1990, and California was on the brink of integrating direct writing assessments into the curriculum for third graders—a pioneering move, considering the lack of any approach to evaluating writing skills in younger students despite middle and high schoolers having been assessed on a statewide level for the past several years vis a vis the CAP Writing Assessment Program.
My strategy was to infuse the writing of poetry and fiction into the first-grade curriculum, to spark imaginations, to spur a passion for writing, and thereby to awaken a curiosity for the craft of language.
Alas, at the dawn of Whole Language, during a period of literature-based reading instruction, when it came to writing, I encountered the unyielding wall of syntax.
*
The whole sentence was the grail. A few teachers were excited but nervous about imaginative writing, and I managed to weave some poetry into the classroom experience through co-teaching sessions with a handful of kindergarten and first-grade teachers respected by their peers. Sentences could still be taught and written, of course, across the universe of discourse.
Centering an early writing curriculum around the creative domain writ large was deemed too risky for the Curriculum Office—an attitude I suspect persists. I continue to believe that early experiences with imaginative writing awaken a playful spirit which transforms technical and laborious study of language structures and strictures into surprisingly fun and engaging activities while teaching metalinguistic thinking.
*
In a talk shared in this newsletter yesterday, I explored the historical pivot from the rhetoric of expert memory and oratory to a new doctrine of grammar and text in the 18th century, privileging structure above content.
The study of grammar and structure, the science and art of crafting sentences—this kind of learning is critical over time. A strict sanctioned focus on the sentence in first grade isn’t the best entry point, in my view.
Today's talk extends Sharon Crowley's (1990) insightful examination of this seismic shift and its infiltration into the education system. The sentence, an unassuming but potent force, still dictates the course of writing instruction in public education, especially within the confines of the Common Core.