So the kids read a passage, then they answer questions about the passage.
Simple enough.
But the questions are “I/you” questions; and the kids are expected to refer to the passage when answering them.
I think this way of thinking is kind of messed up, but the other people on the committee think it’s ok. And I’m not going to argue this point with those guys. Just wanted to get on the 'mosa and check my head.
In other words, read this:
“I have a peach.”
Question: “Do you have a peach?”
Answer: “Yes, I have a peach.”
Which is cool, I guess. But I’m just thinking of it to the extreme, like:
Read this: “I am a banana.”
Question: “Are you a banana?”
Answer: “Yes, I am a banana.”
So, they know, in a mechanical way, that “I” and “you” are interchangeable, but at the same time, “I” and “you” have been disconnected from their core meaning - namely that “you” refers to, well, YOU; not the narrator.
And the job is to write stuff that helps people learn real English, instead of doing it mechanically.
‘I’ am not a banana. He/she/it may claim to be a banana, but it would be wrong to teach people to say ‘I’ when they mean someone else. I have adult students that still can’t get it right unless they stop to think about it.
Why not put little pictures of characters, with speech bubbles? The banana asks “Am I a Tiddlywink?” and the apple says “No, you are a Buttercup dressed up as a banana. Mind if I undress you?”
I think the other writers are thinking of it like this: the child reads the sentence out loud, thus saying “I have a peach.” In which case the child does in fact become the narrator. “Read” so often seems to mean “read out loud” here and in China.
If there is a picture of a child in the book with a speech bubble above his or her head, with the words “I have a peach,” then of course yes, the question and answer should be “Does s/he have a peach? Yes, s/he does.”
They call me mellow yellow. Not for that reason, obviously.
My point is that he is being paid to write what is required. In an ideal world, that might be effective and cool, but it’s a big assumption. His job is to write what he’s asked to write, surely?
Yes, his job is to write what he’s asked to write. But why has he been hired? Because he does as he’s told, or because he tries to meet the needs of the student?
I bet you don’t just ‘teach the book’ with your students, do you? I think you’re the sort of deviant that tries to actually help her students. Wouldn’t it be nice if the guy who wrote your books had done the same.
More power to Mr Sinister, I say. In an ideal world, anyway.
[quote=“tmwc”](How long until this unfair taunting goes to the flounder bin?)[/quote]I was reading this and wondering the same thing. Then I remembered that I’m one of the mods for this forum.
[Puts mod hat on]
Stop taunting Buttercup, TMWC!
[Takes mod hat off]
I can understand where Buttercup’s coming from. But I think that at least there is room for negotiation about these kinds of issues. Good for Mr Tiddlywinks for being conscientious about this kind of stuff. Of course the boss’s word is final, and Mr T might not succeed in making the books better, but it’s worth a try.
[quote=“Buttercup”]PFFFT! The day I need joesax to defend me against tmwc will never dawn, my dears.[/quote]I didn’t really think you needed defended. My comment was an attempt at humour.
Well, it’s all about context and how the questions are being asked.
There are three “people” involved in this process: the narrator, the reader and the person asking questions (who could also be the narrator).
If you ask the student to suspend belief and pretend he is a banana then answering the question “Are you a banana?” with an affirmative is fine.
If you don’t want the student to pretend he is the banana then the negative would be the proper answer.
Personally, it seems rather odd to ask the reader “Are you a banana?” if you are expecting the reader to use the book to answer the questions as well as expecting an affirmative. It would seem preferable to ask “Is the narrator (or the storyteller) a banana?”
This happens in my Chinese class. My teacher will ask me questions about a dialogue and sometimes she wants me to answer as if I were one of the people in it (maybe to make it easier for me to answer). There’s nothing wrong with it, but for people not to be confused everyone needs to understand from whose perspective the questions should be answered.
[quote=“Sinister Tiddlywinks”]Writing kids books, I am.
Arrr… Mateys…
So the kids read a passage, then they answer questions about the passage.
Simple enough.
But the questions are “I/you” questions; and the kids are expected to refer to the passage when answering them.
I think this way of thinking is kind of messed up, but the other people on the committee think it’s ok. And I’m not going to argue this point with those guys. Just wanted to get on the 'mosa and check my head.
In other words, read this:
“I have a peach.”
Question: “Do you have a peach?”
Answer: “Yes, I have a peach.”
Which is cool, I guess. But I’m just thinking of it to the extreme, like:
Read this: “I am a banana.”
Question: “Are you a banana?”
Answer: “Yes, I am a banana.”
So, they know, in a mechanical way, that “I” and “you” are interchangeable, but at the same time, “I” and “you” have been disconnected from their core meaning - namely that “you” refers to, well, YOU; not the narrator.[/quote]
My students refer to the narrator as “the author”. “Does the author have a peach?” “Yes, he does. He has a peach.” or “No, he doesn’t. He doesn’t have a peach. He has an apple.”
As soon as they get their heads around the word “author”, it works well.
