I chose the column called Reading teacher wants students to pass test,
love books. It’s about a third grade language arts teacher believes that
each and every student has the right to properly learn how to read and write
and be good at it. No matter how much work it takes this teacher is willing to
help until the student fully retains how to read and write because; she does
not want her students to be retained in the third grade. Below is a hyperlink
to the article.
There are a lot of well written
lines throughout this column; most of them are dialogue since the third grade
teacher is being interviewed throughout the column. Although the line that stuck
out the most to me was, “Meanwhile, Ernsthausen has generated a sea of data on
each of them. They take weekly and monthly assessments, and, after each book
they read, they take a test Ernsthausen created that’s modeled on the OAA.” It
really shows some interesting figurative language that the author uses and
shows the teacher being interviewed feels so strongly about her students passing
and really knowing the material.
Metaphors and symbolism is used in this line, the metaphor is “a sea of data on
each of them,” and what that symbolizes is all the new information that the
students who need help are practicing and learning. It really shows and accurately
describes the determination of this teacher and I think the symbol shows how
much information is put onto these students just so they know how to read and
write accurately, not just to pass the OAA. The diction in this line is a
little more elevated than the rest; which is one of the main reasons it stood
out to me. For example the author uses words such as, generated, assessments
and modeled. The sentences are short and to the point, not much detail is added
into them mostly because the article is in interview form. The syntax is very
informal and lots of dialogue is added into sentences because the teacher’s
response is added into the column. This makes the column more interesting to
read and more accurate.
Ramsey’s writing style is very
informative and detailed while backed up with facts. In the first column called
For better vision, kids need time outdoors,
the author first describes/introduces the topic in detail then backs up her
claims with facts. “But before parents claw back the iPhones, experts say the
problem may not lie in the technology itself, but the amount of time spent on
it, the environment in which it’s used and the activities it’s replacing. For
years, researchers have wrestled with what’s behind a worldwide increase in the
prevalence of myopia, or nearsightedness. In the U.S. alone, the percentage of
people ages 12 to 54 who are nearsighted – meaning unable to see things clearly
at a distance – rose from 25 percent in the early 1970s to 42 percent now.” As you can see Ramsey describes the problem/topic
then adds in informative facts to back up her claims. This sense of writing
style is really repetitive in all of her columns. In the second column I read
called, Super Bowl QBs score points for
great style, “The amazing thing isn’t that two super jocks know how to
dress well, but that they actually seem to want to. It’s a hopeful sign in a
nation that now accepts flip-flops and jeans as appropriate wear for weddings,
graduations, awards banquets and funerals. At work, “Casual Fridays” have
morphed into sundresses and golf shirts every day.” Again, the author
introduces the topic and gives a short but detailed enough explanation then
backs it up with facts. In the last article I read called, Reading teacher wants students to pass test, love book, “For her
students, the stakes couldn’t be higher: Pass the 2½-hour Ohio Achievement
Assessment or be retained in third grade, at least for language arts. But their
27-year-old teacher clearly feels the pressure as well. “I keep hearing in my
head, ‘One test determines if they’ll be held back,’ ” Ernsthausen says.” The author’s style is very factual and
detailed, just like how she included information about how you have to pass the
OAA or be retained in third grade language arts. Then she added the teacher’s
opinion and determination. All of her sentences range from short and sweet and
long and detailed.
Lastly, three questions I would ask
author are, first I would ask: where do you get your ideas from? I would ask this because I find that her columns
range from current events to other events such as ones that people haven’t really
heard about, like the last article I read about the third grade teacher trying
to get her students to pass the test. Which I found was interesting because I didn’t
know about that, but the other two are more talked about commonly. The second question
I would ask the author is where she went to college at. I really want to know
what colleges are best for journalism because I am very interested in that
field of study. I also don’t know what school I want to go to so I think it
would help me to decide if I knew where a columnist went. Lastly I would ask
her how much a columnist gets paid. Just because I am curious on what the regular
journalist salary is since I am considering studying that in college. I think it would be really cool to be an
author and have my stuff published like Krista Ramsey.
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