Dora Part One

In the article "Dora Learns to Write and in the Process Encounters Punctuation" by Pat Cordeiro Dora’s teacher did a lot of things correctly when teaching her how to properly punctuate sentences. For example after writing stories the teacher would have Dora read HERS (possessive pronoun) out loud to the class. Then, with Dora she compared her writing to that in a book and asking if she noticed the difference between the two. This helped show Dora that in writing the letters do not flow together they are spaced out. In order to farther her point the teacher and Dora used their hands to frame the words in Dora’s story so she could see there the spaces should go.  

In addition the teacher explained to Dora that she needed to read in sentences and periods go at the end of them. However even though the teacher did a good job explaining that dots are periods and Dora started thinking of them this way her explanation could have been a lot better. This is because she failed to ever explain exactly what a sentence is. After her very brief explanation the kids got into their groups to discuss their writing. After looking at THEIRS (possessive pronoun) Dora and the others figured out that periods must not go at the end of every word, but they had no idea where else to put them due to their lack of understanding of the nature of a sentence. In order to help correct this however the teacher read Dora’s story back to her with the incorrect punctuation and by pausing everywhere Dora put a period the teacher was able to convey the choppy nature of the story Dora created and help her understand that she was not creating sentences, merely fragments with a period at the end. In addition the teacher showed Dora a book to demonstrate that there are not periods at the end of each line because the end of a line does not signify the end of a sentence. However this entire time the teacher is still not telling Dora what a sentence actually is. So even though Dora understands the examples she is presented with when it comes time to punctuate her writing she is at a loss. Some could see that the teacher never telling Dora WHOSE (possessive pronoun) way of punctuating is better it helped Dora learn how to figure out things for herself and grow as a writer.

To farther Dora’s confusion when she is still punctuating at the end of every line her teacher does not say anything about it and Dora interoperates this silence as her writing is correct and keeps up this method of punctuation. Then the teacher furthers her confusion by giving instructions that Dora views as contradictory. She tells her to “stop at all the periods” and to read it in sentences. Because the teacher was never clear with Dora what a sentence is she is unsure how to read her story in a way that fit into both of the categories that the teacher described. So she ended up reading it how it is supposed to sound and ignoring the periods. After hearing Dora reading it this way the teacher assumed that she was punctuation the sentences correctly when in fact the written version did not match up with Dora read aloud.

Miscommunication like this and Dora’s general confusion on the nature of a sentence is what caused Dora to take such a long time to learn how to properly punctuate. If the lessons had been clearer and the teacher had asked Dora more questions to clarify her understanding the entire process would have been much shorter.