Hello,
First, I’d like to say wow, because that was my initial reaction after reading “Writing Like a Good Girl.” Sometimes, a feeling or experience is hard to explain or to put into words, and while reading this article it was like seeing those feeling i’ve felt before written out beautifully. I have lived my entire life in “The South”, which I love and am thankful for, however, southerns have a tendency to believe girls should learn to act and speak like a lady. The way the author described her experience in the grocery store with the older woman criticizing the young girl for writing things that she deemed unladylike was extremely realistic to the reality of myself and many of the girls I went to school with. We have been taught from childhood that we need to be more ladylike, or when we speak out of term we are not acting like a lady. Its a huge stigma that eventually leads to young women losing their voices. This article brought up so many good points and truly made me reflect on my past, and how I want to change that for my future students. I want everyone in my classroom to be respectful and considerate, however, everyone will be entitled to an opinion. I want them to be able to express that opinion and passionately be able to defend their reasoning.
When searching for mentor text when it comes to argumentative writing I came across a website that I believe could be very helpful to me in the future (booksourcebanter). This website has books for primary grades, so the K-3 grade levels. The books mentor how kids present their arguments for many different topics. You can use this site to find a book that matches the type of topics your students will argue, and have them read it to get an example of what they will need to do. I am happy to have came across this website, because I definitely see myself coming back to it in the future!
Thank you,
Faith McIntosh
Faith McIntosh 