Sylvia ashton warner teacher

Sylvia Ashton-Warner

New Zealand writer

Not to be confused with Sylvia Townsend Warner.

For the American silent film actress, see Sylvia Ashton.

Sylvia Constance Ashton-WarnerMBE (17 December – 28 April ) was a New Zealand novelist, non-fiction writer, poet, pianist and world figure in the teaching of children.

As an educator she developed and applied concepts of organic, child-based learning to the teaching of reading and writing, and vocabulary techniques, still used today. &#;

Early life

Ashton-Warner was born on 17 December in Stratford, New Zealand, one of ten children born to Francis Ashton-Warner, a bookkeeper, and Margaret Maxwell, a schoolteacher 14 years his junior.

Sylvia ashton warner biography: Sylvia Ashton-Warner was a New Zealand educator and writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. In the field of education, she became known for her innovative work in adapting traditional British teaching methods to the special needs of Maori children.

When Francis's health deteriorated, Margaret became the sole breadwinner, thus needing to take the younger children to school with her to sit in her classroom while she taught. The older children were left at home with their mostly bedridden father.[1]

Career

Ashton-Warner chose teaching as a career partly because it was familiar to her from childhood days spent in her mother’s classroom, and because it gave her a chance to teach her passions, art and music.[1] She attended Wairarapa College in Masterton, , and Auckland Teachers' Training College, [2] She then worked in Horoera, Pipiriki, Waiomatatini and Omahu, in schools with all or predominantly Māori enrollment, for 24 years.[3][4]

Over years of teaching classes of mainly Māori children, she gradually developed her ideas on teaching child-based literacy and key vocabulary techniques.[5] Her articles on this subject were first published in the New Zealand journal Here and Now from , and later in her book Teacher.[4]

As a novelist, she produced several works centered on strong female characters.

Her novel Spinster () was made into the film Two Loves, starring Shirley MacLaine.

Ashton-Warner was invited to the Aspen Community School in October and to present at the University of Colorado's third annual reading conference the following June.[1] &#;She held a six-month visiting professorship at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia in [1]

Awards

Ashton-Warner received a number of honors, including the New Zealand State Literary Fund's Scholarship in Letters in [2] Her autobiography, I Passed this Way (), won the New Zealand Book Award for Non-fiction in [6] She was awarded the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International Educator's Award in the same year.[2] She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to education and literature, in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.[2]

Personal life

As a young woman, Ashton-Warner trained as a pianist, practising up to five hours a day for years before she turned to teaching.[7] She met Keith Dawson Henderson in her first year at Auckland Teachers’ Training College in , when she was They married in Wellington on August 23, Together they had three children: Jasmine, Elliot and Ashton.

The couple worked together for many years, often with Henderson as headmaster and Ashton-Warner as infant mistress. Employment of a married couple in the same school was only possible at the time in Māori schools. Ashton-Warner’s pupils called her Mrs. Henderson.[1] Keith Henderson died at age 60 on January 7, [8]

Death and legacy

Ashton-Warner died on April 28, in Tauranga, with two of her children by her side.[9] Her life story was adapted for the biographical film Sylvia, based on her work and writings.

Ashton-Warner's ideas for a child-based, organic approach to the teaching of reading and writing, including her key vocabulary techniques, are still used and debated internationally today.[10][8][3] Her work has influenced educators and language scholars,[11] as well as the Language Experience Approach (LEA), a literacy program based on the principle that the best way to teach children to read and write is through their own words.[12]

The Faculty of Education library at the University of Auckland — the institution at which she trained in and — was named the Sylvia Ashton-Warner Library in [13]

The Ashton School in the Dominican Republic was founded in and named in honour of Ashton-Warner, whose teaching methods inspired the school.

While Ashton-Warner had a somewhat troubled relationship with New Zealand,[14] the country has claimed her as its own. In August , the University of Auckland held a conference to commemorate the centennial of Ashton-Warner's birth.[3] A number of papers from the conference re-evaluated her place in and relationship with New Zealand (see list below).

Earlier papers of Sylvia Ashton-Warner are held in the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University. Her later papers are held in the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington. Further material collected by Ashton-Warner's biographer, Lynley Hood, is held in the Hocken Collections in Dunedin.[14]

Quote

"Pleasant words won't do.

Respectable words won't do. They must be words organically tied up, organically born from the dynamic life itself. They must be words that are already part of a child's being."[4]

Selected publications by Sylvia Ashton-Warner

  • Spinster. London: Secker and Warburg, ; New York: Simon and Schuster,
  • Teacher.

    New York: Simon and Schuster,

  • Myself. New York: Simon and Schuster, ; London: Secker and Warburg
  • Three.

    Emma hart willard Sylvia Ashton-Warner (born December 17, , Stratford, New Zealand—died April 28, , Tauranga) was a New Zealand educator and writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. In the field of education, she became known for her innovative work in adapting traditional British teaching methods to the special needs of Maori children.

    New York: Knopf,

  • Spearpoint. New York: Knopf,
  • I Passed This Way. New York: Knopf, ; London: Virago,

Papers produced as a result of the conference

  • Middleton, Sue. 'Ashton-Warner, Sylvia Constance - Early life and marriage', from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.

    Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 6-Dec

  • Middleton, Sue. (), Putting Sylvia Ashton-Warner in her Place: History, Geographical &#;Theory and the New Education. Paedagogica Historica, First published on: February 24, (iFirst) doi/, URL:
  • Jones, A. and Middleton, Sue. (). Introduction. In A. Jones and S. Middleton (Eds.), The kiss and the ghost: Sylvia Ashton-Warner and New Zealand.

    Wellington: NZCER Press (NZ edition) and Rotterdam and Taipei: Sense (Rest of the World edition), pp.&#;1–8 (Sense edition page numbering)

  • Middleton, Sue. (). Sylvia’s place: Ashton-Warner as New Zealand educational theorist. In A. Jones and S. Middleton (Eds.), The kiss and the ghost: Sylvia Ashton-Warner and New Zealand. Wellington: NZCER Press (NZ edition) and Rotterdam and Taipei: Sense (Rest of the World edition), pp.&#;35–50 (Sense edition page numbering).

References

  1. ^ abcdeHood, Lynley ().

    Sylvia ashton warner biography examples Sylvia Constance Ashton-Warner MBE (17 December – 28 April ) was a New Zealand novelist, non-fiction writer, poet, pianist and world figure in the teaching of children. As an educator she developed and applied concepts of organic, child-based learning to the teaching of reading and writing, and vocabulary techniques, still used today.

    Sylvia!&#;: the biography of Sylvia Ashton-Warner. Auckland, N.Z.: Viking. ISBN&#;. OCLC&#;

  2. ^ abcd"Ashton-Warner, Sylvia () | ". . Retrieved 6 March
  3. ^ abcMiddleton, Sue ().

    "One Hundred Years of Sylvia Ashton-Warner: An Introduction".

  4. Sylvia ashton-warner teacher
  5. Sylvia ashton-warner theory
  6. Teacher sylvia ashton-warner summary
  7. Sylvia Ashton Warner - Writer's Files - Read NZ

    8. Waikato Journal of Education. 14 (1). doi/wje.v14i ISSN&#;

  8. ^ abcAshton-Warner, Sylvia (). Teacher. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN&#;. OCLC&#;
  9. ^"Ashton-Warner's Organic Reading".

    ED Chapter 3By: Christine Gomez & Jalma Manglona. Retrieved 6 March

  10. ^"| Read NZ". . Retrieved 6 March
  11. ^Screen, NZ On. "Three New Zealanders: Sylvia Ashton-Warner | Television | NZ On Screen". . Retrieved 6 March
  12. ^ ab"A is for Sylvia Ashton-Warner: Her Pioneering Approach In Education".

  13. Sylvia ashton warner biography
  14. Sylvia ashton warner biography examples list
  15. Sylvia ashton warner teacher

    16. The Positive Encourager. 21 May Retrieved 6 March

  16. ^"SYLVIA ASHTON-WARNER, WRITER". The New York Times. 30 April ISSN&#; Retrieved 6 March
  17. ^Becoming a language teacher with Tessa Woodward, 8 September , retrieved 6 March
  18. ^Organic Literacy: The Keywords Approach to Owning Words in Print.
  19. ^Dixon, Carol N.

    (). Language experience approach to reading (and writing)&#;: language-experience reading for second language learners.

    Sylvia ashton warner biography examples images Sylvia Constance Ashton Warner (whose pen-name was Sylvia Ashton-Warner) was born in Stratford, Taranaki, on 17 December Her father, Francis Ashton Warner, had arrived in New Zealand at the age of 16 in Although his family were poor, Francis thought of himself as a gentleman. For work, he tried various manual and clerical occupations.

    Denise D. Nessel. Hayward, Calif.: Alemany Press. ISBN&#;. OCLC&#;

  20. ^Middleton, Stuart (10 April ). "What's in a Name? - The Naming of the Sylvia Ashton-Warner Library at the Auckland College of Education". ACE Papers (10): 32–
  21. ^ ab"Sylvia Ashton-Warner, | NZETC".

    . Retrieved 6 March

Further reading

  • Durix, Carole. 'Literary autobiography or autobiographical literature? The work of Sylvia Ashton-Warner.' Ariel, ():
  • Durix. C. 'Sylvia Ashton-Warner: portrait of an artist as a woman.' World Literature Written in English, ():
  • Durix, C.

    'The Maori in Sylvia Ashton-Warner's fiction.’ Literary Half-Yearly, 20 ():

  • Edgar, Suzanne. 'Sylvia Ashton-Warner.' Quadrant, ():
  • Else, Anne and Heather Roberts, eds. A Woman’s Life: Writing by Women about Female Experience in New Zealand. Auckland: Penguin,
  • Hood, Lynley. Sylvia! The Biography of Sylvia Ashton-Warner.

    Auckland: Viking,

  • James, Judith G. and Nancy S. Thompson.

    Sylvia ashton warner biography examples wikipedia

    Sylvia Constance Ashton-Warner MBE (17 December – 28 April ) was a New Zealand novelist, non-fiction writer, poet, pianist and world figure in the teaching of children. As an educator she developed and applied concepts of organic, child-based learning to the teaching of reading and writing, and vocabulary techniques, still used today.

    'Sylvia Ashton-Warner's lost novel of female friendship.' Phoebe, ():

  • McEldowney, Dennis. 'Sylvia Ashton-Warner: A Problem of Grounding.' Landfall, 91, (September ):
  • Stead, C. K. 'Sylvia Ashton-Warner: Living on the Grand.' In the Glass Case: Essays on New Zealand Literature. Auckland: Auckland University Press; Oxford University Press, , pp.&#;51–66; revised and republished in Kin of Place: Essays on twenty New Zealand Writers.

    Auckland: Auckland University Press, , pp.&#;99–

  • Thompson, N.S. 'Sylvia Ashton-Warner: Reclaiming Personal Meaning in Literacy Teaching' The English Journal, Vol. 89, No. 3, Our History, Ourselves (Jan., ), pp.&#;90–96 National Council of Teachers of English

External links