Online+Discussions

The following are class posts that I responded to throughout the semester.


 * Q1: Anderson articulates some misconceptions that permeate our schools about what writing is and what it is not. Choose one that particularly puzzles you and discuss why this misconception persists or how you could reverse current practice to encourage stronger writing. **

Jan 29, 2012 10:48 PM A: I substitute often in a private school that is fortunate to focus on things other than PSSAs. All junior high students are required to participate in National History Day and Science Fair competitions. I often hear moans and groans from students and teachers during this dreadful process. I have also heard the principal talking about format and structure, research, and how all the other schools are participating in the competition. While I agree there should be some organization to this type of non-fiction writing, I don’t think many of the students grasp how to be successful. These projects are major grades for the students.

I began to reflect while reading “Writing Isn’t in a Kit”. Anderson says, “…one –size-fits-all scripted lessons don’t convert reluctant writers into independent ones.” (p. x). Students are given non-fiction, research focused writing projects that they are required to produce three years in a row. Yes, there are those who have success along the way, but they are generally the stronger writers from the beginning. The students are being taught to write using non-fiction topics with little or no previous knowledge about the topic. Talk about reluctant writers! I am not aware of students being asked to write fiction short-stories, poetry, etc. that would interest them.

Anderson says, “If we care about something, we have more gumption to get to it.” (p.12). Yes! That is true. Allow students to write about anything! Let them write about something they already know about and make a big deal about it. Let that be a major grade for them. If they are experts on belching, let them choose fiction or non-fiction, prose, poetry. Then they can spend less time learning about their topic, and more time on learning how to become a better writer. Then your students who have Anderson stresses allowing students to build on their writing, like in the power-writing rounds. This could definitely be a starting point for students who have “page fright.”


 * Q2: In chapter 2 of Anderson's //10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know//, the author shows how we can use mentor texts to get our students to become better writers. **


 * In the beginning of the chapter (pg 23), Anderson aknowledges that most likely, everyone has had a model for one or more of their behaviors in life. Anderson used to watch his mother cook, and she would model for him, and by and by, he began to cook. **


 * What is something you enjoy doing that you modeled from someone else? Did someone introduce you to this activity, and if so, how did they help you to become better at it? **


 * How can we help our students to become better writers using the model approach? Do you believe that we should use mentor texts as models, or do you believe that we should use model as a verb? **

Feb 6, 2012 12:35 PM A: My grandmother used to crochet and I was always interested in learning how. She made a few dresses for me when I was younger for special occasions. She did beautiful work. As I got older, we talked many times about her teaching me, but she had a stroke and is in a nursing home now. I was determined to learn and tried teaching myself to knit. I worked at it for a while using books, but quickly became frustrated because the books can't always answer your questions. Interpreting motions is just an example to anyone who has ever tried to knit. Finally I asked a friend after finding out she knitted and now it is something I like to do in my "free time". I am still a beginner but find it relaxing and rewarding. It is also a challenge for me as I work toward more challenging patterns. Wow this sounds a lot like what Anderson teaches!!! When I took Advanced Comp, for the first time I was encouraged to use models in our writing. I have been given examples in the past, but often I was directed to just write but using the rubric or directions. I have been given formats, but told not to "copy". Modeling makes much more sense to me especially as new writers struggle to find their break through writing. Just like my need to have someone show me how to knit verses using a How To book, models' for writing would allow students to ask questions and grasp concepts a lot easier if shown what a good writing piece looks like.


 * Q3: In Chapter 5 of Anderson's text he states: "We orchestrate lessons in which students talk, notice, and pay attention to text in new ways." (pg. 86) **
 * Can you recall a time, maybe even in this class, when text became alive to you or caused you to sit up and take notice? **
 * What can we as teachers do in our lesson planning to peak our student's interest and help them pay attention to the text, to talk about it and really interact with it? **

Feb 25, 2012 10:37 AM A: I remember my teacher in 8th grade reading Island of the Blue Dolphin by Scott O'Dell to our class. She was not our favorite teacher. She was old, she was tough and didn't take any funny business from students. However, when she read that novel, she transformed into other characters and kept our attention for the entire 15 minutes. We not only saw her in a different light but the characters came alive. I never had another experience in secondary school again, but it made me excited about literature! We then watched the movie and I remember questioning some of the characters in my mind. The director got some of the voices wrong, he should have consulted my 8th grade teacher. Since 8th grade, I always enjoy reading books that I know will be made into a movie. I find it fascinating to size up the characters in the movie to the picture I paint in my mind. I think that this is a great way to engage students and help those that find it difficult to paint visuals in their mind when reading. Besides, who wouldn't want to watch a movie in school. Perhaps showing them the transformation might help them to write as if they are describing the set of a movie. This could allow them to point out details that they might not realize are important, but would have a great impact on the piece they are writing, for the movies.


 * Q4: Maureen Barbieri's chapter on Poetry. High school poetry was not my thing, I disliked poetry units! We looked at old, deceased poets poems and analized them, we played around with AA,BB,CC, and atempted as a big project to write our own poem. The words could never come to me, and I felt that my poems never flowed the right way; just thought Whitney and poetry never will get along. As my schooling went on still never fully grasped the love for poetry but I can say that we weren't enemies. **
 * Reading through this chapter and also learning how to bring poerty into our classrooms from Teaching Reading, my walls blocking poetry are shrinking. "Poetry is about our deepest feelings" and knowing (from experience) "If we know anything about adolescents, we know that they live in the world of their emotions. Depression in young people is on the rise, and so are eating disorders, cutting, drug abuse, promiscuous sex, teenage pregnancy, and even suicide", these are feelings and events that all or some of our students might have or will probably deal with when we get our classrooms; having them express thier feelings could turn into a very well written poem. **
 * One issue that I had with poetry in my eariler years is the fact that I thought it was boring and non-relatable. Well song lyrics are poetry! To hook your students tell them to bring in song lyrics of their favorite song, and break down each line. This will show your students that poetry could be fun. This also helps with building a community in your classroom because each student coming from all different backgrounds will bring in all types of genres from all different artists, the sharing of their song lyrics will bring a sense of community to your classroom. **

Mar 26, 2012 12:25 AM A: Poetry has been given a bad reputation in Literature. Students should be given the opportunity to experience poetry in a positive way. I think that poetry could be taught in mini lessons throughout a year or more in school. There are so many forms of poetry that teachers could use them as "poetry breaks" throughout the year and present them as something enjoyable to do. I remember being creative with poetry we memorized and put on performances in front of our class. We were able to see how everyone interpreted them differently. Our teacher used fun poems and not poems that were too complex. Introducing them to the poetry they are exposed to everyday like song lyrics or commercial jingles could also be forms that could catch their interest.


 * Q5: One of the quotes that was powerful in this part of Newkirks section was "The purpose of the essay is to track movement of the mind" (74). There were several prompt like or essay starters that are given as essay examples from Socrates' questions. Two essay questions are "what is one thing you know, and how do you know it? What have you done, and what has that shown you? These are question for essays that are suppose to get students thinking and get started. **


 * Did you high school teachers ever give you any type of questions like these that were given for you to get started on essays? These questions can relate to students or to anyone because they are strong. How do see your reluctant student responding to these type of essay questions? What type of essays could you develop from these type of pin point questions? Or How effective do you think these questions are in the classroom? Do you find yourself using these types of questions to begin students started? **
 * These essay questions are "identical" because of their relationship; to tell what we experience and what we think" (75). **

Apr 1, 2012 11:58 PM A: I really think that times are changing, but the transition like many in education will be a rocky one. It has been a while since I have sat in a high school classroom, but I think most students are familiar still with the 5 paragraph essay or the research paper. For myself, I do not remember very much creative writing experiences that didn't have rules attached to them. There were times that we did creative writing, but the bigger "more important" grades were research papers and test essays. By making a bigger deal about our creative writing, students may be more enouraged to write and be proud of what they write. These types of prompts were unheard of. We didn't do much thinking that didn't require a bibliography of 5 or more sources. The biggest obsticle for us will be getting students comfortable with an open and trusting classroom setting that writes about feelings and life experiences. I don't think the biggest issue would be the writing but the sharing. Even if the other students didn't see them, but knowing that their teacher would might be intimidating. The teacher would have to develop a trusting relationship with the students before asking them to do the same.

Q6: "As a Euro-American male in school populated by African Americans and Caribbean Americans, I had learned to look for ways to balance my beliefs about pedagogy and content with the ways those beliefs might seem threatening to the culture of my students." In Fecho's article, this thought struck me. It made me question the ways in which my beliefs could offend other culture's, and whether or not editing one's behavior to a group of people is, in fact, THE good choice. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black","sans-serif"; font-size: 16px;">What are your thoughts? Can you think of any instances where your beliefs might offend a particular culture, or simply meet opposition? <span style="font-family: "Arial Black","sans-serif"; font-size: 16px;">Also, do you feel that creating shields for intercultural relations to be a good thing?

Apr 8, 2012 10:07 PM A: I agree with Sara, I am sure we are going to offend. For me, my school experience was 13 years of Catholic School. To be in a school setting with many religious backgrounds, although my friends and families religions vary, it will be challenging to remember not to offend those who do not have the same religious beliefs. The cultural beliefs is even more challenging because there aren't always books that will allow you to look up your students culture beliefs and we will have to ask our students more about themselves. The biggest project as a teacher will becoming familiar with our students, their religion if necessary, and their cultures. Freewrites and daybooks would definitely be a great tool to help with this challenge. I do not think that we should avoid discussion about the differences between our students. I think we should embrace them to learn more about the world we live in, but they definitely should not be a source of debate.

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black","sans-serif";">Q7: Hicks highlights in his chapter the opportunities (and learning) we now have access to as future writing teachers in a digital age; we can watch and guide our students by tracking drafts and providing electronic commentary. Meanwhile students track the changes and quality of their own thinking and writing over time, leading them to both reflect and self-assess their use of digital writing tools. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black","sans-serif"; font-size: 16px;">However Hicks cautions that we shouldn't get caught up in the technology of the programs, and be sure to stay focused on assessing what's really important. Sure it is important that the students understand the basics of the various programs, but that should not be the focus of the evaluation. Rather, we need to provide both formative and summative assessments based on "multiple, manageable measures" of //both the process and the product// all while bringing our relationships with our students into play by helping with their own evaluations. <span style="font-family: "Arial Black","sans-serif"; font-size: 16px;">Keeping these things in mind and also noting suggestions from the sample rubrics on pages 115 & 116, explain how you might see our current Teaching Writing class multi-genre project working in your own classroom. What did you like? What might you change? What were the productive aspects of this project for your group and what may have needed more attention or altered? What might you change in the formatting, the individual assignments, the rubric, etc. to fit the needs of your secondary students? <span style="font-family: "Arial Black","sans-serif"; font-size: 16px;">...or change nothing at all? Ok, then why did this project work for you and your group and how does it transfer to your future classroom? <span style="font-family: "Arial Black","sans-serif"; font-size: 16px;">-S.

Apr 15, 2012 10:44 PM A: Our multigenre project was a great experience. This is something that would be useful not only for a writing exercise, but technology lesson. For me I was not aware of Tumblr and had only briefly played with a Prezi. Using a Prezi for our project forced me to learn more about it and look for creative ways to make it better. The only downfall was not working to complete it in class. Having the "option" to work on it in class was great, but it was more discussion about what we wanted to do versus putting the final project together. I would definitely allow for a lot of class time for students to work on them especially at the high school and middle school level if you are making it a group project. Sometimes in groups students will choose the "stronger" techy person and let them put it together. THis way you can force everyone to learn how to use these great tools. The most useful part of this is that it would be fun for students and they will present not just what they write but the story behind it.