“Although Standardized test can be useful as one measure of a student’s knowledge, it is imperative that they be viewed in the context of the whole child” (96).
“Students in our classrooms create and perform awesome feats everyday, and they should have a place to display their efforts” (99).
“When give ownership over the direction of their learning, they will work to their greatest capacity and in a creative fashion” (105).
“Clearly, portfolios contribute to student’s development of self-discipline, self-direction, and self evaluation” (106).
This chapter speaks a lot about creating a portfolio for secondary writers. It also went on both sides in regards to student testing. Of course testing is only one measure. Student’s abilities need to be measured with different activities and at different stakes. I started my first portfolio when I was as sophomore in college. I’m sure that nobody really reads the work that I put on there (yet). I do make it a priority to put good work on there though. After reading chapter seven and soaking in the portfolio portion, and what it can mean and escalate positively towards, I see why portfolios can implement a sense of independence and self worthiness for academic work. If I knew that someone was going to view my work as a high school student, then I’d make it worth my effort for writing it, and the audience’s effort for reading it.
I look at work I did two years ago, which I posted it on my portfolio, and I look work I did two weeks ago, which I posted on my portfolio. It’s fun to see the difference. I’m pretty sure that if this was implemented regularly in the classroom, then students may get that same opportunity and feeling when they post and look, post again and look back. You have facebook where you talk about what you’re doing in the next five minutes. If that’s not going public, I don’t know what is. How about create that same mentality with school work. Have a portfolio webpage for high school students to show their work for people to look at. Of course not every student will be intrigued by this idea, and their are lot of kinks to work out, but if students see that people are viewing the work that they do, then they’ll be more opt to put it on a web portfolio. That’s why we are doing blogs. We put small pieces of writing up here, you look at it, comment on it, and the cycle continues.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Burke Chapter 7
On page 181 Burke talks about Journal Entries. He says: “I don’t have to worry about collecting the papers and responding to them” (181). If you’re a teacher why do you have to worry about looking at papers? Shouldn’t you be excited? Journals are personal reflections. Getting in touch with students is hard to do. Journals are the source that lets you get in touch with students. I’d say; let students know that you are going to read what they put in their journals. Personally, I don’t remember an experience where we had journals that we wrote in, and teachers would read those entries. In today’s school system, I’m confident that reading students journal entries and conversing back with them would be a very positive and beneficial outlet.
“I don’t favor the big poetry unit myself”
That’s probably why poetry is barley taught
Responding to student work
“No more then three items to focus on, (210).” I like that idea when it comes to responding to oral presentations by students. This makes the responses more concrete, and they’ll know what to look for, you’ll know what to look for, and you’ll both know how to correct it. On page 217 it talked about spell checker. It is very beneficial to have. For myself, I’ll make a mistake, and spell checker will correct it. I try and steer away from that mistake next time. How is spell checker addressed in schools? I hope it doesn’t seem to be the only editing and grammar proofreading tool they have. Teachers have classes of thirty students. When is it possible for teachers to sit down one to one with students and go over the editing and proofreading process? From what I understand now, teachers go through a mini lesson, and or set and example of how to edit and proofread, and for the majority of time it is set on the students to handle that. One to one conversations about revision can be a key factor for improving wiring performance. The whole workshop concept tied into that.
“I don’t favor the big poetry unit myself”
That’s probably why poetry is barley taught
Responding to student work
“No more then three items to focus on, (210).” I like that idea when it comes to responding to oral presentations by students. This makes the responses more concrete, and they’ll know what to look for, you’ll know what to look for, and you’ll both know how to correct it. On page 217 it talked about spell checker. It is very beneficial to have. For myself, I’ll make a mistake, and spell checker will correct it. I try and steer away from that mistake next time. How is spell checker addressed in schools? I hope it doesn’t seem to be the only editing and grammar proofreading tool they have. Teachers have classes of thirty students. When is it possible for teachers to sit down one to one with students and go over the editing and proofreading process? From what I understand now, teachers go through a mini lesson, and or set and example of how to edit and proofread, and for the majority of time it is set on the students to handle that. One to one conversations about revision can be a key factor for improving wiring performance. The whole workshop concept tied into that.
A mode of writing I am willing to teach
Getting a deeper understanding of poetry ventures into other avenues. Poetry is a mode that I’m more then willing to teach. It can start abstract, but build concretely off that. Students can be on different academic levels, but it seems that when the mode of poetry is involved, every student can have a different beginning, and finish with a different ending. From a teacher’s standpoint, chapter five said teaching poetry takes time and patience. A teacher is obligated to learn about poetry just as much as the students he or she teaches. With poetry, there are many forms, and different lenses to look at it through, therefore perception can continually change, which is a positive note.
To me, the mode of poetry is engaging because it gives voice to students, even in a way a narrative doesn’t. Every student has a voice. Poetry can be a tool for students who haven’t found the voice they’re trying to harmonize. A teacher could take a student’s work and do what chapter five did with Hinton’s the outsiders. Break a student’s formal written work into a poem; this shows students that they have the ability to write in poetry mode. Let’s say a student has trouble writing a formal paper, but can write in poetry mode. You can do the opposite of what the text did with Hinton’s the outsiders. Take a poem about a topic the student choose; basketball, running, lava, etc. You can use that poem and turn it into an introduction paragraph. In the real world poetry will help student find their voice if they haven’t already. The book mentioned that teachers tend to breeze over poetry lessons. When this happens the essence of poetry isn’t captured, and students don’t take poetry as a tool with them when they walk out the door. Let’s say a student has family over, or grows up and has three kids. Would that student rather share a three page expository paper to his family, or a self though poem he or she wrote? It’d probably be the poem. Personally, the text didn’t give enough tools or exercises to teach poetry. Poetry is creative tool that you have to tap into. Some people talk about it, but haven’t even tapped into their own poetry realm. If you haven’t tap into your poetry realm, you sure as heck shouldn’t teach it to anyone else. At this point I’m trying to figure out how to start small to get students writing towards poetry mode, and end up big with have students produce works which reflect on the progress they’ve made in poetry.
To me, the mode of poetry is engaging because it gives voice to students, even in a way a narrative doesn’t. Every student has a voice. Poetry can be a tool for students who haven’t found the voice they’re trying to harmonize. A teacher could take a student’s work and do what chapter five did with Hinton’s the outsiders. Break a student’s formal written work into a poem; this shows students that they have the ability to write in poetry mode. Let’s say a student has trouble writing a formal paper, but can write in poetry mode. You can do the opposite of what the text did with Hinton’s the outsiders. Take a poem about a topic the student choose; basketball, running, lava, etc. You can use that poem and turn it into an introduction paragraph. In the real world poetry will help student find their voice if they haven’t already. The book mentioned that teachers tend to breeze over poetry lessons. When this happens the essence of poetry isn’t captured, and students don’t take poetry as a tool with them when they walk out the door. Let’s say a student has family over, or grows up and has three kids. Would that student rather share a three page expository paper to his family, or a self though poem he or she wrote? It’d probably be the poem. Personally, the text didn’t give enough tools or exercises to teach poetry. Poetry is creative tool that you have to tap into. Some people talk about it, but haven’t even tapped into their own poetry realm. If you haven’t tap into your poetry realm, you sure as heck shouldn’t teach it to anyone else. At this point I’m trying to figure out how to start small to get students writing towards poetry mode, and end up big with have students produce works which reflect on the progress they’ve made in poetry.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
I listen to 96.3 a lot. They kept talking about twitter. My friends keep asking about twitter. Twitter is trying to give facebook a run for it's money. They share some of the same similarities. I went to twitter's what's happening search bar, and I typed in Kevin Garnett, and numerous links popped up about what's going on with him, and also there were link that had people selling K.G. products. I'm nervous about twitter!!! I don't know all it's casualties, but I waste enough time on facebook, I hope I don't turn into a twitter-head.....
Monday, March 16, 2009
Teaching Writing in Middle and Secondary Schools Chapter 3
The Writing Workshop
For the most part; language arts was divided into units. Each unit consisted of an overall goal that touches many bases. I don’t remember having a unit that was guided towards one specific feature for instance, writing a poem. It always involved various components. In eleventh grade we had to do a research paper on a person who had an autobiography written about them. This unit consisted of reading a book, conducting support research, giving an oral presentation, and writing a paper. The point I’m trying to make is that as far I can remember: In language arts and English no unit consisted of solely one thing. In college I’ve learned more about creating outlines, and making reference sheets. It seems that college has recognized what secondary English consists of, and college picks up the missed pieces, which isn’t a bad thing.
In my secondary schooling, I don’t remember ever having writers work shops to learn about one certain writing aspect. I also don’t remember having mini lesson to gain quick digestible knowledge (as the book put it). I have a good decent memory. If I don’t remember it, it’s probably because it didn’t happen. In a couple of our classroom meetings we’ve did two small writing activities that were interesting, and stood away from my typical experiences when learning about writing. These examples are student focused, more fast paced, self reflective, and critical. I have a lot to learn about teaching writing to the youth, but these positive tactics will seek their interest and they’ll lead off into bigger components that make writing, reading, and the whole language arts concept more exciting to students and their teachers. It seems to be a trial and error battle, what works and what doesn’t.
For the most part; language arts was divided into units. Each unit consisted of an overall goal that touches many bases. I don’t remember having a unit that was guided towards one specific feature for instance, writing a poem. It always involved various components. In eleventh grade we had to do a research paper on a person who had an autobiography written about them. This unit consisted of reading a book, conducting support research, giving an oral presentation, and writing a paper. The point I’m trying to make is that as far I can remember: In language arts and English no unit consisted of solely one thing. In college I’ve learned more about creating outlines, and making reference sheets. It seems that college has recognized what secondary English consists of, and college picks up the missed pieces, which isn’t a bad thing.
In my secondary schooling, I don’t remember ever having writers work shops to learn about one certain writing aspect. I also don’t remember having mini lesson to gain quick digestible knowledge (as the book put it). I have a good decent memory. If I don’t remember it, it’s probably because it didn’t happen. In a couple of our classroom meetings we’ve did two small writing activities that were interesting, and stood away from my typical experiences when learning about writing. These examples are student focused, more fast paced, self reflective, and critical. I have a lot to learn about teaching writing to the youth, but these positive tactics will seek their interest and they’ll lead off into bigger components that make writing, reading, and the whole language arts concept more exciting to students and their teachers. It seems to be a trial and error battle, what works and what doesn’t.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Teaching Writing in Middle and Secondary Schools Chapter 2
Composing the writing process
Like Blasingame and Bushman pointed out, sometimes a piece of writing for school is introduced at 10:00 and it is expected to be finished at 10:50. In between that fifty minute period there are certain guidelines that must be done in order to finish that piece of work. Writing was established that way for me in high school, and so that is how I tend to compose my pieces of writing. I want it to be as concrete as possible, therefore I’ll know what to do. Chapter two also mentioned that it is important to give students assignments that they’re familiar with or have knowledge about. That phrase is pretty self explanatory for me. If I don’t know what I’m writing about I either will compose a not so good piece, or I’ll wait until I get the knowledge I need in order to write.
I stick away from the brainstorming on paper when it comes to writing. I do that part in my head. The brainstorming in my head occurs for a couple of days depending on when the piece needs to be done. From the brainstorming part, I like to do an informal/sloppy outline just so I know where I’m headed. Even if an outline isn’t required I do it because it helps me see the knowledge I need for that piece more concretely. Then I write. If it’s a ten page paper I usually do three-four pages a day. I don’t like to write more than four pages any session. It seems if I write four pages a session, I can stop for awhile, brainstorm new ideas, and continue what I was doing. Once I finish a piece, the revising gets kind of tedious. One thing I’ve learned over the past year is to print out your composed work and proofread it that way. It lets you see and feel the whole flow of the paper. Recently I learned that if you read a paper out loud, it generally helps you take out the things that make the paper less sensible. And finally for revising, I always enjoy the help at the writing center.
Like Blasingame and Bushman pointed out, sometimes a piece of writing for school is introduced at 10:00 and it is expected to be finished at 10:50. In between that fifty minute period there are certain guidelines that must be done in order to finish that piece of work. Writing was established that way for me in high school, and so that is how I tend to compose my pieces of writing. I want it to be as concrete as possible, therefore I’ll know what to do. Chapter two also mentioned that it is important to give students assignments that they’re familiar with or have knowledge about. That phrase is pretty self explanatory for me. If I don’t know what I’m writing about I either will compose a not so good piece, or I’ll wait until I get the knowledge I need in order to write.
I stick away from the brainstorming on paper when it comes to writing. I do that part in my head. The brainstorming in my head occurs for a couple of days depending on when the piece needs to be done. From the brainstorming part, I like to do an informal/sloppy outline just so I know where I’m headed. Even if an outline isn’t required I do it because it helps me see the knowledge I need for that piece more concretely. Then I write. If it’s a ten page paper I usually do three-four pages a day. I don’t like to write more than four pages any session. It seems if I write four pages a session, I can stop for awhile, brainstorm new ideas, and continue what I was doing. Once I finish a piece, the revising gets kind of tedious. One thing I’ve learned over the past year is to print out your composed work and proofread it that way. It lets you see and feel the whole flow of the paper. Recently I learned that if you read a paper out loud, it generally helps you take out the things that make the paper less sensible. And finally for revising, I always enjoy the help at the writing center.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Teaching Writing in Middle and Secondary Schools Chapter 1
Establishing a writing environment (semi-autobiography)
In elementary school writing wasn’t an issue for me. I always had the ability to complete the writing task at hand. I enjoyed, and still do enjoy writing about personal things, and the less formal. Writing in a formal sense makes me feel like I have to get it one way, and if I don’t, then I didn’t do my job. In sixth grade we had a media class once a week. There was one time when I was writing on the computer and it caught the teacher’s eye. I was writing a poem about Martin Luther King. I assume that it was around his birthday, or maybe I wrote it during black history month. Anyway, she read the poem to herself out loud, and asked me if I wanted to read the poem at the next assembly. I ended up reading it at the next assembly, and it was a pretty good poem, well at least the audience thought so. My mom gave me a framed picture a year ago of me reading that poem. This moment was significant for me because it’s a point I can use to remember how writing played a memorable and positive part in my life. There was also a time in fifth grade when we were asked to write a DARE essay for the DARE program, which we were in. The best essay had the opportunity to be read in front of the whole school. I won and read the essay/speech in front of the school. I made my mom proud that day. Come to think of it, (I’m tooting my horn now), during the same year I read the MLK poem, my teacher asked me if I wanted to do a sixth grade graduation speech. I was excited about that. I spent so much time working on that speech, and with no help, I wrote it, recited it, and awed family and friends. I’m twenty two, and that was in sixth grade. I don’t even know if those abilities I had in sixth grade have enhanced, stayed the same, or maybe even declined.
In my high school years writing wasn’t the most fun thing to do. I never got to express myself through writing. It was always formal. I didn’t dread it, but I wasn’t excited about it. At times, college made me doubt my writing ability. In my first College English class, I remember that my first paper was about euphemisms. I worked real hard on that paper. I got a C on it. I didn’t really understand why. I got a B in the class overall though (: That C resembles how writing has been for me in that past four-five years. Besides my creative writing classes, I sometimes get unsure about my own writing abilities. I enjoy writing essays, and different forms of formal papers because I work hard on them, but sometimes I get lost in the process. I feel that I have to be concrete with my writing, but I end up being vague. Sometimes when I feel I’m vague or abstract, and I get to concrete? Balsingame, and Bushman talked about writing can become internalized through bad experiences. I’m far from being the best writer, but I do have some strong qualities. I also have some weak qualities. I don’t necessarily know what my weak qualities are. If I don’t know them, then it’s hard for me improve. I try to be self-reflective. I read the comments that instructors put on my assignments, but at times they can be intangible, and my specific flaws aren’t pinpointed. Of course I have had positive feedbacks on works that I’ve produced. I utilize those positives to produce better pieces for the next time. I don’t want a student to get a negative internalized feeling about their writing. I’ve learned so far that you have to find the positives in a persons writing. Use those positives to identify the errors, and improve on them.
In elementary school writing wasn’t an issue for me. I always had the ability to complete the writing task at hand. I enjoyed, and still do enjoy writing about personal things, and the less formal. Writing in a formal sense makes me feel like I have to get it one way, and if I don’t, then I didn’t do my job. In sixth grade we had a media class once a week. There was one time when I was writing on the computer and it caught the teacher’s eye. I was writing a poem about Martin Luther King. I assume that it was around his birthday, or maybe I wrote it during black history month. Anyway, she read the poem to herself out loud, and asked me if I wanted to read the poem at the next assembly. I ended up reading it at the next assembly, and it was a pretty good poem, well at least the audience thought so. My mom gave me a framed picture a year ago of me reading that poem. This moment was significant for me because it’s a point I can use to remember how writing played a memorable and positive part in my life. There was also a time in fifth grade when we were asked to write a DARE essay for the DARE program, which we were in. The best essay had the opportunity to be read in front of the whole school. I won and read the essay/speech in front of the school. I made my mom proud that day. Come to think of it, (I’m tooting my horn now), during the same year I read the MLK poem, my teacher asked me if I wanted to do a sixth grade graduation speech. I was excited about that. I spent so much time working on that speech, and with no help, I wrote it, recited it, and awed family and friends. I’m twenty two, and that was in sixth grade. I don’t even know if those abilities I had in sixth grade have enhanced, stayed the same, or maybe even declined.
In my high school years writing wasn’t the most fun thing to do. I never got to express myself through writing. It was always formal. I didn’t dread it, but I wasn’t excited about it. At times, college made me doubt my writing ability. In my first College English class, I remember that my first paper was about euphemisms. I worked real hard on that paper. I got a C on it. I didn’t really understand why. I got a B in the class overall though (: That C resembles how writing has been for me in that past four-five years. Besides my creative writing classes, I sometimes get unsure about my own writing abilities. I enjoy writing essays, and different forms of formal papers because I work hard on them, but sometimes I get lost in the process. I feel that I have to be concrete with my writing, but I end up being vague. Sometimes when I feel I’m vague or abstract, and I get to concrete? Balsingame, and Bushman talked about writing can become internalized through bad experiences. I’m far from being the best writer, but I do have some strong qualities. I also have some weak qualities. I don’t necessarily know what my weak qualities are. If I don’t know them, then it’s hard for me improve. I try to be self-reflective. I read the comments that instructors put on my assignments, but at times they can be intangible, and my specific flaws aren’t pinpointed. Of course I have had positive feedbacks on works that I’ve produced. I utilize those positives to produce better pieces for the next time. I don’t want a student to get a negative internalized feeling about their writing. I’ve learned so far that you have to find the positives in a persons writing. Use those positives to identify the errors, and improve on them.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
morethingsonastick.com.pbwiki
Thing 34
In my early high school years I didn't like it when teachers had to question my findings from the interent. They did this because they knew the correct answer, and I used a false due to the fact that I didn't know any better. I was reading a self help book once, and it said that people believe your advice more when they hear you got it from someone else. The main way for students to find a a website creditable is to keep doing backup research until they find a close definite answer. Of course there is some form of bias, and with answers, facts, and theories found on the interent, students will develop their own biases, but the more you do to backup research on your findings, the better of with credibility you'll be. Bottom line: don't go off of one research article, see where those articles got there data from, and build off that.
In my early high school years I didn't like it when teachers had to question my findings from the interent. They did this because they knew the correct answer, and I used a false due to the fact that I didn't know any better. I was reading a self help book once, and it said that people believe your advice more when they hear you got it from someone else. The main way for students to find a a website creditable is to keep doing backup research until they find a close definite answer. Of course there is some form of bias, and with answers, facts, and theories found on the interent, students will develop their own biases, but the more you do to backup research on your findings, the better of with credibility you'll be. Bottom line: don't go off of one research article, see where those articles got there data from, and build off that.
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