Looking back and moving forward

I really enjoyed reading and learning about the Six Traits Writing and Assessing Model. I feel that it is definitely a format I would adopt in my own classroom. I especially see the benefits for students. Being given an extensive list of assessment points can be very overwhelming on writers. By implying it to six very understandable categories I feel it would greatly benefit student experience.

Shifting my focus… this week I spent a great deal of time going back through old college papers for both the Voices from the Margins assignment and my English Content Portfolio. Looking back through all of my writing,  made me think and reflect about my progress as an academic writer over the past four years.

It is hard to ignore the progress in my ability to analyze and make connections in literature. I noticed that as time progressed I also was able to dig deeper into developing my own critical thoughts about the literature and topics presented.

However, I did noticed that I consistently struggled with grammar in the majority of my papers. Although, I feel the papers were still effective and organized coherently, grammatical errors keep appearing in professor comments. I am almost embarrassed by some of the careless mistakes left in my papers. I always make sure to take time and re-read but somehow seem to consistently miss errors. 

I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions or resources that could help? I have always been anxious about editing student papers for grammar because it is something I struggle with greatly. Through our readings, I do appreciate the focus on writing craft but grammar conventions still cannot and should not be over looked.

Both looking back through my own work and reading and thinking about assessing student work  brought me to realize my own need to ask for help with the editing/grammatical side of the writing process. I am excited to learn more and try out some new strategies with students and in my own writing. Any resources or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 

I apologize for the last minute post!

Mindful editing and assessment

Editing and assessing student writing is an aspect of teaching I never looked forward to doing. I feel as though it is such a fine line between providing students with the feedback and constrictive comments they need to improve ad grow as writers and crushing their confidence in their writing abilities. 

Reading Chapter 7 in Gallagher really opened my mind to a more thoughtful and student centered editing and assessment process. I feel the strategies that Gallagher lays out balances the very structural side of editing papers with the want to encourage student writing. 

I found that Gallagher’s focus on writing craft first really allows the students to challenge themselves in their writing. By asking the students to look at what is being said and how strong the arguments are allows revision to start on a deeper level than just grammar. I also think using the “I like” conversations or Golden Line Exchanges allows students to learn and share from others examples while boosting their confidence as writers.

Moving to the more structural grammatical side of editing I like how Gallagher encourages teachers to only focus on a few targeted grammar skills in each of the students work. This allows for students at all different skill levels to give editing attention where it is needed. By making editing more focused and mindful it also allows students to get a deeper understanding of the grammar conventions themselves and hopefully avoids the errors in the future.

Turing to the assessment part of the chapter I liked the model rubrics Gallagher includes. I think it is important to provide students with example of work at all parts of the rubric to best help them understand what they need to do to get to the target area. I also though that allowing students to choose some of the criteria for the rubric is a great way to allow the students to be mindful in the strengths and areas of need in their writing. 

Overall I felt the chapter to be very informative and full of great ideas and strategies to the very difficult idea of having to assess student writing. I definitely could see myself using a lot of the strategies in this chapter with my own students one day.

Thinking about ELL and Writing

I really enjoyed reading the two chapters of Writing Between Languages. In my own education experience I never really acknowledged or considered the challenges peers who may have been learning English as a second language might be facing. Even thinking as a teacher I still have to make a conscious effort when thinking about activities or writing lessons to consider the fact their maybe students in the room who bring the additional challenge of the language barrier into the assignment. 

Last semester during our lessons at Central Falls I was able to witness some of the challenges ELL students face even on basic reading and writing assignments. The lesson we had planned included having the students read a short story, fill out a group organizer, and respond to a short writing prompt. We were aware that several of the students were currently receiving ELL services but did not truly know to what extent. The students were all able to get through the story and participate in the group work well. It was in the short writing response we noticed students had trouble communicating their ideas and even following grammatical senate structures. Reflecting on this lesson opened my eyes to the challenges students learning the English language face to communicate their ideas into writing. 

Reading the Fu chapters I felt the approach to the challenge really put the students strengths first. Fu focuses on where the students are at in their first language reading and writing skills initially and then targets growth into the English language. Working off the students foundation in their first language I feel would better individualize the learning of writing in english while continuing to respect and value the students home language. 

I found the models of students writing Fu included to really illuminate the process students go through growing and advancing as writers of English. Watching the student work transform from one language to another throughout the examples should the process going on in the students mind. Allowing students to communicate their ideas forts and then evolve the language not only helps language growth but also still allows the student to focus on the content. 

I am excited to continue reading Fu and learning about better ways to teach and promote writing for students of all levels and areas of English proficiency. 

Beyond the Five Paragraph Box

While reading “The Politics of the Paragraph”, one of Michelle Kenney’s sentences from her anecdote at the bringing of the article real stood out to me. After having a conversation with a student frustrated by the traditionally taught five paragraphs essay format Kenney self questions:

“Seriously? How could one of the brightest and most talented kids I had ever met question her right to have more than three ideas about immigration?”

This statement really struck me because it made me question how many student ideas are being cut short or left out simply because it doesn't fit into a three main point body paragraph format. Certainly this could not have been the only student in the room who eliminated, combined or stopped their though process to follow a format.

Although I do thinking teaching students how to write a five paragraph essay is important for certain situations and reasons, it should never be binding. Five paragraph essays have their place and purpose. They are an effective way to efficiently write an essay and guide thinking. Many time when I have been in a time crunch or even on timed exams knowing how to follow the five paragraph format can make writing easier and faster.

At the same time a five paragraph essay is not the be all end all of student writing, nor should it be valued as highly as it is in classrooms today. being a teacher of writing you should encourage students to create ideas and writing they take ownership in. If a student has two or four main points who is to say that they must make it three to fit into a format. Student ideas and voice should come before paragraph numbers and writing formats.

Thinking of my classroom in the future I want to encourage students to use writing formats as a helpful guide but to think creatively about their writing. Student writing should be defined by its content and stye not its format and paragraph numbers. As teacher I do see the place for formatted writing in the classroom I aim to teach it in a way that has students using it critically to produce and create strong ideas and writing.

Through Kenney’s self question, I turned to question myself and the impact I can have on students. Hopefully if I am ever in a situation like Kenney I can inspire my students to think outside the five paragraph box and express themselves as writers. 

Teaching Poetry

Poetry is something that I have always had mixed emotions about. Although I do enjoy listening to poetry, reading it individually and especially writing it has always been a challenge. I always found the structures and patterns when writing poetry to be very difficult. As a student I was always intimidated by reading and writing poetry. I feel that my experience may be attributed to they way it was presented and taught in school. Poetry was always taught as this very abstracted, figurative concept. It also never seemed to fit into anything we were learning. Occasionally a teacher would teach a poetry unit or pay special attention to it during poetry month. 

After reading Christensen I feel that she works hard to make a space for poetry in her classroom. Christensen uses poetry writing from the first day in the classroom to the last. I think spreading it out and connecting it into other units and lessons also helps students grow as poetry consumers and producers over a more extended period of time. 

As for writing poetry, I like how Christensen uses poetry as a way to create a community in the classroom. She has students write about things that are relevant and important o them making the process more authentic and accessible. By having students share their poems with the class it is a way for students, especially in the beginning of the year to make connections with other students in the classroom. Poetry sharing also gives the teacher a chance to make connections with students or notice any reoccurring trends in the classroom. It also offers students a chance to reflect and express emotions, issues and challenges in a creative and constructive way. 

I like how Christensen uses popular and famous poetry as a model and guide for student writing. Christensen and her students breakdown the popular poem and look at its elements and how they work, that the serves as the starting board for student writing. Not only does having a model greatly help students but it always the students to gain exposure to famous poetry and poetic elements. 

Overall reading the poetry chapter helped me to see poetry in a new way. I never spent much thought about using poetry in my own classroom. I think Christensen’s ideas of using poetry as a means of creative expression and community building could be very beneficial for the individual students and the class as a whole. 

Making space for cyberspace

As a starting response to these two chapters I had a very hard time working through the information presented. I think I struggled with some of the terminology used in the article, although eventually I was able to work through an capture the authors main ideas.

Part of the chapters that really resonated with me was the use of cyberactivism and how to show students the proper way to use the internet as a space to share their voice and even promote change. For students today they cyberworld plays a huge role in everyday life. May young adults these days are constantly tuned into social media and other internet sources. I feel that bringing this into the classroom and creating a space for students to connect and learn using social media is ver beneficial if done correctly. 

Reading this chapter made me think of a video I came across on Facebook where students in a high school used social media to spark a protest against an unfair and prejudiced uniform policy which prohibited the wearing of traditional african head wraps. The students using the hash tag #blackgirlswrapwednesday staged a protest where the majority of the student body came to class on Wednesday all wearing the head raps. I thought this was a great example of students using social media as a form of cyber activism. (Link to the video is below the post if anyone is interested in watching it… very inspiring and would be a great tool to show students down the road). 

Part of the chapter that I found extremely important was that the teacher should model the appropriate ways to be a cyberactivist with students. As an educator you should be versed in the media your students are interacting with. Setting up a lesson where you model for students how to use social media to create a community, connect with material or as a road of activism is extremely important. I feel if more teachers did this kind of modeling instead of disregarding the usage of social media in the classroom it would even combat the cyberbullying problem a lot of schools are facing in this new digital era. 

Cyberspace and social media are not going anywhere. Students will continue to enter the classroom more and more “plugged in”. As educators it is our job to make sure they are using this space in a critical, positive and safe way to both promote learning inside and outside the classroom. 

https://www.facebook.com/MicMedia/videos/1228077197215068/

Narrative Writing

In Chapter two of Teaching for Joy and Justice, Linda Christensen shares her thoughts, strategies and experiences teaching narrative writing in the classroom. In my experience in school, as I and many others shared in class before, narrative writing was very much overlooked. Especially personal narrative writing. I feel that this is perhaps because teachers feel pushed to use their writing instruction time on “more academic” forms of writing such as essays and research papers. 

In her chapter Christensen focuses manly on how she uses narrative writing to both teach and enhance concrete composition skills but also how it creates a classroom community. Christensen emphasizes using writing topics and prompts that fuel student response and allow them to make connections with others in the room. While doing this she also introduces grammatical structures and stylistic approaches to writing.

I found it interesting how she has the students share their narratives or even just ideas with the class. I especially found her Read Around method to be very valuable. I do however question if some students would be apprehensive to share their personal writing or if they would change their compositions knowing that other students would be hearing their writing. The most valuable part of the Read Around I feel is that it offers a way for student to give and receive constructive feedback. The point of the Read Around is not only to workshop writing but also to make connections and hear everyones voice in the classroom. I would very much like to adapt this method into my own classroom someday. 

This chapter really challenged me to think about the values of narrative writing and question why it so often overlooked. Like Christensen I feel if students are passionate about what they are writing about it is easier to teach them the more concrete writing skills like grammar and stylistic elements. Introducing model narratives as well helps students to work on literacy skills and allows them to make connections even outside the classroom community.

The most impressing thing for me about the chapter is how response Christensen’s students seemed to be about the narrative assignments and process. In many examples in the chapter she explains how students really opened up and talked about very personal and serious concerns. By opening up through their writing they were able not only to make sense of things for themselves but have the support of others in the classroom community. The students were often surprised to find out other peers were going through the same challenges. 

Overall I found the chapter very enlightening to the idea of narrative writing, something I too often overlook when thinking about teaching. 

Standards... Good or Evil?

Until recently academic standards such as the Common Core and NCTE have generally been presented to me in a negative light. I would hear teachers complain about making sure all the standards were hit. I would often also get assignment which seemed out of place and thats sole purpose was to hit whatever standard was stapled on to the top of the paper. 

I remember reading the Common Core standards for the first time and being very surprised with the open ended of the standards. They seemed very manageable and that they could be easily reached by a variety of lessons or activities. I became both relieved and confused by my previous encounters regarding the negativity of the standards. 

Reading both the Common Core Writing standards and the NCTE standards this week I paid closer attention to whether or not the two included some of the components of critical literacy ideology we discussed in class last week. I found that the NCTE standards very much reflected the critical literacy views .he standards ask that students generate ideas using questioning and problem posing, respond using diversity of language styles, use cross cultural examples and use their own language to accomplish their purpose. I felt that nearly all of the standards in the NCTE list kept in mind the critical literacy ideology. As I moved to the Common Core I expected that they may not be as mindful of the discourse. I was surprised to find that some of the standards worked well with critical literacy such as using claims and counter claims to support arguments, and writing paying attention to voice and audience. 

Reading the article about the PAARC test brought back into my head some of the criticism of Common Core. Although it is widely known that the test was overall not liked, It was very interesting to see teachers opinions of the test and their more specific complaints. I found it very alarming that students and teachers both felt that the questions were inappropriate for the grade level taking the tests. To me that is setting students up for failure even before they sit down to answer the questions. Another aspect of the article I found interesting was educators are concerned about how affiliated PARCC and the Common Core are and that if this goes to far how much of the education system will ended up to their discretion. This may have also been fueling some of the earlier critiques I had heard about the Common Core. 

Although I do agree there needs to be some way to measure student knowledge and make sure all students are getting a fair and equal education I am not sure that standards and high stakes tests are the answer.

Reflecting on Student's "Barriers"

Reading Gorski’s article I found myself at first reflecting and approaching his argument as I usually do reading about the troubles of the achievement gap and the challenges that students face. My heart breaks thinking that some students have so many outside factors weighing on them at such a young age, and that some of these “barriers” as Gorski calls them not only limit their success in the classroom but in turn limit their mobility post high school.

I thought back to FNED 346 my freshman year of college when these issues first really crossed my mind. I grew up in a community of mainly white- middle class families. My friends and I would often complain about our classwork interfering with our sports, social lives or other extra-curricular activities. I remember sitting in FNED learning about some of the actual barriers students today face such as poverty, racial discrimination and abuse. I soon realized that these barriers would also become part of my life and be in my mind setting out to be a teacher. Although, I may not ever have to face (hopefully) some of these challenges students enter the classroom with, it is my job as an educator to help them achieve success both inside and outside the school despite these barriers. Even though as an educator one cannot fix a students economic situation or home life, one can work to provide them every tool necessary for success in the classroom. 

I also really enjoyed how at the end of Gorski’s article he included those reflective questions. The first question really stuck with me the most, “Am I helping students develop a language that problematises deficit framings?”. I stuck with me because it seems like such a simple thing to do even though it takes a lot of conscious effort. By just changing the way one speak to students and word things like his example of “drop out” versus “push out” the teacher can create a climate of both acknowledging the unfairness of the current barriers students face while also placing students in a more positive mindset about themselves. 

Christensen and Brilliance

While reading Linda Christensen’s introduction to Teaching for Joy and Justice one quote from very early on in the chapter continued to resonate with me thought the reading and the next few days. Usually when I read, I find that the stand out point to me lays closer to the end of a piece of writing, but this quote by Christensen started out right in the beginning and really drove my understanding of the rest of the information. On page two Christensen states, “Teaching for joy and justice begins with the non-negotiable belief that all students are capable of brilliance” (Christensen 2). After reading and re-reading the sentence after its initial jump out to me a few things began to take shape in my head. Christensen introduces us to the idea of teaching for joy and justice, the central argument of her book not by defining it, but by telling the reader/educator where it starts. Immediately, I began to think of this form of teaching as ongoing, evolving and shaping, not confined by some singular definition so woman teaching in Oregon crafted. Next, I began to think of what this means as a teacher. Every teacher should believe that all students have their own capabilities and abilities to learn. Christensen takes it one step beyond. Not only should teachers believe in their students ability to perform, they should believe in their students brilliance, their students ability to grow above and beyond their own expectations. For me, when I hear the word brilliance it does not mean the student received an A grade, passed an standardized exam, or performed exceedingly well on a task. To me, the word brilliance means the student excelled beyond what they believed they could and reached a new level of learning. Thinking about this quote from a students perspective also brings an interesting viewpoint. In order for a student to be successful the class as a community needs to believe in a climate of success. If a teacher is accepting get-by grades and mediocre work that satisfies standards students will never be pushed to that stage of brilliance. At the same time, it is also the job of the classroom community to support each and every member to reach that stage of brilliance. Part of what also resonated with me reading this quote was that I found it to be an important reminder for all educators to keep in the back other minds. Striving for the brilliance of all students and fostering a love of learning in the classroom is I hope to always hold in high regard as a teacher. This quote from Christensen really pushed me to think deeply about this idea.