The readings this week were very beneficial to me as both a teacher and a student. I struggle when it comes to writing: teaching it and organizing my own, but primarily teaching it. I am not sure if it's just that I cannot find the time, but to teach the writing process seems VERY time consuming. I'm not saying it is not time well spent, but with the amount of things we teachers need to get accomplished, it is hard to justify fitting it into the schedule.
What I liked about the "Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing" piece, was the habits of mind. I think these are very important to develop in our students. To develop these, it seems creative writing assignments about topics that appeal to students would be ideal. The genre pieces project we are doing for our class comes to mind. All of us in class demonstrated the habits of mind because we were engaged and curious, the rest followed because of that engagementand curiosity. When students are invested in something they have chosen, it helps make them feel responsible and own it. After opening students up to these habits of mind, and having success with certain writing assignments, I think they would be more likely to attempt and perservere through different types of writing that may not appear as "fun" and creative. They'd be able to practice that fexibilty and adapt to new situations, once they are comfortable with writing.
According to "Frameworks," it is all about giving our students multiple opportunities to practice, and exposing them to a variety of different texts. Like Tompkins use of mentor texts to teach students strategies, exposure to all types of books, genres, and writing is necessary to have students build that critical thinking and rhetorical knowledge. Students understanding of rhetorical knowledge will only come through exposure to all types of texts.
We still must act as that guide however, that link between the texts and our students. I just wish I knew exactly how to do this. Tompkins talks in her chapter 2 about how important modeling strategy is for students, and I have read this several times, but noone ever says "and this is how you do it..." I mean, sure she walks through the process, but I still am not able to explicitly teach my students any real strategies. I can do think alouds for them, but other than that...?
Since I do struggle with teaching writing, I would love to have some writing strategies under my belt that make sense to teach. I have 45 minute periods, and that time flies. The Card strategy sounds great in theory, but to implement with my group of students...seems impossible. Maybe I am just starting to vent, but the extensive modeling that goes in to these...I can just see and hear my students getting frustrated and bored already! :(
Any tips/suggestions are welcome,
Signed a despairing urban alternative program ELA teacher
Casey, I appreciate your desire to develop your students' habits of mind and your worry about having sufficient time to give students multiple opportunities to engage with reading, writing and critical thinking in meaningful ways.
ReplyDeleteHere is what I suggest. In your open entry #5, come back to these desired outcomes you have and use this entry to try to design "HOW YOU WOULD DO IT?" That is what these entries are for. Not only so you can reflect on what you appreciate from the readings, but to use this writing space to plan how you could improve on what you have done in the past or to design what you will do in the future.
For example, how would you teach your students to craft a quality power point presentation -- one that would include an oral presentation as part of the project? Use Hicks's suggestions (as well as Tompkins and the Frameworks principles) as guides and actually try and plan out what you would do from day 1 to "presentation day." It could be with a PPT, a glogster, a prezi, or one of the other presentation formats Hicks recommends.
If the idea of designing a writing project that involves teaching your students about crafting digital presentations does not appeal, you could also take on the task of a more traditional writing project. For example, ....having students learn the craft of reading and writing a memoir. How would you design this type of learning project for your students?
Casey, you were doing a good job of keeping up with weekly expectations for this assignment. Unfortunately, it appears you have fallen behind. Entry #4 and #5 are past due. Also, Entry #6 needs to be completed before the start of class on Wednesday. Your blog will be evaluated this week.
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