Wow! We covered a lot of ground in a short period of time...
- Britton's Continuum
- Hayakawa's Abstraction Ladder
- Situational Learning
Thank you sticking with me through all the theory "stuff".
As you reflect this week, please give some thought to how all these theories can help us become better educators.
If you would like to share how you changed your writing after the theories were presented, I'd love to hear about that. Don't forget your students would benefit from hearing your writing too.
What about "Overcoming the Neglected 'R'"? If you use any ideas from this chapter please share how that worked with your kids.
P. S. I really did not mean to cross out GOD!!!
14 comments:
Chapter 2:
This chapter brought be back to the split in the English/Eng. Ed. dept when I was in college. There was a camp of instructors/professors who maintained that writing needed to be essays, essays, and more 5-paragraph essays. If students were writing 5 paragraph essays, then they are not REALLY writing, and would serve no purpose later in life.
The other camp was the journal, journal, journal-- this is the " the best sort of writing was daily response and just-get-pen-to-paper" camp.
So, as I went through this chapter, I saw lots of great little activities (engagements) that inspired writing about their thinking, writing about reading, writing about writing---BUT--is all this supposed to lead to an essay? Or is this still writing that counts as writing simply because they put pen to paper?
Then, I feel inadequate because I do a lot of exit slip writing or question/comment/prediction writing or "I see, I ask, ..." (you know where I'm going with this)... and most of this does not include lots of revision and extensive inner soul-searching. When I do structured essays, I feel like I'm insulting the Journal/Response camp because the FIVE PARAGRAPH MONSTER (as Prof. John Something always called it) is just plugging in holes--not true writing.
Bah.
So, yes--keep writing---but to what end? To what result? When is the 5 paragraph monster really necessary? (in college, I was an English major--I wrote a lot of long pages of papers. My friends outstide of liberal arts filled out forms and filled in blanks with technical writing--no intro-body-conclusion for them).
So... In the end, I will utilize some of those ideas presented in the chapter....but am still unbalanced and unsure if (a) I'm doing enough and (b) if I'm not doing the right sort of writing.
But it's Friday. So I won't trouble myself too much longer about this.
THIS IS NANCY MEARES'S POST
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Once again, I am staggered by the statistics. We learned in Chapter 2 that writing of three pages or more in length was assigned "never " or "hardly ever" for forty percent of twelfth graders and that seventy-five percent of seniors are never given writing assignments in some classes ( social studies was mentioned) . This makes me so glad I am at B-C, because I know this does not hold true here. I have been told by faculty at other schools that English teachers were just shirking their responsibilities by trying to encourage writing in other disciplines, a comment that offers support for these statistics. It was good to see the list of primary reasons why writing is valuable to students' learning, including that writing imprints information in the brain and helps students' recall. Furthermore, it generates new ideas and helps them figure out what they actually want to say. I intend to copy and post this information, and I also intend to incorporate "pass-the-reflection" activity in my classes. When one of my English IV students questioned the necessity for "so much writing," I literally grabbed the textbook to share some of the information/statistics. It had a tremendous impact when I read the information regarding remedial writing classes for employees and the fact that many employers now use writing samples as part of the interview process. I picked up several practices that I intend to incorporate, such as the "attack the prompt" information, which will be helpful, no matter what the level of the class.
There is so much to absorb in this reading, but it certainly has been an excellent springboard for discussion in class. English teachers struggle to find time to address all the standards, but this chapter does provide some tips that personalize education and thus make our jobs a little easier.
Posted by meares at Wednesday, October 03, 2007
I agree with Jonelle's comment. I am always wondering that too, especially going into my ADEPT evaluation year. I mean if I have them writing for the sake of writing and because writing more will make them better writers, but it is not directly connected to a unit of study or if I am ignoring standards in order to achieve these writing goals, then how is that going to be viewed? Will I be fulfilling my job, or will I be falling short of expectations? The more I read about writing instruction and reading instruction, the more I feel that English should be a year-long course. I just feel that I am not able to tackle all of the necessary information. I guess the real problem is that it is a flawed system. If children are not going to be requird to practice their writing daily when in elementary school (thus not improving their skills) then by the time they get to me in English IV, there is so little time for me to do anything with them. The article talked about having students write longer essays. When I was in high school (not that long ago), we were easily required to write 10 page research papers (even as early as 10th grade). If an essay was assigned, two to three pages was considered an obviously reasonable length. Today's students hear the word one page and go into fits about how that is entirely too much writing. I just don't understand where the breakdown has occured over the recent years. I simply think that we have allowed our children to become intensely lazy. We need to buck the system. From day one we should have these kids writing and working and reading in our classes at all times. There should not be a lot of downtime, and when homework is given, it should be as a mandated law. We need to start expecting more of our students/children. If we allow them to be lazy, they will be. We just have to push them. They are capable of much more than they are showing these days.
Blog #3
Chapter 2 – The quote at the beginning of the chapter was a little over the top, but meaniful in the fact that writing and practice writing has to have a firm place across the curriculum. The analogy to the organization and practice afforded to the author’s basketball teams in his early years to what needs to be done in writing was appropriate.
The meat of the chapter dealt with examples for teachers to follow to provide for their students different opportunities to write. We have continued our practice of having students write their versions of various discipline offenses and it is awakening how much some students struggle with that task. While most students are comfortable beginning their narratives, they typically struggle to write and often end up wandering through by the end. The On Demand section of the chapter was particularly appropriate given the many times in a student’s year they are accessed by on demand writings (Exit Exam, SAT and such). Practice writing and practice writing skills are essential to prepare a student for these and other type assessments.
I related to Jonelle's comments regarding the different writing theories: journal vs. research. In discussing this chapter's themes, the author wants to make writing a more likable task for the student. It states that "good writing develops careful thinking." This idea would connect to improved grammar and spelling due to writing practice. Another statement by the author is: "writing is a skill, and students need to mess around with it like paint." I think that a lot of times, we try to write with a goal of perfection in mind at the beginning. If students are going to benefit from improved writing skills, then a lot of practice time is involved. For me and my students in French class, writing has always been like a formula because of the developing language skills. I have not really focused on major writing projects because I am always bombarded with questions such as: "How do you say this? and How do you say that?" They bring me these complex sentences, and want to translate them word for word into French. I tell them to use the French that they already know, and not to translate. It has made me realize that I need to teach them how to use the language that they already know. This chapter's suggestions are: daily writing activities, writer's notebook, and first-draft writing. I tried something similar to this a few days ago. In a unit on health, they were asked to list as many food words that they knew.
Jonelle and Maria, I hear you. My teacher training encouraged me to buck the system of assigning research papers and essays and instead assign shorter response papers, multigenre papers, multimedia projects, portfolios, or let students devise their own ways of assessment/evaluation. None of these alternatives are bad, per se, but I suppose the message I received as a budding teacher was something akin to “Writing isn’t important or necessary for all students.” Also, on page 28, when Gallagher references the No Child Left Behind legislation and more bleak writing statistics, I thought about the push these days for instruction to be diversified, more technology/multimedia-driven, and “innovative.” Somehow, this leaves writing by the wayside, especially extended writing; it’s not just a time issue but also an issue of the value perceived. When Gallagher relays the call for doubled writing time, I think, “How will I keep my students writing for double the amount I do now?” Writing takes time, intense reflection and thought, and independent work with just, as I tell my students “your brain, your pen, and that piece of paper,” but can my students do that? How do I keep them writing for, say, 20-30 minutes, and keep control in the class, with everyone awake and alert? Much of the answer, I think, is what Gallagher returns to continually: the expectation to write and to write a lot. Students can do more than (I’ll speak for myself here) than I often expect them to do. For example, my students created masks as part of studying the poem “We Wear the Mask.” I asked them to write a 1-2 sentence explanation on the back of the mask. Each student had to show his/her mask to me before I approved it as “done.” How many students I sent back for sloppy work, incorrect concept of the poem/mask, and for poor writing! And, amazingly, the students I thought had the most trouble writing, when I read exactly what they wrote, they caught their own mistakes!
I will begin by announcing that I have found my strategy lesson/experiment: the attack-the-prompt activity. I would like to pursue this because I have assigned already a timed-writing task and watched many of my students hit the breaks midstream to reread and then continue—no one did any scratching out. However, after they finished, I heard many of them talking about it, and one girl said, “I got two pages in and realized I hadn’t incorporated anything about the readings (a major part of the prompt), so I just quickly jotted some things about a few pieces.” Clearly, my students would have benefited from “attacking the prompt.” So I intend to have them write one timed task, using Criterion, without attacking the prompt, and then to teach them the strategy—over a period of weeks—and then have them complete another timed task, using Criterion. My hope is that the objective scores will reveal the benefit of Gallagher’s strategy. Is this a good idea, Paula?
Jonelle, I believe this chapter does a good job of mediating between the five-paragraph and journaling camps. By utilizing writers’ notebooks and a variety of reader-response techniques, Gallagher shows how writing can develop thinking, thereby allowing students to strengthen their ideas before they write about them in more formal modes, which, of course, includes the five-paragraph essay. Still, I think it is important to realize that the five-paragraph form models the elements of all good writing: clear beginnings that are developed by relevant bodies that leads logically to sound and hopefully resounding conclusions.
Even many types of creative writing, in their own way, adhere to this basic format. Numerous short stories have paragraphs with clear objectives, describing a character, for instance, and these paragraphs connect logically—even though it may be a poetic logic, as in stream of consciousness—to form a series of clearly connected events that lead to some form of conclusion, whose meaning may or may not be clear. My thesis director at SIUC, novelist Mike Magnuson, not given to artsy-fartsy readings of literature, stressed this basic idea: writing should be clear and entertaining; it cannot be the latter without first being the former. He often attacked me for the length of my paragraphs, which often digressed before looping back to their main ideas, and once asked, “Do you understand paragraphing?”
Personally, I agree with all the comments so far, and am particularly encouraged by Gallagher’s claim that, sometimes, in order to teach writing with the depth and consistency our students need, we must choose not to teach certain standards. However, I feel that the standards have become so specific as to be overly difficult to follow and therefore useless. We have become too concerned with teaching forms: resumes, business letters, friendly letters, memos, poems, stories, persuasive essays, etc.; and have lost sight of a simple reality: if we teach students to develop skills necessary to vary sentence lengths and to select words purposefully and accurately, and if we teach them to manipulate their writing always to suit purpose and audience, then we will need to teach fewer forms since forms, more often than not, dictate shape rather than content. As Donald Murray writes, “We should spend less time teaching writing and more time teaching the writer.” I agree wholeheartedly. Our aim should be to create good writers, and by good I mean competent, reflective and confident. Such writers can fit their writing to any shape.
Likewise, if we aim to create good readers by highlighting the strategies good readers employ, then we can help our students gain both the skills and the confidence necessary to navigate any text. Of course, as conscientious teachers in a standards-driven environment, we should still feel obligated to familiarize our students with text types and writing tasks that have appeared consistently on standardized tests.
Finally, I have a question that may warrant further discussion: should a school interested in improving the effectiveness of its school-wide writing programs implement a standard approach to teaching and evaluating writing? This question grows out of the National Commission on Writing’s suggestion that all teachers should complete a course in writing theory and practice.
As a non-English teacher, the text brought a question to mind. Do our students write enough in classes other than English. I think a lot of times our students do a lot of writing, but maybe the non-English teachers don’t realize it, because we think of the 5 paragraph essay as being true writing. However, writing in a marketing class, for example, would look much different than that. For example, one of the biggest pieces we write are handwritten thank you notes. These are typically 3 to 5 simple sentences.
I did enjoy taking a glimpse into the strategies in Chapter 2. I am thinking of how I can incorporate the notebook idea. I also have purchased a CD with the “right” way of doing things and the “wrong” way. I am thinking the method used to evaluate the Shakespeare scenes could also be incorporated as a way of evaluating the right/wrong way of doing things. In the end, good food for thought…we have to get the students writing, writing, and more writing!
The quote from Donald Graves at the beginning of the chapter was very powerful. In a manner of speaking I agree with him. Recently I have seen the results of a lack of writing practice from my students. I do have a Reading/Writing workshop but I also have two English III classes that are struggling with their ability to write. I do agree that their problem stems from the lack of writing that is required from them. I am very fearful for my English III students when it comes to the “on demand writing” that will be required of them in the future. It is amazing the amount of students who don’t see the value of their writing skills and how important they will be in their future.
Chapter 2
Overcoming the Neglected “R”
This is a time when I have to say the more things change, the more they remain the same. This is so true with student writing. The findings of Langer and Applebee in ’78 and those of Krashen who cited studies dating back to 1948 all say the same thing in essence, students need to write more in order to be better writers. But do we really need more studies to tell us that the more you practice something the better you become at it? Interestingly the author points out that twenty years after the Langer and Applebee study, 40% of twelfth graders report that they are never or hardly ever assigned a paper of three pages or more. Maybe this is because teachers are afraid that students will plagiarize if asked to write more than three pages. Perhaps teachers need to re-vamp what a research paper should consist of. The senior projects might need to be more than the history of names, or an all about me project where students write about themselves and include to baby pictures. I love Powerpoint, and Publisher and story board projects but our colleges and universities and most employers are looking for people who can communicate the written word effectively. The author is right on target when pointing out that a student’s ability to find symbolism in The Lord of the Flies is no good if that same student can’t write well enough to obtain worthwhile employment.
Hey, that SDQR chart looks like a winner! It appears that it could really get a student in to writing. The examples in the book are great. The notes and reflections on the movie is a fantastic way to keep students focused while watching a movie! I hope to share this idea with teachers.
THIS IS P. GANTT'S POST
Monday, October 8, 2007
The Chapter stresses a problem I see all the time in my classes. Students do not want to take the time to work at good writing. In content area writing, the students have to have knowledge of the subject--not just the ability to write. The writing may not be a problem, but the content is. The preliminary writing work is what they dislike the most and it is the most important step. If they don't know about a topic, they can't write about. When they complain they can't form a thesis statement, I remind them that it is not that they can't form the statement, they often don't know enough about the topic to create one.
THIS IS G. BLASHKA'S POST
Hayakawa’s Abstraction Ladder was really helpful to me in evaluating my own writing. I found that many times I would stay in the concrete area, hardly ever moving to the abstract and specific ranges. In high school and even college I would have classified myself as a “struggling writer”. I found writing difficult and tried to do anything to avoid it. Seeing helpful tools like this makes me wonder if I had been exposed to tools such as this early in middle and high school, if I would not have found writing easier? As I have gone on through graduate school and beyond I have discovered that being a decent writer is not a god-given talent, like I once believed it was, but something that one can work on and develop over time. Greg
I apologize in advance about this post...I might ramble a bit--crazy Monday!
I read "Overcoming The Neglegted 'R'" last week--and I've been struggling to discuss it on the blog. I was inspired by Gallagher's comprehensive portfolio. My Laureate students have been doing a comprehensive, creative portfolio this semester--but I never thought about seeing what writing they're doing (creatively) across curriculum.
I was also impressed by Gallagher's admission that "Through this approach my students will learn less content over the course of one school year( simply put, there will be standards I won't teach)." I've found myself panicing lately--afraid I won't get through the three texts I had plannned for the semester. However, I'm holding on to Gallagher's hope, "that by slowing down and going deeper into writing, the payoff will be longer lasting. I can't create deeper learning if I don't give my students the time they need to learn deeply."
As I read this book, I continually reference Gallagher's suggestions to my own ESOL students. Several statements in this chapter (2) ring true: Students cannot write until they are ready to write. I keep asking myself, “So when are they ready?” How can I know that I'm not asking them to do things they're not capable of doing? I think that because many of my students haven't had much opportunity to write in their primary language (L1), they are all the more reticent to write in the second (or third or more!) language (L2). Writing is thinking on paper, isn't it? (Donald Davis in Writing as a Second Language suggests that “writing is a whole new language in and of itself.” (Davis, p. 29.) Davis suggests a strong story-telling element is necessary in order to learn language, and that students need to practice re-telling the stories.)
I could definitely see the benefit of practicing Gallagher's on-demand writing exercises, especially breaking down the prompt and having students put it back together. This is a technique my students could manage, and I'm excited about trying it with them.
One writing technique I've used with ESOL students is “Tell me the story, and I'll write it for you.” After the story is related, the teacher asks the student to read it back to him. The student realizes, sometimes for the first time, that he is capable of “writing.” I want to try this again, but this time have the student re-read (after copying) his story several times.
At this point I have many more questions than answers! I'm glad we're talking about this new language of writing.
Thanks.
Nancy
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