Happy New Year!
We got off to an exciting start. As always, the discussion was so important. Again, technology is at the forefront...How can we keep up? How can we use it to enhance students' educational experiences? All this technology makes me wonder if this is how people felt about cars when they were invented...
They'll be the death of us all. We'll be run over and never learn to operate them.
We have learned to navigate in cars, and we'll learn to navigate our way through the sea of technology. Should we be offering a "driver's ed." class for technology in our school?
Special thanks to Kate, Elizabeth and Phyllis for sharing with us. Don't worry, in our next study group time I will set aside working time for book clubs. Special thanks to Phyllis for offering her computers and expertise to us.
I am aware that the reading for this time is geared toward an English classroom. However, I want us to see how response groups worked for one teacher. If our students are to succeed, we have to help them figure out how to make meaning on their own.
Don't forget the date change:
The Winter Literacy Conference has been moved to February 9.
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11 comments:
I really enjoyed the TeacherTube "Shift Happens." That information was mind-boggling. I actually found it at home and reviewed the information, which is probably out of date by now! :)
Anne Marie Liebel's thoughts on Peter Elbow's writing model/advice are interesting ,and and I share some of her concerns. This very morning I received a new set of ELA Standards, which undercores Liebel's (and my)hesitancy to a ten-week commitment to the program. I completely understand the gist of the response group, but the time factor is my concern.I agree completely with most of her findings. Sudents do need to know what works, an honest and helpful audience, control in their prose, and growth in speaking and writing confidence. Personalizing Elbow's findings and creating an environment in which writers can be open to criticism and not fearful of attack can truly be a great way to achieve that kind of writing/speaking development.
As I face a new semester and
evaluate what to keep and what to change, I will no doubt take this article into consideration. This class constantly provides more ammunition in the war against,as Liebel called it, "students' ennui" and "lifeless prose."
This is Greg Blashka's Post:
1-17-08
Technology Blog
I feel we need to prepare our students as much as we can to live in the technology era. More and more we have become dependent on computers and other automated machines to make our lives easier. This has been a great help to most people. However, it also seems to have made others lazy. It seems to me that we have a majority of students who want to take the easy way out and only do what is required of them. They don’t want to push themselves a little to see what they could possibly achieve in the end. Even though technology is becoming such a large part of our daily life, we can’t stop teaching reasoning and problem solving skills. And some of these skills need to be taught without a computer or other technology. Students need to be able to solve basic math problems without a calculator and read/write without a computer doing it for them. And coming from a physical education background, no matter how realistic the graphics are on today’s video games it doesn’t replace playing the actual game itself. In the end, technology must be used as much as possible to enhance the student’s education, but it must not become education.
Technology is such an intimidating thing. The small clip we watched last meeting entitled “Shift Happens” brings to the fore front how encompassing and overwhelming technology can be. I suspect we are not the first generation that could make such a claim. There was a time when people went from walking to biking to riding cars, trains, and planes. But since we are in the midst of what will have to be called a technological revolution it just seems that something new is appearing on the horizon everyday.
As far as technology and education goes, there are many facets to be considered. The decision to purchase, how to implement and when to upgrade seems to form a vicious cycle from which we may not ever survive. Here at Brookland-Cayce, just the continuous cycle of replacing computer labs at a timely pace is difficult at best.
The most certain thing I can say about technology is that it is here to stay and it will only increase in its geometric progression to improve and upgrade – So hold on!
This blog isn't really related to the reading or the last class, but I wanted to let you know how something went in my class--inspired by the Elizabeth's, Karen's, and Paula's presentation in the lit focus meeting yesterday.
I had the topic and reading on tap anyway, but then, I tried to be more conscious about the how and the why.
My juniors are heading into the rhetoric and speeches (moving toward P. Henry and D of I--Age of Reason stuff). Last semester, I started with the harder readings; this time, I wanted to start with the more approachable thing.
So, here's how I used the Anderson mentor sentence and other ideas from the meeting:
After a brief intro of some words/ideas, the first reading we did was a 2002 speech by Obama. Instead of just one passage, we went paragraph by paragraph, doing the "what do you notice" bit--and they picked up right away where I was going--giving the "emotion" - "logic" - "repetition" - "fact" - "history" responses that I would have asked for. I had them annotate their paper with the speeches. Then, we talked about the terms and Rhetorical Devices more officially.
Then, they wrote their own "arguments" using the devices. (they chose things like needing a new car, a later curfew, the right to take a trip with friends). Then, they had to annotate their writing--just like they did the speech. This was my substitution for the "receipt" bit--wanting them to get used to taking notes on a text as they read/write.
I think this went SO much better than last semester's attempt at getting them into the rhetoric and language thing.
So, for those who weren't privy to the Anderson information, maybe we can have a quickie run through in one of our classes--it was an easy adaptation to something I was doing anyway, and it was a good approach for looking at language.
If we want our students to be ready for the jobs of the future, WE must learn the technology ourselves. I think teachers have become more technologically efficient but the FUNDING for the technology is not keeping up with the times. Also, we have so much technology that is now outdated. There is now a whole new career path ahead for what to do with outdated technology. I'm not sure how we can effectively deal with the large amounts of money that will be needed to keep us on the cutting edge of technology. I think this will be something we wrestle with the rest of our lives.
Elbow Room: Tweaking Response in the
Secondary Classroom
Drastic times call for drastic measures, right! Teachers everywhere are trying everything they can think of to get students to write and think about what they write. Some school district in Atlanta is even talking about giving students stipends to do homework! We really are living in desperate times it seems.
The author Ms.Libel was brave enough to allow students to rip into her personal writing. And she probably received the dialog she wanted only because she was honest enough to let her students know that she struggled with this piece of writing. Some students probably commented so they could provide constructive criticism. Others commented only because they wanted to prove to the teacher that she doesn’t know everything. What students don’t realize is that most teachers don’t proclaim that they know everything in the first place.
If we could only get more students excited about writing! It seems an easy thing to do. We have tried I-search papers wherein the student could write about any topic they wanted. That took the library media specialists for a loop because some teachers said that students had to have at least two book sources not to include general encyclopedias. Did you know that farm animals like cows and chickens do not have many entries in high school reference materials? But hey, we said you could write about anything!
Students do however get excited about free verse! I have seen some wonderful things in our Laureate. Keep up the good work Weston and Vickery!
"Shift Happens" lets us know that we live in an every changing world that slows for no one. I just hope at BC High that we continue to get the computer geeks that don't mind coming in the media center to show an old lady how things work. The kids don't mind showing me and I don't mind learning from them.
Today's Literary Conference was very informative. I enjoyed the three sessions that I attended: use of comic strip books, book clubs, and vocabulary lists. Also, I really liked looking through the books for sale. One of them, "Someday", was a really beautiful story.
In reference to this blog's article by Elbow, I wanted to connect this idea to my French III class. They have just started reading "The Little Prince". I'm going to try this response group idea with them. Right now, they read the assigned text, and then we discuss it. I think that the story will become more meaningful to them if they read it with their own opinions.
Also, I love the technology tricks that we are learning in this class. The book trailer project is a wonderful tool to use again with students.
Somehow I always manage to feel like a complete pessimist whenever I read articles like that by Liebel. Her remark that the gist of her article was a revision of the ideas set forth by Elbow so that the guru's best practice strategy could work in her classroom reminds me that all of the articles and all of the strategies are basically hit and miss. There is not a single strategy that can be taken and used as is. All of them must be catered to our specific audience, which changes not only yearly but daily. I love the idea of writing response groups, but the fact of the matter is that writing conferences become very difficult when you only have 20% of your students completing the assignments (even when in-class time is given). My English I classes and I have been working on a film review for the past week and a half. Today should be the due date for draft 3, but I still have some students who have not even written a single sentence. Having peer conferencing at this point is rather difficult as only one person per group would have a paper. I have been giving them time to write while I conference individually with students. In the beginning I only worked with students who had brought something in for us to look at, but by the time I was reviewing second drafts of some student's work and had still not seen anything from others, I began calling up all students to talk about their papers. I have even considered giving example papers (workable templates) to my students without work so that peer review groups can continue despite their lack of preparation. Maybe at least they will be reading some other students' writings and getting ideas for their own papers. I guess the main point is that it is just really frustrating as a teacher to read about all of these great ideas and wonderful strategies that are working so well in the classroom. Where do they make these kinds of students? And in response to the stipends for homework...seriously? I know that we want our students to succeed and give effort but have we really gotten so far from reality that we are paying the kids to go to school. Yes, paying students so they can better their lives. My students and I discussed this in class, and many of them saw the folly in paying students to do their work. To paraphrase their concerns: It would cause students to rely on a monetary reward for doing what they are supposed to do. If the money runs out, they will not do their work. Also, it may cause the students who are doing well to purposefully quit working so that they too can benefit from doing what they do naturally.
I couldn't agree more.
This is E. Hoover's Post:
Blog for February 11
An opportune reading for my classes—I’ve been wondering how to approach the revision process with my students. They’ve been writing, writing, writing, and keeping all of it in a folder. I’d now like to have each student select a writing and take it to a final draft for a major writing assignment/grade.
When I first began teaching, I was terrified of teaching the “wrong” way. I wanted so much to implement and apply everything I had learned in college exactly as I learned it was to be done. Four years into this career, I’m much more forgiving of myself and knowledgeable in applying theory to the classroom. I appreciate Liebel’s license in making theory work for her classes. As I teach, I find that I’m most comfortable taking a range of strategies and using them little by little, keeping what works with my style and my current expertise and modifying or throwing out (though usually not permanently) what is not working.
I wonder what happens to those multiple copies of student writing on which peers write responses. Does Leibel assign a peer response “grade” from these? Does each peer writer his/her papers back for later reference?
I tried to find the reference in Gallager because I think he mentions the same premise on which these groups are based: peer editing should be about peer response. He rightly argues that students are not qualified to truly edit a paper, and, from my experience with peer writing groups, that is true. I do wonder, though, where editing for grammar, mechanics, etc., comes in to Liebel’s writing groups. What happens, for example, when a student’s paper contains significant and/or many grammar or spelling errors? Is it okay for peers to point out this to the writer? I don’t see why not. Does Leibel cover these issues in her conferences with students?
About the technology issue…after Saturday’s conference, I was feeling very burdened with the new technology issue. Then I heard a report tonight about the music industry…that the way we listen to music now (less reliance on CDs and more use of MP3s, ipods, etc.) is greatly affecting music, particularly album, sales, which have dropped steadily for the past few years. The report claimed that because technology is changing so rapidly, the industry has trouble keeping up. So, no more burden…everyone (except perhaps those creating the technology) has trouble keeping up.
Technology is constantly changing and we are desperately trying to keep up. In a computer lab, I agree with Mr. Newman--it is expensive to upkeep and operate. There is not a quick fix or an easy answer, but we must do what we can to help our students understand and learn how to use the computers in a productive manner.
Elizabeth Hoover mentioned that we are all burdened with trying to keep up with technology (except those that create it). But they are probably more burdened than the rest of us...trying to combat music piracy, hackers, etc.
I enjoyed the sessions I attended at the Winter Literacy conference, specifically the one about blogs, movie trailers, etc. I am going to try and incorporate a few things into my classes. For example, I am going to try blogging and creating a movie trailer in computer applications class. This is not required, but will give the students "fun" use of the computers at the same time preparing them for the future...as we have learned...blogging is here to stay.
The writing program at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, where I worked as a teaching assistant, encouraged us to think about Elbow and Murray’s approach to decentralizing the teacher’s role in a writing, their approach to encouraging students to take ownership of their work—yet I’ve struggled to incorporate these theories into my class in any consistently successful way; so reading “Elbow Room” interested me. Unfortunately, I encountered little that I haven’t tried or thought already. In particular, reading this article brought to mind a time last semester when I had my advanced writers swap papers to read them aloud. These were arguments, and my reasoning was that if a writer had a voice problem—too aggressive toward the audience, for example—then hearing it read by another person might highlight that particular concern for the author. For the most part, it worked. And I was encouraged by how kind the students were towards one another, something Liebel noted in her article.
I would encourage any writing teacher to work with such an approach. There is something particularly rewarding about training students to respond to one another’s papers and then turning them loose, something nice about becoming an observer rather than the object being observed. Yet the problem with removing yourself from the center of the classroom is that you may sometimes feel as if it will get on fine even if you don’t put in your best effort, or return every assignment as promptly as you can. You can decentralize your position in your own head.
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