Inquiry Roadmap

Thus far, I’ve taken a lot from this first part of the partnership week. My road map is full of “stops” representing all of the wonderful writing activities that we’ve done. At each stop I’ve had different questions that have caused me to stop and ask questions about my own teaching practice and the process of a writer.

Blogging to Retain Teachers?

Today’s Murray Card activity really got me thinking about how we approach teacher retention through professional development and connections. In my discussion with Steve, I started by explaining what my past experiences taught me about the need for a positive environment in the classroom (for both teachers and students). As we talked, I thought about how many people leave our profession discontent. I also thought about what was “ranted” about…particularly the need for teachers to hold each other accountable. I thought about the fact that there are some (very few) bad teachers who never seem to be held accountable, who never grow as professionals and who add to the negativity of the school building. This got me thinking further about how these teachers often are the ones that dominate the school culture…sometimes they’re the mentors who hammer in classroom management, diluting our job to nothing more than guards who control behavior.

Steve’s conversation and his own writing then got me thinking about where can teachers go to hash out new ideas and feel validated for trying to be innovative. The answer (possibly)–blogs. Teacher blogs are so awesome, I think of www.freetech4teachers.com, a website my husband showed me, that is all about innovative technology in the classroom. I think about how excited it is being in a professional development where great ideas are being churned out, and how exciting it is to get a new activity for the classroom. That’s what keeps people in our profession, and that’s what makes our profession important and relevant. We come up with new ideas all the time, but sometimes we don’t share them–because when we do we get told all of the bad things from the negative nancy’s in our school.

I’m interested to think about how the mass increase of social media will impact the teaching profession–and by this I mean helping teacher stay innovative and excited. How can blogs help create a more connected community that works together in a positive way?

Here’s something I’ve been playing with to visualize my thinking: http://Pixton.com/ic:v6959nqt

Classroom Culture and Inquiry

What is "good" classroom culture. This is something that I have been grappling with for the last 3 years. I've always been told that a classroom culture that is engaged, positive and pushing for greatness will lead to students growing.

As I think back over the institute experience, I think this is the most important take-away I have. We never talked explicitly about culture, but the significance of classroom culture was woven throughout all of the demos, through our writing into the day, throughout the improvisations and all of the other discussions and moments of inquiry. The culture of our summer institute group was so amazing. We could share our inquiries, we could wobble and we could disagree in a space which pushed us to really expand our understanding of writing instruction.

I think this phenomenal culture can be attributed to two things: 1. The fact that we're all at the institute means that we have a common goal and that 2. Because of our invested interest and our honesty we created an environment that lead to use meeting those goals. That's what we want to create in our classrooms--a culture of openness that allows for students to be honest and push each other. An environment in which all students feel connected with common goals--even if it means wobbling and being uncomfortable in some instances (because that's where learning happens).

After our demos today we were sitting around talking about our classrooms and some of the difficulties that  we've encountered--whether it be from districts or fellow teachers. When we were talking I realized that we've all encountered similar experiences, and we're all grappling together to create the best dynamic for our classroom, while measuring the demands of common core and our districts. I realize we all work to become better at our craft and to help students see themselves as source for knowledge.

I am grateful for all of the time spent wobbling with fellow teachers, as well as gaining new insight about how to help my students becomes masters of their own voice.

Graphic Organizers: To use or not to use?

Sarah's demo caused a lot of wobbling for me. I thought it was really interesting to look at all of these different models. There was a lot of push back to using graphic organizers because they can be so constraining. As I'm looking around the room, all of these organizers take me back to my days in elementary school. We only worked with 5 graphic organizers, but I realize there are so so many organizers for writing, and even though by nature they are constraining there must be some use for them. There must be some reason that they all exist and that for years they have been shared with students.

Our group talked about how these models don't suit us, but they may suit struggling writers. This brought a lot of discussion for the whole group. Lil caused us to all wobble by asking why do we share these (admittedly) constrained organizers with our students who struggle and they never can break a part from the constraints. Should we have students just write out ideas and work out the organization point later? But then the question remains, are these outlines for organization or to generate ideas? Do we use them for both? I think that Sarah's activity was great to show use that graphic organizers may have some use, but we need to figure out what helps us as a writer, which will always vary. I'm a fan of arrows (as seen below), but I know some students may find my scribble confusing. I'm not using my outlining to shape the paper--I'm using it to generate ideas, organization comes naturally for me once I sit down with my ideas to write.

This came after years and years of trying different models. This came after watching teachers do this on their own papers to show their own thinking. This is making me wonder where do activities like this fit into our process.

Thank goodness for Wendy! She's really helping me through this process and thinking about the theory of what we want to see and what our system requires to happen in practice. I think there is a perpetual fight between educational theory and practice and we're all wobbing somewhere in the middle.

Thinking about purpose...

Lacy's comment about the idea that audience and purpose being viewed as a constraint has prompted me to think a lot about my own inquiry into the effects of "standardized" writing assignments. There's been a lot of talk at among our Summer Institute group especially about writing assessments. There's a lot of tension about rubrics, writing prompts and how we use writing to assess our students. I'm not sure where I fit in on the spectrum of assessment.

I love writing to enjoy the art of writing. I love the risks that I can take when I write in my daybook and when I am exploring new genres, and I learn a lot from that writing. BUT I have learned a lot from other more academic writing. I have gained a lot from writing research papers--especially when it comes to writing about literature. I think there is something refreshing about producing an "academic" text. I also like knowing what my reader wants to see. When I write in my graduate classes, I write for an audience of two--myself and the professor I am writing for. I know my audience, I know what is expected and I like playing with the content to fit that description. Obviously there are constraints, and some hate that, but I don't. Maybe that makes me weird?

I also recognize that I am a product of Teach for America--a data driven organization. TFA is big on assessment. As a matter of fact, the first thing you have to do is create a standards-aligned assessment. Once you do that you figure out the skills and content that students would need to demonstrate mastery--backwards planning. I never learned that in my education classes, but it has helped me tremendously over the years. Some say "people get fired for teaching to the test" but those teachers were teaching the answer is "a"... In Readicide, Gallagher notes, teaching the to test isn't bad, so long as the assessment is a good assessment. I think rubrics and assessments can measure both growth and mastery so long as they written to expected standards and they are held to a rigorous level. Again, I stress that I am a TFA-alumni and the training I received from them has really shaped me as a teacher.

TFA is so data driven because they have show why they are beneficial organization--especially in areas where they are taking positions from more experienced teachers to go to first year corps members. TFA notes that their mission is to close the achievement gap that marks a distinction between students based on socio-economic factors. Students who fail tests don't go to college, students who never go to college perpetuation the cycle of poverty. That's why TFA is so big on assessment, it is the way to get kids out of poverty...the tests matter, and that's okay, so long as they are good tests. I think the biggest problem isn't that education relies on testing and assessment, but that this process have been outsourced to corporations...but that's another rant for another day I suppose.

Day in the Life

Permission to Write

I've been thinking a lot about the latter part of today, especially with Ben's awesome demo on "writing badly" and what that means to each of us. The culture of the room was awesome, because we could all share, laugh and reflect together. I wonder how to cultivate this culture in the classroom so that this activity would be just as successful for students as it was with us.

I've also been thinking a lot about voice. We've talked about voice in writing, but there is something profound about our speaking voice too. I was contemplating what Lisa Delpit notes about the language dynamics of our classrooms--and how the teacher's voice dominates the classroom discussion. I'm not sure how to address that. I know that was the case in my history classroom, but I'm wondering if the skills based approach of the English classroom could transform that.

Thursday has prompted a lot of questions and thinking, but not a lot of writing so I apologize for the brief post.

Questing the Five Paragraph Essay

I've been thinking a lot about the five paragraph essay, especially as I've been thinking about essay writing as part of our testing environment. The five paragraph essay is taught to our students so young, and every year it is compounded on...does anyone remember the hamburger as the outline of the essay? I think most would agree that the five paragraph essay doesn't work forever, as a matter of fact it only works when you explicitly ask for the student to create a five paragraph essay. (Does this mean that the five paragraph essay is its own genre?!) Even though most high school teachers would agree that we don't want the five-paragraph essay, it doesn't serve purpose for writing literary analysis or research essays, etc. Despite this consensus, the five paragraph essay persists. I found an article written as a collaboration piece by members of the UNC Charlotte Writing Project. In this article the cite a proponent of the 5 paragraph essay:

“Smith even ‘effort so congratulates force high school teachers back to teaching the basics of essay writing’ (16; italics added), when there is nothing "basic"about the five-paragraph essay. Its enforcement, however is certainly felt by many students and their teachers.” (16) 

I’m thinking about how there is a push of the 5 paragraph essay and why that may be the case. I think the idea is that there is structure and it is clear to explain to students and I can understand that. Students sometimes need a formula to get them started. We did this in physics. There were multiple formulas, you just have to figure out when and where to use them...sometimes you inadvertently created your own formula! However, the more I think about this, the more I see the flaw in formulaic writing. Students who are taught the formula of the five paragraph essay rely on the structure and they can't expand beyond it.

Those who are for the five paragraph essay are pushing for a mastery of the "basic" and then students somehow (magically) moving to more "advanced" structures of writing. 

This is a typical discussion in my high school social studies class.

Me: Alright guys, you have an essay for your test on Hitler. Choose 1 of the essay questions and respond. You have 45 minutes.

Student A: Ms. Summers, I just need to write 5 paragraphs right?

Me: No, you probably will need more--because you have a lot of things to address to answer the question fully.

Student A: How many paragraphs do I need then?

Me: There's no set number. Write as much as you need to answer the question.

Student A: *Stares back at me in utter confusion*

Me: *Inside: doing the Charlie Brown UGHHH!*

Students can not understand what I could possibly mean by write as much as you need. They think there is a magic number that every teacher is looking for when they ask for an essay question. This is explain is a much more academic way by Robert J. Connors: “"They represent an unrealistic view of the writing process, a view that assumes writing is done by formula and in a social vacuum.They turn the attention of both teacher and student toward an academic exercise instead of toward a meaningful act of communication in a social context"(119).  

So alas, the problem with the five paragraph essay is that our students get stuck into this mindset of what writing looks like. They see novels, short stories, poems, etc--but when it comes to writing a response themselves they don't play with other genres, they stick to the five paragraph essay.

I decided to look up what the twitter-verse is saying about five paragraph essays and what I found was quite entertaining. When people want talk about arguments or points to be made, they mandate a 5 paragraph essay (it is making of joke of the assignment). See below.

The request for a five paragraph essay isn't to get information, instead its to dissuade dissent. That isn't what we want to convey to our students! I'm really interested in finding ways to "teach" writing without letting it become formula, which is something I have struggled with. I see the problems with the methodology, but I'm not sure what to replace it with.

Studying and Reading for what?

So Sally's socratic seminar was really helpful. I have done socratic seminars before, but this is the kind of seminar I really like--it was on a text that I had no idea what it meant. I like this because I feel like grappling with difficult texts makes for the best seminars. People are throwing out ideas, revising opinions, agreeing and disagreeing and adding clarifying questions. Francis Bacon's "Of  Studies" really prompted a lot of grappling from our SI group.

I was particularly interested in what Wendy and Kim had to say about Common Core and Readicide (by Kelly Gallagher). If we are to approach Bacon's essay as a call for balance in our quest for knowledge, there is something to be said about how we teach our students and how we value aspects of our discipline. I am wondering what the purpose of study has become. Bacon said that study was based on "delight, ornament and ability," but is that still true today? In our culture, this is what our studies have become:

This cartoon comes from Readicide, and I was really drawn by the text. Kim has already done a great summary of the book, which you can find on her blog, here. I really like the introduction to the text, because Gallagher is real about what testing means for how we design instruction. He notes that teaching to the test isn't bad, so long as the test is good. His words can be found below. 

I think as teachers we still push our students to study for ability and delight (perhaps ornament, too?). We worry about curriculum changes because we cling to what we learned and studied. We believe how we learned was best and that changes that take away what we learned are somehow depriving our students of something. I'm thinking a lot about what is important to study in a world of so much literature and so much language. Perhaps it is better to abandon whole novel studies (I remember reading 16 in my junior year alone) for excerpts that are targeted. Doing this may mean students engage in a more meaningful way? Are they getting more from studies? Common Core is all about building connections between disciplines--which I think is something Bacon essay would promote, but if we are to build these connections we have to forgo some details of our own disciplines. 

I often think about the fact that people talk about the lack of Renaissance figures, like Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. These were men who totally submersed themselves in multiple fields. People remark that there are few like that, but it is important to note a couple of things before suggesting that this points to a decline in intellectuals. 1) There weren't many Renaissance figures back then either and 2 (and more to the point) We know so much more than was know back then...there's so much more to learn now! Our studies now must be more targeted, but as we discussed with the "Schoolmen," not too targeted. 

I'm also thinking about what this means for standardized writing and what Lacy has presented to us about grammar and conventions...I'm thinking a lot about what "authentic" means when we discuss writing, but more to come with that as I continue to tease out my thinking.  

Re-seeing the Past through Reflection and Writing

Revision is always something that I have both loved and loathed. As Cindy alluded to in her discussion of revision strategy, I was one of her junior students sitting in class looking at the list of possible revision activities. Because of those activities I came to appreciate the process. I enjoyed the time I could spend just thinking about my own writing and then rewriting. Though the further I got from high school, the further I got away from these techniques. It wasn't until I got into my own classroom that they started to come back as I tried to get students to see what revision (not editing) was. Today I started with a page of writing about my transition from the Social Studies classroom to the English classroom. I ended our revision session with 2 pages of writing.

I realized, through my revision, that my audience was seeing something more negative than intended. You see, my piece is personal and it is why I chose to leave my school. At the end of last year, I felt a lot of negativity and that needs to be seen to understand why I am where I am--but I don't want that negativity to define who I am now to the reader. I want my audience to see that I'm actually very excited about teaching at a new place and with a new subject and I feel like this transition is essential for me to stay in the education field. I was writing my paper in a linear fashion starting with where I was, which led me to feel like I was dwelling in negativity, so I decided to start with the conclusion--some backwards planning if you will. I need to see the positive ending before going back to talk about the journey to that ending.

The screen shot below shows where my thinking is going. I am writing a multi-genre piece, so the final ending will be the letter to students on the first day of class.

The reason I want to play with multi-genre is because I really think it is pushing me to think about things with different audiences and purposes in mind. It is helping me think about reconstructing the past and capturing the emotion that I felt in the last semester. I'm also thinking about the future that I want to construct and how my writing can help me do that.

On a slight side note (but not really), today I learned that my high school English teacher--Ms. Pillsbury, passed away yesterday. She was a really awesome lady who always viewed life with upmost optimism. She battled cancer for a long time but that battle never took her from teaching. During my senior year I had a lot of issues with anxiety and she always let me stay in her classroom during my lunch periods and just hang out. She spent a lot of time pushing me to be a better academic writer and to pay attention to detail. I appreciate her attitude and looking back I hope she knew how much I appreciated having her my senior year. As I think about the transition to the English classroom I want to think about what it means to connect with the written word, both as a writer and a reader. As I continue to draft my paper I want to think about her classroom. 

On Keeping a Notebook

One of the summer readings I assigned is Joan Didion's "On Keeping a Notebook." I am grappling with this particular essay. I wrote an assessment for the essay per instructions from the AP teacher I am working with. The problem is, the assessment is hard. I don't think the students will do well. I want to use it to show them what an AP multiple choice question will look like, as well as what a potential essay question may look like. I was planning on letting them use their text (after all they will have text on the exam), but even still I'm afraid they'll shut down after looking at it. My thinking is that I need to review the text in depth on day 1 to give them a sense of what I'm looking for in close reading.

I'm trying to think about what I want them to get out of this text. Yes, an introduction to AP English III is ideal, but more importantly I want them to start thinking about non-fiction and notebook writing as literary writing. As I was doing research I came across the article On Keeping a Notebook in the Digital Age. Obviously a play on Didion's essay from 1968, the essay focuses on what it means to use technology and how it can serve as the new notebook. I was particularly interested in the following quote:

My preferred method for idea capture is something akin to Steven Berlin Johnson's idea of keeping a "spark file" 

This is a notebook on the computer. When one gets an idea the jot it down as one would in a notebook. Obviously this meshes with Didion's idea that when one writes in a notebook they are capturing something, rather than recording that day's events. With this "Spark File" the digital article continues,

He notes, "...Most good ideas (whether they're ideas for narrative structure, a particular twist in the argument, or a broader topic) come into our minds as hunches: small fragments of a larger idea, hints and intimations. Many of these ideas sit around for months or years before they coalesce into something useful."

That's the point of the notebook (or spark file). We're capturing ideas that may not be of use now, but they will be in the future. I want students to get that message. I want to use the daybook, but I'm afraid that I won't implement it properly. I don't want students just to see it as a place where they do warm-ups or take notes when I tell them. I want it to be something they reach for when they get home to jot an idea down, or a place to go when they have no ideas. Thus, bringing me back to why I had them read this essay in the first place. Didion is a great writer, but she isn't necessarily what the kids are interested in. Her structure can be hard to follow, as she starts the essay in the middle of events. She breaks the mold. I want students to see that she is writing a reflection that becomes literature, and they can do that too. Perhaps I'm wrong to assess them on this piece of text, or maybe I need to reconsider how I approach this assessment.

Standardization of Writing through Rubric (Not Rules)

So Tuesday was all about student writing and how we assess those pieces of students' writing. It is obviously very difficult to assess something that we know is so personal to our students. I think about my own writing and how frustrating it can be for someone to tell me that I didn't "put in enough time" or "this isn't clear enough" when I spent hours upon hours working on the assignment and it is clear enough to me. Those comments may have had some elements of validity, but they didn't help me grow as a writer, rather it was those quotes that made me want to shut down. As I shared with the group, I seldom look at feedback from professors (I'm sure they would hate to see this!) just because I feel like it is always so critical. If I got an A on the paper why is there so much red ink?!

In our discussion after Kendra's awesome demo there was a lot of talk about giving students voice when it comes to rubric, recognizing the flexibly nature of what is considered "good" writing and again, the difficulty of assessment. I was reminded of a quote from my history teacher fiancé:

I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that. 

—Justice Potter Stewart

For those unaware, this is a quote based on a case determining what is considered pornography but I think it is also applicable to our discussion we were having on Wednesday. Determining what is good writing is hard, but I think we would all agree that we know it when we see it. We try to determine what it is by creating rubric because we want our students to understand the lens we are looking through. Throughout our discussion I felt like we were wobbling on whether or not that was a good thing for our students.

For my personal inquiry, I've been thinking a lot about this...I want to explore how the Common Core/MSL assessments promote a standardization of language which privileges a language that is not the same as the language of our students and their communities. Dialects and language variations all include rules and structure, so how can we label them as incorrect. If the purpose of language is to communicate messages, meanings and ideas can someone be incorrect if others understand them? This has been recently discussed on NPR when discussing the Trayvon Martin case. When his friend testified she used language that incorporated creole elements as well as African American English. The defense lawyers noted that they could not understand her...leading to an explosion of comments and fury on social media. Some claimed that her speech showed a lack of education and composure while others pointed to intellectual snobbery of the defense team because to them she was speaking clearly. Who is right?

This issues of standard language highlight class and race struggles that this nation has always grappled with. Standard language distinguishes who is the upper class from everyone else. To move up in our society you often (though not always) have to speak the language of the upper class. This leads to an alienation on two levels. There is the idea that even when you move up, your not really part of the upper class from some arbitrary reason and if you don't speak the language of the community you have "sold out." How can we get students to accept the standard when it isn't the language they're accustomed too? How can we tell them the standard is important without bowing down to its privilege?

This brings me back to our discussion of good writing and what I think about now that I will be teaching language and comp....good language. I think rubrics exist to take out the subjective nature of grading writing, but it is important to communicate that rubric only exist in one context...grading a paper based on the academic restraints. I will be playing with rubrics as I continue to map out my class. I can't imagine grading without rubrics and I think they serve a great purpose, they show students what I'm looking for in terms of style without necessarily dictating the content. Still thinking on this...more to come in the future.

The Problem With Writing Assignments

When writing assignments, I tend to be very long-winded. It is my goal to hand out the assignment (if it is an assessment) and to have my directions so explicit that I  need not say anything. Obviously, I walk them through the assignment...but students always seem to have questions after the assessment starts. That being said, I was reading through Zemelman and Daniels' outline of how to design writing activities and assessments. This is the guide that the authors provided as a problematic writing assignment:

Looking at this assignment I feel both good and bad, I see elements of my assignments and things that I would red flag immediately. There's a lot happening here and what is being asked for I think is too limited to one piece of paper (as required by the assignment). This assignments doesn't give students a lot of room (literarily and metaphorically) for pre-writing or revising. The time limit itself is to constraining, lending itself to inadequate answers. 

There are other problems as well, including the tone of the assignment. This is where I know I'm guilty of developing poor assignments. The directions are threatening and intimidating. I realize I shouldn't confuse "explicit" with "negative." Writing assignments should be positive and I need to ensure that I am addressing students in a positive light, not as potential failures. I need to be explicit with the audience. In the case of the graduation paper their audience will be other teachers whereas an in class assignment may just be to a friend, obviously that would greatly impact how the work is written and how it should be written. By establishing the audience, I can establish the parameters of what is expected. 

Another thing I found particularly interesting was Zeleman and Daniel's proposal to include: "rich and continuous reading experience." This means that students are looking at writing as they are writing. This makes so much sense. Students need guides, just as all authors need guides. I'm certain that great writers look to other great writers! This would be perfect preparation for the AP English III assessment, which asks that students look at documents to compile their own opinion and response on a given topic. 

When building an assignments there are a lot of different elements to helping students develop their writing. This includes:

1. Choosing the topic: "What specifically is meant to be the subject matter? Is there a wide choice by students? Will there be specific questions, texts, or materials? Does the topic lend itself into others? Is this part of a larger sequence? How does this part contribute, if so?"

Obviously this is important, it is probably subconscious to most when writing an assignment. However, I think I should work to make it deliberately NOT subconscious. I need to ask these questions of myself as I design these first assignments. I think this will require me to have pre-writing on assignments...

And so it begins...going through the writing process

Today was the first day of institute. It felt really good to sit around and think about the writing process and what it means for our students and ourselves (as both writers and teachers). I thought about my own writing background which looked something like this...

I remember that I've always liked writing stories, though my follow-through has never been good. It came to me today, while creating this timeline, that this lack of follow through may be the product of a lack of purpose. As a writer, I've always been driven by the product and the timeline that I have to meet. I write with purpose and while I don't mind free writing, mine usually drifts into making to-do lists so that I can feel that I have been productive. This mentality totally seems to go against our writing into the day:

"You will write
if you write without thinking of the result
in terms of a result...." (Gertrude Stein)

I'm always thinking of the product and what I need to produce and I think I share that in common with my students. I understand their need to think (even obsess) with the final product, after all that's what shows our growth! I want students to understand the process they are going through as their writing and I want them to love writing for the love of learning and writing, but that isn't how many of them operate, I don't even think that is how I operate!

That's where the Murray Cards gave me some enlightenment. I decided that I wanted to go through the Murray Card process in a way that was meaningful to me...thinking about my classroom next year and the graduation paper. I decided to outline the process that it would take to write the graduation paper. As a result, I realized how many steps students will need to fulfill the requirements for the project. That was definitely helpful, but the most helpful thing was to force myself to put myself in my students' shoes.

I know that they don't want to write this paper and if I'm honest with myself, I don't want them to have to write this paper. In fact, I felt like I should spend some time responding to the hypothetical complaints and questions about the paper. That led to:

I want to continue thinking about this response because I think this will help the most. Why is it important to write this research paper other than the obvious? If I can figure that out, I can do the most important thing....invest students in this process.

Literacy is a Social Phenomenon

What does writing mean to people? Yesterday I was watching Jerry Maguire. It has been a while since I've seen the movie so while I remembered the premise and the details seemed new to me. I was watching the part when the father of Frank Cushman (Jerry's biggest client) tells him that he doesn't want to sign a contract which would guarantee Jerry as their agent. He tells him (paraphrased) that he doesn't like them, but that his word is solid. Jerry, not wanting to offend his most important client accepts this explanation--until he realizes that it is too late, after Cushman has signed with another agent. This whole scene made me think about what putting pen to paper actually means to people.

Zemelman and Daniels explain:

Just as with small children, the writing of teenagers inevitably puts them in relation to others in a community, a family, or a social group--registering a complaint, taking a stance on an issue, asking for help, sharing a piece of one's autobiography, or even revealing a vulnerability. Writing does this in a different way than speech, for it is not evanescent but permanent and forms a record, something with legal standing. (49)

For students, writing is something that has real consequences. It is their writing that represents who they are in our classrooms--it is what we judge as teachers. We expect students to be eager to write on their own, but instead we are the ones pushing students to write (aren't we the one's assigning the tasks?) Students don't determine the importance of writing in the classroom--we do. We want student to be creative, but if they are too creative or challenge social norms that we think are inappropriate we punish students. If they write in a vernacular that deviates from standard English we penalize students. This means that we are giving students contradictory methods. Does this mean we give students total freedom, let them write in whatever dialect they choose? No. Instead it means that context must take center stage in the classroom. Our classrooms act as a "social context for literary learning" (50). It is our classroom that determines what writing is appropriate--not dictionaries or grammar books, because writing is a social activity and it is the classroom that will shape how our students write.

What is the teacher's role in teaching writing?

I'd like to close out this post with a chart from Zeleman and Daniels--one that I want to continue to think about. This outlines the tasks of the teacher during writing instruction (when groups are being used). The idea here is that the authoritarian teacher role will not work, instead they outline the following tasks:

1. Stating or clarifying the problem or task: Proposing goals and deciditing what needs to be accomplished
2. Establishing Procedures: Asking for and offering suggestions about hte best way to proceed
3. Asking for and giving information: Requesting and giving facts, opinions, feelings and feedback, searching for ideas and alternatives
4. Summarizing: Listing the various things that have been done or said
5. Keeping the group on topic: Helping the group remain focused on a particular topic or task
6. Integrating: Pulling together different pieces of information (idea, opinions, suggestions) to form meaningful wholes.
7. Evaluating: Helping the group critique its process

The follow up these roles with 7 steps to maintain these roles:

1. Gatekeeping: Bringing silent members into group action, aiding in keeping communication channels open
2. Checking for Understanding: Helping people communicate more clearly, particularly when not understanding each other. 
3. Giving support and encouragement to others: Accepting or not accepting other people's opinions in a manner that causes them to think about disagreement and not in terms of personal rejection.
4. Helping others to test their assumptions: Checking to see if decisions are made on the basis of irrelevant data.
5. Participating-Observing: Observing one's own behavior while participating actively in the group and observing the behaviors of others to provide feedback 
6. Checking for Feelings: Facilitating the expression of feelings; asking others how they feel when appropriate and volunteering one's own feelings
7. Mediating: Attempting to settle disagreements or differences in a constructive way; trying to bring about a compromise if actual differences can not be resolved. 

Autobiography and Novel Study

Since I will be taking on AP III, I have been working with the AP IV teacher to figure out how to help students prepare for both the AP Language exam and for their senior year. The language exam is centered around non-fiction texts and that seems to be what college board is focusing on. CMS curriculum says that junior English is focused around American lit, both fiction and non-fiction. What I am left with is trying to find a happy medium between preparing students for the AP exam while also giving them an experience that will prepare them for their senior year (did I mention some students will be coming to me having not taken an English class since Jan. 2013?)

Richard Wright's Black Boy

I want to have novel studies that are meaningful. I feel like if I just teach the essays proposed by College Board my students will hate English, so that has left me scouring AP English III reading lists for non-fiction texts that students will enjoy. I have decided our first non-fiction novel will be Black Boy by Richard Wright. I have been reading the text for the first time and I think it is compelling read. It definitely doesn't come off like an autobiography, Wright employees a lot of great literary techniques.

My only concern with the text is the length. When I taught history I remember assigning excerpts from Zinn. I would edit down the text to about 15 pages and students would be so frustrated with the text. You would have assumed that I had assigned students to read the entire history book with their complaints. What was even more frustrating is that students would come back to class and I would have some who had obviously NOT read anything....but others who would say "Oh, it was actually worth reading, it was pretty good" My response: "Of course it was worth reading! That's why I assigned it!"Wright's text is over 400 words, a thick and perhaps intimidating text to look at, but a really compelling read. I have to figure out how to present this book and get the kids into the first chapter (a very long chapter) so that they will want to read this great autobiography.

Currently, I'm still working on finishing the text myself, always asking myself what guiding questions will help students annotate the text. I also am thinking about how I can assign this book in chunks so that students won't feel overwhelmed by the text and I can hold them accountable for actually reading. I think I'm starting to see how this can come together. I can't wait to go back to POB to meet with the AP English IV teacher. When I left we were talking about which text I should start with. I feel confident that Black Boy is the text to go with, I just want to make sure I present why I want to teach AND how I know students will read and get invested into the text.

Democracy and Writing

“Youthful minds sometimes give way beneath the weight of correction excessively severe, become despondent and grieve and in the end…in their fear of blundering everywhere, attempt nothing” (Marcus Fabius Quintillian, 91 AD)

Even in Ancient Rome, it was apparent to language teachers that students have to feel comfortable to grow as users of the language. Practice is key for students to grown in language competency, and while that is what we are striving for—we can not expect it on day 1. If we stress the conventions, often times students shut down rather than taking risks and demonstrating “boldness” that we want to see (even if it isn’t on the rubric). I think what Quintillian is expressing is a sentiment that many of us have always held: we want our students to feel as though they are supported and cared for, allowing them to blossom.

In Community of Writers, as Zemelman and Daniels explain what is process writing, they reference their previous research which includes the following quote:

Teaching writing is connected with democracy, with teaching and enacting respect for human beings, helping them to respect themselves […] Teaching writing—if it’s done in a good way and not just to put kids though their paces—is about helping kids see that all of them are heroes in this country. The grow up to be the people who make it run, keep it afloat, sustain its values, suffer deprivations and self-destructiveness, pick up its always reviving struggle for connection, for community, for joy and creation.

This quote hit me like a ton of bricks. The connection between democracy and writing is so brilliant in my mind. Writing is about voice and really that’s the cornerstone of our democracy. They go hand-in-hand, but I don’t think our students get that (how could they if their teachers don’t?). The things is, we have to show them how to do this and then let them experiment to figure out that thing that we [teachers] can’t give them—their own voice. If we allow them to write, revise, write again, start over, write and eventually produce a product that represents them, then we are helping them understand the American system of democracy. We are showing them that language, like our society is flexible and constantly changes to fit our values and purpose.

Zeleman and Daniels explain that this concept represents the “Whole Language Movement,” which gives the fundamentals for a process-centered classroom. The whole language movement is built on students working with “real” texts—newspapers, notes, blogs, essays, etc. Students look at the whole text to understand how language works in context, as opposed to isolated drills (pg. 14). This makes sense for our students, often times if we break down all of the elements before showing them or telling them what the big picture is, they struggle. However, if they know where we’re going and what the end result is, they are more receptive to getting into the details. This was true in my history classroom. This past year, I really focused on book-ending my lessons—starting the class by giving a focus and ending with a recap and explaining how it would connect with the big picture. This was fundamental when we spend our entire 3^rd quarter studying the Cold War Era. We studied events all over the world and over the course of 50 years, but by the time we got to the end, students were able to see how all of those isolated events can be tied together to be called the “Cold War.”

Moving to the English classroom, I think it is important to look at a whole text and break down what’s happening with language, with elements of writing and with the audience to see the purpose of the whole text. I think if students see the big picture and how that is created, they’ll be more in tuned to explore in and practice mimicking it. Through the reading process students will change their thinking about the writing process. Zeleman and Daniels note that there are 8 fundamental differences in writing instruction between the “traditional” methods and the process-oriented classroom:

1. Writing is a process to be experienced
2. There are many processes for different situation, subjects, audiences and authors.
3. Writing is predominantly learned rather than taught
4. Writing often engages unconscious processes.
5. Writing processes are varied and recursive.
6. Writers learn best from attempting whole texts.
7. The rhythms and pace of writing can be quite slow, since they writer’s actual task is to create meaning.
8. Writing is essentially social and collaborative.

I want to focus on this last difference. How often do we think of the writer sitting isolated from the world, penning a masterpiece (Brave New World, anyone)? But that isn’t how the process goes. There’s a lot of collaboration, sharing of ideas, revision, editing, etc. I believe students can better understand the collaborative process if we recreate it in our classroom through the writing workshop, but also through the use of literature circles. If reading and analyzing text is done through collaboration, doesn’t it make sense that the creation of text also requires collaboration?

This all being said, I like the ending that Zeleman and Daniels give for the second chapter: “Orthodoxy is the enemy” (32). As I continue to go through their text I want to remind myself that I am reading them to challenge my own perceptions of what an English classroom can be. I am trying to explore ways to create a classroom that is centered on my students—which can be found in a single text. Collaboration will not look the same in every situation, just as in the beginning of this post I realize that not every student’s voice is going to be the same. Like democracy, the classroom must be set up to allow for fluidity so that it reflects the participants in the classroom. 

As the Roman rhetorician, Marcus Fabius Quintillian noted, students should practice and teachers "shouldn't stress correctness so much as 'boldness' and 'exuberance'" for it will make them wary to continue to write. Students much feel as if they have a place as the table even if don't consider themselves "worthy," because we as teachers know that they all have great potential and all have a voice that deserves to be heard.  

When you don't feel like writing...

Today is just one of those days. It was my last time going to Harding which is bittersweet. I'm glad that I've made the decision to transition schools, but I put a lot into Harding. I think these mixed emotions are causing me to be somewhat apathetic towards my own writing. I find myself just wanting to sit on the couch and do absolutely nothing. I think that there is also the fact that I've put a lot into next year's classes, but I'm not sure that I've really made that much progress. As a result, I think the best thing for me to do is to transition from writing and unit planning to reading. I have my kindle loaded with books, I bought two books that I would like to use next year (Black Boy and The World is Hot, Flat and Crowded), and I also have the book on building a community of writers from the Writing Project. Perhaps reading will help me write...(BTW, "Reading to Write" is the title to literally hundreds of English Ed/Creative Writing textbooks, or so Google Images has led me to believe).

The Genre of a Graduation Paper

I've been thinking a lot about the different readings that we will be working with next year. I've been thinking especially about non-fiction novels versus essays and which students will be more receptive too. However, I also realize that AP English III won't just be about the texts that students read, it will also be about developing our writing skills. We will have to work on exploring elements of rhetoric and then adopting those elements into our own writing efficiently...but there's also that dreaded piece of writing....the CMS Gradation Paper....

When I was a student teacher I worked with a class that had to do this project, in my first year teaching I assisted in grading the paper and in this upcoming year I will be on my own, teaching students how to write a research paper. I'm not sure I can pump myself up for this. The graduation paper is often a frustrating process for both students and teachers (I can still remember writing mine). Students often pick redundant topics (teen pregnancy, cell phones in schools, legalization of drugs), show a lack of awareness in terms of citations and structure in their writing and they don't feel a connection to their writing (which becomes painfully obvious when reading them). I was brainstorming some ideas with another AP English III teacher who shared his process. The process was very organized and I can see how it would help students. The teacher approached the paper assuming students had no research experience (an assumption that is mostly true). He developed assignments for each step of the process and walked students through the paper. Student's produced essays that were very similar in nature, as they were all following the same formula, and they included the parts of the paper that were required.

This makes me think about the purpose of this paper and what are the true goals of the CMS Graduation Project. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of students doing research, writing and paper and presenting on a topic that demonstrates an awareness of the larger world--but I still question why the project was designed. If the paper has been reduced to a formulaic piece of writing have we gotten our students to understand the core of research--analysis? I don't think we have. I don't think we have pushed our students to understand the genre of research papers. They may be mirroring a research paper, but they aren't really appreciating how the structure and components of a research paper articulate an argument and encourage critical thought.

My colleague was right, the students that we serve often are coming to us with zero research experience. The goal is to get them to jump feet first into writing and research and to realize that this paper can be a personal experiences. While there are components that have to be present in the paper (citations, thesis statement, charts, etc), the paper can be personal (and it should be!). I realize that a big problem with the graduation paper isn't that students don't know how to do it, but rather they aren't invested in the process. I need students to see that research writing is a genre just like songwriting, poetry and other forms of personal narrative.

I swear, this is what students do...but then I'm not sure they watch the full video....

So after thinking about this paper and the process that we need to go through, I think I need to explain the big goal that I have (and I believe is the intention of the paper): We are writing a research paper so that we can make a point about topics that are meaningful and have real-world consequences . We are writing this paper to show our ability to engage with a topic in a critical way. This paper matters and we are going to treat it like it matters because academic research is a significant genre that shapes our world. 

Reading Lists

Today was dedicated to trying to develop a reading list for the upcoming school year. A majority of the time was spent staring into the book of suggested essays and trying to figure out in what unit and with what major novels the essays could be taught in. The issue that keeps presenting itself is that there are so many things to read...so MANY books and essays and poems and others texts. I've categorized various texts in about 5 different units, not including the Shakespeare and Graduation Paper...which makes me wonder if we're going to have time to get through all of this material.

Part of teaching is practicing and reflecting and then changing. The problem that I have is that the reflecting time may come to late for the kids that I'm going to have in this upcoming year. That's why I want my long term plan to work. I'm hoping to go to my school early and get some feedback from somebody (really anybody would be helpful).

On a completely unrelated (well maybe not completely unrelated) note, I just got a message from a student who will be in my class next year asking about summer reading assignments. It excites me that some of the students are eager to get started. I hope they like the collection of their first 3 essays and the novel The Things They Carried. The essays are all about the writing process and the importance of finding one's voice. I hope they pick up on the theme...

Short post today, still have a lot to think about on reading lists and genre and how to group texts to be meaningful for students.

A good majority of my day was spent like this...

Genre and Grammar in the English Classroom

This evening I had the chance to sit around and talk with some other English teachers from my former school. We laughed about some of the foolishness that we feel embody English education--especially those who are back in the stone age of strict grammar instruction. Reflecting on our talks, it is clear that there has been a clear shift in how we teach writing instruction. Obviously those who focus on grammar aren't wrong, as a matter of fact their focusing on content that is often lost on our student. The problem (I have, at least) is when we focus on grammar without giving context of genre. 

Genre is something that I have recently turned my focus too, primarily because it was the last grad class I took. Sitting in that class was so eye-opening, and there were days that I brought in the previous night's instruction into my own classroom. Understanding genre is fundamental to reading texts, and it is also fundamental in creating texts. Students have to understand that genre determines how we write. When I sit down to write these posts I understand that I'm not writing in the same style as a I would for a formal paper--but my students never understood this. I didn't do a good job explaining that while the write essays in both history and English, the essays were parts of two different disciplines and weren't suppose to be written the same way necessarily. I was excited about genre, but my students weren't. I didn't convey that genre gives freedom. We can play with genre, mold them together, challenge them and use them to convey messages.

I think this is so daunting to me because the teachers who don't focus on genre don't seem to recognize its constantly changing nature. I'm worried that I could fall into that trap. Because we can challenge genre we can change it...and when I say we, I include our students in that. How can we punish students for bending a genre when that's what the literary masters do? How can we tell students that there are certain "rules" that they must follow (even long after they've left our classrooms), when we all know that the "rules" change (commas for lists rings a bell!)? From personal experience, I know that some professors thought my writing was fantastic, while others were probably appalled by what they were reading from me. That's how writing is though, its an art....

As I continue to read through my text and ponder my transition back to the English classroom, I want to focus on genre and genre studies. More to come on the topic as I continue to rack my brain with thoughts on how we define and use genre. 

Grammar matters...but in context. We didn't become English teachers
solely to teach rules about sentence structure. We want them to explore writing,
challenge their minds and express themselves effectively.