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.

The Process-Oriented Classrrom

“As Eric Erickson and others have shown, identity formation is the consuming developmental task for adolescents; and writing comes closer to these kids’ urgent personal concerns than any other school subject. After all, in learning to write, students are invited—compelled, really—to make sense of the world…” (Zememan 3)

I’m reading A Community of Writers. I’m eager to investigate building critical thinking of content information through the writing process. The text opens talking about all of the writing that students do—whether it be essays, notes, letters to friends (the book is from the late 1980s; I suppose this would be replaced with tweets and posts) and how these different writing tasks shape their personal identities and understandings of the world. When I first looked at this quote, I was struck by the seemingly optimistic view of our student’s approach to writing.

As the introduction continues, the authors begin to describe students who seemed to make up all of my past classes—kids who write, but who write with absolutely no sense of purpose. This was my biggest dilemma last year with my history students…they write, but only because I tell them to write…only because they know it is what the have to do. This is a big problem when teaching kids who are motivated by the extrinsic reward of a grade as opposed to the intrinsic reward of becoming a greater writer and developing as a knower.

Again, I want to reiterate that this text was published in 1988, and the authors are interesting in focusing on the new paradigm switch in the approach to writing instruction. They define this shift in ideology by 15 principles which deviate from the traditional grammar dominated instruction to the “process oriented” classroom. There list is awesome, its what we all want to have in our classroom—including things like:

            2. Regular and substantial practice in writing

6. Rich and continuous reading experience, including both published writing and the work of peers and teachers.

8. Collaborative activities that provide ideas for writing and guidance in revising drafts in process.

            9. One-to-one writing conferences with the teacher

All 15 are awesome, but these 4 really struck me, because this is what I want desperately to see in my own classroom. I want constant writing. I can still remember our timed-free writing…10 minutes solid…no stopping. Man, my hand hurt BUT I loved the writing that I did. I loved how much I could write in 10 minutes, it was always an accomplishment and I was able to get tons of ideas for future projects, essays and tests! Collaboration with peers always strengthened my writing and I loved the feedback from my peers. I became a great writer because my 10^th and 11^th grade English teachers did all 15 of the things that Zememan and Daniels say make strong process orientated classrooms.  It didn’t matter that were 25+ students we always had the one-to-one writing conferences with the teacher. I don’t really recall a lot being “instructed” to me, the one-to-one conferencing was the chance for me to verbalize the needed changes and to get reinforcement…that was the process and it made me a better writer.

I realize that what my English teachers were doing was giving me the power over my own writing instruction. I became intrinsically motivated in my own writing but I haven't seen that in my own students. Instead, I think that we (those in my school and schools like it) have become so focused on what kids can't do, that we're obsessed with giving them direct instruction. We feel like we don't have time to let students explore and to test their own boundaries and thus they become passive in their learning experience.

As I continue to go through this text, I am excited to dive into these tenets of a process-centered classroom and brainstorm ideas to make them central to my classroom and the culture of each class of students. 

The Start to a Summer of Confronting Ignorance

As I mentioned at institute, I'm getting married the day after our last session together. Before two weeks ago, I thought that would be my single transformation this summer--but it turns out this will prove to be a summer of a lot of changes. I found out a couple of weeks ago that I will be transitioning back into the English classroom at a new school. This change was of course my own doing, but I think that it is really starting to hit me how much of a change I'm making...a bittersweet emotion has taken over my mind these last few days as a result.

I could not be more thankful that this is the summer of my Institute experience. I studied English Ed as an undergrad and am almost done with my MA in English Lit, but I still feel so overwhelmed to realize that I am leaving a subject that I have become very comfortable with. I spent this last year creating content for two classes that I felt really good about--to realize at then end that I won't be teaching those classes again. These were two high level classes that I took as a senior in high school and they were two classes I loved (both as a student and a teacher). I will probably never have the opportunity to teach those two IB classes again, a feeling of regret sometimes forms at the pit of my stomach.  It has also hit me that I am starting all over again...sure I know what to expect in terms of paperwork and politics they don't teach you about in school, but I'm starting all over in terms of curriculum. This realization is the source my excitement and disappointment. I'm excited to go to a content I love, but disappointed to leave content that I dedicated so much time too. I also realize I'm going to need help, as I'm not sure what to expect for these new English classes (AP English III).

As part of this program, I told my fiancé that I would have to start a blog (he's really tech savvy so I knew he would have some ideas about how to do it). Rather than giving me any tech advise, his only suggestion was that I should blog daily that way I could really grow from the process. I believe him, but I have been very anxious to start. I write everyday, but those are documents with a purpose. They are lesson plans and assignments, handouts and instructions...not musings of my own reading and thinking. That's why it has taken me this long to write this first post. This represents a new start.

While I will still be working over the summer to create all of those technical documents, I realize this process of reflecting through blogging will help me grow, though I may not like what is always before me on the screen. I am reminded of the quote from Huck Finn:

“Well, Ben Rogers, if I was as ignorant as you I wouldn't let on.” 

This process of blogging may show my own ignorance, to me and everyone else...but the process is necessary. I remember my students complaining that they weren't ready to turn in a paper..."Ms. Summers, it isn't ready! Don't look at it!!" I would get so frustrated with this, number 1-I'm going to read it anyway and 2. I was always sure it wasn't that bad. It has dawned on me that when I read their papers, they were broadcasting their thoughts and musings too, just as I am now. The publication and sharing of writing is the sharing of one's inner thoughts, whether it be on how the day went or what one's thoughts on Stalin's dictatorship are; no matter the case, we never want to show our ignorance. 

When I got home from the orientation session for our Summer Institute, I was so pumped. I am ready to be surrounded by writing teachers from all different levels. I so stoked to hear your fantastic ideas about how to really integrate writing in a meaningful way for our students. I'm excited to talk about content and how that fits into writing instruction. I'm also excited about growing as an educator and writer myself. There's still so much left to learn, and I can't wait to dive in.