Content Area Writing
(Page 4) “But for now, we need to admit: We are not tapping kids’ vast out-of-school authoring experience.”
I have been reading so much lately about the “Digital Divide” between students and teachers these days. The Digital Divide notes there are two kinds of people: Digital Natives (those—students and probably some of you younger teachers—who have always been around technology) and Digital Immigrants (those of us who are a bit older, haven’t always had the technology, and are learning it—okay, some of us are learning it). The problem is we Immigrants aren’t acknowledging just how important of a role technology plays and are losing lots of opportunity for good teaching because of it. I’ll be the first to tell you that I don’t know how to text (nor can I understand how quickly kids can do it), but how cool would it be to have students write a text message conversation between two characters? What about creating a MySpace page for a historical figure? Or even have students create their own blog pages related to class? Kids do a whole lot more writing than we give them credit for, and we’ve got to start incorporating that into our lessons. Do they need to learn how to write traditional things like essays, resumes, etc.? Of course they do. But I think we can use the Native style of writing as a tool in our classrooms to extend learning as well.
A bit of extra commentary about this: Nicole, I think you are a Digital Native. I remember last year when we went to see Jim Trelease for a class, he used overheads for his presentation. I didn’t even give it a second thought, but I remember you commenting that you wished he had used something more updated like PowerPoint!
Teaching Adolescent Writers
(Page 6) “…between 1998 and 2002, the scores of twelfth grade students declined, with lowest performing students showing the greatest declines. Only seniors writing in the 75th percentile or higher showed any growth from 1998; all other twelfth-grade students declined.”
This is one of my biggest concerns. I feel like we do a really great job on getting our students prepped for HSAP in ninth and tenth grades then once they finish, sometimes the attitude of “Okay, they passed, so they can write; we don’t need to spend any more time on that” takes over. The thing with HSAP is that just because you pass it does not mean you’re a great writer. HSAP writing is just one genre of writing and we need to make sure kids understand that. I’ve seen some pretty high scores for the HSAP with students who were not the most fabulous writers. So, how do we stress the importance of good writing beyond the tenth grade?
On another note, since Gallagher brought up the whole NAEP test and the State Department has just released AYP information, I wanted to make sure that y’all are aware of what the NAEP test is and its significance. NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) is a standardized test that is given to random schools across the country. Subtests are given on a variety of subjects including reading, writing, and math, among others. You know how we in South Carolina are constantly getting slammed about our lousy test scores, we have too many kids failing PACT and HSAP, blah, blah, blah? Here’s the thing that most people don’t get: South Carolina has some of the highest standards in the country and our definition of what basic, proficient, and advanced on our state tests are higher than what other states set for their tests. So, when our students take the NAEP tests, the ones who scored proficient and advanced on our state tests score about the same on the NAEP test. MANY other states have an inflated sense of what is proficient and advanced performance. Their students may score proficient or advanced on the state test, but when they take NAEP, they’re bombing out and scoring much lower…their students are really no different their ours; they just have an easier grading scale, so to speak, on their state tests.
(Page 4) “But for now, we need to admit: We are not tapping kids’ vast out-of-school authoring experience.”
I have been reading so much lately about the “Digital Divide” between students and teachers these days. The Digital Divide notes there are two kinds of people: Digital Natives (those—students and probably some of you younger teachers—who have always been around technology) and Digital Immigrants (those of us who are a bit older, haven’t always had the technology, and are learning it—okay, some of us are learning it). The problem is we Immigrants aren’t acknowledging just how important of a role technology plays and are losing lots of opportunity for good teaching because of it. I’ll be the first to tell you that I don’t know how to text (nor can I understand how quickly kids can do it), but how cool would it be to have students write a text message conversation between two characters? What about creating a MySpace page for a historical figure? Or even have students create their own blog pages related to class? Kids do a whole lot more writing than we give them credit for, and we’ve got to start incorporating that into our lessons. Do they need to learn how to write traditional things like essays, resumes, etc.? Of course they do. But I think we can use the Native style of writing as a tool in our classrooms to extend learning as well.
A bit of extra commentary about this: Nicole, I think you are a Digital Native. I remember last year when we went to see Jim Trelease for a class, he used overheads for his presentation. I didn’t even give it a second thought, but I remember you commenting that you wished he had used something more updated like PowerPoint!
Teaching Adolescent Writers
(Page 6) “…between 1998 and 2002, the scores of twelfth grade students declined, with lowest performing students showing the greatest declines. Only seniors writing in the 75th percentile or higher showed any growth from 1998; all other twelfth-grade students declined.”
This is one of my biggest concerns. I feel like we do a really great job on getting our students prepped for HSAP in ninth and tenth grades then once they finish, sometimes the attitude of “Okay, they passed, so they can write; we don’t need to spend any more time on that” takes over. The thing with HSAP is that just because you pass it does not mean you’re a great writer. HSAP writing is just one genre of writing and we need to make sure kids understand that. I’ve seen some pretty high scores for the HSAP with students who were not the most fabulous writers. So, how do we stress the importance of good writing beyond the tenth grade?
On another note, since Gallagher brought up the whole NAEP test and the State Department has just released AYP information, I wanted to make sure that y’all are aware of what the NAEP test is and its significance. NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) is a standardized test that is given to random schools across the country. Subtests are given on a variety of subjects including reading, writing, and math, among others. You know how we in South Carolina are constantly getting slammed about our lousy test scores, we have too many kids failing PACT and HSAP, blah, blah, blah? Here’s the thing that most people don’t get: South Carolina has some of the highest standards in the country and our definition of what basic, proficient, and advanced on our state tests are higher than what other states set for their tests. So, when our students take the NAEP tests, the ones who scored proficient and advanced on our state tests score about the same on the NAEP test. MANY other states have an inflated sense of what is proficient and advanced performance. Their students may score proficient or advanced on the state test, but when they take NAEP, they’re bombing out and scoring much lower…their students are really no different their ours; they just have an easier grading scale, so to speak, on their state tests.
14 comments:
SCRI reading due October 13, 2008
Chapter 1 Writing in the Content Areas
True story – The majority of Airport High School teachers who attended the SMART Board hands on practice session a couple of weeks ago were veteran teachers (in their 40’s and 50’s). Isn’t that amazing? I am so proud of these folks. It takes courage to come to an inservice like that and want to learn the new technology.
This is my favorite book of all three we are reading in SCRI. I can tell it is going to challenge the way I have been thinking in my professional life. For instance, on page 17 the authors assert that “traditional research papers waste everyone’s time, but can be replaced with four better models.” Okay, that got my attention, and it makes me want to read on! It goes against everything I was taught a zillion years ago in library school (but then again, students today would have no idea what on earth that old monstrosity called a card catalog would be used for!).
Chapter 1 Teaching Adolescent Writers
The eight reasons students should develop their writing skills (p. 15-22) are thought provoking. I know of English teachers at Airport High that students go on and on about being so “hard.” These teachers have a reputation for expecting a lot (especially in the way of writing) from their students, and these are the students we often see staying late in the media center putting the finishing touches on projects.
The thing is, and I know you all can anticipate what I am about to say, these students ALL say after the fact they learned so much from these teachers. These students come to the realization these teachers prepared them for the challenges they would face in higher ed. classrooms. The really neat thing is when this (aha moment) happens during the course of the semester. Thomas Friedman would stand and applaud their efforts! I am unsure whether students’ motivation in these instances are extrinsic or intrinsic, but the students are definitely prepared for college.
I like how Gallagher appeals to students’ intrinsic motivation. He really does remove the grade component from why it is so important students become writers. His reason #4 for students to become writers (writing helps to fight oppression) is the most powerful in my mind. The graduation rate on the opposite page is startling. These are mind boggling discrepancies between the states.
Teaching Adolescent Writers
I feel like I could write so much about this week’s reading. First of all, I totally agree with you, Diane. I think we need to use the writing students participate in every day to encourage writing in our classroom. I was sharing with Laura McNair last year about an idea I had. I think it would be cool to have the kids create a Myspace page for a character in a book. They would have to include all of the background information, interests, hobbies, education, favorite movies, books, music, etc. They could also create a “wall” of posts including messages other characters would be writing to them. And while they may not find all of this information in the book, they can infer what the characters might be interested in based on what they do know from the book. This is not only fun to the students, but it also makes them think about what they’re reading. They’re automatically analyzing character…in a way that’s familiar to them. It’s no different than writing as cool as multigenre papers. It allows the students to creatively respond to the text. I love the thought of it.
I’m so relieved that Gallagher is going to discuss ways that I can include more writing in my classroom on a regular basis without “driving the teacher to a lifelong residence in a rubber room.” As painful as it is to admit, there are times I feel like I don’t give as many writing assignments as I should because I feel like it would drive me to insanity. With 123 kids, it’s tough. I am eager to learn all of the strategies that will assist me in helping my students daily to improve as writers, without making me go bananas along the way!
Finally, I love that Gallagher wrote, “Out students’ chances of developing into effective writers will be maximized only if teachers in all content areas take ownership of their district and state writing standards.” Amen. I believe the other teachers on my team do a great job of promoting writing in each of their classes. I’m thankful for that. I know I couldn’t help all of our students as writers without all of their help. I believe, though, we’re doing an injustice to our kids when all of the teachers don’t help to carry this load.
Content Area Writing
I love the conversation in this book among Nancy, Steve, Smokey, and teachers. On page three it reads,
Well, English teachers actually have some content to teach, too—like literature, and lots of it. And they are doing plenty with the kids’ writing: basic composing skills, organizational patterns, vocabulary, usage, and mechanics. But that’s not enough to ensure superior writing in your class.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE teaching English, but there’s just soooo much to cover in it. I truly believe that our students would improve leaps and bounds on our testing (like HSAP), if all teachers will continue to help with writing. I believe we’ve gotten better because of the push of writing across the curriculum, but I think we have so much room for improvement…especially if all teachers would jump on the bandwagon!
Oh, and Diane, thanks for the info about the NAEP tests. That is quite encouraging!
Content Area Writing
I have the advantage, along with a few others, of having had the opportunity to read this book last year. As a result, I took a few minutes to skim what I highlighted last year that I might want to comment on this year. I love the quote on p. 4 about our students and all of the writing that they do outside of school. “We are not tapping kids’ vast out-of-school authoring experience. The kids are composing and publishing with us or without us, and we are not building a bridge from what they are writing to what we know and can share.” Ruth Anne, I read your ideas about the myspace pages for a character from a novel. I attended Diane Hartness’ presentation at last year’s Winter Literacy Conference, and she gave us a template for creating a myspace page. I will look for it and bring it to class to share with everyone. Being a technology immigrant, I have to admit that I have never looked at a myspace page; maybe, one of you young things would show me yours sometime to help me catch up with the 21st century. Something else I highlighted last year on page 17 is interesting in light of our district staff development initiative. “Writing is the key to differentiation in diverse classrooms.” My students write daily in a writing journal. I only give them a topic once or twice a week; the other days are free choice. It’s the best way I know to get to know my students, to let them practice their writing daily, and I am differentiating by topic on the days that they choose what to write about in their journals.
Teaching Adolescent Writers
I love this book and Kelly Gallagher. His writing style is so inviting; as you read his book, it’s like you’re just having a conversation with him about what he does in his classroom. I have read three of his professional books, and I will gladly read the next one he publishes. He includes many sports references in his books. I will comment on one in a minute. I am so jealous of Diane, because she will get to hear him speak in December. She has promised to take my book with her to get him to sign it! For those of you looking for some ways to include writing in your classroom, read ahead on pages 94 -106. He has ten writing assignments to use early in the year. Having read this book last year, I am working through this list of activities. I have already done Find the Fib, Establishing Writing Territories, The Myth of a Boring Topic (index card), and Explorations. Okay the sports reference, on page 17; he explains why he tells his students the story of his high school basketball coach. “I tell them the story of my coach because I want them to understand that writing is a good place to sort out your thoughts when the world seems to be crashing down.” One of my seniors last year was on the football team. He wasn’t a reluctant writer; he had no problem writing in his journal everyday; but for the most part, he only wrote the required ten lines, a few more than that on occasion. I kept telling him that he would write more when he really had something to say. When the team lost in the playoffs last year, he suddenly had something to say. The next week he wrote a page front and back every day in his writing journal. He wrote about the importance of football in his life and school, the friendships he had made, what he would miss the most now that his career was over, and his position coach. He poured his heart out, because he needed to do so to get through a tough time in his life. It was definitely a WOW moment for me as his teacher!
Chapter One
I do not think we are having a writing crises. Students do struggle with writing, but students write constantly through texting and myspace. Students often are not given credit for that style of writing. That writing has a different style than our formal papers such as research papers. I think students need to know how to write reasearch papers and put together formal letters and resumes. However, I do think we should include more of their writing styles in how we teach them. I agree with Diane that we need to put more of an emphasis on writing and not just for testing purposes.
Gallagher
I really do like his style of writing. I really enjoyed his writing reasons. I think students have been told some of these reasons before such as writing makes you a better reader and writing helps you get into college. The ones that really stick out to me is #1 -writing is hard but hard is rewarding and #4- writing helps to fight oppression.
If I was still teaching I would definitely communicate these writing reasons to my students.
Even though I am no longer in the classroom and have moved into administration, I have students write statements on a daily basis. The one thing I notice about students' writing is their spelling. Often their spelling is so bad that it is hard to understand what they wrote.
The next to the last thing I read had the most impact on me. "You are a much beter writer than you think, no matter how discouraging your own school experience might have been. You are ready to caoch young writers."
I didn't have a bad experience in school about my writing. I was an okay writer and had passing marks in my ELA classes. But I am not a very confident writer. I don't like to share in class because of this. I am not a creative writer. I am not witty. I am technical. Well duh, right?! I think technically therefore I write technically. I can write a kick butt lab report or research paper. Informational text is my forte. And this is the area of writing I am most interested in working on with my students. This year I plan to improve my students' writing in the technical genre. I have already implemented lab notebooks where my students have to keep up with all data and analysis for each lab activity we do. I think this will greatly improve their skills at answering analytical type questions. I have already seen vast improvements since I have implemented a no "it" rule. My students never define the word "it." So they are no longer allowed to use this word when answering questions in my class. Their answers have already been much better.
When reading I heard mention of constructed response questions for science. I would really like to get my hand on some sample questions to share with my students. I know they don't have science on HSAP but I really like the idea of knowing how my students derived their answers to multiple choice questions. I would like to see how well they would do on a constructed response. Diane, do you know where I might look for some sample science constructed response questions?
Deb said………
SCRI reading due Oct. 13, 2008
Writing in the Content Areas: Chapter 1
In this section the authors are having a conversation with the reader: page 3 states: “You: I still don’t think you understand my situation. At my school, I have a huge mandated curriculum to teach, and it is enforced with a tough state test. Our classes are bigger than ever, and we have more special education and ELL (English language learner) kids in every class and many of my kids have special needs beyond those of typical students. And now you want to add on another job? Make me into a writing teacher?”
I am a Special Education teacher and I know the different challenges that I face with my students so I find myself sympathizing with the challenges that the regular education teachers must feel. Sometimes, I feel very overwhelmed when it comes to teaching and motivating my students about the importance of writing and how beneficial it would be in their daily lives. Their basics of writing are lacking, the spelling is atrocious, and the handwriting is difficult to read; and the students’ background knowledge is limited thus pulling their thoughts together to write more than simple sentence is limited. My hope and my desire for my students are to improve their writing abilities by providing them lots of opportunities to write. My students must write in their journals each day and on their response logs. I usually provide a given topic, and amazingly some of my students have provided some wonderful topics to write about in their journals. I want to be able to help, motivate, and introduce more, better, and different reading and writing strategies to enhance my students’ writing. By taking this class and last years class I am hoping they will equip me to provide more opportunities to help my students improve in all aspects of literacy. My greatest desire is that my students would feel the passion, desire, and joy of being lifelong readers and writers.
I am looking forward to reading Chapters 3 and 4 to get the specific writing-to-learn activities for any content area and the step-by-step instructions on how to use each one.
Teaching Adolescent Writers: Chapter 1
In reading, Gallagher’s Top Ten Writing Wrongs in Secondary Schools, page 9, the points that stood out for me: #1. Students are not doing enough writing. The author states, “To significantly improve their writing skills our students need to swim in the writing “pool” much more frequently”. My students are required each day to write in their response logs about the novels they are reading, and to write in their journals. In reading what the author is advising, I need to provide more and greater opportunities for my students to write. I guess this old saying never fails, that practice makes perfect. #3 states, Below-grade-level writers are asked to write less than others instead of more than others. I agree with the author that this is true because writing often is very difficult for these students to produce the quality and quantity of what is required in more experienced writers. They lack the skills, strategies, and often the penmanship to produce that ideal writing piece, and that is why I want to do everything I can by getting the training necessary to encourage, inspire, and influence my students that they can become good writers. The last one was #9 which states, Teachers are doing too much of the work. Students are not doing enough work. A. I want my students to learn that “work” is a good four-letter word. B. I want them to turn in work that they put their best effort into and take pride in their work. C. I want my students to assist one another with revising each other work.
Lastly, the thing I found most inspirational and beneficial to me was in reading the 10 intrinsic reasons why adolescents should be readers. Reason #1: Writing Is Hard, but “Hard is Rewarding and, Reason #5: Writing Makes You a Better Reader. I think that if I could instill these two reasons in my students as to why reading and writing is important in their lives, they could improve the quality of their lives. Also, I feel that my students could be successful in being better readers and writers and to realize potentials they never thought possible.
These two reading selections were probably the most eye-opening for me. They just put things in a way I had never considered. But first, a few comments in response to your posts:
Ruth Ann, I think the MySpace activity is a great idea! It’s even something that I could use in my German 2 classes, since their last unit is entirely reading and working with German fairy tales. Diane, thank you for emailing those templates this am.
Also, I felt a bit like Amanda. While I can write and I enjoy it for my own personal purposes, I never enjoyed writing for school, nor did I feel that it was something I was especially good at. So the idea of teaching writing to my students is… daunting. I am starting one thing with my students today, thanks to our HSAP talk during the faculty meeting last week My students are going to begin a daily exercise of “constructed response,” questions. (I can’t remember if that’s the right name for it.) Basically, they’ll have an activity, and then each student will be assigned one particular question to write how they got the answer that they have. This way, they stop random guessing and actually think about the process that goes into the right answer.
A couple responses on my part: In Teaching Adolescent Writers, on p. 12, Gallagher mentions the T-shirt “They say hard work never killed anyone…” I laughed out loud when I read this because the student sitting right in front of me as I read this was wearing this shirt!! Also on p.12, on a more serious note, Gallagher references learned helplessness. I agree 100%. However, I think one important detail was left out. Students give in to learned helplessness because they feel that no matter what their efforts, it will do them no good. If they put no effort into it, they fail. If they put tons (granted, their idea of tons is probably different than ours), they still fail. It is very important that teachers be fair and consistent! They should not get credit for little effort. But when they do boost the amount of input they offer, there should be a noticeable increase in the result. This is one of the reason I object to the “no F lower than a 60” practice. A person should only pass if objectives are met. However, if a student brings 20 % work up to 60%, they should be able to see the difference and forward progress.
I also love the Reasons to Write. They are thorough and respond to the students’ natural motivations.
As usual, I’m skeptical as to how deep and far I can go with this in Language instruction, but I’m sure I will learn ways to incorporate these.
One more thought... while I recognize that texting is a part of our students' literacy, does it bother anyone else that they write in text abbreviations in other writing? I spend most of my time reading their journals, trying to decipher their codes!
Teaching Adolescent Writers Chapter One
Content Area Writing Chapter One
I, like Pam and a few others, have the advantage of having read Teaching Adolescent Writers and Content Area Writing last year; but I am definitely glad to have the opportunity to revisit the information. I don’t know about y’all, but I need to read something more than once to make it something I really know.
I love Teaching Adolescent Writers because I think Gallagher’s writing is entertaining. In chapter one, I found the fact that information is doubling every four years to be absolutely staggering. How are we to keep up? I love his list of Writing Wrongs. Y’all know number five is my favorite, “Grammar instruction is ineffective or ignored.” Numbers nine and ten are validating as well. Number Nine: Teachers are doing too much of the work. Students are not doing enough work. Number Ten: Teachers need help assessing writing. Both of them are true. I found the state-by-state NAEP breakdown of “proficient” writers interesting. Diane can correct me if I’m wrong, but I think a random sampling of our students will take NAEP as juniors as part of our involvement in High Schools That Work. I think it will be a good measuring tool to see how our kids stack up nationwide. At least it’s not sophomores who are tested.
In Content Area Writing, I found the amount of money employers spend on remediating writing skills amazing. I would love to know which skills students need the most remediation for. Is it conventions or content? I liked Diane’s point about digital natives and digital immigrants and the fact that kids do a ton of writing that we don’t necessarily give them credit for. My concern is not that they can’t write; it’s that they can’t write using Standard American English. I have been reading the online comment book for Glenda Kennedy’s daughter who recently passed away. Now I understand the content of those messages is what truly matters, but what about caring about quality of craftsmanship? There were definitely comments that had to have been written by digital natives, no punctuation or capitalization. If one of the reasons we want to be able to write well is so they can “raise hell when necessary” (page 6), don’t we want them to be able to express their condolences effectively when necessary as well? I’m all for incorporating what the digital natives are able to do as long as there’s a way to make sure the importance of what the digital immigrants know is valued as well.
Yes,Nicole,it bugs me when kids use text abbreviations in work they turn in to me. They need to be more aware of their audience.
Content-Area Writing
So is there a writing crisis, I believe the answer is yes. As stated on the very first page, many of our graduates are leaving both secondary and post-secondary institutions unable to clearly communicate on a piece of paper. I stand behind this statement 100%. Perhaps my opinion is slightly biased because I my major is English; however, I have seniors who do not even know how to compose a simple character analysis paper, much less formal letters (and my statement is by no means meant to offend anyone, so please do not take it the wrong way). The comment made on page 3 definitely proves true: the majority of kids do hate writing, but I feel it is one of those arduous tasks that must be implemented to ensure success in today’s society.
At the beginning of every class my students are set in a strict routine of entering, pulling out their Independent Reading books—read for 15 minutes, then respond using a given prompt. They are then to comment and “exercise their brains” with a journal topic. Once finished, they then move to their word of the day in which they must define and correctly use in a sentence of their own creation. At the end of the week they are given a writing topic in which they are to use and apply 3 of the “new words” to their paper. This is a lot of writing, but for the most part, it’s simple writing assignments and everyday their writing improves, really it does! I had one student, just this morning, tell me that their grandfather dropped out of school in the 8th grade and today he’s clearing 100,000 yearly. The point of him telling me this was to say that if his grandfather can get by with such a low level of education, then so can he and maybe he can; who’s to say that’s not possible, but what I ended up telling him is that one, I was impressed with his grandfather’s achievements and two, times have changed; it is much harder to succeed in today’s world without higher levels of education, so write we must!
Oh, and I just wanted to comment on Diane’s statement about texting. I really like the idea of having students write text message conversations between two characters in a given text. A lot of my writing procedures are labeled “boring,” so using technology such as “text talk” in literature and writing is so neat and such a wonderful way to apply differentiation in the classroom!
Teaching Adolescent Writers
Kelly Gallagher
First I’d like to say how impressed I am to have learned that South Carolina has some of the highest standards in the country. Like some of you have said, SC is always being slammed by our low test scores, so the bit about our high tests scores came as both a shock and a relief. But what I wonder is if the reason our standards are so high is because of the low test scores...
Secondly, I do agree with the statement that, “writing is sometimes assigned rather than taught.” If students do not know how to write, than how can such an assignment be expected of them. What I have found is that you can model and lecture until you are blue in the face, but until their own work is modeled for them, they really don’t know what it is they are doing wrong. I usually do this by using anonymous pieces of work (cleared through them first). I feel they get so much more out of it this way. I also liked how, once again, there is a re-instatement of “writing prepares you for the world of work,” whatever your endeavor may be. Students just do not realize how true this statement really is and with this book I hope to find helpful means in teaching the importance of writing and new differentiated instruction.
I feel more inclined to discuss the Content Area chapter than the Adolescent Writers chapter. There was so much in the Content Area chapter that seemed to hit on things I've been thinking about a lot lately.
I often wonder how much technology is to blame for the poor writing skills of today's students. Text messaging, e-mailing, etc. have all changed the way our society writes. Things are done in much more haste now that perhaps ever before. But, then I guess the question is...why aren't students meeting today's writing standards?
I wonder if two things aren't the problem: 1. Once I get juniors in American Literature, there never seems to be enough time to go back and teach them what my assumption (which may be the problem) is that they should have already already learned. How can I have enough time to hit on lengthy pieces that students should be exposed to (and can't give them to do outside of class because there simply are not enough copies)and teach students a variety of higher level of thinking skills when I have to go back and teach the fundamentals of writing. Who is at fault when juniors and seniors won't write an essay or lengthy paper in multiple paragraphs? The teachers? The students? Who?
This is the reason why there needs to be a real call for specifically stating when a student should learn what skill in school. I think we were exposed to that briefly last year during the Winter Literacy Conference but have seen or heard nothing else about it.
I do disagree with the part about students writing what interests them to help build reading skills. While I think it should be used at times, I do not feel it should be used exclusively. Are we not also supposed to have higher expectations for students and be preparing them for higher education or the future? If a student grows up to get a job in a field that requires some professional writing, but the student has only every had to been exposed to writing they enjoy--and if the student does not enjoy their job, well, what have we done to prepare them to write effectively in situations where they are writing about something they don't like?
I feel like I could go on and on, but I'm hoping we will be able to discuss this tonight. I think the problem with writing is not going to be easily solved.
Content- Area Writing: Chapter 1
The first thing want to say is to Diane: thanks for including the bit on NAEP. Cheryl Outlaw did a mini-presentation on this topic during our in-service as well. I also heard this several times this summer: The state of South Carolina has some of the most difficult standards in the nation. I think that we should be proud of the fact that we have those difficult standards and are striving hard to meet standards. I agree with the authors that our students are writing plenty- texting, FACEBOOK (or MySpace), blogging, etc but it is on topics that they have choose or that they are interested in. Here is where we are missing the boat as teachers. We need to focus on the newest technological things and get our kids to relate. I think that Ruth Anne’s idea about the MySpace pages are great! I would love to see the finished products. There is only 1 hitch in my theory: it is grammar. I think grammar is soooo important. It is okay to use all that text talk when texting (except I can’t understand what my messages are) but that CANNOT happen when writing more formally. Employers do not care that you can write like you text!!!
I also agree with the authors about using writing as a way to differentiate- but can be hard with 125 students. That is why I liked Gallagher’s book so much!! Also, I kept noticing how writing can be incorporated into our HSTW initiative!
Teaching Adolescent Writers: Chapter 1
Love this guy! It is so easy to read- and even better the second time around! “…writing is a gateway for success in academia, the new workplace, and the global economy, as well as for our collective success as a participatory democracy.” Gallagher uses this quote to make a valid point- we have got to make our students and faculty understand that we are all responsible for writing because it is the key to our futures- a successful future. I also believe that we as teachers need to model writing more. Just as it is important to model reading, then we also need to model writing- even in the rough stages. Students need to know that writing does not flow from us like milk and honey!!!!
Content Area Writing:
I would consider myself to be somewhere between the technological native and immigrant. Even though I’m young and have many more opportunities presented to me in regards to technology, I must admit, I haven’t always been apt to take advantage of them. I’m adequate with word processing and transferring music, videos and pictures, but only so-so with Microsoft power-point and Microsoft Excel, etc. My parents were astonished between the time I left for college (when I could not type more than 15-20 w.p.m.) and the time I came back after my first year, (when I could type upwards of 60 w.p.m.) They weren’t surprised that I could type faster, they were more shocked at the reason I could type faster, instant messaging. Instant messaging is a means of “talking” to several people at once via typing. You can keep multiple conversations going at once and honestly, that helped my typing more than any class I’d taken previously or even since then. Because of how instant messaging effected my typing, I can understand how texting, emailing, etc., can change the amount and style or writing and typing that kids today use. I’ve seen first hand how “Even the poorest teenagers in our society are gaining experience and competence with tools that never existed when most of us were kids.” Texting, myspace, and instant messenger may not be the greatest methods of writing or using English properly, but they are writing.
I also agree that districts should require a writing plan and insist that writing be taught in all subjects and grade levels. As a homebound instructor, I’m constantly pleasantly surprised at the amount of writing non-English teachers are requiring. If you walk down the halls and look at the walls in front of classrooms, you’ll notice the same thing. Granted, I’m sure there are teachers who argue the writing and don’t participate like they should, but I really think that for as many teachers that aren’t requiring writing practice, there are as many who are.
Teaching Adolescent Writers:
Diane, I must agree with you on the difficulty level and the amount of standardized tests we give in South Carolina in comparison to other states. One of the things that astonished me the most in the difference between education here and in Ohio is how many more standardized tests we practice for and give in South Carolina than I did in Ohio. There, we split tests by grade level, giving ELA, Math, and Writing in grades 3, 4, 6, and 7 and then ELA, Math, Social Studies, and Science in only 5 and 8. There are also major differences between the passing scores on the OGT (Ohio Graduation Test), and our HSAP and what each score means for the student. 2007 was the first year that a student would not graduate in Ohio if they did not pass the OGT. The OGT only began in 2003. Before, students had to pass the 9th grade proficiency tests. I don’t know when we began HSAP here or what was before it, but I do feel it is a much higher caliber test than the OGT.
Thank you Pam for suggesting looking ahead for the writing activities; I tried find the fib earlier in the week and it worked out very well.
I, like Nicole, also related well to the quote on page 12 where Gallagher discusses the t-shirt with the quote “They say hard work never killed anyone.” When I first began last year, I set low expectations for my students as far as writing goes, such as having 1, 3-5 sentence paragraph be enough for their daily journal or any other writing assignment. I did this because I honestly had no idea that they could or would write more if I pressed them to do so. Truth be told, they met the low expectation because it was all I asked of them. This year, almost every week, we practice writing 5 paragraph essays, spending a day on rough drafts, a day on editing and a day on finalizing. The same kids that only wrote 3 sentences last year are writing essays this year. Now I know these essays are far from perfect, (spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure are just the tip of the major issues,) but it amazed me that just be creating higher standards and following through with them, even my students came around to attempt the work. As for their journals, I now ask for 10 lines a day and most days I get 8-12 depending on the student.
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