Sunday, January 9, 2011
Chapter One
I thought this chapter had a lot of good advice and ideas to follow when it comes to writing and thinking. Dean gives multiple tips that I think would be beneficial to any writer. Students often read different genres, but how often do they actually write using a variety of genres? If we want students to think about their writing then we need to give them opprtunities to write in styles that they like. First, they would need to experience writing varieties, then they should reflect on their writing. Without that they would not be able to decide which strategies work for them. I think that students will become thinkers before they are writers if they are given an assignment for example, that requires them to use different strategies and approaches. If teachers continue to give the same type of essay question, for example, while using the same strategies then students do not have to think, they just write how they always have. Most of the time that requires them to write about facts and add their own interpretation. However, if a teacher gives a new assignment requiring a new strategy to be used then thinking will have to take place. Dean writes about the assignment she gave using a collage as a strategy to develop an idea. Her students had to think about what pictures they were going to use, and how those pictures related to their topic. This meant that they had to think about the pictures and their meanings before they even had to think about writing. I think that this strategy would require more thinking because the students were doing more than reading a question and preparing an answer. Using pictures meant that they had to make personal connections and made their own interpretations; all requiring a new level of thinking. I do not know if this is what was meant by Kelsi's questions but I think that is just one small example of getting students to think more in regards to writing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
Another aspect I noticed throughout the chapter was the comparison between quantity versus quality. In the beginning of the chapter it stated that "talk of quality, of what makes effective or ineffective writing, was absent from many classrooms," and later on it stated "it isn't the number of pages. It's the thinking you have to do..." In so many classrooms, especially in my past experiences, how many pages you write and criteria on quantity is strongly emphasized. I would much rather see my student write only a half a page of true reflective ideas than three pages of words that fill up the space!!
I agree with the statement that the quality of writing has been taken out of the classroom. Many students learn to respond to their reading and the things around them with a structured format that is learned from an early age and carried on into high school and even college. They learn that there is a box, and they should stay inside it because it is the "right" way. That is how I was taught until I took a class from an amazing professor at Weber who taught the opposite way. He focused everything we did in his class on what we thought by having us write in many different forms. I learned more from his style of teaching than from any other class I've taken. Because he explored with us and respected where our thoughts took us, I learned some incredible things about myself.
I also love Deans idea for logging. This is a great way for students to recognize strategies that will help them not only in school, but in the future.
I agree with Dean when she talks about modeling the appropriate behavior for our students. I think that our classrooms must be open and honest about the fact that these strategies must be taught. If our students understand that we are prepared to help them develop their own strategies, they may not feel as nervous about approaching the writing process without any of their own strategies. I related with the experience of the girl who got a new job and had to learn how to write letters. I found that this worked well for me and has probably become a helpful strategy. I know that we want our students to come up with ideas on their own, but having a starting point can help them to get going and hopefully work on their own strategies from there.
I am so super duper lucky that I had hardly any English classes when I was growing up, for Karen's comment about our past teacher's prescribed writing style never annealed to how I write, and more importantly, to how I think. Even though and for a very long time I felt left out, behind the curve and absolutely uneducated because I lacked core "declarative" information that I am assuming everyone else received during their junior high years, I am now forever grateful for also not ever having the earlier opportunity/education of being taught the mundane and mind killing "five paragraph" essay too.
In fact, my first real English class was on campus, here at WSU; here I was taught to think and write much like how Dean explains good teachers should teach their students to do for themselves. I think I struck it rich from waiting.
Here are a few comments on the first chapter:
I absolutely write and die (kill off some pieces of writing) through peer review editing as one of my key personal writing strategies. The only problem is that my editing is only as good as what my PEER and ME can put into it. Therefore, I get the best advice from the Writing Center and not so much from my cohort in the Educ. program who is a major in Math... Get my point?
So, if peer review and editing is so important to me and my personal writing success, how am I, as a teacher, going to make it effective in my class and for all of my students? Maybe I won't, and maybe it won't be as important as a strategy to others as it is me.
The one big whammy in this chapter is the sentence, "thinking strategically about writing means taking deliberate CONTROL over writing skills and processes" (4, near the bottom). This isn't something passive - the one thing that has killed writing for so many students before. Passivity is what so many are taught. The "control" in strategies is what creates the ownership for students within their writing and their pleasing outcome this new found "control" may produce.
Just like how we were taught earlier last week that the declarative will be taught when the conditional and metacognitive are met, I too am mastering the declarative information. I am just learning it through writing what I think and feel first, then I am editing. Through editing I am learning the declarative stuff.
The other important concept to realize is that teachers need to "think more about students and their writing needs, about allowing time for students to learn and try strategies..." (6 It is in the second and third paragraph and worth reading twice). When I was teaching for the two weeks in the Educ. Core, I totally felt the rush and I created the lack of time for writing. It didn't just happen, I created the lack. This is something I immediately need to change when planning my next round of lesson plans.
I thought that it was very interesting when Dean gave the example of the writer who was frustrated, not with content, but with structure of his writing assignment. He asked if it needed to be a five paragraph essay. Students are taught the "right" way to write through rigid webs, rough drafts, peer reviews, and essay structure from the time that they attempt their first narrative. In adult life there are no fill in the missing bubble worksheets. I thought that Dean's argument about learning writing strategies so that one would be able to adapt to any writing demand was very valid and worthy of teaching/learning. However, I am still a bit confused at how she is teaching these strategies and how she is getting her students interested in using them.
I think that she must have a very accepting classroom. Her students are given a lot of trust because she motivates them to think for themselves. I also like that she teaches her students to find the right method that works for them as individuals instead of teaching that there is only one appropriate way of approaching writing.
I am so super duper lucky that I had hardly any English classes when I was growing up, for Karen's comment about our past teacher's prescribed writing style never annealed to how I write, and more importantly, to how I think. Even though and for a very long time I felt left out, behind the curve and absolutely uneducated because I lacked core "declarative" information that I am assuming everyone else received during their junior high years, I am now forever grateful for also not ever having the earlier opportunity/education of being taught the mundane and mind killing "five paragraph" essay too.
In fact, my first real English class was on campus, here at WSU; here I was taught to think and write much like how Dean explains good teachers should teach their students to do for themselves. I think I struck it rich from waiting.
Here are a few comments on the first chapter:
I absolutely write and die (kill off some pieces of writing) through peer review editing as one of my key personal writing strategies. The only problem is that my editing is only as good as what my PEER and ME can put into it. Therefore, I get the best advice from the Writing Center and not so much from my cohort in the Educ. program who is a major in Math... Get my point?
So, if peer review and editing is so important to me and my personal writing success, how am I, as a teacher, going to make it effective in my class and for all of my students? Maybe I won't, and maybe it won't be as important as a strategy to others as it is me.
The one big whammy in this chapter is the sentence, "thinking strategically about writing means taking deliberate CONTROL over writing skills and processes" (4, near the bottom). This isn't something passive - the one thing that has killed writing for so many students before. Passivity is what so many are taught. The "control" in strategies is what creates the ownership for students within their writing and their pleasing outcome this new found "control" may produce.
Just like how we were taught earlier last week that the declarative will be taught when the conditional and metacognitive are met, I too am mastering the declarative information. I am just learning it through writing what I think and feel first, then I am editing. Through editing I am learning the declarative stuff.
I am so super duper lucky that I had hardly any English classes when I was growing up, for Karen's comment about our past teacher's prescribed writing style never annealed to how I write, and more importantly, to how I think. Even though and for a very long time I felt left out, behind the curve and absolutely uneducated because I lacked core "declarative" information that I am assuming everyone else received during their junior high years, I am now forever grateful for also not ever having the earlier opportunity/education of being taught the mundane and mind killing "five paragraph" essay too.
In fact, my first real English class was on campus, here at WSU; here I was taught to think and write much like how Dean explains good teachers should teach their students to do for themselves. I think I struck it rich from waiting.
Here are a few comments on the first chapter:
I absolutely write and die (kill off some pieces of writing) through peer review editing as one of my key personal writing strategies. The only problem is that my editing is only as good as what my PEER and ME can put into it. Therefore, I get the best advice from the Writing Center and not so much from my cohort in the Educ. program who is a major in Math... Get my point?
So, if peer review and editing is so important to me and my personal writing success, how am I, as a teacher, going to make it effective in my class and for all of my students? Maybe I won't, and maybe it won't be as important as a strategy to others as it is me.
The one big whammy in this chapter is the sentence, "thinking strategically about writing means taking deliberate CONTROL over writing skills and processes" (4, near the bottom). This isn't something passive - the one thing that has killed writing for so many students before. Passivity is what so many are taught. The "control" in strategies is what creates the ownership for students within their writing and their pleasing outcome this new found "control" may produce.
Just like how we were taught earlier last week that the declarative will be taught when the conditional and metacognitive are met, I too am mastering the declarative information. I am just learning it through writing what I think and feel first, then I am editing. Through editing I am learning the declarative stuff.
I am so super duper lucky that I had hardly any English classes when I was growing up, for Karen's comment about our past teacher's prescribed writing style never annealed to how I write, and more importantly, to how I think. Even though and for a very long time I felt left out, behind the curve and absolutely uneducated because I lacked core "declarative" information that I am assuming everyone else received during their junior high years, I am now forever grateful for also not ever having the earlier opportunity/education of being taught the mundane and mind killing "five paragraph" essay too. Here are a few comments on the first chapter:
I absolutely write and die (kill off some pieces of writing) through peer review editing as one of my key personal writing strategies. The only problem is that my editing is only as good as what my PEER and ME can put into it. Therefore, I get the best advice from the Writing Center and not so much from my cohort in the Educ. program who is a major in Math... Get my point?
So, if peer review and editing is so important to me and my personal writing success, how am I, as a teacher, going to make it effective in my class and for all of my students? Maybe I won't, and maybe it won't be as important as a strategy to others as it is me. The one big whammy in this chapter is the sentence, "thinking strategically about writing means taking deliberate CONTROL over writing skills and processes" (4, near the bottom). This isn't something passive - the one thing that has killed writing for so many students before. Passivity is what so many are taught. The "control" in strategies is what creates the ownership for students within their writing and their pleasing outcome this new found "control" may produce. Just like how we were taught earlier last week that the declarative will be taught when the conditional and metacognitive are met, I too am mastering the declarative information. I am just learning it through writing what I think and feel first, then I am editing. Through editing I am learning the declarative stuff.
OH MYLANTA, someone help me! I published my comment like fifty times... sorry
I'd like to know more about the "Recursive Process" of writing and reading because both Dean and Olson mention this process many times. The first thing I think of when I hear the words "Recursive Process" is a tedious task in which readers and writers must continually both revisit prior work and expand thought. This process seems pretty good, especially if it improves reading and writing, but it is labor intensive which (I think) turns people away from wanting to read or write.
Dean also discusses patterns in writing, and this topic slightly confuses me.Doesn't repetition make an impression? It seems that following patterns might lead to better understanding of writing, but then again these patterns might seem like tedious tasks to students (which leads us right back to the avoidance of the "Recursive Process.")
Finally, Dean really interests me with her example of strategies to improve writing. I'd really like to try the "To me, writing is..." strategy, then follow this activity with a collage activity. I also want to try the "Writing Logs" strategy which seems very effective in getting students to actually write.
P.S. siwdancer is Sofia Carrigan. Sorry for the confusion.
One of the most impressive things to me so far in this class has been the idea of strategy. I love strategic games, thinking things through, finding answers. When I look at reading and writing strategically they become very different for me. The strategies our students can use in reading and writing are quite endless. Each student may use a different strategy, and as teachers it is our job to help them find what works for them. Dean talks about strategy and learning these skills. A sentence that I read in this chapter that had a lot of meaning for me was the sentence that began, "Control is a key concept in being strategic..." I have gone back back to this sentence over and over. I agree with Dean in this statement. I believe that our students need to feel like they have control over what they write and how they get through the writing process. If a student feels that they have no control, that all of the control belongs to the teacher, I don't think they will learn how to be strategic. I also agree with Dean that as teachers we need to help them identify their strategies. They may not realize what their strategies are and we can help them define their strategies. By doing so we will help them further develop their strategies and also help them adopt additional useful strategies.
Post a Comment