I’m almost finished with the book, so I thought I’d go ahead and post some more information.  The most recent part of the book talks about multigenre writing.  She gives all credit to Tom Romano, of course, but I think she adds more to the conversation.  I’ll be honest: The best part of the chapter to me was the student example at the end.  One of her students wrote a multigenre piece about bullying entited “Youth: A Truth About Elementary School.”  It’s real, and it’s pretty powerful.

I also like the way she introduces multigenre work to her classes.  She gives them a shared experience so they can brainstorm about the types of writing that would work.  The “shared experience” is actually a secret plan she has with the assistant principal.  He comes in the room and says he needs to see her in the hall.  She refuses, saying that she’s teaching right now.  He asks her if she got a speeding ticket last month.  She said she did, feigning embarrassment in front of her students.  Well, things get out of control, and the next thing you know, she’s being led out of the building in handcuffs.  She comes back a few minutes later and explains that it was all just a big joke, but then she has a discussion with the students about what kind of writing they could use in the piece to describe the shared experience.  The answers range from poems to text messages.

I’m still enjoying this book.

 

John 

Greetings from the NWP Professional Writing Retreat in Santa Fe, New Mexico!  I’m having a great time hear with the facilitation time (and had elk last night for dinner, a new experience for sure.)  The retreat participants arrive today, so I guess the vacation is over.

 

So, on to the book.  The author of the book (Penny Kittle) is very writing-project focused, and it seems that many of the editors are some well-known names in the NWP.  (I’m curious why the book was published by Heinemann and not the NWP.)  One of the facilitators here at the retreat actually knows Penny.  That’s pretty cool.

I’m halfway through the book, and my initial reaction is that it’s In The Middle, but more inspiring.  She writes with a passion that I somehow don’t get from Atwell, but to be perfectly honest, most of the concepts are basically the same.  I do like that Kittle’s kids seemed to be a lot closer to the kids at AHS than we usually get in these types of books.  The book also has a DVD; I haven’t had time to look at it, but apparently it contains video of her working with her kids.  Apparently, there’s a lot of video.  She references the DVD on almost every page.

One gem in the book is her idea of inviting parents to do book talks with her students.  What a great idea!  This shows the students that teachers aren’t the only ones who read.  The parents get a feeling of helping out, and the 5-10 minute book talk probably isn’t too stressful for most parents.

She also reminds us of the fact that we’re dealing with teenagers, and they’re going to act like teenagers.  She addresses the issue and honestly discusses how she handles it.  This is her advice for teachers who are getting fed up with their students:

“Here’s my cure for any teacher who is consitently, unapologetically annoyed and impatient with teenagers.  Go into your basement and find your high school yearbook.  Turn to all of those pictures of you and study the fine details: the self-conscious smile, the slouched shoulders, the begging-this-acne-will-end wrinkles across the forehead.  Now sit down with your journal and write in the voice of that teenager.  Write for twenty minutes or more.  Write and remember.”

She also has students do minilessons.  I think this is a great idea!  I often use student writing as the example in my minilessons, but she suggested turning over some of the authority to the students.  Let them hear each other’s voices.

 

Well, back to enjoying the beauty of Santa Fe….

 

John

 

 

Teaching “grammar” is probably the most frustrating thing in the world for me.  Because my school’s students did so poorly on the Graduation Exam this past year, I have been told that all of the English teachers are going to have to focus on “grammar” this upcoming year.  Something I’ve noticed in Burke as well as with other authors is very interesting to me. 

They suggest that instead of starting with a “here is the definition of the word appositive,” to begin a “grammar” lesson with a large section of writing (maybe a paragraph) and discussing the grammatical unit in context without even mentioning the technical jargon related.  Then, they suggest to have some practice.  Then (the last step), will be to explain that the phrases they have been working on are actually appositives.  I like this way of uncovering grammar with them.  But, does anyone know of texts for students that support this type of learning?  I wonder why everyone suggests using grammar in context of a larger writing, but noone utilizes this information when crafting “grammar” texts. 

If anyone has any information about texts, the teaching of grammar, or anything of that matter, please let me know. 

Everything’s an Argument includes detailed process guides for writing distinct forms of argumentative papers. My focus has been on the arguments of fact and the arguments of definition. The process guides can be easily turned into student handouts for pre, during, and post writing lessons.

Traditionally, it seems that high school research papers are arguments of fact. Arguments of fact are papers where the writer states something is or isn’t and then supports his or her claim through relevant evidence and data retrieved through formal research. Are these types of papers still the best for our high school students? I know of books that propose alternative research papers. Has anyone had experience with alternative research papers? How did the learning outcomes turn out? Were the essential elements of argument covered and addressed during the writing process?

Is it possible to connect the structure of an argument of definition with literary commentary? I’m not done thinking this through, but I thought I’d toss out the bone.

See yall tomorrow.

Michael

I have been reading more of Burke’s ideas about graphic English which I find particularly fascinating.  I totally agree that drawing or visualizing ideas helps studnets think and understand better their subject.  I like the idea of them creating “visual texts” for projects.  I think that this would definitely accompany a unit on narrative wqriting.  I also like the idea of the graphic novel.  I think this would be a great way to help younger kids understand the concepts of symbols and metaphors.  Also, when teaching vocabulary, I agree with Burke that drawing out a graphic representation of the word definitely proves understanding of the concept.

The summer, so far.

Blindness, Jose Saramago

Good book. The movie, which is getting not-so-hot reviews, is due out soon. What would the world be like if everyone started to go blind? What if you were the only person who could see? 

Maps and Legends, Michael Chabon

Maps and Legends is a beautiful McSweeney’s publication dedicated to genre fiction (detective novels, sci-fi, comic books, mythology, and a bunch of other unliterary genres). Chabon’s introduction is all about reading and writing as entertainment. I want to share his insightful introduction with SunBelt before institute ends.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz

The second major novel from MIT writing professor Junot Diaz won the Pulitzer this year. Davis Thompson and I kind of read it at the same time. We both agreed that while the numerous nerdy jokes and references to The Lord of the Rings and Dungeon and Dragons kept us interested, the multiple points of view, which changed chapter to chapter, never really went anywhere.

Currently:

Waiting for the Barbarians, J. M. Coetzee

Waiting was recommended by a former and now fellow English teacher. An allegory for war and colonial oppression, the novel resonates with the current worldwide social and political atmosphere. I’m almost done.

To Kill and Mocking Bird, Harper Lee

TKMB is the first novel on my syllabus. Rereading and lesson planning for TKMB has been wonderful. I’m sure many of you have great ideas for teaching this book, and I’m all ears! 

On deck:

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, Italo Calvino

Over the last few years, many friends have recommended this to me. I’m excited to finally crack it open. Crazy reader-writer relationship bending ahead!

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon

One of the many current works I’m ashamed for not having read. I started it earlier this summer, but dumped it for something a little faster and shorter.

All the other works I’ll be teaching this fall.

Just wanted to share. See everyone soon!

 

 

As I expected, the first few chapters of Everything’s an Argument bored me. It’s a textbook, and textbooks typically bore right? Let me qualify my boredom. Like the rest of the book group, I am reading this text from the position of a teacher looking for tools and ideas for my classroom. I wanted meat from the text, something to chew on and possibly throw my students. Rather than meaty nuggets stewed in argument and pithy rebuttal, the first section of Everything’s and Argument served up a tossed salad of mundane definitions sprinkled with an unnerving intertextual self awareness. Too many of the conclusive writing prompts asked the reader to analyze the textbook as an argument. I recognize this move as clever and resourceful, but what good is it when I only have one copy in my classroom? Luckily, my doom and gloom reaction subsided after chapter four.

 

Chapter five, Thinking Rhetorically, is where I should have started my reading. As many of you know, Holly and I teach a mammoth argumentative research paper in the fall. The argumentative research paper seems to be the writing centerpiece for sophomores at Auburn High School (Correct me, if I’m wrong, Holly.). One of the many challenges I’m predicting for this paper is getting students to think about argument as a learned skill, rather than their innate ability to convince friends that facebook is better than MySpace via text messaging. Essentially, I need my students to think rhetorically. Chapter five is the rhetorical analysis chapter, and knowing what I know about the “reading-writing connection,” students need to read and analyze arguments before they write their own. I know, it seems pretty simple, but this chapter bullets the formal questions students and teachers need to ask when formally approaching an argument. I can foresee these questions appearing on a student’s self-evaluation. The final section of the chapter outlines a formal analysis writing assignment through step-by-step directions. I hope to mold this prompt/directions into both a pre-argumentative paper writing assignment and a literature response assignment. After all, literature, be it the novel, drama, or the highest art, is an argument! So, that is where I am right now. It’s a dense little textbook. Look for a few more postings on the text this weekend.

I’m still working my way through all these essays in this book I’ve chosen. Right now, I’m reading one by Nancy Atwell titled “Everyone Sits at a Big Desk: Discovering Topics for Writing.” She has a very realistic perspective, I think, of how teachers feel about finding an effective way to teach writing.

Nancy begins with explaining what I think is a common feeling of teachers of writing: we sit at our “big desk” and assign many creative, well-organized writing topics for our students, yet we usually don’t get the amazing results we expect.

According to Nancy, the problem is one of the teachers failing to tap into what she credits Lucy Calkins with coining the “underground curriculum.” We aren’t seeing that students aren’t captivated by our assigned topics. Nancy tells her story as a teacher of writing and how she transformed her writing classes by letting her students choose their topics.

Nancy points out that younger students tend to be playful and willing to take more risks in writing without being self-critical. It isn’t always so easy for older writers who are trying to learn in a new way. Some problems we may encounter in this approach with high school students is that at first they may seem self-conscious about their writing, they may try to figure out our presumed “hidden agenda,” or they may just freeze from a type of “writer’s block.” After all, how often have they had the chance to write about whatever they want?

Here are some practical tips Nancy offers that I plan on implementing:

1. Give students a regular time for writing on a daily basis. Give them about three days at the beginning of the week (Monday-Wednesday) to process and brainstorm from things they thought of over the weekend. Thursday and Friday can be more focused writing days.

2. Let students talk about their ideas! This means they may need to talk to each other some in class, or they may need to talk to parents or you (the teacher) outside of class. Nancy suggests having writing conferences (either with other students or one-on-one with the teacher).

3. If a student is having a tough time finding a topic, meet with him/her, and have a prepared list of questions to ask him/her to get him/her thinking. Sample interview questions to help students brainstorm topics: “Tell me about your weekend, family, friends, neighborhood, likes and dislikes, jobs around the house, earliest memories, hobbies, skills, fears, problems that need solving, birthday, Christmas, favorite books, movies, poems, sports, subjects, etc.” (I think this list/process is very similar to what Dr. Graves had us do during Sun Belt Boot Camp).

4. Part of students taking responsibility for their own writing also involves them taking responsibility for their own choices in reading. Let them read for pleasure some in order to find out what types of writing they like and what stylistic choices they would like to attempt. (I think you could also assign a variety of poetry, short stories, novels, etc. that highlight various writing styles in order to diversify students’ readings).

5. Encourage students to write for a variety of audiences. Some students may even want to attempt getting a piece published. Encourage them in this. You could also start class anthologies of their literature, which would help them feel more like real authors writing something with a message for others to read.

6. Keep appropriate writing materials handy in your classroom (like writer’s reference books, permanent portfolios, different kinds of paper, pens, pencils, etc.). I especially like the idea of keeping a permanent writing portfolio in the classroom, because (as Nancy Atwell noted) students often look at previous writings to get ideas for new pieces.

Finally, Nancy Atwell offered two ideas for how to get started with writing activities in class. The two ideas are below:

1. Ask students to interview each other in pairs. They should use a list of open-ended questions that you provide and make notes on the interviewee’s answers on a worksheet titled “My Ideas for Writing.” Then, each student swaps worksheets, and each one has a great starter list of writing topics. (Atwell suggests that you model the process with one student before the students get started in their pairs).

2. You (the teacher) can describe the topics you considered perhaps the night before, in anticipation of knowing you would write the next day. You need to state ideas aloud, reject ideas/topics that are too broad or subjects you know very little about, and settle on a topic you know you care about and are passionate about. This type of thinking-out-loud process will help students see how to choose their own topics. Then, let students sit silently for 3 minutes, thinking like you just modeled. Then, they should describe their ideas to a friend. After 3 minutes, the friend gets to describe his/her ideas. Bring the class back together to discuss about 6-8 ideas from volunteers.

Last, Nancy Atwell reminds us to make sure we write with our students, too.

I know this was a long post, but hopefully there is something here that you can use. Please ask questions if you would like me to clarify anything or add more!

Holly Robinson

I just figured out how to post, so I apologize for posting my book’s notes on Maribeth’s page. I’m still learning about blogging! Here’s my first post below:

I echo Maribeth’s somewhat frazzled sentiments about having so much reading to do in such a short amount of time. I too have been trying to fit in reading my chosen text along with my readings for two grad classes this summer, so I haven’t had a chance to post yet.

I have only read the first few essays in the book I’m currently reading (Rhetoric and Composition edited by Dr. Graves). I have been finding some great truths I thought I’d share from what I have read so far.

There is an essay titled “The Learning Power of Writing” by R.D. Walshe in which he addresses what he titles “The Write-to-Learn Classroom”. In his essay, Walshe bases his concept of the ideal writing classroom around the notion that human beings are natural learners, and children have an inborn drive to learn. With this idea in place, he set up four parts of the writing classroom: The Teacher, The Student, The Classroom, and The Craft.

The teacher’s role is not one of a lecturer, but a guide, stimulator, commentator, and writer.

The student’s role is as a learner who thinks deeply about ideas that bring satisfaction of using imagination to reach engagement and insight through composing.

The classroom is a “discourse community” for generating and discussing problems, working through challenges, finding answers, clarifying, criticizing, etc.

The craft is the striving quality that develops in the atmosphere of a classroom where effective writing is taking place. Regular writing, or crafting, naturally develops once the correct atmosphere is established.

I’m sure there will be tips for how to reach each of these four ideal prinicples in the classroom.

I’ll post more later!

Hi guys.  Because the other group had so many posters, I have joined up here.  Along with taking two classes with Dr. Ash this summer, I am reading The English Teacher’s Companion (third edition).  I was very interested to see what changes Jim Burke made from the second to the third version.  I am a bit stressed at the moment with all the reading and the projects I have going with my other classes.  But, I am going to try to post as much as possible before we meet. 

I love Burke’s book because it gives an overall view of all things a new English teacher needs to know.  I’ve only been teaching for a year and a half now, so I still find this resource very useful.  I think he’s got the right idea about teaching students about writing expositorily (I think I just made up a new word…)  Burke asks his students to read practical, everyday texts to get a good idea of what “expository” means: bills, articles, newspapers, brochures, online texts, etc… I think it’s a good idea any time to incorporate “real world” writings into our classes.  I think when students can see the “big picture” that this applies to more than just essays they will be more apt to care about the learning. 

Another thing I liked about what I’ve read is the idea of “Interactive Notes.”  Burke has graphed a chart like a KWL chart.  On the left column it is titled “Before: Prepare to Read” and it has the following: list, title, headers, subheaders, captions, objectives, themes, words to know, ask questions, and make predictions.    In the middle column, it is titled “During: Question and Comment” and it has the following: I wonder why, What causes, I think, This is similar to, This is important because, What do they mean by, What I find confusing is, What will happen next is, and I can relate to this because.
I think it’s a really good idea to use these sentence starters to prompt students to make connections with the text.  In the third (right hand) column, it is titled “After: Summarize and Synthesize” and it has the following: Three important points /ideas are, These are important because, What comes next, The author wants us to think, At this point the article / story is about, I still don’t understand, What interested me most was, the author’s purpose here is to, and A good word to describe this character/this story’s tone is________ because__.  I think this last step is the most important and most frequently skipped over.  Reflection is when the students make the most meaning from what they read, and I think Burke strives to make this point clear to the reader. 

I realize I wrote a lot… Just had a lot on my mind…

Maribeth Henderson