Practicum Ups and Downs

For the most part I feel that my practicum experiences are a series of ups and downs.  My teacher lectures a lot and I find it hard to get a lot of interaction with the students (at least the ones in her "regular" English classes).  She teaches a business class as well that is technically an English class for students who are not college bound.  Today I taught a business lesson over different entrepreneur's such as the creators of Nike, MySpace, Ben and Jerry's, and Starbucks.  I really liked the idea of my lesson and was excited to have the students participate, but I quickly found out that a select few, who don't care, can take a class over.  I'm not making excuses - it was my first time teaching a lesson - ever - and I have a lot of learning to do!  I just found it so hard to discipline and get those students, who don't care, motivated and on track with what I want them to do.  I also learned ways that I could have made my lesson better - making sure that I make my objectives clear and showing the students how they can relate to the lesson before we actually begin it.  I labeled today as my first horrible experience as a teacher and have been thinking all day about how I can improve.  I have been reminded that this is a learning process and we aren't going into the classroom as individuals who have the whole teaching thing figured out.  I have a lot to learn and I learned about 50 lessons from the 1 that I taught today.  Even though I was dissapointed with how the lesson went, it made me want to make changes and try it again (Thank goodness)!

Heaven and Hell

That's right! A little lesson in ying-yang, good-bad, heaven and hell from Kickapoo High School. I have to do my reflection paper so I'm not going to write a lot, but my first block was heaven. They loved my lesson, were totally engaged and developed great details and apparently learned something.

Hell (the fourth block), on the other had, continually interuppted me, other students, talked, some texted(one girl), some did their nails (two girls), some put their heads down (two kids) all during the introductory portion of the lesson. I did a random, "You take over now" while reading a story I wrote, and made sure I nailed the kids who were screwing off. I didn't need to follow the text, I wrote it. This enabled me to keep my eyes on them and make sure they were focused. Then we had a presentation portion of the lesson, where groups presented their story. This block was rude, disrespectful and obnoxious. During the exit pass, I asked "What could I improve?" They had the nerve (four of them), to work on controlling the class better. I had to laugh. Other complimented me on my control of the class, even the instructor was in awe of my classroom management skills. Some poeple!

I'll bring my exit passes on Monday to share with the class if anyone is interested.

~Stan

Chapter 6

I really like the idea of teaching grammar in mini-lessons. That way, students don't get overwhelmed with the concepts. I did at times, as a student. The perscriptive information is the most overwhelming when you first dive in to it (rules and regulations, dos and don'ts, etc.) The only way to master it is to practice it, though. So, I'm going to try and do little exercises with my students that will help them get used to the rules to where it just clicks automatically for them. I mimic other writers, like Christenbury insinuates, so I suppose others do. That's how I learn most. When I'm writing a paper I read other authors work that deals with similar stuff first, then I begin writing. I notice the way they word stuff, use punctuation, etc. I've always found combining sentences easier than taking them apart. Am I alone, or do all of you think so, also?

Practicum stuff

My mentor is very easy going. I've drawn some ideas from her about poetry. The classes have been doing a poetry unit and were just finishing it up when I got there. I coped a lot of her lessons yesterday, and think that I can make my unit plan about "Of Mice and Men" from the information I've pulled from them. I really got a lot of feedback from her, regarding administrative procedures and scheduling your class lessons. She tells me a lot of little hints that will save me time when I get into the classroom. For instance, a simple thing: on your tests, put a little crossout section for your letters to matching, so the students don't get confused on the letters they've already used. It's a big time, brain saver. She is leaving next year to go to law school, so she's talked a lot about that. I do want to teach more and am not sure if I will get to because she has changed the subject, I thought when I asked about it. For the most part, the students seem interested in learning in her class and love her, as a teacher.

Practicum

I am enjoying my practicum placement at Jarrett Middle School. My teacher has been very helpful with answering all of my questions. On Monday she asked me if I would like to teach Wednesday's class. I agreed, and I jumped at the opportunity to bring something new to the classroom. Since we are reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer I read the narration for chapter 6 and chose students to read the characters' parts. Chapter 6 was an excellent lesson to teach because the reading talked about several superstitions. After we read I asked the students to create their own superstition. The catch was that they only had three minutes to write, and then they had to pass their paper to someone else. After four passes students were allowed to read the accumulated superstition in front of the class. They loved reading their goofy superstitions, and they enjoyed showing their talent.

Field Experience

I also started my field experience last week and had some mixed feelings about it. I am doing it at Springfield Catholic every wednesday all day. I got there and was planning on being in Ms. Higgins classroom, who I met and really liked! She was young and we had a lot in common. I was very excited about learning from her, but halfway through the first day I was told that I would be switching to Mrs. Morton, the head of the English department. I guess Mrs. Morton didnt feel like I should be doing my field experience with such a young teacher. I was sort of dissapointed, but I guess it might be better for me to learn from a more experienced teacher. Mrs. Morton is very nice and seems to be well liked by her students. She has been teaching there for 7 years and has some very effective techniques with her students. The most amazing thing that I have noticed is how incredibly smart these kids are! The students at this school are more motivated than I have ever seen in a practicum! She teaches only juniors and seniors and I have been so amazed to see how much they know about the issues they are talking about. They are all very active in the discussions and have very informed opinions on topics like the Civil Rights Movement, which is what most of them have been learning about. It makes me a little more intimidated to teach them, but I think I will be fine. I have already started thinking about some ideas for a lesson in their. She gave me a lot of freedom in choosing a topic because they will be done with their unit in a couple of weeks and she doesnt have anything planned after that. I decided to do some African Americn poetry, since the Civil rights movement is fresh on their minds, and I love poetry. If anyone has any good ideas for lessons with that let me know!

I search concluding thoughts...

Well the I search is done and I'm not gonna lie...I'm pretty happy about that! Research papers are not my forte, but I will say that I did find some very interesting views that people have about Poetry. I chose to write my paper on How to teach poetry in High School and found that there were SO many people who have something to say about this topic! The general concensus in the articles that I found seemed to be that many of us know and realize the huge importance of poetry and that it definitly should be taught in the classroom, but that doesnt always mean thta it happens. There are many reasons that teachers stray from teaching poetry. First, they are completely unprepared to do so. Many colleges do not require future teachers to really master poetry or even feel remotely well educated on the topic before going into the field. Most teachers struggle to even define poetry to their students. Secondly, students have many misconceptions about poetry that causes them to moan and groan when the thought of a poetry lesson comes up. Many students view it as a waste of time, too feminine, too boring, or too sentimental. We as teachers need to clear up these misconceptions about poetry rather than just straying from teaching it. So how should we teach poetry? It should definitly be read aloud! Many studies show that this is crucial for really understanding poems. You should also have your students write poetry. It is the best way to improve composition skills. I really did enjoy my topic for this paper. I have a lot more drive and passion to teach poetry to young people now!

Practicum Perils

While I try not to do it when I write my journal over the day during practicum, I keep remembering the practicum I did last year. Last year, the teacher I studied with was very open with her classroom and had group activities daily. The kids were always happy to be there and very animated full of ideas. Her teaching method dealt more with student interaction and growth through each other as they learned.

In the current practicum, I have yet to see much collaboration or joy in the kid's eyes. Some of them always have the spark but it is defiantly different than last year. There is less student interaction and more lecturing combined with questions and answers. It just doesn't have the same feel as last year.

Still, I think about the differences and similarities.

Both took place with the class that went to lunch and the final class of the day, both are English honors classes, both have a dip of minorities within the group, and both have a teacher that can make you laugh and is entertaining.

However, last years classes had one freshman course and one junior--this year, they are both sophomore classes. Last year, the desks were arranged with the desks looking at the middle of the room from either side of the class with a space to walk behind the students as well--this year, all the desks face the head of the class and there is barely an inch space to walk amongst the kids (you can't even reach the back row to stand there in case there is an outburst of bad behavior).

These changes affect the outlook on the student's behavior and, as my teacher stated on Wednesday, he has had to yell at the kids in the last block a few times because he couldn't hear the announcements. Funny thing is, if the desks were arranged differently, I think the outbursts would cease.

Though I'm probably clashing a little with my teacher, I think I can learn a lot. I can learn the things I won't do as a teacher... got to take the bad with the good. My only worry is how to teach my way in a class that has been taught in a way I differ...

Well, at least he's willing to let me teach several times before anyone comes to watch me and *Bonus* since both his classes are sophomore honors, I am going to teach my lesson to both classes in the same day. That will help because every class is different: what works for one may not work for the others.

Ugh, I'm tired.

Good Night.

Emms I-Search Paper

I really liked my I-Search paper topic. After a lot of searching and changing of topics I finally set my attention on techniques and methods on sparking students' interests in reading. We all know that there are going to be students who come our way who do not like to read. My theory on this is that those people who say they do not like to read really have just not found the right book. There are so many genres out there that it can be overwhelming to beginning readers. Because of this I set my focus on ways to get those people interested in reading. Some of the articles that I found I thought were very helpful. One discusses how the author, who is also a teacher, read a lot of young adult literature. With her knowledge and interest in this subject she was able to draw more people in. Another article discusses how knowing certain genres and your students, and then directing them to those books that they might possibly like. Also, like I said in my last blog, I used a lot of what Kelly Gallagher says in chapters 2 and 3 in his book Deeper Reading. Much of what he says in these chapters can help us get our students interested in the text.

Emms response to reading

Okay, I know it is late, but I am posting it anyway. In Deeper Reading I was drawn to the fact that one needs to do framing activities while discussing a text. I know Gallagher says a major work, but really I think that this should be done for most of the works that are covered in a class. I feel that this is important because it keeps the students on top, current and focused to the text being discussed. His point of cold reading being a bad idea is very true. when you have no information about a text it is harder to get into the reading. I still experience this with some of my Literature classes. How many of you caught that he was talking about laundry on the very first read on page 26. I thought it was funny because I was thinking about it while I was reading that description of it. I was like "What could this be? Sounds like what I do when I do laundry. Maybe it is about laundry. It is!" I really liked a lot of what He wrote in these two chapters; in fact I used a lot of what he said in my I-search paper.

Field Experience

I've learned several things from my field experience thus far. The primary lesson. Do not put students into groups unless they are doing group activities. (Sarcasm) Let's just give them the opportunity to have their backs to us, play with their I-pods, cell phones, etc.

My field experience teacher is either unaware or indifferent to the fact that over half her students are not engageed. Sure, they should be on-task, but we are dealing with kids. We have to set the example and set the stage for how things will operate in our class.

When I do my lesson on Friday, I'm going in early and arranging the desk single file. I'm hoping she might see this and make the change. I'm not saying I'm perfect, could do it better, or am above the teacher. I guess I just don't understand why she hasn't fixed it yet?

Anyone else see things obviously off-the-mark in your field experience like this??

~Stan

Practicum

I'm doing my practicum at Nixa. My teacher is pretty nice, but not overly friendly. My first day was Feb 26. I go two days a week; 12-1 on Tuesdays, and 8-12 on Wednesdays. Anyways, she informed me on the second day of my practicum that I needed to do a lesson plan on Antigone, a play that we were going to start soon. So I had some mixed feelings about her telling me to do a lesson plan on my second day...then she e-mailed me and told me what I needed to do..so at first I was a little mad because it was supposed to be my lesson plan not hers. Then again, I thought, she IS the teacher. I guess I was glad when I thought about it because I wouldn't really know where to start considering it would be my first lesson in front of a class. I was actually supposed to do it yesterday ( 3/4) but we ended up having a snow day, thank God. I was happy because I had created the plan and everything, made copies and was all ready, and then sent her my plans to make sure it was okay. She said I needed to do it in a different way, and blah, blah; I really don't know if she knows what she wants me to. Anyway, I am going to present the lesson next Tuesday (3/11) and hopefully I will be better prepared. I am going to ask Zach (from last night) to make a copy of Oedipus (reader's theatre) for me so that I can possibly use it for an opener.

Playing Catch Up: Chapter 4

I hope that you all don't mind, I am going to be posting about a few subjects that we have already covered on the blog because I'm trying to catch up on my posts. In chapter 4 Christenbury talks about a diturbed study hall student that threatens her with a lighter. This seems like a horrifying occurance but it raises questions to those of us who are deciding to make teaching our career. Are you prepared to deal with highly disturbed individuals who could care less whether they harm a teacher? When I was a teenager I went to three different High Schools an inner city High School in Las Vegas NV, a suburban High School in Henderson NV, and a small town school in Buffalo, MO. When I was at the inner city school I witnessed a lot of gang activity. The students who were in these gangs had no moral opposition to committing violence. I really would like to hear from an inner city teacher who has experienced this activity first hand. I know that many of us will probably end up in a rural school where these things won't be prevalent, but some of us are bound to be faced with this at some point. So I pose a question, how would you deal with gang activity in your classroom?

I-Search paper

I did my I-Search paper on literature circles. It wasn't my original topic, but I'm actually really pleased with all of the information I gathered from research. I was vaguely familiar with the idea of lit circles, but after reading about all of the positives that are associated with lit circles I am definitly planning on using them as much as possible in my classroom next year.

The topic of my paper was "What makes a successful literature circle?" There is definitely a difference between a successful lit circle and a crappy lit circle. One of my articles documented two teachers who were struggling with their lit circles and told of the journey they took and the tweaking they did in order to make them effective in the classroom. One important thing to remember with lit circles is that if they are not structured properly they can come crumbling down at your feet so quickly. With junior high and high school kids they are often times too busy socializing, putting each other down, and not properly participating in the cirlces. When this happens it's important that the teacher take lead of the groups and get them back on the right track.

Research shows that when literature circles are used properly they allow freedom, support, engaged learning, and an active environment for the kids. My research also shows that students prefer lit circles to the more traditional alternatives.

If anybody wants any info on lit circles I'd be more than happy to share what I have with you!

Chapter 6

O yea- I forgot to write about the chapters!! Chapter 6 is everything that I just read for my ENG 520 class. I really enjoy grammar and usage and chose to be an English teacher for that reason, but I know that teaching it in mini-lessons is the only way to teach it. Reading about grammar is boring, so the chapter was not very intriguing, but teaching it doesn’t have to be the same way. In a sense, grammar is like poetry. Students are often afraid of it because they don’t understand it and their teachers explain it without enthusiasm. If we can teach it, like we enjoy it, students will have more of a positive outlook on it and won’t groan and moan every time we introduce a lesson. Although knowing what verbs and adjectives are, it is more important knowing how to use them in a sentence. This is where are interesting mini-lessons come into play! Chapter 6 gives some good examples of how to incorporate these into the classroom and I will hopefully be able to do that.

I-Search

I completed my I-Search paper on lessons about Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I thought my title was creative because I took one line from the play and tweaked it to fit my paper. The title is The Course of True Research Never Did Run Smoothly and the original line was, “The course of true love never did run smoothly.” Throughout my research I was able to find some really great lessons plans regarding this play and other Shakespearean plays. I found ways to teach the language of the play, lifestyle of Shakespeare, plot and themes of the play, and information about characters and events associated with the play. The information was really helpful and I found some specific examples of things to use in my classroom. In fact, my in-class lesson actually came from this research. I was able to tweak a former lesson plan and make it my own to present to you guys. Another important thing I found through my research was that teachers really like to help their colleagues. There are posts everywhere of lesson and unit plans that are available to us. I think this is really helpful and saves us a lot of time. Also, I found that The Folger Shakespeare Library is amazing! This set of books allows teachers to use pre-made unit plans for all of Shakespeare’s plays. There is a set calendar, worksheets, activities, projects, assignments, and everything else involved in unit plans throughout this book. It is a must for any teacher who plans on teaching Shakespeare because it saves so much time and is really helpful and professional. I also found some great websites including Readwritethink.org and PBS.org that prove to be very helpful. Finally, I expected my research to be boring and unhelpful. Luckily, it was neither of them. My research is truly information that I can use in my classroom and have already used (my in-class lesson). If you guys need any information regarding Shakespeare, please feel free to contact me. I am willing to share my research and save you guys some time!

March 3

6:30: Minutes
Discuss Artifact Cover Sheets briefly.
See the standards: NCTE/IRA; Mo-Step and Specialty Area Indicators. Don't pay attention to the portfolio directions, but the Mo-Step Standards, Conceptual Framework, and SAI's are listed here.

Grading student work. Hand out Willow Springs work.

6:45: Stacy's Lesson
7:15: Break
7:25: Priscilla's Lesson
8:00: Guest Speaker: Zak Hamby, Com. Arts, Nixa High School. He will be presenting about Reader's Theater. Please be ready to read, write, and share.

Homework:
1. Casey sent another draft of her students' Senior Project papers. They are very excited that you will be looking at them again. These drafts have letters. Each of you would need to bring three of these home with you to respond to, and also give them an initial score based on 6+1.

2. Kathy Gibson asked us if we would return to her students' writing on the blog. I blogged this on March 2, so you will find a link to their work. Please respond to at least two or three student. Make sure that each student receives feedback.

3. Bring an extra copy of your I-search for Casey's class.

4. Read ch. 6 and 8 of Christenbury

5. Schedule your appointment with me for your coaching meeting before the in-class lesson.

6. Talk to your field experience teacher, and schedule your field observation visit. Please try to do this by next Wednesday, March 12.

Throwing in the Towel....

I'm throwing in the towel to this crazy weather and hoping for Sledfest #3 tomorrow with rounds of hot chocolate afterwards. IF the weather comes our way, and IF we don't have school at Willow Springs High School, I think it will be Snow Day 12...which is really quite difficult to plan around. But, what can you do? I love snow days, no matter how many I get, and will probably be aching in the spring for a day off, but at least after school in the spring there's plenty of daylight to enjoy the late afternoon. :) So bring on the snow!

On to the point of the post:

My students have their second drafts of their papers finished and you will be getting some to assess. Each student wrote a cover letter and I wrote these three questions on the board for them to address:

1. What changes have you made from your first draft(s) to your official 2nd draft?
2. What is the strength of your paper?
3. What area still needs developed, or what would you like a reader to read your paper for? And what would you like your reader to understand and know about your topic after reading?

Please read the cover letter and paper assigned to you. This assessment, the second time around, should go a little quicker than the last. Although the student possibly asked you for help in one area, please assess all seven areas on the scoring guide, circling the bulleted items within each category. When finished, please score the paper 1-6...your overall assessment/average based from the circled items on the scoring guide. On the back of the scoring guide, please make comments about the paper, (and it's here you can write the overall score if you'd like,) and offer the appropriate feedback based on the students questions or comments from their cover letter.

Hopefully you still have the Bless, Address, and Press cards. Bless means a student really doesn't want to hear the "bad things" about his or her paper...only comment on the good. Address means the student has asked you specific questions and wants you to comment on those only. Press, comment as you wish, helping the student press out the wrinkles to move them toward their third and final published draft. Many students at this stage probably want you to press their paper.

If you have questions, please feel free to e-mail me or comment on this post. I hope you enjoy the papers this time around. Some have worked hard, and some haven't. :) With the snow days, I haven't had much time to work on a lot of mini-lessons that I wanted. Last week students worked on titles, and that's always a fun mini-lesson. We work on titles several times throughout the year, but the senior project paper is such a significant part of their senior year, most students really want a good title. First we read short excerpts and play a guessing game about titles from the book Why not Catch 21, by Dexter. Which I think Keri highlighted in a recent post (that I have not read yet.) Next, we read a short excerpt in Ideas and Details: A College Guide to Writing textbook by Bauman (which is personally one of my favorite writing texts for high school students (parts of it, at least...I use many different texts.) After this, I put a list of bland topics on the projector and we, as a class, come up with titles for each...so a topic about Poisonous Gases could end up being something like "Death Stalks Your Home" and "Whose Gas Is It Anyway?" Once we play around with titles, we write three of our own for our paper, and then hand it over to a peer, who has to evaluate the titles, choose the one they think shows the most promise, and explain why they like it. So...all that to say this: you might find some quirky titles. :) Enjoy.

Also, I did not get a chance to collect first drafts, but possibly later in the semester, after 3rd drafts come in, you will have an opportunity to place the students drafts together and see all the changes made.

I would love to hear your general thoughts and comments about the student work.

Read this post because I have a clever title, or, The power of questioning in the classroom

Thanks for the tip, Dr. Franklin!

I cannot believe it's snowing outside after such a gorgeous weekend. Bleagh. However, snowy days are fantastic days to skip class and curl up a pot of homemade chili and a good textbook - namely Christenbury (and a nap...but that's beside the point).

Ch. 6 was a bit dry for me. I wasn't that interested in the wordplay exercises, and since my I-search was about teaching grammar, I was familiar with most of the concepts she presented (Though I loved them when I got them in Teaching Comp/Rhet with Dr. Weaver, and still do).

Ch. 8, however, was right up my alley. I worked at a church camp for high school students one summer and most of our activities utilized this questioning approach. I'm still not the best at it, but I have a bit of practice, anyway. These tips really helped me make questioning a success with high school kids, especially if they didn't really want to get involved.

1. There's a definite sequence to questioning, though the students will probably never notice.
- What? First, get students to describe something pretty basic, basically reporting facts. What is this movie about? What happened in last night's reading?
- So What? This is where you guide the group into the specific topic you want to focus on, getting them to share their own ideas. "So, they found Tom Robinson guilty. What did they cite as evidence? Do you think this was valid evidence?" The deepest "so what?" questions are those that ask students to share personal feelings. If a teacher starts discussion of a poem with "How does it make you feel?", he/she is likely to be greeted with silence. It's a rather personal answer, and there's no easing into it.
- Now What? Have students make applications to other situations, both in literature and in their world. This level is where Jerry Seinfield's question would have fit - the connection between the battle of Brittany and...whatever else. What a question to end a discussion! But at the beginning, it flopped (of course, it's funny when it flops on SNL - not in the classroom).
- Closure What have you learned?
This sequence really does help.

2. Have a clear goal in mind before you start a discussion - don't just think you'll see what the kids think and make it up on the spot. Have some questions in mind, too, for all the different levels. You have to adjust your discussion to what students answer, but sometimes they don't give much direction on their own...you have to be a little Socratic at first.

3. Your goal is to facilitate a discussion, not a q and a. Students should respond to each other, not you, as much as possible.

4. Encourage specifics. Dr. Franklin used this to great effect in the Think-Aloud she demonstrated - tie it to the text as much as possible.

5. Make sure everyone can hear everyone else. This is basic, but really important. It's good to rephrase the important parts of a student's comment/question, or get them to repeat it, especially if they ramble a bit or other students aren't listening.

6. If you can avoid it, try not to give answers, even if you have to act like every comment is a brand-new interpretation you've never considered. Sure, you have knowledge they don't, but often if you field the question to the class, someone will take a stab at it for you.

That was really long-winded, but these tips really helped me hone some skills. You could say Seinfeld's lesson flops because he does it all backward - he starts with the hard stuff, then when kids can't answer, he eases off just a little at a time, instead of starting at the very, very beginning and building scaffolding.

I've got to admit, when I saw the title for Chapte 6 I was not thrilled. Knowing that the chapter related to grammar in any way automatically put it at the bottom of my list of things to read. I know that as a future English teacher I should enjoy grammar and basically everything having to do with words and sentences and so on, but I don't. In fact, I hate grammar...a lot. My love for the English language and field rests almost solely on literature. However, I have to say I like the way Christenbury deals with the subject. She seems much more realistic about the subject than most textbook writers, and not nearly as boring. She even gives some suggestions that seem as if they could work!

Chapter 6

Chapter 6 was fast becoming one of my least favorite chapters that we've read so far, until I stumbled across the section titled "Student's Rights to Their Own Language (p. 200). I think that this section pulled the entire chapter together for me. As teachers, there are going to be those students who don't talk in the standard dialect we consider appropriate and corrector. This does not mean that their intelligence level is lower than those students around them. I am one that will cringe when I hear the use of poor grammar, and will immediately feel like all eyes are on me if I let a sentence or phrase slip through my lips that is grammatically wrong. I think that the ideas in chapter 6 as a whole are good reminders not only that we have to take in the cultures that our students come from, but also that we need to check some of our own stereotypes at the door and be open to the differences of our students and the learning they can provide us. (This idea can span much larger than just in terms of different dialects of English.)

I really liked the exercise at the end of the chapter. I think that having students write about their own language acquisitions and possibly a linguistic autobiography are ways in which students can find out more about themselves and we can learn more about them as well.

Chapter 6

I was reading along in Chapter 6 when I came accross the section titled The Five Grammars.
I would agree with the text on Grammer 1. What grammar we have come to intreprut over our course of studies is suggested by Grammar 1. This is the grammar that we think is right to use.
Scientific analysis' of grammar 2 (while it is the linguist's model of grammar 1) can be hard and difficult at times to understand. In my History of the English Languauge class, we are learning about analyzing english (old english) and the rules associated with it. I don't exactly understand why we have to learn some of the concepts that we do, because high school students won't be learning these concepts this early in life. I can relate more to grammar 3 and grammar 4 because as I will be a high school teacher, this is what the students will be learning thruoghout their school years. Grammar and high school students would be learning out of text books that are associated with their level of learning. Grammar 5 i n my honest opinion would be more for the college english prep classes in hish school and aslo for the early years of college enlish.

Are we getting an appropriate education?

As Christenbury talked about the difference between usage and grammar and the difficulties of teaching it in the classroom I grew somewhat frustrated. I began to wonder if the education I am receiving in college is actually preparing me to become a teacher of Communication Arts. As a middle school education major we are required to split our time of content in two different areas as well as take a few more education classes. To be completely honest several of the classes I have had to take for my English requirements have been good classes for "higher education" but I'm not sure if they are going to help me teach middle school students. The education classes I have taken have been a pretty big waste of time. What I'm trying to say is I do not feel my education is setting me up to succeed. I knew going into this that middle school students spend a lot of time developing the grammar skills that Christenbury was talking about. I have taken one class that dealt with grammar. It would be nice to paying for an education that is going to better equip the future teacher, but as Christenbury said we can always learn those things and how to teach them. It would be nice if classes were geared towards the future profession we were going to be going into instead of just putting us in classes that are related to our subject.

As the chapter titled The Craft of Questioning is something that is often talked about in education. Last week in my Social Studies Methods class we talked about this as well. I believe this is one teaching technique that is difficult to master but one of the best qualities a teacher can learn. I find it hard to find the right questions to ask a class to get them talking and when I do find that question it is sometimes hard to think of good follow-up questions. One thing my professor in my SS methods said was that the teacher should never answer their own question. If we do this it makes the students believe that they do not really have to pay attention to what is going on in class. Thought it was interesting.

Chapter 6

I agree with thoe who say that there is no "bad" language. The English language along with every other world language is in a constant state of change and I just can't be one of those people who think that the language should always stay the same. The language that most of us use today is worlds apart from the language of 500 years ago. I think that it's good that some people find grammar fascinating and choose to devote their lives to it, but I am not one of those people. I do believe that standards exist in the language that we use everyday but I think it can be taken too far. For example, when Christenbury mentions that she was once corrected on her pronunciation of muave. If you are pretentious enough to correct someone on a minor regional pronunciation difference, then you deserve to hear bad grammar.

When I teach grammar, I will emphasize the "practice makes better" model and simply give students oppurtunities to write formally and guide their grammar through revisions. One thing that you will never hear me say is "may I go to the bathroom" when I know exactly what the student meant when he/she said "can".

Mini-Lesson on Titles: The Seagull vs. The Woodcock

I was watching CBS Sunday Morning, and they had a segment on a book called Why Not Catch-21? The book discusses the origin for titles, and once I did a little research, I discovered there is weekly column in The Sunday Telegraph. The segment discussed the importance of titles. It's the first thing we notice about a paper, and it's usually the last thing that we deal with. I can't remember where I read this (Atwell? Moffett?), but the author suggested writing down 50 titles and then narrowing it down. The first twenty titles probably aren't very good. You really have to go beyond and dig deep for a great one. Occasionally, a great title might pop into our heads, but usually not.

I usually go back to my manuscript and look for key words, or I think about the main idea I want to get across to readers. Usually a great title has two parts with a colon, especially in college, right. So, the first part is the main idea and the second part after the colon goes into more detail. It's also great to insert humor or word play, if at all possible.

Let's look at some sample titles:

1. The Course of True Research Never Did Run Smoothly
2. Young Adult Literature
3. I-Search Paper

Which paper would you want to read? As teachers and readers of writing, titles will be very important. The first impression is the most important. All writing deserves a title, and hopefully a great title. We want to engage all of our readers.

In a mini-lesson, I would have student write down 30-50 titles for their paper. They will think it's impossible, but I would encourage them to just write and not worry about whether the titles were good or not. I might also lead them through how I would come up with a title. As an anticipatory set, I might share some of the stories from the book I linked to above. Does Catch-18 sound as good as Catch-22? Would either title be sufficient? You could also include in this mini-lesson information on punctuating titles. Think about how important the title was to the poem "The Kitchen Shears Speak." Titles and pictures on your blog posts are important as well. The blog posts are responses to the readings and experiences, but they are also writing assignments that ask you to write for an audience. Creating a great title is one way to get the audience's interest.

The Tension of Chapter 6

I have struggled a little bit with chapter 6. I'll be the first to admit that I am a grammar fanatic....and I hate it. I hate that I notice every time someone uses "nonstandard" grammar, which apparently I'm not allowed to call "bad" or "incorrect." But I do. After reading this chapter, I realize that I am much more of a verbal grammar fanatic than a written one. I don't get really uptight about comma splices, split infinitives, etc as long as it doesn't distract from the writing as a whole (and who honestly knows exactly how to use a comma in every single instances??). But to talk to someone and encounter "poor" grammar (yes, I said poor) drives me crazy. I work in a fairly professional environment. My co-workers and I often find ourselves on the phone with law firms, Federal Reserve personnel, VISA personnel and a host of other fairly professional entities. So when I hear someone in my office ask, "Was you gonna send us that file?" I want to cry. And I swear, I have heard it more times that I can count. To me, it is bad grammar and it makes my office look very unprofessional. It makes the people I work with seem very uneducated. It honestly bothers me. (Don't tell them but in the course of one work day, I wrote down every time I heard someone use bad grammar and I think I counted about 30 different times....another reason to cry).

So then I read Christenbury, whom I have gained a tremendous amount of respect for over the last 5 chapters. And I struggle when she talks about how its not really "bad" or "poor" grammar and we shouldn't tell our students this. I disagree. Maybe its not necessary with family and friends. Maybe we don't have to use proper grammar when we are on the basketball courts with our friends. But if our students want to be taken seriously after they leave the school environment and enter adulthood, they have to know how to speak standard English. To me, I see poor grammar as a separate world than a regional/racial/social dialect. There are ways that the two overlap, but poor grammar is poor grammar, no matter what you call it.

While I want my students to know how to speak well, I also know that giving them tons of grammar worksheets is not going to accomplish it. The nerd in me would love to diagram sentences for days, but my students will string me up by my eyelashes if I even suggest it. So I am always looking for creative and innovative ways to approach grammar in my classroom - and maybe even verbal grammar more than written. So I liked some of her ideas. But I am still trying to think of more.....and if I remember correctly, Katie did her I-search on teaching grammar....so teach us, Katie!

Responding to Student Writing

We've been asked by Mrs. Gibson, the middle school teacher at Greenwood, to respond to her seventh graders' writing on their blog. She would like us to comment to their writing:

The students have already posted their stories on the blog site. What I'm trying to do is get them more used to writing for an audience, to understanding what someone might need in order to understand their story. I'm also trying to model good ways to respond--more so to content than mechanics, but they also need to understand when their mechanical mistakes can get in the way of understanding for a reader. They're at a pretty basic level of responding to each other right now. We've been talking about constructive responses, digging deeper, asking questions, pointing out places that really jump out visually, etc. They are at a pretty tender age as 7th graders and are not too used to getting feedback that might challenge them to revise more thoughtfully.

Just the fact that I was going to have them put their work on the web caused several of them to rethink what they were going to write. That was encouraging! :) I've also got a website that I've been using to post student work, and of course, there's always Blackboard. The great thing about the edublog site is that each student can post his or her own work, yet I can monitor comments and content.

The website is http://greenwoodlab.edublogs.org

This is yet another exciting opportunity to work with students. I think one thing we can all work on as writing teachers is understanding what students need. No matter what our age or writing ability, we need to look at each piece of student work on its own merits. These are seventh graders, and I think Mrs. Gibson is asking us to "Bless" and "Press." The "Press" will require you to "point." As a reader, you will "point" to the reader parts that jump out. Elbow describes "pointing" as the following:

Ask readers: “Which words or phrases stick in your mind? Which phrases of features did you like best? Don’t explain why.”"Pressing" will also be asking questions.

"I was wondering . . ."
"Which of these . . ."

We are not focusing on challenging or critiquing the students. Focus on providing comments that will encourage them to continue working on their papers, but also provide constructive comments that will give them ideas for revision. If you have any questions about what to say or how to respond to their work, email me or Mrs. Gibson. The students are writing short stories, and this is their very first draft.

chapters 6 and 8

I had to take linguistics two times when I was an undergrad (the first time I withdrew because I was failing so badly...the second time I barely passed), so the beginning of chapter six was sort of an awful reminder of how much I suck at linguistics. I thought chapter six was okay, but it didn't start getting really good for me until the section on language play/language games (pg 192). I think playing around with language like Christenbury describes in this section can make language really fun for students who aren't usually that interested in it. I also think the more fun students have with language the more they'll remember the mechanics and the different parts of it.

One of my favorite parts of chapter 8 was the section entitled "Beyond Hierarchies: Questions You Don't Want to Ask." I liked this so much because I think it's vital for us to ask our students questions that require higher level thinking, but are also comprehendable for them. I hate all of the types of questions that Christenbury said to stay away from (yes/no, vague, fill in the blank, double, loaded), so it was nice to have my hatred for these questions validated by someone way smarter than me. I think it's important for us to require higher level thinking from the questions we ask our students.

Also, just thought I'd let everyone know that I got offered a job last week teaching 7th grade Comm Arts at Webb City Junior High School!!