While I was reading chapter 7 of Making the Journey on pages 210 and 211 my wheels started spinning. She was talking about how so many times in class we want students to write the traditional way, but that this is not the way real writers write. She talked about how when she was writing for a deadline and that if the work wasn't up to standard she didn't fail but she had to keep working on it until it was up to a certain standard. I thought she made a good point with this. But my mind kind of went off on its on tangent kind of like what Gallagher talks about. I begin thinking what if I had my middle school students create a brochure instead of write a research project. The students would still be required to research a topic, and cite where they received the information from. But it would be something that they would read or find in real life. The same thing could be done with a magazine article or even a newspaper. I as the teacher could spend time going through kid magazines or newspapers and discuss the different types of genres and what nots each magazine has to offer and then break the students into different writing assignments and topics.
I also really liked the character chart that Gallagher talked about in chapter 4. I could definitely see myself using something like that in reading assignments. I think it could be used for chapters so if it is a book that is read during class students could go back and look at what each character is going through. I think it is a good way to have students recall information.
2 comments:
While reading Christenbury, I thought about the same thing. I agree with her methodology and how she says people really write. But I wonder how people develop into the writers they are, writing recursively.
I was taught from 7/8 grade on the traditional format. Then, I was taught differing methods to use that structure. I think we have to use the structure of the "common" essay to a great extent because it helps you build the foundation for other articles of writing, such as the magazine articles, newspapers, etc. The still have structure and generally it is in the formula we all know.
That was one of the main problems I had with the papers we graded. Too many people were worried about voice and completely oblivious to the little things like, structure, citations, and effective transitioning. I, in no way, think this is the fault of the students. I think teachers have attempted to adopt strategies like Christenbury's and have mangled and totally destroyed the manner in which writing should be taught/learned.
~Stan
I really like your brochure idea. It allows students to convey that they have learned something to the same degree that they would in a research paper, but they can be more creative with it and add in elements like pictures, creative fonts and things of that nature that make the whole learning experience much more enjoyable. And hopefully they will not be robbed of any love of writing in the process.
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