Murray CH. 6

Anna Papst

Dr. Sean Agriss

08.13.2013

Murray CH. 6

Inviting Writing

            “We must as teachers continually invite writing, keep the game of writing going in front of our students, make is so interesting that they will want to join in” (107). If one looks at writing as a game, something to excel and ultimately win, then the scary factor of writing goes away. Writing can be a mature aspect of a student’s career in school. Teachers need to set the tone for the classroom and then run with the concept. Students will follow your lead, when you set the bar and then nurture and coach them along.

            A teacher’s notes should go away when faced with a student’s question. Any question can go into a rich time for teaching. You never know when a student will have an issue or raise a point that needs further explanation on your part. It is important to stay keyed into your students. Be alert and watching for the opportunity to strike with knowledge.

            Watch your class for an overall struggling point. Say you are working on a paper topic, the brain storming process is beginning, and you see that the introductions are weak. Take this opportunity to stop and work on leads, as the book calls it. Activities around intros can be short, but you want them to understand why you are putting them through certain exercises. You are helping them work on their introductions and therefore, their papers and their writing will benefit from it.

            Failure is O.K. I love this point. How is anybody going to learn, if they don’t fail? This is a key point to tell your students as well. Even teachers fail. How is a teacher going to get better if they don’t learn from their mistakes, then you have something to go back and reflect upon how to do it better next time. Reflection for teachers and for students brings nothing but fruit to the learning process. You need to tell your students that the best place to fail is the classroom. This is the training ground before you go out into the real world. This is a safe place to try new things, to learn from trial and error, and to become the best learners that they can be.

            The point of Empathy came up. “The football player, for example, might describe a play from the point of view of someone who hates violence, and the student who hates violence might describe a football game from a fan’s point of view” (111). There are so many tips that can be taken from a picture or from different characters that are well known to the students. Have the students do an exercise where they are writing from multiple perspectives and see how their writing expands into something so creative and beautiful. Voice is key to the writing aspect. There are so many activities that can be done around this single concept.

            The trail was also an interesting concept. You can transform the papers into a map. They start out with words at the top of the page for beginning ideas, put words at the bottom for potential endings, and then fill the rest of the page with questions that will be covered in the paper. There are many ideas that you simply need to try out. Give it a try and don’t be afraid of failure.

1st Mini Lesson By Ms. Clark

Sean is a CEO for Hedge Fund Co, which is a Finance and Investment Co. He started working in the mail room and worked his way up. He finally was able to force the old CEO out of his position. Sean tries to live a simply life in Spokane WA. However, he does own three planes, a Mt. cabin on Silver and has acreage up north. He grew up a poor child and wanted to have lots of money, so that is why he decided to become the head of his company. He hasn’t dreamed about this at all…Sean has now been the CEO for ten years. He eventually wants to by the house right next to Bill Gates’ on Lake Washington.

Murray Ch. 8

Anna Papst

Responding to Murray CH. 8

Conferencing is so important in the classroom setting, especially with the diverse population that one can experience in a class. Students need that one on one attention. It is an opportunity for teachers to understand where each of his/her students is with their writing and their thought processes. The way that a teacher responds to the writing, will help develop the student further in their writing skills, or it won’t. The teacher needs to respond constructively and not just say what was right or wrong with the student’s paper. The teacher should be the guide through the writing process. The teacher should read, the students should read, and then they should both come together and comment on each experience through reading the writing. Each should come together and debrief about the writing. The teacher should guide the student through the writing process, and not come and pass judgment on the writing. The student should be guided to the errors, but not told how or what to fix. The student can understand how to fix a problem through rereading the writing him or herself, but should be guided to the problems that occur.

The biggest issue that I have had is to reread my drafts. It is always a race to get something accomplished and then to submit it because it is done. I want to instill in my students to reread their writing and then go back through and look for errors on their own. I want to train my students how to be learners and to encourage them along the way.

One of my friends told me once that he can find good writing and he is a better writer because he reads so much. I think that is true of reading your own writing. You will be a better writer if you can go through and read your own writing and understand how to recognize what is working and what is not working. “The writer’s first reader is always the writer.” (149) This is the scary fact of writing sometimes, because in order to edit your own writing before editing and revision, you have to go back through and read your own writing, reflect and then respond through rewriting.

The Trialogue: Student, Teacher, and Text. This was genius. There are three entities that are a part of writing, there is the teacher who is instructing, reading, responding and reflecting of the writing. The student does the writing, is the one who is graded, and the one who is learning from the entire writing process. Then there is the text that is the object of the writer’s mind, the information that is transferred from the writer to page. These three things offer up the tri-head of the writing process. They can work together to create something beautiful and worthwhile reading.

“The most effective training for a conference teaches is experience in reading and responding to the teacher’s own text.” ( 151) As much as one doesn’t want to read their own writing, it is so necessary for the learning and reflection that comes out of spending the short amount of time that it takes to read through or skim writing. This may take you from the complacent writer into a great one and may even turn it into a career, because you have decided to accept yourself.

During the writing process, students should always be reflecting with their own writing. This will make them appreciate their own work so much more and will allow for them to be okay with making mistakes and then going back through and correcting their own mistakes. Reflecting on their own work allows them to learn from themselves and from their own experiences with writing.

Murray Ch. 7

Chapter 7 Responding to Surprise

            This chapter was all about papers, diversity in the classroom, and knowing yourself as a teacher to understand your students and their diversity. One of the facts was that the “most common cultural background shared by students is music and television.” (133) I thought this was interesting, but it is true that music is a huge part of culture, just like TV is a little bit different in every culture. Students have things in their backgrounds that are not going to be totally alike, but will be similar. They are also going to write through these similar but different takes on life. Our job is to meet them in the middle. We need not put pressures on them to write alike or even have the expectation that they are going to. Diversity is a challenge. The book comments that this diversity, in the many areas and forms, is significant to composition. Cultural, Economic, Experience, Educational, Sexual, Racial, Goals, Writing Tasks, Standards, Cognitive Styles, Personality, and different voices will all add to the variety of papers and paper topics that will create a diverse array in the classroom. It is important to embrace this paper diversity, because just like I write out of my experiences, so will my students. The differences, according to Donald Graves, bring out the significance of the writing that each student brings to the table. We must learn to teach to the diversity and embrace it for the writing that it can produce. They each will have diverse needs, diverse learning styles, diversity in what they say and how they say it, and we must learn how to address those issues through our teaching styles. The response theory of teaching was interesting. We need to be able to see and work out our own problems that we face on a day to day basis, and then we can aid our students in what they are going through. We need to be aware that any problem or issue is the key to who that student is and how we can reach them. “Response theory takes advantage of the inevitable but potentially productive student failures that frustrate teaches who attempt to teach before learning.” (138)

            Good writing, responding to papers and giving the grade are all a huge piece to the composition process. The diversity of our students will give a much different picture to how the composition process will go and end up.

WEAVER CH. 6

Anna Papst

Sean Agriss

07.29.2013

ENGLISH 408

Reflection Weaver: CH. 6

            Learning is best fostered with practice. No one can just sit down and write a paper out from start to finish, turn it in and expect to receive a 100% grade. It takes time to learn and it also takes time to perfect. Writing is an ongoing revising/editing, learning process that takes time and effort to become good or even decent. “A major thesis of this book is that one of the best ways to teach the grammatical concepts needed for sentence revision and editing may be through mini-lessons based upon cognitive and constructivist principles of learning.” (150) In this way, teachers can teach how students take in a process information. Teaching to the students learning is the best and only way they are going to be engaged or even believe what you are teaching. They want you to be genuine. If you teach to the students’ ability and skill, then you are going to be effective in your strategy, because you are engaging them in a way that they can process and understand. Offering tips to students about what is important to their learning will make it easier for the students to comprehend and then they will hopefully respond accordingly. The teacher will use this in a way to quickly and effectively reach the class as a whole. Some students will latch on quickly, and then more, direct instruction and help will be provided for students who need extra help.

            “Effective learning follows one best sequence.” (152) Never thought about students learning in a sequence before. There is an effective way to build information upon other information. The students will learn in a certain order or sequence and it’s important to stick to this pattern. What should be taught and in what order, is a hard concept to wrap my mind around. I never thought that teachers planned how to sequence concepts that they were teaching, but in a way this is the best way to make sense of the teacher’s sense of teaching to students. It provides order and value for your students if you are consistent in your teaching methods.

            “The construction of concepts. “If the learner cannot or does not organize facts into concepts, they are quickly forgotten.” (153) Constructing concepts and building them upon one another creates patterns for students to familiarize with and then effectively learn. Some students cram before tests etc., and I think this is due to not being able to formulize concepts and patterns of learning. Then at the end of a unit, they have to re-learn several concepts because they didn’t really learn them in the first place. “It involves clarifying ALL the critical features of a concept and distinguishing features, in order to differentiate apparent from real instances of a concept.” (153). Clarifying is key because then students will be able to clearly remember what you want them to remember and then they can act accordingly with their study habits. This also trains their mind to start picking out key concepts on their own as well.

            “Much learning occurs through the observation and osmosis that are facilitated by indirect instruction, such as the natural demonstrations that others provide when they simply do what the learner would like to learn to do.” (155) The classroom instruction that leads to questioning from the students can provide thorough and valuable instruction opportunities that you didn’t even think would or could occur. There are things that happen in the realm of learning that no one can ever plan. Sometimes these scenarios can offer some of the best examples for teaching or providing understandable concepts. Students will not forget some of the conversations that happen in class, because it resonates with one student different from how it does with another one.

            “In order to facilitate choice and decision making, teachers will offer students options.” (159) If you give your students options in their learning, they will be more receptive to learning what you are presenting. It shows that you as the teacher care about how they learn, not just that they are learning. “Offering students the opportunity to make choices encourages them to find meaningful and value in what they are doing, to establish their own purposes and motivation for what they are doing, and to feel a sense of ownership and empowerment.” (159) We want students to see the value in what they are learning. We need to present the why behind what is taught. Choices to students, offers them the freedom to experiment and learn maybe in a way that no other student could. Some students need this non-confined way of learning and experimenting on their own without a concept shoved at them in a way that they can’t understand.

WEAVER CH 4

Anna Papst

Sean Agriss

English 408

07. 17. 2013

CH. 4 REFLECTION ON WEAVER

            This chapter opened my eyes to the world of early learners. There are so many words that new learners know to say and then, with their preconceived notions, write it the way that they say it. They do not have the knowledge yet to know why something that is said is not written the same way. When they hear adults talking, they begin to say the same words. This happens without the knowledge of what the words actually mean, because they do not have the thought process to understand yet what the words mean. When they first go and write down a word, they have learned to sound out a word a certain way and then write it like they are sounding it out.

            As teachers, we need to be sensitive to the learning of words that our students have already gone through. When going to write words and sentences, we need to be praising them for the progress that they have conquered. When starting to write, they should have the freedom to write down what they know and then the teacher should come along as a guide, not a judge against their work. In this way, the teacher helps them understand what they have done wrong, with the why behind it. The corrections are for teaching purposes and not meant to harbor their process in learning. This is going to be quite difficult, because as a teacher, we have already gone through this process many times. We need to remember that they do not have the learning that we do and we are there to help them become mature writers, and that starts from the beginning.

            Every error that students make is an opportunity to teach them why they made the mistake and how they can go about correcting it. They will make several errors from time to time. The purpose of learning how to teach them to write, should not come from a harsh standpoint, because we don’t want to turn them off of learning how to write, by being critical. In learning, they are embarking on this whole new way of thinking and learning how to express it through their writing. We don’t want to judge critically and turn them off of the process all together. When students are young, they are so impressionable and will remember judgmental comments that we make about their writing. The writing is their own ideas, and as teachers, we need to simply direct them in the right direction. This does not take the form of harshly marking all the errors in a paper and then asking them to correct them because they did something wrong, but instead going through and telling them how and why the errors are there. Every error has a reason behind it, we need to go through, and then find a way to instruct them in the right manner how they can improve what they are writing.

            This chapter reminded me so much of having kids some day of my own. How am I effectively going to help them begin to read? It is going to be important to sit back and observe them in beginning to understand what the letters represent and how they are going to then formulate them into words and sentences. Another interesting point was about children forgetting what they have learned when that’s applied to new concepts that they are learning. There is just so much that a child can learn at once. One important learning tip will be to help them add on to what they have already learned. Kind of like in my grammar class, you start with one concept and then build onto that, while retaining the information that you have already memorized and know how to use. Learning how to read and write is one of the most important skills that one can learn. As teachers, we need to come along side, coach and redirect their habits to make sure that they are getting the concepts that we are teaching. We need to correct errors as soon as we see them occurring, so they don’t turn into bad habits that the students are not able to break. Learning how to read and write letter, words and sentences correctly, will allow students to write essays with proper language. They will never stop learning, but we need to find a way to teach them that learning English is for a specific purpose and is so rewarding if they can learn and retain it.

WEAVER CH. 5

Anna Papst

Sean Agriss

Eng. 408

07.22.2013

            After all educating is done and people find themselves in the real world, it’s as if their formal years of learning can have literally no affect on their day to day lives. The questionnaire that was handed out to the group of business and professional people is a prime example of education not really sinking in. It was interesting to read the sentences myself and having to look over them a couple of times to find the error. There is something to be said for continually reading and putting yourself in academically challenging circumstances that will help to keep your mind sharp. I never want to lose that mind for continually acquiring information. It helps to look at the world in different ways. You can continually think through circumstances or scenarios that you or other people are put through.

            Looking at the students’ work and going through to pick out certain aspects of their writing is so important. “In my experience, however, the ability to recognize the category of these connections is all that’s needed: not the technical grammatical terminology, and not the ability to analyze grammatical structures in detail.” (116) That is the technical side to grammar and that part that I think gets swept under the rug. Grammar functions and makes sense because all the different parts of a sentence work together to create meaning. Students need to be taught and continually reminded that grammar should be interesting and fun to work through. Just like any math problem or science experiment, grammar also has rules that need to be followed and applied to writing, both informal and formal.

            I like how the chapter includes the definitions of the terms for the parts of speech. This might be a good tool to use when going through and grading papers. If I am looking for one or two things throughout the paper, then the definitions might help at the bottom of the page to bring more clarity or explanation to my students.

            It was interesting reading the same sentence over and over again with the varying grade levels and experience. That is going to be interesting too because I am going to have a class of multiple students with different abilities, strengths and weaknesses. I need to grade them all on the same scale and I think in the same sitting. The criteria will be the same, but the content of the papers will be different. Word choice is going to be betters in some and not as advanced in others. It also talked about teaching grammar throughout the grades, but leaving the intense, in depth study for the advanced grades. “Instead of a crash course in writing more sophisticated sentences, then, what the less proficient and even the least proficient writers may need most is to spend a great deal of time in reading and writing workshops.” (137)

            I latched on to the Guidelines for the Teaching Grammar portion of the book with the guidelines and tips under each bullet point. Engage students is writing, writing, and more writing, Immerse students in good literature, Reserve a thorough study of grammar for elective courses or perhaps units, teach these relevant aspects of grammar within the context of students’ writing, introduce only a minimum of terminology, emphasize those aspects of grammar that are particularly useful in helping students edit sentences for conventional mechanics and appropriateness. The list goes on and on but these are the points that I picked out that interested me.

            “If our rationale for teaching grammar is primarily to improve students’ writing, then it would seem that a much more limited and more focused treatment of grammar has a better chance of being effective.” (104) I thoroughly agree with this statement. Everyone needs to know and understand grammar to an extent to communicate well in the world. There is a point when students kind of just need you to work with them in order to understand something. My goal is to research what method will work the best for me and then as I go along, I can change if I need to.