What Students Must Be Able to Do:
Chapters 45-66
I hope these last chapters will help you meet the writing goals of your content. If you would like my help in implementing any of the things Burke has suggested in this book, let me know. I will be happy to work with you to design something "Burkeish" that will work for you in your content area. I will also be happy to come and work with you and your students if you would like to try some of Burke's ideas out in your class.
6 comments:
Reading 4 – Chapters 33-44
Good for Burke! He said it out loud. “As teachers, it is our responsibility to assume the role of learner. The very instant a teacher ceases to recognize the need for continuing education, in any form, is the same instant that teacher should retire from the profession. Writing reminds us that we always have something new to learn from our colleagues, from our students and from the word at large” (p. 158-9). Burke suggests that teachers evaluate our teaching as well as student progress. “It’s time we began seeing errors as invitations and signposts, instead of as judgments and evidence of our failure” (p. 157). We must reflect on our practices and procedures as well as accept feedback from observers/peers to gain new perspective and insights to become more effective teachers. Can a student be motivated to truly understand something which they have not “bought into”?
A reminder to go back to the basics in planning; the infamous standards. With the overwhelming amount of ancillary materials now available and universal time constraints, it can be confusing to determine the best approach for teaching topics. Experience is still the best teacher, I think. There are many ways to present content, performance, assessment and delivery standards to students. The composition and personality of every class is unique which presents challenges and rewards. Regardless of the individuality of each student, there are observable patterns that can assist in improving writing. Patterns can provide information and opportunities to correct and compliment writers. “The Traits of Effective Writing” on pp. 176-7 and the “Academic Vocabulary” on pp. 179-80 are fabulous references for teaching writing. Also, the “Traits of Effective Literacy Instruction,” pp. 199-200 were informative for me. I like……..”A student should not be taught more than he can think about.” A strong statement for prioritizing curriculum. Do we “get through it” or teach a few things really well?
I like the quotation with which Burke ends his introduction to this section: “One cannot be an effective writer if they are not an active, thoughtful reader.” This describes the essential goals of AP (and what I am moving toward in English I); in fact, I remember emphasizing this in my classes at the beginning of the semesters. And I’m seeing tangible proof that this is the case with the students who read widely, carefully, and intentionally versus those who don’t read or replace reading with CliffNotes. Students who are careful readers write nuanced essays, while others state what is obvious to any reader. I think it’s correct to say that unless a student reads deliberately and insightfully, his/her analytical writing, at the least, will never be more than mediocre at best.
I appreciate the chapter on writing literature responses. I strongly believe in beginning any literature study with responses that students have written during and after reading a text; I also like to base much of my instruction and class discussion from those responses. But, I have a hard time articulating what is an acceptable response. I’ve given students lengthy handouts, student-written examples, checklists, oral directions—even explaining in depth what “response” means. Usually, what I see are some bulleted statements with random words or a few lines of summary or personal likes/dislikes about the text. I wonder at students who fail to have a written response. They say they “didn’t understand it”; can’t they write a list of questions they have? Isn’t that a response? (And, yes, perhaps this is mostly a cover-up for slacking off, forgetting, etc.) All this is in my AP classes, but the situation is not much better in my English I classes. If I ask for a response to a text, students will usually respond with their likes/dislikes (usually dislikes) about the reading and what they didn’t understand. Burke’s ideas are effective because they require students to show much active, careful reading in a variety of areas (thematic, stylistic, etc.), center the response on the text and not personal opinion, and address organizational and conventions concerns (important as some students equate response with not caring about spelling, organization, etc.).
I also like Burke’s emphasis on the modes of writing (narrative, descriptive, etc.). As I came through teacher education programs, the general trend of writing, as I understood, was to not teach writing by mode (just like to not teach the 5-paragraph essay). But, if approached appropriately, the modes of writing is still a valid part of content. The Language/Composition AP exam, for example, still requires students to identify texts by mode. Also, mode is relevant to purpose (to describe or define, to argue or persuade), and purpose impacts the reader’s response (to be entertained, to be persuaded, etc.). I don’t believe instruction should be driven and organized by the modes, but the content of the instruction is still relevant.
Chapters 33-44
Reading Reflection: chapter 37
This chapter reminded me of the 80's and 90's when I taught at Sandhills Academy, a private school for children wiht learning disabilities. This school is clinical in nature, and provides educational therapy for their students. We received extensive training from professors at the Orton-Gillingham Dyslexia Association. We had to become experts at identifying patterns of errors, and the reasons behind them.
Burke says, "A pattern of error is a doorway to targeted, effective,a nd efficient writing instruction that will result in improvement almost immediately in many cases." Once a breakdown has been identified by the teahcer as well as the student, remediation is possible. He also said directly teaching patterns will lead to greater fluency. (p.172) A direct approach is a must for L.D. students. They probaly won't get it otherwise.
I was taught to focus on one thing at a time, and to teach for mastery. When I have my students revise their written work, I am not going to say, "Edit your work for pucnctuation, capitalization, sentence structure, and clarity." I'm going to say, "Re-read what you've written and place a punctuation mark after each complete thought." I lhave them re-read several times focusing on one thing at a time. Special needs students can handle this.
Reading Reflection: Chapters 45-66
I thought of my SET students as I read these chapters. They will receive a district diploma, and most likely will not pursue higher eduction. Right now, they only have to take the HSAP one time. So for me, the question is, how much, and what type of writing will be most beneficial to them. They all have a lot to say, but have so much difficulty putting their thoughts on paper. Jim Burke calls this "output difficulties," and stresses the importance of modeling. We all know that showing, rather than just giving instruction is more powerful. Back to my question, how much, and what type of writing? They are capapble of writing in all genres, but not to the estent that a diploma track student would. I will need to modify the requirements. For example, a 50 or 100 word wssay would be more appropriate than a 500 hundred word essay. For me, the goal is just to get them writing everyday, for them to enjoy it, and see their progress.
Blog 5: What Students Must Be Able to Do
For the first few chapters of this section, I was lost. I don’t teach literature, and I had a hard time understanding the advice. However, chapter 49, “Write a Persuasive Essay”, was very interesting to me. Science is filled with controversial ideas and subjects, and one of my favorite activities is to have the students write their opinion on a topic. I like this chapter because it gave me many more suggestions on how to make my students think about a subject. I plan to copy “The Persuasive Essay At A Glance” and use it in the future.
I also especially liked the Reflective Writing activity on page 277. Wow! What a great idea! I definitely plan on using this next year. I have often asked them to write an essay on how they will improve their performance, but I have never asked them to reflect on what they have already completed. It’s such an important part of learning, but I tend to keep going forward and forget that it’s important to look back occasionally.
I plan on copying figure 55.1- Components of an effective speech – for use in my classes. I have my students give presentations every year, and every year they seem to be lost. I’m hoping that going over this handout will assist them.
In the introduction for “What Students Should Be Able to Do,” Burke writes: “Each [genre] demands some measure of textual intelligence, which the student writer uses when making choices about…writing.” For this reason, we should teach students to create original work in multiple genres. As a creative writer, I do this often with my students, having them write poems, stories, plays, and encouraging them to experiment with other genres during multi-genre projects. However, I have done little with speeches, proposals, resumes, letters, infotexts, and reviews (other than with my newspaper students). Reading this section has given me ideas about how to incorporate each previously untapped genre into my courses.
Speeches, in particular, can be incorporated into classes in a number of ways, for, as Burke points out, with the advent of multimedia devices, speeches may involve rather complex interplay of visual images, sounds and text. And the more the writer depends on modes other than writing to communicate ideas, the more succinct and clear the written portion must be. I intend to use speeches to have students persuade the class to read certain books, to buy invented products, to vote for them as imaginary candidates…and, of course, I will have them use PPT presentations to communicate information they’ve learned and ideas they’ve developed during group work.
As I read the reminder about infotexts, I remembered an assignment Tobey Russell gave her students about using persuasive language and irony. For this assignment, she had them create pamphlets. That reminded me of an assignment I used in middle school: I had my students create advertisements for imaginary products. Reading this section gave me the idea to combine my assignment with Tobey’s product, and in their pamphlets, students could explain how to use new technological devices. Such an assignment might work well with a book like LAST BOOK IN THE UNIVERSE, which contains mind probes, devices for injecting images and sensations directly into the brain, or for a book like BRAVE NEW WORLD. Also, I’m interested in having students write daily minutes as well, but I think I’d like to handle this the way it was handled when I participated in the Midlands Writing Project—we were able to present our minutes using any medium or genre we liked, but the information had to be accurate. In my class, I’d like to allow students to present the minutes using any of the infotext formats Burke describes in this reminder.
There are also numerous ways to incorporate proposals, particularly in newspaper production, since staff members may want better equipment or better software. Proposal writing could work as well in other English courses. Perhaps students could write proposals for changes in the curriculum, changes in the school building, or they could propose events that would foster and/or strengthen the school-community relationship. Reviews would also work well with my newspaper staff, but, again, they will work well with any class, since many students have strong opinions about music, movies, videos, video games, video game systems, books, and so on. I particularly like Burke’s suggestion of having students write reviews of online reviews, many of which are poorly constructed and rely too heavily on unsupported statements.
Finally, juniors and seniors should write college application essays and resumes in class. Not only will this give them good practice, but it may also result in pieces they will actually use. My first semester at B-C, I had my English V honors students write pieces for contests or colleges. Those who chose to write college application essays moaned every time I returned their work for them to revise, but in the end, they all told me the extensive revisions helped them. Sadly, even though I’ve taught seniors since, I have not used the assignment again. Reading this reminder made me realize that I should do it again.
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