KUDOS KIDS!
I think Group 1 did a great job presenting. I thought the over-all content was thoughtful, well done and well researched. I was especially appreciative of the informative, yet conversational tone of the group. Too often, I feel that when I watch presentations given by students that they sort of have an authoritative feel. Group one on the contrary, and quite rightly, made me feel like I was part of a big learning process. That is very much appreciated since we all are learning together.
I enjoyed creating the multi-genre projects with my group. It was fun having free reign to do whatever we wanted-my research poem was later given as a gift to my boo whom is still giving me praises. Of course with anything, actually getting to do the repetends helps me have a better understanding of what these projects should be like. I also have a better understanding of a mulit-genre research project, and as I mentioned in class, can see how they really do help students in paper writing. I wasn't being very post-modern about my conception of these projects before. I guess I sort of viewed them as a low brow activity to help the slower kids get good grades. What I fool I was! They require just as much time and energy, AND you have to be creative! Overall I am glad that this group went first because I myself am working on a giant multi-genre project, and now have a better idea of how they are supposed to look!
Monday, March 24, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
questions for Christensen
1.) In your book, you talk about how students are really responsive to the social justice topics that you teach about. Have you ever had a particularly apathetic year with a class? How did you get them motivated?
2.) What is the number one tip you have on helping teachers stay positive?
3.) What are the biggest problems you have had with portfolios? Do you yourself have a system?
2.) What is the number one tip you have on helping teachers stay positive?
3.) What are the biggest problems you have had with portfolios? Do you yourself have a system?
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Christensen Chapter 8
On the subject of tracking-I was an untracked kid English kid lost in a sea of my own mediocrity. As I mentioned in my last blog, it was not until reading Christensen's chapter and our class discussions on the subject, did I realize how woefully unprepared I was when I came to college. I realize now that high school should be a time when English teachers are helping to develop a student's voice in writing. Christen has great plans for helping fledgling writers be more comfortable with their own styles through poetry and "Essays with Attitude." She also does her student's a major service by having them examine topics critically, searching for underlying themes. Reflecting on my Caledonia High days, I think the last time I wrote an essay was my Sophomore year.
Until taking college I never realized the value of creative writing. Once I believed that fun, unstructured, free flowing thought was completely separate from the tightly woven structure of an essay sentence. I was always good at creative writing but very insecure about essay writing.
Good writing, is good writing, is good writing.
I always made C's and B's in high school, not poor enough for anyone to give me help in my non-college tracked English classes. I can't imagine how my writing skills may have been improved if someone had worked with me from my high school days.
Christensen Chapter 7
I have been thinking a lot about college and preparation lately...ever since our last class period on tracking the subject has really been plaguing my thoughts. I am a bit behind on chapter write ups and am reading three pieces at a time.
Lets get down to it: I hate portfolios. Yep, I said it. I motha bleepin hate them. I've always hated them, and since I graduated from Caledonia high school, I was royally screwed. Caledonia has a policy that you are supposed to have a collaborative portfolio with your work for all four years in order to graduate. That damn thing was the bane of my existence. I had nightmares about it.
Organization has never been my strong suit. Senior year rolled around, and of course I had nothing started. I spent the last four weeks of my final semester desperately throwing together any bit of crap I could piece together. My senior adviser (bless that woman's heart, she believed in me all the way) even printed off the titles of all my benchmarks for me. I remember her telling me "Ashley, you just have to make it through this. College won't be all portfolio making."
Ever since then, I have firmly believed that portfolio's weren't for everyone, and a student should be given the choice to complete one or not.
After reading this chapter, however, and thinking about discussions from class time, I am starting to really feel like that I was woefully unprepared for college. (Also, that I was tracked into the wrong classes. But that's for another chapter discussion) Christensen contends that portfolios are not only good for showcasing a writer's skills (from start to finish), but they also show colleges that even if a student' s scores weren't fantastic on the SAT's that they still have other abilities, like critical thinking skills.
I think if someone had actually sat down and explained the value of self-evaluation as a writer, I may have considered the endeavor to have been worthy of my time.
Lets get down to it: I hate portfolios. Yep, I said it. I motha bleepin hate them. I've always hated them, and since I graduated from Caledonia high school, I was royally screwed. Caledonia has a policy that you are supposed to have a collaborative portfolio with your work for all four years in order to graduate. That damn thing was the bane of my existence. I had nightmares about it.
Organization has never been my strong suit. Senior year rolled around, and of course I had nothing started. I spent the last four weeks of my final semester desperately throwing together any bit of crap I could piece together. My senior adviser (bless that woman's heart, she believed in me all the way) even printed off the titles of all my benchmarks for me. I remember her telling me "Ashley, you just have to make it through this. College won't be all portfolio making."
Ever since then, I have firmly believed that portfolio's weren't for everyone, and a student should be given the choice to complete one or not.
After reading this chapter, however, and thinking about discussions from class time, I am starting to really feel like that I was woefully unprepared for college. (Also, that I was tracked into the wrong classes. But that's for another chapter discussion) Christensen contends that portfolios are not only good for showcasing a writer's skills (from start to finish), but they also show colleges that even if a student' s scores weren't fantastic on the SAT's that they still have other abilities, like critical thinking skills.
I think if someone had actually sat down and explained the value of self-evaluation as a writer, I may have considered the endeavor to have been worthy of my time.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Christensen Chapter 5
I really enjoyed Christensen's insight on poetry: she views it as a therapeutic method for teens to "explore their raw core and handle their explosive feelings." Its funny because she mentions that often students will be so entranced in the writing process while composing their poems, they don't want to be dragged back into the real world to think of about critical applications. Today during my internship we had an hour of free time and I started working on a poem modeled after one of Chapter 5's exercise, I myself was reluctant to drag my brain back to focus on the new group of students coming in when the bell rang. Ha :)
I was very proud of a conclusion Christensen came up with concerning the implications of students writing poetry. Instead of claiming that writing saves the world, (which is the annoying habit of some overzealous and unrealistic education books) Christensen merely posits that poetry writing can "create caring enough to join in our investigation" about the hurts of the world. This disposition is a far more mature perspective than saying that poetry provides any real conclusive answers.
I also really enjoyed some of the student writings in this section, they had a certain edge not apparent in the work from previous chapter. The poems also contained some notions of deep, Socratic philosophy. For example,"Louie I don't want you/ to be a murderer/because I haven't known/you long enough to/let that slide." Come on! That's really rather good! No wishy-washy "War is bad, but people are good, America victorious!" sort of children's pondering. This poem is a deep, sad realization about the cost of war and the ethical ramifications of what it takes to be a soldier.
I was very proud of a conclusion Christensen came up with concerning the implications of students writing poetry. Instead of claiming that writing saves the world, (which is the annoying habit of some overzealous and unrealistic education books) Christensen merely posits that poetry writing can "create caring enough to join in our investigation" about the hurts of the world. This disposition is a far more mature perspective than saying that poetry provides any real conclusive answers.
I also really enjoyed some of the student writings in this section, they had a certain edge not apparent in the work from previous chapter. The poems also contained some notions of deep, Socratic philosophy. For example,"Louie I don't want you/ to be a murderer/because I haven't known/you long enough to/let that slide." Come on! That's really rather good! No wishy-washy "War is bad, but people are good, America victorious!" sort of children's pondering. This poem is a deep, sad realization about the cost of war and the ethical ramifications of what it takes to be a soldier.
Christensen Chapter 5
I really enjoyed Christensen's insight on poetry, and that she views it as a therapeutic method for teens to "explore their raw core and handle their explosive feelings." Its funny because she mentions that often students will be so entranced in the writing process while composing their poems, they don't want to be dragged back into the real world to think of about critical applications. Today during my internship we had an hour of free time and I started working on a poem modeled after one of Chapter 5's exercise, I myself was reluctant to drag my brain back to focus on the new group of students coming in when the bell rang. Ha :)
I was very proud of a conclusion Christensen came up with concerning the implications of students writing poetry. Instead of claiming that writing saves the world, (which is the annoying habit of some overzealous and unrealistic education books) Christensen merely posits that poetry writing can "create caring enough to join in our investigation" about the hurts of the world. This disposition is a far more mature perspective than saying that poetry provides any real conclusive answers.
I also really enjoyed some of the student writings in this section, they had a certain edge not apparent in the work from previous chapter. The poems also contained some notions of deep, Socratic philosophy. For example,"Louie I don't want you/ to be a murderer/because I haven't known/you long enough to/let that slide." Come on! That's really rather good! No wishy-washy "War is bad, but people are good, America victorious!" sort of children's pondering. This poem is a deep, sad realization about the cost of war and the ethical ramifications of what it takes to be a soldier.
I was very proud of a conclusion Christensen came up with concerning the implications of students writing poetry. Instead of claiming that writing saves the world, (which is the annoying habit of some overzealous and unrealistic education books) Christensen merely posits that poetry writing can "create caring enough to join in our investigation" about the hurts of the world. This disposition is a far more mature perspective than saying that poetry provides any real conclusive answers.
I also really enjoyed some of the student writings in this section, they had a certain edge not apparent in the work from previous chapter. The poems also contained some notions of deep, Socratic philosophy. For example,"Louie I don't want you/ to be a murderer/because I haven't known/you long enough to/let that slide." Come on! That's really rather good! No wishy-washy "War is bad, but people are good, America victorious!" sort of children's pondering. This poem is a deep, sad realization about the cost of war and the ethical ramifications of what it takes to be a soldier.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Jago Chapter 5
Side note: Wasn't the Gettysburg address actually penned in a half an hour? Jago makes Lincoln sound like the Basho of speech writing, "...he had chosen his words and crafted his thoughts with accuracy and order." That sounds like Lincoln wrote a Haiku!
Side note 2: Jago did it again! "Chilling, not rigorous thinking, is the mental state of choice[for teens]." Arrrggg! The stupid stereo-typing of adolescent perspectives! I hate that!
I believe that Jago is absolutely correct in her assertion that the process of writing: how to translate from brain to page, is the most difficult part of writing. I am interested in Jago's "Block Method" for helping students write essays, generate ideas, and become better writers, ect. ect. Being able to write well is so damn important, I am convinced that even most college students are crappy writers.I feel that Jago overlooks cultivating the coherency of thought and flow in paper writing. Jago mainly focuses on generating ideas for critical paper writing (which I agree with, I think students must feel that the topics they are writing about are relevant, instead of an eight page paper on silt.) but she does not address how to help student transcribe what they are thinking into writing.
When you write you have to own what you are saying. I think that most students sort of view writing process as something that is "above them"-I know I certainly did. Whenever I wrote something in high school I tried to copy academic writing when completing an essay- and I was rewarded for that effort. I never had an authentic voice and didn't believe in what I was writing. I wrote what I thought was expected. When I read over my friends paper's now, I sort of see a parallel from my high school days. Their papers usually consist of other people's quotations, mixed in with some personal thoughts incoherently thrown into a nonsensical order on the page. I would always wonder, "did Kathy even read this all the way through? "
The best advice about writing I received was from my favorite Professor at Western, and its so simple: "What do you want to say Ashley? What do you really want to say? Don't give me fluff, I don't care about what other people think. I want to know what you think." Simple I know, but no one had ever put it to me so straight before. No teacher in high school had ever told me that my opinion was that important. Owning my language was the first step for me in becoming a comparable writer...well, at least my papers make sense all the way through.
I wish that Jago had some advice about helping students cultivate a personal voice in writing. Jago does say this, however, which I agree with: "you don't know what you really think until you write it down."
I believe that once someone starts to see themselves in what they write (instead of writing to a form,) they take greater care with the content.
Side note 2: Jago did it again! "Chilling, not rigorous thinking, is the mental state of choice[for teens]." Arrrggg! The stupid stereo-typing of adolescent perspectives! I hate that!
I believe that Jago is absolutely correct in her assertion that the process of writing: how to translate from brain to page, is the most difficult part of writing. I am interested in Jago's "Block Method" for helping students write essays, generate ideas, and become better writers, ect. ect. Being able to write well is so damn important, I am convinced that even most college students are crappy writers.I feel that Jago overlooks cultivating the coherency of thought and flow in paper writing. Jago mainly focuses on generating ideas for critical paper writing (which I agree with, I think students must feel that the topics they are writing about are relevant, instead of an eight page paper on silt.) but she does not address how to help student transcribe what they are thinking into writing.
When you write you have to own what you are saying. I think that most students sort of view writing process as something that is "above them"-I know I certainly did. Whenever I wrote something in high school I tried to copy academic writing when completing an essay- and I was rewarded for that effort. I never had an authentic voice and didn't believe in what I was writing. I wrote what I thought was expected. When I read over my friends paper's now, I sort of see a parallel from my high school days. Their papers usually consist of other people's quotations, mixed in with some personal thoughts incoherently thrown into a nonsensical order on the page. I would always wonder, "did Kathy even read this all the way through? "
The best advice about writing I received was from my favorite Professor at Western, and its so simple: "What do you want to say Ashley? What do you really want to say? Don't give me fluff, I don't care about what other people think. I want to know what you think." Simple I know, but no one had ever put it to me so straight before. No teacher in high school had ever told me that my opinion was that important. Owning my language was the first step for me in becoming a comparable writer...well, at least my papers make sense all the way through.
I wish that Jago had some advice about helping students cultivate a personal voice in writing. Jago does say this, however, which I agree with: "you don't know what you really think until you write it down."
I believe that once someone starts to see themselves in what they write (instead of writing to a form,) they take greater care with the content.
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