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1)      Matthew LeFevre – English 7 – AP at Toledo Islamic Academy

2)      I hope to conduct the interview in person, but may have to do so over email if scheduling conflicts

3)      Goals

a.       Learn about aspects of teaching writing that the teacher may find difficult or problematic

b.      Learn about aspects of teaching writing that students might sometimes find difficult or distasteful

c.       Learn about the differences in teaching writing through grades 7 – 12, all of which my interviewee teachers and all of which I will be licensed to teach

d.      Get perspective on how the Adolescent/Young Adult Integrated Language arts program succeeds or could improve in preparing one to teach writing, as my interviewee is a graduate of the same program in 2004.

e.      Get any suggestions or piece of advice from a practicing teacher that I might not receive as part of classroom instruction or a textbook.

4)      Tentative List of Questions

a.       What are some general problems or things that have not gone to plan in your experiences in teaching writing?

b.      How do you make your decisions on specific elements of writing that you will teach? What is the influence of standards? The school/administration? Other teachers? Personal decisions? Other factors?

c.       If you have found the school to be especially involved in the process, how has your current school’s treatment differed from that where you did your student teaching?

d.      If outside influences have affected or made demands of your teaching in writing, have you generally agreed with what you were directed to do?

e.      How do the materials you cover and your expectations for writing differ in the wide range of grades that you teach?

f.        Conversely, what principles or concepts do you find it important to maintain consistently across grade levels when teaching writing?

g.       Are there any topics or concepts that you find students find especially difficult in teaching writing?

h.      Are there any topics or concepts that you find students frequently resist or find distasteful, even if they don’t necessarily struggle with them?

i.         Are there any elements in the teaching of writing that you felt the AYA/ILA program at BGSU prepared you very well or not so well for?

j.        As someone who is currently teaching writing in the grade levels that I will soon be teaching myself, are there pointers or useful bit of information that you think I would find especially helpful as I prepare for my first experiences?

The video defintely had some interesting points on the teaching of writing. From the beginning, I liked the emphasis that they put on giving students a safe environment to do their writing. I agree that this is a very important aspect on the teaching of writing. The process can be quite revealing. Even when not writing about private personal matters, writers put their ideas, and to an extent themselves,  on paper to be looked at and judged by others. For writing to be as good as possible, students need to feel comfortable revealing themselves to at least some extent, which is why this sense of safety is so important.

The idea of a community of learners was also emphasized. I think this is very helpful, too. It gives the students the sense that they are all in it together, through thick and thin, from research papers to poetry. This comraderie is beneficial in couple of ways. Sometimes it is useful to the students as part of the activities that they do. Though I personally don’t care for peer-editing (as I’ve pointed out multiple times), I know that some teachers and students find it to be quite beneficial. Other times it’s just nice to have someone to help clarify an assignment or feel your pain. Either way, the sense of community in the classroom allows these types of interaction to go on more often, so that students can be most helpful towards one another.

A final thing that happened in the video that I really liked was the Monday Meeting that the teacher had with her students, which allowed her the chance to get to know her students better personally, as well as allowing the students to build relationships with one another. This is very good for a couple of reasons. First of all, as we are constantly reminded in education courses, relationships and rapport are crucial to creating a good classroom environment. Secondly, knowing a little bit about the other people in the classroom goes a long way towards building the previously mentioned sense of community.

On page 139 Neman discusses the use of colorful language and rythmic syntax. This is something that I have considered a lot in my writing since a paper I wrote my sophomore year where my professor told me that, though my writing was fundamentally solid, it was very dry and boring and should include more of my personality. Now when I write, I try to use a number of things to “spice up” my writing. Sometimes this are structural things like rhyming or alliteration. Frequently, I try to make things livlier by injecting a lot of humor and colorful words and imagery into my papers.

On this topic, my question is – how much is too much? Is there a point in which the content of the writing is overlooked because it is overshadowed by stylistic decisions that were made?

The Challenge of Teaching Writing

                While reading the first chapter of Teaching Students to Write, I was struck by how many things made perfect sense to me. The ideas that were presented were clear and their purposes were obvious, which is a very unusual situation for me to find myself in when reading a textbook. Though these ideas were clear and I am in agreement with them, I believe that they are easier said than done. While a person can say that he knows the best way to write, this can be difficult to put into practice, especially with virtually no teaching experience, like I have at the moment. I feel that this experience is the only way that we can learn how to be successful teachers and the text of this chapter is a good basis for how to start down that road.

                I understand and agree with the book when it states that the teaching of writing can be a difficult and intimidating task. Every person has their own reasons for wanting to become an English teacher. I know that mine was based much more in a love for literature than that for writing. That being said, I do enjoy writing on some level, and this will be important because as teachers we must show an enthusiasm for what we are teaching if we expect our students to get exciting about it. Personally, the writing that has traditionally caught my interest in school has been creative and journalistic writing (I hope to supervise a high school newspaper eventually), but I definitely need more work on my formal academic writing, especially before I feel confident teaching these things to others. I know that these are the issues that I will personally have to tackle in order to become the best teacher that I can possibly become.

                I also feel that the textbook does a good job of explaining different theories on how to teach writing to students, as well as the pros and cons for said theories. When I was in school, I feel like I was mostly taught with a more craft-centered approach. We had creative writing and journals that were based more on the free flow of ideas, but teachers would generally mark up major writings with the mechanical flaws in the dreaded red pen. This didn’t bother me too much. If I missed a question on a history or math test, the teacher would mark it incorrect. I never expected different treatment from my English teachers, since an examination of my mistakes would allow me to learn from them and improve as a writer. However, I can see where some students would be bothered. As a solid writer, I didn’t generally make a ton of mistakes, but I completely understand how trying to find my original work through a sea of red ink could be pretty disheartening.

                I also understand, as the book points out, that an affect-centered solution is basically an overcorrection of this issue. This type of strategy definitely helps with the self-expression aspect of writing that students sometimes struggle with. Whether it is a formal essay or a creative story, writing is basically putting one’s thoughts and beliefs out there for others to judge, and that is difficult for most people. This solution, however, does not tackle the need for students to understand the nuts and bolts of writing, which is an equally important component, along with words themselves. This is why the book says, and why I agree, that a balance between these two solutions is the best way to teach writing to students. Writing is a complex and difficult thing, and the adolescent psyche can be fragile, and it is important to be encouraging and yet critical enough provide students with the knowledge necessary to be able to write successfully when they get beyond school. I expect that this will be a difficult balance to strike at times, but I am confident that with some practice and experience that I will be able to do so.

Here’s the survey from the first assignment. I made my answers bold since you can’t realy circle things, at least not that I know of…

Writing and Teaching Attitudes Survey

The questions that follow are designed to elicit your feedback as a student, a writer, and one who is interested in teaching writing to others.  

1.      Describe your abilities as a writer (circle one):

Excellent          Strong             Okay                Weak               Terrible

2.      Describe your perceived abilities as a soon-to-be teacher of writing (circle one):

Excellent          Strong              Okay               Weak               Terrible

3.      Describe your history as a student of English/Language Arts (circle one):

Excellent          Strong             Okay                Weak               Terrible

4.      How confident are you in your writing ability?  (5 = extremely confident, 0 =  not at all confident)

5                      4                      3                      2                      1                      0

5.      How confident are you in your ability to teach writing?  (5 = extremely confident, 0 =  not at all confident)

5                      4                      3                      2                      1                      0

6.      How comfortable are you having teachers assess your writing?  (5 = extremely comfortable, 0 = extremely uncomfortable)

5                      4                      3                      2                      1                      0

7.      How comfortable are you with assuming the role of assessor—of assessing student writing?  (5 = extremely comfortable, 0 = extremely uncomfortable)

5                      4                      3                      2                      1                      0

8.      How much value do you give instructor assessments of your writing?  (5 = tremendous value, 0 = no value)

5                      4                      3                      2                      1                      0

9.      How much value do you believe your students will give your assessments of their writing?  (5 = tremendous value, 0 = no value)

5                      4                      3                      2                      1                      0

10.  How often are or were you asked to participate in some form of peer response activity in the writing classes you have taken in college and in high school? 

Very often          Often               Sometimes           Rarely             Never     

11.  How often will you ask your students to participate in some form of peer response activity? 

Very often          Often               Sometimes             Rarely            Never     

12.  How comfortable are you having fellow classmates respond to your writing?  (5 = extremely comfortable, 0 = extremely uncomfortable)

5                      4                      3                      2                      1                      0

13.  How comfortable do you believe your students are likely to be having their fellow classmates respond to their writing?  (5 = extremely comfortable, 0 = extremely uncomfortable)

5                      4                      3                      2                      1                      0

14.  How confident are you in responding to your peers’ writing?  (5 = extremely confident, 0 = not at all confident)

5                      4                      3                      2                      1                      0

15.  How confident do you imagine your students will be in responding to their peers’ writing?  (5 = extremely confident, 0 = not at all confident)

5                      4                      3                      2                      1                      0

16.  How much value do you give peer responses to your writing?  (5 = tremendous value, 0 = no value)

5                      4                      3                      2                      1                      0

17.  How much value do you imagine your students are likely to give peer responses to their writing?  (5 = tremendous value, 0 = no value)

5                      4                      3                      2                      1                      0

Short Answer

18.  If asked to define writing in your own words, how would you respond?  What is (or isn’t) writing?

I would define writing as putting words together to create meaning. There are a many different kinds of writing, everything from writing poetry to academic research papers.

19.  If asked to define teaching in your own words, how would you respond?  What is (or isn’t) teaching?

My definition for teaching is passing on a specific knowledge or skill. Once again, there is a broad range of things that qualify, whether it be a college class or an beginning piano lessons.

20.  What would you list as your particular strengths as a writer?  And how have you come to know them as your strengths?

I think that my strengths as a writer are mechanical aspects like spelling, grammar, and such, and I think make good word choices. These things I have figured from feedback on papers that I write. I also believe I am a pretty good creative writer – I did Power of the Pen in junior high.

21.  What would you list as your particular weaknesses or challenges as a writer?  And how have you come to know them as your weaknesses or challenges?

Based on feedback from my writing that I have done in college, I think I can improve the development of the thoughts that I am writing about. I frequently get some variation of an “underdeveloped” or “add more detail” comment.

22.    How did you learn to write; or, how do you remember learning to write?

I don’t have a specific memory of learning the physical skill of writing. I can remember spending a lot of time working on both narrative and research type writing in junior high.

23.  When, or as a result of what phenomena, do you believe writing improves?

I think writing is a skill, and like all skills the best way to improve is through repetition and practice with some guidance from someone that can point out ways to continue to get better.

24.  When, or as a result of what phenomena, do you believe writing worsens?

I never thought about it before, but I suppose, just as you need to practice the skill, if you go a long time without using it you are probably not doing your writing abilities any favors.

25.  What would you list as your particular strengths as a teacher of writing?  And how have you come to know them as your strengths?

My one attribute in this category, which unfortunately is a weakness, is inexperience. I simply have never really taught anything about writing up to this point, so I can’t very well say that I can do something when I haven’t done it yet.

26.  What would you list as your particular weaknesses or challenges as a teacher of writing?  And how have you come to identify them as your weaknesses or challenges?

Going along with the last one, inexperience worries me. Obviously, once I begin doing it, I will gain experience and will learn from what I do. However, I expect that the first couple of years will be quite difficult as I learn what works for students and for myself as a teacher. I say this because I think started off and exploring yourself as a teacher is difficult for all.

27.  Some people say that writing ability is something that cannot be taught.  What do you think?

I think they are either lazy or do a poor job and therefore don’t want responsibility for what happens. The seeds are definitely planted early, but I am constantly still learning about writing.

Any additional thoughts and/or comments you’d like to add?  Feel free to include them here.