sbally’s blog

Shawn Bally
ENG 484

1/26/09

            I found Jack Wilde’s idea of having students begin the first week of his class with writing sentences. Furthermore, he explains then when he does this process; he has his students share one sentence of their choice to the class, without any response from the student’s peers or from himself. I think this is great idea for building a comfortable writing environment for students. Neman commented in her writing that a goal of an English teacher is to create a classroom where students are able to openly discuss their ideas without the fear of being ridiculed. By having students read initially without being judged, they are gaining confidence in writing to express their ideas as well as share them with the class. Also, with this teacher being responsible for teaching the fifth grade, he is building their confidence early in their writing career. Writing as a form of expression and the idea of sharing writing with the class is something that seems to be more common among the 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade. If they can feel safe early on, then they will likely be more willing to share their ideas in the later grades.

            Velvet McReynolds’s idea of writing on Mondays about recent experiences is also a nice way to build writers’ confidence. In this warm-up activity, students can write about anything from their life. First, this is great because students of all ages enjoy sharing something about their lives because it is something that any student can do at any time. At the same time, it not only builds on their reading skills, but also their confidence in sharing their stories. When students only have to share their stories, there’s no way for them really to be right or wrong, which builds their confidence. Each student can relate to the other students’ stories as well, for they are likely all experiencing similar situations in their lives. If students can relate, they are more likely to listen intuitively and keep attention. Facilitating conversation and discussion between students and the instructor is helpful in building a relationship between the students and the teacher that can be beneficial throughout the year.

            I like Mr. Wilde’s use of read alouds. I can tell as he is reading the students are listening closely to the words he is reading. Furthermore, it is helpful when he pauses in between readings to ask questions about the story. He asks open-ended questions so that students really have to think about the story in order to respond. When students respond with answers that aren’t quite what he is looking for, he lets them finish their response and still accepts it as a valid answer. This allows students to feel confident in answering even when they are not sure if they are on the right track. It is also helpful when he asks the questions about the literary elements that the author of his book uses. In this case, he asks how the repetition of the story affects the feeling of the book. This element is something that can be used across many aspects of an English class as well as in their own writing.

Response Question

In Donald’s first few responses, he comments that the supply of high quality writing teachers depends much on the school’s budget and offering-salary. How can school administrations play a role in attracting higher quality teachers and how can we as future teachers become more prepared to improve writing skills in our future schools?

1.                                                          Informal Plan for Interview

1. Mrs. Donnelly: 10^th Grade English Teacher, Elyria High School.

2. I will conduct the interview via phone. I have a good relationship with the teacher to where I can interview her over the phone. Also, I will not be able to make it home to interview her in person before the deadline.

 

1. I hope to learn from hearing someone who has had first-hand experience with teaching writing. I have always had a strong relationship with this English teacher and I think she (above others I’ve had) can explain her experience with teaching more clearly and in more useful manner. My experience with her has taught me she is very good with words and explanations. Finally, I know she has had a vast number of teaching positions building up to her current position. The school she teaches at currently (my former high school), has somewhat of a difficult group of students to work with. It is a low-income town that has struggled with student behavior issues. I think learning from Mrs. Donnelly about how to work with such students in the field of writing will certainly better prepare me as a future educator.

 

                                      Working Questions:
1. How long have you been teaching English? What sort of other positions or grades have you taught leading up to your current position?

2. What do you remember most, both positive and negative experiences, about your first year of teaching?

3. What was the biggest surprise to you in your first year of teaching an English course? Did that surprise in any way change how you taught in the following years?

 

1. In retrospect, how do you think you could have been better prepared prior to starting teaching? Is there anything additional that you wished you would have been taught in your teacher-training?

 

1. If you had to pick only one book for a writing teacher to read, what would it be?

 

1. What do you find most difficult about teaching or facilitating students to write?

 

1. What do you find to be the most important quality or trait that a teacher of writing must posses?

 

1. How have you seen English classes changing since the time you began until today? How do you think it will change in the future?

 

1. How do you typically go about designing your course syllabus and planning your lessons throughout the year?

 

1. English classes are oftentimes seen as being based around open-discussion. Do you support this idea within your classroom? How do you create a safe and productive discussion community?

 

Questions about Assignment

1. The teacher I selected teaches the 10^th grade English which is just out of my concentration. Do you think her responses will be drastically different than those of a middle school English teacher? Will they give me the wrong impression as a future middle school teacher?

I found Beth Neman’s proposal on the effective strategies of teaching writing particularly interesting.  According to her ideas, the necessary teaching method is through a balance approach. In this approach,  a teacher must serve as both “craft-centered” as well as “affect-centered” to teaching writing (11). Furthermore, she claims that this method is actually “four times more effective” (11). I think this is probably the hardest aspect of teaching writing to students. The difficulty of finding a true balance that is both effective and productive for all students seems like quite the task. In my experience I have had both types of these teachers. In the earlier years of my high school career I had a teacher that basically taught me the rules of correct writing. While I understood this, it did not build on my ability to be creative or intellectual with writing. On the other hand, in the later high school years I had a teacher that certainly put more emphasis on the generation of ideas through creative writing assignments. In my opinion, I think there should be more emphasis on the “affect-centered” idea of teaching. I believe rules and such will come through practice and experience whereas the approach needs more assistance initially. As a teacher, I must be somewhat subjective when it comes to influencing my ideas upon expressive writing, but there are various activities I can use to facilitate the creation of these ideas.

            I also found Neman’s ideas on the most effective strategies of creating a desire of participation on the classroom interesting. Perhaps the most important task is to recognize student achievement and their skill to write with individuality. Students who are able to write personally have a better chance of expressing their personal identity. Neman suggests we “encourage students to write about the ideas that make them themselves, their values, their religion, their background” (21). This is such great way to facilitate ideas and opinions among our students. In general, the power of relating information from the classroom to the personal lives of the students is the greatest way to keep attention and interest. So easily in the younger grades, students lose interest in what’s going on at school, perhaps even more so with writing.

            Finally, I really like Neman’s idea of how to make participation meaningful in the classroom. We see this not only in the early and middle grades, but also even still at the college level. All students must feel as if the classroom is an atmosphere for trust and participation in which no one’s ideas are ridiculed or less important. It reminds me of the phrase, “There’s no such thing as a dumb question.” This is the main reason that students in all classrooms don’t participate.  That is, that they fear how the teacher and their peers will respond and possibly criticize what they have to say. Once again, we have all had teachers of both sides of this task. For the most part, my English teachers have encouraged comments and openly accepted responses. However, this is no perfect world. I have had teachers that snap at students’ poor ideas or override the students’ opinions with their own.  Today, this idea of teaching is so strongly criticized by educators that it can serve as a means for termination at many universities.  Furthermore, the idea of class-discussions and open participation is still emphasized at the college level and can help develop cognitive writing skills at all ages and writing levels.

Name:  Shawn Bally

 

 

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?

 

Writing is a means of expressing one’s feelings, expressions, or opinions about a particular matter whether it be formal or informal and fictional or non-fictional. Writing includes any form of written review as well as a creative idea.

 

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

 

Teaching is a task characterized by delivering information to students in a manner that is both appealing and that will build and store on their cognitive abilities.

 

 

 

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

 

I would say my strengths as a writer include the ability to communicate a creative idea or thought as a response to something such as a prompt or question. I’ve learned through writing multiple papers and written assignments throughout both high school and college that writing is my strength when it comes to academics.

 

 

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?

 

Though I am good with words and creative ideas, the message I am seeking to convey often times can come out unclear to my readers. I’ve learn this through feedback from instructors and professors on some of the written assignments I’ve complete to where I realize I was the only one that truly understood what I was trying to say.

 

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

 

I unclearly remember learning to write from my mom when I was very young. As a child, I remember having little interest in school, especially reading and writing. I don’t remember how she helped, but I do remember practicing letters and writing skills with her outside of the classroom.

 

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

 

I think writing really improves once students learn their ability to produce and create language at their own discretion. I would guess that this age would be somewhere near the 2^nd or 3^rd grade levels.

 

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

 

Writing worsens when humans become lazy with written language and its usage. We begin ignoring the fundamental rules and techniques of writing to make the task easier on themselves.

 

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?

 

I think I am good at building relationships with students that result in their interest in my teaching. With this being so, I think I have the strength to overcome the most difficult goal in teaching, keeping students intrigued.

 

 

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?

 

I would say my weakness as a teacher of writing would be my lack of patience. I often become frustrated if a student is not responding how I’d like them to after an extended period of time of instruction. I’ve learned this about myself through field experiences and tutoring sessions with students.

 

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

 

I think the basic rules and fundamentals that help students to get started on their writing skills can be taught. However the level of development and intellectual writing status a student reaches really depends on that particular student and their effort to work with those skills and rules.