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
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?
Questions about Assignment
1. The teacher I selected teaches the 10th 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 2nd or 3rd 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.