After listening to this week's PowerPoint I have learned that I do not need to grade every piece of writing that my students will submit. I already had this in mind because I don't believe in overworking students to the point that they will hate writing. It was nice to have my thoughts verified. As an English and History (soon to be) teacher, it is so important for students to learn to write their thoughts down. I really don't believe in grading everything. I did have a teacher who did that to me and I hated it. I almost got to the point where I hated to write at all. I want students to feel comfortable with their writing, learn what style fits them best and expand on it; become the best they can be in that form.
Another point that I really enjoyed was that I need to model my work, not my finished work but my first draft to show my students that I'm not perfect. I want them to know that everybody makes mistakes and it takes time to get the "perfect" essay (I have never had one though!). A lot of the things discussed in the PP are things that I have heard about and had already decided to try in my own classroom. I know how important it is to have a rubric as a guideline, that my students will know what I am looking for. I never want them to guess what I'm thinking. One point that I never would have even considered was having a formal audience. I really like the thought of having parents come in a watch their students perform something like Poetry Outloud. How wonderful would that be to have someone come and watch you.
My last thought is a big one to me. Have focused and interesting writing prompts for my students. Wow. I kinda wished I had interesting things to write about when I was in high school. Um if memory serves correctly I wrote about themes and ideas in Shakespeare (to a 15 year old, boring), and themes or overall ideas in poetry (again boring!). I really don't remember any interesting writing prompts and the ones that I do were not good. I don't want to be that teacher that is intolerable and students dread coming to my class. So for me I need to remember to model my own work, praise the work of my students, provide a rubric, and have an additional audience for the students.
Thanks for an excellent posting! Yes, like you, I think it's interesting that students tend to write better when they know they're writing for somebody "real"--that is, beyond the teacher.
ReplyDeleteThis article talks about that phenomenon in science classrooms:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sce.21067/abstract
Honestly, I think more and more students are not in school for the grade anymore. So the threat of "I'll pass you if you write this essay, and I'll fail you if you don't," just doesn't cut it for some students. Instead, we as teachers actually have to make writing interesting to them. So one way to do that is to give them that real audience. Tyler's blog is great because he talks about how his son has that kind of education. In his son's school, students get to be docents at a museum, so they know that their knowledge has a real audience beyond just telling the teacher something that she already knows.
Thanks again for your posting...it's great you are thinking of ways to apply these principles.
Kristy, you are bringing up excellent points. My favorite is the modeling. I never had a teacher who modeled any form of writing until last year. Do you realize how many teachers that is who missed the opportunity to practice effective teaching strategies for their students? A LOT! I loved when my professor would switch on her document camera and quick write with us or brainstorm possibilities for essays. Even though I am a grown woman, it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside that she thought it important to join in with the students. Thank you, Vinnie Exton for being a rockstar!!!
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