Group teach Poetry

I thought that the experience our group had teaching about poetry went very well. As a group we looked through the book of 20 poetry writing exercizes and picked ones that interested us and thought would be a good lesson.

I really thought that through the read-around there were really good poems written from the different activities that we presented. The first two were obviously easier activities that would be done earlier in the year, which that knowledge could then be built upon. Both the I am Poem and the Found poem were good starters and were a good way for students to understand how to edit poetry. With the "I Am Poem" you can have your students build off on the lines that they created, adding different poetic elements. The found poem is really all about editing language found in any kind of topic. The latter poem activites, memory mapping/ list poems, and the confession poems, required a little bit more thought and creativity, and were better suited for writing done later in the year. This is why we chose to go in the order we did. I think this went well.

My activity was the found poem. I was very pleased with the outcome of the poems. i wanted to do this because i like hands on activites where you can cut and paste and make writing more colorful. the only issue I had was I think I handed out the materials a little too soon. It was hard to get everyone's attention when they had things to look at. So I would have changed that. In a future class I would probably have the students stick to one article and keep the poems more focused, but they turned out to be very creative and varied. This is a fun activity, but in a classroom, you would need to have really good classroom management skills, especially for younger students.

Teaching college kids (and English majors) new poetry activities is a little different than teaching real high school / middle school students. I did a poetry lesson in my pre-internship and it went well, but they of course need a little more guidence and push to be creative. In the process of the group teach I learned all the different methods we taught, and really think that I will use them in the future.

group teach communitites

I was a little confused by the communities discussion towards the end of the class. I didn't really see how it was addressing building classroom communities. It was more about communities in general. I think we got a little off topic discussing racial issues, although relevant to communities.

I really liked the activity where we had to write a poem based off a picture we had. Some of the classmates said they forgot that they were supposed to relate it to communities, and working together in one. But it was great to create empathy and put yourself in someone elses shoes.

I was not in class for the second presentation, but I discussed it with a classmate, and it seemed like a great way to understand how power and oppression has been started and continued in communities, and the difficulties that it takes for some groups to get lifted out.

The group did a good job of presenting their topic. I just didn't get much out of creating classroom communities. Maybe I missed that when I was gone, or that wasn't really what they were trying to teach.

Gilmore Chap 5 on-demand essay revison

I really liked the checklist provided in Gilmore. It gives the student an actual strategy. I never even thought about revising test essays on my own work. I just write them as soon as I can and turn them in; plus i didn't want too many scratch marks on my paper. Now I see that the extra time I had could have gotten me a better grade.

I think the order in which Gilmore puts his checklist works very well. I was never taught what the passive voice was until maybe my sophmore year of college, which I thought was far too later. i still use the passive voice informally and it comes naturally to students. Revisiting verbs as the second step in his process is one of the most important items on the list. In revision it will strengthen arguements and your whole writing. Using dull verbs makes writing and reading dull.

The rest of the checklist works great for revisions of all kinds, not just on tests.

These revising strategies are really great for showing students exactly what is expected of them on tests. Another good point of this chapter is to let students know what test assessments on standardized tests look for. Thoughts and organization tell them much more about the student that small spelling errors. On-demand or timed essays should be practiced regularly in the classroom. Essays for tests, or informal assessments for student knowledge on lessons can help students practice writing, which should improve their test taking for standardized tests.

Gilmore Chap 4 peer revision

I really liked the activites that Gilmore set up for student revisions. The read aloud in small groups is obviously a great idea. If a sentence doesn't read well outloud, it is probably a good indicator that it is hard for an audience to read. It points out wordiness and unorganized thoughts. Peers listening can give a side that the writer never thought of. They can also ask questions if things were unclear. these techniques would improve the writing to make it more clearly written. It is also a great way for people to work together. In many jobs, you will be communicating ideas back and forth between people, so why shouldn't this be done in schools.

other ideas I thought were great that I never heard of were the color marking, cutting and pasting, and shortening word count. I really liked the color marking, and cutting and pasteing because it gave the writing and editing process a visual perspective. the color method would be great for teaching grammar and parts of speach so that students can see and find it on their own. the cutting and pasting method also seems like a great way for students to physically mess around with their writing to see if it flows better in a way that they did not expect. thoughts are often circular and jump around. they are never perfectly linear. student writing can also show this so the cutting and pasting method would probably be very valuable. shortening word count is something that I have heard of but not really seen done. It's a great activite because student writing often gets overredundant or wordy. They often add fluff to get to a certain page length.

the teacher student conferencing is something that I always hated doing as a student. often if it was optional conferencing I would never go. Gilmore presents the material in a new light for me because I see how i will need to do this as a teacher.

I liked the idea of zero tollerance grading, because the students must revise, and will get a much better grade in the end. It will also encourage them to revise before it is turned in so they will not have to revise again later.

Publication of Student work is something that keeps coming up. I think that it is a great idea, because they should care more about how their work is presented if there is someone other than the teacher reading it. Gilmore really presents good information in this chapter to give activities that promote revision.

Christensen Untracking English

I went to a small school that did not have many choices as far as advance or remedial classes. There were a few AP classes available. You had to have the teacher's permission to join the class and I believe a B or better. I did become part of this class, and I felt that It really prepared me for college. It also gave me college credits towards my English Major for passing the exam. The other English class that everyone had to take their senior year was College English. So both were pretty geared toward college anyway.



I had a great experience being part of the AP class, but I do agree with Christensen that classes should generally be untracked. The benefit to this seems to be taht you can and should teach in a variety of ways that benefit students. They should be designed to challege all levels of students, and "create desire to write instead of desire to complete work" (Christensen). This is what a teacher should strive for in both advanced and average students.



I do believe that AP classes should be kept. But they should be open to any student wishing to join the class. I think all students should be able to choose where they want to go. AP English I felt was beneficial because I wanted to pursue English in my college education. Many students won't have an English major, and minor so it wouldn't be in their interest to take AP English, unless they wanted a challege or liked reading and writing.

One last thing about Christensen's ideas on how to promote writing. I loved her idea on Dialogue journals while students are reading. They seem like a great tool to get studnets thinking and questioning. Pre-writing activities like this usually are a great way to promote discussions in class too. Over-all she does a great job in showing that all students are capable and can give a lot of insight to any English class, and therefore should not be tracked by grades and prospective student abilities.

group teach multi-genre

I thought that the group did a really good job at explaining the multi-genre research paper. I am currently working on my multi-genre research paper for Dr. Baer, so I was already familiar with the format, although prior to this semester I had never heard of one.

I really enjoy this type of project because of the built in motivation it gives to students. It allows for so much more creativity and choice for the student that the students will choose to do well on it. Allowing them to choose interesting topics also helps.

But just because it is a fun project and students have so much freedom, it does not mean it is an easy. I have a hard time switching from the more formal essay into presenting research in a poem or other genre. I also am doing as much research for my project, or more, than I would for any other paper. Since I like the topic, I want to do as much as I can, and get the correct information.

The only problem with this type of paper is that i believe students could really get away without researching, if they are able to choose any topic. They may choose one that they know a lot about anyway, and are smart enough to make it look like it is full of research when it really isn't anything new that they learned.

I really appreciated how the group had us make our own M.G. paper. It worked well as a group project. It is also hard to understand what a Multi-genre paper is without actually seeing one or doing one yourself. It may be a very foreign concept for students to write creatively about research, so it is important to provide examples for this project. But the group really did a fine job teaching the lesson, giving us examples, having us actively doing the work, and managing their time in the classroom.

Questions for Linda Christensen

I know that it is important to teach about social justice to all students, but my question is would lesson plans be altered at all for a more rural and less diverse school? Sometimes social justice doesn't seem to be as important in that kind of a setting, although it can be where it is most needed.

Are there any techniques to get all students, or the most unwilling students motivated? The book seems a little overly optimistic about kids really getting engaged in the assignments.

What has been the most rewarding part of teaching social justice, have you seen real concrete evidence of lasting behavior change among your past students?

Christensen Chap 7

I never did a portfolio (other than an Art portfolio) in high school and it was very limited in college. It made sense to do one for art, so why not English. I really didnt' know much about writing portfolios, but Christensen shows how they are a great tool.
Christensen sees portfolios as a way to showcase the variety of genres they can write in. A portfolio also shows the changes the writer has gone through. But the most important aspect, according to Christensen is the reflection process. It really struck me when Christensen said student portfolios allow the teacher to reflect on the job they did. If students did not make desired changes, there must have been something the teacher did wrong.
As Students do their own reflection it accomplishes more than simply giving a grade for a pile of writing. i loved Christensen's suggestions for how students can format their reflections as an advice column or letter to future students. these assignments give the reflection a "real" application and are not as dull as a simple reflection essay. I can see how this would get students to think more indepth.
One thing Christensen did not add but I believe is that the reflections should be honest. This should be stressed to students, and they should not feel like they will get a good grade if they simply write what they think the teacher wants to hear. If they honestly don't think they learned everything, that is valuable information to both the student and teacher. Overall, this leads to the effectiveness of portfolios as valuable tools.

christensen Immigrathion

This type of lesson has never really occured to me. My old school was not very diverse. One of two African Americans and the Mexican students were maybe double that. The only migrations we learned about were in history class and were the textbook examples of the large migration groups from Europe. The irish potato famine, etc.

I really liked the idea of tying history into English because they compliment each other so well. Christensen also did a great job at expressin g the need for multiple sources for research. using interviews and other sources than a textbook make the issue seem more real.

Christensen also includes poems in this lesson which ties in great with some of the other chapters. The reseach should provide the student with enoguh evidence or knowledge to see through the eyes of an other.

While this lesson is very valuable in a diverse school, it is also important for the less diverse schools to learn the complete history of important issues. The things not in the textbooks are just as important as the things that are in them.

Gilmore Chap 2

Writing introductions are about getting to the point. Some of the best advise I recieved about writing intros is that they are like a roadmap that shows where you are going to take your audience. I think this can relate to Gilmore's advice. You don't need generic fluff in the intro.

On the five paragraph essay, I'm not sure that I have been taught specifically to write in that form, But I generally like it as a guideline for essays. I use it more for formulating an outline. Mostly it keeps my ideas separate, but keeping them tied together with the thesis. I never feel like it should be exactly five paragraphs either. One section may be divided into more than one paragraph.

I dont' know how long it took me to learn how to weave quotations into my writing. In a way I continually tried to revise my writing process, but not with the same essay or paper. Rather one essay was a drafft for another essay. Onely I worked on style and problems with my general structure than the content. As I have said before, I hate revising my own work , but I have come along way by learing from past mistakes.

Gilmore Getting to Carnegie Hall

I'm still a little pesimistic about the revising process. Partly because I can hardly get my self to reread my paper, let alone fix more than grammatical errors. Secondly, I have seen how tough it is for middle schoolers to be motivated. I should be careful about htat though since they do not have the matureity level of a high schooler... for the most part.

I did like gilmores analogy of writing as the same as mastering a musical instrument. Revising, editin, and writing doesn't seem like practice, but that's just what it is. I became a better writer through editing and gradign others' papers This made me aware of mistakes I commonly make. It is often so hard to see mistakes in uyour own writing, since you know what you meant, while it may not be clear to others.

Gilmore's simple version of edition shows how it is important to not fix the students' work and point mistakes out for them, but teach them how to find the mistakes themselves.

Teaching Poetry

Christensen brought up Great poetry exercizes and there were three that I particularly liked and would probably teach. The first was connecting poetry to literature. This exercize seems like a nice change from the typical literature analysis paper. It was great to get them to view one character and then share their ideas with the class to get a wide range of input. In my classes, discussion always seemed to go better when students had written something that made them think about what to say in class. It's often hard to come up with something on the spot, but writing lets you think and record so you will remember what you wanted to say. Poetry exercizes like this accomplish more than one task at once, preparing to discuss literature and then practice creative writing and thinking through others' eyes.

The other activity that I liked because I am a history minor, is using poetry to humanize history. I think that activities like this that get the student to put their mind into history would help them actually remember history better.

I also really liked the Remember me poems. I hope that I can incorperate this somehow into my pre-internship this semester. I would love to have my seventh grade students do something like this that we could make and it would be something for me to remember my experience and the unique set of students that I am getting to know. My experience at this school has been nothing like what I have grown up with, and it is and will be a great learning period for me. I think having the students think positively about eachother and themselves is also important for students at this age because of the growth period that they are going through. They need the support.

Cohesive Writing Matters

Jago's book on cohesive writing has been a great resource for me. I hope I can continue using this book as i start teaching. One thing that I really want to take with me are Jago's core beliefs:

1. In order to learn to write, one must write
2. Authentic tasks and topics generate the most cohesive student writing.
3. students need both supportive and critical feedback
4. There is no cohesive writing without revision.

I think these beliefs are a great positive enforcement to help students learn how to write. I think that many students need the extra help, encouragement, and guidance.

Cohesive writing, the product

I liked Jago's five day writing plan, however, I don't think that it fits different writing methods. My biggest problem is having students come up with a thesis statement on the first day, although it may be revised. I say this because I have a hard time writing that way. Students do need to have a clear idea of what they are going to write about and how to keep it organized. I often will gather my evidence and outline my essay first. I then analyze what I have gathered and see what fits together. This helps me understand what it is that I am trying to argue. Then I can formulate a thesis. I often write my introduction after I have drafted my essay.

I also know that their are procrastinators that simply prefer to write under pressure. I think that the timed draft writing in class is a great way to motivate students. I really believe that it doesn't matter how many weeks you give students to work on an essay, many will do it the night before. Often this method has worked for me, but many students can't write well, because they have no time for revision.

One important step that Jago has that many teachers ignore, is offering a lesson on recurring mistakes. I think that it is important for the teacher to go through the paper before the student revises. If the student hands in a final draft that still could use revising, I think that the teacher should allow the student to revise that work to get a better grade. Realistically many final drafts will be a student's first draft, that they printed and turned in. This extra step may be extra work, but it would provide the students with another chance to revise, which often takes more than just one or two tries.

politics of language

This topic of teaching standard English can be really touchy. I have had an American Dialects class that has really helped me understand this issue. Right now I am doing a pre-internship where the majority of the students speak and write in African American Vernacular English. I have had a chance to read some of their work, but I'm not sure how the teacher deals with this issue yet. It is a seventh grade class and I'm not sure what they have or have not been exposed to for writing in Standard English. It is obviously something that needs to be taught but I can see how their language can be an important tool for them.

If students can freely put ideas on paper in their vernacular, it is at least getting them to write. How to get them to correct their writing may be a much larger task. However, there is something about the vernacular that can add to their writing. I believe that if students are quoting, or using any kind of dialog that would be spoken in a vernacular, that it probably should be written like that. I think this is a way to express a value in the student's home language, while teaching them that they must also write in the standard when it is appropriate.

Pronunciation is a tougher aspect of the standard. All accross the country their are different ways of pronouncing words. The poem "Rayford's Song" seems to point out how the standard seems to be over emphasized. In a song, I believe it would be perfectly natural for pronunciation to differ from the standard. I think that teaching this poem in schools, especially where Standard English is not the standard, would encourage students to think and write about their own experiences. There is a fine line between standard and vernacular. Hopefully we can meet in the middle, and appreciate both.

Writing about Literature

This is the area that I have the most experience, from AP English through college. Jago's section on grading rubrics was helpful for me as a teacher to be sure that I am fair and equal in my grading, but also that I should appreciate creativity.

The most helpful section of this chapter however was getting students to deconstruct quotations from literature. Using quotations can be difficult to master, and I know that I am still working on this. The worksheet that outlines the quote, What I think, What this says about the book, and What this says about the world, is a great prompt that would get the student to think about the bigger picture.

The five step deconstruction of the quote also helps the student write about the quote. Every student has gone through a phase where simply putting a quote in your essay counted as evidence because that's what the teacher asked them to do. The five step process is a sure fire way to get students to show how the quote provides evidence for a thesis. Doing this would also help the students realize if the quote really does support their argument. I appreciate how this process really focuses on word choice and how words provoke connotations, symbolism, irony, etc. Reading this may help me in my own writing, and I hope that I can pass this on to students.

Teaching Narative Writing

I don't recall ever being assigned to write a narrative story. It seems as though I must have, but I always struggled if I had tried to write one myself for my own enjoyment. I had ideas but could never get them on paper. Jago's short exercises really made sense for me to think of character and setting details and to write them down.

If they helped me, I think they would really be able to help students. I have always worried that I am loosing my imagination and that you are most creative when you are a child. I know I haven't really lost my imagination but it does need some prompting and inspiration. Students may need these prompts too.

I thought that the short exercises would work as great warm-ups in a classroom. Simply developing on a character and setting. The prompts for different characters and the smells for setting are just enough of an inspiration to get the students thinking outside their own experiences. It is difficult to come up with a story out of no where, but when given character scenarios one can imagine and write a unique story.

I also liked how Jago wants the students to think of themselves as characters for writing a college essay, and to focus on detail and depth. Working on these exercises previously would help them in their writing style.

Writing the Word and the World

Again Christensen provides wonderful examples of topics for students to write about to get them to really think. First the forgivness poem is a clever way to get students to really write about deep things that are bothering them in their lives. It also gets them to think on a more compassionate level. They write about things they will forgive or won't, but whoever they are writing about it should help them view that person from a deeper level.

The read around for students feelings about testing seems very beneficial to the students and the teachers. First students see how others struggle the same way as they do. Teachers can appreciate the stress testing can cause students and the areas that they may need extra help or a boost in confidence about.

Christensen also provides great strategies for essay writing. The first thing I really appreciated was not making students write out an introduction immediately. I find that the intro is the worst thing to write, and at times I have even written my introduction after I had written the body of my essay, so I knew exactly where I had taken my writing and knew for sure what my thesis really was; instead of writing a thesis and vearing off topic through the body of the essay.

I have always had a hard time really revising my essays. I don't like rereading my work, and I can usually whip out an "A" paper in a few hours. I really don't want my students to carry on my habits, although they have worked for me. Christensen makes a great point that if the topic is something the kids care about and it provokes deeper thinking, the students may care more about what they produce. Giving the students the opportunity to write for a public audience again gives them more incentive to want to write well and revise if they can. It won't work for all your students but if you can change the habbits of a few students, you have accomplished a lot.

Un learning the myths

I have studied the stereotypes of cartoons in other classes, And I do believe that they are existant, but I don't think you can prove they influence children to the extent Christensen would have you believe. I think children are more influenced by friends and family than television. I do however see that Black children would not be able to relate to cartoons because they are often not depicted. Although I disagree with the actual influence, the blatant stereotypes can teach students how to observe their surroundings.

At first I really wasn't sure If this chapter was about cartoons or teaching writing. I think behind the face of unearthing myths in cartoons there are helpful tools to dig deeper into the meaning of literature and writing. By making the students writing for an audience outside the classroom they are motivated on a different level, and realize that learning does not occur just in school. Christensen states, "The possiblility of publishing their pieces changed the level of students' intensity for the project." I thought this is really at the core of the chapter and the subject really could be irrelevant. Any type of writing assignment to convince an outside audience of problems with our society could be examined, and would produce thought inspired students to work for more than just the classroom.

informational and persuasive writing

Most of my English classes have had a focus on literature. I would have been more likely to write and informational or persuasive letter in my history classes. I personally have never enjoyed writing in this style because of the research involved, so I know that students of mine will also shudder at these assignments. Jago's suggestions seem like they may be very helpful tools to get students to write better papers. Her example of self-exploration when writing an informational essay is a great place to start.
I found that looking for inspiration in a newspaper to be a good way to limit the number of possible ideas, while also allowing the student freedom to choose from multiple genre's. I have had to write papers and either been too directed, and not interested in the subject, or told to look up one controversial topic and expore it when there was so much information out there it was hard to sift though everything. Jago explains how even sports or entertainment can produce valid topics of persuasion. This is a great way to encourage students to write about what they enjoy, and even see how writing can be useful and perhaps used as a profession in such areas of content.
*Other classroom tips that I will try to use are to use writing as a way to promote class discussion, and using short writing conferences to inhance student writing.

cohesive writing, the method

This chapter made me reflect on some of my past writing assignments in high school and college. I always thought that just getting started writing was the worst part. Writing does have inertia, and Jago provided some great examples of how to get students to start writing.
The questioning method is a great way to brainstorm. Your first thoughts don't have to be correct, but they generally will lead you to more in depth thought. Student's often can fuel eachother, so disscussing different interpretations are helpful, especially when it is made clear that any interpretation is valid when given enough evidence to support. In my own writing method, I usually brainstorm in the form of outlines. I will often write out quotes that I want to stress or develop, so it is easier for me to know where I am going. When freewriting the mind can take you to so many different places, and putting your freewriting into a draft should focus your thoughts into a smaller thesis.
The advice on constructing thought reponsing prompts also made me reflect on previous experiences of my own. I have always had a hard time finding a subject to write on with no guidance at all. And having no choice at all also made it difficult to enjoy what I was writing about. Choosing a topic from list of questions or prompts gave me enough freedom and guidance to write an essay, especially if it were a literature based essay.
I had not realized the importance of creating a shorter question that requires multiple thought processes and responses. I have had essays in which the prompt was rather lengthy and it was hard to really find out what the teacher wanted us to write about. A complicated question makes starting the writing complicated, and it would slow down that writing inertia.

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