Okay, here I go, my final blog for this assignment. As I mentioned in the last post, the book Content Area Writing I've been reading and blogging about broke down writing into two major categories, writing to learn, and public (polished) writing. The last two ideas I'll share here are two of the suggestions they give to provide teachers with alternatives to the traditional research paper. So here they are:
1. Social Action Writing Project - the authors start this section by saying, "By social action, we mean any activity in which students apply classroom lessons to address real issues in a community group, or organization...This could be as simple as a student's attempt to improve her family's diet or as far-reaching as the investigation carried out by a group of high school students on the wrongful conviction of an innocent man, decades past, in another state" (p. 216). Now some of you will probably think, where would I find the time for this? Which, I understand, it's a completely valid concern, with pressures to "cover curriculum" and get kids ready for the test, which is tied to our names, we are under a lot of pressure! But, the authors made a great point, when they asserted, "We talk a lot as educators about preparing students to become responsible citizens in a democracy...Don't they learn by doing? We send a contradictory message if we imply, 'We're telling you about something that's really important for you to do, but we don't really have the time or inclination to do it here in our classrooms" (p. 217). Now, for this idea to take the place of a different kind of research project, yes, it would take a lot of time. But, I think many of us could incorporate at least small ways of having kids participate in social action projects, some of the smaller ideas they posed were: promote public awareness of unrecognized local heroes or public figures, reducing consumption of a particular resource, like electricity, volunteering at an elder care facility, or participate in local environmental projects. I think many of these could be justified by content areas such as social studies or science, and incorporating writing would help students research why those are important actions in society and reflect on their participation.
2. Learning Fair - We've all seen (or even done ourselves) the parent generated and produced science fair projects. This idea is an alternative. The project they described most in depth is one that students produce for their English, Biology, and Geometry class. When I first started reading, I was wondering how on earth the kids would utilize skills from all three of those subjects in a project based on a person in their family, but those teachers really made it work. So, in a very abbreviated version, this is how it worked. Students brainstormed one member of their family they'd like to know more about. They interviewed that person at least once, and sometimes twice, or sometimes they interviewed a different individual as a follow up on something the first person said. The writing for English was based on those interviews. In Biology, students created a genealogical chart, then studied a specific phenotype, and in the end, created "a pedigree chart along with the monohybrid cross charts that illustrated one of the phenotypes" (p. 232). The authors did mention that there might obviously be issues such as adoption, foster children, estranged family, but they did not give suggestions for dealing with those issues. And for Geometry? I thought this part was really cool. Students had to create a scale model of "a structure that has some significant connection to the family member being studied in English class" (p. 232). What about the fair? All three pieces are worked on through the writing/creating process - drafting, revising, editing - and then students created a visual display with the information. On the day of the fair, students had to be ready to give oral presentations to a small panel of judges, as well as answer any impromptu questions from anyone who attended the fair. Students are scored by the panel of judges (they used other teachers and former students who were familiar with the project) based on a rubric. And there is an appeal process if there is disagreement with the judges scoring.
Okay, I know this is already long, but since it's the final one I'd like to have some kind of conclusion. I guess what I'd like to say is the book gave me a kind of "boost." I'm always trying new ideas in my class, but a couple of rough years with a tough administrator really had me in a rut. Taking this class and reading my book has me re-energized with new ideas, and theories behind those ideas to show that I know what I'm doing. I'm excited to have students do a wide variety of writing pieces, which, as Rosenblatt mentioned, will allow students to practice writing at various stages of the efferent-aesthetic continuum. I also took away from the Rosenblatt article, how important it is that writing, "should have as its first concern the creation of environments and activities in which the students are motivated and encouraged to draw on their own resources to make 'live' meanings (p. 27). So with many ideas in mind, I'm excited to guide my students in writing A LOT this year, I'm sure they'll be just as excited as I am.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Monday, July 1, 2013
Big Project Ideas
I was thinking about my blog this weekend, and realized that I had been including a lot of what to do, or ideas to use in the classroom, but not a lot of why we need to do it. I think this is because 1) I'm a language arts teacher so writing is an essential part of my curriculum and 2) I love to get new ideas I think will help my students. So, before I give information about the big project ideas, I wanted to remind myself (and you) why writing is so important, not just in English, but in all subjects.
I revisited the Emig article and was really struck by Emig's comment, "Writing involves the fullest possible functioning of the brain" (p. 125). When we are teaching, none of us want to look out into the classroom and see a room full of zombies, students with that glazed over look, that moment when you feel like the teacher in Charlie Brown, remember:
Charlie Brown Teacher Video
Instead, we want to have students who are active and engaged in our content. Sometimes we think this means students have to be up, moving around, talking, which is true, sometimes. But, according to Emig, writing actually engages the brain, both hemispheres. We also know that ideas and concepts need to be reinforced if they are to be understood and remembered. Writing is the perfect tool for this, as Emig points out, "writing, through its inherent re-inforcing cycle involving hand, eye, and brain marks a uniquely powerful multi-representational mode for learning" (124-125).
Okay, on to the big project ideas I promised. These are examples of what the authors call public writing, which is "polished" writing that has been through the writing process. The authors propose these ideas can replace the old, worn out term paper.
1. Multigenre Project - this project entails students creating "a collection of five, eight, or even twelve different shorter pieces centered around a single important topic" (p. 205). Some of the process is the same as the traditional research paper, students will have to choose a topic, then collect information about the topic, but the writing is done through a variety of products that will require students to put the information into their own words. I scanned the list of project offered because I thought they were great ideas, sorry for the poor scanning quality:
2. I-Search Paper - this is closest to the traditional research paper. Students choose a topic, research, and then write a paper. There is a lot to this process, so for those of you who would like to know more, I found a website that gives a lot of detail:
I-Search resource
One idea I loved in this section, was a way to help students organize the information they find while doing research. After finding their information, students come up with four major questions about the topic. "They write one question at the top of each sheet of paper... each kid gets a set of colored pencils or four different-color highlighters, color codes the questions, and then returns to the text, color coding what he's underlined, matching each piece of information with the color of the major question it best answer" (242). I think this would really help students break down information and organize their writing. The teacher uses this as part of their evaluation, checking steps along the way, which can help save us from grading everything at the end.
There are two other big project ideas, but since this blog is turning out to be really long, think I'll save them for next time!
I revisited the Emig article and was really struck by Emig's comment, "Writing involves the fullest possible functioning of the brain" (p. 125). When we are teaching, none of us want to look out into the classroom and see a room full of zombies, students with that glazed over look, that moment when you feel like the teacher in Charlie Brown, remember:
Charlie Brown Teacher Video
Instead, we want to have students who are active and engaged in our content. Sometimes we think this means students have to be up, moving around, talking, which is true, sometimes. But, according to Emig, writing actually engages the brain, both hemispheres. We also know that ideas and concepts need to be reinforced if they are to be understood and remembered. Writing is the perfect tool for this, as Emig points out, "writing, through its inherent re-inforcing cycle involving hand, eye, and brain marks a uniquely powerful multi-representational mode for learning" (124-125).
Okay, on to the big project ideas I promised. These are examples of what the authors call public writing, which is "polished" writing that has been through the writing process. The authors propose these ideas can replace the old, worn out term paper.
1. Multigenre Project - this project entails students creating "a collection of five, eight, or even twelve different shorter pieces centered around a single important topic" (p. 205). Some of the process is the same as the traditional research paper, students will have to choose a topic, then collect information about the topic, but the writing is done through a variety of products that will require students to put the information into their own words. I scanned the list of project offered because I thought they were great ideas, sorry for the poor scanning quality:
2. I-Search Paper - this is closest to the traditional research paper. Students choose a topic, research, and then write a paper. There is a lot to this process, so for those of you who would like to know more, I found a website that gives a lot of detail:
I-Search resource
One idea I loved in this section, was a way to help students organize the information they find while doing research. After finding their information, students come up with four major questions about the topic. "They write one question at the top of each sheet of paper... each kid gets a set of colored pencils or four different-color highlighters, color codes the questions, and then returns to the text, color coding what he's underlined, matching each piece of information with the color of the major question it best answer" (242). I think this would really help students break down information and organize their writing. The teacher uses this as part of their evaluation, checking steps along the way, which can help save us from grading everything at the end.
There are two other big project ideas, but since this blog is turning out to be really long, think I'll save them for next time!
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