Post One!

Let me begin by saying that I was a bit skeptical when Jessie said that we would not be able to put down the book about multigenre papers. I am excited to say, however, that my skepticism was proven to be unfounded, because I love the book! I am looking forward to finishing up the last few pages, and I'll probably write my post about it for next week.

But in regard to the Dornan text, I think that the reading for this week is summed up by this quotation: “Writing must be motivated from within, tapping personal feelings, needs, and experiences, whether the piece is a research paper driven by a problem of special interest to the writer or a poem to a loved one” (37). It may be challenging for beginning teachers to incorporate this personalized approach to writing into a curriculum that may already be overstuffed with an emphasis on standards. In the end, however, the book (and common sense) suggests that creating more personalized lessons that are relevant to the lives of students is an effort that pays off in the end.

I also appreciated that the text mentioned the importance of creating a classroom environment that is conducive to writing. Classrooms can either support or extinguish creative, daring writing, and I think that we all have been in both types of classrooms—and have felt the difference in classroom atmosphere. I imagine that the type of classroom environment created would have a serious impact on the quality of writing produced by students. The ideas that the textbook suggests on page 47 were very helpful for me, as I begin to plan my student teaching. Ideas such as allowing students to choose their own writing topics, modeling intense concentration when listening to students read aloud, writing with your students and sharing your pieces with them, and refusing to allow verbal or non-verbal put-downs will all be enacted in my classroom.

One thing that was just briefly mentioned in the text that I absolutely loved was the idea of having an “Author’s Chair” in my classroom (Dornan 73). This chair would be used during regularly scheduled “read-alouds” of student writing, and would make these read-alouds a special event. First, it would be fun to have a cool old chair in my classroom. But more personally, standing up in front of a class of my peers is not something that I always look forward to, and I know that lots of students are extremely uncomfortable with it. It makes a huge difference mentally if you are sitting in front of the class presenting something rather than standing, and suddenly it doesn’t seem like such a huge deal. I think it would help ease the nerves of students while still allowing them to share their work with peers and be in the spotlight.

Finally, the text reminded me of something that I will have to keep reminding myself of as I student teach. In teacher/student writing conferences, “the teacher’s role is coach and facilitator here, not an evaluative judge or ‘fixer-upper’ of the paper” (Dornan 60). I am totally a “fixer-upper” of papers unless I keep myself in check, and I will have to constantly remind myself that the job of the teacher is to prompt the student to recognize his/her own mistakes and learn from them. Also, I need to resist the temptation to be nitpicky about grammar and mechanics at points in the writing process when ideas and “flow” should be more important.

My resource link for this week is http://www.thisibelieve.org/. It provides an awesome unit complete with daily lesson plans for a personal essay assignment which asks students to build their personal philosophies on life, allowing them to write about their own personal connections in a meaningful way. These essays are then submitted to NPR, and they may be featured on the NPR/This I Believe website or on public radio. Separate units are available for middle and high school students. I am going to do the This I Believe personal essay when I student teach, and you all should too if you have to teach the essay or personal essays or something. Bonus--all the work is done for you already! Thank you NPR!