1. I agree with Monaghan and Saul and the school of thought that writing is “a form of thinking…and that thought develops along with writing” (p.114). In fact, that is how my blogs materialize. Too, I recall back to my undergraduate days when I would write essays for Freshman English (this was not a remedial course where I attended university!). No matter what I wrote, I would earn C’s. The instructor gave very little feedback and at the time there was no rubric. I was so frustrated that I had almost given up. Then, the miracle happened. I was sitting outside on a warm, sunny afternoon trying to become inspired to write yet another C essay. My notebook paper was on the ground (prior to PCs!) and an ant began walking across the page, followed by another and another. I was fascinated with their movements, from the podia to the antennae, to the marching madness. I began to write what I was witnessing. By the end I had composed three pages on the spontaneous behavior of ants. It was my first A paper. I composed as I thought or I thought as I composed. It was a reciprocal process.
2. Another quote that struck me was: “The desire on the part of parents to control the education of their offspring is deep-rooted in American society” (p. ?). I wonder if this is one (of many already mentioned in the article) reason why reading has always been given a more prominent role in school than writing. It strikes me that most parents read, but not many write, at least beyond basic to-do lists or thank you notes. I also wonder if with the advent of email and written electronic communications parents will pay more attention to their children’s writing and demand it play a more prominent role in the classroom. Perhaps not simply because email, etc. is so informal and brief. In fact, when I asked my sons whether or not they considered texting to be reading or writing they both answered with a resounding “no.” I asked them why not and they said because it was informal and it wasn’t used for learning anything of substance.
3. In pondering our rubric discussion from the other night, I understand that good writing is difficult to behaviorally define. It depends on what the assignment is, what the goal is, and ultimately what the product is. I recall reading Eisner and his opinion was that a curriculum could not be defined until it was realized. As Julie put it, so it may be with a writing rubric. Also, in a discussion with the department’s candidate, Mary Beth, she offered that she “negotiates” writing rubrics with her students. Just as with the chocolate chip cookie exercise, we all weight different criteria differently, so a student may focus more attention to one criterion than another and wish to have a rubric more heavily weighted in that area of concentration. It may be that rubrics can be individualized without too much extra work on the teachers’ part. Practically speaking, however, I think that a teacher who has a class of 25 might beg to differ.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
#3: The Reader, The Scribe, The Thinker
12:02 PM — Kathleen Dunn
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Kathy, I loved your post this week - there's so much to comment on.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, "writing is “a form of thinking…and that thought develops along with writing” (p.114)." Like you, this is so true for me. After reading in one of our articles about the written word being used to help the "dull minded" remember things, I've been thinking about how much I use writing as a memory aide when I'm doing the small amount of reading we're assigned (!). But you're right, it's more than that. How many times do we get half way through writing a line before deleting it and re-wording it in some other way...perhaps another idea comes to us as we begin to write one point. The thought develops as we write. I feel like thought/creativity is something that needs to be nurtured more, the more we use it, the more creative we become, and the very act of writing gets those creative juices and thoughts flowing.
The second point that struck me was “The desire on the part of parents to control the education of their offspring is deep-rooted in American society”. I think I read something last week about how classrooms were originally set up in a way so that they're an extension of the parental control from home - they keep our kids in line - this is a slightly different point to the one you're making, but it's all part of the same problem; lay people(parents) thinking they know best about what should be taught and how, and demanding that their ideas about education are met. I'm not surprised that your sons didn't think of texting as writing - I probably wouldn't have before embarking on this program. We're so indoctrinated and institutionalised with what "they" deem to be worthwhile, that everything else falls by the wayside. We need to start educating students about the value of all writing and reading activities that they undertake, and not just those traditional (often, one has to admit, boring) ones from school.
Rach,
ReplyDeleteYour comments were great! Glad your thoughts were so provoked. I did think, too, about how lay people try to tell teachers what to do. Do the same people go into a doctor's office and tell him/her their own diagnosis or prescription? Do they tell a lawyer how to argue his case? I wish the general public had more of a sense of our professional training and the skills that are needed to be a successful classroom teacher.
Your ant story is quite interesting. I wonder what the teacher was looking for exactly, but I'm glad you were able to find a way to be successful in that class.
ReplyDeleteYour question as to whether you think parents will pay more attention to writing was something I've thought about for a long time. No matter what I try to do to help the kids understand that writing is more than just making it 'look good,' they are more influenced by their parents beliefs. Most parents seem to be interested in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and handwriting. I usually hear about how awful their child's penmanship is, or they lament about the way they spell. Don't get me started about all the parent (and teacher) comments regarding how texting is going to ruin spelling. Even when I try to help them look deeper and point out the beautiful phrase, or figurative language their children used in a piece, or how well they were able to communicate their thoughts, the parents just can't accept that. Very frustrating!
Love the ant story! Perhaps it was the ants, then, that really taught you to write! I appreciate your thoughtful questions/comments about this article which has been so helpful in my own scholarship. I wish I could believe that new media might turn more attention back to writing, but it seems that the only attention that seems to be getting paid is the outrage that some people have about "text speech!"
ReplyDeleteThe comments and thoughts about writing and parental involvement are very interesting. At CCS, we have instituted the Collins Writing Program for the past two years. There are many things I could say about this program, but the aspect I think connects to this conversation has to do with the FCA element of this writing program.
ReplyDeleteFor the beginning drafts of papers, students are supposed to only work on three FCAs (focus correction areas). That's right; other mechanics or organizational problems that might not be included in the FCAs aren't graded so that the student(s) may focus on specific areas, thus (possibly) decreasing the mystery of "good" writing or at least focusing on individual student problems.
We've had teachers, and some parents, who refuse to adopt this program because "It allows students to make mistakes that are not corrected." For example, if sentence fragments is not an FCA, a student will not be marked down if fragments appear in the paper. (The teacher can point out the problem OR this can be a future FCA, of course.) BUT, we can't get some teachers and parents to buy into this idea because it doesn't make students write a perfect paper. (Whatever that is.....)
It's been an interesting process to observe in our district, and it seems to connect with part of your conversation.