Why Should Students Write?

First off, I would like to say that I walked into a 7th grade classroom yesterday. As I looked around the room, my eyes lit up! There was a Brushstrokes Bulletin board with examples of different ways to mix up student writing! I was so pleased to see this and after reading over student's creative pieces, I could see many of the brushstroke techniques mingled into their work. It's great to see some teacher's taking advantage of great instruction.
As I have been in and out of different classroom for the past few months, it has come to my knowledge more than ever now the issue with student writing. As I read over the eighth grade and ninth grade student essays, it saddens me to realize how inconsistent and redundant writing is for essays and creative pieces. From their introduction to their transitions between paragraphs, it is pretty awful. I understand while reading the papers that they are 13-15 years old, however, they are learning to write like robots because of standardized testing. "I think football is the best sport because of this, this, and this...." By only learning how to write one way, it is lowering their creativity. When asked to write a creative piece, they have no idea how to even begin. They want to know what the requirements are and how they should write. "What should my graphic organizer look like, Miss Miller?" That's the question I received by most of the students. It honestly made me want to contact the Education Department in PA and tell them what they are doing to our students. It is awful.
Introducing creative writing and journaling is one of the first things that I will do at the beginning of my student teaching next semester. Journaling is a safe place for each student to go and create a little piece of themselves on paper. While there will be times where prompts will be necessary and used, I want to allow the students to use their notebook as a place where writing it okay if there are grammar mistakes, misspellings, redundancy at times. As the months progress forward, their writing will automatically improve on its own.
As well as journaling, bringing in the brushstroke method as well as promoting writing contests, creating a wall for student work, creating writing bulletin boards, teaching how to write smaller, writing about what they are smart at or interested in...etc, will be included during my teaching (hopefully (: ) It is very important to make good writers and not strictly for standardized testing. It is necessary for the real world, because no matter what job market a person is in, writing will be included. It is important to get students to realize this too. I hear a lot of talk about, "Writing and reading is stupid. When am I ever going to have to use reading and writing?" I am half tempted to make a wall dedicated to this question and list a bunch of answers so I can direct my students over to this wall when that question appears before me.
Students should write for themselves and hopefully when I am a professional, I will have an impact on students and will teach them that writing is fun and with writing comes great power.

Teaching Reading

Reading Gallagher's Readicide as well as Smagorinsky's texts has really opened my eyes to establishing reading in the classroom. There is a right way to introduce reading and it shows in their research as well as their own experience in their classrooms. Being out in the field has also really opened my eyes to recognize that Readicide is happening everyday. While Readicide is mostly apparent in my 9th grade classroom, I can see it happening with the 8th grade students as well. Everything that Gallagher has stated NOT to do, I am seeing it in my 9th grade placement. It is so hard not to hand over the novel to my Co-Op too! (I am not sure if that would be insulting or a nice gesture?!) Stopping after every page and summarizes the text as well as stopping after every chapter for a few days to complete an activity about that chapter is literally killing me (and the kids)! I can see it in their faces...and the schools wonder why kids hate reading now. THIS IS WHY. I also see that it is not only teachers killing reading. A lot of it is parents. In the Carlisle School District, all English teachers are being asked to remove their classroom libraries. A student brought home a novel from a teacher's shelf with a few pieces of language that were not appropriate. The parent is now threatening a lawsuit against the school district if this type of material is in classrooms.The administration is now forcing teachers to get rid of their "free-read, SSR" books. First off, are you serious? I am so upset about this issue! I went to a meeting the other day with the English teachers and discussed this and many said they are going to refuse to remove their books. "I am an English teacher. This is an English classroom. I will teach and allow students to read books. I would never put a book that was inappropriate on my shelf." I just cannot believe what education is coming to. It is really upsetting. I cannot imagine what it would be like if I was in that school district as a permanent teacher and I was asked to remove all novels from my classroom. Anyway....back to teaching reading! I am hoping that when I am a teacher, I am not sucked into doing mundane worksheets and activities after every chapter or lesson in the novel I am reading. I would hope my fellow English teachers would be open to new ideas of teaching and not focus solely on worksheets and multiple-choice tests. It sort of scares me though, because I am sure that these teachers had this type of education in college...learning how to teach reading effectively and include writing in the classroom. Why aren't they using it? Is it because they don't have time or it doesn't fit into their curriculum? Are they just taking an easy road? I'm not sure, but I hope that I do not fall into this path. I hope that I can take the ideas introduced to me in the texts that we have been reading and through our class discussions and create a new love for reading and instill it in my students.

Reflective Blog Weeks 1-3

I have to say that I was very nervous about Methods. I heard some great stories about the class, but I knew it was going to be very challenging. I, then, kept going back and forth in my head asking myself, "Am I even going to be a good teacher?" and "Am I even cut out to be a teacher?" These questions were making me so paranoid for the class. However, I am enjoying the class and even though it has challenged me already within the first few weeks, I have enjoyed the challenges a lot.
First off, the texts that we have read so far in class have been very enlightening. In all my education classes that I have taken over my four year in college, the textbooks that you have picked for this class (as well as the History and Structures) have been the most useful and also entertaining. The material is not dull or a struggle to read. Smagorinsky's text is great! He has such a great feel for education AND students. The ideas that he has put in are great and ideas that I will certainly try to incorporate into my future classroom. The activities such as the open discussions or the memory box for novels are just a few ideas that he discussed that are incredible learning tools for students of all ages. My second co-op is a huge supporter of activities and games in the classroom to get students involved and grab their attention. I am so thankful for this book, because of all the great ideas. I actually cannot wait to bring in the textbook to his classroom and try some of the activities out with the kids! Readicide is also another novel that is great. Like I said in my last post, a teacher a few years back told me that reading this book would completely change the way I would teach a classroom and he was right. It has definitely opened my eyes to new ideas and thoughts about how our education system is working and trying to run.
Along with the texts, I also have really enjoyed learning about Prezi. Even though I am still super frustrated trying to figure out how to exactly make the Prezi work properly, I have started to use it more frequently and Powerpoint is now a thing of the past for me. I am actually trying to incorporate Prezi into my lesson plan for Tuesday, so we will see if it works correctly! :) I really liked how you made us use and try Prezi within the first few weeks of class. By allowing us to try something new like an online PowerPoint, it gives us many opportunities to gain knowledge about how to use other resources and not just a PowerPoint which most teachers now use. Again, I cannot wait to introduce a Prezi Presentation to the 8th grade students at Mechanicsburg during my lesson on irony! Hopefully they will enjoy it as much as I will enjoy creating it!
Our class discussions have also been a great time to get ideas and thoughts out. Our last discussion on Tuesday was very interesting to me and really got me thinking. Glory was talking to the class about the fact that she has not come across a novel yet that she would teach in the classroom. To be honest, I has not given much thought about the type of novels I would teach in class. I mean, I know what I would like to teach...novels like The Catcher in the Rye, The Color Purple, and The Kite Runner have always been in my mind of novels that I would love to teach. However, when she brought up the points about the material being taught in the book, it made me wonder what parents would think about it. The raping in The Kite Runner, the language and sexual material in The Catcher in the Rye, and the all around material in The Color Purple would cause many parents to question why I am teaching this type of material to their children. However, I am a firm believer in literature and the power that it can invoke upon readers. I do not believe that reading a novel would cause any child to become a bad person or anything along those lines. It would open their minds and hearts in my opinion. I know those three novels completely changed who I was when I read them in 12th grade. I would really enjoy discussing this topic again in class. I can truly only see how novels and literature can help and assist children. I cannot imagine a novel or a piece of literature harming a child.

Readicide Chapters 1-2

When I was a freshman in college, I shadowed a teacher who told me that I needed to read this book, because it would completely change how I thought about education and teaching. So finally, in my senior year, I am reading it. I can see why he was so passionate about the novel too. It is wonderful! I have many pages marked already, underlined, and marked up! There is such a crazy amount of good information. Where do I even begin talking about what I have read?
Even within the first page, I have highlighted a few key phrases which I want to point out. "Valuing reading is often a euphemism for preparing students to pass mandated multiple-choice exams." This causes what we know as readicide. Schools are working AGAINST developing good readers, because we are developing test takers at the expense of readers. Wow. Now that is something to really sit down and think about. Several teachers that I have spoken with are always saying the same thing..."We teach to the test. We have to teach to the test." However, Gallagher says differently. It IS important to teach to the test. She gives an example. At the beginning of every unit she does, she gives the students the final exam question. This makes her students more focused and determined readers. "Teaching to the test is not the problem. The problem occurs when we spend most of our time teaching to a shallow test." Shallow tests are what most standardized tests are...it's a mix of multiple choice questions. We are not giving our students the opportunity to become "active and engaged citizens  [of reading]. We want them to be creative, have common sense, use wisdom, ethics, honesty and teamwork. How does standardized testing do this? "We are getting higher test scores and lower thinkers." How does this seem right?
It is also interesting to think about how states and schools gives incentives to administrators and teachers. When this happens, there is a greater chance of cheating. This is exactly what happens too. Again, what does this teach our students and future leaders of America? Nothing. Then if and when the students perform poorly on the exams, we respond by giving them an intensified dose of ineffective treatment. Personally, I know how this is. My junior year of high school I scored above average on my PSSA in the reading and writing categories. However, I was below basic in math. (Big surprise...) I spent my senior year in a room with other kids who also performed poorly. We went over worksheet after worksheet so that when I would retake the exam, I would perform well. This was not the case. My score stayed the exact same. I believe this just proves that forcing students to take these exams and then afterwards making them practice over and over again with worksheets that are not truly teaching them anything. It is beyond frustrating...I am actually getting very upset while I type this!
On page 29, Gallagher discusses how our students are in desperate need of large doses of authentic reading which is reading newspapers, magazines, blogs, websites, articles, ect. We are only teaching our students to read through one window when there are THOUSANDS of other windows. Many students are completely oblivious to the world around them. The al Qaeda story was a perfect example of this. Why are students not reading articles in history class or English class about events happening around the world. Integrating different texts are so important and vital. I am beginning to realize this as I plan out my rationale and unit for this semester. I did not have the opportunity in high school to read outside of novels or textbooks, so I know as a teacher that I will try my hardest to incorporate as many authentic pieces of writing as I can.
Also, what I found interesting but never really considered as the point Gallagher made on page 37. Experiences can completely shape how a person takes an exam. Looking at the students from Wyoming and the students from Southern CA, obviously their experiences growing up are very different. This could change the outcome of a test almost automatically.
Another thing that just blew me away was the fact that schools are actually removing novels and books out of their schools. They do not have time for novels! What?! By removing novels, this provides students and teachers with more time for test preparation. Well thank God for more test preparation. I mean, lets test kids on novels and books and how to interpret and read when they don't even know how to read! Gahh, it is so frustrating.
While I did focus on all the negative points that I read about during the reading, I did enjoy his great ideas about getting students involved and how he incorporated reading and discussion into his classroom.

Prezi Presentation

http://prezi.com/vsfwv5oekbtb/text-satellites/?kw=view-vsfwv5oekbtb&rc=ref-29325157

Here is the link to my Text Selection Prezi featuring No Country for Old Men.

-Tricia :)