I've been reading blogs

I've been reading blogs from 8010, and I have noticed several people mention reading. Marcia said she was going to critically analyze a text for students, and Kristen said that she didn't picture herself doing as much reading/literature as she first envisioned. Yeah! Why do I think that's good. Writing in comp is not a way to test your ability to analyze literature. Rhetorical analysis is awesome. Writing for thinking is terrific, but I don't think it should be all about discussing readings.

Also, Donna, if you ever read this again, let this be known. I really think you should do the individual proposal. Your idea sounded great. I may have to get back on and respond to your blog. Go for it!

That's weird

Your Linguistic Profile:

70% General American English

15% Yankee

10% Upper Midwestern

5% Dixie

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Writing for Myself: Writing to Teach

I feel in a rush, but I don't want to do this in a rush. I guess that is why I put it off. I know that this class helped me be a better composition teacher. I love how we are better at interrogating sources. I love that I can see what MU expects, and I think I have prepared the students in my class adequately--more than adequately actually. I still feel like my role is as a facilitator, as a guide.

Questions that I have: I worry about ranking in the class--that there is this bell curve that these new teachers may feel like they need to go by. I worry that composition becomes just assignments that no one cares about instead of lessons in careful thinking in writing. I would really like to hear about everyone's experience in their classrooms in the fall. It will be interesting to hear what they have to say, and I would love to talk with them more. I love helping students to feel like they can write. Is there any place for that in 1000? I'm not sure.

I learned that composition studies and English Ed are not that far off. Some might not want to admit that, and that's okay.

I liked the Allyn and Bacon book.

I liked Donna's philosophy of teaching.

I'm going to keep blogging. I would like to read Marcia's blog more and Donna's, and be able to respond. I also don't know how to add links, and I would like to know how to do that. I thought about using blogs for the MWP this summer.

I would use blogs in my class--once I got organized.

I have to go to class, but I will be back to this. I will think more on the drive ho

Bad Blogging Week

You know, I think about blogging. But then when I finally get to a computer. The feeling is over. But I do think about it a lot. I think I will write my paper on . . . whoa, wait I sec, I almost made a decision there. I think I will wait a minute longer before I put it down. Okay, I think I am leaning toward the reading. Donna or Marcia, if you are reading, can I borrow the newest copy of CCC? It's been a crazy week. My student teacher was gone on Friday and Monday, and then she was having a breakdown on Tuesday morning. Breakdowns are normal in teaching. I'm quite familiar with the feeling of hopelessness with a hefty dose of overwhelmed. Actually, now that I am sitting here thinking about it, I have to do reading. The curriculum director for the district I work for called yesterday and asked if I would go to San Antonio for the International Reading Conference. I can't say no. I've always wanted to visit San Antonio. Oh, and, of course, learn more about reading. It will be interesting. So, if anyone knows any good restaurants or things to do, I would love to hear it.

I guess I do have an update. I used a chapter from Roen--an early chapter we read--and assigned the students to choose a term. They looked up connotations and denotations. They used the Oxford English Dictionary and looked at historical context. And I had them read a chapter of Hayakawa called "Contexts of Meanining." That title might not be right, but it was Chapter four, I believe. We spent some time talking about this. I told them that I didn't want to read about their feelings on the issue that might surround the term, but I did want them to look at how two sides use the term for different rhetorial purposes or effects. It was a very difficult assignment for them, or at least that's what they told me. They also told me that they learned a lot. I've been noticing that they don't end the papers very well. They want to write five-paragraph conclusions and introductions. Some students say it helps when I say beginnings and endings. Whatever works. I had them begin the paper with some kind of narrative hook. I didn't give them much guidance on the conclusion except to say, "Do not write a five-paragraph conclusion where you pull sentences from previous paragraphs or review in a boring fashion what you have said already." We have a good rapport. I think there was some finger-shaking involved in this interaction. All in good humor, of course.

So, the first paper I pulled to read was from a kid who I was concerned about. His papers haven't been all that great, and I was afraid taht this paper was really hard for him. He had a great beginning. The word he chose was "proficient" in the context of Missouri's standardized test, MAP, and also No Child Left Behind. He also used so many examples and situations to help explain different contexts in which the word could be used. I think that he got this from reading Hayakawa. When we discussed that chapter, students said, "H. has too many examples. It got really old." This student said, "The examples really helped me understand his ideas which were actually really complicated." I asked him if that was why he used so many examples. He said he thought so. I think H. would say that you would need lots of examples because there are so many different contexts which affect the meaning and only the contexts could present possible meanings of the word. Were there problems in the paper? Yes, he needed to connect his ideas more in a few places. He needed to fix a parenthetical citation, but I was really happy. I would definitely do this assignment again.

I'll write later about what we did yesterday. I liked the assignment we tried.

I'm having a hard time writing. I sit down to write on this blog and it feels impossible to get words down. It's not like this when I freewrite, but I guess I'm feeling uncomfortable because there is an audience. I think you are my only audience though, Donna. I was looking for your blog, and I couldn't find it. I went to a blog of someone you suggested, and I clicked on a blog listed on his/her list and it was yours! I read the one where you talked about writing with students. I was wondering if you meant that you felt uncomfortable writing and then sharing that writing with students. Do you feel like if you share it then you are holding yourself up as the best example of writing? I don't always share my writing with students--actually, that's pretty rare, but I do try to write with them when I ask them to write. I always have students say, "I've never had a teacher write with us before." It feels like the class goes better when I write with them, even though I don't share.

Some of the blogs from last week really bothered me. Okay, only one. I know that there is tension between all departments and education departments. I also know that there is tension between composition and literature and composition and other departments. I feel like the work I am doing in the English Ed. department is very similar to what I would be doing in composition. I love composition. I love everything we have talked about this semester--especially the theory. What I like about English Ed. is that I am looking at pedagogy and bringing this to the classroom. I don't think because I am interested in pedagogy that I can go into any classroom in any department and teach. I guess I also think that "educational research" that is so worthless to R. is the same research that composition studies uses. I think of Emig, Flowers and Hayes, Elbow, Friere, Weaver, Foucault--these are all people that I have learned and talked about in English Ed. I also wonder how a person who hates George W. could use the Department of Education as a source to support that educational research is watered down. I'm just so confused. He wants to change Education departments from progressive to content-based. This confuses me too because if you go to the high school where I work, very few have a process-based pedagogy for writing--most teachers are heavily into content and testing on knowledge-based questions.

But, if being a content teacher means that I have to quiz students using Hirsch's ideas about content then I won't do it. Does it matter who invented the cotton gin anymore? Good for Trivial Pursuit, but that is about it.

Now I am getting to it. I guess what I don't like is this either/or, dualistic, dichotomous thinking. (Do any of those words work? ) I hate that thinking where you are either progressive or content-based. You know what, I am both. I can do both. I have done both. I also don't like it when people make condescending remarks about "progressive education" when they have never tried to look at their classroom from Friere's lens. Teaching is not either or. It's balanced. Everything is taken into account and analyzed. I change based on the students I have in class. I want them to become better writers and to see the world in a new way--not my way--their own way--I want them to see the possibilities.

The reason I didn't work on my doctorate in Educational Administration was because I did not like how they did things. There is all of this research to support a certain type of school and a way to do things to improve education, yet they ignore all of it and do it like they have always done. I couldn't stand to be in a department for 3-5 years where I didn't agree with what anyone was saying.