Thank Goodness for a Day Off!!!!!!

WRITING TO LEARN: STRATEGIES FOR ASSIGNING AND RESPONDING TO
WRITING ACROSS THE DISCIPLINES

Fulwiler: "Writing letters back and forth with your students increases dialogue, suggests rethinking, and encourages rewriting, yet the stakes remain low. Weekly letters promote the give and take of learning rather than the finality of testing and measuring" (15).

Sloven: I agree with you, Fulwiler, that writing letters back and forth between teacher and students would be a great way to encourage rewriting and also establish a unique relationship so that the students could feel at ease and possibly learn in a stress-free environment. It would also be a different means of assessment instead of the dreaded test taking method. However, I believe it would be virtually impossible in my classes due to the fact that I teach five separate English classes with 34 students in each class. Essay writing is imperative for all students so that they will succeed and pass the English Regents with a grade of 75. I do not honestly believe that the "powers that be" would permit so informal an English class - maybe if I were fortunate enough to be permitted to conduct a class in informal writing I would be able to introduce letter writing.

Fulwiler: "In public schools, students saturate their classrooms with unassigned letters--called notes--with or without teacher approval. Letter writing is as natural and easy as writing ever gets" (17).

Sloven: Yes, students saturate my classroom with numerous notes. However, the language the students use and the subject matter would curl your hair. So, I'm thinking that this is not a good example to promote your letter-writing curriculum.

Fulwiler: Letters are good places to try out ideas, see how they are received, listen to reactions" (17).

Sloven: Instead of letters, I use journals - my students can do the above and I give them the appropriate feedback. I link journal entries to the literature being covered in class - it seems to work.

WAC FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM

McLeod and Miraglia: "If writing is a mode of learning, if it is a way of constructing knowledge, then the integration of writing with learning will continue, in one way or another, to be seen as a central feature of the learning process" (3).

Sloven: Writing is a mode of learning. It is my opinion that the integration of writing with learning should and must continue. I think that when you can write about what you have learned in your own words you truly understand the subject matter.

McLeod and Miraglia: "...this pedagogy encourages teachers to use ungraded writing (writing to the self as audience) in order to have students think on paper, to objectify their knowledge, and therefore to help them discover both what they know and what they need to learn" (5).

Sloven: Again, one of my favorite writing exercises - the journal - a way for students to put down their thoughts and think about what is going on in class - low stakes writing. I find it very useful in so many ways - all my classes have journal writing at the beginning of the period for a Do Now.

McLeod and Miraglia: "Programs of peer tutoring, like learning community programs, grow out of the same rather simple conceptual base: students can learn from each other as well as from teachers and books" (15).

Sloven: I totally agree with and like the idea of peer tutoring. When my students are engaged in group work, I circle the room and listen in on the group discussions. This way I can focus in on those who have grasped the lesson. Later on in the week, I break my class into groups again and have these students take the lead and help their peers understand the work - they explain it in terms their fellow students can understand. It works most of the time.

ENGAGING IDEAS

Bean: "Problems, for Dewey, evoke students' natural curiosity and stimulate both learning and critical thought. 'Only by wrestling with the conditions of the problem at first hand, seeking and finding his own way out, does [the student] think'" (2).

Sloven: I agree that students are naturally curious but, unfortunately, we tend to spoon feed out students, giving them the answers and not allowing them to think for themselves.

Bean: "Students are required to formulate and justify their ideas in writing or other appropriate modes" (4).

Sloven: This is done with the Critical Lens portion of the ELA Regents. The students are given a quote, they agree or disagree with it and interpret it using works of literature they have read. In other words, they have to justify their interepretation.

Bean: "An equally important aspect of coaching is providing a supportive, open classroom that values the worth and dignity of students" (8).

Sloven: Bean, so true - students need to feel comfortable in their classes and know that their opinions will be accepted and not made fun of. I endeavor to have all my students respect and listen to the ideas of others. I do not tolerate any form of disrepect or verbal abuse in my classes and make that known from the very first day.

THE NON-DESIGNERS'S DESIGN BOOK

Williams: "To create a consistent business package with a business card, letterhead, and envelope, use a strong display of repetition, not only within each piece, but between all the pieces" (54).

Sloven: I like this idea, Williams, because by using a unified display of repetition with all the pieces, you make a strong statement. It is difficult to ignore details and help create a strong impression. Also, as I have told you in previous blogs, I like organization and repetition helps one to be organized.

Williams: "Sometimes the repeated items are not exactly the same objects, but objects so closely related that their connection is very clear" (57).

Sloven: Again, this is a good element to include - connecting similiar things through visualization, making it hard to forget the point you are trying to make.

WRITING AS A MODE OF LEARNING

Emig: "Writing is learned behavior; talking is natural, even irrepressible, behavior" (123).

Sloven: Unlike speaking, you have to learn how to write. It just doesn't come naturally. You learn to speak by listening but you learn to write by doing it.

Emig: "Perhaps because there is a product involved, writing tends to be a more responsible and commited act than talking" (124).

Sloven: Very true, Emig. Sometimes you speak without thinking and you cannot take back the things you have said which, may be hurtful to others. However, when you write your thoughts and words, you actually see them and can modify what you are trying to express and say. You have the opportunity to write and rewrite, something you cannot do when talking - once you express your thoughts verbally, they are out there for the whole world to hear.

SPECTATOR ROLE AND THE BEGINNINGS OF WRITING

Britton: "In efferent reading the reader's concern is with what he takes away from the reading (hence "efferent" from effero [I carry away]). In aesthetic reading, in contrast, 'the reader's primary concern is with what happens during the actual reading event...The reader's attention is centered directly on what he is living through during his relationship with that particular text" (153).

Sloven: Britton, it just goes to show you that you learn something new each day. I had no idea that there were two types of reading processes - efferent reading and aesthetic reading. I am thinking that efferent reading has to do with educational reading, something you need for school, knowledge obtained from text books. While aesthetic reading is for your own pleasure - you read and become part of the book, engulf yourself in a character's life. Do not know if that is what you mean but that is how I interpret it.