Dear Sara,
Hi, how are you? Did you enjoy the night off from school this week? I hope you got a chance to catch up on all your school work and still had a little time for yourself for some sort of fun.
I finally completed all the readings that were due and was wondering what your thoughts were about Fulwiler (WRITING TO LEARN) and his teaching method of writing letters back and forth to his (I think he is a "he") students in the form of weekly letters (15). While it sounds like a great idea and would definitely encourage rewriting and create a unique relationship with students, I have a problem with this letter writing because, as a teacher at New Dorp, I just have too many students. Also, I need to concentrate on essay writing so that my students are prepared for the English Regents. What do you think? Can you recommend a way to incorporate this kind of low stakes writing into an English class? While we are on the subject of letters, Fulwiler mentions that public school "students saturate their classrooms with unassigned letters called notes" (17). Have you ever read some of those notes that are saturated in a classroom? Let me tell ya, they are not notes that I want to read on a steady basis! Have you had similiar experiences?
What did you think about Bean's ENGAGING IDEAS? I find a few things of interest like evoking the students' natural curiosity and stimulating both learning and critical thought (2). However, do you really believe we evoke the students' natural curiosity and stimulate their thoughts in our classes? I think students are curious but these days, we tend to spoon feed our students by giving them the answers. Do you agree/disagree?
When I was reading Williams' NON-DESIGNER'S DESIGN BOOK, I thought about our theoristcard. I really like the way she creates consistency by using a strong display of repetition, linking all the pieces together with a similar shape, logo, etc. (54). Maybe we should attempt to do that for our presentation? I will start thinking about it and we can discuss later in an email or maybe in class. OK?
By the way, did you have a difficult time reading Britton's SPECTOR ROLE AND THE BEGINNINGS OF WRITING? This one was a tough one for me. Not only did my printer produce a "bad" copy, it seemed like he went on and on. Were you aware that there are two types of reading processes? I had no idea! Of course, I am referring to efferent reading and aesthetic reading. Do you as a reader use those two processes(153)? Maybe, we can discuss this too.
Oh, well, Sara, I have to sign off now. I have to figure out my lesson plans for tomorrow's classes. I do not know if I told you but, Tuesday, they changed my program again. I have Freshmen, double periods - reading and writing component and of course, the "powers that be" thought it would be nice if the entire Freshmen class taught the same novel. Not a bad idea but, unfortunately, I have never completely read the book of choice which is HEROES, GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE GREEK MYTHS. Write back when you get a chance. See you Tuesday.
Ann
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Hi Ann,
ReplyDeleteWould it work if for "HEROES, GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE GREEK MYTHS" you had students write back and forth between each other about it? Then you just check if they did it or not? This might be too much too--?
Paul
Hey, Paul, I'm thinking of doing that but writing back and forth to me - introduced this past week with both my Freshmen and Sophomore classes - I will see what happens -thinking of using this for my proof and practice assignment.
ReplyDeleteAnn