“9. In a pedagogical setting, writing is meaningful when it is like the writing that people do outside of school: professional, personal, public writing. Meaningful writing accomplishes some goal or objective important to the writer. When writing is meaningful, students find it engaging. When writing is engaging, students learn.” -Some “Givens”: Things We Know for Sure About the Teaching & Learning of Writing from 40 Years of Research [or What We Think We Know About Writing is Often Mistaken]

This is a “given” when spelled out, but for some reason, some teachers ignore this fact. The writing we do in school should prepare us for “the real world”; so why are students being assigned to write book reports on Shakespeare? Of course, there are many themes in Shakespeare’s many works; however this assignment of summarizing and analyzing an “ancient” play based on the teacher’s lectures about a book that most of the students did not even bother to read is a complete and utter waste of time. Rather than assigning meaningless book reports, Educators should focus on teaching “professional, personal, and public writing” when focusing on creating authors out of their students. In understanding these genres, students will be more prepared after graduation.

Ladybugs Ch 6-10

On page 96, I wish they provided more information more about biliteracy, instead of giving examples of students’ experience. I recently learned a second language; and I am very interested in how children learn two languages or more at a given time. The authors decided that, “...separation of language is essential...”, but what exactly does that mean? They follow this statement by saying that although ‘separating languages’ is very important, using both languages in written work is appropriate. Why would someone keep languages separate except when writing? Also, if a student speaks more than two languages, should she or he write in all of them in one document? If the student knows four or five languages, the work can get very confusing. Should English be separated from the other languages or should each language be thought as separate in class? Since Ladybugs, Tornadoes, and Swirling Galaxies  is about teaching to students learning English, one would think there would be more information on this topic.

More questions I have come from page 144, where the authors mention recording individual presentations. I’m wondering if that puts extra pressure on the students, making them nervous. Giving a presentation in a language other than one’s native language, in front of one’s peers, while a teacher is grading the performance can be very difficult for most students. So, how about putting a camera in that student’s face? Even if reviewing the performance can beneficial in some ways, the disadvantages to the students outweigh them. Additional stress factors damage the innate love of learning, just like forcing a student to read lots of boring books kills one’s love of reading. In my future classroom, I will ask each individual student if he or she would like to be recorded during their presentation. Of course, for the students who do want to be recorded to be able to review themselves, I will provide the opportunity.

However, On p 152 I like the idea of a “Blank Schema chart” (“My schema about ___________ is growing and changing. I learned...”). Something noteworthy about this chart is that it includes the idea of schema growing and changing. It is important that students recognize that one person’s schema is different than another person’s and that everyone’s schema is constantly evolving and adding new information.

Ladybugs Ch 1-3

Stephen Krashen’s affective filter is opened when the learner can study things that interest her/him and the teacher does not push the student before she/he is ready. The filter is closed when the material is uninteresting or when correcting the student’s mistakes inappropriately. 

The goal is creating a classroom that is laid-back, democratic, artistic, and promotes thinking. Put book shelves low enough for children; and use different rugs for different spaces. Having one common area to regroup with students is useful in the morning and after recess and lunch. In leu with feng shui, students should feel creative energy flowing in any given place in the classroom at any given time. Thus, learning should come natural to anyone and everyone in the room. 

Instead of putting desks in stagnant rows, tables low to the ground can be placed throughout the room. Clipboards are a good idea, too so that students can work in whatever space they choose to. Sometimes, we forget that kids are just like adults in that they, too, work better in safe and comfortable environments. Because everyone has a preference in how they want to learn and work, we must do our best to let our classrooms foster individuality. Hopefully, I can even include an outdoor workspace in my future classroom for those who enjoy reading and writing under the sun, or at least in natural light. 

I have never thought of using easels for writing before, but Brad Buhrow and Anne Upczak Garcia have put them to good use in their classroom. Letting children stand up while creating lets them feel uninhibited. They can not only choose to sit or stand, they can also move around and write in whatever size they want to on the giant easel. The large workspace is also great for sharing and collaborating. Having presentations of students’ thinking is a good way to continue and generate even more thinking, creating, and sharing. Also, conversations that spring from these works enables those who are learning English to express themselves in a forum that is familiar, friendly, and comfortable.

I definitely agree that using the students’ work to fill the walls is an excellent technique. My past teachers have used this in elementary school and middle school; and I wish it continued into high school. I will post my students’ projects all around my future classroom to show them off. Through this method, I will teach my students to take pride in their work. 

Wondrous Words Presentation

The presentation by Ally Renshaw, Autumn Kleinert, Matt Barton, Mallory Alves, and Tiffany Steinberg, Andrea Hernandez, and Sarah Lui about the book, Wondrous Words was great!  I truly enjoyed the activity, too. 

The presenters explained Katie Wood Ray’s theories in an interesting, but simple way. Specifically, I have internalized, “Conversations about the decisions writers make as they craft their texts will help you and your students to better understand what decisions you have to make as you write your own texts.” Usually, I only converse about decisions in life that are difficult to make. For example, I go to my advisors to help me choose what classes I need. However, I never thought of transferring that tactic to writing. I am glad to have seen this presentation, especially to learn about discussing the craft of a written work. 

The activity that the group chose to simulate with us was my favorite out of the activities enacted throughout the assignment. (It was the one that each small group was assigned to a different picture on the screen and started a story about it. The story was continued by another student in the small group.) I will definitely use it in my future classroom. 

Readicide Presentation (Purple Group)

In experiencing being in a teaching role, I enjoyed the question/answer part the most. The questions that were asked about the theories behind “Readicide” helped to further develop our presentation and clarify our analysis. The “students,” or audience, brought up very good points and hypotheticals that helped all of us think even deeper into our purpose in the presentation. 

It was also very useful to test out our activity and find areas to improve upon. While the students were doing the one-pager, I realized it took too long. So, instead of adding guiding ideas to that assignment, I will stick to the outline given in the book, Readicide. Still, I do wish to use the one-pager from Kelly Gallagher in future lessons.

Something else that I took away from testing out the activity was that some students prefer multiple-choice tests over open-answer reflections. This surprised me because I personally have always preferred open-answer responses, and only thought of all the disadvantages to multiple-choice tests, i.e. memorization of facts and shallow learning. The responses from some students who saw our presentation told me that certain students need more guidance and dislike vague directions. They would rather be asked specific questions and answer them in a particular form.

I will take these tips and adjust my future lessons accordingly. The presentation was enjoyable and effective for me.

Note Slipped Under the Door presentation

The group that presented Note Slipped Under the Door did a wonderful job at choosing a fun, effective, and relevant activity to explain imagery poetry. I definitely want to use this activity and variations of it for future lessons in an elementary school classroom. I could also see how the activity could work very well with students in middle school, high school, and even high education. Even enacting the activity was fun and social, and I really enjoyed it. Working in small groups was a fantastic idea that increased the effectiveness of the activity, and made it more fun. 

I also appreciated that the group used Prezi. I really need catch up and learn how to make a Prezi because this group’s was very impressive. They used it well to clarify phrases like ‘mentor poem’ and define terms like ‘imagery’. 

This group seemed very  prepared in all aspects. They were organized and seemed to have sufficiently practiced their presentation before class. Each person showed a solid understanding of Note Slipped Under the Door as well as did a great job explaining its main themes. They did a perfect job answering the questions that we, as the students, had for them. Overall, it was a great presentation.