RIP Novel?

I have to admit I was somewhat frustrated by this week's readings.  First off, because I feel like this is all old news.  I realize that technology should by all means be incorporated into the classroom if it's going to enhance what you would be doing in the first place.  However, now that I finally have something to base my argument off of (unlike last semester, minus the epic technology failure I call "Intersession 2009"), I've found that just trying to use technology can actually have a negative affect on student learning, because students just don't have access to it in school.  It seems to me that these articles are moving much faster than the public school's ability to get these various modes of technology in the classroom, let alone the computer labs.  And believe me, I'm definitely starting to feel the pressure from this program and (unintentionally) from my fellow chorters to get some sort of blog or wiki set up in my student teaching classroom.  But realistically, right now I'm just worried about giving my students access to a 400-pound, 1-mph dinosaur computer from the 90's that would be lucky to have Windows 98 installed on it.  I guess iMovies and Photo Story 3 will have to wait until next year.  The point is, I am in complete support of using technology if it can actually perform a task better than a paper and pencil could.  But I've also seen my cooperating teacher's frustrations with trying to use blogs/wikis in their own class (due to a combination of accountability, assessment, access, forced discussion issues, differentiating different sections of the same class,  TIME, etc.)  But I do realize this is the reality of the 21st century classroom.  So I guess until my school is up-to-date with some of the more technologically advanced suburbs, I will continue to be frustrated.  So without ranting, a few thoughts.  Ahem... 

1.  Purpose?  I can see huge benefits to using blogs to stimulate discussion (Exhibit A right here).  Wikis, too.  But what skills am I trying to teach my students?  Is it being able to form an opinion, voice it, and back it up with supporting points from a text or life experience?  Or is it to get them to think it's okay to not speak up in class because they will just be typing their responses behind a computer screen like robots?  I personally find this particular blog useful, but I've already had 10+ years of secondary and post secondary and post post secondary education to learn to discuss in person.  If there's one thing I'm really taking away from my cooperating teacher, it's that she really stresses having a purpose for every single thing you do in the classroom, and then letting students be fully aware of that purpose.   But the simulation in games and the virtual L.A.R.P.-ing?  (Live Action Role Playing for those of you who aren't fortunate enough to actually live next door to a man who acts out Medieval battles in full costume like I am).  Will my students who seriously spent 20 minutes LAUGHING at the prison torture scene in Persepolis be able to take value out of what seems like "playing video games" in class?  Even if it is academic?  In conjunction with classroom discussion, I do think blogs can be very helpful for creating a social environment and a safe place for students to voice opinions and comments to a book.  But that brings me to my next point....

2.  Access?  I have HUGE issues with access to technology in the classroom.  I've been told that I need to make alternate assignments or provide lab time, but to me, that just isn't enough.  Unfortunately, my high school has roughly three computer labs for its 2,200 students (I say "roughly" because one is on wheels and completely unreliable, and the other one has recently been flooded by the chemistry lab above it and is no longer in commission.  yay!)  I can't even schedule TWO CONSECUTIVE lab days for them to type their final drafts of multigenre papers, let alone set aside weekly time to respond on blogs.  And because there is a such a sharp contrast in socioeconomic levels at the school, I think that something like requiring a weekly blog would only perpetuate that divide, academically.  Students who had access at home would be able to respond more in depth and more frequently, and students who could use the computers during lab or study hall would be limited to that one hour of access.  To me, providing alternative assignments (aka paper based discussions or what have you) would just be insulting to the students, not to mention unmotivating and boring.  So what am I supposed to do?  Ugh, the joys of teaching.... Which brings me to point three: 

3.  What about books?  What exactly are we teaching?  English, right?  I've grown up around technology too.  I had black and white AOL ver. 2.0 on my own APPLE computer circa 1995 (that was ELEMENTARY school.  What were my parents thinking??), but spent hours upon hours in chatrooms with my friends.  I had Napster, cell phones, google and AIM in highschool, and Facebook, iTunes, limewire, and YouTube for most of college.  But I'm still printing out every page of my assigned readings.  I still appreciate the feel of a brand new book.  And I still believe that students are capable of learning from things that aren't on a computer.  At least I really hope so.  I think we need to teach our students the value of actually reading a paper text, and being able to discuss our opinions of it, out loud, without the use of a backspace key.  Or students writing with actual pencils and paper.  Or being able to find their own mistakes in grammar and spelling without relying on spellcheck to point them out first.  And what about the role of the teacher?  What happens when my students can do things with technology I've never even heard of?  Then I become the student?  I suppose it's time to brace myself...

Again, I'm really not trying to rant about the downfalls of technology in the classroom.  I really believe that the right technology can do things to further student thinking that we never thought possible with paper and pens.  I think technology most definitely its place and can very much benefit students - if they have access to it.   But I do think it should be used as an aid, not a substitute, and by all means not a crutch to take the place of actual quality classroom instruction.  I think it's vitally important to teach skills first.  Technology later.  And by all means, not add fuel to the fire of our students' already too short/multi modal/multitasked/completely digitalized attention spans with "textoids" and the like.  Maybe it's time we taught the value of reading all of 50 pages of a novel at once.  Or, dare I say it, just focus on one medium at a time, like a book.  And most of all, challenge our students to think for themselves, reflect critically, and learn to appreciate the value of the printed word.  Because if they don't learn to do these things in English class, where will they? 

Electronic Text Center

Keeping with the latest trend.  Because apparently things need to be online these days.  And because actually, it is a great resource for finding American Literature online organized by author and genre.  Sweet.

Vernacular Dialects in Writing? Oh suuuure. Youbetcha.

Oh hey der.  Welcome to my, ah, blog der. Well, enyhow.  It's gettin' to be dat time of yer, eh?  Only eight more monts til deer season.  And only six more til pre-season tailgaitin'.  Boy, I tell yah.  Green Bay.  Hunting is pretty much my life, der.  Oh sure.  Nutin like dat wind blowin' 45, temp tirty below, freezin' my blaze orange buns to death chasin' trophy deer up Nort.  Oh it's greaat cuz I get da chance to drink beer and get awey from da wife.  And now, my no-good brudder-in-law from Illinoys just got a triple barrel, double-scoped, heat seekin' shotgun.  I can see dat tirty pointer now.  Created by God for Outdoor Magazine...and for mounting on my wall, of course too.  Course doh in da deer stand I can't watch da Packers.  I tink if I could blog 'bout anyting, it would be da Pack.  Gosh I like da Packers, I'd do anyting for da Packers.  Who could forget Vince Lombardi, ya know, back in da glory years?  Not me, boy.  At least we have Superbowl '96.  And don'tcha forget it.  And Favre.  A god amungst us mortals, eh?  Enjoy my blog post, der too, eh?  Oh, and don't forget to polish dat clock trophy for me now.  I'd prefer it'd be for my tirty pointer, but doz bucks are hard to, ah, come by.  Oh sure. Fer Pete's saaake. And don't forget: da Bears. Still. Suck.

haha.

kidding!

I apologize.  I would have liked to keep going, but I just thought I'd take this opportunity to showcase the greatness that is the vernacular of Green Bay.  I'd also like to thank my English teachers along the way who somehow managed to prevent me from speaking/writing like that.  Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking abooot, Minnesotans.

Like so many other areas of education that present considerable challenges to English teachers, variations in spoken English appear to be one of the most difficult.  Public schools are so grounded in standards and norms that require students to use Standard English for academic discourse.  Realistically, there needs to be an understanding of Standard English for both assessment but also professional writing purposes.  Although the use of vernacular English is nowhere near a near a new phenomenon by any means, there doesn't seem to be any practical solutions to the problem within the public school realm.  Who remembers the Oakland, CA school district's 1996-ish decision to teach Ebonics in the classroom?  EPIC FAIL.  So what is the solution? The Adger et al. article "Dialects and Writing" from Dialects in Schools and Communities brought up a lot of interesting points regarding the differences between written and spoken English.  

The point is, we need to teach our students Standard English regardless of how many other dialects are spoken in our classroom.  This is just a fact.  It's been discussed so many times that we need to teach this so that our students ideas can not only be heard, but be respected.  In essence, we teach Standard English in order to broaden our students opportunities.  However, this need to be done in conjunction with teaching dialect diversity, and keeping the integrity of the different variations of English that are going to inevitably be used in our classrooms.  Writing vernacular English is not incorrect, "but rather the reflection in writing of differences in the verbal expression, grammar, and pronunciation between the school's dialect and the standard dialect against which writing is judged at school" (116).  I think it's important to stress that the "school's dialect" is exactly that - a dialect - not necessarily the "correct" way to write.

According to the article, along with making the difference between the two mediums distinguishable to students, teachers need to accommodate "the special communicative demands associated with the writing situation" (113).  I think this is so incredibly important to point out, not just for speakers of vernacular English and ELL students, but for all students in our classrooms.  I think the suggestions they give in the article were very practical (dialogue journals, peer editing, giving opportunities to write in the vernacular), and would benefit all students.  The point is, when the two become distinguishable, it will lead to better writing.  As I observed my 11th grade students begin the task of writing their first draft introductions to their I-Search papers last week, I couldn't believe how many of them would start, "I've played rugby all my life.  That is why I'm writing a paper on why I want to be a professional rugby player."  Although there are clearly other writing issues that need to be addressed, one of the most obvious to me is how to make that type writing distinguishable from having a conversation as well.  And as digital literacies and technology in the classroom becomes increasingly popular, it's going to be an even bigger issue to make sure ALL of our students are very aware of purpose and audience in their writing.  Even as I write this, I am well aware of the much more informal, conversational nature of the blog.  It raises some concerns of what the implications of this are for our own students, and how much more the issues of PURPOSE and AUDIENCE need to be made transparent.

As Adler et. al said, "the common but unjustified association of the appearance of dialect features with an inability to express oneself must be recognized and countered by those who engage in holistic assessments" (123).  This just brings up the point of, yet again, what an awesomely huge responsibility we have as English teachers.  As those who participate in the holistic assessment, we need to understand the needs and cultural variations of our students in a 21st century classroom.  We need to do what we can to help our students be successful outside the classroom, and that involves teaching students to be AWARE of the differences between how they speak at home and how they are expected to write academically and professionally.  Above all, teaching language/vernacular English awareness can play an important role in addressing some the problem of associating certain dialects with certain ability, intelligence, and socioeconomic levels.  Exposing dialect prejudice can benefit ALL students, not just vernacular speakers.  How cool is it to be an English teacher now?  Oh, you betcha.

LINK:

Folger Shakespeare

This doesn't have anything to do with dialects or writing, but I came across this while looking up things to do for Taming of the Shrew.  A lot of really great, practical ideas for teaching that inevitable Shakespeare play you never knew you always wanted to teach! :)

The Greatest Thing to Ever Happen to Mankind.  Ever.

Shoutout to Geebs.  You know you love them.

Grammar 101....

Having observed Mr. Livingston's class at Crosswinds, I found the Fulwiler and Harper pieces to be extremely useful, practical pieces of information.  Students in his class were involved in the process approach, encouraged to continually revise, edit, and improve on their writing.  I found the "thoughtshots" and "snapshots" concepts to be particularly useful for them, although I'm wondering if the same concept would transfer to a high school classroom.  Perhaps just doing away with the camera drawings and cartoon bubbles on peer edits might be enough, keeping the overall concept in place.  Overall, I found that by giving examples of these particular revision tools, exactly what was meant by each one, students were able to understand the information, and lo and behold, transfer these concepts into their own writing!  Yay!

However, the same cannot be said for their grasp of grammar, spelling, sentence structure, etc.  I can't tell you how many times I cringed reading the responses to some of the topics during intersession.  It got to be so distracting that often times I would focus more on the fact that an eighth grader was spelling so poorly that it became difficult to look past it to the content of their ideas.  However, only having eight days with these students and with much bigger battles to face (hello, classroom management!) Jonesy and I decided to let this one slide.  It just got me so irritated though about what these students had been taught thus far.  How did it get to this point?  I understand the issue of " not using red pens" and focusing on content and process over correctness, but where do we draw the line?  As Jago suggests in "Papers, Papers, Papers," we need to "make the paper bleed" so students are aware of their errors.  I have to admit, I agree with her.  I think it's necessary to make students aware of wherever their writing can be improved.  Not necessarily doing the work for them, but drawing their attention to specific sentences or words that need fixing.  I do believe whole heartedly in saving this until the final draft though, which urges students to produce high quality, polished pieces of writing.  I think that the rough draft(s) should be a place where students feel free to experiment and make mistakes.  But I also believe in making good writing habitual.  I really think that students need to be practicing good grammar and spelling all the time, not just when they're being graded on it.  But will peer editing be successful if the peers don't know what to look for? How do I teach this?  Will mini-lessons do it?  Seriously, can I make grammar fun so it will stick?

It also doesn't help that I am entirely intimidated by the prospect of teaching grammar because I don't understand it myself.  You should have seen me attempting to study for the writing portion of the Praxis II.  And here I'm trying to teach this?  Even reading the snore-bore of a chapter in the Dornan et al. text, I was looking up "gerund" and "nominal clause."  On top of it all, I was so bored reading that chapter, even I was skipping over paragraphs.  Wow.  So how on earth am I supposed to make my students understand this, let alone want to learn it?  The point is, it's boring, but I feel it is absolutely necessary to learn, as it all comes back to mastering Standard English.  Collegiate, business, and professional writing all require a mastery of grammar and spelling.  Like me with the Crosswinds students, no one is going to take your ideas seriously if they're all misspelled.  It basically comes down to convincing my students that S.E. = college/job = money.  Period.

I apologize.  I realize this blog has more or less turned into a rambling of my thoughts on grammar.  Mostly because I'm so frustrated with the subject because it's a huge issue that I need to address, but I don't know if I'm prepared to teach.  I have a feeling the "Mechanically Inclined" book may help me with some of this.... perhaps I should get on that.

Links:

#1.  Woe Is I:  The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English

This is a book that was required for my Literary Non Fiction course.  I have found it extremely helpful in explaining affect/effect, where adverbs go, and what a gerund is.  Plus, it attempts to be fun (chapters like "Comma Sutra: The Joy of Punctuation", "Verbal Abuse: Words on the Endangered List", and "Death Sentence: Do Cliches Deserve to Die?") by putting the language into simpler terms.  I also think this would be an excellent resource to have in the classroom for students to have access to when dealing with some of these grammar issues.

#2.  Grammar Girl

Website containing free podcasts on grammar rules and ways to improve your writing.  Like me (and I'm assuming most of you too), the website shares my low tolerance for poor grammar and spelling (check out podcast #149: "Top Pet Peeves of 2008".)  

Is Anyone Else Attempting to Student Teach This?

As apparently the last supporter standing of the good ol' five paragraph essay, (perhaps better known as the "FPT" (Wesley, 57)), except for maybe that poor soul Tracy Novick, who, coincidentally, only wrote five paragraphs in favor of the five paragrapher, let me just say I was pleasantly surprised to see some alternatives to the old standby in this week's readings.  I guess what I was such a fan of wasn't necessarily the structure itself, or the way that it somehow led students to come up with original, well-written, relevant papers (it didn't), but I liked that it provided a clear way to organize.  Being a product of middle school in the 90's, I can say that I was taught to use this method throughout my own secondary education, and admittedly continue to use it today (although not necessarily just for five paragraphs, but in the way I organize and outline my thoughts).  However, I can't argue that the format isn't limiting to student's thinking, like the one student in the Wesley article who wondered how to fit seven pages into five paragraphs (57).  I agree that while providing structure, that structure can actually "stunt the growth of human minds" (57) by providing perhaps too narrow and too rigid a format, leaving out a lot of room for creativity, expansion, argument, and risk taking.  

So what else then?  If the FTP is like, way out of date, then what are we supposed to teach our students?  Or how do we provide this same organization that I have personally grown so accustomed to but encourage the risk taking, creativity, and mental challenge of a less formal paper at the same time?  And more importantly, how do we make room for this creativity, but still teach the same valuable skills necessary for a college writing, a business letter, or professional writing of any kind?  I think one thing that I really took out of the Dornan et al. text was about the "Write-to-Learn" style paper.  In staying in line with their previous argument that "writing is a process", it only makes sense that our students would learn not only how to write, but what they are writing in the process of doing it.  I find that in my own writing, I am constantly changing my intro/thesis to match the direction I've ended up taking the body of it.  So while this might support certain rhetorical devices concerning theme and topic, what about the organization again?  I liked their diagram of the upside down triangle (131) and the way it clearly asks for an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.  While I think this model is lacking in some respects, with enough scaffolding of paragraph theme, topic sentences, supporting details, etc., I think this shows potential for reframing the way the essay is taught in a less limiting, more idea-centered way.

On that note, and as the topic of what I really wanted to talk about in this posting, was that of the multi genre paper.  I really enjoy the complexity, variety, and multi layered-ness of this alternative to the five paragraph essay.  While I don't agree that it can replace a lot of what a more traditional paper can offer, I think teaching it in conjunction with more research based, argumentative, or formal papers can be very beneficial to students.  I was talking with one of my cooperating teachers about possibly incorporating this into the last 4 or 5 weeks of my student teaching, and he seemed to be completely supportive.  From what I can see so far and from what he's told me, students really don't have enough opportunities to write in the classroom, especially on a more personal or creative note as the multi genre paper would allow.  Although I'm still a little intimidated by the format having never written a multi genre paper myself, I really want to be able to test this out on my ninth graders this spring.  Is anyone else trying to do this to?  Or am I the lone crazy out there?  And if anyone is as nuts as I think I might be, is this something that would be better tied into one of our nominal themes/enduring understandings, or is this something better left completely open and completely personal and open-ended? I definitely see some potential for incorporating more historical aspects or writing styles into this, but I mean, really, 10 weeks on To Kill A Mockingbird?  More like 10 weeks on To Kill Miss Kubsch.  haha.  "that was a joke."  Geissler, that was for you.  I guess while this is something I'm very seriously considering, I think it's about actually implementing it in the classroom and the practice that makes me nervous.  To finish this up, some things I'm taking away from it:

1.  Talk about differentiation.  Poetry, play writing, non-fiction, comic strips, photographs, recipes????  I think this paper, if successful, would be hugely motivating for some students who usually wouldn't be.

2.  Something different.  How many times have they done this before?  But also a huge opportunity to teach, again, that process of writing.  Between practicing with initial exposure to the genres, freewriting for ideas, the drafting, opportunities for peer and teacher review, I think this alternative leaves a lot of room for students to practice both their writing and critiquing skills.  Not to mention they would be critiquing and polishing one piece at a time, one genre at a time (or so i would think), making it easy for them to be clear and concise yet creative and personal with their writing.

3.  SUPER clear expectations.  I think because this paper seems to be so out of the box, it is going to be extremely important to be so explicit about what is expected of the papers and what I'd be looking for with each genre as well as the overall theme.  As my cooperating teacher was saying, every single thing you teach needs to have a purpose.  I can definitely see places where students will be like WTF is this?  Why am I writing this mess of a paper?  What am I getting out of this?  In order for this to be as successful as Romano claims it can be, teachers need to think of these arguments and be prepared to let their students know about them.

Link 'O the week:

http://www.askoxford.com/?view=uk

I'm sure most of you have at least heard if not used this website before, but it's something I still use to this day.  It's mostly a free dictionary, but I find it might be a good, credible source to point students to for finding out everything from the history of language, to articles on the way English is changing, to tips for better writing, to even information on some texts.  It's pretty much fantastic.