July+19

Monday, July 19, 2010 Schedule for the week: Tuesday and part of Wednesday we will be focusing on the growth and development of writing. Wednesday we will focus on assessment-growth and learning through writing. Thursday we will be focusing on planning for our classroom.Your final drafts are due this day as well. Friday we need to make sure all books are returned and packed. ** Expressive writing and critical thinking ** Billy Collins poem “The History Teacher” Not a very critical look at history and the undercurrent is that he protects the children’s innocence and then the kids go out on the playground and bully each other. Tom Romano (multigenre contact) wrote //Clearing the Way// and his second chapter called “Using Writing” says that we teachers must be willing to put down words to get at thinking and help students gain confidence.He lists several ways to get the “kaboom” in student writing: Article by Bomer was similar to Tom’s book-students need to use the self-discovery method to get them to think critically. Haynes article relates to the Bomer article and discusses how to get below the surface of a situation/idea. “Developing students’ hearts is what educators are called to do…instill in students the courage to care.” One hour was given to read and prepare a presentation that we would give to a colleague about writing. Prezi by Ted (“Putting Understanding First”) The premise of his argument was based on understanding before learning. Students’ use learning logs to help them discover their thinking and they help for teaching for meaning.Ted wrote that “The mission of high school is not to cover content but rather to help learners become thoughtful about, and productive with, content.”This presentation could be used to ask teachers why they became teachers.Hopefully they want to better prepare the students for the world beyond the classroom. Power Point Presentation by Erin (//Writing to Learn//) The class participated in a visual activity where we considered the reading experience of a four-year-old.While reviewing the power point we will need to look for the 4 objectives: To introduce Vygotsky To show how Vygotsky relates to writing-to- learn To practice the method To see a school example // Constructivism Theory: // He believed that knowledge is constructed by the learner and is not something that you receive.Social relationships in learning are great because the teacher is seen as the facilitator of learning.The zone of proximal development is used a lot in educational theory and ties in with the teacher being the facilitator of knowledge.Scaffolding is imperative because it helps to tie all knowledge together.Writing to learn starts with babies using language as a construction tool for learning/communication; however, babies need to have social interaction before they can start to write and truly communicate.The social interaction motivates higher mental functioning.Talking before writing helps to process ideas and think independently.The next step is problem solving.The egocentric speech allows internalized dialogue as the basis for written work.The conversation with a peer is needed to precede writing. Think about a time that you had success in your teaching and why it was successful?-visual for the class.Discuss with a partner and then write down a rule for successful teaching of writing.Erin then discussed the Des Moines service project that used the constructivist theory. Presentation by Korey: Bomer, Moore, Davies, Tierney, and VanDeWeghe’s articles helped solidify the idea of journals.Going through the journals with the kids and helping them to look at the situations with the critical lens.Social Studies could really use the journals to help kids understand and respond to problems through the use of the journals completed in English class.It would help if all English teachers did the journals.The plagiarism piece related to Korey’s experience with a power point that her department has to share with the kids.The article says that this approach does not work.“The Five W’s of Website Evaluation” form by Kathy Schrock helps to teach the kids about evaluating sites on the internet.It was also interesting for Korey to discover that we are teaching vocabulary and how to summarize and ignoring the student’s background experience.The article states that the background experience is what is most helpful in learning.The last article she read said that there was a “slight but positive measure” if we use writing to learn by using metacognitive questions.The frequency of writing was more important than the length of the writing.The last area of interest was that feedback was important and that the facilitator should ask the student to think further and give more support. Presentation by Katie: Cross curricular projects where Katie could focus on the writing and the other teacher could focus on the content.Influential Person report and speech with the history teacher focusing on the accurate details associated with the person.Health class could be involved where they create brochures that are informative.Math could have students write and research a compare and contrast paper for English and a chart for math about the different ways to solve to a problem.The service project with the nursing homes and interview residents about their lives and then transcribes them into narratives and then publishes them in a book.A history teacher could guide them on specific questions to ask during the interview. Presentation by Lisa: Read all of the math articles and imagined that she would talk to a math teacher.She would tell them some reasons why writing would be beneficial in the math class.One author talked about how students struggle putting all of the concepts together.Writing can help in their comprehension because they had to process it and connect it with what they already learned.Deeping of understanding of concepts could also be reached through journaling. Several of the articles were at the elementary level but could be applied to high school.One teacher allowed students to use metaphors to explain processes (division, etc.).Another teacher found that once they explained things in their own words first that they were more receptive to learn the actual lingo.Portfolios helped students to synthesize their learning and present them in their own right.Journaling about concepts and explaining what something means (how fractions and decimals are related).Teachers were able to see if students understood the material.Critical thinking essay test over how to solve problems were given every three weeks. Presentation by Jane: In our ADA room the kids are to write out the rules for the school when they are in trouble.This type of writing presents a negative attitude toward writing.I may suggest that the ADA writing be changed to having the kids write about what happened, what got them in ADA, or anything else that is on their mind.Generally the kids in this room do not want to be in school/class for a reason.Maybe through the use of this method of writing we can get to the heart of the matter and help the kid.Through this writing the student may also start to critically consider what they have done and what they could do to prevent it in the future.If this method was used by all teachers or better yet, if all classes required kids to journal at some point in the curriculum, then maybe we would start to have students who think critically about their actions and the actions of others. Idea by Marty: Everyone has to pay attention and write the summary of the class and be prepared to present it to the class at the beginning of the next class period. Idea by Rod: The question is not what I can make them do; rather what will the child choose to do by choice.
 * Morning Session **
 * 1) Writing to create and explore thinking-counter to what students believe
 * 2) Writing to make learning personal-expressive writing is not for marking and grading for performance.It is writing for STUDENTS without fear and boundaries.
 * 3) Writing to get ready to learn-expressive writing can be used to introduce topics and get them ready for the upcoming material.It does not matter about the concept that is about to be studied.
 * 4) Writing to wonder-The Isner article mentions that one of our class objectives should be to have students wonder.“The quest of the mind’s contents is …thrilling to behold…” to correct errors in student writing when they are in the act of discovery
 * 5) Writing to struggle with difficult learning-honest labor is neglected in our classrooms.Teachers pose questions and students stab at answers (are they thinking about possible answers).Attaining something through effort is more valuable then having it given to you.
 * 6) Writing to engage the imagination in learning-content area teachers using writing for more than testing, book reports, and short answer essays.Students who use personal language for learning have control over their education and are fully engaged.Using language makes us.
 * Article Sharing Time: **
 * Presentations: **
 * Afternoon Session **
 * Marty read the about the bat’s adventures with the owl poem, aloud to the class.
 * We filled out note cards on what has been going well and what we would like Marty and Rod to help up with before the class ends.
 * Elementary writing pieces-we practiced responding with praise and asking questions.
 * Reading Round Table-We spent time sharing out one line of our responses to the elementary writing.We discussed what was done well by each of the writers and discussed the stage of writing that the student may have been in at the time of the piece.
 * Tomorrow we will talk about how to polish writing after the praises and questions sessions.
 * Consider techniques for helping students correct and edit their papers.Having the students read them aloud will eliminate about 80% of the errors.
 * How do we teach “voice” and what is it?Word choice, vivid adjectives, verbs, humor, passion, etc. are all examples of voice.
 * Marty passed out “Moving Toward Revision, Editing, and Proofreading” and we reviewed it as a class.These ideas should help with paper load.
 * Tomorrow we will be doing some peer work and we will be editing our own writing.
 * The IWP book-look over your pieces and write down the title, your name, and the genre due tomorrow (Tuesday)
 * Tuesday we will have peer conferences and work on our formatting.
 * Thursday we will need to turn in a paper draft in the aforementioned format.We will then need to go and post them on the wiki.
 * Performance of our writing for the last hour of the day