I'm going to focus on the reading from Anderson. I found the opening story in Chapter 3 to be intriguing. Hollis is discouraged because, rather than asking him why he chose the picture that he did, the teacher tells him what he did incorrectly and declares him wrong. I wonder how much teachers would discover about students if they were to ask instead of tell. Perhaps we would discover that students do understand the concept or assignment, just not in the way you wanted or expected. But does that make them wrong?
Sometimes I think that when we edit papers we edit content as well as form. We take away their words and thoughts and replace them with our own. Along with that, I think that English professionals have preconceived notions about what is good writing. A story about the mechanics of baseball is not interesting or artistic in our minds so we don't give it a chance. What we should be doing is talking with the student and teaching them ways to improve upon and spruce up that story. That's where teaching grammar comes it- use the toolbox to build the masterpiece.
I LOVED Anderson's view on Writer's notebooks for the same reason that I think free writing is ingenious. I journal myself, and for the first time in 10 years I'm considering the fact that all of those entries are a "gold mine". Each page holds my thoughts, feelings, ideas...and they're all at my disposal. Not only that, but I can use my own work as a personal mentor text. I can stalk my own sentences. If I find one that I like or think is well written, I can examine it and figure out why it's a good sentence. Then I can take that knowledge and apply it to the rest of my writing. Kappoww! This reading caused me to realize, for the first time, that mentore texts aren't just something a teacher can find and use, but that a student can also find and use. Not only can they be used to teach good writing, but they raise a students self esteem. "I did it, I wrote a good sentence!"
I really like what you said about teachers taking the thoughts and ideas of students and replacing them with their own. I think that we have all seen this kind of thing happen, whether we were on the student or teacher side of it. This idea seems to connect well to what you wrote about taking time to talk to students. Maybe we can help them as teachers if we take time to learn from them a little bit. Listening to a student's perspective could help us to guide them to a more developed way of writing, rather than leading them in what we believe to be the "right" way.
ReplyDelete"Sometimes I think that when we edit papers we edit content as well as form. We take away their words and thoughts and replace them with our own." --- I really liked this! You are totally correct when you state this. I do believe that some teachers have in their minds what they want out of students in the form of writing & if they do not receive what they wanted, they whip out the red pen. We are completely replacing their thoughts and feelings and replacing them with what we believe they should feel and say. It's really an awful thing!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see that I'm not the only person who fears altering a student's paper too much while editing. There really is a fine line between giving suggestions on how to improve a paper, and just "improving" it yourself. I think that talking with students face-to-face, just like when we did peer editing with the WIFYS students is a helpful way to figure out what it is they were trying to get across in their writing.
ReplyDelete"Each page holds my thoughts, feelings, ideas...and they're all at my disposal. Not only that, but I can use my own work as a personal mentor text. I can stalk my own sentences."
ReplyDeleteI admire your strength to add this sentence in your writing. I believe very little of us actually believe that our own writings could be a model for the students. When in fact if we do not have faith in our own writing how can students have faith in theirs as good writing? I also think this reenforces the idea to do work alongside of the students.
I am also in love with the idea of writing journals! I also journal - I think that my affinity for student journals stems from that fact - but I feel that journals can become a sanctuary for students. It is a place where they can say anything - whatever they need to.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your image of the "gold mine." And I never thought of sentence stalking myself! I do like that!
"Sometimes I think that when we edit papers we edit content as well as form. We take away their words and thoughts and replace them with our own."
ReplyDeleteI love this! I can't even begin to imagine what teachers would find if they asked instead of just gave feedback. I have only had a few that have actually took part in my writing process. To me, this made the process more interesting for me and I was excited about my writing and felt more confident. Because these teachers took the time to understand rather than judge, I felt a better connection to my writing.
Many teachers do not understand how simple it would be to try and connect with their student in this way. I think that if they did, the results would be wonderful