This week's readings were thought provoking and informative. Peter Elbow's article "Embracing Contraries in the Teaching Process" and Lad Tobin's "Reading Students, Reading Ourselves" explained some of the tensions inherent in the process of teaching writing to our students. Elbow's analyzed the paradoxical roles of the teacher--ally and gatekeeper--and the tensions between them; his insists that a good teacher can and must be totally committed to each role. He posits that this is possible as long as the teacher sets high expectations at the beginning and evaluates by these standards (gatekeeper), but acts as a coach to do everything he/she can to help students refine their skills to reach those goals (ally). In working with Special Education resource students, it is easy for me to tip toward the advocate role, yet I know that it is equally important to hold students accountable and to insist on their best effort. Reading Elbow's article made me consider ways in which I can separate the two imperatives in my resource room. Lad Tobin's article raised an issue I hadn't considered--a writing teacher's role can not be truly objective, since the very process of conferencing with a student involves deconstructing and reconstructing the student's text in order to help them clarify what we think they intended to say. The transference and counter-transference at first seemed overly deep, but when he went through case studies of the ways in which his unconscious attitudes affected both his interpretation of student behaviors and his response to their writing, I could see how becoming aware of our own preconceptions and emotional triggers can only increase our effectiveness. Conferencing with a student does involve a personal dynamic.
Another thought provoking aspect of these readings was the focus on the interrelationship between reading and writing. Rather than viewing these as separate skills, Nancie Atwell's article "Writing and Reading from the Inside Out" stressed creating a literate community, like a dining room table at home, where students assume responsibility for their reading and writing choices, respond to reading through discussion and writing, and are "nudged" gently in fruitful directions by their teacher. Alwell elaborated on the benefits of "reading like a writer," and having students incorporate elements of their reading into their own writing. The reading-writing workshop seemed to help both prolific and reluctant readers discover their own voices adn identities as readers/writers. Atwell did note that she has added more mini-lessons and direct teaching of craft into her program over the years.
But the real "kernals" for me were the articles in the Newkirk and Kent text that addressed specific techniques for teaching different genres in the classroom. The Gretchen Bernabei article about writing an essay without making it the boring 5 paragraph "dreaded school essay" still provided a 3-step format for students to use as they learn the genre. ("Decide what to say, design a structure, flesh it out.") I was struck by her assertion that the traditional 5 paragraph essay is about the teacher's thoughts, not the student's thoughts. "Given the permission, students really do prefer to do their own thinking," (p 82) she wrote. I loved the idea of writing a "kernel essay" to see if an essay will work before expanding it into a rough draft. In her article "The Writing Conference: Journeys into not knowing," Terry Moher definitely comes down on the side of the writing teacher as non-judgemental encourager. She is sensitive to the greatest fear of student writers--that their written words will not do justice to their thoughts. Like Tobin, she sees a teacher as a creative participant in the writing conference, on a journey where the end product is being refined and the end is not yet known. She recommended using less formal types of writing (letters, journals) for struggling students, and talked about the value of quick writes in the composing process.
"Learning from Goldilocks" by Monica Wood and "Poetry Arrives" by Maureen Barbieri focused teaching students to write short stories and poetry respectively. Wood teaches her students the 6 elements of a classical story, using a fairy tale as a model. She then has her students write a short story, which is then revised to be sure it incorporates the elements of a classic short story. As Elbow advocates, Wood sets the standard high, but provides her students the tools and encouragement to reach it. It was exciting to read Maureen Barbieri's article. Several of our English teachers have been using some of her suggestions, such as incorporating song lyrics and rap into poetry units. The 9th grade English teachers used the "Where I'm from" poem with our students and it was extremely successful--with reluctant/challenged students as well as the high achievers. When students compose something that they care about and can relate to, it does make a difference!
Barb
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