Both of these texts were just published this year, and I read over them this summer without highlighting, just to get a feel if they would be good options for our class. As I reread and highlighted them to compose my post for our blog, I realized that I did indeed make good choices for our class. I’m loving these books! I have so much highlighted in each of the chapters, but I’m going to narrow it down to just one thing for each, so you’ll have plenty to choose from to write about yourself!
Content Area Writing
(Page 3) “Teachers often say that kids hate writing. But maybe what they hate is the kind of writing we make them do.”
I really like how the authors note all the writing that kids do today that never used to occur—texting, instant messaging, e-mailing, blogging, MySpace, chatrooms, etc. We often do complain about students’ writing, but at least they are communicating and writing something! I think the problem we see as teachers is that kids convert their technology short-hand into formal writing and don’t necessarily see where there’s a problem with that. I believe one of the keys is going to be bridging their style of writing into our classrooms and then teaching them when certain types of writing are appropriate. How cool would it be for students to create a MySpace page for Abraham Lincoln or a character in a novel they read? Or what if they had to write out an IM conversation between Romeo and Juliet? We would certainly learn if the student knew the material! After creating “their” type of writing, they could then convert it into a more standardized form of writing as well to work on their "professional" writing skills.
Teaching Adolescent Writers
(Page 2) “A weekday edition of The New York Times contains more information than the average person was likely to come across in a lifetime in seventeenth century England. (Wurman 1989).”
(Page 4) “The ability to write well, once a luxury, has become a necessity. Today, writing is foundational for success."’
The thing I love about Kelly Gallagher’s books is that they are always chock-full of statistics…and interesting ones at that! Because so much is technologically based now, our students do need to become more proficient writers to be successful. Yes, there is the “slang” writing they all use for recreation, but we also use technology for formal purposes as well. I know I prefer to be able to e-mail a company or another professional a question rather than call them about it. What does it say about the sender if they can’t send a coherent message? How many messages have we received over e-mail where we couldn’t believe the grammar used in it? (Even if we didn’t fall into the executive pay scale for our grammar skills!) The fact of the matter is that there is a time and place for different types of writing, just as there is a time and place for different types of talking. We’ve just got to make sure kids realize this, why it’s important, and how to do it!
7 comments:
I agree with Diane that both of these books are full of great ideas. Whenever I get a new professional book, I leaf through it once just to get a sense of the content and ideas, and I'm intrigued by the many relevant teaching ideas that both books contain.
Content Area Writing - On page 8 is the following, "This is not so much a crisis as an opportunity, a turning point, even an auspicious moment. We have many smart kids who are eagerly authoring their lives already, using a variety of tools that all depend on words, stories, and the structures of language. But they are missing a lot, too. Without the coaching, modeling, feedback, and reflection we teachers can offer, their writing is limited and growth in the subject areas will be incomplete. All of us working in middle and high schools have an extraordinary opportunity to teach our subjects better than every by using writing and by equipping our kids for the most exciting and creative world or authorship ever imagined." Since participating in Midlands Writing Project during the summer of 1999, I have been a firm believer that we are all teachers of writing. I hope that as a group we will be able to influence other faculty members to incorporate more writing in their lesson plans. One thing we could definitely do is hare with the "Writing to Learn" list on pages 14 and 15.
Teaching Adolescent Writers - On page 18 is the following, "In sharing these statistics with my students, I want them to understand that developing a high level of literacy will be their best defense against oppression. You will struggle when your write the next essay, I tell them, but that struggle will pale in comparison to the struggle you face if you leave this school unable to read and write well. That will be a lifelong struggle." This is particularly important to get across to my students in special services. Many of them come from poor families and/or families that don't value education. I have also noticed that they believe someone else will take care of their problems. They need to strengthen their overall literacy skills so they won't be take advantage of.
I agree with Pam’s statement she made in reference to the quote from Teaching Adolescent Writers. I have an overwhelming sense of confusion about our why our students lack motivation towards anything school related– especially writing. They don’t see the long-term effects of being uneducated or in most of their cases not being educated to their fullest potential. Many students barely pass their classes and barely graduate, but in their eyes they have passed and that is all that matters - whether it’s with a D or an A does not matter.
I enjoyed the eight writing reasons in this chapter. What a simple way to explain such a (sometimes) daunting task. These eight reasons seem even more relevant after reading the stampede scenarios at the beginning of the chapter. Our kids aren’t aware, and sometimes don’t care, what they may have to face in the future as far as literacy is concerned, but as long as they can get by in life they will be okay. For us teachers, we don’t want our kids to just get by we want them to succeed.
I found it very interesting that within the first paragraph of Content-Area Writing it had a statement that was very familiar to one that Teaching Adolescent Readers made. “It is estimated that state governments spend upward of a quarter billion dollars per year remediating the writing skills of their employees.” and “The writing weaknesses of incoming college students cost our campuses up to $1 billion annually.” These two statements make it very obvious that it is the job of teachers, at all levels and subject areas, to teach reading. Our kids go to middle school unprepared, then to high school unprepared, then college, and finally the workplace potentially even more unprepared than when they went into middle school or high school. This is a scary reality that, once again, our students don’t understand. I think the ideas Diane discussed really could help our students make the transition to more standardized writing.
Blog Two
Teaching Adolescent Writers Chapter One
Content Area Writing Chapter One
I’m with Diane. I’m loving these books. There’s not usually such great voice in professional texts. In Teaching Adolescent Writers, the metaphor of the literacy stampede is a great way to bring humor to a serious problem. The statistics offered in regards to the amount of information and how quickly it is growing were a real eye-opener. I’ve used a form of that argument when debating reading the classics versus YA lit. I also loved the list of “writing wrongs” and must admit that I am guilty of some of them, like shortening the amount of writing for those who need to write more and assigning writing instead of teaching/modeling it.
As for Content Area Writing, the statistic that state governments alone spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars on remediating employees’ writing skills was a shocker. I thought this chapter had important points to make about students not truly hating to write but really just hating what they were expected to write about in school. Today’s youth are “doing more authoring than any young people in the history of the world.” (3) But if it doesn’t involve a keyboard or keypads and students have to write by hand, some of them are automatically turned off to the writing task.
I also thought the section on coverage had some great points. The idea of a selective thinking curriculum is key to education today. I think Airport’s on the right track with this with all areas having decided on essential standards in all courses.
BTW, am I the only one who had to stifle a laugh during SSR when reading the part that referred to “No Child Left Intact?”
I have to agree with Diane on the point that our students may not simply hate writing but hate the kind of writing we ask them to do. I loved the author’s description of the students slogging through our assignments but are doing more anchoring than any young people in history. (3) The kind of writing that they choose to do may involve technology but it is nonetheless writing and like Diane mentioned with the Abraham Lincoln assignment if we changed how we asked them to write maybe our students would plug in more than putting in the minimum requirements that Kelly mentioned.
I agree the author’s that the digital divide is real between students and teachers but instead of being intimidated by it it ought to inspire teachers to find additional ways to plug in our students particularly where writing is concerned. For example, I went to a recent workshop at the SCCSS Convention where the NCSS stated the SS program should be designed to increase the student’s ability to use the writing process to classify, interpret, analyze, summarize and present information in well-reasoned ways that support better decision-making for both individuals and society. (8) I then saw how some of the schools with all of the bells and whistles are doing digital storyboards. I know this is not new but given the lack of technology available in every classroom it did seem to be a challenge to bring that to our students. I asked our media specialist (who fortunately is computer savvy) to look into how possible this would be to do in our new media center lab; although the teacher doing the workshop was able to do in his class with a one to one computer/student ratio. I just thought to myself how wonderful it is for the students to assume the identity of George Washington and write his script in 1st person of how it felt to be eating a real meal in Valley Forge while your men were in the snow eating their shoes rather than a book report on George Washington? Which way would you prefer to demonstrate and develop your writing if you were the student?
As Claire mentioned the “No Child Left Intact” remark (6) I had written a note to myself in the margin about the effect of the EOC testing in US History in my own classroom this past year. With all of the federally mandated and state administered tests, time is of a premium to teach the standards in one semester and what do we find is not actually tested? The student’s ability to think AND write critically about history is not addressed on the EOC but is on both the SAT and ACT. I also agree that Airport is on the correct path in having a writing plan and encouraging the writing process being incorporated across the curriculum.
Blog #2
Chapter 1 of Content Area Writing and Teaching Adolescent Writers
I, too, am loving these books. I really like Harvey Daniels- everything I have read of his is so practical. But both books agree that we are already in a writing crisis. I have complained about student writing in the past and our students do seem to be so unmotivated. The stats are hard to argue with; colleges and governments spending billions to help our population be better writers. Think how much better that money could be put to use. I agree with Kelly- it is time to step up to the plate and get our kids writing more and more. I was astonished by the list of ways that our kids are writing: blogs, MySpace, IM, etc. and if they can do all that then they can certainly write in class. I agree with Diane- we need to bridge the gap and find alternate ways to get kids writing in class. Then we can bridge over to “formal” writing. I LOVE Gallagher’s writing list. This is a great read for students. I am trying to get students to see past the walls of Airport High School but they can see past next weekend. If we can get students to realize how vital writing and reading are to their futures, then we can get them motivated to do all around better work.
Claire, I did laugh out loud at the remark and then marked it in my book.
Why do our students hate to write? Of course it is by and large because we are asking them to write about something they could care less about. Most of what we are ask them to write about has little or no bearing on their life. You ask them to write about what they are going to do over the weekend and I guarantee you will be blushing before the second sentence. I jokingly told my US Hist. students that we are de-evolving when it comes to communicating with each other. We started off grunting, groaning and pointing. We then went to a spoken language, then to a written language (pictures/symbols/words), telegraph, telephone, mail to email,and now with our cell phones from actually using them to talk we are going back to the dot-dot-dash-dash days of the telegraph. I agree with Pam's assessment in her last paragraph. These kids have got to look further down the road that 'this weekend'. We have got to get them to understand that reading and writing proficiently is just as important than the party they have an invitaion to.
I am sure kids do often hate what type of writing we make them do. For the most part all we make them do is boring reports and write-ups from various texts or activities and fail to offer them ways to express their individuality in their writing. I know that MySpace has caught a lot of slack, but if you look at students pages, you will realize how much writing they must do in order to set up their page. There are multiple sections about themselves and then kids often blog about life in general. I think letting kids make up faux MySpace or Facebook pages for different people in history, books, activities, etc would be AWESOME! I think they would enjoy setting it up and would take a great deal of ownership in their writing.
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