"We must not be afraid to show that we are human, nor to let our real personality emerge before our students. If we have a lively and humorous side, our students will respond to it with joy. If we have also have a thoughtful, serious side, glimpses of it at the appropriate moments may lead our students into the exciting world of thought." (pg. 559)
This final chapter of Neman discusses how above everything else in instruction, we must be human.
That sounds kind of like a no brainer to me and my first thought is, "What are my other options than being human?" I discussed on my post related to this chapter that many of my professors talk about how it is not just our job to make sure students achieve academic success, but we also have to care for their social lives, home lives, and extenuating circumstances going on around them. But I think many teachers fall into a routine of being rigid with students or even just acting like they have it all together. My mom and my sister are both teachers, teachers do not have it all together. I love what Neman is saying here because it was fun when teachers let their walls down and laughed with you. I felt comfort when my teachers admitted their faults, apologized and moved forward. And I will never forget meaningful conversations with teachers that ignited a passion in me to be that kind of teacher.
I never want my students to believe I am some kind of teaching robot and that I do not mess up, laugh at my mistakes, use resiliency to go on, and share with them each step up of the way. I am not saying I need to bare my heart and soul with my students because it is important to keep some distance, but why not share somethings. Who knows what will be learned in those moments. We learn so much through observation and I hope as my students watch me that they learn how to never give up on themselves, they learn that it is okay to not know the answers, but they also learn that being kind to others is what maters most.
I hope to teach my students many things. I want to walk them through the writing process and help them to see their potential. I want to teach my students how to succeed and fail with a gracious heart. The most important things I want to teach them cannot be assessed, will never be measured, and are anything but standard. Each student is unique and I look forward to the day when they learn how to be friendly, how to give sacrificially, and how to extend compassion to each person they meet.
Works Cited:
I used many wonderful sources for this project, and I would like to give credit where credit is due!
Neman, Beth S. "Teaching Students to Write: Second Edition". New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Print.
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Glow & Grow.
One of my fellow classmates once used an idea called, "Glow and Grow," to provide feedback for a writing piece of mine. He described the positive components of the piece under the, "glow," section and the parts that needed improvement, he wrote under, "grow."
I loved that! Particularly because I am a sucker for a good rhyme, but ultimately because I think this has some potential in reflecting my personal philosophy in responding to students' work and other points of instruction. One of the most crucial parts of the writing process is the teacher's response because it allows for growth to take place. The other parts of the writing process have weight as well, but I think how an instructor responds sticks with a student for a long time.
Beth S. Neman discusses right from that get-go that a balanced approach to teaching writing and specifically responding to students' work is the right approach. First, Neman discusses a craft centered approach vs. affect centered approach to writing instruction. Craft centered is a little more cut and dry in approach because it follows standards and rules in instruction and response to writing. Neman writes that these teachers are not afraid to mark up a student's work with a red pen because they do not follow the standards laid out for them. On the other hand, affect centered is focused on praise and boosting students' confidence. Affect centered is much more liberating in approach and allows for the student to be more creative. Both approaches have their benefits and costs, and so Neman introduces a third approach-the balanced approach. The balanced approach basically reminds us that while we need to consider students' feelings and remain caring, we do not need to drown them in praise. Neman writes on page 12, "Praise for such work, like praise based only on simple kindness, does not elevate students' levels of self-esteem. Thus, though unfairly placed or excessive criticism is harmful, warmth and praise are also ineffectual where quality is not insisted upon and standards do not exist."
Balanced. Glow and grow. I want to challenge my students, always building onto their foundation and helping to solidify the foundation already in place. Students need to be reminded of their potential, some more than others, but all students need to know that their best is also the desired route. On the post entitled, "Teaching the Student," that some teachers will feel the need to correct every grammatical error, every single fragment, and every part of the work that was done incorrectly. This can communicate to students that they are failures, especially if they earned a failing grade with no hope for lifting that grade. However, I believe it would be negligent to not correct anything on the piece in order to be sensitive to the student. This would hinder the students' future success and ability to grow as a writer.
I hope to always remember that my students are learning, and learning can happen by being affirmed in what we have done well and being corrected in areas that need growth. I like, "Glow and Grow," as opposed to, "Correct and Wrong," because it reaffirms the students' strengths and encourages them to improve upon a few areas that need improvement. My students are learning just as I am learning because we never really arrive as writers. I am constantly trying to hone in my skills as a writer, and I need to give myself and my students the grace to get there.
I loved that! Particularly because I am a sucker for a good rhyme, but ultimately because I think this has some potential in reflecting my personal philosophy in responding to students' work and other points of instruction. One of the most crucial parts of the writing process is the teacher's response because it allows for growth to take place. The other parts of the writing process have weight as well, but I think how an instructor responds sticks with a student for a long time.
Beth S. Neman discusses right from that get-go that a balanced approach to teaching writing and specifically responding to students' work is the right approach. First, Neman discusses a craft centered approach vs. affect centered approach to writing instruction. Craft centered is a little more cut and dry in approach because it follows standards and rules in instruction and response to writing. Neman writes that these teachers are not afraid to mark up a student's work with a red pen because they do not follow the standards laid out for them. On the other hand, affect centered is focused on praise and boosting students' confidence. Affect centered is much more liberating in approach and allows for the student to be more creative. Both approaches have their benefits and costs, and so Neman introduces a third approach-the balanced approach. The balanced approach basically reminds us that while we need to consider students' feelings and remain caring, we do not need to drown them in praise. Neman writes on page 12, "Praise for such work, like praise based only on simple kindness, does not elevate students' levels of self-esteem. Thus, though unfairly placed or excessive criticism is harmful, warmth and praise are also ineffectual where quality is not insisted upon and standards do not exist."
Balanced. Glow and grow. I want to challenge my students, always building onto their foundation and helping to solidify the foundation already in place. Students need to be reminded of their potential, some more than others, but all students need to know that their best is also the desired route. On the post entitled, "Teaching the Student," that some teachers will feel the need to correct every grammatical error, every single fragment, and every part of the work that was done incorrectly. This can communicate to students that they are failures, especially if they earned a failing grade with no hope for lifting that grade. However, I believe it would be negligent to not correct anything on the piece in order to be sensitive to the student. This would hinder the students' future success and ability to grow as a writer.
I hope to always remember that my students are learning, and learning can happen by being affirmed in what we have done well and being corrected in areas that need growth. I like, "Glow and Grow," as opposed to, "Correct and Wrong," because it reaffirms the students' strengths and encourages them to improve upon a few areas that need improvement. My students are learning just as I am learning because we never really arrive as writers. I am constantly trying to hone in my skills as a writer, and I need to give myself and my students the grace to get there.
Engaged Collaboration.
How do we engage students in the process of writing?
Engage.
This word is discussed excessively in the College of Education and I am grateful for that because I need to be challenged by this idea of engagement. Often student engagement cannot be assessed in a formal ways, but in summative ways or through every day interactions with students. I want to find ways to draw my students in, and to get their wheels turning. Now I will be the first to admit that certain professors or peers will say, "We need to engage our students." That is a lovely concept, but let's take that a step further and see how to have authentic engagement in the classroom because I think that is the conversation that is often missing.
I need to be engaged in my classes in order to succeed. If I do not try to connect with all my professors or actively participate to take part in that course, then I will not succeed. I think the same is often true for students, and I personally believe that it is our job to give students the tools to engage but they have to make that decision to be an active participant in the classroom. I do not think it is easy for middle school students to engage in a writing class where I just talk about the process of writing for an entire period, and send them home to do the writing on their own.
One of the most natural ways to engage students in the process of writing is through collaboration with peers. In the discussion post entitled, "Conversations Among Peer Writers," I explored if collaboration with peers is effective or beneficial in engaging students in the writing process. I believe that these peer conferences can be helpful if set up and explained as explicitly as possible. Some students may need questions written on the board to ask classmates, but others might really be able to just start providing feedback with little interference from the teacher. Jack Wilde stated on the video, "Conversation Among Peer Writers," that peer conferencing is valuable because students value their peer's opinions. One of the best ways to make this time effective is to model peer revision. I feel that a huge part of educating is modeling and being able to learn along the way. I want to model drafting with my students, researching, and even allowing students to give me feedback on my writing. I further discussed modeling peer revision in my Interview Project when I met with a middle school teacher named Kerry Stoots and Kerry reminded me of the importance of modeling to her students and participating in the activities she asks her students to do. Kerry stated when asked about peer revision that, "it needs to be modeled to students first so they have a clear idea on what look for and how to help their peers."
I found this to be true when working with my peers in our Collaborative Pedagogy project. Working with two of my peers was a great reminder that three people can have three completely different interpretations. We were asked to discuss contract grading and between the three of us it was difficult to agree on a unified viewpoint on such a controversial topic. We all felt frustration with the conflict within ourselves and the conflict with each other to take a stance on the idea of contract grading. This seemed like a disadvantage but we actually ending up using it to our advantage. We established what contract grading was and asked the class to express their feelings on it, and allowed their reactions to spur conversation.
I love this idea of sparking intellectual conversations amongst my students, and seeing their midst turn as they re-learn something from a trusted peer. We all want our students to be engaged in the writing process, but we forget that one the best resources of engagement are lying within those conversations amongst their classmates and collaboration.
Engage.
This word is discussed excessively in the College of Education and I am grateful for that because I need to be challenged by this idea of engagement. Often student engagement cannot be assessed in a formal ways, but in summative ways or through every day interactions with students. I want to find ways to draw my students in, and to get their wheels turning. Now I will be the first to admit that certain professors or peers will say, "We need to engage our students." That is a lovely concept, but let's take that a step further and see how to have authentic engagement in the classroom because I think that is the conversation that is often missing.
I need to be engaged in my classes in order to succeed. If I do not try to connect with all my professors or actively participate to take part in that course, then I will not succeed. I think the same is often true for students, and I personally believe that it is our job to give students the tools to engage but they have to make that decision to be an active participant in the classroom. I do not think it is easy for middle school students to engage in a writing class where I just talk about the process of writing for an entire period, and send them home to do the writing on their own.
One of the most natural ways to engage students in the process of writing is through collaboration with peers. In the discussion post entitled, "Conversations Among Peer Writers," I explored if collaboration with peers is effective or beneficial in engaging students in the writing process. I believe that these peer conferences can be helpful if set up and explained as explicitly as possible. Some students may need questions written on the board to ask classmates, but others might really be able to just start providing feedback with little interference from the teacher. Jack Wilde stated on the video, "Conversation Among Peer Writers," that peer conferencing is valuable because students value their peer's opinions. One of the best ways to make this time effective is to model peer revision. I feel that a huge part of educating is modeling and being able to learn along the way. I want to model drafting with my students, researching, and even allowing students to give me feedback on my writing. I further discussed modeling peer revision in my Interview Project when I met with a middle school teacher named Kerry Stoots and Kerry reminded me of the importance of modeling to her students and participating in the activities she asks her students to do. Kerry stated when asked about peer revision that, "it needs to be modeled to students first so they have a clear idea on what look for and how to help their peers."
I found this to be true when working with my peers in our Collaborative Pedagogy project. Working with two of my peers was a great reminder that three people can have three completely different interpretations. We were asked to discuss contract grading and between the three of us it was difficult to agree on a unified viewpoint on such a controversial topic. We all felt frustration with the conflict within ourselves and the conflict with each other to take a stance on the idea of contract grading. This seemed like a disadvantage but we actually ending up using it to our advantage. We established what contract grading was and asked the class to express their feelings on it, and allowed their reactions to spur conversation.
I love this idea of sparking intellectual conversations amongst my students, and seeing their midst turn as they re-learn something from a trusted peer. We all want our students to be engaged in the writing process, but we forget that one the best resources of engagement are lying within those conversations amongst their classmates and collaboration.
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Slow to Listen, Quick to Speak.
The reason I entitled this, "Slow to Listen, Quick to Speak," is because I am often much too quick to say what is on my mind but it takes much more effort to engage others through active listening. But is amazing how much one can learn through the art of listening.
I believe that one of the most important things to do in the classroom is to establish a relationship with students in order to gain students' trust and respect. I believe that maintaining a friendly and approachable attitude will allow for students to not only be liberated in conversations or conferences, but additionally in the writing that I will read. I believe with that trust comes responsibility because students are counting on me to keep things private within reason. The only times I will share a students' work is if they know it will be shared and I have received their permission. The only extenuating circumstances would be if I need to share for safety purposes or liability to share the information in the piece. However, I feel like it is imperative to tell students this up front and to say, "This writing assignment will be shared with one other peer," or asking for permission to share the writing. I think that this strengthens that relationship because if do not tell them it will be shared and then say, "I will be asking you to read these aloud on Monday," then you could have just broken that trust with your students. I know that many of my personal writings are as private to me as my diary, and I would be mortified if someone asked me to share them.
One of the reasons I want to teach writing is that I remember building that relationship with many of my writing teachers, and the mutual respect that is created between a student and teacher. Many of these teachers have read things that my own friends have never heard because I felt as though they were a safer place than the peers I sat with at the lunch table. Students want to be heard, and I feel that part of my job is to listen and provide a safe place for them to express thoughts or emotions that are personal to them. So much of that rapport is built during the times that I will be meeting with students one on one or discussing their work with them.
Here's to building that relationship and becoming slow to speak and quick to listen!
I believe that one of the most important things to do in the classroom is to establish a relationship with students in order to gain students' trust and respect. I believe that maintaining a friendly and approachable attitude will allow for students to not only be liberated in conversations or conferences, but additionally in the writing that I will read. I believe with that trust comes responsibility because students are counting on me to keep things private within reason. The only times I will share a students' work is if they know it will be shared and I have received their permission. The only extenuating circumstances would be if I need to share for safety purposes or liability to share the information in the piece. However, I feel like it is imperative to tell students this up front and to say, "This writing assignment will be shared with one other peer," or asking for permission to share the writing. I think that this strengthens that relationship because if do not tell them it will be shared and then say, "I will be asking you to read these aloud on Monday," then you could have just broken that trust with your students. I know that many of my personal writings are as private to me as my diary, and I would be mortified if someone asked me to share them.
One of the reasons I want to teach writing is that I remember building that relationship with many of my writing teachers, and the mutual respect that is created between a student and teacher. Many of these teachers have read things that my own friends have never heard because I felt as though they were a safer place than the peers I sat with at the lunch table. Students want to be heard, and I feel that part of my job is to listen and provide a safe place for them to express thoughts or emotions that are personal to them. So much of that rapport is built during the times that I will be meeting with students one on one or discussing their work with them.
Here's to building that relationship and becoming slow to speak and quick to listen!
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
A Pragmatic Education.
prag·mat·ic
praɡˈmadik/
adjective
- dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations.
Even looking at the definition of "pragmatic," I crack up because I am not really a pragmatic person. I enjoy creativity, and pushing past a text. However, I would like to include points of the philosophy entitled pragmatism into my philosophy of teaching, specifically in teaching writing. I believe that the philosophical thought, pragmatism, can create mutual respect between the teacher and students. Many of the ideas within pragmatism can be found in discussing John Dewey and his personal methods of instruction.
Oh, John Dewey. Many have looked to him as a pillar of helpful methods and philosophies to apply to the classroom (myself included). Which was all fine and good until recently when I was challenged by a professor to dig deeper into his ideas. He said, "Many of my colleagues respect Dewey and his philosophy. Then I quote him and ask if they agree with the quote, they reply, 'I don't agree with that!' And I reply, 'Well, that is what Dewey says.' They can understand his ideas but they have never read a single one of his books." Wow, what a powerful thought! I mean I believed that Dewey and his pragmatic beliefs were the ones that would guide me through the rest of my time at BGSU and into my first career as a teacher of writing. I am encouraged that I can employ many of the ideas of pragmatism into my classroom while adding other ideas into my classroom. For example, in my unit lesson plan, I included Dewey and some of his ideas into my philosophy at the beginning of the project. I used some of the pragmatic ideas to help develop my lesson plan and create procedures for the substitute to follow. I included options for the students on most of the days to implement democracy within my classroom but I also added lectures or other types of instruction besides the pragmatic approach.
I still believe in being direct with students and making sure they understand exactly what is asked of them in every assignment. However, not every assignment will have a guideline or a rubric and some things will allow for students to express their creative sides. Also, Dewey believes in implementing a democratic classroom but I have to be slightly realistic in saying that my students can have opinions, and I will respect those opinions, but I still have the final say within the classroom. I think apart of that can be controlled in the choices we provide for our students. In everything we do in the classroom, I want my students to be able to voice their opinions in the ways we collaborate, group write, and revise. But I might provide two options that are different, but that I would be okay with either way. That being said, I want to listen to their opinions and take them into consideration while also being transparent in all of the plans I have made for the class.
That Dewey. So poised, so pragmatic.
"Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself."
-John Dewey
Philosophy of Me
Hi there! Thanks so much for stopping by to read my personal philosophy of writing instruction. I hope you leave feeling as though you have a better sense of who I am, what I value as a future teacher of writing, and what I want to instill in my students. In the next few posts, I will The most important thing to me in all types of instruction is that I want to see my students be successful in education as well as in life. I believe in the process of learning and I love watching students gain that knowledge. I have found that learning how to write is like cooking without a recipe, you have all the materials but you often just need to begin. You use previous knowledge and a little bit of adventure to begin creating a new dish. Writing and instructing writing often happens in a similar way. Teaching how to write is like being a cooking instructor because you provide the tools and methods to cook, but the student often navigates through the cooking process individually at times and collaboratively in others.
Which leads right to my next point, writing is a process and as NCTE states, "writing is an ongoing process." The same way that I believe learning is an ongoing process, I have seen the ongoing process of writing in my life and in the lives of those I am trying to teach.
Each part of the writing process seems to have it's own process. There is a process in pre-writing, as well as in researching, drafting, and even editing or revising. This process can be tedious at times, but I believe a huge part of my job is to continue the conversation with my students at each step as they continue to work with the text at hand. I feel this process is a very important life skill in helping students realize that the grade does not matter, but it is the importance of them putting their best work forward and what knowledge they gained from working through that piece.
I believe many things in life are a process and often we do not just arrive, even when we submit projects for a deadline. In taking part of this ongoing process, I believe that students are preparing for their future and will develop greater patience in their work as they watch projects reach completion over time.
This quote by Arthur Ashe demonstrates this point further. It is essential that students take part in that process, and keep going through that process as long as they can.
"Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome."-Arthur Ashe
I believe in the value of that journey and I think that my future students will benefit in experiencing every part of the process as well.
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