The teaching writing part I'm not sure was as successful. I did do a modeling exercise and it seemed to help the students figure out what I wanted from them. I need them to edit their letters one more time - and so I think I'll give them a sample of a letter that I write that they can model. I've decided that modeling is the best way to teach a particular skill. Ever. On the other hand, contrary to what some of our recent readings (in my C&I class) claim – that all writing should be authentic – so that students buy in to the work… students are so used to writing essays, that asking them to write a letter to the editor seemed far less authentic than just writing an academic essay for a teacher.
Case in point: this morning one of the students came in and asked the Mr. Markwith when they would be back to doing English. He said, "you are doing English." But it made me think about Nelson's question on the first day of my C & I class, "what does it mean to do English." Obviously, according to this kid, media literacy and letter writing doesn't cut it. If it were my class - maybe I'd have a dialogue in the first place about why we do what we do in an English class. But instead, I just continued to set up the projector feeling slightly bad about boring the students so much that they were eager to do Othello instead.
Today's slide show was a collection of great spoof ads (the best of them came from Adbuster's website). The students seemed to really engage with them. I think parody is a great way to understand a text. Since parody operates on surprising the reader's expectations, comprehension begins with identifying those expectations. This is a good place to start in discussing reading a text – even if that text is an ad. After we looked at the ads and pointed out the way they operated, we went to the lab (turns out the school has an amazing lab with fast computers and Photoshop installed) where each student created a parody ad of their own. They have tomorrow to complete them. And then Thursday we'll show them as a class.
Their final assignment will be to edit - one more time - their letters to the editor. For extra credit they can bring them in to class in a stamped addressed envelope. There is a massive attrition rate with each assignment. I'm not hounding them for their work. Mr. Markwith has reminded them that the assignments will count in his grade book. But short of that, I guess a part of me just feels, "it's not my class." The measure of success will be in Markwith's next 5-paragraph essay assignment, where we will hope to see students playing with their language just a little bit. As a vestige of the writing they did on this unit – developing a strong voice and taking a position in a piece of writing. If his next round of 5-paragraph essays are just a little less boring, we'll have succeeded.
2 comments:
hey there, i've been in lala land, sick, create blogs, grading, etc. I don't look like a Cheerio, I look like an Armenian :) perhaps an olive colored cheerio?
Well, as you can see on my blog, it's been stressful, as it has been for yours.
I do believe in authentic assessment, but I really believe in modeling writing, it just works. I think getting the students away from writing essays right now is a good idea, and letters are relevant.
I didn't mess around at all. I have taught creative writing and my husband worked in film for many years before entering teaching (he was a boom operator and set photographer).
Here's the thing. Edgy and hip do not equal talent. I draw the line when things are sexist, broad, opinionated and arrogant. There's a lot of bad writing out there. SOme people enter the arts because it's cool and rebellious without giving the arts the depth of thought it deserves. I always tell them that emulating an artist does not make you an artist. THe artists you emulate never tried emulating anyone else. I model my behavior in a way that can come off conservative, but my opinions are quite left and liberal. For example, I had a student when I taught here at state that told me "I write best when I'm stoned." So I gave him a copy (this was 1996) of a Frank Zappa CD and a sticker that said Zappa's quote "DOPE. YOU ARE WHAT YOU USE." and the kid got a kick out of it.
I am not in a cool contest. I can give a rat's ass what a student thinks of me really. I just want to do my job and I have found that kids love authenticity. When I tell them that I used to read a thesaurus and was a total nerd in high school they get a major kick out of it. Authenticity is it. Kids want their world to be theirs. That's my opinion really. Inappropriate content is unacceptable (think of Niki Giovanni addressing the nutcase in Virginia Tech - she said "he wasn't depressed or problematic, he was plain mean."
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