Writing Strategies

      In my opinion, writing is the most important skill that a person acquires as they progress through school and in to the real world.  Whether it is college papers, notices at work, emails, and even text messages, how you write says a lot about you.  Although I disagree a lot with Gallagher on this topic, I would like to bring up the few good points that I found true and useful in the classroom.  The one idea that I really enjoyed is Gallagher’s view on what students write.  I know that that sounds very simplistic  but it makes all the difference in the world! I do not know how many times I have been forced to write a paper that had the strictest of guidelines and a thesis that was already given to us on the prompt.  That is almost the equivalent of readicide…might we call it writicide??  Simply stated, you cannot force students to care about a topic.  Students have almost been treated like machines in the way that they write that it takes away EVERYTHING writing is supposed to be about.  A teacher gives a prompt about a specific element in literature that students must write about.  The student goes through their notes and through the book to write a paper that appeals to the teacher to ensure a good grade.  On the other hand, there are students who get the prompt and look at it with blank eyes and an uninteresting groan.  These students then wait until the last minute to write the paper and give minimum effort.  There are even students who may refuse to write it because they do not have a place to begin on a topic that they find pointless.  Gallagher makes it quite clear that choice is an essential key to make a good paper.  In particular, I loved his activity entitled “find the fib” (Gallagher 94).  I think that this is a great first paper for students to write and showcase how they can write a narrative or informative piece.  It also ensures that they are writing about something that is interesting and something that they want to write about.  Let’s be honest, people like to write about things that make them stand out.  This activity will likely invite students to use much detail and write everything that makes the story a great one to tell over others.
                In a nutshell, I also enjoyed how Gallagher encourages students to take a large role in the whole writing process.  For example I like when he addresses that students could help to create the rubric (Gallagher 155).  This allows students to be accountable for their grades and to decide what they value in their own writing.  It also eliminates a lot of discrepancies on grades.  He also allows them to discover on their own their flaws and their strengths while allowing them to hone their skills.  Students would really appreciate how much power and how fluid writing is.  I feel as though students would want to get better and try harder if they knew that they were accountable for their paper from the beginning to the end.

                Now I know this will probably make a lot of people a little upset; however, I am a big fan of the red pen and the grading process.  In class we talked about what we should correct and how much content should matter over grammar.  Personally, I think it is my duty, as a teacher, to correct their paper to the best I can (red pen or not).  I know it sounds discouraging but I want my students to be taken seriously in the real world.  I don’t see the point in sugarcoating grammatical errors if they are present in their paper.  Should they get the chance to improve their paper? Always.  Should I conference with them and give them positive feedback? Absolutely.  However, I feel like I would be doing a great disservice if I didn’t mark every little thing that is wrong.  Steven Zemelman and Harvey Daniels’ article entitled, “The English Teacher’s Red Pen: History of an Obsession” really bothered me as I read.  The quote that really angered me was “Indeed, that is essentially what we have done in the teaching of writing in this country; we have taken what is potentially the most personal, energizing, and richly meaningful subject in the whole curriculum and sucked the meaning out of it. We’ve degraded our subject and in so doing have created a nation of wounded, unconfident semi-writers” (3). I don’t think that correcting every error creates unconfident students.  I think that it should encourage them to accept the challenge of re-doing a paper better than the last one.  I agree, I think paper writing should be a process.  However, I don’t think that teachers have sucked the fun out of writing by correcting every mistake.  I think the fun out of writing gets sucked out when there is no choice and the students are forced to write about things that they do not want to.  In the real world, college or any job, people are scrutinized for everything that they do.  For example, at my job, my boss posts all sorts of messages on the breakroom board every day.  As I read them, I find several mistakes in his writing and naturally call him out on it.  As shallow as it seems, I do feel that he loses credentials by not being able to write with proper grammar.  Does it make him a bad boss? No.  It does, however, make him look like he cannot communicate effectively.

            On a brighter note, I do like the idea that Gallagher has on “funneling” (97).  Even now I have trouble taking a topic and making it small enough to write a solid paper on it.  I think this process allows students to really focus and become a better writer.  If you write on a topic that is really big than that your ideas are all over the place and you build your paper out, not up.  Once you narrow your topic than you can add details and really solidify your material.  It also allows you to put some depth in your paper and make it really strong. 

            The last piece of information that I enjoyed from Gallagher is the way that the revision process works.  I truly believe that students should not get one attempt at a paper.  I agree that they should work until becomes a solid paper.  I also agree that conferencing with the whole class is not a good idea.  Personally, I would not trust my peers (who have the same writing experience as I) with my paper and my revisions.  After all, what do they know? (I would be thinking in high school).  I would like a one-on-one conference with the teacher and maybe one other classmate.  I think it is important for someone to read your work because you get a different insight.  Also, the teacher is a good person to conference with because he or she knows what they are looking for over a peer.

            On the other hand, Smagorinsky brings up a few good points I would like to address.  Smagorinsky writes, “Postpone grammar instruction to the point where it can really become useful to the student” (Smagorinsky 165).  I have had and seen English classes where a teacher will go over grammar one week out of a school year.  It is usually at a random time where they are not working on papers and they cram it all in to one week.  I think Smagorinsky is right in that grammar should come up as a supplement when they write their papers.  Talking about predicate nominatives is not important when they just get done reading a novel.  Instead, a teacher should wait until the trouble with them occurs in many papers or whenever students have questions about it.  Why bother with grammar lessons on things that students already know and keep piling on lesson after lesson?  Grammar is also a process and should be treated in a systematic and procedural way.  Too much grammar can make students very confused and it probably wouldn’t make sense unless it was USEFUL.  Therefore, I agree with Smagorinsky: Don’t waste their time, wait until it is crucial.

      I also like how Smagorinsky states, “Don’t teach grammar in isolation” (165).  Once again, this goes back to those high school days where we would spend a week on grammar.  There would be worksheets with sentences that needed to be fixed based on the day’s lesson, for example, commas. Grammar should be approached when writing papers and as errors occur.  Giving a student a random sentence to fix is not going to make the grammatical rule stick in their head.  If you give them a sentence in their own paper to fix then they will care a lot more.  Not only will they be more receptive, they will also be able to see where they went wrong and how it affects a whole paper or paragraph.  Grammar is not something that can be taught out of a textbook.  It needs to be applicable and show students its benefits.  Grammar is everywhere and in every text; thus, it should be taught as such.  Grammar being taught just as grammar is confusing and it does not allow students to connect with their own writing.

            I feel as though writing strategies need to change but keep some traditional values.  Obviously, I find the red pen effective and that correcting every error is beneficial.  However, I like these new ideas that the scholars bring up about what is important in writing and how to get students to enjoy writing.  I think the easiest way to sum up what I learned is that writing is a process between a student, their work, and the teacher.  Students should be given opportunities, given choices, and be able to correct their work frequently.  However, teachers should still be a critic because that is how students will learn what they are doing wrong. I can't imagine letting errors go and simply reading it as though I was just a typical reader.  I think that content is very important; however, I think that grammar and content should be evaluated 50/50.  If I can read the paper and get something out if it then that's great. I don't think that's enough though.  The one thing that I don't agree with in regard to the red pen is to mark the same error throughout the paper and lower the grade because of that.  I think once or twice is enough to address the issue.  How can a student get a bad grade if they are not aware they are making the same mistake in a paper?  Overall, I think the scholars make valid and solid points.  I am still not sure how I feel about the "red pen" article but I understand what they are saying.  I am definitely considering using their approaches.

Text Satellite

     
http://prezi.com/j5zv_0hb647m/the-perks-of-being-a-wallflower/
    

                First of all, this text satellite was actually a lot of fun and exciting to create.  With that being said, it was still a lot of work (particularly because I do not play well with prezi).  I decided to go for something very modern and fresh for my primary text.  The Perks of Being a Wallflower jumped out at me instantaneously because that is a book that students are interested in and want to read.  Ironically, the movie was also just released which gives it that appeal to students.  Not only is this book genuinely a good read, it is also full of themes and lessons that some students go through in their own lives.  That huge connection between them and the story is what I felt would lure them in to the other traditional texts that I chose to go with it.  These other texts include The Lovely Bones, A Separate Peace, and The Catcher of the Rye.  These stories share most of the themes that envelope The Perks of Being a Wallflower and have main characters who are all adolescents.  Each of the texts is very unique; however, they are all very similar and relevant to the age group who is reading them.  For example, The Lovely Bones is very much about coping with change, changing of relationships, sexuality, and young love.  On the other hand, it is told as the main character is dead viewing her family and friends from heaven which is completely different from the other texts.   The Perks of Being a Wallflower also shares those themes listed above; yet, it also has the theme of teenage pressure implemented in it.  In a sense, all of those traditional texts overlap to an extent but still bring forth other themes and connections that are important to discuss.

      In addition, I added a tv show, movies, and a musical to the list of texts that are discussed within this unit.  Glee is a tv show that is very popular amongst teenagers and adults alike.  It deals with issues such as pressure, sexuality, building of relationships, and etc.  I felt like this was appropriate to implement because students are familiar with this and it is relevant to their lives and to the traditional texts.  Each character in the show is relatable and students can compare or contrast them to the characters in the traditional texts.  It is also a show that can lead to great discussions and be connector between the students and the traditional texts.  The movies, such as Grease, Mean Girls, and the Finding Nemo clip are also familiar and films that are popular in our culture today.  Each movie sets forth elements that are important and allow students to see the greater picture.  For example, in Grease, Sandy’s character makes a drastic change in appearance from start to finish.  She is pressured from her peers and her relationship changes with them as she dives deeper in to the in crowd.  In a sense, her and Charlie’s character from The Perks of Being a Wallflower could be compared and students could decide who makes a greater change and who does it for the better reason.  The musical is something I added because theater is something that I feel is important.  I do not think students appreciate it enough and feel as though it is too old-fashioned or too boring for them.  I used the musical Spring Awakening to prove otherwise and to show how closely it touches upon the themes for this unit.

                Other texts I implemented include a sonnet by William Shakespeare and quotes by Marilyn Monroe and Ron Taffel.  Although these texts are not very long they are still very powerful.  The quotes ultimately sum up each text and give the students something to reflect on and even journal about.  The sonnet is a text that I think challenges students by having them dissect it and make meaning based on the texts they previously read.  Personally, I do not care if they analyze the sonnet differently than me.  I want them to be able to make sense out of it on their own and build bridge between it and other texts. 

                The news article was something I decided to include to show real world application and relevance.  It is one that can lead a great discussion or debate which would be useful in a classroom setting.  Also, it breaks the silence and allows the students to talk and make meaningful conversations that might not come out in a traditional text.  It also mentions relationships with friends which is a theme within the unit.  The songs I chose were picked simply because they tie the themes together.  Ultimately, these themes work together to create the life of an adolescent.  The song “Send Me On My Way” by Rusted Root has moving lyrics about letting loose and moving on with your life.  I feel as though each student can relate to those lyrics and so can the characters in the stories they read.  It would be a great way for students to look at lyrics and apply them to different passages or to the ending of each novel they read.  Surprisingly, the artwork was my favorite thing to add to this unit.  Both pictures directly link to a specific theme within the unit.  It is up for the student to decide which one (without them knowing the title) and why they feel that it represents that theme.  I would like them to justify their answer and to be able to tell me how it makes them feel and why. 

     The graphic novel was added because it is a different kind of text and some of students will be interested in graphic novels or comic books.  It depicts the themes as well; however, it is delivered in a different manner.  It is important to expose students to different type of texts and show them that they are just as valuable as tv shows.  I also want to show them that they are also relevant.  Lastly, The Sims was included because it is simply about life.  Each sim has emotions and forms different types of relationships with different people.  I want my students to play this game so that they can make decisions and see what the consequences are.  Students would never take this risks in real life so it would be interesting to see what they would do if they know it did not cost them anything in their real life.  For example, what would happen if they wanted their sim to kiss another sim it barely knew?  What kind of relationship would they have?  It is a way for them to toy around with characters and sort of make their own story with their own characters.  Some of them may have happy endings while others might not get so lucky.

                Overall, I feel as though my texts work very well in sync with one another.  They are all very similar but the content is delivered very differently.  Each text brings forth something new with a connection to something in an older text.  I think my students would understand the themes a lot better and with much more enthusiasm if these texts were taught together.  I think this unit is relevant to them because of the messages and because most of the texts are familiar to them.