Today I did not go to the school because there were no senior classes and thus no classes to work with. Although I can only guess what will be going on in the class on Thursday since I'm not there every day, I am looking forward to going back!
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
First Day & the Bible
Thursday was my first day in the school. Already I can already tell that my experience at this school is going to be very educational. I sat back of the room, and in the discussions, and front row of the theater to watch what the classes were all about. I recognized a lot of the criteria that must be taught in accordance of the common core standards, like what we are discussing in class. Next time I plan on bringing a copy of the standards next time, as well as some tools in reading MacBeth, which is what two of the classes are looking at. Although I will not be teaching in the AP class, I still have started collecting ideas on criteria and lessons of AP Literature that the teacher is using. Thursday students were supposed to bring Bibles to class to draw literary devices out of historical sources. Besides a Bible literacy class in high school I have never seen a teacher use a Bible to teach Literature, and it was a great resource.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Composition in Schools
This semester I am in an Intro to Composition Studies course. Composition. Before the semester started I wrote this class off as yet another writing intensive course where I would have to write numerous papers about __________. I was very wrong. Five weeks into the semester I am knees deep in studying the subject of composition.
Do you know how you walk by something every day? Perhaps it is a flag pole. Maybe an empty building. Or a bench. You have probably walked by it hundreds of times. Your eyes see these items. You could be able to tell someone, "Meet me by the flag pole," Or, "Turn right after you pass the building." But then one day you stop and really look at it. The post on the top of the flag pole. What that empty building used to be. Who the bench is in memory of. All of the sudden the little details that make up these things that you have seen countless times becomes brand new and produces the question, "Why have I not noticed this before?" That is my reaction when it comes to teaching the subject of composition. 'Sure,' I have thought before, 'Of course I will teach students how to write synthetic pieces, on demands, and how to write essays.' But this course has really opened my eyes to the responsibility to teach writing.
When I was in high school I did a fair share of writing. Science papers, on demands, AP prompts, book reviews, etc. But my senior year I took a college course of introductory writing (different than my composition course). All of the sudden rewording the same sentence for a couple of papers became creating a piece of work that flows fluently from sentence to sentence, introducing new ideas to connect a larger theme, adding stylistic choices such as freeing yourself from traditional grammar rules, and choosing what is relevant when writing. These skills I learned in that class carried me all throughout my first couple years of college. Why had that not been taught this sooner? Why was I still being taught when to use who vs whom just a year before? The difference between the two years were eons away. Perhaps since the common core standards have been implemented this is no longer a problem, but this semester has already been insightful and has me motivated to teach real composition skills. NO MORE INTRODUCTORY, 3 PARAGRAPH, CONCLUSION ESSAY!
I have become aware of the problems of mechanical grading. Painting a student's paper with red ink, fixing grammatical errors when the true problem of the paper is the content. Sure a student might write "uncertainity" instead of "uncertainty," but as a teacher I should be more concerned about what the student is referring to instead of the misspelling. I now see that students should be aware that (wait for it...) there is more than just prompted writing out there! I am learning about that different styles of writing should be taught, instead of just essay after essay. How to prevent students from writing like a textbook: exposing more reading to them than textbooks. Methods of the ways students produce writing. Today I just read the essay, "Shaping at the Point of Utterance" by James Britton that argues writing in the moment is a valuable method of writing. One of his ideas on how to overcome writers block is to speak ideas out loud--the perfect reason to do small group writing discussions. This class so far has been eye opening on something that I have assumed I will be teaching (writing) but did not really give much thought to it.
Moving forward to applying this information is exciting to me, especially since I am getting ready to dive into working in the schools feet first. Can't wait to compare what the teacher does in the classroom with the ideas we discuss in my composition class and how they coincide. And how I will teach this semester.
Do you know how you walk by something every day? Perhaps it is a flag pole. Maybe an empty building. Or a bench. You have probably walked by it hundreds of times. Your eyes see these items. You could be able to tell someone, "Meet me by the flag pole," Or, "Turn right after you pass the building." But then one day you stop and really look at it. The post on the top of the flag pole. What that empty building used to be. Who the bench is in memory of. All of the sudden the little details that make up these things that you have seen countless times becomes brand new and produces the question, "Why have I not noticed this before?" That is my reaction when it comes to teaching the subject of composition. 'Sure,' I have thought before, 'Of course I will teach students how to write synthetic pieces, on demands, and how to write essays.' But this course has really opened my eyes to the responsibility to teach writing.
When I was in high school I did a fair share of writing. Science papers, on demands, AP prompts, book reviews, etc. But my senior year I took a college course of introductory writing (different than my composition course). All of the sudden rewording the same sentence for a couple of papers became creating a piece of work that flows fluently from sentence to sentence, introducing new ideas to connect a larger theme, adding stylistic choices such as freeing yourself from traditional grammar rules, and choosing what is relevant when writing. These skills I learned in that class carried me all throughout my first couple years of college. Why had that not been taught this sooner? Why was I still being taught when to use who vs whom just a year before? The difference between the two years were eons away. Perhaps since the common core standards have been implemented this is no longer a problem, but this semester has already been insightful and has me motivated to teach real composition skills. NO MORE INTRODUCTORY, 3 PARAGRAPH, CONCLUSION ESSAY!
I have become aware of the problems of mechanical grading. Painting a student's paper with red ink, fixing grammatical errors when the true problem of the paper is the content. Sure a student might write "uncertainity" instead of "uncertainty," but as a teacher I should be more concerned about what the student is referring to instead of the misspelling. I now see that students should be aware that (wait for it...) there is more than just prompted writing out there! I am learning about that different styles of writing should be taught, instead of just essay after essay. How to prevent students from writing like a textbook: exposing more reading to them than textbooks. Methods of the ways students produce writing. Today I just read the essay, "Shaping at the Point of Utterance" by James Britton that argues writing in the moment is a valuable method of writing. One of his ideas on how to overcome writers block is to speak ideas out loud--the perfect reason to do small group writing discussions. This class so far has been eye opening on something that I have assumed I will be teaching (writing) but did not really give much thought to it.
Moving forward to applying this information is exciting to me, especially since I am getting ready to dive into working in the schools feet first. Can't wait to compare what the teacher does in the classroom with the ideas we discuss in my composition class and how they coincide. And how I will teach this semester.
The Fun Begins
As education in general does, the education program at the University is evolving and changing. Five years ago students went to class for three years and then student taught, occasionally going to observe in the schools. Then the state required education students to observe in the schools two hundred hours before student teaching. Then observations turned into "applied learning," which now has turned into a "clinical model." Because this transformation has happened in the course of the three and a half years I have been in college, the whip lash of all the changes has finally smacked the Education office here in the face. A year ago I would have already been a third done with my observation/applied learning/clinical hours but it was just last week that I was assigned to the school and teacher I will be spending eighty hours with this semester. Talk about a kid in a candy store. I had the initial email that I was going to send her written out by the end of class. Today was the day we sat and introduced ourselves.
I will be working in a school that I did not graduate from but is from my hometown. The school is an Independent school and is somewhat different than all the public schools I have worked in. She is an English and Theatre teacher, just as I am aspiring to be. In fact we are both doing different versions of the same show with her theatre department and the acting school I work at. During her planning we sat down and talked about what is expected of me, what her class schedule is, etc. This semester it looks like I will be working with a general senior English class, an ACT seminar, an AP Literature class, and an Intro to Theatre class. To say that I am looking forward to working in this school and going through some of the things that I am learning in class is an understatement. I return on Thursday so I will keep the readers updated.
I will be working in a school that I did not graduate from but is from my hometown. The school is an Independent school and is somewhat different than all the public schools I have worked in. She is an English and Theatre teacher, just as I am aspiring to be. In fact we are both doing different versions of the same show with her theatre department and the acting school I work at. During her planning we sat down and talked about what is expected of me, what her class schedule is, etc. This semester it looks like I will be working with a general senior English class, an ACT seminar, an AP Literature class, and an Intro to Theatre class. To say that I am looking forward to working in this school and going through some of the things that I am learning in class is an understatement. I return on Thursday so I will keep the readers updated.
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