Entry 5: Dear Dr. Jones... writing ROCKS!

Dear Dr. Jones,

            Class is going great so far! Not just great - FANTASTIC! This is one of the most enjoyable classes I’ve ever taken. I have to tell you, I’m somewhat surprised by this realization. When I signed up for this class, I did it because I felt that I was weak in the area of teaching writing. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to learn. Did I think it would be interesting? Yes. Useful? Yes. But fun? No, I didn’t really think that. I am pleased as punch! This is why: I have never taken a course where I was given so much freedom to write, to explore and use writing in such a truly creative way and to use phrases such as “pleased as punch” and have it be OK. I have never been able to take time to study and appreciate and LEARN the author’s craft. I love it!

            Over the past few weeks I have learned A LOT. I am beginning to see more clearly the parallel between reading and writing because I’m consciously looking for it and experiencing it. The biggest turning point for me this semester so far has actually occurred over the past week when I was reading chapter four from Hicks (2009) and two and three from Tompkins (2012). My own definition of writing was revised after reading chapter four in Hicks (see my response: Challenging the definition of writing) and having this fuller appreciation of the creative, recursive and thoughtful processes that writers use has helped me see the connection between reading and writing.

Where I really see the connection (and the importance) is with the process of revision. “If readers are to develop some control over and a sense of discovery with the models of meaning they build, they must approach text with the same deliberation, time and reflection that a writer employs as she revises a text (Tierney & Pearson, 1983, p. 576). If readers understand how the revision process occurs with writing, meaning they understand that a good writer will go back to revise and edit as a text grows because the meaning of it will change as the piece is developed, students may be able to more easily grasp the idea that the meaning of text must also be revised. As one reads through a text, or rereads a text, the reader is exposed to new information that may change their initial understanding and assumptions constructed at the beginning, middle and end of the text. This action is necessary to ensure that the reader is fully transacting. Helping students see this connection by using writing as the more tangible example will help students develop this more tacit skill.

Over the past few weeks, in attempts to fulfill the goals of this class, you have required us to use writing as a mode of exploring, clarifying and learning new ideas. I use writing to do this on average once a week, for an extended period of time. I question if this is enough? I don’t think it is. Over the past two days (in attempts to leave a good quality response to the weekly reading question and craft well thought out blogs) I’ve had to create these texts in pieces, leaving them to complete some other task and coming back later to reread, revise and edit. I believe these breaks I took were beneficial because it allowed the ideas swirling in my head to incubate, and become more potent. I was able to come back to each piece with “fresh eyes” and a clearer goal in mind for my message. So even though I’ve had less time to do these revisions, I have used my time more appropriately and effectively. I do have to give you some credit as well! During our last class, while I don’t remember your specific words, you challenged us to think more critically about how we were using our reading and writing. I took this to heart and by doing so, I was able make some considerable changes.

The most significant change to my writing process is the amount of thinking I do, as well as how I go about doing it. I think it is safe to say that I’m always thinking when I write, but I have become more aware of what type of thinking I’m doing. I’ve realized that when I write, I spend very little time in the generating, narrowing and organizing stage. I spend most of my time in the monitoring, rereading and revising stage… which I have to do a lot of because I jump right into creating a text without a clear goal in mind. I’ve been able to get away with this for such a long time that it is difficult for me to consciously tell myself to stop and spend time to do those truly beneficial prewriting activities. This tendency to rush into the “writing” stage was revealed to me in the past two days, when I took the time to consciously pay attention to my inner voice (especially when I recognized I was having trouble). I deliberately kept figure 2-1 in Tompkins (2012, p. 35) open when completing the writing tasks over the past two days to help me recognize what writing strategy I was employing at a given time, taking care to consider when I was using it and why.

As of right now, forcing myself to generate, organize and narrow ideas is probably the most important writing habit I have to change. Like I said, this will be hard because my natural process is to jump right in. I have however seen an improvement by utilizing the prewriting strategies; the writing process has become more enjoyable and productive. As far as my reading habits, I need to continually remind myself of the importance of taking on the role as reviser as I read. When I mentioned about that truly understanding the revision connection between reading and writing would help students recognize this process with reading… that student was me! Keeping this idea in mind will be beneficial not only when I reread a text for myself, but also when I reflect on the comments made in our group forum or in our blogs; always remembering that the meaning of the text can change when exposed to additional perspectives and information.   

  

Overall, the realizations that I’ve wrote to you about in this letter are extremely useful in aiding me as a teacher of literacy. To actually experience and understand what the authors are talking about in the text we read gives me a deeper insight as to how I should go about teaching literacy. That being said, there are some specific strategies that we’ve been taught that I think will also be beneficial. First is the use of blogging. Giving my students a true audience and reason to create a well crafted text, letting them see how their text affects other as well as giving them the ability to receive real feedback and engage in discussion are all great ways to spur intrinsic motivation to write. Additionally, the Card Strategy (Kucer & Rhodes, 1986, p.189) activity was great because it causes writers to really engage in prewriting activities. I think my students would really like the Card Strategy because, like most teens, they would be interested in sharing why they think their way is the best but would probably still be (secretly) interested in seeing how their peers might arrange their ideas differently.

At the present time I don’t feel like I’m struggling. I was two days ago, but after spending some time doing some honest thinking, I believe I’ve sorted my confusions out. Don’t worry though, I know where to find you if I start have problems!

                                                                        Sincerely,

                                                                                    Alyse Palumbo

Works Cited

Hicks, T. (2009).  The digital writing workshop.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann.

Tompkins, G. E.  (2012).  Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (6^th ed.).

Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill.

Kucer, S. B. & Rhodes, L. K. (1986).  Counterpart strategies:  Fine tuning language with

language.  The Reading Teacher, 40(2),186-193.

Tierney, R. & Pearson, P. D. (1983).  Toward a composing model of reading.  Language

Arts, 60(5), 568-580.

Entry 4: a diffilcult blog

  ...what occurred prior to writing my blog...

I had a really difficult time coming up with what I was going to blog about for this entry. After I read Dr. Jone’s comment about making sure to include more reflection and connection to my readings, I felt some anxiety over what I was going to write next. So, I diligently read chapter four over again in Hicks (2009) and paid careful attention to my thinking when reading chapter two and three in Tompkins (2012). Alas, even after doing all this reading I was still bemused as to what it was I should blog about.

SO I considered what writing strategies I knew about that would help me with this writers block. I also turned to Tompkins, chapter two, page 37, and focused on the generating section because I needed some ideas (2012). I used the brainstorming strategy because it was similar to the Card Strategy suggested by Kucer and Rhodes (1986, p. 189). When we used the card strategy in class this past Wednesday, I found it very helpful in not only generating ideas to write about, but it also helped me clarify what I wanted to write about and how to go about organizing my piece.

I spent a few minutes coming up with a list of words and statements pertaining to the chapters in Tompkins, and finally a question emerged that I had asked in the beginning of this class but that I keep coming back to Why do we have kids write? The first answer that popped into my head (unfortunately) is to demonstrate knowledge of something. While I know now that there are multiple other reasons why we should have students write the answer that I initially came up with seems the most automatic/natural? maybe because it was the usual reason that I was always asked to write. So then I began to think about the other reasons why we should have kids write.. and I wonder if most teachers do this? With all the time constraints and prep for standardized tests, do we really give kids the chance to write the way the writing workshop and leaders in the writing field suggest?

 I pondered this question... why do we have kids write... and then, using my brainstorm list as well as reflecting on the chapters I read, I began to organize my thoughts and use the various writing strategies explained by Tompkins to help me construct this piece (2012, p. 34).

Entry 4: Why do we have kids write?

         Why do we have kids write? This is a question that I keep coming back to. Unfortunately in school, all too often writing is used as a tool for assessment, where topics are chosen for the student, void of any intrinsic interest. I don’t remember ever enjoying writing a paper in high school, which is both unfortunate and interesting, because I’ve always produced decent papers. If I had been given the proper guidance however, I think that instead of just trying to get the task of writing over with, I really would have enjoyed the writing process, perhaps creating phenomenal papers! It's interesting to note, that while my papers turn out reasonably well written, I’ve always had a difficult time writing. It takes me a ridiculously long time to write a paper, even this blog, by the time it is complete, will have taken me just over a couple of hours to finish (and that’s with shaving off time because I employed some writing strategies that I do not usually use, namely generating, narrowing and organizing ideas).

       

          In the last year, when I have been assigned papers, I have been given more of a choice in my writing ventures, but even those were slightly limited because the topic had to be relevant to a class or chosen from a suggested selection. Knowing this, I reexamined my blog entry number three. This piece was different. It was unique... but also did not fulfil the requirements for this blog. What happened? I asked myself. I knew what I was supposed to do in the blog, I knew I was supposed to make more connections, but I didn't do that... why? Then I realized… this idea of student choice was the answer. I chose to start that blog entry as a journal, just because I wanted to, because I was intrigued about a genre that I haven't used in such a long time. I was interested in reproducing the mentor texts I saw in class. It was one of the first times ever I got to write for myself (and a real audience) about ANYTHING that I wanted to write about… so I ran with it (isn’t that sad yet beautiful at the same time?). I was excited about it, I was consumed by it. When I left class that Wednesday I couldn’t wait to get back to writing my blog, editing it, and making it look just the way I wanted to.

          Reflecting on my entry three blog, I am able to more fully appreciate, relate to and understand the importance of the writing strategies and traits presented by Tompkins in chapter two and three.  To develop great writers, strategic writers and crafty writers, us teachers need to give students the liberty to write about something meaningful (I see now why Dr. Jones has given us free reign on choosing the topic for our Genre Pieces Project!). With this in mind, I'm able to reach my goal I had set out when beginning this blog... attempting to answer my initial question: Why do we have students write? As I constructed this blog, revised it and reread it (which I did over and over again last night... then stepped away for the evening and came back to this morning) I came to an answer. At least one that I’m content with for the moment for it may be revised as I learn about the writing process… but for now, the reason why we should have students write is to feel that passion I felt during my composition of blog entry three, that need to create and share something awesome with the world! This is the best most organic reason to have students write!

Hicks, T. (2009).  The digital writing workshop.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann.

Kucer, S. B. & Rhodes, L. K. (1986).  Counterpart strategies:  Fine tuning language with  

     language.  The Reading Teacher, 40(2),186-193.

Tompkins, G. E.  (2012).  Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (6^th ed.). Upper

     Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill.

Entry 2 - Setting up a a Digital Writing Workshop: Scary or Exciting?

          A digital writing workshop is not set up in my room. I had thought about creating some sort of blog during the summer time, but then considered all the factors that would have to go into it as well as the possible consequences (which I'll be honest, were none of those addressed by Hick's when setting up her frame of reference) and then quickly dispelled the idea. Setting up a digital space for my students seemed scary. Too much uncertainty and student responsibility, too little control. After reading Hicks however, while still overwhelmed with how to go about setting up a digital workshop, I've reconsidered the effectiveness and use of a digital writing workshop and am excited about the prospect of setting one up.

The WHO:    

            When I reflect on my student's abilities, I recognize that I am not actually sure what they can and cannot do. Hicks addresses this by warning that while students can appear to be technologically savvy, they may be lacking important skills needed to craft and critique digital media (Hicks, 2009, 129). The only time my students have used computers and the internet in front of me has been during the past month when researching and writing their environmental midterm paper. I know (through individual conversations) that many of my students think they know how to navigate through the copious amount of information on the internet, but based on classroom observations, I am not convinced that they can do this well or with ease. What concerns me even more is that they don't know this about themselves.

The WHAT:

I have never given any thought as to how I would go about teaching digital writing. I guess I assumed that if I ever incorporated a digital writing component in my class I would tell my students what to do, not teach them. This would probably turn out to be a pointless exercise because they probably would have no idea what to do (I am not sure if teachers in my building emphasizes digital writing). In addition to this, I probably would have little student buy-in. Because my students have never really used digital writing in their other classes, I am not sure if they would deem it as a legitimate form of writing.  

The WHERE, WHEN AND  HOW:

            Up to this point, I had a pretty dismal outlook on what I have set up for my digital writing workshop. I don't know what my students know (I think not much), I'm not sure how I would teach it (or who else could help me or if my students would value it!) but I do have a space and I do have computers and (maybe most importantly) I do have the TIME to teach digital writing. In my environmental class I have the time and the freedom to teach the curriculum I would like, so with the proper planning and vision, I should be able to easily incorporate a digital writing workshop. As far as the space and classroom set up, this would depend on how I wanted my students to work. If I wanted students to work independently, I could book the computer lab, if I wanted students to work in groups within my classroom, I could borrow a lap top cart.

The FUTURE:

            So what else do I need to do? Well, first I need to familiarize myself with the different types of digital writing (so far I'm digging this Blogger... there is room for creativity but also structure for blogging novices like me!). Then I need to consider how my students might use it as well as what and how they could explore the class curriculum through the use of digital writing. I need to help build a true purpose for digital writing, not only for the format of it, but also the subjects in which my students will explore. I will have to carefully consider who my students' audience will be, who will have access to our digital writing and how it will be assessed.  

            One concern/vision I do have is that I would want my students to compose digital writing not only during class, but feel some sort of ownership towards it and want to write outside of class. In my district (even though there is plenty of computers available throughout the school day) out of class participation may be an issue due to the fact that many students lack home internet access. Looking at the bright side however, if there was a digital writing element to this class, this may provide a viable way for students to actively participate in class when they have attendance issues or difficulties interacting with other students face-to-face. 

Works Cited

Hicks, T. (2009).  The digital writing workshop.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann.