Both Atwell and Smagorinsky et al. have great ideas about engaging students in both the writing process and in general, the classroom. I particularly enjoyed Atwell’s discussion in Chapter One on the evolution of her beliefs. I appreciate that she became less of a “purist” about her Writing Workshop orthodoxy after the first edition of our textbook was published. In the second edition she has become more flexible with both herself and her students. Although students still possess a great deal of ownership in the classroom, she once again views herself as their leader.
One of the items Atwell describes on page 18 regarding her original workshop view is that one shouldn't offer praise, which seems counter-intuitive to me, and I have yet to come up with an explanation of why she would feel this way. In my view, praise, no matter what your teaching orthodoxy, just seems like one of those things that is inherent to teaching.
I also enjoyed her discussion of how she merged her experience as a parent to a young child with her attitude in a classroom with older kids. I see many parallels between parenting and teaching, so an example of how that works in practice is quite useful. Chapter Three, “Making the Best of Adolescence,” was also familiar parent and graduate student territory. Many of those ideas have been referenced in other classes in this program, and I also have read similar sentiments in parenting books. I also think that her use of poetry from actual students exponentially enhanced the discussion. The depth of emotion that these “kids” feel is so striking; it’s a great reminder that as a teacher we are dealing with real human beings who deserve the best we can offer as teachers and want to be treated with respect and kindness.
The discussion on beliefs in Chapter One of Smagorinsky et al. ties Chapters One and Three from Atwell’s book together nicely. It was very helpful to see how many angles one can look at the role of a teacher and think about where I fit within the spectrum. The idea of focusing on a product vs. focusing on the process is particularly interesting to me and at the crux of the “Writing Workshop.” Our students will learn more by doing, experience, and thinking their way to accomplishing a goal. The experience of simply finishing (a piece of writing, a book, a project, etc.) seems far less useful.
The first and third chapters of Atwell’s In the Middle and the first chapter of Smagorinsky’s Dynamics force us to consider the most effective manner to teach reading and writing. Atwell does so by presenting the nascent stages of her own teaching career in rural Maine and how she came to adopt the philosophy of teaching via writing workshops. Her third chapter uses the work her students produced in order to illustrate typical adolescent behavior. Smagorinsky et al. instead present several hypothetical teachers and the different styles they use in their classrooms, asking us to consider the virtues of each one.
I have never taken a class run exclusively as a workshop, and I would be interested to see one in action. Most of the classes I took as a student were a fusion of the first, third, and sixth scenarios presented by Smagorinsky et al. (4-7). I can see how a workshop would increase student enthusiasm. As Atwell notes, a huge portion of middle school students do not feel involved in the decisions regarding “seating, grouping, content, materials, use of space, time utilization, and learning activities” (68). She implies that this minimizes student interest and impedes real learning. Giving them control and allowing them to write what they want are ways to prevent a deadened classroom. I question two aspects, though. First, will a student who only likes to write poetry ever organically come to write a five-paragraph essay, or does that require structure and imposition on the part of the teacher? Second, how far can you trust a student’s peers to evaluate his work well? As intriguing as Atwell’s presentation of a workshop is, I can also see it becoming a mess. She doesn’t touch on that idea, at least not yet.
While I haven’t run a classroom on my own yet, I think my ideal class would fuse Atwell’s workshop with elements of all eight of Smagorinsky’s scenarios. I think some degree of the first scenario, “Stressing the Classic Form” (4), is a necessity in Massachusetts today because of the MCAS. I also really like the idea of keeping a year-long portfolio, which the authors describe in the second scenario. This seems like a good way not only to display a number of different kind of writing (essays, poems, stories, etc.) but also to see improvement over time. Such a portfolio would be a good opportunity for reflection and confidence-boosting for a student heading into high school.
Nancy Atwell begins her book, In the Middle (1998), by discussing “creationist” versus “evolutionist” teaching techniques. Just like Atwell says, it seems very easy to slip into the creationist mode where the teacher builds lesson plans and then “tends” to that creation (1998, p. 3). I have definitely had teachers who follow this model and I could tell when their lesson plan fell apart. Usually when this happened, the teacher would become frustrated and short with the class or end the lesson altogether and assign individual seatwork. Conversely, evolutionist teachers learn along with their students and thus are more open to altering lessons depending on the flow of the class.
Furthermore, Atwell states that we should be serving our students as “mentors” of writing, “mediators” of writing strategies, and “models” of writers (p. 21). Writing is one of the most important skills a student can develop and I am not sure if today’s students are receiving enough instruction related to writing. For example, I studied creative writing in my undergraduate program and we would participate in weekly workshops. Many of my peers almost consistently made the same mechanical mistakes in in all their stories. Though the content was usually engaging, the mistakes were distracting. I would often wonder how these students had made it so far in their education without a teacher correcting their overuse of the semicolon or explaining the importance of avoiding run-on sentences. Then I would remember: I learned many of these rules because writing fascinates me and maybe it is not the same for everyone. I think it is the teacher’s job to try to engage his or her students in learning these important skills.
Both Atwell and Smagorinsky et al. in The Dynamics of Writing Instruction (2010) discuss the importance for teachers to think about their beliefs regarding teaching and reflect on how to execute them. Atwell reminds us to remember that adolescence is a period for discovery and a time in which learning takes place when the students are able to like what they’re doing by being both actively and socially involved in instruction (Atwell, 1998, p. 85). Keeping this in mind, I would like to engage my future students in reading and writing by finding outlets that inspire them—if I am afforded the freedom to do so. Along the way, we will all learn and I can hopefully use Atwell’s “handover” approach (p. 19) to help students reach their ultimate reading and writing potentials.
One of the most important messages from Atwell's Chapters 1 and 3 is highlighted by the very titles of the chapters - teaching is a learning process, and it is one that is never perfected. In Chapter 1, Atwell suggests that like writing, teaching too is a process, and that at some point teachers need to "stop performing and become quiet" (17). After reading Smagorinsky et. al's eight approaches to teaching writing, I thought to myself "why do we have to do this?" (Atwell 83), and cursed at the suggested activities that Atwell had admitted were painful to students. Nonetheless, I found myself agreeing with the suggestion that asking these very questions will allow us to "teach well in relation to what students need" (Smagorinsky, et. al 3). Atwell too, admits to letting her curriculum evolve around the needs of her students (3).
Atwell's personal recommendations for teaching writing are valuable because they evidently come from experience, not just from theory. Students like to decide what they write about, they need to write everyday, have opportunities for revising with both the teacher and other students, and opportunities for publishing (12). What really struck a nerve was her admitting that exercises are painful – it is a breath of fresh air to hear a writing teacher speak such truth, knowing that there are many students out there who are struggling through tedious writing or grammar exercises. Instead of assigning topic-specific writing exercises, teachers can just as easily talk to their students, find out what they might enjoy writing about, and give them the time to do just that. If as teachers, we are to help our adolescent students "open a window on adulthood,” (85) what better way to do so than by giving them the freedom to explore their ideas and emotions while practicing the craft of writing. Atwell notes that writing in the classroom can "serve kids as a way to solve problems and see the world" (14).
Although I cannot yet relate to Atwell's journey as a teacher, I can relate to her journey as a student, as one who continues to practice and learn, acts through trial and error, and thinks ahead. I can relate to her comparison of teaching to parenting - as parents and teachers we act as a mentor by sharing knowledge, listening, showing, giving advice and acting like we know what we are doing (21). The “handover phase” (19) allows teachers to assist students when they need it, while encouraging them to be independent workers in the classroom, for writers enjoy feeling like they have control over their craft. Even my daughter, who has barely taken her first step, will light up with pure joy when she succeeds at completing a task on her own. Just as parents must remember that all children learn in their own ways, teachers too must remember that each student has their own store of ideas and techniques that may work well for them, or may just need some refining.
The more I read about teaching writing and adolescents, the more difficult it seems. Yet for some reason I’m still intending on going forward with this line of work. As a result, I’ve questioned why I read and write. And then I read this quote: “As a reader I look to stories to help me understand and give meaning to my life. As a writer I tell stories so I may understand, teaching myself and trying to teach others through the actions and reactions of those “people on the page,” (Atwell, 3). This just makes sense to me. I’m not even sure I can explain why. I for some reason enjoy writing, and I want to help others like it too, or at least not despise it as much as some adolescents do.
It was really great getting to read the inside scoop of Atwell’s history and how she learned. I was interested in when she was arguing with Susan and her NIE study, where, “Children learned to write by exercising the options available to real-world authors, including daily time for writing, conferences with teachers and peers during drafting, pacing set by the writer, and opportunities to publish what they had written. Most significantly, students decided what they would write.” (Atwell, 12). This was followed by the success she met in her classroom, where she then discussed all the brilliant and inspiring ideas her students came up with (14) as well as where the assignments ended up going and the differences they made in the world. It’s this example right here that makes me want to teach writing. But it’s also this example that makes it terrifying.
Chapter 3 was resourceful because it helps us as teachers reach adolescents: “You don’t have to suffer to be a poet. Adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.” John Ciardi (51). Junior high and high school were rough times for me. I wrote poetry during this time too. Yet, the poetry unit in school was one of the most boring things. Atwell seems to have turned poetry into a venting session in her class, creating some intense poetry from her students. I thought it was great to let students write poetry about what mattered to them, not force them to write similar to Walt Whitman (there is nothing wrong with his poetry!).
Smagorinsky Chapter 1
After going through this chapter, I feel like a radical or rebellious teacher, going against the classics and possibly the assigned curriculum in order to teach the student over the content. It was horrifying to read the end of the first scenario: “Ken shares this promising development with his department chair, and she congratulates him for training students to write in a way that is consistent with the scoring standard on the state writing assessment,” (4). WHAT?! I know it is just a scenario, but I do not doubt that this is how some teachers still think. It was much better to read the end of scenario two: “The students’ portfolios are a record of their writing and reveal their growth as writers over time. “ (5). Much better. And it makes much more sense too!
I particularly enjoyed the first chapter of Smagorinsky et al. due to the overwhelming amount of questions left open and unanswered. A lot of academia is up in the air. Everything can be broken down into personal interpretations, preferences, or opinions. There is very little in the world that is finite or concrete and I think that is what makes academia so exciting for me. For twenty years I have been a student. I have thrived on the notion that everything can be interpreted. I love learning for that very reason. I love listening to the different opinions and mental processes people come up with for one topic. In the first chapter of Smagorinsky, as teachers, we are asked to develop our own opinions, preferences, and interpretations of what good writing is and how to produce it.
Everything worth doing in life is a process. The cliché saying “it’s not about the destination but the journey” though cheesy, is a truth many choose to ignore. In the chaos of the twenty-first century we are all about the ends and less concerned with the means. We want to see the product rather than the process and I think that is where we go wrong. Writing is the example the chapters talk about and how the finished product is satisfying but not nearly as beneficial as the process we use to get there. I have taken over thirteen different creative writing workshops and every single one I go to is about the writing process and not the product. There is a reason for that. As humans, we learn best by trial and error. When a square rock didn’t roll we tried an oval one, then a round one. When thatched roofs burned too easily, we tried a variety of shingle, metal, and cement. Without failure there is no success to be had. Much like the concepts of good and evil and right and wrong, failure must take place in order for success to take place. As educators, students, and humans, we must learn to embrace our failures as opportunities. It is something that we must also bring into the classroom. We have to teach our students about failure before we can help them succeed.
These chapters really highlighted two vastly opposing views of teaching. Some teaching methods embrace a freedom-based learning environment where there is more cooperative learning and flexibility. Other teaching methods embrace a controlled environment that using a more structured hierarchy to learning (Smagorinsky et al., p.9). It is a spectrum that all teachers fall within. I know that I am more inclined to freedom and flexibility than control. Knowing my process and my method will hopefully help me become a better teacher.
Chapter 1 of In the Middle describes Atwell’s journey in becoming an evolutionist of sorts. Her focus shifted from creating and structuring to evolving and learning and, in effect, really became more constructivist in nature. The greatest lesson that I personally took away from this chapter was that students themselves should determine what they need to learn. Atwell opened up her curriculum so that the students had more options and choices in developing their own voices as writers. I particularly liked her statement regarding their commitment: “their commitment to their ideas and purposes made them work hard; their hard work made significant writing happen” (p. 14). Atwell moved away from prompted writing toward students’ interests-centered writing. The writing thus became much more meaningful and motivating for students.
This transition varies greatly from my own previous beliefs related to my own writing. Prior to reading this chapter, I always held the position that I needed (or even required) writing prompts. I tend to develop writer’s block quickly, and prompts or some sort of constraints allowed me to find a jumping-off point. Upon further examination however, I found that some of my favorite, personal pieces were written without any attachment to prompts and instructions. In my junior year of high school, I constantly had a personal narrative developing in my head. When I finally had the time to put it on paper, something that I really, truly cared about formed a full sixteen pages (one of the longest pieces I have ever written). I then dedicated myself to developing and revising that piece over and over, despite the fact that I never once turned that piece in as an assignment. As a teacher, I want to encourage this writing process in my own students, thus allowing them to develop their own inherent love of writing.
The openness of Atwell’s writing instruction relates to the points shared in Chapter 1 of The Dynamics of Writing Instruction, particularly Scenario 2: Individualizing Instruction. The teacher in this scenario focuses on allowing students to develop authentic voices. The teacher even encourages his students to mix features of their online writing with conventional writing as appropriate. I liked this approach because it allows for understanding of conventional writing, but drives the development of creative writing. My professor for the course Essay Writing for English Majors encouraged us to break the rules as long as we understood them. This lead to more interesting writing that still allowed us to develop proper academic writing constructions.
This week’s reading was just fun to me, mostly in Smagorinsky. There were so many different ways to work with writing, some that I have done and heard of and others that were new to me. I really did enjoy the matrix in figure 1.1 that allows teachers to figure out what they think about different issues. This could be applied to students; giving students a pre-writing assignment like this is a great way for them to figure out what they are interested in and what they want to write about for future assignments. I was never a great creative writer during high school and something like this would have be great to have for a prompt and to write down my ideas on different topics.
When it came to reading Atwell, she had so many great things to contribute. Upon opening this book I always feel slightly overwhelmed because of the length of the chapters, but this weeks reading was so informative and relatable. My presentation for class today focuses on adolescents and how the writing workshop works and I very much tried to focus on how students are feeling. They are going through so much at this stage in their lives, and as Atwell puts it, “middle school students shuttle back and forth between naïveté and world-weariness. They shuttle back and forth between everything” (Atwell, 1998, p. 56). Students at this age just aren’t there yet, in anything. They do not know what they want out of life, usually, and they certainly haven’t decided where they stand compared to the adults in their lives, but they want to know these things.
Watching teenagers figure out what they want can be a really confusing thing. A few of my close cousins are seniors in high school right now and I have been there for the past three years and they are still confused. One knows that he is going into the military, but the other is at a loss. Being an adolescent is not something that comes easily to anyone; I am sure we can all contribute one or two stories from our time that make us cringe!
Both Atwell and Smagorinsky et al. have great ideas about engaging students in both the writing process and in general, the classroom. I particularly enjoyed Atwell’s discussion in Chapter One on the evolution of her beliefs. I appreciate that she became less of a “purist” about her Writing Workshop orthodoxy after the first edition of our textbook was published. In the second edition she has become more flexible with both herself and her students. Although students still possess a great deal of ownership in the classroom, she once again views herself as their leader.
ReplyDeleteOne of the items Atwell describes on page 18 regarding her original workshop view is that one shouldn't offer praise, which seems counter-intuitive to me, and I have yet to come up with an explanation of why she would feel this way. In my view, praise, no matter what your teaching orthodoxy, just seems like one of those things that is inherent to teaching.
I also enjoyed her discussion of how she merged her experience as a parent to a young child with her attitude in a classroom with older kids. I see many parallels between parenting and teaching, so an example of how that works in practice is quite useful. Chapter Three, “Making the Best of Adolescence,” was also familiar parent and graduate student territory. Many of those ideas have been referenced in other classes in this program, and I also have read similar sentiments in parenting books. I also think that her use of poetry from actual students exponentially enhanced the discussion. The depth of emotion that these “kids” feel is so striking; it’s a great reminder that as a teacher we are dealing with real human beings who deserve the best we can offer as teachers and want to be treated with respect and kindness.
The discussion on beliefs in Chapter One of Smagorinsky et al. ties Chapters One and Three from Atwell’s book together nicely. It was very helpful to see how many angles one can look at the role of a teacher and think about where I fit within the spectrum. The idea of focusing on a product vs. focusing on the process is particularly interesting to me and at the crux of the “Writing Workshop.” Our students will learn more by doing, experience, and thinking their way to accomplishing a goal. The experience of simply finishing (a piece of writing, a book, a project, etc.) seems far less useful.
The first and third chapters of Atwell’s In the Middle and the first chapter of Smagorinsky’s Dynamics force us to consider the most effective manner to teach reading and writing. Atwell does so by presenting the nascent stages of her own teaching career in rural Maine and how she came to adopt the philosophy of teaching via writing workshops. Her third chapter uses the work her students produced in order to illustrate typical adolescent behavior. Smagorinsky et al. instead present several hypothetical teachers and the different styles they use in their classrooms, asking us to consider the virtues of each one.
ReplyDeleteI have never taken a class run exclusively as a workshop, and I would be interested to see one in action. Most of the classes I took as a student were a fusion of the first, third, and sixth scenarios presented by Smagorinsky et al. (4-7). I can see how a workshop would increase student enthusiasm. As Atwell notes, a huge portion of middle school students do not feel involved in the decisions regarding “seating, grouping, content, materials, use of space, time utilization, and learning activities” (68). She implies that this minimizes student interest and impedes real learning. Giving them control and allowing them to write what they want are ways to prevent a deadened classroom. I question two aspects, though. First, will a student who only likes to write poetry ever organically come to write a five-paragraph essay, or does that require structure and imposition on the part of the teacher? Second, how far can you trust a student’s peers to evaluate his work well? As intriguing as Atwell’s presentation of a workshop is, I can also see it becoming a mess. She doesn’t touch on that idea, at least not yet.
While I haven’t run a classroom on my own yet, I think my ideal class would fuse Atwell’s workshop with elements of all eight of Smagorinsky’s scenarios. I think some degree of the first scenario, “Stressing the Classic Form” (4), is a necessity in Massachusetts today because of the MCAS. I also really like the idea of keeping a year-long portfolio, which the authors describe in the second scenario. This seems like a good way not only to display a number of different kind of writing (essays, poems, stories, etc.) but also to see improvement over time. Such a portfolio would be a good opportunity for reflection and confidence-boosting for a student heading into high school.
Nancy Atwell begins her book, In the Middle (1998), by discussing “creationist” versus “evolutionist” teaching techniques. Just like Atwell says, it seems very easy to slip into the creationist mode where the teacher builds lesson plans and then “tends” to that creation (1998, p. 3). I have definitely had teachers who follow this model and I could tell when their lesson plan fell apart. Usually when this happened, the teacher would become frustrated and short with the class or end the lesson altogether and assign individual seatwork. Conversely, evolutionist teachers learn along with their students and thus are more open to altering lessons depending on the flow of the class.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, Atwell states that we should be serving our students as “mentors” of writing, “mediators” of writing strategies, and “models” of writers (p. 21). Writing is one of the most important skills a student can develop and I am not sure if today’s students are receiving enough instruction related to writing. For example, I studied creative writing in my undergraduate program and we would participate in weekly workshops. Many of my peers almost consistently made the same mechanical mistakes in in all their stories. Though the content was usually engaging, the mistakes were distracting. I would often wonder how these students had made it so far in their education without a teacher correcting their overuse of the semicolon or explaining the importance of avoiding run-on sentences. Then I would remember: I learned many of these rules because writing fascinates me and maybe it is not the same for everyone. I think it is the teacher’s job to try to engage his or her students in learning these important skills.
Both Atwell and Smagorinsky et al. in The Dynamics of Writing Instruction (2010) discuss the importance for teachers to think about their beliefs regarding teaching and reflect on how to execute them. Atwell reminds us to remember that adolescence is a period for discovery and a time in which learning takes place when the students are able to like what they’re doing by being both actively and socially involved in instruction (Atwell, 1998, p. 85). Keeping this in mind, I would like to engage my future students in reading and writing by finding outlets that inspire them—if I am afforded the freedom to do so. Along the way, we will all learn and I can hopefully use Atwell’s “handover” approach (p. 19) to help students reach their ultimate reading and writing potentials.
One of the most important messages from Atwell's Chapters 1 and 3 is highlighted by the very titles of the chapters - teaching is a learning process, and it is one that is never perfected. In Chapter 1, Atwell suggests that like writing, teaching too is a process, and that at some point teachers need to "stop performing and become quiet" (17). After reading Smagorinsky et. al's eight approaches to teaching writing, I thought to myself "why do we have to do this?" (Atwell 83), and cursed at the suggested activities that Atwell had admitted were painful to students. Nonetheless, I found myself agreeing with the suggestion that asking these very questions will allow us to "teach well in relation to what students need" (Smagorinsky, et. al 3). Atwell too, admits to letting her curriculum evolve around the needs of her students (3).
ReplyDeleteAtwell's personal recommendations for teaching writing are valuable because they evidently come from experience, not just from theory. Students like to decide what they write about, they need to write everyday, have opportunities for revising with both the teacher and other students, and opportunities for publishing (12). What really struck a nerve was her admitting that exercises are painful – it is a breath of fresh air to hear a writing teacher speak such truth, knowing that there are many students out there who are struggling through tedious writing or grammar exercises. Instead of assigning topic-specific writing exercises, teachers can just as easily talk to their students, find out what they might enjoy writing about, and give them the time to do just that. If as teachers, we are to help our adolescent students "open a window on adulthood,” (85) what better way to do so than by giving them the freedom to explore their ideas and emotions while practicing the craft of writing. Atwell notes that writing in the classroom can "serve kids as a way to solve problems and see the world" (14).
Although I cannot yet relate to Atwell's journey as a teacher, I can relate to her journey as a student, as one who continues to practice and learn, acts through trial and error, and thinks ahead. I can relate to her comparison of teaching to parenting - as parents and teachers we act as a mentor by sharing knowledge, listening, showing, giving advice and acting like we know what we are doing (21). The “handover phase” (19) allows teachers to assist students when they need it, while encouraging them to be independent workers in the classroom, for writers enjoy feeling like they have control over their craft. Even my daughter, who has barely taken her first step, will light up with pure joy when she succeeds at completing a task on her own. Just as parents must remember that all children learn in their own ways, teachers too must remember that each student has their own store of ideas and techniques that may work well for them, or may just need some refining.
Atwell Chapters 1 & 3
ReplyDeleteThe more I read about teaching writing and adolescents, the more difficult it seems. Yet for some reason I’m still intending on going forward with this line of work. As a result, I’ve questioned why I read and write. And then I read this quote: “As a reader I look to stories to help me understand and give meaning to my life. As a writer I tell stories so I may understand, teaching myself and trying to teach others through the actions and reactions of those “people on the page,” (Atwell, 3). This just makes sense to me. I’m not even sure I can explain why. I for some reason enjoy writing, and I want to help others like it too, or at least not despise it as much as some adolescents do.
It was really great getting to read the inside scoop of Atwell’s history and how she learned. I was interested in when she was arguing with Susan and her NIE study, where, “Children learned to write by exercising the options available to real-world authors, including daily time for writing, conferences with teachers and peers during drafting, pacing set by the writer, and opportunities to publish what they had written. Most significantly, students decided what they would write.” (Atwell, 12). This was followed by the success she met in her classroom, where she then discussed all the brilliant and inspiring ideas her students came up with (14) as well as where the assignments ended up going and the differences they made in the world. It’s this example right here that makes me want to teach writing. But it’s also this example that makes it terrifying.
Chapter 3 was resourceful because it helps us as teachers reach adolescents: “You don’t have to suffer to be a poet. Adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.” John Ciardi (51). Junior high and high school were rough times for me. I wrote poetry during this time too. Yet, the poetry unit in school was one of the most boring things. Atwell seems to have turned poetry into a venting session in her class, creating some intense poetry from her students. I thought it was great to let students write poetry about what mattered to them, not force them to write similar to Walt Whitman (there is nothing wrong with his poetry!).
Smagorinsky Chapter 1
After going through this chapter, I feel like a radical or rebellious teacher, going against the classics and possibly the assigned curriculum in order to teach the student over the content. It was horrifying to read the end of the first scenario: “Ken shares this promising development with his department chair, and she congratulates him for training students to write in a way that is consistent with the scoring standard on the state writing assessment,” (4). WHAT?! I know it is just a scenario, but I do not doubt that this is how some teachers still think. It was much better to read the end of scenario two: “The students’ portfolios are a record of their writing and reveal their growth as writers over time. “ (5). Much better. And it makes much more sense too!
Freedom vs. Control
ReplyDeleteI particularly enjoyed the first chapter of Smagorinsky et al. due to the overwhelming amount of questions left open and unanswered. A lot of academia is up in the air. Everything can be broken down into personal interpretations, preferences, or opinions. There is very little in the world that is finite or concrete and I think that is what makes academia so exciting for me. For twenty years I have been a student. I have thrived on the notion that everything can be interpreted. I love learning for that very reason. I love listening to the different opinions and mental processes people come up with for one topic. In the first chapter of Smagorinsky, as teachers, we are asked to develop our own opinions, preferences, and interpretations of what good writing is and how to produce it.
Everything worth doing in life is a process. The cliché saying “it’s not about the destination but the journey” though cheesy, is a truth many choose to ignore. In the chaos of the twenty-first century we are all about the ends and less concerned with the means. We want to see the product rather than the process and I think that is where we go wrong. Writing is the example the chapters talk about and how the finished product is satisfying but not nearly as beneficial as the process we use to get there. I have taken over thirteen different creative writing workshops and every single one I go to is about the writing process and not the product. There is a reason for that. As humans, we learn best by trial and error. When a square rock didn’t roll we tried an oval one, then a round one. When thatched roofs burned too easily, we tried a variety of shingle, metal, and cement. Without failure there is no success to be had. Much like the concepts of good and evil and right and wrong, failure must take place in order for success to take place. As educators, students, and humans, we must learn to embrace our failures as opportunities. It is something that we must also bring into the classroom. We have to teach our students about failure before we can help them succeed.
These chapters really highlighted two vastly opposing views of teaching. Some teaching methods embrace a freedom-based learning environment where there is more cooperative learning and flexibility. Other teaching methods embrace a controlled environment that using a more structured hierarchy to learning (Smagorinsky et al., p.9). It is a spectrum that all teachers fall within. I know that I am more inclined to freedom and flexibility than control. Knowing my process and my method will hopefully help me become a better teacher.
Chapter 1 of In the Middle describes Atwell’s journey in becoming an evolutionist of sorts. Her focus shifted from creating and structuring to evolving and learning and, in effect, really became more constructivist in nature. The greatest lesson that I personally took away from this chapter was that students themselves should determine what they need to learn. Atwell opened up her curriculum so that the students had more options and choices in developing their own voices as writers. I particularly liked her statement regarding their commitment: “their commitment to their ideas and purposes made them work hard; their hard work made significant writing happen” (p. 14). Atwell moved away from prompted writing toward students’ interests-centered writing. The writing thus became much more meaningful and motivating for students.
ReplyDeleteThis transition varies greatly from my own previous beliefs related to my own writing. Prior to reading this chapter, I always held the position that I needed (or even required) writing prompts. I tend to develop writer’s block quickly, and prompts or some sort of constraints allowed me to find a jumping-off point. Upon further examination however, I found that some of my favorite, personal pieces were written without any attachment to prompts and instructions. In my junior year of high school, I constantly had a personal narrative developing in my head. When I finally had the time to put it on paper, something that I really, truly cared about formed a full sixteen pages (one of the longest pieces I have ever written). I then dedicated myself to developing and revising that piece over and over, despite the fact that I never once turned that piece in as an assignment. As a teacher, I want to encourage this writing process in my own students, thus allowing them to develop their own inherent love of writing.
The openness of Atwell’s writing instruction relates to the points shared in Chapter 1 of The Dynamics of Writing Instruction, particularly Scenario 2: Individualizing Instruction. The teacher in this scenario focuses on allowing students to develop authentic voices. The teacher even encourages his students to mix features of their online writing with conventional writing as appropriate. I liked this approach because it allows for understanding of conventional writing, but drives the development of creative writing. My professor for the course Essay Writing for English Majors encouraged us to break the rules as long as we understood them. This lead to more interesting writing that still allowed us to develop proper academic writing constructions.
This week’s reading was just fun to me, mostly in Smagorinsky. There were so many different ways to work with writing, some that I have done and heard of and others that were new to me. I really did enjoy the matrix in figure 1.1 that allows teachers to figure out what they think about different issues. This could be applied to students; giving students a pre-writing assignment like this is a great way for them to figure out what they are interested in and what they want to write about for future assignments. I was never a great creative writer during high school and something like this would have be great to have for a prompt and to write down my ideas on different topics.
ReplyDeleteWhen it came to reading Atwell, she had so many great things to contribute. Upon opening this book I always feel slightly overwhelmed because of the length of the chapters, but this weeks reading was so informative and relatable. My presentation for class today focuses on adolescents and how the writing workshop works and I very much tried to focus on how students are feeling. They are going through so much at this stage in their lives, and as Atwell puts it, “middle school students shuttle back and forth between naïveté and world-weariness. They shuttle back and forth between everything” (Atwell, 1998, p. 56). Students at this age just aren’t there yet, in anything. They do not know what they want out of life, usually, and they certainly haven’t decided where they stand compared to the adults in their lives, but they want to know these things.
Watching teenagers figure out what they want can be a really confusing thing. A few of my close cousins are seniors in high school right now and I have been there for the past three years and they are still confused. One knows that he is going into the military, but the other is at a loss. Being an adolescent is not something that comes easily to anyone; I am sure we can all contribute one or two stories from our time that make us cringe!