Nancie Atwell seems to be more passionate about poetry than any other form of expression she has discussed thus far. On page 431 she describes poetry as something that “can take them where memory can’t – to the hazy recollections of their earliest memories, where there isn’t enough information to craft the complete experience, but there’s more than enough feeling to distill it.” I couldn’t have said it better if I had to come up with an argument for why poetry is a worthwhile medium, should be abundantly. I like her approach to sharing poetry with her students; she exposes them to a variety of forms and subjects, always with an ear toward what they like and find interesting.
Atwell also points out that, like all writing, “poems evolve from hard work” (p. 454). Whether its nonfiction, fiction, or poetry, her mini-lessons are designed to help students learn to both read and create poems. Her approach to teaching writing has been very useful to me. It doesn’t always seem obvious that simply helping your students to channel their inspiration will create good writers out of them.
Chapter 8 in Smagorinsky is pretty much how to write the exact opposite of poetry, but research papers can be considered their own type of art form that needs to be crafted just as delicately as a poem. The skills students hone in research writing, “the ability to comprehend, analyze, and synthesize facts, ideas, and concepts” (p. 159), will not only help them to succeed in higher education, but are some of the most important tools adults use in the workplace.
Smagorinsky believes that teachers should offer a balance of topics for students to choose from; they should be relevant enough to engage the students, but too many topics should be avoided. Why can we not allow students to choose what they would like to research on their own? Not only would they feel the most investment in the process, but we would not have to waste our own time compiling a list of best bets.
I think the process Smagorinsky has suggested that slowly passes the burden of building claims, evidence, and warrants onto the student should be easy to put into motion. With the right topic I think it could actually seem very fun to work on it as a class, especially if you use the blogs and/or integrate other technology as suggested. In this “age of technology” I definitely think that avoiding plagiarism and assessing the validity of sources should deem their own separate mini-lessons, but as Smagorinsky points out, “when the thrust of the writing shifts from the information as an end in itself to the advancement of an opinion based on that information, plagiarizing becomes less of an issue” (p.161).
I found Atwell’s chapter on poetry somewhat frustrating and not very useful. Poetry is probably one of the most difficult things to teach in an English classroom. If teachers are struggling to get students interested in prose reading, it must be nearly impossible to get any students interested in poetry (beyond the future English majors). While it is nice to see her students’ poetry as a product of Atwell’s teaching, I would have liked more on the process of how they got there. The most useful aspects of the chapter were the recommendations of anthologies to use in order to introduce poetry (423) as well as the lists “How to Read a Poem” and “What Makes a Poem Resonate For Me?” (425). These lists serve as good ways to bridge poetry as art to the practical ideas of students experiences and feelings. Other than that, though, this chapter doesn’t give much insight into the art of teaching poetry. It’s nice to see the kinds of poetry that students can ultimately create and the poems one can use to model them, but there’s little indication of what Atwell did to get her students to these achievements. I found this frustrating.
Smagorinsky’s chapter on research papers, however, was extremely useful. I can see using Smagorinsky’s previous chapter on argumentation and compare and contrast essays as a springboard into this type of activity, as many of the tasks involved in research papers are more in-depth versions of the ones used in those types of writing. I like the model of the graphic organizer on page 174. It mirrors the same activity used in argumentation by requiring a claim, evidence and a warrant. This seems like a good way to get kids into familiar territory and then slowly building into deeper research. The other graphic organizer on page 173 is also useful, as it gives a simple and direct visualization of what the students need to accomplish in a research paper. The ideas of using childhood obesity and cell phone usage as a possible topics also seem good. These are real issues affecting them and their peers, so even if the students don’t necessarily want to write about these topics, they will at least be able to connect them to personal experience.
Both Smagorinsky et al. and Nancie Atwell discuss accessible ways in which teachers can approach teaching writing skills to students. Both believe that exposure to various mediums of writing will help aid students’ understanding, comfort, and ability to write.
Smagorinsky et al. specifically address the writing of research papers and procedures students should follow in order to be successful with them. It is important to keep in mind the relevance of research skills for real world application. Smagorinsky et al. remind us that teachers as well as parents and students themselves want the students to learn how to comprehend and analyze information, synthesize facts, ideas, and concepts from a variety of sources while being able to properly document their sources (2010, p. 159). Although most students are able to effectively comprehend any research they uncover, many have difficulty analyzing it and synthesizing (2010, p. 160). Therefore, it is important for teachers to scaffold instruction by introducing clear expectations that double as procedures, like in the previous chapters about argumentation and comparison and contrast essays.
Smagorinsky et al. suggest beginning research paper units by letting students research controversial topics that might interest them. For instance, in my own Freshman English class in high school, I remember writing a paper on the issues surrounding Stem-Cell Research. I learned how to find reliable sources, structure my argument, include counterarguments and rebuttals, and cite my sources. The fact I still remember the assignment now speaks to how much I learned from it. I think this is a very effective approach for building students’ skills.
Atwell addresses poetry. She immediately takes issue with the fact that poetry seems to be disappearing from classroom instruction (1998, p. 416). Either teachers are not comfortable with poetry themselves, or they do not think their students can handle it. However, poetry is too important of a genre to skip. I must admit that I do not count poetry as one of my favorite mediums, but I have an appreciation for it. This appreciation is important to impart to students. Atwell exposes students to poetry as much as possible. Eventually, after enough experience reading poetry, students will find some they like and then want to write them as well. Atwell’s philosophy is that if students “live” poetry each day, then they can learn to appreciate it (1998, p. 454) because more exposure “demystifies” it and clears up understanding (1998, p. 426). This is the perfect way to phrase it for poetry is certainly a medium in need of “demystifying.”
There is no denying the value of research and being able to comprehend, analyze, and synthesize facts, ideas, and concepts from a variety of sources. Everyone should know how to do it, and how to do it properly. It is important to keep in mind that conducting research and writing a paper about it is not easy. Students need to research and write about what they are interested in; that is how a teacher can yield the best results. “While writing a term paper, Larson found, students experience ‘a range of emotional states that are well out of their normal school experience. Many go through a process of personal involvement and self-searching that resembles and identity quest.’” (159). This chapter broke everything down in a simple way. It all starts with a question, an argument. What I thought was most important was teaching the students how to research an issue. In a world with the Internet and news sources focusing more on getting information out first, rather than making sure it’s right, students need to know how to do proper research and use reliable sources. I liked the idea of using relevant issues to start the teaching the research process. It would be keeping students informed on what is going on in the world in addition to teaching research.
Finding Poetry Everywhere
When I think back to poetry in high school, I remember everyone despising it. We didn’t like reading it or writing our own. It was usually at the end of the year, when teachers knew we had stopped paying attention and could only think of summer vacation. This was the case in college too. But somehow I liked poetry; just not during school hours. Reading all the student poems in this text is inspiring. But how can we get students to produce this kind of quality poetry? Atwell talks about questioning students so that they answer how poems resonate for them. I think teachers tend to overlook the value of this. It goes back to connecting students to literature that interests them. We shouldn’t force students to read poetry they don’t like or can’t relate to. The same goes for writing it. Atwell stated, “The experiences of their lives that become the subjects of poems reveal as much about who my kids are as photographs or fingerprints.” (428). The poetry unit can be a lot more valuable than some teachers make it out to be.
What first struck me about Atwell's chapter on poetry was the statistic that "today, it's 97 percent prose and just 3 percent poetry" that is taught to 4th graders in the U.S. (p.416). I do agree that poetry is one of the most difficult genres of literature to teach in the classroom, but am surprised that teachers do not go out of their way to expose students to poetry for this very reason. If there is any place that students will learn how to read poetry, it is in the classroom. Thinking back on my own experience, I can only recall one or two school years where a significant amount of time was spent on reading and writing poetry. Atwell says that as teachers, we need to read poetry in order to understand it, and be able to teach it to our students (p. 422). I like how she offers valuable suggestions for reading poetry, and creates background prior to reading pieces, whether it be about the author or subject matter of the poem. I also value her practice of sharing the poems that she loves with her students, so that teaching them becomes a passionate experience. Atwell notes that "good poetry is hard to write," but has a number of techniques for helping her students write good poetry (p. 454) - brainstorming verbs about a subject, experimenting with different forms in mini-lessons and brainstorming alternate ways of saying something in order to avoid cliche are just a few tools that I can see being extremely valuable for student writing, not just in the poetry genre.
Smagorinsky's chapter on teaching research papers explores ways in which teachers can make good researchers, and researchers who enjoy the act. Writing research papers can be a daunting, drawn-out task if the topic is not appropriate and sources are limited. To avoid this, Smagorinsky suggests having students do research on topics that they care about, or topics that are controversial (p.160). Central to developing a good thesis is forming valid, coherent arguments to support claims, and teaching students how to prepare for counterarguments. Peer feedback and revision in the classroom help students solidify their arguments and practice defending them. In my own experience, I found trips to the library and database tutorials during class time to be very helpful to the research process. I once had a teacher who had students select a research topic, gather sources and conduct the research, and then write a paragraph about each source and how it contributed to the thesis, rather than follow through with writing a lengthy paper. This is an exercise that allows students to practice locating good sources, and gets them thinking about how a good source contributes to their research as a whole. If all of the pieces of conducting research are set into motion (a good topic, informative sources, etc.), writing research papers can be an "identity quest" where students learn about themselves as individuals and as writers (p.160).
I found this week readings to be interesting because of how vastly different they were. As a writer myself, I do not associate writing poetry with any component of writing a research paper. Though the readings were separate, I read them in one sitting and that affected how I perceived their meaning and what I made of them. I think teaching how to research is important but I also believe teaching research papers in high school is too early. For students who still struggle with paragraph format, organization of thoughts, or finding and providing evidence, research papers are above their level. This is not to say they are incapable of writing a research paper but instead to suggest that research papers are difficult for college students never mind high school students. Research papers requires advanced academic skill such as fact finding, evaluating a source, quoting a source, paraphrasing, etc. Research, on the other hand, and research projects are vital to building understanding in order to make that leap to writing a research paper. I think time should be spent showing students how to do research. Performing research is not an innate academic skill. It is a process that requires a lot of practice and direction.
For example, I think time would be better spent on a project like Brown’s music history slide show rather than writing a paper on the historical influences of each song. Understanding the researching process is far more beneficial to students prior to college than the research paper itself. Each class I took in college had different expectations and requirements for research papers. Students going from high school to college will still have to learn entire formats and various methods of writing research papers. Research methods and being able to identify a credible source is something the students can use for a variety of classes in college and those skills are transferable. I think mixing research into projects that did not have a research component before would be a great way to kill two birds with one stone. Similar to the song project, ELA teachers can use a variety of poems that students can then research. It can also be used to research authors to give students an idea of various literary theories. Some theories may include having background knowledge about the time period, the author, and the genre itself.
In Smagorinsky’s chapter this week there was a lot of information on research papers boiled down to the most important. I especially liked the section on the gateway activity about what makes a good argument. This was something I was never very comfortable with when writing and I think if I had the proper lesson I would have been able to create stronger research work. The idea of starting off having students debate issues that are important to them and affect their lives this gives students a reason WHY they should argue, but guides them in how to do it correctly. The graphic organizers in this chapter were also nice because they are an exactly outline of how a paper should flow.
The guiding questions that followed the graphic organizers are another great example that Smagorinsky gives future teachers. These remind me of some of the suggestions Atwell makes in her chapter on poetry. The list of “how to read a poem” and even “what makes a poem resonate for me” are great guides in how to address poetry. It can be a very tricky area of literature and Atwell does a great job of making it accessible for both students and teachers. I was never a huge fan of poetry because I was never very good at it, but after this weeks reading I think that it is something I will take another stab at. Students need to be exposed to poetry so that they can start to understand the different types of writing and become a well-rounded writer.
Nancie Atwell seems to be more passionate about poetry than any other form of expression she has discussed thus far. On page 431 she describes poetry as something that “can take them where memory can’t – to the hazy recollections of their earliest memories, where there isn’t enough information to craft the complete experience, but there’s more than enough feeling to distill it.” I couldn’t have said it better if I had to come up with an argument for why poetry is a worthwhile medium, should be abundantly. I like her approach to sharing poetry with her students; she exposes them to a variety of forms and subjects, always with an ear toward what they like and find interesting.
ReplyDeleteAtwell also points out that, like all writing, “poems evolve from hard work” (p. 454). Whether its nonfiction, fiction, or poetry, her mini-lessons are designed to help students learn to both read and create poems. Her approach to teaching writing has been very useful to me. It doesn’t always seem obvious that simply helping your students to channel their inspiration will create good writers out of them.
Chapter 8 in Smagorinsky is pretty much how to write the exact opposite of poetry, but research papers can be considered their own type of art form that needs to be crafted just as delicately as a poem. The skills students hone in research writing, “the ability to comprehend, analyze, and synthesize facts, ideas, and concepts” (p. 159), will not only help them to succeed in higher education, but are some of the most important tools adults use in the workplace.
Smagorinsky believes that teachers should offer a balance of topics for students to choose from; they should be relevant enough to engage the students, but too many topics should be avoided. Why can we not allow students to choose what they would like to research on their own? Not only would they feel the most investment in the process, but we would not have to waste our own time compiling a list of best bets.
I think the process Smagorinsky has suggested that slowly passes the burden of building claims, evidence, and warrants onto the student should be easy to put into motion. With the right topic I think it could actually seem very fun to work on it as a class, especially if you use the blogs and/or integrate other technology as suggested. In this “age of technology” I definitely think that avoiding plagiarism and assessing the validity of sources should deem their own separate mini-lessons, but as Smagorinsky points out, “when the thrust of the writing shifts from the information as an end in itself to the advancement of an opinion based on that information, plagiarizing becomes less of an issue” (p.161).
I found Atwell’s chapter on poetry somewhat frustrating and not very useful. Poetry is probably one of the most difficult things to teach in an English classroom. If teachers are struggling to get students interested in prose reading, it must be nearly impossible to get any students interested in poetry (beyond the future English majors). While it is nice to see her students’ poetry as a product of Atwell’s teaching, I would have liked more on the process of how they got there. The most useful aspects of the chapter were the recommendations of anthologies to use in order to introduce poetry (423) as well as the lists “How to Read a Poem” and “What Makes a Poem Resonate For Me?” (425). These lists serve as good ways to bridge poetry as art to the practical ideas of students experiences and feelings. Other than that, though, this chapter doesn’t give much insight into the art of teaching poetry. It’s nice to see the kinds of poetry that students can ultimately create and the poems one can use to model them, but there’s little indication of what Atwell did to get her students to these achievements. I found this frustrating.
ReplyDeleteSmagorinsky’s chapter on research papers, however, was extremely useful. I can see using Smagorinsky’s previous chapter on argumentation and compare and contrast essays as a springboard into this type of activity, as many of the tasks involved in research papers are more in-depth versions of the ones used in those types of writing. I like the model of the graphic organizer on page 174. It mirrors the same activity used in argumentation by requiring a claim, evidence and a warrant. This seems like a good way to get kids into familiar territory and then slowly building into deeper research. The other graphic organizer on page 173 is also useful, as it gives a simple and direct visualization of what the students need to accomplish in a research paper. The ideas of using childhood obesity and cell phone usage as a possible topics also seem good. These are real issues affecting them and their peers, so even if the students don’t necessarily want to write about these topics, they will at least be able to connect them to personal experience.
Both Smagorinsky et al. and Nancie Atwell discuss accessible ways in which teachers can approach teaching writing skills to students. Both believe that exposure to various mediums of writing will help aid students’ understanding, comfort, and ability to write.
ReplyDeleteSmagorinsky et al. specifically address the writing of research papers and procedures students should follow in order to be successful with them. It is important to keep in mind the relevance of research skills for real world application. Smagorinsky et al. remind us that teachers as well as parents and students themselves want the students to learn how to comprehend and analyze information, synthesize facts, ideas, and concepts from a variety of sources while being able to properly document their sources (2010, p. 159). Although most students are able to effectively comprehend any research they uncover, many have difficulty analyzing it and synthesizing (2010, p. 160). Therefore, it is important for teachers to scaffold instruction by introducing clear expectations that double as procedures, like in the previous chapters about argumentation and comparison and contrast essays.
Smagorinsky et al. suggest beginning research paper units by letting students research controversial topics that might interest them. For instance, in my own Freshman English class in high school, I remember writing a paper on the issues surrounding Stem-Cell Research. I learned how to find reliable sources, structure my argument, include counterarguments and rebuttals, and cite my sources. The fact I still remember the assignment now speaks to how much I learned from it. I think this is a very effective approach for building students’ skills.
Atwell addresses poetry. She immediately takes issue with the fact that poetry seems to be disappearing from classroom instruction (1998, p. 416). Either teachers are not comfortable with poetry themselves, or they do not think their students can handle it. However, poetry is too important of a genre to skip. I must admit that I do not count poetry as one of my favorite mediums, but I have an appreciation for it. This appreciation is important to impart to students. Atwell exposes students to poetry as much as possible. Eventually, after enough experience reading poetry, students will find some they like and then want to write them as well. Atwell’s philosophy is that if students “live” poetry each day, then they can learn to appreciate it (1998, p. 454) because more exposure “demystifies” it and clears up understanding (1998, p. 426). This is the perfect way to phrase it for poetry is certainly a medium in need of “demystifying.”
Teaching Research Papers
ReplyDeleteThere is no denying the value of research and being able to comprehend, analyze, and synthesize facts, ideas, and concepts from a variety of sources. Everyone should know how to do it, and how to do it properly. It is important to keep in mind that conducting research and writing a paper about it is not easy. Students need to research and write about what they are interested in; that is how a teacher can yield the best results. “While writing a term paper, Larson found, students experience ‘a range of emotional states that are well out of their normal school experience. Many go through a process of personal involvement and self-searching that resembles and identity quest.’” (159). This chapter broke everything down in a simple way. It all starts with a question, an argument. What I thought was most important was teaching the students how to research an issue. In a world with the Internet and news sources focusing more on getting information out first, rather than making sure it’s right, students need to know how to do proper research and use reliable sources. I liked the idea of using relevant issues to start the teaching the research process. It would be keeping students informed on what is going on in the world in addition to teaching research.
Finding Poetry Everywhere
When I think back to poetry in high school, I remember everyone despising it. We didn’t like reading it or writing our own. It was usually at the end of the year, when teachers knew we had stopped paying attention and could only think of summer vacation. This was the case in college too. But somehow I liked poetry; just not during school hours. Reading all the student poems in this text is inspiring. But how can we get students to produce this kind of quality poetry? Atwell talks about questioning students so that they answer how poems resonate for them. I think teachers tend to overlook the value of this. It goes back to connecting students to literature that interests them. We shouldn’t force students to read poetry they don’t like or can’t relate to. The same goes for writing it. Atwell stated, “The experiences of their lives that become the subjects of poems reveal as much about who my kids are as photographs or fingerprints.” (428). The poetry unit can be a lot more valuable than some teachers make it out to be.
What first struck me about Atwell's chapter on poetry was the statistic that "today, it's 97 percent prose and just 3 percent poetry" that is taught to 4th graders in the U.S. (p.416). I do agree that poetry is one of the most difficult genres of literature to teach in the classroom, but am surprised that teachers do not go out of their way to expose students to poetry for this very reason. If there is any place that students will learn how to read poetry, it is in the classroom. Thinking back on my own experience, I can only recall one or two school years where a significant amount of time was spent on reading and writing poetry. Atwell says that as teachers, we need to read poetry in order to understand it, and be able to teach it to our students (p. 422). I like how she offers valuable suggestions for reading poetry, and creates background prior to reading pieces, whether it be about the author or subject matter of the poem. I also value her practice of sharing the poems that she loves with her students, so that teaching them becomes a passionate experience. Atwell notes that "good poetry is hard to write," but has a number of techniques for helping her students write good poetry (p. 454) - brainstorming verbs about a subject, experimenting with different forms in mini-lessons and brainstorming alternate ways of saying something in order to avoid cliche are just a few tools that I can see being extremely valuable for student writing, not just in the poetry genre.
ReplyDeleteSmagorinsky's chapter on teaching research papers explores ways in which teachers can make good researchers, and researchers who enjoy the act. Writing research papers can be a daunting, drawn-out task if the topic is not appropriate and sources are limited. To avoid this, Smagorinsky suggests having students do research on topics that they care about, or topics that are controversial (p.160). Central to developing a good thesis is forming valid, coherent arguments to support claims, and teaching students how to prepare for counterarguments. Peer feedback and revision in the classroom help students solidify their arguments and practice defending them. In my own experience, I found trips to the library and database tutorials during class time to be very helpful to the research process. I once had a teacher who had students select a research topic, gather sources and conduct the research, and then write a paragraph about each source and how it contributed to the thesis, rather than follow through with writing a lengthy paper. This is an exercise that allows students to practice locating good sources, and gets them thinking about how a good source contributes to their research as a whole. If all of the pieces of conducting research are set into motion (a good topic, informative sources, etc.), writing research papers can be an "identity quest" where students learn about themselves as individuals and as writers (p.160).
Poetic Research
ReplyDeleteI found this week readings to be interesting because of how vastly different they were. As a writer myself, I do not associate writing poetry with any component of writing a research paper. Though the readings were separate, I read them in one sitting and that affected how I perceived their meaning and what I made of them. I think teaching how to research is important but I also believe teaching research papers in high school is too early. For students who still struggle with paragraph format, organization of thoughts, or finding and providing evidence, research papers are above their level. This is not to say they are incapable of writing a research paper but instead to suggest that research papers are difficult for college students never mind high school students. Research papers requires advanced academic skill such as fact finding, evaluating a source, quoting a source, paraphrasing, etc. Research, on the other hand, and research projects are vital to building understanding in order to make that leap to writing a research paper. I think time should be spent showing students how to do research. Performing research is not an innate academic skill. It is a process that requires a lot of practice and direction.
For example, I think time would be better spent on a project like Brown’s music history slide show rather than writing a paper on the historical influences of each song. Understanding the researching process is far more beneficial to students prior to college than the research paper itself. Each class I took in college had different expectations and requirements for research papers. Students going from high school to college will still have to learn entire formats and various methods of writing research papers. Research methods and being able to identify a credible source is something the students can use for a variety of classes in college and those skills are transferable. I think mixing research into projects that did not have a research component before would be a great way to kill two birds with one stone. Similar to the song project, ELA teachers can use a variety of poems that students can then research. It can also be used to research authors to give students an idea of various literary theories. Some theories may include having background knowledge about the time period, the author, and the genre itself.
In Smagorinsky’s chapter this week there was a lot of information on research papers boiled down to the most important. I especially liked the section on the gateway activity about what makes a good argument. This was something I was never very comfortable with when writing and I think if I had the proper lesson I would have been able to create stronger research work. The idea of starting off having students debate issues that are important to them and affect their lives this gives students a reason WHY they should argue, but guides them in how to do it correctly. The graphic organizers in this chapter were also nice because they are an exactly outline of how a paper should flow.
ReplyDeleteThe guiding questions that followed the graphic organizers are another great example that Smagorinsky gives future teachers. These remind me of some of the suggestions Atwell makes in her chapter on poetry. The list of “how to read a poem” and even “what makes a poem resonate for me” are great guides in how to address poetry. It can be a very tricky area of literature and Atwell does a great job of making it accessible for both students and teachers. I was never a huge fan of poetry because I was never very good at it, but after this weeks reading I think that it is something I will take another stab at. Students need to be exposed to poetry so that they can start to understand the different types of writing and become a well-rounded writer.