Blog

The most effective writing a student produces is writing that comes naturally to them.  This means that as a teacher, you should encourage your students to explore writing that is meaningful to them.  For instance, on a research paper, instead of assigning topics, let your students choose a topic that is interesting to them and they will more likely produce a more effective and well-written research paper.

I personally believe that allowing “free-write” is the most beneficial writing a teacher can allow her students.  When I say “free-write”, I intend that this writing is something the students can do without having to follow the standard writing process or even to follow standard EAE (Edited American English).  I think some of the best thoughts a person has are when they can think freely without having to worry about following a certain criteria of rules.  This is easily accomplished with the use of journals.  The teacher can easily create prompts that require a specific topic and audience, or prompts that let the students write whatever they may choose.  I think this “free-write” time is important to get students thinking about what they believe and feel in life.

Later on, the topics students “free-write” about can in turn be used to complete a written assignment that has more constraints on the audience, purposes, usage, mechanics, and comprehension.  A student could look back at his journal entries and turn one into a poem, for example.

With the teacher’s willingness to let student creativity flow, a student can create a wide variety of texts that interest them.

Tags: 480, authentic writing

In the text Adolescent Literacy is an article by Donna Alverman called “Multiliterate Youth in the time of Scientific Reading Instruction” that states “It will be important to reconcile narrowed definitions of reading (and hence reading instruction) with the need to develop young people’s critical awareness as they engage with multiple sign systems”.  Technology is so very present in today’s society, and the youth of today are very much involved in this technological movement.  As a teacher, this means that I need to be open to multimodal learning, rather than simple relying on traditional, archaic modes of reading instruction.

In addition to looking beyond traditional instruction, a teacher needs to make the material relevant to the students.   Students will be more interested in the learning if it is something they can use for themselves in the future.  For example, perhaps teaching students proper spoken English by creating and playing out mock job interviews; or even having them create a resume for college or work that needs to be grammatically correct.

Ultimately, it is the teacher’s responsibility to approach reading and language from new angles so that the students are engaged.

Tags: 480, language

I do not think there is such thing as too much poetry—although, I may be a little biased, being that I love poetry.  Despite this, however, I do think a teacher can overload student students with it.  This ‘overloaded’ feeling often arises because the teacher does not make the poetry interesting for the students.  Also, teachers sometimes do not offer a variety of poetry, sticking only to one genre or poet.

One of my high school teachers was very successful in making the poetry unit interesting and engaging.  One activity she did was to allow us to pick a poem of our own choosing and then illustrate it and its meaning.  She did not limit our choice by imposing a particular poet or style.  Another activity she did was for us to compose our own poetry.  For this, we did have to compose poems in a particular style, but there were a variety of options.   After writing our poems, each student put his or her poems together as a booklet and created a cover for it.

I think students can find poetry extremely interesting if the teacher knows how to make it interesting.  Being able to do this, a teacher can incorporate a little poetry into every unit throughout the year.  Something as simple as finding a poem that relates to a short story’s moral is a great way to bring poetry into the everyday.

Tags: 480, poetry

In our text Bridging English (Milner), study of literature is suggested as a cycle in which students enter a text, explore a text, and then extend it.  This cycle is also applicable to the genre of drama

When entering a text, first and foremost, I think it is important for students to understand what it is that actually happened in the play’s plot.   Next, students need to explore the characters and the implications of their actions.  Finally, I want my students to extend the reading and make connections with other texts, their own live, and the world around them.  One concept I really like is the idea of literacy as a doorway to social activism.  A lot of times, literature offers a moral or exemplifies a ‘tough’ situation.  For instance, a plot may deal with homelessness; students may be inspired to organize a food drive for a homeless shelter for example.

Ultimately, I want my students to enjoy what they are reading and get into the action of the play.

Tags: 480, drama

Teacher understanding is key to achieving academic goals in the classroom.  An effective teacher is one who understands how to best teach students in a way that best helps them in comprehending the material.  If a teacher does not have understanding of the goals she wishes her students to achieve, she cannot develop an effective curriculum.  In this, students are short-changed in their learning.

Tags: 480, vocabulary

As an English teacher it is our duty and responsibility to teach reading.  This does not apply merely to the lower grade levels either, I should point out.  Several secondary students in today’s generation still struggle with reading at an advanced level.  In fact, in my “Teaching of English” class, my professor mentioned that the average reading level is on a 7th grade level.  With that in mind, reading and comprehension skills are an intricate part of teaching students in an English classroom.  I should also note, however, that it is NOT only the responsibility of an English teacher, but all disciplines to help their students learn to read better.

Tags: 480, reading

When I envision my future classroom, I do not picture me standing in the front of the room straight lecturing for the entire block.  A teacher-centered classroom, in my opinion, does not generate an effective and stimulating learning environment.  A great way to make a classroom student-centered is to involve students in the learning process and give them control and ownership of their knowledge.  One way to accomplish this is through groupwork.

Tags: 480, student-centered

I believe that the learning and latent goals we develop as teachers have a very strong influence on the  instructional design of the lessons we create.  By creating these goals, we as teachers know where to direct our teaching during actual class time.  I think this is most obvious in class discussions.  Often, especially in an English class, the teacher guides the discussion with the use of questions, prompts, and comments; these questions, etc. are composed to specifically guide students to a particular desired understanding.  Additionally, classroom activities and assignments are also geared towards student performance and achievement of a certain task and goal.  If an activity does not help students achieve a predetermined goal of some sort, then really there is no point or need for that activity.

As I believe I have mentioned once in a previous post, goals are a road map for teachers to help guide their teaching.  They are extremely useful in planning a unit, and can be ever-changing.

Tags: 480, goals

Designing the unit as a whole is important in that it helps teachers decide where the learning will go.  Thinking about the unit as a whole—as opposed to creating lesson plans day by day—makes a teacher really think about how everything he or she teaches will tie together and be most effective.  In developing a unit, a teacher is able to develop the essential questions that she wants the students to be able to answer.

Creating a unit is central to being a teacher in my opinion because it gives an overview of where you as a teacher need to lead the students.  It also helps to pace the lessons.  Additionally, if a parent or administrator wants to be able to see and know what you are teaching and why, having a unit physically typed out allows for that to happen.  Overall, developing a unit, in addition to individual day-by-day lesson plans, is something I would definitely recommend.

Tags: 480, units