Week Five Response to Reading

This week's readings deal with teaching to standards and an article about mandating teaching practices. The National Council of Teachers of English has developed their own set of standards linked here.  Review the Alaska content standards for writing for your level. 

In Chapter Five, the text states that "State curriculum documents and assessments are now carrying a new message: writing should no longer be "the silent R" of learning...Improving writing is now seen as important for learning subjects other than English."  Here are a few ideas to discuss in regard to the reading:

• Do you feel both these statements are true at your site?
• How important are state standards to your daily teaching?
• How "mandated" is what you do?
• Have you ever been forced to teach in a way you did not feel was a good fit for your philosophy or style?
• What are some of your own "standards" or goals as a teacher of writing? 
• If you could change or revise some of the state standards, what changes would you make?

Let's save discussion about assessment and qualifying exams for next week. 

Week Two: Response to Reading

 Center your discussion this week on Raising Writers. 
What do you think of the author's ideas about the role of teachers?  What do you see as your role?  Which of the Eleven Elements of Effective Adolescent Writing Instruction from Writing Next does the author address? How does your own role as a writer fit into your classroom practices?  How or where do you find the time to do it all?  Remember each of you needs to post here this week.  Your post may be a part of a conversation with other classmates or a general response to this article.

Week One: Response to Reading

View the videos and read the week's assignments.  Take time to begin or contribute to a conversation about one of the readings.  Do you have any rules for students communicating online that differ from the ones from Phoenix Online? These guidelines should help us with good online ethics. What do you think of Richardson (Digital Footprint) on technology in education?  I am interested in finding effective uses of technology that augment our teaching rather than just adding more for the sake of technology.  What do you think?  Ponder a bit!
The report Writing Next published by the Carnegie Corporation is a heavy read, but one that we might consider referring to throughout the course.  The "meat' of the material is between page 11 and 34. You can skip or skim the rest.  It has eleven key recommendations that are worth "unpacking" as we move through our discussions. The report is considered one of the most comprehensive reports on writing since the 1990's. It makes a good companion to our text which we will start reviewing in a few weeks. Does this report contain ideas particularly true to your experience, ideas that you find puzzling, or ones that run contrary to your beliefs?