Tuesday 31 March 2015

It’s a Wrap! - March 16th


When I signed up for PED 3148, I knew that it was writing across the curriculum, but I assumed that it would be geared towards teaching writing within English classes, which seems like a silly conclusion to make now that I am looking back on it. After ten weeks, I have realised that writing is not something that is strictly linked to English classes and the social sciences. It made it clear that writing and teaching students to write can be implemented in all classes, not only English.

What I struggled most with during this semester, specifically during the mentoring period at Hawthorne, was how to evaluate student writing. Previously, the only experience that I had with editing/correcting essays was with my peers at the university level. It took me some time to change the way that I looked at the writing samples that my student from Hawthorne gave me. However, after discussing with my peers in class and editing my student’s essays a couple of times, I became more comfortable and capable of changing how I critically read his essays according to his grade level. I really enjoyed this part of the course because it helped me improve my one-on-one interactions with students and how to go about making them feel comfortable and guiding them in their work. If I had to go back, I would most definitely choose to take this course again because it was a great experience.

Mentoring at Hawthorne - March 9th


Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to my final mentoring session at Hawthorne due to a last minutes, unplanned doctor’s appointment. However, I did email my student informing him of my absence and I also sent him a follow-up email regarding his essays that we were supposed to look over. Although I did not hear back from him, I did inform him that he could contact me whenever he wanted if he had questions about writing or needed any tips or help.

Mentoring at Hawthorne - March 2nd


Meeting with my student for the third week really helped him feel more comfortable with me. We spent a lot of time discussing his works, looking over comments that I had made and thinking about ways to improve upon his writing (which was great to begin with).
Prior to our Monday morning mentoring session, I found a resource that I found very useful. It detailed the basic steps to follow for an essay outline. Moreover, it also gave descriptions of the various types of essays. (The PDF can be found at the following link: http://sparklearning.org/english/essay.pdf). I did not print out a copy for my student, but I emailed him the link and spent some of our time together discussing the various types of essays that can be written and stressing the notion that even though he is writing a different type of essay, the basic structure always remains the same. Although it seems slightly repetitive, students tend to struggle when organising their thoughts and writing an essay (I noticed this during my first placement in an English class).
My student also informed me that he had difficulty finding sources when writing his essays. I gave him a tip, letting him know that he can begin by looking at wikipedia, reading the articles that they have which are similar to his topic and then looking up their sources to use. I also told him that newspaper articles and journals were another useful way to find information on a given topic.

Mentoring at Hawthorne - February 23rd


This was my second week with my student at Hawthorne. He had emailed me some of his work and after reading it and having discussed how he goes about writing essays, I realised that he needed help organising his thoughts. His topics were good and he was able to find supporting resources to back up his ideas, but his essays were not tightly structured and had a tendency to lack consistency.
After our first mentoring session, I spent some time researching resources online that would help will the writing process. Luckily, I stumbled across an awesome resource from www.readwritethink.org. It was an interactive essay map that forced students to think about their essay as a whole and broke down the arguments that they would be using in their essay. Once the essay map it completed, it shows students an outline of their entire essay. (The essay map can be found at the followng link: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/essay-30063.html?tab=3).
I thought it was really useful because it really breaks down how students need to formulate their thoughts before they can actually begin writing, which was something that my student at Hawthorne had difficulty with.

Mentoring at Hawthorne - February 9th


Meeting my student for the first time proved to be a little more difficult than anticipated. He was reluctant to speak about his work or to let me read it. My approach was to try and make him comfortable by asking him about his hobbies, favourite movies, tv shows, etc. Slowly, my student became more comfortable and informed me that he struggled when it came to editing his papers.
Although I did not have concrete resources to offer him, I felt that it was best to give him tricks that I (and many of my peers) have used when writing papers. The best tool to rely on when trying to edit an essay is to first take a break and distance yourself from your own work. It allows the student to step away from the essay and clear their head. When trying to edit an essay as soon as it is finished, writers tend to be too caught up in their work and cannot see the flaws or mistakes in their paper. Once they have taken at least 24 hours to distance themselves from their writing, then they should print out a hard copy of their work. Reading their essay on the computer makes it easier to skip over typos and miss any other grammatical or structural errors that they may have made; thus, using a pen and reading through a hard copy of their paper makes it easier to pick up on mistakes, etc.

Essay Writing in the Senior English Classroom - February 2nd


I think that for most students, writing an essay is a daunting process. There is so much that they need to include and incorporate within it, while ensuring that they remain coherent and concise. I would break down writing a literary essay (or any essay for that matter) into simple steps. I would encourage students to rely on the writing process and an outline for essay writing, which I would present to them at the same time. The outline would look like the following:

Introduction:
(Include a brief, general overview of what your essay will be about, it is the lead-in to your thesis):

Thesis (What do you want to prove in your essay? What will your essay be about? Ensure that you are clear, concise, and coherent in your thesis statement. You want the readers to know exactly what you will be arguing):

Body:
(This is where you prove your thesis statement through your personal analysis of the given text and rely on quotes and excerpts as proof/facts. It is important to relate your arguments back to your thesis in each paragraph in this section)

Paragraph 1:
Topic/Argument:

Proof:

Link to thesis:

Paragraph 2:
Topic/Argument:

Proof:

Link to thesis:

Paragraph 3:
Topic/Argument:

Proof:
LInk to Thesis:

Conclusion:
(You will begin by reiterating your thesis statement. Furthermore, you will restate your main arguments that you relied on in the body of your paper. This part is essential because it summarizes your literary essay, reminding the reader what the point of your essay is. This is where you draw conclusions, relate to further research/analysis that could be made regarding your topic).

This outline is perfect for high school students because it maps out how they should go about writing an essay and encourages them to take their time and think about their topic. It forces them to think about their topic as a whole and then follow through and figure out how to argue their point of view and how they will support their arguments.
I would scaffold this process to make it easier for students to tackle. Before asking students to choose a topic, I would tell them to write reflections and take notes while reading the novel that they will be analysing. Once they have finished the novel, I would have students organise their thoughts and think of a general topic for their literary essay. Once they figure out their topic, I would then proceed to give them a blank outline (shown above), where they can begin to think about the arguments that they will use to prove their thesis statement.
Once students have determined what their arguments will be, they can refer back to their reflections and notes that they took while reading their novel to look for proof from the text to use to reinforce their arguments.
When the students have their outline completed, then students can proceed to begin writing their paper, which will serve as a draft. The next step would be to have students exchange essays and peer edit, so that they can obtain the opinion of one of their peers regarding their work.
The final process of the scaffolding of essay writing would be relying on the notes/comments that they received from their peers, editing their own papers, and writing their final version of the essay.
By breaking it down into smaller steps, it makes the process in and of itself less daunting for students, making essays less intimidating and easier to write.

Incorporating Poetry Outside of the English Classroom - January 26th


Peterson’s chapter on incorporating poetry in a class that is not English is a notion that I have not frequently encountered within my academic career. Although I believe that it can be a different way to broach certain subjects or introduce new material to students, I do think that reading or writing poetry can be seen as a very daunting experience for many, students and adults alike. However, I do think that if poetry is introduced properly to students, it can be very useful in adding to the subject matter.
I would definitely introduce poetry in the history classroom. I firmly believe that it will add to the subject matter and give students a more well-rounded understanding of the subject matter being introduced to them. As Peterson states in this chapter, poetry uses very specific, precise, and meaningful language, forcing readers to analyse and interpret the poet’s thoughts, world events, and/or historical figures. In a history classroom, I would incorporate poetry when discussing the First and Second World Wars (among other events). The poetry during those times really helped showcase the effects of war on individuals and the destruction of war on society. A perfect example of war poetry to be introduced into a history class would be Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est”. Owen’s poem depicts the horrors of chemical warfare during the First World War and gives students a better impression of what soldiers felt like during that time. Moreover, it emphasizes the notion that warfare is not beautiful nor honourable. Rather, it is a devastating atrocity, which he makes evident to readers through his use of poetic conventions and language. It offers students a different and more diverse perspective on historical events for students within the classroom.