Ways for students to respond to Literature

Literature is such an important thing to be incorporated into the classroom and something students should enjoy, but sometimes we have teachers that can ruin that. We have all had that teacher back in the day that only had one right answer when it came to interpretations. This makes students not want to try to answer questions because they are worried about getting the answer wrong. Literature has more than one interpretation. I think as a teacher that is something that we need to keep in mind. We need to allow students to come up with their own interpretations of the text and as long as they are able to back up what they are saying we should accept that. Another thing about teaching literature to students is that they should feel a personal connection to it. Their personal connection or background is very important because that is going to influence how they feel about the text. It will add to their interpretation of the text. I found a great cite that talks about how to get students involved in reading and making it something fun. I think if students can find some type of connections to a text they are able to be more involved and engaged in reading it. It can be hard sometime to find a text that speaks to all students but when teachers are trying to find something engaging they should make sure that it connects to students culturally and to their experience as Tchudi mentioned in the reading. I think that can sometimes be a challenge in classrooms especially in a school that is very diverse. Even when you find that book that speaks to students or spark that connection it can be hard to have students get into deep discussion about it. I know that there are students that won't participate in that discussion. I used to be one of those students because I always had that teacher that would look for a particular interpretation. I think that has ruined my take on discussions and that is something that teachers need to make sure they don't do. We need to take as many interpretations as possible and not make students feel as though they are always wrong.

Evaluation, Grading, and Assessment, Not the Same Thing

Many teachers and parents of students in secondary education think that these three words: Evaluation, Grading, and Assessment are the same exact thing. They are very mistaken. These are three different steps that are very important to student's while they are learning to write.


Each one of these steps help to improve student writing. Assessment is seeing where the student is at with their writing or what they are able to accomplish. Also seeing what students finish or complete can be a good way to assess where they are in the writing process. Evaluation is quite different from that because this is the part in the process where we add our  judgement to the process of writing. We want to have a rubric for students to show them what we as teachers are looking for so that we can evaluate them based on that criteria and so that their fellow students can do the same in peer review. We can also have our students assess themselves on these criteria so they can tell us where they think they are and how well their writing is fitting into that criteria. Grading is the point where we actually put a letter grade on the stuff that students turn into us. The best way to grade student writing would be pass or fail but according to many school districts we have to put a letter on student work. This can be hard because most the times students will just look at grade and not comments. We want to make sure that during the other previous stages students are getting that feedback from us teachers so that we don't have to leave all our comments till the final draft. I think that the best way for teachers to do this grading is to see the growth that students have made throughout all these processes. Having students form portfolios to show off their best work that they have worked hard on for a long time and seeing where that started at and seeing the final product. This is the best way to grade students based on that growth that happened from the first draft to the final draft. Just picking random assignments to grade and there being no opportunity for growth would be a waste of our time to grade but also it wouldn't be helpful at all to the students.

Papers, Papers, and Even More Papers: Grading and Commenting Effectively

The article Papers, Papers, Papers gave some interesting insights as how to leave good comments as a teacher. I think it is important to comment on student work to show that well first that you actually read them. But teachers don't have all the time in the world either. I think that Carol Jago makes a great point in this article about spending time on the papers but not over doing it. As a teacher you have enough to worry about and too many corrections on too many papers can make you a little crazy.
 
Especially as Jago says, many teachers are trying to make each and everyone of their students paper's perfect and in the real world it's just not realistic. There are certain grammar errors that should be corrected in a students paper but if you miss one of those mistakes its not the end of the world. Fixing some of those mistakes will still show students that they need to correct it but also not make them feel like their paper is worthless because there are mistakes in it. As teachers we want our students to become automatic at writing with minimal mistakes because it is a skill that they will need out in the real world. No matter where each student is, it is our jobs as teachers to make them better writers. I found this great website that will show some recommendations for how to comment on student work effectively. The way in which we comment is important to, we don't want to hurt any students feelings but we do need to make them better writers because that is what we are here for.

How to Work Effectively with Teenage Writers

Many teachers when correcting a paper will write all over it correcting grammar and spelling mistakes and many times this will upset a student and make them not want to write ever again. I know that in my English classes I didn't enjoy writing because I was afraid of all the marks the teachers would make on my paper. The day that the teacher was returning the papers was the most nerve racking day because you weren't sure what to expect. Tom Romano writes in his book Clearing the Way, his experience on how to work with teens so that you don't discourage them from writing but the opposite, you get them to continue to write.
 
In his book, he gives many real life examples of how to work with students and give them feedback but in a way that doesn't involve a red pen and lots of writing. There is a certain way to respond to writing or help improve a students writing without fixing grammar and worrying about that. Of course as a teacher that is important but it is also important that students improve other aspects of writing. The University of Carnegie Mellon gives a great website about how to respond to student work and what teachers should really look for. I also think that it is important to make sure that teachers are reading the papers for content not just for grammar. Honestly when I was in school, I worried more about grammar and mechanics than I did about the actual content. The content was important but I knew that the teachers I had would worry more about the grammar. It is sad to think that many students out there struggle with the same idea. I think they should be more worried about content but also just improving from one draft to another. Writing is something creative and each student needs to create their own voice and make their own decision about their writing.

Writing Standards and How to Connect to Real World With Writing

I never thought so in depth about writing in schools and how to get students to get the most out of it until I read this article by Grant Wiggins. He discusses that writing is more important and makes more of an impact on students if the subject that they writing about is something that is relevant to their lives. I think that as a teacher it is important to make sure that students can pick topics that are relevant to them and something that they would enjoy talking about. Audience is something else in writing that is important and something students should think about when writing. Writing Commons has a lot of great ways to analyze if you are addressing and writing appropriately to the audience that you are trying to reach. Wiggins also demonstrates the idea that writing for a real audience is important for students to think about when writing anything. Students should have an audience other than the teacher, someone outside the classroom to make the assignment meaningful. I remember having a teacher in high school that had us write a research essay, because it was something that the school required, but this teacher let us write a letter to an organization to show them our research and ask us questions for our paper. It was very memorable to me because I got to pick something that I was passionate about and send it to someone else besides the teacher so I made sure to work hard to make an impact on that person. I think implementing something like this in a writing class would help students improve their skills and get them to put in their best effort. Writing to different audiences will help students see that writing to different audiences means pitching the same information in a different way as Wiggins describes.

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Marissa Chiodo and I am a senior at Western Michigan University. I am a Spanish Secondary Education major with a minor in English. I am super excited to be graduating in a year and get out into the teaching world where I hope to make an impact. Currently I work at Kohl's on West Main Street where I work at the customer service desk as well as jewelry. In my free time I like to watch T.V. and movies, read, and hang out with my friends. Hoping to learn a lot from my classes this semester that will prepare me for the teaching world.