Question, Research, Experiment, and Write

These days, it seems far more likely to find your teen glued to the computer screen than to the latest literary release (Harry Potter books aside). – Garrett, Rose

Remembering back to the time when overhead projectors, resembling an ugly swan with wheels, was the newest source of technology within the classroom, it’s hard to even realize web based communities.  Today it’s harder than ever to stay up to date on every new piece of technology hitting the market and what it may have to offer.  However, staying current may prove to be more valuable than you previously thought.

For a second here close your eyes and think back to your high school years, the teachers, the things you remember learning…  A majority of everything you remember learning about or even being taught was done so in a way that made it unforgettable.  Of course as a teacher our goal is to make each lesson unforgettable for our students but what are those magic ingredients that stew together to create the perfect unforgettable lesson?  One small fraction of that stew I find very important is making a lesson relate to that generation of students.  It’s impossible to have excited and engaged students in a lesson if they can’t relate to anything you are teaching or how you are teaching it.

For instance I can recall an extreme case in which I dreading every single day of my sophomore English class.  It wasn’t the material that I hated but rather how the teacher presented the material.  Every single day we would start class by copying down the teacher’s outline from the overhead projector, keeping in mind we only had so much time per overhead sheet to copy the information.  Halfway through the class period, my hand, feeling as if an elephant had sat on it, was beginning to scribble whatever information I could.  Finally when you thought to yourself that class was almost over our teacher started placing two overhead sheets on the projector at a time.  At last the bell rang and English was over, or at least for that day it was.  Obviously I recall this teaching process not because it was successful but rather because it was one of my worst experiences within a classroom.  I can’t recall one thing I wrote down for that class the entire year let alone tell you anything I learned, except maybe how to copy down notes really fast.  I’m not saying this technique won’t work because for some people in that class it may have been there learning style, but it’s hard to say, even if you are a visual learner, whether or not you had enough time to process what you were writing.  I believe teaching is an art form, a sculpting technique, in which it’s a perpetual learning process for the teacher each year.  The teacher must be willing to adapt and more importantly be wanting to adapt for the sake of their students.

Today the classroom is different, students are different, it’s a new generation with a new set of techniques.  It is up to the teacher to find a way to relate to their students, remembering that teaching is as much a delivery process as it is an observation process.  Having said that, it is wise for teachers to keep an eye out for new and exciting ways to relate to their students, which is exactly what Rose Garrett has done in her article, Join a Reading Community… Online! Garrett has found communities of book worms stationed online ready to share their interpretations.  Whether it is Shelfari.com, Bookcrossing.com, Bookmooch.com they all have something very vital in common, a way for teenagers to share ideas and communicate with one another about literature.  In other words a way to accommodate the next generation of learners via the internet.

Sponsored Article:

Garrett, Rose.  Join a Reading Community…  Online!.  Education.com:  High school Reading.  Sept. 22, 2008

I often wonder if, like me, other people have trouble comprehending something they just read.  Whether your stressed out, thinking about a million other things or just not enjoying the text and can’t stay engaged.  Too often I remember my classmates in high school whispering to one another before a quiz, “Did you read the chapters?”

“Yea I read them but I have no idea what they were about.”

“I tried to read it too but it was boring so I ended playing Nintendo.”

I even found myself raking my own brain before quizzes on whether I really understood the material or just read it.  I believe there is a fine line between reading and reading comprehension and I think students need to be taught that difference and strategies they can use to help their comprehension after and during reading.

I can recall my high school English teacher asking students to count of by 5’s and separating into groups according to their numbers.  She would then hand out a piece of paper with 5 questions on it and a space below each question for us to write our answers along with the chapter we found it in and the page number.  I question this technique because firstly it isn’t quizzing students on their comprehension of the material but rather their ability to quickly identify where the answer is in the text.  Secondly, students can easily divide the questions up among group members and copy the rest of the answers from one another, which hinders their learning even more.  Thirdly, students don’t have to talk, they don’t even have to ask one another questions, all they have to do is read the paper and answer the question accordingly, in other words this technique allows for little interaction amongst their peers.  Obviously there has to be another way to go about group work within an English classroom.

Thankfully, I came across an article in which I found extremely helpful and beneficial to all students struggling with reading comprehension.  Liana Mahoney, author of Lit’s in the Cards created a game in which students use a deck of cards to remember a literary text.  In this game the hearts are used to remember major characters and main settings, Spades are used to remember plot, Clubs theme, and Diamonds literary techniques.  To play she advises you place the deck of cards minus the jokers, face cards and 4-9’s face down in a pile.  Students then draw a card one at a time and place it face up in front of them.  If the card for instance is a 2 of hearts then that student must come up with 2 main settings or characters to share with the other students.  If however a student picks up an Ace then they are allowed to skip their turn and the next student is required to pick up a card and continue.  After all four aces have been drawn the game is then over.

Mahoney’s idea I think is perfect for high school students, not only to use on their own time but even for teachers to use in their classrooms.  Lit’s in the Cards is perfect for any student trying to comprehend a piece of literature and test themselves.  At the same time it is also perfect for group work within the classroom because at last a technique tests a student’s comprehension or their ability to remember key ideas and points.  Secondly, it forces all students to play, interact and challenge one another as they play in groups.  Thirdly, students are forced to talk, in order to provide a correct answer they must deliver their ideas orally.  It’s important that students have time to talk to one another about key points or ideas they were struggling with and what better way to jog their memories about such things than playing a game that tests their comprehension.

Sponsored Article:

Mahoney, Linda.  Lit.’s in the Cards! Education.com:  High school Reading.  Sept. 9, 2008

Fifth grade is when I started writing for my own pleasure.  Every single night before turning out the light and snuggling into my bed I would retrieve my composition notebook from underneath my mattress and begin to write.  After years went by I started giving my entries titles; a way of making a typical day seem unique.  It wasn’t until my later years of middle school when I began writing short stories.  I even recall locking myself in my room spending hours on end drawing pictures of scenarios and writing a short story about each.  When I was finished I would gather all the loose pieces of ideas and thoughts and shove them all into the pages of my composition notebook.  Eventually, when I entered into early adulthood my passion for writing has followed.  As I have written before:

Yes I poemize my feelings, how I feel and why
I believe that writing gives me a way out of my mind for some time,
that to prevent from going insane I let what is festering inside,
out
because after all, talking to myself within my room would just look crazy
However, I have to admit that I do tend to do it sometimes

Elizabeth Carr

Although I am hoping to graduate from Grand Valley’s College of Education with a masters in Earth Science and a minor in English I am hoping to take my passion for writing with me.  Therefore I am going to focus my blog on writing across the curriculum.  I have subscribed to google reader where I linked certain articles from databases, google news, and about.com to help aid me in my research.  Unfortunately, when I googled “Writing Across the Curriculum” I found many beneficial articles that did not have a RSS feed which would allow me to easily view articles pertaining to my topic without having to google it every single time.  However I am confident that the ones I did subscribe to will be helpful.  So basically, from my research I hope to identify whether or not writing across the curriculum is beneficial or harmful to learning and ways in which other subject areas can incorporate writing assignments.

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