Keeslers Writing World

Comments on Casey's Tracking or Untracking

noreply@blogspirit.com (Keesler) — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:50:53 +0200

I agree with Casey that I would like to see tracking go away. I also do believe that a lot of things at the national and state level would have to change drastically in order for that to happen. In order to get rid of tracking the changes would need to trickle down from the top at the national level all the way down to the schools and teachers. This is a lot of change to take place and i'm not sure if i'll ever see it in my life time. I hope to, but don't think I will. I also think that the state mandated portfolio's would be an interesting concept. I do think though that could take some freedom away from the teacher though. The teacher would probably have less say in what the students writing assignments were because certain types of writing would be required in the state portfolio's. Interesting as I find the concept I definitely am all for teachers have freedom in their teaching methods and assignments. I think that this kind of freedom is important in teaching because your dealing with all different kinds of students who learn different ways and are from different backgrounds and you need to be able to find a way to reach each and every one of them.

Comments on Kristy B's Nancy Patterson and the MEAP

noreply@blogspirit.com (Keesler) — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:32:02 +0200

I agree with Kristy that the meap seems to be doing a horrible job of assessing students. I really don't think that by assessing only one kind of learner that you can get an accurate assessment of students abilities. I also don't think that standardized tests are a good way to assess students. Who decides what students need to know? And why should ESL students have to take the same test as those that have spoken english all their life? I really think that standardized tests are in no way helpful and that they don't take into account those students living in Urban areas, speaking other languages, and that learn from untraditional methods. I do understand that it's important to assess what students are learning and how schools are doing, but I think there needs to be another way to do it. I don't know what that way is, so i'm not claiming to have the answers. However, there has to be a better way to check on the teachers and school systems to make sure their doing their jobs. I really hope that at some point in my teaching career a more effective and accurate way will be found.

Comments on DJ's How do you grade a paper fairly?

noreply@blogspirit.com (Keesler) — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 21:13:30 +0200

I agree with DJ that grading papers is totally subjective. It's hard to give someone with bad structure and spelling a lower grade when they are passionate about the subject and really got into the writing. It seems to me almost like at times teachers punish the students who are passionate about writing by giving them a lower grade because of superficial errors in the paper. While at the same time they reward the student that could care less about their writing and are just better students as far as structure and grammar goes. I personally believe that with writing it's the content that is the most important. We shouldn't be destroying a students paper just because they might not spell so well. In my own classroom I hope to provide all my students with the necessary structure and grammar that they need, but I don't want those things acting as some sort of wall that keeps passionate writers who can't climb that wall out. I intend to teach my students that both are important, but that content is what I really want to see. From there we can work on structure and grammar, but first we need to tackle the content of the students writing. I think that this should be the views of every teacher. Writing is a major method of communication these days and I think that the content of the writing will trump the structure of it.

Comments on Erins blog about GRAMMAR

noreply@blogspirit.com (Keesler) — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 20:54:45 +0200

I agree with Erin on her points about grammar. I really hate grammar and am affraid of teaching it because I also feel that I don't know enough about it. I think that Grand Valley should definitely require those going into the teaching field to take more classes that teach you about grammar. I know that I can take a text book and teach what the text book says about it, but I really don't think that thats how it should work. If your going to teach something then you should really know it and not just teach what a book says. I do believe that grammar shouldn't be as prescriptivly taught as it is in many classrooms. I think it's a huge reason that many students don't like english and therefore never really learn as much about writing as they should. I do still think that we need to have certain guidelines in english for writing though. I just need to know more about those guidelines and how to use them. I also think that many of us don't know grammar as well as we should because it's often taught to us all at once early on and not spread out or reemphasized throughout our education so we lose rules here and there. We as teachers should be stressing and teaching the importance of grammar throughout the various levels of the school systems. I think that by doing this it would help students know and effectively use grammar properly.

Breaking the rules

noreply@blogspirit.com (Keesler) — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 22:10:00 +0200

I really enjoyed Tom Romano's article on Breaking the Rules in Style. I thought it was incredible some of the idea's and reasonings that the students had for writing the way that they did. I am certainly one that believes it's what you write that's important not how you write it. This article to me says just that. Many great writers have, as pointed out in the article, used styles that by traditional standards would be incorrect and yet their still considered to be some of the best writers of all time. So why is it that we feel we need to put some sort of rules on how someone writes a poem or story? Why can't a student be graded simply on the content of their writing and not the style in which they chose to write? These are the major questions that I have after having read Romano's article.
I do believe that there are certain times and places where a person must write more prescriptivly, but I feel that in a classroom learning about writing and how to make points or ideas come accross in a work is not necessarily the place to do it. I think that part of the reason that I've heard so many students say that they hate english is because of all the rules that some teachers try to force on them. If we don't give students room to be creative and express themselves then how are they gonna have any sort of passion for writing? I know that I personally dreaded my english classes my first couple years of high school. It wasn't until my last two years that I really became passionate about writing, and that was because I discovered that writing didn't just have to be about books. It could be about me or something that I love to do.
By throwing out all the rules that have been laid out for us out the door for awhile we will allow our students to open up to the idea of writing and become more creative. If we can get students to do this who knows what they will do with it. Maybe our society will benefit greatly by doing so. I believe that there is a direct correlation between students who are more creative and students that excel in area's of academics.

Grading Papers

noreply@blogspirit.com (Keesler) — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 22:45:00 +0200

The Tough thing for me with grading papers is the fact that I really don't feel as though i'm that much of an expert on writing. I write and I enjoy it, but I don't know every little rule or anything like that. I tend to be a lot better at suggesting what kind of content things need to be done with the paper. This is fine and all, but I feel that my lack of expertise on the rules and mechanics really hinders me and possibly would make me a little to easy on students papers. Obviously, this is a concern that I will need to address and learn more about so that I am grading all of my students fairly. I think this will be one of the greatest personal challenges that I will come accross as a teacher is making myself learn all of the "proper" ways of writing.
I also find that it's hard to grade students papers because you don't wanna tell anyone that their paper isn't good. I am uncomfortable being the bad guy in a way I guess. I know this is definitely something that i'll need to work on as a future teacher. There are gonna be times when I have to give a student a low grade on a paper or assignment because they did not meet the expectations. I feel though that many of us are going into the teaching field because we want to help students and impact them by preparing them for whatever future awaits them. I think this is another reason that it's tough, because we don't wanna see anyone fail. I found it much easier to grade and comment on papers that I didn't know were real students. However, when I graded the real student papers in class it was much tougher because I had to be very careful about what I said and how.
I believe that all teachers should be careful of their word choice when grading papers. Good teachers give constructive citicism where bad ones I feel just give critisism. I know that i've had teachers that did both and even some that would strictly give you a grade with no feedback. I always enjoyed the teachers who gave comments on the good and bad and what I could do to make the paper better. This is the style I am going to strive for in my teaching of writing. This way I can help students improve their writing and not just tell them what's wrong with it.

More Multigenre

noreply@blogspirit.com (Keesler) — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 23:40:00 +0100

I Think that the multigenre projects are really spectacular projects to do in the classroom. However it seem that there are some things that you would really need to think about when having your students do them. Especially if the project is about themselves. There are topics that will come up that may raise some topics that as a teacher as well as other students would need to be very sensitive about. I think students would need to know that when doing peer reading circles and such they should be very considerate of how the other person might feel. Some topics would be very difficult i'm sure for students to write about and I would be concerned about kids harassing someone because of something that was in their project. I would also say that the students would definitely need to know what kind of topics, language, and resources are acceptable for the classroom and which are not. Obviously there are some things that we just absolutely can not allow in the classroom. I really like the idea of the multigenre and would definitely use it in my classroom someday to see how it worked out and if the students enjoyed it. I would however make sure that all of the above things were very clear to them about the project before doing it though.
I think that the best way to work with the multigenre project would be to work in small groups on the project. By doing this the students can learn and figure out new creative methods of writing from other students. It also allows the groups to help each other develop their project into something polished and personal. I believe that this is really one of the true aims of multigenre is to allow students something personal thats theirs and theirs only to show off if they like. I would want my students to be very proud of what they have just created.
I think some good creative ideas for the multigenre project is to do something for the students to show their work when their done. Maybe have an open mic sort of day with the projects or even a multigenre gallery in the classroom thats set up like an art gallery. I think these would both be a lot of fun for the students and would allow them to see the great work that their peers have done.