Topic #1: How can I get students to view writing as something fun, interesting and enjoyable, as opposed to a chore, assignment, or something they have to do because the teacher is "making them"?
There are a few ideas I have in mind already to answer this question, but maybe I could go into finding out a few more techniques and figuring out if they've been effective in classrooms, and also exactly how they've been effective. This topic is important to me and it's something I'm interested in looking into because as someone who does enjoy writing, I would love to be able to show others just how fun--and even relaxing--it can be.
Topic #2: What would be the most interesting, creative and effective ways to get students involved/give them experience with a variety of different kinds of writing, especially if a specific style isn't their forte?
There are some students who love to write poetry, but hate writing narritives. Some students are very descriptive, but do not feel comfortable writing dialogue. It would be interesting to come up with creative ways to effectively build their experience with many different writing genres, styles and techniques. This way the students who already feel confident can improve, while the kids who are less confident gain more experience and learn that they actually can write whatever genre or style they want and that it's actually enjoyable as well.
Ariana: My best advice about where to go next here is to work on refining these questions. They are so very broad and all-encompassing. The first question...a question that has plagued teachers for centuries, btw!...is contingent on attitudes, I think, not so much teaching methods. WHY do young people come to despise writing in school? Why are we always operating, as teachers (even in this class, with you guys!), from a place of needing to "warm students up" to the notion of writing? Why don't students come into class wanting to write? What happens between learning to write and form letters and being so excited about that and learning to dread writing?
ReplyDeleteInstead of asking your question from a place of "finding the solution" (because there aren't any solutions, only ideas), try, instead, to come at it from a place of exploration and a place where students are not empty buckets waiting to be filled by you.
Instead of "how can I get students to..." (because we can never "get" students to do anything, really...we can only ask and encourage...and they can still resist...) ask "how can I model what it means to love writing?" or "how can I explore with students their experiences with writing in order to better understand why they resist it so much?"
Try to form your question from a place of student agency and power, not from a place of "broken students who need fixing." Does that make sense?
Also, rethink your use of absolute language in your questions. Words like "the most interesting, creative, and effective ways" lead me to believe that you're looking for a solution to a problem that you can only anticipate. Instead of seeking THE most effective teaching methods (how can you possibly do this when we know that teaching methods change depending on students, location, time, weather, date, and so on?), reframe your inquiry so that you are exploring your own attitudes toward writing. Where are you, the almost teacher, in all of this? Are you a writer? Did school make you hate writing? Start there...then move out to the imaginary students if you have time and inclination.
The best way to engage writers, as we've learned in this class so far, is to build a trusting community of people who write, including you, the teacher. How are you going to do that, specifically? What are you afraid of in this proposition? What feels exciting to you? Do you see yourself as a writer and are you prepared to share your writing with your students?
I'm wondering if you might begin there...with yourself and the place from which these larger, more broad questions are coming from.
Ariana,
ReplyDeleteI think your first idea plays right into your second. Maybe combine them?
Creative assignments are key to a fun enviroment. It removed the monotony! I think it is a difficult task to get students pumped about all the various types of writing because they like what they like, as you mention with narrative versus poetry but I do believe is possible. So I think this a great idea to look deeper into. But where to start!!!??
Ariana,
ReplyDeleteI can't stop thinking about all of our journal like book suggestions to you from yesterday. In particular Mark's suggestion of Sherman Alexie's Diary of a Part-Time Indian and Zitkala-Sa's Diary of A School Girl because they show you two sides of the coin in almost different centuries.
Zitkala-Sa was a Native American girl forced to go to a boarding school so she could assimilate to the white man's ways in the early 1900's. She decided to go back eventually once she ruptured home but she was reluctant at first.
Sherman Alexie's story, although dramatized, is also non-fiction. His takes place in the 90's (I believe) when his teacher on the reservation saw in him the desire to learn so he encouraged him to go to a white school because on the reservation they were taught to "kill the Indian to save the child." So he decides to go to a white school by choice, almost 100 years later to get a better education. He shows the struggle between holding on to your cultural values and assimilating to your surroundings, just like Zitkala-Sa.
The helpful part about these are that they are both relatively short. Zitkala-Sa's is very short. Sherman's Alexie's is a novel but filled with fun font and sketches and is so funny-seriously, the man is hilarious and so it moves rather quickly.
You can get Diary of A Part-Time Indian at the Library. I also noticed there's an audio version, which I am sure would be awesome but you’d miss out of the sketches and those are half the laughs. You can get Zitkala-Sa’s piece online, just google it. It’s public domain now. Although, I attempted to hyperlink that for you too-not sure if it will work though!
Have fun, enjoy! This is a very cool and unique topic!
I just saw this on dictionary.com and thought of you:
ReplyDeleteEpistolary
[ih-pis-tl-er-ee]
The term epistolary entered English in the 1600s from the Greek term meaning "message" or "letter." An epistolary novel is a story told exclusively through letters, emails, newspaper articles and other primary sources. The form experienced a popularity surge in the mid-1700s, and has since structured some of the most beloved books in the English language, like Pamela or Virtue Rewarded, Frankenstein, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
How cool is that! Words are awesome!!!