week+of+dec+1+and+3

Welcome back from the long break (NCTE and Thanksgiving). This week we have a few things to accomplish and a couple of goals to reach.

First, the big due date is Thursday when the profile of your writing partner is due. You'll find information about this assignment on the "Syllabus and Major Assignments" page of this wiki. We'll also be wrapping up your grammar podcasts and trying to have those posted on your blog (or on our "Podcast Page" on this wiki). In past semesters, posting these files has caused some trouble because of their size. If this is the case, then we'll create a private youtube channel where we can post what we've done.

Additionally, you'll find a "Genre Challenge" page on this wiki (it's over there on the left of your screen). I'm hoping you can post your annotated bibliographies so that you can each use this page as a resource down the road. I'm wondering if you each want to post other genre challenge documents, but I think the resources is the big thing (I worry about posting copyrighted material - though many of you had links that might work). I'll leave this resource gathering to you.

As for the goals this week, it's time to start pulling everything together from the course and to begin thinking about the next steps in what you want to learn about teaching composition. With this in mind, the big goal for Tuesday is to share what you've learned about your writing partner (the last time we saw each other was when we visited Fairmont) and to take some time to look at drafts of our profiles.

As a reminder, the questions that were embedded throughout the course include:
 * What do writers do and know? What do writing teachers do and know?
 * How do writers learn? What do writers need?
 * What is in a writer's repertoire? What is in a writing teacher's repertoire?
 * What does it mean to write well? (Who decides and how do they decide?)
 * What does it mean to teach writers/writing well? (Who decides and how do they decide?)

December 1 Writing our way in ... Write on your own OR Spend several minutes writing a scene that involves: [from //Naming the World//, p. 349]
 * A stained rug
 * A missing photograph
 * A Tiffany lamp
 * A walking cane
 * A cassette tape

1. Logistics for the rest of the semester

Profiles of writing partners due ||
 * ** T 12.1 ** || Reporting what we’ve learned about our young writers ||  ||
 * ** Th 12.3 ** || Sharing and responding to one another’s podcasts || Final Grammar Podcasts due and should be posted on your blog
 * ** T 12.8 ** || || Read Newkirk in “Neglected R,” pp. 1-9

Guiding questions for when you read: · What choices do writing teachers have to make in their work? What informs writing teachers’ judgment as they make those choices? · In what ways do writing teachers learn from their students? || Read Mahiri chapter in “Neglected R,” pp. 254-265 Read NCTE position statement on The Role of English Teachers in Educating ELLs at …. [] Guiding questions for when you read: · Who is an English language learner? · How might one’s home culture shape his or her learning? · How might one’s past literacy experiences shape his or her future literacy experiences? · What might be different about learning writing versus learning writing in school? || We meet at **8-10** am in our classroom, **LA103**, on **Tuesday, December 15**. ||
 * ** Th 12.10 ** || Teaching Difference || Read Fu chapter in “Neglected R,” pp. 225-242
 * ** Finals **
 * T 12.15 ** ||||

Time to take a look at and respond to one another's work that's due on Thursday
 * Sharing / responding to one another's profiles (What have we learned about our writing partner?)
 * Sharing / responding to one another's drafts of the podcasts?

3. Previewing the final - looking at last semester's questions and re-writing them for our purposes.
 * What is it you want to think about as you synthesize your learning from the semester?
 * What have you thought about this semester that will help you in your teaching of writers?


 * December 3**

Writing our way in ... writing about emotion... Pick one of the emotions listed below (or any other emotion) and write without using the word. Could be a scene, a poem, a newspaper article, a drawing, etc... Try to evoke the emotion in the reader without using the word (or any derivation of it). [from [|Creating Character Emotions] by Ann Hood]


 * anger
 * anxiety
 * apathy
 * confusion
 * contentment
 * curiosity
 * desire
 * despair
 * excitement
 * fear
 * fondness
 * forgiveness
 * gratitude
 * grief
 * guilt
 * happiness
 * hate
 * hope

Writing Process Reports (for profile and for podcast) 1. Describe your process of creating the “X” from conception to publishing, including a. Time spent on each part of the process… b. Who or what resources were helpful and how so… c. Obstacles you faced and how you approached them… d. What features of your genre did you focus on in your piece…

2. This is what I felt I did really well for the X project….

3. If I had more time or another shot at working on another X like this, this is what I would do differently process-wise… ... AND this is what I would do differently to this particular X I'm turning in today ....

4. Jim, this is what I’d like you to comment on when you read and respond to my X….

Tech issues ...

Examining and drafting final exam questions for this course ...

**__Question ONE – A Required Academic Essay__** The course, ENGL301 – Spring 2009, began with a few core questions, including the following: § What do writers do and know? § How do writers learn? § What is in a writer’s repertoire? § What does it mean to write well? Our answers to any of these questions begin to shape what we think writing teachers might teach or might need to teach to students. With this in mind, for this question I’d like you to **answer one of the questions above, and I’d like you to argue how this answer informs your vision of the writing teacher’s role, what a writing teacher needs to assess, and what kind of pedagogy might be the best approach.** Since this is an academic essay, you are expected to include a claim, reasons, and evidence, as well as an acknowledgement and response to either possible limitations to your argument or possible objections to it. The evidence you use to support your claim might include your own experience writing (particularly in this course), your in-class or on-line discussions, and/or your readings from the course or from your research.

**__Questions 2-5 – Choose ONE__** 2. Critique the pedagogical approach offered by Kittle, Schuster, or any one of the teachers in the Neglected R sections on “Explorations of Genre,” “Digital Writing,” or “Teaching Difference.” § Describe the approach. What do students and teachers do? What do teachers have to know about a) learning and learners, b) subject matter of writing, and c) pedagogical strategies, such as those on assessment. § Analyze the approach. What are the beliefs about writing and/or learning to write that seem to be behind this approach? § Evaluate the approach. What are its strengths and limitations? § Speculate on it. What parts of this approach are appealing to you and which would you change? Explain why based not only on your opinion, but also from at least one of the other course readings.

3. Create an assignment sheet you might give your students for one original writing assignment (can’t use an assignment that you find elsewhere, such as in the Boise School District standards or a lesson plan web site, etc.) – it’s ok to use an assignment sheet you previously created this semester for 301 (Jim’s class) or for 481 (Barbara’s class) and critique it. · Make sure to include all the appropriate parts of an assignment sheet. Describe the students’ task. Explain your rationale for the assignment (what do you hope students will learn or be able to do, and why is this assignment important to you as a teacher). Describe the assessment criteria you would use to determine if students do indeed know (or can do) what you are aiming for in this assignment · Evaluate the assignment. What are its strengths or limitations? How might this assignment reflect your beliefs and/or the beliefs of NCTE? · Contextualize the assignment. How does this assignment fit within your larger goals for the course you imagine this being a part of OR your larger goals for teaching writing? § Speculate on this assignment. What parts of this approach are appealing to you and which would you change? Explain why based not only on your opinion, but also from at least one of the other course readings.

4. Analyze one of the lesson plans you either created or found this semester for the Genre Challenge or the Multigenre Inquiry OR analyze one of the writing assignments we tried in our class (e.g. podcast, genre challenge, multigenre inquiry) by using both your belief statement from your podcast, as well as the NCTE position statement on the teaching of writing. · Explain what would students need to know or be able to do to demonstrate their knowledge or ability? · Describe what the teacher has to know or be able to do in order to teach the writer well? · Evaluate the lesson plan. What are its strengths and limitations? · Speculate on the lesson plan. What parts of it would you keep and what might you change? Explain why you would do so, and base your reasons on your opinion and on your informed judgment from at least one of our course readings.

5. We had two writing assignments that included the word “genre,” namely the Genre Challenge and the Multigenre Inquiry Project. A “genre” approach to teaching writing is but one pedagogical approach (e.g. focuses on the appropriate features of a text). Other approaches include the process approach (e.g. Kittle’s workshop), a skills approach (e.g. what Schuster critiques), a social practices approach (e.g. learning writing as an important part of participating in a community), and a creativity approach (e.g. a writer is just creative or not). · Compare a genre approach to two other approaches in terms of the teachers’ role, the assessment criteria, and the kinds of knowledge and processes that would be foregrounded in each approach. · Which approach seems to be most attractive to you and why? · When might one approach be more appropriate for different learning goals? · In what ways might you use a combination of approaches and why would you do so? Please include details from at least one of our course readings in order to support or explain your argument.

**__The Final Question – A Required List (up to ten items on your list, but no more than Letterman’s Top Ten)__** What does this final exam not reveal about what you learned this semester, either in this class or in this class in conjunction with any other course, particularly any other teaching course? In other words, what are your “takeaways” that might not be revealed in your responses to the two questions you answered above?