The two pieces I chose to read for this post are “Why Should they Do It If You Don’t” and “School Writing vs Authentic Writing” and they both go hand in hand. “Why Should they Do It If You Don’t” focuses on the idea of teacher modeling. This does not mean showing students correct and incorrect papers, but actually digging into the assignment and writing it from the point of view of the student. This shows students that you are in the assignment together and behave as peers rather than teacher and student. It also helps teacher determine the difficulty, effectiveness, and realistic the assignment and the outcomes are. Uriarte noted that her assignment was very difficult and there were more components and roadblocks for her students than she thought. Once she noted this and modified the assignment, students created profiles of a homeless man, cancer survivor, etc. rather than just a teacher who had the time to talk. “School Writing vs Authentic Writing” focused on the differences between school writing and authentic writing and why authentic writing is more beneficial to students. Lindblom states that school writing gives the teacher absolute authority (Does spelling count? How many sources do we need?) while authentic writing makes the teacher a guide and advice giver (Is this spelled correctly? Can you help me find more sources?).

            After reading these two blog posts, I discovered that writing with/modeling for students helps develop authentic writers. The more work students see you putting into the assignment, the more credibility you gain. In other words, students begin to see your assignments as interesting and worthwhile. They will take the time to plan out what they need to do, find sources if needed, and ask questions of you or their peers. They become the authority figure in their education and work for their own self-gratification. In my experience as a student, my classmates have always done better if we knew the teacher was writing with us. We felt that she would be able to recognize and understand the problems we face and change what doesn’t work into something that does. With everything that goes on in students’ personal lives, it is important that teachers value modeling and authenticity in their classrooms. Without them the classroom becomes a dictatorship, robotically going through writing motions and turning in things less than authentic.

Links for these two blogs are below! Enjoy :) 

https://writerswhocare.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/school-writing-vs-authentic-writing/

https://writerswhocare.wordpress.com/2016/03/21/569/

I found the 6+1 Trait very useful when thinking about grading assignments. When I was a student, my teachers seemed to read through what was written, picking and choosing what aspects they liked best. For example, I had a teacher who did not agree with one of my arguments and graded me down for it. He felt that because I was arguing an idea not discussed in class, that I should lose points. This made me question what I was supposed to do during my next writing assignments. Should I write an essay that I am not interested and get points taken off because I did not analyze enough? Should I continue to write arguments that I am passionate about and get points deducted because I am not writing what he says word for word? Both of these situations appeared to be lose-lose situations. Either arguments used in following papers would force me to lose points and not do as well as I have done previously in that class. I would not have had a problem writing his arguments if he still gave us the space to investigate.

 Although this class was not an English class, we were analyzing poems, as if it was a typical English class. We were asked to analyze how word choice, imagery, and symbols drive and enhance the main theme of the text. My teacher, unfortunately, treated our essays poorly unless they looked like he wrote them. If he graded us using the 6+1 Trait model, papers would have been fairer and we would have had more fun in class as students. Instead of looking to see if our ideas were interesting or unique, he looked to see if they matched what he read. If he treated each student essay as one by an individual writer, he would have seen the potential we had in his class. I think the issue with this grading was that he knew his content so well and was so widely trained in it that he was just as excited about his ideas as we initially were about ours. If he took a step back to appreciate the thoughts and work we put into each assignment, he may have had a change in viewpoint could have possibly dismissed his own interpretation. Using the 6+1 Trait model, this teacher would have been more objective in his grading, giving us the space and confidence to develop as writers.

I really enjoyed reading Chapter 7 in Gallagher’s text. Throughout my experience in an education program, little time was spent on how to actually grade writing. So far this semester, we have followed his model of forming “rubrics” with students. During our narrative assignment, we chose important ideas and topics to assess and shared them with the group. After discussing the criteria with the class, we were assessed on what we chose with Dr. Johnson’s help. What confused me about this chapter was the notion that rubrics should be geared toward individual students. While this is good in theory and seems to work in his classroom, I do not know how well this works in all classrooms. I think the graphic organizers he provides students works well, along with the files Christensen keeps of student error. If a student does not have any added criteria, would it make it seem like you were favoring one student of the other? In other words, would the student with fewer criterions feel like he is being cheated out of points? Would the student who has the added criterion feel as if there is too much opportunity for points to be taken away?

            I also found the driver’s education blog to very important. I have never made the analogy before! When teenagers learn how to drive, they are going to make mistakes, all do. But their confidence in driving is effected by how the teacher reacts to their errors. In writing, the same occurs. People of all ages make mistakes when writing. If they are scared and belittled by the red pen, their confidence drops and they may never look at writing positively. They feel like the “writing expert” does not like their work and that there is no point in trying again if they are going to get the same results. These actions can be deadly to both driver’s education and writing students. If they are not treated like individuals who need to practice to enhance their skill, they will not get better and may, possibly, grow worse.

            I really enjoyed the readings this week, especially the chapters from Writing Between Languages! I felt that these chapters are extremely important with the numbers of ESL students increasing in the classroom. What really stuck me was the section that described the idea that one of the issues with student writing is that they are forced to think in English while writing in English. When students are forced to think in a language other than their native one, they have to try to distinguish what the appropriate vocabulary and conventions are. Because their English is not completely well formed, so much focus is placed on just trying to find the right ideas. Their writing becomes choppy because they focus on using the simplest vocabulary and conventions to get their ideas across. It is important to teach students that it is ok to think in their native language when writing. If they write in Spanish, for example, then translate to English they can get their ideas out on paper. Although time consuming, ELLs can use dictionaries and learn more English as well as the relationship between their native language and English.

            When I was in second grade, my best friend was a new student and came from France. She moved to the United States at age 5 and, as a result, spent two years in a French-American school where she learned the bulk of her studies in a mix of French and English. It was not until the end of middle school that her writing began to improve. She, like the students described in the book, felt that she had to think in English while writing. At age 21, she thinks in French during all aspects of her day, unless she has to write. At this moment, she switches to English and stumbles over her words, even though she speaks English better than many native speakers. What I find interesting about her case is that her verbal English is beyond perfect. I asked her why she thinks this is and she said that although she speaks English, she thinks in French and subconsciously translates! This validates Fu’s argument even more and demonstrates how important a student’s natural language is to their education.

Teachers in my experience have never put much emphasis on revision. If they asked us to do it, it was never looked at as detrimental. If we didn’t bring a revised copy in, there were no penalties, no talk of revision, nothing. As a result, many students, like Gallagher mentioned, simply did a quick spell check and punctuation check. To this day, I still struggle with revising my own writing. As a future teacher, this gives me conflicting feelings. If I see the importance of revision and value it in my classroom, shouldn’t it be a skill I embrace in my writing. It wasn’t until this course that I have sat down, thought about my writing, and thoroughly revised it. Gallagher’s section on revision he gives examples of how to model good, deep revision. One of these strategies is getting students to get rid of “be” verbs and replacing them with stronger verbs. The example Gallagher gives is: “The clouds were in the sky” versus “The clouds hung in the sky” (68). The difference in these two sentences is strong: the later paints a picture while the former gives a basic statement.

I personally feel that this is an important skill to learn. The only time a teacher told me this and enforced it was during my second semester of college. Since then, I have noticed a change in my papers. I always try to make a point to look through my papers and find forms of “to be”. If I see them, I try my best to switch them with a stronger, more descriptive word. If my writing has become stronger from implementing this strategy, imagine how strong student writing would be if they became familiar with this strategy during their freshman or sophomore years of high school! When I have my own classroom, I will make sure I set time aside to teach revision strategies that develop student writing. Since I do not revise much, I will use my classroom as an outlet to learn and revise along with my students, modeling that not one piece of writing is perfect.