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.