Last week we posted 5 ideas for our I-search, this week we were asked to narrow it down to 2 and It was pretty clear to me which two I would want to focus on more. They are:
1) How could a teacher work collaboratively with students to create assignments of criteria for the classroom? Is this a good approach or would it cause the students to feel like the teacher is lazy?
As a student I would have liked to collaborate with the teachers on assignments. This could have made expectations a lot clearer for all the students, eliminating the guessing game that goes into teacher created assignments. This also gives students some of the power in the classroom.
2) How to make the transition away from the 5 paragraph essay that is used to introduce students to the art of essay writing?
The 5 paragraph essay, a good starting point for writing essays, but not the form you want students to be stuck with forever. I am curious when the appropriate time to move away from these essays and how to appropriately do it. I know as a teacher I don't want to have to read a massive pile of 5 paragraph essays when I assign a writing assignment, and I know the students don't want to write them.
I am probably leading more towards the first one than the second one, as I see a lot more room for exploration.
Nate: I like both topics! Topic A, related to working collaboratively with students to design assignments, is good because it will no doubt lead to concrete ideas of what to do and how to do it in the classroom. However, as always, these ideas will be bounded by the where, whys, and hows. Depending on which students you're teaching, where they're located, who's asking you to do what program and prepare for what test, and so on and so forth. This question is fruitful but its fruit can only be harvested on certain days at certain times in certain types of weather.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, Topic B, teaching essay writing by first abandoning the horrible 5 paragraph structure, will prove to have more utliity for you as a new teacher. I believe that your work on this topic could result in a cool assortment of resources that you can actually use no matter when and how and when you teach students essay writing (a requirement everywhere, all the time, no matter what). My ideas related to this topic have to do with going back to origin of essay writing. Montaigne is largely credited with introducing and making popular the essay format, and his essays, which you can search and look over online, I'm sure, are a gift, as a reader and writer. Maybe you're going to be the awesome teacher who actually teaches where that stupid word "essay" comes from, what it was intended to mean (not 5 paragraphs of bullshit persuasion, I promise you!), and so on. You could collect sample essays, both old and contemporary, by reading collections and popular models from the genre. Teaching the essay NOT as response to literature (which it never, ever, ever was intended to be!) but as FORM...response to life, to living, ruminations on the human condition. I am so amped for this; I hope you will come to the other side (Plan B!) with me, Nate! (lol)
Nate,
ReplyDeleteDo the first one!!! Yeah!! You crack me up; "will the student think the teacher is lazy?" You are always thinking on your toes. If the students feel as though their voice is being heard by implimenting their idea's for assignments in the classroom, I cannot see how thinking the teacher would be lazy would even be a thought-truly. It's a great idea.
P.S. Your background picture is so creative...words of emotion from a twentysomething male. Looking forward to more of them!
I agree- the first topic seems to be daunting! Please do it! I wonder what the outcome of your I-search is going to be.
ReplyDelete