After lunch yesterday, we visited Half Price Books. I picked up a used copy of the NWP's publication Because Writing Matters. I've taken a few notes including:
"...Teachers still receive little instruction in teaching writing. Elementary school teacher training focuses on reading methods, and only a handful of states require a course in writing pedagogy for certification. Writing can support learning in all disciplines, including science and math, but relatively few high school instructors in those content areas have been exposed to research-proven, effective strategies for using it" (p. 17).
As my research explores the writing conference as a potent tool to improve student writing skills, I need to find out how teachers learn the appropriate protocols, dialogue, strategies. Possible sources may include mentors, student teaching experiences, professional reading, university courses, and the big one... common sense. I also need to find out which states have the writing course requirements.
If there are multiple sources, there are multiple strategies.
"If teachers within the same school have distinct or unexamined expectations for good writing, it can be confusing to students and a source of misunderstanding among faculty" (p.15).
However, after reading Brenner's students' pieces, some of which are heart-breaking, I have a participatory action research project in mind, too. I would just like to stay clear of that relationship in mainstream media where the white teacher works to save the inner-city kids. If it's participatory action research, the participants and the researcher enter into a collaborative relationship in which they both pose the questions to be pursued and work together to gather the data to respond to these questions. "It entails a cycle of research, reflection, and action" (Marshall & Rossman, 2006).
2 comments:
I agree that every campus needs to establish "common language" for all subject areas. Writing, especially, should be grounded in commonality, as it can become quite an abstract concept for young students. As educators use more and more of the same language from one school year to the next, the sooner we'll see more of those "light bulb" moments occur for our students.
When I was at an ELPS in Science training, the facilitator asked for ways educators could get students to use academic vocabulary in writing. My suggestion was to have students keep a journal in which they recorded factual information - and used the required vocabulary. That writing was to be followed with a creative writing exercise (like writing poetry) in which the same academic vocabulary was used. The facilitator suggested that perhaps I was not truly a teacher of science - science teachers don't think like that! Huh?!?!?! Did I mention that her background was HS science? Goes right along with your article... :/
integrative
interdisciplinary
interactive
INTEREST
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