English Updates

Learning Difficulty

2012-01-27T05:33:00.001-08:00

Question: “Most of uscan think of times when we struggled to learn something. What was yours?” p. 7.

MyAnswer:Statistics. I can still see the instructor filling the blackboard with figuresthat meant absolutely nothing to me. And feeling the sinking feeling that I wasoverwhelmed. What did I do? I took the topics which the instructor was fillingthe blackboard with, found a book that clearly and plainly explained eachtopic, ignored the course text and the instructor, and managed to achieve a “C”on my exam.

I offer my readers the opportunity toanswer this question for the benefit of my other readers. Please send youranswers to raystop2@comcast.net.

Title: “Intervention:Seeing and Supporting the Individual Within the Community.” D Lapp, D Fisherand N Frey. Voices from the Middle(December 2011), 7-0.

A Radical Change in Publishing Novels

2012-01-26T05:49:00.000-08:00

Question:What’s next in the publishing industry?

Answer:Novels that are a mix of print and technology.

Quote: “A new crop of digital books comes loaded with videos,songs, animated shorts and pop-up graphics. Is this the future of publishing?”

Quote: “The Novel, Remixed: Readers of Chopsticks can select 'shuffle read,' which reorders the pages.

Quote: “The new novel Chopstickstells the story of a troubled young piano prodigy—using family photos, letters,documents, instant messages and YouTube videos. It's a love story, a mysteryand a parable about creativity and madness.”

Quote: “It's also an experiment, one that could have far-reachingimplications for the book industry, as publishers stretch the definition ofwhat constitutes a book. Chopsticksstraddles the digital divide that is transforming the publishing world—it'sboth a novel and a digital app.

Comment: I still equate words with ideas and ideaswith words. All the other stuff is window dressing, supporting the ideasexpressed in words. RayS.

Title: “Blowing Up The Book.” By ALEXANDRA ALTER. TheWall Street Journal. January 20, 2012. Internet.

English Language Learners and Academic English

2012-01-25T05:55:00.001-08:00

Question: How canteachers equip English Learners (who are not native speakers of English) withthe academic skills needed in content area classes?

Response: “Susana Dutrois a founding partner of E.L. Achiev e (www.elachieve.org), anorganization dedicated to assisting educators in equipping English learners foracademic achievement.” P. 339.

Question: What are someof the challenges facing adolescent English learners?

Dutro: “Many haveachieved adequate fluency in everyday language, yet they struggle with advancedreading and writing, lack depth of vocabulary and syntactical knowledge, and arenot yet equipped with sufficient English knowledge for academic tasks requiringcomplex inferences, analyses, hypotheses, and summaries. This lack of languageproficiency and academic achievement can mask students’ potential to learn.” P.339.

Comment: Dutro frames the problem succinctly: manyEnglish learners are relatively fluent in everyday English but do not havecommand of academic English, the English needed in school. RayS.

Question: “What approachdo you take in meeting the academic language needs of adolescents who arelearning English?”

Dutro: “Awell-designed program for English learners includes systematic instruction inthe conventions of standard English along with explicit instruction in thediscipline-specific language of core content areas….”

Comment: Sounds good, but the author does not reallyhelp the ordinary classroom teacher achieve these goals, with this exception:RayS.

Dutro: “…the biologyteacher shows student how to use word banks and sentence frames whenresponding. The students now have access to content terms such as vacuole and membrane as well as functional phrases like serve the purpose of and operateas.” P. 341.

Title: “ResearchConnections: Equipping Adolescent English Learners for Academic Achievement; AnInterview with Susana Dutro and Ellen Levy.” S Dutro, E Levy and DW Moore. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy(December 2011/January 2012),339-342.

Reading Aloud

2012-01-24T05:53:00.001-08:00

Question: How canteachers turn response to poetry from groans to enjoyment?

Answer: Read yourfavorite poems aloud—and other literature as well. As the author says, “Readingaloud can motivate students to read and to read more.”

Another idea: “Play the opening tracksof an audio book as students come into the classroom.”

Comment: Ask your students if they remember any booksread to them by parents and relatives when young and by teachers through thegrades. RayS.

Title: “Accidentallyon Purpose.” JTS Lesesne. Journal ofAdolescent and Adult Literacy (December2011/January 2012), 336.

Technology in Education

2012-01-23T05:53:00.001-08:00

Question: An attempt tointegrate blogs into pre-service training of teachers. Why did it fail?

Answer/Quote: “Ourassumptions were problematic in a couple of ways. First, we inadvertentlylumped our students together, considering all of them to be tech savvy andanxious to spend more time on the computer to create community. Second, we nowrealize that the majority of the students who came to us already tech-savvybenefited little from this addition to our course, and more from the otherinstruction taking place. Teaching is always a humbling experience for us.Luckily, we get to take a step back, look at what we have found, and try again,hopefully learning from our mistakes.” P. 334.

Comment: I guess this attempt to integrate blogginginto teaching failed because the teachers did not find out what the studentsknew and felt about the technology. They also failed to discover what thestudents wanted from the course. Pretty basic stuff. I applaud the authors forexplaining why they failed. RayS.

Title: “Learning from Our Mistakes: WhatMatters When Incorporating Blogging in the Content Area Literacy Classroom.” HHungerford-Kresser, J Wiggins and C Amaro-Jimenez. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (December 2011/January 2012), 326-335.

Teaching Teachers to Reflect on Their Teaching

2012-01-20T05:22:00.001-08:00

Question: How can weencourage teachers to reflect on their teaching?

Answer/Quotes: “Students[teachers] start the semester writing their literacy autobiographies andconstructing their literacy self-portraits.”

“As the students and I presentautobiographies and self-portraits, I have listeners note ideas from eachpresentation that resonate with them, personally.”

“Once we have all shared, studentschoose one person whose presentation stands out and write a note to that personexplaining what resonated with them.”

“During the reading of eacharticle/chapter in assigned texts for the course, students then note theirideas on some sort of strategy: note-taking form….” etc.

After exploring literacy and working withseveral reading strategies, students…reflect on the strategies they havelearned, including how they would use the strategy in their own content areaclassroom.

Comment: Well, it’s a beginning anyway. One thing Ihave always regretted in my teaching career is my failure to take the time toreflect on my teaching practices, concerns, problems, etc. Therefore, I was not as good a teacher as Icould have been. RayS.

Title: “FromResistance to Advocacy for Math Literacy: One Teacher’s Literacy IdentityTransformation.” E Spitler. Journal ofAdolescent and Adult Literacy (December2011/January 2012) 306-315.

Content Area Reading Assistance

2012-01-19T05:53:00.000-08:00

Question: Should contentarea teachers (math, science, social studies, art, etc.) teachers try to teachreading?

Answer/Quotes: “I wasintroducing my content area literacy course to a new group of social studies,language arts, music and art pre-service teachers and feeling confident aboutmy focus. I told them that they would not be teachers of reading, but that Iwould be showing them ways to use literacy as a tool to support the teaching ofcontent.”

“I was ready to move on, when Alan(pseudonym), an art major raised his hand. ‘Wait a minute,’ he said. ‘you meanwe’re not going to learn how to teach reading in this class?’ ‘No,’ I replied,‘you’re going to learn how to use literacy as a tool to help you teach art.’Alan countered, ‘But my students can’t read. If I don’t teach them how to readwho will? I really want to know how to help my students read better.’ I askedthe class how many agreed with Alan. The majority raised their hands.”

“Is it reasonable for teachers like Alanto have students’ reading development as an instructional goal? In some ways, Iapplaud this thinking; on the other hand, how feasible is it that an artteacher should teach reading? Although I admire Alan’s motivation, I agree withRissman, Miller, and Torgeson (2009), who wrote,

"Whileit is clear that content teachers cannot be expected to teach struggling readersbasic reading skills, they can help students develop the knowledge, reading,strategies and thinking skills to understand and learn them from increasinglycomplex text in their content areas.” (p. 13) p. 276.

Comment: Boy, does this issue ring a bell. I was involvedin a reading-in-the-content areas workshop in a school district. In marched thedistrict administration. When I said that I was not asking content teachers to“teach” reading, they all got up, huffed and walked out. It still hurts thatthey did not stay around to learn what I meant by that statement.

“Teaching”reading as a reading teacher means identifying main ideas, inferencing, andcertain levels of comprehension as ends in themselves. What content teacherscan do, while teaching their subjects, is to show students how to use certainstrategies to support their reading, specifically, the Directed ReadingAssignment.

Thedirected reading assignment provides background information about the topic tobe read.

Evenasking the students what they already know about the topic helps.

Thenext step is to pre-teach unfamiliar vocabulary in the chapter. Words thatstudents don’t know they will pass over. Pointing out the meaning from contextor roots alerts students to the words. The words pre-taught should be crucialto the meaning of ideas in the chapter.

Next,the students read the title, sub-titles and bold-face print to build up theirbackground information about what the chapter contains. Then, they read the firstparagraph, the first sentence of each intermediate paragraph and the lastparagraph as more background about the contents of the chapter.

Now,students ask questions about what they want to know from the chapter about thetopic. They read to answer their questions. After discussing the answers theyhave found, they go to the Internet to answer unanswered questions in thechapter and further questions about the topic.

That’swhat content area teachers can do to help students read the content in theirsubjects. What do most content teachers say about this strategy? “It’s doingthe work for the students.” I say it’s supporting them in their reading. Youcan’t win.RayS.

Title: “What RTI [Responseto Intervention] Means for Content Area Teachers.” S Lenski. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy(December 2011/ January 2012),276-282.

KWL and Comprehension

2012-01-18T05:56:00.001-08:00

Question: What is apopular strategy for improving students’ comprehension?

Answer/Quote: “ ‘K-W-L’ isone of the most ubiquitous acronyms in today’s elementary schools when it comesto reading comprehension instruction. The Know-Want to Know-Learn (K-W-L; Ogle, 1986) instructional techniques accessesstudents’ prior knowledge and prompts students to ask questions about anexpository text. Then after reading, students reflect on what they havelearned. The K-W-L is widely used across the grades and content areas.”

Comment: When I have used K-W-L, I have had studentsbrainstorm what they know (K) about the topic of the assignment, raisequestions about what they want to know about the topic from the assignment, andafter reading the assignment to discuss what they have learned (L) about thetopic from reading the assignment. RayS.

Title: “Comprehensionand Authentic Reading: Putting the Power Back into K-W-L.” K Hilden and JJones. Reading Today (December 2011/January 2012), 15-16.

Writing Summaries of Novels and Short Stories

2012-01-17T05:33:00.001-08:00

Question: How does onego about summarizing plots?

Answer/Quote: “The starting pointis the ‘Masterplot,’ which combines three phrases into a one-sentencedescription of the story. To create a Masterplot, the writer chooses an A, Band C clause. A clauses establish the protagonist, B clauses start the actionof the story, and C clauses resolve the action, For example: “A person in love(A clause), falling in love at a time when certain obligations forbid love (Bclause) emerges happily from a serious entanglement (C clause.)” p. 19.

Title: “A Formula CanCure the Plot-Sick Writer.” A review of Plotto:The Master Book of All Plots by William Wallace Cook. Tin House Books, 450pages. Hardcover or digital, $24.95. Reviewed by Martha Lundin. The Writer (February 2012), p. 19.

Connecting Students, Teachers and Famiies

2012-01-16T05:34:00.000-08:00

Question: How helpfamilies learn what is going on in class?

Answer/Quote: “It seems asthough each year our team of four core fifth-grade teachers and one learningsupport teacher debated on what to do to keep the families abreast of theirchild’s academic and social progress. This past year Terry (first author) suggestedthat the students write a letter to their parents each Friday detailing theirbehavior and academic accomplishments for the week. It was important toincrease communication between students and families, but it was equallyimportant that the students became involved with communicating this message totheir families.” P. 275.

Outlinefor the Friday letter:

Dear _______________

This week atschool I learned ___________________________________.

Mybehavior during this past week was ___________________________

Onething I really liked this week was _____________________________

Love,

Quote: “The lettersprovided students the opportunity to review the week’s lessons and practicewriting with a clear focus to an authentic audience.” P. 280.

Comment: I don’t think I would use the middlesentence about behavior. I might have students provide details on a topic thatwas taught. Students could indicate what they need to learn more about a topic.RayS.

Title: “Friday Letters: ConnectingStudents, Teacher and Families Through Writing.” TH Newman and SA Bizzarri. TheReading Teacher (December 2011/January 2012), 275-280.

Fluency: Phrase Reading

2012-01-13T05:42:00.001-08:00

Question: How improvefluency through understanding phrase boundaries?

Answer/Quote: “One approachfor helping students develop their ability to phrase texts essentially involvesmaking visible those normally invisible phrase boundaries for students. We havenoticed that public speakers, when giving a speech, will often mark phraseboundaries in the written texts of the speeches they are reading, as visualcues to assist them in phrasing their oral rendition of the speech. If thisbenefits fluent speakers when reading, a text, would it not benefit childrenlearning to become fluent readers?” p. 253.

Quote: “Find arelatively short passage (100-400 words in length) from a text that studentshave previously read or will be reading …. With a pencil, mark what you believeare the appropriate phrase boundaries in the text where reader would pause withslash marks—one slash mark for short phrase boundaries and pauses withinsentence and two slashes for boundaries (longer pauses) between sentences.” P.253-254.

Exampleof phrase markings for a story: from SevenBrave Women by Betsy Hearne: “My grandmother did greatthings.//Betty lived during World War II/ but she did not fight in it.// Shetook fencing for fun/ and played basketball/ on the first girls’ team in herstate/ and went to France/ To take harp lessons/ from a famous harpist there.//

Sequenceof activities:“First, read the text to students while having them follow along silently….Then, chorally read the passage with your students, again placing emphasis onexpressive and phrased reading…. Next have students practice the passage ontheir own….. Finally have selected students individually, in pairs or in smallgroups read the passage in performance for the other students.” P. 254.

Comment: Interesting idea—if it translates intofluency when reading silently. RayS.

Title: “BuildingFluency Through the Phrase Text Lesson.” T Rasinski, K Yildirim and JNageldinger. The Reading Teacher (December 2011/January 2012), 252-255.

Lifelong Readers

2012-01-12T05:50:00.001-08:00

Question: What are somecharacteristics of lifelong readers?

Answer/Quote: “Lifelongreaders do not pick up books to get better at reading; they pick up books tohear a great story, to escape the reality of their daily existence or findinformation to help in their endeavors. The story becomes an end in itself, notrequiring anything else to be done with it. In Better Than Life, Pennac (1990), offered Ten Rights of a Reader. Among them are the right to read anywhere,to read anything, to read out loud or silently, to skip ;pages, and the rightto put down books that are no longer interesting. It is an important list toconsider as we incorporate children’s and young adult literature into ourclassrooms. To Pennac’s wonderful list, we would add ‘the right not to have todo so much @#$%^&* before or after I read.’ ” P. 241.

Comment: Whoa, Nellie. Not so fast. The author mightbe referring to classroom before and after activities, especially someoneelse’s questions at the end, but speculating on the nature of the storybeforehand through cover blurbs, titles and pictures, and reflecting on thestory after it’s told are important in deepening the reader’s expectations andcomprehension. And I could add some other “rights” of my own. Reading the firstand last paragraphs of chapters in information books is a good preparation forreading. And when novels become boring as they almost always do during certainstretches, reading a paragraph per page maintains the continuity of plot untilthe reader’s interest is restored. RayS.

Title: “IntegratingChildren’s Literature: When Bad Things Happen to Good Books.” Frank Serafini. The Reading Teacher (December 2011/January 2012), 238-241.

Teen Reading

2012-01-11T06:10:00.001-08:00

Question: Are teensreally not reading?

Problem/Quote: “Over the lastseveral years, the popular and scholarly presses have been rife withpublications reporting that teens are not reading. The widely publicized 2004National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) study ‘Reading at Risk’ claimed:‘Literary reading in dramatic decline.’ In 2007, a follow-up study ‘To Read orNot to Read,’ (NEA, 2007) indicated that young adults were readingsignificantly less in print.” P. 254.

Answer: The authorsays teens ARE reading, but not necessarily traditional books. They are readingon the Internet. They are reading e-books and they are listening to audiobooks—it’s all reading says the author.

Comment: This study is limited. I will be looking forevidence that teens are reading across modes, such as e-books and audio-books.I’m pretty sure they are reading on the Internet.

Iam not a “normal” reader of traditional books. I don’t read page by page—atleast initially. I skim, scan, sample text as a way of familiarizing myselfwith the ideas in the text. Sometimes that sampling is all I need to read.Sometimes I only need to read parts of the book. The sampling points out what Ineed to read. Sometimes I need to read the entire book. In this “sampling”phase, I don’t read every word on every page, of every chapter, from first wordto last.

E-booksencourage reading page by page. Sampling, as I do initially, is cumbersome withe-books. Audio books also “read” every word on every page, in order. I confessI don’t know how people read on the Internet. I usually select topics then tend to read everything—if it’sreasonably short.

I’msuggesting two ideas about today’s reading. Is it occurring across modes, withadults as well as teens? And how do these readers read? I submit that activereading is what I do—skim, scan, sample—and that can occur most easily intraditional books.RayS.

Title: “What Does ItReally Mean to ‘Read’ a Text?” Jessica E. Moyer. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (November 2011), 250=256.

Memoirs

2012-01-10T05:36:00.001-08:00

Question: What is someadvice on writing and promoting memoirs?

Answer/Quote:

> “Reach out to potential reviewmarkets or outlets that will help you promote your book.

> “Network to find experts willing toprovide blurbs or a foreword for your book.

> “Include specific details (thinknumbers and statistics) as part of your marketing plan.

> “Submit excerpts from your book tomagazines, newspapers or online publications.

> “Compare your book to similar onesand show how yours will fill a hole inthe market.”

Comment: I wish I had read this advice beforepublishing my memoir, Teaching English, How To….

Title: “How to MakeYour Memoir A Stand Out.” M Allen and C O’Shea. The Writer (January 2012),44-45.

Advice on Writing Nonfiction

2012-01-09T05:34:00.000-08:00

Question: What is somegood advice on writing?

Cory Doctorow: “Write every day. Writeeven when the mood is not right. Write when the book stinks and isn’t goinganywhere. Stop in the middle of a sentence…to start the next day. Write evenwhen the world is chaotic.”

Bill Wasik: “Outline.”

Barry Boyce: “Planning, planning,planning.”

Sylvia Boorstin: “Don’t write frombeginning to end. Write in the order that particular parts take form.”

Mark Frauenfelder: “Write the book thatyou want to read.”

Joshua Wolf Shenk: “Get through a draftas quickly as possible. Break it into chunks. What’s the idea/argument insentence or two?”

Seth Mnookin: Start each day with somediscrete goal. You’re going to spend a lot of time in your head.”

Title: “Writing YourFirst Nonfiction Book.” Steve Silberman. TheWriter (January 2012), 34-37.

Beyond a Single Textbook

2012-01-06T05:23:00.001-08:00

Question: How canstudents move beyond the single textbook to explore the many other resourcesavailable to them?

Answer/Quote: “With the riseof the digital age, if there is one artifact of our classrooms that needsrethinking, it is the textbook. No longer can teachers rely on a single sourceof information to meet our curricular needs. With many states subscribing toadoption models, the textbooks stay around too long and their content isfrequently outdated.”

Quote:” For this reason,strategy guides can be useful vehicles for bridging textbook content and themyriad of information available to us via digital sources. Strategy guides arenot the study guides of yesterday—essentially a series of question students hadto answer while reading a textbook chapter. With the increasing need to developstrategic readers and writers, strategy guides…take students outside of achapter and into multiple sources of information, touring virtual worlds,blogging about issues and synthesizing information from websites, onlineencyclopedias and so forth.” P. 248.

Comment: Makes sense. RayS.

Title: “Real-TimeTeaching: Bridging Print Literacies and Digital Literacies Using StrategyGuides.” KD Wood. Journal of Adolescentand Adult Literacy (November 2011),248-252.

Reading Profile

2012-01-05T05:56:00.000-08:00

Question: How canteachers assess students’ attitudes toward reading?

Answer/Quote:

PartI:

> What are your earliest memories ofreading?

> What was the last book you read?Was it for school or your own reading?

> How do you choose a book? (Circleas many as apply)

I want to learn something

I like the author

The picture on the cover

A friend recommended it

My teacher requires it

The description on the back cover

It’s short

I like the genre (romance, adventure,fantasy, nonfiction)

> What is the best book you everread?

> Do you have a favorite author? Ifso, who?

> What would you like to learn moreabout?

> If you could be any character fromany book, television show, or movie, who would you be? Why?

PartII:Complete each sentence—

> When I have time to read….

> To me, books….

> I like to read about….

> I’d rather read than….

> I’d read more if….

Comment: I think I might throw in a question aboutusing E-readers, regular books, magazines, etc. RayS.

Title: “Making Magicwith Young Adult Literature.” J Haskins. TeachingYoung Adult Literature, Mark Roberts, Editor. English Journal (November2011), 101-104.

College Writing

2012-01-04T06:03:00.001-08:00

Question: How can highschool teachers prepare students for the writing they will be required to do incollege?

Answer: Students picktheir expected college majors, identify the types of writing in their fieldsthrough questions to college teachers and course descriptions from collegecatalogs and on the Internet and analyze these types of writing. For example,type in “Writing for Physics” in Bing or Google and you will learn what typesof writing assignments will be expected in the field of physics.

Comment: Interesting idea. Students will discoverthat the writing formats in their chosen fields has sometimes little in commonwith the writing they are taught in English. RayS.

Title: “They Can GetThere from Here: Teaching for Transfer Through a ‘Writing about Writing’Course.” J Wells. English Journal (November2011), 57-68.

A Challenging Question

2012-01-03T05:34:00.001-08:00

Question: What is goodwriting?

That is the challenging question.Students ask parents, relatives, faculty and college teachers that question.The results?

Quote: “Studentsgenerally thought good writing was simply writing that had no grammaticalerrors. Many students added they felt they were not good writers because of thefeedback on errors they had been given by their teachers over the years. Eventhough the interview activity led Reesha, a junior to exclaim, ‘Good writing isas controversial as the topic of boys!’ It also raised a number of greatquestions…. Why are ideas about good writing so different? Why do teachersassign types of writing they don’t like? How do you know when to write aboutfor whom?” p. 58.

Comment: This question reminds me of another. I onceasked a colleague why he did not teach writing. He said, “My students can’teven writ a good sentence.” What is a good sentence? RayS.

Title: “They Can GetThere from Here: Teaching for Transfer Through a ‘Writing about Writing’Course.” J Wells. English Journal (November2011), 57-68.

Exploring Content Area Writing

2012-01-02T05:31:00.001-08:00

Question: How canEnglish teachers and their students discover how texts in content areas otherthan English are written?

Answer: There’s awhole world of writing in subjects other than English. This author challengesstudents to explore that world of writing by analyzing the types of texts usedin other subject areas. Students could be writing these types of texts tenyears from now. Begin with textbooks. Also, check out the Internet. Type in toBing or Google “Writing in Sociology.” You will be given information about thetypes of writing expected in the field of sociology. Example: “The Challengesof Writing in Sociology. What distinguishes Sociologypapers from the papers you might write in other courses, includingEnglish?

“...www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/soc_sciences/...”·

Comment: Good idea. RayS.

Title: “PurposeBeyond This Years: Students Analyze Future Genres.” L Beckelhimer. English Journal (November 2011), 50-56.

The Classics

2011-12-23T05:53:00.001-08:00

Question: How canEnglish teachers help today’s students relate to the classics in literature?

Answer: Begin with anopen-ended question about the classic that relates to the student. In the caseof The Scarlet Letter, the“essential” question was, “What is worth risking everything for?”

Comment: While that might not be the question I wouldchoose for this particular work of fiction, it is a relevant question from thepoint of view of the students. It invites the students into Hawthorne’s romancewith a question that applies both to the work of fiction and to the students. Anidea worth thinking about. RayS.

Title: “Making theClassics Matter to Students Through Digital Literacies and EssentialQuestions.” J Ostenson and E Gleason-Sutton. English Journal (November2011), 37-45.

Note: Taking a week or so off. Will rejoin you onMonday, January 2, 2012, to bring you reviews of what I consider significantideas in the teaching of English. RayS.

College Writing Placement

2011-12-22T05:55:00.001-08:00

Question: What wouldhappen if college writing placement was assessed with untimed writing thatallowed for invention and revision?

Answer/Quote: “No one,however, has yet published research directly comparing essays students havewritten for the SAT or ACT and the kind of writing students do in ourclasses—that is, in response to untimed writing tasks that allow for inventionand revision.” P. 721.

Quote: “In responseto our writing task, the students have to read carefully, interpretinformation, use note-taking and organizing skills, synthesize and compareinformation from different sources, decide what to use and what todiscard, and be able to explain theissue clearly to readers who have not studied it as the writers have.” P. 723.

Quote: “I would liketo see other research investigating the differences in student performances onthe ACT Essay or the SAT Essay and locally developed, untimed writingsituations. I believe this research has implications for the use of timedwriting samples as a measure of writing ability, but the question of whichmodel more accurately predicts writing performance in academic writingsituations still rests, like so much of what we do as writing teachers, onfaith.” P. 741.

Comment: I wonder if research has been done onteachers’ assessment of accurate placement based on the timed tests? I’mthinking back to my days in the two-year college. The writing for freshmancomposition was definitely strong, most students were ready to learn andlearned quickly, but I would not want to try to accurately describe itsstrengths and weaknesses. Too many variations in writing needs. In other words, the timed assessment seemedto work. RayS.

Title: “OnlineChallenge Versus Offline ACT?” I Peckham. CollegeComposition and Communication (June2010), 718-745.

Prior Learning Assessment

2011-12-21T05:55:00.001-08:00

Note: Prior LearningAssessment summarizes the students’ prior work experience and learning in orderto award college credits before entering the academy.

Sowhat?This prior work experience is assessed through the essay and the authors ofthis article suggest that the essay format has weaknesses which limit thestudents’ ability to translate the experience into learning.

Comment: This idea of the weaknesses of the essay inassessing prior learning assessment, coupled with the weaknesses of the essayin interdisciplinary writing, suggests the need to develop new approaches towriting at the college level. Intriguing. RayS.

Title: “ComposingKnowledge: Writing, Rhetoric and Reflection in Prior Learning Assessments.” CLeaker and H Ostman. College Compositionand Communication (June 2010),691-717.

Writing, Craft and Atomic Energy

2011-12-20T11:46:00.000-08:00

Question: Why do we needto write responsibly?

Answer: When we write,we are “crafting”; we are like the people who developed atomic energy.“Crafting” is putting ideas to work. As Albert Einstein famously stated in1946: “The release of atomic power has changed everything except our way ofthinking…. The solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only Ihad known, I should have become a watchmaker.”

Comment: Crafting is doing. Crafting in writing isputting ideas to work. And we need to be aware of what we are doing when wewrite because whatever we write has consequences. I guess that’s what thisarticle means. It’s a good thought that doesn’t mean much in the writingexercises of the classroom. Still…. RayS.

Title: “CraftKnowledge of Disciplinarity in Writing Studies.” RR Johnson. College Composition and Communication (June 2010), 673-690.

Much Ado About....

2011-12-19T06:44:00.001-08:00

Note: This article takes up a full 32pages ofdense, almost unintelligible jargon. After all of this, my readers should beinterested in the conclusion to which the article leads. RayS.

“In essence, we have begun a reflectiveprocess, endowed by a basic principle: we accept the notion that there is valueto be recognized and appreciated in the lives and words of women!” p. 666.

Comment: Duh! How’s that for a shaggy dog story?RayS.

Title: “FeministRhetorical Practices in Search of Excellence.” GE Kirsch and JJ Royster. College Composition and Communication (June 2011), 640-672,

Change in Language

2011-12-16T05:51:00.001-08:00

Note: The National Council of Teachers of Englishwas founded in 1911. The organization is celebrating its centennial. As part ofthis celebration, College English is publishing excerpts from itspredecessor, the college edition of The English Journal. The excerptsare timely, a bit wordy and take their time to get to the point. However, Ibelieve my readers will find them of interest. RayS.

Alexander Brede, “The Idea of an EnglishLanguage Academy.” Vo. 26 (September 1937): 560-68.

Quote: “The ;positionof linguists today is a whole-hearted acceptance of the fact that change inlanguage is inevitable and not to be deplored and resisted. While it isrecognized that a certain uniformity is desirable, it is also recognized thatabsolute uniformity is not attainable. Correctness of a disputed usage is notto be decided by an authoritative fiat but rather by the Horatian principle ofuse and custom. But this acceptance of inevitable change was not always thefact. On the contrary, the usual attitude has been to deplore change.” (560).

Comment: In my course on the history of the Englishlanguage, the instructor said that if people find a usage too complicated, theywill change it. However, to my knowledge, the distinction between“disinterested/uninterested” is still a battle zone. So is the distinctionbetween “lie/lay.” Also, I’ve noticed insports commentary, the distinction between the past tense of verbs and theparticiple is confused: “he had ran/he had run.” The change won’t be in my lifetime. RayS.

Title: “CollegeEnglish’s Precursor: Excerpts from the College Edition of The English Journal.” CollegeEnglish (November 2011),157-191.

The Significance of NCTE Journals

2011-12-15T05:38:00.001-08:00

Question: What are theeffects of reading the articles in NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English)journals?

Quote: “But what isless available through this perspective is the cumulative effect that NCTEjournals have had on their readers over time—how the studies reviewed here madetheir way (or did not) into the thinking and practices of NCTE members, intheir roles as researchers, teachers…and as writers. How did articles sink in?How did the scenes of our teaching and research adjust as a result of ourencounters with journals? These are question in need of their own empiricalinvestigation.” P. 213.

Comment: During my three years (1967-1970) as adoctoral student at Syracuse University, I proposed a dissertation topic thatwas rejected by my adviser. (In fairness to her, I failed to do my homework. The questions in the precedingquote should have been part of my preparation before bringing the topic to herattention.) What would happen, was my question, if I showed teachers how toread journal articles efficiently, showed them how to find the interestingideas quickly. I guess I was ahead of my time. Now that the NCTE is 100 yearsold, questions are being raised about the effects of reading their journals. Itmay be time to raise my question about the effects of efficient reading ofjournals again. RayS.

Title: “Struggles forPerspective: A Commentary on ‘One Story of Many To Be Told’: FollowingEmpirical Studies of College and Adult Writing Through 100 Years of NCTEJournals.” Deborah Brandt. Research inthe Teaching of English (November2011), 210-214.

100 Years of Research in English

2011-12-14T06:09:00.001-08:00

Research

Question: What have welearned about teaching secondary English in the 100 years that the NCTE hasbeen in existence?

Answer/Quote:“First, we have learned that the teaching of traditional school grammar á laWarriner and that ilk does next to nothing to advance a better writing and evencorrectness in writing.

“Second,we have learned that writing is a process, though we may disagree about someimportant parts of the process.

“Third, we know thatreal discussion…is essential to learning how to interpret literature….

“Fourth, we know from avery wide variety of studies in English and our of it, that students who areauthentically engaged with the tasks of their learning are likely to learn muchmore than those who are not….” P. 189.

Comment: Traditional school grammar is useless inimproving writing or correctness. Writing is a process. Discussion issignificant in interpreting literature. Authentic engagement produces betterlearning. Each of these findings calls for significant discussion. Try themout on your colleagues. RayS.

Title: “Commenting on‘Research in Secondary English, 1912-2011: Historical Continuities andDiscontinuities in the NCTE Imprint.’ ” George Hillocks Jr. Research in the Teaching of English (November 2011), 187-192.

Artificiality of Freshman Composition

2011-12-13T05:15:00.001-08:00

Earl L. Vance, “Integrating FreshmanComposition,” Vol. 26 (April 1937), 318-323.

Quote: “A commoncriticism of the Freshman composition course is that, however admirable on theside of technique, it somehow does not tie up with the student’s totaleducational progress. Granted that it serves very well its special purposes inteaching the student to write acceptable ‘themes,’ with reasonably correctsentences and coherent paragraphs, still it often does not function effectivelyin improving his writing other than themes. He is taught what George PierceBaker called ‘traveler’s English’—English to be used for his immediate needs inthe course and then forgotten.” (318-319).

Comment: Not to mention the need to write in otherdisciplines. RayS.

Title: “CollegeEnglish’s Precursor: Excerpts from the College Edition of The English Journal.” CollegeEnglish (November 2011),157-191.

A Warning about Media in 1936.

2011-12-12T06:06:00.000-08:00

Editorial: “The Writing on the Screen,”Vol. 25 (May 1936), 412-13.

Quote: “It is morethan possible that the screen and the loudspeaker already get more attentionand wield more influence than printed fiction, drama and poetry combined; andwe have to consider the probability that in the not distant future improvedphotoplays and broadcast television aregoing to make deep inroads upon the present meager reading time of both adultsand children. The sooner we set ourselves seriously to deal with photoplays andthe radio the better we shall be prepared for this entirely possiblemetamorphosis of ‘literature.’ If we persist in neglecting our present duty wemay find ourselves completely unready to meet the demands of the fourth decadeof our century.” (413).

Comment: And that’s not half the inroads on the“meager reading time of both adults and children.” Computers, the Internet,cell phones, texting, cable and satellite TV, computer games, etc. RayS.

Title: “CollegeEnglish’s Precursor: Excerpts from the College Edition of The English Journal.” CollegeEnglish (November 2011),157-191.

Should Teachers Express Their Own Opinions?

2011-12-09T05:44:00.001-08:00

Bergen Evans, “English and Ethics,” Vol.24 (September 1935), 541-45.

Quote: “Those whomaintain that the teacher has no right or need to express his personalconvictions are not without some justification. A persistent or excessiveintrusion of personal approval or disapproval is bad. Everyone has sufferedfrom teachers who made the work being read merely a text from which theyexpounded their own ideas….” (543-44).

Comment: It’s even worse when a student contradictsthe teacher’s convictions on feminism, etc., and the teacher penalizes thestudent’s writing because of it. I have read several articles in CollegeComposition and Communication by teachers defending this practice. Idisagree! RayS.

Title: “CollegeEnglish’s Precursor: Excerpts from the College Edition of The English Journal.” CollegeEnglish (November 2011),157-191.

Advice for Commenting [On Student Compositions]

2011-12-08T05:23:00.001-08:00

Robert G. Berkelman, “A Letter to Mytheme Reader,” Vol. 22 (January 1933), 62-66.

Quote: In order tohelp rather than condemn, I have found that it is better to word comments positively, even when the criticism mustbe adverse. That is, instead of stating the faults bluntly, show the writerwhat virtue he should strive for. To the student a guide-post pointing toimproved thought and expression is far more inviting than the flourish of apruning knife. Which of these comments, for example, would you prefer on aneffort of yours: ‘This is clear but rather dull’ or ‘Commendably clear, now aimat liveliness?’ ” (63-64).

Comment: The idea behind this advice isworth thinking about. RayS.

Title: “CollegeEnglish’s Precursor: Excerpts from the College Edition of The English Journal.” CollegeEnglish (November 2011),157-191.

What Freshman Writers Need

2011-12-07T05:35:00.001-08:00

H.W. Davis, “Mastering Principles ofComposition.” Vol. 19 (December 1930), 795-803.

Quote: “People whowrite well must have something to say to somebody and they must want to say itPurpose, audience, and zeal are requisites to effective composition—all thefreshman rhetoric courses in America to the contrary notwithstanding. I willback them any day in a race with unity, coherence, and emphasis.” (801).

Title: “CollegeEnglish’s Precursor: Excerpts from the College Edition of The English Journal.” CollegeEnglish (November 2011),157-191.

Publishing Students' Papers

2011-12-06T05:51:00.001-08:00

Topic: Publishing Students’ Papers

Albert Morton Turner, “PublishingFreshman Themes.” Vol. 18 (March 1929), 242-43.

Quote: “Two everpresent bugbears of Freshman English are the lack of any desire, on the part ofstudents, to write and, when they are compelled to do so, their frequenttendency to regard themes as a mere field to show their proficiency—or the wantthereof—in the use of commas and semicolons. In the effort to counteract thesedifficulties, the Freshman English staff at the University of Maine ispublishing a series of leaflets composed of themes written during the currentyear, leaflets which are distributed to all the first-year students and whichare discussed in class. At the beginning of the year, before their pockets havebeen depleted by purchasing textbooks and ice-cream cones, we collect the sumof twenty-five cents from each of our 425 Freshmen. With this sum we pay forthe printing, from time to time, of the necessary number of copies of eightdifferent leaflets, four in each semester…. Both bad and good themes areprinted…. Bad themes, it should be observed are always printed anonymously; goodones, on the other hand, may appear with their authors’ names….” (742-43).

Title: “CollegeEnglish’s Precursor: Excerpts from the College Edition of The English Journal.” CollegeEnglish (November 2011),157-191.

Ten Books on Writing

2011-12-05T05:28:00.001-08:00

Litfrom Within: Contemporary Masters on the Art and C raft of Writing. Edited byKevin Haworth and Dinty W. Moore. Ohio University Press, 200 pages. Paper,$19.95.

Help!For Writers: Solutions to the Problems Every Writer Faces by Roy PeterClark. Little, Brown, 304 pages. Hardcover, $22.00, digital, $9.99.

WriteYour Book Now!: A Proven System to Start and Finish the Book You’ve AlwaysWanted to Write!By Gene Perret. Quill Driver Books, 160 pages. Paper, $14.95.

PromoteYour Book: Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the EnterprisingAuthorby Patricia Fry. Allworth Press, 224 pages. Paper or digital, $19.95.

ManyGenres, One Craft: Lessons in WritingPopular Fictionby Michael A. Arnzen and Heidi Ruby Miller. Headline Books, 384 pages.Hardcover, $2995.

LanguageWars: A History of Proper English by Henry Hitchings. Farrar, Straus andGiroux, 416 pages. Hardcover, $28; digital, $14.99.

TheStory Within: New Insights and Inspiration for Writers by LauraOliver. Alpha Books, 224 pages, paper or digital, $13.95.

WriteMore Good: An Absolutely Phony Guide by The Bureau Chiefs. Three RiversPress, 272 pages. Paper, $13; digital, $9.99. Guaranteed to get you fired forany job requiring writing.

WriteFantastic Nonfiction (Teach Yourself) by Claire Gillman. Hodder &Stoughton. 196 pages. Paper, $16.95.

TheLate American Novel: Writers on the Future of Books, edited by JeffMartin and C. Max Magee. Soft Skull Press, 192 pages. Paper, $14.95. Will bookssurvive?

Title: “10 of ThisYear’s Terrific Writing Books.” Chuck Leddy. The Writer (December 2011),19-21.

Merit Pay

2011-12-02T04:59:00.001-08:00

Question: What’s wrongwith merit pay?

Answer/Quote: “…the problemswith individual merit pay are numerous and well documented. It has been shownto undermine teamwork, encourages employees to focus on the short term, andleads people to link compensation to political skills and ingratiatingpersonalities rather than to performance.” 26. Jeffry Pferrer. Harvard Business Review: Six Dangerous Mythsabout Pay (1998).

The author points out that improvingeducation for all students is the goal. Merit pay undermines that goal.

Comment: I have had several experiences as asupervisor in which teamwork was undermined by teachers’ unwillingness to sharetheir successful methods with other teachers, most notably in a primary gradewriting workshop. RayS.

Title: “TeacherEvaluation, Teacher Effectiveness, and School Reform.” Richard Long. Reading Today (October/November 2011), 26-27.

Science and Poetry

2011-12-01T05:28:00.001-08:00

Question: How introducefirst-grade students to writing poems about science?

Answer: Research ananimal. Students create an acrostic poemusing the letters of the animal arranged vertically as the first letter foreach line that says something about the animal.

Foundpoems:Arrange words from a text in the form of a poem.

Title: “CreatingPoems from Science research: A ReadWriteThink Project for Bilingual Students atHodge elementary in Denton, TX.” V Rojas and E Manning. Reading Today (October/November2011), 12-13.

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Rewards for Reading

2011-11-30T05:30:00.001-08:00

Question: What type ofreward for reading will motivate students to continue to read?

Answer/Quote: “A child whois intrinsically motivated undertakes the task for very different reasons thanthe child who is extrinsically motivated…. Teachers aim to facilitate alifetime love of reading among students, so it is clear that fosteringintrinsic motivation to read is most likely the goal educators strive for inthe long-term.” P. 6.

“Gambrell (1996) proposed a reward-proximity hypothesis toinvestigate how the type of reward and its proximity to the desired behavior(i.e., reading) might influence the intrinsic motivation of students. Forexample, can prizes such as books, more positively influence students’ intrinsicmotivation to read as opposed to rewards such as food, toys, or stickers?” p.6-7.

“Research on the reward proximityhypothesis suggests that the type of reward condition may influence the type ofmotivation cultivated among children. In a study with third grade students,Marinak and Gambrell (2008), found that students given a book reward, or evenno reward at all, were more likely to engage in subsequent reading thanstudents who received tokens such as Pez dispensers, friendship bracelets and thelike for their efforts….” 7.

Comment: Interesting. I’ve always felt that the lovefor reading comes from the love of ideas, that ideas are the main enjoyment andmotivation for reading. RayS.

Title: “Rewards forStudent Reading: A Good Idea or Not?” K Hildens and J Jones. Reading Today (October/November 2011), 6-7.

Kindles in the Classroom

2011-11-29T05:49:00.001-08:00

Question: Why bringAmazon’s Kindles into the classroom for struggling readers?

Answer/Quote: “I brought aKindle into school one day, and shortly had a group of boys surrounding me,wanting to take a look. I am now purchasing six Kindles for the classroom. Ithink it will be really good for struggling readers in particular—you canchange the size of the text, you have a built in dictionary, and you can offerthem lower leveled books with no stigma—nobody sees the cover.” P. 3. Angie C.Miller, Middle School Language Arts Teacher at Holderness Central School inHolderness, New Hampshire.

Comment: I never thought of that. RayS.

Title: “President’sMessage: Celebrating Teachers.” ReadingToday (October/November 2011),2-3.

Teaching English as a Second Language

2011-11-28T05:25:00.001-08:00

Question: How can ateacher with several students whose first language is Spanish help them torecognize English words?

Answer: Cognates. “TheSpanish and English languages share more than 20,000 cognates, most of whichderive from Latin. Spanish-English cognates are words that are spelledsimilarly or identically in both Spanish and English and have the same ornearly the same meanings in both languages. The following: pairs of words areexamples of Spanish-English cognates: nación/nation, realmente/really, and seguro/secure. These cognates can be found at all levels of word frequencyin English.” P. 161.

Quote: “Cognateinstruction benefits all levels of ELs [English Learners] and all elementaryschool students. Even in classes where the majority of students are nativeEnglish speakers, students not only derive much from lessons on cognates butalso express an interest in learning more about them and about learningSpanish.” P, 164,

Comment: Excellent idea. Grab that high school orcollege Spanish I textbook you put away and start looking forSpanish cognates for English. RayS.

Title: “IdentifyingSpanish-English Cognates to Scaffold Instruction for Latino ELs.” JAMontelongo, et al. Reading Teacher (October 2011), 161-164.

Evaluating Web Sites by Elementary Students

2011-11-23T05:58:00.001-08:00

Question: How canelementary students learn to evaluate Web sites used in research?

Answer:

The WWWDOT Framework:

> Who wrote this and what credentialsdo they have?

> Why was it written?

> When was it written?

> Does it help meet my needs?

> Organization of the site?

> To-Do list for the future. “Theto-do list can include additional websites and other texts to read, and it canalso include activities that do not involve further reading, such as asking a librariana question, sharing what they learned with a family member….”

Quote: “Even ouryoungest students have unprecedented access to information. Although in largemeasure this should be viewed as a positive development, the unfiltered nature of information on theInternet creates a new urgency for teaching students to critically evaluatesources of information. The WWWDOTframework provides…[an] approach to enhancing students’ awareness of the needto and skill in critically evaluating websites as sources of information. Thiskind of instruction is essential to helping students make wise use of theriches of our Information Age.” P. 158.

Comment: Good series of ideas to begin checking thelegitimacy of Web sites. Might use the same framework in evaluating othersources of information as well. RayS.

Title: “The WWWDOTApproach To Improving Students’ Critical Evaluation of Web Sites.” S Zhang, etal. Reading Teacher (October 2011), 150-158.

NOTE: Taking four-day vacation for Thanksgiving Holiday. RayS.

Reading Stress

2011-11-22T05:32:00.001-08:00

Question: How can theteacher tell that students are stressed while reading?

Answer/Quote:

Text is Too Difficult

> Students are off task, nervous, orengaged in inappropriate behaviors.

> Students read haltingly. Theirreading may include excessive repetitions or self-corrections or requireextensive teacher support.

> The lesson takes more than 15-20minutes because the teacher has to instruct extensively.

Comment: Solution? The authors suggest shifting thelevel of the text that is too difficult to a text that is at the students’ readinglevel. I suggest the directed reading approach: build background information onthe topic, pre-teach unfamiliar vocabulary, survey the text by reading thetitle and discussing it, the first paragraph, the first sentence of eachintermediate paragraph and the last paragraph and provide students with apurpose for reading (possibly a question to answer). RayS.

Title: “Toolbox:Handy Helpers for Guided Reading.” J Burkins and M Croft, Preventing Misguided Reading. ReadingTeacher (October 2011), 147-149.

Vocabulary in the Elementary Grades

2011-11-21T05:43:00.001-08:00

Question: What is thekey to learning ten, sometimes 20 new words at a clip?

Answer: Studyvocabulary through Latin and Greek roots and affixes. Quotes: “The next quantum leap in vocabulary growth…will come whenthe systematic study of Latin-Greek derivations is embedded into vocabularyprograms for the elementary…grades.” P. 135. “A Growing body of academicresearch is beginning to demonstrate the power and potential of a Latin-Greekapproach to vocabulary instruction.” P. 138.

Quote: “Think of theenormous advantage we can give students when they learn that one root can helpthem unlock the meaning to 5, 10, 20 or more English words! Moreover, it is likelythat a fair number of those words are the academic words so essential tostudents’ learning in the various content areas. The systematic, ongoing andconsistent integration of Latin and Greek roots into vocabulary instructionoffers awesome potential for enhancing students’ academic growth.” P. 140.

Comment: The best vocabulary book on the market foradults is Norman Lewis’s Word Power Made Easy. Look it up on Amazon.comand you’ll see the glowing reviews of ordinary people who have used it. Lewis baseshis program on the Latin and Greek roots and on the notion that words areideas. Try it yourself and see how many new words you will learn based on Latinand Greek roots. For common Latin and Greek roots for elementary school, checkthe list in this article. RayS.

Title: “TheLatin-Greek Connection.” TV Rasinski, et al. Reading Teacher (October2011), 133-141.

Rating Fluency in Reading

2011-11-18T05:14:00.001-08:00

Question: What are thecategories for fluency in reading, low and high?

Answer/Quote: Expression andvolume; phrasing; smoothness; pace.

Low:

Expressionand Volume:Reads with little expression or enthusiasm in words as if simply to get themout. Little sense of trying to make text sound like natural language. Tends toread in a quiet voice.

Phrasing: Monotonic withlittle sense of phrase boundaries, frequent word-by[word reading.

Smoothness: Frequentextended pauses, hesitations, false starts; sound-ours, repetitions, and/ormultiple attempts.

Pace: Slow andlaborious.

High:

Expressionand Volume:Reads with good expression and enthusiasm throughout the text. Sounds likenatural language. The reader is able to vary expression and volume to matchhis/her interpretation of the passage.

Phrasing: Generally wellphrased, mostly in clause and sentence units, with adequate attention toexpression.

Smoothness: Generallysmooth reading with some breaks, but word and structure difficulties areresolved quickly, usually through self-correction.

Pace: Consistentlyconversational.

Comment: We’ve come a long way from reading aloudwith no sense of meaning to reading aloud with full comprehension as measuredby expression and volume, phrasing, smoothness and pace. RayS.

Title: “Putting theFun Back Into Fluency Instruction.” MA Cahill and AE Gregory Reading Teacher (October 2011), 127-131.

Getting Started on the School Year

2011-11-17T05:39:00.001-08:00

Question: What is somegood advice for the new teacher?

Answer/Quotes:

> “Wall displays are most effectivewhen students and teachers coproduce these. Consequently, classroom wall spacesneed not be filled on the first day of school.” P. 98. [Comment: The best displaysare of student work. RayS.]

> “When children enter the classroom,they should have a series of tasks that are to be accomplished immediately.” P.100.[Comment: When I was teaching in high school, I would have one of twoactivities right at the beginning, a spelling test or a 10-minute essay on atopic of their choice. RayS.]

> “Understanding where your studentsare now and where they need t be at the end of the year is very important.” P.101.

> “When planning daily instruction,remember to plan emergency time fillers to help reinforce skills that are partof the scope and sequence of skills.” P. 106.

> “Join a professional literacyorganization such as the International Reading Association [or the NationalCouncil of Teachers of English] and get involved.”

And,finally:

“Lastly, read. Read books outside ofeducation, books that address issues in medicine, business,, and the world. Getto know what is going on nationally and glob ally. Read for fun. Have a bookthat you read to escape. And last, carry books with you wherever you go. Be amodel of someone who loves to read and reads. And remember when talking withstudents to be sure to regularly talk up and talk about books….”

Comment: Take it from me, a wizened old fogey whosurvived 30 years as an English teacher and supervisor, this advice is goodadvice. RayS.

Title: “Organizing Literacy Classroomsfor Effective Instruction.” DR Reutzel and S Clark. Reading Teacher (October2011), 96-109.

Thinking Visually

2011-11-16T05:59:00.001-08:00

Question: How can youhelp students think visually?

Answer: Have themsummarize an entire novel by drawing a picture [or a diagram]. The author, JimBurke, summarizes Dostoevsky’s novel Crimeand Punishment, by drawing a circle with a large black dot outside thecircle. That illustration becomes the focus of a discussion about the novel,its dot outside and how it summarizes the novel. Interesting image.

Comment: I think the dot outside the circle as asummary for Crime and Punishment is an interesting technique for helpingstudents visualize and summarize a novel. Adds another technique to methods forcritical thinking. RayS.

Title: “the Shape ofIdeas.” Spark. Jim Burke. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy(October 2011), 155.

Reading Critically

2011-11-15T05:36:00.001-08:00

Question: What are somequestions that can help students read critically?

Answer:

> What is the topic?

> What is the writer’s purpose?

> What was not said about the topic?Why? What are the consequences?

> Whose interests are served by thetext?

> What are other ways of writingabout the topic?

Title: “Reading‘Further and Beyond the Text’: Student Perspective of Critical Literacy in EFL[English as a Foreign Language] Reading and Writing.” J Huang. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy(October 2011), 145-154.

Writing Is Obsolete

2011-11-14T05:18:00.001-08:00

Question: On the topicof “What’s Hot and Not Hot?” the following statement about writing is includedas “Not Hot.” What do my readers think of the following statement?

Quote: “Surprisingly,writing is also on the coldest list. One literacy leader commented that perhapsthe day is coming when writing will be obsolete. Voice recognition softwarewill transform the composing process.” P. 20.

Comment: Back to the era of the Dictaphone. Dictatedwriting is like talking. It lacks the precision of word choice, the concisenessof Standard English at its best. It will be as imprecise as conversation, withneedless repetition of words like “it,” “thing,” “get,” “there,” and the lack ofclear reference for the demonstrative pronouns, “this,” “that,” “these” and“those,” and other characteristics like poor parallel structure, danglingmodifiers, use of the passive as opposed to the active voice. The use of voicerecognition software will lead to verbosity and lack of precision in writing.RayS.

Title: “Taking OurPulse In a Time of Uncertainty: Results of the 2012 What’s Hot, What’s Not Literacy Survey.” Jack Cassidy and Doulas JLoveless. Reading Today (October/November 2011), 16-21.

Multi-modal Composition

2011-11-11T04:51:00.001-08:00

Comment: Here is the text that set me off: “Ofcourse, this will only feel legitimate if the conversations previouslydescribed begin to challenge the traditional hegemony of print-only texts inclassrooms.” P. 143.

Andthe particular phrase that set me off was: “…challenge the traditionalhegemony of print-only texts in the classroom.” The article tried to show the “transformative” power of adding soundand pictures to poetry, multi-modal composition.

TheNCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) is off and running on buildinganother castle in the air. This time it’s “multi-modal composition.” They try“multi-modal” composition in their journals by adding pictures to the texts ofarticles. Those pictures add not one single idea to the text. They’re useless.

Communicationis based on ideas. Ideas are best communicated by words. Words are bestcommunicated in speech (impermanent) and writing (permanent). Picturesillustrate, support the ideas in the text. I’m all about ideas and the“hegemony of print-only texts in the classroom.” Words come first, even in themovies and on TV. Sometimes the pictures contribute productively, sometimesthey don’t. The ideas are conveyed in the text. That’s the first and primarythesis of English teaching. RayS.

Title: “Class-roomRe-mix: Patterns of Pedagogy in a Techno-Literacies Poetry Unit.” M Callahanand J M King. Journal of Adolescent andAdult Literacy (October 2011),134-144.

Adult Book Club Practices

2011-11-10T05:00:00.001-08:00

Note: This topic promised some interesting ideasfor book discussions in the classroom. Unfortunately, the language of thearticle was opaque, often cloaking ideas in verbiage that can only be describedas “edu-speak.” I am beginning to find that otherwise promising ideas arekilled by the educational jargon of the writers. The title of the article was simple and straightforward, the article,not so. RayS.

Question: What can welearn from practices in adult book clubs that might be used in literarydiscussions in the classroom?

Answer:

> Avoid monopolizing the selection ofbooks for discussion by having a clearly stated procedure.

> Participants should use theirexperience in interpreting the text.

> Participant should extendconversations by building on others’ responses.

Title: “Practices ofProductive Adult Book Clubs.” R Beach and S Yussen. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (October 2011), 121-131.

Truth about Homework

2011-11-09T04:55:00.000-08:00

Question: How do youusually assign homework?

Answer/Quote: “Teachers insecondary schools routinely assign homework to students for the purpose ofpractice. If it were really practice of familiar concepts, this might work tostrengthen students’ level of understanding. Unfortunately, in too manyclassroom, homework is assigned on concepts that are not yet understood. Inmany instances, as the MetLife survey on homework demonstrated, secondaryteachers’ ‘very often or often’ assigned homework because they ran out of timein class (Markow, Kim & Liebman, 2007, p. 30).” P. 71.

Andhow do students respond to the homework they are assigned?

Completers, who take thework home and get it all done and done correctly.

Slackers, who, forwhatever reason, do not complete the homework.

Bewildered, who give thehomework a try and do most of it incorrectly.

Cheaters, who copy thehomework of a peer in an effort to please the teacher and not fall behind inclass. P. 71.

Quote: “As was shownin each of the examples we have shared, the teachers did not assign homework asan afterthought, but instead as a well-integrated dimension of theirinstruction. It was the independent practice that occurred only after thestudents were well prepared, and it was also an integral dimension of what wasto follow in class.” P. 74.

Comment: You can prevent downtime at the end of classby having students start the homework assignment, giving students time to askquestions about the assignment. RayS.

Title: “Homework inSecondary Classrooms: Making It Relevant and Respectful.” D Fisher, et al. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy(September 2011), 71-74.

Reading Process

2011-11-08T05:29:00.001-08:00

Question: What is thenature of the reading process?

Answer/Quote: “Readingcomprehension habits are the split-second thoughts that kick in constantly tohelp a proficient reader actively construct meaning. They make up the majorityof the thinking processes we use during reading, even though we seldom noticethem. For example, a good reader seldom stops and thinks, ‘I need to relatethis to my background knowledge,’ ‘This would be a good time to predict,’ ‘Aquick summary right now will help me comprehend better,’ or ‘At this point Ishould visualize.’ Rather, a good reader does these things in the blink of aneye without, in a sense, even thinking.” P. 67.

Comment: But they need to be taught. RayS.

Title: “Toolbox:Reading Comprehension Habits for Every Classroom.” Jeff Zwiere. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy(September 2011), 67-69.

Trying Strategies in Journal Articles

2011-11-07T05:02:00.001-08:00

Question: How should youattempt to try strategies with your students that you borrow from articles injournals?

Answer/Quote:

1. Evaluate: “Determine which literacystrategy will best help your students to learn the concept(s) you arepresenting.”

2. “Try it: Sometimes you have to modifythe strategy to fit what you are teaching.”

3. “Assess: Determine how well thestrategy worked…. Obtain student feedback on the strategy.”

4. “Revise. Make changes to the strategyif necessary. Try the revised strategy again with different material.”

Comment: What works with the teacher in the article,might not work for your students. A good rule of thumb is to try it on yourselffirst. RayS.

Title: “Collaboratingto Cross the Mathematics-Literacy Divide: An Annotated Bibliography of LiteracyStrategies for Mathematics Classrooms.” ES Friedland, et al. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy(September 2011), 57-66.

Math and Literacy (2)

2011-11-04T05:22:00.001-07:00

Question: What are sometechniques used in math classes that encourage literacy?

Answer:

“Shares strategies for reading andwriting in mathematics instead ofjust reading and writing aboutmathematics. The strategies emphasize moving fluently among multiplerepresentations, analyzing mathematical texts, and evaluating mathematical reasoning. Strategies such as studentdiscussion of the implications of changing words in a theorem or definitionssupport deep conceptual learning.” MJBosse and J Falconer. (2008). SchoolScience and Mathematics, 8-19.

“Provides a graphic organizer thatguides students through a modified version of Polya’s problem-solving processbut still allows them to solve a problem in their own way. Its layout requires studentsto think, plan, and break the solution process into steps of their own choosingbefore computing. The graphic organizer can be used for any type of problemwith no more than a three-step solution. Discusses how to introduce the graphicorganizer by using a think aloud, multiple student answers, and analysis ofincorrect answers.” S Braselton and B Decker (1994). The Reading Teacher, 276-281,

“Describes how to apply several readingstrategies to mathematics instruction. A knowledge rating chart indicates priorknowledge of vocabulary and whether or not the student can apply it inmathematics. ‘Word Problem Roulette’ is a cooperative problem-solving strategyin which students solve a problem verbally and then write the solution in around-robin style. A sample three-level math problem guide helps with problemanalysis, but restricts students to solution methods using the computations orformulas provided in level three. ‘Possible Problems’ requires higher levelthinking as students create a math problem using all of the words, symbols, ornumerals in a list. Applicable to any math content and to any level.” SJ Davisand R Gerber. (2004). Journal of Reading,55-57.

“Discusses three types of journalprompts for first-year algebra students: content, process, and affective. Thecontent prompts push students to articulate mathematical relationships and tocreate personal yet precise definitions. One powerful prompt asks students towrite about how their understanding about a mathematical concept has developedor changed. While some suggested process prompts focus on study habits, othershave students reflect on their own problem-solving approaches.” BJ Dougherty.(1996). The Mathematics Teacher,556-560.

Comment: There are many more examples of annotatedarticles relating mathematics to literacy development in this article. Theauthors of this article urge the preparation of annotations for articlesrelated to content in math, science, English, etc. and then publish them intheir journals. An interesting idea. RayS.

Math and Literacy (1)

2011-11-03T06:01:00.000-07:00

Question: What are sometechniques used in math classes that encourage literacy?

Answer:

“Discusses how to use informal languageand nonmathematical word meanings to help students make connections tomathematical vocabulary.” TL Adams. (2003). TheReading Teacher. 786-795,

“Presents fifth-grade math journals thatfeature solutions to student-created real-life math problems. The process ofcreating a problem….” LR Albert and J Anots. (2000). Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 526-531.

“Survey, question, reread, question,compute, question and other comprehension/study strategies help studentsmeaningfully read mathematics textbooks with their unique structure and textfeatures.” ML Barton, et. al. (2002), EducationalLeadership, 24-28.

“…writing prompts for journals in themiddle school mathematics classroom. Prompts for writing about prior mathematicscontent are useful for identifying lingering misconceptions and connectedcontent knowledge. Prompts related to current mathematics content encourageidentifying and generalizing patterns, posing and evaluating conjectures, andcreating and evaluating mathematical arguments.” JA Baxter, et al. (2002). Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School,52-56.

Comment: To be continued. The authors of this article urge the preparation of annotations forarticles related to content in math, science, English, etc. and then publishthem in their journals. An interesting idea. RayS.

Teaching Poetry

2011-11-02T05:42:00.000-07:00

Question: Why don’tEnglish teachers like to teach poetry?

Answer: They feelinadequate for teaching poetry. Here are their preconceptions:

(1) Poetry is boring.

(2) Poetry is for the elite.

(3) Poetry is inaccessible.

(4) Poetry is a frill.

(5) Children’s poetry writing is toodifficult to evaluate.

(6) Analysis is at the heart ofunderstanding poetry.

(7) Poetry is a solitary art.

Comment: The cure for this malaise is to teach yourown personal, favorite poems. RayS.

Title: “ ‘Wiki-EdPoetry’: Transforming Pre-service Teachers’ Preconceptions about Poetry andPoetry Teaching.” J Hughes and S Dymoke. Journalof Adolescent and Adult Literacy (September2011), 46-56.

Personal Literacy Assessment

2011-11-01T06:10:00.000-07:00

Question: How canteachers engage students in reflecting on their approaches to literacy?

Answer/Quote:

(1) What are your earliest memoriesassociated with learning to read?

(2) What are your earliest memoriesassociated with learning to write?

(3) How do you currently approachreading/writing tasks?

(4) How do you feel about yourself as a reader?

(5) How do you feel about yourself as awriter?

(6) How do you use language in differentsettings?

Comment: Question #6 requires some explanation. Itrefers to the various dialects that we use in certain social and academicsettings, with the social setting usually involving repetition, “Y’know,”frequent use of “there,” “it,” “get,” “getting,” “thing,” etc. and academiclanguage using Standard English. RayS.

Title: “UnderstandingResistance: Pre-service Teachers’ Discourse Models of Struggling Readers andSchool Literacy Tasks.” M Lesley. Journalof Adolescent and Adult Literacy (September2011), 25-34.

Teacher Education

2011-10-31T06:07:00.001-07:00

Question: What is anauthentic English classroom?

Answer: The authordefines an authentic English language arts classroom as “…work that is, in someway, meaningful beyond the context of school.”

Then she asks her methods coursestudents the following questions about their lesson plans: What is the point ofthis activity? What are the students’ purposes for undertaking this activity?

Comment: Good questions for any activity used in anEnglish class. RayS.

Title: “In Search ofthe Authentic English Classroom: Facing the Schoolishness of School.” AnneElrod Whitney. English Education (October 2011), 51-62.

Changing University English Dept.

2011-10-28T05:34:00.001-07:00

Question: How has thecollege English department changed?

Answer: Tenuredprofessors are in the minority. Adjunct, contingent and graduate studentinstructors are in the majority. What are the implications of this shift in thenature of the faculty?

Comment: Speaking as a former adjunct instructor, Isee little chance that the majority will wield the power that is in tightcontrol by the minority tenured faculty. I see little chance for a revolutionby those instructors in the majority. FYI. RayS.

Title: Review: TheOld Curiosity Shop and the New Faculty Majority.” Jim Cocola. College English (September 2011), 69-84.

WWII Japanese-American Internees

2011-10-27T05:48:00.001-07:00

Question: What can welearn from petitions written by interned Japanese American citizens during WWII?

Answer/Quote: “Howeversuccessful or unsuccessful they may have been in changing the internees’circumstances, these documents provide evidence for subsequent generations thattheir Issei forbears were neitherpassive nor afraid to raise their voices to argue for change in their lives.They contribute to the ‘written legacy’ of resistance desired by MiraShimabukuro. When these petitions were viewed as historical and rhetoricaldocuments, we can see that the internees in a sense put their lives on the lineto make their political arguments. In doing so, they show that they somehow hadmaintained some belief in a system that had failed them. Perhaps that beliefmade them the supreme patriots and democrats: they had faith that the writtenword in America would somehow convey not only their views, but more important,their humanity.” P. 66.

Comment: The NCTE is apparently suggesting the studyof writing for resistance. Several articles have featured the writing ofindigenous people like the Cherokee, and now this article on the petitions of Japanese -American internees during WWII.Interesting. RayS.

Title: “Putting TheirLives on the Line: Personal Narrative as Political Discourse among JapanesePetitioners in American World War II Internment.” Gail Y Okawa. College English (September 2011), 50-68,

Writer as Citizen

2011-10-26T05:50:00.001-07:00

Question: Why do weteach writing?

Answer: Well, onereason is to create citizens as writers. That’s at least one of our goals, andwe ought to give our students the opportunity to use writing in their role ascitizens. Public writing. Participatory writing. The writer as citizen.

Comment: Worth thinking about. I never directly askedstudents to write letters to the editor, for example, or letters to CongressPersons. It’s authentic writing and I should have. Mea Culpa. RayS.

Title: In the Name ofCitizenship: The Writing Classroom and the Promise of Citizenship.” Amy J. Wan.College English (September 2011), 28-49.

Literature and Empathy

2011-10-25T05:41:00.001-07:00

Question: Is one of ourgoals in teaching literature empathy?

Answer: According tothe author, if we think empathizing with characters will produce empatheticstudents is a goal of literature study, we are mistaken. Studying literaturecannot produce students who are empathetic. Rather, look to the institutions atwhich our students study. Do our institutions reflect an empathetic spirit?That spirit will be catching and we have a much better chance of sensitizingstudents to empathy by example. Reading literature by itself does not produceempathetic students.

Quote: “Ifrespectful, thoughtful, and humane ways of being, thinking, and acting arevalued elements of institutional culture, then we will have, at the very least,created the conditions where students can both be introduced to the complexityof empathy and experience it as a daily practice.” P. 24.

Comment: In The Western Canon, Harold Bloom says that literature does not exist to alter individuals orsociety; that the Canon displays a complex view of humanity; that people readto enlarge their lonely existence by understanding the complexity of motivationand point of view in the world, but without didacticism andmoralizing. RayS.

Title: “Empathy andthe Critic.” Ann Jurecic. College English(September 2011), 10-27.

Reading Speeds

2011-10-24T06:55:00.001-07:00

Question: What are thevarious speeds in reading and what are they for?

Answer/Quote: “Actually,when I say skimming, I mean skipping—just passing over whole paragraphs.Skimming is reading quickly, about 450 words a minute for a proficient reader;scanning—the way we read dictionaries or telephone directories—is done at about600 words a minute. These are the first two reading levels of the fivehypothesized by Ronald P. Carver, a professor of educational psychology. Themiddle level, which Mr. Carver called "rauding," is the level atwhich we read literary fiction, or letters or long magazine stories. Tooversimplify his theory, when we raud we are not only reading every word butcomprehending their meaning in the context of sentences and paragraphs. (Mr.Carver's other two levels are reading to learn—studying—at about 200 words aminute and reading to memorize, 138 words a minute.)”

Comment: My definition of skimming is spinningthrough dictionaries or telephone directories. My definition of scanningis reading the title, first sentences of paragraphs and last paragraph in orderto raise questions to answer when reading a textbook chapter. Mr. Carver’sdefinition of “raiding” sounds like Sir Francis Bacon’s “…others to beswallowed…that is…to be read, but not curiously” [“Some books are to be tasted,others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested”]. That means tome detective fiction, Westerns and “Chick Lit.” RayS.

Title: “Skimming Vs.Reading.” Cynthia Crossen. Wall StreetJournal, October 17, 2011.Internet Version.

Quotes

2011-10-20T05:33:00.001-07:00

Question: Why use quotesin your writing?

Answer/Quote: “Great quotescan help sell your queries to editors. Used as leads, quotes can pull yourreaders into your story. In the middle of your article, quotes can act likelocomotives pulling the reader along while helping you make your main points.They can also aid in writing a satisfying conclusion to your story. Plus, quotescan add life to otherwise dry subjects. So how do you get engaging quotes?Follow these tips:

> Find unique quotes.

> Plan your interview.

> Listen for potential follow-upquestion.

> Pick up the phone or meet face toface.

> Take advantage of a recorder.

> Put your source at ease.

> Leave your own opinions and biasesout of the interviews.

> Look for fresh expression.

> Double-check your quotes.

Title:”9 Tips forQuotes That Sparkle.” JK Borchardt. TheWriter (October 2011), 13.

Comment: The one tip that stands out for me is “Leaveyour own opinions and biases out of the interview.” Too often, questions becomespeeches featuring the interviewer’s point of view. The Writer is apublication by writers for writers. Ihighly recommend it, especially for creative writing teachers. RayS.

Cliches

2011-10-19T05:35:00.001-07:00

Question: “How do I knowif something is a cliché?”

Answer/Quote:”George Orwelldescribed clichés as those images, concepts or phrases that have ‘lost force.’Most clichés probably started off as fresh and exciting but have lost theirenergy over repeated use. For example: He was tall, dark and handsome. Herheart skipped a beat. She worked like a dog.”

“We’ve all heard these phrases beforeand understand what they mean. But they don’t evoke an interesting image or acompelling emotion. In fact, images probably don’t arise at all.”

“We use clichés as an easy way toexpress a sentiment.” Writing is about precision. ‘So, if you’ve heard itbefore, it’s a cliché….”

Title: “How Do I KnowIf Something Is a Cliché?” Brandi Reissenweber. The Writer (October 2011),7.

Comment: The Writer is a publication by writers forwriters. I would recommend that you purchase a copy of The Writer forOctober 2011 and use Brandi’s full article with your classes. I’m sure thisquestion has come up in your writing classes. RayS.

Rhetoric of Indigenous People

2011-10-18T06:47:00.001-07:00

Note: The entireissue of the September 2011 journal CollegeComposition and Communication is devoted to the rhetorics of indigenouspeople. For example, several articles deal with the American attempt to educatethe Cherokee.

One of the authors defines the term“survivance” as coined from “survival” and “resistance.” The message is plain:The native peoples used their indigenous rhetorics to analyze andcriticize and discredit the European andWestern concept of colonialism to marginalize native people by trying toassimilate them into the dominant culture. In reading about these nativeauthors, students learn the power of writing to resist.

Comment: This issue of College Composition andCommunication (September 2011), is a keeper. You might skim it to begin with,but you will come back to it again. The articles are significant and wellwritten, too. RayS.

The Future of English Teaching

2011-10-17T06:01:00.001-07:00

Question: What are yourthoughts about the future of English teaching?

Note: The editor ofthe special September 2011 issue of English Journal, Leila Christenbury, posedthe following questions about the future of English teaching. You can readabout the answers she has gleaned from multiple audiences in her article, “Thenand Now: ?The Thoughts of NCTE Members in 1960 and in 2010.” LeilaChristenbury. English Journal (September 2011), 133-138.

> What to expect in the year 2061

> The change I would most like to seein English teaching during the next 50 years

> Ten of the important studies inresearch in English

> Important unsolved problems inresearch in English

> A book that has influenced mythinking about the teaching of English

> What worries me most about theteaching of English

> An article that I especiallyremember [My title. RayS.]

Comment: If you care to respond to these issues, sendthem to raystop2@comcast.net. I’ll publish the results. RayS.

Two Quotes about Writing

2011-10-14T05:23:00.000-07:00

Question: How should oneteach writing?

Answer: “ ‘Writing isnot too difficult to be achieved,’ wrote Lou LaBrant in 1957, adding, ‘but thecomponents call for direct, full experience rather than for mere learning aboutthe process. Despite this there are today in the freshman classes of ournation’s colleges some hundreds and even thousands of freshmen who are havingtheir first experience in selecting a subject and writing their ideas about it.They have outlined, parsed and punctuated bits, have perhaps written paragraphs(parts of pieces), but they lack experience with the full production.” P. 103.

“In the end, LaBrant leaves us with avivid metaphor for the distinction between school writing and authenticwriting: ‘Knowing about…writing and its parts does not bring it about, just asowning a blueprint does not give you a house.” P. 104.

Comment: A reminder. Grammar exercises are not the same as actual writing. RayS.

Title: “RevisitingLaBrant’s ‘Writing Is More than Structure’ (EnglishJournal, May 1957).” PL Thomas. EnglishJournal (September 2011),103-104.

NCTE: An Important Omission--Ethics

2011-10-13T05:58:00.001-07:00

Question: What can ateacher do when forced to perform an unethical act in teaching?

Answer/Quote: Nothing. Readon: “But an even more important regret about the structure of NCTE (NationalCouncil of Teachers of English) is what I wish Ruth Cline’s (1990) NCTEpresident) work on an ethics code had been adopted by NCTE. We need such a code….That is, a K-12 teacher has a right to an ethical working condition (not beingasked to teach in a harmful manner). In NCTE’s Code for Right to EthicalConditions, a K-12 teacher could file a complaint about ethical conditions (‘Iam being required to perform an unethical act by my district’), and NCTE couldreview the matter and make a recommendation—just as it does under the Right toRead Policy where teachers report censorship cases….” P. 43.

Comment: A question: What ethics policies existthroughout education? RayS.

Title: “Buckle Up for InterestingTimes.” Miles Myers. English Journal (September 2011), 33-42.

Reading and Interpreting Poetry

2011-10-12T05:38:00.001-07:00

Question: How can I helpstudents to interpret poems from several points of view.

Answer: Students givena variety of well-recognized poems. Each student selects one poem.

> First they respond to the poem theyselected with a personal interpretation, citing correctly quotations from thepoem. .

> Second, they research informationfrom the content of the poem that will help them to understand it.

> Third, they read a critical essayby a professional critic on the poem.

“Finally, students revise the threeparts of the assignment into a complete analysis of the poem.” P. 83.

Title: “A ScaffoldedEssay Assignment on Poetry.” Jane Arnold. TeachingEnglish in the Two-Year College (September2011), 82-83.

Standard English as One of Many Dialects

2011-10-11T05:47:00.001-07:00

Question: How can I helpstudents understand that Standard English is one of many appropriate choicesfor effective communication?

Answer/Quote: “As a teacherat a community college in Appalachia, I am often shocked by compositionstudents who have come to accept what they have learned in previous academicsettings: that their native dialects make them ‘sound stupid.’ I want mystudents to recognize standard English as another dialect that is suitable inparticular situations—to avoid mistaking Standard English as inherently‘correct’ English, or as the only option for effective communication. Todetermine the best language options, students need to pay close attention tothe language needs of the situation at hand, or consider why one particulardialect might be more useful than another in a particular setting.” P. 81.

The author has students record injournals the types of language in situations that they experience during theday, i.e., the language at home, the language at work, etc. “This extendedprewriting leads into a formal essay in which students describe two settings inwhich they spend a great deal of time, along with specific language situationsthey might encounter at each.” P 81.

“Ultimately, students can come tounderstand that their local dialects are not inferior and in fact work betterfor communicating in certain situations while standardized dialect is oftenmore likely to facilitate effective communication across professional andnonlocal audiences or settings.” P. 82.

Comment: Interesting technique for analyzing thelanguage of different social settings and the appropriateness of StandardEnglish for specific situations and the appropriateness of other dialects forcertain other situations. In general,the more students write informally, the more their language reflects the waythey speak. RayS.

Title: “Dialect andLanguage Analysis Assignment.” Amanda Hayes. Teaching English in the Two-Year College (September 2011), 81-82.

Evaluating Online Sources: The CRAP Test

2011-10-10T06:01:00.000-07:00

Question: How canstudents evaluate online sources for the purposes of research/

Answer/Quote: “There is somuch information on the Web posted by so many different people. How do you knowif something is accurate and reliable? One way to determine if the informationis valid is to use the CRAP test. For this test, you will surf the Internet toFind a Web page.” P. 71.

“I.Description of your search:

>What is your topic?

>What search engine(s) did you use?

>What key words did you use to doyour search?

>How many hits (results) did you get?

>How many sites did you look at? Didyou go beyond the 1 page of results?

II.CRAP Test

A.Content

>Coose one of your sites. Copy andpaste the URL below.

> Is the URL from an ‘org,’ ‘edu,’‘com,’ Or ‘gov”?

>Is the information fact or opinion?

>Is the information documented?Explain.

>Is the page well written? Is it wellproofed and error free?

>Now go the root of the Web page byomitting everything after the gov or com in the URL (ex. http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/index.html) Once you areon the root’s homepage look for an ‘about us’ or ‘information’ that givesinsight about the host. What do you learn? Does it add or take away from thepage’s credibility? Explain.

B.Recency

>How old is the information? Howoften is it updated?

>Are the links on the page working or‘dead’?

>Does the web site include referencesto mostly current or out-of-date information?

C.Author

>Who is the author of this site? Isit a person? Organization?

>Is the author/organization qualifiedto write on the subject? Explain.

>Can the author/organization becontacted for further information?

>What biases does/might the authorbring to the information? Why is the author writing about the subject? Explain.

D.Purpose

>What is the purpose of thisinformation? Inform? Persuade? Entertain?

>Does the author/organization makehis/her purpose or intentions clear?

>Who is the intended audience forthis information (for a hint, go back to the root of the page)? Explain.

III.Overall Assessment

> On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 beingleast reliable ‘it’s crap’ and 10 being most reliable ‘it’s expertinformation’). What would you rank this site and why?”

pp. 71 & 72.

Comment: In addition to the CRAP analysis of onlinesources, this article also supplies an easy-to-follow guide to documentingsources online and in traditional media. RayS.

Title: “A PersonalTouch: Embedding Library Faculty into Online English 102.” Casey Kadavy and KimChuppa-Cornell. Teaching English in theTwo-Year College (September 2011),63-77.

Evaluating Student Writing

2011-10-07T06:18:00.000-07:00

Question: What are somebasic categories for assessment of student writing?

Answer/Quote: The authorsand their English department were unsatisfied with their original rubric forstudent assessment. They reduced six categories to four: purpose, criticalthinking/analysis, intertextuality and audience awareness. “ ‘Intertextuality’ is a term we use todescribe the integration of a student’s ideas with outside texts, and we defineoutside texts loosely: articles, books, movies, poems, advertisements, and theever-widening range of new media.” P. 54.

Whereas the six-category rubric seemedunnecessarily complex and confusing, including the category “voice,” thefour-category assessment gave the teachers and students the opportunity toexplore definitions of and understandingof the categories.

The scheme of assessment included thefollowing:

PaperAssessment Sheet

Coreelements(Scores ‘3’ and above are ;passing)

Purpose 6 5 4 3 2 1

CriticalThinking/Analysis 6 5 4 3 2 1

Intertextuality 6 5 4 3 2 1

AudienceAwareness 6 5 4 3 2 1

Comment: Much to like in these categories for writingassessment. RayS.

Title: “From Rigidityto Freedom: An English Department’s Journey in Rethinking How We teach andAssess Writing.” C Strouthopoulos and JL Peterson. Teaching English in the Two-Year College (September 2011), 43-62.

Five-Paragraph Theme

2011-10-06T06:01:00.001-07:00

Question: How do you use the model forexpository writing known as the five-paragraph theme?

Answer/Quote: “This articletraces the history of the five-paragraph theme and views about it, along witharguing for its elimination in writing instruction in favor of problem-based‘rich-task’ writing experiences for students.” P. 29.

Quote: “ ‘How do youfeel about the five-paragraph theme?’ I have posed this question as aconversation starter on the topic of theme writing over the past two years tofirst-year college writers, along with elementary and secondary Englishteachers, two-year and four-year college instructors, and others interested inliteracy instruction who have attended conferences sponsored by the Conferenceon College Composition and Communication and the Iowa Council of Teachers ofEnglish.” P.. 29.

Quote: “What thecontinuum reveals is a lack of consensus about this uniquely ‘North Americanspecies of pseudogenre,’ a formula that puzzles those who teach writingelsewhere in the world: Assessments range from ‘very positive on the left sideto ‘very negative’ on the right…creating a balanced range of responses fromstrong approval to strong disapproval.’ ” P. 29.

Comment: Once again, the National Council of Teachersof English creates an ‘either/or” issue that is best resolved by “both/and,”both the five-paragraph model, not a genre, for expository writing and a‘rich-task’ writing experience for students, whatever that is. Thefive-paragraph essay is a model for the structure of exposition, easilyexpanded, and, in spite of the NCTE’s objections to it, the model followed byevery published writer of articles in NCTE publications. By continuing to use“either/or” situations (grammar, writing process vs. product, phonics), theNCTE violates the very basic notions of critical thinking and common sense.RayS.

Title: “What to Makeof the Five-Paragraph theme: History of the Genre and Implications.” M Tremmel.Teaching English in the Two-Year College”(September 2011), 29-42,

NCTE and You

2011-10-05T05:33:00.001-07:00

Note: The September2011 issue of English Journalcelebrates the centennial of the National Council of Teachers of English. Thearticles consist of testaments to the value of the NCTE to practicing teachersof English. Peter Smagorinsky in the final paragraph of his article, “NCTE& Me: Reflections on the Council’s Role in One Teacher’ Life,” says wellwhat I have learned from my experienceswith the NCTE.

Quote: “I have alwaysbeen puzzled at the fact that, with all that NCTE has to offer, more practicingteachers are not members. I taught in some highly regarded high schools inwhich I was among the few members of large faculties to join and take advantageof its resources. These resources have only grown more abundant and better witheach passing year as NCTE tries to serve its members and improve the quality ofteaching. I hope that my reflection on my own experiences with the Councilhelps others to think about where they would be without NCTE and to persuadecolleagues of the possibilities that await them through their membership.” P.116.

Comment: I began reading the English Journalin 1956 in my first year of high school teaching. Because I wanted to learnwhat was happening in elementary school, junior high and middle school, as wellas high school and college, I expanded my reading of professional journals inEnglish to include Elementary English re-named Language Arts, Voicesfrom the Middle, College English, English Education, CollegeComposition and Communication, Teaching English in the Two-Year College,Research in the Teaching of English and added to the NCTE’s list ofjournals those of the International Reading Association, The Reading Teacher, Journal of Readingre-named Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy and Reading ResearchQuarterly.

That’sa lot of reading, but I’ve learned to read for ideas and to find thesignificant ideas in each article of each journal, and, believe me, nothing isso exciting as discovering an answer to my questions about teaching English andraising new questions. I’ve discovered pre-writing, the writing process,writing to learn and teaching English as a second language in the pages ofthese journals. Sometimes the writers reinforce my own ideas, more oftendisagree with my ideas, but always I learn from ideas that I reflect on inorder to improve my teaching of English. And I have learned how to write andpublish in these journals, further refining my ideas.

Ideas.They are my reason for reading professional literature. Ideas that cause me toreflect about how to improve my teaching. That’s why I am a member of NCTE, theNational Council of Teachers of English. If you’re an English teacher, youreally need to belong to your professional organization. This blog, EnglishUpdates, consists of selected ideas from the pages of professionalliterature.I have had as many as 250 hits a day.RayS.

Title: “NCTE &Me: Reflections on the Council’s Role in One Teacher’s Life.” PeterSmagorinsky. English Journal (September 2011), 111-116.

Goal of the Community College Teacher

2011-10-04T06:09:00.001-07:00

Question: What is theprimary goal of the community college teacher?

Answer/Quote: “As aprofessor at a community college, you will be evaluated primarily in terms ofyour effectiveness as a teacher, your commitment to student learning, and yourservice to the institution and the community. While research and publicationare generally encouraged and supported, they do not serve as the maininstitutional goals and therefore may be given limited recognition and rewardin terms of rank, promotion, and salary. Most institutional honors and awardsare based on exemplary teaching.” (“Considering Community College Advice toGraduate Students and Job Seekers” 167) p. 7.

Comment: Unlike four-year colleges, the mission ofthe community college is effective teaching. Research and publication aresecondary to effective teaching. An important distinction. RayS.

Title: “Research andScholarship in the Two-Year College.” Two-Year College English association. Teaching English in the Two-Year College(September 2011), 7-28.

Adults and Children's Reading

2011-10-03T05:56:00.000-07:00

Question: What roleshould parents play in their children’s reading after they have stopped readingaloud to them?

Answer/Quotes: “Daniel Pennac(2008) warns against too little andtoo much intervention by adults in the life of the child reader. He admonishesadults for ceasing to read aloud to children the moment they begin to read ontheir own. When we abandon our role as reader-aloud, we often assume the roleof reading police in children’s lives. We monitor what children read, how oftenthey read, how much they read, what ‘level’ they read and whether they’vegained the ‘correct’ meaning from the text.”

Quote: “So what,then, is the role of the adult? To model, to let be, and to have faith. We mustbe cautious that our own excitement about sharing what we love as readers, orwhat we loved as child readers ourselves, does not prevent children fromfinding what they love. Thus, and perhaps most important, we must let childrenread what they choose to read, suspending adult evaluations of quality and appropriateness.Pennac reminds us that children reading tastes will evolve over time, Heconcluded his original ‘Reader’s Bill of Rights’ (1994) assuring the readerthat s/he has ‘The Right to Not Defend Your Tastes’ (p. 206). We believe thatthis right has particular implications for the child reader who must fend offwell-meaning parents and teachers patrolling the reading beat.” P. 244.

Comment: I wonder if Daniel Pennac would defend theuse of violent or pornographic video games as he defends the child’s right toread? This is murky stuff. There’s a difference between guiding reading andcensoring it. RayS.

Title: “The Right to Not Defend YourTastes.” MA Cappiello, et al. Language Arts (January 2011), p. 244.

Reading Levels and Reading Needs

2011-09-30T06:20:00.001-07:00

Question: What are theproblems inherent in equating reading levels of texts with the reading needs ofstudents?

Answer/Quote: “In manyclassrooms, decisions about text levels may impact multiple aspects of literacyprograms. The practice in which they seem to have most influence is guidedreading. Indeed, the production and popular use of these leveled textsflourished as the practice of guided reading expanded, and now, leveling, hasfound its way into the bedrock of our literacy programs.” P. 209.

Quote: “When we beganwork with Bob, he was confusing reading levels [of text] with reading needs,and he was assuming that finding the correct level would move his childrenalong. He was aware that there were problems with this small group, but hisdata told him the children were on the same level, and, as such, could betaught the same way from the same materials.” P. 121.

Quote: “While guidedreading using leveled texts provides many opportunities for learning, it alsohas the potential to limit children’s exposure to challenging andgrade-appropriate learning experiences.” P. 214.

Comment: Assuming that assigning reading levels meansteaching the same thing to all the students in the group makes the complexreading experience too simple. In fact, we have to acknowledge that whatindividuals need is not the same thing as using reading levels to make readinginstruction easier. Grouping has its advantages, but the individual readingneeds of individual students must also be of concern. Limiting diagnosis toreading level deprives the instructor of information about the complex needs ofeach student. RayS.

Title: “Let’s StartLeveling abut Leveling.” K Glasswell and M Ford. Language Arts (January 2011),pp. 208-216.

Wordless Picture Books for Immigrants

2011-09-29T05:54:00.000-07:00

Question: How organizethe reading of wordless picture books for immigrants?

Suggestionsfor discussing wordless picture books for immigrants:

. Use a small-group format similar toliterature circles.

. Try having groups focus on severalbooks by the same author and then compare various authors’ styles.

. Organize students into linguisticallyhomogeneous groups whenever possible….

. Use buddy reading, pairing students totalk. The two students can take turns interpreting and commenting on the imagesfound on alternating pages.

. Keep the conversation open…. .What doyou think about this page? What do you notice here? What is happening here? Whydo think so? What else would you like to say?

. Ask how they think characters might be thinking and feeling.

. Ask students to share theirpredictions.

. Pay attention to the elements of artpresent in the book (e.g., the use of perspective, light, frames, color, lines,etc.)….

.Do not rush the discussion of thebook….

. Remember that inquiry can take manyforms. It does not only mean direct questions, but can include wondering andguessing, such as ‘Maybe….’ And ‘I wonder if….’

. Create annotated pages….

Comment: An interesting way to begin readinginstruction with immigrant students. RayS.

Title: “ [ReadingBetween the Pictures’: Immigrant students’ Interpretations of The Arrival” [By Shaun Tan]. CMMartinez-Roldan and S Newcomer. LanguageArts (January 2011), 188-197.

"Conversations" and Controversy in the NCTE

2011-09-28T05:41:00.000-07:00

Question: What is itlike to join “conversations” in NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English)controversies?

Answer/Quote: “It’s rainingand cold. But you have stepped indoors, and you stand at the door of a roomwhere a fire is blazing, the drinks are flowing, and friends, acquaintances,and intriguing strangers are laughing and talking cheerfully. They beckon youto join them, and soon enough, you are part of the conversation.

“Thisscene could serve as an analogy for what we do as readers and writers in‘rooms’ such as English Journal (EJ).Perhaps you have been a longtime reader, or maybe this is your first encounterwith EJ. Regardless, by reading these pages, you are entering into aconversation that is already underway. But is the discussion here really likethe scene I have portrayed?”

“Isa heated discussion the kind of conversation you would like to enter? Is it thekind of conversation that unfolds within each new issue of EJ? Is it what youshould expect to see from English teachers attending the National Council ofTeachers of English (NCTE) Annual Convention, or in the online discussionforums?” p. 43.

“Onceagain, I find that there are no easy answers to my…questions. And once againdissenting voices in EJ require me to think about what it means to teach andlearn the English language arts. I am having to figure out for myself what itmight mean if both … and … are right. I trust that others,too, are doing some of these same mental gymnastics, and that some of us willput our ideas forward here in EJ. There will be some disagreement, perhaps,even some heated discussion. If we can be smart and civil while letting theconflicts play out, we will help each other to hone our thinking. And if we dothat, everybody wins.” P. 45.

Comment: This article invites dissenting opinionsabout issues in the teaching of English, admits that the discussions can becomeheated, urges that civility be essential to the discussion. The NCTE adoptspolicies and its publications seem to favor one side of issues. It seems tocreate “either/or” arguments (phonics, grammar, writing process vs. product, thefive-paragraph essay to name a few).

Membersof the NCTE organization play politics: (“One Person’s Opinion” became “TwoPersons’ Opinions” when I disagreed with the expression of the NCTE/IRAstandards and I found myself, without any warning, debating the reigningpresident of the NCTE on the issue.) Ethics anyone? I’m glad that the author ofthis article invites dissenting opinions. Just be ready for negativeconsequences.

To LeilaChristenbury (Editor of EJ at that time), I did notice your locking me into the debate with the president of NCTE, who stole my ending as her response. I justchose not to respond. I know when I’m licked. I still think your ploy was a dirty trick. RayS.

Title: “ContentiousConversations.” Leah A. Zuidema. EnglishJournal (September 2011), 43-45.

Cover Letter for Employment

2011-09-27T05:49:00.001-07:00

Question: What are someexamples of cover letters when seeking employment?

Answer: Three of thesesample letters have obvious flaws. One is an effective cover letter.

Title: “’You’reHired!: A Role-Playing and Real-World Writing Project.” Amy Estersohn. Classroom Notes Plus (January 2011), 12-15.

The 50's Counterculture

2011-09-26T06:07:00.001-07:00

Question: Why were Beatwriters the heart of the 1950’s?

Answer: Because theyprepared America for the 1960’s. Readings include “America” by Allen Ginsberg.“I’m Waiting” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Chapter One from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.

Quote: “Students’comments generally show that they have developed a deeper understanding of someof the social factors that led to the development of the Beat writers, and thatthey are able to identify and understand both the motives and thecharacteristics that typify Beat writings.” P. 6.

Title: “The Beats GoOn: Teaching the Literature of the Fifties Counterculture.” Jeff House. Classroom Notes Plus (January 2011), 1-6.

Paraprosdokian

2011-09-23T05:58:00.001-07:00

Note: Receivedthis in an e-mail. RayS.

PARAPROSDOKIAN:What is it? Here is the definition:

"Figure of speechin which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected;frequently used in a humorous situation." "Where there's a will, Iwant to be in it," is a type of paraprosdokian.

1. Do not argue with anidiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

2. The last thing I wantto do is hurt you. But it's still on my list.

3. Light travels fasterthan sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

4. If I agreed with you,we'd both be wrong.

5. We never really growup; we only learn how to act in public.

6. War does notdetermine who is right - only who is left.

7. Knowledge is knowinga tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

8. Evening news is wherethey begin with 'Good Evening,' and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.

9. To steal ideas fromone person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.

10. A bus station iswhere a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops.. On my desk, I havea work station.

11. I thought I wanted acareer. Turns out I just wanted paychecks.

12. Whenever I fill outan application, in the part that says, 'In case of emergency, notify:' I put'DOCTOR.'

13. I didn't say it wasyour fault, I said I was blaming you.

14. Women will never beequal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beergut, and still think they are sexy.

15. Behind everysuccessful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usuallyanother woman.

16. A clear conscienceis the sign of a fuzzy memory.

17. I asked God for abike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked forforgiveness.

18. You do not need aparachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.

19. Money can't buyhappiness, but it sure makes misery easier to live with.

20. There's a fine linebetween cuddling and holding someone down so they can't get away.

21. I used to be indecisive.Now I'm not so sure.

22. You're never too oldto learn something stupid.

23. To be sure ofhitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.

24. Nostalgia isn't whatit used to be.

25. Change isinevitable, except from a vending machine.

26. Going to churchdoesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you acar.

27. A diplomat issomeone who tells you to go to hell in such a way that you look forward to thetrip.

28. Hospitality ismaking your guests feel at home even when you wish they were.

29. I always take lifewith a grain of salt, plus a slice of lemon, and a shot of tequila.

30. When tempted tofight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water.

Metaphors for the Function of Literature

2011-09-22T05:33:00.001-07:00

Question: What are twometaphors for the functions of literature?

Answer/Quote: “Fiction ismade up of mirrors and windows. The mirrors are full of settings and charactersthat are ‘just like us,’ while the windows take us beyond ourselves intoanother time, another situation, maybe even another world. If we look at thebooks that middle school readers choose over and over again, we’ll find thatthey are usually the books that combine mirrors with windows.” P. 48.

Title: “Mirrors andWindows.” Ed. Kim Ford. Voices from theMiddle (May 2010), 48-49.

Young Adult Literature

2011-09-21T05:20:00.001-07:00

Question: How canreading Young Adult mystery novels help students in content area classes likemath, science and social studies?

Answer/Quote: “Further, oncethe class was immersed in the exploration of mysteries, Claudia realized thatthe skills the students were using in reading mysteries were the very onesneeded in math, science, and even social studies. In fact, the studentsthemselves ;pointed out these connections. For example, in math, when given acomplex story problem, the students recognized the parallels between wheat theywere doing as they read The Westing Gameand what they were doing in solving math problems—identifyi8ng who wasinvolved, where the problem occurred, what the events were, what data wererelevant to solving the problem, and what strategy was needed to solve theproblem. In effect, Claudia and her students became detectives across thecurriculum. The study of mysteries provided a rich instructional context thathelped to meet today’s rigorous curricular demands.” P. 27.

Comment: Interesting parallels between mystery novelsand math. RayS.

Title: “ExploringMystery in Fifth Grade: A Journey of Discovery.” Claudia Sharp, et al. Voices from the Middle (May 2010), 19-28.

Standards-based Education

2011-09-20T06:18:00.001-07:00

Question: What isanother view of the goal of standards-based education?

Answer/Quote: “Yet we canagree that standards are essential for helping teachers develop a clear senseof purpose and direction, thereby improving quality of instruction. Whenappropriately implemented and applied, curriculum standards assist educators inbringing focus and intention to their teaching.” P. 395.

Comment: One of the things I have noticed as I readprofessional articles in English education is that authors are often very goodat framing the problem to be solved. Unfortunately, their solutions do not effectivelyresolve the problem. RayS.

Title: “LocatingStandards That Elevate Individual and Social Development.” M Elias, et al. Language Arts (May 2010), 395-399.

Standards-based Education

2011-09-19T05:52:00.001-07:00

Question: What are thegoals of standards-based education?

Answer/Quote: “…our strongbelief that the goal of standards-based education is to improve the quality ofinstruction provided to all children, rather than to simply measure and reportachievement or reward and punish students, teachers and schools.” P. 373.

Comment: I think the goal of quality instruction forall students has been lost in the second goal to “measure and reportachievement or reward and punish students, teachers and schools.” RayS.

Title: “Fulfillingthe Potential of Standards-based Education: Promising Policy Principle: KH Auand SW Valencia. Language Arts (May 2010), 373-380.