The Arts of Teaching

Ok... so this was a pretty lengthy chapter, but I must say, I loved just about every bit of  it. It's stocked full of different ways to get our students to write in the classroom. So, let's take some time to break it down. *And the beat drops* One of my favorite ideas in this chapter is the idea that Christensen "teach[es] students specific methods of "retrieving" and "collecting" information from readings, media, and discussions, and I engage them in discussing the topic."(121) All to often in our HS experiences I am sure that we went through an entire unit, read the novel, and were THEN given the paper assignment, which we then proceed to having to go back and basically redo all sorts of work to find the evidence. This is so discouraging as a student! Why are these essays such a big secret for the whole unit, and then given at the end? It makes no sense. This is what Christensen is trying to argue in the first part of the chapter. Why are we no...

Well, I know what you're thinking... It's poem week. Gross. NO! It should be "It's poem week, YES!" I get it, not everyone enjoys poetry, whether it be reading it or writing it. But I genuinely think that this negative stigma comes from people who don't actually UNDERSTAND poetry. Just like Christensen says in the text, people automatically think "OH MY. POETRY! I MUST BECOME A SCHOLAR TO MAKE SUCH LITERARY GENIUS SUCH AS POETRY" But NOPE, that is not the case in the slightest. Can you write the alphabet? Oh good, then you too can write poetry just like the scholars of Harvard and Yale. Poetry is one of my favorite things, because it can be both personal and impersonal, as well as selfish and selfless. It can be anything that you want it to be. You can share it, or keep it hidden away to yourself. It's one of the most versatile forms of writing there is. There is no right or wrong answer when it's all about you. You can write poetry...

     For the section on Narrative writing there were so many interesting ideas and activities that could be used in our classrooms that I barely knew where to begin in creating this weeks lesson plan and writing this blog post!      I absolutely love the idea that using the narrative form in class can help our students to better understand literary devices and how authors create literature. This has me thinking... how can I use this? I would love to come up with a lesson that allows students to come up with their own narrative version of a poem or a non-fiction piece. Allowing them to take into consideration where the literature was written from. Think about the setting, the narrator, and the plot of the story. They would be able to really make it their own but still use similar ideas from the original author of the chosen non-narrative piece.       In the Emdin chapter I found that I was struggling to understand the way a teacher...

     I know that I am posting a little late this week, but I was super sick all weekend after the conference.      Talk about a wealth of information... because if anyone has one, it must be Troy Hicks. Just in case anyone lost the information to get to his page I will leave it  here . That is also the page with all the links to the activities that we did.      Recently, I came upon the website  ProCon that Troy was telling us about. I actually was using it for another class, for writing an argument about why Harry Potter books should not be banned in schools, and I made note of it then. I was so excited to see that he has used that same site to show us some things on Saturday. This is absolutely something I hope to bring into my classroom someday.      By far, my favorite thing that Troy talked about was the video essays. What a perfect way to combine our literacy skills and writing with technology. So I decid...