Week 10B: Writing and citing

It just so happens that while I am working on my Lit Review I am also having my students complete a writing assignment that spirals citation skills.  I am explaining to students the why and what to cite but also the how to cite all of which can be challenging for 9th grade students.  Though they have been exposed to these skills before many are still very confused and frustrated by this type of academic writing.  When I even mention citing, bibliography, in-text citations I get a universal "awwww" from all my students.  

I recently learned of a few products that might make this process easier for students.  These include Zotero, Goodreader, and Mendeley all software programs that help researchers read and keep track of their resources (especially digital ones). Mendeley even inserts in text citations.  Several bibliography generators also exist making the bibliography part of the process easier as well.   Students need to proceed with caution however because these products are not fool proof.  Students still must have an understanding of the why and what to cite in order to best wield these resources for the "how" to cite aspect of writing.  

Week 10A: R.A.F.T

Not every student has the same ability to acquire skills and perform/produce at the same level. Not every student has the same motivation to complete a task.  So when writing across the curriculum teachers must manage not only various skill and ability levels regarding the content of their subject but also different writing levels as well.  The RAFT acronym stands a reminder of the various ways in which teachers can differentiate a writing task. Here is how a social studies teacher may consider RAFT as a "vehicle" for differentiating.

R. ole-  Assigning students a different role in a project.  I have used this for a renaissance research project in which students assume the role of a renaissance artist.  Assigning students with an interest in architecture Palladio or Brunelleschi or science Leonardo.

A. audience- Different projects have different audiences.  For example students write blog posts that only their peers can read, publish websites that their parents will look over, or submit to contests that an outside judge will evaluate.  Changing the audience not only helps to teach students how to think about writing for a specific audience but also can add a increased level of motivation for some.

F. ormat- Having choice in the way students present their understandings is an excellent way to differentiate.  Allowing some students to create a multi-genre project with mixed text, audio, video like a Glogster or even just a poster.  While others write essay's or perform a skit.  The history day program is a great model for differentiation using form.  The difficult part for instructors is equitably grading these types of projects.

T. opic-The subject of the project.  This is a great way to differentiate if the goal focus is skill based rather than content based.  Allowing the student choice in content while demonstrating a mastery of the skill can easily create motivation and interest for the student.  It also makes grading more enjoyable as the instructor is not grade 60 assignments on the same topic:)

Week 9B: Incorporating Technology

Here are my thoughts on the technology resources suggested from the last two readings plus other tech ideas for writing:

Animoto: Used it in a grad school program, intuitive yet lacks the ability to aesthetically include a lot of text.  The presentation to me felt like a fancy power point

Glogster: I have my 9th graders use for a project.  Like how audio, text, and video can all work together.  The downfall is it is not condusive for collaboration.

MindMeister:  costs$ and my school already subscribes to Inspiration which does much of the same kind of stuff.

Wordle: Great for visual learners.  Very easy to use, great large or whole group activity that can help distill a topic. 

Voicethread: The commenting feature is great.  Sharing is simple. Uploading was at one time tricky but those glitches have since been fixed.

There are so many and more continue to develop ways to harness technology to enhance various parts of the writing process.  It is important for teachers to stay networked in order to continue to learn more about these resources.   

Week 9A: Persuasive Writing

I wish I had read this chapter prior to starting my persuasive argument project with my 9th grade students.  Their assignment is to convince the reader (me--actually my long term sub) that the Mongols had either a positive or negative impact on history.  The begin by reading several model texts that clearly take a stand on if topic.  In addition they read various primary source accounts which helps students better understand point of view.  After skimming, scanning, and reading sources they then completed a pre-write and a draft of their position.  I liked Tompkins figure 11.1 so much I went back and provided my own knock off version of that same template to students. 

I also really like the persuasive rubric we received in class.  I wish I would have had access to this rubric prior to developing my own.  After reviewing the rubric from class I plan on changing the assignment up a little next year creating a new rubric using the one passed out in class to inform my assessment plan. 

**I also appreciated that this chapter was more applicable for older students

Week 8B: Expository Writing

Like the other genre chapters Tompkins does a great job really distilling the genre down into laymen terms.  So much so that I feel I can use her explanation when explaining this genre to my 9th grade students.  I also really liked how she defined the expository text structures.  I have explicitly taught sequence, comparison, and cause and effect but had never considered description or problem and solution a genre I should provide direct instruction for.  However Tompkins made a case for having students learn to write in these text structures as well.  Also teaching students about these text structures will not only enhance their writing but their literacy and comprehension skills in this genre as well.  The techniques/strategies for how to intro these genres were helpful and many I will include for my strategy resource file due this week. 

I really liked the information she provided regarding assessing expository writing.  She is obviously a proponent of UBD and helps walk the instructor through the steps that should be taken to create a complete assessment of the writing genre including quality prompts (but does not really provide guidance for how to do this which confirms that this is a good topic for my lit review), creating checklists for students, rubrics, and conferencing. 

Week 8A: Feedback

One of the best teachers I have ever had was one of my grad school professors (L. Abeel).  What made this teacher so great was her feedback on writing assignments.  Feedback can be really tricky for teachers.  An instructor wants to make corrections while at the same time motivating students to improve their work.  This balance in very important in the type/tone/quantity of feedback provided.  Too much constructive criticism can be discouraging for students.

Another important aspect of feedback is timeliness.  Students want and benefit from immediate feedback.  When teachers collect assignment and do not grade them in a timely fashion, returning them to students much later, students have already lost interest/focus on what they were working on.  Being out on maternity leave I collected an assignment right before I had my baby and did not return it until three weeks later.  The work I put into the comments I wrote I felt had much less of an impact because the papers were returned so much later from when the students actually completed them.

My biggest frustration is when I feel that as the instructor I have invested more time and energy in providing feedback/comments for an assignment then the actual assignment took the student to complete.  I am not sure my students understand how much time and energy it takes to assess, evaluate, and comment on student writing. 

Week 7B: Narrative Writing and Poetry Writing

Though I enjoyed reading both of the assigned chapters in Tompkins it was a little more difficult to find how this may apply to my teaching in upper school social studies.  I routinely have students read narrative primary sources and even read poetry (China Tang/Song dynasty) however I do not have my student write in this genre.  That is not to say that writing in this genre can not be done in a social studies class but I see the application more in a humanities course or done at the primary or middle school level.  A poetry writing assignment or a narrative writing assignment is difficult to squeeze into only a year long survey course.  A poetry writing assignment or a historical narrative assignment end up being more enrichment than an integral part of the curriculum. 

Students in college are often not writing poetry in their history courses they are writing non-fiction expository.  Because a language arts course is tasked with teaching all of the genres I have found that students have only had a handful of opportunities to write non-fiction expository.  Most of the writing I assign is therefore non-fiction since this is the dominant genre of the field and the genre many students have had little repeated practice with prior to high school.  This is also why I am looking forward to next weeks discussion on expository writing!