Comments on: School: Future Writing

By: Marksman2000

Marksman2000 — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 22:29:05 +0000

As a professional freelance writer with an English/Creative Writing degree, you know what interests me the most.

Reading and Writing vs. Studying Literature

Only certain people look forward to reading posts like this–and most are not engineers and programmers.

Now if I can find my way to the Breadloaf some day…

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 20:39:17 +0000

I’m with the “The Evolution of my Personal Pedagogy” crowd; it would be fascinating to see how you got from point ‘D’ to point ‘P’ (or wherever you’re at, currently).

By: cv

cv — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 20:33:47 +0000

I’m with the all crowd. Sock it to us.

By: Tex

Tex — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 19:47:34 +0000

I’m most interested in the middle ones:
The Evolution of my Personal Pedagogy
Teen Sexuality and Deviance in the Classroom
Girl Pants, Carhart, and Student Identity

The first one for selfish practical reasons and the second two because they’re darned well titled, to say the least.

By: Sniper

Sniper — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 19:05:52 +0000

Very cool, Lauren.The two that most interest me are Reading and Writing vs. Studying Literature and Teacher Morale, Student Morale. I’ve been an ELA teacher for several years and have just started an M. Ed in literacy education. I work with kids who often already have an appreciation of literature in their first language, but struggle with simple decoding in English – so frustrating for them. We have to work on beginning skills like sounding out and structural analysis, but at the same time I want them to enjoy what they read. It’s incredibly hard to find decent books at this level. Check out Mark Sadoski on Cognitive vs. Affective competencies in reading -he’s very readable and makes some good points.

The second topic interests me because I work at a “failing” (i.e. poor) school. We were just taken off academic watch, and it was interesting to see how the kids perked up at the news – and this is middle school. No matter how much they claim to hate the school, they identify with it.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 18:13:20 +0000

Any and all of the above. I enjoy hearing about teaching — the theory and the reality — and your observations about your students. Having been out of school for…. well, a while, there are all sorts of things going on with kids of which I am unaware. Not being a mom at this point, maybe never, I may never need to know these things. But that doesn’t stop me from being interested in hearing about them.

Besides, you write well and it’s a pleasure to read. Both you and Jill are quite articulate the vast majority of the time, which is truly a pleasure.

By: a nut

a nut — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 17:52:12 +0000

as an english major, i’d have to go for the Reading/Writing v. Studying Literature and as a mom, Curriculum and Student Identity. It’s coming up faster than I think, I just know it.

By: Hugo

Hugo — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 16:33:24 +0000

Morale. Definitely.

By: Sina

Sina — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 16:32:11 +0000

I’m in favor of the development of pedagogy, and also the deviance and student identity topics.
I remember in college there was a girl who one afternoon told me about all the vacations her family takes in Jamaica and Greece, and the next day proudly showed off her Salvation-Army purchased Carharts. She gasped and gaped at me when I told her I didn’t know what Carharts were. This was a perfect picture of the kind of weird combination of class (and white) guilt and blind priviledge that operated at that school (which I otherwise loved).

By: biosparite

biosparite — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 16:00:11 +0000

Student ability with emphasis on observation. I don’t know what you teach, being mainly a lurker here, but in terms of student exercises, the best one I can recall was our first experiment in high-school chemistry, which was to observe a burning candle and make as many observations as possible over a period of a half-hour.