I have been starting and stopping this blog for UNCC Writing Project Summer Institute. I just can't seem to figure out what I want to write about. I know what I should write about, but that's not what is really speaking to me out of this book. I told my colleague that these few words kept haunting me...
No one rises to low expectations.
This is what I have built my teaching philosophy on. I want high expectations regardless of whether they are honors or academic - all deserve to be challenged. What has happened to me as a teacher? Have I forgotten this? I have high expectations for my honors for sure, but do I apply it in the same way for my academic students when my coworkers keep reminding me how they can't do it and I need to not expect much. Is this really where we have landed?
As I read through Teaching Adolescent Writers by Kelly Gallagher, I saw that my expectations for my student's writing was very low - not on purpose, but just because I had no idea what writing could look like in my classroom. Gallagher gave some helpful suggestions on how to incorporate writing in the classroom instead of just assigning and grading, which is where my classroom is at the moment.
I was thankful that he said, "the act of writing itself creates new thinking." Yes, thankfully it does. But how do I incorporate this into my classroom. I want to give my students the opportunity to think. I want to give my students the opportunity to write something that's not graded. I want to give my students the opportunity to spit it out and move on. I'm excited to see the tools that SI is going to teach me and give me time to think of so that I can facilitate this very thing in my classroom.
Another heart-wrenching thought that he gave was "If students don't write at least three times a week, they are dead." Seriously? Ouch! I mean, my students write, but is it helpful? Is it the free thinking, creative writing time that they need? These are questions I am still thinking through and hope to implement in my lesson plans for the Fall.
One last thing I'll leave you with as I'm sure this is "bad writing" is this - He quotes Peter Elbow to say, "a person's writing is often mixed up with his worst." He goes on to say, "I tell them it is a requirement in my class to produce a lot of bad writing. From bad writing, the seeds of good writing will eventually grow. This led me to this original beauty :)
So here's to a summer of a lot of bad writing! Let's do this!
No one rises to low expectations.
This is what I have built my teaching philosophy on. I want high expectations regardless of whether they are honors or academic - all deserve to be challenged. What has happened to me as a teacher? Have I forgotten this? I have high expectations for my honors for sure, but do I apply it in the same way for my academic students when my coworkers keep reminding me how they can't do it and I need to not expect much. Is this really where we have landed?
As I read through Teaching Adolescent Writers by Kelly Gallagher, I saw that my expectations for my student's writing was very low - not on purpose, but just because I had no idea what writing could look like in my classroom. Gallagher gave some helpful suggestions on how to incorporate writing in the classroom instead of just assigning and grading, which is where my classroom is at the moment.
I was thankful that he said, "the act of writing itself creates new thinking." Yes, thankfully it does. But how do I incorporate this into my classroom. I want to give my students the opportunity to think. I want to give my students the opportunity to write something that's not graded. I want to give my students the opportunity to spit it out and move on. I'm excited to see the tools that SI is going to teach me and give me time to think of so that I can facilitate this very thing in my classroom.
Another heart-wrenching thought that he gave was "If students don't write at least three times a week, they are dead." Seriously? Ouch! I mean, my students write, but is it helpful? Is it the free thinking, creative writing time that they need? These are questions I am still thinking through and hope to implement in my lesson plans for the Fall.
One last thing I'll leave you with as I'm sure this is "bad writing" is this - He quotes Peter Elbow to say, "a person's writing is often mixed up with his worst." He goes on to say, "I tell them it is a requirement in my class to produce a lot of bad writing. From bad writing, the seeds of good writing will eventually grow. This led me to this original beauty :)
So here's to a summer of a lot of bad writing! Let's do this!
