Christensen Chapter 4

Standard English is a complete myth. Granted, there are some good qualities in characterizing a language as something concrete when helping students learn how to use it. But, for the most part, telling someone they are defaulting on standard English can be another way of saying: "Your culture, family, friends, past, and accomplishments have no place in the English." Having different dialects and voice should not be something that is saved only for creative writing projects like poetry or short stories, rather, we as teachers should really re-evaluate what 'formal' English does and should mean because even within those more constraining limitations in formal writing, we encourage our students to have a 'voice' and 'style' yet, can that be obtained when that is not polished into 'standard English'? English as we know it is a complete mess next to that of the motherland for our national language, grand ole England, and for that reason, we have to distinguish it as American English. Yet, for all the 'melting pot' and 'salad bowl' theories we hear, there is still an effort to tell students they must conform to the dominant Caucasian Midwestern dialect and usage. I believe there are a number of people, who when confronted with the question: "What is an American?" would go for the diversity answer, and yet, that could easily be translated to: "What is American writing?" we just have to make that step for formal writing as well as creative. I feel like only allowing students to write differently on those special occasions still makes them feel like they're only outlet in English is the sub-genre rather than the entire subject.

Narrative Writing

You are dozing through math class when all at once the teacher begins to bark, “What is the matter with everyone in here? Why does everyone seem to think it is alright to fall asleep during math class? Contrary to what you may believe, I am not here for your amusement. I am here to teach you Advanced Algebra. Because you all seem to have gotten some rest now, I’m sure you’ll be well rested and able to stay up late for all the extra homework I’ll be assigning you for tonight. You can also spend some of that time contemplating how much fun it would be to have this type of class every day if your attention doesn’t improve. Now pack up and wait for the bell to ring. Your extra homework will be…”

God I hate school, Jeff thought as he left the old brick building that day. To him, school was a place you had to go to prove you knew what they decided to teach you. A place to play the game, a place to spend your hours doing something practical rather than preparing yourself for the probable. There was so much more, he thought, he could teach himself. So much more that mattered to him that wasn’t going to every show its face within those walls plastered with posters that told him “A mind is like a parachute, it works best when open” or “Never give up”. Yeah, maybe he was putting himself up against the world, but that was just the way it was going to be.

Jago Chapter 4

Sure students can write about their own opinions and experiences, but one of the most interesting points in teaching writing is teaching students to apply their writing skills to a work of literature. I love this part of teaching so much more than personal narratives or opinion papers because students are forced to work with evidence in their arguments. Too often I feel students are told that their opinion or ideas always correct. So, being able to let students at least focus on a more concrete agreement on events, ideas, places, and characters where there is a more identifiable and laid out expectation for the students' writing.

Jago Chapter 3

This chapter on narrative writing was very good for breaking down the pieces of the process and the benefits that can be seen. As Jago points out, bringing characters to life by constructing them beyond static characters is vital to teaching students how to best create a narrative when developing their stories and writing. Jago also points to setting and point of view that really stand out as key points in the construction. Overall, there are really fantastic points in this chapter for narrative writing apart from the informational and persuasive writing that was mentioned in the previous chapter. The examples of both the story as well as the college essay gave good diversity in the versatility of narrative writing.

Christiansen Chapter 3

Essays are one of the most difficult things students can tackle in their English classes, but especially outside in other classes. Most notably, classes in the humanities category see this struggle the most. Therefore, it is critical to get students to be comfortable in writing essays in English so they can then be more comfortable in other classes. For me, I felt that being a decent writer was one of the most important and beneficial characteristics I had to offer when it came to writing essays for teachers in other classes. Not only is essay writing critical for demonstrating one's knowledge in a subject area in a knowledgable manner, their comfort in what they are writing can allow a student to attain a greater level of understanding on subjects they may have not been as enthusiastic about before. Once a student is able to hash out their ideas properly, they can really get a whole lot more out their learning experience.

Chapter 2 (Christensen)

What Christensen hits upon in this chapter is so important. Our media in America is filled with stereotypes and false presentations of culture, history, perspectives, and people, while it also does a disservice to race and gender in particular. The Disney movies highlighted in the chapter are a good start especially when dealing with teenagers. However, there are certainly other classics that can be looked into as well (Gone with the Wind, Birth of a Nation, etc). Critically analyzing cartoons are a great way to get students interested in critical thinking. While some may lament the days when they could watch a kids movie without giving it a second thought, ultimately the exercise is good for them and will enable them to see how stereotypes have been used to create perhaps what their own perceptions are toward particular groups. Ultimately this is a fantastic thing to be putting attention on, and will greatly increase the length to which a student can recognize prejudice and discrimination.

Chapter 2 (Carol Jago)

During my A.P. Literature class I remember doing the essay reading mentioned by Jago here. While I feel this is a great idea in some respects, I think there can be some legitimate concerns here. I've certainly read some essays that make for great example essays on formation and organization. However, I've also read some essays, by accomplished writers, who do not get to the point they are trying to make until nearly the last paragraph. So, as an instructor, I think its important to decide where the direction of the class is going to go in that respect before assigning essays as examples of good writing. If as a teacher one is trying to be more open-minded, they should consider giving examples from both ends in order to show the dichotomy in writing styles and show that even sometimes people who aren't good writers, but make good points can be published. This would be good to address especially with regard to persuasive writing as the organization and presentation is very critical to argumentative papers.

Chapter 1 (Carol Jago)

The most illuminating part of this chapter was in the advice Jago gave on getting reluctant writers to get through the writing process. Most notably, the idea to incorporate free-writing into the equation as a pre-draft was interesting to me. Not only would this, as Jago points out, foreboding requirements (like 1,000 word essays), but it would also allow the writer to go back and see where they are getting stuck. If students see consistencies in where they begin to repeat words, they can see where they begin to loose momentum and ideas. This will allow them to further understand where their weaknesses are as writers and where they need to go back to do more. Also, free-writing allows students to be able to see how much they know already and thus, they may feel less intimidated.

Since poetry can also be very daunting for some students, it is good for Jago to address this component of the average English class as well. The Question papers are a great idea because they allow students to formulate their questions into a visual part of the equation where they do not have to organize purely within their own mind. This would be great for students who are not sure in which direction to even start attempting to decipher the meaning of a certain poem.

Constructing useful prompts is also very important to helping students work their way through writing. Often times students can be intimidated by a messy or convoluted question. So it is the role of the teacher to ensure they are enabling the student to feel secure in answering the question presented to them. Setting up prompts like the ones shown in the chapter allow the students to go in many different directions with their answers while they are still informed as to what is expected of them. This is characteristic of a good question as well as good teaching.

Chapter 1

Overall I thought this chapter did a great job discussing name introduction as a means toward beginning a story. Personally, I feel readers are more likely to identify with a story when they have a character to identify with. The story is given a more human element and thusly readers are more apt to engage with what is being presented to them.
Additionally, I felt the ideas for classroom learning were beneficial as well. My favorite suggestion would have to be the read around process. However, I would want to make sure this read around was also coupled with discussion so as to better assist students in analyzing what they are reading. The suggestions to use 'where I'm from', 'Sweet Learning', and 'childhood narratives' while also maintaining discipline were alright as well. The problem I see in these circle around the concern that perhaps some students have moved around a lot and are not sure where they're from, haven't had a good childhood, and don't feel close to their family. For those students, these activities might prove to be embarrassing to them, so the class should probably be gauged first.