Christensen Chapter 8

Alright, the last chapter. Quality education is one of the most important things to me as a teacher and I really strive to create a better learning environment that gives more to my students and provides them with more opportunities to learn. Christensen couldn’t have said it better. This coincides nicely with my SPED 4290 class that stresses providing the best education relative to their special needs and issues. This is critical to proving fantastic and equal education for all students.


Tracking is an interesting thing. I was certainly tracked for the higher level classes and this is something I feel really benefited me and helped to shape my learning in high school. I can't say that getting rid of tracking would be the best thing or that it would be detrimental, but I think there's definitely a middle road to be explored.

Ultimately, I feel that students need to be addressed from different levels often to help them get to one that is acceptable for their grade level, age, and place in society. Either than that, I'm still exploring this stance.

Gilmore Chapter 7

Revision again. Well, it is important, and incredibly overlooked often times by yours truely dear reader. There are many ways in which revision differs from project to project and ways where the process is similar. Revision could maybe be done more if there was class time given to either doing the revision process for a piece of work or by working activities that help students to see the benefits of revision into the classroom.

Of course, this is all well and good, but revision is still something that I and I'm sure other students fail to do. The most I've been doing lately is forcing myself to do a read through which, although beneficial, is not the end all.

Gilmore Chapter 6

Ah technology, the bane of my existance as I get older and older. There's so much to keep up with. I don't know how to download from itunes or use an mp3 player.

Yeah, I know this is bad, especially for someone who grew up in the technology boom. I remember when I was the go to techie for my house when I lived with my parents, and now that honor is bestowed upon my brother who knows his way around his xbox and all its various gadgets quite well. However, I realize I need to get better at this in order to help my students in their work. Sometimes technology can be great for getting a message across, and can be used as aides in the classroom. I just need to get better with technology outside of the overhead, VCR/DVD player, and powerpoint presentation. This will be esecially true if I'm teaching social studies where there are many things like podcasts that will greatly benefit classroom learning.

Sometimes technology can engulf a classroom, but I think there are ways that it can really be great for learning when it's done in moderation.

Gilmore Chapter 5

Gilmore presented severall great ideas to choose from in this chapter. The one that stuck out for me is one that I really wish I had followed through more with in high school. The revision checklist was something I really wish I had used. Organization in any way that involves school usually benefits the quality of work overall.

For some reason, I just refused to get organized in this way in high school and it really came back to hurt me grade wise. My backpack was my folder, and this led to less spectacular grades all around sometimes. However, checklists are really great for organization in writing and help me to make sure I get everything I need to.

Organization and revison checklists are tools I'll really try to hammer in for my students to make some of the smaller problemsm they are facing with their school work go smoother to affect the larger aspects.

Christensen Chapter 7

English portfolios can be extremely beneficial to students who are trying to see how they have developed. There are a great deal of elements students can observe when they are forced to look back upon their previous work. Of course this all is relative to how much a student does learn within a class and how much they have incorporated new skills and ideas into their writing. If a student does a great deal to change thier writing, the development will be obvious and this will enable them to compare and contrast their writing style.

I think this is what happens in English 1050 in some cases. I had a roommate once that had to save all of their work and hand it in later with a paper on how they felt their writing had developed. I feel like there have been some English classes, where upon completion I didn't feel like I learned much. However, I always feel I've learned after a class with Jon Adams and work there definitely reflects growth. A portfolio would definitely benefit from me in that class.

Gilmore Chapter 4

Student workshops for writin are a great idea. This takes the writing/revision process a step further beyond peer review and establishes a time and place where students can bounce ideas off of each other in a positive way. I think these workshops are definitely in the way of peer revision but they do more to help students get a deeper focus on their writing in a more comfortable but professional environment. The term workshop really helps to drive home the idea that students should be acting in a professional manner.

Alone, the tone of the environment can really help students when they are looking at how to go about giving feedback and collectively construciting papers for their peers. This can especialy be difficult when dealing with students who know each other fairly well and have worked together for a long time in an extremely casual environment. Making them take peer revision to the next level can really change this.

Gilmore Chapter 3

Wow, I really liked this chapter. One of my biggest priorities as a teacher is to give students the greatest ammount of information that I can in order to make sure they can do as well as possible. Everyone knows that differnet teachers have different writing styles, expectations, pet peeves, ect. So, to give students a better idea of what is expected of them right off the bat is a great idea.

Too often I think teachers forget that there are guidelines that should really be used in order to instruct students as to what they should be doing in their writing. The rubric should come before the assignment is turned in, not after, and you should decide whether your students are going to be more motivated by broad or specific requirements. Either way, giving students a look at the grading criteria will really boost moral and the quality of the papers.

Gilmore Chapter 1

Revision should definitely be hit upon as a critical part of writing and the entire process. Often when students get done with their writing they are extremely reluctant to go through it again. Even a final read through can be daunting when the paper is exceptionally large or time is being crunched before class time. So! I really enjoyed Gilmore's discussion on the importance of revision because I felt like the points it made were calling me out on my own bad habits with writing. There were a number of good points on the principles of revision and there was a great point made in students being able to know how to probably revise. Like I said, revision is not my thing, but it's certainly something I always look at after I've turned in my paper where I think "man I wish I had more time to revise"!

Christensen Chapter 5

Poetry is one of the most interesting elements of writing and English to teach because of the reluctance that students in middle and high school often have. Poetry is definitely stigmatized as a subject by many at that age and it can be difficult to get the students involved. But I agree with Christensen that poetry can be one of the most greatest things when teaching English. I think it can really help to get people who think they are not good with subject to feel they can maybe put out a poem that is only a few lines long even if they feel they can't write a fantastic essay. Likewsei, they'll feel like they can deal with some of the poems that are shorter in length than reading material that is longer. Poetry is a great gateway into other forms of writing and expression and can help students develop more of who they are by giving them a medium that is in some ways less intimidating.

Jago Chapter 6

Subject and topic usage is somethings students really struggle with. While subject topics should leave room for a student to inject their own opinion and ideas, they often struggle with were to begin if they are not given any direction.Therefore, I feel it's completely useful to give students some idea of what they should be attempting to do with their subject. Extremly open-ended topics can be useful in higher level writing classes, but they are tough on students who are just learning how to write with a constructed argument. There's always that fear from students that goes something like: "I want to know what the teacher wants me to write". This is somethings that's dangerous, but understandable at the younger writer level and should be given some mercy on. For this reason, students should be given questions that help tolead rather than one's that are ambiguous.

Jago Chapter 5

Free writing is one of the most crucial and useful tools students can use as writers. While there are some key elements that can not be seen in free writing, it is a great place to start for the student who is struggling to get started. Often free writing can be used as brainstorming method or as a very very rough draft. If free writing is done in the classroom, there will be more time for the students to be working on other parts of their papers when they are at home. Since they already have a good amount of writing done, they will probably feel better about where the are with their work and be less intimidated by the project as a whole. For this reason, free writing as Jago suggests is key to helping students when they are concentrating on writing their papers. It is a core element that is often skipped or completely overlooked. Students especially seem to disregard free-writing