Reading Response for Class on 3/14

"The Politics of the Paragraph"

The first idea in this blog post, the "formulated three paragraph essay," is something I dealt with through all of high school. Like the student in the piece, Erica, I was under the impression I had to limit myself to three ideas, three paragraphs, four to five sentences a paragraph. It was ridiculous. It not only limited my writing and ideas, but totally shut me down as a student. When you're writing something so simple, so robotic, it makes it really difficult to connect to the piece. I think it is so true when the author says "Systems like these encourage students to produce shallow, fast-food versions of paragraphs that don’t allow much elbow room for creativity or critical thinking," and it is such a shame that this is the major form of writing being taught in our classrooms. Sure, it is great for standardized tests and AP exams, but it is terrible for our students. Shouldn't there be a balance?

I thought it was critical that the author of this blog post brought up the demographics of her school, where students were diverse, high poverty, and with minimal literary skills. This alters how a teacher must teach, but also alters how a teacher must consider testing and achievement of students. However, I personally don't believe a writing template is the answer. Maybe at the beginning, for a very short time, to get the students' feet wet and up their confidence. However, at some points, student engagement and connection will take them farther in a piece of writing than any structure ever will. It's so true when the author says, "the process of educating a good writer is more time-consuming and messier than that." Teachers have to be dedicated to the work and school systems have to stand behind them. Unfortunately, at the moment, the "system" doesn't seem to allow this. It's unfortunate, but I'm glad there are people out there noticing and saying something about this upsetting pattern.

Gallagher, Chapter 2-4 

Gallagher's second chapter began and continued by explaining the importance of writing in the classroom, writing at all times possible. She discusses a lack of critical thinking within writing students are producing, similar to what was discussed above in "The Politics of the Paragraph." It upsets Gallagher that this is the case, and she sites many others like Donald Murray and Steven Krashen who have done plenty of research on things like "teach the writer... not the writing." This resonated very strongly with me, especially when Gallagher further made the point that, "If I recognize my duty to teach the writer, I must insist that writing activities be moved to the forefront in the classroom." Writing can be brought into the classroom in so many ways, but it is hardly emphasized as much as it should be. I really liked the writing charts Gallagher included in this chapter and thought the work was engaging and got the students writing and thinking before the "actual writing" took place. I also really like the idea of the weekly writer's notebook. I remember doing morning writing prompts in middle school, questions that had students engage and write about different interests, very simple versions of the quick writes we do in class. The work was un-graded, but great to complete, and I know it personally helped me practice as a writer.

Gallagher's third chapter reminded me a lot of my science methods course for elementary education. We focussed A LOT on modeling writing for students, chart, conclusions, focus questions. Any writing we assigned during a lesson was suppose to be modeled first, and I saw a HUGE change in student work when we did. We put sentence starters on the board, filled in a guide with the students (they were fifth graders) and then left the guide up for them to use. Having those tools to utilize let the students formulate their thoughts in more productive ways.

I like Gallagher's idea about the "lousy first draft" because I never really considered this when I was in school. I thought all writing for class had to be perfect at all times, even if it was a draft. I wanted my draft to come back with a few spelling mistakes, and that would be it. However, this isn't how writing should be! It should be a process! I love how Gallagher references Ralph Fletcher's idea that the first draft is "the sneeze"- "blasting" thoughts out to see what comes of them, writing without fear.   There is definitely a "fear" when it comes to writing, that many students experience, that should be altered. I really enjoyed Gallagher's suggested steps to getting students to embrace difficult writing, especially the "Adopt a 4:1 Grading Philosophy." I also really agree on her emphasis of modeling revisions. Revising is difficult, whether it be personal or peer, so knowing guidelines and tools makes this step so much more effective. When teaching writing, there are so many crucial steps to consider, steps that must be worked through.

Finally, Gallagher's fourth chapter, "using real world models" was very interesting. I LOVE that Gallagher mentioned the connection between reading a writing. I had a US History teacher in high school who insisted we read, insisted that reading is the best way to learn. He emphasized that to write you must read. I, personally, agree with this 110%. I enjoyed Gallagher's point about essay lengths, and the fact that if she assigned a 300 word essay, she would receive a "303 word essay." Of course, her students would rather her give them a length. I understand this, even now in college. If a teacher doesn't give a defined length, I'm left wondering: Am I babbling on too long? If my essay isn't very long, am I too concise? Do I not have enough information? I believe this goes back to the "Politics of the Paragraph" and how I'm so engrained to have a structure and a set-up for my writing. I was taught this way for so long that when finally someone says, go forth and write, I freeze up. I'm glad that Gallagher speaks against this, because I feel like this approach in the classroom needs to change.

I enjoyed the ideas of using film (introductions and reviews) and magazines in the classroom as models for writing. There is so much "informal" writing that students address everyday, that isn't considered when teaching writing. I appreciate the use of blog posts in this class; it is a form of writing I read most constantly. Also, these medias connect to student interest. It's also a little unorthodox, which students pick up on, and engage with. Students like doing something different, stepping out of the traditional "box." If you give them the opportunity, they will use things in the world around them and flourish.