At this point—I believe that I am not working intensely with my 120 students on writing during my student teaching. Therefore it is ultimately difficult to apply the immediate pertinance of the Dornan et al. and Adger reading.
However, there will be "informal" writing assignments in my 9th and 11th grade classes (according to the syllabus) and whatever else I conjure up in my time there (along with the 50+ years of teaching I will do post-student teaching), so this information will be critical to turn back to.
Things I found to be super helpful: (1) Differentiating assessing, evaluating and grading. (2) Student Self-Evaluation template and guide on p. 184/5. (3) No Red Pen! (4) Higher Order Concerns and Lower Order Concerns p.187. (5) Simple advice of steps 1-6 on p. 191/2 (6) Sample Rubrics on p.193/4.
Things that made me ponder: (1) I couldn't tell if I agreed with the assessment of the student paper on p. 195. (2) How much does Dornan et al.'s idea of a Portfolio (200-204) differ from Romano's Multigenre Paper? Could you utilize a multigenre assignment throughout the semester as a type of portfolio? (3) Continued outrage over the politics of assessment p. 206
The Adger piece felt much like a smaller retread of the Dornan et al. chapter, with one major difference: it focused heavily on vernacular in various dialects.
I remember dear Michael Dennis Brown teaching us to never fear the comma, the dash, the semicolon—"this is how we speak and we should write how we speak," he would say. When put up against Adger's piece however, it is safe to say that perhaps Brown wouldn't proclaim to certain classroom audiences to write how they speak. Indeed, we are looking for "proper English" are we not? The "student's dialect may interfere in writing"(115) Adger explains.
***Outside my window a red Chevy Blazer just drove by with a aqua couch strapped to the hood and—I kid you not—a man was standing on the back bumper grasping onto the couch and the hood of the car and yelled: "I'm king of the world!" Wow. I just had to share that.***
Where was I...oh yeah, I think that THIS reading would be appropriate for CI 5644. We are all entering the mainstream classroom so being able to spot and assist students with varying vernacular dialects would be more pertinent than what to do for a new ELL/ESL student.
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Lol @ the 50 + years of teaching after student teaching, that is a lot of dedication. Moving on, I also agree with you that student self evaluation is a strategy that will help the students and the teacher when it comes to assessing and the grading the papers. It is also a tool that will equip students to be self-aware of their mistakes, and rely on themselves to revise their own work (as pointed out by the readings). Perhaps when we are in this profession 50 years from now, and we have mastered all (if possible), we will also be screaming “I am the king of the world”……..
ReplyDeleteMy epiphany: I figured out how to teach Things Fall Apart. Teach each part (there are three) with its own Enduring Understanding and Essential questions and assessment! It makes so much sense and I'm beating myself up a little that I didn't think of it before:)
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