Writing

Writing, I feel, is the element of the English classroom that makes it crucial to every student. Almost every student in the classroom is probably going to have to do writing in some sort-of capacity when they leave high school. For that reason, it should be on the top priority list in the classroom.
Unfortunately, I don’t feel that many teachers approach writing in the right way. First of all, students really tend to write the same boring essays, over and over for each unit. The students never learn to experiment with anything. Then you have the issue of a teacher who wants it exactly their way. I experienced this during my schooling, and it has really taken me a long time, to both find and portray my own voice through whatever type of writing I do. I agree with the book, that the students really need to work with multiple genres, so they can learn to develop that voice, comfort, and confidence in their writing from early on.
Another thing I would like to do differently in my classroom is the actual writing process. First of all, I don’t know how helpful writing workshops truly are in the average high school classroom. When I was in high school, we took that as gossip time, and we would make our few comments, and then talk about what we were going to be doing that weekend. Students are still like that today. Does anyone have any effective ways to ensure that the students are getting the most out of this activity? I guess maybe they could each mark it up with a different color, so I could see how much effort they were putting into the helping process. We did this in a college class, and it worked pretty well, so maybe it would work on the high school level. I also like the idea of ownership in Milner and Milner, as well as the physical arrangements, but I still don’t know if it will make students take the writing process seriously.
One other thing I don’t understand is the way we turn in writing, and then we never visit it again. I really feel that students should turn something in, and then go back to it a month or two later, to work with it again. Would this type of exercise be feasible, or even worth it in a high school classroom? Just a thought.
I think writing is a great skill, and I hope I can really help my students to write in genres that will help them later in life.

Media

I really enjoyed this chapter, and the advice they gave. I especially like how they showed the four different ways to approach media in the classroom, and how effective and engaging it can truly be. I personally have observed my CT use this in the classroom, and I have been pleasantly surprised by the work the students have created.
One thing my teacher likes to do, is have the students create a c.d. for various books, or literature that we read. They can approach it in multiple ways. They can just list songs, and the lyrics. They can add a c.d. jacket they created. They can actually burn the c.d., and include the lyrics. Or, the bravest of the brave can write their own lyrics. I’m sure many of us have experienced how students really don’t consider lyrics as poetry, and so they might be more expressive, if they write under the label of lyrics. We had two students like this, and they wrote songs for The Crucible, and actually played their guitars and sang them in class. They were Awesome! The songs really captured The Crucible, and the other students were in awe. It is something I would really like to incorporate in my classroom one day.
Another thing they talked about was the use of comics. I had my students use toon- doo to create cartoons, and except for the technology issue, the students really liked working with the tool. They seemed to actually have fun with it, and by doing something interesting, they were able to understand “A Knight’s Tale,” and the characters really stuck in their brains.
In another lesson, we incorporated paintings. The students were writing poetry during our Romantics unit. We had plenty of paintings available in case they were having trouble with inspiration. If I had more time, I would have liked to do more with the paintings, but again it is another idea for the future. Another idea, I really like is the use of newspaper/magazine articles in the classroom. My CT tries to incorporate articles written about the piece of literature we are studying. I feel that it really helps the students make connections between when the book was written (usually a long time ago), and modern day. I know that Lauren and I are working with Animal Farm for our unit plan, and it would be cool to incorporate media to help with propaganda, or other ideas in the book.

You can really find a use for media in the classroom almost anywhere. It helps students connect school to their personal lives, and makes things more interesting. The internet has made things a lot easer, and you can really find ideas for using media in multiple places. For example, my CT found a great lesson incorporating media for a unit on transcendentalism at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Website. Who would have thoughtJ