Learning Log Entry 12

Last Entry...

For our very last entry, we must compare our leanrings as a result of this blog to the Course Objectives:

Students will gain knowledge and competency with regards to:
1. the variety of genres that readers and writers use to communicate
2. the role of purpose and audience in writing and reading and the rhetorical voices used to address the desired purposes and audiences
3. the historical and comtemporary theoretical models of reading and writing, including new literacy theories of reading and writing
4. the relationship between the reading and writing process
5. the role of metacognition in writing proficiency and reading comprehension
6. the types of reading and writing assignments that are developmentally appropriate for learners, including digital reading and writing assignments
7. the role of writing assessment and evaluation in determinging student writing proficieny and reading comprehension


Through this blog, I feel that I accomplished objective 5 explicitly in writing posts for this blog.  While writing, I was forced to think through my thoughts and reflect on my assumptions and new learnings.  This made me develop my metacognitive abilities while writing - I feel more comfortable with analyzing my thoughts through writing.  This metacognitve ability showed me how much reflecting on reading through writing can help a person to understand (or start to understand why they don't understand).

The other objectives were also addressed in the blog, in the form of the content, as opposed to the process, of my posts.  As we discussed genres of chapters in Hicks, I was able to use this blog to reflect on my learning.  Writing helped me to organize my thoughts and ask questions about the readings or discussions or presentations.  Since we covered the course objectives in various ways over the semester, I have discussed these items in this blog - and therefore this blog helped me to learn and master these course objectives. 

For the genres, we had presentations on what Tompkins (2012) views as the major genres, and we developed our genre pieces project.  Both of these covered learning objective 1.  However, I was able to write in posts about some of the genres that we covered.  My understanding of the journal genre, biography genre, and persuasive genre was expanded through posts in this blog.

Our class discussion on purpose and the genre pieces project help me to develop objective 2, and the roles of purpose and audience.  While I did not discuss this topic as much - this blog helped me to direct my focus in discussions in class.  I often asked myself, "Who is my audience for my blog?" and "What is the purpose for writing this blog?" in class and when writing.  These questions helped me to direct my writing, but they also led me to a fuller understanding of how much influence the purpose and audience have on writing.  My posts would have been vastly different for a blog whose audience was outside of my academic classes and whose purpose was to entertain or educate instead of reflect.

The presentations on Hicks has helped me to understand how assessment plays a vital role in writing and reading.  When teachers understand what the goal is for students to read and write, they can better develop purposes for reading and writing - which, time and again, is very important for readers and authors.


I have always been a fan of learning logs.  Now, I see how appropriate digital leanring logs could be for the classroom.  I think that developing interesting and intelligent prompts is a very important part of the process - especially for high school and younger students.  This is someting I definitely wwant to integrate into my own classroom.

Learning Log Entry 11

The Genres!

Throughout the semester we have covered various genres in order to develop our reading and writing skills.  Learning how to read in the genres has helped me to better write in the genres - and vice versa.  By understanding the components that create a piece and looking at well done examples of the genre, I feel more comfortable with reading and writing.

I started this semester feeling that I had a fairly set understanding of the poetry and descriptive genres.  As I have shared over the semester, I have written poetry for most of my life and spent a great deal of my first experiences with poetry learning new styles and searching for new authors.  I worked with an ELA teacher this past year in writing workshop (I wrote about Deanna and her writing workshop before, I can't remember the post off the top of my head) and learned a lot in her unit on descriptive writing through hearing and teaching many mini-lessons on the genre. 

I was most unfamiliar - as odd as it sounds - with the expository genre.  I think that because I read and write in the genre so often I have a fuller understanding of the limitations of my understanding.  The biggest thing that I want to learn is how to integrate the expository genre with the other genres - which I have developed over the course of the semester, but I still have a ways to go.  I think the biggest thing I've learned is that perspective doesn't always have to be the author or even a human form: ie a journal of a volcano the week before it explodes.  Or, even better, a double entry journal with a volcano's perspective and a person who lives near the volcano's perspective.

I think I have learned the most about the biographies and personal genres.  I never realized that there were so many different sub-sets of the biography genre!  Knowing that there were different ways to approach a biography helped me to understand the limitations of a biography - what it means to write a biography, and what falls outside of the category.  I can see my students looking at scientists, writing their own biographies through the lens of science learning (kind of following an event or theme through their lives), or creating the biography of a mountain as it is built up and then eroded down to sand and clay.
I never understood the role of the personal genre beyond a learning log (like this!) in a classroom.  I have expanded my understanding of how writing from the author's perspective can help that author to develop an understanding of a text.  I think that this genre in particular is very good at helping students write to understand reading - a very important aspect of this course.  By analyzing their thoughts about a piece, how it relates to them or their background knowledge, by reflecting on how characters feel and how their actions might impact other characters - all of these things extend beyond the text and help the writer expand their understanding and skills to beyond surface comprehension.

I think that most of the genres can and should overlap with one another.  I like that I can continue to develop ideas on how to use these genres to teach my content, and use my content to help teach these genres.

Learning Log Entry 10

While reading through the more recent blog posts, I noticed that both Kaitlin and Stephanie wrote about persuasive writing and its difficulty in teaching it to younger students.  Well, I suppose Stephanie was actually "blessing" or "addressing" Kaitlin... but I would like to "press" them both. 

As a student, I had a very positve learning experience with persuasive writing.  To this day, my fourth grade teacher remains as one of my most favorite teachers in my whole education.  Mrs. Emelson was actually my third and fourth grade teacher because Wheatland was going through this phase where they "looped" kids (kept them in the same class with the same teacher for two years) at every chance they got.  I liked it well enough, but that's beside the point.  Anyhow.  The more I think about Mrs Emelson in terms of my own education as a teacher, the more I realize that she must have been a super teacher.  We did these huge inquirt units in science where we got cups of different powders and had to reason out what they could be (sugar, cement...etc).  She gave us notebooks to record daily writings in - from what we did over the weekend to grammar lessons to poetry units.  I adored her and sobbed my eyeballs out when I had to go on to fifth grade.  And we had two turtles that we got to take care of.  Sweet.

I remember Mrs Emelson most for introducing me to science and encourging me to explore and ask my questions.  I was forever asking questions about everything, and she was one of the only people who not just encouraged me but made it the standard of my education.  And for helping me with my spelling because I was (am!) a wretched speller.  She would have me circle the words I knew weren't spelled correctly but had tried my hardest and then she would tell me how to spell them and I would practice them until I got them right.  She undestood that I hated using dictionaries (which was the mode of choice for every other teacher, and parent) because you can't look through an entire dictionary to find a word - and if you don't know how to spell it then that's your only option.  I was crazy literal and logical even then, and Mrs Emelson let me be.  AWESOME.

Anyhow anyhow anyhow.  Mrs Emelson applies here because she taught me how to write persuasively in the third or fourth grade, using facts that I could relate to, and taking a strong stand.  I remember that unit:  First she had a writing prompt on the board for our journals - we had to choose if we thought zoos were good or bad.  And we had to support it.  And when we gathered on the floor to share and I tried to sit in the middle (we had to sit on the for or against side) she made me pick a side and think through why I wanted to sit where I did.  We talked about stance and choosing sides and having all the facts before we starting telling people our opinions.  After all of that, we had to write essays on something we wanted to persuade someone to do.  Mostly we wrote to our parents asking them to let us do something.  Melissa wanted to buy a grand piano.  Peter wanted to go to Disney World over the summer.  I wanted to grow my hair out super long.  I never did, by the way.  But my mom was convinced enough to let me if I wanted to.

She gave us choice.  She related the genre to our lives.  She gave us an assignment that used all of the elements that Kaitlin describes in her post - it was just tuned toward things that she knew that we knew.  We had to have supporting details, and look at the cons to our point (Mom, I know that you will say that I always complain when my hair gets long, but I think that if it was really long I could do cool things with it and wouldn't complain).  I think that what made it successful was that Mrs Emelson took the elements of persuasive writing and tweaked it to fit with younger students.

My press for Stephanie and Kaitlin: What do you think about Mrs Emelson, super teacher, and her lesson as I remember it?  Do you think you could come up with something similar for your students?

Learning Log Entry 9

This is how I feel about rocks.  Also, multi-media presentaions rock!
http://prezi.com/cymdbes6zzli/multimedia-rocks/

Please let me know if the link doesn't work!


Even though my mulitmedia presentation was a little less than academic, I still see multimedia presentations as incredibly worthwhile for the classroom.  In my teaching, I bring in a wide range of media to explain topics in science.  I might have a PowerPoint to provide organization to my lesson.  But within that presentation I might have videos, images, a link to a website... various tools that will help students understand what I am trying to portray.  Students can use multimedia applications to help represent their understanding so that they can be assessed, or just to organize their understanding.  The new tools available through digital media allow students to explore and expland, keep track off, and represent their understanding.

Learning Log Entry 8

I must admit that I haven't really been keeping up reading everyone elses' blogs.  My apologies to my lovely 618 colleagues.

However, as I was perusing through the blogs, Krissy's blog post (http://khorton12.blogspot.com/)  from weeks and weeks ago caught my eye.  On her post titled "Google Reader and RSS Feeds" Krissy talks about being less than convinced to use Google Reader in her classroom.  Honey, I'm blessing this post all the way!!!  I had totally forgotten my frustration with that tool until I read your post.  When Dr. Jones had us explore Google Reader as a tool to use for our research in writing our genre pieces - I had serious high hopes.  I'd heard about RSS feeds before but I'd never used them.  When Dr. Jones explained Google Reader as a collection tool to organize and keep track of blogs that you want to follow or websites that update often, I thought it was a great idea.  I have a few websites that I visit often - but sometimes I forget.   Like http://1000awesomethings.com/ which I used to follow religiously, but then I forgot all about it and now it's ending and I'm SUPER disappointed.  Anyhow... Then I actually sat down and tried to use Google Reader.  To no avail.  Just like Krissy, I struggled becuase many of the sites were incompatible with Google Reader, and I was totally overwhelmed that first day when I had thousands of updates.  The idea works, but it fails to help me in realistic function. 


So what would I use in my classroom?  I think that if I was looking at a particular website every day with my class I would just go right to that site.  For example, I like to look at Scott Hetsko's video updates on http://rochesterhomepage.net/weather when I'm teaching my Weather unit.  But I think that it is just an extra step to have to go through Google Reader.  It's just too much for a classroom to go to multiple websites everyday.  Especially in an upper grades classroom.  There just isn't enough time.  My other thought was that students could use Google Reader for research.  But I just don't think that works.  I think that it would be easier for students to create a continuous bibliography or references list that they can look back to if need be. 

I feel like such a Debby Downer on Google Reader.  I just can't find  way that it could be a reasonable tool in a classroom.

Learning Log Entry 7

Our most recent presentation was on the biography genre.  It ties back into our first discussion on the first day (second?) of class.  We talked about how Tompkins supports author chosen topics because the author becomes more engaged and more interested in the topic.  It is so much easier to write when you care about, or are interested in, the topic. 

I mean this all in the best way possible Stephanie...

My beautiful presentation partner, Stephanie, came up with an interesting - if accidental - perspective on biographies.  She picked up a book from the expoistory genre, contributed by someone who wasn't sure about the guidelines for bringing in books for that class.  While reading over the book about coral reefs, Stephanie thought that she could see the book as written from the fish's perspective, as sort of a biography of the fish through a lens of his habitat.  It started me thinking...

How could incorporate the biography genre into my students' learning of science.  Yes, students could read about the life and times of famous scientists.  But honestly, that offers little to no perspective for the students.  It becomes just another thing to do, another person to memorize.  Writing biographies of scientists is a little bit better, because it forces the students to take on the mindset of the scientist and formulate understanding of why that person did what he did.

But what if I make lemonade from Stephanie's unintentional lemons?  What if students took on the perspective of a plant, or animal, or person living through an earthquake? Or the earthquake itself? Or a water molecule as it travels through the water cycle?  They would then be using that marvelous practice that we have been striving for: to have students use writing to understand reading.  It's more than reading about the water cycle and using that knowledge to create a biography genre piece; it's using the perspective to enhance understanding of the water cycle.

Learning Log Entry 6

I had to do some investigation of the 6+1 traits of writing for our session 7 class.  The focus question of the class was whether the 6+1 traits should change when evaluating students' digital texts.  Here's my understanding of the traits: (sourced from http://educationnorthwest.org/resource/503)

1. Ideas - theme and details that support the theme.  It's important that the details show that the author understands both the basic topic and can take information learned and manipulate it to a higher form of undestanding.
2. Organization - the linguistics of the piece.  This is more than just a logical series of events, but must show that the author has rythm and purpose, a direction and sequence that provides the reader information and enjoyment.
3. Voice - the tone and feeling of the author, which can show how the author interacts with writing.  The voice also needs to be appropriate for the genre of the text.
4. Word choice - use of precise language to communicate information or describe. (Yay descriptive language!)
5. Sentence fluency - rhythm and flow of the language.  I see this as kind of how organization, voice, and word choice come together.
6. Conventions - grammar, spelling, capitalization, puncutation, paragraphing.  All the fun stuff.
+1. Presentation - visuals and text, graphics, neatness, handwriting, font selection, borders, overall appearance.  Apparently, it's the plus 1 because no one thinks that the way your paper looks should be stressed as much as content and writing ability. 

My only experience with this method of assessment was in an ELA class in which I substituted last week.  The students took a practice Common Writing Assessment exam and then graded each other's work using a 6+1 rubric.  Some problems I had with the activity: the rubric was headed with "6+1" and had five sections - main idea, details, organization, word choice, and conventions; and each table of students was reponsible for grading one trait.  I think that each student should have experience with each of the traits.  That way, all students understand what is expected, and can look at others' work for ideas (both what to do and what not to do).  I would set it up so that first, students start at one table with another students paper.  All students would be grading the first trait.  Then students switch tables and papers and do another trait.  Then switch again, different papers and everyone does the next trait. 

So anyway, those are the traits.  The whole point is supposed to be whether these traits should change when we assess digital texts instead of written texts.  I don't really see how they could change.  Except for presentation - which is apparently the lonely step-child of the group.  I think the first 6 traits are all really important.  The ideas of a text show how the author understands the information, the organization shows that the author has enough of an understanding to be able to manipulate the information in the best way possible.  If an author is caught up in his understanding of the ideas, he will not be able to orgainze the ideas in a coherent manner.  Voice, word choice, and sentence fluency are concerned with the act of writing, showing how the author understands linguistics.  And of course conventions should never ever be put to the side.  I had a horrible expeirence once where so many tenth grade students spelled "near" as "neer" that I actually forgot how it was properly spelled.  I cried that day.  But presentation definitely changes for digital texts.  For each new text type, a different set of standards need to be addressed.  For example - a blog should be formatted differently than a printed essay, and both should be formatted differently than a wiki.  It all comes done to the appropriateness of text as compared to the text type.