Chapter 9

Williams writes, "Writing a love letter or making a dictionary entry, they would automatically take into account such factors as audience, purpose, intention, and tone. Most school- sponsored writing assignments, however, provide little in the way of context, so student responses often seem pointless, vague, and rambling" (Williams, 295). I believe in this statement because I believe that when students have a set audience they redirect their writing. It is more focused and changed to format who will be receiving the writing piece. However if the children are not taught these different formats in school how will they know what is appropriate when? If they are not taught how to write in a business situation (formal/respectful), what strategies to use when trying to be persuasive, how to back their argument in a debate, etc. Students are more effective writers when they are passionate and have a direct audience. As Williams points out in the end of chapter 9 it is important to give assignments that have real world connections in order to build up their writing skills, make students more effective writers, and teach different writing formats/contexts.

Design an assignment for a class (grade level does not matter).

Possible answers:
-poetry book in which everyone contributes to whether it be poetry, art, etc and is distributed to the grade/school
-write resumes for classroom jobs (line leader, paper passer, recess helper, etc)
-simulate an election (have speeches, debates, students reporting on the events, etc)
-get involved in the community and have students write a persuasive letter to someone/company about something they want to see changed
- have the students be pen pals with students in another state
- have a class newspaper that is released once a month
- have the students write, direct, produce a play for the school
- have the entire class collaborate on a book

I am a Pencil

" That caught me off guard, made me think. Maybe I was talking nonsense, yet somehow it felt true, that Su Jung's imagination took her to scary places, places she didn't want to go. But even if i was right, what can a teacher do with that? How do you teach a kid to bravely follow her imagination, even when its scary? And should you? I had no answers to these questions, but there wasn't time to sort things through. I had to teach my lesson" (Swope, 53).
This book was all about Sam Swope and this class going through an adventure together. Everybody learned and struggled with different things on a daily basis. Swope definitely had expressivist ideas and methods. Allowing the students to write about and come up with their own intriguing/compelling ideas. He constantly spoke about imagination and developing the students. HE always wanted them to go with what they wanted to write. SWope told the students that if they ever wanted to write about something other than the assignment then to go for it. Swope learned a lot about each individual child (most of whom had struggles in their home lives). Here Swope begins to get his first lesson in balancing the child's home and school life. Without a doubt a teacher is a very important part of a student's life. Besides their parents a teacher is the person a young child sees the most in a given week. Teachers become emotional support and a counselor. Students, even young students, do have pent up emotions as seen with Su Jung above. They are going through things and do not always tell you. Swope struggles above with what is best for the student. Do you push and force the student to face their difficulties that are frightening them in hopes that then you can help them? Or do you purposely not push? What is your role as a teacher and how are you supposed to know what your students need? These questions come up for every teacher. I personally think that you truly learn these thing through experiences and then deal with them on a situational basis. It is a hard thing to do and most likely never gets easier.

Technology article

Brabhill, J, T. (Jul., 2005). Multimliteracies Meet Methods: The Case for Digital Writing in English Education. English Education, Vol. 37, No. 4. 301-311. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40173204

The article was about information communication technoligies and how English education has and is changing. It deals with how English educators need to change the way they teach teachers about writing. Brabhill dicusses looking at the question of why not just how. The importance of linking and having knowledge about multiliteracies is stressed. Brabhill goes on to dicuss the changes that have occured thus far in education due to changes in technology.ICTs are able to expand interactivity as well as communication. Questions of where we go from here, what the relationship should be, realizing that ICTs can open new doors and change things. THe conclustion brings up the point that ICTs change the way we produce and recieve texts and writing