Well-Designed Writing Assignments

Chapter 9 emphasizes how teachers can prepare writing assignments that are comprehensive, contextual, and applicable to skill development that will benefit the student in future endeavors, writing and otherwise. It is important that teachers create lessons that are relevant to other aspects of the curriculum and to the students themselves. The chapter does discuss how too much focus on personally-driven writing can draw students away from empirical understanding.

The chapter differentiates between goals and objectives. Goals embody the "study and understanding of events and info, interpretation, argumentation, and evaluation" (279). Objectives are the end results of instruction, such as the ability "to write effective, error-free reports on events and information" (280). These are necessary aspects of education because they propel the overall aims of knowledge-building and allow for life-long lessons. Well-guided instruction also prepares students for the next level of life; i.e. middle school writing lessons will prepare you for the expectations of high school teachers and so forth until the professional level.

The downfall of well organized lesson planning comes when we recognize that many teachers do not plan in advance beyond the day before the lesson. Effective teachers know well ahead of time (even before the term begins) what they will expect of students on any given day as well as what will take place in class that day. Overall, effective lesson plans focus on several key aspects: rhetorical knowledge, critical thinking, writing as process, and finally writing conventions.

I found it compelling that William's discusses Bloom's Taxonomy from such a negative perspective. He describes how it does not work in relation to writing instruction because of the bottom-up methodology and the flawed assumptions about writing that the taxonomy promotes. He explains, "the idea of moving from the concrete to the abstract has led to the assumption that students perform best when they write about what they already know well" (282). But when students write about what they are familiar with, they tend to only be able to write about themselves. This brings us back to the need to break away from the autobiographical emphasis of writing instruction. While the personal narrative is compelling, it does not apply to the necessary writing skills relevant to college and professional level composition.

I was particularly interested in the table that describes the rhetorical difficulty of different types of writing assignments. The sequence moves from simple to more challenging, beginning with report of events/information, evaluation of events/information, fiction, and autobiography. Williams says that when writing instruction begins with young children, teachers should begin with "report of events" style composition. With experience and instruction, eventually students can move into the autobiographical format. This also emphasizes the move from the personal narrative as the simplest form of writing.

I personally have been a student asked to complete some of the sample assignments given in the chapter. Each one is driven by context and active involvement in writing. They are not open-ended, but allow the student the choice of specific topic.

The chapter is exciting because of the examples and direction within. Instead of relying on pedagogical theory, it instead works with application and process.

Booook Clubbbb =) I am a Pencil

“‘Teachers say these students don’t’ need these so-called extras. They say what these kids need is basics. But what are the basics? How many teachers, how many people, live without music or art? None! Art is all around us, but these teachers don’t understand that. The creative arts aren’t ‘extra.’ They’re a part of life. They’re what makes life bearable” (148).

Swope offers a compelling perspective on the importance of creativity in all realms of education. Whereas some teachers focus on knowledge acquisition alone, others emphasize true learning through example, entertainment, and hands-on experience. Successful learning takes place beyond textbooks, exercises, and testing. Children are naturally inclined to open-mindedness and taking full advantage of the untainted imagination. Mr. Swope’s teaching style attests to the excitement we can derive from learning if it is motivated by passion. When he gives the children open-ended writing goals, they are able to grasp a new method of deriving understanding as well as discover which topics or prompts invigorate their interests. Swope’s own passions drove him to take risks, teach outside the box, work with various mediums and backdrops, and enlighten his students to how to activate the right brain. He fostered true creativity in his students, who would have otherwise lacked the opportunities to realize the essential yet often overlooked beauty that exists in the world surrounding them. He invites his students to an awareness of the art in the nature they rarely stop to recognize, seemingly insignificant events, and the simple pleasures they enjoy. Throughout the novel, we come to see how humans often neglect and take advantage of what we believe is mundane or extraneous. Yet according to Swope, without music, art, or color we could not appreciate life, love, and beauty. He expresses disappointment that the students aren’t given the freedoms to explore that typically pervade romanticized childhood

Identify three different exercises Swope uses and what each teaches the children about creative writing.

The first prompt Swope gives the class is an open-ended free write intended to provide the children limitless opportunities to display their written voice. In order to get to know his students, he demonstrates the excitement about writing that he hopes the students will echo. This method allows each student to express his or her individual style while breaking away from the process model of writing instruction.

Another prompt involves having students take three snapshots which represent a storyline, then exchanging photos with other groups and writing stories based upon them. Although this idea is exciting and draws in students who prefer theater and photography, Swope points out that they did not possess the background knowledge in these subjects to infer the story the pictures intended. Regardless, the students were able to add a visual component to the story.

For the poetry unit, Swope takes his students on several outings to Central Park, where they are prompted to climb trees, explore, and acknowledge nature in search of inspiration. Many of the students admit they have never climbed a tree. Swope exposes the kids to freedom in the outdoors and some idealistic aspects of childhood that get overlooked in the city. This alone generates creativity.

Are Swope’s one-on-one writing conferences beneficial to the students’ learning? Why or why not?

While I believe that individual interaction with educators creates a genuine and private connection, Swope seems to struggle with getting through to his more shy students this way. Some thrive with a little additional nudge, even those who prefer drawing comics.

Use your own creativity and interest in writing to come up with a lesson plan that aims to teach something unique and new to amateur writers.

It would be interesting to work with three dice in order to generate a story. One di could have character adjectives such as "lonely" "optimistic" "clumsy" "hyper" "intelligent" etc. Another could have character prompts such as "villan" "jungle creature" "aristocrat" "farmer" and so forth. Finally, the last di could contain a plot detail along the lines of "finds a sealed box which contains..." "must venture up the mysterious mountain in order to..." "must save the community from..."

This would allow students to each come up with a creative story that showcases their interests with a prompt that isn't too open-ended or specific. With so many story combinations, this could work as a start-of-class exercise to get the students excited for the lesson. You could change the di prompts for each class as well.

Digital Storytelling to Guide the Digital-Age Student

Greenidge, W.L., Sylvester, R. (2009). Digital storytelling: Extending the potential for struggling writers. The Reading Teacher, 63(4), 284-295.

Greenidge and Sylvester explore the implementation of new-age media literacies in writing instruction. The authors introduce four primary sections of digital rhetoric. Technological literacy refers to computer skills. Visual literacy refers to the encoding of images presented in any medium, digital or otherwise. Media literacy includes the abilities to "access, evaluate, and create messages in written and oral language, graphics and moving images, and audio and music" (284). Finally, information literacy involves seeking, understanding, and deconstructing knowledge discovered through various sources, particularly the Internet. Greenidge and Sylvester focus on classroom applications of these digital resources and techniques that can help struggling writers learn alternative modes of expression in writing.

The authors define digital storytelling as "a multimedia text consisting of still images complemented by a narrated soundtrack to tell a story or present a documentary; sometimes video clips are embedded between images" (284). The digital model is intended to help students find voice, confidence, and structure within their compositions that will carry over into traditional forms of literacy. One of the more relevant features of the article is the multitude of examples and resources the authors provide teachers (or future teachers) reading the article. They give a page's worth of websites that give examples of the so-called "digital story". Such examples help teachers learn about these methods that they oftentimes have never been exposed to.

The article discusses how digital storytelling may benefit students with learning disabilities or those who have only been taught how to perform on writing assessments. The writing of individuals with learning disabilities tends to be disorganized. Although they are more likely to make mistakes in their writing, they are less likely to engage in revision. They tend to give up on a given topic too soon and neglect opportunities to improve the quantity and quality of the writing. The article also argues that assessment-based instruction lends to rushed, anxiety-driven, poorly-conceived writing. Teachers have settled comfortably into the methods that aim to prepare students for testing and not to encourage students to find passion or expression in their writing. When students are driven to write for test scores, they lack the motivation necessary for quality composition. THIS is where digital storytelling comes in.

Modern students are the first generation to meet and truly be impacted by technology within the educational sphere. In 2003, 84% of students had access to a coimputer at school and 68% had access at home. By 2004, all public American schools had Internet access. Imagine how these numbers have grown since! However the issue is that most students have more knowledge about technology than parents and teachers. While this increases confidence, it removes potential for further instruction.

Despite this, teachers and professionals have worked toward developing comprehensive steps and components behind digital storytelling. Joe Lambert and Dana Atchey devised seven elements for creating effective digital stories; point of view, dramatic question (conflict), emotional content, economy, pacing, the gift of voice, and soundtrack. In cohesion with these parts, they compiled steps to take in employing them. These include voice over narration, creation of a storyboard, adding graphics, using an editing program to piece everything together, adding music, and finally "publishing", or sharing the work with the class. The article gives a list of resources and tutorials to assist in implementing this process.

In traditional writing, the audience tends to only consist of teacher and student. With digital writing, the audience becomes teacher, student, classroom, or even the world. This broader sense of audience increases student motivation and allows students to better understand who they are writing for, especially if the audience is their classmates. Understanding delivery method, story duplication, and online posting helps students create more strategic compositions.

Overall, digital storytelling can benefit struggling writers who are unable to improve within the traditional educational model. It is important to encompass all the resources available to students and teachers, even though many teachers have never been exposed to technological formats of learning. Despite their reluctance to evolve, students learn from and relate to what they know; and modern students know technology.