Thursday, February 26, 2015

Mentoring Students at Hawthorne

Through this mentorship experience at Hawthorne, I have discovered the importance of teaching proper editing techniques in the writing process. Working with a group of gifted young writers, it is clear that consistent editing is crucial in allowing these students to express their ideas. The student who I have been working with has been struggling with proper paragraph format. I was able to assist him in revising his writing by suggesting he read the first few sentences of each paragraph as well as the last few. If the sentences did not connect in any way, it was clear that he had moved on to a new idea at some point in the paragraph. From that point I was able to guide the student in looking at his paragraphs and figuring out where to break them up based on individual ideas.

I also admire this teachers methodology of creating assignments for students. By using short descriptions of what is expected, the teacher is able to facilitate inquiry based learning for his students. The students are given a topic and limited guidelines to explore the subject in their own way and express their ideas through different forms of writing. In order to place agency on the students and engage them in their learning, I would like to implore a similar practice in my own teaching.

Monday, February 2, 2015

Teaching Essay Writing to English Students

As an English teacher the organizational chart I have chosen for writing essays (the most consistent form of writing in the English classroom) is the commonly used reverse triangle graphic organizer. This organizer can be used in conjunction with a PPE (point, proof, explain) chart for students to fill in with their points, a quote from the text, and an explanation of how the quote supports their point. 

While this type of organizational chart has come under scrutiny for teaching students to write a basic intro, three bodies, and concluding paragraph essay, I believe that it is still a useful tool as it teaches students the basic elements of writing an essay. Teachers just need to stress that essays do not have to always have three body paragraphs, otherwise this graphic organizer is useful for focusing students' ideas. It is differentiated because even though students are performing a writing task, they are using a visual template to convey where information should be placed and how the essay should flow. As a majority of students are visual learners, this organizer can be used to make the steps of writing an essay explicitly clear to students.

"Inverted Triangle Model." Retrieved from http://www.docstoc.com/docs/36533198/Inverted-Triangle-Model---DOC---DOC