Teaching+of+Writing+Daybook+Entries

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//**Context**: At the end of the semester, we were asked to look through our daybooks and share entries & reflections that demonstrated us utilizing the daybook as a learning tool throughout the semester. We were given two options to choose from to categorize our entries; I chose the option that allowed me to name who I was as a student in the class as a questioner, creative thinker, analytic thinker, and collaborator. //=====



The text map that we did for Peter Elbow's article about ranking & evaluating allowed me and my group to think critically and analytically, but I believe most importantly, creatively. Brianna, Amy and I used some of the ideas that Elbow presents and make them even more abstract, yet concrete. This text map gave us a chance to think about our reading journey (as the text map instructions say) but it also let us interpret it in an artistic way. Through this process, I was able to see how this type of writing may help reluctant students engage with a text and think "outside the box."



This was from the first day of class, and when we were given the writing autobiography assignment, I honestly cringed a little bit. However, this activity of creatively expressing my most important "timeline moments" helped me see how all of these things connect no matter how disconnected they seem. Much like my daybook, the writing that I have always done - giving and receiving written words - is valid and important to me as a writer and to my ideas about what writing in the classroom should include.



These questions of authority in the classroom, and within the study of language, literature & writing, are things I have grappled with in the past, especially before I got to graduate school. I was afraid that because I "threw out" some of the "rules" that my students would be adversely affected. However, I've seen the opposite happen. Because I've been able to question how and why things exist in my profession and not just blindly follow is what something that has changed my perspective of my classroom.



I wrote this entry while trying to complete my teaching of writing philosophy assignment. Here, I am questioning the compatibility of what I ask my students to do verses what I truly want them to be able to do. I realized, at that point, that some of the things I was doing in class were not synonymous to what my expectations for my students were. Because I questioned my own thoughts and pedagogy, I was able to change something that was not benefitting my students.



The edge of this picture got cut off, but the words "before" and "after" are to the left of each section. I learned, through this WID, that the act of reading student essays as a reader and being honest about what I "liked" about their writing is possibly one of the best ways to encourage students and help them gain confidence. Since this WID, I have approached every initial reading of my students' essays with this idea and I have had amazing success. The last round of essays I graded were exponentially better, and the students said they gleaned much more from that type of response.



Throughout this semester, I have gotten many reminders about the importance of sticking to my guns about not giving in to what people think is best for my students. The next to last chapter of TOL reaffirmed my decision to complete our "back to basics" movement in my AP classes. I learned that the basics are the most important - everything else will take care of itself.



This was my WID for March 5th, the day I gave my research presentation. This was also the day I found out that Dr. Price's chemotherapy treatment had been stopped. Little did I know that the next day she would pass away. I am forever grateful for the knowledge, passion, and zest she instilled in me as a student, teacher, and person. I found myself writing a great deal over the rest of that week about her. I am indebted to the lessons that she taught me, and it seemed like not enough to put it down in words. But in the end, it is exactly what she would have told me to do...