Throughout my life, writing always came naturally to me. I never won a writing award, or thought about becoming a novelist, but I could pump out an essay without much difficulty. Even when in-class essays pushed my anxiety and tired my right hand, I knew the result would be fruitful, much better than if I were to take a similar test in the form of multiple choice. Though these statements are true, I discovered in college that I may be a bit too confident. The most basic college English classes have taught me the most about improving my own writing, but more importantly, how to teach writing to my students.

When I read my peers’ writing and it lacks the proper grammar and punctuation, I wonder to myself, “Didn’t they learn this in high school?” What was preventing these students from writing well? As a student, I admit, my ego inflated a tad when I read my classmates’ poor writing and could trust that my paper was the filet mignon among piles of ground beef. As an aspiring teacher, however, I panicked. I did not know how I knew to write, I just figured I inherited from my mom, just like I inherited her terrible math skills. In my college English classes, I was humbled. Even if my writing had a head start on my classmates’ compositions, I could always refine it to be better. What’s more, I can now pass these practices on to my students with the hopes that when they enter college, they will already know the rules and be able to implement them.

On June 8th, my teacher, Jason Whitney, conducted a verb clinic using our individual short stories as models for adjustment. Without getting into the details of the lesson, I will say that it was engaging, interesting, and memorable. Applying the lesson to my own piece of writing just as it was being presented to me kept me alert for the duration of the class. If Jason chose to give us worksheets or lecture without materials, I would have lasted about five minutes, then drifted off into a daydream…and I’m supposed to like this stuff! If at 21, and paying thousands of dollars for college, I am unable to engage in a class, then I know my high schoolers do not stand a chance. Lucky for me, Jason’s lesson was not a complete surprise, for I experienced a similar lesson in my English 202 class just last semester.

Dr. Heather Holleman is one hell of a professor. She told my class on the first day that she would help us all to become better writers by the end of the semester, and damn it, she did! Never once did she drill, rather, like Jason, she clinic’d. Here is one of Dr. Holleman’s blogs briefly outlining the lessons she taught us. She only taught five clinics for no more than 20 minutes in the beginning of class, but they were enough to change my writing forever. She made us copies of each lesson, which I stapled together and saved in a notebook with the intentions of someday copying further to handout to my own students. Just for fun, here is another one of Dr. Holleman’s blogs that relates to the topic.

I decided to research this idea of teaching writing and stumbled upon this list from the National Writing Project. They provide 30 ideas for teaching writing, all of which can teach AND satisfy student enjoyment. Also worth noting, all of these ideas can be integrated in just about any unit plan with ease.

Writing is a skill that a lot of students these days lack, but the solution is simpler than we may think. Students are not writing well because they can’t write well, they were just never taught in a way that stuck with them. Using clinics demonstrated by teachers like Jason and Heather will instill proper, good, solid writing in students for a lifetime.

I had been interested in this topic since I was in high school, but a fellow blogger’s post convinced me that it should be the focus of my inquiry project. There is no dispute that the traditional literary canon contains phenomenal texts, but getting students to embrace these pieces of work is an issue. Books already have multi-media stacked against their favor, which makes is worse when canonical readings can seem dry and confusing. Many students are just going to sparknotes or cliffnotes as a means of passing the test or writing the essay without actually having to read the book. These tools are valuable, but when they are the only things being utilized, we have to ask ourselves: What benefits are the students gaining from this?

In addition to student interest, I took into account the nation’s student demographics. Twenty years ago, the U.S. Census Bureau predicted that by 2000 one-third of our schools’ student population will be comprised of ethnic minorities, which means today, in 2010, at least one-third of school students are minorities. This, within itself, is not all that surprising. What is, though, is that the top ten titles taught in American high schools are all written by white authors. What’s more, 9 of them are men and all of them are either American or British. Now, if you look at the titles, you see that they are fantastic works of fiction, but they are just not culturally relevant to the kids in our schools. If our students are required to read a book, we should be providing authors who reflect the students required to read them.

In order to maintain a balance between the conventional canon and more contemporary pieces, the happy medium between the two seems to be pairing. The idea is, teachers would pair classic texts with more contemporary work based on just about any similarity (theme, characterization, writing style, etc.) and once students feel success with reading the more relatable text, they will be more willing to put a greater effort into the classic. The texts don’t have to be paired book to book, either. You can pair novels with plays, graphic novels with poems, or any other combination. I could go on for pages on this topic (actually, I already did with the inquiry project itself), but instead of explaining all of my sources, I’ll post them here to browse at your own leisure:

Comic Books in the Classroom, “Quilting” Classic with Contemporary, How Teachers are Guilty of Killing the Joys of Reading, Different Genres for Our Different Students

All of these articles are intriguing and offer a different view of a common issue. Any feedback is welcome!

Today I noticed that the new copy of State College magazine sitting on my kitchen table features the area’s 2010 Teachers of the Year. “How perfect,” I said to myself. I eagerly flipped through the pages until I got to the right section and delved into the teaching secrets of State College’s most respected instructors. I found that the “secrets” were not all too surprising. In fact, I could relate to all of the emphasized teachers (two from elementary schools, one from middle school, and one from high school). The characteristics that make these teachers special are attributes that I have written about in my teaching philosophy. Does that make me the next teacher of the year? Obviously, at this point, no. Just stating how you want to teach is one thing, actually implementing the methods in a classroom is another.

The most outstanding aspects of these teachers is their enthusiasm and creativity. Students enjoy them because they provide hands-on activities and genuine care and concern. Bryan Fatzinger, a science teacher in Mount Nittany Middle School, uses “fun and interactive ways of engaging (students) minds.” He says that they are having fun without realizing that they are actually learning scientific concepts.

These teachers are the ones who have more or less mastered their teaching philosophies. They are in the profession because they love teaching kids in subjects about which they are passionate. I do not need the title, but it is an accomplishment that I hope to achieve in my own career as well.

I spent some time tonight working on my teaching philosophy since in class I usually just jot down ideas for it rather than writing comprehensive paragraphs. What I discovered tonight as I was drafting mine, is that I have a lot of goals as a teacher and they all seem kind of ambitious and idealistic. I know my first year of teaching will not be as utopian as envision as a college student, but what I fear most is that I will lose my ambition and sink into the lazy way of teaching we have all experienced (and not enjoyed). I know that only I can save myself from sinking, but it is something I think about from time to time. Luckily, I have found some inspiration.

Have any of you ever heard of Erin Gruwell or Ron Clark? These are two educators who I highly respect and admire. They both used unorthodox teaching methods to change the lives of disadvantaged students. When I think of overcoming challenges of teaching, I think of these two teachers. When people like John Dewey and Vygotsky seem too dated to relate to, these are more modern educators who can guide us in innovative teaching strategies. If you’re interested, I suggest watching the movie, Freedom Writers, and/or reading the book, The Essential 55. I hope that is any of you are having doubts, these links can help to boost some inspiration!

Mostly, I have been surprised by how many lesson plan suggestions I do NOT want to use. I stumbled upon worksheets for the book I will be teaching (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) and it consisted of simple surface questions that did not actually delve into the messages of the book. The entire hand-put asked questions like, What is the name of the dog? and Name three things that Christopher likes and three things that Christopher does not like. How does that help the student understand the book? I would find it more practical to ask, How is the dog used in the story? Or How does Christopher decide what he does and does not like? Seeing worksheets like the one I just mentioned is not actually exploring the book the way the author intended. It is asking straight-up facts, no critical thinking takes place. It is an easy way to “teach,” an easy way to “learn,” and an easy way to grade. But the easy way is not always the most beneficial way.

One resource that I did find helpful was the English Companion Ning. If you have not yet explored this resource, I suggest you do. It is so helpful to get ideas from people who are teachers themselves and have actually utilize their ideas in their classes.

Apart from the blog, the first week of the LLED block has definitely made me think…a lot. I have not had much experiences in actual education classes. Most classes I have taken towards my major have been English or CAS, classes where I am still just a student. In this block, I am a student most assuredly, but I am thinking as a teacher. It is a new experience for me, both exciting and overwhelming. I feel that even just one week of instruction has already given me a load of ideas and confidence. At the same time, however, I wonder if I can actually implement such skills when I am on my own. Being in class all day while my friends enjoy the freedom of summer can be a downer, but for the first time in a while, I feel like the stuff I am learning is completely relevant to my life. It was easy to do the crossword puzzle in my English 100 class earlier this year because filling in blanks on a print out of my professor’s power point slides did not really translate to how I would run my future classroom, these classes do. Well, I’ll leave it at that for the first post. Thanks for reading.