Chapter One

I enjoyed reading this chapter, because I think it was easy reading; it was easy to follow and digest. However, I am a little apprehensive about some of the activities, especially the team building ones. Sometimes when I read suggestions for class activities in texts that I encounter in the teacher prep program, I think, wow that's a great idea, but it seems like a great idea for sixth graders, not high school students. When I think back to high school, I always hated being made to do activities like that. There are lots of other good ways for students to get into the class or to build a sense of classroom community - ways that make students feel as though they are being treated as young adults.

It is important to avoid burdening a student with a returned essay full of red marks, but at the same time, I think it is dangerous to take this idea to far. I know teachers in grad. classes I've had who say they even refuse to use red pen - they use purple or green, with the idea that this will be less hurtful to students who don't write well. This seems a little ridiculous; sometimes I think we over-worry about hurting students "self-esteem". At the same time, there are lots of good ways to critique a student's writing without making them feel terrible or reluctant to write. It would be a good idea to meet with students who aren't strong writers, even if it has to be outside of class time, and to discuss their papers personally. One of my college professors did this, and I really liked it, because we had the opportunity to explain what we were thinking during the writing process, and if something came out awful on paper, we could clarify it, or at least work with the professor to understand how we might re-work it. It made me feel like the teacher really had an interest in helping me write better.