Thursday, March 13, 2008
Maybe it's just me....
I always seem to struggle with the actual application of the material we read. I agree with the main ideas it offers but remain skeptical of the success of it's actual application. I think that at future English teachers our material offers for more practical forms of assessment. It's kind of hard to make a multiple choice test out of writing styles. And in theory, portfolios do seem like a good way to show progression of students. But I also wonder if it's much different than students turning in multiple drafts of a paper. Maybe it was just me, but when I had to do portfolios, i picked the work i got the lowest grades on, adapted it to the teacher's the corrections/suggestions and turned it back in. I didn't take any time to consider my progress, i only wanted a better grade. Even if my teacher noticed an improvement in my work, i didn't know or even care. So i guess the problem i always struggle with is, how do you make your students care about the work? Especially with students who don't want to be there in the first place?
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5 comments:
Unfortunately, since we will be at the secondary level, I think there will always be a few students who don't care, no matter what you do. Lets face it: we all love language arts in one way or another, but some people don't!
I think one of the best things about keeping a portfolio is being able to see the progress in student writing. They may not care at the time, since high school student often only care about a limited number of thing (their own writing likely not being high on the list), but you as a teacher will be able to see that they are learning and becoming better writers, whether the students recognize it or not.
I consider myself a decent writer, but honestly I have no idea when that happened. I don't remember what kind of a writer I was freshman year of high school or what year I really developed as a writer, but the important thing is that I did. Students may not appreciate the portfolio as much as their teachers or parents, but I think it's undeniable that it shows their progress as writers.
I agree with brittany. There will be students who, no matter what you offer them, will just not care at all about your class. But, I think that's the beauty of language arts. With all other subjects, you're kinda limited in what you can teach. But language is such a huge part of society, that no matter what, something has been written about a subject that that stubborn student will be interested in. Nobody's interested in nothing (even though I've had students tell me that). Movies, tv shows, music, magazines, commercials, t-shirts, websites...practically everything has literature behind it or in it. A lot of it may be crap, but that doesn't mean you and your students can't discuss it at a sophistocated(sp?) level.
I really like what you all have said. I agree that most students only complete assignments to make the grade, however let's remember that there may be some students who genuienly enjoy their work. For those who don't, perhaps they feel too limited by the assignment or its perceived boundaries. As their teacher, you can decide the limits or choose not to have any! I always like assignments with minimal rules or restrictions, because then there is more room for creativity and a personal connection. Once you have at least attempted to inspire your students, it is ultimately up to them whether they soak up your passion and truly get into the assignment. Otherwise, I think it is ok that students merely turn them in...
Believe it or not I was one of those students...it came down to whether or not I liked the teacher and the activities she/he did in class (if the teacher actually made learning fun and interesting) then did I actually care about learning!!! I think most of it had to do with the teacher-if I had a personal connection with the teacher or I felt that the teacher actually cared about me and my progress, it made me want to work hard. But, some classes I couldn't stand the teacher and I knew how to "work" the teacher-what I mean is I knew what needed to be done to get that A!!! I know I was such a great student :) But, I really do think that teachers can make more of a difference in a students learning if they get to know the students and make the lessons interesting-isn't that our goal anyways???
I think as far as applying what we're reading, though, I guess I just look at it as this is something we can maybe draw from when we are actually in the classroom. We can't say right now that we are definitely going to use this lesson or this lesson, because it is for sure going to have to depend on the class and what fits. But at least we will have a variety of things that we've read about/seen in the classroom that we have at least a bit of experience with.
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