Last week I
observed tenth grade English classes at York High School. They were working on
revising essays they had written at the start of the school year based upon a
book of their choice that they had read over the summer. The essays had
purposely been set aside for a number of weeks before being revisited, as this
was an editing recommendation presented by Stephen King in his book On Writing, which the students have been
reading in class. Another recommendation from the book is to keep a “writer’s
toolbox”, which includes basic concepts like vocabulary and grammar, but also
more complex ideas like elements of style and form. The students keep their own
“toolbox”, which is basically a personalized list of the various writing rules
and literary devices they can incorporate into their own writing; it also
serves as a place to track their own writing strengths and weaknesses.
I
think the toolbox is a helpful exercise for the students to self-assess their
own writing, and I am a fan of On Writing
myself. I actually love to read books on the craft of writing, in general,
and I think it would be wise to expose the students to other examples of the
genres. Even though Stephen King’s book is very good (and he is a very
well-known and successful author), it is clear from reading many different “how
to write” books that every author has their own strategies and advice, and
every novice writer has to find the style and methods that work best for them.
By just studying one book, I would be worried that a student might feel
constricted by trying to emulate King’s approach to writing too exactly. As
we’ve learned, differentiation is key, and it is important that students be
exposed to multiple methods of learning.
However,
that is a relatively minor complaint, and I think the main thrust of the lesson
is beneficial for producing better student writers. The students also each
write a letter to Stephen King at the end of the unit, which is a nice way to
make a further connection beyond the walls of the classroom.
In
between classes, I spoke with the teacher about the school’s grading system, as
York High School still grades on an A-F scale, in contrast to the other schools
that I have been in that are moving to a standards-based assessment approach.
The teacher said that one of the biggest obstacles to changing the system is
the parents, who seem primarily concerned about getting their children into
college, and don’t want to rock the boat with any changes to the grading system
that might impact those chances. I asked her if she generally found the
parent-teacher relationship to be a difficult dynamic. She said, in most cases,
it is very respectful as long as there is frequent and proper communication.
Most of the time she said the parents just want to make sure that you actually
like their child. It was another good example of how important it is to foster
kind and empathetic relationships as a teacher.
Will, this is a very interesting post. I like how you incorporated the use of literacy and grammar into your observation, but I especially enjoyed the piece regarding the parent-teacher relationship. I like how students are reading a book about writing and are practicing bettering their own writing skill. I think this appeals to many different learned. We are helping the reading/writing learners because they are looking their writing to what they read, the visual learners because they can see examples of different types of writing, kinesthetic learners because they are practicing the writing and engaging with the text, and also the auditory learners because they are listing to others correct their work. I never read a book about writing (in this sense) and I think that it could be very beneficial. When I was in high school, nobody ever knew what the teacher was looking for or even how to structure a paper. I like how this book allows students to build a structure for them to follow and also strengthen their writing. Another interesting piece that I like is the "toolbox." I think this could be used past the part of self assessment. They could use it as a source to strengthen vocabulary, or even keep practice problems in there if you wanted to use it for another subject. One thing I found particularly interesting is that this school has not transitioned to the standards-based grading. I feel that this change has been ongoing and am surprised that this school has not implemented it yet! I understand that parents may be aggravated, but I think that teachers usually can talk to parents and explain the usefulness of this method of teaching. I do my observations at Biddeford High School, and they had shown me what they implemented for the parents. It is very similar to a conversion scale so that parents understand the new grading system. I also think it would be important to explain that it is personalizing the education for their students to optimize their learning opposed to hinder it by moving at too fast of a pace! Overall, I think there are many interesting aspects to this observation, and I appreciate you sharing this information!
ReplyDeleteI think the toolbox idea is great, and that it will be able to help students for years to come. I do agree to using different strategies for the students, because as you said some students could feel constricted if only using Stephen King’s advice. I don’t like that parents focus on only getting their children into college, and I wish students were able to do what they really want to do (school/college isn’t for everyone—and that is okay). And, to go with the parents wanting their children to be liked by the teachers, I think it is important to remind them that teaching kids how to be respectful and kind (as well as other aspects) is how their kids will be liked.
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