cover letter

This past semester in 333 has taught me many useful lessons about the ways people learn. I learned this through my own learning in completeing the memorendum projects as well as the multimodel project and also learned throught the various texts and class discussions. These lessons will be useful in my future as a teacher and hopefully enrich my future students learning.

When first starting this class and reading Gee's book, i was very skeptical. Relating video games to acedemics? It just did not make sense to me. However, after reading several chapters I realized that Gee made very important points about how learning takes place that were creative and brought to mind various creative, yet acedemic oppurtunities that can take place in a classroom setting. My learning about learning was furthered mastered with the readings I studied for the memorandum project. I knew i had to read through and understand those reading very well so i could help out my peers on this project. THe final reading for this class showed me various examples of ways to teach writing in a classroom. The main bit of information i will take away with me from these readings is that students need choice. Just as the young child Cauley in one of our readings excelled at his writing about snakes, all students will excell when given the choice to write about what they are interested in.

The projects in class often frustrated me, as I am not computer savvy. However, i noticed that dealing with these frustrations and not giving up furthered my learning not just about the topic the project was on, but about how to write in the genre that was expected. I would never understand the purpose of a multimodal project or a wiki without this class. These genres of writing will be helpful in my future teaching becuase i will be able to provide them as options for students to show thier writing, and succesful writing is all about options.

I enjoyed this class and learned so much with it, much that i didnt even know i learned until later reflecting on the project.

memo reflection

I thought that the memorandum project was interesting. If I ever have to write a memorandum in the future, this project will give me insight into that genre of writing. However, what i found more helpful were the articles we read on the teaching of writing. I think that many of those articles gave me new information to think about as well as provided me with more evidence to previous writing theories i had heard. It was nice not to have to read all of the articles but to discuss with our inquiry groups what each of us had read and together come to a greater understand of the theories involved in the teaching of writing.

memorandum rough draft

Memorandum Relating to Concerns of the Teaching of Writing at Henry Elementary School


I. Introduction

This memorandum concerns the teaching of writing at Henry Elementary School. This school has seen drops in testing scores and the teaching of writing has become a serious issue that needs to be addressed within our educational system. Thus, teachers and faculty will be participating in a teaching conference, based upon the selection of the Principal. Suggested in this memorandum will be several crucial factors relating to successful teaching of writing, which are incredibly important for this faculty to learn and should be included in the conference.

II. Modeling Genres

Recent Genre theory suggests that writing well within one genre is not automatically followed by successful writing within another genre. To successfully teach writing within a specific genre, teachers must explicitly model each genre with their students. Different texts have different rules and regulations regarding their format, language, etc., which need to be made clear to each student so they are aware of what is expected regarding different genres of writing.

Recommendation: The provider of the conference should have a clear understanding of various genres as well as information and advice on how to make these genre’s explicit during classroom instruction, including such techniques as the study of different genres through providing students with various examples.

III. The Social Aspect of Writing

Writing is a social process. This statement must be taken into consideration in writing instruction. It is often taken for granted that writing does not always have to be an individual activity and can be improved through peer review as well as group writing projects. Making the classroom a comfortable place for students to share their writing and where constructive criticism is offered to improve students writing is a great way to encourage students to revise their writing as well as a way to provide students with an audience to keep in mind as they write. Also, providing collaborative writing assignments is an excellent way for students to view others writing processes which can help build their writing skills.

Recommendation: The provider of the conference should be able to provide suggestions on how to make a classroom a comfortable place for a writing workshop where peer review is encouraged and accepted.

IV. Multiple Revisions

Providing the opportunity for students to constantly improve their writing through several revisions is important in the instruction of writing.



…and that’s all I have for now.

synthesis on the teaching of writing

Reading my articles as well as my groups wiki entries on the teaching of writing has been very interesting. I took the 431 class and in that class we focused on many of the same theories, however it was in a different context. In the writing center we focused on one on one instruction concerning topics or genres that we may know nothing about. Now, in this class we are focusing on teaching writing to an entire classroom of writers which brings to the surface different issues and problems and also different ways to apply the theories i had previous learned and the ones i am reading about now.

All of the articles i have read in my set have been entirely different, yet i can still see the connection. It is kind of like a big group of stars of information on writing that i need to examine and somehow link together to make a constellation that somehow makes sense and is useful. SO far its been kind of overwhelming to learn these new concepts but at the same time I'm grateful that i do not need to read all 16 articles and that my group members are pointing out the most important elements of each article, although Im sure that when it comes to writing my memorendum most of the information i put in it will come from the set of articles i have read, mostly because i feel more confident about them.

My favorite article so far was Jester's short article on the steps she takes as a writer. I feel these are important steps that are often overlooked becuase succesful writers usually take them for granted. By making these steps explicit to students i feel that they will become more confident writers becuase they know what factors proffesional writers focus on. I also think the article about Genre was interesting, but only becuase i learned so much about genre theory in my 431 class and already knew the importance of genre when teaching writing. I think if i hadn't been introduced to these theories that this article would not have meant much to me and would have been very confusing.

Comments on Amber's multimedia project

I watched Amber's video project of herself learning how to bake from scratch. I thought the video was well made other than the fact that she probably could have added more photos. It was a fun and interesting topic and I liked the fact that she didn't pretend that after one try she succesfully baked from scratch. I really hope she doesnt give up learning how to bake from scratch and that in the future i can benifit from her baking skills!
-Erica Paulsen (friend and roomate)

Situated Meaning

Chapter Four made a lot of sense to me. I was getting really bored with Gee's descriptions of the video games he played becuase they really have no meaning to me. However, in this chapter it finally clicked and i understand how certain aspects of gaming give insight into learning and how this insight can form the way i may teach in the future. I really enjoyed the parts on active and critical learning, mostly pages 89-90. I have a lot of experience learning facts that really dont mean much and after I'm through being tested on them, i quickly forget. However, looking back on my education experience, I most often retain information when through active and critical learning and really understanding the situated and embodied meanings of the things I'm learning. Without this I often sit in class wondering what the point of me being here is. My best classes involved access into a close knit community (an affective group) and really meaningful learning in which i was constantly questioning the information that was being fed to me and relating it back to what it may mean in my life.

Gee Chapter 2

After reading the second chapter of James Paul Gee's book, i am still skeptical. His theories of semiontic domains made a lot of sense, especially when he approached the various features with examples. However, he says "as long as people are playing them [video games] in ways that invovle active and crititical learning" are they effective educational tools (46). I can agree with that this statement is true, that if video games are played invovling critical and active learning they will have valuable "content", but (so far in the book) I don't see any evidence that this takes place regularly. I think i have just seen too many people playing video and computer games for hours on end with glazed over eyes and sort of 'in the zone' rather than being actively and critically approaching the game. I think Gee does have very good ideas though, so i have hope that in further reading of the book he will present ways that would encourage active and critical learning through video games.

Tarot Cards

This past summer break, my aunt gave me a set of Tarot cards along with a book on how to use them. I had never really been interested in Tarot cards before, but having time during summer i decided to read the book and practice using the Tarot cards with my friends. Although i dont look back on the book much during the school year, occasionally i bring out the cards and the book and study a few of the cards. Eventually I'd like to be able to read Tarot cards without constantly checking back in the book to make sure what i remember what each symbol means. I don't really beleive that the Tarot has much to share to those who get their cards read, but its fun to do with friends.

Testing

1.2.3.