I Loooooove My Job, Tom Corbett

Two of the readings this week really resonated with me. First, the Lynn chapter on fluency was just too good for words – right up my alley! Each turn of the page offered a new strategy to try in my classroom, for yet another reason. I found the explanation of how children acquire language informative and appealing, both to my senses as a teacher and a parent. When considering the type of learning environment proffered by Lynn on page 166, I was smitten. What teacher wouldn’t find such a nurturing, family – like learning community enchanting? I am in complete agreement that we need to immerse our students in language, in reading and writing, and speaking and listening, if we hope to assist them in developing as effective readers, writers, speakers, and listeners. Lynn also speaks to embracing the “mistakes” we all make as we learn, and using them as an opportunity to laugh together, and learn together. That being said, I also take my job as role model seriously and realize that for some students, our classroom may constitute one of their few opportunities to engage in academic discourse (although I must admit, it is often pseudo – academic in nature!) on a regular basis. Thus, the expectations are that even though we can have fun with the language, speaking in dialects, etc. at times, the base language used in our classroom is somewhat more formal and generally peppered with vocabulary terms we have studied – hence my relation to Quintilian’s assertion regarding nursemaids. J  

  

            

The number one suggestion Lynn gives for teaching to improve writing fluency is to write often for a variety of audiences. I must admit, I struggle with the variety of audiences aspect. Although my students have a few opportunities to write for people outside the classroom each year, really, deep down, we all know their peers and I are their primary audience for most of their pieces. How can I provide them other authentic audiences more often?

           

Beyond the plethora of lesson ideas gleaned and evoked by the reading of this chapter, I also found some possible implications for curriculum. Several other teachers and I bemoan the assigned grammar concepts included on each semester’s curriculum map, and have often sought ways around teaching them, in a specific order, in a specific quarter. Lynn’s description of error analysis prompted me to consider the possibility of using error analysis and targeted instructional response as a possible replacement. I am considering the design of a process/procedure I can use (first in my own classroom) that would document my findings from completing an error analysis, as well as my instructional response to the findings, at least once per quarter per student. It seems like it could be a bit of work, but I can imagine how my grammatical repertoire would grow (each year the targeted response becoming a bit easier with regular tweaking) and how my students would benefit from learning specific strategies relevant to improving their own writing, as opposed to the blanket approach currently being used. As a team, we could look for the logic underlying the mistakes and plan a course of action - how ideal. Hmmm...

            

Okay, I lied. My post is already more than lengthy, so I’m not going to cover the Brodkey article, except to say that I LOVED it, and it made me cry! (I am a true empath, or “emotion personified,” as one professor so sweetly informed me a few summers back during the ISI.) I’m sure we’ll have the opportunity to discuss in class! J  Oh, wait – did I mention how I LOVE the imitation exercise on page 184 (Lynn again)? I’m TOTALLY using it this week with my seniors, as they create brochures using content from a mini-research project. Oh, and.... J

            I <3 my job! <3 <3 <3 (DESPITE Corbett and his infinitely growing pile of B.S.!)