https://padlet.com/jeny9999/Bookmarks Made with serendipity en-us 2022-05-25 12:41:42 UTC 2026-01-03 05:33:23 UTC hello@padlet.com jeny9999 https://padlet.com/jeny9999/Bookmarks/wish/2199321807 “Understanding the knowledge-making potential of writing can help people engage more purposefully with writing for varying purposes” (Adler-Kassner & Wardle 20).

This idea is also reflected in Guide to Composition Pedagogies when Fleming suggests as a culmination to class debates to "encourage reflection" so they may consider what they've learned over time (261).

Both experts made me think about the importance of writer's notebooks as tools for metacognition. As we go into revising our English 10 curriculum, this idea of including a writer's notebook has been tossed around by my team. It's something I stopped assigning years ago because I felt my lessons were already so packed; I couldn't envision adding another thing. Yet, if we use them as a tool for learning and thinking about what they're learning, I can see their benefit.]]> 2022-05-25 12:43:42 UTC https://padlet.com/jeny9999/Bookmarks/wish/2199321807 jeny9999 https://padlet.com/jeny9999/Bookmarks/wish/2199332787 All of the options from the segment "Bad Ideas About Genre" interested me; however, I quickly read all of the sections on the five-paragraph essay, pleased with the nuance offered by each contributor. I have often thought about our five-paragraph essay, unsure of how to break my students [and myself] free of its constraints. So I wanted to read what others are saying. What struck me most was the commentary about how the 5PE is easy to grade for both teachers and those assessing standardized tests:  “... the FPT has become the primary genre, not because of its educational merit or real-world applicability, but as a result of its pragmatic benefits for testing companies” (221). This is so true! I can as easily grade a 5PE as I can a short answer test.

What I like about this segment is that it takes the blame off of teachers. Threshold Concepts mentions that whatever we assess is what students will focus in on (30). Likewise, testing companies hone in on the 5PE, and we, as teachers, follow suit.

Our other text, Guide to Composition Pedagogies, also mentions the 5PE, however, the perspective is much more blunt and critical: "[The 5PE] provides students with inflexible discourse containers, dictating their thinking rather than helping them compose a text based on the case at hand" (251). Yikes!

I was looking for more concrete ways to break free of this form. "The Five-Paragraph Theme Teaches 'Beyond the Test" mentions portfolios or capstone projects (224). I would like to dig in a bit deeper with this.]]> 2022-05-25 12:52:16 UTC https://padlet.com/jeny9999/Bookmarks/wish/2199332787 jeny9999 https://padlet.com/jeny9999/Bookmarks/wish/2199344763 This chapter stressed the importance of "rhetorical flexibility" (157). As I assign my students many "Genre Studies" it was helpful to reflect on this perspective, the idea that students should learn to adopt their writing to the task at hand. Amy Devitt writes "...the assessment question is not whether students can demonstrate that they learned to conventions of a genre or how to produce texts like the models they have seen.... Rather, [the goal is] increased rhetorical flexibility, writing more effectively within unfamiliar writing situations or within new technologies, or developing critical thinking and effecting change" (157). 

In reflecting on this, I wonder if I've stressed too much the importance of "matching the genre." One criteria in my rubric is that the form matches the selected genre. I wonder if there is another way to assess this.

The chapter also made me think about the importance of having students try unfamiliar genres, including more digital technology like podcasts or videos. Though both they and I may not be comfortable with that format, it's important to try these unfamiliar tools, to be flexible.]]> 2022-05-25 13:00:59 UTC https://padlet.com/jeny9999/Bookmarks/wish/2199344763 jeny9999 https://padlet.com/jeny9999/Bookmarks/wish/2199368814 The essays within Bad Ideas about Digital Technologies overlap on a few points. One that struck me as particularly important was the idea that despite all of the technology available to our youth, they still often lack the skills to use it safely and responsibly. 

Genesea Carter says that "While many young people today may be digital natives, they are also digitally naïve. Many don’t know how to change their Facebook privacy settings, check their school email accounts, or even how to adjust the margins in a Word document" (320-321). 

Similarly, Phil Michael Alexander, in his essay about the terminology of digital natives vs digital immigrants, states, "A person with an innate knowledge of the digital would understand secured networks, Facebook permissions, complex passwords to avoid hacking, and so on. But those same Pew studies noted above show that 50% of young people don’t use privacy settings and that nearly 40% don’t understand the differences between secured and non-secured communication" (327).  

Both statements highlight the importance of teaching our students these skills. How can we send them out into the world without knowing how to protect themselves from false information or from hacking? I don't think our curriculum has adapted as quickly as the pace of technology.]]> 2022-05-25 13:18:33 UTC https://padlet.com/jeny9999/Bookmarks/wish/2199368814 jeny9999 https://padlet.com/jeny9999/Bookmarks/wish/2199837942 I remember early in my teaching career when our school literacy coach gave me the low-down on the Common Core, standards which I had never heard of, having used our state standards in college [or, honestly, no standards at all]. This coach described them as focused more on argument and non-fiction rather than narrative. This certainly gave me pause, and since then, I have integrated more argumentative writing into my classroom. Fleming refers to this shift early in the chapter, arguing that K-12 instruction is still "dominated by literature" (248).

Since making this shift, however, I have wondered whether this focus on argument sucks the motivation from our students. First semester of sophomore English is markedly easier when we teach narrative writing and read narratives. Second semester's literary analysis and research units challenge students; they also feel less personally invested.

Yet Flemming speaks to the importance of argument: "We have no shared vocabulary for talking about the space where reason and conflict intersect, a space crucial in politics. And later he shares Kenneth's Burke's ideas that rhetoric "helps us traverse division" (256). Thus argument is clearly important to a functional democracy, probably more important than the yearly narratives I grade about a student's dead grandparent or dog.

I'm not crazy about Flemming's solution as an option for a general English class. He recommends breaking his class into a jury and creating an "organized debate" (260). This sounds like not enough student choice and too much like a debate class. Though I could see using elements of this as a model for more individual work.

Maybe the answer is to infuse argument into narrative. This is something I once taught when I had more autonomy in the classroom. It's something I might explore for the final project in this class.]]> 2022-05-25 19:22:06 UTC https://padlet.com/jeny9999/Bookmarks/wish/2199837942 jeny9999 https://padlet.com/jeny9999/Bookmarks/wish/2204673572 2022-05-30 13:24:32 UTC https://padlet.com/jeny9999/Bookmarks/wish/2204673572