Creative Writing 12 Class Website!

Here is the link to the Creative Writing 12 Class Website!

I havent presented the URL to the Corcoran Students yet, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
-Aut

My Lesson….?

Today while I was observing at Corcoran, my host teacher and I took a few minutes to discuss what type of lesson I could teach to her class.  I have limited freedom as to what I would like to do, simply because the classes are in the middle of a four hundred page novel and are focused on completing required activities.  Therefore, on the Wednesday when they get back from break, I will be guiding them through the section of the unit they are required to work on.  I am going to have the students break up into groups of three or four so that THEY read for themselves or take turns reading for a few minutes. I refuse to read to seniors in high school.  Then, I will display the three models that I would have created over their break, and show them what is expected of them.  Although my options were to create a character wheel or make a story map, I guess the look of disgust was enough for my teacher to listen to some ideas I had.  I am going to have the students write poetry, or a short story, or a movie clip, etc.  They are going to be encouraged to write whatever they want so long as their writing contains information on the themes and overall points of the novel.  I am going to pretend to be a character and write six word memoirs about “myself” and activities such as those.

Ideas? Criticisms?

Kristin

The Written Yearbook Intro

Today I began the discussion of what graduation and high school means to the students of Mrs. D’s 12th grade Creative Writing courses. The discussion then led into a twenty minute session of writing.  I was amazed at the in depth responses I received from all of the students.

After carrying out the introduction to the lesson, I thought about the end publication, which will be a collaborative multi-genre “written yearbook” that each student submits their focused piece of writing into, and realized that it is going to be so dynamic and interesting. One of the student’s thoughts and experiences regarding high school will be so different from others. There is a German exchange student, several transfer students, students who feel short-changed of a decent education due to unmotivating teachers who plan on writing to voice this opinion. I can’t wait to see how the formation of this multi-genre piece turns out, and I’m looking forward to introducing the students to new ways of writing. -Aut

mini lesson

I was able to read some of the 12th grade creative writing journals today and I had to hold back tears. I never anticipated reading the things the students were writing about: heartbreaking poems and short narratives based on real life experiences. Reading the students work helped me see where they are as far as writing goes and get a feel for where the students are in their own lives.  

I decided to do a theme of a high school memoir by creating a collaborative compilation of student’s reflections. I will introduce the lesson by explaining that the work students write toward the compilation will be published for their eyes as a memoir booklet of their own and their friends recollections of high school. As a prewriting activity I plan on creating a survey that asks students what their interests are: sports, activities, school subjects. (Kind of like a quicklist) Using what they have answered in the survey, students will reflect on one of their fondest memories at high school or something that they have grown from as a result of being a high school student.

I will assess their pre writing, and for the mini lesson I will give students pointers on ways to impact their creative writing. In class students will build upon what they have written from the quicklist and will then go through a peer editing session in order to get feedback.

I will assess their final products and allow them to make revisions for the final publication. When all the work is handed in I will organize both 12th grade creative writing classes poems or short stories into a bound booklet for each student to carry with them and read in their future. -Aut  

Scattegories

During fourth block on Friday, we watched and read along to Hamlet again. When the movie was turned off I noticed that there was ten minutes left in the period and students were already getting ready to get up and walk around. I jumped on this opportunity and asked the students if they wanted to play Scattegories (Something I picked up form my previous host teacher, a great end of class activity) for the remaining ten minutes of class. I was relieved after having put myself out there that students were willing to play.

I divided the class into teams of 4 and made a list (1-5) on the board. Usually, you can ask the groups to name their teams but we were now running on 7 minutes until the end of the period. So the board looked like this:

1. pizza toppings

2. characteristics of ophelia

3. vacation spots

4. sports team names

5. something you bring to the beach

Then, I asked students to pick a letter. The first student to respond said “d” so I used that. With the little time we had left I told the students to collaboratively think of something for each category that started with the letter D. They really enjoyed themselves and came up with some crazy answers. They had a lot to say about number 2 which was great because that category corresponded to Hamlet, but they still had fun with it. Unfortunately we ran out of time, but now that I know they like it I won’t hesitate to do it again, rather than let them socialize until the bell rings. -Aut 

Today in Syracuse

Well I spent today listening to my host teacher read the book “The Contender” aloud.  It was a brutal experience and painful to sit through.  I think the kids in these classes I observe are so capable, but are being held back by the pedagogy of poverty.  They need chances to really think, read, and write.  All of which they are not receiving.  I usually leave the school completely depressed, but I just get myself through it by telling myself that this is why I’m becoming a teacher…to give students an actual chance. 

Doug

Mentioned in class and asked in Corcoran

Yesterday in class, someone asked how are we suppossed to grade/correct papers when different forms of language/dialects are used.  With this question in mind, I asked my host teacher today: “Do your students write the way they speak?” 

She said that although her highly motivated class wrote in proper English, her other classes tended not to.  More so, she said that lately she is noticing that students randomly type in “texting language” in the middle of a sentence.  She read me an example from one of her students’ papers. The examples she gave me are as follows:

“The ocean n waves were symbolic 4 rebirth and the woman wuz ready 2 bgin a new chapter of her life.’

“IDK (I don’t know) y the girl didn’t show up l8ter knowing her violent husband was still home.”

I found this information interesting because for quite some time I was nervous about correcting a students’ dialect within their paper, but it turns out that dialects are not as much of a problem as text writing is.  When I asked her how she graded or corrected these errors, she said that she used to cross them out and write the correct spelling of the word over the incorrect one, but now she just crosses it out.  Since students are allowed to revise, she is very strict about having the texting errors completely omitted.

Kristin

Nothing but smiles today

I had a great day observing today.  The students were focused on their work and completed just about all tasks that were asked of them.   My host teacher and I are making really good connections and have had some really great discussions.

Although her classroom is already designed to be a student-centered classroom, my host teacher is evaluating exactly what she is expecting of her students.  Even after teaching for eleven years, this woman is still tweaking and changing the way she teaches and what she teaches.  For me, I found this information very insightful. I know we are always capable of change, but seeing that change is needed and really doing something about it are two very different things.

 Today, she vented about how tired she is of grading paper after paper, especially when she see’s very little improvement in her students’ writing.  She even admitted that she feels she has “spoon fed them for too long.”  She wants to change her units and the way she runs her classroom so that students have more ownership, “think outside the box,” and are doing the assignments because they want to,  not because they have to.

She allowed me to look through 2 texts that she and another teacher are reading and incorporating into their classroom. I just ordered them off of amazon because they had some really great suggesstions in them.  The books are:

- Differentiated Instruction and Layered Curriculum. By: Kathie F. Nunley.

For the last two blocks of the day, my teacher pushed the students to try more independent work and working without their novels.  The independent work did not go to well and only began to work for about the last five or ten minutes of class.  The students who worked without their novel did well and did a lot of critical thinking.  Although she was disappointed that the independent work did not actually work, she said: “It didn’t work….yet. Practice, time, and patience make perfect.”

Kristin

Corcoran did a 180!!

I cannot even begin to describe the relief I am feeling right now, after having a successful, meaningful, and good day at Corcoran.  All of my experiences up until this point have been pretty bad.  Every day I left the school feeling frustrated, upset, and disappointed.  But to my pleasant suprise, todays experience was everything I have been imagining every time I left the school saying: “Maybe it will be better next time.”  I think God heard and answered my prayers!

I was at Corcoran for three blocks today and each class had thought provoking and meaningful discussions about the literature they are reading.  Students were engaged in their work and spent almost the entire class period writing, reading, and conversing with one another.  My host teacher, who is also the chair of the English Department, was simply superb with her students.  The classroom chairs always remain in a circle, the students never raise their hands to speak, and my teacher never puts herself in the center of the classroom.  She is always sitting at a desk with the students or walking around to talk to her students.

Wanting to be as engaged as possible, I sat among the students, chimmed into their discussions, and even participated in the lesson. The students were excited to have me in their classroom, and they had so many questions to ask me!  Some students even said they are excited that I will be back not only on Friday, but for several weeks to come.  Two students from the basketball team requested that I wear a Maroon shirt on Friday and attend their pep rally after school!

I am thrilled that everything is finally working out and falling into place. I even had lunch in the faculty lounge where I was introduced to a student teacher from Cortland.  She LOVES teaching at Corcoran.  I am so pleased to say that I am looking foward to going back on Friday!

Kristin

Corcoran!

So, today, I FINALLY got to observe my new host teacher’s classroom, and I am very excited for the semester ahead of me. She is a very enthusiastic teacher who uses great strategies in teaching her classes. I am going to work with her on developing her Shakespeare/Research Paper/Mythology units… This will be my first time ever doing a significant amount of planning for a real, live classroom! My host teacher is a second-year teacher, so all of the struggles that I am going to encounter are fresh on her mind. She has already given me so much advice about curriculum, networking, etc. I look forward to many insightful conversations in the future!

 Krystina