“The School Essay”

I loved the kernal essays, and I am incredibly jealous that the idea for such an amazing instructional tool was not mine.  I think there are so many uses for this tool, and everytime I sit down to write now (which, by the way, happens all the time now), I ask myself which kernal essay structure fits my writing.  It’s so much fun to figure it out, and so much fun to invent new structures.  I can see that such a simple instructional tool will make writing so much easier for students.  After all, stringing ideas together is half the battle.  More than the boxes, I love the idea of putting together sentences to correspond to the boxes, and I loved the surprises that these sentences may provide us as teachers.  Isn’t it amazing how we have such preconceived notions about what someone is going to write based on their structure, and how surprised we can be when that preconceived notion is “shot down,” as in the case of Alyssa’s “Discovering a Lie” structure. 

I loved using these structure boxes in class yesterday, and I think they were helpful to some of us who were struggling with which direction we wanted our “My Turn” essays to take.  The kernal essays help give us some of that direction we are seeking.  Newkirk’s book is definitely my favorite text for this course — so many ideas by so many different people.  What a wonderful compilation of material.  Thanks for providing us with a text that will truly be an asset to our library when we become teachers.  I can’t wait to try out some of these ideas in my own classroom.

Darlene

Newkirk Chapter 8

I found this chapter to be a very refreshing and unique take on the dreaded five-paragraph school essay.  I’m sure most of us remember how awful it used to be writing these essays.  Bernabei says, “School essays are boring to write and boring to read.” 

The little kernel essays she has her students write are a great way to move beyond the boredom of the standard school essay.  The students are given structures at first but eventually come up with their own which is very important.  At first, I wasn’t a big fan of this process but then I realized that the goal of the teacher was to eventually have her students become fully independant in this matter. She is getting her students to write about topics that are important and interesting to them and I feel like that makes a world of difference come paper time. 

Students need to be allowed to be creative and not be held back by the restraints of the standard school essay and Bernabei sets her students free  in a creative and interesting way! –Doug

Down with the Formal Essay

In my EDU 471 course, we are reading Inside Mrs. B’s Classroom.  In chapter three, Leslie Baldacci, a journalist who is so concerned with the education system in Chicago, decides to quit her job and apply for the alternative teacher education program. After taking the standardized exam, she comments, “Standardized tests do not reward creativity or flair in writing, they reward convention and conformity….First they state what they will be saying. Then they break into three main points, which they usually separate into three paragraphs beginning with “First,” “Secondly,” and “Finally.” Then they restate what they told you they were going to tell you in the first place. Then they are done. It is a deadly formula that produces moribund writing.”

In Newkirk’s chapter 8, Gretchen Bernabei expresses this same idea. I can remember how much I dreaded the “deadly formula” that came with essay writing. Without fail, my teachers would draw the 5 boxes on the chalkboard labeled Thesis, Body 1, Body 2, Body 3, and Conclusion. A writing nightmare.

I love Bernabei’s display of creative “kernel essays” and quicklists. I actually did a quicklist of my own….

1: my sister when she gave birth to her first child

2: my brother when he graduated from college

3: Erin …breaking up with loser Geoff

4: Dad’s cancer

5: freshmen year..academic probation

6: last semester

7: Driving across the country 

8: <3 Goober

9: Trips to the Catskills

10: The big polar bear at the Central Park Zoo

11: The scrap book I made my dad for father’s day two years ago

12: Nani leaving dollar bills in the top drawer of me and my brothers dressers.

 Doing this was really quick and really nostalgic. It actually helped me think about something I could add to my My Turn essay. It’s things like quicklists, kernel essays, and picture prompts that students can open up to writing with because as long as they can find a way to relate to what they are doing, they will put more of themselves into their work.  – Autumn