http://www.toddseal.com/rodin/2005/06/an-ap-summer/ Challenge The Status Quo Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:48:43 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://www.toddseal.com/rodin/2005/06/an-ap-summer/comment-page-1/#comment-19 Tricia Bolster Tue, 21 Jun 2005 14:47:00 +0000 http://www.toddseal.com/teaching/?p=63#comment-19 Oh dear...I think you may be on to something here...I too, have my kids start with the thesis, and then construct the essay. I like your blog idea...however as someone who was born right smack in the middle of the 20th century, I need some gentle leading by the hand vis a vis: how do I use this as a teaching tool? It seems a great way for the kids to both respond to the literature and ideas, and do their pre-writing, idea gathering, harboring, tossing around etc. I usually have the kids do dialectical journals...which I call Reading Response Logs, where they pull out quotes from the literature and respond to them...but I can't always get their homework packets back to them in a timely manner...especially in the last 2 years, with the increased number of bodies in the classroom...also, from what I've seen of the blogs, they appear more specific. I have had problems with the kids 'sampling', or just re-telling what the quote is saying...which (as I say over and over) is not analysis...I've taught English 3 for around 9 years or so, and have done Scarlet Letter every year. I know what you mean about the difficulty of the material. It is a very hard book for the kids to 'get'. I have pretty much decided that this coming schoolyear, given the increase in number of students we will have in our classes, I will teach "The Crucible" instead. (Some years I have done both...but again, that was before the days of stuffing the kids into class like sardines packed in oil.) I believe that "The Crucible" will have enough of what I want to teach them to enable me to keep the basic elements of my course curricular goals. (Was that too much 'teacher-speak'?) I have them read outside novels as well...and I can see that I am going to have to expand my list to include more things of interest to the adolescent mind-set...meaning that I will have to read "Saturday Night Lights" among others, in order to amend my supplemental reading list...I thuink it is important to include stuff the kids want to read...it never occurred to me to include the sports section. I've used essays by Dave Barry and Nathan McCall...I guess I am finally going to have to wrestle the sprots section away from my (own personal) kids so I can make sense of it. The things we do for our students.....<br /> Trish Oh dear…I think you may be on to something here…I too, have my kids start with the thesis, and then construct the essay. I like your blog idea…however as someone who was born right smack in the middle of the 20th century, I need some gentle leading by the hand vis a vis: how do I use this as a teaching tool? It seems a great way for the kids to both respond to the literature and ideas, and do their pre-writing, idea gathering, harboring, tossing around etc. I usually have the kids do dialectical journals…which I call Reading Response Logs, where they pull out quotes from the literature and respond to them…but I can’t always get their homework packets back to them in a timely manner…especially in the last 2 years, with the increased number of bodies in the classroom…also, from what I’ve seen of the blogs, they appear more specific. I have had problems with the kids ‘sampling’, or just re-telling what the quote is saying…which (as I say over and over) is not analysis…I’ve taught English 3 for around 9 years or so, and have done Scarlet Letter every year. I know what you mean about the difficulty of the material. It is a very hard book for the kids to ‘get’. I have pretty much decided that this coming schoolyear, given the increase in number of students we will have in our classes, I will teach “The Crucible” instead. (Some years I have done both…but again, that was before the days of stuffing the kids into class like sardines packed in oil.) I believe that “The Crucible” will have enough of what I want to teach them to enable me to keep the basic elements of my course curricular goals. (Was that too much ‘teacher-speak’?) I have them read outside novels as well…and I can see that I am going to have to expand my list to include more things of interest to the adolescent mind-set…meaning that I will have to read “Saturday Night Lights” among others, in order to amend my supplemental reading list…I thuink it is important to include stuff the kids want to read…it never occurred to me to include the sports section. I’ve used essays by Dave Barry and Nathan McCall…I guess I am finally going to have to wrestle the sprots section away from my (own personal) kids so I can make sense of it. The things we do for our students…..
Trish

]]> http://www.toddseal.com/rodin/2005/06/an-ap-summer/comment-page-1/#comment-24 Laurie Mon, 20 Jun 2005 06:33:00 +0000 http://www.toddseal.com/teaching/?p=63#comment-24 I think that Tricia is missing the point of blogs--they provide the opportunity for an immediate response to learning. They can be accessed day or night, at home or at school. And, if you have ever checked any out, it is clear to see that they are the perfect forum for conversation. Our students are using blogs to talk about any number of things, why not for The Scarlet Letter. I think that Tricia is missing the point of blogs–they provide the opportunity for an immediate response to learning. They can be accessed day or night, at home or at school. And, if you have ever checked any out, it is clear to see that they are the perfect forum for conversation. Our students are using blogs to talk about any number of things, why not for The Scarlet Letter.

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