Trying to make Atwell fit. |
Like most experts, she seems to have
forgotten how she got to be good at her craft, and at times is unable
to articulate what kinds of difficulties she had to overcome to
achieve the desired classroom environment. For most of the chapter,
I assumed that she was teaching little angel students who never
objected to silent reading and writing time. Of course, she showed
later on that this wasn't so, but it still makes me wonder why she
doesn't spend much time talking about the limitations of the workshop
model. We already bought the book, so she isn't selling anything.
Some of the wisdom that I took away
from Atwell is about creating a space that sets kids up to be
successful. Providing an organization system that they can follow,
and coaching them in it, providing clear expectations for writing and
reading behavior, creating a physical environment conducive to the
workshop. I wonder, though, if there is a cost to running such a
tight ship. As a student, having to learn how to follow this
teacher's form of organization (yellow folder, blue folder, what?)
when the next teacher has a completely different one can take up a
lot of mental resources, which we know are actually a finite
resource. It is January and most of the eighth graders I am working
with still don't know to take out their folders and begin working on
the writing prompt on the board when they enter class. It seems
daunting in a class where time is already precious to spend even more
time teaching students a complex filing system unless you are
preparing them to be professional bureaucrats. To take her
philosophy a step further, namely letting the students be responsible
for organizing their work, why not have students come up with a
system that works for them? There are obviously some drawbacks to
this--for example, as a teacher you need some consistency--but
perhaps the benefits would be enough to justify it.
Fortunately, much of her focus was on
environment and how the students respond to it. One of the most
interesting discussions concerning environment was the easel versus
blackboard question. I too have felt that the board at the front of
class can be more representative of an intimidating wall of knowledge
to be banked into students heads. (Putting the chalk in the
student's hands helps this). But creating a more intimate learning
space with the easel seems like a very simple affordance that can
have a big pay off in terms of how the lesson goes.
The drawbacks. |
While clearly a divisive issue, I think
the five paragraph essay can be counted as a tool for these means
just like anything else. The argument against the five paragraph
essay was that the form inhibits critical thinking. But the
conclusion that really seemed to emerge from his evidence, if not the
essay, was that we need, again to draw our students' conscious
attention to the form and what it does for their writing. (I also
think that his prompts, not the three-pronged thesis requirement,
were what stifled his students thinking.)
Most importantly, I think that I agree
with Atwell that we need our student writers to be
publication-minded. Nothing has so great an impact on quality,
effort and motivation as the social pressure of having one's work
publicly lauded or critiqued. And it is essentially why we write.
Not to please the teacher or to pass the MCA's, but to talk to one
another in a medium that has its own unique capability:
“Publication in a writing workshop must be a given: student writers need access to readers beyond the teacher if they're to understand what writing is good for, and if they're to write with care and conviction” (Atwell, 1998, p. 102).
Links
One thing that resonated with me in
Atwell is her focus on working reading into writing and writing into
reading. They are not discrete categories in her workshop. This
blog has many good writing prompts (many of which are built into a
curriculum that addresses the common core standards), but in
particular, the ones about reading and reflection are useful.
As we try to find our own ways to adapt
and organize our classrooms, technology may be our friend. Some of
these apps we are already pretty familiar with (like Dropbox) but
this teacher also shares some organization apps that are pretty
useful.
I was interested in some of the
implications that Andrews and Smith discuss (p. 121) for technology
that actively changes the way we read and write. While my initial
reaction was paranoia (Google is deciding what I should search) I
also see the utility or at least the potential in this phenomenon for
educative purposes. One example I thought of is this Google Chrome
app:
3 comments:
Hi Amanda.
I really appreciated your insight on the Atwell readings. I too felt that the lists that she provided could be mistaken as "to-do" checklists for a "perfect" writing classroom. It also felt extremely overwhelming. Those lists were very long! They especially seemed lengthy for an elementary classroom as well. I felt that from a student perspective, they would make reading and writing seem very intimidating and demanding.
I also agree with your point that she may have become so good at her craft that she forgot what the "reality" of classrooms may be. I think even more transparency about these situations would have made her advice and strategies feel more real to me. It felt like I was reading something too good to be true at times. I think that when we become so good at something, sometimes we forget what it use to feel like to not have that knowledge. I think this is what it feels like reading Atwell sometimes.
I also thought the biggest take away from her readings were this idea of "spaces." I also wrote about this in my blog post. I feel like creating spaces can be difficult to do. She seemed very successful at it. I also feel that creating these different cultures within your classroom makes it very beneficial to the overall learning and community. It adds richness, so that was something I also took away from the readings.
Overall, great post!
Pang
(Sorry, but I wrote these comments before I realized that Pang did!)
Amanda, you wrote “it is also important for us to teach our students how to recognize this and weigh the benefits and drawbacks of certain mediums.” I could not agree more with this. I think the multiple affordances of writing are what empower us to communicate more effectively with the world, especially with the already limiting nature of language. Acknowledging the many ways we combine and transact with these affordances gives students so many more opportunities the mean what they write and write what they mean. I think in a lot of ways, digital writing has given us opportunities for new meaning, and like you said, it is more about the “how” this meaning is created than why or what the meaning actually is.
You also touched on Atwell’s focus on turning reading into writing. I have heard before that “to be a good writer, you have to read,” and I definitely agree with this statement. I think this is true because reading in many ways opens our minds up to thoughts me might never have had. As teachers this is important because the world as we know it will continue to change and we will continue to teach in it. Despite our licenses and tenure, there will always be opportunities for us to learn, and this is important if we want to help our students be lifelong learners. With all of that being said, the genderswap app that you linked in your blog is an excellent digital affordance and a great new way to “read” the world. This is just one example of how reading from multiple/new perspectives enhances our thinking and also how new meaning can be written and influenced by the things that we read. I am getting all Rosenblatt on this blog comment. I really enjoyed your ideas for this week!
Sara
Amanda: Love this observation “So often we look for step-by-step guides that will lead to success, much like the writing process itself, when it is about finding out what works for us as individuals and our students as individuals.” I would argue that all but the most “dead” teaching is pretty messy though… The question is one of structure for the teacher. This kind of teaching would require a lot of work up front. Ooh and this “Like most experts, she seems to have forgotten how she got to be good at her craft, and at times is unable to articulate what kinds of difficulties she had to overcome to achieve the desired classroom environment.” Interesting observation! I wonder if it’s covered elsewhere in the book though. I can’t remember…
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