James+Couture

James' page 9/9/07 Winds of Change: Thomas Kuhn and the Revolution in the Teaching of Writing Maxine Hairston

(i apologize for the tardiness of this entry, i misunderstood the first series of assignments) //**Glad you got around to it!**// When i write, whether it be for research, argument, persuasion, etc, i try to get straight to the point. I consider myself a good writer and a passionate one if the subject is something i feel very strongly towards. In the article we had to read Thomas Kuhn //**Actually its Maxine Hairston--Kuhn is the paradigm shift theory guy Hairston talks about.**// brings up some very good points when it comes to teaching writing concerning style. Everybody has a different style of writing. I have had plenty of English teachers in the past and have had only a few good ones at that. Most teachers like a lot of filler and repitition. //**What do you mean by "filler and repetition"?**// I do not really feel that is necessary for me. I may refer to something i have said in a past paragraph, but to restate sentence after sentence is tiring and boring for the reader. On page 80, Hairston writes '...teachers who concentrate their efforts on teaching style, organization, and correctness are not likely to recognize their students need work in invention.' Who wants to read the same essay over and over and over again? Your students are the future. Let their heads wander and write according to their subject matter and concentrate at the assignment at hand rather than have them worry about things that does not concern the information. I am not saying format is not important, it is. Without it the paper looks sloppy and ill-put-together. As a writing teacher focus on teaching your students how to flow their information. Kuhn brings up the fact that text books complicate things further (80). This i also agree with. You can't read //How to Become a Writer// and expect to be a novelist. //**Good point. that's like reading "how to drive a car" without ever getting behind the wheel.**// Either you know how to write or you don't. It's the teacher's job to make sure that if you are not a writer that you leave the class with the knowledge necessary to have organized thoughts with backed up information. A book, i think, can only hold a student back because within the text the student will see what is acceptable and what is not. They don't get to see what they COULD do or what choices are possible to expand their horizons. //**so are all textbooks bad? Have you had any that you felt were helpful/useful/good? Is there a reason you can think of that makes books so unhelpful?**// Another important issue is making sure, as a teacher, that you enjoy what you are doing. That you make time for your students as well as yourself. Have a system so that each paper is devoted a certain amount of time and that the student is improving in your class. It is terribly bad for the soul to do something you dispise. //**Do you think this is related somehow to people sticking to the old paradigm? Did teachers stick to it because they liked it? Or maybe did they begin disliking teaching because they had been staying with methods that weren't working?**// The traditional paradigm is the main topic at hand in this article. What is the norm for writing? This is the question asked. If it ain't broke, don't fix it! i know that isn't proper grammar, but the phrase fits. If what you are doing as a teacher, because as i said everybody has a different style, is working and the students are learning, their writing satisfactory, stick with it. If it isn't, however, find something new and fast. Make sure your students enjoy what you teach them and that they understand it and you'll enjoy what you do as a teacher. You do not have to be apart of a paradigm shift if your teaching style proves otherwise.

9/9/07 Process and Post-process: A Discursive History Paul Kei Matsuda

The beginning of this article is hard to get through. **//Yes, it is.//** It is a little confusing and it seems the author is trying too hard to make his point in the start. There's too many unnecessary 'big' words i feel. I am a simple man. Before i dive any further into this article, i think it is too stubborn of me to say ignore a paradigm shift if what you are doing is working with the students. In my previous journal entry i think i came off as a bit of an a**. //**Not at all.**// If there is something new coming out in the world of teaching writing then i think, now, by all means try it out and challenge yourself as an educator and challenge your students as well. Do not limit yourself to one set style in teaching. i know this sounds contradictory coming off from the last journal, but i think it is a good thing to acknowledge when you are being stubborn and abbrasive and improve on it. //**I'd say you're not off, though--if something ain't broke, don't fix it--problem was, they knew something was "broke" and wanted to find out ways to fix it.**// Anyway, going through this article it seems to me you can be on one of two sides as an educator. You can either be a teacher who emphasizes student choice; authenticty of voice; writing as a messy, organic, and personal expression; or you can be a teacher who believes in the need to resist process' attack on rules, conventions, quality and rigor. This is all expressed on page 69. What my question is why not meet in the middle? Is it possible to have an organized, passionate piece of writing that is of high quality and meets standards and come from personal expression? //**Exactly--that's pretty much what post-process is.**// I believe so. I am a firm believer that the more the student enjoys the topic at hand the better the writing and overall results are. I say give the student the choice and let them have that authentic voice. Our students are going to be adults and it is time they prove they can be. As a teacher stick with them along the way. Help them with grammar and proper sentence structure. But give them that authenticity that makes them human. I would not like to read a paper that reads off as such: The - War - of - 1812 - was - such - and - such. Reading this second article made me understand more clearly what the paradigm shift means. Thus my change of heart from my previous entry. //**That's fine--good to see where you've been, what you've been thinking, and adapt as you go (you're learning!)**// Always look for that new thing that makes you a better teacher, person, etc. Do not get stuck in a repititous way of life where you find yourself just going through the motions. Life is short, enjoy it. Make sure your students enjoy it. Looking at it from a teacher's perspective i don't know why one wouldn't want to look for the next new thing to keep that fire in their career burning. Towards the end of the article it gets more confusing again. I did not follow as well as in the middle of this journal. Once again i think they tried to hard to sound intelligent rather than just saying what they really mean. //**Matsuda does get a bit academic.**// That's my take on it. I could be wrong and just misunderstood what they were trying to say, however. wouldn't be the first time. What i did get out of this article, though, is what i think is most important. Why can't we be in a happy medium between authentic voice and standards? There is no reason the writing world shouldn't be. I think everyone could benefit if they would just say what their opinion on the matter in front of them is, rather than just shouting out the facts and trust that's that. Process is important, i understand that. What my goal is, as a future educator, is that my students understand the importance of making smart choices. Choices in life and in their writing, as well.

9/11/07 Toward an Educationally relevant theory of literacy learning: twenty years of inquiry Brian Cambourne

Okay, i have only just begun reading the article and am currently on the first page, but i feel inclined to write this for the moment. On the first page the sentence 'Otherwise "normal" studnets who fail to learn in school are deficient in some way.' Is it not possible that the teacher is deficient as well? //**A deficient teacher? Never... (ha ha)**// Just a thought. Further down in the reading on page two Cambourne talks about his learning theory and puts it in bullets; one of the bullets referencing the phrase 'practice makes pefect.' I agree with this completely. Repitition, repitition, repitition! Grind it into your students' memories and into their habits of critical thinking. What i disagree is the second following bullet stating that learners are too immature and underdeveloped to make decisions about their learning. **//Here Cambourne is describing his former ways of teaching and thinking, before he did his research. He never actually comes out later and says he doesn't believe in these former practices or abandons them, but it seems implied. I think he is not for the repetition thing either. He argues (you haven't read far enough, I assume) that no one is too young or immature to take responsibility for his/her own learning.//** This i can't see as being even close to completely true. Depending on the grade level you teach, sure, kids will be immature and have to take direction from their teachers. But as they get older the majority alredy know what is expected of them and really start buckling down for their future. I can comfortably say that i am a pretty immature kid, but when it comes to thigns that are important, i.e. my studies, my family, and my athletics, i am a very serious and concentrated person. I like to have a good time in all things. Maybe this is something that is mistaken for immature with most students. Students drudge to and from class day-to-day, of course they are going to want to tell a few jokes or act silly. If the teacher makes the class enjoyable and brings some sense of humor to the classroom i feel kids will relate more to the topic and learn something. //**Thus Cambourne's belief that you need to engage students and be someone they like.**// How many times a day do you walk around the class, the cafeteria, the practice field, or in school assemblies and you hear kids shouting off lines they memorized from TV and movies? Same principle, i believe. They enjoy the show, the remember the show. They enjoy the class, they remember what they learned. As for language learning, i think you can approach it the same repititious way. I mean i got my bird at home to say pretty bird and whistle the sports center theme song through repitition. Approaching a deaf child on the other hand is more difficult. I guess you would want to start with recognition and things of that nature. In reading this more carefully, i come to a realization that this article may be more towards special ed students rather than your average school attendance. //**In what way? How do Cambourne's ideas fit them more closely?**// Dealing with these kind of learners is unavoidable at any level od schooling. It should be met with a challenge to yourself as an educator. "It" meaning the situation. Your lesson plan may be stretched out a bit longer than you would want, but you are trying to give every student a chance to compete at the same level. Are there going to be students who might be faster and slowed down by this process? Most definately, but if they can hold out for a few minutes for each discussion i think everyone wins.