Memory/list poem

A typical college town house. Really. We always walk in and joke “it smells like a frat”,
but it really, disgustingly does. On weekend nights it is turned into crowded screaming loud square footage, blaring music, with beer pong tables, and beer bongs. Weekend days it is turned into a couch potato paradise, with sunshine shining, trying to come in the window that we have closed so not to blind us. Besides the repulsive sight of used cups, beer cans and blood everywhere from the typical fight club scene, that makes it look like a murderer once lived here, it is a hermits paradise. Monday comes, during the week, it is a gathering room, a room of peace from the outside world, where all the roommates have a chance to sit down after a long day of stressful classes, drama with the significant other, and just talk and relax with each other, planning our next big event for the weekend. The room is filled with people coming and going, laughter from events that happened over the weekend, and sometimes tension, people yelling. The big never-used fireplace, expensive picture frames and big screen tv, makes the somewhat spacious room look somewhat liveable and homey, but the coaches that thousands of friends have slept on, probably caked with puke or god-knows-what ruins the room. If video taped throughout a typical day, it would look like a bees nest, everyone coming and going, maybe stopping to talk, or yell up the stairs, and then settling down together at night.

Writing for Communities Discussion.

Linda was NOTHING like I pictured her... she seemed sooooo preachy to me. I really expected her to be this liberal, loud, fun women. I thought what she had to say was amazing and great, but while she was talking, I was trying to picture her actually doing all these things she was saying, or even the things she described in her book, and I just couldn't see it... I'm going to blame it on the fact that she was in New York right before us and we were probably totally boring compared to that group.

It was so interesting though to be almost MADE to discuss things though... in a lecture!! I've never had that happen and I think it almost worked to some point, and made us talk to people that we didn't know... creating a community within a LECTURE, which I have almost never have, besides once with Dr. Al, who is way smarter than I think I could ever be. Some of the questions really stumped me though, and it seemed like that kind of seating really didn't encourage us to talk to more than just the people next to us, and some people who sat on the end, like me, could only talk to mainly one person! I never really thought that sitting in circled tables (in groups) was a great idea, but you really can't have any discussion when you are in lecture rows like most classes have.

It was also nice to hear Dr. Webb speak of her and how much he respects her. I think one of our "own" speaking of her in such high regards really does something to a lecture hall, especially before she has even spoken.

Our group... COMMUNITY!!

I thought it was incredibly interesting the things that people had to say about their lives growing up. It was definitely a subject that almost everyone in the class had something to say about, especially about Western. In our plans, we never even thought to bring up Western, but wanted to more focus on Kalamazoo as a community (bringing up the different Harding’s, like Todd suggested, and the different side of the train tracks ideas). But really, Western was a great way to start a conversation about university towns, and better, our university compared to others. It brought up great questions about our community such as: why doesn’t Western try to involve students more in Kalamazoo life?? Students’ love staying in the summer just because of the great activities that Kalamazoo offers during the summers. I thought it was a great discussion that made us all think out loud about our own university and how it is and isn’t a community. Maybe to make our lesson go along with what we ended up discussing, we could have used pictures from Western comparing to Kalamazoo, again maybe focusing on the different side of the train tracks idea, almost like Western as the higher class compared to the city that it originated in... ironic.

I thought our game went sooo well. I felt like everyone had fun and really realized the pros and cons of the game, and how they could change it for almost any idea that they want to portray in their classrooms. While I understand that people were concerned about the stereotypes, I also thought the pro's weighed out the cons with dealing with the stereotypes... people realized why certain communities do end up the way they are, and even some of my group members were like "ohhhhhhh" in realization of each group. While we knew what it was like on paper, we didn't imagine, besides Brett who had already experienced in, that students would really identify with their character and really get into it.

Multi-genre group

I thought it was a great idea to get into GROUPS to do these multi-genre pieces, not only did we come up with an amazingly interesting topic (MTV REALWORLD!!) but it was a great way to make sure that everyone could contribute in a way that they maybe exceeded the most (drawings, poems, stories, etc) or even trying something different, but everyone had to research in some way. This could've been a downfall, since researching seperatly on a group project can become tricky especially since everyone uses the internet now.

Something I didn't expect to like: handouts. Sadly to say, I don't read a lot of handouts, especially if they are all in a big book like the group did. But everything they gave out really helped me understand when and how to use a multi-genre project, what the pro's and cons are, and what almost a dictionary definition of what it is and can be used in it. I think I would really use these, and am planning on keeping them, hopefully until I teach.

Christensen ch 8

I never experienced tracking in my high school and so this chapter was pretty interesting to me. If I wanted to take an AP course, that was my choice. We didn't need to take another class or get a certain score or get a recomendation from another teacher to get into any class at all. I never thought I was that great in English until I decided to take an AP english class. I really don't know why I ever thought I could take the class, because in a way, only certain students took AP classes and I was one of those students that wasnt exactly the greatest in the school. I did notice, just as Christensen said, that the students who have not succeeded were the most creative.

It was interesting that she talks about teaching to untracked students and the activites that she has done with them. The ones that that had no real self confidence in the subject, or were the "bad readers". Motivating these students to WANT to read will probably be the hardest thing, but making reading come to life, such as using the tea party, could help. I think the hardest thing for me will be answering "WHY!? why do I have to read? I hate it.." its hard to share motivation with other students that just have been beaten down with "you're just not good at reading and writing."

ch 5-7 Gilmore

Again, another checklist that Gilmore gives us that we can actually use in our classes. I loved "the ten or twenty or thirty" minute revision checklist. It gave all the things that you should be doing in revision, but in a way (from 1-whatever) to do step by step, and in a logical way. Obviously proofreading would be first, with strengthening your thesis statement almost right after it. These are definetly the first things you look to do when you are revising. I guess never thought to make it so simple for students as to give them a checklist to revise. If I am remembering correctly, only one teacher, a professor here actually, has ever given me a revising checklist of some sort. All the others just give us requirements for the paper and say "go to town."

I thought it was also great how he didn't just give us the checklist but explained each number/part to the readers, explaining why itwas important, what to say to your students, and in terms of his example at the begining of the chapter, AP classes.

I thought it was also interesting the "what DOESN'T count" sort of checklist after he explains all this. That poor handwriting, poor spelling, scribbles, and organization issues shouldn't count against the student. Pretty ironic to me since that is all I feel my mentor teacher is trying to teach his middle school students right now, and yea I do disagree with the poor handwriting. I got marked down for having handwriting like an 8 year old boy all my life because of the fact that nobody could read it. well I could read it, but that is the same reason why when I am grading papers for these middle school students, I don't know if they actually answered the question or not because of the fact I can't read their handwriting. I guess the difference in this is that these are middle school students and i'm assuming Gilmore is speaking of just high schoolers.

Are most of these books for high schoolers? I wish we had some books talking about middle schoolers... since I am sadly stuck in a 6th grade classroom and seem to have not many ideas for students that can't make a complete sentence.

On to more gilmore though, I also liked how he gave yet ANOTHER checklist for revising students timed essays. You would have never thought that it would be different grading students timed esays, but it seemingly is and he points this out. I liked how he wants the students to go back over their own riding though, rather than you just grading it giving it back to them and them crying about their horrible grade. Why not make this a learning experience and do read arounds (which he calls a pass-around activitiy) which is almost the same as the read around. More checklists from poetry to creative writing come up and I loved all of them. I would really come back to this if I was running out of ideas for revision. He does come up with some really cool thigns for revision!

Gilmore 4

The three categories of activity I really found helpful in the begining, starting off the chapter with how he picks and chooses techniques and where they fall. I found this chapter extremely helpful because of the LIST of revision strategies that he uses, the descriptions, what they do, why they work and such. I really liked a lot of the strategies and could definetly see myself looking back to this chapter to imitate a strategy in one of my own classes.

While Christensen and the others we have read have had really good ideas of what to do in classes, and I would use a lot of their ideas in my classes also, they don't do it in this format. A name of a chapter of what its on, and then a LIST, each activity in bold, of how do, for example revise. Instead of having to make all these pages up with post its and other such things (highlighters and pens are hard to come back to and find exactly obviously), you can just go back to the chapter and quickly find what you are looking for, and use it in class intead of reading all night the chapter you remember the activity was in, and then not having any time at all for other things.