Reading Response October 17th

Summary:

McClure looks at collaborative learning in the classsroom. he strats off by talking about the lack of motiuvation he hears in the students voices when they work in groups. He then talks about how collaberative learning is still the most effective way of learning and how it reduces the feeling of alienation of students who would not normally be involved with other students. Later on in the essay, McClure says that the best way for students to learn is to interact in educational games as well as serious class discussion.

Reflection:

This article was written in good intentions and makes some very valid points. Yes, students don't do their work with enthusiasm, but there are very few things that a teacher can do to motivate some students. The goal of most teachers is to keep kids interested in the material being teached without making class a place where students are entertained. the serious discussion is a huge roll in the classroom...if you can get the students to debate on a topic that they can talk about informativley as well as passionatly. These are good points but they seem a little overly optimistic.

Reading Response November 28th

Summary:
The early part of Chapter 14 is about the standardized testing. Lindemann describes how the testing is actually supposed to help improve the education system, regardless of popular belief. Some feel that standardized testing doesn't show if a student is a good writer or not. The chapter shows that some feel that some students should be critiqued on two different writings on two different subjects and keep the standardized timed writing out of the equation.


Response:
I personally feel that writing should be evaluated by the teacher in the classroom setting. An outside party has no idea if that student just had a bad day or if they felt rushed because of the time limit on the test. Writing two different essays on two seperate topics is a good idea, but them you run the risk of losing the students attention, and them making more mistakes than they usually would. Overall it was a chapter than i feel like i have read before.

Blog Prompt October 22nd

The English department at USCA is ruthless! No paper seems to be good, the best a student can shoot or with a paper in the English Department is acceptable. While other departments seem to be clueless about what a paper is supposed to look like. Teaches assign one page papers with ten sources in them and others want two pages on whatever we choose as long as its two pages and has something to do with science. Papers in other studies outside of the English Department seem to be much more lenient about what they want. Other studies want content, and aren't overly concerned about hanging indention's and colon usage. It seems other studies are focused on what really matter rather than nit picking and taking a letter grade off for a missed comma. English classes give students an advantage for writing in other classes. With such high standards in English classes, it seems almost like a joke writing for classes that care more about content then punctuation. The standards are so low in comparison students can write easier for other classes.

Reading Response November 14th

Summary:

Murial Harris says that teacher, especially English teachers, make students turn in multiple drafts of a paper before the final draft. The idea behind this is to show the students that a final draft may be completely different from a first or second draft. She points out there are two different kinds of writers, procrastination writers, who focus on their topic, and draft writers who write to try and develop their topic. She also points out that some writing doesn't permit drafts and writing must focus on topic right away. Later on she points out that the draft writers and final draft writers are also in the professional writing world. Throughout the essay, the idea that single draft writers are more keen to audience writing while writers who develope their topic in a multitude of essays are writing to please themselves. The essay debates which one is better and the advantage and disadvantages of both.


Response:

This essay really dragged on. The one interesting point that was made was the fact that even writers in the professional world are one draft writers. This made me feel like I wasnt alone. I know that developing an essay is probably a little better, lets face it, we all know that. So personally I didnt see the point in this essay. It seemed a little self evident. I was more impressed that she managed to get 18 pages out of such a bland topic...maybe her first draft was better!

Reading Response October 31st

Revealing the Teacher-as-Reader in Response to Students' Writing
Summary:

Sperling dives into the class of an English teacher. Going into a class and doing observation of the class as a whole as well as the relationship between the teacher and student in the class. Sperling looks at the ways a teacher looks at a student writing. Some of the things she looks at are interpretive, the social, the emotional, the evaluative, and the pedagogical. Sperling says that these are some of the stand points a teacher should have when reader a students paper. Later in the article, a pentagon is shown on how to break these aspects up even;y to by affective when reading a students paper. Sperling suggests that teachers apply these things into their classroom and discuss with their students the different aspects the teacher will be looking at.

Response:
The chapter was a little confusing but eventually I get the hang of it. I think it would help students out if the teacher talked to them about the grading. This goes back to when we were talking about audiance and who students should write to. The more students know about how they are being graded, the easier it is going to be for that student to write a good paper. there are some good stand points on how the teacher should read a paper and I agree that sperlings suggestions could help in many classrooms.

Chapter 6, October 24th

Chapter 6:

Lindeman says that students don't feel that hard work alone is going to make them good writers. The chapter goes on to say that it is the teachers responsibility to know the cognitive proccess and help the students along the way. creativity, perception, and conception are the three things that Lindeman touches on in the chapter that a teacher should know and be able to teach their students. She says that these are the things that a teacher should know and then portray this message to the student to make them a better writer. Lindeman also talks about applying Piagets cognative thoeries into the classroom. By applying the these things, Lindeman says that a teacher can create good writers in their classrooms.

Response:

I liked this chapter because it really delt with education by applying some of the educational theories. It was nice to see that Piaget's that are mentioned in other classes are put into our english classes. This chapter also hit a personal nerve. Having a teacher that encourages good writing can be usefull. I had teachers personally who helped me improve my writing and hepled me when i couldn't find anything to write about. Good chapter and i wish more chapters were like this one. For some reason this chapter kept my attention.

Blog prompt: November 19th

Working with students who speak English as a second language is going to be a problem. not only am i not going to understand them, I get frustrated when I cant understand what someone is saying. The cultural differences I look forward to, I love learning about different cultures. The problem will souly be the language barrier. Having to say "excuse me" and "what was that" gets on my nerves. Grading their papers will also be a problem. They will not be on the same english level as the rest of the students which is unfair to the foreign speaking student. The question is; do you grade them the same. My answer is no. Our job is to be teachers, not language enforcers. We are there to teach students english and how to use the language. I feel that if the teacher sets a goal for the student for the next paper and expresses that goal to the student, then that is what the teacher should be grading on. So is this a lower standard to that student? Yes, but knowing the basics is the only way for that student to learn any further. The other students will feel as though they are being treated unfair by one student having a different way of being graded, but all students should be graded on what they learn based on the goals set by the teacher.

Last Blog Promt

Last one huh? wow! let me take this time to express how much I hate the reading requirements in this class. The readings were interesting but so inconvenient to log onto this blog and write about them. AHHH! what a pain!! I am writing this way out of order. It is 9:24 pm and I have about 24hrs to make up for all the time that I slacked over this second half of the semester. I will be spending most of my time reading for this class and writing about what I read. On top of that I will be spending the extra couple hours that I hopefully save working on my research paper. So between stressing whether or not I'll get my 3.0 this semester to get into the education program, I will also be kicking myself in the but for the next 24hrs for being so slack the past few weeks. there is nothing worse than having to do a bunch of work that HAS to be good and having no one but yourself to blame! Im glad this was an open blog...i feel like i got something off my chest...and still have no feeling of accomplishment.

Blog Prompt nov. 26th

Some of the best comments i have ever gotten back on a paper is developmental feedback. I feel that students should write a good paper before they worry if they need a hanging indention in their paper. Telling a student that there is something wrong in the paper without specifying what the problem is doesn't help the student. If a teacher comments what is wrong and why, i feel that this is a much better way of teaching the student. If the student keeps making the same mistakes, then they are not learning or just don't care about the teachers comments and the grade should reflect the students lack attention to detail in the paper. A student should improve on every work they do and it is the teachers responsibility to make sure that happens. Some of the worste feedback i have gotten was a check or even worse that that was an A/C- for a grade. I had no idea what that meant and neither did anyone else in the class. And when she tried to explain it, people were more confused than when we started. I can thrive on developmental comments and could care less about "x's" and comma splices.

blog promt #10

The most revision I have ever done was for Dr. Ochola's Enlgish 102 class last semester. I had a teammate in there and all I wanted to do was get a better grade than him. Then there was the fact that she had been and is currently a Havard University proffesor and if I could impress her with my writing, I would feel as though it was a great accomplishment. Unfortunatley, I did not meet her requriments for the assigned writings that I revised, but the creative writing portion of the class was a success. The revision process was all about peer reviewing and taking what other people had said about my writing and seeing if I agreed with what they said. If I did agree I would take their suggestions, if not, and the student wasn't a reliable source to critic my writing, then I went to someone else. Then there were the things in class that she said that we should have in our papers. I took close notes to make sure I was going to have the best grade possible. After the notes I would look at all the aspect of my paper and see if the things she went over in class were in my paper as well. Not only make sure they were in my paper, but were in my paper and the way she wanted it to be there. It was the most work I have ever put into revising my works. Partly because I am competitve and also I wanted to feel like i had accomplished something as a student.

blog promt 2nd half #2

One of the main things that I wanted to look at was how people control their ethos on their personal "Profiles" on websites like Facebook.com. People join these web pages with the hopes of meeting new people as well as keeping in touch with old friends. The web page has become more than a place for people to stay in contact with one another. Facebook.com has become a place where people can control who they want to be, and what people think of them. A person can "tag" themselves as a vampire or werewolf and start "biting" other users as a form of invitation to the same application to add to their profile. Recent studies have shown that although the Facebook creators do not let anyone under the age of 13 use their website, it is very easy for anyone to lie about their age and create a profile that is based on a lie. There have been other studies that have shown the human brain can only deal with five close friends at a time. This study further proves that Facebook users who claim to have hundreds or thousands of "friends" is a lie in itself, thus creating a false identity. People can post their views, beliefs, and interests based on what other people want to read, with hopes that the user will gain more attention from other users.
For a presentation I plan to show the progress of my fake facebook person. By the end of my study I hope to show that my false identity has grown to the popularity of the everyday facebook user. I will add a good number of extra applications and join a few groups to see if that increases my popularity. I also plan to use a power point presentation to display the information I have found from my research. I will also have slides containing some of my own findings that I have acquired over the course of my personal study. This will include a survey of USCA students from different on campus groups (i.e. sports teams, frat's, sororities, and other organizations). By the end of the study I hope to find out approximately how many time the average students checks their facebook, how important the facebook account is to their everyday life, and how and why they chose their profile pictures.

Blog Promt

The USCA writing room is what Lundasford would catagorize as a "Garret Center". Lundsford says that a Garret Center as "internal, as inside the student." The job of this type of writing center is to help the student help themself. The help that is given in the USCA writing center is not to correct the student, but help the student realize and see their own mistakes. It is stressed everytime the writing center is even mentioned "they won't write the paper for you, but they will help improve your writing skills." That is something that I heard over and over again as I sat in the writing room working on a paper as multiple tour groups passed by. I personally have had bad experiances with the writing room staff talking down to students. My classmates on the other hand have had good experiances which makes me want to give it another shot. Some students don't feel they need help that writing rooms offer and others feel that they don't have enough time. Either way, the writing room is a good idea for students who would need help in their writing.

Blog Promt II

Writing can take many different forms and vary from assignment to assignment. Every teacher is different in what they are looking for in a writing assignment. While one teacher may want many sources, another teacher may want few sources and be more interested in what the student has to say. Personally, I try to figure the teacher out while they are talking about the assignment. I try to see what the teacher put emphasis on. Does the teacher seemed interested in what I want to say as a student or is the teacher more interested in how I can gather material and put it together? If the assignment is based on what I want to say and how I think, I can almost immediately start to think of what I want to say. If the teacher wants multiple sources, I will usually put the writing off till the last day or two. If the teacher is interested in what everyone else’s thoughts, then it shouldn’t take that long to put together. When the teacher challenged the students to think on their own, there in lies a challenge. Preparation for an assignment depends on what the teacher want from me. Personally I love the thought of being able to put what I think down on paper. Other people’s thoughts are great in research papers, but why assign a student to gather other peoples thoughts and exclude their own?

Supposed to be Oct. 3rd Post

The chapter starts off by questioning whether or not the audience should be a factor in what the students are writing. The model given in the chapter has writer, written product, audience, and response in a nice circle. The author stresses the that audience plays a role in how the students write. While Mitchell and Taylor feel that a students writing should be uniform and written to the audience, Corbett feels that a students writing should be free flowing and unlike other students writings regardless of what or who the audience is. He feels that the message should be expressed as the writer sees fit, not how the message will be best taken. There is also the idea of the audience invoked, where the student knows that there is indeed a reader but the student cannot write to the audience. The idea of knowing there is an audience but not writing to the audience gives both characteristics to both Taylor as well as Corbett.
The Chapter overall was worth reading. I strongly disagree with Taylor and Mitchells idea that the student should write to an audience. Students have to write to their teachers and this is no way to create a writer. Writing should be about expression of ideas and thoughts. Corbett makes a good point of students writing freely and expressing their message the way they want to. Writing in a uniform manner, and writing what the audience wants to hear is not challeneging the writer. This theory does nothing more than test the students ability to follow instructions. The chapter got me more frustrated than interested. But I guess the frustration is what kept me reading.

Blog Promt #4

Reading assignments that cover all of these bases are hard to come by. Most teachers really only cover about 2 or 3 of these requirements. Personally I feel that minority writing and poetry are some of the greatest material for students to gain knowledge. One of the poems that I would have students read as an assignment would be "Theme for English B". This poem looks at the time period in which it was written, so the students would be able to use this as a narrative on how minorities at the time felt once they succeeded in society. Students would have to look at the symbolism used in the poem to interpret the message the author was trying to get across to his readers. The assignment would get the students to look at why the author was trying to portray this message of struggle and acceptance. This poem would get students to look at the time period and see how that ties into the theme of the poem. This piece of work is something that most 101 students should be able to read and interpret with some thought process put forth. This is also a poem that is usually seen in most 101 classes as well. Students are usually asked to write about the poem and establish a theme. Which is what I would assign after reader the peom. As well as writing a short paragraph on why this poem is important to the time period and how that would still play a role in today's society.

research topic

One of the newest, as well as one of the biggest phenomenons in mass communication seems to have erupted into every home, college, and office in the world. These new forms of mass communication are http://www.myspace.com/ and http://www.facebook.com/. These web pages allow users who create a "profile" which gives them the ability to publicly post a picture of themselves and gives out as much personal information that they choose. Web pages like this are in large demand and have given people a chance to list whom ever they please to their "friends" list. People choose to portray themselves and control their ethos to anyone who wants to look. How do people portray themselves online and how does this affect their everyday lives? I hope to look at the age groups that use these sites, will their sites show the places they live? If so does their economic situation have any pattern to others of the same age with these types of accounts? How do people display themselves? Do people have pictures that might display them in a negative light? These are very simple questions, I hope to put a little more thought into them to create a more in depth paper. I am very open to criticism and suggestions on other directions I could take this paper. thanks!

Chapter 15

Summary:
Chapter 15 starts off by stating that every writing class is going to be different. Even if the same sylabus was used and the same book was assigned, the class would still end up in a different direction. The chapter says that this is mainly due to the teacher, as well as the students in the class. The teacher is said to be just as much a student as the studetns are teachers due to the way that a general writing class is run. One of the first things that needs to be looked at by a teacer in designing a successfull class is the sylabus and where the teacher wants to take the class. The teacher can take a class in whatever direction she wishes. Although the class my not follow the sylabus exactly, planning is key to a successful class. The chapter lookss at collaborative learning and sharing students sharing work with one another as well as the teacher sharing her work with the rest of the class. This gives the students a class to look at eachothers works and give their input, which may be different from the teacher alone.
Personal Response:
The overall chapter was fantastic. I thought the way it started was awsome. The fact that the book looks at the students being teachers as well the teachers being students sometimes was a good fresh look on teaching. It is often said, but I have never seen a book that actually has it in writing.

Blog Prompt II

English classes prepare the average student for writing papers in other classes in many ways. The English class research paper that is usually assigned is more detailed and usually the requirements are greater in an English class rather than an average history or science class. If a student can learn how to properly meet the requirements for an English class research paper, then most other class research papers. The down side to English research papers is that many teachers have different requirements. After many English classes and numerous research reports I am still astounded of the many ways teachers can come up with to have more requirements in different ways than my previous teachers. While I have enjoyed to the perks of knowing how to please every teacher that isn't closely tied with English. The downside is that I have still not figured out how to meet every English teachers requirements.
English teachers prepare students to know the proper way to format citations in MLA format as well as APA format. With no knowledge of how to do these things students would constantly be caught for plagiarism. Teachers who take the time to sit down with a student will show them how to organize their thoughts and make sure the paper makes sense. Simply writing facts down on note cards and taking those note cards and inserting them onto a piece of paper does not mean a student has written a research paper. That would be copying facts on a piece of paper. The right teachers will sit a student down and show then what paraphrasing is and how it can be properly used without plagiarising. In this sense, teachers prepare students well for writing in other concentrations. But students need the right teachers to do all these things, without these teachers the student will not only be ill-prepared to write in other concentrations, but will struggle in the working world as well.

Summary:
Reither's article, "Writing and knowing: Toward Redefining the Writing Process" brings up many good questions. Questions that I have personally never thought of, and yet the questions are very simple. Reither also looks at how writing is viewed generally and says that these are misconceptions. The delusion that the writing process is an individual effort is not true in the since that many the work was inspired through the world and not conceptualized in the writers mind or own actions, but in actions of the world around the writer. Reither says in order for writing to develop even farther we, as writers, need to ask new questions that will give us more knowledge than what we now have. "How do writer acquire the authority that impels them to write?" This is just one example of how Reither gives questions to the reader to spark more questions that will help understand the writing process by acquiring more knowledge. This is Reither's way of challenging the writing community and future writers to be. He challenges the way things are in the writing community by saying that we don't know near as much as we need to know. He goes on later to state similar ways that the writing world needs to push itself to know more about writing before we feel as though we are comfortable with what we already know
Response:
This personally felt like a weak attempt at inspiration. Yes, we need to ask more questions, but we always need to be asking more questions! Thats nothing new. There were some good points made, and there were some questions that he brought up that personally I found interesting. The questions he gave in the text were simple but afgfective. Having read the Emig jounal first, i have to admitt i was a little tired of reading. This may be the reason why I am being so critical of Reither. I don't feel there is too much to write about this journal. I am sure many of my classmates and probably Dr. Fornes will disagree, but I am cutting this response short on account that, I just couldnt find this journal interesting enough to write about.

Fulkerson 4 Philosophies

OUTLINE:
Fulkerson touches on his four different philosophies of composition style. He has broken his philosophy into mimetic, expressive, rhetorical, and formalist. Fulkerson's mimetic style is writing on "reality". This basically includes writings where the facts and style of the piece is kept in focus. Another type of writing that Fulkerson's philosophy includes is expressive. The expressive writing style is a style of writing that a typical "writer" might use. This is a very creative form of writing and gives the writer free reign over his or her ideas. The rhetorical philosophy includes putting more emphasis into persuading the reader and using more personal input into a piece. Last but certainly not least is the Formalist style, which Fulkerson said was a way to focus more on the actual structure of the work. Fulkerson goes on to give writing example of these styles to show the reader just how these philosophies are put into work. Fulkerson also says that each one of these styles should only be focused on one at a time to make sure each style is used to its full potential.
RESPONSE:
Personally I founnd the chapter interesting but more wordy than anything. Fulkerson put very simple concepts and stretched them out into something that lost my attention. Although I did enjoy seeing the writing examples and seeing how each part of his philosophy worked, by the time I got to the example I was already tired of reading about the concept itself. Overall it was a decent chapter. Maybe its just the fact that I hate reading, but the chapter just seemed to go on forever. Fulkerson has great ideas in the chapter and I agree with many of the things he says although I might not like the fact that the writer is only supposed to focus on one at a time. I feel that formalist is an important part in any paper and should be looked at all the time.

Blog Prompt 1

The book that I read over the past week was entitled "Writing: a Workshop Guide". After reading Chapter 4 in our book, I was able to see the writing styles portrayed in our personal reading assignment. In Chapter 4, both Fulkerson as well as Berlin break down the different styles of writing. Although the personal reading could be closely related to Fulkerson's description of Rhetorical, Formalist, and some Expressive characteristics. The Formalist style of the book as discribed by Fulkerson focuses on format of a writing, such as the margin size and font size. The first couple chapters of the book touch on organization of thoughts as well as organization of paragraph form. The expressive portion of the book comes towards middle and end of the book when examples are given of personal writings about life and inspirational figures. Expressive writing according to Fulkerson is writings about an internal voice and personal journals. The final chapters of the book show examples of what Fulkerson refers to as Rhetorical writings. These are writings that deal with persuasion and reader responses. The "writing" book covers multiple writing styles but in general, the book an expressive book with examples of writing samples.

Chapter 4 summary

Chapter 4 Summary:

This chapter answers the basic questions about rhetoric, what it is, where it came from, and how it’s used. The chapter first starts off by stating that rhetoric is used “as a symbolic means of inducing cooperation.” The chapter also says that rhetoric is “flowery figures of speech and double-talk give the appearance of substance but leaves the real question unanswered.” This begins the argument that many people have made, from Aristotle to Plato that rhetoric is nothing more than the use of words used to gain an unfair advantage over someone. One of the first and more convincing arguments that the book makes for this argument is the example of “Corax of Syracuse used rhetoric as a tool for help Sicilian land owners an advantage to win land in property disputes”. This starts the many different ways that rhetoric has been broken down over centuries of time.
Later on, the book goes to describe rhetoric as an “art” and gives examples and shows arguments of how rhetoric was used in a positive way. Philosophers such as St. Augustine who used this art in a positive way. The book gives the example of how people like Augustine as well as graduate students use rhetoric as a tool for writing the bible and preaching as well.
Today the word rhetoric is used as a general term that has anything to do with educating people. Rhetoric can be used to describe a text book and can be used as a general term for communication. Even today, the art of rhetoric is being broken down by people like James Kinneavvy into different styles and forms. James gives a good example in the book by saying that rhetoric is a “general science or art of communication”.

Personal Response:

This chapter was more of an eye opener to me. Going into the chapter I thought that I had a clear idea of what rhetoric was and how I felt about it. This chapter gave a history of rhetoric and clearly stated what it actually was. The chapter gave a great history on it and I could really appreciate how it gave the opinions of great historical thinkers opinions on the subject. Although I hold the thoughts of Plato and Aristotle in high regards, this was one of the few times I disagreed with what the two philosophers had to say about rhetoric. I could see what they meant about how it was a way of manipulating someone and that it was mostly "filler" to an argument. Personally I feel that rhetoric is indeed an art, as it is referred to later on in the chapter. Can it be used in a negative way to give someone an advantage over a weaker party? Of course, but then again that is one of the great things about it. One of the things that was somewhat confusing in the chapter though was the many different ways that rhetoric was broken down. So many people have broken in down into so many different forms and sections, it gets confusing to the reader which way is the correct way to break it down. While Plato gives rhetoric different sections and so does Aristotle, later on in the chapter Kinneavy and Corax do the same thing, and all of these men have different interpretations of rhetoric. Coming to a conclusion of which way was correct was a little confusing, but over all I felt that the chapter gave the reader a clearer idea of what rhetoric actually was.

Writing a Paper

When I am writing at paper, the first thing I usually do is start when no one else is in my room and there is no noise around. I must have silence when I get started. When I pull up my Microsoft Word, the first thing I see is that stupid blinking line taunting me. The blank page gives me an immediate feeling of failure knowing that I have nothing written down yet. Once I get my header down I feel like I can get started on my paper. Once I have my thoughts flowing I can play some music. Usually some form of easy flowing music to keep my mind at ease. If i listen to any rock or anything with a quick change in tempo, my attention is taken off my paper and I lose track of my last thought. Once I lose track of my thoughts and don't know what to write next, I must to have silence again until I can get my thoughts organized. I usually write for 30 minutes at a time and then take 30min to an hour of a break, to re-organize my thoughts and make sure I don't burn out on the paper. The positive side to that is that I can write a good bit in the 30 or so minutes i do spend writing.
One of the best things I have ever written and what really got me started on writing in general was something I wrote for my brother before he went to college. My brother is my best friend and not wanting him to leave I wrote down how proud I was of him and how much I was going to miss him. I gave this to him the night he graduated high school. I was in the 8th grade. I remember thinking that if I could put this much emotion, and work into writing, and get such a great feeling of satisfaction than I should try doing that more often. It wasn't really a "paper" per say but that it the first thing that I really wrote with emotion. That letter that I wrote to him got me focused on what writing is and that writing a paper is more than just research papers and book reports. After that anytime a teacher gave us an opportunity to write on an open topic, I took it as a chance to put emotion and feeling behind what I decided to write.

Hello, my name is timothy Costanzo, I go by Tim, Timothy, or Timmy....as long as i know your talking to me it doesnt really matter. I am a secondary english education major. I plan on being a Police officer but just incase I find that police work isn't my true calling, I will have a degree in something else to fall back on. I chose this major becasue I love educating others and feel that english is a way for people to express things that they may be too shy to share out loud. I play for the USCA mens soccer team. This is my second year at USCA and I am a junior.