Brittish Accents Aren't Always the Solution

I just thought I would share one of my papers that I wrote for a free write activity, its good:

It was a day like any other. I had walked into class, eager to learn and socialize with my peers. I took my normal seat inbetween my high school friend and my newer college friend and began to jabber on about different things that had occurred throughout my day. I would recieve some witty comments back, either at the expense of some unlucky soul in my current story, or at my own. But it didn't matter. I loved these two friends, smart ass comments and all. In fact, their smart comments and the witty repartee was the exact reason why earlier in that semester I had chosen to join these two people, as well as other fantastic students, in a group teach for our English 4790 class. The final presentation of the group project would not take place for weeks, but until then, I lovingly chose the seat between these two dear people, every class period.
It's hard to tell what began the downward spiral of the bond between my friends and I. It might have started on the one fateful day where I decided to be in the group with them. OR it might have been the day that a simple assignment was given to us, ending our friendship in a mess of one act plays, Brittish accents, grocery lists, and broken hearts.


I think thats all I'll write. My group knows what they did.

Minus Jen and Amanda. They're pretty cool.

That leaves only John and Drew who are uncool. Incase you have bad detective skills.

No more pesky hot air balloons

So I found this advertisement on a website, and I thought it was pretty creative. It always seems like everyone is looking for the tool with the most power, the car with the most horsepower, and the house that costs the most money. This advertisement appeals to that mind-set. I know that if I were looking for a vaccuum and I couldn't decide between which kind I would like, the one that could suck a hot air balloon out of the sky would definitely be my first choice. A lot of people seem to base their decisions as consumers on the creativity and originality of advertisements. If I were one of those people, I would probably have about five of these vaccuums.

Indy Teach

For those of you who didn't get my agenda for my Individual teach, here it is. It also has links to different site that may be helpful to you:


Introduction to the 6 Traits
-Brief explanation of “The 6-traits of Writing” teaching method
- Introduction of Vicki Spandel’s Book, “Creating Writers through 6-Trait Writing”
- Hand out papers, 5 crayons, and the Guide Book

Free Write:
This activity will give you the chance to write for 5-10 minutes about one of the following topics:
1. What is the Best/Worst Advice you have ever received?
2. What is your favorite holiday and why?
3. What is your favorite room in your house and why?
This activity will be used throughout the rest of the lesson and will be applied to each one of the new traits that we learn. Make sure you write about something you don’t mind sharing with your neighbor or the class.

The First Trait: IDEAS
- Explanation of “Ideas”
- The main questions to ask yourself while writing
- CRAYON ACTIVITY: Pass your free-write paper to the neighbor on your right. Go over the questions written on the poster in your guide-book. With your crayon:
-Highlight the main idea of your neighbor’s paper.
-Now highlight information that backs up the main idea
- Put a question mark next to anything that could use more information

The Second Trait: ORGANIZATION
- Explanation of “Organization”
-The main questions to ask while you’re writing
- Organization ACTIVITY demonstration: This is something that you would be able to do in your own classroom depending on the age level. Put a copy of “Jack and the Beanstalk” on the overhead projector and have your students come up and label which order they think the story goes in.

Reading from “Creating Writers”

The Third Trait: VOICE
-Explanation of “Voice”
-Reading from “Creating Writers” to help distinguish the difference between voices
-CRAYON ACTIVITY: Pull out your free-write paper again. Pass it to the neighbor on your left this time. On your neighbor’s paper:
- Highlight parts that really give the paper personality
-Highlight your favorite part of the paper
- At the bottom of the paper, write down a couple words describing what you think the person wanted to accomplish by writing this paper/

The Fourth Trait: SENTENCE FLUENCY
-Explain “Sentence Fluency”
-Look over some of the questions from the “Sentence Fluency” poster

The Fifth Trait: Word Choice
- Go over the list of word choices in the guidebook.
- CRAYON ACTIVITY: Underline all the words that seem common in your free write paper. Have the person on your right pick out some new words for the ones you underlined.

The Sixth Trait: CONVENTIONS/PRESENTATION
- Explain the importance of grammar and overall appearance of your paper.


SCORING


HELPFUL WEBSITES:

http://www.cyberspaces.net/6traits

http://www.ginnyhoover.com/sixtraits.htm

http://www.writingfix.com/Traits.htm

http://languagearts.pppst.com/6traits.html

Wait, I wanna be a boy.

Being raised on a farm amongst a conservative family was not always the easiest thing growing up. Following tradition, my sister and I were given the stereotypical chores. Wash the dishes. Vacuum the floors. Clean the bathrooms. Do the laundry. All of which I absolutely hated and still do today. My one brother also had his chores to do, which were more focused on manual labor and more physically challenging. I didnt notice that part though. All I knew, was that after breakfast on saturday mornings, by brother was allowed to take a quick nap. I had to do the dishes. I can easily say that at that point I thought life would be much easier if I were a boy.

Response to The English teacher's Red Pen

I have never been the student with perfect grammar or spelling. I remember several instances in which I turned in a clean white paper that I felt proud of, only to receive a dark red, marked up version of what was previously my paper. I don't think anyone can really say that they haven't felt that pang of disappointment when a teacher overlooks some incredibly genuine ideas because they are too focused on misspellings and bad punctuation. This article is defending students like me and promoting the idea that, hey, maybe some English teachers should lay off a little.
On the other side of this argument, knowing core elements of writing is almost as important as the unique ideas that are being written down. For instance, knowing and understand the engine of a car can help the driver know exactly how the car should be driven. It also helps the driver recognize problems with the vehicle, before it's too late. Just like the engine of a car, it is important for students to understand the mechanics that go into a well-written paper. Knowing this can help a writer recognize a problem and change it to make their paper better.
Now Im not saying that English teachers need to focus on grammatical errors and mark up each student's paper until they get it right. Like I have said before, I have been that disappointed student. But having a good grammatical foundation is important. However, it is not the most important.

I am from...Dandelions and Buzzing Bees

I am from green John Deere tractors,
Dirty dairy parlors,
And B.B. guns.

I am from fields of dandelions that are also
Fields of hidden buzzig bees.
I am from the rooftop of a farm house
Used for sneaking out and in.

I am from scary monsters under my bed
An old abandoned radio that never turns off,
and a grandma that swears in Welsh.

I am from Pear pie only made at Thanksgiving time,
war stories around a smokey campfire,
And tall grass that hids electric fences.

I am from "the cows are out" at 4 in the morning,
and "get the switch"
and "come, boss."

I am from an old squeaky screen door
That tells everyone in the house when I am late.

Assignment Two: Thoughts on Christensen

In reading some of Linda Christensen's book "Reading, Writing, and Rising Up" one passage stood out the most for me. "Where I'm From" was a section about allowing a student's personal life come into the classroom. Christensen discussed how inviting in the student's home life and personal experience opens up creative doors and makes the students feel safe. It also provides an enjoyable learning experience and causes the students to actually want to learn, attend class, and have more open discussions in the classroom.
While reading this section, I thought back to my experiences in high school and the English courses I took. My favorite types of papers to write were the ones involving my personal stories or my biography. It is in writing these papers that my confidence as a writer was built. A teacher or professor is less likely to scrutinize you on a paper that is made up of your own experience. Knowing that I wasn't going to be marked down for my thoughts is what gave me the confidence to push my writing in bolder directions, ultimately making my writing much stronger. Having a strong confidence in my thoughts and ideas, as well as my writing, is what helped me decide on being a teacher. I'm proof that combining students' personal and academic lives can really be a great idea.