Response Week 3

Blog Response Week Three

Reflection on Reflection

The reflection process has given me time to think, maybe too much. I found the theory of teaching assignment difficult. I don't feel like I have the professional vocabulary to describe what I want to to be and have going on in my classroom. That is why I am here though. Thinking about these theories, ideas, and assumptions for use in our classrooms excite me tremendously. I cannot wait to get into my won classroom. I am curious to know how I will reflect on this stage of my education when I am up to my eyeballs in essays. 

Hillocks Response

Teaching is telling. That thinking seems terrible. As a lifetime, almost professional, student i think teaching is telling is a bad bad idea. I don't understand how this ever worked. Hillocks explaining how teachers view problems as with the students and not with their practice I found enlightening. After last week's discussion on reflection, I wasn't sure how much stock I put in it. This has shown me the error of my ways. Reflection should come after work. Doogie Howser had the right idea. The time to look back and think about a lesson or strategy might be all that is needed to improve it or scrap it for good. 

The reading also encouraged me to be encouraging with my students. Teacher Jim upped his students' word counts by praising and encouraging them to do so. This positive attitude I think will be beneficial in the classroom. At first the idea of upping word count just to up it seemed silly, but thinking about it  now I realize, I am hyper aware of my own college level writing and not necessarily the writing that goes on at the first year composition course or at the high school level. A higher word count can also lead to improvements in editing skills and really lead to thought development beyond what the writer had in mind. Hillocks also states that “focussing on “correctness” resulted in shorter and simpler sentences.” I am going to try to keep this in mind as I go into the classroom. I want my students to learn not only correct usage, but that correct usage has a place that should not limit the idea behind the work. I did not find the frame experiment section of the paper “redundant” or “obvious”. I still have a shiny eye newcomer outlook to everything we have read. I think saying what is intrinsic has a value. In giving a name to what is done so naturally. By breaking down the frame experiment into steps it can give and instructor a clear idea about where there ideas are missing or hitting the mark. Overall I found the Hillocks' article interesting but a bit dated. But the ideas themselves are not dated to me so they must still have a value. 

Durst Response

Durst's explanation of students' self critical views scared me. To think my classroom might be stacked against me in not only skill but value of those skills seems, at this time, daunting. I wish that students were maybe one or the other. That they had poor skills and a good attitude or good skills and a bad attitude.  I feel I could reach a student with only one negative. That students are both sets teaching as an uphill battle. No one ever said this would be easy though, and nothing worth doing ever is.  The sentiments the students related in their essays ring true, and have could have come out of the mouths of any of my high school peers.  Most value getting the A the B the passing grade and I don't blame them. Now being on the other side of the desk I want to students to value the skills learned more than the assessment. 

Teachers and students have very different goals in the classroom. I don't see why we can't discuss these in the beginning and see where we can come together in them. Maybe in discussing our goals we can reach them better. I hope so. Students want: clear, concise, correct, and creative in their writing. Teachers want: critical, analyzation, writing process. Students want word level. Teachers want world level. I think that with world level word level can follow. They are not mutually exclusive.

Durst also talks about the ground rules of first year composition. The first year in college is a huge transition time in our students lives, I can relate. But I disagree with Durst in saying that the instructor's duty is to orientate students into college life and help them make their transition. I think we may be stretching ourselves too thin. I don't think that is any department's job. This is why there are freshman orientation classes. I want to believe that as good people we will do what we can to give comfort and support to all students. Teachers should also have an understanding of their students and realize that this transition time is difficult. We should see how our attitudes and demeanor can affect the students. We should all be positive role models. We should be encouraging guides down the college trail that leads to the road to life.