Section III – Instructional Strategies General Response

General Response to Instructional Strategies

First, I must begin by saying that some of the links on some of the websites I visited were either out of date, broken, or were not what they advertised. I think some of the websites do not get updated–ever. Navigating educational resource websites is absurdly difficult. It really takes a lot of patience to weed through hundreds upon hundreds of hyper links without any formatted text. One really has to look closely and slowly and figure out the organization (or unorganization) of each website to really get a feel for how it works; otherwise, finding things will be very difficult.

The websites I visited were the Graphic Organizers, Schools MovingUp a WestEd Initiative, and Teaching Methods Resources.

After aimlessly clicking through hoards of links to amalgamations of other websites, I found some cool things. The Graphic Organizers had really useful organizing techniques for student writing especially the spider maps and the persuasion map. There were lots of others that proved useful for brainstorming and organization in other content areas.

I found a great writing article, The Writing Rubric, published in Educational Leadership 62.2 (found from Schools MovingUP) that talks about how integrating writing rubrics into a classroom can affect the comprehension and quality of writing assignment. Although the analysis is for a fourth grade class, it defines the difference between assessment rubrics and instructional rubrics and their circumstances. Also, there is a discussion about peer review and peer feedback. In my Teaching High School English class, we have recently been discussing constructing rubrics, and this article would have been highly beneficial before I dived into this process. I think most of use, considering our past educational experiences, would default with the assessment rubric, which does little to instruct students.

The Teaching Methods Resources website had a section reserved specifically for writing and a whole plethora of other instructional materials. It linked me to another website, The Purdue Online Writing Lab, which has numerous resources about the writing process, research, and teaching methods. Although the resources are represented at the college level, the language is simple and easy enough for practically any high school student. To zoom in on a resource, there is a discussion about how to write about fiction pieces. It discusses highlighting key passages, writing in margins (which are usually no-no’s at any public high school), and strategies to help a reader focus on main points presented by the text.

There you go. There’s lots out there.

Kevin Webster

Resource #7: Research Papers

1. Name: Kevin Webster

2. Name of Sites:

• Research Paper from TheWriteSource.com “Should Cigarettes Be Banned in Public Restaurants?”
• Citation Maker from NCWiseOwl.
• Basic Steps to Creating a Research Project (From Web English Teacher)
• Creating a Thesis Statement From (Found through MarcoPolo Search)
• The Five Paragraph Essay (From SASCurriculumPathways)

• The I-Search Paper: Revised Edition of Searching Writing (Paperback) [this is a pretty famous book by Ken Macrorie, backed by NCTE since 1988)
  

3. Identify the teaching topic of the materials–be specific.  Identify the population of the students (grade,course):

• The teaching topic of this post is The Research Paper (dun dun dun).  For a ninth grade class I would not expect students to be able to write six to eight page research papers, but any practice they can get constructing thesis statements, using the five paragraph essay, and identifying the parts of a research papers is a good introduction to writing one.  This resources could actually be used in other courses than English.  Research is applicable in many areas: History, Math, Science, etc.

4. Give a brief description of how the materials would be used:

• Time would be allotted to present and have students work with different parts of the research paper: construction thesis statement, citing sources, avoiding plagiarism (this could be a class discussion), the parts of a research papers, creating arguments, supporting evidence, etc.
• The above materials are interactive to keep students active and thinking.
• There are resources out there for students to create I-Search papers, rather than RE-search papers that are more self-constructed and, in my opinion, more interesting because students are not just regurgitating information but compiling evidence and constructing meaning from what they find.

5. Identify other material that you could use with this material to augment instruction, especially for EC students:

• I typed in a Google Search “Research Papers, Students, Disabilities” and found a website that states that I-search papers:

Students with learning disabilities often struggle with the research paper. The research paper requires secondary sources, skills in organization and research that can be overwhelming. The I-Search Paper is self-discovery. You choose a subject that you want to learn about and then explore.

• That statement was from an article on I-Search Paper: Student’s with Learning Disabilities Research Paper.

6. Explain why you would use this material with your students.  How will it help you students learn the topic?

• I would introduce ninth graders to research because, well, it’s becoming integral in every secondary school in North Carolina.  Early preparation is key.  The ability to include secondary sources in one’s writing is invaluable.  The more practice students have with writing research, the easier it will be for them later on in the 12th grade.  It is also a dive into academic and scholarly thought about what is creditable information and what is not, kind of like in Dr. Trathen’s pirate lesson for that fourth grade class.

Resource #6: Examples of Student Writing and Essay formats

1. Name: Kevin Webster

2. Name of Sites:

• TheWriteSource.com
• Book: Essay writing for High School Students (1st edition)

3. Identify the teaching topic of the materials–be specific.  Identify the population of the students (grade,course):

• The purpose of using these materials is to provide examples to students of what consists of good and bad writing for different kinds of writing styles: Academic writing, personal narratives, research papers, memos, etc.  This would be a good introduction to writing styles for ninth grader English because the class pertains mostly to stylistics in all areas rather than competence in one area (think 12th grade research paper).  Also, students need preparation before entering 10th grade and taking the 10th grade writing test.

4. Give a brief description of how the materials would be used:

• The materials listed above are both examples of a specific style of writing and the book is about guided approaches to the writing.  The examples would be displayed on a projection or passed out, and essentially, the student and teacher would identify different parts of others’ writing, i.e. thesis, supporting and contrasting arguments, introduction and conclusion.  Students need to see examples of particular kinds of essays before they are expected to write it.  How would anyone ever write a poem if they don’t know a poem is?  That kind of mentality.
• After going through several essays, students could create graphic organizers and maps, or check lists based on what they find in other essays.  These pinpoints would be used to facilitate their own essay writing to make sure they have all that is required for a good piece of writing.

5. Identify other material that you could use with this material to augment instruction, especially for EC students:

• Power Writing Strategies for All Students is a book that has lesson plans and “support materials” for elementary and middle school students.  Also the description says that it is accessible for students “with or with out learning disabilities.”

6. Explain why you would use this material with your students.  How will it help you students learn the topic?

• I would use this material because it is important for students to see first what is expected of them later.  If students are not given clear expectations about particular assignments, they will be confused, frustrated, and most importantly, not learning anything.  To create good writers, they have to see, read, and dissect writing.  They need to be able to make connections about what is good writing and what is bad writing, so when they do write, they will be thinking about what they’re writing.  By critiquing writing, hopefully, they will become critics of their own writing and make better choices.

Resource #5: SAS Curriculum Pathways Resources

1. Name: Kevin Webster

2. Name of Sites:

• Writing: Process (SAS)
• Writing: Structure and Mode (SAS)
• Writing: Arguement (SAS)
• Writing: Imaginative Forms (SAS)

3. Source:

• SAS Curriculum Pathways: English: Communication Skills

4. Identify the teaching topic of the materials–be specific.  Identify the population of the students (grade,course):

• All of the topics under #2 meet NC-DPI standards for 9-12 writing.  The resources can be used to supplement writing instruction or introductions to specific writing activities.  If school has a writing class separate from literature, this site could be used as a pseudo-syllabus for the course of the semester.
• Ideally, this website would work best if most or all students in the class had internet access at home.  Some of the Web Inquiry’s could be done at home instead of in the classroom.

5. Give a brief description of how the materials would be used:

• If I were teaching a writing class, I would schedule multiple trips to the computer lab once or twice a week to view these resources.  Or, some of the activities can be presented by the teacher to aid a lesson that needs to be communicated in a guided way (like a PowerPoint).  For example, under Imaginative Forms, there is a “Classroom Activity” to help generate topics and ideas for short stories and poems.
• If one is doing a unit on poetry, short stories, etc, the website could be used in unison to teach the unit.
• There is a section for use to evaluate one’s writing as well.  If students in a writing class are completing a portfolio, revising writing, there is material on the site for that as well.

6. Identify other material that you could use with this material to augment instruction, especially for EC students:

• Since this would act as primary and secondary material there is not much one can do to augment this.
• Depending on the material presented (I doubt one would use all of it for one class), the teacher could find other material and activities that achieve the same end

7.  Explain why you would use this material with your students.  How will it help you students learn the topic?

• I would use this because it is highly accessible for students.  One positive is that if the instructor is familiar with the content, it could cut down on planning time, IF he or she could use it successfully.  I think it might be easy for some to use this as a replacement for the teacher, which I think is a bad idea.
• Also, if resources and method is successful, the website highlights the standards covered for the course.

Resource #4: Mad Libbing as Creative Writing and Grammar activity

1. Name:  Kevin Webster
2. Name of Sites:

• Teachers.net lesson (lesson review)
  
• Wocky Mad Lib Part 1 (ReadWriteThink.org)
• Wock Mad Lib Part 2 (ReadWriteThink.org)

3. Source:

• Mad Libs – Scream!!! (Educator’s Reference Desk)

4. Identify the teaching topic of the materials–be specific.  Identify the population of the students (grade,course):

• This Mad Lib strategy teaches two things, one in my content area for this class and one that is not:  1) Provide writing prompts that require students to heavily consider word usage and sentence structure.  2) To teach the usage of grammar in a fun and exciting way.  Number 2 ties in with number one in that language is heavily considered in this activity, but 1 concentrates more on the creative aspect of writing stories.  This activity can be used with about any grade.  It satisfies NCTE Standard 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information) and NC-DPI standards for all secondary grades.

5. Give a brief description of how the materials would be used:

• Depending on which way the instructor chooses to incorporate the lesson into their class (as a Creative Writing activity or a Grammar lesson) would require different approaches.  I think Mad Lib lessons could be a secondary resource if unexpected changes happen in the classroom.  Just the other day in my internship, their VCR broke, and they had nothing else planned; there needs to be goto activities that are easy to set up, accessible, and most importantly useful, not just busy work.
• For a writing lesson, students would do a few Mad Libs with the teacher first to show how word choice and sentence structure can set up different meanings.  Hopefully, students would realize that Mad Libs are meant to be  funny; in foresight, they will realize that different ways to set up the blank word choices can create more comical sentences.  Whether they realize this consciously or unconsciously, after creating a few stories themselves, they will recognize patterns in sentences that will lead the readers of their stories to create awkward scenarios.  In other words, they will be able to acquire the skills necessary to include the reader in their writing as well as  incorporating the thought of grammar in their writing.

6. Identify other material that you could use with this material to augment instruction, especially for EC students:

• An easier way to set up this lesson, is to have students pick out passages from previously read texts.  They would cognitively eliminate words from the passages and be able to create different meanings from change word choice.  I am going to use this mini lesson next week (2-24-2009) with the texts Speak and The Odyssey
• Amazon.com also sells Super Silly Mad Libs Junior (Ages 4-8) and Kid Libs (Ages 9-12) for younger ages and earlier learners.

7. Explain why you would use this material with your students.  How will it help you students learn the topic?

• I would use this material for one main reason, which almost does not sound creditable: it’s fun.  It does not create a stressful and high risk environment where students are highly nervous about their writing, but they are still applying their knowledge of writing skills and language concepts.  Because it’s fun students will want to engage in this activity more than once per semester.  A teacher could put it in his/her grab bag of random of activities if schedules get out of whack, but also, students could create short stories to revise, recreate, and finalize to put in portfolios to show how writing can change based on a few words.

Resource #3: Wordle Writing Prompts and activity

update: I found this Wikipedia article here about this idea and other variations of this idea below

Wordle.net© Image

1.  Name: Kevin Webster

2.  Name of Sites:

• Wordle.net
• “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost (poets.org)
• Poets.org
• Poetry formats

3.  Source:

• Web English Teacher

4. Identify the teaching topic of the materials–be specific.  Identify the population of the students (grade,course):

• These activities (which I am making up myself based on a tool found on Web English Teacher) could be arranged for creative writing prompts for any Secondary English (9-12) course as a warm up activity or as a tool to study literary periods or a particular poet.  Also, I envision this Wordle tool to be used in creative writing classes as well for student created work.

5.  Give a brief description of how the materials would be used:

• I envision this tool to be used either by the student or the teacher based on the instruction.  I think Wordle could be displayed on a projection screen or a SmartBoard.  A particular poem or poems would be inserted, like the one above, and students would be prompted to write about a particular few of the words or one in particular.  Then after writing the students would be given the actual formatted poem and they could compare and contrast their writing with the ideas of the poem to give them a different perspective of poetry and writing.
• The next idea I would use is to insert multiple poems of an author or multiple poems from a specific literary period and have students find patterns in the words; the teacher could possibly use colors that reflect the emotions of the poems selected.  Further along this idea, students could use this tool as a way to recapture a mood of a poet or literary period themselves following the same idea.  Their final product would be supplemented with a reflective type of writing to describe why they chose what they chose.
• One more way, with the provided poetry formats, students could create their own poetry from the words in the Wordle.net image.  This is a helpful process.  It gives students a different approach to writing their own poetry. They could later write down their own group of words this way that they may have no arrangement for and finally create their own poem.

6.  Identify other material that you could use with this material to augment instruction, especially for EC students:

• Since this resource is computer based, paper copies could be supplied.  If student was inable to operate a computer, the same idea could be expressed with preformed and cut out words and the student could arrange the letters himself instead of a computer arranging the letters according to a formula.  This is actually more interesting than the Wordle.com process which gives the user little power over how the words are arranged.  The cut out words could be provided for the student or the student, if able, could participate in this objective.

7. Explain why you would use this material with your students.  How will it help you students learn the topic?

• I would use this tool basically because it is fun and, at the same time, useful.  Playing with words provides a different and interesting look  into words and how their arrangements on a background (paper or posterboard or computer screen with colors and varying lines) can shape meaning and emotion.  If followed up with a detailed explanation of why words are arranged in a particular way, students would be required to think and describe the importance of the placement of words and what type of outcome they were trying to achieve.  It’s creative yet thoughtful and intellectual, in my opinion.

Resource #2: Blogging in the Classroom

Name: Kevin Webster

Name of Sites:

• Teachertube.com (video for lesson) Video can’t be embedded
• Edublogs.org
• Blog Handout (PDF File)

Source:

• Our class.  I am using our RE-4620 blogging tool as a method to increase high school writing.

4. Identify the teaching topic of the materials–be specific. Identify the population of the students (grade, course):

• Blogging would be used in the classroom to implement nonfiction writing, news writing, and journalism techniques to improve how audience affects writing.  It will also act as a way for students to publish culminated texts made in class for all to see.  (if looking at standards blogging works well with 11th grade NC-DPI standard Competency Goal 2: The learner will inform an audience by using a variety of media to research and explain insights into language and culture.)

5. Give a brief description of how the materials would be used:

• Blogging would be used as supplementary tool in the classroom for journaling and other mini-lesson topics throughout the entire year.  Basically students would be assessed on how frequently they write in their blogging on a wide of array of topics related to material and literature read in the classroom.  Writing would not be judge entirely on quality of writing but how they approach it according to the teacher’s guidelines (for example, writing reviews of news articles, letters to editors, creative writing)
• The video provided shows how blogs can be both personal and also professional outlets for particular purposes.   The teacher could also arrange for students to create a semester long blogs (like a procedural portfolio) according to a particular element of literature discussed throughout the class.  For example, one student could write entirely about how different authors presented to students deal with a certain subject presented in a conceptual unit plan to increase their understanding of the topic.  Basically, students could become reporters for their classroom and provide other texts (media) as necessary.

6. Identify other material that you could use with this material to augment instruction, especially for EC students:

• (working on this)

6. Explain why you would use this material with your students. How will the material help your students learn the topic?

• Blogging is an active 21st century approach to writing.  Because their writings will be posted on the Internet for all to see, it provides motivation to create quality material, and it also requires students to closely review their writing techniques.  It just isn’t the same as writing that can seem tedious in the classroom.  Blogging also allows for an interesting approach to peer review and student feedback about others’ writing.  Also, if students are using blogging as a means to publish and compile research (that is, students aren’t blogging just to be blogging but their blog is used in a way that has scholarly benefits), it is a way for them to organize their ideas and even manifest new ideas.

Resource #1 : UnitedStreaming Writing Videos

Kevin Webster

UnitedStreaming.com (Discovery Education)

Discovering Language Arts: Writing (Grades 9-12)

This resource could be used in any grade level that was trying to emphasize and introduce a particular style of writing to a classroom. The grade level is 9-12. The video should be used to inform.

Unitedstreaming.com (Discovery Education) has a whole one hour movie that is broken up into shorter segments dedicated to different styles of writing. For example, one segment uses the topic of the Titanic to emphasize that essays are an essential tool to write about events that have happened in the past. Students are guided visually through the event of the titanic while adding possible elements that would prove useful for an expository essay. At first, I was hesitant about this video, but now I think that the video does show how to incorporate ideas, and it provides a means to evaluate whether your own work reflects what a good expository essay requires.

Personally, I would not let the video stand alone. I would have students take notes about the elements and use them as guidelines for their own personal essay. I would reiterate the topics in the video after showing because sometimes that is just what it takes.

As far as augmenting this, the only think I could think to do is to provide a handout highlighting the video’s topics and displaying it large and loud if someone were disabled.

I would use this material because it authenticates how expository essays could be used in 21st century teaching format. Though it should not take the place of the teacher, it shows how expository essays can be used in the real world and that they do have purpose in our lives to make meaning of things we encounter (we read them all the time in magazines, articles, etc)

Kevin Webster

PS: there is a down side, the website does not allow you to embed videos elsewhere-hence the reason why I didn’t.

Kevin Webster – Resource Reviews

One thing that I learned most about this activity was not just finding out about the resources that exist ‘out there’ but it also gave me the chance to use the Furl Toolbar.  There were lots of things that I found that I could use later for this class and maybe even with my internship.

The websites I chose to look at were SAS Curriculum Pathways (since I already had an account), Discovery United Streaming, NC WiseOwl, and the MarcoPolo website.  My goal was to search these websites for writing activities, ideas, or projects that involved writing.

SAS Curriculum Pathway’s website completely amazes me.  Not to my surprise, it had a section in communication skills dedicated to writing.  It was organized by Process, Structure & Mode, Argument, and Imaginative Forms. Honestly, I got lost in this one activity about how to write a Villenelle, a difficult French form of poetry based on phrases and rhymes.  If one were to teach a writing class, SAS has all the resources you need.  And what is interesting is that the website uses real world examples to show process and technique.  For editing and revising, SAS linked to Walt Whitman’s foundation and showed revising of some of his most famous poems.

The Discovery United Streaming Website appeared to really interactive.  I found a video that uses New York City as a backdrop to talk about descriptive uses of words for poetry and prose, I will probably post it later.  Also included on the website were “Writing Prompts.”  The prompts usually showed a picture with a prompt asking students to think about a specific current issue.  One that I found interesting was about Cell Phones in the world and how we are able to use the telephone absolutely anywhere we please; the prompt then asked them to imagine the pro’s and con’s of cell phone usage through their writing.  Not only does this involve critical thinking, but it also is a means of indirect behavior modification hopefully!

NC WiseOwl didn’t flatter me much.  I have seen this website many times since I was in high school, and I have always been bored with it.  The layout does not look productive in anyway.  It doesn’t “show” that it offers much; it takes a lot of digging.  I did find a whole alphabetical list of writers and their biographies that included comments on their particular style of writing; however, the essays were a little out of the league of high school reading.  It did, on the other hand, have a list of North Carolina Newspapers and their website to use with something I found on MarcoPolo.

MarcoPolo was a decent search engine that compiled lessons and interactives from website such as Read, Write, Think, National Geographic, etc, etc.  It allows one to refine their search criteria.  I typed in Writing for 9-12, and tons of lessons and ideas popped up.  One was a Read, Write, Think Lesson about writing Letters to the Editor.  This type of writing involves lots of persuasion, justification, and concise language.  What I also liked about this project was it’s “real-worldness” (I made that up).  It shows how writing can have impacts if you can get it published and how it can open up new strands of thought and communication that others have shut out or are blind to.  It also gives students a sense of agency and power if they can express their word to a worldwide, or at least local, audience.

Kevin Webster