Teaching Writing

I admire the extreme clarity that Warnock provides in his textbook but also in his online course examples. In regards to online courses I can see how providing students with clear directions and consistency is important for a students success. Also something that I have also noticed is how important technological literacy is... this is an important topic to discuss because not all students are fluent in google docs, blackboard, etc... or I would imagine that first year students might not be accustomed to certain programs. For example, I know some universities use Canvas rather than Blackboard and I have no idea how to use Canvas so I would need to learn an entire new program. It's important for teachers to create a space for new students to ask questions about formatting and allow some room for flexibility. I once had a teacher who would not accept google docs and would only accept Microsoft Word and it was a pain in the butt to learn an entire new system online because I have an a...

During this pandemic, we all had adapt to online courses quite rapidly and from a student's perspective I actually prefer this format although at times it has been super stressful. I have had 2 power outages this semester because I live in a mountainous area but I still prefer online to on campus. I don't miss the long commute to campus, paying a ridiculous parking pass, waiting a few hours between classes, or spending 30 minutes trying to find a parking spot. With that being said, I believe that in the Fall or even in the New Year we will see more online classes being offered for specific majors. Through this experience,  I would imagine CSUDH will most likely develop a large online course catalog to try to maximize tuition profits and minimize student capacity on campus... because at the end of the day all universities operate on some business model. So if this does happen the question should be whether online students should pay equal tuition fees. 

First and foremost, my previous online classes at CSULB are nothing compared to this class, which is to say, I know what I have to do and I feel personally invested in learning. However, in my first few rounds of virtual learning, I was in complete hell. I hated  online classes because I felt absolutely no personal investment in the class and the subject, and everything that Warnock and Gasiewski describe is not at all like my experiences with online classes. I will say, Warnock is very virtual "hands on," and for good reason - they need it. Sure, for him, many of these students are continuing their first year of year-long coursework in English composition; for me, I was already close to finishing my Bachelor's degree / I was in my teaching credential program. The thing is, no matter how much "knowledge" or schooling you have, nothing can compare to those for couple of online courses. Quite honestly, I know that I was held accountable for not doing well. I could...

Designing curriculum is probably one of the most enjoyable aspects of being a teacher, at least in my experience. When I was in my credential program, I spent so much time learning how to design assessments, both formative and summative, as well as objectives, curriculum maps, and lesson plans, all aligning with Common Core State Standards, culturally relevant pedagogy, and student-interest as much as possible. The Lindemann chapters were very informative, and they summarized what it means to design curriculum very impressively. Still, the quote that stands out to me goes as followed: " First, knowing about teaching does not always translate into being an effective teacher, any more than knowing what about writing makes students effective writers" (253). Personally, I could not imagine teaching college-level students without having some form of experience in the classroom as the teacher or even a tutor. A potential teacher can spend hours and semesters reading about what ma...

I found it difficulty connecting a singular theme to these three distinct readings, but after looking back at the syllabus, referring to the readings as "composition research" makes more sense. These three readings bring up unique approaches to composition, which is something I have appreciated more week after week. Prior to the class, I really only saw composition as writing content and curriculum, but there are so many viewpoints and "lenses" to approach composition, similar to literary criticism and theory and the way scholars approach a text. Together, these readings invite me to reconsider somethings that I otherwise did not consider about composition. the Lancaster reading that studied sentence frames and templates from They Say, I Say was very insightful for someone like me who provides frames on a daily basis. Teaching 9th grade English to a virtual room of 13-15 year old students requires spontaneous motivation. I try to maintain them engaged by providing t...

      These are the areas of the reading that I wanted to discuss for this week:   1.) I would really like to implement the method for teaching writing that is discussed in chapter five of the Warnock and Gasiewski text that has to do with peer reviews. In this method, students provide feedback to each other on the peer reviews and revisions that they do for their  peers when  reviewing each other’s writing. What I like about this method is that students will get feedback on the type of feedback that they are giving when they do peer reviews for others which allows them to see if the type of  feedback  they are giving is useful and effective rather than feedback that shows little effort. It helps them to understand when they aren’t being specific enough or reading their peer’s writing as thoroughly if their comments aren’t very detailed. It also allows them to help their peers improve their feedback as well which makes  all of  the stude...