Laurie+Caudle-Poikey

__Blog #1 Response to Allan Abbott article "English Teacher Education as Literary Teacher"__

Since I have been a teacher for 29 years, seeing an article which was written in 1901 caught my attention. I have personally seen teaching evolve over the years, and I wanted to see another professional's perspective on the change. A few ideas made me laugh, yet a few were spot on! Either way, I found the article both entertaining and enlightening.

Abbott explored the branches of English that are desirable for students to possess before college age. He stated that students should be able to understand expressed thoughts of others and give their own expression to thoughts of others. That seems logical especially since I believe he was talking about reading and writing. He went on to say students should develop a taste for reading so students know what is "good reading." I know in my classroom, reading is reading. I just want my students to read and discuss ideas. I think students should be able to distinguish why writing is good, but do we really want to shape their thinking for them on personal preference? I know practice makes perfect, so if my students read and read often, I am happy.

The article talks extensively about examinations. Due to the MME, Michigan Merit Exam, and the ACT, American College Testing, teachers must test often--pretests and post tests are required in many schools--even teach to the test. Testing has always been controversial. How can we really test students to see what they know? Abbott even says, "In order not to subvert our whole course in English to the minor purpose of examinations-passing, I should confine the special preparations for the examinations to the last school year." If teachers are actually teaching our students to be lifelong learners, when we teach a specific skill shouldn't matter. We should be teaching students in such a way as to make the knowledge a part of their everyday lives. Abbott talked about the "good literature" and he is really only referring to the classics. We have come so far! The huge movement today is informational test reading which was reserved for only science and social studies in years past. I see this new trend as a step in the right direction. Students need to know how to read and comprehend all texts, all genres. If we do this, students should be ready to test any time.

Abbott made the comment of alluding to the bible as often as possible. Unfortunately, in our world today this may be crossing boundaries we should not cross. This does sadden me though. He also stated that humdrum reading should be criticized. I laughed. How wants to read redundant, boring material.

The best part for me was when he said students need to enjoy what they read and write. When students have a vested interest in a topic, they try harder and do more. Inquiry today states just that. Students need to question and find answers. Authentic exploration expands a student's mind and keeps their attention. Abbott said the teacher should "carefully correct the student work," but I think students need to work on improving their own after studying good models and with assistance from the teacher and other students.

Abbott concluded with teaching will be successful when teachers "put heart and soul into the pleasurable task of leading their pupils to the enjoyment of good books and simple correct expressions of their most interesting thoughts." I concur with this statement and add I still love teaching.

Abbot, Allan. "English in the Secondary Schools: A Review." //The School Review 9.6// (June 1901): 388-402.

__Blog #2 Why Is Everyone Talking About Adolescent Literacy?__

As an English teacher, I talk about literacy often. I talk to parents about literacy often. After reading this article, I have discovered that I am not crazy and many ideas I have are emphasized here. I know most subjects, besides English, do not teach reading strategies. Many high school language arts classes do not teach reading strategies. Many teachers assume students have these skills and will use them. I agree that we all need to emphasize literacy instruction and intervention through professional development. Many students feel it is a daunting task to read many pages for an assignment and we, as teachers, feel they should be able to do it. I have started implementing reading strategies for my high school students and assign students to use these strategies to read everything, especially other subject matter. I model the strategies, place the strategy and steps on posters in my room, then encourage students to practice and use one each time they read. I often stop students and ask them what reading strategy they are using. I don't care which one; I just want to know they are using one.

Modeling is crucial for students. Seeing a teacher model a behavior is essential to learning. If language arts teachers forget to model and use reading strategies, it is obvious other disciplines won't either. My school has started to implement a literacy intervention, and it is tied closely to EBLI, Evidence Based Learning Instruction. Through this, we have discovered that vocabulary is a huge obstacle for students. I teach this practice to all of my students, and we use it with all our vocabulary words, but our special education teachers go further with this process and assist students during a study skills class. How can students comprehend when they can't understand the vocabulary words. I emphasized this just last week when I asked my students what the narrator means when she says, "She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether." Almost every student group made a stab in the dark at the idea. I encouraged students to look up "ether" in the dictionary to be sure they understood what it meant. Sadly, no one did and no one came close. When I told students it could be used as an anesthetic to put people to sleep or numb pain, suddenly they could figure out the question and give a reasonable answer. I had to use this teachable moment to stress the importance of vocabulary and having a large working vocabulary. I could see the epiphany for many.

I often ask my reluctant students if they practice football every night after school. They reply yes. I then ask them why and they always say to get better. I say you know you will read something every day, so why not read more often to get better? Usually they say there is nothing "good" to read. Our common core asks teachers to have students read more informational texts and this text stated "youth . . . report frequent online reading." I know students enjoy reading online, and I am now implementing this with informational texts. I am now investigating using blogs in my classroom to get students to write more just as we are doing in ENGL 530 to respond to other students. I believe my students will enjoy doing this and possibly write more. Most youths love Facebook, so why not use better topics than gossip. If anyone has suggestions to help me, please let me know.

I do believe bringing technology into the classroom will grab more students. "Analyzing how school reading and writing resemble the reading and writing that young people choose to do every day may help us design more meaningful, engaging, and accessible school-based reading and writing tasks." I did a survey of my students and asked them various questions about their reading, writing, and learning styles. Most said they enjoy group projects, and all but three students said they had a facebook or twitter account. Wow! If they can type and read online at home, they can certainly use blogs and text online to learn and even enjoy learning at school.

Hurston, Zora. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New Jersey: Everbind Analogies. 2004, 36.

Snow, Catherine, and Elizabeth Moje. "Why Is Everyone Talking About Adolescent Literacy?" //Phi Delta Kappan// 91.6 (March 2010): 66-69.

__Blog #3 Who is a proficient language user?__ I found this weeks reading more practical. Each article spoke to my teaching personally. To begin, grammar is an issue since I am "told" I should teach grammar from our administration. My administration feels so strongly that it will help with ACT/MME scores, our principal created a grammar class for all juniors to take. I have heard students talk about this class and I know it is not effective. The teacher teaching it goes right out of a text book with definitions and exercises. I have already this year taught a mini lesson for students with questions. We used song titles Friday to distinguish sentence, phrase, and dependent clauses from each other. They loved it. So I read the Lindblom and Dunn article, it gave me new ideas. My seniors could learn or review grammar through grammar rants. A whole grammar dialogue could ensue. The article stated that, "traditional grammar instruction does not help students write better," and I agree. We have discussed why grammar is important especially how other will judge them based on their language as in a job interview. Students can understand that, but most hate grammar. I think the rants are a new take on how to study grammar, and it gives students an avenue to talk about grammar, not just fix sentences in exercises. Raps lyrics would be great too. Some students love rap but even the ones who hate it, would be motivated to look for grammar errors and want to discuss the issue. I just may place this article in my colleagues mailbox.

The article //"Students' Rights to Their Own Language": A Retrospective// was interesting to me as well even though the school I teach in is about 96% white. We have a few Mexican Americans and a few blacks. It doesn't seem like an issue but I see through the article it is especially when we are reading //Their Eyes Were Watching God//. One young man, who some consider a low achiever, read orally in class the other day. Students were shocked that he read the dialogue so well. If anyone is not familiar with the novel it is about black Americans and the dialogue can difficult to read. After students expressed their shock at is fluent reading, this young man stated, "This is easy. This is the way I talk." Students laughed but Smitherman made me realize how this all fit together. I have always noticed how home life affects oral and written communication, and as the CCCC stated that we should "promote classroom practices to expose students to the variety of dialects that occur in our multi-regional, multi-ethnic, and multi-cultural society." After discussing this students reading ability with black dialog, another student chimed in and said, "I am from the south and it is how some of my relatives talk." The timing of reading this article was perfect.

Smitherman went on to state that all students should be required to develop competency in three different languages: language of wider communication, their mother tongue, and a foreign language. That does make sense. I believe most school do require a foreign language and some students say that makes English easier to understand. I think the words become proficient" should be in there too since learning about and becoming proficient are different. Students often are exposed, but never really learn a foreign language. I often tell my students that learning all aspects of language allow the pieces to fall into place like a puzzle. They should be able to get the whole pictures after examining more aspects of language.

As far as the Elbow article is concerned, this is an aspect I have often talked about with students. Spoken English is closer to what they know than written English, but ACT/MME tests want the formal written English. I often compare and contrast spoken and written English to help them understand the difference. I was surprised to read that "imaginative literature has more in common with spontaneous conversation than with the typical written genre, expository prose." After thinking about this, it makes clear sense that narratives are closer to spoken language. Even the scop telling the story of Beowulf would use different language than a piece of expository writing. I like Elbow's comment that "sadly, people who want to write "well" in our culture of literacy often try to strive for certain words and phrases because they would not naturally come out of a mouth." I had to smile because I see students using words from a thesaurus to enhance their writing but truly all they are doing is looking for big words to make them sound intelligent. The aspect of spoken language being more coherent than written language made me think but the examples seemed to reinforce this. I just always thought by writing and revising the written word would be more coherent. I guess that goes back to the student how tries to add more big words to their writing which may sound intelligent to them but doesn't make the writing more coherent.Again I smiled when I read "I can virtually always understand their free writing, however messy and jumpy it might seem, whereas I often can't understand their carefully revised texts." That is so very true.

Lindblom, Kenneth and Patricia A Dunn, "Analyzing Grammar Rants: An Alternative to Traditional Grammar Instruction." English Journal 95.5 (May 2006): 71-77.

Smitherman, Geneva. "Students' Right to Their Own Language" A Retrospective." The English Journal, Vol 84, No. 1. (Jan 1995) 21-27.

Elbow. Peter. "Speech as a Product." New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

__Blog #4 How do we read, interpret, and respond to texts?__

This was an interesting week of reading for me. As a high school language arts teacher, I struggle with this often. I have older teens who still struggle with reading and tell me they have never read a novel cover to cover. This saddens me. When I ask them why, they usually respond I am a bad reader or I hate reading. This baffles me. Who could hate reading? How could older teens still struggle with comprehension?

I often ask students what they do when reading and they encounter a word they don't know? Usually, the response is skip the word. I also ask students what they do when they are writing and they can't remember how to spell a word they want to use, and often times the reply is they change the word to one they know. I have seen through the years this in practice and it does change the tone and reading level of the writing: consequently, skipping words makes comprehension difficult. Just the other day in senior English my students came across the sentence in Their Eyes Were Watching God, "She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether." Not one senior knew what ether was! I told them it was the key to the meaning of the sentence. Only one student looked it up. The next day I asked again what ether meant. No one replied. One student said they had just guessed and they thought it meant that the horse loved being free and so did Janie. We had been talking about Janie loosing her freedom and her husband being more and more controlling. When I told students it was used to sedate people or dull pain, then suddenly everyone understood the sentence. They even discussed how Janie was trying to dull her pain. I then reiterated my statement that all words are important and some even more so than others.

I think vocabulary is a huge obstacle for understanding text. I attended a conference last year, EBLI Evidence Based Learning Instruction, which is based on just that. Knowledge of words brings better comprehension to text. After searching for articles, I found "Effective Vocabulary Instruction" which gives research on the topic and practical assistance for teaching vocabulary. Coincidentally, this article and "Literacy in Our Lives" both hit on the same idea "socioeconomic backgrounds and the language use in their homes and communities can significantly influence opportunities to expand their vocabularies." I have always believe this just through the practical exposure with students I work with every day. I do know that just trying to teach vocabulary doesn't work. I constantly strive to get students using new, more precise words. One idea that recently helped my students was giving students vocabulary words before they read chapters in their assigned novel //Of Mice and Men//. I gave them definitions and they had to use the words in sentences about the chapter. At the end of the novel, I gave the students the whole list and asked them to connect each word to a person or event in the novel. After the novel test, many students said the vocabulary was easy due to placing the words in context like one student said, "I will always remember Curly as pugnacious, and I will always remember the meaning of the word." I was extremely please.

Of course, like both articles said, getting students to read and read often is the best practice to achieve comprehension. I know how try this is. I can almost always spot a reader since they are usually more intelligent and proficient writers. I love to see students using affixes to figure out meaning of words too. I think teachers don't stress this enough. I think the last line of Sedita article says the most," research supports combining both the definitions of new words with the context in which the words are used." That is essential and beneficial. It is sad though, as in Yagelski chapter that some students teased or even reprimanded for reading too much. I actually had a parent tell me before school began that her daughter "read too much." She said she would punish her by taking away books. I was shocked and appalled. This young lady is in sports and is extremely intelligent as well as outgoing. She is well liked by her peers too. I just can't believe a parent could ever think their child reads too much. I think at Parent/teacher Conference this year, I will give a little research to that parent and hopefully change her opinion of her daughter's reading practice.

Sedita, Joan. "Effective Vocabulary Instruction" //Insights on Learning Disabilities// (2005) 33-34 Yagelski, Robert P. //Literacy Matters: Writing and Reading the Social Self//. New York, New York: College Press 2000.

__Blog #5 Who is the literate reader of what tests?__

One quote from Blau's article that really struck me was, "When simple lack of appropriate effort is treated--as it often is--as a symptom of insufficient mastery of some sub-skill of reading, students are likely to be offered forms of instructional assistance that support inattention and confirm the students' own mistaken notion that hey lack some specialized body of knowledge or reading skills that distinguish them from their teachers." I agree with this statement completely. I try to instill in each of my students that they can achieve. I do believe our special education teachers spoon feed students and allow them to give up. I strongly believe many students could strive for a higher level of intellect if they were pushed and held accountable for their own achievement. All students have some prior knowledge and can choose text for themselves. I think teachers need to make students use their own intellect and stop spoon feeding knowledge that will quickly leave a students since it isn't authentic knowledge. I love the idea of fallibilists--students being capable of changing their own minds, capable of learning from their encounter with other readings in new ways. I certainly hope that my students can be open minded, interact with text and then synthesize information to actually make then realize their old ideas are just that obsolete. I do not want to brainwash my students, but I do hope they learn and will adapt their beliefs from what they read and have obtained from books. The activities of alternative perspectives, drama activities, and role playing are activities I will try to incorporate more often in my classroom. I like the idea of cold play too. I should enter the classroom sometimes without having read an assignment, model how I would attack a story or reading assignment. I thought I always do explain the process, but the cold reading might serve my students best. Thein, Beach and Parks made me think more about //Their Eyes Were Watching God.// They used the novel as examples often in their article and it made me think about how I teach it. I always try to get my students to empathize with the characters. I often have them write on quotes in the text to make them think how a character might feel. Hurston's novel is good about doing that. Students can relate to parent/child roles, husband/wife roles, and black/white roles. I have to realize that, "this kind of change begins in subtle, transitory forms, we argue that in looking at the state of our world today, this is the kind of change that might truly be transformative." I think any change of epiphany of thought is wonderful and I just may hope for too much from my students sometimes. Discourse is a dynamic step to knowledge and comprehension. I do realize that I am the navigator for students in discussions and I do need to guide the discussion, but sometimes I do worry about what I say. I teach in a very conservative area and I tend to be more liberal. I find myself often taking the high road and I have trouble maneuvering through the course. I feel like their are mind fields out there and I must be careful of where I step. I am usually guided by my heart though. I know students find identity in classroom discussions which leads me to draw all students in and never disregard a student's comment. I know it is extremely difficult for students to talk in class, so I must make it a safe place for them to share their ideas and ideals. I do know that the identities they bring to my classroom shape how they situate themselves as literacy students. I think I need to be careful and pay close attention to how I position students in my classroom. I do often share my background and experiences with my students hoping to break the ice and help gain trust and understanding from my students as to who I am. Vetter's last statement, It is important that teachers pay attention to the power of their words and how they shape students' experiences in literary classrooms." This is a big task I will pay more attention to in the future.

Blau, Sheridan. "Performative Literacy: The Habits of Mind of Highly Literate Readers." Voices in the Middle 10.3 (March 2003) 18-22 Vetter, Amy." Positioning Students as Readers and Writers Through Talk in a High School English Classroom." English Education 43.1 (October 2010) 33-64. Thein, Amanda Haertling. Richard Beach, and Daryl Parks. "Perspective-Taking as Transformative Practice in Teaching Multicultural Literature to White Students." //English Journa//l.97.2 (November 2007) 54-60

__Blog #6 How do we compose texts?__ It has been a busy week for me, so I just finished reading my articles for this week. Thinking of the articles and the conference on Friday, I guess the texting article by Turner appealed to me most. I guess because I see students texting all the time, and I want to get students from hiding a cell phone and texting in their pocket to doing their work. Phones are forbidden in our school, but students just can't keep their hands off of them. I try to incorporate them into my classroom because students are so drawn to them. I has a student using the dictionary on her phone often and I don't mind, but I have never explored what I could use them for. I know over the years I have fallen into textspeak. This is how my daughters and I communicate when I am at school. Just like instant messenger or emails, I started using standard English to text but it took too much time. I quickly started using textspeak to shorten my typing since I didn't have a full keyboard. I fell into it easily. I know many students can't spell well, but textspeak is easy for them. Or the autotext which guesses what you are typing and then fills in the last few letters. I have never thought of allowing students to change textspeak into standard English or vise versa. I believe I will try this in my classroom. I will try anything to get my students writing and expressing their thoughts and ideas. Most people can jump from standard to nonstandard English when they are having a conversation, so why not go from textspeak to standard English to formal English. I really connected with Turner's words, "We make a lot of assumptions about the nature of language . . . We assume that standard English is Right with a capital R, and that anything else is improper, bad, incorrect, and fractured." I have felt that way and with texting, I am beginning to change my mind. So does different dialect mean someone has bad speaking skills? I think not. Applebee and Langer article talked about going from typewriters to word processors and even a plethora of related tools. I always tell my students they are so lucky to have the world at their finger tips. It is true. Typing on a manual typewriter and placing footnotes at the bottom of a page was an art in itself. Now computers have revolutionized writing papers. After reading the article, I realize I do not utilize the computer as much as I could. I always make my students write often. Usually an essay a six weeks, with numerous short assignments like dialogues, letters, journals, and summaries, and I do have each class do an extended piece of writing--seniors 10-12 pages. I have to roll with the times and allow my students to take notes on the computer, write their first draft on the computer and revise on the computer. I have used the works cited assistance on Microsoft Word, but I need to utilize all the capabilities the computer can offer. I was afraid to allow note taking and first draft on the computer because I was worried about plagiarism. I truly thought the note taking on the computer and the first draft composed on the computer, would just allow plagiarism to occur even more. I have to let go and allow students to do their thing. I am not going to explore how to restructure my senior research paper to utilize the computer as much as possible. I know student like using the computer, so why not type your first draft on the computer and then just revise it? They don't have to reinvent the wheel. Why write it once and then type it once and revise it? They could leave out the writing all together. How to organize notes on the computer? I am not sure, but I will investigate that topic. I hate to admit it, but all this standardized testing is making teachers have students write more and under different types of genre. It is encouraging graphic organizers since students can't revise it. I do know that cross-curricular writing needs to happen more. When academic teachers are encouraged to have students write more, they almost always say," I can't teach or grade writing." I always want to ask them how they made it through college. I think this is a cop out for many teachers. Teachers are raising the stakes for students because the teachers' stakes have been raised too.

Applebee, Arthur N. and Judith A. Langer. "What is happening in the Teaching of Writing?" //English Journal// 98.5 (2009) 18-28 Turner, Kristen Hawley. "Flipping the Switch: Code-switching from Textspeak to Standard English." //English Journal//. 98.5 (2009) 60-65

__Blog #7 "What tests should we compose?"__

What a coincidence that I printed off the article "Same as It Ever Was: Enacting the Promise of Teaching, Writing, and New Media," to discover it touched upon the very topic I wrote about late week when we responded to writing topics. I am intrigued by the idea that technology can help students become better writers. I have been reading numerous article this week for my annotated bibliography of just that topic. This article put a different twist on some of the articles I had been reading. We don't need to use technology when we teach just to use it; we need to use it fully to enhance the writing experience. Technology is all around us and we do need to embrace it, understand it, then put it into practice. I grew up using typewriters and I was frustrated with footnotes. I remember in college taking a teaching class on using technology and I learned how to use a movie projector, reel to reel, and how to use microfilm and microfiche. They did seem advanced to me, but today's technologies blow these out of the water. I constantly try to use technology since I believe students like using technology and are very comfortable with it. I do think students do not see the real beauty of technology. "to us falls the responsibility of helping young people learn how to communicate in our contemporary culture."(Hicks) I love seeing students communicate, but I do wish it were more thought through instead of just a response to a text. I guess that is why I loved Katie's story which was a digital story in Yagelski's article. Students do enjoy writing using technology. I did make the connect between Yagelski's article and Hicks' article. Both talked about how we should, "awaken a responsiveness to the profounder meanings of life so that there will be aroused in the student genuine thoughts and feelings along with the desire to communicate them." This praxis should be our goal for writing and motivating our students to connect with the whole experience and learn from the process as well as the product. As teachers, we feel are instructed to teach to the common core standards, and help accountable for our students meeting these standards on standardized tests. I felt this was a daunting task. Teachers keep hearing teach the persuasive essay and the explanatory essay more or only! This is a disservice to writing. As I get older, I am not so worried about "pleasing" administration. I am more concerned about my students learning and I do think praxis writing will make better writers and citizens. Back to the technology, technology can allow student voices to be heard in a different light. "The use of computers help teach writing includes their capacities for generating, storing, and revising texts, for allowing groups of people easy access to each other's work." This is awesome! Modeling is a wonderful teaching tool, but for students to see other students work is much better. Teachers need to know how to use and implement technology to get the most from it. I think I am now ready to implement blogs into my classroom. I know during a classroom discussion, not all students get the chance to speak or respond to others as I would like them too. I think blogging just may give voices to ALL students.

Hicks, Troy, Carl A.Young, Sara Kajker, and Bud Hunt. "Same as It Ever Was: Enacting the Promise of Teaching, Writing, and New Media." //English Journal// 101.3 (2012) 68-74.

Yagelski. Robert P. "Extending the Conversation." //English Education//. (January 2012) 188-204.

__Blog #8 What is Valid Assessment?__

Good Question. I grapple with this every day I teach. Students come from so vast differences due to race, income, family life, and educational background. I always want to grade a student's progress, but the "educational system" wants me to grade the standards of which they have achieved. With the "No Child Left Behind Act" I find I am being pressured to teach to a test. That goes against the very fiber of my teaching standards. The two articles "Prominent Features . . . " and "Beyond Strategies ... " both intrigued me. I found something I could use in each. As for the "Prominent Feature" article, I find teaching students about prominent features seems much more advantageous due to concrete ideas. I often try to teach students about content essential for good writing, but the task is difficult especially if you use the wording from the ACT scoring guidelines. Phrases like "essay takes a position and offers a critical context for discussion," "development of ideas are ample, specific and logical," "organization is clear," "transitions reflect the writer's logic," and "essay shows a good command of the language." I discuss these ideas with students, but it is still difficult for most students to clearly understand what is expected in written results. I give examples and student follow models, but still it seems elusive to many. I think ideas like sensory language, metaphors, alliteration, vivid or action verbs, hyperboles, adverbial leads, and effective repetition are much more concrete and beneficial to students. I was surprised with the example of a student paper which was scored as a 4 because I didn't think it was that well written. I plan to devise a chart of prominent features for students to follow as they write their essay or papers on my next assignment. The two classroom studies made the point that students need to be engaged, having fun to encourage students to work hard. Intrinsic value adds more to any assignment. I have to say that from all the articles I have been reading, I will adapt my teaching style to incorporate some of these ideas. I am sure that makes my instructor happy, but I have made copies of all the articles and I plan to revise them and keep reading more articles every. . . month. I can't say week since I am often too busy, but I will read article more often now. Just like the medical profession, new theories and ideas pop up every day. I need to stay on top of them.

Swain, Sherry, Richard L. Groves, David T. Morse, and Kimberly J. Patterson. "Prominent Feature Analysis: What It Means for the Classroom." English Journal. 99.4 (2010) 84-89. Whitney, Anne, Sheridan Blau, Alison Bright et all. "Beyond Strategies: Teacher Practice, Writing Process, and the Influence of Inquiry." English Education 40.3 (April 2008) 201-230.

__Blog #9 What is research in the context of teaching?__

Research is conducted and will always be conducted to give educators a base of strategies they can implement into their classrooms. Especially for a new teacher, how can any educator plan a lesson with out some kind of research to support why and how they will teach a lesson. We do have the common core to use, but I feel that standards can be taught many ways. A teacher's own personality and that of their class, should dictate how they teach. Everyone must feel comfortable with what they are doing to be successful. Enthusiasm speaks volumes when a teacher is modeling for students. Educators tend to teach how they feel comfortable and this way they are more enthusiastic and successful. Students must feel the same way. Educator constantly dictating to students what they must read and write, stifles their creativity. Nizol stated that she needed to engage her students in the writing process by using the positioning theory, so students would see themselves as writers. I know my own students constantly think they are writing for me. I want them to create for a variety of audiences and to write what they feel has impact on their life. When the writing process, done correctly, takes time, I want my students to be vested in their endeavor and do it well. I recently has my students write a timed essay in class, preparing them for the ACT/MME, after we read the epic //Beowulf.// We had discussed this epic in various ways: compared Beowulf to King Arthur, and researched some of their questions about life during the Anglo-Saxon time period and the Medieval time period. I knew my students were prepared with facts and ideas to write the essay, but I was not pleased with the results. I had my students write a reflection on the process and most said it was a valuable task, but they just were that interested in the topic especially after we had talked about it so much. I was rather surprised. Most said it was rather easy since they had knowledge to use, yet they just weren't that interested in the topic. We did discuss how they wouldn't be given options for a topic like I had; many agreed that is did make it easier to be able to choose a topic out for four choices, but it still wasn't as interesting as more current topics even though one topic as "Is Chivalry Dead?" I constantly link all reading to current day ideas and I try to internalize their learning, still I need to work on this more. Students do need to pick their own topics more often to become engaged as writers. Positioning is helpful too. Teachers can influence students by being optimistic about their writing. Nizol also talks about this with Rielle. Believing in one's ability is crucial to do anything well. I see this as a teacher being a cheerleader often which does assist the student greatly just like a cheerleader during an athletic competition; cheerleaders can change the conditions in which athletes compete, so can teachers as cheerleaders for students in our classes. Having faith in students can go a long way. I am looking forward to using "This I Believe" essays in my classroom. After hearing Jim Burke talk about "This I Believe" essays, I am eager to use them. I want my students to feel comfortable talking what they believe, and I do think students can find this activity engaging. As far as the DiPardo et al article, I realize that research should drive our teaching, but I do not read enough research. Yes, I fall under the over worked teacher/parent, and I find it difficult to make time to read research when I would rather read an interesting novel. However, I do understand that teachers can best learn from other teachers as to what works. I was pleased to see the article talk about encouraging conversation between teacher and researcher as well as teacher and teacher. I now have a common prep time with my English Department and we are meeting every Wednesday to discuss what is working and what isn't working. I find this extremely useful. Coincidentally, my reading from ENGL 530 has been the subject for conversation often. I guess I am not going to be compelled to look for more articles on my own to share.

Dipardo, Anne et all. "understanding the Relationship Between Research and Teaching." English Education 38.4 (July 2006) 295-311 Nizol. "Demanding to be Heard." Nizol. "Studying Genre, Positioning Writers: Using Genre Study to Narrow the Achievement Gap."

__Blog #10 Who is a teacher leader?__

After reading this article, I understand why we are doing the literacy site observation/reflection paper. I would have to say that I have always known that conversations with other teachers can be beneficial, but the topics involved must be important to teaching, not just a group of teachers complaining about students. Teachers can be a vast resource for other teachers. Teachers and only can teachers can inform another about what really works in the classroom and what works with a variety of students. I would like to attend the National Writing Project next summer. Writing, writing and talking about writing sounds great to me. It also makes me think about my students. If I enjoy sharing ideas, they probably do too. Collaboration works for students so why not teachers. I am happy that my school has arranged our schedule so all common core classes of the same kind have a shared planning period. Our language arts teachers have first hour prep together so we can hold discussions. One a month before or after school we meet for departmental meeting and one a month we meet just to discuss teaching ideas and research. Lately, I have been the "sage on the stage" since I have so many research article to share. It is helpful for teachers to insight into what has worked with them and what they would do differently next time. I certainly hope we keep this schedule for next year. It truly does make a difference. As for Zemelman book, I am the head of our English Department. I actually fell into the job due to seniority and length of employment. I do take this seriously and I try to plan attendance to conferences for all of us. I do take an active role and I do approach administration with ideas, but seldom criticism. Criticism isn't taken well. As long as all ideas are stated as new ideas, our administration is receptive. I seldom see our superintendent. She is superintendent for two schools and spends only two days a week at my school. Strangely, I used to play volleyball against her and my team usually won. Maybe I should hope she forgets that. We do try to get community involved as much as possible too. We now have four volunteers available who want to assist teachers in the classroom. I am asking for one to read to my students. I do not care what age student; I just think it would be good for our students to see community members caring enough to read to them and that these community members care about literacy. I am excited for this to begin. I do constantly draw upon my community and try to keep a good rapport with community members. I have no problem running committees, but just student committees, I think many people want to say they are part of a committee but few really actually want to help and serve. I do try to lead by example all the time. I have to say that after blogging for this class, I plan to use blogging with my students. And from writing my paper, I have some good ideas where to begin.

Meth, Jessica Matthews and Amy Azano. "Negotiating the Rub Between Cultures: Teacher Talk and Sustained Shifts in Practice." English Education. 44.4 (July 2012).

Zemelman, Steven and Harry Ross. //13 Steps to Teacher Empowerment//. Chapters 7,8,9,and 10.