Week 5: The Process Approach Article

The process approach article was another difficult read, so I hope that I understand it!  The process approach seemed to entail teaching strategies that are sometimes used to help students establish their voice in writing.  Peer reviews, free writing, and writing conferences all seem to be part of what this approach describes.  Instead of being so heavily focused on the 5-paragraph essay and strict grammatical rules and standards, this process focuses more on writing and how we use language skills to teach grammar.  Overall, the teacher’s job is to help move the students through the writing process so that the students will have a voice in their writing.

The L2 movement seems to prefer even more flexibility and freedom; students should not worry so much about grammar and the teacher should focus more on teaching students how to write as opposed to assessment.  Creative spelling also seems to be a good thing to incorporate here.

If I am understanding this correctly, I am surprised that the L2 movement would not be more strict in terms of grammar instruction, practice, and rote memory.  At some point in our lives, English is a foreign language to all of us, so some practice and drills would help.  I would think that the teachers would want the students to know the basics before just pushing them into writing.  

Week 6: My Best and Worst Feedack (In Class 2/21)

My best feedback was actually not written feedback.  Many moons ago, I took a creative writing class and I think it was at UWM?  Anyhow...I wrote an essay on my Aunt Clem who passed away when I was 15 years old.  The teacher handed back the essay with a grade of A and a few short lines.  When class ended, she called me outside and she told me something like, "You are such a great writer...I will back you in anything you do in writing."  That was many moons ago, but I still remember her words and the emotion in her voice when she said this. When I have writer's block, I always remember this.


My worst feedback was when I was a student at University of Phoenix.  I wrote a research paper and it was evident that the teacher was irritated to the bone with my paper.  In my feedback, he wrote something really negative like it was not good.  Since I had tried so hard, I called him up and asked him to explain.  He said something like, "yeah...you have that bad writing habit."  For the life of me, I still do not know what the bad habit is.  He just kinda sighed on the phone and never answered my question.  I had to eventually let him go as he nearly ruined my self-esteem for life!

Week 5: Lesson Plans

The Micciche article was most interesting for me.  I always had a hunch that just teaching strictly grammar was not the best way to serve students.  My hunch is becoming more evident in an online setting.  For example, in my online classes, students have to ask their questions in writing.  There are so many instances where I am reading a response and thinking, “What?”  The problem is that they are unable to express themselves and may not have really thought about the question they are asking.  While the sentence may be punctuated correctly, there are many times where the word choice makes the question incomprehensible.  I would definitely try the idea of having students keep a portfolio (commonplace book) of good writing, credit card statements, instruction manuals, etc.  in my business writing classes.  This can make for some awesome conversation.

The Ehrenworth and Vinton article had many great lesson plans teaching writing and grammar.  I will also begin experimenting with this technique to see how it works for my students.  When I first began teaching, there were many times when I was frustrated and passed it on to my students.  Sometimes I was frustrated because I felt like I needed more knowledge, and at other times, I had the “you should know this” tone that they mentioned. Combining writing and grammar exercises all in one may help to ease some of our frustrations.

Week 5: The Readings

The Micciche article was another difficult read.  Thanks be to our professor, Anne, for taking us to higher heights in our reading. :)  In this article, Micciche is making the case that we should teach grammar, but we should teach it rhetorically.  In other words, grammar should be taught not as rote exercises, but as part of an entire system of learning how to write. The remedial way that we teach grammar does not help students to connect what they want to really ‘say’ when they write.  I think the author is saying that when we teach exercises, the students somehow have a disconnect between grammar and what they truly mean to say. Micciche justifies her way of teaching grammar by arguing that rhetorical grammar instruction allows students to better express themselves and express relationships among different ideas.  Students who learn this way can think clearer about what they mean. She also talked about how we can use language as power and her teaching is used to help students observe how writers can use language to tell their perspective on political issues, amongst others. Her discussion on culture and how we use language was most interesting.  I think that by teaching students to observe different writers, periods of time, etc., they get a wider view of the political and cultural aspects of writing.

The Ehrenworth and Vinton article was an easy read and I had to laugh out loud after reading page 2!  It is refreshing to know that even English instructors have a difficult time pinpointing and defining errors. I think that the authors also did a great job discussing culture and how it affects us.  I recently read a book, entitled, “A Framework for Understanding Poverty,” by Ruby Payne.  This book discussed the hidden culture of the poor versus the rich and the fact that a person who does not understand the hidden rules of the rich culture can almost set themselves on a course for generational poverty.

The most interesting part of this work, though, was the fact that these authors teach students grammar in the process of finding their own voice as writers.  They also use stories and other literary works to help the student explore how grammar can be used to help writers make choices.  Like Micciche, they believe that the teaching of grammar should not be simple exercises whereby a student points out errors in writing, but rather a rich experience encompassing the writing process as a whole.

Week 5: Grammar and Me

Because I have never been an ‘expert’ at grammar and mechanics, I always pay attention to them.  It is almost a built-in instinct that I learned many years ago due to my own cultural insecurities.   I come from a family where most of us speak in either southern accents or Black English, so when I had to write essays for class, my papers would be filled with grammatical, word usage, and mechanical errors. I was often frustrated because my parents did not have great educations, and my older siblings were more into the Black Power movement (which meant resistance against our cultural norms).

Being a middle child, this left me at a disadvantage at school, and I had to work hard to learn grammar.  One ‘trick’ that I learned many moons ago was to emulate news reporters and other professionals in the media because I felt that it was their job to know how to speak and write well.  While there are still some holes in my knowledge, I understand grammar and mechanics as being anything associated with punctuation, spelling, and word usage.  I am not sure how I came to this understanding, but I suspect that it may be because this is what I was taught in English class.  Grammar was always a boring chore and I can still remember the angry looks that some of my teachers had when I didn't get it quite right.  The beauty of my struggle, though, is that while I am not a huge fan of grammar, I absolutely love expressing myself in writing and reading beautiful prose.

Why Should My Topic Matter? (In Class 2/14)

My topic should matter to both students and teachers because:

Most of us will eventually have to take an online class.
Students should learn how to get the best out of a class.
Teachers should want to give their students a good learning experience.
Everyone should want to learn how to write better regardless of the trade that they are in.
Administrators should be able to help teachers become better at what they do.
Parents should want the best education for their child/children.
Education is important and it makes us be more productive in life.
Writing is an essential skill that everyone should learn.

My Argument (2/14)

My argument is still unclear.  As I understand the term "argument," I take it to mean something that I have to take a stand on.  I almost envision myself either standing on a street corner with a microphone yelling out my arguments, or maybe arguing with someone over a friendly dinner.  The problem for me is that I wanted to explore the best practices of teaching writing online, and I have a problem viewing this as an argumentative essay.  I think that this is where I am a little unsure of what to do???