Spring Break readings

Here we go....

    So, while doing the readings for this week, I stumbled across 2 very important (or at least to me they are) facts. The first comes from the article we read about multigenre research and the second comes from Ray, chapter 12; when you really sit down and think about it, I like to believe that they go hand in hand :)

So, in the article, the main thing that popped out to me is the utmost importance of student choice.....guided student choice. I place emphasis on the word 'guided' because often times, when a teacher has given me student choice, i have been at a loss for WHAT to write about. I always end up thinking, "OK, great, i can write about whatever i want to write about.....so what do i write about? I have no idea. There are too many options and...uhhh...I kinda don't know where to begin, so I'll just pick something and go with it." Yep, that's usually what it looks like when my previous teachers (in my younger schooling days) gave me "student choice". I never asked them to help me think of something to write about cause they would either 1) look at you like you are crazy because you are this 10 year old kid, whose imagination is flying, therefore should have PLENTY to write about and 2) they would say "well just write about something that interests you. do you play sports? do you like barbies? write about one of those things?" (really, you REALLY want me to write about barbies...i mean i could...i did find them pretty awesome as a kid, but i HIGHLY doubt my teacher REALLY wanted me to write about barbies...i think it was all a ploy to just get me to write about SOMETHING). Anyways, back to the reason i placed emphasis on the word 'guided'. In the article, it discussed ways that students could choose things to write about. I feel like, as a former student (and currently one), when i am struggling with what to write about, i don't want a superficial "do you like sports? what about barbies? puppies? dolphins? fluffy pink bunnies?..well then write about that." I want someone to work with me and help guide my thinking to help me discover what to write about. They don't have to pick the topic for me, but if I am to write a deep, personally connected piece, then i would like to write about something that i find interesting and would like to learn more about (like the girl, who in the article, wrote about the Titanic)....not fluffy pink bunnies. I really enjoyed reading this article not only for the reason that it highlighted the fact that students, when writing multigenre research pieces (and any other kind of piece), should pick something that they are interested in and have HELP when choosing that topic (i.e., guidance from a mentor or a teacher). The topic does not have to be chosen for them but if I really like the though provoking questions and the FQI that the article posed as a way to help guide students and narrow down their selections, and also, figure out WHY they want to write about this piece (not just because they had no choice and couldn't think of anything).
    The other thing that the article talked about, and was mentioned in Ray chapter 12, was the importance of personally relating to a topic and focus lessons when having a whole-class unit of study. As a writer, it is important to me to feel connected, personally, to what i am writing about. Honestly, if I have no interest in the topic (or whatever the case may be) and do not feel personally connected to it, my writing ends up looking like terrible and I'm just not proud of it. I know we are all different as writers, but for me, connecting with what i am writing, whether it is topic, genre, or whatever, is of the utmost importance because if I don't connect with what I am writing, then my writing isn't going to go very far.  Another aspect that I found important was the concept of having focus lessons work together with the units of study, so the students work can build upon each other and include the information that is given to them in the focus lessons, instead of being "hit-and-miss" lessons. I don't know why this is such an enlightenment to me, but, nevertheless, it is. For some reason, and I don't know why this didn't come to me before, but it makes sense to have the focus lesson during writer's workshop be relevant to the students work. There has never been a time in our class where our focus lessons could not be incorporated into our writings. This was a revelation of common sense to me. :)