Jason’s Blog

If we want our students to reach far away audiences via the internet and blogging we must first focus on the core content areas. It is unfair to assume that a 10th or 11th grade student is capable of producing something worthy of a national audience without first assessing what he or she knows. Only when we can be sure that all of our students can read and write proficiently in the classroom, should we expect them to produce drafts online for all the public to see. I struggle making the transitition from writing with proper grammer on paper to writing with proper grammer online. If we believe that technology is important to educating our students. Then we should provide them with the best and fastest computer systems, and a core technology class in every grade level.

As a social studies teacher I use many online and offline primary sources. I have used journal enteries, eye-witness accounts, and official government reports to reinforce the content in the textbook. I do not use them as much as I would like, but that is due to rigorous pacing guides and constant schedule changes that occur in the high school classroom.

In today’s business climate we must prepare our students to be literate in the common sense and literate with technology. In fact many of my friends in the business world have become accustomed to sending and retrieving work place information online using “Blackberries” and other hand held communication devices. I do not think I would ever be as comfortable communicating with my supervisors using that format, the way they do. It takes me time to compose reports worthy of authority figures, as I am sure many students feel the same way. Unfortunately many students are still not profecient in basic literacy skills. I think goes back to focusing  on the content areas first, then devoting the time and money to technology.

I think weblogs are a great tool when used in the right capacity. Too many of our students are using mysterious weblogs and websites to post personal information. Stories of this dangerous activity appear on the news all the time. When we try to use weblogs or websites in the classroom we can control the activity somewhat, but students seem to hate when do that, and now some students are becoming smarter that the control systems that we use. As Americans most of us love privacy,but hate controls placed on our ability to go anywhere online or offline. We know when we are being limited, just as our students do. After all we look down on google for allowing the Chinese government to censor their world wide web.

Greetings: The Marshall University Writing Project Summer Institute has been an extremely productive few weeks. Throughout this session I have had a unique opportunity to grow as a writer, a teacher, and a student. As a writer I have been able to share some of my most cherished memories with a small group of others who are doing the same. This has been a period of encouragement and reflection. I have learned that I have a sense of humor in my writing, which I never knew existed. I now know that writing is a process that is full of detail, time, and labor. The works of my fellow participants and facilitators have shown that I must continue to practice the skill of writing, in order to reach my full potential. Perhaps the most important thing that I learned as a writer is that writing comes from the heart, and is one of the purest forms of expression. Being around other teaching professionals has been a blessing as well. There are many veteran teachers, and some, like me are new to the field. During this institute, I learned a great deal from these professionals. We all have things in common, such as a strong desire to teach, and a caring heart for our students. We have shared the high points of teaching, and the low points. As a teacher, I have taken special care to listen to my fellow colleagues, and gain experience through them. Some of my colleagues have told stories of humorous first days on the job that they thought would be their last. Some have told heart breaking stories of children slipping through the cracks of society. Some of us have found that we have a lot in common when it comes to managing a classroom, and living up the standards of our jobs. Listening to these stories gives me hope and encouragement. This summer institute was my first time becoming a student again since I graduated from Marshall University two years ago. It has been great being able to listen to other professionals and learn from them. Being student often means stepping out of my comfort zone. The technology lessons that this summer institute offered forced me to do that. Before this experience I was content knowing the basics of computer literacy and leaving it at that. Through this institute I have picked up some new tools for teaching such as; web logs, internet database searches, and evaluating websites. Since I approached the technology lessons with an open mind, I feel that I am now more literate in technology, to say the least. This experience required much reflection on my own teaching practices. Through the process of refection, I have learned that student feed back really means a lot to me. Early on in the experience I had to respond to a prompt that asked me to think about how I know I am doing a good job in the classroom. The first thing I thought of was not test scores, or writing assessments, or administrator evaluations. Though those are all very important, the first thing that I looked was how the students respond to my lessons. I never knew this about myself. Expressing that in writing helped me come to terms with how I measure my students’ success. Before this experience, I have used writing in my short career as a teacher, but now I have many more writing strategies to use. In the past I gave students some short essay assignments, and an occasional book report assignment. Now I feel that I should expand on that to include the use of journal writings, and expressive writings, and many more strategies that will enrich the instruction in my classroom. In my E-Portfolio I have included several different pieces of my writing from this institute. My creative writing assignment is one that I am extremely proud of. This is a simple poem titled “Sasha”. This is a poem about my beloved cocker-spaniel who passed on in 2003. She was my best friend, and losing her is still very difficult for me to talk about. I have tried to write about her many times before, but have almost always failed. This poem gave me a chance to evoke her memory, and put on to paper the thoughts that I still feel very passionate about. My professional piece is one that I am glad to include as well. This piece is titled “My First Year of Teaching”. This gave me an opportunity to share my experiences as a first year teacher in an Alternative School (expulsion school). This is a reflective piece for me. This piece allowed me to reflect upon the lessons that I learned that year, and how those lessons made me a better teacher. That was literally a make or break year for my career. It was my good fortune to have several wonderful veteran teachers and a very supportive principal that year. This piece gave me an excellent opportunity to reflect on that year and share it with my fellow colleagues here at the Summer Institute. Writing Project was a challenge. Some of the required assignments, and journal prompts were challenging to write about. The journal prompt “Cyberspace” was very difficult for me to complete. It was difficult for me to think about because I have very little interest in technology. When I do not have interest in a topic, my writing is normally very dry and somewhat boring. This challenged me, and gave me the freedom to look at “Cyberspace” and find interest in it. I wrote about the meaning of cyberspace to me. I looked at it as nothing more than a new frontier, much like the frontiers of world history. Man has always searched for new space, and cyberspace is simply a new version of a frontier. I looked at the topic and made it interesting. Though it was a challenge to me, I feel that I came up with a solid finished product, and I am proud to include it in this portfolio. My teaching philosophy was also a challenge to write. I thought it would be easy, because I had written one two years ago for my student teaching portfolio. It was not easy. I began to realize that in two years my philosophy had changed with my experience. I had to think about my real life practices, and the things that I found most important about what I do at school. I am proud that my finished product truly expresses how I feel about my role as a teacher. Writing Project has been a long period of reflection. I reflected on not only teaching practices, but life, the past, and my future goals. Through this institute I feel like I have some potential as a writer. I also now understand that writing is very hard work, though it is joyful work. I have come to realize that writing cannot be something that one picks up and puts down every now and then. I feel that I will practice the skill of writing in and outside of the classroom. In closing, I feel that the Marshall University Writing Project has been a period of growth and improvement for me.

            One August evening in 2004 I received a phone from the county board office about a long term substitute teacher position that could possibly last for the entire school year. This was great. I had just graduated not two months ago and already had my first job interview for a teaching position. I met with the personnel director and the school principle the very next day. I met the personnel director and the Alternative school principle at 7:30am that morning. They explained to me that the Alternative school was a place students who were expelled from the county’s public schools attended. The school itself was housed in the back of the board office. It offered no extra-curricular activities, no related arts, nothing but the basics of school. This school did not even have a cafeteria. The lunches were delivered from a local middle school. They also explained that I would not only teach social studies (my field), but also reading, basic skills, theater, and high school literature. The grade levels ranged from 6^th to 12^th grade. I was shocked that such a place existed, and wondered how they got anybody to teach there, much less a 1^st year teacher. They explained that this job would be a challenge, but I would learn a great deal and become a better teacher. They offered me the job. I sat there and thought about it for a few minutes and pondered the decision I was about to make. On one hand this job is a whole lot of stress and besides I have already got a job that I have been doing for 6 years, why put myself through that mess. Besides my current job was easy, I worked at the Lawn and Garden Department at Lowe’s, and knew just about everything about the job. It paid pretty well, and I was comfortable with it. On the other hand I needed the experience, and do I want to make a habit of backing down from challenges now? The students needed a teacher; the county needed a teacher, so I shook hands with the principal and accepted the position. I could not have known what an experience this would be.

            After taking the position I did not have even a minute to second guess myself. Little did I know that the first day of school was the very next day. My new principal sent me to a middle school reading training session as soon as I accepted the position.  I went to the training session and listened to things that I knew nothing about and was totally lost. I did meet some new people though. They ask me what school I was going to be teaching at and I said the “Alternative School”.  They responded with “Good Lord”, “Good Luck” “Don’t Quit” and “Hang in there”. After that, I was a little bit nervous but I reported back to my new school that afternoon and the principal showed me my new classroom. The classroom was an old science lab. This was not the ideal classroom.  The principal then introduced me the rest of the staff, all five of them. They were middle aged women, and very experienced. They were tough too. I could tell that they did not take anything from anybody. They began to tell me about the students that I would have. “This one will cuss you out, this one won’t do anything, and this one can be dangerous”. I was overwhelmed from day one.

            On the first day of school I planned to simply go over the rules and gain control of the class right up front. My largest class was only twelve kids, no big deal. The only plan I had was to go over the rules. That plan backfired. What I did not know was that the group of twelve middle school students that I had in the morning would be the same ones that I would have all afternoon for basic skills and social studies, so going over the rules was not going to carry me all day. That was one long afternoon. The kids began to misbehave on day one, and I had nothing for them to do to keep them calm. One began to complain about the heat, the school, and one began to kick the brand new copy machine that the county had just bought. The kids kept interrupting, and warnings did nothing. I finally had to send one of them the principal’s office on the first day of school. This was a total failure. The very next day the same things started happening, but this time I would not lose control. The middle schoolers began acting up during the morning lesson, and quickly took control of the situation and eliminated the disruption. I did not get mad. I simply warned the student one time and then sent him to the principal’s office after he did not stop disrupting the class. From then on, they knew that I was in charge.

            The middle school students seemed to be getting the hang of things, by about the third day. They listened when I taught, and they worked when I asked them to. For the next month things started to get really good. My high school students were acting mature and doing there required reading without question. The middle school students and I really began to bond. I never asked them how they ended up at the Alternative School, because I wanted them to feel like they were starting with a clean slate in my class. After they got to know me, they began to tell all their stories, and how they ended up at this school. We were meeting all of our goals, and we were actually having fun. By the end of the first six weeks, things began to change. Every school in the county had begun the process of expelling students. The middle schools were expelling students left and right. At about week eight, my roster of twelve middle school students had grown to twenty, with more students on their way. I had to get rid of the student tables and replace them with student desks. I actually had to wonder the halls of the board office to find desks anywhere I could. With the growing numbers, consistency was lost. Students knew it and I knew it. Students began to feel a bit cramped and were starting to get agitated. Some just quit coming to school, some only came when their probation officer made them, and some came just to disrupt class.

            As my class roster grew in all my classes, I began to get bogged down with paper work and disciplinary problems. It was very difficult grading papers for nearly eight different content areas, and keeping them organized. The kids became more and more reluctant to do their work, and were starting to act out. Teachers talk about group dynamics, my group dynamics changed everyday. The change was difficult for students to deal with. Just when they started to get comfortable, things would change and they would get a little bit nervous. I tried my best to comfort them and give them a sense of continuity, but I was struggling to find my comfort zone as well. Nevertheless, we plugged forward. In November, we were beginning to accept things as they were when another obstacle appeared. The heater in my classroom broke down and it was freezing. I remember my principal walking in my room and saying: “It cold enough to hang meat in here!” He called to maintenance department to come fix it, but that took them weeks just to show up. We all became accustomed to wearing our jackets in the classroom from then on. Even when the maintenance workers did come to fix it, they said it was an old system and would likely break down again. After Thanksgiving break, five more middle school students came into class, with five more on the way. It was at that time, that I ran out of textbooks for all the students. So at this point, I have a part-time heater, too few textbooks for my students and not enough desks for all my students. In mid December things began to look pretty grim. My principal had requested an additional classroom and an additional teacher from the board office, but it did not look likely that they were going to grant that request. We were both pretty frustrated, but we tried to make the best of it. He was very supportive, and we both kept our heads up. At that point I decided that the only thing that would carry me through this was a positive attitude.

            I tried everything I could think of to lift the spirits of my students, I thought if I could show them a good attitude then they would adopt that way of thinking. We talked with each other, we watched some holiday films, and sometimes we played games. I give the students a lot of credit for making the best of this situation. We began to get to know each other as human beings, and we talked about the things in life that we all dealt with. I did not know it, but I had created an environment that they were comfortable with. For some of them, it may have been their safest environment. Some of the best things that I did was simply give them advice, and encouragement. I encouraged them to stay away from drugs, and use school as an opportunity for success. For many of them, that was exactly what they needed. Their work habits again improved, and their grades began to rise. We had overcome all the obstacles and were in pretty good spirits by Christmas Break. We were working hard, but having some fun as well. During the last days before Christmas break we learned that there was an additional five middle school students on the way, and it still did not look like there would be any additional teachers to help with the student load. We had a good Christmas break, and got rested for the new challenges that lay ahead in the New Year.

            After Christmas break I returned to face the new challenges. I managed to find some more student desks and rearranged the classroom to give everybody some space, though not nearly enough. The heater was working and I kept a good attitude and we worked through the first days of the New Year. After a few days into the New Year, I learned that I would be losing some of my students. At the end of the semester, which is about mid January many of my students would return to their home schools. I felt good for them, but I knew that I would miss them, even though there were still more students coming in from the public schools to take their place. I was feeling pretty good about the new semester, because that meant that I had survived my first semester of teaching. This is when my luck changed. I soon learned that I would be leaving the Alternative School and moving on to the local high school. This was a great opportunity, and I was thankful for it. I was a little disheartened though. This meant that I would be leaving many of the students who came to count on me for some consistency in their lives. I waited until the last day of the semester before I told them I was leaving. I did not want to upset them, and I did not want them to make a big deal out of it. When I finally told them, some of them were mad, some were sad, but they all wished me well.

            Sometimes I see some of these students, and I have taught some of them at my new high school. They still speak to me, and a few of them have tried to get in my classes. This experience at the Alternative School was a blessing. It was a challenge, but it was extremely rewarding. I never would have thought I would have benefited so much from this experience, but I did. I feel like I made a difference, even if it was a small one. This experience taught me, to keep a positive attitude, and make the best out of every situation. In closing, I would not be the teacher that I am today, if it wasn’t for this experience at the Alternative School.

Friendly the Red-Blue Crab

Friendly was born off the coast of Maine, he was a blue crab but mutated into an “X-CRAB” after fishermen kept trying to catch him and eat him. He got mad and his face turned red forever, but his claws stayed blue and got razor sharp. Now if fishermen try to catch him, they get scared and throw him back. He likes no one and eats fishermen’s bate.

The End

Ethnographer’s Report for Wednesday June 28, 2006
Jason Morrison
MUWP SI

Good Morning, this is a report on the events of yesterday.
This morning began as usual with a sacred writing prompt from Karencia.
What’s the most important or hardest lesson you’ve learned or taught as a teacher?

OR

Tips for Teaching

Before sacred writing began, Diana gave us some information on how to become better writers or how to practice writing better. She stated that she once had a student who simply wrote the word nothing over and over again until she became a better writer. Diana also stated that this student went on to become a college student majoring in English Writing. Karencia reinforced the need for proper writing practice and proper use of Sacred Writing time. Due to this encouragement our sacred writing group went on to write for nearly thirty minutes. Listed below are some of the group’s thoughts during this intense session of sacred writing.

Sacred Writing:

1. Beth listed some very important tips for teachers including: like the people you work with, have a hidden space, have a mentor, and a change of underwear.
2. Andrea wrote about a very hard lesson to learn as a teacher. She wrote about a student named Chad who had a very poor home life and all the work she did to help this child. Her efforts are truly commendable and down right heroic.
3.  Kara had a bad day yesterday on the road while driving in Charleston.
4. Karencia explained a very important lesson about perseverance in writing running, and life.
5. Shannon listed some wonderful tips for teachers including: smile, don’t argue, be consistent, be compassionate, drink beer, go to the beach, and most importantly smile.
6. Joyce also had some great tips: read what the county says to read and then read what you want you, set goals, and do not make excuses for parents.
7. Peggy thought of many hard lessons. In first grade she learned how to lock people the bath room. In seventh grade she learned about journalism. She believes that the hardest lesson is yet to be learned.
8. Karen M. spoke on the very hard lesson of responsibility and living with the choices that you make. A lesson that is extremely hard for students to come to terms with.
9. Mike listed some very important benefits of teaching that we may often taken for granted such as: good health care, only working 9 months a year, and getting a week off for Christmas. He also stated the “Teachers that can’t teach, teach teachers” I am not sure that Karen M. liked that.
10. Laura wrote about some lessons learned from students, one in particular that considered himself a bastard.
11. Heather cited some important tips including: carry extra lipstick, keep a sewing kit on hand, come prepared and smile.
12. Kristen had a great deal of tips for teaching such as: be patient, make friends with the cafeteria and custodial staff, over plan, call parents, go to workshops and have fun.
13. Jason D. had some very valid tips as well: sleep, eat fast, love kids, drink coffee, demand effort, never carry cash, and never read the police blotter.
14. Shelly expressed some good tips including: never plan over four days ahead, set high expectations, don’t grade papers over breaks.
15. Kathy talked about a hard lesson that had nothing to do with CSO’s but, about a child she wanted to turn down the right road rather than the wrong road.
16. Diana spoke about one of life’s hardest lessons, letting go.

As I bring this recount of sacred writing to a close, I must point out that this was a very intense and purposeful session.

Heather read the Ethnographer’s report for Tuesday, and did a wonderful job. While she was reading her report I thought I was at a baseball game. Good work Heather.

Discussion:

After the ethnographer’s report we had a very valid discussion on the format of our demonstration fish bowling portion of our day. This discussion was lead by Kathy who came up with some great ideas for making the demonstrator more at ease with the questions and comments from their peers. Karencia also expressed some concern about how to make the experience more meaningful. It seems that we are now clearer about the fish bowling experience.

Break 10:00-15

Demonstration: (Jason Dillon)

Jason Dillon’s lesson topic was “Wild Wonderful West Virginia”. In this lesson Jason expressed his enthusiasm for the state of West Virginia and going camping, rafting, and fishing in the state. Jason was very upbeat about his lesson and the rest of the class was too. In Jason’s lesson we broke into groups and began to plan a day trip to a destination in West Virginia. We were required to use the computers and create a map, itinerary, and persuasive letter about the place, inviting others to come. My group chose Blennerhasset Island. We had a lot of fun learning about Blennerhasset Island, and completing the assignment. This lesson was a very hands-on lesson, and a very meaningful lesson. Good Job Jason.

Lunch 11:40 to 12:40

Response Groups:

After returning from lunch we went directly to our response groups. In my group today (Peggy, Mike, Shannon, and Beth) we discussed several topics. We started by looking at some resources that Mike brought in about writing and math. Shannon pondered on how to use West Virginia Content Standards in her demonstration, and we all agreed that it would be beneficial. After that we read a wonderful journal entry called Corbin about Shannon’s hometown. As always our response group was thoroughly productive.

Break 1:45- 2:00

Karen M. led the way during our third space. She showed us how to subscribe to bloglines.com. She gave us several examples on how the site can be both fun and functional. From this space we were able to create a link from bloglines.com to our Marshall University Writing Project Summer Institute site. We learned some valuable new technology skills. After Karen’s lesson we worked on some of our portfolio pieces.  Before we left we wrapped up with our exit slip:

What is the climate in your school as it relates to writing across the curriculum, writing assessment, and the implementation of writing programs?

 What does your classroom LOOK like and SOUND like? How are the chairs, books and various materials arranged? What is on the walls? What are the students doing?

That wraps up another day at the Marshall University Writing Project Summer Institute 2006.

For some time I have been using the internet and the World Wide Web for information. The internet has been a very valuable resource for my studies throughout my college career and my career as a teacher. Some time along the way, it seems that I lost touch with what the internet actually is and how it is different from the World Wide Web. I viewed them as one in the same. Mr. Triplett explained that the internet has been used by the military for a long time, and that the World Wide Web is relatively new. The internet is the program the keeps computers throughout the world connected and the World Wide Web is a program that is ran through the internet. I sure to some this might be very basic information, but I found it to be a very good place to start the lesson. Mr. Triplett went on to teach us about searching the internet.

            The next thing we looked at was search engines. We looked at all of the well known search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN Search and he explained that they are all different in some form or another. Google uses a “spider web” style of information retrieving which will retrieve anything that has the word that the user placed in the search box. He said that without refining the search, the user will get a slew of senseless information with the valid information and that the user must be careful when using this search engine. Yahoo is a little different because they actually have a human being who looks at the sites and determines that some sites are absolutely invalid. He said that some search engines search other search engines, which can lead to countless sites with both valid and invalid information. He showed us the Boolean method of searching which can make internet searches much more efficient. This method involves refining internet searches by asking for specific phrases, key words, and word grouping.

            The last thing Mr. Triplett introduced us to, was internet databases such as EBSCO and ERIC. These databases can yield very useful articles, journals, and texts from libraries all over the country. These databases work a little different than internet search engines. They look for hard published works. These are great tools for research. After witnessing Mr. Triplett’s presentation my internet searching skills are much more refined and I have a better understanding of internet databases. These are tools that I will be able to use with much more efficiency from now on.

The phrase listed above can take on several different meanings. Space itself has a multitude of meanings, depending on how one looks at it. The word frontier can mean different things as well. With this in mind I will describe what this phrase means to me. Man has always sought new spaces. From Christopher Columbus’s journey across the ocean blue in 1492, to one American’s first steps on the moon, man has had a curiosity that truly can never be satisfied. Man has searched for  the final frontier in every era known. In the seventeenth century man explored the continents that would be North and South America. In the eighteenth century Americans decided that they needed more space so they broke ties with British Empire. In the nineteenth century Americans decided that the eastern seaboard was not enough, so they spread their ideas from sea to shining sea. In the twentieth century Americans were embarrassed when the Soviet Union arrived in outer space first. America would not stay behind. Soon after that one American would play golf on the face of the moon. Now in the twenty-first century NASA has taken photographs of the surface of the Red Planet for the entire world to see. We can now search the ocean floor and inspect the long sunken Titanic. When will man stop his search for space and the final frontier? Will man kind ever stop this search?

This search explains something about the mind of man kind. This is an example of man’s desire for knowledge, possibilities, the unknown and competition. Human beings will risk their lives for a chance to discover new space, or new knowledge. The search is often a dangerous one but one that is worth it. Even in the age of miraculous technology there are still many secrets out there. Man is searching for the answers to those secrets with every trip to space or the next frontier. This nature is what drives us to learn, to discover, to write, and to teach. Man may never fully uncover all the mysterious of this world, the world under the sea, and the one in outer space, but he keeps looking. Each passing decade something new is discovered, something new will be written about, something new will be learned, and something new will taught. The space is the knowledge and the frontier is where we are willing to go to find it.

            Summer moments are some of the most precious moments that I can recount. Only Thanksgiving family gatherings and Christmas mornings of the past rival these moments. The arrival of summer always lifts my spirits; therefore the task of finding the most memorable summer moment is a bit difficult. I can recall summers of excitement around the baseball diamond, days spent at the local swimming pool with friends, relatives coming from all over the country, trips to Myrtle Beach South Carolina, and a multitude of awesome summer parties. But the most memorable moment should be one that cannot easily be duplicated, original, and life changing. This moment for me is my trip to Pearl Harbor in summer 2005.

            In June, 2005 my wife and I visited Hawaii, and we knew that this would be the best vacation that we had ever had, and maybe our best vacation ever. We landed on the island of Oahu and were awestruck and the beautiful island paradise. We spent a couple days relaxing, swimming, eating good food, and just enjoying everything the island offered. On the third day of our trip we woke at 5am to catch a bus to Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial at 6am. We arrived at the harbor and about 7am and stood in line for an hour to board the ferry that would take us across the clear blue Pacific water to the USS Arizona Memorial. We boarded the ferry and in a brief few minutes we were about to dock next to the memorial. I was excited, yet calm. There were about 60 tourists along with us on the ferry, just as excited as I was. They were getting their digital cameras ready for pictures, and telling their children to behave. I did not need a camera for I knew that what I was about set my eyes would make an impression in my memory that would stay there forever.

            We boarded the brilliant white rectangular structure with a magnificent American flag running right through it. The memorial itself rested atop the sunken USS Arizona and you could see it through an observation hole at the bottom of the memorial.  I walked around the structure and went straight to back where the names of the soldiers who are forever entombed on the ship are carved into a marble wall. I simply stared at the names; as if to thank them for there sacrifice for me and my country. After that I viewed the ship through the observation hole, and began to feel intense feelings of pride, patriotism, gratefulness, sadness, and peace. From there I looked to the left of the memorial and saw the oil stream that has been leaking sense that fateful December day in 1941, and thought what power, what sacrifice, and what a great country. They call these men part of the “Greatest Generation”, and I am one American that fully believes this and will never forget their courage, strength, and resolve. This is my most memorable summer moment.

            In this book Olsen elaborates on several solid strategies for teaching in the secondary classroom in any content area. This book is a great tool for all teachers in any content area. For this report I will focus on chapter five “Strategies for Interacting with a Text”.  My content area is history and it is very important that students comprehend, the material that they read. Discussions in a history classroom are very valuable and give students a chance to express what they know and what they want to know better. Discussions are great, but if students do not understand the material that they are reading, no valid discussions can take place. Olsen explains several different strategies that use reading and writing that lead to a better comprehension of the content.

            Olsen suggests that before reading strategies will help students become better readers and stay engaged with the text. One solid before reading strategy is the anticipation guide. This requires the teacher to generate a small list of statements that the students will agree or disagree with before reading the text. Students will then read the text and go back to those statements and agree or disagree with the statements after they have read the text. By doing this, students have a clear purpose for their reading and they have some idea about what to look for in the text. This also allows students to see if their assumptions about the text were correct and see what they have learned from the text. Olsen also gives a great example on how a teacher can make a graphic organizer out of this assignment. I like this because it keeps students engaged with the text, and makes them become active readers of the text.

            Another great strategy that requires both reading and writing is the dialectical journal which causes students to draw meaning from the text by relating it to their own knowledge base. In this activity students read a text and jot down segments of the text that they find important, on one side of a piece of paper. On the other side, students respond to the segments by writing questions about the words or by writing statements that show how they can relate to the text. This strategy is good because it gives students the freedom to find the things in the text that they find important, or ask questions about what they may not clearly understand.

            Both the anticipation guide and the dialectical journal are good ways to use reading and writing in the classroom. I think that these strategies can be useful in any content area. This book is a very use guide in the secondary classroom.

Bibliography

Booth Olsen, Carol. The Reading and Writing Connection Strategies for Teaching and Learning in the Secondary Classroom. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2003.
 

            “Everything Including the Kitchen Sink” is based on a friend of Heard’s who is recalling the painful feeling of betrayal when she learns that her husband has had an affair. She recalls all of her surroundings as she listened to his confession. She even recalls standing at her kitchen sink while all of the painful emotions stirred within her. This chapter encourages writers to fully reflect on their own surroundings before beginning to write. By recalling all the physical elements of reality, I can write with a more descriptive tone. This chapter makes me recall the death of my grandfather and in particular the cars and trucks parked in the driveway before I knew anything of the events that were about to transpire. I recall feeling strange when I saw all of those vehicles, and knew something was wrong. I remember my father greeting me and telling me that my grandfather was about to pass on, before I walked into the house. The death of my grandfather in itself is something that I will never forget. After reading this chapter and reflecting on the small things that occurred on that unforgettable day I have a deeper sense of the event. If I were to write my own chapter, poem, or essay by starting with the way that I felt from the time I saw the cars in the driveway I would have a much richer and more descriptive tone to my writing.

            This chapter encourages me to look at all the sounds, smells, tastes, and visions that I can sense and translate all of that into my writing no matter what the topic or content of my writing is. A kitchen sink or cars in the driveway do not have any special meaning on their own, but when a writer uses them to explain, describe and enrich an event they can take on very powerful meanings to the reader. I think the author is trying to get writers to realize that it is the little things in life that readers respond to and should be included in my writing. Using this strategy of writing I can enliven the message that I am trying to convey, and paint a better picture of the story that I may be telling.

Bibliography

Heard, Georgia. Writing Towards Home. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1995. 

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