English 395

Dr. BILL HOLBROOK     E-Mail: wholbroo@bsu.edu       Tel:  285-4263 (w) 747-0642
E395  COURSE POLICY  Office:  RB276   Office Hours: T-R 3:30-5:00pm

TEXTS:  Gere, Anne Ruggles et. al. Language and Reflection. Macmillan, 1992.
          Holbrook, Bill.  Teaching Secondary English.  2003-2004.  (Hiatt Printing)
       Beach, Richard and J. Marshall. Teaching Literature in Secondary School. 1991.
    
MATERIALS:    A 8 1/2x11" spiral notebook, 70 pages for process journal (No Substitution.)
        Floppy Disks w/ carrying case; One or more 3-ring binders; and acetate sheets
        Access to cassette player/recorder and at least one cassette tape.        
        Copying fees will run approximately $2 to $10.00.
        Trip expenses NCTE convention (optional)

GRADING: Graded projects include: 2 teacher observations, several daily and unit lesson plans, 2 text evaluations, 1 process journal, 2 in-class presentations (20-minute lesson on language arts and teaching issues and a 10-minute lesson on a poem; short, short story; non-fiction account, or essay (piece should take no more than 4 minutes),a final portfolio presenting yourself as a pre-professional educator., plus a series of in-class group projects--all totaling 1000 points.  Revision is encouraged.

ATTENDANCE:  Because of the interactive and pre-professional nature, it is imperative that you attend every session. Over 3 unexcused absences could cause a student to fail. Students should call/e-mail instructor when missing class and have future assignments ready for the next class meeting.

DEADLINES:  Assignments due as indicated. Points equivalent to one grade is deducted for each day an assignment is late. Leave papers in English office, RB297, for Bill's mailbox. With excused absence, assignment will be due next class meeting. If assignment is part of  class needs, not having it negatively effects grade. Presentations can't be late (pre-arrange for peer sub).
 
PAPER FORMAT:  Typing all papers is required.  Papers turned in for grading, should conform to standards: double spaced (unless otherwise indicated), margins on all sides, pages numbered in top right corner from second page on, leave papers unfolded with following in upper left margin:      
            LAST NAME,   FIRST NAME
            ENGLISH 395,    BILL HOLBROOK;
            DATE;  ASSIGNMENT  TITLE,  DRAFT # (if applicable)

OVERVIEW:  The assignments are designed to build your instructional abilities. You should gain confidence in combining practice with theory. A variety of in-class collaboratives and individual projects should enhance teaching skills. Appropriate study on teaching composition, literature, & grammar. As assignments are completed, you will compile a portfolio for final presentation. Retain copies before submission & save work on CDs, disks.

SPECIAL NEEDS: If a student has a special need or handicap which alters learning situations, the instructor should be informed immediately. If the situation needs university assistance Richard Harris, director of Disabled Student Dev. SC307, 5-5293, should be contacted.

COMPLAINTS:  Dr. Patti White, chairperson, will mediate problems which arise between the instructor and the student. Secretary Sharon Pinkerton, RB297, will make appointments.

PLAGIARISM: Work will be your own.  Any plagiarism will be dealt with severely.

CONFERENCES:  Students are required to visit with Bill according to schedules announced in class.  These conferences are considered required class time and mandatory.  One conference should be in-person and at least one should be through e-mail.      

TENTATIVE  PROJECT  CALENDAR       
 
Week #1  Course goals, observation possibilities, major assignments. Share backgrounds and individual expectations and concerns. Assignment: 3-5 page paper on self-defining learning experiences at all educational. levels; what and who decided you on teaching. Give educational philosophy and potential personal teaching strengths. Due Monday, wk 2. Gere, Chap 1. Packet introductory material. Join NCTE.

Week #2  How English teacher's unique role fits into secondary curriculum.  Covering Objectives.  Assignment: find  three sources to help with determining and covering objectives. Give annotated summary that also evaluates how and why sources would be helpful (1-2pp). Due Monday, Week 3.

Week #3  Gere Chaps 4-7. Packet pp. 66-93. Curriculum materials available--what makes the source or materials beneficial. Building a successful personal program within a traditional curriculum. Look at courses and order for a typical semester or year. Teaching philosophies: pros and cons for learning styles learning grammar, writing, and literature. MBTI results and discussion. Assignment: Develop lit. theme unit implementing a particular teaching style to reach a variety of learning styles. Outline & Annotate 15 titles and rationales. Due Monday, Wk 4. Begin short presentations on Wednesdays. Journal check.

Week #4  Organize a semester survey course. Review learning behaviors and how applied to curriculum decisions.  Assignment: collaborative groups develop outline for basic survey course with overhead presentation.  Develop course goals and objectives for specific grade & level.  Due Wednesday, Week 5. Gere Chap. 2.  Continue portfolio overview. Process journal check.  

Week #5  Share philosophies. Support outlines with theory. Further discuss writing behavioral objectives, how to develop a lesson plan, how to develop a unit plan, consider style handbook for classes. Assignment: Outline unit for freshman or sophomore English lit./writing class; write a lesson plan for one or more days.

Week #6  Evaluating/assessing your lessons and students. Textbook evaluations. Assignment: Eval. 2 textbooks or 2 lessons. 1st due Mon, Wk 7., 2nd due Wk 8. Gere, Chap 3. Developing eval and grade sys.

Week #7   Assessment methodologies of students, instructor. Begin teaching freshman English mini-units.. Individual conferences. 1st eval due. Assign: Devise rationale, handout for grading/eval. writing.

Week #8  Teacher observations (2). Observation of secondary class applauded. freshman class OK. Non-traditional group exercise.  Second eval. due. Continue assessment models: eval and grade student papers.
 
Week #9  Methods for writing assignments-individual and group/collaborative instruction.. Assignment: Develop writing unit using four discourse acts. Due Monday Wk 11. 1st teacher obs due Wed, Week 10.

Week #10 Classroom management/discipline.. Assignment: develop a classroom management system for drama lab (work in pairs); alternative: develop complete syllabus for a language arts class.  Due Wed. Week 11. Gere Chap 10. Process journal check. First teacher observation due.
 
Week #11 Portfolios in the writing classroom.  More practical approaches to teaching writing.  Claims, evidence, interpretation in writing about lit. Reviewing difficult areas for teens.  Material for teaching lit.

Week #12 Working with administrators, teachers, guidance personnel, unions, and parents. Finding, interviewing, and securing a position.  Gere Chap 8-9. 2nd teacher observation due Wed. week 13.

Week #13  Incorporating computers into the classroom. Synchronous computer software in the English class. Discuss classroom observations.  Elective classes in the English program. Potential excellence in a language arts program. 2nd classroom observations due. Long presentations will begin. National NCTE.

Week #14 thru #16 Long presentations of teaching units. Optional assignment: attend School Board--Write-up after interviewing one board member, analysis of meeting, school corporation, teacher environment.

Week #17 Final exam - Portfolio presentation. and how incorporated items aid in answering interview questions. Final process journal check.



ASSIGNMENTS
SHORTER PRESENTATION    
    In this class, practical experience will strengthen and develop your personal philosophy’s worthiness and classroom potential.  You will accomplish a brief instructional segment explaining rationale for treatment and approach (two students each Wednesday).  Absolutely no longer than ten minutes.  Students volunteer for time starting third week. Guidelines:  Select short piece of literature--a short, short story such as Kate Chopin's "Story of an Hour;"  or a short poem of no more than 50 lines; or a short essay, editorial, nonfiction piece--you should be able to read it aloud in less than four minutes.  Credit will be given those whose emphasis is showing how the piece promotes teaching writing modes, style/grammar, how-to poetry, reading methods, or explaining ice-breaker potential within unit.  Explain (handouts are mandatory) how you would introduce the selection, where, how, why it would fit into overall literature/writing/poetry/ grammar sequence and what level (grade and ability) and any other elements you think pertinent.  Often we will take class time for critiques and questions.  Have enough copies for everyone along with handouts on approach, objectives, assessment potentials (approximately 25).  You will be graded on your presentation's logic, force, experimental potentials, and timing.
    Curve ball aspect:  You are on your honor to select a piece which you have not seen presented before your presentation and suggest one radical approach in using material with secondary students.
LONGER PRESENTATION
    With five weeks remaining singularly or in pairs, students will decide on subject(s) and sign up so there's no duplication if possible.  Develop an expertise in one category of teaching, administration, or pedagogical theory for a class presentation.  Issues can cover any areas an English teacher might face.  Presentation will last twenty minutes.  More time available for discussions.
Literature Units: reader response; theme, tone, setting, plot, character, story line, implied author, historical understanding and awarenesses; poetic techniques, genres, authors, history and texts, cultural understanding and awarenesses; instructional scaffolding; REcreation.  
Writing Units: Journals; invention techniques; drafting techniques; revision techniques; argument; narrative; description; persuasion; interpreting; analyzing; synthesizing; or comparison/contrast; creative techniques; short story writing; poetry writing; and media writing.  
Style Units:  Cohesion, grammar, spelling, leads, conclusions, topic sentences, topic strings.
Professional Units:  1. Assessment/grading; 2. Computers in the classroom for language, literature, writing; 3. Creative groups/collaborative assignments; 4. Discipline/classroom management (including physical classroom set-ups);  5. Engagement/Motivation;  6. English Across the Curriculum;  7. Listening skill instruction;  8.  Young teachers' roles with peers, mentors, advisers;  9. Multi-media classroom enhancements;  10. Outside-the-classroom language arts experiences;  11. Preparation skills/syllabus and packet designs;  12. Rationale of Instructional modes: lecture, discussion, participation;  13. School law: copyright, liability, responsibility;  14. Self-analysis and mentioning of goals, objectives, teaching style, stress; 15. Sexual harassment: student and peer circumstances;  16. Speaking/speech instruction; 17. Teacher union influence;  18. Team teaching/ collegiality; 19.  Advising; 20.  Job search strategies; 21. Professional writing for journals/  prep for conferencing
Material should include: 1. Titles of texts and articles and call/reference numbers if in Bracken.   2.  Annotations of those materials which you found particularly cogent.  3.  A draft of your presentation similar to what Bill accomplished for unit lesson plans which would allow a script, but reading verbatim is not necessary or advisable.
    You will be graded on how your presentation lays the groundwork for discussion and gives fellow students as much bibliographic and practical access to topic overview.  Therefore your skills as a researcher and teacher, presenter, facilitator, discussion leader all come into play.    
E395  PORTFOLIO
    This portfolio should have superior documents completed over your pre-professional experience   It should contain revisions of classroom and practical experiences as well as creations of new material to augment the revisions. Out of the class's 1000 points, this endeavor is worth 300-400 points depending upon number of projects/papers previously completed.
    Rationale:  In order for others to see you as a pre-professional educator , produce a Secondary English Portfolio of Teaching Philosophy & Practice.   The portfolio will traverse your personal philosophy and pedagogy background as well as present insights into your professional abilities and objectives.  Specific materials will show your instructional strengths.
    Objectives:  With examples of lesson/unit plans (esp. literature you would most like to teach), background philosophy/experiences, research examples, and personal goals, portfolio will highlight your background, and promote your capabilities to future employers.
    Method/Enabling Objectives:  Combining examples of tasks that you have accomplished in this and other classes (if applicable), progress logically through those experiences. Items:
        • awards, content mastery, transcripts, resume
        • personal philosophy, journal entries, how you build communities
        • imaginative and practical lesson preparations in:
             • research and library units, • non-traditional units, • language
        •  student work from your classes
         • understandings of modern classroom with articles, stories, anecdotes
        • observation and examples of professional teachers, and
        • experiences with discipline, disabilities, ESL, advising, coaching.
    Elements combine to focus on you as pre-professional.  As a potential presentation to employees, enhance the portfolio with items which project professional abilities and status.  In an opening note, explain five items you will file away for later use with an explanation why chosen.
    Assessment:  Much like a future employer, I will check items for content, logic of argument, purpose, audience-worthiness, and focus.  If there are glaring flaws in presentation and structure including the segues between items, your chances of a job with that employer are lessened and the chances of a high grade are also weakened.
MINI-UNIT
    As reinforcement for teaching skills, I strongly urge method students to volunteer to teach a mini-unit (20 minutes) in one of my freshman composition classes.  It would be particularly helpful to attempt a lesson which is incomplete in your repertoire of instructional capabilities and which you would like additional work and advice
LESSON PLANS/ BOOK EVALUATIONS
    You will turn in one unit lesson plan preferably which you would like to teach.  One day should be extremely detailed, with a week highly defined, and the unit outlined. logically.
    You will accomplish two textbook evaluations of secondary texts in either writing, grammar, or literature. Preferably choose two from each of the three categories.
CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS
    You will complete two observations of either secondary classrooms or freshmen English classrooms with teacher permission, of course.  In your journal take detailed notes during the class.  Then submit a solid  analysis/critique on teacher's style, philosophy, goals and objectives.--be sure to have indicated CLAIMS, EVIDENCE, INTERPRETATIONS, and JUDGMENTS  in final write-ups.
JOURNAL
    Keep a process and response journal. For every class you attend there will be comparable entry (minimum 25 for semester).  DATE AND NUMBER. The journal should respond to issues discussed in class and how you see yourself accomplishing or avoiding classroom possibilities (and why).  Discuss your reactions to your own writing and presentations and mine and other instructor or student's assessments of your work. The pieces should be reflective and detailed.  Ask yourself increasingly serious questions about your reading, teaching, learning, writing, observing by responding to them in an honest manner. We may read certain entries and comment on them so that you can have the feel for how others will react when you comment on their most personal of writing. The entries should run around 200/250 words or a page in a 70-page spiral (approx. 8"x11") notebook.. Discuss my classroom capabilities and modeling (or lack thereof). Double Star (**) the top of any page you would rather not have read by anyone.
JOURNAL TOPICS
You will write 25 to 30 journal entries (approximately one for each class meeting) which occasionally will initiate classroom discussions.  A variety of issues determine how you perceive situations in and out of the classroom.  Reflected upon these issues.  The theory behind a journal is your reviewing, rethinking, reconsidering, and ruminating on how a subject and students can be taught.  Since you are both a student and teacher you should be able to attack this reflective process from many vantage points. More suggestions will be made as we go through the semester.  Some of those listed will be assigned in class. Always be as detailed as possible since these reflections.  Some of these might not be commented upon until material is covered during class.
1.  Review learning in this or other classes; explain why you believe they were successful.
2.  Review learning situations in this or other classes; explain why they were unsuccessful.
3.  Comment on C.S. Lewis's, "Reading allows us to know that we are not alone."
4.  Reflect upon how best to present yourself as a classroom manager and leader.  What will be the cornerstone of your discipline? What will be cornerstones of your relating with all students?
5.  What is your take on learning behaviors? Why?
6.  Who will you most emulate when you have your own classroom and why ?(and how?)
7.  What do you see as problematic in managing your emotional swings in the classroom?
8.  How will you deliver personal and unique decisions for 1 student while being fair to the rest?
9.   Begin to look at what will be important for inclusion in a course syllabus.
10.  Are you a teacher who will stick to the syllabus that you construct at the beginning of the year? What will be ramifications for the variety of learning styles if you do or do not?
11.  What will be your greatest strengths as a teacher?  How will you optimize those strengths?
12.  What will be your greatest weaknesses as teacher? How will you minimize weaknesses?
13.  Who do you think will be the source of most help when you become a professional?  How will you extract that help and maintain it?
14.  What material learned in methods have you tried to apply to your own teaching/learning?
15.  How will you avoid circumstances which might compromise your integrity as a professional? How have you observed other instructors avoiding such circumstances?  Can they completely be avoided? As example what are particular signs a student might project that he or she is abnormally and emotionally attached to you and how you can deflect the student's behavior to one more workable?
16.  Give a detailed accounting of the process you followed with difficult writing assignment in this or another class.  Time spent, situations, activities, physical & emotional sets, interferences.
 17.  Give a very detailed accounting with one difficult reading assignment.
18.   Talk about some of the readings on pedagogy that you have done for this or other methods classes.  What has been most helpful?  What has been least helpful?
19.   Discuss your attack for securing a teaching position.
20.   How have you personally attacked/overcome what you believed your biggest concerns about succeeding in the teaching profession?
21.  How will you approach collaborative learning when many parents complain that their child is doing the work for several others for no additional credit while others receive credit for no work.
22.  How will you introduce controversial reading material?
23.  How will you handle touchy or difficult subjects in reading and writing assignments?
24.  What are your personal biases and prejudices that you will need to overcome or ameliorate before taking over your own classrooms?
25.  How will you promote your love of lit to those students who have no interest whatsoever?
26.  How long do you plan to stay in the profession?  What will be its highest reward, its least?
27.  How will you deflect or challenge sexual harassment circumstances in the classroom?
28.  What ways can you see of incorporating the internet into you classroom lessons?  
29.  React to the idea that we are whatever we remember.
30.  Making connections is an absolute.  As a teacher, what connections should you make?
     
    Why Teach?
    By  Peter  Beidler, Lehigh University Professor of the Year

   
 W
hy do I teach, my friend asked? I had just told him that I did not want to be considered for a certain university administrative position. He was puzzled that I did not want to realize my full potential by becoming a serious candidate for what was obviously a "step up," an opportunity to achieve what all American boys are taught to want when they grow up: money and power.
 It may be, of course, that I teach because I never did grow up. It may be that, as I approach too rapidly my 45th birthday, I find a strange comfort spending my life among other adolescents who have not yet jumped onto the great upward treadmill. I confess that my favorite students are first-semester freshmen: a little afraid, awed by the prospect of really learning, thrilled to be treated like adults for the first time in their lives, yet willing to admit in a candid moment that they really do not feel like adults. I like those first-semester freshmen because, at least early in the semester, no one has yet told them about things like rush, all-night parties, guts, and how to get through college without learning too much.
   It may be, then, that I teach because I feel at home in the company of people who feel a sense of wonder-almost fear--about learning, who have not yet quite grown up, and who are not entirely sure they will know when they have. But surely that is not the only reason that I teach. I have grown up. I have no desire whatever to be a first-semester freshmen again. I am happy to leave the uncertainty and frustration of being 18 to those who are 18. Why, then, do I teach?
   My friend did not really want to know why I want to stay in teaching. He had more important things on his mind. But I want to know. If I cannot write it down, I do not know it. So here goes.
   Let me try to be what I tell my freshmen writers to be: organized. First, I shall discuss some of what are not the reasons why I teach. Then, I shall try to sort out some of what are the reasons.
   I teach not because teaching is easy for me. Teaching is the most difficult of the various ways I have attempted to earn my living: bulldozer mechanic, carpenter, university administrator, writer. For me, teaching is a red-eye, sweaty-palm, sinking-in-the-stomach profession. Red-eye because I never feel ready to teach, no matter how late at night before I stay up preparing. Sweaty-palm, because I am always nervous before walking into that classroom, sure that I will be found out for the fool that I am. Sinking-stomach, because I usually walk out of the classroom an hour later convinced either that my fly must have been unzipped the whole hour, or that I was even more boring than usual.
   I teach not because I am a natural-born public speaker. I tend to fumble my lectures, fumble my facts, jumble my jokes, and stumble my interpretations.
   I teach not because I know the answers, or because I know a body of information I feel driven to share with others. I occasionally take a look at my teaching notes for a work that I taught several years earlier and am appalled at what I see. Did I really say that about the pink ribbon in "Young Goodman Brown"? Surely I did not tell my Chaucer students that Chaucer's Prioress is frustrated because as a nun she could never have babies. To think that my students sometimes actually take notes on what I say in class.
   I teach not because I look handsome in front of a class. I look like someone who had Icabod Crane for a father and Prudence Pimple for a mother. I have bad posture, thick glasses, and thinning hair that sticks out at funny angles. As my sons never tire of telling me, I wear untrendy clothes, even (shudder) flares. Robert Redford would look natural in front of a class. I look like something that the mower just kicked out from a damp lawn. Someone video-taped me once as part of a "teacher self-improvement" project..
   I teach because I enjoy finding ways within an ivory-tower profession to get myself and my students out of the ivory tower from time to time and into the so-called "real world."  I have already mentioned the Redbook course and the Hopi course. Perhaps another example will show better what I mean. In 1976 I taught a course called "Self-Reliance in a Technological Society." It was in some ways a normal enough ivory-tower kind of course. My 15 students read writers like Emerson and Thoreau and Huxley. They kept journals. They wrote term papers.
   But there was a less normal aspect of the course. My students and I also set up a corporation, borrowed money from a local bank, purchased a run-down house on Vernon Street near the university, and spent "lab sessions" during the semester practicing self-reliance by completely renovating the house. Then, at the end of the semester, we sold the house, repaid our loan, paid our corporate income tax, and distributed the profits among the students. Certainly this was not your average English course. To some people it seemed more appropriate to a vocational-technical high school than to a respectable institution of high education. But 15 future lawyers and accountants and English teachers and industrialist, many of whom had never had a tool in their hands before, suddenly found themselves reading Thoreau's Walden with fresh eyes. They knew why Thoreau went to the woods, how he built his cabin, and why he felt so good about his experiment that he wanted to tell the world about it. They also knew why, in the end, he left the woods and the cabin to try other ventures. He had tasted the waters of Walden Pond. It was time to move on to other nectars.
   I teach because teaching gives me many nectars to taste of, many woods to enter and then to leave, many fine books to read, and many ivory towers and real world experiences to discover.  Teaching gives me pace and variety and challenge and the opportunity to keep on learning.
   I have left out, however, the most important lesson why I teach. .
   One reason is Vicky. My first doctoral student. Vicky was a somewhat noisy, enthusiastic, energetic young bubble who had trouble seeing past the thrill of literature to the rigor of academic scholarship. But she plugged away at her dissertation on a little-known 14th century poet. And, while still in graduate school, she hammered out a couple of articles and sent them off to learned journals. And she started applying for jobs, entering a sluggish market in which the few job openings were both depressing and avidly sought out by the hordes of bright young PhDs who found them so depressing. Vicky did it all herself, with only an occasional nod or smile or nudge from me, but I was there when she finished her dissertation, got word that those two articles were accepted, and landed her first job. And I was there a couple of months ago when I got her letter saying she had won a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship to spend a year at working on a book developing some of the ideas she had generated as a student.
   Another reason is Patti. Smart, opinionated, and brash, Patti raked in the A's, started up a local chapter of a national English honorary, went on to law school. Now a lawyer for the department of Environmental Resources, she is still smart, brash, opinionated as she gives industrial violators of the Clean Air Act a hard time. I was there the day she came into my office and told about Rob.
   There is Greg. Sensitive and creative, Greg majored in English as a stepping stone to becoming a novelist. I was there last fall when he wrote asking whether, bored with clerking in a bookstore, he would be making a mistake to apply for a teaching assistantship in a graduate English program somewhere. It does not matter that I told him if I really want to be a novelist, I would go to sea for a year. It does matter that I was there when he started asking himself the right questions.
   There is Julie. Julie was sure she was not a good student, but her kids were growing up and she asked if she could sit in on one of my classes (but not for credit) to see if she was college material. I told her she could, provided she came to every class, did all the work, and took all the tests. I was there when, right after the first test, she came in and, weeping, apologized because she knew she had failed it, even though she had studied for it night and day for two weeks. It does not matter that I later had the task of telling her she had gotten a low D, not an F, or that on the next test she got a solid B. It does not matter that in the end she decided against college after all. It does matter that I was there when she asked.
   There is Jeanne. She used to sit cross-legged on the other chair in my office. She started to run away from college, but her classmates brought her back because they wanted her to be around when we all finished our self-reliance house on Vernon Street. I was there when she came back. I was there when she graduated.
   There is George, who still sends me sardonic Christmas cards showing, for example, Santa Claus caught in a mouse trap in the pantry on Christmas Eve.
   There is Lois, who married a bee farmer and has three babies and is delighted that she majored in English.
   There is Jacqui,  a cleaning lady who knows by intuition more than most of us ever learn by analysis, who has just decided to finish high school and go on to college.
   There is Nadine who needs to borrow $1,000 from each of 10 people to keep the little publishing company afloat.
   These are the real reasons I teach, these people who grow and change in my presence. Being a teacher is being there, being present at the creation, when the clay begins to breathe. I take no credit for the moment of life, but I can think of nothing more exciting than being somewhere nearby when the breathing begins.
   A "promotion" out of teaching would give me more money and power. But I have money. As a teacher I get paid doing the kinds of things I enjoy most: reading books, talking to people, making discoveries, and asking questions like, "What is the point in being rich?"
   And I have power. I have the power to nudge, to fan sparks, to ask troubling questions, to praise an attempted answer, to condemn hiding from the truth, to suggest books, to point out a pathway. What other power matters? Who besides a teacher has so much power?   There is one other enticement that teaching offers besides money and power. It is love. Not only the love of learning and books and ideas, but also the love a teacher feels for the rare student, that one student who walks into the life of a teacher every year or two or three, that student whom teachers get to begin to breathe. It is not romantic love, though it can easily be mistaken for that. It is not filial love, for these are not one's children. Perhaps love is not the right word for that sense of magic I refer to.
   Whatever it is called, I teach because, being around people who are beginning to breathe, I occasionally find myself catching my breath with them.
 


    
I'm a teacher too  
    by Art Buchwald

   
 A
 few weeks ago I wrote a piece about school teachers going up in space. I speculated as to what kinds of candidates my own teachers at PS35 would have made if they had applied for the trip. It was a light piece because, like most Americans, I never dreamed anything could happen to the flight of the shuttle Challenger.
   During the last week, as I watched the television screen, I got to thinking about teachers. Although Mrs. Christa McAuliffe wasn't a professional astronaut, she did leave behind a wonderful legacy.
   Consider this.
   For the past 15 or 20 years, America's teachers could not have been held in lower esteem. They were underpaid, underrated, and blamed for anything that went wrong in our schools.
   It appeared the only time we saw teachers on TV was when they were on strike or arrested for child abuse. The perception was that teachers were people who taught because they couldn't make it in the real world.
   Except for covering vandalism and crime in schools, the media ignored what was going on in the classroom. And with reason: if teachers were teaching, and students were learning, it wasn't news-that is until the destruction of the Challenger.
   Suddenly our schools received more attention than they have ever been given before. Seven brave people died that morning, but it was the death of a school teacher that made our children cry.
   When the TV cameras entered the nation's classrooms to record the grief, we saw principals and teachers fighting back tears as they tried to comfort the students.
   The cameras not only focused on teachers but also panned to the agonized faces of the children. They showed teacher to pupil and pupil to teacher-and in that moment of sadness we witnessed the educational process at its best.
   When these pictures came into our homes we were reminded of something we tend to take for granted: the role teachers quietly play in the lives of children.
   The lesson was not just for grown-ups. You had the feeling that the students gained a new respect for teachers as well.
   It went something like this: "Christa was a teacher, and Christa died in space, but it could have been any body's teacher.
   So what was Christa McAuliffe's legacy?
   When Sputnik went up and we realized the Russians were ahead there was a great clamor to educate American children and make our schools second to none. Then after the successes of our own space program, the clamor died down. Education was dropped as our No. 1 priority.
   At least it was until last week. After that one horrifying moment in Florida, things changed again. The parent-teacher-pupil bond that had been fraying for a generation seemed to be joined again.
   Christa McAuliffe's gift to us is not in the skies but here on earth. From everything you can read, she was a teacher before she went up and she intended to be a teacher when she returned. In death her legacy is to give her fellow professionals new dignity and honor. Thanks to Christa, each one of them can say with pride, "I'm a teacher too.





     
Ann Landers

 D
ear Ann Landers: You have printed letters dealing with a teacher's responsibilities to students. I hope you will find room in your space for this one letter by Randy Attwood, managing editor of the Daily News of Johnson County in Olathe, Kan.--Steady followers in the Wheat Belt.
Dear W.B.: Her it is-with pleasure. Under all the funny stuff, Attwood makes valid points. I liked it.

TO NEW TEACHERS:
  Welcome! We entrust to you our brats. We expect you to discipline them where we have not. But do it in a way that won't make us angry.
   Keep our children entertained. They are bound to get restless. They watch a lot of television, so they aren't very good at entertaining themselves.
   Some of us are ardently against abortion. Others of us are ardently pro-choice. Some of us demand school prayer. Other demand no school prayer. Some of us are Christians and hate atheists. Some of us are atheists and hate Christians. Please reinforce the correct moral views to our children who are in your care.
   Feed our children well. We don't have time for breakfast at home, so they are quite hungry by lunch time.
   We understand that teachers are human beings and have days when they are depressed, not feeling well and just plain blue. Never show that side of yourself to our children. We want them to believe the world is always a happy place. Smile.
   Teach our children that America is always right, has always been right and is the best place to live in the entire world and that now is the best time to be alive in the entire history of man.
   Remain in control at all times. Our children will yell at you. We will call you up on the phone and yell at you. We will go to the school and yell at the principal about you. Please stay calm. Someone has to.
   Accept the great responsibility that has been given to you. If our children don't learn to read, it will be your fault. If our children come out of high school having no idea  what they want to do in life, it will be your fault. If they don't go to college, it will be your fault. If they go to college and flunk out, it will be your fault. If they can't find a job, that will also be your fault.
   Be perfect. Lord knows our children see enough imperfection in their homes. Somebody has to set an example.
   And please, don't gripe about money. Really now, you get 3 months of vacation away from the brats. We have to have them around all year long.
    Yours truly, The Parents.
 
    Have we changed in seventeen years?
    By Lee Mitgang, AP EDUCATION  WRITER (1986)

 NEW YORK - Teachers endorse many goals of school reform, but most don't think it has improved their lot and a growing number have seriously considered quitting, according to a pall released Tuesday.
     The Louis Harris poll, commissioned by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., was the third annual canvassing of public school teachers' views on issues affecting them.
     The 1986 poll included for the first time opinions of principals, superintendents, teacher union leaders, state education officials, state legislators who serve on education committees and deans of colleges of education.
     Fifty-five percent of classroom teachers said they have seriously considered leaving the profession, up from 51 percent in the 1985 survey.
     Over 90 percent of the teachers and education leaders agree that poor pay is a leading contributor to an impending teacher shortage.
     "This survey reinforces the value of teachers in our society and the need to pay them more," said Mary Hatwood Futrell, president of the 1.8 million-member National Education Association, the nation's largest teacher union.
     She added that "agreement is highest among those who are closest to the schools, namely, teachers, principals, and teacher union and association officials."
     But the consensus apparently breaks down when it comes to education reform. Only 36 percent of teachers felt recent reforms have had a positive impact on teachers. But 78 percent of state officials and 73 percent of legislators thought reform had helped teachers.
     Teachers and most educational leaders also remain at loggerheads over merit pay.
     Of the 72 percent of teachers who said they were familiar with it, 71 percent were opposed to such systems. Fifty-five percent of principals and 97 percent of union leaders agreed with teachers. But 73 percent of education college deans favor merit pay, as did slim majorities of superintendents, state legislators and state education department officials.
     Teachers were split in their views of career ladder programs, such as the one in Tennessee they divides teaching into different jobs and then gives teachers the chance to move up a ladder of higher salaries and greater responsibilities. Of the 39 percent of teachers who said they were familiar with career ladders, 49 percent were in favor, 46 percent were opposed.
     Mentor teaching programs, in which excellent teachers are assigned to coach other teachers, proved most popular among those surveyed. Of the 44 percent of teachers familiar with such programs, 82 percent favored them, as did over 80 percent of all categories of educational leaders.
     A narrow majority of teachers-52 percent- supported the ideas of a national teacher certification board along the lines proposed last spring by the Carnegie task force. Seventy percent of union leaders and 61 percent of education college deans were also supportive of a board.
     State education officials, who have sole power to certify new teachers, were more lukewarm to the national board, with 46 percent in favor, 47 percent opposed and the rest unsure.
     Among other findings in the poll, more than 80 percent from all groups surveyed said teachers were doing an excellent or good job.
     School principals were the next highest rated group, getting favorable job ratings ranging from 67 percent form state legislators to 94 percent from district superintendents.
 

THE PROFESSION: AS REPORTED IN THE MEDIA

    News stories  in the Muncie Star Press portray images of teachers which  are not pleasant. This publicity depicts a minority element. But understand how vulnerable you can be as a young teacher.

From the Muncie Star Press  8-8-97:

Teachers who had beer with field-trip lunch fired

 Crawfordsville -- Two middle school teachers who drank a beer with lunch on a school field trip have been fired. The Crawfordsville School Board on Wednesday voted unanimously to terminate the contracts of Jayne Hancock and Jodi Webster.
Each teacher admitted to drinking one beer each on a field trip to Indiana Beach amusement park near Monticello.  This broke school policy, the board decided.
Hancock had been a teacher for 10 years, teaching social studies at Tuttle for 6.  Webster had taught science and health education for 3 years at Tuttle.
The teachers' attorney said after the meeting that they did not know if the teachers would take any legal action.
 

Teacher who had sex with pupil pleads guilty

 Kent, Washington -- An elementary school teacher who had a baby by one of her sixth-graders pleaded guilty Thursday to rape of a child.
Mary Lou LeTourneau, a 35-year-old mother of four children, could get up to 71/2 years in prison at sentencing August 29.
She said she still has feelings for  the boy--who turned 14 a month after their daughter was born in May--and wants to raise the girl he fathered.
The two met when she taught his second grade class in this Seattle suburb.
"There was a respect, an insight, a spirit, an understanding between us that grew over time," LeTourneau told the Seattle Times earlier in the month.
By the time he was in her class again in the sixth grade, she said, "he was my best friend.  We just walked together in the same rhythm."
LeTourneau and the boy began having sex last summer.  After she got pregnant, her husband told relatives, one of whom contacted school officials and social workers.
 
Bill's note:  This story has taken many turns since it originally appeared.  LeTourneau, after  six months prison time for her crime, again had another relation with the boy, became pregnant a second time, was returned to prison.  She has become a national icon for miscreant teachers.

Ex-teacher pleads guilty to sex assault

By Doug Walker, The Star Press 8-13-97

 
Muncie -- When a former Muncie elementary school teacher was charged last month with sexually abusing a student, some local residents expressed their outrage.
Not at James F. Greiner, the former Morrison Mock Elementary School teacher accused of making sexual advances toward the child, but at the 11-year-old girl he was accused of kissing and fondling.  After the 39-year-old Muncie man was charged with sexual battery on July 3, the girl's upbringing and credibility were called into question in letters to the editor published in The Star Press.  
But as things turned out, the girl was telling the truth. Greiner--who was suspended with pay in February and later resigned from the city school system--entered a guilty plea Wednesday morning in Delaware Superior Court 3.
After pleading guilty to a class D felony, Greiner will face a standard 11/2 year prison term when he is sentenced by Judge A. J. Hall on Sept. 15.
On the witness stand Wednesday, Greiner said he went to the student's home after school on Jan. 27. to pick up a computer that needed repairs. The girl then returned with him to the school.
"She was sitting on my lap, driving, kind of steering," Greiner said, "That's when I touched her between the legs."
"Did you do that to satisfy sexual desires?" asked Chief Deputy Prosecutor J. A. Cummins.
"Yes, sir," Greiner said.
The student told authorities Greiner also touched her buttocks and kissed her.
A plea agreement in the case specifies that whatever the sentence Greiner receives will include 600 hours of community service.
Cummins said he hoped to arrange for the ex-teacher to discuss his case with parent-teacher organizations and other groups that dealt with children.  The chief deputy prosecutor said he wanted members of the community to realize that in most cases of child sexual abuse, "We aren't talking about a trench-coat guy in a stairwell."
Cummins confirmed that a female member of Greiner's extended family, now an adult, recently told authorities that she was sexually abused by Greiner during her childhood.

Bill's note:  This is much closer to home.  Greiner seemed a classic professional: naturally warm-hearted, enthusiastic,  very empathetic to children's needs, caring, personable, but these are also qualities of many pedophiles.

 
MAKING  INTELLIGENT CONNECTIONS:
The Brain's
Thoughts and Emotions

A
BSTRACT: Neuroscientific discoveries combined with behavioral sciences' subjective logic may expose an alternative paradigm within education's noetic field.  By analyzing how educators consider a noetic field, its knowns and unknowns, rhetorician James Berlin suggests we generally balance judgments about our realities through language and audience considerations. Current knowns, when discussing how students learn in our classrooms, support a reliance on cognitive and social cognitive terms and skills.  But the unknowns of our pedagogies may include how  "emotional intelligence" affects and effects our students' processing.  This new paradigm, while considering recent research in neuroscience and biology, should force us to reconsider our realities and our  terminology when discussing those realities.  To demonstrate the brain's interconnectedness among and between the cognitive, social cognitive and emotional intelligences assumes more of a reliance on what I call emotional cognition--a new term and focus--and consequently assumes a paradigm shift in how we should be teaching our students.
This theory is reinforced by multiple intelligence concepts promoted by Howard Gardner, Peter Salovey, John Mayer, and Daniel Goleman. The theory furthers understandings of our students' affective domains, the need to extend our pedagogical realities, and our need for new terms in discussing those realities on how students learn.  

 Introduction: "The obvious"

O
ver the last fifteen years emotional, behavioral, psychological, and neurological research reify the complexities of our wholeness.  These studies outside education may better advise how and why we resee an all the combining elements of the human mind, heart, and spirit.  These studies reinforce pedagogical theories teachers have nurtured over decades.  Some twenty years of research in the physical, emotional, and historical brain validate what has appeared obvious to some educators.   The Obvious Part I: There are more issues involved in learning successes than superior cognitive skills.  The Obvious Part II: There are more issues involved in learning successes than our students' abilities to assimilate cognitive and social cognitive skills.  As theories and discoveries in all disciplines illuminate our pedagogical epistemologies, cognitive and social cognitive skills may be enhanced by what can be termed "emotional cognition," a third dimension of a tripartite view of "intelligence."  This third element, though a potential force in guiding educators, has not yet demonstrated its practical significance.
   There is evidence to support a theory demonstrating emotional cognition's involvement in not only how students succeed but how we all succeed within most pedagogical, professional, and personal circumstances.  Combining positive emotional intelligence strengths--popularly known as our EQ--with cognitive and social cognitive strengths a student gathers all the forces helpful to succeed.  But lacking these EQ benefits and cramped by traditional paradigms which overlook or even discourage promoting such skills, a student may, in a variety of ways, be less able to accomplish school tasks.  
Teachers have long seen the pedagogical values prevalent in common-sense practices which evolved either from common-sense theories.  Those practices include:
    1 - encourage and appreciate the individual student,
    2 - engage the student in his learning,
    3 - engage the student the importance of collaborative work, and
    4 - enable the student to affirm his or her worth and abilities and how such worth and               abilities develop and will continue to develop.  
Then there is the common-sense taxonomy for emotional intelligence:
    1 - empathy,
    2 - motivation,
    3 - relating with others, and
    4 - self-awareness.

Evolutionary  Perspectives

I
n a biological perspective we view how an amoebae senses through its skin to move from shade to light.  Early living cells developed sensory conditioning which allowed survival judgments. "Ancestral organism" sensed and reacted.  It was natural.  According to Nicholas Humphrey human evolution has not "gone beyond" early sensory markers--nor would it be wise for humans to "lose" these markers.  We are sentitions according to Humphrey.  We are constantly having sensations of "what's happening to us" combined with the perception of "what's happening out there."  The combined influences are paramount to our survival.  And as importantly paramount to our consciousness (77-81).  
We understand that when a fetus ignites in its justational journey, it begins to develop a brain which will transform through stages into an entity very close to "world readiness."   For upon birth the normal brain has been readying for the incredible learning processes it will face.  But few appreciate, early in its journey, our future brain is but a "piece of skin," an evolutionary remnant similar to the one-celled amoebae's outer layer. That piece of skin eventuates into a neural tube which develops into the brain and spinal column.  These processes can take place at an incredible 250,000 cell per minute increase (Greenfield 40).  
In more of an historical perspective we can view the modern brain over its evolutionary path.  We can hypothesize how the organism--from early human to our present state, faced a multitude of experiences over the millenniums.  If we inspect our nervous system from a 200,000-to-five-million-year time-line, we view a journey which could reveal our cognitive, social cognitive, and emotional past.  According to Merlin Donald each major development of the brain over the last 200,000 years is calculated by studying our current nervous system. We can replicate its emotional, social and biological development according to Donald.  In the brain's modern configuration, we observe the "early" years with brain stem and medulla which control heart and breathing rates and blood pressure;  the amygdala which coordinates autonomic and endocrine (hormonal) responses with emotional states; the "subsequent" years development with cerebellum which fine tunes our motion and balance; the hippocampus which enhances emotions, learning, and motivation.  Then we can observe further development with the pre-frontal lobe which enhances planning and emotional transaction.  And finally we view the "later" year developments of the cerebral cortex which involves motor functions--sensations as smelling, listening, seeing, imaging--also behavior, memories and language.  Of course, the over simplification of processes can be problematic, but the logic of the mind's progress is implicit.
These segmented brain areas, however, do not give us an understanding of the mind.  Though we are presently organisms with a consciousness, we humans were first social organisms.  Our early primate ancestors grouped.  Together ancestors attempted to forge safer areas to survive.  But before we developed primal societies, our emotional skills had to evolve.  Our emotions allowed us to survive as individuals.  Our emotional apparatus was our only early warning, giving humankind and other animals fight or flee awarenesses.  Therefore it has been a lengthy emotional, then social, then cognitive pilgrimage.  And each had separated journey moments (Donald).
 At birth, Greenfield estimates we have 50 trillion cells of which 100 billion make up our nervous system including our brain.  Realizing that these cells are genetically responsive to 50,000 genes, only a tiny fraction of all those brain cells, neurons, can have genetic hard-wired connections.  The brain creates its own pathways.  Brain cells' spidery characteristics allow connections to build upon and communicate with other brain cells.  
Under certain conditions neurons can generate and convey tiny impulses of electricity along their membranes. These pulses are nerve signals, also referred to as action potentials.  If neurons are the cellular building blocks of the brain and nervous system, nerve signals are the data--the information carried around and stored in the system (Greenfield 40).  
Highly specialized nerve cells, the brain's billions of neurons, forge links between thousands of other neurons through transmission axons connecting one neuron to receiving dendrites of another, and then to another and another brain cell and so on and so on effecting a quadrillion connections. (Greenfield).
Antonio Damasio examines the plethora of biological, chemical, and hormonal circumstances which affect the body and brain's physical attitudes and activities and subsequently secures our mental attitudes and activities.  Each of the 100 billion brain cells, axons transmitting electrical pulses  and dendrites receiving those pulses do not physically "touch" one another.  The synapse connections are yoked by neurotransmitters.  To transform internal and external sensations into feelings and attitudes the brain's neurotransmitters aid or reduce or halt those neuronal connections. Therefore with the quadrillion neuronal electrical energy exchanges, neurotransmitter forces are vital--without them, exchanges cannot take place. We learn from news reports or  visits to our family physicians as to the affects and effects of dopamine and seratonin. These two agents alter neurotransmitter effectiveness, and therefore alter our affective states.  And in a kind of double-edged, bio-emotional synapse reversal, our affective states alter neurotransmitter states as well; thereby altering our brain's overall functioning.
Our understanding of the brain and its quadrillion synapse connection helps in learning how we process and think.  In a kind of "use or lose it" scenario brain interconnections are simply lost when the firing synapses do not continue.  Therefore in order to increase, or simply maintain, these synapse connections a human must continue to complete mental and physical activities.  One must think and do.  Our emotions are instrumental in promoting these activities. Understandings of the mind, brain, and body's interconnections with our external universes have pedagogical implications that have been obvious practical exigencies.  It is logical.  Teaches seemed to have realized the concept well before neuroscience's confirmation.  
Biological and psychological perspectives

S
cientific evidence sustains the overarching influences of our affective dimensions.   Research ranging from the sciences to the humanities--Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence text, an expansion of John Mayer and Peter Salovey's taxonomy of emotional intelligence, analyzes findings in psychology, neuroscience, and biology.  Howard Gardner's studies of inter- and intra- personal skills advance the notions that intelligences shift beyond mathematical and linguistic skills.  Bernard Weiner's ascription of motivation within cognitive epistemologies explains the subjective logic of motivation.  And Jean-Didier Vincent's work in The Biology of Emotions  synthesizes the importance of the emotions in learning.   
We still may not understand completely how individuals see themselves as learners in learning circumstances.  Emotional sensibilities can determine or reinforce, disavow or discredit rational senses.  But modern education seems not to fully appreciate our multi-connected and multi-layered brain systems. Nancy Gibbs' review of the Goleman text summarizes the impact of emotions,
Emotional life grows out of an area of the brain called the limbic system, specifically the amygdala, whence come delight and disgust and fear and anger. Millions of years ago, the neocortex was added on, enabling humans to plan, learn and remember.  Lust grows from the limbic system; love from the neocortex...The more connections between the limbic system and the neocortex, the more emotional responses are possible (63).  
Vincent describes the brain as having neuronal and hormonal qualities that allow us to react within our environment and within ourselves.  There is the cabled connectedness which combines with what Vincent calls the "vague brain" and its "thereness" enveloping our neurons.  The "vague" and "cabled" elements are inseparable--a wholeness.  The connected portions have learned to distinguish between good and evil, beauty and ugliness, but without the vague brain we know nothing.  Without the "vague brain" we would lack pleasure of our associations, and would lack our subtle appreciations and understandings of vagaries in others' personalities (162).  
Damasio supports Vincent. This vague brain results in our feelings which are invoked from the emotional and cognitive interconnections within our brain, mind, and body (127-64).  "Descartes' error," therefore, was separating the softer limbic system's emotional responses--the subcortex which helps delineate all the world's incoming stuff--from the harder logical strengths of the new brain, the cortex.  There is no separation.  Those two elements of the brain, the limbic system and the neocortex, in concert with our entire internal milieu give us a working knowledge to judge and then react to and within our environment.
Biologist Vincent and neuroscientist Damasio agree the brain "effects the affective."  Vincent believes that the connections of reason and passion and behavior and metabolism cannot be separated (54).  It is the wholeness of our internal milieu.  Goleman adds, "[T]he emotional and rational minds are semi-independent faculties, each... reflecting the operation of distinct, but interconnected, circuitry in the brain" (9).  Our brain is not something that computes on demand.  Processes described by cognitive psychologists can be very positivistic:  "if this, then this."  But these reported  processes lack a "feel" for the self.  Accordingly, we need to consider how we emotionally react when we are placed within real [read as school] environments.  With its scientific random samplings, statistical inferences, and empirical theories with standard deviations, cognitive science can circumvent or separate out the emotional of behavioral studies (Mayer and Salovey).  Cognitive psychologists therefore bypass needed understanding of our internal milieu according to phenomenologists. Together new studies demonstrate students should be apprised of how emotional strengths can be harnessed to enhance learning capacities.   Alternatively, students should learn how  to deal with emotional deterrents.  Such deterrents can undermine or even overwhelm any thinking, critical or otherwise (Mayer and Salovey).  
Damasio explains the brains' incredible complexities and the implications of what it would be not to have all of our emotional brain capacities. His studies show how dramatically three intelligences are intertwined.  For Damasio the emotional and social decision-making damage is as devastating and at times much more insidious than the cognitive damage.  Damasio prefaces his claims with the saga of Phineas Gage who, after being a dependable construction foreman responsible for dynamiting terrain for a Vermont railroad company, made an almost fatal error.  He inadvertently set off a gunpowder charge sending a thin three-foot iron bar--weighing thirteen pounds-- into the bottom of his skull and out the top.  Though the explosion sent him, certain brain parts, and the bar hurdling more than a hundred feet in several directions, incredibly he lived.  But needless to say his life was not the same. The once reserved, respected, and competent worker- gentleman was completely inappropriate in public.  His language was disgusting.  He could no longer manage his personal and professional affairs (3-52).
The early ninetieth century tale fascinates Damasio because Gage's troubles are replicated to one degree or another as neurobiologists and psychologists face a plethora of similar situations.  Patients with brain tumors or similar brain abnormalities where part of the brain is destroyed or damaged are also socially inappropriate.  Their language can be more than "salty."  They too make business decisions which put themselves and their families in financial jeopardy or ruin.  They too make personal decisions which alienate and soon confine them to smaller and smaller business and social circles.  Yet the more insidious element is when they complete IQ tests and experiments successfully.  These individuals have not lost their cognitive powers.  They have, however, lost portions of their emotional brain which allow "normal" individuals to prioritize elements of their social lives and emotional decision making.  They have lost portions of their brains which allow for empathy and feelings for others.  They have lost certain abilities of self-awareness.  The studies by Damasio confirm a brain has not only incredible cognitive abilities, but incredible emotional agilities and social maneuverabilities.  The human brain and the human body and human spirit are all intertwined.  Social-emotional-cognitive man is one. There seems to be no parsing of the human spirit.

Synthesizing Perspectives

A
 joy with behavioral theories are their ability to involve the basics of being human.  We can appreciate individuality and uniqueness.  For when we consider a mind, we journey into the core of what makes us singular.  We are unique, despite all of the social cognitive theories tacit within the various disciplines that group us into consensus cultures, consensus communities, consensus thinkers and doers.  Cognitive and social cognitive theories are fine, but together they do not embrace all of our uniquenesses.
We are unique not only because of our individual manipulation and management strategies within cognitive process models.  But we are also unique because of our intuitive, gut-level powers.  We are unique because of our affective connections that seep between the thinking and forming of words and word clusters.  We are unique because the quality of our thoughts and images can never be completely analyzed in the most rigorous of philosophical deconstructions or through scientific Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) techniques.  
Those qualities and uniquenesses are composed and conjured by the constant interaction and mediation within a brain which interacts with a person's internal milieu and everything else outside that entity's being.  Those qualities are composed in unique and differing patterns because of the biological brain's 100 billion neurons.  They are figured and reconfigured into trillions of alternative synapse connections which are synergized by each individual's contrasting, comparing, classifying, narrating, detailing, summarizing, inquiring, analyzing, interpreting, evaluating, and defining processes. The social and personal implications of the emotional and personal brain are immense.  Though there are individuals within our classrooms, teams, workplaces, and churches, mosques, or synagogues who might accomplish their thinking and processing similarly in certain circumstances, no one person's trillions of biological and neurological connections of her billions of neurons can ever be the same as another's.  They can never be the same.  An individual is unique unto herself.
Some teachers see emotional dimensions as a pedagogical "Dark Side."   It is a side--according to these teachers--that should, at worst, simply be acknowledged or, at best, be dismissed.  But our emotional side may be "The Force."  It may be the power that allows, compels, and channels us in processing and thinking.  It may be the force that blocks and stops our processes as well.  Or it may be the force that allows my writing students to find the loving details in describing the loss of a parent, the force that compels them to narrate the personal and terrible ordeal of depression, the force that channels the spiritual enlightenment of persuasive thoughts on their Faith.  It may not be as much cognitive and social cognitive forces that compelled these students' discourses.  Students explain in journals and conferences, it can be emotional forces that propel the content and, even, the word level process decisions.   
Psychologists John Mayer and Peter Salovey provide useful distinctions within emotional intelligence:  having a self-awareness (comprehending our own emotions, managing those emotions), being able to motivate ourselves, and negotiating our relationships, while exerting a personal empathy for others ("The Intelligence").  These are the areas which interconnect with the "tripartite division of psychology... cognitive, affect, and behavior" (Weimer 9).    Certainly as we recognize the affective experiences within ourselves and other individuals, we can enhance how those experiences overarch into community experiences--whether in our academic discourse communities or beyond. With these combined awarenesses we will have developed a tripartite wholeness that can better direct our learning, our teaching, and our composing.
It is our task as educators to assimilate this scientific and psychological knowledge with our practicioners' wisdom and lore (North) to become even more aware of the potential pedagogical strengths awaiting us within the twenty-first century classroom. The beginnings of a comprehensive synthesis of behavioral, neurological, and biological science may allow us to better understand how students and everyone evolve as effective composers and thinkers.  
I believe teachers have been comfortably supported by a dyadic root system.  Our two-rooted discipline--unadorned cognitive logic combining with contemporary social rhetoric--may be more a paradox than a panacea.  Teachers are supported, as well as appeased, by this two-rooted logic. Since our theoretical base has a natural two-legged support, the question which would be asked of me is "Why should we consider further, perhaps very unnecessary and less apparent or less tangible, support?"  
Though we seem to stand on firm ground as a discipline, I would answer, "Our theoretical roots may be constricted, even stunted, by our traditional roots restricting us from growing and expanding new roots, new supports."  
My reasoning lies within what I call a theory of emotional cognition.  Valuable sustaining light from the composition discipline and other disciplines' research into a third root system-- emotional cognition and our affective experiences--may more adequately and naturally sustain us.  This is a theory of emotional cognition and how that cognitive aspect of our learning may affect our thinking and writing, our teaching and learning--how it may affect our wholeness, individually as students and teachers and collectively as a discipline.  I believe that our pedagogical roots may go deep into a personal, third cognitive "root," emotional intelligence.  But for some, it seems "unnatural" to use or even to consider this third support.   And there I believe lies the main obstacle for teachers--to appreciate the worthiness and learn the practicalities of the affective experience.  
A major hurtle is overcoming the skeptical attitude among scholars and teachers because, over those same thirty years of my teaching experiences, we have secured our noetic field within cognitive and social cognitive realities.  It is therefore necessary to affirm the connectedness of self-awareness, motivation, empathy, and relating to others--the taxonomy of emotional intelligence--and how these "abilities" affect and effect our teaching and learning.

Amygdala, vestiges of evolutionary pasts

W
hen it seems impossible not to use such phrases as "perfect fit" or "appropriate structuring" as we consider one word or phrase over another word or phrase, we might be leery of the cognitive-only theories.  Such evaluations seem coated with the honey of social discourse.   Accordingly social cognitivists argue that societal instigations inform our individual attitudes.  Therefore society gives language its "feeling."   Social cognitivists believe that if there are any emotional petals and thorns along the path of writing and thinking such flora easily fit somewhere within the social discourse phylum of cognition.  Little if anything, according to such theorists, could cause us to cry out with an entirely individual, affected "Ouch!" when we are snared on an emotional thorn within our thinking.  But in considering, when we write and think, such composing may be created by "a hunch," "an epiphany," or "stream-of-consciousness"  when we choose one word or phrase over another word or phrase--we may have discerned a separate phylum of cognition.  We may have discovered examples of emotional cognition.  Such responses do not seem consonant with cognitive theories of composing; nor do they seem aptly situated within social cognition.  
It is down this thorny path that this theory struggles.  In moving into the affective, one will crawl through thorns and brambles where few wish to venture.  But if we are to take a completed view of the nature of composing and thinking, we should examine not only our well-tended cognitive gardens but also our overlooked bramble patches of emotional cognition.  While Joel Chandler Harris's Brer Rabbit understood the briar patch's value, most inhabitants of the forest glen believed the briar patch was very unpleasant, even uninhabitable--but it was, and is, a place that, however strewn with brambles, if fully explored, may allow us to discover another natural wonder of our realities.  Therefore if and when we have the same noetic feel for reality as Brer Rabbit, we may better see the wholeness of our realities.
"Don't throw me into that briar patch, Brer Fox!   Don't..."  But the gnarled and scraggled body of the rabbit is heaved into the patch of thorns for what the two antagonists, Brer Bear and Brer Fox, believe will be a fate for that mangy rabbit worse than cooking and eating.  But immediately after heaving that sorry rabbit into the darkened abyss, a raucous laughter reverberates from that patch.  The rabbit is saved.  He is in his natural home.  
Joseph LeDoux explains that the amygdala in the limbic region of the lower brain stem of the rabbit's brain--and man's brain as well--is the primary conduit for early emotional reactions.  Brer Rabbit quickly energized his whole being to escape from would-be lunch to the safety of his briar patch. The amygdala in man and animal is a first-response system, alerting the body and nerves to pending danger.  It can override every element of the thinking brain while causing blood to rush to those certain body areas for quicker physical responses, helping the eyes to better focus, tensing muscles for quick reaction--all in one glorious emotional-response explosion.  
The amygdala is part of the old brain, a part of the brain which has been in most us animals for millions of years.  As man's brain has evolved and advanced it has not lost the amygdala as its first response system to emotional situations.  We cannot overcome the incredibly reactive nature of the amygdala.  "Circuits from the limbic brain to the prefrontal lobes mean that the signals of strong emotion--anxiety, anger, and the like--can create neural static, sabotaging the ability of the prefrontal lobe to maintain working memory" (Goleman 27).  When Brer Rabbit's pulse drenched his scrawny frame in anticipation of a very uncertain next few minutes, those increased heart beats were part of his amygdala and limbic system's igniting a quick response-reactive system that would save his life.  Not only psychologist and neuroscientists, but all of us, can regard Brer Rabbit's escape as his being perhaps both smarter and emotionally more adept than Brer Fox and Brer Bear.   
Another affected element which teachers should understand is presented by Singer and Salovey in their psychological study of the self.  Significant emotional experiences are defining moments, memories which will be recast emotionally and cognitively as they resurface to combine with similar experiences and memories that we collect in our mind.  According to Singer and Salovey how we remember those moments heavily determines how we see ourselves, our abilities, and our environment.  One difficulty may be in helping a teacher to appreciate a student's emotional responses especially if that same teacher has herself had little difficulty in the subjects she teaches, if she is a "natural," if you will.  Early high school days, these remembered and perceived memories, could easily define our students' future "abilities" and "concepts" according to Singer and Salovey.
If as teachers we have not experienced emotionally negative encounters in our processes, if we have not been blocked when attempting to complete an assignment by deadline, we may not empathize with the terrible dread that comes over another's body and mind in the same circumstances.  We may not appreciate the flood of emotional distress that may block an alternative follow-up technique for continuing.  A pending catastrophe, in the eyes of some of our students, can cause panic.  A quicker pulse and raised blood pressure may only increase the trauma, perhaps stopping the student from any movement, any thoughts--an instinctive human organism response--frozen in place, frozen in thought.  Recalling this failure, such a situation may create images of earlier episodes of frustrations and put the student into another cycle of emotional trauma.  The synapses, impulses, and neuron connections of a normal working brain can be short circuited (Damasio).  Memories, reactions, and/or renegotiations can deflect or defeat the best early intentions of completing an appropriate draft or any academic task.  
Perhaps other memories, reactions, and negotiations can create an outstanding early effort.  But because some students cannot "flee" their potential environmental and emotional disasters, we perhaps should aid in creating new positive narratives within our classrooms.  I believe that is one of the reasons that certain freshman programs at Ball State have displayed a higher retention rate among core courses at the university.  This program has created new narratives to positively situate students in one of the university's disciplines.
Teachers should understand how our brain's emotional pulse can consume all components of the composing and thinking processes.  If the student does not completely understand an assignment, if a student misinterprets a teacher's words, if a student hears a totally different approach from peers, if a student gets behind, if a student motivation diminishes, if a student doesn't like the teacher, if a student is sick and misses classes.  If... .  If... .  It can be overwhelming.  All of these situations seem to cause early emotional overrides where the cognitive brain cannot always compensate and override the emotional brain's influence (LeDoux).  In fact the "thinking" mind can create even more negative emotional turmoil for the student (Damasio).  When we stand before our students we might consider all their circumstances as composers, as humans.  We might have more of an empathy and self-awareness that will promote our student-teacher relationships and motivate us to perceive ours and others' noetic realties through wide-angled mental lens.  We can see the wholeness.  We all begin with a triad of intelligences which should be developed and used and developed further.

Individualand group support for thesis

I
 have been presented with a plethora of process journals whose entries indicate if the student authors have no personal stake in a paper's topic, then the paper might simply become a linear progression of "just words."  If there is no emotion, then there seems to be little interest or enthusiasm for the task.  As I began my research in the emotions and writing, I recall a typical protocol I accomplished with one of several basic writing students.  He strung together one word after another about his fishing experience on the Ohio River.  It was an experience with which he was familiar.  It was an experience that had enough interest to be picked as the topic for a personal essay.  But mostly, in his mind, it seemed to be a task that needed completing and he completed it--one word after another.  No seeming cognitive process model mirroring--just complete a task--word after word after word.  Though it had situation specific detail, there seemed to be little humanity, uniqueness, or "real" life in the piece.  For the most part, it was free of grammatical and stylistic errors.  It had somewhat of a beginning, middle, and end.  And from my experience with portfolio grading by other basic writing teachers, it would not have been failed by any of a number of outside-teacher readers.  This protocol experience seems to fly in the face of my hypothesis.  
But the next experience leads me to believe, however, my hypothesis has merit. One night a week for three semesters I taught freshmen English classes at an Indiana state prison.  The offenders, in most cases, were taking their first writing class after completing the high school equivalency GED.  Though the majority of these men did not have high IQs, most were successful with their writings.  They were, for the first time, motivated--self-motivated, even "community" inspired.  For the first time they were becoming more in tune with their own emotions and how to deal with those emotions.  Many were going through drug and alcohol or violence and abuse rehabilitation--some for the first time. They had a more positive sense of themselves. They seemed to relate better to others because again, for the first time, they had the opportunities to successfully complete tasks.
Common-sense practices included in those night classes encouraged the students, engaged the students, showed the students the importance of peer work, and suggested that the students look within their worth and understand how that worth developed and will continue to develop.  There was within this teaching experience the practical example of the common-sense theory of a taxonomy of emotional intelligence: empathy, motivation, relating with others, and self-awareness.  
The prisoners seemed to realize that the teacher was not the only one who instructs and contributes.  They seemed to realize that they and their classmates were vital components for the community's making of meaning.  They seemed to realize, though lacking in certain language skills, they could adequately think and process.  And because of these cognitive, social, and affective shifts, our individual goals--mine and the prisoners'-united into collective goals. Within this prison environment a triad of intelligences seemed to support these students' composing and processing attempts.  A wholeness was present.
I would like to know more of how the cognitive state and the affective states sail the oceans of the mind.  I would like to know more of our wholeness.  I appreciate and believe that the two states are inseparable--it is simply our human makeup, the internal milieu within our brain which also and always interconnects with our whole body (Vincent).  It is this wholeness that is uniquely manifest in each individual.   

Implications for learning and teaching

I
 have taught, observed, and researched a range of students enrolled in Ball State University's freshman writing program. I have been especially interested in those who enroll in mine and others' basic writing classes.  Because of lower College Board scores, less success in high school English, weak writing samples, and/or  long breaks from formal education, they are required to take a two semester program--English 101 and 102 at Ball State University.  I have researched the how and why they, as basic writers, have succeeded or failed.  In theorizing why they did or did not succeed--I have been especially interested in affective causal relationships to their successes or failures.  This interest led to exploring the implications of Gardner's multiple intelligences and eventually focused on a student's emotional intelligence (Goleman, Mayer and Salovey).
I have seen positive results in the five years while teaching freshmen who have had little "formal" secondary background in writing.  Such a background would have been a requisite for success in university programs in past years.  These borderline, at-risk students still succeed in writing classes and other classes within the university because of their personal experiences, backgrounds, motivational attributes, and/or emotional strengths.  Using these personal qualities as support, they overcome the lack of certain unlearned or unfocused "formal" cognitive study skills.  I have found that the older non-traditional-age students are more apt to fit such success patterns, but there are reversals.  Older students who come from varied backgrounds both fail and succeed.  I have had the expectation, as do other instructors, that the non-traditional-age students will somehow overcome drawbacks more quickly than traditional- age students.  Age and experiential "wisdom," however, have not always been an overarching factor in success.
Personal Support for Thesis

 I
 have been in the teaching profession for almost three decades.  I have been a high school  teacher for twenty-two years, a college teacher for the last seven.  Because of what I have learned as a teacher and as a student, I attempt to instantiate beliefs garnered through my earlier teaching and learning.   I believe that one of the primary reasons I was becoming--and became--a teacher was because of the problems I had had as a secondary student.  I know that what had been done in my English courses in the name of my education fell short in helping me to enjoy, or appreciate even, the very discipline which I now most enjoy.  
Early in my education, the material had been the driving force.  The teacher decided what content should be presented to her students.   The teacher, informed by earlier standards, had years of tradition for support. The individual students had been out there somewhere in front of her to "take in" that material.  It had been the banking concept--take from one vessel of knowledge and place in another less-well-formed vessel (Freire 57-74). The students were to assimilate certain matter because it was required, and the masters were to inspire us students just as they had inspired our teachers.  As a high school student, however, I had not been inspired.  I had been frustrated.  
Teachers at all levels of education can miss the very reason to be: the students and the needs of those students.  To reach all students it would seem necessary to understand the wholeness of their beings--to understand the wholeness of ourselves.  I remember it being a bit ironic that in high school the teacher who had most inspired my desire to learn was my mathematics instructor, Mr. Frank Wermer.  He had pushed my emotional and intellectual buttons.  He had helped me to enjoy the logic of geometric theorems and the fascination of numbers.  He had given me a certain self-awareness of the relevance of mathematical principles.  I remember a unique motivation to have wanted to excel.  I remember to have seemed to have always been enthusiastic about attending his class.  
By contrast, in my senior and junior years, the teacher who seemed to have dampened my desire to learn was my instructor in college preparatory English, Mrs. Anne Hines. As a senior we had spent two months reading aloud Thomas Hardy's Return of the Native.   She had wanted us so much to appreciate and enjoy the nineteenth century story teller's angst toward the happenstance of his worldly universe.  She had tried to instill this appreciation by having us listen to each chapter, stylized phrase by stylized phrase, as my fellow classmates and I read and then discussed the passages.   
The opportunity had been missed, and I had been bored with English.  When I became an English teacher, however, I believed I better understood many of the pedagogical issues that could prevent students from enjoying a subject.  I also believed that I better understood what could encourage students to find personal satisfaction in learning the joys of making meaning in their own and others' writing.
     The narrative of my early education creates the context for a tri-partite theory of cognition.  It is the context within which someone who once had no real feelings for English and composition completed his Ph.D. studies in that same discipline years later.  I have enjoyed these thirty years of teaching as much as any person can enjoy such pursuits.  I have come from being a C minus student in English--even that grade may have been inflated--to someone who is presenting an altered, but workable, and reasonable pedagogical perspective.
 WORKS CITED
Berlin, James A. Writing Instruction In Nineteenth Century American Colleges. Carbondale:
     Southern Illinois UP, 1984.
Damasio, Antonio. Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain.  New York:
     Avon, 1994.
Donald, Merlin. Origins of the Modern Mind. Cambridge, Ma: Harvard U Press, 1991.
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. trans. Myra Ramos. New York: Continuum, 1970.
Gardner, Howard. Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic Books, 1993.
Gibbs, Nancy., "The EQ Factor." Time. 2  Oct. 1995: 60-8.
Goleman, Daniel., Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam, 1995.
Greenfield, Susan A. The Human Mind Explained. New York: Holt, 1996.
Harris, Joel Chandler. Brer Rabbit. New York: Harper, 1941.
Humphrey, Nicholas. A History of the Mind. New York: Harper, 1993.
LeDoux, Joseph. "Emotion and the Limbic System Concept." Concepts in Neuroscience
     2 (1994).
Mayer, John D. and Peter Salovey. "The Intelligence of Emotional Intelligence."
     Intelligence 17 (1993): 433-442.
North, Stephen M., The Making of Knowledge in Composition. Portsmouth: Boynton, 1987.
Selden, Raman. A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory. 2nd Ed. Lexington: U of Kentucky Press, 1989.
Singer, Jefferson A. and Peter Salovey.  The Remembered Self: Emotion and Memory in
     Personality. New York: Free Press, 1993.
Vincent, Jean-Didier. The Biology of Emotions. Trans. John Hughes. Cambridge, MA:
     Blackwell, 1990.
Weimer, Bernard., An Attributional Theory of Motivation and Emotion. New York:
     Springer-Velag, 1986.
 ASSIGNMENT FOR SECONDARY CLASSES
WRITING STUFF ABOUT STUFF THAT'S BEEN WRITTEN

     W
hen I was taking a fiction writing class, along with the other assignments, we had to read ten short stories then summarize each in some way and also make judgments about them. Thus a difficulty in reading and writing about what I read was combining the necessary background summary of the story with my personal comments. No simple task. Reading short stories is usually much more relaxing, entertaining, and enjoyable than writing about them, but almost from the start of reading in schools teachers have had student evaluate what they read. Yuck.

    But I find in reading short stories and novels that many of my own ideas and style options are illuminated by the author and implied author. First a brief explanation of "author" versus "implied author." In a Rhetoric of Fiction, Wayne Booth wants readers to maintain the distinction between the person who sits down with his pen or word processor and the persona developed within the story as "authoring" the ideas and description portrayed within the story. Many times, in real life, a writer does not agree or even pretend to associate with the position or positions of the person "telling" the story. The implied author could be this new persona. Or, in another version, the interpretation of the what the story means is somehow tied up with such an individual.

    Implied author is a difficult idea, but not one completely lost on us lesser lights of English classes. Think about the characters from whose eyes we see the events. Are they necessarily speaking for the real author? Usually we "hear" from many characters in one story. Which one is speaking for the author? Tough choices here. Then there are the English teachers who say we must get the meaning intended by the author. These teachers proceed to give the class the "true" interpretation of the piece.

    Depending on a particular society's philosophical, psychological, economical, political bearing--would not the teacher's "true" interpretation of various works of fiction change? I think perhaps, but I leave that question to be answered by you personally. Just think, however, about the teachers who you had who were obviously swayed by the their evangelical beliefs or their strong conservative Republican stance or their very liberal interpretation of rules and regulations. Then think at how they saw certain stuff that was written and how it should be interpreted it differently from how you did.

    Anyway here is an excerpt from my writing about reading one of the short stories which appeared in the spring 1990 Story Magazine.
    
    My criticism is simple and straight forward. These stories were mostly crisp--especially those I will discuss--and real. The kind of stuff I really like in a short story.
    The first story was "South of Kittatinny," written by Hilding Johnson. Anyone with a first name of "Hilding" should probably write stories about the hills of West Virginia. Not only should an author have a first name that "works" or "fits," but she should be on a first-name basis with the land and the people she writes about. Ms. Johnson is. Though the story is pure "hills" and "backwoods" in flavor and direction, it is peopled with characters who share the emotions and realities of more urban folks. The protagonist and storyteller was Cole Streeter, a boy of fifteen. He is left at his grandmothers for the winter months to help with her general store. The older men, boys his age, and all the women are all that's left in Kittatinny while those of military, including one cousin Archer Whiteside, have gone off to fight W.W.II. Well, Archer has left behind (inside the belly of cousin Earlene Perry) the start of another generation without any official marriage ceremony. Earlene moves up from the main village to live away from her folks who didn't take kindly to such events that create unwed mothers, and they have "run her out." To add to the story line, there is an attraction between these two cousins back in Kittatinny--Earlene and Cole--as well. It's Cole's first experience with women and like most males of his age, he's overwhelmed by the biological magnetism. The relationship is set on hold when war news comes that Archer is "missing in action." But after several fitful days, news that Archer has been found, wounded and must return to the states, gets back to West Virginia. Archer soon returns without his right leg. He and Earlene leave for a quick marriage before his trip to a VA hospital. Cole goes back up the mountain to help his mama with the summer tasks. End of story.

    The author's knack of picking out the simple, but many times elusive elements in a scene or relationship between characters is fine, deft, but unassuming, not overdone. She knows her subject and she is a fine storyteller--something the folks from the mountains would probably be right proud. You can almost hear this story being told in one of those general stores in those West Virginia mountains with the fire burning in the stove and old folks spitting tobacco into tin pots. This is a good read with more physical sexuality than a reader might expect from the normal "slick" short story genre, but it is well done and appropriate.
    T
here certainly is much more that could be written about style, symbolism, texture, and character personality within the comments. My remarks are very short. I am afraid that if I wrote too long an example you would lose your creative talents and mimic my thought process.

    Such a piece of criticism should probably run about 350 to 600 words. But one of the problems in discussing literature is that we don't always know what it is we are looking for. We don't know much more than we like it or we don't. So as we have worked our way through the writing course, we should understand more and more about tone, point of view, and purpose. These are all issues that can be discussed at length. Well if we consider ourselves literary critics, but length is relative. Get to the reader of your criticism what it was that attracted you or put you off in the reading. Be as detailed as possible. Relate as many facts as necessary from the text. Support your ideas--no matter how unusual they might be.
 
THREE LEVELS TO NOTE TAKING
Responses to Reading Literature
     A helpful method for students to better understand what they are reading

     Students while reading the poem, article, story, or novel, jot down specific elements from the story, then make interpretations of those elements, then try to make applications to the story and to the world and life in general.  The note pad would have one column for each of the entries.
    1. The Literal Level

In this column belongs all direct references to the work. Specific scenes, actions, events, people, symbols taken directly from the work should be written here. From this column, you can chose specific quotations from the work to support your interpretation of the essay or story.
    2. The Interpretive Level

In this column start the interpretation of the work by analyzing the items in column one in terms of their importance to the piece of literature under discussion. In this column, you explain why the items in the first column are important and significant to understanding the work. From this column, you can develop explanations of the quotations from column one that will lead your reader through your essay.
    3. Application and Evaluation Level

In this column, you group trends in interpretation into commentary on mankind in general, not just the people or characters in the work (which is certainly still a possible approach). You apply the thoughts to which the author has led you to the world as a whole or a specific group depending upon the writing assignment. You are most likely to draw your topics and thesis ideas from this column.

Evaluation is a specialized form of application. When you analyze a work in terms of literary technique, the final level is evaluation. Here you will evaluate how well the writer exercises her craft. For example, does she use the techniques of symbolism and foreshadowing to show a greater meaning or is her structure particularly important or are her characters moving the story line well.

    EXAMPLE

From Kate Chopin's short story "The Story of an Hour"

    LITERAL: The first line mentions she has a heart condition.

    INTERPRETATIVE: The fact must be important because it is the first fact we are told about Louis. Maybe it foreshadows the ending? It could be symbolic: Hearts mean love--a damaged heart may mean a damaged love. Hearts could also tie in the marriage--there seems to be a real problem there. Maybe the heart condition is psychosomatic?

    APPLIED/EVALUATED: People often get ill if they hold in their emotions. Marriages are difficult to analyze from the outside. Marriages can cause problems for people. Evaluation: Maybe Chopin is using a symbolic approach to the work. Or perhaps she intends to use a great deal of foreshadowing.?

THREE POSSIBLE OPINION STATEMENTS or TOPICS AND COMMENTS or CLAIMS

   Though there is little physical conflict in "The Story of an Hour," Kate Chopin uses symbols to demonstrate the conflicts that inevitably arise when men and women live together.
   In "The Story of an Hour," Kate Chopin effectively uses symbols to make a negative commentary on marriages.
   From the first line in "The Story of an Hour," Kate Chopin's heroine, Louise Mallard, emerges as a well-rounded and believable example of a turn-of-the-century wife.


"Story of an Hour"
By Kate Chopin

    
 Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death.

    It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences, veiled hints that revealed in half concealing.  Her husband's friend Richards was there too, near her.  It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of "killed."  He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender, friend in bearing the sad message.

    She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms.  When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone.  She would have no one follow her.

    There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair.  Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.
    She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all a quiver with the new spring life.   The delicious breath of rain was in the air.  In the street below a peddler was crying his wares.  The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.
    There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled above the other in the west facing her window.
    She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.
    She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength.  But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky.  It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.
    There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it?  She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name.  But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.
    Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously.  She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will--as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been.
    When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips.  She said it over and over under her breath: "Free, free, free!"  The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes.  They stayed keen and bright.  Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.
    She did not stop to ask if it were not a monstrous joy that held her.  A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial.
    She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead.  But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely.  And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.
    There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending her in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature.  A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.

    And yet she had loved him--sometimes.  Often she had not.  What did it matter!  What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being.

    "Free! Body and soul free!"  She kept whispering.
    Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole, imploring for admission, "Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door--you will make yourself ill.  What are you doing, Louise? For heaven's sake open the door."
    "Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.
    Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her.  Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own.   She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long.  It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.
    She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities.  There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory.   She clasped her sister's waist, and together they descended the stairs.  Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.

    Someone was opening the door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his gripsack and umbrella.  He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one.  He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick motion to screen him from view of his wife.

    But Richards was too late.

    When the doctors came they said she died of a heart disease--of joy that kills.
 The Documentary
By Bill Holbrook

 In news around the nation today, the head of the U.S. Selective Service Colonel John Hunter stated that federal laws would stiffen—placing severe penalties on..."

A faint, cirrus formation of smoke rises near the television. The TV’s gleaming strips beam disconnected spotlights on tiny blue-gray particles tracing their patterns in the atmosphere of the basement.

"...those individuals who continue to hinder the military recruiting operations. Hunter, shown here on the right with White House Chief of Staff Benson Ruels, declared, ‘There’ll be a get-tough..."

A yellow-tan couch is jammed into the corner of the small cellar room camouflaging a thin form whose outline melts into the sofa’s shadows. A narrow, face is illuminated by the small, but brilliant, flare of an inhaled Marlboro. The pencil-like torch frames green eyes, bushy blond eyebrows, and a finely pointed nose that slowly releases more smoke towards the TV.

" ‘...policy for some of these thugs who think they can flaunt the laws and degrade American traditions by spitting on our flag.’..."

The cigarette burns toward its filter while lying in a ceramic dish. One strangely delicate, but hairy, hand and arm move to pick a spiraled glass bottle from the coffee table. Long fingers lift the container to pulpy lips. A trickle of dark spittle oozes from one corner of the mouth and dribbles unnoticed onto a drab, olive-green T-shirt.

"In other developments, U. S. President Lyam Graceson—interviewed at his Camp David retreat—restated that the war efforts in Southeast Asia, though moving slowly, prove that Allied Forces now have the capabilities of exterminating guerrilla elements from..."

The cola bottle tips some scale of balance in the arm, forcing bottle and hand to crack onto the table top. But the dark green pupils continue to eyeball the brightness of silver and black electric dots which create a TV anchorman in impressionistic fluorescent hues.

"...the Los Morul Basin where jungle fighting is said by Marine commanders to be heaviest. As a special feature of the six o’clock WKLS news, war correspondent Wilbur Mourning has documented an army unit’s months of combat preparation. This infantry unit was originally attached to Fort Lincoln here in our home state. The film captures the newly arrived recruits orientation and training. The documentary will record events from the opening briefings to..."

Burning tobacco inaudibly snaps and hisses—dying slowly in the ashtray. Repeatedly the stealthy fingers drag the pop bottle across the table. Raised above the horizontal, it is finally emptied of its liquid.

"...their first military attack—a fire-fight deep in the South Gon Leephf jungle near the strategic village of Riid Sol. The beginning of our series of shots—being released today for the first time—was taken July 4, 1968 at Fort Lincoln. Most of the draftees making up Bravo Company of the Army Rangers are from the Midwest. After their first meeting at the..."

One hand lowers the glass container toward the plateaued top of the narrow table. But again the arm flinches as the muscles involuntarily recoil in a flash point of rebellion against nerve endings. Falling head-first the bottle falls, thudding to a halt on the couch’s edge. Then it rolls— nestling into a indentation between a khaki-colored pantleg and the nettled couch cover.

"...processing center the ‘green’ soldiers begin their new lives. From this point the troops will literally live with their tactical and drill instructors for sixteen weeks of boot camp. The boys seem to have that quality of the kid-from-next-door. One of these... young... men..."

Sounds continue monotonous ascending and descending groans that reverberate below the emitting flicker of electrons. The figure dozes; its features droop. Fabric rustles against flesh as the abdomen rises to a rounded mound and then loses its shape and drops beneath the cleft of wrinkled cotton that loosely conceals the network of tissue. Short thin stumps of matted hair are crushed against a faded ochre cushion-cover smudged brown with grime. The head slides further down onto the chair’s upholstery.

"...the ...young...soldiers have moved through the village of Lon Dhe where momentarily that shot you hear—that blast, actually—ushers in the hour of the company’s first casualty. These films were taken only earlier and transmitted by our national news hook-ups. The network used our exclusive WKLS film to..."

Green eyes now peer vacantly at the screen, watching as two corpsmen quickly pull a GI, head-first from the brush, its limbs bumping over rocks and ruts. The soldiers reach the remains of shelled Vietnamese hut and jump between a dip in the terrain, dragging the figure down a slight embankment. The medic’s canteen offering to the GI is futile as sunlight ricochets off vacant eyes. The body lay face upward in the dust-laden chunks of parched grass. The medic begins to yank at one of the dead man’s dogtags.

"...show the intensity of the fighting in this area of South Gon Leephf. Statistically about one-half of the Rangers’ probe-assault squads will perish under enemy fire before their one-year tour of duty is completed. The news cameraman who took these films was wounded, minutes later, by sniper fire as he attempted to follow advancing American troops who recaptured the hamlet of Lon Dhe. This concludes the documentary broadcast on..."

The telephoto lens magnifies the upper torso of the limp figure in the ravine. One blurred detail keeps enlarging until a white canvas name patch above the left fatigue pocket backgrounds five faded red letters: L-O-R-D, P.

The body on the couch stiffens and suddenly writhes in violent spasms and fits. From its head, fine purple streaks shatter the eye lids and capture the unseeing globes. Suddenly one orb is catapulted into the air only to be restrained by two violet spaghetti-like nerve strands. The second eye encasement dissolves into a steaming milk-jelly which pools around the dangling pupil. Green-black fusions of pus seize at the outsides of the and collapse into two caverns in the face. Sticky translucent innards bubble from graying lips—smothering any human sounds—and pour onto the chin’s flesh. From the nose, a winding explosion of cranberried blood lava gushes over the upper lip and spills past melting teeth into an enlarging mouth opening. Scarlet colored streams of intestines cascade into the deadly turbulence. Pulpy crimson liquids gurgle and spurt from the hollowed depths below rotting flesh. Shredded flesh and bone are ignited by boiling blood cells. Seething and throbbing, the figure becomes a steaming broth of entangled tissue, hair follicles, and human skin. Soon the clothing disintegrates into the crimson and black whirlpools. Once stilled and puddled, they evaporate into the room’s humid air. Death’s surrounds the den’s hazy space with a finality as one blotch of ooze clutches to a spiraled lip of the Pepsi bottle. The body no longer remains only a ghost may linger in the underground room.

"...the men of Bravo Company and is dedicated to PFC Peter Lord who died in the fighting. We will return after these messages. Stay tuned for further sports and weather..."

The sound of a door scraping away from the confines of a lock and abruptly returning with another protest of wood striking metal filters through the hallway to the den. Above the stairs to the basement, a small, blond, curley-haired woman stands dressed in a gray business suit. She grasps a bundle of groceries so the knuckles of the restraining fingers are white with pressure. The other hand squeezes three mail order fliers, a monthly bank statement, a belated Easter card from Aunt Lib, a thank-you from Lib’s daughter for the baby shower, and a telegram. Her heels spank the hallway tiles as she passes through the doorway toward the basement.

"That concludes the evening news from WKLS. This has been..."

A sprinkle of words float from the subterranean room. The woman descends the thirteen steps of thick carpeting which cushion her high-heeled blows.

"Hello !" She pauses. She then gropes for the floor lamp’s wall switch.  "Is anyone here?" "...How did the TV get on?"

She questions the empty space.

The television is a mass of dots careening and colliding in unconnected patterns. A hiss seeps from the speakers, then a dial is snapped counter-clockwise by her dainty child-like hand. The fuzz of electronic zapping is sucked from the tube. For one life-giving second a silver dot struggles, but immediately fails.

Rigid on the dusty pebbles of the couch, the Pepsi bottle still hints of moisture. As a last burst of sunlight stabs through the cracked curtain of the cellar window onto the glass, segmented sprays of glare reflect into the woman’s eyes. The bottle’s chest displays five red letters etched into a white name patch. "That’s funny, Peter was the only one ever to drink Pepsi..."

Seated beside the glass vessel, the woman selects the bottom item in her left hand. The protective glue of the envelope holds the prodding fingers off momentarily. Light blue printing becomes legible on tan strips:

MR. AND MRS. NATHANIEL LORD: THE DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY REGRETS TO INFORM YOU THAT YOUR SON PETER MATTHEW LORD WAS KILLED IN COMBAT ON APRIL 8, 1969. ACCORDING TO THE MILITARY WAR POWERS ACT, ANY FURTHER CORRESPONDENCE WILL BE TRANSMITTED THROUGH ARMY COURIER.

SINCERELY, GENERAL GRANT B. MUSTERING THE DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY

Sparkling droplets of fluid well in the cornered indentations of her eyes then release from the cohesive force of the skin and fall to their death as she weeps for her lost son.
A LOOK AT CLASSROOM OBJECTIVES

    Assessing your own goals through the Teaching Goals Inventory

YOUR CHOICES: ESSENTIAL, VERY IMPORTANT, IMPORTANT, UNIMPORTANT, NOT APPLICABLE

Rate the importance of each goal to what you aim to have students accomplish in your course. These questions should be answered for each course and level that you teach.

1. Develop ability to apply principles, generalizations learned to new problems, situations.
2. Develop analytical skills.
3. Develop ability to draw reasonable inferences from observations.
4. Develop problem solving skills.
5. Develop ability to synthesize and integrate information from observations
6. Develop ability to think holistically: to see the whole as well as the parts.
7. Develop ability to  to think creatively.
8. Develop ability to distinguish between fact and opinion.
9. Improve skill at paying attention.
10. Develop ability to concentrate.
11. Improve memory skills.
12. Improve listening skills.
13. Improve speaking skills.
14. Improve reading skills.
15. Improve writing skills.
16. Develop appropriate study skills.
17. Improve mathematical skills.
18.. Learn terms and facts of this subject.
19. Learn concepts and theories in this subject.
20. Develop skill in using material, tools, or technology central to this subject.
21. Learn to understand perspectives and values of this subject.
22. Learn techniques and methods used to gain new knowledge in this subject.
23. Learn to evaluate methods and materials in this subject.
24. Learn to appreciate important contributions to this subject.
25. Develop an appreciation of the liberal arts.
26. Develop an openness to new ideas.
27. Develop an informed concern about contemporary social issues.
28. Develop a commitment to exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.
29. Develop a lifelong love of learning.
30. Develop aesthetic appreciations
31. Develop an informed historical perspective.
32. Develop an informed understanding of the role of science and technology.
33. Develop an informed appreciation of other cultures.
34. Develop a capacity to make informed ethical decisions.
35. Develop ability to work productively with others.
36. Develop management skills.
37. Develop leadership skills.
38. Develop a commitment to accurate work.
39. Improve ability to follow directions, instructions, and plans.
40. Develop ability to organize and use time effectively.
41. Develop a commitment to personal achievement.
42. Develop ability to perform skillfully.
43. Cultivate a sense of responsibility for one's own behavior.
44. Improve self-esteem/self-confidence.
45. Develop a commitment to one's own values.
46. Develop respect for others.
47. Cultivate emotional health and well-being.
48. Cultivate an active commitment to honesty.
49. Develop capacity to think for one's self.
50. In general, how do you see your primary role as teacher--circle only one
    
 A. Teaching students facts and principle of the subject matter.  B. Providing a role model for students.  C. Helping students develop higher order thinking.  D. Preparing students for college, job, career  E. Fostering student development and personal growth   F. Helping students develop basic learning skills.
     CLASSROOM OBJECTIVES
    from Jon Saphier and Robert Gower's The Skillful Teacher

    T
here are almost as many classroom objectives as there are theories of teaching.  But take heart while looking as briefly as possible at those individuals offering practical help when you work on  lesson plans singularly or discuss curriculum and planning with other professionals.
    There are student-centered versus teacher-centered objectives.  For examples a mastery or enabling objective is predicting if students will express or develop a certain kind of thinking skill or know or do something specific.  
    Another student-centered objective would be an involvement objective predicting that students will actively participate in a particular task, or project, or collaborative, or discussion.  The success is whether the students were involved and seemed to appreciate the task.  For example you can have students react to how they would feel if their father were President Clinton. Or how would they personally respond to the president's domestic problems.  Involvement objectives are met when students appear involved engaging the activity with some absorption, enthusiasm, or intensity.
    On the other hand there are teacher-centered objectives such as activity objectives. The teacher wants the students to do some task or activity.  They are the activities that the students will get done.  To write a descriptive paragraph is an example.  Focus is on giving directions and having everyone accomplishing the activity.  But the real test with such objectives is if the teacher thinks how critical learning will develop.  The question is will students make connections between the activity and the thinking and process skills which help in the student's cognitive development.
    A second teacher-centered element are  coverage objectives which are generally explicit in lesson plans.  The teacher is going to present, describe, explain, demonstrate or cover the following material, events, procedures, or processes.   One of the issues of coverage objectives  is that we know what is in the teacher's mind before beginning, but we do not know what's going on in the students' minds.  It really is your responsibility to think about what you want the students to learn and how you want them to learn it considering their particular situation and circumstances when they arrive in the classroom.  
    Usually it is the activity and involvement objectives which dominate teacher planning.
    Finally Saphier identifies generic thinking objectives which are objectives which develop a thinking skill apart from any particular content knowledge (361).  For instance there are many thinking skills that can be taught in conjunction with writing assignments.

ADDITIONAL LESSON PLAN ELEMENTS

    You should have an understanding of why you are selecting the material and work load as well as the order that you are having the students do that work.  There should be some idea of the theory behind your teaching.  Do the lessons have a suitable array of lecture, discussion, groupings, media, reading/writing. lab activities, and conferencing.  Make sure your lesson plans are linked to the realities of a particular classroom: the grade and level and interests of the students.  Remember a lesson plan is not a shopping list. It is a working document.


    LESSON AND UNIT PLANNING
    By Bill Holbrook, Ball State University

   S
ince there has been a deal of material written about producing lesson and unit plans, I add my ideas and readers can judge how these ideas assimilate or differ with others' suggestions.  It is somewhat difficult for me to not be hypocritical about explicit and well-designed planning, as I am a believer in the Shirley MacLaine school of thought: "One cannot completely plan anything in advance because stuff will happen as it happens (or is supposed to happen?)."  With that in mind, let's talk about putting detailed plans together.  Since I am more of a story teller, I would remind critics that the following material could be reconfigured into wonderful charts which have columns labeled "behavioral objectives," while listed underneath would be those objectives detailed; then a second column would be labeled "enabling objectives," with additional notes for materials and ideas in a third column, and duration of activities in another column, and so on.  But I will leave such visual aids to someone who enjoys placing items into charts.  Or another approach: I leave that for a class assignment which I believe to be the more for discovery and a better learning experience.

Goals and Objectives
   A
s a department chairperson near the end of a 20-year career in Massachusetts, three junior, lower- track teachers took on what proved a most demanding, but quite educationally sound task.  We were to combine the two lowest tracks (there were five: AP, honors, college, general, and remedial) in the English department forming two sections of 50 students in one classroom.  The same was accomplished by three other teachers in a senior program.  Previously, the high school had placed the "worst," or lowest track, students in small groups of 8 to 12, most with some of the less-than-successful teachers with an implied hope that there could be found an out-of-the-way place where few would see or hear from any of these students or teachers.  
   It was my task to get as many students as possible back into the academic mainstream.  There were two areas of concern.  We wanted a program that would intellectually challenge those somewhat disruptive and disinterested students.  This type student had been given assignments which, for lack of better descriptors, would keep them quiet, busy, and out of trouble.  This group's attendance, work habits, and behavior had been consistently below expectations.
   We also wanted to push a second segment of students who had conveniently worked below capacity in college preparatory classes in order to "skate" through lesser demanding lower-track course work.  These students had been placed in general tracking after displaying unsatisfactory work in higher level college prep classes.  Therefore we would be giving the very lowest track a taste of "real" academic English after years of being left out in the margins in middle school and high school.  Since these folks had somewhat of a social and intellectual stigma, we hoped associating them with folks who wanted an "escape to easier ground" might promote new desires on the part of some to "get back" into a program worthy of their skills.  Of course, not everyone would be honest and admit to the latter rationale.
   We wanted to develop a course which was interesting--a course that made reading and writing rewarding and relevant.   We felt that such a program could be fairly successful not withstanding the caliber of some of the students and the attitude of some of the teachers.

Brainstorming
   I
 will walk through our process of developing enabling objectives to reach our initial goals and objectives.  Getting back to a plan which could necessitate columns for goals, objectives, and enabling objectives, materials, and time elements--it would be extremely helpful for a new teacher to list every and any possible item that might be relevant.  Though I will not give step-by-step "how-to" procedures for lesson planning,  there should be more than enough specifics to provide ample opportunities and ideas for planning future lessons and units.  In order to conjure as many ideas and directions for a course, it is extremely helpful to brainstorm and bounce as many ideas as possible off of fellow instructors even if you are developing an individual program.

Available Resources Versus Additional Expenditures
   Just as in the development of many secondary programs, we did not have extra funds.  Our resources were self-contained within the school and within our personal abilities.  Plus none of us had had experience with the main issue: team teaching in lower track environments with so many students.   There will be similar restrictions that new teachers will face.
   After looking at who we would teach and the "times" we would teach in, we decided that one unit would be on "Heroes and Heroines," another would be on "Roles within our Lifetimes," and a third "Dreams and Aspirations." We scoured the book rooms of the school.  We copied material to have class sets.  I found a series of stories from old Boston Globe articles on Detroit Tiger Ty Cobb that most would find interesting and another New Yorker story on Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Ted Williams by John Updike for the hero segment.  The two women teachers found material on non-sports and women figures.   We looked through educational materials from publishers.
   
Approaches
   A
t one point during a regional meeting of department heads, I explained what we were about.  I was told by another community's English department head that basically the plan violated all that was sacred in current educational theory as far as working with this level of student. He assured me that small groups was the only approach for such students.  I realized we were pedagogically on our own.    
    We did not assume anything about our students.  Because of wide disparities in material, instruction, and the routine of their past learning experiences, we wanted to set our own learning "boundaries."  We wanted each unit to build upon the other so that "easier" and "basic" lessons would lead to early successes. Plus we wanted to instill writing and reading concepts which had been proven successful in past practice, but also be willing to experiment with additional theories and practices. Early we centered our attention on material that was high interest with lower-than-grade level reading difficulty.  The more difficult material we would read aloud and discuss together in class. There were several sets of old anthologies which would give us helpful literature.  
   We found materials which were less difficult and shorter for the Hero Unit.  Towards the end of the semester, we read Of Mice and Men and segments of Huckleberry Finn in the Dreams and Aspirations Unit.  We had a desire to stay away from lengthy electronic media presentations.  Most of these students had been bombarded with videos in classrooms and we wanted to break the cycle. So we did read and discuss materials thoroughly, but avoided tedium at all costs.  
   For instance there would be no formal grammar, but there were several handbooks available in the main classroom for resources. Grammar components would come from their reading and writing--especially their writing. Here we would individualize needs and instruction.  With three teachers such an approach was possible.  We had them write re-creations of elements of literature pieces.  Creativity was a philosophical mainstay to show their worth as "authors."
      We saw reading aloud as a positive as well as further involving those students who had reading/reciting skills.  We would give credit for these types of classroom activities under the category of class participation.  This meant that we would have to have other types of assignments/activities where those less-able reading students could gain credits.
     We gave time to read silently from 100 or more paperbacks that we had scraped together for a classroom library and were available for sign out.  We were to find that silent reading time in a large group was difficult considering the type of student and their overall self-control and lack of reading skills.  Journalizing, on the other hand about items that had been previously read and discussed in class was helpful.  Since it was difficult to get all 45 to 50 students in their seats and working immediately, we found starting a journal entry during the first of the class helpful. We also knew that these students would like and expect routine, especially early on since we were breaking with tradition concerning the class's makeup and setup. When the large grouping was less advantageous, we had the ability to break into small groups with each of the three teachers as facilitators.  We could break the groups by interest level, by ability level, by discipline problems, by teacher needs.  There were to be many more positives of working together in a tripartite arrangement than there were to be negatives.  Examples: one of us enjoyed all of the meticulous record keeping; one doing the opening lecture discussion; one researching the finer issues to be covered in a lesson or unit. We constantly sort to enhance our strengths.  Our students gained from such endeavors.
   We looked at all of the variables of homework--what we could assume and expect versus what would be the ideal (and the school policy).  Even though in the school English curriculum guide it was indicated every student would be given a half to an hour's worth of homework nightly, we used our common sense to dictate policy.  In the first unit we kept homework to a minimum. Therefore if there was a need for more time to complete something, we built that into the daily schedule. We knew many of these students did little homework.  Many worked 30 to 40 hours a week.
 
Connections
   I
 am always talking to secondary education students about connections.  A connection between my former pedagogical task and new teachers going into teaching courses for the first time, is just that:  the "first-time" phenomenon.  On many occasions the class will be your first effort in that area, and though there may be a "department syllabus," new teachers will be literally and figuratively "on their own."  New and old teachers should have the ability to produce and think on the run, on their feet, in the middle of things.  Some moments will be epiphanies of pedagogy.  Some will be mind-numbing disasters.
   O
nce something is done, new and old teachers can take the nucleus of what worked and go further the next time that lesson, unit, or course is taught.  Absolutely one item of planning is to sit down soon after a class is completed and take notes in your teaching process journal.  What did you just do?  What worked?  What did not work?  Why do you think that it did or did not?    It is important to accomplish these reflections because what may work in one sophomore, college preparatory class one period, may be a bomb in another.  What did the students or teacher provide in the first class that was missing in the second? The more teachers reflect upon their past teaching, the more they will be successful on successive attempts in a lesson, unit, or course.
   A lesson plan is a living document just as the individuals in the classroom are living and breathing entities.  If plans are static the teaching may be static.  I always worry when one teacher has taught the same classes five years in a row.  Such a configuration is a sign post for the status quo bridging into possible stagnancy.  Such quotes as "I have my standards and expectations and I expect everyone in my classes to accomplish those goals" may be enthusiastically endorsed by conservative educators and politicians, but with such philosophies, I believe, the emphasis is more on the teacher and the subject than on the student and the classroom learning environment.
   Plans should be a means to an end, not an end in themselves.  Teachers should not be slaves to them. Individual teachers will need to decide how much support they need. Unless you create plans no one—substitute teacher, department head, vice principal, or superintendent— will know what is to be done in a classroom.  You must have well-thought, physically written out plans.
   As I went through my teaching career, I kept a journal/plan book which contained details of each week in a unit. There were copies of handouts, notations of earlier directions which allowed for specifics of my theory and practice available for myself and others.  The material was in a small loose leaf binder which allowed for easy amendments, deletions and additions.  I have kept those binders and look back on them on occasion even though I no longer teach high school.

    
ASSIGNMENT: PLANNING CURRICULUM AND OBJECTIVES

    Y
ou are the new English teacher at WHS. This is your first teaching position. Where do you begin? Where do you begin? What do you teach? Do you revert to the old standby of the dated textbook? How do you organize the course?  
    As you begin looking through cupboards for materials, you realize that the last teacher left little but the basics. You find textbooks, paperbacks and workbooks, but do you start at page one and work through it? What is the best way to approach teaching a course? Since everything students need to learn is not contained in the texts, or will be well structured through the department chair, or necessarily clearly outlined in the board of education material. What will you do?
    Each of your curricula should be tailored to the students, your own talents, and the needs of the school. You might want to begin by contacting other teachers and, of course, work closely with the department head.  You would like curriculum guides, any helpful material from the department of instruction at the state offices, any requirements from the state. There are also materials from the Indiana Association of English Teachers, universities with programs in teacher education and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE, 1111 W. Kenyon Rd., Urbana, Illinois 61801-1096). Be a member.
    After determining what you want students to learn and what to teach that grade and ability level you can write goals and objectives for each unit. Begin with a consideration of concepts and skills which you feel students need to master as they write diagnostics and discuss their first literature in class. Concepts are abstract. Concepts are something students will know (find through conferences and discussions). Skills are more tangible. Skills are something they can do (find through diagnostics, journals, in-class writings). See the assessment inventory of goals in another part of the packet.

Considerations
    W
hen are there situations where everyone in the class does not have to learn the same things and how do you make such distinctions with students and with administrators?  We should consider which learner needs are our top priorities. Then perhaps we can give ideas about the various types of programs which might work to satisfy learner differences for a semester or for two semesters, for a two week mini-course. Also how do we make adjustments for ability levels and adjust tmaterial to different groups? Granted grade and ability levels are a first consideration. So lets pick grade 9, college prep for our own in-class exercise. Let’s devise a writing unit.
    Brainstorm about skills and concepts. Write them down in some rank order in two different columns. Show what concepts will eventuate into what skills.  Work in pairs. And then as a large group, we will reach a tally with priorities.  How will we arrive at such decisions and how will you arrive at these decisions later when we have your own classes?
      Finally we need to discuss the nature of the society or societies that we will be teaching in. How will certain societal constraints effect the curriculum each time a class is taught or in the overview of teaching in a particular community?

    With above overview in mind let's look at a variety of objectives
    CRITERIA FOR WRITING PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
        From the State Department of Ed.  
Program Objectives are working statements that should:  
    1. Deal with the most important components of the program
2. Describe behaviors learners will exhibit, if the program is successful but not necessarily the context nor criterion for these behaviors.
    3. Convey meaning to implementors, learners, and constituencies.
    4. Are statements on which the program is willing to be judged and evaluated.
    5. Serve as guides as the learning activities are planned.
    6. Are four to six in number.
        a. Participants have difficulty remembering more than that.
        b. Data collection gets increasingly complicated.
7. Are stated as outcomes, not as activities. Check this by asking "Why?" When the answer     to "why" is, "Because that is how participants will behave," you have an outcome.
    8. Use verbs which are active rather than passive.
    9. Are positively stated.
    10. Follow the pattern of : subject, verb, object
    Subject - group whose behavior will change Verb - stated strongly rather than passively
        Object - states the behavior subject will exhibit.
    11. Make comparisons between performance and intended outcomes.
12.  Objectives should enhance all persons involved.
    I would suggest that unless you are writing objectives which will be used to evaluate your school and your curriculum, use only program and unit objectives which seem reasonable and logical to you.  If the two objectives intersect so much the better.

Example: General Objectives from a Typical Journalism Program
 
(Note: I have given a different content area so that you can get the gist, but not simply copy for your own work.)
Some decisions you must consider
Do you need: six or more?  Should you write them in passive/active voice?  Should they be positive statements?  Should  you list outcomes ? Should you list activities?  Who should understand the sense or logic of each?
   1. The student will become a more knowledgeable consumer of the print media.
   2. The student will better understand how the communication process works in our society.
   3. The student will be able to evaluate how effective the "free press" works in our society.
   4. The student will learn to write accurately while maintaining reader interest.
   5. The student will learn how to work with classmates in a cooperative manner to achieve quality work and also learn the importance of meeting deadlines.
   6. Through layout and design, the student will learn that communication takes place not only through words and images, but also how those images are presented.
   7. The student will learn that good relationships with people and the sincere interest in the welfare of the public is essential to a journalism career.
   8. The student will discover the importance of a free press by studying the history and current trends of journalism.
   9. Students will be prepared to fill staff positions on the school's publication staffs.

    MASS MEDIA EXAMPLE: OBJECTIVES/RATIONALE

   S
tudents spend more time watching, reading or listening to the mass media than they spend in school. The media help share their ideas and form their opinions; yet many students are not consciously aware of the impact the media have on their lives.
   All students should be helped to become more discrimination consumers of the mass media. This section deals with objects that will help the students better understand what the media are, how they work and how they influence people. The objectives are not designed to compete with instruction in specialized classes in journalism, radio or television; rather, they are designed for those students who will probably not enroll in those classes. The objectives are also designed to enhance instruction in such specialized classes.
   In addition to helping students become more discriminating consumers of the media, the first set of objectives focuses on helping them use media to send messages. Several of the objectives require special equipment, and the consultant team recognizes that most schools in Indiana have some of the equipment. If the schools do not, other objectives that lead to the same goal could easily be substituted.

Exit objectives Mass Media
   1. The students can send messages through a single medium or a combination of media.
   2. The students become discriminating consumers of the mass media.
   3. The students can critically evaluate the media in their capacity as primary forms of entertainment.
   4. The students consider the influences the mass media have on individuals and society.
Enabling Objectives for exit objective students sending messages through a single or combination of media.
   1.1 The students can tell a story, describe an experience or convey a thought or emotion only in words.
   1.2 The students can consciously alter the messages by using gestures, facial expressions and various intonation patterns.
   1.3 The students can tell a story, describe an experience or convey and emotion through their own drawings.
   1.4 The students can tape record a poem, play story, song and/or choral reading they have written or selected for a specific audience.
   1.5 The students can develop a magazine, book, or newspaper as a group/class project, using their own stories, poems, articles, drawings and advertisements (if appropriate).
   1.6 The students can send a message by creating a collage.
   1.7 The students can explain how background music can affect a story.
   1.8 The students can select background music to help convey a specific mood for their story.
   1.9 The students can effectively use the telephone to request or relay information and/or share ideas and feelings.
   1.10 The students recognize the unique features (federal regulations, code signals, etc.) of communication via citizen band radio.
   1.11 The students can tell a story describe an experience or convey a thought or idea through a combination of words, pictures, and music.
   1.12 The students can select appropriate sound effects/background music for a play or a skit and can tape record the play or skit for a listening audience.
   1.13 The students can write and record their own plays or skits, using a combination of several media.
   1.14 The students can take pictures to convey a specific mood or to describe an experience.
   1.15 The students can use pictures  they have taken in a talk in which they also use various forms of nonverbal communication.
   1.16 The students can create a slide show and select music for special effects.
   1.17 The students can tell a story describe an experience or convey a thought or idea through a motion picture for which they select music and/or produce sound effects to add impact to the film.
   1.18 The students plan and develop a presentation, using a single medium or a combination of media, which expresses an idea, opinion or an emotional response.


National Council of Teachers of English GOALS
    from Jerome Megna and others
    
 1. Help all students to become literate and capable of functioning in an increasingly complex and diverse society.
    2.  Direct students to read and view materials appropriate to their abilities and interests.
    3. Encourage students to exchange ideas, listen perceptively and discuss vigorously.
    4. Urge students to write honestly in the spirit of open inquiry.
    5. Help students expand their interests and reach their fullest potential through language.

KNOWLEDGE
    The prospective English language arts teacher will know
    1. Processes by which individuals acquire, understand and use language.
    2. The relations between individuals' learning of language and their social, cultural and economic environment.
    3. The uses of language in general and English in particular and the processes of development and change in language.
    4. The structure and history of the English language.
    5. Linguistic, rhetorical, an stylistic concepts that influence the substance and structure of oral and written discourse.
    6. Processes involved in reading for a variety of purposes and in different formats
    7. An extensive body of literature (including literature for adolescents and children, popular literature, nonwestern literature, and literature by women and minority groups)
    8. Varied ways in which non print and nonverbal media differ from and supplement and extend the experience of print and verbal media.
    9. Ways of responding to, discussing, understanding, and evaluating works of literature.
    10. instructional resources (including educational technology) and sources of information (books, magazines, newspapers, tapes, recordings, films, pictures and other non print and nonverbal materials) which help students understand subjects and issues.
    11. Methods used to design curricula in English for students of different ages, abilities, cultural, and linguistic background.
    12. evaluation processes of students' progress in the use and understanding of language.

SKILLS
    1. Identify, assess, and interpret student progress in listening, reading, speaking, and writing.
    2. Assist students in improving their skill in responding to and using language.
    3. Organize groups of learners for purposes appropriate to the English classroom.
    4. Engage student intellect, imagination in their listening, reading, speaking, writing, viewing.
    5. Ask questions at various levels of abstraction that elicit facts, opinions, judgments which are appropriate to the subject and occasion.
    6. Respond specifically and constructively to students' oral and written discourse.
    7. Guide students in producing discourse that satisfies their own distinctive needs.
    8. Enable students to distinguish between effective and ineffective discourse.
    9. Help students realize the connections between experiences of reading, writing, viewing.
    10..  Assist students to distinguish among available language options in various social and cultural settings.
    11. Help students respond appropriately to demands made on speech and writing by different contexts, audiences, and purposes.
    12. Assist students in applying different techniques to improve their reading comprehension.
    13. Help students recognize and weigh facts, implications, inferences, judgments in both spoken and written discourse.
    14. Enable students to respond to and create non print and nonverbal forms of communication (including film, videotape, photography, dramatic performance, song, and other art forms.)
ATTITUDES
    1. Conviction that teachers help students grow as human beings by increasing a student's power to use and respond to language both creatively and responsibly.
    2. Willingness to assist students to respond to works in all media of communication.
    3. Recognition that, whatever their rate of growth and progress, all students are worthy of sympathetic attention.  (Is it sympathy or empathy?)
    4. Flexibility in teaching strategies and willingness to match a student's needs with the teacher's objectives, methods, and materials.
    5. Commitment to continued professional growth.
 
ASSIGNMENT TWO: LESSON PLANS
USING LIBRARY RESOURCES
 
    A
s a class project you will prepare a week-long lesson plan as part of an elective progam in English. The circumstances: you have been fighting to get your elective proposal--for a creative writing, (or drama, or alternative literature., or contemporary poetry course, whatever you have in mind) to enhance the English course selections. The school committee is more open to electives that can fulfill as many English requirements as possible. But the department chair is still a bit leery of your offering because  colleagues have been on her case to stay with standard courses and limit electives.  
    She comes to you on a Thursday afternoon and says that she knows she is asking a great deal, but the one area which has been problematic has been the standard library resource-usage area for a particular grade and level. The second problem is she has a late-afternoon meeting with the principal to talk over your new course and, in particular, your methods of covering overall English requirements.
    So you do not have a deal of time to put together a basic outline of the addendum. You will have time afterward to complete the details of the plan: the rationale for choices, daily objectives, assessment methods, and materials/information which will be introduced.
    You had not originally displayed any specific library usage elements for this elective.  The department chair requests that you design an approximate week unit. You will demonstrate how students would accomplish elements specifically relevant to students using the school's library. So it is important to tie the elective course's objectives (i.e. creative writing, or drama, or poetry, etc.) to specific library research and usage skills. The unit must go beyond a traditional assignment of reading a text and then reporting on some aspect of the author that could be gained with using only one resource such as an encyclopedia. She is adamant that it should NOT be something that is "slap-dash," but has substance and "academic worthiness" along with course and library-usage relevancy.
    Use Bracken Library to accomplish two items.  Devise one daily lesson plan involving specific methods for students to understand how to use specific areas of a library.  Assume that your school library has a fairly modern situation (computers, audio tapes, CD's, internet access, etc.) The submitted plan corner-stones an approximate week-long unit which should be further outlined for the week.
    At the end of the class period, from each of your groups, make a copy of the outline of where the unit is proceeding, and turn the copy in. Then individually complete a plan. You may still work with group members, but each person will turn in a separate plan.

ITEMS INCLUDED, BUT NOT LIMITED TO THESE:
1. Goals, objectives, and rational for unit. List what skills students will gain.  2. Software, reference text, periodicals for the students to access or learn their usage.  3. Methods of measuring success of unit.  4. What particular skills students might need before unit begins.  5. Where within the curriculum this particular mini-unit would fit and why. 6. Level of class work and scope of coverage.  Use entire time on the project, but before you leave turn in copy of your draft.  (Your department chair only has two hours before her meeting with the principal.)  Since you do not have access to a computer to type the plans (unless you go downstairs in the basement of Bracken), you will do a draft freehand and turn it in before you leave. Put all members names on your draft. We will use the second floor of the library up in periodicals (North/west corner for our home base).  You can work individually or in groups to complete the assignment out of class.  Each person, however, will turn in a final assignment draft.

ASSIGNMENT III:  CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

    E
lements of teaching English that are not discussed as much as pre-professionals might find necessary are practical classroom management scenarios.  School rooms today have the ability to be arranged and rearranged to the liking and needs of particular endeavors and particular courses, and particular numbers of students.  Most of your classes will have approximately 22 students.  In some cases you may have close to 30, but in other circumstances there may be as few as 12 or 15.  Some circumstances have modular rooms where the walls can actually be closed, opened, or re-situated.  These factors not only involve you and your students, but also other teachers and students in your area. Being flexible and helping out with the arrangement of the physical environment can be very enjoyable.  The physical elements of your classroom and school can also be exasperating.  More than one teacher has gone though the difficulties of remodeling within their school being jammed into one area of a building only to be changed to another several months later after the carpenters and electricians have completed some of the work. Keeping a sense of perspective and a sense of humor is a given.

    T
he scenario:  Along with your teaching English you have also begun to expand your capabilities by teaching a unit in drama with two general level junior English classes.  As a progressive young instructor, you envision a need to arrange the physical classroom to obtain the utmost on-task results, but allow for as much flexibility as possible.  You should limit the amount of unnecessary chances for discipline problems to flair up while adjusting an environment that appears more like a natural theater than a traditional classroom.  This aesthetic/learning environment should provide the students with chances to have stimulating performances, peer interaction, to engage in mature projects and assignments, and to manage interesting learning experiences.

    I
deally, in this classroom, you as teacher would be a facilitator.  You would teach the student skills necessary for the success of activities and assignments (creative writing of one-act plays, performing contemporary and classic drama, learning speech potentials, or  learning directing, set design, and lighting, or simply learning listening skills). These projects and activities should allow students to display their creativity and those cognitive skills learned within your class and other classes in other disciplines.

    W
hat I would like is to have you graphically illustrate several classroom environments and describe the activities/rationale for the various set-ups.  You might want to continue with this assignment as the basis for your theme unit plan.  Issues you might cover are numbers of female and male students, literacy difficulties among those students, ways to enhance slagging interest to the idea of drama, and the particular play titles which would work well with low-achievers.
     HOW TEEACHERS (WE) CAN BE OBSERVED
    from Jon Saphier's The Skillful Teacher

    
 I took a lengthy course with Jon Saphier that became instrumental in the methods I used to observe, document, and evaluate teachers in their classrooms.  Many school departments had Saphier consult with administrators on how to observe, understand, and foster good teaching.  Saphier detailed methods of interaction among and between teachers and students.  His first thought was "if you do not have students' attention, they won't get the stuff you're teaching."

ATTENTION MOVES BY INSTRUCTORS

    There are five attention areas: DESISTING, ALERTING, ENLISTING, ACKNOWLEDGING, AND WINNING. Here are a list of particular methods you can observe. Saphier feels that the more MOVES you use from number 5, 4, 3,  and 2 the better you are doing within the classroom.
    1. Desisting moves are getting students to stop inappropriate behavior.  They include: Punish, Exclude, Threaten, Sharp or mild sarcasm, Reprimand (judgmental), Order, Specific verbal desist, General verbal desist, Private desist, Group pressure, Peer competition, Move seat, "I" message--"I feel like the work I put into the class is ruined because of your attitude, Jim," Urge, Remind, Flatter, Signal, Pause and Look, Name, Offer Help, Touch, and Proximity.

    2. Alerting moves target groups of students keeping them primed to respond by minimizing distractions.  They include: Startle, Student's name as instructional example, Redirecting partial answer, Pre-alerting, Unison, Looking at one student talking to another, Incomplete sentences, equal opportunity, random order (can create anxiety), circulation, wait-time, eye contact, and freedom from Visual and auditory distraction.
    3. Enlisting moves get students involved: Voice variety, Gesture, Piquing curiosity, Suspense, Challenge, Making student part of teaching, Props, and Connecting with fantasies.
    4. Acknowledging moves let students know that the teacher is aware of some outside difficulty that is keeping the student from performing to capabilities.
    5. Winning moves are the classroom teachers positive element: praise, encouragement, enthusiasm, humor, and dramatizing.
    If these moves were placed on a continuum starting with desisting moves at the bottom and wining moves at the top, an observer could see where the majority of a teacher's moves are situated.  No one uses all of the moves, but it would be interesting to see at the end of an observation how many moves come from the top of the continuum versus from the bottom.  Don't lose this material, it could be helpful later on when making judgments about your difficulties in a particular classroom.

MOMENTUM MOVES BY INSTRUCTORS

    How well a teacher "moves" a classroom full of students to a particular outcome, can  display a teacher's sixth sense.  Saphier's detailed momentum that keep the class moving in a positive direction while perhaps not all of the participants are completely "on the same page" so to speak.  Unfortunately sometimes it is the teacher who needs the help most!
    1. Provisioning -- For some reason I always have the best intentions of fulfilling this objective, but I admittedly am weak.  Being ready to go with the project, task, lecture, discussion.  You have the handouts, text, computer software, the room reserved, the librarian notified--everything is at hand and in place when needed.  If you are--as many new teachers will be--a traveling teacher with all your teaching needs on a cart, it is really important to have everything well planned and in its place when you need it.  This mean not leaving materials in the last two rooms.
    2. Overlapping -- To manage two or more parallel events simultaneously with evidence of attention to both.  This mean keeping in touch with what is going on in several groups, areas, or activities at once.  Keeping in touch implies knowing the nature of the activity, the appropriate pupil behavior within the activity, and the current quality of the pupil's performance.  The teacher needs to help students who are blocked when not understanding assignment directions, when not knowing what to do next, or when unable to resolve interpersonal disagreements on responsibilities, when sharing tasks need resolution, or when moving to another work task, or  to identify premature finishes.
    3. Fillers -- Several times during the course of a semester, there will be a few minutes when the students do not have time to complete a normal routine, but have several minute before or after the main element of the class is completed or yet to start.  Many times this period is just flat and can open the instructor to discipline problems.  These are moments when "fillers" are very handy.  They are short exercises that students can find fun and educational as well.  I was a fan of "hink-pinks" as a high school teacher.  But there are students who can recite poetry, class play lines, or political speech excerpts, whatever.  There are many interesting games with need of little introduction and materials.
    4. Intrusions -- From pupils coming late to the notices on the intercom, there will be intrusions. But the key will be how teachers deflect intrusions while maintaining the specific directions planned.  You have choices:  A. The intrusion simply disrupts your momentum and there is little to prevent it.  B. Every intrusion is dealt with systematically, similarly--only one individual is allowed to leave the room; no questions during first five minutes of lecture.  C.  Intrusion s are dealt with on a flexible, variable scale -- different approaches at different times may keep a freshness and wit within the classroom.  D. Response matches the intrusion -- Certain student requests for attention are constant therefore not receiving the same attention that someone who is requesting attention for the first time. Sometimes the teacher matches the response to the situation.  A large group project with specific roles may not allow the latter student in the previous circumstance to intrude either.  The more clever we are at matching response to student and situation the better we will be perceived as professional instructor.
    5. Lesson Flexibility -- When a piece of the lesson plan was to take only 5 minutes, but engages all the students immediately, maybe the teacher should re-evaluate stopping early in the class.  Or when a piece is absolutely bombing and was to take 50 minutes, maybe the teacher stops.  There are 4 levels with such situations: A. Press on at all cost; B. Drop lesson and switch to entirely new piece; C. Keep objective, but go in another direction--varying format; D. Match new format with needs of group and/or adjust by matching with tone of group.
    6.  Notice -- If teachers do not prepare students ahead of time--spring things on them--there could be difficulties.  Abruptness--especially when stopping an activity--is not a flow item.  With many group endeavors knowing when they will stop is healthy.  So adjusting the time spent on a piece varies: A. Teacher says, "Just do it, deal with it," and group no longer has time to work; B. Teacher has a specific method always in place for ending each piece; C. Teacher pushes or does not push to end depending upon circumstances;  D.  Teacher responds to different students in different circumstances in a variety of ways.
    7. Sub-dividing -- Is the ability of a teacher to physically break up/down numbers of students in workable scenarios to begin, complete, and continue projects and collaboratives. It is a logistical piece.  Students help with distribution, access points for materials, sequencing activities so there are no bottlenecks are all examples.
8.Anticipation -- Being a seer basically is knowing what certain students will do in certain circumstances and offsetting possible conflicts, bottlenecks, confusions. Realizing comfort zones and skill levels to anticipate strugglers and stragglers.  Starting some off who need less help and staying with those who need detail repeated.  A good teacher won't have these in a lesson plan, but intuits in many cases the move necessary.  Being able to run a mental video with audio voice over of future classes helps in such anticipation moves.

EXPECTATIONS

    The students in your class have expectations.  You can help by: being direct, being specific, repeating, being positive in expectancies, displaying standards or modeling, being tenacious, giving prompt feedback on work, giving detailed feedback on work, not making and accepting excuses, recognizing superior performances, and having rational consequences for (poor ) performances.  If you are consistent in these moves, you are less likely to have discipline problems.  One of the difficulties of a new teacher is finding ways that work.  When you would like to have all of these issues in place and you are not sure HOW tenacious you should be, it is difficult to match the move with the intuitive, gut feelings you have at the time.  Also until you can judge what your classroom of students can accomplish competently on a day-to-day basis, many will find difficulty setting standards.  But you can give feedback--prompt and detailed.  Do it.  Reminder: Part of being a professional teacher is being human.
 
 
EXAMPLE OF STUDENT TEACHER OBSERVATION CHECKLIST

Date of Lesson _____Period ___Level_____  No. of Students _____  Observer __________

This checklist is designed to provide a useful starting point for discussion and to help improve teaching.  It will not be used for evaluation.

PRELIMINARIES
∑ Did the observer receive at the beginning of class:
∑ copy of all lesson plans written since last visit, including today's Yes __ No __,
∑ texts and other materials, if pertinent Yes__ No__
∑ Comments:

OPENING
∑ Linkage: did the lesson begin in an organized fashion? Yes__  No__  
∑ Did the teacher try to connect lesson to what had gone before or was to come? Yes__ No __  
∑ (How about connect to other classes, student school, home, community life?)

∑ Comments:

CONTENT
∑ Did the material seem appropriate, relevant, and engaging? Yes __  No__  
∑ Did the level of difficulty seem about right? Yes__  No__
∑ Comments:


STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION
∑ Did students seem to understand the presentation/directions Yes __ No__  
∑ Did lesson move at a pace which maintained involvement without leaving students behind   Yes__  No__  
∑ Was variety of experience provided?  Yes__  No__  
∑ Did the teacher model what was to be done by the students (Do one of the exercises, show how to answer one of the questions, etc.)   Yes__  No__
∑ Did the teacher provide time for guided practice? (Students try, ask; teacher checks for understanding)   Yes__  No__
∑ Did the teacher provide time for guided independent practice? (Students work alone or in groups; teacher circulates and checks for understanding)   Yes__  No__  

∑ Comments:
From Striar, Cheffers, Kiety, Robson, and others
     ATTRIBUTION THEORY IN THE CLASSROOM
    by Madeline Hunter and George Barker in Educational Leadership, Oct. 1987

Students are learners if they believe their success depends on effort more than on luck or ability.

 T
o gain predictability and control, humans seek to understand why things happen.  If we find out why we were successful, we may be able to repeat that success.  More important perhaps, if we determine what caused our failure, we may avoid it in the future (Heider 1958, Kelly 1967, Weiner 1980).
    Arising from social psychology, attribution theory is concerned with our constant search for the causes of our successes and failures.  To what cause do we attribute what happens to us? Our perceptions of causality, rather than reality, are critical because they influence self-concept, expectations for future situations, feelings of potency, and subsequent motivation to put forth effort.  While other factors may affect a person's intent to put forth effort, perceptions of causality constitute an important stimulant to motivation.

Three Continuums of Causality
    In our culture we attribute success and failure to four factors: native ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck (Frieze 1976).  Native ability and effort have been found to the most dominant factors. These four attributions exist on three continuums: locus, stability, and controllability (Weiner 1979).
    1. Locus - feelings of self-esteem, shame, or guilt are based on one's perception of the location of the cause.  Locus can be internal or external: "me" or "not me." Internal--"me" = native ability and/or effort; External--"not me" = task difficulty and/or luck.
    If we attribute success or failure to internal locus, we are the originators of what happens rather than the pawns controlled by outside forces.  As an originator, a person feels proactive rather than reactive to the environment. Attribution of success to internal locus (ability, effort) results in increased self-esteem.  Attribution of failure to internal locus results in shame (lack of ability) or guilt (lack of effort) Wong and Weiner 1981).
    People often explain success in terms of "I" and failure by "they" Weiner 1979). In athletic contests, the winners explain their victory by "our" skill, and the losers justify their defeat because of "poor officiating" or "luck." Parents explain their child's success by "our parenting and sacrifices" and their child's failures by "poor schools" and "bad companions."  Teachers explain success by "our efforts" and failures by "that class." Clearly these attributions help us maintain our self-esteem.
    On the other hand , attributions to the "not me" can be valid if causation is beyond our control.  Sometimes the ceiling does cave in on us regardless of our ability and effort.  Careful drivers do get rear-ended.
    2. Stability - expectations for the future are based upon whether the cause is perceived as stable or unstable or subject to change. Unstable--effort or luck; stable--native ability or task difficulty.  The only attribution that offers no possible change in the eyes of the perceiver is native or genetic ability. "My legs are short and I'm stocky; no matter how hard I try, I'll never be a sprinter." "I have no artistic ability; there's no point in my studying art (music, drama, dance)." I've always been a dud in math; I'll never understand it." If the person believes that failure is inevitable, there is no point in trying.  Because a person's perception of his or her ability, task difficulty can be seen as a stable cause (i.e. "math/sprinting/music will always be easy/difficult for me."
    On the other hand, a realistic appraisal of one's abilities helps us avoid frustration from expending effort when there is no possibility of success.  Clearly a deep-voiced person should not try to become a soprano.  The short, stocky person's effort would be better spent on wrestling than on sprinting.  The person with little tolerance for stress had best stay out of teaching.
    It is the invalid attribution of failure to native ability that is dangerous.  We are a math phobic nation, not because of native ability but because of mechanically manipulating numbers with little or no meaning ("Yours is not to reason why, just invert and multiply").  That many people do not believe they have ability in the arts is a result of instructional experience, not basic ability.  Moreover, recent investigations (Lane and Walberg 1987) of poverty cultures reveal much of the problems lie in lack of language development as a result of the environment, not in the genes.
    When students attribute success or failure to stable causes, they expect the same from the future as from the past. When they attribute success or failure to unstable causes, their expectations can change.
    3. Controllability - a third aspect of causality is related to an individual's feeling of potency to affect the outcome by controlling the cause.  Controllable--effort; Not controllable--ability, task difficulty, luck.  Of all the causal attributions, the only one completely under our control is effort: we can determine how much effort we will expend.  People do not exercise control over ability, task difficulty, or luck.  Consequently, we put forth effort IF we believe that the effort will influence the outcome. If I believe that studying will influence my grade, I am more apt to study.  If I believe my grade is the result of the teacher's compassion, the kind of test, or just luck, there's no point in studying.
    Research on high achievers, whether in mathematics, athletics, the arts, science, or business, reveals that successful people exert enormous effort (Gardner 1983, Bloom 1985). Consequently, if students are to succeed, they must believe that when they expend effort--something they completely control--they will experience success.  But note that if students believe success or failure is the result of ability, task difficulty, or luck, then there's no point in putting forth a lot of effort. Also remember, it is their perception of causality, not reality that matters in these events.
    Attribution of causality often vary between the perceptions of actor and observer, between students and teachers (Jones and Nisbett 1972).  Actors tend to ascribe failures to the "not me" cause. The tennis player missing the ball, glares at his racquet as if there were a hole in it.  The observer more frequently attributes the miss to a stable factor: "He always swings too fast." The student as well can attribute failure to "not me" causes. "She gave an impossible assignment."  The teacher attributes poor performance to stable characteristics. ("They never really work at it") or to situational characteristics ("Those kids were sure rowdy today").  The administrator's attribution may be "she never has an orderly classroom."
    When actors and observers communicate it is important to take into account the characteristic bias of each in attributing causality.

Implication for Students

    Why are some students almost always successful while others seem doomed to fail?  Part of the explanation lies in their beliefs about the causes of success and failure.  Educators can use attribution theory to help more students succeed.
    1. Locus of causality determines academic self-esteem.  If I believe I have ability and can achieve success with effort, I have a positive self-concept as a student.  If I believe that no matter how hard I try, I will not be successful, my impression of my ability and my self-concept suffers. If I believe my A was the result of teacher indulgence or luck, my self-esteem is not enhanced. Pride results from accomplishment only when we attribute that accomplishment to ability or effort. Everyone enjoys an excellent meal, but only the cook can take pride in it.
    2. Stability of causality prompts a student to believe either that the future is predetermined or that it can be changed by effort.  If I succeeded because "I tried hard," then, if I continue to try hard, I'll succeed again. If my achievement was due to natural ability, I don't have to work hard.  If my success or failure was due to external elements, there's no point in trying. It is essential that students believe they have the ability to achieve success if they expend effort and that they anticipate less success if they don't try.  Note, however, that if students try hard and fail, one obvious conclusion is that they lack the ability.  As a result, their self-esteem is diminished, and future effort seems pointless.
    3. Controllability of causality creates the feeling of being commander of one's fate and is a powerful determiner of emotional health.  To be buffeted by one's environment produces a feeling of helplessness.  When my success depends on me, it may be scary, but I'm in charge. When I cannot affect what happens to me, I become a pawn of others (deCharms 1968). Consequently, I must either become resigned to my fate or despair.
    Students must accept the fact that much of what happens to them is a result of what they do.  By changing actions, they frequently can alter outcomes.  This association builds a feeling of potency in the individual. "If I think I can, I might, if I think I can't, I'm right."  The placebo effect in medicine is testimony to the powerful effect of a person's beliefs of causality and controllability rather than reality.  The same effect can be found in education.
    In summary, let us examine the significance of students' attributing success and failure to the two most dominant attributions--ability and effort--on each of the continuums.  If a student thinks she succeeded on an assignment because of her ability, her self-esteem will most certainly be enhanced, she will expect success in the future, and she may be motivated to attempt similar tasks.  If, however, a student thinks his failure was because of lack of ability, his self-esteem will be lower, he will expect failure, and he may not attempt a similar task in the future.
    Different effects result, however, when success and failure are attributed to effort.  When students attribute success to effort.  When students attribute success to effort, they perceive that they can do the assignment and can expect success in the future if they continue to try.  They may fail, but the outcome presumably is within their influence (internal, unstable, and controllable).  Perceiving failure is caused by lack of effort allows students the possibility of future success with additional effort.

Implications for Teachers

    Attribution theory, therefore, has meaning for the ways teachers respond to their student performances. 1. Locus -- it is essential that teachers diagnose where students' learning leaves off and new learning needs to begin.  If the learning to be accomplished is too easy or impossibly difficult, effort is irrelevant.  With a teacher's accurate diagnosis and effective teaching, students efforts should bring success.  When students find the locus of causality is within themselves, they realize they can control success. A teacher's delighted praise or impatient criticism can convey an unintended message about that student's ability (Barker and Graham).  Praise for success resulting from little effort teaches the learner not to work hard.  Criticism for failure on a task that could have been accomplished with effort communicates to a student that he or she has the ability to succeed and should have put forth that effort.
    2. Stability -- students need to believe that their ability to be successful is stable and that they control the effort necessary for success.  By emphasizing that "you can do it if you try" (and making sure they can), teachers convey to students that ability plus effort equals success.
    3. Controllability -- the way a teacher responds to a student's success or failure can signal the teacher's belief as to whether the student is in control of success or failure.  Imagine your dinner guests' arriving two hours late because they hated to leave their house before a TV show ended.  You would feel angry and indignant, no doubt, because they could have prevented their lateness.  Suppose your guests were late because they had a flat tire, no phone was available, and the repair truck was forever in arriving.  Now how would you feel?  Forgiving and sympathetic, for the problem was beyond their control. Similarly teachers' behaviors convey unintended messages to students.  For example, annoyance can say to a student that he had the ability to perform successfully and was responsible for the less-than-satisfactory performance.  Sympathy and understanding can communicate that no matter how much effort a student expended, he could not have accomplished the task.  For a teacher to accept less from a student than she is capable of doing can convince the student of your belief that, even with effort, she doesn't have the ability to meet the expectations.  Criticism of performance when the student could have done better communicates, "You do have the ability."
    Developmental differences figure prominently n the way students perceive the causal potential of ability and effort.  Young children four to five years of age do not see an inverse relationship between ability and effort.  If asked, "Who are the smart kids in your room?" they will respond, "The ones who try hard or practice a lot" (Nicholls 1978). However, a junior high or high school student who sees a fellow student is putting forth great effort may respond, "If the student has to try that hard, it may mean he is not very smart."  Rather than equating ability and effort as young children do, older students distinguish these as discrete constructs: the more able a person is, the less effort may need to be put forth.
    Because of these developmental differences, teachers may observe a devaluation of effort as students get older.  That is, if high school or college students wish to be considered smart, they may put forth a great deal of effort to convince others they are not putting forth effort.  In order to preserve their egos, they try hard to show they're not trying hard.  Should they fail, they can convince others they could have succeeded had they tried.  If they succeed without apparently trying, they're "smart" (Nicholls 1976).  Ability and effort represent an inverse relationship.

Common Sense

The theory is common sense, educators should stay alert to its far-reaching implications for improving student learning.  Indeed, the implications carry directly into principal-teacher and superintendent-principal interactions.  For example, when a principal says, "Your teaching makes that class look easy," the message is very different from the one we hear in "You're lucky to have such an easy class."  Expending effort enhances everyone's chances for excellence in performance, and feeling in charge is essential to a healthy self-concept.  We must downplay ability as the ultimate worth and emphasize effort as the controllable variable with highest probability of producing success.  Students, teachers, and administrators must not be allowed to plateau with acceptable current performance but should expend effort to make "good better and better best."
WORKS CITED
Barker, G. P. "A Developmental Study of Praise and Blame" Journal of Educational Psychology.
    4 (1989): 130-134.
Bloom, Benjamin S., ed. Developing Talent in Young People, NY: Ballantine Books, 1985.
deCharms, R. Personal Causation. NY: Academic Press, 1969.
Frieze, I. "Causal Attributions and Information Seeking." Journal of Research in Personality.
    10 (1976): 293-305.
Gardner, Howard. Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. NY: Basic Books, 1983.
Heider, F. The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. NY: Wiley, 1958.
Jones, E. E. and R. E. Nisbett. "The Actor and the Observer: Divergent Perceptions of the Cause of
    Behavior," ed. Jones et. al. Attribution: Perceiving the Causes of Behavior. Morristown:
    General Learning Press, 1972.
Kelly, H. "Attribution Theory in Social Psychology," Nebraska Symposium on Motivation.
    ed. D. Lenine. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1967.
Lane, John, and Herbert Walberg. Effective School Leadership. Berkeley: McCutchan, 1987.
Nicholls, J. G. "Effort is Virtuous, But It's Better to Have Ability." Journal of Research in
     Personality. 10 (1976): 306-315.
----- . "The Development of Concepts of Effort and Ability" Child Development 49 (1978): 800-814.
Weiner, B. "A Theory of Motivation for Some Classroom Experiences." Journal of Educational
    Psychology 71 (1979): 3-25.
----- . Human Motivation. NY: Holt, 1980.
Wong, P.T. and B. Weiner. "When People Ask Why Questions" Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 40 (1981): 650-663.

 
    MOTIVATING WITH PRAISE:
    GUIDELINES

EFFECTIVE PRAISE                INEFFECTIVE PRAISE
1. Is delivered contingently        1. Is delivered randomly or unsystematically
2. Specifies the particulars of the deed.    2. Is restricted to global positive reactions.
3. Shows spontaneity, variety, suggesting    3. Shows bland uniformity which suggests a conditioned
    clear attention to accomplishments        response made with minimum attention.
4. Rewards attainment of specified per-    4. Rewards mere participation without regard of perform-
    formance criteria.                ance processes or outcomes.
5. Provides information to students about    5. Provides no information at all or gives students no
    their competence or value of feat.            information about their status.
6. Orients students toward better apprecia-    6. Orients students toward comparing themselves with
    tion of their own task-related behavior        others and thinking about competing.
    and thinking about problem solving
7.  Uses students' own prior accomplish-    7. Uses the accomplishments of peers as context for
    ments as the context for describing        describing students' present accomplishments.
    students' present accomplishments.
8.  Is given in recognition of noteworthy    8. Is given without regard to the effort expended or the
    effort or success at difficult (for this        meaning of the accomplishment (for this student).
    student) task.
9.  Attributes success to effort and ability,    9. Attributes success to ability alone or to external factors
    implying that future successes can be        such as luck or an easy task.
    expected.
10. Fosters endogenous attributions     10. Fosters exogenous attributions (students believe that
     (students believe that they expend         they expend effort on the task for external reasons--
     effort on the task because they enjoy         to please the teacher, win a reward.
     the task and/or want to develop task-
     relevant skills.    
11. Focuses student' attention on their    11. Focuses students' attention on the teacher as an external
     own task-relevant behavior.             authority.
12. Fosters appreciation of and desirable    12. Intrudes into the ongoing process, distracting attention
     attributions about task relevant be-         from task relevant behavior.
     havior after the process is completed.
     OBSERVATION EXAMPLE
    from Saphier's and Gower The Skillful Teacher

    
 High School -- AP English:  Mrs. Jones began the class by handing out a compilation of the students' essay questions for Crime and Punishment and their ideas about what makes a good answer to an essay question.  This activity (the writing and sharing) helped to activate students' current knowledge, first for this class practice essay about the novel, and second, for the following day's in-class practice essay writing assignment.  This was an excellent writing-to-learn activity in that it prepared students to do the kind of thinking needed to produce effective discussion essays.
    There were two intrusions to the class early in the period.  One girl came in late, a bag of ice tied to her ankle indicating that she had an injury.  Mrs.. J. greeted her and acknowledged the situation by moving a second chair over to her to let her elevate her foot. The other students were busy reading over each other's ideas, so there was no break in the momentum of the class.  Mrs. J. handled another intrusion, a student question ("What do you need now?"...Scissors"..."In the top draw"), very quickly, again maintaining momentum.  
    As the students commented on their own questions and suggestions, Mrs. J. showed resemblance to something (a way of thinking about characters) the students already. "I've noticed you've changed your opinions of some of the characters as you get to know them better," and later, "I was hoping you would bring out the characters [in your questions] and you did.  I'd like to focus on that today in part 6.  This was one way that she prepared the students for their small group discussion work that followed.
    Some students had finished reading the novel and others had not.  Mrs. J. anticipated confusion because of this and warned the students to be careful to discuss only the assigned chapters in their small groups.  As an explanatory device, Mrs.. J Had written the characters' names on the board and referred to them, while she stated the assignment for each small group: to come to some conclusion about what they now knew, after having read this section of the novel, about a specific character.
    Mrs. J. elicited active student participation by breaking the class into 3 small discussion groups of 4 students each and assigning a recorder for each group.  She listed briefly to the first group and decided that they and the other groups needed the directions repeated.  She then explained the assignment to each separate group, clarifying and highlighting important ideas ("Yesterday, you gave me a lot of the way people felt about X.  Perhaps reading chapters 3 and 4 has changed, reinforced, negated your ideas about him.  For example--may feel more---").  This re-explaining to each group was not an efficient use of Mrs. J's or the students' time.  Although she had helped students prepare for the assignment (see evidence about for showing resemblance and anticipating confusion), she could have taken additional steps to help them--for example, checking for understanding of the assignment more thoroughly, and eliciting examples of well-supported conclusions from the students--before class broke into groups.  In addition, I would suggest giving students advance notice for this type of assignment so they can focus their reading and thinking the night before.
    She gave them notice about the time they had ("Two minutes!") She circulated among the groups again, helping them to reach  their conclusions by asking comprehension questions (Do you believe that? Why? Do you have enough evidence right now?") and keeping clear focus of questions ("Do you admire that honesty?  Why not?  Why not give him that benefit?...Any saving graces at all?")  This questioning helped students see they had reasons to support their conclusions.
    She brought the students back to the large group using humor and enthusiasm: "This is going to be fun.  I know you are feeling passionate about these people and have violent opinions..." A.P English 12, by definition, demands students cover a good deal of material and engage in constant higher-level thinking.  She used writing-to-learn and small group discussion work to activate the students' knowledge and to keep them thinking; these are very good, efficient strategies.  I suggest that Mrs. J. check for understanding and unscramble confusions earlier so that the students will be able to use class time even more efficiently and effectively
 
ASSIGNMENT IV:  TEACHER OBSERVATIONS
    pertinent aspects

    Writing observations means first taking extremely detailed notes, with quotes, times of certain occurrences, descriptions, brief personality profiles of engaging students, lesson objectives, follow-up discussions with instructor and students if possible.  These are the basics:
    1. Choose a teacher you believe to have an interesting methodology.
    2. Observe for an entire class period.
    3. Take complete detailed notes
    4. Jot down parameters of what stood out (after class, but before labeling claims, etc.)
    5.  Then go through notes labeling claims, evidence, interpretation, judgments.
    6.  Write observation with following components
        A. context paragraph including objectives
        B. analysis including claims, evidence, interpretation, judgments, and suggestions.
        C. Summary
    7. Hand in notes with final observation write-up.
    When you look into the mechanisms and mannerisms of a classroom environment, thousands of issues seem to manifest within the course of a 50 minute period.  On the other hand sometimes only a static few issues seem apparent.  When viewing and then commenting upon a classroom, its students, its teacher, and the on-going activity, be aware of certain responsibilities.  These are the same issues that you should consider when others observe, evaluate, and critique your classroom teaching as well.
    First you will want to make CLAIMS statements which indicate the teacher performed certain instructional skills or carried out a particular aspect or pattern of pedagogy. For example, "Mr. Jones does a fine job of covering the basic concepts"  or " He is tuned to possible interruptions and disruptions before they arise."  The next element of a observation should be EVIDENCE that the teacher did indeed fulfill the claim's generalization  This would be in the form of a quote or detailed description of what was said or done to allow you to make a claim.  For example "During the lesson on poetry appreciation, Mr. Jones presented historical, critical, and theoretical aspects to aid in judging a poem's worth and understanding."  Or "While lecturing, Mr. J. walked to James, twirled his hand twice and James returned to following the overhead while Mr. J continued the discussion."
    The third item in a solid observation is INTERPRETING what the behavior of the instructor accomplished or hoped to achieve or was significant within the lesson or class.  For example "With the overheads and poetry explanation students who were earlier disinterested seemed more in tune with the potentials of poetry reading."  Or  "Thus he returned Stephen to an attentive mode without distracting others."  More possible interpretation statements: "This prepared the student and gave her a basis for the next step."  "In this way, a high level of student activity was maintained." "As a result of the student involvement in the writing process, they were able to apply logic and experience despite ability level." "Because students could choose their group members, they more fully participated in the group's success." "This saved time and kept the momentum going."  "Through comments such as these students continued to be enthusiastic about the poetry discussion."  "As a result, she did not hurt anyone's feelings." "These simultaneous activities allowed her to accomplish several learning experiences within the 50 minutes."
    Finally an observation can contain JUDGMENTS which lets a reader know what the observer thought of the behavior or action or activity.  For example, "The presentation was full of such interesting methods of learning about poetry."  Or "He seemed able to have eyes in the back of his head when clearing up possible disciplinary configurations."
     ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION:
An Overview

    How do we assess whether we have enabled the development of students' critical literacy and critical thinking skills.  Can we teach student the ability to effectively use reading, writing, speaking, and listening in order to make sense of their world? And can we help them achieve educational and career-related personal goals?  First it is important for us to personally engage in and then reflect upon the processes of learning. Being told how those processes work is not necessarily a successful methods class. It is important that you too are a reader and a writer and that you have reviewed and responded to yourself in those roles--re-examining the self and the world.  Good learning proceeds by discovery rather than by instruction.
    You should interact with the methods instructor and classmates; students in your English classes should interact with you and their classmates.  One of the issues that will arise in class will be that I do not "model" everything for you.  I do not want to give the example and have you "copy" it.
    Your students should feel secure in their response to their own and others' writing (trust themselves). Your students should understand why they respond in specific ways to their s or others' writing (know themselves).

    ASSESSMENT AID IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM
From Thomas Angelo & Patricia Cross in Classroom Assessment Techniques

CHECKLIST for CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT PROJECTS
    CHOOSING A GOAL
1. Is it the right size?  2. Is it precisely stated?  3.It is relatively easy to assess?  4. Is it worth assessing?  5. Is it actually taught in class?
    CHOOSING AN ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUE
1. Is it appropriate to your goal?  2. Can you integrate it into your usual class activities?  3. Is it reasonably simple?  4. Will it contribute to learnning?
    APPLYING THE TECHNIQUE
1. Have you tried it yourself?  2. Have you done a run-through with colleague?  3. Have you made the purpose clear to students?  4. Have you made the process clear to students?  5.  Did you provide the necessary practice for students?  6. Have you allowed enough time to apply the technique?
    ANALYZING DATE
1. Did you plan how you are going to analyze the data?  2. Have you collected a reasonable amount of data?  3. Is your analysis reasonably simple?  4. Have you allowed enough time to do analysis?
    RESPONDING TO RESULTS
1. Have you planned your response?  2. Have you made your feedback explicit to your students?
3.  Have you presented your response appropriately? 4. Does your response fit into what you have planned for the class?  5. Have you presented the good and the bad news?  6. Have you tried to accomplish a reasonable change?  7.  Have you allowed time to respond adequately?

    See how the above issues are covered in following assessment
    ASSESSING A WRITING COLLABORATIVE    

    
 Assessing Student's Reactions to Small-Group Work when class goal is developing ability to work productively with others.  Answering teacher questions--what kind of help are students getting and giving in group work? How can sessions be more productive for helping students to write well?

    In a particular teaching circumstance the teacher was convinced of group value to promote active learning, but quality of interaction was at best weak in this class.  Young writers find it difficult to gauge how much they need to tell the reader, how much they can assume the reader will know.  As a result they often fail to make explicit on the page what is implicitly clear to them.
    Contemporary rhetorical theory explains that to help writers see their writing from audience perspectives by having other students read their papers and in turn students read classmates' work. But with the best intentions many teachers can fail in organizing and directing group sessions.  Students may not get or give much help. Even with the many worksheets suggested in the writing chapter of this packet, comments can be vague and critiques just filling up the spaces on the worksheets  With such an experience both students and teacher can begin to dread small-group sessions. Plus as the teacher reads revision, little improvement appears.  How can you determine why the group sessions are not going well?  Can they be improved or should you give up?
    The teacher in this case assesses how their learning was affected by peers behavior and their own behavior.  Was their writing benefiting from critiques? If so, how?  Following a session she had her students answer two questions:
    1. What specific comments, criticisms, and/or suggestions did other members of your group offer to you that you are likely to help you improve your next draft?
    2. What specific comments, criticisms, and or/suggestions did you offer to other members that are likely to help them improve their drafts?
    She read through the responses finding that even after her explanations for specificity, they were vague and general.  Members "didn't like the essay topic" or "didn't understand the paper." Any specific responses focused on grammar and structure issues--even when told not to worry on first drafts about sentence level and surface difficulties unless they disrupted the intended meaning of the pieces. First drafts were to be read for meaning and not for how the syntax should be "polished."  The other point when the students answered the two questions: most remembered something that might help them when revising, but could think of little that they pointed out for others that was positive. Plus only certain groups were showing positive responses--other whole groups' answers were weak.  The strong groups were make up mostly of women.  Why?
    In the next class meeting the teacher explained results and ask students for help in her research of their writing community.  Why were so many focusing on spelling and grammar instead of meaning? Students gave a variety of answers.  Answers surrounded ideas such as how could one tell meaning when a piece is full of mistakes. Others said they were following the example of other writing teachers who only pointed out errors in mechanics. Others felt they were not capable or uncomfortable making such judgments.  And students did not want to criticize or be criticized by their friends in the class. The instructor took detailed notes of the specific responses from students.
    One issue seemed to be that students focused on getting good criticism on their drafts but did not concentrate on giving helpful comments. Second they knew what was helpful to them but had little understanding of what others saw as helpful advise or criticism. Therefore how could they tell if their comments were helpful to others? She took all of the info and said she would return the next class with some ideas to improve the group collaboratives or discontinue their use.
    The instructor was sure she had required them to be helpful with comments and demonstrated that ability.  But students' responses to her queries disagreed.  She was learning that the students did not have a model to effectively perform as a group.  Productive cooperation was not a given from past experiences in high school.  Their writing skills certainly were not adequately developed, why should their collaborative skills be?  She would need to train her students.
    She returned to the next class with more directive and explicit assignment options.  She explained the need for such collaborative ventures throughout future endeavors.  From students' earlier comments on drafts she demonstrated differences between "critiquing drafts" and "criticizing writing."  She demonstrated how to provide positive and negative judgments, provide explanations, point out strengths and weaknesses, offer opinions for improvement where possible.  Harmful critiques were very general focused exclusively on either strengths or weaknesses, and provided no reasons for judgments and no suggestions for improvements or insisted only one way to improve. The teacher also revised group compositions.
    Her next step was to give students copies of two drafts to critique for homework instead of working in class with a specific critiquing worksheet which would be collected.  The worksheet asked for strengths and weaknesses and explain why they were and to offer two or three suggestions for improving weaknesses.  The next group sessions used the impetus of the newly designed worksheets and were much more successful.  More responses, more discussion.  The instructor repeated the two question survey at the end of class. The overall responses rejuvenated the group process's value. Plus the revisions which followed were overall superior.
    But the first responses by students as to why they made superior gains in their group responses: several students said since they knew they would be asked about the responses that they needed to have better specific answers on those class-ending questionnaires!  Perception is reality.  As teachers we often do not assume the same cause-effect equations as do our students.

 

Additional Material for Collaborative Groups.
What is cooperative Learning?

    Teaching techniques used in group projects and peer tutoring have evolved to the point that the label “cooperative learning strategies.” Structured substantive student interaction provides opportunities for students to build concepts in their own words; to clarify ideas, superficially or intuitively understood; to gain confidence needed to ask questions publicly; and to get more enjoyment out of class due to increased involvement.  Besides the academic gains of more practice, more variety, and greater clarity, student-to-student interaction also increases self-esteem and respect for others.  Respect is based on knowledge. As students interact they learn more about each other.  It increases awareness, empathy, and acceptance—all emotional intelligence issues.
ACCOUNTABILITY
    To ensure group learning pays dividends, a teacher must hold each student accountable.  Some students cannot coast while others do all the work.  To avoid this, each cooperative learning activity is followed by some type of worksheet or presentation (in other areas: quizzes, tests, reports, demonstration are all options). In some cases each several names are drawn to make the presentations—someone has to demonstrate knowledge of the needed responses to assisting members with writing as well as being assisted.
ACCOUNTABILITY TECHNIQUES
1.  Everyone completes worksheets after work period and they are collected.
2.  One worksheet is collected at random from each group.
3.  Representatives of each group (comparable abilities) present best-case offerings the next day.
4.  Everyone must work three general issues, listed on board, in revision of next draft. Compare.
POSITIVE INTERDEPENDENCE
    Groups and class goals are used to build positive interdependence. Success can be defined in terms of superior drafts (whether so many students complete quality revisions); or in terms of overall class work quality with the revisions(whether the groups average papers were valued and worthy); or in terms of the weakest revisions (whether these drafts were close to overall needs requested.)  There can be group goals, class goals, or ability level goals.
TYPICAL GOALS
1.  The class achieves its goal if 8 out of 10 students called at random give examples of helpful advice which can lead to an improved revision (from worksheet).
2.  Every student adds bonus points to draft scores if overall class responses were 90% superior.
3.  Another leaf will be added to the “Tree of Success” on bulletin board if fewer than 4 students miss or inadequately respond on  3 areas on worksheet.
Positive interdependence creates a win/win situation. It avoids the competitive win/lose situation where one student wins and the rest lose.  The emphasis is on helping each other. When top students excel, everyone wins.  When the less able improve, everyone benefits.  Positive interdependence has a “we’re in it together” spirit.  It builds positive self-esteem and acceptance or individual differences.  Students learn to celebrate each other’s successes rather than privately relish each other’s failures.
PROCESS SKILLS
    A variety of social communication skills are involved in group work.  Students working in groups perform better and achieve higher if they receive training in the group process.  These skills can be grouped in five categories: 1.  worker; 2.  listener; 3.  checker;  4.  tutor;  5.  leader.
A GOOD WORKER
1.  Follow directions,
2.  Stay with your group; do not wander around
3.  Do not talk to other groups (unless recommended).
4.  Use each other’s names.
5.  Complete assignments.
6.  Respect yourself
7.  When you are supposed to be working together, don’t work ahead of the others.
8.  When you are unsure, ask for help or say you don’t understand.
9.  Share materials
10.  Participate (share ideas, take turns answering, suggest ways the group could solve a problem or complete an assignment).
11.  Focus the group on the main task at hand. Don’t stray and waste time.
12.   Think of things to say or do to make your group’s work more enjoyable and interesting (tell a joke, share interesting facts, be supportive, celebrate progress).
13.  Be able to tell why working cooperatively helps most students learn.
A GOOD LISTENER
1.  Look at the person who is talking.
2.  Politely tell someone when you agree or disagree.
3.  Tell someone when they do or say something that helps.
4.  Let others finish. Wait to see if their ideas is wrong or just different.
5.  Repeat or rephrase what other say.
6.  Listen for other group members point of view.
7.  Check to make sure you understand what someone said or how it relates to the assignment (i.e. Do you mean…?” “Are you saying…?)
8.  Use or refer to what other have said.  Add to what others say.
9.  Tell how ideas are similar or different.
10.  Tell someone how you think they feel (frustrated, unsure, etc.); ask if they agree.
A GOOD CHECKER
1.  Check to see if everyone can see, has the material needed, has space to work, is working and making progress.
2.  Ask each member if they agree with the answer or suggestions.
3.  Make sure everyone understands (ask each member for their suggestion; ask someone to demonstrate how to complete the task; call for a check—everyone individually works a task and then shows results; ask someone to summarize what was said or what is solution.
4.  Ask questions which make other group members clarify what they mean (to help others).
5.  Check back with other group members on ideas and points that were discussed earlier in the period or week. Don’t have a group member learning something new and then not check to see he/she remembers it
A GOOD TUTOR
1.  Explain how you found an answer or worked a problem or task.
2.  Show how to do the same type of task using different technique.  Think of new ways to solve the problem.
3.  Help concentrate the group’s effort by watching the time. Get the job done by end of class.
4.  Explain how to estimate whether an answer is reasonable.
5.  Think of and share clever ways to remember important procedures or style issues.
6.  Make up a similar problem, word, sentence, or idea or easier one to help someone who is having trouble understanding.  Have him complete another before going on.
7.  Help your group get the main idea or task orientation by having each group member say it in their own words, summarize the main idea, or give an example.
8.  Make group aware of how you and each of the other members in the group are doing.
A GOOD LEADER
1.  If someone in your group is off-task, tell her what she should be doing.
2.  Encourage the group to solve problems on their own rather than asking the teacher.
3.  Ask the teacher for help only if everyone in the group has the same problem.
4.  Help the group stay on task by saying, “We are supposed to be…” or “We better get back to work.”
5.  Be careful not to make a group member look foolish.
6.  Help someone get involved by asking for her ideas or whether she agrees.
7.  Summarize what the group has decided at the end of the discussion.
8.  Set goals and challenge the group to do its best (i.e. “Can we do better than the last time?”
9.  Suggest rules or procedures for hwo the group should work (i.e. “No one can give more than one suggestion at a time.” “Try not to say something is easy when one member is struggling.”
10.  Name disruptive behaviors and say why they bother you (i.e. “You are interrupting; everyone needs a fair chance to participate.”)
11.  Don’t let group vote on “right” method instead understand which method is best and why.
12.  Encourage students who find the work difficult—help them see the progress they have made; specifically show them where, how  the work or idea can be improved; don’t let them think their work is due to bad luck and their inability to write.
13.  Leave group members with positive feelings.  Help with improvements and revisions in a positive way. Show them why you think a piece needs improvement and how it can be done.
14.  Encourage the group.  Tell how the group is helping you and others.

SEVEN BASIC COOPERATIVE LEARNING TECHNIQUES

1.  Assign group members.  Don’t allow students to select their groups. One goal is for students to learn how to work with a variety of students. Group members don’t have to be friends, but they have to cooperate with each other.
2.  In terms of seating have members face each other.  It is better to have students work around one desk rather than try to place three desks together.  Often students work best using lap boards sitting on the floor.
3.  Encourage groups to solve their own problems.  When they complain or seek help, ask them what they have tried. Direct them to solve their own problems.
4.  Groups should not be short term.  They should stay together for at least six or more activities/sessions. Students should know they have to cooperate with each other to find solutions to their problems.
5.  Be honest and open about group membership.  Tell students they were assigned to groups according to past performance.  They are expected to help each other.  It is important that students learn to value group learning.  Explain and reinforce the following benefits:
a.  cooperative learning groups provide more opportunities for students to tell how to solve problems to explain concepts in their own words, to ask questions, and to receive feedback.
b.  achievement scores are higher when students help each other on school work.
c.  even the best students retain information longer when they are required to tell others how to solve problems.
d.  in today’s work force, more people are fired because they cannot  get along with co- workers as compared to lacking technical skills.  Cooperative learning groups help students learn how to work with a variety of people.
6.  Establish procedures and use them repeatedly.  When they are first introduced, provide clear, concrete rationale for their use; demonstrate expected behavior; and practice that behavior.  Always provide feedback in terms of the rationale.
7.  Initially, keep cooperative activities very structured and very short.


CREATING POSITIVE INTERDEPENDENCE

    Simply ease into group learning.  Do not call attention to the change unless the need arises or is anticipated.  Emphasize the need to help each other and the need to develop group learning skills.  Simply stress that group work provides more practice, more feedback, and less paperwork.
    Try to develop the perception that cooperative learning is an effective way to learn.  Stress that cooperative learning:
1.  Is a good change of pace—a different way to learn.
2.  Provides more opportunities to ask questions, especially if you are shy about asking.
3.  Provides more opportunities to explain and get feedback on one’s explanations.
4.  Provides more help at the appropriate level (many worksheets contain problems which are too difficult or too easy.)
5.  Provides opportunity to explain. Explaining concepts tend to clarify and sharpen your thinking; this aids memory.
6.  Provides opportunities to develop leadership (reach consensus, solve disagreements, listen to others, diagnose problems, appreciate differences.
7.  Writing skills are raised; diagnostic test scores are raised.



Use peer pressure

1.  Show and be ready to assign a more structured way to learn the material, mode of writing.
2.  As a long-term effort, try to develop group unity.
a.  avoid praising individuals publicly; instead, praise the group when appropriate.
b.  avoid using competitive techniques to control  the group (i.e. the quietest group can go to lunch).
c.  provide opportunities for the students to learn about each other.
d.  set class goals
e.  use management techniques which build independence rather than dependence

Use group or class rewards

1.  Use social rewards - praise from outsiders or important others; - letters home to parents; - newsletter articles, publication of their writings.
 
2.  Use logically related awards - time saved can be used for a favorite learning activity; -- mastery achieved, move on to another area.
 
3.  Use arbitrary awards—bonus points, group goal prizes, free time.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF INQUIRY
FROM FORREST HOULETTE, INDIANA WRITING PROJECT

      What makes inquiry techniques especially effective for assigning and discussing writing is their focus on context and specifics.  The aim of the inquiry assignment is to provide students with true-to-life situations in which writing is demanded of them, or to provide them with true-to-life criteria from which to judge the effectiveness of others' writings.  According to Hillocks, inquiry techniques are techniques which do the following:
•    Give specific topic suggestions
•    Focus on immediate and concrete data of some kind during instruction and practice
•    Attempt to teach specific composing strategies.
     These techniques are usually delivered in the environment mode of instruction, which has three distinguishing characteristics:
•    Clear and specific objectives (e.g. to increase the use of specific detail and figurative language).
•    Materials and problems selected to engage students with each other in specifiable processes important to some particular aspect of writing.
•    Activities, such as small-group, problem-centered discussions, conducive to high levels of peer interaction concerning specific tasks.
     As a result, to use the inquiry method, one must master both a means of designing assignments and a means of managing the classroom.  The best way to understand inquiry techniques is to examine a sample inquiry assignments.  One  text is Robert Scholes and Nancy Comely's The Practice of Writing (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985). The book provides 60 examples covering several modes of writing. While designed for college students there are enough examples which would carry over to other grade levels. Several examples used in BSU writing classes include:

    THE BEER GARDEN IN BSU'S STUDENT CENTER

        As a part of the drug infusion program and to turn the tables a bit on the current philosophy of what might work to make students aware of alcohol abuse, students are asked in their collaborative groups to design and write a beer garden proposal they will present to members of the state legislature.  As background research, the first issue is to study the anti-drug/alcohol materials that BSU has produced over the last several years as well as other universities who have beer gardens.  Students can research the Indiana laws covering liquor licenses as well as read past news stories of BSU's involvement in obtaining a liquor license for the new alumni building.  Then each group brainstorms on the variety of approaches--most come up with the standard negatives and try to answer those negatives with a longer and stronger list of positives from student engagement in management techniques to a perfect area for controlled use of alcohol for those 21 and older. There is also the necessity to focus the proposal to state legislative members which gives a specific audience for the writing.

    THE BOOK POLICY AFFAIR

        Students read a letter to the editor from a disgruntle citizen of Delaware County seeking to censor a novel being read at Delta High School, Judith Guest's Ordinary People. (Certainly other texts could be used where copies were available for the whole class--if not excerpts could be copied out of a controversial novel for use).  The students are given a copy plus history of the book policy which seems to have worked in the past: Anthologies approved by school board; any one-time text has to have department head approval; any student legitimately objecting (in writing for department head/principal) to a text has to be given alternative and "equivalent" text/materials/learning experience.  The students find that the last North Central Accreditation of the high school find no fault with that procedures. But the school board wants a change that allows input from as many groups as possible about books used without becoming chaotic, cumbersome, and expensive.  The collaborative groups' responsibility is to compose a new text book usage policy with an overview giving the context and rationale for the new policy.  In essence each group is a "blue-ribbon panel" convened by the school committee to make recommendations.  The proposal is the results of much consultation with each other and any other primary and secondary sources necessary. There again is a specific audience for the proposal: the school board and the residence of Delaware County School District.
     The context of each of these inquiry assignments specifies the topics.  Thus the assignments meet the first criterion that of giving specific topic suggestions.  The context also provides immediate concrete data--the audience, the background, research potentials, and the nature of the problem which students must consider as they write their proposals, thus fulfilling the second criterion.  Also the assignments cause students to use specific strategies (criterion 3) ranging from imaginative approaches to solving the problems (with associated brain storming, listing, synthesizing, summarizing) to utilizing research strategies (visiting web sites, contacting individuals who have expertise, finding records and news accounts).  These are the ways that a typical inquiry assignment fulfills the criteria that Hillocks outlines.
     Another way to aid understanding of inquiry techniques is to sketch how these assignment or others yet discovered would be used in the classroom.  When the teacher introduces an inquiry assignment, she first indicates that there are specific objectives for the class to achieve.  Not only must the students produce proposals or whatever: a greeting card using a particular icon or design and graphic images let's say, but they must understand and appreciate the audiences.  The audience analysis should provide them with the data necessary to write effectively and thereby create an appropriate proposal or greeting card.  These tasks therefore become the performance objectives for the assignments--they are what t the students must do to complete the tasks.
     In addition to verbally outlining the objectives, the teacher provides materials and problems that will engage the students in the processes necessary to fulfilling them .  The teacher provides direct instruction in techniques of audience analysis, initiates group brainstorming sessions on audience, and initiates class discussions on how to examine all of the alternatives and to locate the needed research materials in the library, old newspapers, government documents, and in-person interviews.  The teacher allows time for group research and editing sessions and evaluation of proposal ideas.  The teacher may even take time to discuss how to conduct advantageous cooperative group learning sessions as well as problem solving techniques--both highly relevant skills in future endeavors by the students.
     Students are the primary actors engaging both themselves and their peers in the discussions and decisions necessary to fulfilling the assignments.  The teacher, slightly off-stage, plays only those roles necessary, usually that of facilitator (finding ways to access web sites on internet, getting addresses and phone numbers of knowledgeable sources, helping design intros and questions for interviews) to guide students in making decisions or starting discussions.  As a result the activities necessary to completing the assignment involve high levels of peer interaction.
     Inquiry assignments require that students explore writing situations which match as closely as possible the true-to-life circumstances which cause individuals to write outside of the classroom.  The students explore these settings by applying the problem-solving strategies they possess to the data provided in the context of the assignment. Where necessary and desirable, the teacher teaches additional strategies.  In general, the students frame the questions about the situation which they must answer by writing.  They pursue this inquiry until they have produced a text as a means of solving the problem.  The name of the technique comes from this notion of exploring by inquiry.
     The most exciting aspect of the inquiry techniques is that they cause students to frame questions and strategies by themselves.  By doing so, students begin to internalize the kinds of decisions they must make as writers.  As they continue to practice with strategies and decisions under a teacher's guidance, students come closer and closer to being able to frame questions and strategies on their own and make writing decisions on their own.  Inquiry techniques have as their goal the development of teacher-independent writers who can successfully respond to situations that demand writing and who can successfully judge the effectiveness of both their own writing and that of others.
 



ASSIGNMENT V:  INQUIRY TASK FOR SOPHOMORES
INQUIRY INTO INQUIRY
    
    In small groups develop several ideas for possible inquiry exercises.  Then develop objectives (many of which have been given in the introduction, but which could have unique expansions), listing possible resources, materials, individuals, and handouts which would be used, plus methods of assessment.  There are so many wonderful hands-on, real-world possibilities that do not require as much in-depth research as the two illustrations above.  Find an exciting, manageable, and creative inquiry assignment that will engage your sophomore English class.



APPENDIX (Writing Stuff)

    A PORTFOLIO-BASED WRITING PROGRAM

    
 Before leaving the confines of Ball State to go out and teach secondary English, you should have a mild appreciation and of portfolio-based writing sequences.  We in the composition-rhetoric area of the English department have been particularly satisfied with the 101-102 basic writing (BW) program, a two-semester, portfolio-based sequence.  Studies show that the BW students are more successful in English 104 than the English 103 students who matriculate into E104.  The BW program is not a perfect portfolio-based program , but has been somewhat bastardized--if that is the word I am looking for-- over the last few semesters; it still works.  Much like programs you may encounter in your secondary schools, if you want to do something that works well, but requires attention to detail and has an added workload, it will be up to the younger teachers--or in the case of the BSU program the lesser paid and lesser appreciated contract faculty--to teach and administer the day-to-day instructional needs. At BSU only one tenure faculty, the director of the basic writing program Dr. Linda Hanson, teaches in the BW sequence.

BACKGROUND FOR PORTFOLIO WRITING

    Let's see how teacher and students participate. The program should have a commonalty of focus and purpose while still allowing individual teacher strengths to determine everyday activities and assignments.   As with untracked situations in middle and high school, the program should allow for a wide disparity in individual student abilities.  These students should have the opportunity to write in a variety of discourse acts and appreciate how those discourse acts weave in and out of their writing (more later in this section).  When students complete a portfolio sequence, they should have satisfaction in seeing their own improved skills as composers and authors.  
    For better focus, I give a further definition of "author:"  I see a writing teacher "authorizing," giving "authorization" to students so students can demonstrate to an audience their authority over the topic of the essay.  As part of that authorizing, students should write one essay reflecting on their writing experience as well as how recent writing experiences contrast with earlier writing experiences.
    Finally while discussing theory and practice of portfolio sequences, you will see James Moffett's practical application of a writing sequence that could fit into either a portfolio sequence or an individual teacher's writing sequence at any grade and level.  His ideas will be summarized later.

GOALS AND ENABLING GOALS

    1. Students should understand the circular, recursive, or discursive nature of writing as proposed by researchers Linda Flower, Robert Hayes, and Janet Emig, early advocates of the cognitive process model of writing. As opposed to the linear stage model of pre-write, write, revise--the discursive model sees the writer at any time while composing to invent, collect, shape, write, edit, revise, and plan depending upon which process seems necessary and important for immediate progress and success on a current draft.
    2.  To support invention processes, students should be aware of brainstorming, clustering, looping, and mapping.  Invention activities can also begin to teach students collaborative strategies.
    3.  Students should have as many opportunities as possible to revise, resee, and rethink several working, in-progress drafts before final instructor assessment(s).  Also they should understand they control their paper and have the right to accept or reject any of the criticisms.
    4. To support revision, students should have other collaborative opportunities to resee their writing.  One method is peer collaboration.  These collaborations work best when the instructor has a specific list of items which students move through and then checkoff.  It is particularly helpful to allow for both negative and positive comments and to have students be very specific with short as well as lengthy comments and notations.  Collaborative worksheets can be turned in with a draft.  Students should also have the opportunity to ask for a particular level of advice and criticism.  For instance, as part of the collaboration on one draft, a student may simply want a peer to summarize what is seen in each paragraph and whole essay.  Such opportunities will allow students to see each of their peers as another "reader of ONE" which is really what a teacher's reading status should be: a "reader of ONE" who has a variety of subjective agendas which constitute the teacher's ideas of "good writing."   
    5. Continuing to enable the reseeing and renegotiating, teachers should spend conference sessions one-on-one asking what each student's purposes are for reaching a particular audience.  Also a teacher can listen or can ask what the student wants for personal help and advice for improvement.  Giving students a status report of their progress is perfect during student-teacher conferences.
    6.  Another goal is for students to feel as comfortable and confident with their writing as possible. Therefore one enabling goal is to keep grading to a minimum while drafts are in progress.  The teacher should act as coach and facilitator.  Teachers can figure point systems or equivalent when students' meet deadlines, fulfill specific on-task responsibilities, and participate in class without letting letter grades "get in the way" by negatively deflating a young writer's creative and motivational attitude.  For instance, studies show that students will only look at the essay's grade and disregard all comments in many cases.  Other studies show that when students attempt new avenues of composing they will increase their number of sentence-level errors.  Maximizing a comfortable environment enhances student courage and scope which will allow for errors and expand potential.
    7.  The students should have the opportunity to throw out certain attempts and not worry about further judgments on certain tasks.  To allow for such potential, only half of the overall writing assignments should be part of the final portfolio assessment.  Approximately 50% of the course grade should be withheld until the final portfolio is submitted.  A potential grading scheme:
•  Process journals entries subm's)  15%
•  Attendance, Participation              5%
•  Early drafts                                     20%
•  Meeting deadlines, Homework     10%
•  Final Portfolio                               50%
    8. If a group of teachers are considering final assessment, the members determine a rubric for judging worthiness.  Teachers should have periodic sessions determining a holistic manner in which they will determine a passing essay or portfolio from a failing essay or portfolio.  Earlier in the sequence, students should perhaps have a mid-term timed or untimed writing which would give them a chance to see how other instructors in the sequence will view their writing in comparison to how their writing has been viewed by their classroom teacher.  (It should be understood that all of this norming work is what creates the overload and difficulties among writing teachers.)
    9.  These norming sessions determine an assessment rubric.  For instance the BSU BW assessment has: adequate introduction, logical point(s) on topic, adequate details to support point, adequate cohesion, logical form/order, remain focused, effective language use, anticipate audience, adequate grammar and structure, and effective conclusion.  All teachers involved should have an implied or explicit agreement that these elements are workable within a grading rubric.
 

    A LOGICAL WRITING SEQUENCE
    From James Moffett

    In critiquing writing programs, courses range from a creative writing elective similar to the one I taught in Massachusetts to an expository writing class similar to the one I taught at Indiana Academy.  Seldom, however, does one find as logical a sequence as James Moffett's which bridges the expanse between personal writing and essay writing.  Moffett sees the most rudimentary and simple academic writing beginning with:
        • Journals, diaries, and logs = notation and writing down or NOTING

    He builds upon writing down with two paired categories:
        • first, autobiography and memoir = recollection or LOOKING BACK

    While a second, but equal category has:
        • investigation or LOOKING INTO
    Built upon these three categories, he situates:
        • first, fiction, plays, and poetry = imagination or THINKING UP

    While in a second, but equal category are:
        • columns, editorials, reviews, personal essays, thesis essays = cogitation or         THINKING OVER and THINKING THROUGH.

    The rational is that a writing teacher should help lay a foundation for the least demanding "trip" between personal writing and less personal essay writing.  It should be appreciated that much has been written about a kind of adverse attitude toward the "academic" level of narrative writing.  Early in the composition debate, practitioners and theorists saw narrative as something outside of the expository, critical thinking-type essay writing.  But narrative writing usually is the most interesting for students to compose.  Also narrative and descriptive discourse acts engages writing as a composer manages and arranges support for exposition claims and thesis statements.
    
A SECOND BRIDGING SCENARIO

    Another method using a similar theoretical base whereby an instructor could lead her students through the following sequence of essays:
        • Personal experience essay,
        • Personal observation essay,
        • Combining several observations (from memory or current experience)            • Interviewing to enhance personal situation/event/relations, Composing a dialogue
        • Reporting on outside event/surveying a particular group of individuals
        • Researching an outside event/situation on a topic of personal interest,
        • Researching an assigned topic through primary and secondary sources.  
    At anytime the student can combine several investigative tools (interviews, surveys, research) while analyzing, synthesizing, or interpreting.  Also teachers can have students choose one topic to complete a sequence of essays using that topic of personal interest as a guide for multiple views through a variety--or combination--of discourse acts:

    * description,         * narrative,     * interpretation,     * analysis,
        * comparison,         * classification,     * summary,     * argument
    * evaluation,         * interrogation,     * synthesis,         * definition


    COOPERATIVE LEARNING ACTIVITIES

    Teaching techniques used in group projects, committees, and peer collaboratives have evolved to the point that the label "cooperative learning strategies" has come into common use.  Cooperative learning strategies are more than students sitting together, sharing materials, and helping each other.  Cooperative learning strategies have four ingredients: 1. student-to-student interaction; 2. positive interdependence; 3. individual accountability; and 4. development of group process skills.
    A solid research base indicates cooperative learning strategies are effective in raising achievement test scores, encouraging better peer relationships, improving attitudes toward writing and learning, and improving self-esteem.


STUDENT-TO-STUDENT INTERACTION

    Structured substantive student interaction provides opportunity for students to build concepts in their own words; to clarify ideas specifically or intuitively understood; to gain confidence needed to ask questions publicly; and to get more enjoyment out of class due to increased involvement.  Besides the academic gains of more practice, more variety, and greater clarity, student-to-student interaction increases self-esteem and respect for others.  Because respect is based upon knowledge, students who interact learn more about each other.  The interaction should increase empathy, awareness, and acceptance.  These and many other long-term academic and social gains are associated with student-to-student interaction.

EXAMPLE:  A GROUP inquiry ASSIGNMENT
    The Tinker Toy Project from Linda G. Jobe, East Middle School, Enfield N.C:  

D
ivide class into groups of threes.  Each group will have a builder, a writer, and an artist.  1. Each group is responsible for producing an instructions manual including a list of parts, a name for the item produced, a set of instructions for building the item, and a drawing of the finished product.  2.  Give each group a small paper bag of about 30-35 tinker toy pieces.  Allow about one class period for building an item and writing instructions for how to build it.  The item must be completed in that time.  The item must be disassembled and the pieces must be put back into the paper bag.  3. On another day, give the bag and the instructions to another group to see if they can rebuild the item using the written instructions.  After they have build it, they may use the drawing to check for accuracy. Provide a check list so they can critique the instructions for clarity.
    Writing tips for instructions: A. Begin with a list of needed supplies or equipment; B. Use imperative voice; C. Use complete sentences; D. Use parallel structure; E. Highlight cautions or warnings by using bold print, color, or underlining; F. Use numbered steps of instructions.  G. Explain as needed.
    Optional Assignment:  Build large creations using Tinker Toys.  Take Polaroid photos of the items or draw them.  Store in large grocery bags. Give one to each group.  Have the group write a description of the finished product. Have the groups disassemble the items and put the parts in the bag. have groups trade bags to try to build items following the descriptions


COLLABORATIVE RUBRICS

    
 When talking about personal preferences and the MBTI, one suggestion is to arrange groups with different personality traits in one group so that a variety of views are possible.  Unless it is a mature group, cliques and friends might be separated.  Also groups of four tend to pair off, if that is what is desired, fine; if you wish group interaction, work with odd-numbered groups. If students only see the sessions as times to socialize then that is all that will be accomplished.
    If there are peer reviews which students see as helping their drafts then perhaps they will be more willing and motivated to participate.  Therefore it is very helpful that a teacher have an awareness of a particular draft's weaknesses (and strengths) and reinforce how the collaborative partnership strengthened portions of a student's assignment.  The teacher-student conference can solidify collaborative worth by discussing the improvement between an early draft and a later one when heeding the collaborative's advice and suggestions.  
    You can intersperse prompts within peer collaborative sessions/workshops of the portfolio-based sequence to be completed while students are in their groups.  The collaborative sessions should fulfill a student writer's needs. Later examples of peer worksheets can be adapted for a variety of writing assignments. But a writing teacher should be aware that students themselves should have the opportunity to ask for  "levels" of advice.  
    •  For instance at the most basic level, a student may wish a peer to summarize what the reader believes the paper being reviewed actually states.  The summary can be, first, a general overview and then, later, specific paragraph summaries depending upon the number of chunks within the essay.
    •  Another level would be an interpretive one which helps the original writer see how others might interpret how their line of thinking fits into the general scheme of ideas within a community.
    •  Another level would be an analytical one. Much like the interpretive review, the reader asserts what they believe is the point the writer is trying to make and then the reader goes on to personally determine if the present material is convincing enough or not and why or why not.
    •  Another level would be an interrogating stance.  Questioning the claim of an argument much the same way a lawyer would interrogate another's defense or prosecution brief.  This would be to ask what is the claim.  Then what are the facts and analysis of those facts that support the claim.  And finally is the conclusion the writer wants the reader to draw explicit enough?
 







    RECIPROCAL TEACHING: collaboration and inquiry
    Adapted from Annmarie Sullivan Palincsar  in  Teaching/Inquiry Strategies

 RATIONALE &
D
EFINITION: Reciprocal teaching or inquiry refers to an instructional activity that takes place in the form of a dialogue between teacher and students or can be generated between students and students while peer editing regarding various size segments of text.  The dialogue is structured by the use of four strategies: summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting. Members of a peer group can take turns assuming the role of teacher  in leading the dialogue.

PURPOSE:
The purpose of reciprocal inquiry is to facilitate a group effort between members in the task of bringing meaning to the text and helping the writer to see potential revision possibilites and the reasons for those revisions.  It can facilitate how the text does not meet all of the needs of a particular reader.  Each strategy has its own purpose:

SUMMARIZING--

provides the opportunity to identify and integrate the most important information that is presently in the text.  Text can be summarized across sentences, across paragraphs, and across the passage as a whole.  When the students first begin the reciprocal teaching procedure, their efforts may only focus at the sentence and paragraph level difficulties.  Many times style issues are a predominant concern.  As they become more proficient, they are able to integrate at the paragraph and passage levels--to begin to see the difficulties and achievements of the whole.  A particular good example of an assessment technique is the one sentence summary of a poem or piece of prose. The student answers the question: "Who does/did what to whom, when, where, how and why? The teacher should model a response from something that is being accomplished within the classroom. This is best accomplished by having the students read the piece write a summary sentence and compare responses with a summary that the teacher has written. Or combine student answers into an "ideal" response on an overhead or the chalkboard. Finally there are one-word summary exercises.  Have students pick one word to summarize a segment of literature, then defend and explain how that word best explains and summarizes the whole segment from paragraphs to novels in scope.

QUESTION GENERATING--

reinforces the summarizing strategy and carries the reader or listeners one more step along in the comprehending the writer's intentions. When students generate questions, they first identify for others the kind of information that is significant enough--but perhaps not cohesive or clear enough to be completely understood.   Posing their concerns through questions can alert a student writer to what another reader would like to know and have answered through the written piece.  Also questions that are generated for other students can soon become questions a student writer can ask himself when writing the next draft or another essay. Question generating is a flexible strategy to the extent that students can be taught and encouraged to generate questions at many levels.  For example, most composing situations require that students master supporting detail information--if the supporting detail is not available in a particular essay, peers' questioning can illustrate its need.  Some composing situations require that the students be able to infer or apply new information from text.  A student writer learns quickly elements of the cooperative principle which asks that enough material is within the text to "bring each reader up to the speed of the writer."

CLARIFYING (orally)

activity is particularly important when students begin to gage  comprehension difficulties.  Students writers may better understand the necessities of cohesive forces, introductory parameters, supporting detail, interpretation of detail, and drawing conclusions when having help in seeing/realizing/structuring such issues in their own and others' writing.
 


    WORKSHEETS FOR WRITING COLLABORATIVES
    Remind students of the worth and expectations for collaboration.  They should bring with the draft some specific help requests that can be fulfilled by peers:

    
 O
ne method to help revise essays is peer collaboration.  Since your own emotions and close proximity sometimes restricts an ability to see and hear errors in content, diction, syntax, logic and order--several other eyes, ears, and minds can find items which lend themselves nicely to positive and negative criticism.  Therefore during sessions when you are asked to complete a draft before attending class, be sure to make the utmost effort to have a completed draft. In some of our writing workshops, members of your peer group will read your paper for content and style.  However, even though your classmates will be helping to revise and edit, be sure to accomplish what you believe an honest effort of writing and proof reading beforehand.  This will eliminate careless errors of spelling, typos, and grammar.  In this way we will not waste class time collecting these nuts and bolts scattered around our workshop floor.


     
A
s teachers you can determine which of these collaborative sheets would work with a particular essay or assignment or you could pick and choose items to develop your own worksheet.
Have space on the sheets for the name of writer, group members, draft topic, and date. and a place for the writer to ask for certain help while peers are reading or listening to a draft.    

Worksheet 1
1.  What issue or point or idea does the draft start out with? What point or idea or issue does the draft end on? More than one topic will create problems with unity in a paper.  Just as disconnected comments about the same issue will create problems of reader comprehension.
2.  Therefore do sentences/paragraphs logically flow from one to another (cohesion).  Star (**) at least ___ places in the essay where you see solid cohesive force or just the opposite, underline at least _____ places where the flow is broken.  Explain underlining in the margins.
3.  Give the writer your overall "feel" for the draft.  What strikes you as being particularly well done?  What do you feel needs further revision?
4.  Where in the draft could the writer add more descriptive, narrative, or statistical detail?
5.  Circle any possible errors in style.

Worksheet 2

Today you will read your rough draft aloud to members of your group.  When you have finished one draft, each member of the group should answer the following questions.
1. What dominant impression were you left with about the paper?
2. Where was there confusion as to what the writer was attempting?  Underline the places
3. What quotes or dialogue elements were good?  Star the elements
4.  What elements might be expanded?  Deleted?  Why?  How?
5.  What struck you as most human about the piece?  Least realistic?

Worksheet 3

Students should have enough copies of  draft for everyone in peer group.
1.  In the first portion of this peer collaborative, you will explain to the group what your paper concerns and the specific audience it is written for.  Tell them the topic and how you supported claims on the topic.  Do these without consulting your paper.
2.  Then give your group copies of the paper.  The group will give positive and negative criticisms on the differences from what you explained orally to what is written in your text.  Collaborators write comments in margins or on back of draft as to what agrees with original overview and what seems out of place with the exposition.
3.  Each collaborator should underline what they believe are supporting items to your claim.
4.  The readers should write comments on how the paper's style/tone matches the topic and audience.  Readers put checks over words and phrases which seem less than audience acceptable.

Worksheet 4

The task is to work with style/diction and issue/discussion elements of a partner's draft.  
    1. Find the longest paragraph.  Circle or list all the paragraph's subjects.
2.  Return list to writer so that the writer can revise the paragraph so that the subjects relate to one basic subject, topic, idea/theme, or person.
3.  Upon completion return to reader to find another paragraph for any examples of old information in the subject and new information in the predicate.  Return so the writer might continue the paragraph with all sentences written in such a style.
4.  Upon completion have the reader check off any sentence with three prepositional phrases.  Return to writer to reduce the number of prepositional phrases to two in each sentence.
5.  Upon completion have the reader see where two or three sentences could be combined into one for clearer meaning.  Return to writer to reduce the number of sentences.
 
Worksheet 5  (self-evaluation)

1.  What is the hook or unusual element that will catch the reader's interest to keep reading in the first few paragraphs?
2.  Why did you write the introduction this way, what were you trying to accomplish?  What is another possible approach?
3.  Which sentence(s) is/are your scene setter giving reader the necessary background to get the reader up to speed?
4.  What organizational pattern are you using?  (Hints: general to specific, specific to general, most important to least, chronological, etc.
5.  What frustrations and difficulties did you have with this assignment?

Worksheet 6

The group should respond to questions one and two after reading/hearing introductory material.
1. What does the introduction indicate about the piece?  What "direction" is the piece taking?
2. What do you believe the reader will gain or learn from the piece?
3. The group should read/listen to the rest of the piece and then respond to questions three and four.
4. Is the writing something that has given you new insight into the topic? Why?Why not?
5. What additional information would you like to give more insight into the topic?


Worksheet 7

1. Read the introduction and write in one sentence what you are reading about.
2. Underline which sentence(s) gave this information.
3. What is the most interesting elements of the essay?
4. On the back of the essay, describe the material paragraph by paragraph--explain what the paragraph does and what it says.  Don't be lengthy.  A paragraph: explains, illustrates, quotes, describes, gives facts, supports, concludes; a paragraph says: more people are having problems now than before, Brown thinks the problem with go away this year, solutions are yet to be found.
5. Identify areas where there are unsupported claims/ topic and comments/ editorializing
6. Identify wordiness, too much detail.
7. Put a star beside any area you got bored or had trouble understanding.
8. Does the piece fulfill its original promise?  What was it?  How does it?
9. In the revision list the three most important items for the writer to consider.

Worksheet 8

    1.  What will have immediate impact for those who read this essay?
    2.  What is the message of the piece?
    3.  What images or passages may stick out in the reader's mind?  Why?
    4.  What are a few things the reader must absolutely have to know to understand piece?
    5.  Why will the readers care?
    6.  When does the essay "begin"?
6. When does it "end"?

Worksheet 9

    1.  From the opening how long do you think this paper should be?
    2.  From the opening what is the tone of the piece?
    3.  From the opening what authority does the writer have over the subject?
    4.  From the opening what organizational pattern would you expect to be used?
    5.  From the opening what are you to learn from the paper?
 
A SUCCESSFUL WRITING SEQUENCE
by Bill Holbrook
    
     T
o help with a practical writing workshop that could be used immediately in a particular grade at several ability levels, I present a program that could be adapted to your personal teaching style and your students abilities. As with most writing programs though presented in a seemingly logical sequence, elements can be chosen at the discretion of a particular instructor.
 
      During the first sequence students accomplish word choice exercises.   It is important to appreciate that writing is just that--making choices.  As we write we limit the number of choices as we select one word and then another.  You may work on some of  the exercises which choose descriptive words or more lengthy word phrases in their exercises.  Your exercises should generate words that are familiar and certainly part of your everyday vocabulary.  While other elements of the exercises, particularly when you work with your classmates, may--later on in your writing--help you choose words that you recognized in the past, but did not use when writing a paper.
     In the first exercise you will focus on words which promote a specific meaning.  In your own writing, if you have ever really thought about which words to choose, you might have wondered how words can mean different things to different people.  Sometimes your teacher might have said, "Those words on your paper don't mean what you really want to say!"  And you were pretty sure they did.  These exercises are trying to promote your thinking up better words to use so that you will better understand how to say  exactly what you mean.  Also these exercises may demonstrate why and how someone else considers a different word choice when writing about the same idea and what each different word choice tells or shows a reader about each of your individual outlooks.  Then again, maybe you are a person who just writes what  ever comes into your head or, for that matter, from out of your pen or pencil !  Hey, why worry ?     
                                                    
      However, as you write, there are going to be "categories of words" somewhere in your mind that you choose from.  Do you consider, many times unconsciously, what might be accomplished in your writing if you do choose one word or group of words instead of another word or group of words ? Without answering the question, let's start the exercise

      TAKE A LINED SHEET OF PAPER AND FOLD IT THE LONG WAY.  LABEL THE TOP OF THE COLUMNS--two columns on each side--"SIGHT WORDS", "SOUND WORDS"--turn your paper over--LABEL THE COLUMNS: "SMELL/TASTE WORDS" and "TOUCH WORDS."
 
     Now, think about all of the physical "stuff" that surrounds your senses.  Think about what particular words could be used to describe this "stuff" in order that someone reading your paper could be persuaded that this is the way  the scene looks, smells, sounds, tastes, and feels.  Think about picking specific, very "concrete" words to describe whatever part of the scene which interests you.  This means that words which "come from the heart" are less likely to persuade a reader as words that come as close as possible to describing exactly what it is that is "there" to the senses !

     As examples, under the heading of SIGHT WORDS, choices (mostly adjectives) could include particular colors or geometric shapes such as "ochre" (a brownish-yellow) or "square" and "octagonal," but NOT words such as "gross"  or  "ugly."  Under SOUND WORDS, choices (mostly verbs) could include words that almost make the sound or noise when they are spoken that is the same as what you are describing such as "knock" or "murmur," but NOT words such as "sorrowful" or "beautiful."  

     Under SMELL/TASTE WORDS, choices (mostly adjectives) could include words that describe specific kinds of tastes or smells such as "peppery" or "minty," but NOT words such as "awful" or "evil."  And finally  under SIGHT WORDS, choices (mostly adjectives) could include words that describe a specific sensation to your hand, finger, or face when they are placed on something such as "soft" or "hairy,"  but NOT words such as "disgusting" or "unbearable."  Again remember that you are interested in writing down words that will specifically describe various elements of your environment.  
     As you choose words, you might think of one particular scene or place.   Or you can picture in your mind as many different places as you have numbers of words.  That is all up to you. Go ahead on your own and write down five or more words in each column.

     After you write those words in each column, WORK WITH TWO OR THREE OF YOUR CLASSMATES TO EXPAND YOUR LISTS so that you all have twenty or more words in each column.
 
    WEAK VERB LIST
    Group exercise/icebreaker (You can learn student names while asking for examples)

        Students find colorful, more exacting and situation specific verbs for each of the common, weaker verbs.  Do not allow use of thesaurus.  Have students use words from recognized and active vocabularies.  Try to get a total of ten alternatives for each verb by the end of exercise.  First students work in groups, then groups share words--giving situation examples, then teacher gives situation possibilities while students respond with possibilities.

    LIST: SEND, TRY, SEE & LOOK, RUN, MOVE, WALK, STOP, BEGIN & START, EAT, TAKE, HOLD, HAVE, DO, MAKE, TEACH, SHOW, GO, COME, TALK & SAY & TELL, KNOW, PUT & SET, GET, WRITE, CHANGE, PAY, WANT, FIND, TRY
     INVENTION  TECHNIQUES:  METAPHORS  AND  SIMILES

    One way to make writing more vivid and clear for the reader is to use comparisons. There are some critics who believe the only way to make our meaning with words is by comparisons. We say that one thing is like another or we suggests similarities between two unlike items so that a reader can better judge what we are trying to say and mean. Because early writers developed methods of comparisons, the classic rhetorics explained and named many techniques. Thus most unusual stylistic comparisons have Greek and Latin names whereby we can make comparisons. The most common are metonymy and synecdoche.

    METAPHOR
   When there is an implied comparison without the use of the words “like” or “as” usually we have a metaphor.
Look at these examples. “The singing of the chorus became a volcanic eruption of sound.” or “The groundskeeper worked the dirt in the home plate area until it was a perfect carpet of light brown clay.” or “The ’75 Dodge Charger engine was unlike anything the boy had ever heard—a low, powerful gurgling and purring vibrating between the houses as it crawled down the alley.”

    SIMILE
   When the comparison is made by using “like” or “as” within the phrase, then we call the comparison a simile.
Look at these examples: “The cannon sat like tigers on their haunches, their noses pointed upward into the skies.” or “He ran like he had stones in his underwear.”

    The key to picking good comparisons is their freshness and variety from the norm. We all know the many clichés: “fresh as paint,” “slow as molasses,” “old as the hills.” And even some newer ones that are used all the time soon become clichés. So the idea is to be clever and show a new angle to the general and natural.

   FOR PRACTICE—WRITE DOWN SEVERAL OF YOUR OWN COMPARISONS.

1. How a person is like a vehicle. (Don’s write, “A person is like a car because...”



2. How a temper tantrum is like some act of nature.


3. How a person is like some inanimate object.


NOW WRITE COMPARISONS DESCRIBING EACH OF THE FOLLOWING SITUATIONS

1. A child running


2. A disappointing athletic game


3. An angry teacher or parent


4. An empty room

    

OBSERVATION OF SURROUNDINGS

     The next exercise is to observe your immediate surroundings--some of  the "stuff" that makes up your world--and write down descriptive words and phrases which best show a reader what that environment looks like.  Some writing teachers believe that all writing is persuasion.  They explain that when we describe something we are trying to persuade a reader that the scene appears as we describe or explain it.  So you are being asked to write down descriptive words and phrases that best show what the environment around you looks, smells, taste, feels, and sounds like.  As an extension of this exercise, you will later write several descriptive paragraphs of some place that you are familiar with.

    To get started we'll either go outside or move around the room with a notebook or lined paper. When you complete your rough drafts in your notebook, rewrite the final exercises on this handout.


1. TURN OVER SOMETHING ON THE GROUND OR FLOOR AND LOOK UNDERNEATH.
       Find ten words which you might use to describe the object(s) or situation for someone else.  Yes, you may use some of the words that would help define the actual object in the category of animal, mineral, or vegetable--such as "the rock!"


2.  NOW STOP !  LISTEN AND DESCRIBE A SOUND.  It can be some sound that may have been quite common to your experiences, but which you have never really listened to so as to single out its uniqueness.  Yes, you may  use figurative language--metaphors and similes--if they will help.



3.  NEXT, TRY TO FIND SOMETHING THAT YOU HAVE NEVER TOUCHED BEFORE.  Touch it, identify it, and describe it as accurately as you can so that someone else could see it clearly just by reading your description.  (Again, use about ten words or more.)



4.  TAKE THE DESCRIPTIVE PHRASES AND WORDS FROM ONE OF THE ABOVE EXERCISES AND WRITE A BETTER DESCRIPTION IN ONE OR MORE COMPLETE SENTENCES.



5.  THE FINAL TEST OF YOUR SKILLS:  Everyone talks about seeing road kill on the county roads of Indiana.  Try describing your most recent experience of observing road kill.  Try to use only concrete words or words whose accuracy would persuade a reader that this is how it looked!
 DESCRIPTIVE WRITING

 I
n another of the prose exercises, you are asked to write several paragraph descriptions of a place. Your first paragraph will be rewritten as many times as you believe that you personally are capable.  USE ALL THE SUGGESTED WAYS TO REVISE YOUR PARAGRAPH.  Don't get upset if, at times, the assignment is frustrating.   Keep pressing on !

     SOME IDEAS:  Write so that you can persuade others into seeing the subject as you believe that it actually is.  Try using sentences with strong verbs and very specific nouns.  Limit your pronouns.  Choose a topic that you are very familiar with, but which would create an interesting photograph if you had a 35mm camera or  a unique painting if you were an artist with paints and a canvas.  Think about a segment or elements of the scene that the photographer or artist would choose because of its interest.  First, from what you REMEMBER of the scene, LIST down on a lined sheet of paper ANYTHING that comes to mind as you mentally "picture"
and then write a VERBAL photograph of the place.

     List descriptive details or  actual objects in quick succession--one after the other--on your paper.  Don't stop to think--even though you may eventually  use only a few of the details when you write your paragraph, just write everything down.  One detail might lead to another better
one.  The constant flow might bring excellent results later.  

     The details can be single words--adjectives, nouns, verbs--or the details can be phrases--groups of words--or clauses or sentences so that when you have finished with your list of details you will have words that will help form shapes, sizes, sounds, and sights in your description.  You might feel more comfortable beginning by writing sentences, but you decide.  Let the pen rule the mind.  Writing CAN become much more physical and less mental, WHEN you just "go with the flow."

     NEXT, work on writing the details into a paragraph if you have not already begun.  You may want to arrange the elements that are in your scene in the same sequence that you remember them.  Or you may show the reader how the objects and what surround the objects relate spatially.  Or you might start with the most important element in the scene and go from that point.

     Observe the scene through your physical senses and NOT through your "heart and mind."  In this way the reader might see the same picture no matter what pervious ideas she or he might have had about a similar place.  Telling the reader something in writing is much easier than showing the reader.  

     FOR EXAMPLE: It is easy, when describing roadkill, to say,  "Oh wow, the dead skunk was gross !"   BUT, the reader might see the animal better if you said, " The east bound side of 400 west was pocked by the black-white corpse of the skunk.  The animal's pussed orb of one eye dangled from the socket on a violet spaghetti-like nerve.  Ochre and red puddles of ooze spilled from the squashed chest cavity dotting the road with graffiti-shaped blotches of blood."

 
    A QUICK STARTER EXAMPLE :
                
TOPIC --  PLACE  --  
A WOODED AREA NEAR AN OLD BATTLEFIELD

     LIST OF DETAILS

∑ Pampas grass clumps
∑ Swamp area
∑  Mud   
∑ Footprints
∑ Yells,  "Hello !"      
∑ Maple trees    
∑ Green  algae    
∑ Saplings of pine
∑ Sharp, grooved ledge rock
∑ October - Saturday afternoon
∑ Sunlight sprinkled through the branches

 


PARAGRAPH WRITING
Continued

    Next:  Combine the details and other words that you have chosen into sentences.  This will mean subjects and verbs and complete thoughts.  But don't stifle your creativity by worrying--just do it !  

      EXAMPLE SENTENCE:  The sharp, rock ledge cliffs enclosed the swamp.
         Notice the underlined words were from the word list of specific details from the first page.

       REMEMBER TO COMBINE DETAILS TO SHOW THE READER what is in the verbal photograph that can be smelled and tasted and touched and heard ! Don't tell how desolate and forsaken or magnificent the place is because then the reader will have to use his own ideas and imagination to see and feel and smell and taste and touch the "stuff" that is there !

1. Now, after finishing your first draft of the descriptive paragraph, GO BACK AND REMOVE ALL OF THE PRONOUNS to make a more precise and interesting description.   Phrases such as IT SEEMS and THERE ARE can over-run a short paragraph description if you are not careful. Pronouns have NO sensory impact. Be aware. This is tough.  Only the very strong can remove such elements without groaning !


      2.  Next, see if you can MAKE YOUR VERBS STRONGER AND MORE ACCURATE.  Weak, colorless verbs (linking verbs are a good example) tend to make writing dull and lifeless.  REPLACE  THOSE WORN OUT VERBS WITH MORE PRECISE VERBS.  Also see if putting them in the present tense helps the overall clearness of the paragraph.

      3. ELIMINATE THE TELLING:  SHOW  the reader the scene without imposing your personal thoughts.  Yup, maybe you will have to rewrite the paragraph in the third person, taking out  "I's."

     4.  ELIMINATE THE PASSAGE OF TIME:  Something extra hard to think about AND accomplish. REWRITE THE PARAGRAPH WITHOUT SHOWING SEQUENCE.  In other words, can the whole scene be rewritten only having one infinitesimal moment pass ?   That IS what the artist and the photographer have done in their paintings and photographs.  Can you "draw" a verbal  photograph with sounds, sights, smells, and sensations of touch ?   Be careful in writing your paragraphs that you DON'T TELL A STORY.    However, you can establish time such as the season of the year or the time of day.

     5.  CHANGE YOUR VANTAGE POINT:  By viewing the scene from another perspective, does it limit the number of objects and surrounding detail.  Get up closer and describe less in more detail. Limit your focus to a more narrow and smaller area.  Maybe you can describe fewer things more accurately    
 
    6.  IF YOU HAVE THE TIME AND THE WILL:   Write TWO paragraphs changing the tone of each  paragraph by changing or altering certain word choices.   The reader of one or the other paragraph should know what attitude you have toward the scene in each paragraph.  

     7.  ESTABLISH POINT OF VIEW:  Look at the scene from two different people's point of view. A policeman's surveying of an accident scene would be different from an occupant of one of the crash vehicles being taken away in an ambulance.

8. WRITE THE PARAGRAPH FOR A SPECIFIC AUDIENCE:  Certainly grandpa sees the old farm  and the objects and surroundings with different eyes and feelings.  Would your paragraph description of the barns and fields be written differently for him than for one of your classmates?
    EXERCISES  IN  PROSE:   
TONE
     
 Tone can be described as the authors attitude toward his subject or the author's "tone of voice."  Tone depends upon the combination of the way the words are put together and the way the author utters them in reading them aloud or intends them to be read by the reader.  Word choice or diction choice and selection or omission of details play and important role in developing the tone of a piece of writing.  For instance, the author's attitude toward an overdressed women can be revealed as slightly amused, disgusted, or shocked by which elements of her dress and physical makeup the author chooses to mention just as well as the words he finds to describe those details.  A good author must adopt an attitude towards his character and his readers.  The reader must pay attention to tone in writing or he will seriously misunderstand what the writer is saying.  A good author considers carefully every sentence he writes for its contribution to the total effect of the paragraph.  The reader should approach the story with the same seriousness and thoroughness.  In most of our writing a good part of what we are trying to communicate is attitude itself.  Tone indeed represents a final kind of integration of all elements that go into a good piece of writing.  Writing that is toneless or unintentionally confused as to the tone usually is weak or hard to understand.
     Here are two example paragraphs of the same scene with differing tone.  Try to think of the various differences and take mental note of them.
    The prairie schooners, rigged with canvas tops which gleamed whitely in the shimmering light, first became visible as tiny specks against the eastern sky.  One might almost imagine them to be seagulls perched far, far away on a endless green grass sea.  The white dots would grow.  They came drifting across the prairie like the day.  After long waiting, they would gradually float out of the haze, distinct and clear.  Then, as they grew near, they proved wagons with horses hitched ahead, a whole herd of cattle following behind,  with folks and their possessions inside.  The caravan crawled slowly through the settlement and came to anchor in front of the many sod houses.
           The wagons'  graying covers would flap endlessly in the dull morning wind.  The first wagons were seen as flecks of dust or flies--almost like parasites seeking a host.  Slowly the specks grew.  They came steadily across the parched plains.  Nothing could stop the movement.  As the day plodded on, they gradually crept out of the horizon--black forms against a gray sky.  Then drawing near--they were the wagons hauled by bony nags with coarse Easterners and all their scant belongings stuffed inside.  The endless line would tramp into Morganville to collapse in nasty seething groups before us.
 

    EXERCISES IN PROSE:  
POINT OF VIEW

       Point of view can be defined as the author's vantage point which causes the particular attitude toward his subject that we discussed when doing the tone exercise.  But be careful the author can deceive you in his story-telling.

∑ Point of view  is the position from which something is observed, a matter considered, or a story told. Together with tone,  point of view constitutes the main techniques of a writer.

∑ In one sense the term "point of view" is a catch-all for various techniques used in writing:  

∑ In descriptive writing, a writer chooses a specific "point of view"--a hill top, a sand dune--and tells or preferably shows what he sees from that position.  

∑  Subject matter may be considered from either an objective or subjective point of view.  If the writer  chooses the objective point of view, the writer reports those things which can be observed; if the writer chooses the subjective, he gets into the thoughts and feelings of characters involved or gets into his own thoughts and feelings.   3. An author may tell the story from any one of several points of view; that is, the person from whose eyes and mind the reader "sees" the incident .   4. One of the tricks for a reader is to consider the difference between the implied author and the real author.  Most of the time the reader never makes contact with the "real."
∑
    ~  The point of view may be in the first person (I, we, us, me, our).  This kind of point of view is most common in writing a personal narrative or modern day story or novel.
    ~  The view point may be in  third person (he, she, it, they, him, them).  Third person  divided:

    +  Third person limited: The writer focuses on one character and sticks to that     particular character's view point and limited vision of the subject.  The writer allows the reader to only view the actions which this character observes unless someone else tells this  character what happened in his "mental" or physical absence, if you will.

    +  Third person omniscient:  If the author chooses this point of view, he gives himself license to make judgments on the thoughts and feelings of all the characters whether they are in the same place at the same time or not.  The author may even tell us what she intends the story or incident to cover and the moral or theme of the piece. This  last type of point of  view was popular in 19th century literature (Uncle Tom's  Cabin,   Silas Marner), but is not used as much by contemporary authors.  Though when I took a modern short story class at BSU some of the seniors and juniors who wrote stories did so in the third person omniscient point of view which made the stories very interesting.
 
EXAMPLES:
  The buzzer sounded the two-minute signal.  In the middle of the classroom, Mary Landis stood up, a monitor badge pinned to her belt.  She wore a lavender sweater with the sleeves pushed up to expose her forearms, a delicately cheap effect.  Wild stories were told about her; perhaps it was merely his knowledge of these that put the hardness in her face. Her eyes in their shape seemed braced for squinting and their green was frosted.  Her freckles had faded.  William thought that she laughed less this year; now that she was in the secretarial course and he in college prep, he saw her in only one class a day, this one, English.  She stood a second, ellipsed at the thighs by Jack Stevens' shoulders, looking back at the room with a stiff glance, as if she had seen the faces too many times before.  Her habit of perfect posture emphasized the angularity she had grown into; there was a nervous edge, a boxiness in her bones, that must have been waiting all along under the childish front.  Her eye sockets were deeply indented and straight; she had less hips than bosom, and thin, athletic legs.  Her pronged chest poised, she sauntered up the aisle and encountered a leg thrown in her path.  She stared down until it withdrew; she was used to such attentions.  As she went out the door, somebody she saw in the hall made her smile, a wide smile full of warmth and short white teeth, and loved scooped at his heart.  He would tell her. --  JOHN UPDIKE, "A Sense of Shelter"

                    Seated at the antiseptic, green metallic desk at the front of the room, John was still correcting tests when the two-minute buzzer sounded.  Startled, he glanced up from his stack of half-red-penciled papers only long enough to register a flash of lavender as the student monitor rose from her seat to collect the in-class essays.  A bit sardonically, John remarked to himself on the lack of necessity for student monitors; as if anyone doubted that the faceless, anonymous, sweatered masses would be ready to deposit their papers and flee when the final bell rang !  John's eyes stung as he read the increasingly indecipherable student hand writing, and he caught the scent, as he often did when fatigued, of pencil shavings.  When the bell rang, he scarcely noticed the "students" depart, leaving him behind to scribble a few final notes on the last of his stack of papers.  As his next class converged on the room, he rose, rubbed his eyes, and, as he began to write on the chalkboard, wondered if he wasn't becoming a bit more stooped as the weeks of the school year dragged on. -- EDWARD BOTTMAN, "A Diary of a Teacher"
 
    PERSON-ON-THE-STREET  
INTERVIEW  
     
 M
ost of us have had the unpleasant occasion to sit through a series of TV interviews in which a newscaster, on some busy city intersection, asks pedestrians what they think about some  current  topic  in the news.  This is the basic person-on-the-street treatment of the news.  Because some individuals do not know about the news story of the day, the answers are somewhat forced.  But you can do a better job.  

Either when we meet in class for our next session or take time now in class, you will need to write one opinion question relating to  current events on a social, moral or political question that your classmates can answer intelligently and with a little depth and should, according to you be addressed.  The question should allow the individual responding to give more than a short answer.  You would like a response that allows for an individual's honest opinion.  You might quickly try out your question on two or three other members to see how it is answered.  Your question can relate to business, media, government, law, education or it can be a broad-based general question on world problems.

     On your worksheets, you will see at the top there is a place to write down your question.  Also there are spaces for answers to other questions. You can find out something each of you have in common with the  current "partner" ( the idea  is for you to interview all your classmates before you finish.); you will find out something about the person's background, the person's interests, something about the person's plans, and what "roll" the student believes she/he fills at our school
     This is an attempt to have you learn information from others, to get to know those people who will be in this class  for the next semester, to take accurate notes, to see how well you can put quotes into a piece of writing,, and to synthesize material into a solid essay.
     An essay can let your audience know as quickly as possible what is the most important information.  Some writers might work their information into a summary lead--that is summarizing the key elements of the story in the first two paragraphs.  This means getting as many of the who, what, what happens because of the what, when, where, why, and how in those paragraphs.  But that is only one of many approaches.  And certainly not the most creative of openings for such a piece of writing.  
 
     If you  put your opinion into the copy, that is a kind of writing which  interprets, analyzes, or argues a pointer.  This is an assignment to see how well you can find information and then put that information into some logical order and synthesis so that a reader can know what those people, who you interviewed, actually said. You may decide some angle or approach.  You may write a more straight-forward reporting of information or you may write in a more personal format (careful of first person approaches).
 
      As you include names and quotes on what was said to your questions, you may consider these qualifiers:  each person's age or interests or year of graduation.  In a news story a person's address would be given, but you won't worry about that information.  If, in the rest of your interview with each person, some  background information relates to your question and subsequent answers, you might include that in your story, but otherwise such information might be unnecessary.  Let's say the person wants to become a communication's major, for instance; that might add to a story on a media question that you asked.  Whatever you do--be consistent.

Finally,  include in your story at least TEN people's names, who were  
interviewed, with at least five quotes from any who answered your  questions.
 

   


INTERVIEW WORKSHEET
You are going to interview all the students in the class.  

Find out the following:
∑ Each person's first  and last name,
∑ the person's future plans,
∑ something that the two of you have in common,
∑ background
∑ and their reaction to your issue that needs addressing..

   You will only have a few minutes to both answer and ask questions so talk and write fast !
First, get one question-not answered in one or two words that has them give an opinion about our world:
____________________________________________________________________________?

 Write the question on blank lines above.  

Fill in information from those interviewed below.

NAME                                                  FUTURE  PLANS


BACKGROUND  INFO                                     ITEM IN COMMON


ANSWER TO QUESTION



NAME                                                 FUTURE  PLANS


BACKGROUND INFO                                    ITEM IN COMMON


ANSWER TO QUESTION



NAME                                                 FUTURE PLANS


BACKGROUND INFO                ITEM IN COMMON


ANSWER TO QUESTION
 I-SEARCH WRITING ASSIGNMENT:   
THE INVESTIGATION
      For the next assignment, you are going to investigate some aspect of your community, or of your life in general.  This may require a bit of footwork,  a few phone calls, maybe writing a letter, maybe looking up some information over at Bracken Library.  You will decide on where and what you would like to go and do for the actual "digging" part of the assignment.  The idea is to try and get you to appreciate what it takes to get information from more people and sources other than one or two individual or sources.   You should go out and involve yourself in a personal investigation of an area that has interested, annoyed, fascinated, or dismayed you in the past. Most of the writing you have done so far involved stuff that you personally knew about or personally observed.   Now it is time to go out and find material that you didn't have information about and perhaps had no idea that certain sources with various kinds and types of information existed.  When you end up you may have information that would allow you to write a much longer, in-depth story suitable for publication.  You may have an investigative story that better explains an area of personal research--such as a future local or campus outlooks on future advances or declines in business or social affairs.  As opposed to the "term paper" with its static sources and pre-set topics, the I-search should involve live primary sources and be generated from within by a personal emotional or intellectual urge--a kind of mental nagging, if you will. Since this assignment requires collecting information outside of the classroom,  I am asking you to turn in several work sheets showing your initial information gathering.  There are worksheets for phone calls, interviews, researched materials, and the necessary info to produce surveys for a number of subjects.
    AREAS OF ATTACK
     Any area of personal interest that incorporates current affairs is good.  If you want a future career in communications, you might research the difficulties, rewards, controversies of some aspect of the field. Or you might like to know more of how a particular operation works at a more detailed level. Or you might want to better understand an aspect of how something in communications is accomplished or created by professionals--all of these would be personal discoveries and I-search investigations.  Journalism and English teachers sometimes only ask a student to make one interview and/or one detailed observation of a source or contact.  Even though your time is limited, I want you to get as much information as possible.  Therefore, you might interview folks who are close at hand--somewhere on campus or nearby or associations from home, but you are definitely not limited to these three.  A telephone call can get you in to many distant locations.  Maybe bringing something into a younger adult perspective is an "angle" for your story and would give you some ideas on the questions to ask when you begin your search.  Don't be afraid to go "to the top."  "Big"  people love to talk about themselves and what they do.  Just be polite and explain what you are doing and why you are asking the questions.  Specific areas you might want to investigate are: on-campus or local communications programs and teachers, how-to perspectives,  well-known personalities and their exploits/associates (several famous artists/cartoonists are nearby and a phone call might get an interview with Dave Letterman or Jim Davis (Garfield creator).  Also radio and TV, newspapers, computers, and any thing that could interest you and other young adults would be excellent areas to cover in your investigation of the information highways. I only give the communication idea as one angle. There are hundreds of other perspectives including businesses, government agencies, social services, scientific procedures, or any area you might think there is a story that others would be as intrigued reading about as you are investigating the area.
     This assignment can be as difficult or interesting as the individual writer wishes it to be.  High school should be a place where we expand our knowledge whether we are a freshman or whether we are a principal.  Try to really push the limits and exercise the mind on this.  You will be required to turn in four of the worksheets.  Certainly completing seven or eight would be ideal.  We will also try to work on a business letter of request in class to gain information from off-campus sources.  
    ITEM CHECKLIST
     [    ]  -  in-person interview  -  (Name, title, date, time)________________________________
     [    ]  -  in-person interview  -  (Name, title, date, time)________________________________
     [    ]  -  telephone interview  -  (Name, title, date, time) ______________________________
     [    ]  -  telephone interview  -  (Name, title, date, time) _______________________________
     [    ]  -  business letter of inquiry  (for class use only) (Name, title) _____________________
     [    ]  -  researched material (title, date, location)  ___________________________________
     [    ]  -  survey of at least twenty-five individuals (method) ____________________________
    Choose at least FOUR of the above.  You may do two or more telephone or in-person interviews.
 
I - SEARCH  -  WORKSHEET    RESEARCH
     During the investigation you might do some research on items that have already been accomplished by other writers, officials, and interested persons concerning your area of research/investigation.  You may get this information from television, radio, newspapers, magazines, government pamphlets, public relations brochures, directives, and library sources.  You don't have to use worksheet unless it is helpful, but researchers should understand the need.

YOUR NAME  _________________________________SECTION /CLASS   ______________
DATE AND TIME OF RESEARCH  ______________PLACE  _________________________
TITLE OF RESEARCH AND DATE OF MATERIAL _________________________________
REASON FOR RESEARCHING THIS PARTICULAR MATERIAL ____________________
______________________________________________________________

SUMMARY OF INFORMATION DISCOVERED  be specific and candid.  Underline what you believe to be the most important information.  When you write your story you might analyze why it is important, but be very careful.
___________________________________________________________________________________

I - SEARCH  -  WORKSHEET  IN-PERSON INTERVIEW

     Use this worksheet when you have an in-person interview.  You can do two if you wish with two different individuals.  Fill out the worksheet completely for full credit.  Interview people who are "authorities"  in their particular area.
YOUR NAME  ________________________________________ SECTION /CLASS _____________
DATE OF INTERVIEW  _________________________   TIME OF INTERVIEW  ________________
NAME/POSITION OF INTERVIEWEE __________________________________________________
REASON FOR INTERVIEWING THIS PARTICULAR PERSON  ______________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________

BELOW write down a brief introductory statement that you could use at the beginning of your interview so the person will understand what and why you are doing it.
___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________
On separate sheet of paper or  on back of  worksheet write down the questions asked.

     In the space below, give a summary of the interview.  Be specific and candid.  When you finish with your two or more worksheets, you can simply combine the information by cutting up the sheets and putting them into an order showing the best priority  for your essay.   Also underline what is most important as you write.  When you write, you might analyze why some information is important.
___________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

I - SEARCH  -  WORKSHEET    TELEPHONE INTERVIEW
     Use this worksheet when you have a telephone interview.  You can do two if you wish with two different individuals.  Fill out the worksheet completely for full credit.   Telephone people who are "authorities"  in their particular area.
YOUR NAME  __________________________________________ SECTION /CLASS ___________
DATE OF INTERVIEW  ______________________ TIME OF INTERVIEW  _____________________
NAME/POSITION OF INTERVIEWEE __________________________________________________
REASON FOR INTERVIEWING THIS PARTICULAR PERSON  _____________________________
BELOW write down a brief introductory statement that you could use at the beginning of your interview so the person will understand what and why you are doing it.
___________________________________________________________________________________

ON A SEPARATE SHEET OR ON THE BACK WRITE DOWN THE QUESTIONS ASKED

     In the space below, give a summary of the interview.  Be specific and candid.  When you finish with your two or more worksheets, you can simply combine the information by cutting up the sheets and putting them into an order showing the best priority  for your essay.   Also underline what is most important as you write.  When you write your essay, you might analyze why some information is important.
_____________________________________________________________________________

I - SEARCH  -  WORKSHEET    
THE SURVEY
     
 It is a challenge to produce a survey that will indicate not only information from the group that you have surveyed, but also finding whether there are tendencies that carryover into sub-categories of that group according to certain demographics such as age, sex, income, education, and/or race.

     These sub-groups, again, are known as demographics of the population or the sampling of a smaller number of subjects.

     Before explaining how to accomplish a survey, two items about  RANDOM SAMPLING.  One point seems to be obvious: the larger the number in your sampling, the more accurately your survey reflects the views of the entire population.  Second, if you contact 25 students at various locations on campus, your attempts might appear to be "completely random."  But  it would not satisfy "scientific randomness."  To come close to this latter  method--without going into detail of statistics and random number tables--if you choose to survey students whose name came up  on the 25th line of each page of the B-Book, your chances of a more accurate demographic representation are good.

     Some of you will have investigative topics on communication techniques in education, politics,, values.  Let's assume that you want to write an essay about teaching elementary kids communications skills. You interviewed several teachers/professors.  Now you want to survey some upper classmen who are going into teaching. Here are some ideas to consider when constructing your survey:  1. A long survey will confuse the subject;  2. Written fill-ins are hard for you to tabulate and are time-consuming to explain; therefore, try to write questions with multiple choice answers and add a blank for fill-ins;  3. Before giving your survey, create a "tally sheet" to mark all answers from all people surveyed.

     THE TALLY SHEET:  Develop a large form sheet for your answers which will allow for some demographic interpretation.  It is helpful if you sequence the questions, prioritizing them from major categories to minor ones by beginning with answers for sex, age, college class/major.  Then you can go into your more specific questioning.  The tally sheet will take more time early on, but once it is finalized, you can interpret tendencies such as how English teaching majors view job opportunities versus elementary majors with breakdowns by age and sex.

     Some items about specific questions:  Watch  that the sequence of questions does not confuse the respondent.  Because question #2 follows question #1, will the respondent think, when answering, there is a definite link between the two questions?  If there is none, then the questions either need rearranging or rewording.  Get rid of hard to understand questions by running a quick informal test of your survey among classmates.  

     Remember telephone surveys are the quickest, you sit in one place and access many people.  But your questions must be clear and simple.  Therefore, in any survey, you will need a very accurate introduction for your survey that, when read in-person or over the phone,  will focus your respondent immediately to the task and purpose at hand.
 
     SAMPLE QUESTIONS: (AFTER ESTABLISHING RESPONDERS ARE FUTURE TEACHERS)
        #1.  Are you a:           [  ] senior,         [  ]  junior,           [  ] sophomore

    #2.  Are you:    [  ]  male or          [  ]  female

    #3. Check which of the communications courses you have taken:           [  ] Journalism 210  
          [  ] Speech210    [  ] T-Comm 225    [  ] Psychology 100     [  ] Art 120

    #4.  Do you  feel that you have been given the necessary communication skills to teach students?
                      In your major?      [  ]  yes         [  ]  no
                      In your minor?     [   ] yes         [  ] no       Your minor is   _______________?

    #5.  Do you feel that the students you will be teaching will have the necessary communications for their age level when they complete your class in elementary school?    [  ]   yes                    [  ]     no    

    #6.  In what grade level do you plan to teach?
    [  ] Kindergarten    [  ]  First       [  ] Second,        [  ] Third      [  ] Fourth       [  ] Fifth      [  ]  Sixth

     If you can create a tally sheet with the major demographic elements at the top and then prioritize the remaining demographic elements, you can accomplish a survey that will give you a deal of information which might help formulate new ways of looking at a topic or situation.  This can all be done without scan sheets and a computer.

     For instance, if you were in the media and you were working out advertising strategies for
a radio station, such a tally of information could be very helpful in selling ad time to various types of businesses.

     Do not dismiss this technique.  Complicated computer programs can do no less than such a summary and breakdown.  Remember the ideas and techniques when you work on certain research areas in your area of interest


I - SEARCH  -  WORKSHEET    THE TALLY SHEET

FOR SURVEYING UPPERCLASSMEN IN TEACHING CAREER TRACK

     SOPHOMORE            JUNIOR             SENIOR

MALE             FEMALE                    MALE            FEMALE               MALE                FEMALE


J210  SP T-C PS  ART     EACH ONE OF THE CATEGORIES WOULD BE REPEATED UNDER MALE, FEMALE

UNDER  EACH COMMUNICATION COURSE

           JOUR         SPEECH          T-COM          PSYCH              ART             
      YES  NO       YES  NO        YES   NO         YES  NO        YES   NO

Yes No Yes  No   YesNoYes No  YesNo Yes No  YesNo Yes No  Yes No Yes No


UNDER EACH "YES"  AND  "NO" FROM QUESTION FOUR NEW "YES" " NO"  CATEGORIES ARE FORMED  AND SO ON....         
something to help with your own writing




    STYLE  OPTIONS    
TOPIC   STRINGS

    From Joseph Williams we have the idea of topic strings when writing paragraphs.  A topic string is nothing more than the sequence of topics in a unified chunk of writing -- a paragraph for example.  When a Topic String consistently establishes a point of view through a series of sentences, then the reader can move through a chunk of writing in a way that seems logical, consistent, predictable, coherent.  When the Topic String consists of a series of topics that seem not to connect with one another, the Topic String not only fails to help the reader through the discourse, it hinders the reader.
    You may have heard advice that you should "vary the way you begin your sentences."  According to Williams, "Bad  advice!"  In the clearest most cohesive (tight, concise) writing, sequences of sentences regularly begin with the same or closely related subjects/topics.  In fact, that predictable sequence of subjects/topics is what makes the prose/writing clear and cohesive.
   
     Design closely connected series of sentences so that their subjects/topics constitute a consistent Topic String.

     They need not be identical topics/subjects.  But it you lay them out schematically, you should be able to generalize about what holds them together.  

    They should constitute coherent (understandable) sets of topics.  That is what counts as a useful Topic String.
        In general, your sentence sequence should move from OLDER, expected, better-known, The more predictable information to NEWER, less-known, less predictable information.  A sequence should begin with information that the reader already knows or could predict.

         Within sentences and clauses, the OLD/NEW  rule takes the form of  a topic/stress idea:  Place older, repeated , expected information in the Topic position (subject of the sentence); place newer, more important information in the STRESS position (predicate of the sentence).

    Whenever possible, the key words that appear in the Topic positions in a sequence of sentences should form these Topic Strings.  That is, those key words in the Topic positions should be sufficiently related to one another that they connect each sentence to the others in the sequence.    
    Topic Strings occur in two major patterns: either focused on one central idea or chaining a series of ideas.

     STYLE  OPTIONS
      ISSUE AND DISCUSSION
     From Joseph Williams we learn that the issue of your document is its introduction, its opening, its overture.  It is what your reader will take to be the segment that conceptually sets up the rest of your paper.  By defining issue in this way,  we are asking you to identify a chunk of discourse or chunk of writing that exists as a psychological unit.  It is a unit of writing much like the Topic position in a sentence.  The Topic position is also a unit that we define psychologically.  The Topic is what the reader locates early on in a sentence-- one of the first noun phrases--as its psychological subject.  The Topic is the unit that the rest of a sentence will comment on.  So that the writer and reader have the task of acknowledging what the topic and the comment of each sentence are.

     The same thing is true of issues.  The issue position sets up the psychological subjects for your essay (or ANY coherent chunk of writing within that essay).  You use the issue to put on stage -- up front --  those words that introduce concepts that you want to weave through the rest of your writing.  Or you want to put on stage those concepts that will lead the reader to other, more important concepts in the essay.

     In a loose sense, we could as easily call Issue introduction.  The problem with introduction is that it sounds as though it applies to the beginning of only a book or essay. However, you can use issues in paragraphs, too.  And within whole essays, you create unified chunks of discourse longer than a paragraph but shorter than the whole essay -- sections.  Those longer sections must also have issues that introduce what follows them.

     The issue of a piece of writing plays so crucial a role in how we understand writing that a reader will take the opening part of a chunk of writing as the Issue, regardless of whether the writer intended to create that chunk as an Issue or not.

     So issues function everywhere:  there are issues to books and essays, usually called "introductions."  There are issues to paragraphs,  often called "topic sentences."  But there are also issues to groups of paragraphs that comprise a coherent section of discourse (writing).
    Of the two discourse positions, issue and discussion, you should pay special attention to issue.  The issue position is where your reader generates the expectations that she needs to make your text coherent. The issue sets up those psychological subjects -- topics -- that will focus the reader's understanding of your writing. It establishes what the rest of the unit will develop.
    Think of the issue of a unit as announcing what the reader needs to know in order to have good expectations of what follows. In particular, an issue should make three kinds of announcements: (1) central characters, (2) key concepts, (3) what's at stake for the reader in finishing the reading of your writing.
The Structure of Units
 of Discourse

     Whenever possible, your paragraphs (or groups of paragraphs, sections, papers, chapters) should fall into two well-defined parts:

1.   An opening section called the ISSUE, that announces the characters, key concepts, and what's at stake in the unit it begins.

2.   A second segment, called the DISCUSSION, that explains, describes, illustrates, contradicts, or otherwise develops the matters announced in the issue.
 
     STYLE OPTIONS     
NOMINALIZATIONS
    The word nominalization represents what it is.  When you turn a verb or an adjective into a noun, you nominalize, creating a nominalization.  For example, when you nominalize "nominalize," you create the nominalization, "nominalization."
    You must make a determination what is more effective  in writing for the news reader;  or, better yet, you must determine which effects the reader more.   Now you can see how easy it is to slip.
 
    VERBS:    NOMINALIZATION        ADJECTIVES:    NOMINALIZATION

INVESTIGATE    INVESTIGATION            PRECISE        PRECISION

DISCOVER    DISCOVERY            HESITANT          HESITANCY

PERFORM    PERFORMANCE            REASONABLE    REASONABLENESS

IMPAIR        IMPAIRMENT            CREATIVE         CREATIVITY

RESPOND    RESPONSE            TENACIOUS        TENACITY

DENY        DENIAL            APPLICABLE        APPLICABILITY

        All verbs turn into nouns (call gerunds or verbals) when you add -ING.

    She REPORTED the event        ->    Her reporting of the event...

    We STUDIED the matter        ->    Our studying the matter...

    You CHANGED your approach    ->      You're changing your approach....

    These are the types of style exercises that you might want to figure out some word games for the students to manipulate during laboratory time.  Students must see the ways our language can be changed and how directing the action through verbs is key for writing clarity and reader understanding.



Ideas for students getting started

   Tell about the quality of light coming in through your window. Jump in and write. Don’t worry if it is night and your curtains are closed or you would rather write about the light up north—just write. Go for ten minutes, fifteen, a half hour.

   Begin with “I remember.” Write lots of small memories. If you fall into one large memory, write that. Just keep going. Don’t be concerned if the memory happened five seconds ago or ƒˆ√e years ago. Everything that isn’t this moment is memory coming alive again as you write. If you get stuck, just repeat the phrase “I remember” again and keep going.

   Take something you feel strongly about, whether it is positive or negative, and write about the same thing as though you love it. Go as far as you can, writing as though you love it, then flip over and write about the same thing as though you hate it. Then write about it perfectly natural.

   Choose a color—for instance, pink—and take a fifteen-minute walk. On your walk notice wherever there is pink. Come back to your notebook and write for fifteen minutes.

   Write in different places—for example, in a Laundromat, and pick up on the rhythm of the washing machines. Write at bus stops, in cafes. Write what is going on around you.

   Give me your morning. Breakfast, waking up walking to the bus stop. Be specific as possible. Slow down in your mind and go over the details of the morning.

   Visualize a place that you really love, be there, see the details. Now write about it. It could be a corner of your bedroom, an old tree you sat under one whole summer, a table at McDonald’s in your neighborhood, a place by a river. What colors are there, sounds, smells? When someone else reads it, she should know what it is like to be there. She should feel how you love it, not by saying you love it, but by your handling of the details.
 
   Write about leaving. Approach it any way you want. Write about divorce, leaving the house in the morning, or a friend dying.

   Write your first memory.

   Write about the people you have loved.

   Write about the street in your town or city.

   Write about a grandparent.

   Write about swimming, stars, being frightened, green places, learning about sex, God and nature, reading and books that changed your life, physical endurance, a teacher who you had—be honest and detailed.

   Take a book and pick out a line and continue writing from that piece of poetry or prose. If you begin with a great line maybe you will continue in that exalted space. When stuck write the line over or pick out another.
   Write about your symbolic connection to any animals, vegetables, minerals.
 ASSIGNMENT VI: LESSON PLAN
AND CURRICULUM SIMULATION

    This simulation--individually finalized, but with initial help from classmates, has you manipulating curriculum concerns. The scenario: In a Flagstaff, Arizona, school district you have interviewed for an English department opening. The chairperson is enthusiastic about your being a Ball State graduate with a secondary certification in English.  You have some input into which courses you can teach.  Before having you sign a contract, she asks that between the time of the afternoon interview with her and your interview with the superintendent (two hours), you design a curriculum plan and rationale for a freshman writing program (with a capability to tie in with lit. sequences) to be offered next fall. The initial interview has gone well and the job's in hand, unless you fail in creating a logical curriculum insertion with your lesson plan and rationale.
    For purposes of simplicity and clarity, she asks you to outline a year's lesson plan as an opening for the writing sequence as well as suggest other sequences you would feel comfortable teaching that will guide the program into additional writing sequences in the upper grades.  You are given a list of circumstances and concerns which to consider while developing this sequence
    The current scheduling:
∑ Freshmen: two semester world literature/grammar survey sequence.
∑ Sophomores: two sem. American literature/ survey sequence.
∑ Juniors: two semester British literature/survey sequence/handbook for writers inclusion.
∑ Seniors: one elective each semester (15 student minimum must register).

    •Native American/minority literature        •Mystery stories
    
    •Creative Writing    •Journalism      •Theater and Drama    •Speech

    There are 586 students in  grades 7-12 with five current teachers. You will be the sixth.  
    The school schedules a seven period day.  Each teacher has a class load of five classes and one “duty period” which can be either a study hall or an extra curricula activity such as yearbook, newspaper, class adviser, drama/play adviser, or speech team adviser.

    A major issue is how you use your creative talents to gauge a more effective writing sequence starting in lower grades. You are building a program for underclassmen, but the only areas which now allow for "writing per se" seem to be senior year electives—and junior grammar/handbook assignments, whatever that might be. The big question will be how to get a workable writing sequence in place without disrupting scheduling and/or course sequence philosophies any more than necessary.  

Everyone knows you have the superintendent’s blessing, but you don’t want to alienate future colleagues either. Currently one teacher is comfortable teaching writing; everyone else is lit. survey bound. Because of textbook adoption procedures, the school will purchase one reader to be used with a writing sequence.  You can suggest one other textbook in anticipation of the new direction.

    According to department of education rules you personally may teach two courses outside of your certified area or junior high English.  You can make suggestions as to how you might fit into another discipline or the seventh and eighth grade.  There are several course openings within the social studies and science departments. The superintendent is flexible in your hiring, but you must give her a rationale for whatever suggestions you make with your curriculum plans, and positions within the school.
Sample Course Description (from high school syllabus)
Journalism                    Grade 12            one semester
    Prerequisite: Taking or completed Lit. II or Comp II.
   News, features, sports, and editorial writing will be studied in the first half of this course which is designed to prepare the individual for positions on the school's newspaper and yearbook. Students will also study copyediting, headline writing, and layout and design concepts. This course is a prerequisite for Newspaper I and II or Yearbook I and II.

APPENDIX A
Questionnaire to help determine a students' anxieties when writing

WRITING ATTITUDE SURVEY

                                              AGREE    UNCERTAIN    DISAGREE

1. I Avoid writing.

2. I have no fear of writing being graded.

3. I look forward to writing down my ideas.


4. I'm afraid of writing papers when I know they'll be graded.

5. Writing for class is a frightening experience.

6. Handing in a composition makes me feel good.

7. My mind sees to go blank when I start to work on a paper.

8. Expressing ideas through writing seems  a waste of time.

9. I would enjoy submitting my writing for publication.


10. I like to write my ideas down.

11. I feel confident in ability to express ideas in writing clearly.

12. I like to have my friends read what I have written.

13. I am nervous about writing.

14. People seem to enjoy what I write.

15. I enjoy writing.

16. I never seem to be able to write down my ideas clearly.

17. Writing is a lot of fun.
                        
18.  I expect  low grades in classes that require a lot of writing.

19.  I like seeing my thoughts on paper.

20.  Discussing my writing with others is enjoyable experience.

21.  I have a terrible time organizing my ideas when I write.

22.  When I hand in a paper, I know I’m going to do poorly.

23.  It’s easy for me to write good papers.

24.  I don’t think I write as well as most other people.

25.  I don’t like writing to be graded.
 
APPENDIX V
VIDEOS
These are videos ON WRITING to check out at Bracken Library:

Writing Commentary    1 Videocassette (30 min) VHS
    Looks at methods of writing and choice of appropriate language to accompany pictures. Includes sequences from distinguished commentary writers.         c1989

The Write Course        15 Videocassettes (864 min)  VHS
    Should be used with the book The Holt Guide to English by William Irmscher. Examples of tapes: Writing about books (29 min); The essay test (29 min); Writing at work (29 min); Report and Proposal Writing (29 min); Style (29 min); New Directions (29 min); Why Write (28 min).

You Be the Reporter    1 Videocassette (53 min)    VHS
    News writing techniques; Lead paragraphs; Bodies of news stories

A Visit with Lois Duncan    1 Videocassette (18 min)    VHS
    Lois Duncan, author of young adult books, reviews her writing career and demonstrates her own personal process for writing prize-winning suspense novels.

Snake Hill to Spring Bank     1 Videocassette (31min)        VHS
    Follows Marian Mohr’s 11th and 12th grade students as they interview members of their local community, revise and edit their transcripts.

Writing and Sharing    1 Videocassette (20 min)    VHS
    Shows how sharing and publishing are the natural culmination of the writing process with journals, peer editing. Part 3 of Teachers teaching writing program.

Writers         1 Videocassette (24 min)    VHS
    Professional writers develop confidence in young writers. Part 6 of Teachers teaching writing program.

The Writing Process    1 Videocassette (29 min)        VHS
    Provides a training experience in the teaching of writing. An overview of the four stages of writing.

Writing position descriptions    1 Videocassette (22 min)        VHS
    Discusses the skills required for writing good position descriptions focusing on interactions among supervisors, employees, and personnel specialists. Shows how good position descriptions facilitates the personnel and management processes.

Video: a practical guide and more    12 Videocassettes (30 min each)    VHS
    Cassette #7 discusses the format analysis and writing for videotape.

Effective writing for executives    6 videocassettes (360 min)    VHS
    Contents: 1. Writing for results; 2. Purpose and audience; 3. Effective organization; 4. Effective language; 5. Review and rewrite; 6. Effective editing. All teaches various aspects of effective writing, such as simple language, audience awareness, arrangement of information, presentation of bad news, and determination of essential information.

It will be the responsibility of each student to review one cassette




Methods 395        
Textbook Evaluation Worksheet
    General Information

A. Textbook Title: ________________________________    B. Author ________________________

C. Publisher ________________________           D. Date and Copyright _________________

E. Cost ________________  F. Publisher or author's suggested readability level _____________

G. Readability Level ____________Determined by _________ Readability formula

H. Proposed use of text ___________________________________________

    Directions for completing forms:
A. Rate each question using the scale. B. Average the score of each section by adding the number of points assigned to the section and dividing this score by the number of questions answered. Do not include NA scores to arrive at this average. Place the average score in place indicated after each section. C. Record the average scores from each section in the appropriate chart. D. Average the Section Averages to determine the overall rating of the text.

____  Physical Features    ____ Readability    ____ Graphics         ____ Authorship
    
____ Content-General        ____ Content-Specific    ____ Book Parts     ____ Skills and Activities

 ____ Manual            _____ Total Score                 ____ Avg Score

    Summary Statement:     
A. Composite statement listing strengths and weaknesses.
B. Could this material be considered offensive to any minority group?
C. Would you as a teacher be comfortable with the material?
D. Would you as a member of the community, school administration, and o ther school staff be in favor of this material?
E. Are suggested supplementary materials needed to enhance the effectiveness and interest of the material?

        Adopt ____                Reject: ____

    Rate the questions below according to the following scale:
5. Excellent    4. Very Good        3. Good    2. Fair         1. Poor             0 Unsatisfactory    
    NA Not Applicable.

Physical Features
A. ___ Are size and appearance of the book appealing to students and teacher?
B. ___ Is the book sufficiently durable for 3-5 years of classroom use?
C. ___ Is the format of consumable material practical?
D. ___ Is the paper off-white without glare?
E. ___ Is the quality such that maps and illustrations may be reproduced?
F. ___ Do the pages have approximately 40-50 percent margins with an adequate inner margin to allow for curvature of the binding?
G. ___ Is the print legible and on paper of sufficient thickness to prevent print from showing through on the other side?
Section Average Score ____



    TEXTBOOK EVALUATION  WORKSHEET   continued

    Readability
A. ___ Is the actual reading level satisfactory for the grade level for which this textbook is intended?
B. ___ Is the presentation of material clear so that ideas are in an orderly fashion?
C. ___ Is the style of writing appropriate to the subject?
D. ___ Do the headings supply an outline of the chapter?
E. ___ Are specific patterns of paragraphs evident (topic sentences, etc.)?
F. ___ Is the vocabulary suited to the experiences of pupils to the grade for which the book is intended?
G. ___ Does the book provide sufficient use of new vocabulary to promote vocabulary growth?
Section Average Score ____

    Graphics
A. ___ Are illustrations, charts, and graphs well chosen to clarify an enrich the text material?
B. ___ Are graphics explained close to where they are presented?
C. ___ Are graphics current?
D. ___ Do graphics have aesthetic value to students for whom  the book is intended?
E. ___ Are maps carefully designed, clearly labeled, and legible?
F. ___ Do maps help the reader to understand and interpret the text?
Section Average Score ____

    Authorship
A. ___ Are one or more of the authors experts in the field covered in text?
B. ___ Are one or more of the authors experienced classroom teachers?
C. ___ Do the authors have a style interesting to students?
Section Average Score ____

    Content - General
A. ___ Does the content promote personal growth and image building?
B. ___ Does the content reflect the broadened experiences of today's children?
C. ___ Do activities and the text coincide with the student's background?
D. ___ Is the reading material of good literary quality?
E. ___ Is the student given the opportunity for self-evaluation?
F. ___ Is the number of new concepts per selection appropriate to the student's ability level?
Section Average Score ____

    Content - Specific
A. ___ Does the text cover the following areas of literature adequately?  • minority authors  • college preparation for canonical material   • author thumbnails   • theme   • setting   • plot   • story line   • tone    • author styles   • objectivity and subjectivity in interpreting writing   • formalism  • new criticism   • reader response   • deconstruction  • post modernism  • follow-up activities   • drama material  • short stories   • poetry   • minority issues  •  cultural issues

B. ___ Does the text cover the following areas of writing? • exposition   • comparison   • summarizing   • synthesizing
•  description   • narrative   • analysis   • interviewing • editorializing  • argument  • persuasion  • classifying   •  defining  • inquiring  • invention techniques   • gathering techniques   • shaping techniques  • drafting techniques   • revision techniques  • computer literacy  • spelling aids

C. ___ Does the text cover areas which will make the student better prepared to function in future high school English and other classes ? • grammar   • structure   • introductions   • middles   • conclusions  • transitions   • cohesion   • antecedents   • Pronouns    • verb-subject agreement   • irregular verbs    • speech material  • history of the English language elements   
Section Average Score ____


TEXTBOOK EVALUATION WORKSHEET  Continued
        

    Book Parts
A. ___ Are there chapter lists of suggested readings?
B. ___ Is there a list of current supplementary resources?
C. ___  Is the index sufficiently comprehensive for student use?
D. ___ Is there a glossary of new vocabulary introduced in the text?
E. ___ Does the glossary include pronunciations?
F. ___ Does the glossary indicate whether or not the word listed is a noun, adjective, verb, adverb?
Section Average Score ____

    Skills and activities
A. ___ Do the activities or skills meet behavioral objectives set by the state or county?
B. ___ Is there a carefully developed plan for introducing study skills?
C. ___ Are there periodic reteaching and review practices of the various skills?
D. ___ Are there sufficient activities in the book for the  various levels of students in each reading level within the class?
E. ___ Is there a variety of stimulating activities geared to different ability groupings in the classroom?
F. ___ Are the activities purposeful and manageable?
G. ___ Do the activities provide for development of the skill of outlining?
H. ___ Do the activities provide for development of the skill of notetaking?
I. Are there activities for writing, listening, speaking, and group discussions?
J. ___ Do the activities develop skills for critical thinking?
Section Average Score ____
    
Manual
A. ___ Is the manual accompanying the text meaningful and helpful to the teacher without being too confining?
B. ___ Are directions for the teacher clear and detailed so that a novice can follow them?
C. ___ Are the teacher guides well organized?
D. ___ Do the guides provide practical activities and suggestions?
Section Average Score ____


 
APPENDIX  N

ASSIGNMENT VII:
NON-TRADITIONAL LEARNING EXPERIENCE

    
 A
s you have been aware I have a penchant for methods students discovering how to filter through materials, situations, ideas, and personnel to accomplish a practical classroom teaching and learning experience.  Similar experiences will arise when you become a teacher.  It is the type of circumstance where the administration and community promote your personal decisions on what you might do to help your students take advantage of a variety of outside possibilities.  In Natick I was sent to a Data General residential computer training site in Connecticut for one week with five other teachers and department heads.  At the end of the time, the company's education directors challenged us to design hardware and software requests for classroom use that not only would benefit Data General and the students, but would be a unique way of using the equipment and software.  So I wrote a proposal and forgot about it.  Eight months later I got a call saying it had been accepted.  Within weeks $25,000 worth of equipment and software was sitting in my classroom.  The real fun began as to practically work the gift into a workable program.  It would be a feat I was not completely enthusiastic about as it would be impossible to incorporate at whole class or even half of a class to engage at one time.  (There were only three terminals). But adminstrators and DG officials had wonderful expectations.  I worked out a fairly usable scenario in combination with a typesetting class I was teaching at the time.  And I assimilated the equipments' potentials within my journalism classes.


YOUR WORK
    
For this assignment I want you to consider a normal traditional classroom environment, not unlike any English class.  You do have access to a maximum $10,000:  a one-time grant from the National Academy of Arts and Sciences.  But the key to the program's running is how original you can be in using the very traditional materials and texts already available at your school with some absolutely unique non-traditional assignment and experience for your students.  The only guidelines are that you are a traditional English teacher with 20-30 students in a particular grade.  You can choose the ability level and the extent of the program.  

    
The actual learning experience should be unusual method(s) of students learning from existing materials and your creative designs.  The class should be at least a semester long, but the project can be one of several within that semester--a unit.  You will in groups explain the program and its original approach; its amount of time; its rationale; its goals/objectives; its enabling activities; its materials and text used from the school's bookroom, library, and computer lab; its costs; and its methods of assessment and concluding perspectives. Some additional thoughts:  Money expenditures should hinge on the practicality of continued growth for the program over the next several years without using additional funds.  The less initial money you need the better.  
 
 EXAMPLES:  
Non-traditional learning  experience
with traditional/non-traditional texts.

   Summaries of the individual group units devised earlier.  View which are original and plausible within a curriculum.  A rider allowed grant monies up to $10,000.   How would each plan carryover from one year to the next without the additional monies?

Group A: Rationale/Goal: Situating free speech and its manipulation
    Original Approach: A view of legal and practical implications of privacy.  Parent conference covering audio recording of students during school day.  Parents sign "invasion of privacy" contract .
    Enabling Objectives/Activities:  Read and discuss propaganda and trustworthiness of authority.  Journal entries.  Students wear tape recorders allowing their speech overheard by others. Students assigned certain limitations of speech acts.  Penalized when transgressors. Concurrently students will study literature of censorship and personal freedoms.  Students given information allotments (censored and propagandized local news and info).
    Time: Two or more weeks
    Costs: $5,000:  $2,000 for digital recorders, $1,500 for lawyers fees, $1,500 for video equipment, tapes of 1984, texts include 1984, Cormier's I Am the Cheese, and Bradbury's "The Exiles." Trip to state capital government center.
    Conclusions:

Group B: Rationale/Goal: Work cooperatively, visualize stories, create concrete representations, situate budgeting criteria, and publicize events, develop further appreciation of Edgar Allen Poe.
    Original Approach: Using Poe's short stories as creative force in constructing a haunted environment at local old or abandoned house or barn. Each group working with separate Poe works.
    Enabling Objectives/Activities: Read lit, discuss ideals, work on story boards, create inventory needs, create advertising/publicity, complete project proposal/material list, shop as group, journal entries on project and progress, create designs for environment and costumes, and judging by visitors.
    Time: Seven weeks
    Costs: $2,000: $500 for four groups of six students for building and clothing materials.
    Conclusions: Visitors to house or barn pay entrance fee with food for homeless.

Group C: Rationale/Goal: Give 20 juniors class/summer Civil War experience
    Original Approach: Travel to Gettysburg, D.C., Richmond, Atlanta, Kentucky plantations, Eli Coffin House-Fountain City, Ind., and other local museums/sites.
    Enabling Objectives/Activities: Read abolition lit, Myra Cohn Livingston's ballad of Lincoln, Thomas Keneally's "Confederates," Joyce Hansen's "Between Two Fires...," and Ina Chang's "A Separate Battle." Study works in individual groups. View "Glory" or "The Blue and the Grey." Student oral presentations and journals
    Time: Six Weeks--three in class, three on battlefield and historic sites. Study point of view from female, male, race perspectives with role reversal exercises.
    Costs: no estimate given
    Conclusions: Trips by train and bus


Group D: Rationale/Goal: Appreciation of Greek drama/criticism, intra-department cooperation
    Original Approach:  Design and build Greek amphitheater.
    Enabling Objectives/Activities: Read "Oedipus Rex" and "Lysistrata." Also read Nietzche's "The Birth of Tragedy."  Produce Greek play. Research culture and drama.  Design costumes and set.
    Time: no estimate
    Costs: no estimate
    Conclusions: Assessment will be on group participation, cooperation, and results. Test on lit and grade on research paper

Group E: Rationale/Goal: Give twenty seniors understanding of mystery genre
    Original Approach: Strengthen art, music, drama, and dance using Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences theories by exercising logical, spatial, linguistic, body kinesthetic, musical, inter/intra personal intelligences.
    Enabling Objectives/Activities: Examine writers Christie, Hitchcock, Poe, Holmes through performances and recorded interpretations of their works.  Listen to recording of Poe's "Tell Tale Heart," see Hitchcock's "The Birds" and Holmes' "The Red Headed League. Class activities include choices based on works: creating oil or sculpture; original soundtrack; write and perform alternative dramatic endings, sequence of drawings, short dance routines (latter two assignments related to "Phantom" experiences.  Trip to Indy Rep. theater's production of Leroux's "Phantom of the Opera." Trip to Chicago Art Inst. for "Mystery and Art" exhibition. See BSU's production of Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express." Trip to NYC and production of Christie's "Evil Under the Sun" and visit Mystery Museum in Manhattan, participate in overnight mock mystery at Manson's Mystery Mansion.
     Time: Eight Weeks in block scheduling of 90 minutes/3 times weekly
    Costs: $10,000: IRT trip $250, Chicago $470, BSU $60, NYC $7700, materials $1500.
    Conclusions: Hold open house with refreshments to view productions, creations, independent projects. Experience hopes to inspire students in artistic dimensions and cultural extensions for later use.

Group F: Rationale/Goal: Heighten classroom involvement in American lit; seniors leave beneficial legacy of works produced in technology center for creative projects.
    Original Approach: Transform old room in existing school, encourage involvement in every facet of production process. Teacher as executive producer.
    Enabling Objectives/Activities: Create story boards, video, edit. Learn production and acting methods and technical vocab
    Time: Three weeks for production and performance from earlier studied works in block schedule/ five days per week.
    Costs: $10,000: 3 TV monitors, 2 video cameras, 1 sound board, editing equipment, 2 VCRs, copyrighted CDs for sound, portable mikes, mikes, CD/cassette player.
    Conclusions: Assessment on participation and creative endeavors graded on informed rubric.  Future growth will require additional $10,000 with potential for other school uses reviewed.

 
APPENDIX S

THE MBTI  SURVEY
Looking at learning styles in the secondary classroom

 
 B
ecause several colleagues used student results of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to complement composing and personality issues when teaching basic writers, I became interested in its classroom and research usages.  As researchers George Jensen and John DiTiberio assert, individual learning behaviors, motional aspects, and personality preferences illustrate how students are situated within their learning processes. The MBTI's administration and analysis aid in such illustrations.
Jensen sees studies by Lunsford, Perl, Pianko, and Sommers as self-fulfilling prophecies because of reductionist perspectives and parameters.  The studies, which tested for basic writer deficiencies, dismiss a wide range of learning styles, personalities, emotional and cognitive skills according to Jensen.   He believes that if students are not surveyed with the MBTI, making sweeping generalizations about all basic writers can be problematic (53-4).   Students should all be surveyed with the MBTI to consider as much individual uniqueness as possible.   "We should not believe that there is any one way to define, signify, label, identify, or teach students." (Jensen 63).   
Along with Naomi Quenk, Jensen and DiTiberio explain C. G. Jung's theory of personality development and how as children we develop preferred processes while as we mature we develop the "unpreferred" (Jensen 78). Developmental issues concern initial preferred attitudes and functions and are established early within a personality. The MBTI, using Jung's model of personality, is "a measure of one's expressed preferences on each of four dimensions.  It is not, however, a performance test and does not measure how well people use their preferred cognitive processes" (28).

WHAT SUITS US
 
According to Bayne, "personality type" explains how to be effective and fulfilled by what "suits" us (1).   In each type one of four functions dominates the other when they interact.   The attitudes are Extrovert or Introvert; Judging or Perceiving; while the functions are Sensing or iNtuition; and Thinking or Feeling.  The interaction of function and attitude equals "type dynamics" creating our personality. "Type theory spells out radically different styles of studying, teaching, and writing effectively.  It suggests emphasizing a person's own style (stemming in theory mainly from their dominant function) and then adding elements of the other styles" (Bayne 135).  For example thinkers will respond more to people's ideas than to people's feelings.
Jensen and DiTiberio ask us to better "appreciate the varied approaches that individuals take to writing...and be more tolerant of writing processes that are quite different than our own" (74). "The MBTI can powerfully deliver the message that writing processes differ, that a writer's strengths and weaknesses are related, and that not all writers follow the same developmental path" (74).  They refute the possibility that all types can preference Flower and Hayes 1981 process goals--how we get things done as we process--"which ideally include plans to stop at key intervals to analyze and revise objectives" (68).  Therefore the cognitive process of writing may be fine for judging types, but may be difficult for perceiving types.  
According to the two researchers, a teacher must look at various learning situations--influence of the site, influence of type of learning, the influence of situation--and how all exert affects on individual's processes. (73).

PREFERRED STYLES VERSUS UNPREFERRED

As you know there are certain circumstances and learning situations you enjoy over other ones.  One of the realities of education is to help student upgrade abilities.  To do their best in learning situations, students must rely on both their preferred styles and processes and embrace less comfortable ones (Jensen DiTibero 73).  But there are problems with the high school student's development.  He or she may not have fully developed certain preferences at this particular age.  Therefore the student may not be in control of the overall positive elements of a function or attitude.  For instance intuitive types should not try unique approaches to a technical report, "...they may have to follow directions carefully and shape their ideas within the format of a standard technical report" (74).   Such alterations can be disconcerting and stressful, but awareness within a classroom can aid abilities to shift more easily.  For example, knowing preferences can help students write and teachers teach those students to process their writing efficiently.


SUMMARY

 The MBTI survey allows for an awareness of the preferences, functions, and attitudes. The MBTI, is basic leverage to explain, at the very least, differences among students. As teachers, we do not always consider the uniqueness and individuality of our students, the MBTI is a instrument to illustrate that uniqueness and individuality.
Based on Jung's theory of typology, the  survey discovers certain aspects of personal preferences of students as they perform within the classroom .  According to Quenk:
 the system focuses on how people go about gathering information about the world (perception), how they reach conclusions about what they have perceived (judgment), and what their sources or energy are (attitude or orientation).  Based on many years of keen observation, Jung hypothesized two opposite ways of perceiving, sensation (or sensing) versus intuition, and two opposite ways of judging, thinking versus feeling.
In addition to these opposite mental functions or processes, Jung described two opposite attitudes or orientations of energy, extroversion versus introversion. (3)

FOUR PAIRS

The four pairs of equally valid preferences are: Extroversion v. Introversion; Sensing v. iNtuition; Thinking v. Feeling; and Judging v. Perceiving.  Extroverts tend to generate ideas best when talking and prefer to leap into writing with little planning; introverts, on the other hand, need solitude to think best and prefer to plan extensively before writing. Sensing types tend to prefer prescribed organizational patterns, detailed directions, and factual topics; intuitive types prefer original organizational patterns, general directions, and imaginative, abstract topics.  Thinking types have very patterned organizational structures, while feeling types tend to write best when they just follow the flow of their thoughts.  Judging types tend to be overly exclusive writers, often writing very short essays, but perceiving types tend to be overly inclusive, often writing rambling, expansive essays (55). Individuals therefore can fall into one of sixteen combinations of the four groups.
 "Type theory spells out radically different styles of studying, teaching and writing effectively.  It suggests emphasizing a person's own style (stemming in theory mainly from their dominant function) and then adding information of the other styles" (Jensen "Styles" 135).  The logic and practicality of the MBTI seems evident, but not everyone has seen typology as a sentient pedagogical tool (Bayne).


POSSIBLE RAMIFICATIONS   

The MBTI survey allows for  further discussion on whether or not there are distinctions between traits and abilities.  Can we distinguish between being an extrovert and having the ability to understand another person's emotional state or between a preference for detail and having the ability to adroitly master mathematical skills.  Intelligences seem to be "about" degrees of ability?  And preferences or traits seem to be "about" style and attitudes that make up our personality which in turn seem to eventuate into our abilities.  We are able to add; we are able to be linguistically adroit; we are able to have musical skills; we are able to be empathetic; we are able to relate well with others--these seem to be a portion of our multiple intelligences (Gardner, Goleman, Mayer, Salovey).  But we have preferences which allow us to accomplish those skills, and, therefore, it would seem to be important to understand a person's traits and skills in combination.  As we strengthen neuronal synapses within our brain through our preferences, we thereby learn how these preferences enable us to figure, refigure, and then configure the everyday problem solving elements of our world. And we hope to also learn how our preferences can disable us from attempting the same solutions.

CHARTS SHOW VARIABLES

    To appreciate the reliability and validity of the survey, you will all have taken it and seen its results.  Most methods students are intriqued.  To see the connections between attitudes and funcitons the following charts are included.



     




APPENDIX J

    A PRACTICAL WRITING EXPERIENCE
    From Luana Russell

    R
eflecting both practical and traditional basics, high school journalism is an "always-been-basic."  Proponents of the catch phrase "back-to-basics" range from simplistic thinkers to scholars of traditional educational idea and methods. Similarly, students are seen as possessing a wide range of abilities from way below average to somewhat above average. In regard to modern theories, to students, and to classical rhetoric, writing has always been the most basic of courses in the high school curriculum.
   The very title of the course is a word usually understood by students as writing-writing with a purpose and an audience. That is, writing about the school for the students. Expository Writing, General Composition, or Problem Solving, and Communication, on the other hand, are more ambiguous in students' minds-and in parent and teacher minds, I might add.
    Other courses in writing often artificially create the motivational factor that journalism has built in-publication. Seeing their own words in print impels reporters of all ability levels to improve their writing. Students who see their audience and who are motivated to improve become more involved in the writing process in the most fundamental way.
   In writing for the school newspaper, composition has always been a process rather than simply a product-oriented activity. Current theories about successfully teaching composition stress the necessity for such emphasis on the process of writing. Because the product of journalism is the reality of a school newspaper, the process of writing is more evident to students in relationship to that product. Process is, therefore, more valuable in the reporter's learning experience.
   Publication has a fundamental impact in learning to write. Publication is the ultimate act of communication in written form. Mass readership, whether circulation is 100 or 1000 is an incalculable asset in teaching writing.
    As a result of publication, praise, the strongest of motivators, is dished out liberally. Friends, parents, and school personnel provide immediate feedback to student writers. Both positive and negative response is genuine, and, therefore, is accepted as part of the writing process. The journalists who experience this attention to their stories are partaking in the basic nature of the writing process.
   Crucial decisions about what to write are inherent in journalism. Basic judgments about the news stories are discussed in practical terms: is this story timely? is it relevant to the readership? is it more timely or more relevant than another story idea? how can it be related to this particular audience? And, legal considerations of libel and ethical decisions of good taste are also complex, practical concerns for the student journalist.
   The editorial policy of a school newspaper can be well written and specific; however, the application to stories can still be difficult, generating discussion about writing that is almost impossible to create in ordinary composition classes. In a news story on crisis telephone numbers, for example, the number of the abortion clinic can be included or omitted. Reporting a bomb scare that forced the evacuation of the school building requires sophisticated judgments to make word choices and sentence structure such that they do not aggravate a dangerous situation.
   The fine art of written communication through written words rest upon such perplexing applications of the writer's skill. At the high school level, journalism is the one course which most realistically deals with the consequences of writing. Simply put, the reporter is accountable.
   In addition, a variety of writing adventures are automatically required of the student journalist. News, feature and opinion stories correlate with the three purposes of writing: informing, entertaining, and persuading-which then radiate in ever wider circles of refinement. The student reporter learns to classify the sports story as one of these three basic types, for example. Featurizing news stories because of time limitations on a biweekly paper is an obvious necessity to students.
   Covering the results of a student council election may be essentially news, but reporters know it will be old news a week after the results have been announced on the PA. A journalist will devise a slant to compensate for that weakness, facing a complex writing concept with relative ease.
  Writing in scholastic journalism is edited writing. Again, student know the word "editing" from their daily association with newspapers. While editing in other composition classes may be a novelty to them, they expect and accept it in journalism. The style book, the grammar handbook in disguise, serves a practical purpose for students. While other handbooks are rarely opened, this one often is. The premise behind its use is consistency among all stories in their newspaper. Self-editing, then, has a valid purpose for students. It's no longer a teacher-imposed standard.
   Peer editing and teacher editing supplement self-editing. Clarity, conciseness, and accuracy are requirements shaped by an audience of student readers. Student editors and the adviser help the reporter locate and correct problem areas. Rewriting and revision are tools of the trade instead of time wasting nuisances.
   Word choices of ambiguous references of pronouns are not whims of a teacher. Their correctness is a necessity for communication with an audience. With regard to style, for instance, students of all ability levels quickly cut down their use of repetitious wording, increase their vocabulary, and speed their location of synonyms because of peer editing.
   The student editor's question reflects misunderstanding. Sophisticated student writers recognize the reasons for the likes of grammatical correctness in abstract terms. Basic students, with less ability to abstract ideas, profit from the immediacy of this audience. They, too, use the revision process to its fullest extent.
   Accepting praise and criticism becomes the normal procedure to improve the story before it is fixed in print. The grade, if any, for a piece of writing is a more incidental part of the process than is the writing itself. The goal is a story to be proud of-not an A.
   
Although a lot of effort can go into one story, the reporter is often working on another story, too. After any story appears in print, it rapidly diminishes in importance. While this rapid turn-over of stories accentuates the need for immediate revisions during writing, it also dulls the psychological effects of failures. The opportunity to start over fresh with a new story is quickly available. The wait-until-next-season sport's syndrome translates into wait-until-next-issue for journalists.
   The paper's publication contains other avenues for learning writing beyond understanding the concept of audience and becoming involved in the writing process. Other students' stories provide models. In a nonthreatening way, alternative sentence structures, variety in word choice, correct uses of punctuation, in-depth probing of sources, and stylistic nuances are accessible to all writers. Story ideas that a writer may have originated or overheard discussed at conception come to fruition at the hands of other reporters.
   These models may accelerate the normal growth in writing that comes through age. Models, an old technique of learning writing which is coming into vogue again, are naturally present in journalism. The writing of the students' peers, such models are more likely to be copied by reporters then professional examples usually used as models. Student models are within search of reporters attempting to improve their own writing.
   In a journalism class the free-wheeling atmosphere allows for individual student development. A variety of story assignments lets students begin at their level of ability. The specific nature of the story idea assures that they will achieve their potential as a writer more nearly than other assignments might allow them to do. Editing and revision significantly improve their writing.
   A primary advantage for the teacher-adviser is that each story is an individual assignment which establishes the idea of individual effort. One student can be required to do several re-write while another does minimal revision because of the demands of a particular story. Students can be assigned programmed work in the use of quotation marks or in newswriting to correct their weakness. They do not perceive such individual efforts as an aberration or an extra burden.
   In such simple terms as classroom operation, individual attention is more applicable in the newsroom. A student-teacher conference is more easily held amid organized chaos than in the lecture situation of a traditional classroom. Individual attention and conferences-as well as confrontations-are the norm in t he cross-fire between reporter and editor in newspaper production. Remarkably, such one-on-one learning frequently takes place between students as well as between student and adviser. Dialogue about a story is not a lesson plan that the writing teacher fights to incorporate into the classroom pattern but rather is a normal offshoot of scholastic journalism. The give and take learning experience is the most fundamental experience of education, and it is repeated daily in the journalism classes.
   Setting up specific situations in the wording of a writing assignment occurs naturally in journalism. Story ideas develop into concrete material fairly quickly. In essence the story variety in journalism is infinite. Each writing assignment is unique. And it's specific.  The subject, purpose and audience situation written into many good writing assignments or taught as a technique to writers is self-evident in a story assignment for the newspaper.
   If subject, purpose, and audience hark back to classical rhetoric, so do other steps in journalistic writing. Interviewing skills are, for example, prewriting. Questions for the interview are prewritten, follow-up during the interview is stressed, notetaking during or immediately after the interview is encouraged, and accurate quotes are demanded. Invention, or prewriting, is necessitated by the interview itself.
   More formal research is also appropriate for some stories. The student code, current magazines, and even textbooks are research material for journalists. This research is done because of the need for background information for the story, rather than because a "research" project is devised by the instructor.
   In journalism, arrangement is predetermined. In other classes introduction, middle, and conclusion of the essay are often ambiguously defined. In the inverted pyramid structure of the news story, arrangement is, however, precisely formulated, and the reasoning behind this structure is evident to reporters. The cut-off rule structures the story from the most important to the least important information in what is a clear rationale for writers. Reporters make judgments about content and apply their beliefs to the structure of the story with ease.
   While opinions may vary as to what is important and what isn't, the basis of the judgment remains fixed in the reporter's mind. The purpose of the structure is clear. The lead-which fits into the arrangement as the most crucial info, the five w's-is a thesis sentence in essay structure. The simplicity of the news structure, however, places this essential information first rather than at the end of an introductory paragraph.  This explicit definition of the lead's content and its placement lets the news reporter begin writing using and elemental arrangement.
   For beginning writers, the journalistic news structure may be their first attempt at arrangement of information in an organized way. For the more advanced writers, this structure may complement the already clearly understood essay structure. Both groups of writers can manipulate this structure and learn variations of arrangement because they have learned the relationship between arrangement and content.
   The essentials of journalistic writing are the essentials of the classical philosophy behind writing. Students of all ability levels can become better writers through journalistic writing because these basic concepts are so ingrained a part of the course work.
   Journalism is a basic course because it clearly establishes fundamental distinctions and methods of writing. Ever wider sophistication in writing can grow from the roots of these elementary concepts. Writing skills grow stronger and more quickly because the initial planting is done with a firmer understanding of the concepts, and because it is fertilized by the reality of editing and publishing the school newspaper.
   In terms of meeting the needs of a wide range of students, journalism offers writing opportunities from which a broad spectrum of students can benefit. While every teacher would be pleased to have 32 Merit Scholars enrolled, many accept and appreciate the gamut of students present in our newsrooms.
 
 
    CARRYOVER FOR WRITING/LANGUAGE ARTS COURSES?
    From Thomas Prentice

 ASSESSMENT/GRADING
    One frustrating part of teaching high school students has to be when report card time rolls around.
   Then, the harried teacher, on top of everything else that needs attention, is called upon to evaluate each student enrolled in the classes, to assign a letter or numerical grade to correspond with that evaluation, and to do so with sometimes little empirical criteria to back up the grade.  Even worse most grading systems used to evaluate students are simply not suited to the task.
   Coming up with a six weeks and quarter or semester grade can be the stepchild of the  program rather than being an integral part of a student's  growth and development.

End of Grading Period
   The end of grading period should be an opportunity for both student and teacher to reflect upon the accomplishments and disappointments of the preceding weeks, especially since those successes and failures are the result of student's competence or weaknesses in specific skills. A realistic assessment of a student's weaknesses and strengths; areas of noted improvement and those in which additional improvement is necessary; as well as crystallizing plans to assist students in eliminating weak areas by special instruction ought to be the prime objective of the grading game.
   Sometimes, the grading opportunity is viewed as an intrusive chore, and the duty to grade is discharged quickly, with as little thought as possible.
   In my judgment, a good grading system should offer these qualities:
Standard Qualities
• At the beginning of the year, the student should know what specific performance standards will be expected throughout the course.
• The grading system should identify for both the student and teacher the specific skill areas in which the student has shown marginal or marked improvement and those in which marginal or marked weakness is observed.
• The student should be aware that both the quantity of work (such as time consuming revision) as well as quality of work, will be rewarded, and,
• The teacher should be able to plan specific instructional help for students in those areas in which additional instructional need is noted.
   Having never been satisfied with grading systems I have used for evaluating students; since they didn't conform to these opportunities, prompted me to develop a more empirical set of criteria to assist in determining grades.


The Differences
   The fundamental difference between a normal, academic classroom course and a predominately laboratory writing course renders use of traditional grading criteria clearly impractical. And reliance on umpire-like "call-em-as-you-see-em" subjective assessments of student performance precariously based on undocumented analysis seems to be an even less satisfactory method of grading writing students.
   The grading systems used or considered include:
• The quick-look-at-a-portfolio approach
• The grammatical-errors-in-essay approach
•  The meet-the-deadline approach
• The so-many-points-for-this approach
• The test at the end of the six weeks approach
• The umpire "call-it-as-you-see-it" approach
   The main weakness of each of these systems is that none of these were comprehensive.
Prentice's Approach
   So, unsatisfied with existing criteria, I undertook to develop a new system. Called "Evaluative Criteria for Writing." It is inspired from the method used to evaluate classroom teachers, and required periodic student/teacher conferences.
   The system was developed when I perceived the need for a comprehensive method for evaluation of writing students. Consultations with colleagues and with printed material showed the state of the art to be haphazard at best; that rather than being an integral part of the writing program, grading was considered a chore perhaps more dreaded than missed deadlines and more frustrating than any other portion of the student program.
   The criteria assume the student has prior instruction in and awareness of basic writing fundamentals, as well as some prior experience in English classes. It also assumes gaps in the student's knowledge that the course should help eliminate on an individual basis.
   The criteria incorporate broad areas of evaluation, each area including from four to fourteen separate and more specific elements of evaluative criteria. The broad areas include: Research Skills, Writing Skills, Executive/Administrative Skills, and Professional Development.
   More specific criteria range from "displays and uses good questioning skills" under Research Skills to "essays are unified, coherent and make effective use of transitions to achieve unity and coherence" under Writing Skills
   Thus, this set of criteria permits the teacher to maintain subjective evaluations of student performances-the only real evaluative option open to a teacher in a writing laboratory-but also provides a framework of objective criteria for analysis on which to base the final six weeks or quarter or semester grade assessed.
The Evaluative Criteria
   The "Evaluative criteria" is really a distillation of the best aspects of several alternative systems, and provides the following characteristics:
• Establishes a set of performance standards which are introduced to the student as soon as possible so that the student is aware of standards expected. Therefore, both student and teacher are aware of areas in which improvement will be required. A packet/syllabus is very helpful.
• Provides regular student/teacher conferences beyond the routine, harried conferences necessary in writing programs.
• Recognizes that the student has had some prior instruction and/or experience in writing, and because the student is being provided an opportunity to put those skills to use, evaluates the student on the basis of the performance of those skills rather than on testing. A diagnostic writing is usually necessary.
• Allows for traditional grading criteria if pedagogically helpful (drafts, final essays, end-of-term portfolios).
• Establishes performance standards based on specific criteria which reflect optimum performance of a high standard of writing skills.
• Provides a means for measuring improvement in weak areas and identifying areas where improvement is necessary, including scheduling specific instruction.
• Provides the teacher a set of defensible criteria to make subjective evaluations of performance if grades are ever called into question.
• Evaluates subjectively based on the observation of performance.
• Requires the student to maintain a portfolio, which includes drafts of essays, interview questions and research notes, and other relevant material.
• Includes criteria for acceptable grammar, spelling, and consistent style.
• Rewards students for quantity of work as well as quality of work, a major weakness of most grading systems.
• Reveals skill areas in which the student exhibits competencies and weaknesses.
• Provides the student and teacher a yardstick by which to measure accomplishments.
   The new system adds the dimension of being a more comprehensive system and useful tool for evaluating the performance and progress of students enrolled in writing courses than other more commonly used systems.
   The evaluation approach was employed since it closely resembles approaches used in evaluating classroom teachers and other personnel. In both cases, the emphasis is to both practice skills already learned rather and on learning new skills; therefore, the teacher can assess  new learning and measure and evaluate student application of known skills in a writing laboratory environment.
   Maintenance of a portfolio is essential to the evaluation process. The student should keep everything-drafts of stories and essays; sample questions prepared for interviews and notes from research to permit the teacher to collect the portfolios and review the material for the purpose of identifying competence levels on the evaluative criteria form. In reviewing portfolios, with the use of evaluative forms, five competency levels are provided for each criteria, and the meaning of each level follows:
COMPETENCY Levels
Level 1, 95-100, A+, Pulitzer Prize level. Level 2, 90-95, A, Excellent.  Level 3, 80-90, B, Average, the norm.  Level 4, 70-80, C, Below Average, significant improvement necessary.  
Level 5, Below 70, F, Failure.
   The purpose of the criteria is destroyed if the teacher speedily checks off categories and competency levels without meaningfully consulting the portfolios or actually sitting down to review the students work and consciously, comprehensively considers all factors that should merge to form the total evaluation.
   Likewise, the teacher destroys the purpose if the student is awarded a grade of 100 or 98. No matter how perfect the student, avenues for improvement exist, areas of weakness remain, and to be accurate, the evaluation must reflect those areas, otherwise it is worthless.
   My personal approach involves filling out the form based upon analysis of portfolios and other information, and then scheduling a conference with the student during a class period toward the end of the grading period.
   Two or three days of conferences are scheduled during the time when the rest of the class can work on their papers. It is important not to "assembly-line" the conferences; otherwise they become meaningless. Each student, unique in intellect, temperament and ability, requires individual evaluation to reflect individual qualities, competencies and weaknesses. The objective is to assist the student in learning; not to get the grade cards out as fast as possible.
 
A MEDIA PROGRAM
By John F. Pettibone
   Getting-it-all-together, research, fact-finding, profile-making, digging-it-up all mean the same thing. Regardless of the label, the same thing means creating a firm foundation for any mass media program.
   In September a host of newly graduated and newly certified teachers entered the nation's schools. Each of these beginners will be expected to immediately establish a valid communication program for his school and community. Each of these hopefuls will be expected by the school and the supporting communities to put forth an award winning publication that will keep everyone fully informed.
   Obviously for the mass communicator, these expectations are nonsense. Too often the beginning teacher has had a minimum of experience with communication programs. Suddenly, to be expected to originate and direct a full program is horrifying.
   Establishing a communication program for a special audience is a difficult task; however, certain simple steps can cut greatly the trauma of hit-and-miss activities which seem to typify the beginner's efforts.
   The first of three steps that the new teacher should take after she accepts her contract is to build a profile of the school. Perhaps it might not be a bad idea to do this initial investigation before she commits herself to a position.
   An examination of the simplest communication model will readily point up the validity of this first step in trying to establish a communication system or program for audiences concerned with the school.
   It is impossible to effectively communicate with an audience and make an impact upon it if the communicator does not know those areas of topics of interest or concern. Therefore, it is the first task of the communication teacher to examine the environment, assess the atmosphere and accumulate pertinent facts for her basis of creating a communication program.
   The school profile or fact file should contain basic information about the school and the community. It should attempt to catalogue the sensitive areas affecting the mass communication picture.
   Essentially, the fact file or school-community profile provides the communicator (1) a communication history of the environment, (2) a diagram of communication systems--formal and informal-within the environment and (3) a reservoir of topics, problems, ideas that need to be explored and, perhaps, exposed so that a better understanding about issues will be available to the environment's audiences.
   Suggested content of a fact file or profile could be (1) size of school an community, (2) economic-social structure of the school and community, (3) ethnic structure of these areas, (4) governmental structure, (5) a history of the school and community, (6) curricular structure of the school.
   In addition include (7) feeder structure of the community , (8) percentage of college-bound students, (9) percentage of drop-outs, (10) types of employment of students-after graduation and before graduation, (11) problems of the school-student, faculty, community problems that seem to be recurring, (12) profiles of faculty and administrators, (13) outstanding alums, (14) honors gained by the school and students.
   Additional items could be (15) aid programs available at the school, (16) history of community support-bonds, contributions, grants, (17) history of the school's publications, (18) history of extra-curricular activities, and (19) projections for the school--expanded programs, enrollments, estimates, construction.
   The second step that the beginning teacher should take is to involve the communication staffs in the collecting of information. Each communication staff should accept the project each year so that there is an on-going record of information for use.
   Initially, the communication teacher should do the collecting in order to orient himself to the environment. After the groundwork has been laid, the student staff members take over the task.
   A third step which could prove valuable to the school would be for the communication teacher to make an analysis of the information gleaned through the year. This analysis could be published as an annual report for the benefit of the internal audiences such as administrators and faculty. It might be wise to include selected student groups as well as some members of the external audiences such as city administrators, school superintendent, PTA leaders, business and industrial leaders and civic leaders.
   Accomplishment of students and faculty can honestly point out the problems and difficulties encountered by the school population during the year.
   The report would become part of the on-going fact-file profile. In addition the record could very well stimulate school and community leaders to apply resources that would help modify existing problems. Furthermore, the report could bring into sharper focus conditions that might soon create problems. Attention could be given to these conditions that might prevent or, at least, dilute the future problems.
   Obvious benefits for the new teacher are two-fold. First, the teacher has laid a foundation of information which will allow her to be a successful communicator simply because she has an insight into her audiences and their environment. The second would be that she has proven herself to be valuable source for providing current, accurate information and intelligent assessments when needed.
 

    STAFF RESPONSIBILITIES
    A three-week journalism publication

THE  ASSIGNMENT
    For this unit students will be involved in a production project. Grade and evaluation of the project will depend upon a number of factors the most of which will be individual attitude and interest along with what we finally create for a student publication
    At the conclusion of the project the group will have produced an edition of the student newspaper or newsmagazine. With certain guidelines which have been setup, you will be able to choose the editorial policy of the text, the precise format and design (all of these can be modified to suit the individual advisers needs and expectations) as well as other key features. The publication, as a whole, will be the product of your own work.  The journalism teacher will act in an advisory capacity. The publication will be marketed and distributed to school students and adminstrators and individuals we believe would benefit from seeing our work.
    Each of you will hold a specific position on the staff , but most of you will double-up or even triple-up in other areas when certain final deadlines are being met. Each of you will be expected to carry out all aspects of the duties detailed in the following outline.  You may be called upon to illustrate, accomplish research, design or layout pages, write feature stories or essays of explanation and instruction, organize a marketing campaign, contact professionals and students for interviews, accomplish the interviews, sell advertising, or organize a marketing campaign for the publication itself.

ORGANIZATION  AND STAFFING
    The process calls for a great deal of self-discipline and self-starting on all of parts. If a few people decide not to handle responsibilities, it could jeopardize the whole production.  Here are the basic positions within our production staff. Certainly this organizational chart is an oversimplification, but it will work.
                       PUBLISHER

BUSINESS, CIRCULATION, MARKETING MGR ------ EDITOR ------------- PRODUCTION MANAGER

                    ASSOCIATE EDITOR

DESIGN EDITOR   COPY EDITOR   NEWS EDITOR   FEATURE EDITOR    SPORTS EDITOR

DESIGN STAFF     COPY STAFF     NEWS STAFF     FEATURE STAFF     SPORTS STAFF
    
 Because of limitations, space, access to technical equipment and supplies, we will stick to this basic format. The largest staff will be the news and feature group.  Everyone will accomplish several jobs in several areas before this baby gets printed.  As adviser, I also hold the right to make changes as I see fit in order to make this a smooth running operation. (The beauty of being a publisher.) Therefore, students, particularly editors, can be fired. Such a circumstance won't look good on future resumes or for term grades.
    As I intimated, I will be the publisher--until we get an agreement from a more prestigious and higher-up authority. If we simply print our publication at the school print shop or at one of the local printeries, it could cost $500 to $1500 for professional quality. (Again this can be amended to local circumstances). We will hear more during the semester from our production staff as they get estimates from printers.  So we will have to decide on such things as paper quality, cover material, extra color, and photo potential as we go along. I hope some of you have 35mm cameras.

OUTLINE  OF  JOB  DESCRIPTIONS
    Editor
       The editor of the production is responsible for the supervision of what goes in the publication--most particularly the written content and the priorities of the written content.  The person may make suggestions to various department editors as to what should be suitable areas of content for the issue. The person must coordinate with the production manager, business manager, and design editor. The editor is essentially the heart and soul or a  production. The person is an all around adviser and coordinator to all members of the staff. But an essential quality of the editor is to delegate responsibilities fairly and equitably. Though the editor is in charge so to speak, the person still must answer to the publisher. I would not use the word "suck up" however. The person will check all evaluation reports periodically and keep a total of extra time spent from time cards kept by staff members and initialed by editors. The routine types of work will include: 1. Oversee departments,  2. Check attendance at out-of-class meetings/work sessions,  3. Determine priorities for pages and sections,  4. Edit main stories and editorials for content, 5. Work out editor/staff differences,   6. Assign necessary new tasks,   7. Assign deadlines.  8. Evaluate staff and editors
    Associate Editor
       The associate editor assists the editor and shares the advisers load.  Some of the final editing of major articles and stories which have been submitted and compiled is accomplished by the associate editor. The duties are not carefully detailed because this person responds to the needs of the publication as they develop. The associate serves as a liaison between the editor and the rest of the staff. The person is responsible for having editors turn in section work on time by set deadlines. The person helps prepare and solicit potential stories, interviews, and articles. The person will help in coordinating and finalizing art and copy. The person will coordinate production staff and all members who are responsible for extra word processing. The person will help evaluate all staff and editors.  The routine types of work include:  1. Fulfill reasonable editor requests,   2. Help edit material,   3. Push departments to stay with deadlines,   4. Oversee page layouts and type selections,   5. Check all word processing assignments.
    Business, Circulation, and Marketing Manager
       This position is important in determining strategic market and business strategies. The combined efforts of this position and the other editors will decide how far this publication carries in its efforts to reach its student audience. Any organization must decide upon a positive approach for selling itself to the various publics as well as selling advertising to various business publics. Of basic importance will be gathering enough advertisements from local merchants to cover the cost of the publication. Approximately $500/$1500 of advertising should be our goal. This would be above the standard running year-long ads. Some creative methods need to be discovered. The person will responsible for collecting all money from advertisers and assigning students to businesses for ads. If there are bills, this person will be sure that the cost are paid off. The routine types of work include: 1. Assign Ad beats,   2. Dummy ads, graphics of ads,   3. Map strategies with editors,   4. Formulate market plans,   5. Prepare bills and collect money,   6. Assign staff tasks,   7. Evaluate staff .  
    Production Manager
       The production manager is responsible for the physical details of the publication. The person will work with the associate editor to be sure all word processing/typesetting  is assigned and completed. Along with the design editor, the person will determine what type styles, headline/title styles, and column formats will be consistent throughout the publication. During the project, production deadlines will be of absolute importance; so the manager will have to coordinate efforts with the organization which will ultimately print our publication. If all deadlines are not met, the work could be lost. An understanding of the costs of materials and printing should be learned. Items such as various paper weights and costs for both the cover and inside pages should be researched. The person along with the design editor will determine page-space availability. The routine types of work include:   1. Insure typesetting is accomplished,   2. Complete dummy preparation,  3. Determine agreements and costs with outside printer,   4. Constant liaison with design staff,  5. Determine overall production costs,   6. Assign staff tasks,   7. Evaluate staff.
    Design Editor
       The design editor is essentially a graphics and layout person. This person is responsible, with help from the  production staff, for the dummy sheets showing where each make-up unit will approximately be placed and located throughout the pages.  The person, with advice from main editors and production manager, should be able to tell other staff members how much space they will have for their portion of the publication. This will allow other staffs to assign specific pages to be filled with needed text and artwork.  The person and the design staff members will make some specific calculations about how much text will fit in certain pages considering type styles and column formats. This will allow literary staffs to make very detailed assumptions about how much material to write and/or gather to complete the publication. Producing infographics, infoboxes, photographs, drawings, line art, cartoons, and feature lettering will be the task of this editor and staff. The editor will coordinate artistic needs with the editor, associate editor, and design editor. Though it would be very beneficial for the art editor to be an accomplished artists that is not a prerequisite for the job. The routine types of work include:  1. Decide which photos and art to use with various stories and articles,   2. Constant liaison with main editors,   3. Complete dummy preparation,   4. Write headlines for stories/articles,   5. Decide on final column configurations for each section,  6. Determine design continuity throughout publication such as cover, running heads or logos as well as overall type, page continuity.    7. Evaluate staff.
    Arts Editor
       The art editor is responsible for producing reviews in the areas of music, drama, painting, dance, recordings, and literature. As with every position on this staff the idea is to learn about writing and how to put that writing into a pleasing format which other people will want to read and look at. Since the area is so wide, the editor must assess the abilities and interests of staff members before deciding upon  what to cover. The local cinemas might give passes to new shows to review or local bookseller might give copies of new books to review. The routine types of work include:   1. Coordinate stories with editors,   2. Keep time cards,   3. Assign, edit, and write arts stuff,   4. Assign stuff,    5. Discuss space with production manager ,    5. Evaluate staff.
    News Editor
       This editor will be responsible for assigning and/or producing articles and interviews, then editing them, checking space available. For purposes of complete coverage, approximately two times the amount of copy should be assigned for the space required to fill. The materials included in this section of the production could be the heart and soul of the pub. The editor is responsible for determining areas of interest to the school publics along with relevant issues of possible investigation as well as basic news events and happenings of the month. The editors responsibility to coordinate with the publisher, editor, and associate editor an overall direction of editorial content of the publication. The editor must be sure that there is complete coverage of all news events and that nothing is incomplete in devising a beat sheet. What are the issues that we wish to present? These are all questions that must be answered to produce an issue that will be accepted by others.  The key to all good writing is audience awareness. The editor will coordinate space with design and production and produce the news page dummies of this publication.  The routine types of work include: 1. Signing time cards of staff,   2. Distributing news release forms to areas of the school and staff,  3. Assign and edit beat stories,   4. Write some of main stories,   5. Assure deadlines met,   6. Work on editorial,   7. Write headlines,   8. Keep staff involved.  This is not cast is stone. We will use the abilities of those on the publication staff to determine our overall future.
    Sport Editor
       The post of sports editor is self-explanatory concerning the coverage of sports. The person will be in charge of gathering all information of past and future sporting events that would be of interest to his readership. The editor will be sure photographers are assigned by contacting the design editor. He will write or at least help write a sports column (perhaps editorial in nature). He will edit all staff work and submit to the associate editor. He will be sure that upcoming sports schedules are part of the sports pages as seen necessary. The routine types of work include:
1. Distribute News Release forms to areas difficult to cover,   2. Establish story lengths with production staff,   3. Assign, edit, and write sports stories,   4. Establish beats and assure coverage,   5.   Write column/editorial, 6. Layout pages with assist of design staff,   7. Write heads,   8. Sign time cards,   9. Write evaluations of staff.   
    Feature Editor    
       The feature editor is in charge of special subject areas not covered by the news department-the human interest side of the news-subjects not necessarily "in the news," but that could be "in the news" with some different angle of approach. Topics could be interviews with well-known people of any sidebar to regular news events, or background, interpretive, or color feature. Feature stories lend themselves well to graphics and illustrations and photos. This material will be coordinated with design. The routine types of work include: 1. Coordinating stories with associate editor,   2. Keeping time cards up-to-date,   3. Assign, edit, and write feature articles,   4. Read various publications for ideas for stories,   5. Study resource text for possible design formats for sections, pages, 6. Write headlines, subheads,   7. Assign word lengths to stories,   8. Evaluate staff.
    Copy Editor
       This is the position everyone coming to an  English class believes will be the major responsibility during the semester: checking style and grammar and minor revisions in a piece of writing. Everyone on the staff will have to take on some of this task, but there needs to be a coordinator to be sure spell checks have been run on the computer software. Also style issues are always checked with the AP stylebook. For hard to decide points, run question past an writing instructor.  There may be a  small staff  to guide, but many times the editor will work in conjunction with the other sections editors to be sure everything has appropriate style. The copy editor can also look into the types of software available to help writers prepare their work for publication submission. A staff presentation by the editor could be very informative as to how certain software can help in the invention and revision processes of writing. The duties of the editor are typical of the other editors only no stories are generated from the staff.
    Writers and Staff Members
       The staff of any publication in a specific department or subject area receives assignments from the editor. The editors should know an approximate length for stories they will be assigning or  soliciting from writers. Several staff members can combine their talents to research, interview, and write articles about any aspect of school life. When a solid draft has been completed and revised, then editors should become part of the publication cycle determining what needs to be changed if the piece is going to be considered for publication. If staff members and area editors cannot agree, then associate editor and publication editor can determine the direction of content.
    A writer will be given an assignment with a specific minimum length. The writer will then research the area an write a solid draft to be revised after editor consultation. Finally editor and reporter will determine possible cuts and additions. If the two cannot agree, the associate editor will determine the final draft content with the input from both members.
    It must be stressed that everyone of the people on this publication are very important. It might be that a staff reporter in the news department comes up with a major story for the publication. Without excellent coverage by this reporter the total paper is lessened and weakened. No publication can function without the staff members. They do the majority of the true work. Editors are nothing without the these performances. The ad people would have no publication to put advertisements in without the nitty- gritty production work of all members. If there is no body copy to surround these ads there is no publication.
    Therefore, everyone will be assigned to advertising beats and expected to contact the advertisers/businesses to get an ad. You will list the date, time, and person contacted for an ad on your time card. Without excellent research, creativity, and collaboration the total effort is lessened.
    As we progress,, I believe most of you will find a comfort zone within the framework of this learning experience. One of the interesting elements of this kind of classroom is that learning will happen without your actually realizing it. Most of the time coming to class will be enjoyable even though all of us will work very hard during these weeks. The routine types of work include: 1. Cover ad beat,   2. Discuss story or design or photo assignments with editor,   3. Wrote rough drafts or print contact sheets for editor approval,   4. Finalize rough drafts of copy and photos,   5. Discuss finalized material for location,   6. Check re-assignments with other staffs.
     One of the nice parts of this assignment is flexibility. One day you may be doing some nasty research in the library, but the next day you might be brainstorming the best ideas for design and content features. Staff members do the majority of the true work. Editors are nothing without these performances. The marketing people would have no publication to promote without the writing, researching, and designing by all the staff members.. Because if we do all of these things, we will know much more about writing when we are completed
    Therefore, everyone will be assigned every kind of task. Everyone will typeset and word process. Everyone will have ideas about page layouts and learn some Pagemaker, Photoshop and Freehand  stuff.
GUIDELINES  FOR  SPECIFIC  TASKS
    Any printed material must be directed at either a general or more specific audience. My thinking runs toward capturing two different groups with this one publication. The one group is students like yourself who are interested in the same kinds of crazy things you are interested in. The second group are the people who try to teach the first group.  People like me only not as crazy. Maybe we even consider some administrators and a few parents in that same grouping. Once we all have an idea about who the audience is, we might be able to figure out how we can get them to read or use our publication. Therefore, we would like to inform, persuade, entertain, and amuse those audience members who might set their eyes on our pages.
    We will need to think about how printed matter is distributed and consumed. We need to think about what we read or don't read. What is it that attracts us to a comic strip in the Sunday paper? What is it that keeps us from reading the editorial page in the local paper? What are the kinds of things that we enjoyed reading over the past few years? In the print media area of the journalism department we are talking about what will happen to newspapers in the 21st century. Computers, however, are taking over. Our whole society is ringed by those terminals and what they can accomplish. Keyboarding is not a frivolous class in junior high school. Keyboarding is a necessity. Knowing software is the next necessity. Microsoft Word and Word Perfect and what they represent are coming into the kitchen, the classrooms, into every phase of our lives. But how does all this relate to the printed word?
    Learn as much about software as you can.  There areclassmates, individuals, and guidesto help us all better understand how to use computers. I am going to ask that everyone learn the basics. I  hope that some of you will become fascinated enough to want to learn the more intricate elements of this software, because it is challenging and very practical if you want to get into areas of communications, business, or government.
    Individuals will come in and talk to us about Pagemaker, Freehand, and Photoshop so that you can have a better appreciation of what goes on in the field of desktop publishing. Later when you see ads and magazine layouts you may better understand where the designer was headed and what she was trying to do with your mind and eyes.
    Therefore our printed material will consider the questions of all newspapers and newsmagazines. Who, When, What, Why, Where, and How. Answering these questions of each event and topic apply to our operation.
    NEWS STORIES
       In a news story, people want facts; people want facts even in an editorial. By definition a fact is "what is proven and true." A news story should be a factual account of events written in such a way as to catch a reader's interest. That means the story must be written with a degree of clarity and expertise. Cover events where you will have direct access to avoid "second-hand" information. But there are some situations in covering news and interviewing where such information is necessary for the completion of the story. Observe two rules on coverage: 1. Never use the exact words of someone else without putting them in quotation marks,   2. When you quote someone or even when you paraphrase someone you must attribute the material to who said it.
    Guidelines for the news story: 1. State the date and time and place of the event somewhere in the story and usually somewhere in the lead,   2. Give the by-line at the top of the story, 3. Give a balanced, unbiased account of the various areas and people involved,   4. Catch the reader's interest with intriguing lead sentences and an opening paragraph.   5. Give examples of various people's opinions  who are involved with the story,   6. Present all sides especially when event/issue is controversial,   7. Include resolutions reached,   8. Identify any interpretation,   
9. Be sure to write a headline with an eye-catching sentence that has a subject, present tense  active verb, and object.
       SPORTS STORIES
       Sports news can deal with the local level, but try not to duplicate what the local press has accomplished in the areas of game summaries and commentary. As example, this publication would develop the same kinds of sports summaries and features as a "Time" magazine article as opposed to a straight game summary since there is such a delay between the time most athletic contests take place and the time the publication comes out.
    FEATURE STORIES
       Feature stories can cross subject area lines and need not be of compelling urgency, but rather should entertain, amuse, and interest readers. A feature story need not be as objective as the straight news story. Usually feature writers simply can represent one view-point rather than opinions of all people concerned with a story. But there should be an overall attempt on the editorial board to present a board-based evenness of opinions and attitudes about various topics.
    EDITORIALS
       Editorials express the opinion of the editors on any issue or topic which the editors feel strongly and which they feel should be brought to light and to the attention of the readers. Essentially an editorial is to make a particular point of  view seem to be the most reasonable. Therefore, the opposing point of view should be presented--fairly and succinctly. The editorial is a short argumentative essay. Here are some specific points: 1. Know your topic and comment that you will defend,   2. Focus as much as possible on facts and logic, thereby staying away from sensational or emotional approaches, though somewhat of an emotional appeal cannot be ruled out,   3. Try to have the editorials be the majority opinions of the editors,   4. Editorials may also be written to interpret the news, to entertain, to inform, to amuse, or especially to crusade for action in an area where there is little argument that the action needs to take place.
    CRITICAL REVIEWS
       A critical review can be thought of as a special kind of editorial. The type of writing which a review involves is well known to most of us who have watched the local TV stations' movie critics giving their various opinions on films currently at the theaters. If you have read the magazines and Sunday sections of newspapers, there are also fine examples of movie, book, art, and music. For the purposes of analysis, we will focus on how to accomplish a book review. The same kinds of approaches could be done with other types of reviews, however.
    A reviewer introduces the material to the audience. In doing so she must fulfill certain obligations: 1. Give her readers some impression of the book and what it was about even to the extend of retelling the subject matter of  non-fiction or the story line of a novel-very briefly-without spoiling the book for others, but enough material so that your comments can be fully appreciated and understood,   2. Discuss or analyze special features or problems in the work,   3. Interpret the work for the audience, suggesting new insights and pointing out items that others might overlook while reading,   4. Give an evaluation and reason for the evaluation,   5. Encourage or discourage someone to read the book or least what different characteristics of it might please or displease.
    TYPESETTING/DATA  INPUT
       If you can type--and everyone can--no matter what staff you are on, you will be working on the word processing before the text is placed in the desktop publishing software.
    LAYOUT
        Layout is a specialized and difficult area and is the province of the design and production staffs with advice from the editor.  It is important for all members of the staff understand the basic principles behind simple, consistent, and logical layouts., Very simply put the layout and format of the publication have to do with the number of pages, the size of the pages, the design of each page, the size of the stories on the pages, the placement of art elements on pages, the selection of the type styles used in headlines and body text, and the priority of the stories and headlines on each page. The following must be anticipated: 1. How many pages will be filled well and efficiently,   2. What order should the various sections of the paper be presented in,   3. Given the format of the individual pages, do you want three, four, or five columns or a variety of columns based upon a smaller-column template. 4. The production staff could also determine the number of words per column inch that a particular type styles and sizes and a given column width used for placement of body copy so that writing staff members would appreciate exactly how much space their minimum story lengths would fill,   5. How much white space should be left for headlines, decks, captions.  What kind of infographics would work.
    Layouts can be predetermined by dummies and drafts before the actual paper is computer designed or pasted up. This means that when stories are assigned the writers must be given minimum lengths, then lists of stories and lengths can be arranged/tabulated enabling the design staff to figure pages and configurations and locations of stories, art, graphics, and heads even before the actual copy is turned in. A small total page dummy should be gathered with a list of the stories and art on each of the pages and duplicated for all editors and managers.
    Some points of layout: 1. Make sure that headline and subhead space is figured into the layout space for every story included,   2. Be sure to proof read copy, run spell checks, and logic checks on work choices and syntax flow,   3. Never make any marks on final paste-up copy be sure to photocopy before editing with pencil or marker,  4. The best on-screen editing by a number of editors will miss many errors, so have all editors proof all the hard copy when the entire publication "seems" completed,   5. Neatness and care are watchwords, do nothing in last-minute haste without proofing thoroughly.
    PRINTING THE PUBLICATION
       Before the paper/magazine is far along a print shop must be contacted and certain ground rules which the print shop contact will help devise must be developed.  The cost to run the issue with various page allotments or with more than one color must be determined. Dates when the publication's mechanicals/flats or computer disk will be delivered to the print shop must be figured along with the turn-around time established by the printer. This is a very important element in the process. There should not be any misunderstandings with the printer and the print shop staff. A continual line of communication between the printer and our publication staff should be maintained.
    PROCEDURES
    • Each of you will apply for a job and give two alternative positions in case the first choice is not available. Fill out the job application completely.
    • An organizational chart will be given out as soon as editors and staffs are selected and the production work will begin in earnest. Editors should immediately sit down with their staffs and figure out coverage, special areas of interest,  reporters needed and assignment necessary. A person on each staff should be considered as the major force for working the design questions on that staff. There should be an assistant to the editor who will take that person's place in case of absence or other out-of-class event. Each area should immediately designate folders for rough story copy and final submissions.    
    • The entire editorial staff of the newspaper will hold several meetings  to discuss editorial policy and answer the question set forth in the syllabus.
    • The design staff will begin by making nameplates for the entire staff, submitting possible  cover/front page formats, and considering any infographics which might accompany upcoming stories or graphic design for pages or certain sections.
    • The news staff will begin by putting together a beat list. of story coverage
    • The sports staff will set up a sports beat sheet as well and compile any schedules for the up-coming season.
    • The feature and arts staffs will accomplish the same kinds of tasks and should have a list of personnel and who will be covering certain material and elements by the third meeting.
    • The production staff should work immediately with the main editors to answer question brought up in the syllabus specifically about times and schedules for deadlines of sections, final layout, and final date for submission to the printer.
    • The business staff will begin by putting together a list of business/industry and school vendors so that the various staff members can contact each for possible advertisements.  This should be a continuous and creative effort.
    • Everyone should work for the betterment of the total good of the publication. There should be no Lone Rangers
    • A time card will be kept daily for all the time spent in and out of class. This is an important factor in determining several of your grades. Time cards will be initialed by your editor (your immediate boss). Other grades will be determined on attendance, in-class work, actual work accomplished overall, editor evaluation, self-evaluation, ad sales, actual visits to various potential ad sites, cooperation, self-initiating work, and the completed time card. itself.

CONSIDERATIONS

    Considerations for publication production might include—but not be limited to— layout dummies, selection of authors, photo and artistic needs, literary reviews, page formatting elements, and black and white photographs.
    It will be your responsibility as a group to talk through and outline exactly how each person will be  assigned various positions, how selections of staff members and/or casting of individual members will fill 50 minute time periods during two weeks. There are a number of related and associated activities which are implied with the assignment that should bring out the best in your creative and instructional skills.

    
 



ASSIGNMENT:  PUBLISHING STUDENT MATERIALS
FOLLOWING THE RESEARCH




A major concern among many writing teachers is that students do not have enough potential for publishing their writing.  Publishing can begin by simply placing copies of drafts around a classroom and continue all the way through to submissions to national journals and publications.

Presenting students with a laboratory environment can be consistent with the academic English environment.  In several groups (no more than four in a group--having at least one member very computer literate concerning desk top publishing) put together a scenario which will produce a publication of your students' materials and writing.  

Describe how its staffing might evolve (See appendix J).  Go into detail as to how the staff and staff members would have specific tasks over the period of the




experience.  I am particularly interested in allowing students alternative tasks
during the time period, as well as getting students to complete all of the necessary steps which would have them on tasks for developing and producing a publication at the end of a unit.  

This means at the end of that time the students will have accomplished a four to sixteen page publication of their writings and creations.  


Determine to whom you will distribute the publication.  Lets say there are 485 students in grades 7 through 12 in your school and you have a general junior English class.  The school print shop can do the printing with halftone capabilities.  You do have darkroom access (shared with the printshop) and 35mm cameras available from the journalism teacher. You have four Macintosh computers available in the business department during the periods your English class meets and during activity periods and after school. The computers have Pagemaker software to accomplish desktop publishing.
 A Possible Lesson Plan
Using the Web for Writing Assignment
BY BILL HOLBROOK

OVERVIEW: MASTERY OBJECTIVES
    .  
With the plethora of activities revolving around “research” and inquiry to support a student’s hypothesis on issues, Web sites have become a natural extension to both complete the research activity and give the student practice using a variety of web sites.  But will such an activity be any more than a glorified summary of a bunch of material found on the Web?
    To avoid such an scenario, this is a lesson plan which incorporates using the sources from the web while adding some of the multiple intelligence and learning preference dimensions which might help many of our students.  This unit will use “hypertext... to explore meaning as a function of the relationship between word, image, and personal experience.”  (Multiple Intelligences in the English Class, Smargorinsky 14). Students take from the idea of “quest patterns’ which are part of mysteries and construct or reconstruct their own quest which they can compose in words and computer images.
    Therefore this unit establishes an awareness of how students can use the deductive reasoning of a detective to solve a personal dilemma.  This awareness should allow students the capabilities to manipulate the methods of the fictional detective or mystery sleuth with their own detective work in problem solving.  They will define the problem, view the problem from multiple points of view, map/outline best- and worst-case scenarios, determine what is impractical about alternative solutions, and finally determine the best possible solution considering time, costs, persons involved, and other practicalities.
    It is imperative that students choose problems which can be aided in their solutions by using potential sources on the web.  Examples of problems: engaging others more cleverly, moral and ethical responsibilities determined, becoming better scholars, understanding divorce, understanding teen-suicide, or overcoming or compensating for a physical challenge/disability.

RESOURCES:  

Several short detective or mystery stories of the students or teacher’s choosing, computers and access to the web.  To help student understand the practical processes of inductive reasoning.

INVOLVEMENT OBJECTIVES -  (What students will get into.)  Students will incorporate a number of mystery story elements into a hypertext project which include solving a personal dilemma. Also throughout this unit students should have the attitude of being a detective, being objective enough to see all possibilities, putting themselves above the fray as much as possible, and finally having a certain enjoyment in the overall solution to the problem.

COVERAGE OBJECTIVES

- (What the teacher will present.)
 I will present a variety of computer and mystery writing environments to enlarge students’ “take” on possible opportunities. I will give a personal dilemma of my own which the class as a whole will help me solve.  As example: Figuring out the best location and college where I could teach for the next ten years.   The students will look through a variety of web sites which might have potential help for job searching.  The students will engage in collaborative on-line and cooperative groups to develop possible avenues to find successful solutions to their problems and their partners problems.
    There will be the necessity to show how in deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning some issues can be solved from first making a general hypothesis and then constructing the specifics in support or first finding all of the specifics to come to a final generalization.

INVOLVEMENT OBJECTIVES
(continued)

Once the students have personal dilemmas which need solutions, they will be encouraged to map out possible physical obstacles, major experiences, events and their sequence, particular individuals involved, and possible directions they, the detective, might travel to solve the problem.  This is a nice item for using a variety of invention techniques and would give the teacher time to review all of those such a free-writing, mapping, looping, etc.
 
LESSON PLAN: Technology in the Classroom
By Bill Holbrook
OVERVIEW
    As the Writing Program expands its instruction to all freshman writing teachers, instructor would like ideas and lessons which “work” in on-line computer environments.  There is a desire to look at potential ideas and plans which “might work.”  Basic lessons which seemed to be beneficial for students (and the instructor? are listed. The real test of these ideas will be whether teachers see the practical elements to adapt the suggestions to their own lessons.
LESSON 1
FOR INTERPRETING AND EVALUATING TEXT
To help students evaluate and interpret literature: Before beginning the lessons teachers need to post a short, short story or essay on the software particular system, Common Place or Daedalus.  The next steps are relatively easy: In either several Daedalus conferences or in several columns within Common Space, the instructor sets up four elements:
∑ The first is a copy of the original piece of writing, the short short story or the essy.
∑ The second is an area where students decide what specific elements of the text seem most important to understanding the story or essay.
∑ The third is an area where students INTERPRET how and why those specific elements are important.
∑ The fourth is an area where students EVALUATE the worth of the story or essay especially in terms of the second and third categories.
LESSON 2
FOR UNDERSTANDING COLLABORATION AND COHESION
To help students collaborate on how material is selected and combined into readable drafts: Before beginning class instructor will need a prompt or even several prompts to match the level of the group.  Instruction to students:  In Daedalus interchange you are to briefly post some personal and preferably unusual anecdotes about weddings that you have attended or been a part. (Other topics include: weather stories, accident stories, family-outing stories, first-date stories, concert stories, or school-event stories.)  Upon the students’ completion of the initial narrative, they will work in four or five separate conferences.
∑ First, select what they believe the most interesting anecdotes.
∑ Second, write introductions and segues between anecdotes.
∑ Third, write closings.
∑ Fourth, share their results by cutting and pasting into a “final’s” conference.    
LESSON 3
In Common Space or Daedalus Interchange:
ELEMENTS OF STYLE
Style examples will need to be posted prior to class to have on-line conversation/discussions
1.  Students will be directed into seeing how the audience may not be as empowered by subjective wording as the reader would be with more objective wording of a place, event, scene  or character.  How phrases such as “grandma was one in a million doing everything to help others.”  has one kind of  affect as “hunched over the antique ice cream maker, she mashed the cream, ice, and sugar for fifteen minutes” has another affect.  
2.  Students can look at two different lists of verbs: “look,” “go,” “move,” and “run” versus another list: “ogle,” “meander,” “transport,” and “dash.”  A discussion on how everyday verbs affect the coloring of meaning versus how the more specific verbs color meaning.  
3.  In another style lesson examples can be posted where either nouns and pronouns allow for cohesion or seem to break down the needed links of understanding.  There are usually wonderful examples in the students diagnostic writing—especially if the writing is of a personal nature.
Students should be able to better view their own style when reading how other students view a variety of style examples.  Most teachers and students do not like “grammar” lessons, but a deal can be accomplished when opening style up to these on-line discussions.
To help students with narrative/experiential writing: Students incorporate description, characterization, dialogue, and narrative more successfully into their writing.  I will present a variety of computer and traditional writing environments to enlarge the opportunities for students to work with experiential writing so that it is not “this-is-what-I-had-for-lunch” essaying.
Students will accomplish the following computer tasks: Engage in on-line collaboratives and cooperative groups to see alternatives in writing styles while also developing on-line appreciation of the social aspects of composing.    
In Common Space or Daedalus for short story
Students check several web sites for stories or “how to” aids for story writing.  Students share aids through e-mail class list.  .Students discuss on e-mail “phone” in  collab. groups about story, style techniques which might work for each and how to incorporate into own stories. Students submit story proposals and possible plots from experiential backgrounds.  And later first draft by e-mail to instr.  Instr. has e-mail response.
1.  For character sketch - Each student writes a short profile (col. 1); next student enlarges for “roundness” (col. 2); next student adds dialogue (col. 3); next student adds conflict (col. 4). Students discuss in chat environment how type characters can or cannot work in certain elements of short story writing.
2.  For dialogue - Exchange on dialects, regionalisms, colloquialisms, slang. Could be salty.
4.    For short story - Students read Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour” (col. 1); interpret story (col. 2); evaluate story (col. 3); list practical applications for own story (col. 4).
E-mail, and web sites
1.  For descriptive essay - Students e-mail instructor and collab. group members on possible topics asking for suggestions; inst. and group respond. Group gets in “phone” e-mail to get ideas for revisions acting as “the dumb reader.”
2.  For character sketch - Students submit possible questions to ask similar real-life individual who could “fit” into a fictional character and profile.  Students could send questions by e-mail to that real-life “character” for potential responses.  Students could visit web sites of type individuals.
Fiction Writing and Computer Environments.
Daedalus
1.  For descriptive essay - After students type first sentences of descriptive essays into collaborative conferences, partners cooperate on how to improve with sentence level instructions and a variety of style approaches.
2.  For character sketch - First writing in interchange an introductory short, short piece on someone the student knows outside of the college.  Then an on-line discussion of how such a character could be worked into a variety of stories—what physical elements would help the reader, what personality elements?  After reading professional examples of character sketches on handouts, students, on-line, discuss how dialogue, action and narrative can better promote characterizations.
3.  For dialogue - - interchange interviews with five members in conference about natural voice, promoting character and action, and dramatic qualities versus real-world people and actions.  Students return from observations in a variety of public places and then, on-line, discuss what particular aspects of dialogue seem to make the most impact in-person and how those qualities can translate into better stories.
4.  For short story --  Students use invention elements of Expression sequence to get ideas to both begin and revise story topics.
     


  MLA STYLE LIST
(indent second line 5 spaces)
BOOKS
ONE AUTHOR
Berlin, James A. Writing Instruction In Nineteenth Century American Colleges. Carbondale:Southern Illinois UP, 1984.
TWO OR THREE AUTHORS
Segrume, Miller, Jessica Droll, and Nicholas Peters. The Wonder Years. Cambridge, Ma.: Bentley, 1982.
FOUR OR MORE AUTHORS
Michaels, Ralph M., et. al. Coming to Grips with the Grip. Urbana: NCTE, 1970.
UNKNOWN AUTHOR
The Shell Road Atlas. 10th ed. Atlanta: ATL Publishing, 1998.
CORPORATE AUTHOR
American Life Insurance. Opportunities in Investment Insurance. Indianapolis:  ALI, 1997.
 EDITOR
Bigotti, Andy, ed. Epistolary Civil War Writings. Reading: Heath, 1976.  
AUTHOR WITH AN EDITOR
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative Life of F. Douglass, an American Slave. Ed. David D. Blight. Boston:Bedford, 1993.
TRANSLATION
Eco, Umberto. Foucault’s Pendulum. Trans. William Weaver. San Diego: Harcourt, 1989.
TWO OR MORE WORKS BY SAME AUTHOR
Brown, Rita Mae, Riding Shotgun. New York: Bantam, 1998.
-----, Rubyfruit Jungle. New York: Bantam, 1988.
EDITION OTHER THAN THE FIRST
Selden, Raman. A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory. 2nd ed. Lexington: U of Kentucky P,1989.
MULTIVOLUME WORK
Foote, Shelby. The Civil War: A Narrative. 3 vols. New York: Random, 1958-74.
WORK IN AN ANTHOLOGY
Maugham, Somerset. “The Ant and the Grasshopper.”  Reading and Writing about Literature. Ed. Edward Proffitt. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace, 1990. 159-62.
INTRODUCTION OR PREFACE
Proffitt, Edward. Preface. Reading and Writing about Literature. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace, 1990. v-vii.
UNSIGNED ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLE
“Croatia.” The New Encyclopedia Brittanica: Micropaedia. 1991.
BOOKTITLE WITHIN A BOOKTITLE
Abbott, Keith. Downstream from Trout Fishing in America: A Memoir of Richard Brautigan. Santa Barbara: Capra, 1989.
TITLE IN QUOTATION MARKS WITHIN A BOOK TITLE
Faulkner, Dewey R. Twentieth Century Interpretations of “The Pardoner’s Tale.” Englewood Cliffs: Spectrum-Prentice, 1973.
BOOKS IN A SERIES
Laughlin, Robert M. Of Cabbages and Kings: Tales from Zinecantan. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology 23.  Washington: Smithsonian, 1977.
REPUBLISHED BOOK
McClintock, Walter. Old Indian Trails 1926. Foreword William Least Heat Moon. Boston: Houghton, 1991.
PERIODICALS
ARTICLE IN A MONTHLY MAGAZINE
Harrison, Barbara Grizzuti. “Collecting Stuff of Life.” Harper’s May 1996: 15-19.
ARTICLE IN A WEEKLY MAGAZINE
Gibbs, Nancy. "The EQ Factor." Time. 2  Oct. 1995: 60-8.
ARTICLE IN A NEWSPAPER
Walker, Doug. “Ex-teacher pleads guilty to sex assault.” Muncie Star Press. 13 Aug. 1997: A1
ARTICLE IN A JOURNAL PAGINATED BY VOLUME
LeDoux, Joseph. "Emotion and the Limbic System Concept." Concepts in Neuroscience
 2 (1994): 123-45
ARTICLE IN A JOURNAL PAGINATED BY ISSUE
Johnson, G. J. “a Distinguishing Model of Serial Learning.” Psychological Review 98.2 (1991):
204-17.
UNSIGNED PERIODICAL ARTICLE
“Covert Operation.” National Times Apr. 1996: 51.
REVIEW
Shetley, Vernon. “The Changing Light.” Review of A Scattering of Salts, by James Merrill. New
Republic 5 June 1995: 38.
EDITORIAL
“Ball State Should Get a Yearbook Back in Print.” Editorial.  Daily News  30 Apr. 1998: 4.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Jones, Michael. Letter. “X-Rated.” Muncie Star  23 Mar 1993: A4.
CD-ROMs and online sources, e-mail
CD-ROM ISSUED PERIODICALLY
Sawyer, Kathy. “Ocenography: Rising Tide Lifts Warming Case.” Washington Post 12 Dec.
1994: A2 InfoTrac: National Newspaper Index. CD-ROM. Information Access. Jan. 1995
CD-ROM ISSUED IN A SINGLE EDITION
“O’Keefe, Georgia.” The 1995 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. Danbury: Grolier, 1995.
ONLINE MATERIAL FROM A COMPUTER SERVICE
Mann, Charles C., and Mark L. Plummer. “Empowering Species.” Atlantic Monthly Feb. 1995. Atlantic Monthly Online. Online. America Online. 16 Feb. 1995.
ONLINE MATERIAL FRM A COMPUTER NETWORK
Spetalnick, Terrie. “Privacy in the Electronic Community.” EDUCOM Review 28.3 (1993): n.
pag. Online. Internet. 7 Feb 1995. Available: gopher.cic.net.
ONLINE JOURNAL
Page, Barbara. “Women Writers and the Restive Text: Feminism, Experimental Writing, and
 Hypertext.” Postmodern Culture 6.2 (1996): n. pag. Online. Internet. 3 Apr. 1996. Available:
gopher://jefferson.village.virginia.edu:70/00/pubs/pmc/issue.196/page.196.
E-MAIL
Holbrook, William L. “Process Journal Procedures.” E-mail to Michael Beano. 8 Sep. 1998.
ONLINE POSTINGS TO A NEWSGROUP
Ventresca, Lucy. “Winemaking.” 20 Jan. 1996. On-line posting. Newsgroup soc.cultures.italian.Usenet. 1 Feb. 1996.
For further help look on internet - http://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/mla.html

OTHER SOURCES
PAMPHLET OR GOVERNMENT PUBLICATION
United States Dept. of the Interior. National Park Service. Ford’s Theater and the House Where Lincoln Died. Washington: GPO, 1989.
DISSERTATION
Holbrook, William L. “A Study of Relationships between Emotional Intelligence and Basic Writers’ Skills.” Diss. Ball State U. 1997.
DISSERTATION ABSTRACT
Holbrook, William. “A Study of Relationships…” DAI 48 (1997) 2003A. Ball State U.
PERSONAL INTERVIEW
Hanson, Linda K. interview. 20 Apr. 1998.
PUBLISHED INTERVIEW
Clinton, William. Interview. Playboy. Jan 1998. 33-41.
FILM OR VIDEOTAPE
North by Northwest.  Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. With Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint. MGM, 1959.
Through the Wire. Dir. Nina Rosenblum. Narr. Susan Sarandon. Videocassette. Fox/Lorber Home Video, 1990.
RADIO OR TELEVISION PROGRAM
Be-Bop City. With Michael Anderson. WBGO, Newark. 23 May 1995.
“This Old Pyramid.” With Mark Lehner and Roger Hopkins. Nova. PBS. WGBH, Boston. 4 Aug. 1993.
LIVE PERFORMANCE OF A PLAY
The Sisters Rosensweig. By Wendy Wasserstein. Dir. Daniel Sullivan. With Jane Alexander, Christine Estabrook, and Madeline Kahn. Barrymore, New York. 11 July 1993.
RECORD, TAPE, OR CD
Handel, George Frideric. Messiah. Cond. Charles Mackerras. English Chamber Orch. And the Ambrosian Singers. Angel, R 67-2682, 1967.
PUBLISHED PROCEEDINGS OF A CONFERENCE
Howell, Benita J., ed. Cultural Heritage Conservation in the American South. Proc. Of Southern Anthropology Society. Tampa, 1988.  Athens; U of Georgia P, 1990.
WORK OF ART
Cassatt, Mary. At the Opera. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
PERSONAL LETTER
Ash, Arthur. Letter to his wife. 17 Nov. 1987.
LECTURE OR PUBLIC ADDRESS
Norman, Marsha. “Women as Leading Characters.” Emens  Auditorium, Muncie. 23 Mar 1998.
CARTOON
Davis, Jim. “Garfield.” Cartoon. Muncie Star Press 23 July 1998: D3
MAP OR CHART
Spain/Portugal. Map. Paris: Michelin, 1992.
 


 

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
 FROM OTHER METHODS INSTRUCTORS (some Bracken reference numbers included)

NCTE = National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W. Kenyon Rd., Urbana, Illinois 61801-1096
Atwell, Nancy. In the Middle: New Understandings about Writing, Reading, Learning. Portsmouth:
Heinemann, 1998.
Bartholomae, David & Anthony Petrosky. Facts, Artifacts and Counterfacts: Theory and Method for a
Reading and Writing Course. Upper Montclair: Boynton/Cook, 1986.
Beach, Richard. A Teacher's Intro to Reader-ResponseTheory. Urbana: NCTE, 1993.
Best, Judith.  Teaching Political Theory: Meaning Through Metaphor.
Bishop, Wendy. Released into Language: Options for Teaching Creative Writing. Urbana: NCTE, 1990.
Braunger, Jane and Jan Lewis> Building A Knowledge Base in Reading. Urbana: NCTE, 1997
Caine, Renate and Geof Caine. Making Connections: Teaching & the Brain. Alexandria: ASCD, 1991.
LB1057 C33
Christenbury, Leila. Making the Journey: Being and Becoming a Teacher of English
-----. Books for You: An Annotated Booklist for Senior High Students. Urbana: NCTE, 1995.
Costanzo, Will. Reading Movies: 12 Films on Video and How to Teach Them. Urbana: NCTE, 1992.
Curran, Jane and Marlo Welshons. eds. Ideas Plus: A Collection of Practical Teaching Ideas -- Bk 11
Urbana: NCTE, 1995.
Elbow, Peter. Writing with Power.
-----, What is English? Urbana: NCTE, 1990.
English Journal. Vol 84, No. 2, February 1995.
Farrell, Edmund. and James Squire. Transactions with Lit: 50 Year Perspective. Urbana: NCTE, 1990.
Foster, Harold. Crossing Over: Whole Language for Secondary English Teachers. NY: Harcourt, 1994.
Fundamentals of Poetry (No Author) Language Kit Co. 30 N. Washington St. Chicago, 60602, 1963
Golub, Jeff. Activities to Promote Critical Thinking  Urbana: NCTE, 1986 PE66 A33
Graves, Donald Writing: Teachers and Children at Work . Exeter: Heinemann, 1983.
Heath, Shirley Brice and Leslie Magnolia. Children of Promise.Washington,DC: AERA, 1991.
Kennedy, Mary., ed. Teaching Academic Subjects to Diverse Learners. NY: Teachers College P, 1991.
Kirby, Dan and Tom Liner. Inside Out: Developmental Strategies for Teaching Writing. 2nd ed.
Langer, Judith A. ed. Literature Instruction: A Focus on Student Response. Urbana: NCTE, 1992.
LB1575.5 U5 L58
Loomans, Diane and Karon Kolberg. The Laughing Classroom: Everyone's Guide to Teaching with Humor and Play.  Tiburon, CA: HJ Kramer, 1993
Macrorie, Ken. Telling Writing. Rochelle Park: Hayden, 1980.
Moran, Chas. and Eliz. Penfield, eds. Conversations: Contemporary Critical Theory in the Teaching of
Literature. Urbana: NCTE, 1990.  LB1576 W76
McCaslin, Nellie. Creative Drama in the Intermediate Grades: A Handbook. NY: Longman, 1987.
Milner, Joseph O. and Lucy F. Milner. Bridging English. NY: Macmillan, 1993.
Moffett, James. Active Voice. Upper Montclair: Boynton/Cook, 1981
Muschla, Gary. The Writing Teacher's Book of Lists. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1991.
Noguchi, Rei. Grammar and the Teaching of Writing : Limits and Possibilities. Urnbana:NCTE, 1991
Peterson, Ralph. Grand Conversations: Literature Groups in Action. NY: Scholastic, 1990. LB1082 P48.
Pugh, Sharon et. al. Bridging: A Teacher's Guide to Metaphorical Thinking. Urbana: NCTE, 1992.
Purves, Rogers and Sotor. How Porcupines Make Love III:  Readers, Texts, Cultures in the Response
Reys, Ray. the Ten Commandments for Teaching: A Teacher's View. Washington, DC: NEA, 1991.
LB1025.3 R49
Rice, Ruth. English Teacher's Book of Instant Word Games. NY: Center Applied Research in Ed., 1992.
Rouse, John. Provocations: The Story of Mrs. M. . Urbana: NCTE, 1993
Shaughnessy, Mina. Errors and Expectations: Guide for the Teacher of BasicWriting. NY: Oxford, 1977
Sheridan, Daniel. Teaching Secondary English:Readings & Applications. White Plains: Longman, 1993
LB1631 C87
Smagorinski, Peter. Expressions: Multiple Intelligences in the English Class. Urbana: NCTE, 1991.
LB1025.3 A76
Smagorinski, Peter. et. al. Explorations: Intro Activities for Literature and Comp. Urbana: NCTE, 1987.
Small, Robert C. and Joseph E. Strzepek A Casebook for English Teachers: Dilemmas & Decisions
LB1631 S58
Strouf, Judie. Lit. Teacher's Book of Lists. W. Nyack: Center for Applied Research in Education, 1993
Ed Resources: PN59 S87
Taylor, Mildred. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
Tchudi, Stephen. The Astonishing Curriculum: Integrating Science and Humanities. Urbana: NCTE, 1993.
Tchudi, Stephen and Diana Mitchell. Explorations in the Teaching of English.  3rd ed.  NY: Harper Collins, 1989.  PE1065 T35.
Vine, Harold. and Mark Faust. Situating Readers: Students Making Meaning. Urbana: NCTE, 1993.
Wiesel, Elie. Night.
 
BIBLIOGRAPHIES FOR YA NOVELS
FROM ENGLISH JOURNAL, MARCH 1997
Here's a list of best books from over the last 30 years to use with young adults as recommended in English Journal.  We will use this list for partially completing our assignment on finding 50 titles to engage students in a unit on responding to teen difficulties.  In this assignment you should not only use the following titles but any poems, articles, essays, songs, artwork, videos that would engage students in better understanding themselves and the ways of living with and perhaps overcoming the difficulties of this particular hardship or worry or agony or disappointment--whatever the reality.
    The year listed for each year is the first year of publication in the United States.  There is a brief annotation, no matter how well they are known.  A few may have been forgotten by teachers or librarians. Others may be less well known than they deserved--then or now.
1964 - Jean Merrill's The Pushcart War (New York, Scott). The finest YA/children's satire. War inevitably erupts between NY City pushcart owners and drivers of those mammoth trucks that hog the city streets.  Funny and true about humans.  Runners-up - Lloyld Alexander's The Book of Three. (NY: Holt) First of the wonderful Prydain quintet. Mary Stolz's A Love, or a Season (NY: Harper Row). The first YA novel to treat love and sexual tension with affection and dignity.
1965 - Nat Hentoff's Jazz Country (NY: Harper). A young white man in love with jazz must enter the African American world to understand jazz.  Runners-up Lloyd Alexander's The Black Cauldron (NY: Holt). Second of the Prydain quintet.  Irene Hunt's Across Five Aprils (Chicago: Follett). The Civil War comes to a farm family.
1966 - Scott O'Dell's The King's Fifth (Boston: Houghton Mifflin). Conquistadors plunder and ravage the New World in search of gold.  Runner-up - Lloyd Alexander's The Castle of Llyr. (NY: Holt). Third in Prydain quintet.
1967 - Robert Lipsyte's The Contender (NY: Harper). Boxing and caring can change a lost kid. Runners-up - S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders (NY: Viking) Pony Boy and his friends see violence and death surround them. Lloyd Alexander's Taran Wanderer  (NY: Holt). The fourth Prydain.
1968 - Alan Gardner's The Owl Service (NY: Walck). One of a half dozen classic YA novels. Three young people replay a Welsh myth from the Mabinogion. Ursula K. LeGuin's A Wizard of Earthsea. (Berkeley, CA: Parnassus). How Ged learns the power of word magic.  Maia Wojciechowska's A Single Light (NY: Harper). An unloved Spanish girl finds someone to love, a white marble statue of the Christ Child.  Runners-up - Lloyd Alexander's The High King (NY: Holt). the Fifth Prydain, the final and greatest of the five. Paul Zindel's The Pigman. (NY: Harper Row). John and Lorraine find love and death in the same person.
1969 - Paul Zindel's My Darling, My Hamburger. (NY: Harper). Love and sex and betrayal come to a young girl. Runners-up - Bruce Clements' The Face of Abraham Candle (NY: Farrar Straus Giroux). In silver-mining-era Colorado, a boy helps plunder treasures from Mesa Verde.  A. E. (Annabel and Edgar) Johnson's A Blues I Can Whistle (NY: Four Winds). A boy who failed at suicide explains how he got there.
1970 - Barbara Wersba's Run Softly, Go Fast. (NY: Antheneum). A product of the 1960's learns how to survive his time, endure his father, and accept sex and love. Runner-up - Irene Hunt's No Promises in the Wind. (Chicago: Follett). Two brothers hit the road in the Depression.
1971 - Leon Garfield's The Strange Affair of Adalaide Harris (NY: Pantheon). A comedy of errors begins two schoolboys leaving a baby sister outdoors to see if wild animals will rescue her. Runner-up - Ursula K. LeGuin's The Tombs of Atuan (NY: Atheneum). Second of the Earthsea books.
1972 - Robert Newton Peck's A Day No Pigs Would Die (NY: Knopf). Episodic pictures of a boy's life on a Depression-era farm. Runner-up - Ursula K. LeGuin's The Farthest Shore (NY: Atheneum). Third of the Earthsea books.
1973 - Alice Childress' A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich (NY: Coward, McCann, and Geoghegan). A family tries to save a young drug user from himself.  Paula Fox's The Slave Dancer (Scarsdale: Bradbury). A boy who plays music on a slave ship to keep the "cargo" in peak physical condition learns what a rotten business he's in. Runners-up - Alan Gardner's Red Shift (NY: Macmillan). A narrative set in three times: Roman Britain, the English Civil War, and the modern world. Gardner's most complex book. Jane Gardam's The Summer After the Funeral (NY: Macmillan). For a young girl, the summer after the death of her demanding and possessive father is a time of sexual maturity and finding her identity.  An exceptionally mature novel.
1974 - Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War (NY: Pantheon). One of the few truly fine YA novels. Standing for what he believes in and violence and betrayal and a chocolate-sale ultimately do Jerry Renault in. Leon Garfield's The Sound of Coaches (NY: Viking). A boy seeks his identity and his father on the eighteenth century London stage.  Runner-up - William Sleator's  House of Stairs (NY: Dutton). Six young people are placed in a strange house with stairs going everywhere, and nowhere at all.
1975 - M. E. Kerr's  Is that You, Miss Blue? (NY: Harper). Kerr's finest book, a story of girls growing up among religious mysticism.  Runners-up - Judy Blume's Forever (Scarsdale: Bradbury). One of the few honest stories of love and sex. Robert C. O'Brien's Z for Zachariah (NY: Atheneum). The end of the world and all humanity--or is it?
1976 - nancy Bond's A String in the Harp (NY: Atheneum). A dysfunctional family transplanted to Wales to learn to become a family once more. Intertwined is a Welsh myth about Taliesin's harp key.  An underrated and overlooked author. Rosa Guy's Ruby (NY: Viking). What love is for an impressionable girl. Runners-up - Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (NY: Dial). An African American family learns about evil and staying together.  Robert Westail's The Machine-Gunners (NY: Greenwillow). Boys play at war during WWII. Then a downed German plane brings reality to their games.
1977 - Katherine Patterson's Bridge to Terabithia (NY: Crowell). A boy learns about sexism and friendship in a wonderful book that children, YAs and adults love.  Runners-up - Robert Cormier's I am the Cheese (NY: Pantheon). Can any government be totally trusted? Jane Gardam's Bilgewater (NY:Greenwillow). Ignored by her father on anything important, Marigold romanticizes her mother.
1978 - Robin McKinley's Beauty (NY: Harper). One of those rare great books. A retelling of the beauty and the beast legend, almost as satisfying as watching Jean Cocteau's surrealistic film. Walter Wangerin, Jr.'s The Book of the Dun Cow (NY: Harper). How often do two great books come in one year? An animal fantasy and theological thriller featuring Chaunticleer, the rooster, and Wyrm, the snake, and the battle between good and evil.  Runner-up - Sandra Scoppettone's  Happy Endings are all Alike (NY: Harper). The most honest and graphic story of violation in YA literature and the most despicable rapist.  How we do miss Scoppettone's honesty since she stopped writing YA books.
1979 - Robert Cormier's After the First Death (NY: Pantheon). Terrorism and innocence and governmental idiocy meet, and chaos and death follow.  Runners-up - Sue Ellen Bridges' All Together Now  (NY: Knopf). Casey comes to a small Southern town during the Korean War and meets the retarded but delightful Dwayne. Harry Mazer's The Last Mission (NY: Delacorte). Mazer's semi-auto-biographical story of a young Jewish boy who enlists during WWII to destroy Hitler.
1980 - Katherine Patterson's  Jacob I Have Loved (NY: Crowell). The eldest of twins feels she is less favored and feels she is called to sacrifice for her sister.  Runners-up - Mildred Lee's The People Therein  NY: Clarion). 1910 Appalachia and its strong people and how they face poverty.  A book that deserves readers today.  Jan Slepian's The Alfred Summer (NY: Macmillan). Four outcasts who refuse to face their limitations succeed in building a boat. The term inspirational is too often applied to too many books, but it really does apply to this book.
1981 - Sue Ellen Bridges'  Notes for Another Life. (NY: Knopf). Two children live with their grandparents because their father is mentally ill and their mother is too weak to handle all her problems.  Cynthia Voigt's Homecoming (NY: Antheneum). When their mother abandons her four children, they head out for a distant relative.  Runners-up Harry Mazer's The Island Keeper (NY: Delacorte). Hating herself and mourning the death of her sister, a girl flees to an island and learns to survive a wilderness and herself.  Judy Blume's Tiger Eyes (Scarsdale: Bradbury). A girl becomes the mainstay or a family after her father is killed.
1982 - Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword (NY: Greenwillow). A kidnapped girl, Harry, becomes a warrior and a hero. Runners-up - Richard Blessing's A Passing Season (Boston: Little Brown). In a working-class town where football is the only way to prove a boy's manhood, a boy tries to please his father. Meredith Ann Pierce's The Darkangel (Boston: Little Brown). first of trilogy in which Ariel sets out to save her mistress who has been kidnapped by a vampire.
1983 - Chris Crutcher's Running Loose (NY: Greenwillow). Louie is kicked off the football team, and his girlfriend is killed in a stupid accident. But his parents stand by him. A remarkable first novel.  Runners-up - Julian Thompson's The Grounding of Group Six (NY: Avon). A group of new students at a school learn their parents want them killed.  Jill Paton Walsh's A Parcel of Patterns (NY: Farrar Straus Giroux). A plague almost destroys an English village in 1665.
1984 - Bruce Brook's The Moves Make the Man. (NY: Harper). A young African American learns about white kids and basketball.  William Sleator's  Interstellar Pig (NY: Dutton). A bored kid on vacation is fascinated by people next door and a board game they play and learns that neither is what it first appeared.  Runner-up - Margaret Mahy's The Changeover (NY: Macmillan). A girl falls in love and uses her psychic powers to become a witch.
1985 - Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown (NY: Greenwillow). A continuation of the Blue Sword and Harris' adventures in the Kingdom of Damar. Runner-up - William Sleator's Singularity (NY: Dutton). For years, Harry has resented the domination of his twin. Then he finds a way of growing older than his brother.
1986 - Paula Fox's The Moonlight Man (NY: Bradbury). Catherine tries vainly to establish a relationship with her alcoholic father. Runners-up - Jerry Spindelli's Jason and Marceline (Boston: Little, Brown). Jason tries desperately to find out what girls really want, especially if it's what he wants.  Cynthia Voigt's Izzy, Willy-Nilly (NY: ). Friendship permeates the story of a girl who has a leg amputated.
1987 - Bruce Clements' The Treasure of Plunderell Manor (NY: Farrar Straus Giroux). A nineteenth century tale of an orphan, an heiress, two evil villains, and adventures aplenty mixed with humor. Margaret Mahy's  Memory (NY: McEderry). A young man desperate to forget the death of his sister and an old woman who remembers almost nothing.  Runner-up - Brock Cole's The Goats (NY: Farrar Straus Giroux). Two summer camp social outcasts are tossed naked into the wilderness and left to find their way home.
1988 - Ron Koertge's The Arizona Kid (Boston: Little Brown). Billy is sent to Tucson to live with his gay Uncle Wes. Truthful and funny. Runner-up Walter Dean Myers' Fallen Angels (NY: Scholastic). An African American enlists in the service to escape his neighborhood and fights in Vietnam. Memorable and honest.
1989 - Brock Cole's Celine (NY: Farrar Straus Giroux). Celine is surrounded by nice but confusing people like her young stepmother and her child-neighbor Jake, all of them holding back her art and her writing. A witty and funny novel. Peter Dickinson's Eva (NY: Delacorte). The daughter of a scientist discovers she is half human/half chimpanzee after a terrible car accident. Dickinson poses moral questions we all need to consider.  Runners-up Francesca Lia Block's Weezie Bat (NY: Harper). First of Block's Los Angeles-psychedelic novels with improbable people doing ever more improbable things.  Tessa Duder's In Lane Three, Alex Archer (Boston: Houghton Mifflin). Alex Archer, a swimmer, sets her sights on the Olympics.
1990 - Avi's The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (NY: Orchard). Derring-do in the nineteenth century as Charlotte becomes involved in a mutiny at sea. Runner-up - Annette Curtis Klause's The Silent Kiss (NY: Delacorte). Trying to accept her mother's coming death to cancer, Zoe is fascinated by a handsome young man who claims her must kill his vampire brother.
1991 - Robert Cormier's We All Fall Down (NY: Delacorte). Kids trash a home, and one of the group feels guilt and tries to make amends. Runner-up - Will Hobbs' Downriver (NY: Atheneum). A girl rebels against her father and with seven other alienated kids sets out to go down the Grand Canyon on their own.
1992 - Berlie Doherty's Dear Nobody (NY: Orchard). A pregnant girl writes letters to her unborn child while her remarkable boyfriend tries to reestablish relations with his mother. Runner-up Paul Zindel's The Pigman and Me (NY: Harper). How the  Pigman came to be and who the pigman really was.
1993 - Lois Lowry's  The Giver (Boston: Houghton Mifflin). The finest recent YA/children's/adult novel about perfect society predicted on denying everything that makes us human and free.  Runners-up - Peter Dickinson's A Bone from a Dry Sea (NY: Delacorte). A girls joins her father on an African expedition, and while their relationship is slowly re-established, she finds clues to the existence of a young girl millions of years ago.  Gary Paulsen's Harris and Me (San Diego: Harcourt). Classic humor as a boy is dumped onto the world.








REFERENCE
TEXTS
FOR TEEN LIT.
WITH BRACKEN REF. NO.

Adolescents at Risk: A Guide to fiction and non-fiction for Young Adults, Parents and Professionals
Gen - PS643. K28 1993.
America as Story: Historical Fiction for Secondary Schools - Gen Z1232 H68 1997.
Best Books for Senior High Readers (Ed Res Ref Z1037 G483 1991.
Best Books for Young Adults: The Selections, The History, The Romance - Ed Res Z1037.c34 1994.
Book Bait:  Detailed Notes on Adult Books Popular Among Young People - Gen Z1037 W26 1988.
Comics to Classics: A Parents Guide for Teens and Preteens - Gen Z1037 A1 R428 1988.
Hit List: Frequently Challenged Books for Young Adults  - Ed Res Ref Z1019. H68 1996.
The Newberry Companion  - Ed Res Ref Z1037 A2655 1996.
Non-fiction for Young Adults: From Delight to Wisdom - Gen Z1037 A1 C345 1990
What Do Young Adults Read Next? A Readers Guide to Fiction for Young Adults - Ed. Res Ref Z1037 S7575 1994.
Young Adult Fiction by African Writiers, 1968-1993: A Critical an Annotated Guide - Gen PS153
N5 K88 1996.



    
 
 APPENDIX M

THE MBTI  SURVEY
Looking at learning styles in the secondary classroom

   Because several colleagues used student results of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to complement composing and personality issues when teaching basic writers, I became interested in its classroom and research usages.  As researchers George Jensen and John DiTiberio assert, individual learning behaviors, motional aspects, and personality preferences illustrate how students are situated within their learning processes. The MBTI's administration and analysis aid in such illustrations.
Jensen sees studies by Lunsford, Perl, Pianko, and Sommers as self-fulfilling prophecies because of reductionist perspectives and parameters.  The studies, which tested for basic writer deficiencies, dismiss a wide range of learning styles, personalities, emotional and cognitive skills according to Jensen.   He believes that if students are not surveyed with the MBTI, making sweeping generalizations about all basic writers can be problematic (53-4).   Students should all be surveyed with the MBTI to consider as much individual uniqueness as possible.   "We should not believe that there is any one way to define, signify, label, identify, or teach students." (Jensen 63).   
Along with Naomi Quenk, Jensen and DiTiberio explain C. G. Jung's theory of personality development and how as children we develop preferred processes while as we mature we develop the "unpreferred" (Jensen 78). Developmental issues concern initial preferred attitudes and functions and are established early within a personality. The MBTI, using Jung's model of personality, is "a measure of one's expressed preferences on each of four dimensions.  It is not, however, a performance test and does not measure how well people use their preferred cognitive processes" (28).

WHAT SUITS US  

According to Bayne, "personality type" explains how to be effective and fulfilled by what "suits" us (1).   In each type one of four functions dominates the other when they interact.   The attitudes are Extrovert or Introvert; Judging or Perceiving; while the functions are Sensing or iNtuition; and Thinking or Feeling.  The interaction of function and attitude equals "type dynamics" creating our personality. "Type theory spells out radically different styles of studying, teaching, and writing effectively.  It suggests emphasizing a person's own style (stemming in theory mainly from their dominant function) and then adding elements of the other styles" (Bayne 135).  For example thinkers will respond more to people's ideas than to people's feelings.
Jensen and DiTiberio ask us to better "appreciate the varied approaches that individuals take to writing...and be more tolerant of writing processes that are quite different than our own" (74). "The MBTI can powerfully deliver the message that writing processes differ, that a writer's strengths and weaknesses are related, and that not all writers follow the same developmental path" (74).  They refute the possibility that all types can preference Flower and Hayes 1981 process goals--how we get things done as we process--"which ideally include plans to stop at key intervals to analyze and revise objectives" (68).  Therefore the cognitive process of writing may be fine for judging types, but may be difficult for perceiving types.  
According to the two researchers, a teacher must look at various learning situations--influence of the site, influence of type of learning, the influence of situation--and how all exert affects on individual's processes. (73).

PREFERRED VERSUS UNPREFERRED

As you know there are certain circumstances and learning situations you enjoy over other ones.  One of the realities of education is to help student upgrade abilities.  To do their best in learning situations, students must rely on both their preferred styles and processes and embrace less comfortable ones (Jensen DiTibero 73).  But there are problems with the high school student's development.  He or she may not have fully developed certain preferences at this particular age.  Therefore the student may not be in control of the overall positive elements of a function or attitude.  For instance intuitive types should not try unique approaches to a technical report, "...they may have to follow directions carefully and shape their ideas within the format of a standard technical report" (74).   Such alterations can be disconcerting and stressful, but awareness within a classroom can aid abilities to shift more easily.  For example, knowing preferences can help students write and teachers teach those students to process their writing efficiently.

SUMMARY

 The MBTI survey allows for an awareness of the preferences, functions, and attitudes. The MBTI, is basic leverage to explain, at the very least, differences among students. As teachers, we do not always consider the uniqueness and individuality of our students, the MBTI is a instrument to illustrate that uniqueness and individuality.
Based on Jung's theory of typology, the  survey discovers certain aspects of personal preferences of students as they perform within the classroom .  According to Quenk:
 the system focuses on how people go about gathering information about the world (perception), how they reach conclusions about what they have perceived (judgment), and what their sources or energy are (attitude or orientation).  Based on many years of keen observation, Jung hypothesized two opposite ways of perceiving, sensation (or sensing) versus intuition, and two opposite ways of judging, thinking versus feeling.
In addition to these opposite mental functions or processes, Jung described two opposite attitudes or orientations of energy, extroversion versus introversion. (3)

FOUR PAIRS

The four pairs of equally valid preferences are: Extroversion v. Introversion; Sensing v. iNtuition; Thinking v. Feeling; and Judging v. Perceiving.  Extroverts tend to generate ideas best when talking and prefer to leap into writing with little planning; introverts, on the other hand, need solitude to think best and prefer to plan extensively before writing. Sensing types tend to prefer prescribed organizational patterns, detailed directions, and factual topics; intuitive types prefer original organizational patterns, general directions, and imaginative, abstract topics.  Thinking types have very patterned organizational structures, while feeling types tend to write best when they just follow the flow of their thoughts.  Judging types tend to be overly exclusive writers, often writing very short essays, but perceiving types tend to be overly inclusive, often writing rambling, expansive essays (55). Individuals therefore can fall into one of sixteen combinations of the four groups.
 "Type theory spells out radically different styles of studying, teaching and writing effectively.  It suggests emphasizing a person's own style (stemming in theory mainly from their dominant function) and then adding information of the other styles" (Jensen "Styles" 135).  The logic and practicality of the MBTI seems evident, but not everyone has seen typology as a sentient pedagogical tool (Bayne).

POSSIBLE RAMIFICATIONS
   
The MBTI survey allows for  further discussion on whether or not there are distinctions between traits and abilities.  Can we distinguish between being an extrovert and having the ability to understand another person's emotional state or between a preference for detail and having the ability to adroitly master mathematical skills.  Intelligences seem to be "about" degrees of ability?  And preferences or traits seem to be "about" style and attitudes that make up our personality which in turn seem to eventuate into our abilities.  We are able to add; we are able to be linguistically adroit; we are able to have musical skills; we are able to be empathetic; we are able to relate well with others--these seem to be a portion of our multiple intelligences (Gardner, Goleman, Mayer, Salovey).  But we have preferences which allow us to accomplish those skills, and, therefore, it would seem to be important to understand a person's traits and skills in combination.  As we strengthen neuronal synapses within our brain through our preferences, we thereby learn how these preferences enable us to figure, refigure, and then configure the everyday problem solving elements of our world. And we hope to also learn how our preferences can disable us from attempting the same solutions.

    CHARTS SHOW VARIABLES

    To appreciate the reliability and validity of the survey, you will all have taken it and seen its results.  Most methods students are intriqued.  To see the connections between attitudes and funcitons the following charts are included.