This is always a mixed bag. I think many students enjoyed the free time to read. They weren't thrilled about having to blog, but they found it more interesting than just turning in more traditional papers and assignments.
However, some didn't manage their time well. Which comes as no surprise to me. Since this is a remedial reading class. It reinforces one constant theme: they don't have the work ethic yet. But it's my job to try and instill that in them.
That's no easy task.
If you're looking for examples, here are the only two.
Mocking Jay
Lucille's Car Care (this one isn't finished, though)
You see in addition to work ethic, some struggle to follow directions. I told them to go to the document I shared with them on Google Drive. Then they were to find their names. Next, they were to copy the URL for their blog beneath their name.
Not so difficult?
But it is. I need to slow down and explain everything to this class three, four, five, and six times.
Currently, we are writing a personal narrative. We discussed topics and then I gave them a list of possible topics from which to choose. We went over a slideshow - available below - that detailed the different ways they could actually start their essays (anything is better than either '"'m going to write about" or "This essay is about . . .").
To get their ideas flowing we watched The Sandlot and then discussed the possible prompts in greater detail.
Today I modeled the writing process for them (clustering and brainstorming). Then I gave them time to write their first draft.
Inevitably, the question, "How long must it be?" came up.
When I told them two pages, double spaced, you'd have thought I'd have shot someone! Ha ha.
When I told them that I have an 8 page paper due on the first day of College Comp 2, they looked as if I'd asked them to bike across the country.
"Man, I can't write that much!" one student admitted. Now, mind you this particular student has confessed ambitions of becoming a lawyer.
"Well," I said, "if you plan on attending law school, you'll have to write a whole lot more than that!"
"Oh man," he said. "I'm going to drop out and become a millionaire."
He knew that I was going to quickly retort with a smart ass line, for he added, "Well, I'll be the first one to ever do that!"
I didn't bother to tell him that three of our greatest entrepreneurs, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, and Steve Jobs were all drops outs. But they were college drop outs.
College Comp 2 -
We have finished Seth Godin's The Dip and new are about a third of the way through his book, Linchpin.
I'm having a blast with these two books.
The students aren't entirely sold on them yet, but that's fine.
First, they aren't used to reading nonfiction, so they are sometimes bored that "nothing happens." Likewise, even though they are our best, they struggle to delineate the main ideas and arguments of nonfiction: "He keeps saying the same thing over and over and over," they say.
I refute them with: "It's called building your argument. Of course, he is going to talk about the same thing, but he breaks it down into different aspects and dimensions."
But they have little experience with this. But, they have not been expected to read so much nonfiction either.
I'm having a blast using technology this these books.
I have used Storify several times to begin discussions and to deepen understanding.
Here is an example --
In addition to Storify, I'm using TED Ed to flip some videos related to the books. This has been a total revelation to me. Here is an example (it doesn't feature an embed code). But its' an amazing tool.
College Comp -
I was so fired up by the class response to The Dip that I decided to also teach it here. And we are having a blast. Students are currently watching a Storify document and then responding to it and sharing their responses via Google Drive.
Students are engaged and I love watching them learn.
1 comment:
Glad I read this - we're practicing writing in Senior High English! Perfecto!
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