Well, I read both chapters of Best Practices and the Nancy Rankie Shelton and Danling Fu article on Creating Space for Teaching Writing and for Test Preparation and all I can say is, assessment gives me nightmares. Since I started this reading I have dreamt every night that I’m taking a horrifying writing test of some kind or another. The two more vivid were one where I was just starting the test when the lights went out and no one seemed to notice but me. I couldn’t read the test, and I couldn’t see how anyone else could, but no one else was complaining. They just kept going. I rose my hand and tried to get the proctor to listen to what I was saying about the light situation, but he refused to see me. The next night I dreamt I was a prisoner in a school building and wouldn’t be released until I could pass this particular writing test. I kept taking it and failing even though I was positive that I had produced good writing. I couldn’t figure out what it was they wanted from me and I kept being forced into a new classroom every time I failed. Finally, I felt like I had it down, I was on a role and only had one more section of the prompt to cover before completing a perfect essay that covered every single thing they (whoever they were) could possibly want, when the test was over. I was freaking out. I was so close to finishing but they ripped the paper out of my hand and I failed again.
I don’t know exactly what this means, but I know I am feeling stressed by the fact that I seemed to retain nothing from the Best Practices chapters. I read portions of them three and four times and still it was like I was reading Greek. It just didn’t gel for me at all, which is scary because I know this is going to be a big part of my job, but I just had a complete mental block about it.
The article left me conflicted. I was glad to see that Nancy made writing workshop work for her. She seemed ready to experiment with other ways to incorporate test prep, and even seemed likely to abandon it all together if she felt confident that her writing workshop alone could prepare students for tests. It was nice to see that there is some hope for breaking out of teaching to the test. Still, my experience with field work this year showed me that students in struggling schools have been completely brainwashed into believing that tests are all that matter. In one class I observed this semester, a teacher asked her class why it’s important to learn grammar. A student answered, “So we can do better on tests.” The teacher said, “Right.” There is something so fundamentally wrong with that. In other classes, I noticed all the students care about is finding out what their grades are. One teacher purposely puts no preliminary grades into the school’s system because the students obsessively check it. There is a total disconnect between grades and the purpose of education.
In looking over Chapter 7 again, I find I do get a lot out of the strategies on revision. Certainly, I see how reading and writing work together, because without the ability to read critically, you can’t critique anyone’s writing, including your own. As a former editor, I know that revision is essential to good writing. Very few people (maybe none at all) can produce high quality writing without revision. That’s why I find it so insane that we make kids take these writing tests where time is so short that they have all of five minutes to plan and maybe five minutes to proofread, but no time at all to revise. That’s not really writing. That’s the Jeopardy of writing. Just because you can’t hit the buzzer as fast as the guy next to you doesn’t mean you don’t know the answer. Some people need more time to write and more revising time than others. That might actually mean you’re a better writer overall. But we don’t seem to care about that. Certainly, if all you’re doing is teaching to the test, there is little place for revision. Yet it is maybe the most important part of the whole process.
I’ll have to give Chapter 13 another try at another time. I just don’t know what happened there.
But there is one other thing that has been confounding me. All of the examples of actual classroom experiences in Best Practices are K-8. I’m feeling unsure about what this means for high school teachers. How is high school different from what we are learning about here? What are kids supposed to be doing in high school? In my field work, it seems they are reading short stories and catching up on what they should have already learned, but none of it is being done in a coordinated way. I’m feeling very nervous about the prospect of teaching in high school because I feel so unclear about what I would be teaching or what I could or should expect my students to know.
Way cool! Some very valid points! I appreciate you writing this post and the rest of the site is also very good.
hey there and thank you for your information I’ve definitely picked up anything new from right here. I did however expertise a few technical issues using this site, since I experienced to reload the site many times previous to I could get it to load properly. I had been wondering if your hosting is OK? Not that I am complaining, but sluggish loading instances times will often affect your placement in google and can damage your high quality score if advertising and marketing with Adwords. Anyway I’m adding this RSS to my e-mail and can look out for a lot more of your respective fascinating content. Make sure you update this again soon.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on %meta_keyword%. Regards
My spouse and I stumbled over here different web page and thought I may as well check things out. I like what I see so now i’m following you. Look forward to checking out your web page again.
I’m gone to say to my little brother, that he should also go to see this website on regular basis to take updated from most recent reports.
Remarkable! Its really remarkable piece of writing, I have got much clear idea about from this piece of writing.
I don’t know if it’s just me or if everyone else experiencing problems with your website. It looks like some of the text within your posts are running off the screen. Can someone else please comment and let me know if this is happening to them too? This could be a problem with my browser because I’ve had this happen before. Kudos
Remarkable things here. I’m very glad to see your article. Thank you so much and I’m looking forward to touch you. Will you please drop me a mail?
Thank you for any other informative website. Where else may I am getting that kind of info written in such a perfect way? I have a venture that I am simply now operating on, and I have been at the glance out for such information.
Hello there! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was wondering which blog platform are you using for this site? I’m getting fed up of WordPress because I’ve had issues with hackers and I’m looking at options for another platform. I would be awesome if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.
Wow, marvelous blog format! How long have you been blogging for? you make blogging glance easy. The total glance of your site is great, let alonewell as the content!
With havin so much written content do you ever run into any problems of plagorism or copyright violation? My website has a lot of exclusive content I’ve either created myself or outsourced but it appears a lot of it is popping it up all over the web without my authorization. Do you know any solutions to help reduce content from being ripped off? I’d genuinely appreciate it.
Asking questions are actually nice thing if you are not understanding anything completely, except this post provides nice understanding even.
I was more than happy to discover this web site. I wanted to thank you for your time just for this wonderful read!! I definitely loved every bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff on your web site.
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
Hey very interesting blog!
Very good website you have here but I was curious if you knew of any message boards that cover the same topics talked about in this article? I’d really love to be a part of group where I can get advice from other knowledgeable individuals that share the same interest. If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Kudos!
It’s an awesome post for all the internet viewers; they will take benefit from it I am sure.
I absolutely love your blog and find nearly all of your post’s to be precisely what I’m looking for. Do you offer guest writers to write content for you? I wouldn’t mind creating a post or elaborating on a lot of the subjects you write concerning here. Again, awesome weblog!
Hello there, just became aware of your blog through Google, and found that it is really informative. I’m gonna watch out for brussels. I will appreciate if you continue this in future. Lots of people will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!
It’s awesome for me to have a web site, which is beneficial for my experience. thanks admin
Woah! I’m really loving the template/theme of this site. It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s difficult to get that “perfect balance” between superb usability and visual appeal. I must say that you’ve done a excellent job with this. Additionally, the blog loads very fast for me on Internet explorer. Outstanding Blog!
Very nice write-up. I definitely love this website. Keep it up!
hey there and thank you for your information I’ve definitely picked up anything new from right here. I did however expertise some technical issues using this site, since I experienced to reload the web site a lot of times previous to I could get it to load properly. I had been wondering if your hosting is OK? Not that I am complaining, but sluggish loading instances times will very frequently affect your placement in google and can damage your high quality score if advertising and marketing with Adwords. Anyway I’m adding this RSS to my e-mail and can look out for a lot more of your respective fascinating content. Make sure you update this again soon.
Howdy! I know this is kinda off topic nevertheless I’d figured I’d ask. Would you be interested in exchanging links or maybe guest writing a blog article or vice-versa? My website addresses a lot of the same subjects as yours and I believe we could greatly benefit from each other. If you might be interested feel free to send me an e-mail. I look forward to hearing from you! Awesome blog by the way!
It’s remarkable to pay a visit this site and reading the views of all mates concerning this piece of writing, while I am also keen of getting knowledge.
This is very fascinating, You are an overly professional blogger. I have joined your feed and sit up for seeking more of your magnificent post. Also, I have shared your web site in my social networks
Hi there are using WordPress for your blog platform? I’m new to the blog world but I’m trying to get started and create my own. Do you need any coding knowledge to make your own blog? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Wow, incredible blog layout! How long have you been blogging for? you make blogging look easy. The overall look of your site is great, let alone the content!
Hello there, just became aware of your blog through Google, and found that it is really informative. I’m gonna watch out for brussels. I will appreciate if you continue this in future. Lots of people will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!
Nice post. I learn something new and challenging on sites I stumbleupon every day. It will always be exciting to read content from other writers and practice a little something from their websites.
Hey this is kinda of off topic but I was wondering if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code with HTML. I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding experience so I wanted to get advice from someone with experience. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Hey very interesting blog!
Heya i’m for the primary time here. I came across this board and I in finding It truly useful & it helped me out a lot. I hope to offer something back and help others like you helped me.
Pretty great post. I simply stumbled upon your blog and wanted to mention that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing for your feed and I hope you write again soon!
Wow, incredible blog layout! How long have you been blogging for? you make blogging look easy. The overall look of your site is wonderful, let alone the content!
Asking questions are actually good thing if you are not understanding anything entirely, but this post gives pleasant understanding even.
Terrific article! This is the type of information that are supposed to be shared around the web. Disgrace on the seek engines for now not positioning this publish upper! Come on over and talk over with my web site . Thank you =)
Hola! I’ve been following your site for a long time now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from New Caney Tx! Just wanted to mention keep up the excellent job!
These are actually enormous ideas in concerning blogging. You have touched some good points here. Any way keep up wrinting.
When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get four emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Thank you!
Pretty section of content. I simply stumbled upon your weblog and in accession capital to claim that I acquire in fact enjoyed account your blog posts. Any way I’ll be subscribing for your augment or even I fulfillment you get entry to persistently rapidly.
My brother suggested I might like this website. He was totally right. This post actually made my day. You cann’t imagine just how much time I had spent for this information! Thanks!
Hello! Someone in my Myspace group shared this site with us so I came to look it over. I’m definitely enjoying the information. I’m book-marking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Exceptional blog and terrific design and style.
This website definitely has all of the information I wanted about this subject and didn’t know who to ask.
always i used to read smaller posts which also clear their motive, and that is also happening with this piece of writing which I am reading here.
Hi, I do believe this is an excellent blog. I stumbledupon it 😉 I will come back once again since I bookmarked it. Money and freedom is the best way to change, may you be rich and continue to help other people.
Why people still use to read news papers when in this technological world everything is accessible on net?
I am sure this post has touched all the internet people, its really really nice post on building up new weblog.
Hi would you mind letting me know which hosting company you’re utilizing? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 completely different web browsers and I must say this blog loads a lot quicker then most. Can you suggest a good internet hosting provider at a honest price? Kudos, I appreciate it!