Writing Accross the Curriculm

As I type this bog I am reminded that after hearing teachers talk about the amount of work it took to prepare lessons and what teaching was all about I decided early on that I would rather not enter the profession.  As God would have it - here I am.  As a teacher it is now interesting to see what my teachers meant by some concepts. I don't knwo when this concept of writing accross the curriculm came into practice but in high school I heard it in every class.  It got to be ridiculous when they said we had to write in math class and it wasn't word problems.

I despised this concept because we had an English and Composition class.  After all what does composition mean - to write. I had honed my writing skills in reach and gifted classes.  I had done so well that I received the highest average in English in 10th grade.  I had had enough of writing.  As I recall I almost failed Geometry because instead of using the time allotted to write in my journal I would do my homework from the previous night.  Here I was an accomplished writer (in my opinion) failing because I refused to do what I knew I could do.  I resolved to just complete the prompts and then finish my homework.

It wasn't until I started teaching that I understood what the purpose of writing across the curriculum was.  As a first year teacher I was still confused.  It wasn't until I read this book and discovered the various purpose and strategies that can be used for writing that I discovered if some of these had been used when I was forced to write it could have been a more enjoyable experience for me.  I must sorrowfully admit that because of my lack of knowledge I too simply forced my students to write.  Now I can use strategies such as admit slips, crystal ball, RAFT and teaching students to ask themselves questions. I am going to use these strategies in the classroom and document when the students desire to write change.   

Pictures are worth a thousand words.

Marketing and literaracy sometimes are not words you would readily describe as synonomous.  As a matter of fact when we started this class I was confident that this class would only offer supplements to my instruction if anything at all.  I have not been found to be wrong many times in my life but this is one of those occasions.  As I now sit back and think about strategies from all the sourses we have taken thus far and I have used more from this class than any other to date. 

I have been forced to face some of my issues as it relates to literacy inside and outside the classroom.  I have often foudn myself frustrated and bewildered considering the level of comprehension most of the students I teach possess.  I struggled with a means to connect these somewhat abstract concepts to thebackground knowledge these students have.  All the while not knowing it was the background knowledge the students essentially lacked.  I have attempted many strategies to help build this background knowledge before not knowing what I was actually doing. 

Above is an example of a promotional ad I use to spark discussion during our chapter on international trade.  It is sometimes interesting to see how student sinterpret the ad above.  The most amazing moment is when they expect me to tell them whether they are right or wrong and simply say it is left to their interpretation.  I use ads and illustrations to help the students understand that they bring this background knowledge with biases to all readings.  I have found that introducing the students to pictures (I now know it is visual literacy) helps them address their biases and lack of background knowledge.  I know that I will be eternally grateful for this class.

Join the Club: Book CLUB!!

An idea that has come from this class is the concept of Adolescent Book Clubs.  I was at first apprehensive because of my lack of interest in reading and the many texts I am tasked with reading for classes (work and school).  I reluctantly gave it a shot and it started good.  I actually enjoyed reading it for the first week.  That weekend I only had a few things to do so I enjoyed the reading.  Coming into the second week on the other hand I was over whelmed with school reading and ministry reading.  It was difficult to find the time to read and although I enjoyed reading the book itself I found it taxing and because of the time constraints I was reminded of what I hated the most about reading texts in school.  Although I have continued reading the book allow me to digress for a moment and lament.  I can see my students with the same sentiments if I attempted to introduce an adolescent book club.  They also are overwhelmed with required reading and assignments that allow for little time for the students to read for fun.  I pray I can find a balance in my life soon otherwise I may never start reading for entertainment again. 

Getting Back to Reading!!

I am reading more and its not all that bad.  Yes, I said it I am reading and I am enjoying it.  Not only am I enjoying reading the book i selected for the classroom book club but I am also enjoying reading the book assigned for class - Readicide.  This book s an eye opener.  Gallagher speaks to many of the issues I faced as a maturing reader.
I had the curse (opportunity) of participating in the International Baccalaureate program at Central High School where I currently teach.  A major part of the program was our summer reading assignments.  The books we had to read entering ninth grade were A Tale of Two Cities, Grapes of Wrath and Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas: An American Slave.  These books were challenging and uninviting.  As I think back on it this is when my love for reading waned.  My parents had little knowledge of these works and offered little assistance in reading these assignments.  I became frustrated and rebelled by my tenth grade year and refused to read the summer assignment.  I failed literature that year because of the summer reading assignments.  Surprisingly my average was a solid B+ before my teacher factored in the summer reading.  Because 3 of us refused to do it we failed.  How crushing was that to someone who read every book assigned in the semester but failed to read and complete the Summer assignments.  I can't say this was  the be all to end all when it can to reading but it adversely affected how I looked at reading from then on.
Books can be enjoyable and I am learning to enjoy them again.  Yeah Me!!!!

Readicide: The Beginning

Reading and Shelton have always been a challenge.  I can remember vividly my parents reading to us as children and frequent trips to the library.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading as an elementary student but as Gallagher stated in Readicide my love for reading diminished.  Unlike the students in the reading I have no problem taking standardized test and I finished school before the evaluate by assessment began.

As a student I am still frustrated when I am forced to read.  It is a difficult task for me to order and pick up the books to fulfill my obligations of reading for class.  I have tried to recall when my passion for reading subsided and I can only decisively say thatin high school I no longer read for instruction.  My passion to read for enjoy has subsided a bit but I still read a book a week that I choose.  The irony is even though many of the books required for class are actually enjoyable the thought of "having" to read them makes the experience difficult.

As a teacher it is imperative that my students are readers.  Marketing is ever evolving and I must read to stay abreast with the latest developments in economics and business.  Students are encouraged to read as well but this has become quite a task.  I choose several articles for the students to read and summarize but the responds lack critical thinking. Most of the students have a difficult time reading and comprehending newsprint articles. I have even allowed the students to choose their own articles with most of the selections having nothing to do with the course materials.  They attempt to select a very short article with the word business in it.

Gallagher's look at low income and minority students is particularly important to me.  The reality is that the achievement Gap locally appears to be broaden as we approach the magical year of 2014.  As a school we have some of the nation's best teachers and I regularly see them give 110% of themselves in the classroom yet all their efforts are mute when you look at our test scores.  We now have the opportunity of added funds being brought to the school we will now be able to add more creative measures of teaching literacy and basic skills.  We will soon see if more money will help find a solution.