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What Do I Know Now?

During practicum I found that when students were given no parameters for writing, a lot of them tended to struggle. Simply writing, "free-write" on the board did not allow some students enough structure for them to be able to make the most of the assignment. They spent most of their time trying to come up with something to say. As a result, I think "Writing Across the Curriculum" is a great way to give students some guidelines, while still allowing them to develop their writing skills creatively. I understand now that Writing is a subject which spans all subjects and should not be limited to a Literacy block. Peterson suggests this quite explicitly herself in the subtitle of the book --"Because all teachers teach writing".

I found her strategies and mini-lessons particularly useful. Most of the lesson ideas would not take a lot of time (no more than one period), and could be incorporated into the Literacy time period, or the content-area subjects. As a P/J teacher, I would have the flexibility to incorporate my Literacy block into my content-area subjects as necessary. Doing so would provide for optimum use of time, while allowing students to build on multiple skills in an organic manner.

Limitations of Blogging Technology

There are always limits to the strategies we implement as teachers. Although I think blogging is a great way to increase writing skills and media literacy (across the curriculum!), it does present some problems. Namely,

• writing in such a public forum may intimidate students if a "safe environment" is not set-up first.
• allowing for other students' comments may encourage more "harsh commentary" as students are "hidden" behind the computer screen. Additionally, what is preventing students from posting cruel things anonymously? These are considerations that must be had before implementing programming using social media. In my own experience as a blogger, I receive harassment (often sexual in nature) from various readers. Although I attribute this to the political nature of my blog, it cannot be assumed that it would not occur otherwise. We need to teach our students about these risks.
• some students will not have access to computers at home -- this must be considered if it is expected that students' work on their blogs from home.

Can't Have Good Without the Bad: Limitations of the Text

Unfortunately, no book or strategy is perfect. One of the skills of being a responsive and critical reader is to consider where a source, or strategy lacks.

Although I found Peterson's work highly useful, full of practical strategies, mini-lessons and tools for assessment, I found that most of the content was heavily-geared towards the Junior and Intermediate grades. There is no indication in the back blurb, or the title itself that the entirety of the book would be targeting those writers older than Primary Level. As a result, I found this a bit disappointing (and somewhat misleading) -- as all of the practical resources and ideas would have to be modified for a younger classroom.

Additionally, part of the reasoning for providing writing opportunities during content-area subjects was that during "free-choice" writing periods, students "often write using stereotypical views of gender and social class" (p.6). Although I do not dispute these claims, I do not feel that avoiding "free-choice" writing period effectively challenges this problem -- but rather avoids the issue.

Lastly, there is not much explicit mention of where exactly the research base is coming from. Although I can extrapolate that the findings come from Peterson's own practical experience, as well as Action Based Research using interviews with other educators, I was forced to make these assumptions on my own, and would've preferred it to be laid out explicitly.

As a result of these limitations, I'd like to ask Peterson these 2 questions:

1. What was your research base? Where did you get the information? And how did you develop the strategies?
2. Do you have any practical resources (such as those presented in the book) that have been developed for the Primary level classroom?

How Accurate is The Internet Information?

While discussing Media Literacy (and how to read it critically) in Clive's class last Thursday, the subject of being able to find reliable information on the 'net was brought up. Specifically, what guidelines can we give our students so they are able to do this independently, and effectively? Peterson provides a Checklist would could be used as an Anchor Chart in your classroom:

Use these questions to help you decide what information you can trust and what information you should ignore:

1. What viewpoint does the information source seem to promote?
2. What different viewpoints are presented? Does the website creator/designer fairly present each one?
3. What information seems to be missing? Whose viewpoints seem to be missing?
4. Are there any stereotypes? What are they? Why do you think they creator/designer used stereotypes?
5. What information seems to be exaggerated (e.g., "Never before has anyone tried...) or overgeneralized (e.g., Everyone knows that...)?
6. What credentials does the creator/designer have to make him/her more knowledgeable?
7. Is this information up to date?
8. Does the creator/designer present opinions as facts? (e.g., "It is well know that...")
9. When you compare the information from three or four different sources, what contradictions do you find? How will you decide which information to use if there are contradictions?

(p. 25)

Here's another youtube video that could be used in a Junior-level classroom:

Practicality on Paper

Of course, Peterson's paper book also has some great suggestions (don't go abandoning all traditional paper resources!). Here are a few practical strategies for teaching writing I found particularly useful:

1. The Writing Binder: since students' are collecting information and research (and then writing about it), it is important to provide a way for your students to organize their work. Give students a binder and have them "divide them in 2 sections. In the Portfolio section, students keep drafts of their writing. In the Resources section, students keep the computer printouts, notes they have taken while reading/viewing/interviewing", as well as anything else they have collected while researching (p. 18).
2. Reinforcing Non-Fiction Literacy Skills: "when using a textbook, instead of directing students' to a particular page, give students the topic and ask them to use the table of contents, the index, or headings and subheadings of chapters to find the correct page" (p. 21).
3. Strategies and Suggestions for Students' Using the Internet as a Resource: Peterson provides two mini-lesson ideas for guiding our students in their hunt for information on the Internet. One activity is how to narrow a key word search, and the next is how to determine the credibility of various websites. (p. 22-25).

What the BLOG are you thinking?

Why use a blog for the electronic portion of this assignment? Well:

1. I make money blogging, therefore it is a relevant to skill to me, but also to my future students.

2. Peterson suggests, students "want [their writing] to be read by a wider audience than just their teacher. Indeed, their writing motivation and committment to writing will be much higher if they know that their writing is going to have an impact on someone else and will not simply be the sources of a grade on their report card" (p. 17)

• this relates to "real-world" connections. As a part of student engagement, it is important to demonstrate to our students how course content relates to the "real world" so it "comes alive" and becomes relevant. This has been stressed in our Math class with Donna, and similarly it is a key tenet to Critical Literacy theories (as it relates to the previous Reading assignment).

3. This is a paperless form of drafting and publishing -- and it teachers computer, internet and media literacy! CROSS-CURRICULAR CONNECTIONS *ahem!*

4. It provides an additional avenue for students to be "turned on" writing. Perhaps a student doesn't love writing, but loves designing/formatting websites, or simply enjoys the Internet.

5. One of Peterson's writing strategies is that of the "Author Group" (p. 19) wherein students' read drafts and edit, or offer suggestions and critiques of other students' writing. Blogging allows students' to always have a more casual author group in session, through the form of commenting on their classmates entries. This takes the form of "Assessment as Learning" as suggested in Growing for Success.

6. The versatility of blogging is endless -- it can be a subject-specific blog (for a specific student), a blog geared across the curriculum (for a specific student), or alternatively take the form of a multiple-contributor blog -- featuring the entire class. It supports WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM.