Supporting Writing in the Disciplines
It is impressive to see the increasing literacy demands our workforce is facing. However, I can see the importance of these writing criteria for policemen in California:
Avoiding fragments and run on sentences
Avoiding vague or indefinite references
Be coherent and logically organized
Be generally free from spelling errors
Have a fluent style marked by sentence variety and language control
Though I did not know the extent that these literary requirements were imposed. Many employees require a standard literary capability even for fast-food workers and janitors according to the reading. So, for those of us who are going into education, we need to ask ourselves, “Are doing all we can to prepare our students for this fundamental requirement in today’s society?”
Anecdotes from the author are startling- that 90% of surveyed teachers do not feel their students are doing enough writing to become skilled writers, and that some teachers are spending 55 days out of there school year testing. With so much time devoted to multiple choice standardized tests, it can be argued that policies are making the situation worse, in spite of so many corporations, research studies, and even politicians agreeing we need to improve the writing capabilities of our students. For now what we can do as educators is understand its importance and make sure our writing instruction is the best we can make it.
Semiotics is the formal study of how we make meaning out of the world. From Icons, to Indices, to Symbols (going from less to more abstract), it is helpful to understand literacy from this more metacognitive approach. Each discipline have their own specific qualities to them. The predominance of symbols in math is almost unique. Even going so far as preferring specialized symbols to express ideas and answers, over that of descriptive text. Science utilizes many forms of semiotics to express their ideas. From graphs, to pictures, to animations and even gestures. All of those are utilized to describe and explain natural phenomena. It is recommended that we find a way to adapt our teachings of writing to be discipline aware, instead of using generalized strategies “such as summarizing”.
Avoiding vague or indefinite references
Be coherent and logically organized
Be generally free from spelling errors
Have a fluent style marked by sentence variety and language control
Though I did not know the extent that these literary requirements were imposed. Many employees require a standard literary capability even for fast-food workers and janitors according to the reading. So, for those of us who are going into education, we need to ask ourselves, “Are doing all we can to prepare our students for this fundamental requirement in today’s society?”
Anecdotes from the author are startling- that 90% of surveyed teachers do not feel their students are doing enough writing to become skilled writers, and that some teachers are spending 55 days out of there school year testing. With so much time devoted to multiple choice standardized tests, it can be argued that policies are making the situation worse, in spite of so many corporations, research studies, and even politicians agreeing we need to improve the writing capabilities of our students. For now what we can do as educators is understand its importance and make sure our writing instruction is the best we can make it.
Semiotics is the formal study of how we make meaning out of the world. From Icons, to Indices, to Symbols (going from less to more abstract), it is helpful to understand literacy from this more metacognitive approach. Each discipline have their own specific qualities to them. The predominance of symbols in math is almost unique. Even going so far as preferring specialized symbols to express ideas and answers, over that of descriptive text. Science utilizes many forms of semiotics to express their ideas. From graphs, to pictures, to animations and even gestures. All of those are utilized to describe and explain natural phenomena. It is recommended that we find a way to adapt our teachings of writing to be discipline aware, instead of using generalized strategies “such as summarizing”.
I think that it would almost be difficult for teachers not to be adjusting their own teaching to coincide with their discipline. At least for any teacher who has had significant study in the subject they are teaching, because they should be very ingrained in the standard literacy of that discipline. Which, if true, then the heart of the matter lies with how do we overall increase the literacy of students. Where should our focus be? Should it be to change policy? To change are presentations and homework assignments? What would you like to do to increase your students writing capability?
The reading from “Writing Next” goes directly into these types of questions. Providing strategies for helping to teach writing. Though their aim is for more general strategies.
Poetry comes with it a great flexibility of expression and interpretation, which makes it a valuable way to strengthen literacy at the same time as being culturally sustaining pedagogy. Each individual gets to bring their prior knowledge and culture to the foreground with poetry. It makes it easy to extend and support agency in the student’s language choices. Deemphasizing grammar for a moment to check and see what students intentions are is particularly important with Poetry. It is important to position students as experts or insiders when expressing themselves and their culture. Poetry is arguably a more powerful way to sustain a student’s culture then displaying a few different cultures holidays in class.
(3-minute powerful and emotional poem)
“Lived Life Through a Colored Lens” (Machado, Woodard, Coppola, & Vaughan 2017) does not offer a wide range of different practices for sustaining student’s culture, though it does give a strong example of what that kind of pedagogy looks like. We need to take that example and find more ways sustain our student’s culture. How might you do that?
Hey Joseph, I really enjoyed reading your post.
ReplyDeleteI specifically would like tot talk about when you mentioned ". Even going so far as preferring specialized symbols to express ideas and answers, over that of descriptive text." I do agree with you, that in most courses, that is the case, but in my experience, it is not when it comes to mathemtical proofs/logic/writing courses. Mathematical symbols are still very much present, but descriptive text is still there. I think in math education, it is critical to push this because a lot of times, students know how to solve some problem, but in terms of explaining their thought process and why they did something, is something students should work on, and it will benefit them if they wish to pursue a career with rigorous logical thinking.
I also found it interesting how you brought up poetry, which I agree, is pretty open ended and ambiguous. It breaks away from the traditional academic writing students normally read, since just the physical format and layout of ideas are unique. Students are able to interepret the writing however they please, in and out of school. However, most students will only encounter and interact with poetry in school, and so this idea of providing evidence for a student's interpretation can have drawbacks, due to the ambiguity of poetry.
Thank you very much for the reply. In my experience in college physics I would say that I have seen a dominance of math symbol preference in those classes. As for k-12 I think you are right.
DeleteThanks for your sharing ,Joseph. I think modern people do not pay much attention to writing because the society is digital. Everyone in the life is mainly based on the Internet, sending messages and sending messages through mobile phones or computers. It's rare to see anyone communicating through letters. So it has caused the neglect of writing. I think that electronic products have a certain impact on our emphasis on word inheritance. I think what I can do as a teacher is to be a model for students that teach them remembering the words is very important. But actually, sometimes I don’t know how to write the correct words when I suddenly pick up a pen. So I think that I should learn firstly.
ReplyDeleteIt's tough to be a good speller now days. I still do see some value in being mostly proficient in spelling though, if for no other reason than to increase the chances of spell check getting it right the first time. Haha. Though as teachers we won't always have the luxury of auto-correct.
DeleteI agree that poetry is a great way to encourage greater literacy and Rick's research emphasized that. I think it's a great way to accomplish a handful of goals. It does help students express their own individuality and find unique ways to write. I don't know if we should focus ALL on poetry because very rarely will poetry be the preferred way in the working world to express writing but it does foster growth and individuality. Changing policy is very hard. It's definitely possibly of course but the focus should be more on changing our teaching the best we can to fit into the current policies. This is difficult but it makes the most sense in the short term where the focus still lies with testing.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I think the poetry is a solid example for being culturally sustaining, but clearly won't work in all situations. I wish the article had more recommendations.
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ReplyDelete1. Hi Joseph. I agree with you that we need help our students meet the need of their society. Our education has to take the social setting into consideration, so we have to realize the importance of writing. I would like to improve my students’ creativity in writing. The traditional teaching method focus to much on words and grammar which make students tends to “recite” others’ expressions. It is important that help students express their own voice which is core of communication, whether in peaking or writing.
ReplyDeleteI think other forms of writing can also be taught in a culturally sustainiby way as well, especially with creative writings. I have found that my short stories class I took in college has been a useful and broad skill for a surprising amount of things in life.
DeleteI also agree that we should focus more on writing in classrooms. Standardized testing can have benefits, but I think writing usually shows a better grasp of knowledge than standardized testing does.
ReplyDeleteThe dreaded essay test! Haha. I do very much agree with you, and will most likely be encouraging my students to show comprehension beyond the multiple choice.
DeleteThank you for sharing your analysis on the reading. Part of the perspective you share regarding the teachers adjusting their lesson. Part of my understanding is that there needs to be caution is there are certain sections when talking about writing and formatting that needs to be expected. The tone of how it can be articulated can be adjusted can change obviously but to change a lesson plan to find an easier assessment doesn't properly establish an effective progression on a student because there is a lack of proper assessing to see strengths and weakness to improve on without of it to be challenged.
ReplyDelete