Are Men (boys) Really From Venus?

After an incredibly spirited conversation in class the other day, I really wanted to take time to reflect on our conversation. If I recall correctly, at a certain point Bryan made the comment that when it comes to writing, "Men are from Venus, and Women are from Mars." As an incredibly open-minded (read: liberal) Psychology major and a new teacher, I have to say that I actually agree with this to an extent.
I believe that by saying that we have to approach boys differently when it comes to writing and language arts, we are saying nothing different than when we say we have to approach ELLs, LD, GT, etc. in language arts. However, I don't think that this necessarily means we have to teach differently. On the other hand, it means that we need to be more mindful of all our students and their needs when we teach.

I really liked hearing Meg's anecdote about her two boys this summer. The closed-minded child who said purple was a girl color, and the more open-minded one who's favorite color was purple. Now, colors have become gender blind since the whole "real men wear pink" stage, that has thankfully stayed (!), in 2004. However, the stigma that this boy held was clearly one that was delivered to him by someone or something. Children don't often pull statements like that out of thin air. The boy handled his potential bully well and de-bunked a stereotype that the boy would have held potentially forever... and by that I mean until his future boy/girlfriend told him he would look cute in purple. Anyway...

As teachers, it's incredibly important that we set a few standards in the classroom. These standards need to be set high from the beginning and need to be non-negociable. Without these standards, I don't believe it would be possible for you to teach with all students in mind. By first creating an environment that is non-judgmental is key. Second, it needs to be said, affirmed, and practiced that when students are sharing personal likes and dislikes, that they are all opinions that can be respectfully and privately accepted or rejected. Third, and most importantly, is to teach that everyone comes from a different background; no two families are exactly the same and we each bring our own experiences to the classroom. We need to be respectful and recognize that there is no one "normal."

From here, we can start teaching to every student in the classroom. Just as we need to carefully accept writing prompts and activities that cater to ELLs and LDs, we need to cater to boys and girls. Since we are all fundamentally the same, I don't think it's appropriate to assume that one type of student would be interested in one thing over the other. I really like that in my practicum classroom, for example, my students have a variety of prompts for free writes. I haven't often seen my students use them, but the list has everything from "write about your family or home country/state" to "write about your favorite thing to do in your free time." I also like that many of the prompts draw on a student's experience like, "write about a time you tried something new." All of these prompts are accessible to all students, open to interpretation, and are non-gendered. To me, if the writing is relavent, it will reach the student. Boys, girls, black, white, ELL or English native, it doesn't matter if you give students broad concepts and writing prompts, or let them write about what they want if it's reasonable. Allowing students choice, no matter who they are, is motivating and can move an unmotivated reader or writer to one who thoroughly enjoys the activity.

Society is pretty obsessed with labeling people and putting them in boxes. I think to say that boys and girls learn differently is fair, but to say that we need to teach to each gender individually is a little extreme. Support always needs to be in place for those who struggle, but we don't need to further put students in boxes by teaching a completely different way.

Comprehension

Being "in tune" with your students is something I feel like grows with time and changes year to you. I find it so incredible when I hear my teacher talk about re-teaching on a day for a particular group of students, or how she had an entire plan for reading with one reading group that she completely axed within the first five minutes because the kids had no idea what was going on. Sometimes it's obvious when students aren't comprehending texts, but other times, I feel like it's much harder to make that distinction. Figuring out the comprehension levels of the more quiet students is something that I have struggled with since the beginning of my practicum. Since mid-September, I have been working with two leveled reading groups. It's one of my favorite parts of the day because I get to really interact with a small group of students and learn how they think and listen to their ideas. However, I have found that there are many difficulties in reaching students who are both ELL and on the quieter side. One student in particular won't speak while the rest of the group is very supportive of him and very outgoing and forward in sharing their ideas. I've given him the option of talking to me privately, writing answers in a notebook, or drawing pictures to help me see that he is comprehending texts, but he becomes discouraged easily and I don't end up getting much out of him. I'm wondering if it's a lack of experience, or if there is a disjoint between what I am doing and what my cooperating teacher is doing, but I am worried that there are other students slipping through the cracks like he is.

"Will spelling count?"

Whether you said it out loud or thought it in your head, whenever there was a writing prompt given in class, the looming question always was, "will spelling count?" Does it count? I'm not really sure now.

When we were kids it was always a toss up. If our teacher wanted us to just get the words out and the prompt was for the sake of us getting the ideas down, the answer was usually, "no." If the prompt was in any subject other than reading or writing, the answer was usually, "no.' In retro-spec, the later has the implication that spelling only counts when you're writing about something language specific, which, in my opinion, completely sends the wrong message to students because of course spelling counts in science, and in math, and in social studies.... and in life.

...But we don't think that way anymore. We definitely live in a world of auto-correct and spell-check and, "who even knows how to spell that word anyway?" Well shouldn't you? I think so.

I struggled with to, too, two, which, wich, witch, and I distinctly remember being called out in front of the whole class for spelling "America" wrong in 5th grade. Spelling was really difficult for me, but now, I find that when I spell things out loud (people who babysit know what I'm talking about) I find people really don't know the basics. C-O-O-K-I-E took you more than 3 seconds to figure out? Really? Maybe it's because we're not writing as much as we used to, but I think it's because we've become so dependent on technology to fix things and finish things for us that we sometimes don't think to do it ourselves.

We definitely don't need to be crazy spelling drill sergents in our classrooms, having spelling tests every week because as we've discussed and know from experience, that definitely doesn't help anyone. But what does help is making sure that students understand that spelling does count. Pointing out words students consistently spell wrong and having those words be their "buzz" words that they focus on in their writing should become their key words so they don't continue to spell them wrong in the future. Making the word wall full of words that students use, and also of ones that they should aim for using so that they can refer to both the word and the spelling will help commit them to memory.

In my practicum, there really isn't enough dedication to spelling. My students use Words Their Way and they do great with it, until they have to apply it. None of them see the connection, so it's seemingly a waste of time. Their writing has a ton of mis-spelled words that they learned in prior years or that they are even working on that week! And I'm not so sure that my teacher is pointing it out to them. So at the end of the day, I really feel that unless it's a brainstorm, spelling should always count.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

With this week being "Banned Books Week," I thought that it would only be fitting that I write about two of my favorite books of all time. Both The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger have been repeatedly brought to the American Literary Association and have been banned in school districts since their creation. Many would argue that The Perks of Being a Wallflower is simply a modern day version of The Catcher in the Rye and it is, therefore, not surprising that they raise similar concerns by school districts, teachers, and parents for sexual content, drug and alcohol references, adult material, implicit and explicit homosexual references, among many other controversial issues. What I find to be interesting, however, is how people sometimes get upset when they read The Perks of Being a Wallflower, because they think that the writing sounds too similar to The Catcher in the Rye.

According to Wondrous Words, we should be emulating great authors and authors who use words well and have a good sense of craft. J.D. Salinger isn't just known for his controversial writing, but he is known for writing good controversial writing. If this is the case, what's so wrong with the two books having a similar sound to them? The story line of the two books are clearly different. The similarities are that the main characters are two males trying to find their way in the world, but everything about the characters from where they live, who they are as people, to the people around them could not be more different. In other words, the stories could not be more different.

I wonder if people are just not used to the idea of emulating great authors, or if it's the fear of not doing it well that is scary to writers. I think that it's important to point out to our students that trying to emulate other author's is not a process that is easily perfected, and it's not one that is expected to be perfected. It is difficult to do well, and even when it is done well, not everyone is going to like the way it sounds. The most important thing about emulating other authors while you write is to chose an author that appeals to you and to always keep in mind why that author was interesting to you in the first place. Was it the author's choice of words? Was it his or her way of starting sentences? Or, going back to the banned books topic, was it the fearlessness in the topics he or she wrote about? I know with the new curriculum and as a new teacher, taking time to visit banned books would never be a skim-able subject, but I hope that one day I can have at least a mini-lesson on what the week is about and why banned books are so important.

For The Common Good

Up until the last week, my students have been working on a piece that has been referred to as their, "for the common good" paragraph. This paragraph was seen as their base line writing piece for my cooperating teacher, and for them, was a build off of something they had done in social studies on the first day of school. I say that this paragraph was simply a build off of "something" they had done in social studies on the first day of school because my third grades, like me, completely lost sight of the point of the piece and of their passion for it by the time they finished it. The sad part was that a lot of my students had really good experiences to write about ranging from "I'm teaching my little brother to speak English," to "I held the door for an old lady because it's the right thing to do."

For better or for worse, we are definitely moving farther and father away from the Wondrous Words world of envisioning text possibilities and figuring out way to make their writing exciting and engaging to read. From now on, we're going to be moving more and more towards the Common Core philosophy of "get to the point and move on," and giving less attention to the craft of the writing, word choice, and detail of the writing. My students writing was uninspired because there was a lack of personal dedication and dedication to the event.

I feel like it’s my job as a teacher to make sure that I strike a balance between writing to inform and writing to tell a story that matters to the writer. In both pieces, the student is writing with a clear purpose that he or she wants her reader to understand and take away from reading the piece. Not only striking the balance between the two types of writing, but also providing adequate feedback on both types of writing is important so that the student knows that both forms are valued and serve a purpose.