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1: Getting to know you, getting to know ourselves

Activities

All activities must be completed by the end of the week. See the Schedule for specifics.

1. The Student Web Page. This is your signature page where you introduce yourself to us and present your philosophy of teaching writing. Your view of yourself as a prospective teacher of writing may change over the semester, and you will alter the home page to reflect your growth. You may make this page as creative as you like. The student Web page section can be found in Blackboard. Complete this by mid-week.

Keep your Web pages simple but let it express your personality. You may be as creative as you like—use visuals, poetry, whatever--as long as you give us the information listed below. Try to keep it to three paragraphs. 

If you already have a Web page you would like to use just create a link to that site from your Blackboard page. If you need help building your Web page please read the help article first. Caution: Make your homepage easy to download. Some of you may have dial-up modems and PDF or JPG files are slow to download, and not everyone has Acrobat Reader. Avoid videos. Your Web page should include these three elements: 

a. Your name, where you are teaching, and any other information you think would be fun to share with us (“My favorite school lunch was spaghetti”?). 

b. A portrait of yourself as a writer in junior/senior high school (keep it to a page): think back over your writing experiences in schools. What kind of writing do you remember doing in junior and senior high? How were you taught writing? What kinds of writing assignments did you have? Did you have class time for composing, revising, or editing, or were these expected for homework? Were you able to write on topics of your choice? Were you able to collaborate or meet in workshop groups? Did you write for audiences other than the teacher? How did you learn about grammar, usage, spelling, punctuation, organization, style? Was creative writing a part of your writing classes? How was writing graded? What did you like most about writing? What did you like the least? What memories, positive or negative, stand out when you think back on yourself as a writer in school? (Maybe you even have some of the writing you did then—a book report on The Great Gatsby? A research paper on the Puritans? Give us juicy excerpts.) 

c. A metaphor for the teacher of writing you would like to be, with explanation. You may use visuals, text, whatever to introduce yourself to us as a former student of writing and future teacher of writing. Check my home page for an example. (Note:  You will not be able to, nor do I expect you to, create a layout as complex as mine.)

2. Read each others' student Web pages.

3. Enter into a discussion about each others' Web page. Do you find points of similarity in people’s writing experiences in schools? Are there ways in which your metaphor for yourself as a student of writing or ideal teacher of writing intersect with those of others? What strikes you about the metaphors (think about the assumptions about roles and relationships embedded in the metaphors). Post your responses in the discussion labeled "Lesson 1" in Blackboard by the end of the week.

In general, I want you to participate actively in conversations about the topics in the lessons and about what you are learning from your research and reading. Participation means:

1. giving thoughtful responses to the questions posed
2. reading and responding to others’ postings in order to forward discussion
3. respecting your classmates’ ideas and perspectives
4. contributing to our knowledge of writing and teaching writing,
5. allowing what you read in the discussion to trigger new ideas and broaden your thinking (you will show this in additional postings and responses). The discussions should be places where you learn.

Grading