English 403: Lesson 2

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2: Becoming a teacher of writing

Overview

Fred Dog This lesson introduces you to the writing processes and differentiates the process approach from a more traditional approach to teaching writing. You will read about one teacher’s conversion from a teacher-centered program to a writing workshop, and will interview your mentor teacher on how he/she views his/her role as a writing teacher. A reminder: while doing this lesson you may read and do research for other lessons. Field research-- interviewing teachers about various aspects of teaching writing, observing classes, reading student writing — is required in many lessons. It might be to your advantage, or desirable from your mentor teacher’s point of view, to have fewer, more extensive interviews instead of more frequent, shorter ones. If you read and do other work in advance, keep notes in a journal. You will only be able to enter the discussion sites during the set dates for each lesson, and may not submit reflection papers until the lesson’s conclusion. I strongly suggest you work on Lesson 3, Activities 1, 2, 3, and 5 concurrently with Lesson 2.

Activities To Do:
See detail instructions in the Activities list below.
	1.	Read Atwell Ch. 1, and Zemelman and Daniels, Chs. 1 & 2
	2.	Interview your mentor teacher
	3.	Blackboard: Write and post a profile of that teacher as a teacher of writing
	4.	Blackboard: Read the profiles
	5.	Blackboard: Discuss
	6.	Begin your journal
	7.	Blackboard: Reflection Paper

Activities

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

1. Read Atwell Chapter 1, and Zemelman and Daniels, Chs. 1 & 2. Notice in particular the differences between the process approach and the more traditional approach, the more teacher-centered style and the workshop-style Atwell adopts. (A note: Z&D's descriptions of "process" versus "whole language" are somewhat dated. The approaches they describe as "new" are no longer new.)

2. How does your mentor teacher see himself/herself as a teacher of writing? What were some key influences in her/his growth? Interview your mentor teacher in order to develop a profile. Here are some questions you might ask:

	How did you become a writing teacher? What changes did you make in the way you teach/approach writing?
	What or who were the strongest influences in your teaching of writing?
	What does being a writing teacher mean? How would you define your role? What is the students’ role? What metaphor would you create to describe the writing teacher you would like to be?
	How would you describe your “philosophy of writing,” or your basic approach to teaching writing?
	Would you describe yourself as a “process” teacher? What processes do you teach?
	Do you use a writing workshop?
	How do you teach the mechanics and conventions (grammar, usage, punctuation, etc.)?
	What do you think is the biggest hurdle or challenge in teaching writing?
	What do you enjoy the most about teaching writing? The least?

All of these questions, and the rest of the questions for the semester are available in one PDF file.

3. Using the information you collect in this interview, write a “profile” of your mentor teacher based on the interview. Profiles should be approximately 1/2 page single-spaced. Try to capture your mentor teacher’s approach, how he/she sees himself/herself as a writing teacher. Be sure to get your mentor teacher's input, and share your profile with him/her. Post the profiles on the Blackboard discussion site at the beginning of the week under the Topic "Lesson 2."

4. During mid-week, read everyone’s profiles. Then return to the discussion site for the following conversation.

5. Discussion: What do you notice about the teachers’ approaches? How do they seem to complement or differ from the readings? In your Blackboard discussion, show that you’ve read the profiles and the assigned chapters. You should make several postings during mid-week: your initial response and responses to at least two others’ responses. Let’s get a discussion going!

6. Journal: Throughout the course you will be asked to read and reflect, observe, talk to teachers and students, and do research on writing and the teaching of writing in your school. You should keep your notes and thoughts on your readings and research in a journal on an ongoing basis. The journal of information and reflections will be the basis for your postings to discussion sites, and for the reflection papers due at the end of each lesson.

7. Reflection paper: At the end of each unit you will put in the Assignment Dropbox on Blackboard a final reflection on what you learned in the lesson from the readings, school research, and each other in the discussion, and on issues and questions that still remain for you. Each reflection should be no more than two and no less than one page, single-spaced. Reflection papers will be graded for each lesson. They must be submitted on or before the end of the week. Late papers will receive lower grades.

From what you have learned from the readings, the discussion, and your observations so far, what do you think your role as a writing teacher might be? Turn this one page paper into the Assignment Dropbox in Blackboard labeled "Lesson 2 Reflection". The document should be a Word97 or higher format, 12 point legible text. The reflection paper is due at the end of the week.