Research topic for my MRP paper.

I think that I am going to do my research paper on censorship in the classroom. I think that this is something that is a real issue and effects many classrooms. I was in a classroom when I was in the 5th grade that wanted to read the Giver. Many parents were up in arms about how this book was not appropriate and talked about things that we should not know at that age. My mom signed off on a permission slip saying that I was allowed to read the book. I got to go into a special room with 5 other students parents who let them read it as well and we read the book and discussed it. I learned so much from this book and it is still sitting on my book shelf this very day. I felt that my parents trusted me and my teacher to present this book in a good way and to learn from it. I feel that censorship is a very important topic that I would love to research about.

chapter 10,11, &12

I think that conferencing between a student and teacher is very important. It is beneficial to both teacher and student. You get to spend one on one time with students and you get a chance to let them know that you read their writing thoroughly. As the teacher you can point out crafts that they do well and encourage them to keep it up, also you can point out areas where they might need a little help. This gives both student and teacher a very concrete plan in helping the student with their writing. Also if you write this all down on a sheet of paper it can serve as a reminder to them as to what they need to work on, so they know the goal they are working toward and they can be held accountable. Also parents can see this sheet and maybe help their child improve on their weaknesses and tighten their strengths.

When it comes to assessing students work, I think this get tricky. I wouldn't want them to see their assessment and feel down about their work and maybe get discouraged. The rubrics were interesting to me. I think that they might be a hindrance when it comes to writing. I feel like there may not be a reason to grade students writings. Maybe you could use DOL and other daily things to grade and check if students know their grammar and punctuation, but not what a student has written. I think there is nothing wrong with looking at a child's writing and pointing out some mistakes but to put points and a grade to a students writing seems like it would only cause student to get discouraged. So I would have conferences and point out what they could change and what they did well, but I probably would have a lot of problems putting a letter grades to a students writing.

Chapter 7,8, and 9,

I thought the most important thing in the chapter were the two questions to ask yourself before you start a lesson. What exactly am I teaching and Why am I teaching this? How will it help my students as writers. I am sure that if you as a teacher cannot answer these questions of your lesson, then your students for sure will not know what you are teaching or why you are trying to teach it to them. I have had students go through a whole lesson and then say "What are we doing this?" to the teacher and it seems like that would be the most important thing is to make sure that what you are teaching is relevant and that your students know why you are teaching it.

I think the way that I see a lot of teaching model writing is to model it through published Literature. I think this is a great way! Kids love books and if you can give them a good example then they will see the connection faster that just standing up in front of the class and trying to explain it without help from a book that they kids can connect with.

I think a writing conference is an amazing thing for teachers to do with their students. I had a teacher that did these, and I always liked the one on one time and it made me feel like the teacher was actually caring what I was writing about and I could bounce idea of of her or she could share writing strategies with me. It kept me more engaged in my writing and allowed for me to get another point of view so that I could strengthen my writing skills.

I think the special craft of using brand names, peoples names, and using as to connect sound to a visual are really important to good writing. It can give the reader a better visual of what you are trying to explain. If you say you are going to the store, the reader can picture any store, if you say you are going to an Old Navy, then anyone who knows what an old navy looks like, or any one who has been into an Old Navy can picture that in their head and get a much clearer vision of what you are explaining in your story without having to describe what the store looks like or what type of product the store might carry.

That's all for now!

Erin

Chapter 4 and 5

the five senses in writing was most interesting to me. I never thought about teaching your student's the write the 5 senses in. A story is really a great story when you can see the story in your head, but it is an amazing story when you can get all 5 senses. I never thought that maybe a student might have to be taught to add sounds etc. into their story. It makes for a more enjoyable and helps the story come alive. Many children has their own feelings into stories because children are very much ego centric when story telling, but to be able to add someone else's feelings into a story, or to explain their own feelings more deeply would make the story more likely to connect with the reader. This is some thing that is important that we try to teach children how to go about finding the feelings of themselves and others in their stories and then finding a way to write them down.

In chapter 5 for me it just reinforced the importance of teaching children correct punctuation and grammar. I think what I learned most from this chapter and in class is that you can be a little forgiving of mistakes in the younger grades because you don't want to just mark up their papers and discourage them from writing. So while these things are important it is probably best to wait until a later years in elementary school to be overly critical of grammar and punctuation.