High Expectations

This week the Routman reading gave me new things to think about, namely: having high expectations for all our students. The part that interested me most was the one talking about the fact that we need to make a habit of expecting our students to turn in perfect work, without errors of spelling, punctuation, grammar and capitalization. I have to admit that this is another idea that I thought it is held only by a minority (among which I include myself). More than that, during the last months I started thinking that maybe it is not a good idea to have such a high expectation for the students. When I was in school it was unthinkable to turn in a paper that was not error free. Naturally, I used to have the same expectations for other people, including my future students. Since I started this teaching program I have come to realize that not all teachers think the same. Many of them accept less than perfect work and they argue that this is the only way they can encourage students' writing. I can see how this might be a valid point. I understand that students might be overwhelmed and discouraged by too many requirements and expectations. At the same time, I cannot help wondering: when do we start expecting more from our students? When and how do we transition them from the phase in which it is all right to turn in work with grammar and spelling errors to a phase in which it is no longer acceptable? The 8th grade students in my dyad placement can still turn in writing that is not correctly spelled or checked for grammar. When does it end? How do you remedy a situation like this? It seems to me that if by 8th grade you do not expect your students to write correctly they will never write that way. Or is it really not important? Is writing a dying "art" in the age of technology?

Teaching Writing, Part 2

I was writing last time about the teaching of writing and how I experienced it in my 8th grade dyad placement. I'm coming back to the same subject this week because I had the chance to read my 8th graders' latest essays. Most of the essays did a good job of following the formula that the teacher had presented, but otherwise I had a very hard time identifying good work. The students' voice and opinion was not coming across, the essays did not have a flow, and all in all they did not reach their target. It was supposed to be a persuasive essay, but after reading all of them I realized that the students had no idea what the purpose, look or feel of a persuasive essay is. All they had understood was that they had to fill in the missing parts of the persuasive essay template. So I guess the ideas that I have expressed last week still stand: writing is much more than standardized forms and templates. Teaching it this way does not work. The conclusion would be that new methods have to be adopted, but I am afraid that this was not the conclusion that my cooperative teacher reached... If these methods do not work, what other methods would work? How can you make a better job at teaching writing to 8th graders? How can you engage and motivate students? And how can you change these techniques that do not work if the whole school uses them and has probably been using them for some time?