For February 19

Wow, it's already 10:30! I really should get motivated earlier in the day:) Today has been quite a positive day and I finally had an epiphany (well it's about time...) about my lesson planning so I'll hopefully be able to get down to some hardcore planning soon!

These readings today were useful. The Dornan touched on standardized assessment and I would like to steer clear of a heated discussion of the horrors of standardized assessment and AYP and NCLB and all of those other acronyms of doom. However I found one quote intriguing and I can't help but put it on here. Randy Bomer (in Dornan) says "high-stakes testing is a failure of democracy: it presents unequal structures of opportunity, it closes off inquiry, it allows the corporatization of education, it disenfranchises the people most affected by it because the public sphere is no longer available, and it creates an oppressive school environment" (Dornan 213). Sounds like he's pretty much summed up a lot of how we all feel about teaching to tests and being smothered by adherence to standards.

The rest of the Dornan chapter was quite interesting. I liked that he made some distinctions between "response, assessment, evaluation, grading" (Dornan 183); these distinctions are something I guess I thought I inherently knew but having it written down in a text book and explained to me, makes it all the more real. I feel like these definitions are something I should cut out and post over my desk (or wherever I'm grading papers) to remind me what I'm doing while grading. Dornan mentions that teachers shouldn't use red pens to correct because of the negative connotations that are wrapped up in pages of markings (186); now I know that it's bad to use the red pen, but there is such power in that thin tube of ink and the slashes it makes in the margins or on the words. I know I received many papers back full of red pen and yes, it was a little intimidating and I can see the validity of not using them, but as an-about-to-be-teacher, I am ready for the tables to turn and to be the one making the slashes over misspelled words and tense shifts.

Adger's text about dialects wasn't something that I had considered when teaching writing. I understand the differences between vocab/usage/mechanics in written and spoken word but I guess I only ever thought of this difference in terms of students who are learning English, not those who speak with a different dialect of American English. The thing I found most surprising is that "organization problems may relate to culturally based expectations for how to tell a story or make an argument" (Adger 115); this was just something I had never considered. I never occurred to me that culture and language can affect the organization of a paper. Adger also talks about students having experiences "in writing for a wide range of audiences, both inside and outside of school" (Adger 118) and I feel that this would be an excellent way to incorporate using a Multi-Genre paper. Students could write pieces in their vernacular dialect and mix in a piece using Standard English, validating both expressions of language. Adger had a lot to say in this short chapter and I think that vernacular and dialect are things that we all need to consider as we start teaching; if we move to other cities or other countries, how will changes in dialect and vernacular affect our lessons? Will we have to be more flexible and less critical since our students may not speak or write with a traditional Minnesotan/Wisconsinite accent?

Let us not forget that "the profession has no accepted definition or criteria for what 'good writing' really consists of" (Dornan 181).

Michael Perry, a writer from New Auburn, Wisconsin, writing about his life in the small town of 485ish people. His dialect and writing are a combination of informal storytelling and somewhat formal language and structure. Read his biography, it's great:) http://www.sneezingcow.com/index.htm His stories are valid, I feel because Perry employs such passion and love for seemingly every day events through dialect that is very accessible to people living in the Midwest. Perhaps he is an alternative to Garrison Keillor (for those of you who find him less than pleasing)?