Table 8

This page will contain ideas and comments from Table 8.

7 thoughts on “Table 8”

  1. IMPLICATIONS
    -Get back to develop students’ voice in the world, as individual expression of identity and reaction to their world.
    -Have ESL students write in their own language first to get their ideas out. ( A recognized strategy-good idea).
    -Personal needs to be a part of the process
    -Have students identify their own constraints

    WHAT’S NEW
    -More discussion, more collaboration. Put some “Implications” into practice and reflect on them.
    -Practical strategies
    -Cross-discipline discussion on writing
    -Eliminate 50% diploma. Then teachers will move from teaching to the test.

  2. Conversation #4: Writing across contexts.
    What would you want teachers of writing in the contexts that precede and/or follow your context to know about your teaching of writing (goals, challenges, affordances)?

    Subject: Nursing Scholarly Paper
    -What is a scholarly paper?
    -Reflective
    -Outline for assignment is extremely descriptive
    -Organization is essential
    -Combination of personal thoughts
    -Evidence based
    -Get started early, get some feedback, and revise

    How did the criteria for the assignment show up in the paper you have?
    -It covered all of the different criteria.

    What seems to be in the draft that isn’t in the assignment?
    -The professor is not asking for a proposed solution, but it is included in the paper.

    What would you want teachers of writing in the contexts that precede and/or follow your context (here it would be the nursing instructors at the U of A) to know about your teaching of writing (goals, challenges, affordances)?
    -Students should learn how to write to be successful in the context that they are in and not be worried about how their writing should be in the future.

    -With this paper can there be more than one answer? Can they go in more than one direction?
    -The professor would want the students to focus on the negative portrayal of how nurses are depicted in the media.

  3. Conversation #3: What are the qualities that make good writing in the contexts in which you teach and work?
    What is your context for teaching writing?
    -Making sure students know the purpose of the assignment
    -The criteria is a result of the purpose being understood and covered
    -Help students to know their constraints

    Looking back on the Maligne Canyon Memo Report:
    -Now knowing the outline of this project and the evaluation criteria
    -If you have the purpose in mind, the writing is stronger.
    -Context is what your reaching for, if it matters and it relates to real life (has a real purpose) you will get better results from the students
    -Criteria for evaluating is seeing if they have a good understanding of the purpose of the assignment

  4. Conversation #2: What are the qualities that you value in your own writing?
    -Find out from students what they value. Also find out who they are, where they come from, and their interests.
    -Linking higher and lower discourses
    -Research that allows connects the two.
    → What do teachers say?
    → What does the literature say?
    -Blogging is where we as teachers, can connect and reflect
    -Link experiences of students as writers.
    -Ask questions to students about their narratives.
    -Have to know stories from students
    -Encourage students to become familiar with narrative.
    -Link the personal with public writing. (For all students)
    -Assignments that will sustain critical thinking
    -Purpose and voice
    -Could anyone else have written this piece exactly how it is? The answer should always be no.
    -Does it matter? Is it true? Does it make sense?
    -What restores meaning?
    -Writing is an act of hope
    -Writing works against being disconnected.
    -Looking for heart and mind

    Conversations at Tables: What do you value in your own, and in your students writing?
    -Honesty
    -Clarity
    -Can they communicate what they want to say in a direct way that’s easily understood?
    -“It’s OK to have a short sentence.”
    -Variety in students writing. (Shortness, and compound and complex sentences)
    -How do we work on style in a classroom with 20 students?
    -Purpose
    -How you develop their own styles but helping them to improve their writing.
    -Student says after getting assessment “but this sounds like you, not me.”
    -Professional with distinctive voice.
    -Refashion a different ‘you’, understanding the genre and audience of the writing.
    -Say as much as you can in as few words as possible
    -Want students to make rhetorical comments
    -They should be able to write a short amount, a long paper, a letter etc.
    -Learn the things you need to do as you do them.
    -Learning the strategies.
    -Want to understand why they need to learn how to write different genres.
    -Personality in writing is good to a point, but really its about getting facts and information down on paper.
    -Forget what you learn in high school, because university writing is different.
    -In high school writing, you learn how to get your ideas and thoughts on paper, but once you reach the university level you are not allowed to include personal ideas into your writing. Writing at the university level needs to be based off of scholarly research. With this, many students find formatting work at the university level difficult, because they are used to formatting an personal essay or story.

  5. Comments on Students Writing (Whole Group Comments)
    Subject: Marijuana-The Debate Continues

    What you valued and what you liked.
    -Writer is passionate
    -Persuasive techniques were strong
    -Interesting to read
    -Lead into the thesis was good
    -Talking to a general audience
    -Positive and negative rhetoric
    -Support from the position

    What you didn’t like. What you wished this text did.
    -Title is a little bit biased
    -Use of absolutes were not backed up by research
    -Embedded definitions would have been helpful.
    -Spell check.
    -Incomplete sentences.
    -Sentence structure was lacking.
    -Would like some more organization.
    -Would like arguments to be linked together. Format the different arguments.
    -Moments where the writer loses credibility
    – Readers will not take the writers point of few as seriously with all of the grammatical and sentence structure errors.
    -Edit and clean the structure without losing the voice and passion from the writer.

  6. Comments on Students Writing (Whole Group Comments)
    Subject: Maligne Canyon

    What you valued and what you liked.
    -Descriptive
    -Transitions were smooth
    -Integrates the sources into the subject matter (without disrupting the flow of the writing)
    -Informational
    -Clear visual image
    -Mix of creative, descriptive, and informational writing
    -Organization of it
    -Well researched
    -Grammatically well written. Few errors.
    -Sentences short and direct/brief and clear

    What you didn’t like. What you wished this text did.
    -Some points the writer is referring to the photograph and at other points the writer is not. Needs consistency.
    -When reading would have like to seen if they could describe in their writing, and then look at the photograph.
    -General wording at times could have been better.
    -Restructure the sentences so that the transitions are not always at the beginning of the sentence.
    -Format was creative and scientific… Lacking a conclusion. Would suggest coming back to the opening mode.
    -Clearer structure. Genre ambiguity. This could make it more interesting to read.
    -A little redundant at times.
    -Would like to know the purpose of this project.

  7. Conversation #1: Writing beyond schools.
    Why we are here?
    -I am here to learn as much as I can about writing in secondary and post-secondary contexts. As an undergraduate student, I want to learn as much as I can before I step out into the world of teaching.
    – To find out how to more effectively teacher students. To improve critical thinking, to be more organized in their writing, and to have students dig deeper into solid topics.
    -Teaching first year classes in University find out easier where her students are.
    -6 different studies at U of A looking at different first year writing assignments, what are students doing in high school. What is the difference from the end of grade twelve to the beginning of first Year University?
    -Students in university that are not English majors are writing a lot of papers, and it’s difficult and eye opening for them. How do we help them?

    Comments:
    -How do you go from high school writing to university writing?
    -Writing courses in university are helpful.
    – When marking, don’t waste time on careless students work. Take more time to mark work done by students that put more effort into it.
    -In university it was hard to start writing. Looking at journals in the library was a way to help.
    – It’s hard to find a balance between marking so hard that you discourage students, and too easy where it is not beneficial.

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