Blog #4 Letter

Falyn,

After finishing this weeks reading, these are my thoughts and questions. I had a little bit of difficulty reading Britton physically and mentally. His theories about these poetic discourse and it being the language of literature(pg 154), I don't know if I really believe that the poetic function is dominant in everything . I would agree maybe that the form maybe found in all discourses, but as far as it being dominant, I'm not so sure. Also, I like the question he poses--What are the factors that shape the literary works as a whole? I was also very interested in the section called The London Writing Research Project. In the section he discusses the research him and some colleagues had done. Taking children's writing and analysing it into questions. And then he breaks that down to Transactional and Expressive types of writing( pg 158). This, to me, ties into what the editors of WAC for the New Millennium say in Chapter 1. They are introducing Writing Across the Curriculum as an educational reform movement(pg 1), but is that what it really is? Britton wants to separate the literacy and non literacy discourses (pg 151). WAC is meant to bring them together. Bean (pg 1-3) also talks about this WAC movement in the classrooms. If so many people are trying to bring writing into all the discourses why is Britton trying to separate them? What could be his reason for wanting to? Bean makes great arguments by saying teachers in other subjects don't know the English subject matter as well as there own, so how could they teach something they don't know fully about? Maybe Britton would agree with this. My debate against that would be if you're teaching any subject you should know at least the basics of every other. Wouldn't you want a well rounded teacher? Let me know what you think.

Joey Scarpa

Blog #3

Pratt: I use this term to refer to social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in context of highly asymmetrical of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out in many parts of the world today.

Scarpa: Here Pratt talks about this idea of contact zones, places where people, as well as cultures, interact and meet. She uses this term to remodel the idea of contact zones in your own home and in teaching as well. She used the example, which I think is amazing, of her son and his friend trading baseball cards, this could be their contact zone. Their meeting point to share and interact through this hobby. She explains how her son learned about racism and the great depression from behind home plate, his contact zone was able to put him in place where he could understand racism and the economical downfall through baseball. He was probably able to see Jackie Robinson's struggle into the Major Leagues and understand, maybe better than the underground railroad and Harriet Tubman.

Russell: The academic disciplines have taken little direct interest in writing, either by consciously investigating their own conventions of scholarly writing or by teaching their students those conventions in a deliberate systematic way.

Scarpa: Russell brings up a great point here, we even discussed it in class. Should writing only be taught in English class? I think that students handing in a lab report, history papers, and research papers should be held to the same standards as far as grammatical and spelling (to some extent). It's hard to have a different set of rules for each class as far as writing, because soon enough you're going to get used to not getting graded on the little things, and you let them slide in the papers where it matters the most such as a literature paper or an English assignment. These teachers from other subjects should equally enforce the English rules to keep the student constantly worrying about making sure they're not making these mistakes. Russell mentions this "literacy crisis," and by this I think he means exactly what this quote is saying, that other teachers, besides English, don't have any interest in teaching writing, they can't be bothered, and this is part of the cause. It's only getting worse, I know people studying to be teachers right now who don't know the difference between there, their, and they're- the roots go deeper. Do we really want these people teacher the children of the future?

Gee: So thinking and reasoning are inherently social. But they are also inherently distributed, and more and more so in our modern technological world.

Scarpa: Following this statement, Gee makes a really excellent point. He says that we use various tools and technology to do some of our thinking for us- Great! I love this, and was really hoping something like this would come up because I think it's so totally true. I do, but don't agree with Gee when he says we don't need to know everything in our field. While I agree it is difficult to know everything, but if you're only in one field lets say linguistics, I think you should know the most you could about linguistics. I don't like that he just settles, and says that if he doesn't know something about linguistics he'll ask another colleague, but what if every colleague though that way, then who would know the answers? This also bring us another topic regarding using tools and technology to think for you. Spell Check for example, I'm not totally against it, I'd be a hypocrite if I said I was, because I use it as well, but to an extent I like to challenge myself. I'm sure I could be a totally nerd for saying this, but I like to figure out the spelling myself first, just so I know, and my last resort is to use my spell check. I think it is a great tool, but very harmful as well, spell check isn't going to be on the SAT's or the English Regent, or on classroom exams, so what happens when I child looks for that crutch, and it's not there? Is the teacher going to grade them well for trying, even if the words are totally butchered? I think helpful tools are necessary, but when did people get to lazy to use a dictionary? I think one of the goals of teaching to make sure they can think for themselves without outside tools and technology for thinking- it's great to get ideas and brainstorm, but how far will technology go before it's actually doing the work for them?

Williams: Our eyes like to see order; it creates a calm, secure feeling.

Scarpa: I think this is a nice way to bring alignment to life "our eyes like to see order," it's simple, but true. If you were to look at a page and and things were all over the place, you know the title was in the middle and the sub-heading was to the left, and another link was more to the middle it would just be crazy too much going on, but when we see thing aligned and in some kind of organized order you feel better, and you know that the page is done right done professional.

Reflection

I think the style of these journals is really great, you get to see the authors thoughts, and then your interpretation of what you read, it's also a great way to highlight the things you did read, and the parts that stuck out for class discussions. I think its a good way to see what the students feels about the readings without having to have everyone explain it out in class. It's an effective assignment, I would definietly use in the future. I just think its really great for keeping track if you're reading more than one book, or article because it is hard to remember who said what, and where you read it; so, yeah, I think it's really great source to refer back to.

BLOG #2

Williams: physical closeness implies a relationship (pg 15)

Scarpa: I think this a great term not only in the context of design, but also in the classroom as well. I also like that she keeps saying that the above statement is also true in life. If you're learning something about world war II, your not going to say something about President Obama, the two ideally have nothing to do with each other, except they are both important things in history. And as far as real life is related to the quote, if the same people are always near or next to one another they are going to be classified as having some kind of relationship whether it be friendship or a couple. As Williams said about the flowers example, if they are grouped together we are going to assume they have something in common as opposed to the other list were certain flowers are separated to show that they are different than the others.

Gee: Past experiences serve as guides for how to proceed in new situations (pg 72).

Scarpa: I think Gee makes an amazing point with this statement. No matter what new experience you come across something will trigger and old one whether it be for comparison or some kind of learning from your mistakes situation. Everything in learning involves some kind of guide, chemistry has the periodic table, english has a dictionary or thesaurus, math has rulers, calculators, history has timelines- every subject has their own kind; so when something new is learned you can go back to the old guides as a reference.

Gee: The human mind is a powerful pattern recognizer (pg 88).

Scarpa: By pattern recognizer, I think, Gee means taking notice or new things and processes. This whole concept of "self teacher" meaning trial by error, you try and tear the cloth book, it doesn't tear, you try and tear the paper book it does tear. We store this information and store associations and patterns. Then with one association comes many more, soon the child realizes you can read this object as well, as Gee says on page 89. This is super important in developing learning skills, as a child you see something in a cartoon or in a book, and then you see it in real life and put 2 and 2 together, for example I used to babysit for a 2 year old boy and a four year old girl, I would read with them and watch T.V. I went on vacation to italy during the time I work there, so when I was telling them that my little sister was going to watch them for a few days because I was going to italy, the little girl said to me, "you're going to italy like toot and puddle," which is a popular Noggin television show were two pig travel the world and learn different cultures. I thought it was amazing that she put the two together. These shows are like a gateway for more learning and associating these objects and places for children.

Gee: Concepts are never set and finished. They are like a large tree that always seeks to rise higher but that must always send into ground deeper roots.

Scarpa: If you stop to think for a minute, "what is a concept," it's an abstract or general idea. Can you ever really finish a concept? No. They make concept cars, concept art- they are never really finished, the mind conceives an idea and leaves room for improvement or change.

Gee: Our experiences in the world build patterns in our mind, and then the mind shapes our experience of the world, which, in turn, reshapes our mind (pg 91)

Scarpa: I love that Gee says "reshapes our mind," because to me he means that experiences give the mind a whole new outlook, a whole new idea. Let's say you are so scared of heights, you're just scared of the whole idea of it, but you decide to over come that and go on a roller coaster or look out the window of a tall building, and you realize that it's something amazing, that you've been missing out the whole time. What did it take for you to realize it? Doing it, putting yourself out there and experiencing it, therefore reshaping the entire idea of what heights is all about- it's as simple as that, but such a great way of putting it into words.

Blog #1

Murray: None of these implications require a special schedule, exotic training, extensive new materials or gadgetry, new classrooms, or an increase in federal, state, or local funds. They do not even require a reduced teaching load. What they do require is a teacher who will respect and respond to his students, not for what they have done, but for what the may do; not for what they have produced, but for what they may produce, if they are given an opportunity to see writing as a process, not a product (pg 6)

Scarpa: This is a great teaching method to follow. Writing is most definitely a process, and when taught the way Murray explains with his three steps: prewriting, writing, and rewriting it is the best hands on method to show students the correct way to begin the writing process. He also says in one part "the suspense in the beginning of a writing course is agonizing for a teacher," Murray explains because you have to wait the process out instead of doing the "prewriting" for the student you must let the student do for themselves. You don't know what a student is capable of doing, until they actual take the time out to do things the right way. Writing as a process will never be done, it's alway evolving so there won't ever be a finished so-called "product." As a process there are steps like Murray explains, you can always edit and change things it's all part of the writing process, it's never been called the writing product. One piece can me a finished product when you had it in, but there is always room for improvement and change. I don't think writing could ever be considered a process, and in my opinion neither does Murray.

Gee: Of course, designers could make the games shorter and simpler. That's often what schools do with their curriculums (pg 3).

Scarpa: This poses a great question: If longer and harder games sell really well, then why are more in depth and harder curriculums more difficult to sell? Kids tend to enjoy playing challenging video games, and feel accomplished when they have beat the game, but are they as likely to enjoy school work even if it's also challenging? Gee thinks that video games represent a process, and I agree. They represent a process- "creativity of capitalism," making better and better designs for a greater learning experience. In the end things that are hard and difficult make for a better learning experience. The education system is becoming more and more watered down as far as difficulty goes. Things are getting cut out of the curriculum so there is less information to retain, and that makes for a higher passing rate, but are they getting the same education I got when I was in grade school? I was recently at a comedy show, and the comedian was saying how she was a teacher, I believe 4th or 5th grade, and she asked if anyone knew who the vice president was, and she had children saying Giulliani was the vice president and Hillary Clinton. To me that means these children are aware of political figures, but maybe don't pay full attention to what they hear or read. We need to get the children more focused, anyone living in the United States above the age of 8 should know the president and vice president.

Gee: If learning is to be active, it must involve experiencing the world in new ways (pg 31).

Scarpa: This is a great tool to live by because it is so true. Experience in any form is always a great way to learn, whether it's learning from a mistake you've made, going to another country to gain a cultural experience, or doing a hands-on science project that gives you a better idea of the topic at hand. A learning experience should always leave a positive mark on someone because then they will be more interested to learn much more instead of being discouraged or uninterested in something they are learning. No one is going to think everything they learn is interesting and amazing, but I think it is the teachers job to do the best they can to try and get every child possible interested in learning.