Methods

WHO Poem: Manuela Who?

Manuela who is always waiting by the door

And asks, “How are you mija?”

Who is root and tree

Who is loyalty and love

Whose wrinkled lips reach for your cheeks

Is love and acceptance without conditions

Who tells me, “Come eat.”

Who tells me, “I am proud of you.”

Whose body is weathered through years of love and pain

Always waiting, always open for a kiss, a hug, a call

Is a matriarch who holds a family up on 83 year-old shoulders

Is a woman who has loved and lost more than she should have

Is fragility and strength

Who sings our names like the purest songs

Is my grandmother

Asking, “How are you mija?”

              “How are you?”

 

 

Reading Response 4

Prompt: Respond to the reflection AND activity #1 on page 316

Response:

Courtesy: Pics4Learning

The reflection has reminded me of how important it is to keep a clear purpose for your assessments. Not only do you need to assess for individual lessons, units, but you also need to plan and assess for the year’s coursework. During last semester’s clinical practice, I definitely experienced how difficult it is to plan and maintain an assessment plan. I began my CP I with an introduction to the play Inherit the Wind. One of the long-term assignments that I asked students to do is to annotate for characterization during our in-class readings. I did this to help students prepare for the summative assessment, a final characterization essay on the character they are following through their annotations.   Upon reflecting on the annotating assignment, I now realize that I should have given them a timeline and explicit expectations for what I want to see before assigning it to them and letting them go. It probaby would have helped to check their work often and to provide feedback so they can revise or change their annotations. I didn't do that, so when I checked their annotations at the end of the sememster, I found that student responses varied and that their annotations were all over the place. I ended up adapting my expectations according to what they turned in, but realized how important it is to be clear since the beginning in order to avoid facing these kinds of issues.

I agree that students should have the opportunity to revise any paper after I return it with comments. I do have certain guidelines that I expect them to follow, however. I think that students need to make significant changes to their paper in order to revise. This means that a student can't resubmit if they are only turning in a paper that has been spellchecked and proofread for typos. Students need to take the revision process seroiusly and submit work that is an actual improvement compared to what they have turned in before. I also believe that students need to be given the chance to revise in order to avoid feelings of too much complacency or satisfaction. If a student receives a B or an A, I want them to feel that they too can revise their work if they would like to change or amend something. It would be great to see students step beyond grades and begin to see their papers as a reflection of what they have learned during a unit or a lesson, changing and revising wherever they feel they can improve.

Reading Response 3

Prompt: Select one of the templates from TS/IS and create/develop a writing assignment for the template for your current placement.

Template: “Capturing Authorial Action” (p.223)

I am teaching 2 classes of Senior English and 1 class of ELD 1-4. The way I would utilize this in class would be include it as part of their writing workshop tools. Students will have to write a research paper this semester, so I want to work on drafting and re-drafting as a class. This means that I will try to employ as much peer-review and work. I would use these as a handout and require students to practice during bell work. Practice would require that students revise sentences by using the templates. After having some practice and discussing the benefits and difficulties of using these sentence frames, I would have students apply this to their writing work. Their peer-review activity will ask students reviewers to point out at least 2-3 sentences that may be improved by using one the sentence frames. That way, students will see tangible markings and indications on how to improve.

Reading Responses 1 & 2

Previously Turned In