Writing Sequence
INTASC Standard #2
The teacher intern understands how students learn and develop and can provide learning opportunities that support a student's intellectual, social, and personal development.
NCTE Standard 4.2
These three writing assignments gave me opportunities to provide feedback and allowed students to do personal reflection on a play, a novel, and the medieval times.
Overview:
For my three writing assignments I wanted to incorporate self-reflection on the students’ part. I wanted to see some more personal writing rather than formal, tedious writing. They did a research paper outline, draft, and final for their medieval topic; but the writings I assigned were not directly related to this. My overall goal was for them to be reflective writers in three areas: during the reading of the “Our Town” play; during our study of medieval times; and, more specifically, during our reading of a book set in medieval times (King Arthur: His Knights and Their Ladies).
For the first writing, they used their “Our Town” play. The second writing was based off an article I found online about the weird occupations of the middle ages. The third writing involved them using their novel, King Arthur. I felt that the assignments each got more difficult. In the first assignment, they could have easily not read the play and still completed the assignment (of course I didn’t point this out). In the second, they needed to pay attention to the article about medieval times, but it still could have been completed if they had listened to only part of the article. The last assignment made it imperative that they use their novels and their knowledge of the whole story. Some students did not think they needed to read to complete it, and tried to pull a fast one on me, but I can recognize when someone is being deliberately vague and hasn’t read!
In the first writing (easiest one), students needed to reflect upon their own lives. This was a very broad assignment and gave them much space to be creative. The second invited them to do self-reflection as well, but in a different context. They needed to think about what they would’ve liked their lives to be like back in medieval times. It was a more specific prompt, but still open to choice. I have to say, this assignment got more silly responses than serious ones overall among all sixty students. The third writing forced them to take the perspective of another. They had to put themselves in someone else’s shoes during the medieval times, based on what they knew from their novel reading. They could still choose which characters to be, but they also needed examples in their writing from the book, so I would know they had read the legends. This was the hardest because they had to take the point of view of another and infer what the character would write.
The students I chose in the beginning changed because I couldn’t get work out of two of them; however, I was finally able to get all nine pieces together. Two students, “Jane” and “Kevin,” are in the advanced class. The other, “Fred,” is in the regular level class. Fred is the classic case of a student who is capable of doing much more than he does. Excuses are abundant with him, which is frustrating as a teacher because I have seen him write really good things, things that rival the advanced class students’ work. I personally think he could be in the advanced class, ability wise. His writing goes up and down; sometimes it’s outstanding, other times it’s more low level.
Jane and Kevin pose a challenge to me because they are in the advanced class and often I find myself racking my brain for corrections I can make when there aren’t any. I always feel like “oh, another thirty out of thirty… I really should find something wrong with this…” Both students are quiet in class, but have many friends. Jane’s writing content tends to be a little lower in maturity level than Kevin’s. Jane writes very well, but if I had to choose I’d say it’s more quantity than quality. She definitely is creative and artsy, as one can see from her drawing on assignment #2. Kevin is a good writer too, with a few mechanical errors now and then, but he is very bright in all his classes. He often thinks of things that I don’t even think of, which is scary to a new teacher. He often asks specific questions so he can do the assignments exactly right.
Assignment #1:
(I’ve included the handout I gave students for this assignment. On the back side is the rubric I used to grade it). They were to use the monologue said by Emily which they read in “Our Town” and model their own monologue after it. Emily’s monologue is a very famous part of that play in which she addresses what she misses in the world after death. She talks about what she would miss. I asked them to do that plus write what they would not miss.
I think this was a good assignment in two ways: first, they get a chance to think about life and what they appreciate in it. Second, they get to vent a little and say what bothers them about it. It was kind of like a journal entry. All students really needed to know to do this assignment was the definition of “monologue” which I told them and they could infer from reading Emily’s in the book. I even wrote my own to give them a quick example of what I wanted.
I was pretty explicit in what I wanted, and I didn’t get many papers back which did the assignment incorrectly. This made me happy; I think the handout helped them a lot. The only misconception I saw was from one student who took my words very literally and just copied the exact format of Emily’s monologue. In the book, it says, “Good bye Good bye world….” And this student wrote “good bye good bye” before every single thing in her paper. She may not have read the handout and noticed that I didn’t use “goodbye” twice before everything I listed- I switched it up to “so long” or whatever other phrases were appropriate.
Discussion of Student work #1:
For Fred’s first writing, he was very reflective and did exactly what I envisioned. He even took it a step further and rhymed this whole paper, which was not a requirement. This rivals the advanced students’ work and I really think this is his best work I’ve seen. I was very excited he took time to not only reflect, but rhyme! There weren’t mechanical errors either. The only thing that was a little disconcerting to me was the last line… I’m not sure if that was a personal, morbid type of thing, or if he was just using that line to rhyme?
Jane’s first writing was one of the longest papers I got out of all students. She was reflective; and I can tell what she likes to do. She clearly enjoys life and likes to have fun, which is clear in the first part of the assignment. In the second part, the negative side, she got to more serious matters like soldiers dying and things like that. This was pretty standard for everyone- the negative (2nd) part of the assignment had a much darker tone and often was a longer list than the positive part.
Kevin’s first writing was a bit disappointing just because I was surprised at the length of it. He usually writes as much as Jane, but here, for some reason he fell short. His had good content but I had to deduct points for the length. His short paragraphs did have some moments of maturity though- like “the moments that define you.” I can’t really say anything is wrong with the material he did write.
A pattern I recognized with the second part of the assignment across all students was the difference in boys and girls content. The girls seemed to complain of bad hair days or broken nails (trivial things) whereas the boys spoke more about corruption, disease, or political issues. The girls did mention these more global topics, but not as often.
Assignment Two:
For the second assignment, I read an article to students which I found online. Our unit includes King Arthur and a research paper about a medieval topic. While this was not a history class, I still tried to incorporate some medieval times general learning. If the students could see what life was like back then, they could understand the King Arthur legends better perhaps. The article mentions some normal occupations, but also some strange occupations we don’t have today. They got a kick out of some of them, which are highlighted on the article I’ve included.
I told them to then think about their strengths and weaknesses; their likes and dislikes, etc… and think about what their role would be in the Middle Ages. What occupation would they have? Would they be a painter or a doctor or some job we have today, or would they have a strange job like a cupbearer or gong farmer? They were to write at least a page on where they would fit into society. I asked them to consider jobs they’ve had in their lives and think about what they did well and didn’t do well.
They needed to see the list of jobs individually to have time to decide on an occupation; and some chose to write about two jobs. I’m not sure if that was out of ambitiousness, or fear they couldn’t fill a page. Some kids resisted, saying they’d never had a job so they didn’t know what they’d do. I told them they could still know their personal qualities, like for instance what is their usual role on a sports team?
This assignment related to their research paper topics. Some students’ related directly- like a girl who was researching medieval dress and decided to write about being a clothing maker.
Discussion of Student Work #2:
Fred’s occupation writing was a little sophomoric in format. He began with “the reason I would like to…” and ended with “that is why I’d like to…” That is a common thing I have seen with students who cannot think of a good introduction or conclusion. His writing was much too short and points were taken for that. He did reflect though in the short amount he wrote. He said he likes to help people and so that job would suit him. He also wrote about a strategy he’d use in the job which means he really put himself in those shoes and thought of a way to capitalize on his money. I think his writing could’ve been excellent had it been longer. I think this was harder for him than the first assignment. I also feel like some students just want to write an answer and not elaborate… but his first writing had much elaboration so I guess that theory doesn’t apply here.
Jane’s paper, at first glance, is a bit childish with the “Queen…of course!” comment and the big crown drawing in the middle. I think she got a little silly with this assignment and I probably should’ve told them they couldn’t pick a Queen or King. I hope she’s exaggerating about how demanding she is in the paper. She did use a reference from our King Arthur book though, and that is great. I pointed that out in my feedback and I saw her build on that in the third assignment where she also took my advice and integrated much material from the story.
Kevin chose to write about two occupations. He used his knowledge of the times and considered the value of a job, as well as his opinion of the job as a carpenter. He also chose a King. The difference between him and Jane’s paper: his talked about how he could benefit others from being in a power position. Jane talked about being bowed to and served. Kevin wanted to help the kingdom while he was King. Jane had lavish requests, but I guess I allowed her that room in the assignment to dream! I also didn’t want to count off points for her or embarrass her by pointing out these things.
Assignment #3:
The last assignment drew upon student’s ability to “put themselves in someone else’s shoes” and also their knowledge of the novel, King Arthur. I said earlier it was the most difficult… however… it could become just as easy if the student had read thoroughly. They were still writing in “I” perspective, but they were pretending to be someone else.
They were to assume the role of a character in King Arthur, any character, and write a letter to another character in the story. It should’ve been one to two pages, preferably typed. They needed to think about a character they felt comfortable with and consider what they would want to say to another character if they had the chance. For example, we don’t see much of Arthur and Uther’s relationship. What would Arthur say to his father? Perhaps he feels the same way about Uther as Mordred does about him. I told them to think about how long it took in the middle ages to deliver a letter. Sometimes a messenger traveled on horseback for days just for one letter, so they needed to make this letter count. The students’ writing let me know how well they know the characters. They showed me that they can take the role of another. This assignment was open-ended as far as whom they are writing to, so some creativity is involved for sure.
Most students took typical characters like Guenevere to Arthur. Some, however, chose smaller characters like Gareth, and I was more impressed with those. I think they enjoyed doing the assignment, but perhaps I needed to make it clearer about the story details. Some papers I took points off because they were just vague. They were just letters saying the same thing over and over, like “I love you Lancelot…. Come away with me forever…. We can be together…don’t you love me?” or things of that nature. I got no sense that they knew the story at all. All that showed me was they knew one fact: That one character loved Lancelot.
For this assignment I took off one or two points for length. I took off zero or one point for minor punctuation and spelling; and two for atrocious punctuation and spelling. As for content, I said a good paper showed me they knew the characters and story with specific examples. I took off between two to four points for lack of depth and examples; and I took off five to seven points if I felt like “this letter could be to anyone from anyone” (or if it was unclear who was writing to whom).
Discussion of Student Work #3:
I nearly got no paper out of Fred for this assignment. It was four days late or so. It was not quite one page (It does not escape my attention when people put the date one line lower or start the letter a line lower and take up space with the signature at the bottom). He certainly got the vindictive part right though for this character. His letter was somewhat harsh, although I saw harsher ones (with cursing) from other classmates. Fred’s also lacked depth/substance and all I got from it was he knew that Mordred hated Arthur. He could have included examples from the story like Jane did. She did this very well.
Jane’s letter had style and used comparison and contrast between Arthur and Lancelot from Guenevere’s perspective. She also used similes. She included many details from the story and I wrote on her paper how that was appreciated. The details were mixed with creative license so it flowed very nicely.
Kevin was one of the few people who chose Merlin as a character for the letter. He, like Jane, used examples from the story, so I knew he knew it. He even invented his own task for Merlin to do at the end of the letter which gave the letter a mysterious quality. I think this was Kevin’s best writing of the three. Overall:
Overall, I think Fred’s work got worse. I don’t think his ability got worse, I think he was either busy or slacking. He gave excuses and sometimes no excuse, just “I forgot.” It’s high time students start using planners. I think if I hadn’t asked him day after day about this assignment, he never would have done it; so, in a way, this writing sequence may have saved his grade! I’m still trying to figure out where the excellent work he did in paper number one went to.
Jane’s grade stayed the same for the most part across all the assignments. One thing she did take into consideration though, was my advice on the story details. From assignment two to three she improved on that. Also she left out the drawing! I think her grammar glitches were less in the third as well.
Kevin’s work, in my opinion, got better across the three writings. He increased the length each time and got very clever in the letter writing. I think across a whole year I could better see their progress, but here I still saw definite differences in just three writings.