Speaking of YA novels, the following link includes a list of "2007 Young Adult Fiction Finalists:
http://dadtalk.typepad.com/cybils/2008/01/2007-young-adul.html
The list includes: Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Nancy Crocker's Billie Standish Was Here, Barry Lyga's Boy Toy, Catherine Gilbert Murdock's The Off Season, Laura Resau's Red Glass, Carrie Jones' Tips on Having a Gay (ex)Boyfriend, and Gary D. Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars. The List also includes a brief synopsis of each book, as well as links to reviews. Just goes to show that it isn't hard to keep up with YA Lit for our students if we just take a few minutes to see what's out there.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Knowing your Audience
As English teachers, part of our job is to help students see the value in Literature; we can do this by knowing our audience, knowing which books will draw in which students. There are a plethora of worthwhile Young Adult books out there, and it's helpful to be in the know about them as an adolescent English teacher for a couple reasons:
1. It can help us build rapport with our students. Twilight, for example, has been a hot issue among middle and high school students (mostly girls) for the last year. Every week at my placement in Monroe Woodbury Middle School, I would watch the girls reading Twilight come in and gush to each other, and to their teacher, who had read the book, about the plot, the characters, ect.
2. Teaching Synergistic Texts. Some YA works can be taught side by side with "classics" to help students understand works that are complex. For example, the YA novel Jake Reinvented, by Gordon Korman, is a retelling of The Great Gatsby.
3. Engaging students, creating excited readers. If we know the right book to give to the right student, we have a chance of helping that student become a reader for the rest of his/her life.
This article, by Cindy Lou Daniels, addresses YA lit and its increased popularity and merit: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4063/is_200601/ai_n16350744/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1
1. It can help us build rapport with our students. Twilight, for example, has been a hot issue among middle and high school students (mostly girls) for the last year. Every week at my placement in Monroe Woodbury Middle School, I would watch the girls reading Twilight come in and gush to each other, and to their teacher, who had read the book, about the plot, the characters, ect.
2. Teaching Synergistic Texts. Some YA works can be taught side by side with "classics" to help students understand works that are complex. For example, the YA novel Jake Reinvented, by Gordon Korman, is a retelling of The Great Gatsby.
3. Engaging students, creating excited readers. If we know the right book to give to the right student, we have a chance of helping that student become a reader for the rest of his/her life.
This article, by Cindy Lou Daniels, addresses YA lit and its increased popularity and merit: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4063/is_200601/ai_n16350744/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
How To Assess Creative Work
Today in Methods of Teaching English In the Secondary School, we discussed assessment and the various problems that come with assessing creating writing. Professor Dewar shared that there are three different things a teacher can focus on:
1. Compliance: did the student do what was asked?
2. Competence: Did the student write something well?
3. Growth: How much growth has the student made as a writer?
Obviously, all three are things we should take into consideration when assessing a student's writing, which is in itself a tricky thing to do. How do we grade a creative piece of writing?
One thing seems clear, that if we do create a rubric, it is important for the students to have a part in creating it.
It seems, however, that extensive comments and feedback can help students a lot more than a grade would on these types of assignments.
Rethinking Writing Rubrics by Maja Wilson is a good resource on this topic:
1. Compliance: did the student do what was asked?
2. Competence: Did the student write something well?
3. Growth: How much growth has the student made as a writer?
Obviously, all three are things we should take into consideration when assessing a student's writing, which is in itself a tricky thing to do. How do we grade a creative piece of writing?
One thing seems clear, that if we do create a rubric, it is important for the students to have a part in creating it.
It seems, however, that extensive comments and feedback can help students a lot more than a grade would on these types of assignments.
Rethinking Writing Rubrics by Maja Wilson is a good resource on this topic:
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