Created by Online Education
Monday, December 14, 2009
Compositionist: React!
People will eventually read this blog. When they do, I want them to know that as a burgeoning composition teacher, I plan to integrate technology into my classroom as much as possible and as soon as I have the latitude to do so. By the by, I'm trying my hand at writing HTML again... I really should be more literate when it comes to technology.
Created by Online Education
Created by Online Education
Sunday, December 13, 2009
On Observing Two Classes
The observation process as a requirement for my Seminar on Composition (ENG 800)was, I believe, a tremendously helpful learning tool. For me, as someone who will begin teaching (for the first time) next semester, just seeing how others conduct their classrooms—how they handled problems, addressed and evaluated students, and approached the teaching of writing overall—enhanced my own understanding of how to teach the writing process to basic writers. Seeing the classrooms whose experiences informed the mindset my colleagues brought into our discussion of composition related the theories and concepts of our seminar to something more concrete: the act of putting those theories into practice.
Observations also helped me to see that not everything discussed in the seminar has to be included in a lecture; at first blush to the professional literature, teaching composition can seem quite a daunting task. I remember not being entirely sure where to start or what to include in my lectures as I prepared both for day-to-day teaching as well as for long-term projects. I suppose one of the most valuable things for me to see, as a new teacher, is that class happens day-by-day… even in making long-term plans; observations let me see that even long-term plans—such as essay revision, workshopping, preparing for standardized exams—are carried out one step at a time.
I also took some valuable classroom management ideas from my observations. Since I plan to have my students workshop their papers in small-groups during classtime, seeing how Dr. Milde conducts his workshops was extremely beneficial to me. Even though his was an ENG 101 course, I believe I can relate the same benefits to ENG 095 students by sort-of shepherding-along the peer-response process as much as possible without being intrusive. Dr. Milde had his students create metaphors in description of the paper they were workshopping; I was apprehensive at first, but after seeing the potential for discussion the metaphors held, I definitely want to employ them in my student workshops next semester. I also have some forms and handouts from our seminar which could also be helpful.
Observing Kim’s class helped me to see how best to manage classroom problems; some students used cell phones, others fell asleep, but Kim handled the situation expediently and professionally. Her students seem to respect her and to understand how to behave in the classroom. Once she verbally corrected her students’s behavior, they seemed not to repeat it. Overall, I think my classroom observations were tremendously beneficial to me as I both completed this seminar and prepared to teach developmental composition next semester.
Observations also helped me to see that not everything discussed in the seminar has to be included in a lecture; at first blush to the professional literature, teaching composition can seem quite a daunting task. I remember not being entirely sure where to start or what to include in my lectures as I prepared both for day-to-day teaching as well as for long-term projects. I suppose one of the most valuable things for me to see, as a new teacher, is that class happens day-by-day… even in making long-term plans; observations let me see that even long-term plans—such as essay revision, workshopping, preparing for standardized exams—are carried out one step at a time.
I also took some valuable classroom management ideas from my observations. Since I plan to have my students workshop their papers in small-groups during classtime, seeing how Dr. Milde conducts his workshops was extremely beneficial to me. Even though his was an ENG 101 course, I believe I can relate the same benefits to ENG 095 students by sort-of shepherding-along the peer-response process as much as possible without being intrusive. Dr. Milde had his students create metaphors in description of the paper they were workshopping; I was apprehensive at first, but after seeing the potential for discussion the metaphors held, I definitely want to employ them in my student workshops next semester. I also have some forms and handouts from our seminar which could also be helpful.
Observing Kim’s class helped me to see how best to manage classroom problems; some students used cell phones, others fell asleep, but Kim handled the situation expediently and professionally. Her students seem to respect her and to understand how to behave in the classroom. Once she verbally corrected her students’s behavior, they seemed not to repeat it. Overall, I think my classroom observations were tremendously beneficial to me as I both completed this seminar and prepared to teach developmental composition next semester.
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