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I found this video actually looking for an informative video about students liking writing ---- goes to show that most students "hate" writing for multiple reasons. Many of the reasons in the control of educators. Teachers have the power to change the negative connotation students interpret writing to be - just an assignment, no further significance to, no interest to write ---- students should enjoy writing <<< school stems from learning through writing and reading ---- students want to write on things that interest them not pedagogical theories and research assignments. Students like to learn through their own eyes - students enjoy different genres of writing. Teachers have the power to enable their students in finding their interest in the writing realm. However, students should know the general rules and process of writing whether it be a narrative or research assignment, etc. Also, (as a teacher comments within the movie) - students don't always take blogs or social-media oriented writing forums with interest since self-representation is then transmitted into a educational institution. The video also covers the public's views on possible preventing of "writing hatred." This video also reflects the concept in the Casanava article in our class packet - teachers need to work on getting students immersed in writing through allowing their personal knowledge be combined with the values and lessons deemed by the institution they are writing for.

In "Exploring the Impact of a High-Stakes Direct Writing Assessment in Two High School Classrooms," Ketter and Pool (2001) use a case study to examine the effects of standardized direct writing assessments on instruction and on student affect. They used surveys, interviews, student work, case notes, and curriculum plans to closely examine how teachers and students in two Maryland high school classrooms were impacted by the state's high-stakes writing assessment. The two classes were designed for students who had previously failed the Maryland Writing Test, with the specific intention of helping those students to pass the direct writing test, which is required for high school graduation. Over half of the students in the two classes were identified as members of families of low socio-economic status. Ketter & Pool found that the primary factor negatively influencing instructional methodologies and student and teacher affect is the failure of instruction and assessment to address "how differences in discourse styles embedded in communities have a powerful effect on how children see their world and communicate about it with others" (369). In this way, students from non-mainstream culture are marginalized by the school system. Ketter & Pool recommend that school and community stakeholders work together to devise teaching and assessment practices that "take into consideration the rich variety of American culture and the complexity of literacy instruction that result[s] in a student's ability to make meaning" (386).

The link I've included is to the stable URL, which only displays the first page. Sorry -- you will have to log in to JSTOR to read the entire article.

This article addresses the importance of the student perspective in shaping and changing the educational structure of the classroom. Though this article does no explicitly address writing,it can be assumed writing is a manner in which we gain insight into the student perspective. The article examines various pedagogical perspectives in which authorization of the students perspective could best develop. The author address the traditional student-teacher relationship as that of a power relationship.However, in these power relationships there is no place for listening, because to truly listen warrant a response to what is being heard. All to often, the classroom is not a forum for open dialogue, therefore there is really very little listening going on. The student can become lost in this environment without a voice, diminish any authority that would make him/her an better writer.

This article by Claire Charles of Monash University suggest that boys are not up to speed in regards to "school based literacy competencies," but females appear to be thriving (72). The author focuses on women attending "elite" schools to explore the reasoning behind their success and how their "practices construct femininities" (72). Charles unveils the transformation women go through to find empowerment and translating that into their "reading and writing practices" (72). English 431 would benefit from this article because many of the students in English 30 are going through stages of self-discovery and by comparing genders this would allow us to sees the differences in this journey as well as the differences in their discourses. I'm interested to see how men and women incorporate gender into their writing. Some questions I had about this article were why/how are girls outperforming boys and what does gender have to do with mastering literacy? I hope English 431 students can learn how to bring feelings of empowerment to both genders in English 30 in order to help the students find their own voice and identity in their writing.

This article by Dr. Janette Hughes talks about the import role poetry plays in literacy development and how multi-media uses of poetry in the classroom can further enhance and engage a students learning process. For the sake of how in depth both of these subjects are, I'm only going to discuss what Dr. Hughes says about poetry and literacy development in this article. "Paying attention to the language and rhythms of poetry helps build oral language skills…..Children with well-developed oral language skills are more likely to have higher achievement in reading and writing" (Hughes). Poetry has an elitist stereotype to it, and tends to be something kept out of middle school and high school classrooms for the most part. Some English classes may briefly touch on some of the cannons of poetry, but only focus on a traditional notion of reading the context and finding the one single meaning. As Hughes states, "The dominant model of poetry teaching, particularly for older students, has been to teach poetry through print text and to focus on finding one meaning to be dissected. In contrast, poets emphasize the importance of hearing the poem read aloud, engaging with it, and probing for deeper meaning through discussion with others" (Hughes). I feel that engagement in poetry provides tools applicable to understanding every type of text. The brevity in poetry forces your mind to work in more analytical ways, and a facilitation of this analysis with other students provides a type of engaging learning experience that can be applied to any type of text for any class. This article really fascinated me, and left me with many more questions and ideas I would like to explore regarding poetry in the classroom.

This is from the library's scholarly database, you will need to login to view it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This article examines the reasons university students have anxiety over writing and/or confidence in their writing. I was especially interested because of the focus on genders. The authors hypothesize that female students are more likely to experience anxiety in their writing because of a difficulty in navigating the power structures that are academic discourse, and that male students are more confident in their writing than females even when there is no difference in ability. The article conducts a study of 127 college students at a public university near the Texas-Mexico border.

The author of this article explores the writer identity of a college ESL student in order to understand how embedded ideologies and power relations shape understanding of writer identity. The research method is Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The author presents the definitions of three important terms before proceeding to the analysis (identity, traditional formal discourse, and expressivism), where they are frequently used, to help the reader to understand them better. In the end, she comes up with concrete and practical implications for teaching. She recommends strategies for working with writers that are designed to encourage rather than silence the multicultural voices in our communities. Also, she suggests varying the types of assignments instructors give, using a process approach and discussing the sociopolitical implications of language use with students in order to overcome language policies that can work against ESL students. Unfortunately, you will have to log in as a member to view this article. It can also be found in Chico State's e-library.