ENGL431fosen

This article discusses the differences between the passive and active literary voice, choosing an appropriate tone, and effective usage of verbiage; however, it is written in a very instructively, concise manner and is easy to comprehend. There are recommendations for when to appropriately use the passive or active voice, as well as recognizing the certain challenges each voice contains. In total there are 16 steps to "improve your voice" and each step consists of sub-steps. There is also advice for establishing concise, precise, and simplistically, effective writing for your reader to grasp and enjoy. Although the article is rather short, it is very instructive and can be utilized as a beneficial source to enhance not only our writing, but also the students we are helping. It would make a great source to share and/or even post on blackboard learn under the ENGL 130 forum (for those of us in the workshop); or those mentoring anywhere else on campus.

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 is stresses the importance of the cultural component as a part of language learning rather than subordinate to it. It separates "cultural awareness" from "intercultural capability" in which the later is understood as "engaging learners in developing the capability to exchange meaning in communication with people across languages and cultures". Then the article goes on to give an ambiguous solution to revising L2 learning assessment. The article is short but it offers good insight to that fact that schools assess language as merely a descriptive code.

The authors discussed to common occurrence of teachers "bending over backwards" for their NNS (Non Native Speaking) students, especially when evaluating surface errors. The study in this article seemed well orchestrated. It presented a variety of English teachers with six compositions: two from native English speakers, two from Danish speakers, and two from speakers of Thai. These students however were not real and the "student profile" assigned to each composition was constantly rotated. The results found that NES (Native English Speakers) were judged more harshly because "they should know better". The northern European, the Danish, students were pretty neutral. The Asian, the Thai, students were given the most leniency. I found this article interesting because it gives insight to the impact that teachers' grading has on the development of ESL students' writing proficiency.

Digital Discourse: Composing with media in the writing classroom Karen Gocsik This article, posted under the writing and rhetoric section of the Dartmouth University website, discusses the potential multi-media assignments and teaching methods can have on new-age students. Gocsik feels that the literacy of the screen should become a third type of literacy behind oral and print. The nuances in composing a webpage or video reveal similar elements to that of constructing an essay. Gocsik makes the point that making a video project teaches students how to: come up with explicit vs. implied theses, structure according to the expectations of the audience and conventions of a particular medium or genre, and how to craft arguments out of a polophony of voices while creating a multimedia voice of one's own (Gocsik). Multimedia devices such as blogs or webpage's can be used to assist in the bigger project of a video collaboration.

The study, "Prospective Teachers' Insights towards Scaffolding Students' Writing Processes through Teacher-Student Role Reversal in an Online System", researches how teachers may better understand the difficulties faced by students and how to facilitate student writing in a classroom. To do this, fourteen prospective teachers enrolled in a three week long, online, computer-supported environment where they would switch into roles as students instead of teachers. The prospective teachers were a group of second year graduate students in a Master's program in English teaching and had been studying English as a foreign language for ten years. Every week, the prospective teachers took on a different role; first as a student writer, then as a student editor, and finally as a student commentator. As student writers, they wrote and posted first drafts of their essays. Then, as student editors, they revised their peers' drafts and provided suggestions. Next, the prospective teachers evaluated their peer editors' suggestions. Finally the prospective students rewrote and posted their final essays. The prospective teachers perceived the role reversal as "a valuable experience through which they were able to understand their students' actual needs and difficulties in writing" (365). The prospective teachers also learned how to empathize with their future students' possible difficulties and will now reflect constantly on their own roles as English as a foreign language teachers and as students.

This post discusses how to write in your true voice, but online, not in academic writing. I thought it was interesting though, because it addresses avoiding "corporate speak" and suggests using first person to get a personal message across. In academic writing, I think "corporate speak" could actually be proper grammar and certain styles. Do they take our voice out of writing? It's not always an option to take out a style from writing. And in academic writing, it's rarely an option to use first person.

This is a website that breaks down the various stages of development students undergo whilst learning to write. It talks about each of the stages, what constitutes them, and how they shift and change. I found this website pertinent for a number of reasons, but chiefly because it relates directly to teaching writing.

This article was written by Lawrence Musgrove, an associate professor of English and foreign language at Saint Xavier University in Chicago, Illinois. In the article he talks about a lot of the same problems that we have been touching on in class with concerns to first year English composition classes. After a quick discussion of the issues with English composition, he goes into his proposal for a solution. He first conjured up a metaphor between writing and driving. Bad driving has very concrete consequences, and Musgrove thinks that writing should, too. His proposal is centered on professors issuing students "writing tickets" that can be cleared up by attending workshops, seminars, revising their paper, or any other writing task their professor deems sufficient. While reading the responses posted after his article, I noticed that his ideas drew attention from all sorts of different people. People from all different professions and backgrounds (high school students, business men, elementary teachers, etc) had a variety of things to say. Some people loved his idea, and others heavily disputed it. I found that the responses generated were as resourceful as the article itself.

Unfortunately, I got this article from the library's research portal, so you will have to log in to view it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Investigating the Role of Identity in Writing Using Electronic Bulletin Boards Valia Spiliotopoulos & Stephen Carey This paper details the findings of a study on the effectiveness of using online bulletin boards, in this case WebCT, in a university writing class for ESL students. The study finds that the asynchronous nature of posting online allows students to participate more fully and in ways which may not be possible in traditional class interaction. The authors also argue that the process of forming an online community of English language learners affords the students the opportunity to develop a greater sense of identity as an English speaker and as part of a community of English speakers.

This article contains a variety of helpful recommendations in assisting others with essays, and beneficial of extensive methods in establishing coherence. There are also intriguing statistics about illiteracy and each section, as well as the subcategory within is very specific and unified. Essentially, the article revolves around the diversified nature of everyone's unique interpretation of writing and is magnified towards all students. There's also information such as: informing others, consulting others, approaching the students, entertaining them, acquiring the knowledge of their materials, appropriately responding, and using moderate persuasion. All in all, there are a total of seven recommendations with very concise explanations of writing instruction, analytical approaches, and assessing the quality of literary works. This article is applicable to our instructive endeavors within our micro, or macro, aggregates of situated learning. The content within this particular article will elucidate the path to molding students into strategic writers, capturing and sustaining motivation, and substantiating an enjoyable environment. So please give it a read! I'm sure you'll find it quite pertinent to our weekly scenarios of peripheral participation and consultative interactions.

I first encountered this article when taking 470 course, and this week I have looked it through thoroughly, as it seems to me that it contains some significant information concerning the nature of bilingual writing. Losey affirms that written codeswitching is significant for bilingual students as it provides opportunity for them to fully express themselves. According to the author, the writing identity of a bilingual is constructed by the constant correlation of the two language worlds; therefore, it is not only natural but also necessary for him / her to codeswitch in order to express his / her individuality. This idea correlates with the article "Heritage Language Literacy: Theory and Practice" by Chevalier, where the author considers that bilinguals do not possess the whole range of written registers because they codeswitch in the situation when monolinguals change their writing style. However, Losey does not see codeswitching as disadvantage like Chevalier does. His point of view is closer to another article "Writing back and forth: the interplay of form and situation in heritage learners' composition" that I reviewed during the previous week. The author of that article explains that the productive writing in bilingual schools implies shifts between two cultures and languages in order to create a new non-standard way of expressing one's thoughts. Losey goes even further. He does not only considers codeswitching possible in the classroom settings ("an unsurpassed opportunity for bilinguals", "a successful strategy for enhancing communication, promoting natural literacy acquisition in both languages, valuing students' cultural and linguistic backgrounds", though "its use in the classroom runs counter to linguistic and cultural norms and must be guided by an informed and sensitive instructor"), but, after analyzing writing patterns of the 47 personal letters exchanged between young individuals, he also determines the form and functions of the written codeswitching

This article continues the idea of my previous posts - about codeswitching and language transfer in the writing of bilinguals and heritage learners. It is based upon the experiment investigating formal and informal writing samples of students who possess three languages - Basque, Spanish and English. The authors'purpose has been to explain that although traditional teaching is turned towards monolinguals and native speakers' writing as a model, the perspective of bi- and multilingual writers is different. The authors - Cenoz and Gorter -explore the nature of transfer from one language into another, codemixing and codeswitching, and come to the conclusion that these three factors characterizing bilingual students are not to be treated as separate obstacles but rather as three parts of the one whole that benefits writing while enabling students to widely use resources of different languages. The authors use the term "translanguaging" denoting by it "combination of two or more languages in a systematic way within the same learning activity", and argue that translanguaging contributes to developing and strengthening writing in both languages. The authors propose a new approach to teaching writing to the bi- and multilinguals - "focus on multilingualism" that allows "looking at the different languages of the multilingual at the same time instead of separately". Cenoz and Gorter identify the relationships between languages as complex, yet beneficial for developing writing skills. According to their point of view, multilinguals use the same strategies when writing essay or informal social network posts, yet they incorporate in their writing the elements of three languages not because of limited lexical resources, but for conveying their communicative intent, which they think is better done in a particular language out of three that they possess. That means that multilinguals and bilinguals choose language resources in dependence on communicative purposes in their writing (

This article explains one way to help students explore materials when students need to develop an effective thesis for their profile essay. The professor asks students to do general everyday freewriting related to the topic (an unusual place). Although the author doesn't show all students' freewritings, the only example shown in the article shows a developmental track of how a student explores his/her ideas and write the thesis. It is a process that the student finds and writes the thesis, and it takes time to complete the process. The author posts an invention to help students start essay writing in academic environment. There is no formal rigid writing pattern but a way to help students get into the topic and object; students will use writing as a thinking tool to think and critique the object when they get more information about it. My question is that this invention strategy can be considered as a project for a teacher but an activity in writing process for students. It takes time for teachers to think and design and for students to really do it. There should be more unpredictable problems, so teachers should pay more attention on this strategy.

The author explores using podcast to get students work on research paper. The professor believes that podcast can help students form group study and really engage in preparing and writing the research paper. From the whole article, the podcast can be considered as a long-term project and send students into groups to study. The podcast group creates a community for students to discuss and revise the research topic; in this sense, students in the group study as co-learners and engage in one another's research paper. This article is again about an invention strategy, podcast, in academic settings. Podcast is done in the group working environment, so this strategy requires creating a community of practice to get students engaged in a common topic---research paper. Even though students' topics are different, they still can help each other and engage in others' success because the requirements for the research paper are the same. I believe this would be a good way to scaffold students to deal with research paper; still, this strategy requires careful designs and attention from professor, and professor works as a facilitator to support the students' learning and practicing in the group work.

Andrea R. Olinger from the Department of Applied Linguistics at University of California, Los Angeles demonstrates "how interaction constructs discoursal identities" (273) in her article, "Constructing identities through: 'discourse': Stance and interaction in collaborative college writing." Olinger brings up an important point in this article, "that students often feel a mixture of desire for an resistance to the identities they must take on" (274). The examination of college students' writing demonstrated how these identities are "contested, desired, and resisted" (274). By now English 431 students should have seen some form of writing from their English 30 students. Thus, now we can ask ourselves as well as the English 30 students in what ways do the writer's discoursal identity resist or conform to the expectations of a college writing course? 

For the past few weeks in this class I have generated all of my focus on the identity of the students in Enlish 30 workshops. After reading the article, "Exploring teacher-writer identities in the classroom: Conceptualising the struggle" I a new question has stemmed: how do teacher's identity as writers affect students' progress in academic progress? Authors, Teresa Cremin and Sally Baker from the Department of Education of The Open University suggest "that teachers' development as writers has the potential to enrich writing pedagogy and impact positively on young writers." The idea of teachers writing alongside their students is in my opinion highly valuable because students and teachers have the opportunity to experience the writing process together. In previous articles I have read that relatability between students and instructor are essential to the learning environment. If instructors are constantly writing alongside their students trying to establish/re-establish their identity in academic writing, students can learn easily learn how to do the same through "shared challenges" (9). While English 431 students cannot use this strategy because members of their English 30 workshops come from different sections of English 130 we can attempt to produce similar assignments alongside our students. For example, inquiry assignments are a common goal in most English 130 classes. Similarly, English 431 students must write an inquiry essay. English 431 students could incorporate their progress into the workshop by showing the English 30 students what they have done so far, why they are asking certain questions, how they did something, etc.

For me, it started with some initial ideas from David Orr's book Ecological Literacy, and along with it the argument in his other book Earth in Mind: that all education is environmental education, and the purpose thereof is to increase ecological literacy. What this article sets out to do is to provide a more general understanding of what ecological literacy is (a blend between ecological thinking and environmental literacy). Learning appears in a fusion between three big learning domains: behavioural, affective and cognitive learning, and such a learner is called an authentic learner. An authentic learner is one who "can not only identify relevant dilemmas but also appreciate how their understanding of a scientific concept can influence their decision. The difficult fulfilment of students who face today's education is the highly fragmented status of disciplinary studies (the so-called academia). Ecological literacy sets out not only to introduce students to ecological concepts, but to push them so far as to recognise their place within the current ecosystem. Ecological Misconception Ecology is a strictly inter-disciplinary field of study, which draws concepts from Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Geology. Misconception appears when there is a misconnection between the seemingly holistic view of the general concepts, or a failure to express the necessary link between related concepts. Where does writing come in? Writing, according to the authors, is a reflective process. Students are first introduced to the concepts relevant to an ecological discussion. They are then asked to write three iteration essays to demonstrate their understanding along with their ability to make connections within the given concepts. Since it is important that students go through an extensive study just to recognise their place within the current ecosystem, personal reflection through writing is an essential tool not only to "show", but to connect, and make connections (writing discou

This article describes how to set up blogs in an educational format. It gives a step by step instructions and even gives a few blogging websites to try. It discusses different ways in which to integrate the blogs into existing curriculum and also states set backs and alterations that were made after students had worked with the blogs for some time. The blogs themselves are not whats necessarily engaging, its the way in which they are used and how they promote community student centered learning.

This young girl is so brilliant. We as teachers need to have more faith in our students and give over some of the classroom control. A student centered environment needs to be less restrictive and we need to stop underestimating our students abilities.