First Attempt at the rest of my Life!

 Giving Feedback for the Sample Students

    This was my first time really having the chance to read essays written by students and give feedback the way I would in the classroom. Every teacher grades papers in different ways so whenever I observed a teacher and they had me grade student's work, essays were never in the mix. I can say that I enjoyed my experience grading these three essays. It was really interesting to see the same prompt go three completely different ways. If I was the teacher for this class, I would also be able to figure out where some problem areas are in my lesson. For example how to write the title of a work in your essay. This was a problem in two of the three essays. It was also helpful to see three different levels of writing. All three students have their own voice and as the teacher it is important to not compare the students to each other but just to listen to the student themselves. 

The Future

    This assignment was really helpful for giving me an insight into what my future nights will look like while I'm teaching. I was able to get through these three essays relatively quick, I think, but completing 20-25 essays would be a completely different story. I am looking forward to the challenge. I printed out the three student essays and gave feedback that way just to practice. I have found that I would rather do it this way then working on the computer. This really helped my workflow and was better for my eyes to not be staring at my screen. This problem would only amplify with 25 essays to work through. 

Student's Work

    I am putting this section here so that as a class we can discuss the work itself and how we graded and read these essays. I gave student #2 the best grade. I thought this was the strongest of the essays. Student #1 I gave the second highest grade to. This essay was probably a low B to a high C for me. I thought it had potential but needed some work, especially in the grammar department. Student #3 I did give the lowest grade to however I thought that it had one of the loudest voices. I was really impressed with how the student wrote passionately about the subject. Once the student learns the formatting and grammar they will grow into a very strong writer.

Argumentative Lesson Plan was challenging...

      The first thing I noticed while writing the lesson plan was coming up with something for the students to write about was very challenging. I wanted to have something that would be of substance and I also wanted to have something that students would feel a little passionate about. I thought a good introduction to argumentative writing would use a topic that the students would actually be interested in. That is why I went with having my students argue if phones should be allowed in the classrooms. It is not only a discussion with lots of information to write about but it is also something that students will probably feel quite strongly about. When I began writing the lesson plan it was also challenging to find a source to have the students read and then write their five-paragraph essay about. I sifted through many different essays and studies until I landed on the one I went with. I did enjoy this process. It kind of felt like I was doing something worth doing because I knew the harder I worked the better the students would learn. I guess that is the whole fulfilling aspect of working hard as a teacher. 

 Link for my Lesson Plan: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GsXB1BexGo04EDnxoRvUas1P5mwHdDWTix_5VpBNYSE/edit?tab=t.0

Blending for a Writing Smoothie

     When teaching writing there are a lot of different strategies to help your students become the best writer that they can be. It is important as the teacher have hundreds of different ways to have the students engage in the writing process and grow. Two of the strategies that have deeply interested me through the beginning of this semester is Mentor Texts and Mini-Lessons. These two strategies, Mentor Texts and Mini-Lessons, are respectively great strategies to aid with engaging the students in writing and also complement each other to create a stronger lesson.

    Mentor Texts are used in the classroom for students to see work that isn't there own. When a person wants to become an author, the most important thing they can do is read books. This is the same principle just brought into the classroom. In Creating Confident Writers, it is stated, "As the writing mentors in your classroom, we encourage you to seek text that excite your imagination as a teacher-writer. Keep your eyes and ears open to what you see and hear around you for inspiration"(Hicks & Schoenborn, 2020, 54). This is why Mentor Texts can be so useful and important. The Mentor Texts show the students what is possible as well as what and what not to do. Having good writing in front of the students will help the students write better. The only major problem with Mentor Texts is that students could copy style or language from it. I don't find this to be a very large problem. I think it is a matter of putting enough material in front of the students so that they can start to find their own style. See what they like and what they do not like.

    Mini-Lessons are a great way to engage students with the work but still make sure the students spend most their time doing what is most important to become a good writer. That being writing. I learned about Mini-Lessons from the Teaching That Makes Sense reading and found it really interesting and simply made a lot of sense. You should not spend to much time taking students away from writing. However, it is important to still teach and Mini-Lessons are a great way for this. A small 10-15 minute lesson that goes over a small part of writing that you want to capitalize on or maybe you are noticing that a few students are struggling with it. In Teaching that Makes Sense it is discussed that these Mini-Lessons need to be quick and practical. It explains, "The best mini-lessons are based on real things that real writers really need to know. They are practical and immediately useful."(Peha, 1995-2010, 3-4). It is necessary to have the students be able to immediately use the information you are giving them. After a Mini-Lesson the students should then be given time to write.

Video I found interesting about Mini-Lessons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELTexnBK9x0

    These two strategies are very useful on their own however they also complement each other very well because they work together in the pre-writing process. Neither of these strategies are made to be used while writing is actually happening. They are both used to set students up for success when the time comes to write. The Mini-Lessons set up the more practical parts of writing while Mentor Texts show the students what is possible and show them what good writing is.

References

Hicks, T., & Schoenborn, A. (2020). Exploring Mentor Texts. In Creating Confident Writers: For High School, College, and Life. WW Norton.

Peha, S. (1995-2010). Welcome to Writer's Workshop Teaching Young Writers the Way Professionals Teach Themselves. Teaching That Makes Sense, 1-81.

Welcome!

 Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog for this wonderful semester!

    My name is Casey McMullen, I am an English and Secondary Education major. I am in the teacher education program here at Montclair State University. I am taking this summer course the summer before my Senior year where I will be doing my Clinical student teaching. I have been interested in writing and teaching for about as long as I can remember. Once I figured that I wasn't going to make the NBA my interests started to shift toward something that fit in my skill set better. 

    Writing is so important because communication is one of the strongest tools that we as humans have. It can be argued that writing and communication is what makes us human. We are the only species that connects the way that we do. Books are not special simply because the book is good but because someone was on the other side writing it down after their experiences. 

    This is why I want to teach writing. I find it incredibly important for younger people to learn how to correctly articulate and communicate with each other. 

AI. Disclosure: This blog is and will be completely written by me, Casey McMullen, and no use of AI will be used to write, edit, or draft any of my posts.