Annotated Bibliography--Group B

From Disruptive Technologies

Bold text'Set 1'

• Bomer and Lamon, "Positioning in a Primary Writing Workshop: Joint Action in the Discursive Production of Writing Subjects."
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• Bintz and Dillard, "Seeing Writing Instruction Differently: Lessons with Lasting Impressions."
  • Reviewed by: Yvette Tourte

Language Arts, Vol. 82, No. 2, Nov. 2004 Pages 110-118

• • The key idea in this article is that social practices used in the classroom effect how students learn to write and their motivation to write. Jill has a fourteen year history as a teacher. She specializes in working with children who have difficulty reading. Jill hypothesizes that by creating a passion for writing in her students, their reading will improve as well.
  • During the course of the study Jill tried a variety of techniques to help her students learn how to write. These were called, "social practices." The first social practice was, "to teach reading through writing using what she knew and experienced." From a college course Jill recalled the use of a "word bank" to help students with correct spelling and vocabulary. She also recalled the use of a phrase or photo used as inspiration for writing. Jill showed her students a photo of a bear with his friends. She had the students generate a word bank, and then had them use the words in a story about the bear. In social practice number two Jill began to read a book by, Donald Graves (a reading teacher) to learn new techniques for teaching writing. The book detailed that students like to write about personal experiences or subjects they know. From this idea, Jill used the upcoming Shakespere festival at her school as a subject for her students writing. She felt that the students excitement regarding the festival would manifest itself into their writing. In social practice number three Jill went to a seminar presented by Graves. During this seminar Graves shared a personal experience. He then asked if any of the students had similar experiences they wanted to share. After the students shared their experiences he instructed them to write about what they just shared. He wrote about his experience as well. He then shared his written story with the students. He asked for other volunteers. This exercise generated a lot of excitement with the students. Jill saw a difference in the excitement among Graves' students versus her students. Jill tried this method with her class and saw a positive reaction to the assignment. When she compared the three assignments of her student, Casey, Jill noticed a tremendous difference in all three of Casey's assignments. In the first two assingments Casey did not genrate much excitement and gave the them a futile effort. For these assingments Jill had designated a topic. In the third story there was a drastic change. The story has a "structure and a voice", unlike the first two stories. This caused Jill and the authors to realize that when a student writes about something that is meaningful to them they have an increased interest in the story and subject matter. By using different social practices in assignments (ie. letting a student choose a subject they are passionate about, versus a subject they are assigned) the writing can look extrememly different. This difference in writing can have a profound effect not only on the grade the student receives, but also on the entire writing experience.
  • This was a very interesting article. I agree with Jill's findings. Students are much more excited to write about something they are personally invested in. The way we as teachers approach a subject and an assignment can have a profound effect on the students' effort. This journal will definately make me think about how I want to approach and encourage my students' writing. I find it is far easier to write about a personal experience, rather than an assigned topic. I think we all love to share something that has personal meaning to us.

• Blake, "Fruit of the Devil: Writing and English Language Learners."
  • Reviewed by: Yvette Tourte

Language of Arts, Vol. 78, No. 5, May 2001 Pages 435-440

• • Blake's key idea in this article is the use of a process approach to writing (ie. brainstorming, revisions, peer workshops, etc.) as a means to validate the writing and experiences of ELL students. Blake has seen a decline in the use of process writing in schools. Many teachers blame the increased expectations of the curriculum and a decrease in time and importance dedicated to writing. Blake feels that school literacy caters to white, middle class American students. The many students who are not in this category ( many of which are ELL students) are left to fall between the cracks of the educational system. Many students feel their writing and life experiences are not validated in the classroom. As a result, the majority of these students are unmotivated in school. They resist the lessons that are taught in school because they feel they do not have a voice and they do not matter. They are lacking what Brandt calls, "sponsors." These students do not have someone to invest in their education. Someone to sponsor their literacy. According to Blake, by using the process writing many of these students demonstrated understanding in writing concepts once their stories and wrinting were validated. One of the methods Blake used for validation was peer groups. Students sat in groups and shared their subject ideas. Through these conversations their thoughts and experiences were validated. Once their feelings and experiences were validated the students were much more eager to write. Blake feels process writing is key to the process of teaching writing in school and is a concept that needs to be revisited in the educational system.
  • I find it amazing that writing is not seen as an important subject to teach in school. The focus of education is on math and reading. According to Brandt, "this may very well be a result of the attitude held by administrators and parents that other content areas, like reading and math, are far more important than writing is." Yet writing is a key concept in many state standardized tests. Process writing was how I was taught to write during my school years, and I feel it is an important method in the instruction of writing. I agree with Blake in the importance of process writing in the education of ELL students. This ties in with the Blintz and Dillard article. Students like to write about subjects they have passionate for, and subjects they value. The majority of ELL students do not feel validated or understood. By using peer groups and process writing, ELL students are given a voice and the opportunity to feel their input is valued.

• Burns, "Being "Social": Expanding Our View of Social Interaction in Writing Workshops."
  • Reviewed by: Yvette Tourte

Language of Arts, Vol. 78, No. 5, May 2001. Pages 458-465

• • The key idea of this article was how social interaction in writing workshops has an effect on students' writing. Burns feels that social interaction has a tremendous impact on the students' writing. Burns conducted a three phase study over the course of nineteen weeks. Burns theorizes that through this social interaction students "talk with each other to generate ideas, give and received feedback, and share their developing pieces." During the study Burns discovered that social interaction does benefit the students' writing. Burns lays out different forms of social interaction in the article. The first type of interaction is, "dialogue with friends on story ideas." This type of interaction is the most obvious. Students talk to one another or their friends about their writing. The students ask their classmates/friends for help with their writing. This type of discussion helps the students to brainstorm writing ideas. The second type of interaction was, "casual dialogue with friends." With this type of dialogue it seems as if the students have gone off track with their discussion. They are digressing from the wrtiting topic, and discussing other subjects. But Burns feels this type of discussion has a positive impact on the students' writing. It keeps the lines of communication open for the students. It also gives the stories a chance to develop in the students' minds while they are "taking stock in their lives." The third type of dialogue is, "private dialogue with self and third person others." Burns describes this type of interaction as a conversation with oneself. But these conversations stem from the words of others, social interactions previously experienced, previous conversations, or what suggestions others may have regarding their work.

During the first phase of the study Burns observed the classroom and focused on the strategies the teacher used in the classroom. Burns also interviewed the families of the students to see what learning strategies the students used at home. During phase two Burns introduced the the brainstorming strategies for the students based on what he had observed. Burns and the teacher encouraged the students to use the strategies and to create their own as well. These strategies were 1.) Meet with a friend to discuss their ideas regarding their paper, 2.) Discuss their story with a fellow classmate to improve their story, 3.) Work alone to to generate stiry ideas, and 4.) Have a mental discussion with themself about the story as they are writing it. In the third phase of the study Burns gave control of the classroom back to the teacher and observed how the children went about the writing process. Burns discovered that their social methods of generating ideas were much more complex that he had taught.

I enjoyed this article very much. It had a lot of validity in regards to the social aspect of writing. I agree with Burns. Writing does require a lot of social interaction. I am one of those people who has to have a conversation with someone to stimulate the thought process. I find discussion a very important part of the writing process. It not only generates ideas, it helps to see things in a different perspective, learn other opinions, and it sometimes shifts the paper in a different direction altogether. When writing our literacy narrative I had several conversations with multiple people to help me brainstorm. Without these discussions I never would have had as much information to include in the narrative. Set 2

• Dyson, "On Reframing Children’s Words: The Perils, Promises, and Pleasures of Writing Children."
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• Dressel, "About Writing: A Letter to Stacie."
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• Graves, "What I’ve Learned from Teachers of Writing."
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• Heffernan and Lewison, "Social Narrative Writing: (Re)Constructing Kid Culture in the Writer’s Workshop." Language Arts, Vol. 80 No. 6, July 2003
  • Reviewed by: Nicole Provencher

This article was about a third grade teacher who was trying to help her students improve their writing skills. Her classes started out writing simple fictional narratives but they lacked reality and were too often unoriginal. She they shifted them toward personal narratives but found that they lacked creativity and imagination. She then made another shift toward critical literacy. Critical literacy was described as “people using language to exercise power, enhance everyday life in schools and communities and to question practices of privilege and injustice”. She then got the students involved by having them discuss issues of power and positioning in texts with social justice themes in her Reader’s Workshops. The students then “wrote to construct meaning, draw on background experience, and develop writing ideas”. She had her student use the 4 Resources Model for Writing. Those four resources are: Coding practices, Pragmatic themes, Text-meaning practices and Critical practices. The students in her class then learned how to use literacy as a psychological, pragmatic and sociological tool. Students would read pieces and then write “Connections to My Life”. By doing this they were “using literature to ignite memories”. They would then use 4 categories to analyze their writing. Those four categories were: Story structure, themes, use of language and representations of systems of power. The student began writing social narratives which cam to mean, “a genre that allows students to draw on a variety of shared cultural resources as they (re)create fictional worlds.” Through this process students began writing much rich and more meaningful stories that reflected to real world but were in fact their very own creations. Through these stories, voices began to be heard regarding issues such as bullying, “Recess Hell”, how “adults don’t help” and so on. In many of these stories the students produced, however there were heroes who where able to overcome the daily perils of school life and become strong, respected characters. These writing had and affect on how the class saw each other as equal parts of a community and how each member was worthy of respect. My favorite quote from the article was “social narrative does not reject the personal, but rather builds on it”.

I thought this was a very eye opening article. The intuition that went into developing such and involved and effective program was phenomenal. This teacher had great ideas and kept building on them to make them even greater. It was also nice to see how she made shifts and when she realized the shifts were not effective, she reevaluated what she was trying to accomplish and kept adjusting her methods until she was satisfied with the outcome. Persistence is a crucial quality for teacher to possess. It is also imperative that they remain focused on their goal and remain flexible while adjusting instruction in order to reach their goal.

Set 3

• Kress, "Genre and the Changing Contexts for English Language Arts." Language Arts. Vol.76. NO 6. July 1999

Reviewed By: Denise Goy

• • In this article, Kress gives an overview on how he thinks genre theory can be changed for a role of social theory in the English Language arts. He wants to make changes in the curriculum. He asked three questions: What is it we want the young who are now in our schools to be able to do? What is it we want them to be? Who will they need to be in order to live productively in their societies, 10, 15, 20 years from now? These questions make him want to develope a better English Language arts program. He advocates Genres (kinds) need to be changed to fit our pluralistic culture because not all students can think like the dominant culture.

Kress compaired language programs to Australia, New England, and South Africa. Kress wants reform. He describes the Genre of "Rules and Regulation" and how each one is similar because they are rules and regulations, but the are different in their content. He also uses the wording for a product from Australia. It says, "the work that transforms the purse from something made from Italian Leather and made in China, into something which is 100% Australian." How can this be? It's quite confusing. He wants to make changes to reflect the way the English Language represents itself.

I felt the article was quite difficult to read. Even after reading it twice, I was struggling. I work in a class room where we teach Language Arts. I noticed how Kress talks about clarity (as in the purse from Australia) and the Spanish speaking kids I work with. They have a hard time understanding words and their meaning. The second language barrier. I think changes need to be made to accommodate all cultures instead on having a dominant one (books with pictures of ethnic people, stories that relate to real life etc). We've read many articles in this class. I think this article is no different than the others in that we must help students learn the importance of reading and writing. Changes will take place whether we want them to or not. We can do our part by being the best teachers we can be.

• Jasinski-Schneider, "No Blood, Guns, or Gays Allowed!: The Silencing of the Elementary Writer."

Language Arts, VOL.78 No.5, May 2001

Reviewed By Denise Goy

This article was about what topics were "taboo" to write about. Some teachers allowed students to write about anything, while others were hesitant on certain topics. There were some suggestions on how to avoid topics of "taboo." It was also recommended that teachers must avoid their own biases in the classroom because it can be detramental to their teaching.

The study consisted of 12 elementary and middle schools to understand the perspectives and beliefs about writing topics. The author used the interview guide approach; interviewing different teachers, giving then similar but different questions. Each teacher talked about topics they thought were taboo; topics included violence, racism, gat issues, religion or sex that were taboo. One teacher refused to allow her students to discuss gay life styles, but she would allow the discussion of religion. Another teacher was worried that if he allowed his students to write about taboo topics, they children would go home and tell their parents. The teacher was afraid he'd get into trouble. Very few teachers felt comfortable with their students writing freely; whatever they wanted. The teachers all agreed that if they didn't know if a topic was acceptable to write about, they could go to the adminstration for support.

I think students should be able to write what they want within reason. Since I'm an Instructional Aide (special education English), I grade journals everyday. One student wrote that he was going to "kill" someone if they hurt him. My boss talked to the students and told him not to right about killing people. This student does many things for attention. The next day, he wrote about it again. My boss and I agreed to take it to the Vice-Principal because if this students wasn't looking for attention this time, we needed someone to know about it. Fortunately, the student was just looking for attention. We give a jounal topic everyday. In the study, some teachers thought that giving a specific topic would avoid taboo writing. In my experience that is not always the case. Today, our topic was "I wish I hadn't done.......because.... Most students wrote about things they had done wrong and many of them were sad. They weren't necessarily taboo but the students talked about their feeling, which I think is great. Especially, in Junior High.

One of the other articles I read talked about a persons own experiences help them write better. I think that when a child writes about their own experiences, they tend to write in more detail. As in the last article I posted about, this article suggests that teacher leave their biases behind when teaching. In my experience, a person has to have an open mind while teaching because we are a big influence on many lives.

* Jester, "Remaining Seated: Lessons Learned by Writing."

Voices from the Middle, Volume 11 November 2, December 2003

Reviewed By Denise Goy

This article focuses on five lessons that the author has learned; the power of process, the power of feedback, the power of audience,the power of modeling, and the power of thinking. The author talks about her own writing skills and how she can apply her skills to her students. She questions her own experiences (Example, "How can I now what difficulties they face if I don't face them, too?" "How will I know the joy they experience when they are genuinely pleased with a draft if I have not felt the same joy?") The author also feels that students who have to compete with their classmates will write much better than if they are only writing for a grade. Competition helps students write better and more precise.

The author uses her own experience to gather information about writing. If the teacher struggles writing, then she will be able to understand when her students struggle with it. The author belongs to a writers group and they help her critique her own papers. Feedback allows the students time to reevalute their writing. Sharing their writing can also be beneficial because if a person knows they have to read their work in fromt of peers, they are more likely to write better.

I feel that a teachers' experiences will help her/him understand their students better. These ideas are valid. When I meet students who are less fortunate than me, I have a better understanding because as a child I was very poor; we did without many times. This teacher uses her own simulators (in this case her own experiences) to understand her students pain (in writing papers).

I liked how the author said, "writing is thinking on paper." It's simple but I'd never thought of it that way. This teacher stressed that writing was a vital part of learning and she valued her students work.

* Wood Ray, "Why Cauley Writes Well: A Close Look at What a Difference Good Teaching Can Make."

Language Arts, Vol.82 No. 2, November 2004 pg 100-109

Reviewed By Denise Goy

This article is about a student named Cauley, who writes well for being a 1st grader and how he developed those skills. Cauley's teacher, Lisa, teaches writers, not writing. She shows her students many examples; books that look like what she wants her students to write. Lisa is a firm believer that her students need to write about topics that interests them; their passions. She also makes her students write everyday. She uses a timer and each student must write until the timer goes off. Her students are making picture books with their writing. Lisa has her students share their work with each other, especially when they share the same type of topics. Peer reveiw is very important. These students talk before writing, talk during writing, and talk after writing. Talking helps the students put their words on paper. Lisa's makes long term goals for her students and her expectations are high; she expects her students to succeed.

Lisa looks at the success of her students, as a way to access her teaching. She reviewed Cauley's writing in the 1st grade and then again when he was in the 3rd grade. Cauley has been very successful in writing. Lisa talked about her class as a whole and how they too learned to write well.

I thought that Lisa did an excellent job at teacher her writers to write. She was successful with Cauley and her other students. I liked the idea of showing an example of what was expected of her students. I usually write better when I have a sample of what is expected of me. I know from experience that I write better when I write about a topic that interests me. I also feel that sharing the students work is beneficial to both parties. In my special education class, we have our students work in pairs to make corrections on their writing. The students read each others papers out loud to find the mistakes. This helps both students see where they need to make changes. Since I work with students who struggle, I couldn't help but wonder what Lisa does with students who "don't get it." Lisa mainly talked about success stories. I wonder what she does with lower level writers.

Showing the students books that give an overview of what is expected of them is an excellent way to allow a text-to-text connection with the students writing and the book. First, showing them the book (as an example), then the students write their paper, and finally they compare their writing to the book. The students write abot thing that they like, therefore, they experience a text-to self connection as well. This was my favorite article because I could visualize these students and how they worked. It sounds like Lisa is an experienced teacher.

Set 4

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"Co-Authoring Classroom Texts: Shifting Participant Roles in Writing Activity."

Written by Joanne Larson of the University of Rochester and Maryrita Maier of Sodus Primary School

pg 468-499 Co-Authoring Classroom Texts

Reviewed by Amber Baker

• Key Ideas

• Talking about things doesn't lead to learning them, only experience will bring the ideas from abstract to reality
• MaryRita's first grade classroom has over 6,000 books made available through author and theme studies, guided reading, and read alouds at a rate of 120 books per week. The students take home and read 2-3 books a night at the beginning of the year and end with about ten.
• Writing time occurred every day for an hour and half, the children wrote lengthy chapter books, songs, poems, and memoirs and published them at a monthly Author's Tea
• Bakhtin says that every utterance has a speaker, a hearer, and an overhearer. Larson's analysis is that every written work has a teacher, author, and co-author
• Authorship involved:

1. Active and Enthusiastic Participation
2. Co-participation in composing
3. Publication
4. Sharing of Texts
5. Composing based on audience and purpose

• Research Techniques

• Observation
• Videtaping and transcripting
• Interviewing students and teacher
• Taking field notes

• Personal Response

I felt that this study has a lot of useful information when it comes to teaching children how to write. I was shocked to know how many books they were reading as first graders. The teacher's techniques really seem to get the children excited about reading as the students usually chose to read during their free time as well. Because reading and writing are the main focus of first grade anyhow, I felt that spending that much time on writing is actually makes a lot of sense. This article did connect to articles by Gee and Brandt about fully surrounding the students and providing them with many tools and outlets to create experiences for them. The two first grade classrooms I volunteered for both did author and theme studies, but nothing to the extent of Maryrita. The teachers sent home two books for the entire week, not one night. I feel that if I were to assign that much homework parents would throw a fit!! Especially since at the beginning of a first grade year some children cannot read at all. In second grade we wrote our own stories and published them which was a very rewarding experience and I do highly recommend using this technique in the classroom because it gives students such a feeling of accomplishment. But after thinking about it I feel that the first graders I worked with could do the same thing. They would enjoy illustrating and sharing their stories with one another.

"Tensing Up: Moving From Fluency to Flair."

Written by Suzanne Linebarger

The Quarterly: Summer 2001

Reviewed by Amber Baker

• Key Ideas

• Being a fluent writer is a start, but being a good writer is the goal
• Have students write daily using a variety of formats such as:

• Quick writes, reading responses, journals, solving problems, writing to complain, writing to summarize

• Have students write for a given amount of time instead of a given length
• A piece of writing is never "finished"
• Have high expectations for all students
• Everone has ideas and everyone must participate and share
• Tension is an effective technique and an important aspect of writing that children can learn. Tension often leads to surprise.

• Research Techniques

-This article was written by the teacher of the fifth grade classroom. The techniques she discusses in the article are used in her own classroom and backed with research.

• Personal Response

This teacher uses a practice makes purpose approach that has her students producing massive amounts of written work. But all of their writing has purpose and direction. All of the students are working to improve not only fluency, but their writing skills. This teachers approach is similar to Mary Rita's because of the large amounts of work read in the classroom as well. I have never had to write every day in a classroom with the intent of improving my writing that is. But I feel that the rule of writing for a given length of time instead of writing until you finish a page is a much better way to teach children how to revise and check what they've already written. It is definately something that can easily be applied to my classroom. I think that her students really understand the technique of adding "tension" to a plot. I never had a teacher explain how to make a story more interesting or captivating to an audience. I feel that given enough examples and actually revising a paper more than once and using peer feedback, any student can create a piece of work to be proud of.

"Power, Identity, and Instructional Stance in Writers’ Workshop."

Written by Deborah Wills Rowe, Joanne M. Fitch, Alyson Smith Bass

Language Arts Vol. 78, No. 5 May 2001

Reviewed by Amber Baker

• Key Ideas

• Power and Identity issues are embedded in culture, even within a first grade writing class
• Teacher believes writing is power and children can further their social purposes with writing
• Children must realize purposes for reading and writing that were important to them outside of school
• First two hours of the day dedicated to reading and writing
• Shared writing from the "Author's Chair"
• Defined writing as getting meanings down the best way you can
• Gave children formal and informal times to talk about writing
• Good spellers could choose any role in the classroom they desired, while weak spellers were seen as weak writers
• Children went one of three ways, either accepting teachers values of literacy, or challenged parts and were successful and therefore redefined their status, or competely rejected and avoided all aspects of the literacy lessons

• Research Techniques

• Drawing on research by Bloome and Egan Robertson that argues that literacy is a social practice
• Year long ethnographic research with a team, all experienced teachers of youth
• documented 133 days of 180 school days
• participabts observation
• field notes
• audio and video tapes
• interviews with teaher and children
• parent questionnaire

• Personal Response

I don't feel that power and hierarchy roles should have or do have a place in an elementary classroom. I did not feel that the approach the teacher took offerred every child a good experience with learning how to write. The third group of children were completely turned off by the writing lessons and did their best to avoid every aspect of writing in the classroom. I feel that it was a case of being overcompetetive in the classroom which I have had teachers that have run their classrooms that way in the past. Some children really get into it, some find a niche they can fill, and the rest just give up and find something else to do and perform at the bare minimum. I have noticed that in younger grades the good spellers always have an easier time of writing and get more praise, while the poor spellers spend more time revising and rewriting. It is difficult as a teacher sometimes though because I honestly have tried to read some papers and can't make heads or tails of what they were trying to write, and if you don't get a chance to ask them while they're still writing it, they forget what they wrote too.

"Exploring Inquiry as a Teaching Stance in the Writing Workshop."

Written by Katie Wood Ray

Language Arts, Vol. 83 No.3 January 2006

Reviewed by Amber Baker

• Key Ideas

• In a fifth grade classroom, writing is taught from an "inquiry" perspective

• taught from a whole class perspective, many genres are covered
• the questions and depth of the discovery lead the instruction in different directions

• The students study the characteristics and tools authors use in each genre
• The studies culminate in the students writing their own piece in the given genre
• When teachers simplify writing projects for children, they may produce more polished looking papers but they are not learning as much and not understanding why they're writing what they're writing
• Teacher models the process which is more important than the outcome

• Research Techniques

-nine days observing and shadowing in Emily Steffans' classroom

• Personal Response

This article is similar to the article by Larson and Maier because the teacher uses a genre study to teach the students the characteristics and uses of each genre. The first class was studying poetry at the time of the article writing, and this class was focusing on op-ed articles. But Emily's classroom used an inquiry approach. I feel this is important because then the students have more say in what they are learning and they understand why it is good to learn. They see the real life applications that their articles can have. Students can relate more to the material when they can lead where the lessons go. Most teachers I've had, asked the class write articles and told us what to include in them, but we didn't know why or what was effective. Effectiveness of writing and purpose of writing is something that students can really understand if they know how to look for it. I feel that the more in depth the study of the genre is the more the students will take away formt he lessons and the more they will really understand and enjoy future encounters with the genre.