Topic: The Results of Drafting

10-second review: Does the quality of successive students’ first drafts improve as a result of teacher feedback?

Comment: In my experience, the quality of students’ ten-minute writings did improve in successive ten-minute writings as a result of my correcting their expression each night and their comparing the originals with my corrected copy. The ten-minute essays with which students began class were really first drafts, if not completed essays. If you want more information about these ten-minute essays, write to me at raystop2@comcast.net. RayS.

Source for the idea: GB Patthey-Chavez, et al. Research in the Teaching of English (November 2004), 206-207 (Abstract). A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Topic: Fixing Your Writing (Fiction)

10-second review: How resolve a problem with your writing fiction? Writer goes to the movies when having a problem writing a short story or novel to watch how the screenwriter or director builds story and character. EM Abbe.

Source: The Writer (December 2004), 6. The Writer is a magazine by writers for writers.

Comment: Don’t need to go to the movies. Take your favorite movie on DVD and analyze the building of the plot, character and background. You’ll need to go into analytical mode, however. You can’t spend your time just enjoying the movie. RayS.

Topic: Civilized Language

10-second review: Bank has banned 90 "uncivilized" sentences, including: "I don't know"; "Can't you see I'm busy?" "Wait over there"; "If you don't like it talk to the manager."

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer (April 25, 19595), B7.

Comment: I like this idea. Make a list for employees of expressions they can never use. The civility that will follow has to be good for business. RayS.

Topic: A Dilemma

10-second review: How can dangerous information be put responsibly on the Internet? Should we allow the freedom to put dangerous information--bomb-making equipment--on the Internet? With freedom must come responsibility.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer. (April 25, 1995), B2.

Comment: I’m afraid it’s a vicious circle. We give people the freedom to put dangerous information on the Internet, like how to make a bomb, and the people who use it will use it to destroy our freedom—and our lives. Of course the same people, if they cannot get that information on the Internet, will find it somewhere else. Maybe we need to discuss in social studies the meaning of freedom—and, especially, responsibility. I wonder if the concept can be developed without preaching. RayS.

Topic: Censorship

10-second review: What is the justification for teaching Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye? Questions whether 9th and 12th graders are mature enough for its explicit sexuality and excessively vulgar language. English department: Raise student awareness of African-American issues and encourage intellectual discussion of issues of race, rape, incest and violence.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer. (April 27, 1995), B5.

Comment: Discussion is not the same thing as teaching. Many censors equate the two. When a teacher teaches, the teacher wants the students to learn the content, to master the content, the ability to do fractions, knowledge of the circulatory system. When a teacher involves students in a discussion, students are looking at the many sides of the issue. It’s like the Bible. To teach the Bible as religion, to inculcate belief in the Bible as the word of God, is teaching religion. Teaching the literature of the Bible, the stories, parables, etc. as literature, is to give students help in recognizing the many allusions to the Bible in secular literature. Teaching is teaching. Discussion is recognition of the many sides of the issue. The two are not synonymous. RayS.

Topic: Censorship of College Newspapers

10-second review: What is one cause of censorship among college newspapers or magazines? Any negative remarks about groups will lead to suspension of college magazines. In this case, Haitians.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer. (March 2, 1995), B1/B4.

Comment: Failure to recognize people as individuals and to lump all individuals as a certain class of people is gauche. I don’t know that it should be censorable. RayS.

Topic: Word Processing.

10-second review: What effect does word processing have on students’ writing? Students using word processing made more revisions than students using pencil/pen.

Source: A Cook, A Goldberg & M Russell. Research in the Teaching of English (November 2004), 202. A (abs.) A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Comment: In my experience, word processing has a lot of advantages, but its greatest aid is in helping students to revise. RayS.

Topic: Word Choice

10-second review: The effects of students’ having little interest in words. “In student work at each level—freshman through graduate—whether the focus is composition, literature or linguistics/stylistics, I find the same thing: in reading a lack of understanding of the meaning of words in context, a lack of sensitivity to the powers and limitations of words, a lack of interest in and healthy curiosity about words, and in writing, the fruits thereof, namely, incorrect, vague, imprecise, inappropriate, uninteresting, and ultimately ineffective diction.”

Source: D Rygiol. College Composition and Communication (October 1978), 287. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Comment: Let high school kids study Norman Lewis’s vocabulary book, Word Power Made Easy. Bases the study of words on the ideas behind them and on roots, prefixes and suffixes. It is simply the best vocabulary book on the market. RayS.

Topic: English Usage

10-second review: What should be done about complex usage problems? “If a word is rarely used in spoken English and if the rules that govern its use are so convoluted that they make the average language user beg for mercy, that word should be expelled, excommunicated from the language. Whom is such a word…. There is ample precedent for banishing words from the language. Thee and thou left us years ago, leaving us with only you, an excellent replacement.”

Source: D Soles. English Journal. (May 2005), 34. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Comment: The professor in my History of the English Language course, made the same point. He also suggested that “lie” and “Lay” will go the way of “lay.” Most people have learned to avoid using “lie” and “lay,” knowing that they won’t use it correctly. In fact, the reporters and anchors at Action News, WPVI, in Philadelphia, butchered the usage so frequently that their supervisors have told them to avoid it, to write and speak around “lie” and “lay.” How do I know? Because in the last year I have not heard “lie” or “lay” used at all during the local news telecasts. Good advice to everyone else who is not sure which of these two usages to apply. RayS.

Topic: Writing Tests

10-second review: What are possible effects of state and SAT writing tests? State and SAT writing tests on someone else’s topics deaden writing, take away student interest in writing and lead to leaden writing that may be correct, but lacking in enthusiasm and joy in self-expression.

Source: I forgot to record where I found this complaint about state and SAT writing tests. Sorry about that!

Comment: I can also add that state and SAT writing tests allow little time for preparation (brainstorming the topic) and revision and editing (although the state tests are usually an hour and do give some limited time for brainstorming and revising). The SAT, at 25 minutes, gives no time for either. The best a teacher can do is give the students plenty of practice in brainstorming, organizing and revising on the fly. The brainstorming should provide ideas, the organizing should establish the beginning, thesis, details and summary; and whatever is left will probably only be used for editing (spelling, etc.). RayS.

Topic: Creative Writing

10-second review: How help students learn to write (and study) short fiction? Each person in a group writes the first paragraph of a story. Then pass to the right. Write second paragraph. Then pass to the right and write the third paragraph. Etc.

Source: F Jones. The Writer (May 2005), 12. The Writer is a magazine by writers for writers.

Comment: Sounds like fun. Maybe do it as an introduction to a short story unit. Might give students an interest in how short stories are put together. RayS.

Topic: Research in Teaching

10-second review: Why is limiting teachers to the results of published research harmful to the profession? Author responds to the federal government’s requirement that all teaching be limited to scientifically-based researched evidence for practices they use.

The author says that this requirement shuts teachers off. Fails to enlist their voices, their own research into the practices they use. “Teacher research, in which teachers and colleagues work together to investigate their own assumptions, their own teaching and curriculum development and the policies and practices of their own schools and communities has a vital role to play in improving practice.

Teachers matter, not only in terms of student achievement in their individual classrooms, but also as potential contributors to the knowledge base on effective teaching. Narrow conceptions of research that silence the voice of teachers diminish the entire teaching-learning enterprise.”

Source: C. Dudley-Marling. Research in Teaching English (August 2005), 130. A publication of the National Council of the Teachers of English (NCTE).

Comment: If I could do one of many things over in my teaching it would be to establish “action research,” my own personal research in my own classrooms to validate my practices and to experiment with others. RayS.

Topic: Down Time in the Secondary Classroom

10-second review: How make use of short periods of available time in class? Books reviewed in The Mathematics Teacher provide problems for when a minute or two are available. Series of math problem books is called Daily Warm-Ups, by a variety of people.

Source: The Mathematics Teacher (February 2005), 447. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).

Comment: Why not use the same idea with SAT-type grammar, using style, punctuation, usage problems? Throw them up on the board or on the overhead or whatever technology they use nowadays and see if the students know how to solve them. RayS.

Topic: Solving Math Problems

10-second review: Methods for solving math problems: drawing diagrams; working backward; simplifying the problem.

Source: G Polya, How to Solve It, Princeton, NJ: Princeton U. Press, 1973. In M Munakata. Mathematics Teacher (February 2005), 387. Publication of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).

Comment: Math teachers were always telling me (K-12 language arts supervisor) that they and their students do not read math textbooks. They only use them as a source for problems. English teachers might try out these METHODS for reading math problems.

The directed reading assignment with reading problems in math might be something like this: background information on the nature of the problem; pre-teach unfamiliar vocabulary, usually words that mean something different in math from general usage; establish purpose (What are you looking for?) and then use the methods listed above to help solve the problem. Students might then create their own problems like the one they just solved. Just a thought! RayS.

Topic: Intelligence

10-second review: What are some different kinds of intelligence? Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple types of intelligence: “ The basic claim is that intelligence is not a single measurable entity but that we all possess eight different kinds of intelligence and use them in different proportions.”

Linguistic intelligence involves sensitivity to spoken and written language, the ability to learn languages, and the capacity to use language to accomplish certain goals.

Logical-mathematical intelligence. It entails the ability to detect patterns, reason deductively and think logically.

Musical intelligence involves skill in the performance, composition, and appreciation of musical patterns.

Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence entails the potential of using one's whole body or parts of the body to solve problems. [Hard for me to visualize this intelligence in action. Sports? RayS.]

Spatial intelligence involves the potential to recognize and use the patterns of wide space and more confined areas.

Interpersonal intelligence is concerned with the capacity to understand the intentions, motivations and desires of other people.

Intrapersonal intelligence entails the capacity to understand oneself, to appreciate one's feelings, fears and motivations. It involves having an effective working model of ourselves, and to be able to use such information to regulate our lives.

Source: A. Reichert. Teaching English in Two-Year Colleges. (December 2004), 166. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English.

Comment: Makes sense to me, although the ways in which teachers have tried to make use of this theory have resulted in chaos and frazzled teachers. Still very much worth thinking about. I can still remember the little teenager in my class who showed no capacity for English or expressed any personality, but who was actually a budding country singing star. I began to realize how little I understood the individual personalities of my students when I saw her perform for the first time. She was a completely different personality from the way she appeared to be in my class. RayS.

Topic: Anti-Drug Education

10-second review: What’s wrong with programs designed to discourage teens from taking drugs? Teens say that drugs and alcohol are everywhere, and drug education efforts, for the most part, are a joke. A ninth-grader said, “People do their homework while the health teachers are telling you about the dangers of drugs and the assemblies are going on.”

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer (September 13, 1995), A1/A9.

Comment: I wonder if basic teaching techniques like the directed reading assignment are being used by these instructors. Do they just turn on the videotape without an interesting introduction and without follow up? I'm just wondering. Sounds that way. RayS.

Topic: Criticism of American Education

10-second review: Frank J. O’Rourke, a writer from New Jersey, says that sex education courses have not produced more responsible sexual behavior among teenagers. He says one reason is that educators adopt programs before testing whether they will work. He concludes that dropping sex-ed would "free teachers to spend their time teaching grammar and math and we might get students graduating from high school who can write a sentence and figure an interest rate. Now they seem to know more about condoms than they do conjunctions.”

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer. (September 17, 1995), E5.

Comment: Rhetoric over truth. RayS.

Topic: Community in the Classroom

10-second review: What is meant by a “community” in the classroom? “I understood community as interdependent, with each member doing whatever she could to help other members achieve success.” [Quote from the author of the following article.]

Source: T Perry. English Journal (January 2005), 89. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Comment: It seems that the author, in making a class a community, is ignoring the strong drive for competition that is a part of American communities and capitalist culture. I’m just being crabby. If you can encourage the class to become a community, they learn to work together and how to disagree, compete and cooperate. If you have ever had the experience of the entire class’s working together as a community on a problem or project, you will never forget it. It is a thrilling moment in teaching. RayS.

topic: Elementary School Parents

10-second review: Prepare parents to use specific activities with their children. Introduce, model and briefly practice. Then use at home. Discuss what happened.

Source: JR Paratore and G Jordan. Reading Teacher (Apil 1978), 694-696. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).

Comment: Excellent idea. Most parents know that they should read to and with their children. What about writing? Parents of young children could start with language experience. Child dictates story to parent and tries to read back what the parent has written. RayS.

Topic: Creative Writing

10-second review: How help students learn to write (and study) short fiction? Each person in a group writes the first paragraph of a story. Then pass to the right. Write second paragraph. Then pass to the right and write the third paragraph. Etc.

Source: F Jones. The Writer (May 2005), 12. The Writer is a magazine by writers for writers.

Comment: Sounds like fun. Maybe do it as an introduction to a short story unit. Might give students an interest in how short stories are put together. RayS.

Topic: Research in Teaching

10-second review: Why is limiting teachers to the results of published research harmful to the profession? Author responds to the federal government’s requirement that all teaching be limited to scientifically-based researched evidence for practices they use.

The author says that this requirement shuts teachers off. Fails to enlist their voices, their own research into the practices they use. “Teacher research, in which teachers and colleagues work together to investigate their own assumptions, their own teaching and curriculum development and the policies and practices of their own schools and communities has a vital role to play in improving practice."

"Teachers matter, not only in terms of student achievement in their individual classrooms, but also as potential contributors to the knowledge base on effective teaching. Narrow conceptions of research that silence the voice of teachers diminish the entire teaching-learning enterprise.”

Source: C. Dudley-Marling. Research in Teaching English (August 2005), 130. A publication of the National Council of the Teachers of English (NCTE).

Comment: If I could do one thing over in my teaching it would be establishing “action research,” my own personal research, in my own classroom, to validate my practices and to experiment with others. Damn! RayS.

Topic: Down Time in the Secondary Classroom

10-second review: How make use of short periods of available time in class? Books reviewed in The Mathematics Teacher provide problems for when a minute or two are available. Series of math problem books is called Daily Warm-Ups, by a variety of people. The Mathematics Teacher (February 2005), 447. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).

Comment: Why not use the same idea with SAT-type grammar, using style, punctuation, usage problems? Throw them up on the board or on the overhead or whatever technology they use nowadays and see if the students know how to solve them. RayS.