Though it has been over 3 months since I was immersed in graduate school work at Columbia University Teacher's College, I have remained invigorated by the methods and ideas I learned about this past summer. The last course I took as a part of my Master's program was called "The Teaching of Writing" and it was, without a doubt, the most challenging course of the summer, but also the most rewarding and beneficial to me as a teacher.
Reading and writing is a significant weakness among many of my students at the international school I work at here in Riyadh. While I have a handful of rock stars and a fair share of "solid" students in all of my classes, I have many students who struggle with basic literacy skills. As a high school literature teacher, it is technically not my job to teach reading comprehension or foundational language skills, however I find myself deviating from my prescribed lesson plans often in order to address some of these more pressing issues.
One of my biggest challenges as an English teacher is getting students to articulate their thinking through writing. One of the most rewarding parts of my education this summer was using the online blended learning platform, Moodle, as a way to further intellectual discourse. I was thrilled about this because we use Moodle in our school as a supplement to our classroom teaching, so while in class this summer I begin thinking, why not try this kind of learning with my students?
My fear was that by asking my students to write free-form "commentaries" (a partially analytical, partially personalized piece of writing about a text: in my case, Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes) they would either not take the assignment seriously or they would plagiarize off one another and write really superficial statements. Yet that is not what happened. When I asked my students to respond to a piece of poetry in an authentic and personal manner by commenting on the things they "noticed, wondered and connected to", I received a remarkable number of sincere and interesting responses.
*The "notice/wonder/connect" directive for analyzing literature comes directly from the course I took at the Lincoln Center Institute as part of my Masters Program at Teachers College.
In addition to having my students write commentaries, I also required that they "reply" to at least one commentary written by a peer. I asked them to be considerate and ensure that every student receives at least one reply. I even told them that I would award bonus points if they replied to more than one commentary.
The following morning when I sat down to check their work, I was astounded by the number of replies each student wrote to one another, the depth and personal connections made in their commentaries and the types of encouraging remarks they wrote to one another in their replies. Students who are usually more reserved and held back made incredible strides in revealing personal thoughts and connections to the text.
I've copied/pasted one particularly interesting commentary along with the 6 replies this student received. I have removed the names of the students to protect their privacy, but hopefully the substance of the information will prove to be just as meaningful anonymously. The original post commentary was written by one of my lowest students. She works incredibly hard but she is just lacking in some essential reading, writing, and analytical thinking skills. She is, interestingly enough, one of the only native English speakers in the class however.
Here is the work I am so proud of my students for producing:
Upon re-reading the extract below I realize that this work may not seem like an incredibly inspiring or interesting piece of student writing, but I am still so proud of it nonetheless. This is one of my lowest classes and yet here they are -- proudly proclaiming their thoughts and reactions to a complicated text and supporting one another in their writing and thinking. To me there is nothing more beautiful or gratifying than having students support and encourage one another in their learning.
Dream Deferred - M's Commentary
by M - Wednesday, 22 October
2014, 7:55 PM
In the poem “Dream Deferred” by Langston
Hughes, I noticed there was a lot of imagery and similes used throughout the
poem. Hughes uses “sags like a heavy load”, “crust and sugar over - - like a
syrupy sweet” and a lot more phrases like that to help us picture what a put
off dream might look like. When I picture these things I get bad, horrible,
nasty, and gross pictures in my head.
What I wonder about
this poem is, did he write this based on something that happened, either to him
or someone else, in real life? Why is this topic important to him? Did he write
this to show people what could happen if they put off a dream? This made me
wonder more about the importance of dreams. These questions also made me think
if I had put off a dream.
I can connect this
poem with my own life, Escape from Camp 14, and the
book/movie The Maze Runner. I can connect the poem to my life
because I have dreams about what I want to do later in life which I might or
might not do. Everybody has dreams of what they want to do later on in life, so
I guess everyone can connect to this poem. This poem connects to Escape
From Camp 14 because Shin had a dream of living in the U.S. the rest
of his life but that didn’t happen. In The Maze Runner the
main characters want to remember what their lives were like before being sent
into “the maze” but they can’t remember major stuff.
Re: Dream Deferred -
M's Commentary
by - Wednesday, 22 October
2014, 8:08 PM
I like the way you connected the poem not only
to yourself, but also to other books such as Escape from Camp 14,
and the book/movie The Maze Runner. I especially like that way
you asked questions pertaining to to reasons for the publication of this
poem and if it had anything to do with Hughes' personal life. Great Job!
Re: Dream Deferred -
M's Commentary
by - Wednesday, 22 October
2014, 9:00 PM
What I liked the most in M's analysis is
her last paragraph especially when she connected the thoughts in Hughes's poem
to Escape from Camp 14, the book which we have already read. Her connection is
really great, and I did not expect to read such a connection in any of my
classmates' analyses.
Re: Dream Deferred -
M's Commentary
by - Wednesday, 22 October 2014,
10:30 PM
I really agree with you about the necessity to
know the background of this poem to fully understand Hughes' motivation to
write this poem. There are many ways of interpreting this poem, which all are
reasonable, but it is difficult for readers to understand the writer's reason
of writing this piece. I found your connection to different novels and movies
interesting, compared to most of our connections to lives of students. I'll
definitely have to try out the Maze Runner :)
Re: Dream Deferred -
M's Commentary
by Wednesday, 22 October
2014, 10:41 PM
i really liked the way that you concentrated a
lot on how the poem relates to you on a personal level. i also like the fact
that you included many questions in your commentary about the things you wonder
about. I would suggest that you add a little more analysis on the literary
devices.
Re: Dream Deferred -
M's Commentary
by - Thursday, 23 October
2014, 8:59 AM
I like how you made several connections
and how you added your only personal thoughts and questions. I would say you
need to add more to your analyzes on literally devices.
Re: Dream Deferred -
M's Commentary
by Thursday, 23 October 2014,
9:59 AM
I agree with the analysis of the poem and how
people connect their life with the poem but I don't agree that Shin, the
storyteller of "Escape From Camp 14" is related to this poem because
he did what he has to do but he just thought South Korea would be better than
America. (He didn't defer what he had to do)
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