Rubrics

Beginning to write this blog i really had no idea what I was going to write about, but deciding that starting with the reading this week would be a good place to start. What really caught my attention in this book was the anecdote at the very beginning of the book, the one about Krystal. Her paper had no form to speak of and the general direction of her piece didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. Although on a rubric her paper would have received an F, Maja Wilson said that it moved her and she couldn’t bring herself to give Krystal a failing grade. The question I had, and one that Wilson addresses in her book, is whether it is write to base grades of the individual on how the group as a whole was supposed to be doing. Although Krystal’s piece wasn’t the typical A,B, or even C paper, it did move Wilson in some way. I think that in certain cases an individual students grade should be determined separately from the standard rubric, and in some cases a new rubric needs to be made to achieve that. Thoughts?

Inspiration

To say that I write a lot in my free time would be a stretch, but finding inspiration to do writings for the classroom is still sometime difficult. Typically I’ll sit down to write a first draft of a paper a week or so in advance, to give myself extra time to think about what I have to say, and then I won’t come back to the paper until several days before it is due. I have difficulty finding inspiration to do papers on subject matter that I find to be, for lack of a better word, dull. Although this practice of waiting to the last minute may perhaps be a bad habit to from, it is the only way that I can seem to get my words down on the paper; it seems I work the best under time constraints and pressure to get it done.  On the topic of writers block I find it easiest to listen to music while writing, or even take an hour break or so during the process to get my thoughts into order. For example, I have a paper due on Thursday this week over the issue of conflict in the novel, Belinda, by Maria Edgeworth. I’m sure I won’t start to write my final draft until Tuesday night or Wednesday afternoon. It’s not that I don’t care about the paper, but working within limited time constraints helps me focus on what I need to accomplish.

Grades

Although I wasn’t able to be in class for the conversation regarding the access of grades I still feel it is an important topic that I have, at least in the slightest, an opinion on. While grades, for students, seem to be very important to track it is not always the best way to determine the amount of learning done in a classroom. Obsessively pouring over ICON, or any other online grading tracker, can be a deterrent to the act of learning. To me, it seems like grades, especially in young learners, can affect the way students see the classroom. The classroom turns into a place of work instead of enjoyable learning and activity. As the old saying goes, “pay someone for an activity they enjoy and it will turn into work”. While keeping track of grades is a great way to monitor progress, it should not be the first step in assessing a student’s strengths and weaknesses in the classroom.  

"Healthy" First Drafts

When thinking back to my first draft of my memoir, or any first draft in general, I never thought of it having a “healthy” status. When I write my first drafts I look at it as a way of getting my ideas down on paper, and my first draft lets me organize my thoughts. What I feel that is different about my firsts drafts that is different from a typical first draft is that I generally write mine in the old fashioned way, with a pen and a piece of paper. It isn’t necessarily entire sentences either, many times my ideas will be sketched in the margin and many sentences are added in as afterthoughts. So, when asked whether I think my first drafts are healthy or not I honestly believe that I can’t answer. I suppose when considering the list that we made on the board in class last week I would have to say that my first drafts are “unhealthy” in a way. Although “unhealthy” my first drafts work for me and I think that is the most important part of my own personal process.

Introduction

I've never previously written a blog so I'm not exactly sure where to begin, but I suppose I can start with a little bit about myself. I’m a junior this year and am an English major with an interest in secondary education, but have yet to apply to the College of Education. I was born in Virginia, where my father’s side of the family lives, and moved to Iowa around the age of seven. Since then I’ve lived in the Waterloo area and went to high school in LaPorte City in the Union School District. As far as writing is concerned I’ve never consistently throughout my life written outside of school. In elementary I was invited up to UNI on several occasions to attend writer workshops for some of the fiction stories that I had written in class. I don’t particularly remember them very vividly but feel that as I grew older I fell away from writing, and only continued to write when it was deemed mandatory. One of the reasons that I chose to take this class, aside from it being a necessity and a recommendation from a friend, was to get back into the swing of writing and hopefully start to enjoy it as much as I used to.  After even the first week of class I felt that I was more “connected” to writing again and really enjoyed the exercises that we did in class. Not only did they allow me to look into myself and recollect some of my past writing experiences but it also reintroduced me into free-writing. I hope to continue to be able to free-write and hopefully find time outside of class to do so. In the mean time, I’m looking forward to seeing where this course progresses and what I am able to learn throughout the semester.