Tuesday, May 5, 2009
The Importance of Choice
We've learned that choice is important to work into our classrooms--either through assignments or reading activities. How, as a classroom teacher, can you work choice into your day to day practice? What are some examples of what you've done and what are some things that you would be willing to try in the future?
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5 comments:
I believe that I can work choice into my classroom each day. I want to try an incorporate more writing stategies into my classrrom as a result of this class. I am going to have my students write in a journal daily. I can give my students a variety of topics so that they have a choice of what they want to write.
More and more of my students are going on to technical school or four year college, they need to become better writers. The best way to improve their writing is to be more confident and self assured in their writing.
After reading this piece, I really want to try and incorporate more choice into my class. I still think that my students need a strong base in literary analysis, especially since most of them have difficulty identifying theme and symbolism, much less discussing irony and bias with vigor and detailed arguments. However, I have noticed that students tend to write more when they are given choice. I think that the choices for writing could come in many forms, like daily journaling, or narrative pieces, or admit/exit slips. Students do love to talk about themselves, but we need to make sure that the students have a working knowledge of the writing process as well as the basic format writing should take. I'm all for students having time to freewrite, but if they never revisit their pieces and polish them into a finished product, I don't think we are doing the students any favors. They are usually willing to write a first time, it's the revising and editing,and redrafting that they hate. But, in order to be stronger writers, they need to be able to look at their pieces objectively and look for ways to improve them. This will be expected of them in college, for those who are headed into college. I think students need choice, sometimes. I think that they could be allowed to choose which pieces to finish. If they really hate a certain topic, they shouldn't be forced to push it to the final conclusion. I think a portfolio would be a great project for students to do that would incorporate a lot of choice, a lot of revising, and wonderful finished products. I hope to try portfolios next year...
Reading this article reminded me of when I was a student. I was Jared. It always took me a while to get started because I didn't know where to begin. I still have that problem today!
I think that it is important to offer students choice in writing. It will allow them to write about what interests them and will improve their writing skills. In science, students do not write as often as they would in an English class, but they do write.
Students in my class are often offered a choice in how they create diagrams/pictures that represent the topic that we are covering. For example students were asked to create a picture of a fruit tree and diagram how the PE and KE changed as the piece of fruit fell from the tree.
I think that at the end of this school year I will have the students write a short essay on the topic that they learned about that was the most interesting to them and why.
On the flip side of choice, sometimes it is as overwhelming as not giving choices. I was the student who wanted more direction and boundaries - I wanted the teacher to tell me what to do. I absolutely HATED science fair projects - my teachers would never give any direction or guidance. I would make A/A+ on the projects but the ordeal of finding an idea would wreck havoc in our house-hold [seriously some of the worst mom-daughter fights were over assignments].
As a teacher I do give choices but unlike my teachers, I try to give guidance and am always open to a student's idea to think outside the project. I think that choice has to be tempered with enough structure that you find the perfect harmony.
Teaching tutorial for the first time this year, I have not assigned many writing assignments because the students always have so many other assignments from reg. ed. to complete, or tests to prepare for. Writing is something I need to incorporate into the tutorial period next year. Now, talking about my self-contained students...they are all like "Jared." They just don't know how or where to begin and would rather avoid writing by any means possible! Yet, when they are taken through the process, step-by-step they are able to complete a writing assignment, if it is given in small increments. They do not do well with choices...they need to have a specific topic they are familiar with in order to write something that makes sense to them. Tutorial class would be different..writing in a journal would be ideal (as Ashlie suggested) and this would give them the opportunity to choose from a variety of topics. I agree with Donielle about the revising and editing, and redrafting that is the most difficult part of writing for self-contained. They don't understand this part of the process because they feel if you wrote it once, why do you have to go back and 'redo.' One activity I always did with self-contained was have them share their writing with the rest of the class..this seemed to build their self-esteem a little in regards to writing. We kept a writing portfolio and they were so proud of it and quite amazed at what they produced over a time!! You could see the progress they made from the beginning of the year to the end...I will bring one to class on Monday!!!
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