Krista also mentions about an article she read on the importance of teachers teaching effective comprehension strategies to students (Dymock, 2005). For instance, students need to understand the different text structures features in expository text. This makes me think about the other day when I was working with my third grade student in the literacy clinic. We are learning about Komodo dragons, and we have different expository texts from the library to help research and gather the information for our project at the end of the semester. This was one of the first times I had read an expository to my student this semester, so I wanted to make sure he understood the purpose of the table of contents, the index, and the captions featured on certain pages highlighting specific information about the subject. Although my student was familiar with this book, I was surprised to find he did not understand the purpose of the index. It was a positive moment to learn I had taught him something new about the specific words within the index and that the numbers presented would represent the page the student could find key words or specific subject matter.
I also wanted to take a moment to bless Kristine C's comments in her March 5th entry. She really opened up about a frustrating experience with a professor in her undergraduate program explaining her experiences with a professor who frequently provided negative feedback that seemed very discouraging for most assignments she had due. She mentioned that any thoughts or ideas she had were "challenged" and "never seemed to be what the professor was looking for". In many ways I can completely agree with this, but I also would like to press for a moment to think about the purpose behind her professor challenging her thoughts. I think I have a stronger understanding for professors challenging my work now, but I can completely empathize with her in more ways than one.
In my undergraduate programs, I would say I did not reach out to my professors as much as I should have when I struggled to understand certain concepts or lessons. I wish I would have met up with them more, but there is one professor in particular I remember being quite beneficial towards my lack of understanding with the course content. One of my science classes that combined chemistry and physics in one semester was quite challenging. I did horrible on my first exam and perhaps did not study as much as I should have. By the second exam, I did a little better, but still was not understanding the concepts as much as I should have. I met with my professor more than once after these frustrations, and she helped me drastically. But most importantly, what helped me fully understand the concepts to my best potential was my professor's patience with me and teaching techniques that made me feel comfortable coming to her for help. Therefore, this makes me wonder if Kristine held back on asking the questions she really needed to ask? It makes me wonder how the professor acted towards her to make her feel comfortable or uncomfortable to coming to her for help? And it makes me wonder how much of the feedback Kristine took constructively to make her work meet the teacher's standards.
It can definitely be one of the most frustrating moments ever when you try your hardest to complete an assignment and think you are following the guidelines as the professor asked- then you turn around to have negative feedback written all over your assignment that was turned in. This in turn makes me agree completely to BLESS the fact that Kristine said teachers should "justify every negative comment with at least TWO positive comments". This is so very important because it encourages students to take risks while gaining feedback. As a teacher, I want my students to have positive learning experiences in my classroom by taking risks with their writing, but becoming more positive, organized, creative writers. From substituting, I have realized how frequent it is that students have poor attitudes towards writing. Why is this happening? What can teachers do to stretch their students thinking while keep them highly engaged in their writing experiences?
You pose some KEY questions at the end of this entry Regina. As I think about how I would answer your questions, I have to believe that part of the problem is because we rarely give students the time they need to really FULLY understand *who* they are writing to and *why.* Students see the writing traits as isolated/separate rather than appreciating the *purpose* for writing.
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