It seems to me that some of the boys just needed to read different material than they were being offered. Surely there are many books that encompass themes that are "relevant" and that tap into their "cultural experiences". I like the author's idea of using texts to engage boys, or young men, in the interrogation of masculinity. Seems like a topic that would encourage involvement in the discussion for males and females. Might be kind of tough for the gays/lesbians/ and transgender kids.
Regarding the Kamler article I am most disheartened by the lack of teaching in the classroom. I think these days most teachers feel they use the "process" method of teaching writing, regardless of what they are actually teaching. My kids have been in such different settings as they progress through elementary school. All their teachers feel that they use the process approach. Even if they give them a prompt and make them proof-read it before they re-copy their final draft. That's process!
I am not sure I agree with the categorization of returning to drawing and labelling as a "regression" . Most experts in emergent writing (Clay, Dyson, Rowe) will state that writing does not develop as a linear model. Children try on roles as authors and audience. These roles influence their own writing. If students are demonstrating drawing and labeling, and students are appropriating these ideas this may not be a regression as much as an experimentation. However, it does seem that students should be able to draw upon expertise from the teacher as well as their peers. The lack of influence from conferences and teacher modeling seems to provide the students with less information and guidance and would of course expose them to fewer genres.
When I read the statistics about Peter's use of the event element vs. Zoe's use of the event element I wonder how much of this is just the way we are. I wonder is this just a natural way that boys position themselves in the world? Is Zoe's passivity bad or just stereotypical?
I wonder if Peter had been encouraged to comment would he have included more? Or is Kamler saying that it is only because Zoe is a female that she feels comfortable expressing her emotions? I guess what I'm wondering is if the teacher spent more time conferencing with students would the artifacts have been more geder neutral? I am interested in the concept of free choice actually meaning no choice to kids who will fall back on their limited gender experiences.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
"I am interested in the concept of free choice actually meaning no choice to kids who will fall back on their limited gender experiences."
Funny to see how "choice" can actually be constraining! I agree with Kamler's idea that there is a need to teachers to help scaffold and guide genre selections at times in order to shape and broaden the choices that are available to students. In my classroom, I tried to move back and forth between free choice writer's workshop and whole or small group genre study inquiries.
I am most disheartened by the lack of teaching in the classroom.
I agree. This was a concern to me, as well. I belive that Anna blogged about this, too. Why do you think this is the case? Is this the result of teachers not knowing what it means to teach writing using a process approach? Maybe they are lacking the skills to conference with individual students. I feel that I have been at a lot of training sessions that give info. on setting up conferences and teaching mini-lessons as part of the writing process, but not many have discussed what you do when you are there. Might this be part of the problem?
Post a Comment