I can't figure out how to make it stop highlighting my text. Anyway, I picked out what I thought were the more important blog posts.

Week 2: What is reading?

We discussed the idea of being an active reader. This is something I do constantly but I realized that not every student is aware of active reading. I tried to use an analogy that encouraged students to pretend that they were actors on their favorite movie set rather than a passive audience. I was trying to correlate the reading process with this approach but I don't like the analogy I used. I was trying to explain that students should be as "active" as they are reading as actors are when they are filming a scene. Students shouldn't just read a text for information as if they were watching a movie; they should question it and analyze it to find its meaning. This way, students should have a much deeper understanding of the text in addition to a superficial summary.

Week 3: Debates about remediation and basic writing

This was an interesting topic because every incoming college student is coming in with a different set of skills, but the expectations are largely the same. College students will need basic skills such as reading strategies, critical thinking abilities, and know how to manage their time. I mentioned community colleges in my blog and I'm starting to like the idea that most students should be required to attend a community college. The expectations and demands of a traditional four-year university dwarf the responsibilities of a high school student and many of them are not ready for such a drastic change. Being in an environment where they are forced to take on additional responsibility while having more low-stakes grades (and less student debt) can ease the transition and reduce stress.

Students who need additional classes or help to prepare for their first semester of college should be allowed to take a remedial course. This course should emphasize the skills they will need for success while providing them with positive encouragement. The class should focus on general study skills and basic reading and writing. I think two semesters is the longest any student should be allowed in remedial courses. This blog assignment was particularly useful because it helped me think about a diverse student population with various needs.

Week 4: Theories of reading and writing

We had a brief discussion regarding how are class should approach our blog assignments, but most of it was self-explanatory.

I found the McCormick reading for this week very difficult but extremely useful. Actually, to say that it was useful seems like a bit of an understatement because our approach to teaching reading and writing were based off her ideas. I'm still finding new information or details that I missed when I go back to the reading. Nevertheless, the blog was helpful because it helped me organize some key thoughts from the reading.

Week 5: McCormick and Lesson planning

This week's blog was useful because it was the first time I received serious feedback from classmates. Having their input on ideas that I wasn't sure about or had difficulty expanding was very useful.

Week 8

This blog was a good spin on making note of difficulties. By deliberately picking something that was challenging to read, it helped me attempt to understand the mindset of students who struggle with reading. It helped me analyze what I was doing when I struggled and it gave me a glimpse of what students might try or feel when they come across material that is either uninteresting or just plain difficult.

There were some weeks where the blog assignments were meant to be reading summaries or platforms for sharing ideas. Those blogs were useful in that they helped me retain or remember the material, it felt like it could have been done in another format other than a blog. I thought some assignments could have just as effective using an iLearn forum.

A course memo:
There are some areas that need some further developing

Hello,

I don't want to sound like I have all the answers, but I believe that we should start implementing an IRW English curriculum. I have been inspired by recent readings that suggest that our "traditional" approach may not be as effective as we once thought.

My primary inspiration was from Kathleen McCormick. She outlines a study she took part in that was meant to analyze student responses to writing assignments. Students were given an intentionally vague writing assignment and asked to respond. She found that the overall student response made it very difficult to neatly categorize them into groups. Most students did not just "summarize," "respond freely to," or "interpret" the text. Most of their essays were hybridizations; most responded with a "review and comment" paper in which students summarized the reading and then offered their opinion or observations.

She did find, however, that students often struggled with "integrating one's own ideas and knowledge into the written conversation with one's sources" and "interpreting source texts for a purpose of one's own". I think this proves that there is a link between reading and writing that we are currently missing. Students can be misunderstanding "the nature of writing by confusing the thinking process with the written product." They view writing "as a procedure whereby the writer puts closure on ideas rather than explores and develops new ones."

McCormick also brought up some assumptions that typically guide or influence student writing:

Their need for closure - Students often feel that they must come to an explicit conclusion regarding a particular issue. They strive to achieve closure through arguing against the alternatives

Their need to be objective - Some students struggle because they are torn between a desire to remain "objective" while developing their own ideas. 

Their avoidance of contradiction - Most students did not mention that contradictions existed in their text and only a small percentage briefly acknowledged them.

San Francisco State has a IRW program that is a year long. By maintaining the same group of students for two semesters, it givers teachers more time to diagnose and address the needs of their students. Also, by keeping the same group of students together, it helps create a sense of community and encourages students to communicate and cooperate. Students in such an encouraging and welcoming environment are likely to learn and retain more.

This idea of IRW isn't brand new; it certainly is not the first time that somebody has tried to argue that reading and writing are inextricably intertwined. It's just that the social and educational contexts are different.