Details about daily assignments will be posted here following class sessions on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. See the schedule posted in the syllabus for the tentative course outline.

Assigned December 10
For Wednesday, December 17 (10:30 am in CL 175): Your project is due at the beginning of our exam period. Your group will present, and you will need to hand in one portfolio per group containing the book review, annotated bibliography, presentation outline, and handouts. Group members will also hand in their individual reflections at that time.

Assigned December 8
For Wednesday, December 10:

• Individually, send me a status report (via e-mail) about what your team has accomplished so far and how you have contributed; also inform me about any challenges your group is facing.
• As you read the final two selections in the coursepack, make notes about what you want to discuss about student teaching and teaching. What are your worries, your questions, the things you are looking forward to? Point us to quotes for discussion from Maxwell & Meiser, “Your Starting Role: Student Teacher” and from Schelhaas, “Advice to Departing Senior English Education Majors.”
• Bring a pencil for course evaluations, please.

Assigned December 5
See you at noon on Sunday! For Monday, December 8:

• Read Van Horn’s Professional Book Reviews column, “Becoming Writers” (handout). This is one example of an annotated bibliography written by a teacher for other teachers.
• Complete the inquiry project homework that your group assigned itself, and be prepared for a group meeting and workshop session at Monday’s class. After class on Monday, I’ll ask each of you for a status report (via e-mail) about what your team has accomplished so far and how you have contributed; I’ll also want to know about any challenges your group is facing.

Assigned December 3
For Friday, December 5: Your curriculum project is due. Bring a hard copy to class to hand in and post a copy (or link to a Web copy) on the Ning.

Assigned November 24
Have a blessed Thanksgiving! For Wednesday, December 3: Bring the rough/partial draft for your curriculum project as instructed on the assignment handout. Prepare a few questions about your draft that will get you specific, helpful feedback from classmates and me. Remember that the project is due on Friday, December 5.

Assigned November 17
Remember that Nov. 19 & 21 are project work days (no class). For Monday, November 24: Read Benjamin Ch. 7, “Rhetorical Grammar” and Ch. 8, “Scope and Sequence.” Also study Ehrenworth & Vinton’s “Curriculum Calendar of Direct Instruction across the Writing Process” (coursepack). Consider: how will you organize the scope and sequence of grammar lessons for your courses?

Assigned November 14
For Monday, November 17: Read Benjamin Ch. 6, “Grammar and Standardized Tests” and Kraemer, “Fighting Forward: Why Studying Standardized Tests with Our Students is Important” (coursepack). Create an analogy that tells how you think teachers ought to think about standardized tests, and write a paragraph about it. Post your paragraph to the Ning.

Assigned November 12
For Friday, November 14: Read Benjamin Ch. 5, “Usage and Mechanics in Informal and Formal English” and Sjolie, “Phrase and Clause Grammar Tactics for the ESL/ELL Grammar Writing Classroom” (coursepack). Write a grammar lesson that is based on one of your own grammar trouble spots, or on an area where you would benefit from increased grammatical finesse. Your lesson should apply Benjamin’s “Notice, Name, Apply” principle (p. 7) and should help students to connect literature, grammar study, and writing. List student objectives, instructional activities, and assessments. Emily will lead our Lesson Workshop (see the assignment sheet for details).

Assigned November 10
For Wednesday, November 12: Read Ch. 3 & 4 from Benjamin’s Engaging Grammar. Begin planning a grammar lesson (due Friday) that is based on one of your own grammar trouble spots, or on an area where you would benefit from increased grammatical finesse. Your lesson should apply Benjamin’s “Notice, Name, Apply” principle (p. 7) and should help students to connect literature, grammar study, and writing.

Assigned November 7
For Monday, November 10:

1. Read the front matter and Ch. 1 & 2 from Benjamin’s Engaging Grammar. Also read Zuidema, “Myth Education” (coursepack).
2. “Save the Last Word for Me” preparation: On a notecard or half sheet of paper, copy a quoted excerpt (from the assigned readings) that you would like us to discuss. On the back side, write a short paragraph with your remarks. At class, the rest of us will discuss the quote you’ve picked, and then you will have the last word by reading and elaborating on your written comments.

Assigned November 5
For Friday, November 7:

• Read either Schmidt, “Old-Style Writing” (coursepack) OR Goldfine, “Making Word Processing More Effective in the Composition Classroom” (handout). What other problems and/or solutions can you identify? Note them in the margins.
• Plan ahead for how you will deal with plagiarism and other academic dishonesty in students’ written work. Write (a) a short policy statement for the course guidelines that you will distribute to students at the beginning of the term; (b) a brief description of the ways you will scaffold instruction in order to teach students to deal appropriately with source material; and (c) a paragraph or flow chart that explains how you will respond to plagiarism incidents.

Assigned November 3
For Wednesday, November 5:

1. Look back at the assignment for the WCHS students. BEFORE you look at their final drafts, type either a list of standards or a rubric that you will use to guide you as you grade their papers. Add a short paragraph that explains to me the logic of the standards or rubric you’ve written.
2. Using your standards list or rubric as a guide, evaluate the students’ writing. Respond to the final drafts—again, teach the writer, not the writing. In pencil, make margin notes and end comments as you would if you had to evaluate 30 of these. On a SEPARATE piece of paper, record the grades that you would give these papers.
3. As you grade and comment on the students’ papers, also make notes about the writing needs you would address in minilessons for their next projects: a literary analysis of a short story, followed by a research paper.
4. Finally, make notes on the assignment prompt. What changes would you make if you were to give this assignment (or one like it) again in the future?

Assigned October 31
For Monday, November 3:

• Read Kittle pp. 184-188, “Student Focus: Aaron.” From the coursepack, read Moore, “Where Does Spite Fit Into the Rubric?” and Porter, “Discourage Plagiarism by Promoting Academic Honesty.” Annotate your readings to help you prepare for commentary-style discussion.
• Imagine a scenario that would make grading a student’s writing especially challenging for you. Be prepared to discuss the scenario in light of the advice offered in the readings.

Assigned October 29
For Friday, October 31:

1. Read Kittle Part 6, “Assessment” and Dornan, Rosen, & Wilson’s chapter “Assessing, Evaluating, Grading, and Responding to Student Writing”(handout).
2. Write a short commentary (400 words) about these readings. What do you think and feel about these readings? Help us to understand your response by analyzing selected moments to “replay” for us. That is, your analysis should point out and offer commentary upon aspects of the texts that influence your overall response and that you find particularly striking, problematic, interesting, puzzling, significant, or otherwise worthy of discussion. (Be sure to direct us to specific passages: use quotes and MLA-style documentation, including page numbers.) Remember, the goal is to look analytically at these smaller “replay” moments in order to explain your overall response to the text.

Assigned October 27
For Wednesday, October 29:

1. Read Kittle Part 5, “Mechanics.” Also, from the DVD, watch “Minilessons: Mechanics” (this segment lasts about 3 minutes).
2. Look back at one of the writing samples we have examined this semester (either the persuasive essay or the essays from English 100 tutoring sessions). Based on your analysis of the writing sample, choose a topic for a grammar mini-lesson that will help students to improve their writing. (You could work to unteach/correct an error that you see students making repeatedly, or you could teach students to craft their writing more skillfully by employing a specific type of grammar knowledge.) Write a grammar mini lesson that address the following questions.
   • What grammar skill will you teach, and how is it connected to the students’ writing needs?
   • What teaching-learning activities will you use? ( See the grammar lesson books on course reserve for specific ideas about teaching grammar in connection with writing instruction.)
   • How will you use Hunter’s retention theory to ensure that students learn to use the skill in their writing?

Assigned October 24
For Monday, October 27:

1. Read Kittle Ch. 10, “Finding Form for Ideas: Blending Genres.” Also read Andrew-Vaughn & Fleischer, “Researching Writing: The Unfamiliar Genre Project” (coursepack). Consider how you could blend pedagogy from these two readings.
2. Geron’s Lesson Workshop is due (see the handout for detailed instructions). For the rest of you: Write a lesson plan that applies ideas from one or both of these readings. List the grade level, the course this is for, and the estimated lesson time. Then supply (a) the student objectives, (b) the instruction/activities--with time allotted for each major section of the lesson (feel free to include workshop/conferencing time), and (c) a description of how you would assess students’ learning. Post your lesson to our Ning and bring a hard copy to class.
3. Keep making progress on your individual writing projects. Perhaps you’ll want to try some multigenre techniques?
   

Assigned October 22
For Friday, October 24:

1. Read Kittle Ch. 9, “Seeking Balance: Writing about Literature and Writing about Life” as well as “Student Focus: Phillip.”
2. Eun Jin’s Lesson Workshop is due (see the handout for detailed instructions). For the rest of you: Write a lesson plan that teaches students to write in response to literature. List the grade level, the course this is for, and the estimated lesson time. Then supply (a) the student objectives, (b) the instruction/activities--with time allotted for each major section of the lesson (feel free to include workshop/conferencing time), and (c) a description of how you would assess students’ learning. Post your lesson to our Ning and bring a hard copy to class.
   
   Note: Y ou will notice that Kittle doesn't offer us many strategies for teaching writing in response to literature.  However, your lesson plan needs to have students write in response to literature (whether they are responding to poetry, fiction, nonfiction essays, or other literature). Think back to Wilhelm's book and the many ways that he asks students to respond to literature.  You may adapt any of his ideas--or other ideas of your own--so that this lesson does focus on students writing to respond to literature.

Assigned October 20
For Wednesday, October 22:

1. Read Kittle Ch. 8, “Persuasion.”
2. Make comments on the draft persuasive essay (handout).
3. Elizabeth’s Lesson Workshop is due (see the handout for detailed instructions). For the rest of you: Write a lesson plan that applies techniques from Kittle to teach persuasive writing. List the grade level, the course this is for, and the estimated lesson time. Then supply (a) the student objectives, (b) the instruction/activities--with time allotted for each major section of the lesson (feel free to include workshop/conferencing time), and (c) a description of how you would assess students’ learning. Post your lesson to our Ning and bring a hard copy to class.

Assigned October 17
For Monday, October 20:

1. Revise your feedback to the WCHS writers as necessary. Bring your finalized comments to class.
2. Read Kittle Ch. 7, “The Art of Story” and view “Minilessons: Finding Structure with a Storyboard” (12 minutes) on the DVD.
3. Writer's Notebook: Think about some childhood memories that stand out in your mind. Try sketching a "snapshot scene" of one or two of those memories in your writers' notebook. Bring this to class.
4. Becca’s Lesson Workshop is due (see the handout for detailed instructions). For the rest of you: Write a lesson plan that applies techniques from Kittle to teach story writing. List the grade level, the course this is for, and the estimated lesson time. Then supply (a) the student objectives, (b) the instruction/activities--with time allotted for each major section of the lesson (feel free to include workshop/conferencing time), and (c) a description of how you would assess students’ learning. Post your lesson to our Ning and bring a hard copy to class.

Assigned October 15
For Friday, October 17: On Thursday, come to my office to pick up the WCHS student drafts that you will be responding to. Read and respond to these students’ in-process drafts.

• In pencil, write on the draft and in the margins as you deem appropriate. Remember to teach the writer, not the writing.
• Write/type an end comment that addresses strengths and next steps. Be judicious about which higher- and/or lower-order concerns to address.

Bring your marked-up drafts and comments to class—along with your questions about how best to respond to student writers.

Assigned October 13
For Wednesday, October 15:

• Read either “Teaching Writing to English Language Learners” (Fu) or “Worlds Beneath the Words: Writing Workshop with Second Language Learners” (Hubbard, with Shorey). Also read “List in a Sea of Ink: How I Survived the Storm” (Sheehan & Sheehan). For both readings, mark and annotate key passages that you want to discuss in class.
• Start a writing project that interests you. Get beyond experimenting/planning; start writing! Set a timer, and write uninterrupted for at least 30 minutes.
• Inquiry project book orders?

Assigned October 10
For Monday, October 13:

• Read pp. 85-91 from Kittle Ch. 6, “Opportunities in a Writer’s Workshop.” From the Kittle DVD, watch “Conferring.” Watch each conference twice: first “as is,” and then with Kittle’s commentary. (These segments total about 1 hour.) As you watch each conference, write down the student’s name and the conference topic, and then make brief notes about what you find striking about the conference (+/-) and about any questions that the conference raises for you.
• Spend at least 15 minutes writing in your writer’s notebook.
• Have you picked a group and a book for your inquiry project? Remember to inform me so that I can place book orders ASAP.

Assigned October 8
For Friday, October 10:

• Read pp. 70-85 and 91-95 from Kittle Ch. 6, “Opportunities in a Writer’s Workshop” as well as “Student Focus: Kelsey.” For the Kittle DVD, watch “Elements of a Writing Workshop”—all of the sub-segments except for “Day 1.” (These segments total about 11 minutes.) Consider: Kittle suggests daily/weekly routines for a course that focuses only on writing. How might you structure daily/weekly routines for a course that blends both literature and writing?
• Spend at least 15 minutes writing in your writer’s notebook.
• Read the instructions handout for the Inquiry Project. We’ll talk through your questions at class.

Assigned October 6
For Wednesday, October 8:

1. Read pp. 62-70 from Kittle Ch. 6, “Opportunities in a Writer’s Workshop.” Watch “Elements of a Writing Workshop: Day 1” on the Kittle DVD. (This segment lasts about 11 minutes.) Consider: Kittle outlines the structure for writing workshop in a course that is focused only on writing. How might you adapt this for a course that blends literature and writing?
2. Spend at least 15 minutes writing in your writer’s notebook.

Assigned October 1
For Monday, October 6:

1. Read Kittle Ch. 5, “Quick Writes” and “Student Focus: Rick.” Watch “Minilessons: Teacher as Writer” on the Kittle DVD. (This segment lasts about 4 minutes.) Consider: when/how is it best to use quick writes in the English classroom? What are the qualities of a good prompt for a quick write? Of a good quick write response?
2. Spend at least 15 minutes writing in your writer’s notebook. This would be a good place to try out a quick write from one of Kittle’s prompts or from somewhere else!

Assigned September 29
For Wednesday, October 1:

1. Read Kittle Ch. 4, “The Writer’s Notebook” and watch “A Writer’s Notebook” (all of the sub-segments) on the Kittle DVD. Also read Holmes & Moulton, “Dialogue Journals as an ESL Learning Strategy” from the coursepack. As you read, consider: how does/n’t a dialogue journal differ from a writer’s notebook? What are the advantages and limitations of the dialogue journal and the writer’s notebook for student writers…regardless of their background?
2. Start (continue???) your own writer’s notebook. Take at least 15 minutes to write in it. Feel free to do computer or handwritten; the notebooks are starter places for your writing. Bring them along to class, but just to jostle your memory or point out the things that you choose to point out. I won’t collect the notebook; instead, I’ll be interested in hearing how you use it.

Assigned September 26
For Monday, September 29: 

1. Read Part I, “Foundations,” from Kittle’s book Write Beside Them.  Also read Dong, “The Need to Understand ESL Students’ Native Language Writing Experiences” from the coursepack.
2. What do YOU believe about writers and writing?  Write a list, and prepare to discuss your beliefs and to explain connections to the assigned readings.

Assigned September 24
For Friday, September 26:

1. Read the next two selections from the coursepack: “Changing Lives: Teaching English and Literature to ESL Students” (Ernst-Slavit, Moore, & Maloney) and “Creating Intentional Communities to Support English Language Learners in the Classroom” (Rance-Roney).
2. Revise one of the lesson plans you wrote earlier for our course so that it provides for differentiation options for ELL students at each of the four stages of language development (as described in the article by Ernst-Slavit, et al.).

Assigned September 22
For Wednesday, September 24: Read the next three selections from the coursepack: “Getting Started: Teaching the Language of Film” (Teasley & Wilder); “Film Terminology & Cinematic Effects” (Golden); and “Toward Creating a TV Research Community in Your Classroom” (Morris). Consider: what screen texts would you teach, and how would you teach them? What is the place of screen texts in the literature classroom?

Assigned September 19
For Monday, September 22: Find a literature textbook that is intended for high school or middle school students and that includes poetry. (The LRC at the Dordt library has many to choose from; you may choose either a student or a teacher version of the text.) Using the guidelines distributed at class, type your review of the textbook.

Assigned September 17
For Friday, September 19: Read Wilhelm Ch. 6, “Expanding Concepts of Reading, Response, and Literature” as well as the next selection from the coursepack: “Digital Texts and the New Literacies.” What might these authors have to say to one another if they were to discuss these pieces together?

Assigned September 15
For Wednesday, September 17:

1. Read either Wilhelm Ch. 4, “Using Drama to Extend the Reader” or Ch. 5, “Reading is Seeing.” Be prepared to explain, in detail, the important ideas and quotes from your chapter to classmates who read the other chapter.
2. Read Vonnegut’s satirical short story “Harrison Bergeron.”
3. Bring to class any props (if you read ch. 4) or visual materials (if you read ch. 5) that would help you to demonstrate—in response to “Harrison Bergeron”—the kinds of activities that Wilhelm describes in your chapter.

Assigned September 12
For Monday, September 15:

1. Read Appleman, “Through the Looking Glass: Introducing Multiple Perspectives ” and the accompanying excerpts from the Critical Encounters appendix.
2. Laurissa’s Lesson Workshop is due (see the handout for detailed instructions). For the rest of you: Write a lesson plan that applies techniques from Appleman to teach a poem(s) of your choice. State the grade level and course, as well as the estimated lesson time. Then supply (a) the student objectives AND a paragraph that explains why your poetry selection is a good fit for those objectives, (b) the instruction/activities--with time allotted for each major section of the lesson, and (c) a description of how you would assess students’ learning. Post your lesson to our Ning and bring a hard copy to class.

Assigned September 10
For Friday, September 12:

1. Read pp. 97-118 from Wilhelm Ch. 3, “The Dimensions of a Reader’s Response”; also read pp. 215-219 from Appendix A.
2. Jane’s Lesson Workshop is due (see the handout for detailed instructions). For the rest of you: Write a lesson plan that applies techniques from Wilhelm (about the reflective dimension) to teach the Soto short story. Again, you may decide what grade level and course this is for. List this information and the estimated lesson time. Then supply (a) the student objectives, (b) the instruction/activities--with time allotted for each major section of the lesson, and (c) a description of how you would assess students’ learning. Post your lesson to our Ning and bring a hard copy to class.

Assigned September 8
For Wednesday, September 10:

1. Read pp. 88-97 from Wilhelm Ch. 3, “The Dimensions of a Reader’s Response”; also read pp. 212-214 from Appendix A.
2. Mandi’s Lesson Workshop is due (see the handout for detailed instructions). For the rest of you: Write a lesson plan that applies techniques from Wilhelm (about the connective dimension) to teach the Soto short story. Again, you may decide what grade level and course this is for. List this information and the estimated lesson time. Then supply (a) the student objectives, (b) the instruction/activities--with time allotted for each major section of the lesson, and (c) a description of how you would assess students’ learning. Post your lesson to our Ning and bring a hard copy to class.

Assigned September 5
For Monday, September 8:

1. Read pp. 61-88 from Wilhelm Ch. 3, “The Dimensions of a Reader’s Response”; also read pp. 207-212 from Appendix A.
2. Read Soto’s short story “Yeah, Right.”
3. Write a lesson plan that applies techniques from Wilhelm (about the evocative dimension) to teach the Soto short story. You may decide what grade level and course this is for. List this information and the estimated lesson time. Then supply (a) the student objectives, (b) the instruction/activities--with time allotted for each major section of the lesson, and (c) a description of how you would assess students’ learning. Post your lesson to our Ning and bring a hard copy to class.
   

Looking ahead: Review the lesson workshop requirements carefully. Remember: All homework instructions (written) and materials for photocopying must be given to me at least 3 school days before you present your lesson.

Assigned September 3
For Friday, September 5:

1. Read Wilhelm Ch. 2, “Looking at Student Reading” and the next two selections from the coursepack: Jago, “The Bad Habits of Good Readers” and Cohen, “A Case Study of a High School English Language Learner and His Reading.” Prepare your comments and questions for class discussion.
2. Write (typed) a letter to your future teaching self. Based on your experiences as a reader and on what you have read/discussed about reading over the past few days, what do you want to remember when you teach students to read literature?

Assigned September 1
For Wednesday, September 3: Read Wilhelm, “Introduction: Really among Schoolchildren” and Ch. 1, “Moving toward a Reader-Centered Classroom,” as well as the next article in the coursepack: Li & Zhang, “Why Mei Still Cannot Read and What Can Be Done.” Prepare your comments and questions for class discussion.

Assigned August 29
For Monday, September 1:

1. Read the next four selections from the coursepack: (1) Monseau, “Risky Business: Whose ‘Right Thing’ Are We Talking About?”; (2) VanderArk, “Teaching Ethnic American Literature in a Christian High School”; (3) NCTE Statement on Censorship and Professional Guidelines; and (4) SLATE Starter Sheet, NCTE, “How to Write a Rationale.”
2. Consider the issues addressed in the readings as you complete the text selection and rationale assignment: List, by title and author, a collection of 7 texts that you could imagine using in a specific ELA course for middle school or high school. Write a rationale (1.5-2 pages, DS) that explains your selection.
3. Review the Lesson Workshop instructions.
4. Try Ning again if it didn't cooperate for you earlier.

Assigned August 27
For Friday, August 29:

1. Subscribe to the NCTE Inbox. Browse through each week’s new issue, and use what you learn to inform your contributions to course discussions, your work on course projects, and your preparation for ELA teaching beyond this class.
2. Create a Ning account, and accept your invitation to our Dordt ELA Teachers Ning. Explore our site, and feel free to leave your mark.
3. Read the first three selections from the coursepack: (1) NCTE, Chapter 5 from Guidelines for the Preparation of Teachers of English Language Arts; (2) Cadiero-Kaplan, “Literacy Ideologies” (Language Arts, May 2002); and (3) NCTE/IRA Standards for the English Language Arts. For all coursepack readings throughout the semester, read actively: mark it up and make it your own!
4. In the Ning discussion forum for our EDUC 354 group, write a response to the readings. Share opinions, make references to the texts, ask questions, explore ideas, and interact with what others are writing there. The goal: help us toward a thought-provoking conversation about how we define the English Language Arts and about what is important in ELA teaching. Bring a hard copy of this Teacher’s Notebook entry to class.