#1 Bill Lyons. He still teaches over at Norwood High. Should you ever bump into him tell him I said hi. He wasn't interested in controlling the class. He didn't tell you about your writing. He asked you about it. You write a paper, get a bad grade, you ask him why and he doesn't tell you what you did wrong. Instead he asks you about the choices you made and lets you understand and figure out why it got that grade. He let you think. He didn't expect you to be a parrot and just repeat back everything he told you. I guess the short answer for that is he had respect for us.
I remember this one assignment where we had to write a script for a radio ad about a solar powered car. I wrote up what I thought would be something that would actually get aired. I was sure of it. And I got a bad grade. I told him just that and he agreed. He said it sounded just like something you'd actually hear on the radio today. Then he said that was exactly the reason why he didn't give me a better grade. The implication being that it was too formulaic and not creative enough.
#2 Why tell them what topics to write about? Why not let their journal be their time to show and tell you something rather than the standard dynamic of you always telling them things?
I think the main consideration about journaling is a lot of kids just aren't in touch with themselves. You ask them to write a paragraph about their day and you'll get the standard, "um... school sucked... um... I dunno..." well, not all of them but you know what I mean. I'd look some examples of journals or even correspondences from famous people, writers, thinkers, artists, etc. to show kids what journaling can be like. Kafka, Freud, Rilke, jump to mind. One's that are written well and reflect the qualities you'd like to see the kids use. Maybe leave out Anais Nin's.
Bill Lyons. He still teaches over at Norwood High. Should you ever bump into him tell him I said hi. He wasn't interested in controlling the class. He didn't tell you about your writing. He asked you about it. You write a paper, get a bad grade, you ask him why and he doesn't tell you what you did wrong. Instead he asks you about the choices you made and lets you understand and figure out why it got that grade. He let you think. He didn't expect you to be a parrot and just repeat back everything he told you. I guess the short answer for that is he had respect for us.
I remember this one assignment where we had to write a script for a radio ad about a solar powered car. I wrote up what I thought would be something that would actually get aired. I was sure of it. And I got a bad grade. I told him just that and he agreed. He said it sounded just like something you'd actually hear on the radio today. Then he said that was exactly the reason why he didn't give me a better grade. The implication being that it was too formulaic and not creative enough.
#2
Why tell them what topics to write about? Why not let their journal be their time to show and tell you something rather than the standard dynamic of you always telling them things?
I think the main consideration about journaling is a lot of kids just aren't in touch with themselves. You ask them to write a paragraph about their day and you'll get the standard, "um... school sucked... um... I dunno..." well, not all of them but you know what I mean. I'd look some examples of journals or even correspondences from famous people, writers, thinkers, artists, etc. to show kids what journaling can be like. Kafka, Freud, Rilke, jump to mind. One's that are written well and reflect the qualities you'd like to see the kids use. Maybe leave out Anais Nin's.
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