Featured videos: language, literacy, writing

Reading Together

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Author: Bridget Grant

Take aways

Take aways

431 has been a really relevant class for me so far. I feel like it’s one of my first classes that I’m learning how to be a teacher. One thing I really like that we talked about in class is responding to a memo all at once as opposed to vague comments written on an essay. One thing I hated as a student was turning in a paper that I slaved over and then the only person who saw it was my teacher. The idea of contributing to a community and making a space where that’s possible is super important to me. I love Shipka’s proposal to let the student design and share their own assignments. Basically this assignment gives students the opportunity to work on something they are interested in. By asking students to create something multimodal they have the opportunity to share their ideas in a creative, unique way. For me to actually do this, it seems hard. But eventually I would have a product from it and be able to communicate to many people who are interested in my topic. This type of assignment highlights diversity too. One student in my internship workshop has a YouTube channel where he teaches men about using makeup. This is an awesome extra curricular yet I presume it rarely overlaps into his school work. For this assignment he’s researching historical associations of men using makeup and decided he would share his findings over his YouTube channel. He’s already connected to an interested and relevant audience and can use this to share his assignment. Students have such different talents and resources and I think teachers’ assignments can often limit them.
Another thing that impresses me about the way this class is set up is that it works like a community of practice. English 130, mentors, interns and students are all busy learning together. I don’t know how I would accomplish this at a high school level but it would be an interesting endeavor to figure out. All the readings from the beginning of this class make a lot of sense when thinking of the assignments the English 130 students are doing now. In my internship I can offer my trained eyes and knowledge about writing. I can observe my mentor and learn from them. In 431 were learning the technical terms and skills and are asked to apply them.
I’ve learned a lot in this class and my three major take aways include how to respond to student writing, how to develop a community of practice in a class room, and how to assign something that students can make their own.

Bridget Grant-chapter IV a new hope

Bridget Grant-chapter IV a new hope

Russell Basically:
Activity theory suggests giving students access to a learning environment. Teachers main focus should be to facilitate a space where students can learn from models, more capable peers and participate in the practice of writing.

English 130 Activity System:
The English 130 students are asked to write a paper about literacy. They’re given the opportunity to observe their behaviors and those around them. They collected data and converted it into usable forms. Now they have research and are asked to make an argument. They are given models and opportunity to workshop with peers, more capable peers and instructors. The assignment’s expectations are kept broad in order to give writers more opportunity, but certain expectations about level and length are clear because of models.
English 130 class so far has provided students with many resources to collect data, communicate ideas based on facts, and to contribute to an interested and public community.

Purpose:
The intent of developing assignments based on activity theory is to help students to improve their own individual writing techniques. I can predict using these ideas in a classroom setting would encourage originality and unique approaches to writing. This class so far has helped students master data collection, participate in a community and provide resources for writing a kick ass paper.

“Help the writer not the writing.”

“To help students improve writing give them access to an activity system”

Bring it on yellow book-Bridget Grant

Bring it on yellow book-Bridget Grant

Being in this workshop has helped me notice many concepts we talked about in 331! Lots of the students in my internship workshop use computers and are moving in and out of the English 130 website and different resources. One student used PowerPoint on his MacBook to create a diagram of his literacies and he’s going to add it to his blog! I found that really interesting since he felt ownership over the blog site and other applications he was able to add another aspect to his blog. I think it will add an easy to interpret visual as to the types of literacies they use and his whole class would be able to utilize it! One student uses her phone in class and one other student uses a notebook and pencil. The instructor utilizes the white board and expo marker and the students love seeing their words and ideas written on the board. The class was very vocal this week and more excited to talk about their experiences with literacy. I think Ken Robinson was correct in saying people’s educational experiences resonate deeply with them and they’re excited to share about it! Blogs seem like such a great way to engage students because they’re less formal and give students a feeling of ownership over their assignment. Also since it’s digital, they’re able to participate in a community. BTW a student in workshop noticed these things about the class commenting on how the jumbo class, although it’s large, it’s still engaging because he’s asked to contribute and although he’s learning from a professor he’s also participating in a community with his peers. I was stoked he was getting so much out of this class! I think as students once we realize we’re apart of a community of practice and we’re contributing to the learning environment we are excited to be contributors and producers. Roles and responsibilities aren’t forced but they’re fulfilled somehow. The idea that students are more in tune to “doing” instead of “receiving” (page 33) seems like such a common sense idea, yet we so often have lecture hall settings that make us cry tears of boredom.

The comparison LLP makes to children apprenticing adults made a lot of sense to me when thinking of these concepts (page 32). It’s easier for me to take a broad group and then narrow my scope from there. The students in English 130 classes are apart of English 130 and attempting to master a course by participating in assignments and contributing. Example blogs set a tone for what students should be attempting to achieve. The roles of students are not confined to a traditional classroom space. They’re able to take on the role of blogger, class spokesman, quiet observer or the representative. I’m sure there’s many more however in my workshop these are the positions I’ve seen students be excited about.

Basically this chapter is considering every type of learning practice as relevant and discussing how to use this ideology to effectively cultivate a situated learning environment. (page 35) I’m still having a hard time figuring out the definition of situated learning and would love to talk about that!

Hello, it’s me-Bridget Grant

Hello, it’s me-Bridget Grant

Hi my name is Bridget! I’m a 3rd year English Ed major, minoring in Spanish. I can’t speak Spanish at all but I really wish I could. Maybe I need to immerse myself in a community where I can interact with groups that will help me practice learning Spanish? I think Wenger would agree, which is why I’m hopefully studying abroad this summer in Chile for like 10 weeks. I don’t want to leave my dog :( but my little sister offered to watch him while I’m gone. I love my dog, my family and friends and I even love school (sometimes). I like hiking at Bidwell, drinking coffee, and cooking yummy food. I also have a job, I work in the dorms– ILY freshmen. I’m in a sorority which is a lot of fun.

As I think about all the things I do, I definitely agree that humans are constantly taking part in learning practices. I think Wenger’s idea that people learn in groups is very relevant to my own learning style. As a future teacher I find thinking of more effective ways of learning is super interesting! Also I’m super interested in thinking of Identity. For me, I struggle with this because during school I always thought I would become a teacher, so I want my students to feel like they have many other options and support!