We’ll use Perusall to annotate and read together. 
My Interpretations of Wiley and Russell’s Works
The Schaffer method was rather baffling to me. I remember in school learning how to write an essay and I have never heard of this method before. I believe that it would be a great aid to use when first teaching children how to write, but should not be used for high school level and beyond. By high school the students should know how to write a strong essay without the use of Schaffer’s model in writing. By having this template in high school it can hinder a student’s writing because they will be concentrating on making sure that their writing set up is perfect and are less likely to focus on the materials they are writing about. Having this distraction can make the student very frustrated because perhaps they cannot think of having all the evidence as support or the comments in the correct order. Using Schaffer’s model when children are first learning how to write can help them understand essays do need a topic sentence and evidence to back up and support the topic sentence or the writers opinion. It should be stated clearly that the order of the system is not important when writing a strong paper but that the paragraph should be clear and concise with its ideas. As a teacher I would not use Schaffer’s method, but create one of my own. I would like to teach students that it is important to have a topic sentence so that the reader knows the importance of the essay or paragraph and to have sufficient evidence to support their ideas if necessary. We should focus less on the importance of sentence order and structure and pour our focus into the content and formulating opinions of our own. This is what it means to be a strong writer and to have confidence that our writing skills will grow with practice and observation of other writers. Students should continue to analyze various works questioning the statements and observing what makes the reading a convincing and great essay. With these concepts in mind the students should also strive to use the methods they find most successful or inspirational within their own writing.
The meditational tools established by David Russell that I have seen in the ESL center are that students have access to computer in order to print out their work so that when correcting mistakes it is more efficient and easier to write on. There are worksheets to use as reference with printed examples so that the ESL students can take this handout with them and use it when writing papers. There are books at the tutor and students disposal that can be used to look up information about writing practices. I would say the most useful tool and the tool that I use most often is my phone. When the student has a question I can usually find the answer on google when looking up a grammatical rule or how to pronounce a certain word. Russell also mentions tools called semiotic tools which consist of writing and speaking as well as gestures, music, physical position, etc. (5). The semiotic tools that I use the most is gesturing in order to describe what I am talking about and the use of association with familiar objects in order to make my examples more clear and concise when explaining a rule or idea.
There are several objectives within the ESL such as helping the student with their writing and speaking skills, making them feel welcome inside the building, and promoting the schools ESL center by setting a good example. The most prioritized objective is to meet the student’s needs within the allotted time and to accomplish their goals. Sometimes it is hard to reach the student’s goals because of the limitations of the tutor’s knowledge. Luckily there are several tutors within the facility who can almost always answer the questions. The participants interact rather casually and openly. Each tutor has their own method of teaching the ESL students from how they explain writing mistakes to reading the texts aloud. My preference is to have the ESL student read their work aloud so that they can practice their English as well as hear the mistakes in their writing. I encourage them to do this at home as well telling them that I practice this technique often and benefit from it all the time. After they are finished with reading the first paragraph aloud I will read it aloud then go sentence by sentence looking for errors in writing. By having the students participate with the tutor I believe it forms a bond and helps build a future relationship between the both people.
I have to agree with Russell’s Zone of Proximal Development. He states that writing and learning takes place as people use their tools and the people learn by participating in some type of activity system (7). If the ESL students did not have the tutors as an aid in learning it would make writing and speaking English very challenging. Just think, how is a person supposed to learn the correct usage of English if no one is there to tell them that their work is wrong or correct? By having the tutors there to encourage the students they can understand how their writing works and how the English language is used correctly in everyday life.
One Reply to “My Interpretations of Wiley and Russell’s Works”
Schaffer’s model definitely has it’s setbacks. It limits students creativity and ability to create written work without a structured model to follow. The idea that all papers should contain a introduction with a one-sentence thesis, three solid body paragraphs that support the thesis, and a conclusion that restates the thesis and sums up the authors supportive evidence and thoughts is ridiculous. This is not the only method of expressing educated and well-formulated ideas and thoughts.
Sadly, I am one of the students in the majority that was not exposed to any alternative forms of writing structures and methods. All through first and secondary school my teachers told me to write in the Schaffer model, of course I didn’t know at the time that this was its name. Since entering college I was shocked at the new styles of writing. Blogging, quick writes, research analysis’ all asked for a different structures of language. I believe that if my teachers in first and secondary school had instructed me in more than one form of writing I would have been more prepared for what was expected of me.
You make a great point about the ESL Center and how Russell’s activity theory applies to it. Elements such as time restraint, limited tutor knowledge, and writing/speaking practice are part of the influencing factors that create a successful learning environment for the students. These students actively participate in the ESL Center Activity System. The tutors are mediators and the individual goals of the students are the hopeful outcomes.