After reading chapter six of Strong’s book, I can’t help but
think about one of the opening quotes by “Darth Vader.” He says, “using writing
to discipline students is a wonderful approach… coupling punishment with fear,
we can virtually guarantee non-writers later on.” Of course he is writing in a
sarcastic tone when he refers to it as a wonderful approach, but I really
wanted to elaborate on this quote because it brought back some vivid memories
of my own schooling.
I think teachers simply, and without worry, correlate
punishment with writing. When do you ever see teachers “punish” a student by
making them sit and solve math problems, or read a science textbook? It just
doesn’t happen. It must have something to do with the mechanical movement
involved when a pen is introduced to paper. Whatever it may be, it makes teachers
believe writing can be used as a form of punishment. However, coupling writing
and punishment makes it that much harder for teachers to implement writing in
their classrooms, especially English teachers. If the students are constantly
forced to write as punishment, they are never going to enjoy it.
I can’t help but remember being punished with writing in my
middle school gym class. I was constantly forced to sit at a desk, in a corner,
and write on a piece of paper “I will not chew gum in physical education
class.” I had to write the entire period, front and back, on multiple pieces of
paper (yet they constantly stressed the fact that students should be active 60
minutes a day- and here I was, writing for 60 minutes, when in all reality I
could have used the exercise at this point in my life). Anyway, can you guess
what happened when I handed those papers in? No, they were not graded or kept
on file; they were ripped up right in front of my face and thrown in the trash.
So, as a student, how am I supposed to form a relationship with writing when it
is constantly being used as a form of punishment? I’m honestly surprised that I
enjoy writing today, because these memories are so vivid. Luckily, I have not
become one of these “non-writers” Darth Vader speaks about, but this is what he
was getting at! If we continue to couple writing with punishment and fear, we
can guarantee non-writers later on. Students are simply not going to want to
write if it is viewed negatively and used as a form of punishment.
Before I wrap up this blog post, I wanted to incorporate a
CRAFT I could implement in my own classroom. In case you didn’t know, I am a
huge fan of cells, and so this is my CRAFT on cells! Feel free to critique.
Imagine we inject you into a eukaryotic or prokaryotic cell
(the choice is yours!) We want you to slip on your water shoes and goggles, and
swim around the cell. Explain to your peers the various organelles you see, the
functions that are taking place, and observe the relative location of these
organelles in relation to each other. After making your observations, create a
map (similar to that of a city) depicting what you saw. Include streets and
landmarks. Label each street with a name (for example the exterior of the cell
can be called Cell Circle, or the street near the Golgi Apparatus, Golgi
Boulevard). Be creative! It doesn’t just have to include the organelles. Draw
in some houses, or some of your favorite restaurants. But, the position of
organelles should be fairly accurate with respect to one another. Finally,
remember to add some color! We want your friends to be interested in the
interior of a cell as well!
Context: Development of a cell city/Map
Role: Observer/Architect/Developer
Audience: Your peers that you want to educate about the cell
Format: Map
Topic: Cell organization
I like the point you bring up about punishment and writing; you're right I've never seen students complete extra math problems or read in a science textbook for punishment it is always writing! And useless writing for that matter! I once had to do something similar and it becomes a game where I would play with it and write the letters vertically to complete the words just to pass the time! Obviously that punishment did nothing other than cramp my hand and never want to pick up another pen. I really like your CRAFT assignment! You could incorporate technology as well and could make the maps or portions of the map on the computer. As someone who is terrified of science, (4th year at RIC still have to complete my science gen ed that's how terrified) I think an assignment like this would not only peak the interest of a student like me, but the visual aspect would help as well! Great job!
ReplyDeleteThe writing as punishment concept is ridiculous. I don't know where it came from, I never had to do it, but I know it is out there. Needs to stop, now. The pointless punishment I did have the displeasure of experiencing was "in-house suspension." I came in 10-30 minutes late too many times so I have to sit in a room with nothing to do for an entire school day? Yep, that is really making me want to get to school on time.
ReplyDeleteI didn't feel like creating my own CRAFT idea, because I am quite tired right now (also lazy). I think your assignment could some tweaks. First, I think peers, for most assignments, is not the best audience because for all intents and purposes it reads to me as "explain this to yourself." Second, while the idea of diagramming a cell is sound the I think the context part could use some work. Perhaps a better option would be,
"You have been asked by (some kind of youth science publication, MUSE?) to diagram a either a prokaryotic or eukaryotic cell in a way which conveys both the structure and the functions of the various organelles in a way which is easily understandable for their audience. They have suggested comparing the the cell to city and the various organelles to the structures within (i.e. Mitochondrion = Powerplant), but you may use another visual analogy. etc."
Let me know what you think.
Sorry about the deletions. Noticed an error and then I forgot to add the HTML again for italics upon reposting, which would have created confusion.
Hey Alisha,
ReplyDeleteYour CRAFT is a neat idea and should be refreshing for students who dread writing infinitely large papers. The CRAFT is really fun; I love the way you wrote it.Your definitions for each letter of CRAFT is concise and very clear. This assignment will allow students to interact strongly with the information and get to know it very well. However, I think the audience could be a bit more creative. You said their role is observer/architect/developer so the audience could be something like home buyers. Also, if I chose a prokaryotic cell, there wouldn’t be any membrane bound organelles to describe. There’s only the DNA, ribosomes, plasma membrane and filaments. Thus, you might want to limit the students choice to only Eukaryotic cells, like animal or plant. Maybe they could even pick something like a skin cell, muscle cell, liver cell, etc. and outline the differences between cell types. Overall, I think your CRAFT is a great idea for students to interact with the cell. It should really help them manage all the information the just learned.
I didn’t know you were part Bart Simpson either! My coaches would have us run laps or sit in the locker room instead of write, but other teachers would have us write a ton for punishment. I agree that there are more constructive ways of resolving unruly students and I wish more teachers would use those other methods because they work better.