Hungry Minds

I feel that the purpose of this article is to show that everyone has a story to tell. Through the church writing workshop this was possible. I feel that the writer of this article could and should have cut his story in half. The same points could have been made. It was nice to read about all of the volunteers and the soup kitchen. I cannot believe they serve as many meals as they do. Starting with only serving 35 meals, the kitchen now needs over 2 million dollars to cover the costs of food they need each year. (The article said it take $10,000 to run the kitchen each day!)

I like the idea of having the writing workshop. I do think it might be one of the last things a homeless person might consider doing, but I feel that their stories will be some of the most interesting. Those with personal experience can be great writers. I bet these workshops served as a stress reliever and as therapy for some people.

I also loved to hear about the man who had his article published in News Street.

I also enjoyed reading about how the year's work is typed up and put into a booklet for the church members to read. I think this process gives the writer's initiative to know what they are doing is worth while.

Atwell Chapter 10

One thing I am constantly impressed with from Atwell is her dedication to her classroom. She begins chapter 10 by talking about being a writing role model for her students.

She states, "Sometimes I published a story or poem in a class magazine, or brought a finished draft to the group for their response, or showed them a piece of my writing that had been professionally published. I did these things with one agenda in mind: to play the role of writer for their benefit and to try to lend adult credibility to the act of writing. I performed writing" (331).

I can honestly say that I never have had a teacher from k-12 show me their personal writing. I have never even seen a teacher have writing published (until I got to college). I feel that the simple act of showing her writing enables Atwell's writing lessons to become much more purposeful. She shows her students her writing is not perfect. She shows her students adults do write. And most importantly, she is a role model her students can look up to.

Whenever Atwell has a few minutes to herself, she writes. Rather than take advantage of the extra time she has for herself while at school, she writes. My teachers all took this time to get papers graded, so they would not have to bring them home. Atwell is simply selfless in the fact that she does everything in her power to help her students succeed. I want to be just like her when I have my own classroom.

Atwell Chapter 6

This chapter is all about minilessons. I feel that minilessons are beneficial because students are not forced to sit through class all day and listen to a teacher lecture. It was nice for how Atwell models how she does her minilessons. I was surprised to find out that her minilessons are not just about english content. Atwell uses minilessons to teach her class how she wants them to behave and how classroom procedures should be. Atwell even uses them to show her students where to find resources in her classroom. I never thought about using a minilesson for something besides grammar usage before. With all of Atwell's lists, it is easy to see that many areas of school information can be delivered through minilessons.

Atwell Chapter 5

I loved how Atwell went into deep descriptions in this chapter of her writing and reading "territories." I feel this is a wonderful exercise that will get students thinking about what they would like to write and read about. Atwell modeled this activity for her students. It not only helped her students know what was expected of their territories lists, but it also gave them some ideas. The wide variety in Atwell's lists was really impressing. I now have a way bigger book list than I did before this chapter because I want to read some of the selections she suggested.

I feel it is important for students to love what they are writing about and love what they are reading about. I feel there are too many teachers today who assign topics such as "What did you do on your summer vacation?"

My favorite quote from this chapter is on page 147. It states, "The act of launching a writing-reading workshop each September, however exhausting, also feels like a blessing. I leave school at the ned of our first week together with a sense of awe: they may not know it yet, but my students have already become members of a community of writers and readers."

I feel that this quote shows just how awesome of a teacher Atwell is. She cares so much about her students becoming better readers and writers. She seems to be a truly amazing teacher.

Atwell Chapter 4

Okay, so I understand that it is important for students to read. It improves comprehension, test scores, general knowledge, and also can make students want to read more. Atwell also talks about how important writing is. The more students write, the better they become at writing. This makes sense. Practice make perfect. What I do not understand is how Atwell has time to have writing workshops everyday and also have SSR everyday. There are other things that need to be taught in English class.

It would be ideal to have students learn the way Atwell sets up her classroom, but is this really possible? I guess I feel like with all of the independent work going on, there would be no time to read books from the cannon, or time to learn literary terms. I wish these things were less important in today's society, but the truth is, one is expected to know all of these things when entering into college.

I want my English class to be like Atwell's, but I am afraid there would be no time to do the things the school district requires. On pages 97-98, Atwell proposes what to do when a curriculum is required. But, most teachers I know take all year to try and get the curriculum covered. I am not sure if it depends directly on the school, or if what needs to be taught depends on something else. Maybe Dr. Kist could comment on this and answer that question for me?

I liked Atwell's idea of calling her class a "Writing and Reading Workshop." I think this title better describes an English class than just the word "English."

I do think it is crucial to get students writing as much as possible. I would like to find a way to come to some happy medium of having students to be able to read, write, and be prepared for what they will need to know for standardized tests/higher education.

Atwell Chapter 2

I thought it was very interesting to learn about how students watch a teacher for her implicit and explicit actions. This is definitely true. Teachers should be role models to their students. It should be a no-brainer that students should see their teacher reading. Teachers model during lesson plans, which shows students how to perform a certain task. What they don't always pay attention to is that their daily behaviors are also being modeled and watched closely by their students.

One thing I envy about Atwell is her curriculum. She was able to allow her students to read up to four and five days per week. The students were reading books suited to their interests. How do you get a school district to allow a teacher to let her students read whatever they want? Also, with all of this reading, would there be enough time for other areas studied in English class? Vocabulary, literary terms, writing, reading comprehension etc.

It would be amazing to have a class that is so interested in reading as Atwell's class. But how do you measure if students are really reading? A teacher would not be able to make assessments for all of the books her students chose. Maybe there would be no assessment... but what about the students who would then not read during the time they were supposed to?

I have so many questions about this strategy of teaching reading in the classroom. I wish I could talk to Atwell in person. She seems like a down-to-earth teacher who cares so much about the teaching profession.

My favorite part about this chapter was Atwell's idea of her classroom being a dining room table. Atwell said, "Somehow I had to get that table into my classroom and invite my students to pull up their chairs" (32). Atwell wanted her students to laugh and cry over literature. This is what I want in my classroom.

Atwell "In the Middle" Chapter 1

I enjoyed doing the reading homework assigned in this book. Nancie Awtell seems to be a down to earth teacher who wants the best for her students and other teachers reading her book. She addressed many issues in the first chapter that I have questions about. One of the first things I liked was that Atwell admitted her beginning strategy to teaching writing was not what works best. It took her a long time (7 years) to figure it out, but she did. Atwell thought telling students what to write about would produce the best results. But, this is not true. When students have the freedom to write about whatever they want to, they are more committed to their writing and the writing process.

It took Atwell a lot to realize all of her students should be working at a "big desk" and not just herself. She needed to let go and watch her students come up with topics they are passionate about-subjects she could have never came up with on her own. Her students went on to actually do things with the pieces of writing completed in class. Some students won awards, others made a difference in their local community, and some student work was even published.

I would like to know how teachers find out about student publication. I would love to offer this option to my students when I have my own classroom. I feel that it is rewarding and shows students that their work is worth something.

Recitation and Report Literacy

I was very surprised while reading this article. There were many new things I learned about education and how the subject of English came to be established in public schools. Teachers used to make their students do some crazy things. Mouth movement exercises seem to have no purpose. Memorization and recitation were key to the classroom. I was thinking about how things like "'directory' information- street signs, the population of a city, addresses of businesses, the distance to a railroad, [and] 'cures' for colds"(67) needed to be known. Today, with technology, all one needs to do is type a few key words into a search engine. Then, this information needed to be known.

Something that really bothered me about the reading was the seating arrangements. The text states, "teachers sorted their students by seating them in rank order by 'achievement'" (69). I feel bad for the students who were placed towards the back of the classroom. They were known to be the "not smart" ones in the classroom. Also, I was not happy when I read that high school was mainly for white males who came from wealthy backgrounds. This is because these were the children who had parents who"often had the resources to buy their children books, tutors, and post-high school opportunities" (69).

Teachers also did not seem to take their jobs very seriously. Teachers allowed students to complete reading assignments as long as their students attempted to pronounce words. Comprehension played no part in the classroom assessments. Some teachers chose not to correct wrong pronunciation (69). So... my question is, what exactly were the teachers doing?

Teachers also assumed students could only write something about what they had previously read (72). So, this left room for no creative writing. The imagination and the free writing process were ignored. I cannot imagine an English classroom today without students having the freedom to express themselves and use their creativity.

Student graduation rates were terrible. About two out of every one hundred students graduated from high school (74). I guess I cannot blame these students though. This is because the school's bragged about their high dropout rates. The text claims, "students were pushed out, especially during the secondary school years" (89).

The class sizes were insane! Many teachers had over one hundred students per classroom (75). Teachers today complain about having around thirty students. How could there be any type of individual attention for students when there was one teacher per one hundred students?

The text also talked about how "at-risk students are rarely asked to do what their more privileged peers routinely do" (80). Today, we have these students in classes with all other types of students. There are opportunities for these at-risk students to succeed and to do projects all of the other students do.

On page 84, I learned about the beginning of NCTE. This was interesting to me because next year will be the 100th year anniversary.

The article states, "literary critics argued that for college prep students, the complexities of the modern world required that human beings be capable of tolerating ambiguity in meaning and avoiding the hubris of certainty in meaning"(91). This was a step closer to what I think should be included in the classroom. I do think this kind of teaching should be included for all types of students because it allows for critical thinking.

There was something else that surprised me in the text. Some people thought writing quality could be learned by students in a few days (94). Therefore, there was not much time spent on writing.

Something good for education that was discussed was the ideas that students should learn the skills in high school they will need in the working world (110). From this need came the ideas for students to work in groups and also use devices such as calculators during math class.

Overall, this text taught me a lot about schools during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I am very grateful that there have been so many changes in education.