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Tag Archives: thinking
ELPC 4: And finally, a rubric
This morning I’ve been working on a rubric for the journals referred to in the earlier posts in this series. I don’t like marking with rubrics (but then I don’t like marks much!), but I do find rubrics useful as … Continue reading
Posted in literacy, Pedagogy, University classes
Tagged assessment, community, literacy, Ning, teacher training, thinking, university, writing
1 Comment
ELPC Part 3: Redefining writing? What next!
I used to think that I worked best on my own, down at the coast with my own emerging thoughts and the world shut out. It was never true, I now realize. Even when I was writing my PhD thesis … Continue reading
Posted in literacy, Pedagogy, University classes
Tagged assessment, community, education, literacy, MichaelWesch, Ning, questions, teacher training, thinking, university, Web 2.0, writing
3 Comments
ELPC Part 1: A fertile research question
When it comes to learning something new, just listening to an expert is usually not enough. Nor is passively reading. Usually we need to do something, to actively construct the knowledge ourselves, from a number of different sources and for … Continue reading
Posted in literacy, Pedagogy, University classes
Tagged community, culture, curriculum, literacy, MichaelWesch, teaching, thinking, university, writing
4 Comments
Some thoughts on the fly
It’s been a while since I’ve posted. A lot has happened, is happening, and I keep trying to find time to write about it. There’s no substantial time right now, with journals to read, schools to visit and lessons to … Continue reading
Thoughts on ‘literacy across the curriculum’ from my students
The university course is now almost a fortnight old, and the 90 postgraduate students have all begun their blogs. The course is called “Literacy across the curriculum”, and the students have been writing about their current understanding of the term … Continue reading
Posted in literacy, University classes
Tagged classroom, community, education, learning, literacy, reading, teaching, thinking, university, writing
3 Comments
Cris Tovani’s ‘Do I really have to teach reading?
This blog post is a bit different from all the others. The subject is Cris Tovani’s book Do I really have to teach reading?, the set text book for the postgraduate students doing my unit ‘Literacy across the curriculum’. The … Continue reading
Posted in literacy, University classes
Tagged assessment, classroom, Cris Tovani, education, Josh, literacy, questions, teacher training, texts, thinking, university, writing
8 Comments
On the nature of literacy (with a nod to Spinoza)
In my last post, I suggested (following a lead inspired by Neil Postman) that we’re waging war on illiteracy. But this is wrong. We’re battling ignorance. Our enemy (at whatever level we teach and in whatever discipline we teach it) … Continue reading
Posted in literacy, University classes
Tagged Aristotle, Beauty, classroom, community, education, literacy, questions, reading, Spinoza, teacher training, teaching, thinking, Truth, university, writing
3 Comments
The teacher as Napoleon Bonaparte!
I’ve been reading an entertaining essay by Neil Postman called ‘The educationist as painkiller’. He writes: … there is nothing worse than ignorance on the subject of education. This is so because the subject of education claims dominion over the … Continue reading
Posted in Pedagogy, Research, University classes
Tagged education, literacy, Neil Postman, reading, teacher training, teaching, thinking, university
4 Comments
Walking through the barrier: Josh Part 3
Preface In a month I’ll be teaching a postgraduate education unit called ‘Literacy across the curriculum’, and I’ll be asking each of the 90 students to report on a high school student’s reading. The project is described in more detail … Continue reading
Posted in literacy, My English classroom
Tagged classics, classroom, education, English, Josh, Karen LaBonte, learning, literacy, reading, school students, teacher training, thinking
5 Comments
Doubts and loves: Josh Part 2
The Place Where We Are Right by Yehuda Amichai From the place where we are right Flowers will never grow In the spring. The place where we are right Is hard and trampled Like a yard. But doubts and loves … Continue reading
Posted in literacy, My English classroom
Tagged community, education, EnglishCompanion, Josh, learning, literacy, reading, teacher training, thinking, writing
8 Comments
The walled city: Josh Part 1
I want to start this post with Josh. Josh is the boy who has agreed to be a part of a small research project I’ve decided to do. The idea is to trial a task I’m going to be setting … Continue reading
Posted in literacy, My English classroom
Tagged assessment, classics, culture, English, Josh, learning, literacy, reading, student expectations, teacher training, thinking
6 Comments
Alex the parrot, Elizabeth Bennet and the soul’s code
As I read Maja Wilson’s Rethinking Rubrics and followed the discussion about this book on the English Companion Ning, I kept thinking about a growing divide amongst teachers around the question of what we’re meant to be doing in the … Continue reading
Posted in My English classroom, Pedagogy
Tagged Beauty, classics, classroom, EnglishCompanion, James Hillman, KarenLaBonte, MajaWilson, MichaelUmphrey, motivation, Ning, teaching, thinking, writing
9 Comments
Play the game!
Last Tuesday I walked into my Year 11 class in a rage. I was full of what my father once called ‘Steve’s white hot indignation’. I’d just read a number of comments on our class Ning that indicated that some … Continue reading
Posted in My English classroom, Pedagogy
Tagged Alan Sitomer, assessment, classroom, community, curriculum, English, EnglishCompanion, Greg Thompson, learning, Ning, text culture value[s], thinking
7 Comments
A broken sleep
Last night I woke up at 3.17am. No, it must have been earlier than that, because I’d already been awake for while before I finally looked at the clock. Awake and worrying away at the thought that soon I’ll be … Continue reading
Posted in literacy, Pedagogy, Research, University classes
Tagged classroom, culture, curriculum, literacy, reading, teacher training, teaching, thinking, writing
5 Comments
Postscript to the story of Peter: the link between clearer thinking and better writing
After reading my story of Peter’s writing, Teresa Bunner wrote: It might be that a chance to go back and reflect on his work allows Peter to see for himself that he still has some work to go. After all, … Continue reading
Birds fly, fish swim 