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Tag Archives: writing
How to improve literacy rates: a simple plan
The government is considering a simple plan. To improve literacy you mandate regular high-stakes multiple-choice national testing in our schools. This keeps teachers on their toes and students focused on what matters most. I’ve just come out of a classroom … Continue reading
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
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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 2: Inching towards a more charged focus question
So. Here I am, at the coast on my own for three days. Time to think and read and write. Bliss. It’s 7.30 at night and I’ve finished dinner (but still got my apron on); a salmon and bean frittata … Continue reading
Posted in literacy, Pedagogy, University classes
Tagged literacy, MichaelWesch, teacher training, technology, university, Web 2.0, writing
4 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
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
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
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
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
Student writing: raising standards without dampening enthusiasm
First of all, thanks to all of you who have looked at our Satire Ning. There’s a hush in the room when I show them our Clustr Map with visitors from other parts of Australia, many parts of America, and … Continue reading
Posted in My English classroom, Pedagogy
Tagged English, JimBurke, MichaelWesch, Ning, satire, standards, writing
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Birds fly, fish swim 