The English Language Arts classroom can be approached various ways. As a teacher, it's easy to introduce a topic, tell your students to write about it, and then have them hand their work in so you can "assess" it be marking it on a grade-point scale. This is not the way I envision effective Language Arts pedagogy. This is only one approach, among many others that I will introduce, that can be used to teach students about writing and representing. I believe teachers that will be the most effective are the ones who implement diverse ways of both teaching students language and having them represent what they've learned through creative and unique ways.
In the Grade 8 IRP, I found some specific PLOs that reflect exactly what I am talking about. First, I believe it's extremely important to teach students the importance of personal reflection through writing. Teaching a student how to "just write" anything that comes to mind, without thinking about grammar, societal or educational limits, can be very liberating. It helps the student make connections between life experiences, reflect on major issues and also establish personal beliefs. It gives a student their own "voice". They are not afraid of judgement because their writing will only be read by them, and no one else. In the classroom, to introduce this idea, I would have my students do a "free write" for 5 minutes. As assessment, I would ask my students if they felt comfortable representing their work through the sharing of their ideas, which would be presented visually on a communal poster. If they didn't, they would not be penalized. In the IRP, these PLOs fall under C1.
Another benefit of ELA is its obvious cross-curricular advantage in other subjects. Being able to read and write about material in other subjects is a must if the student is to become successful. The second thing that I believe must be included in the ELA classroom is the ability to think critically. In the PLOs, it is included that students must explore and respond to ideas through information writing. I would teach my students to read an article or story that covers a controversial topic, such as obesity, bullying or racism. Then I would have them write (represent) what their reaction is to the article, and what their thoughts are regarding the bigger issue addressed. However, I would also have them consider the source of the article. I would ask them whether they felt the article was biased or was influenced by other factors outside of the article itself. I would have them get into small groups of 4 and reflect on their thoughts on the article. As part of the representation side of the PLO, I would stage a debate. Each side of the class would be given a pro and anti side of the issue. For example, if the article was about obesity, one side would be for having healthier lunch options, and the other side would be against. This is an example of the students representing what they have learned through oracy, as well as showing critical thinking. This would reflect the PLOs, representing an example of being able to analyze, explain and persuade. As assessment, I would observe the students' responses during the debate. In the IRP, these PLOs fall under C2.
In my last example of a PLO that I believe is essential in ELA above all others, is the idea of imaginative and creative writing. Personally, I benefitted greatly from taking literary and creative writing courses in both high school and university. I truly feel that every student's educational and personal growth is enlightened by living in a reality that is not. Writing stories, poems, prose, or anything else that helps encourage the creative process is invaluable because it helps the student explore what he/she can do without limits. The PLOs identify that through imaginative writing students develop ideas and emotions indirectly by creating characters, settings, plots and anything else they can add to the story that will blur the line between what is real and what is fantasy. By doing this, students not only are able to experiment with different literary forms but can also make connections between their fictional characters and real life. The more my students write, the better they will get at the creative process. By writing imaginatively, they are also are given the chance to entertain the reader and themselves, and I think this helps to engage them considerably more in the material. Because it is their story, and they are now immersed in it, the students are much more likely to feel a personal connection to their work. An example that we used in our class works very well for this. During Robin Stevenson's guest appearance, we used brainstorming as a class to create characters and plot for the story. I would do the exact same thing with my class. I would have them brainstom characters, setting, plot, conflict, rising action, falling action, conclusion and other ideas they had that would make the story more interesting. Then I would give each student an hour to write their own story. As assessment, I would have students volunteer to read one or two of their stories to the classroom. I would have them do what we do in our class: each student reads a part of the selected story. As a representation other than classroom oral reading, I would have the students act out the story, with each student being given a part in the drama structure. This would take place in the following class. As assessment, I would observe the students as they read the story out loud as a class, and as they acted out the story in the drama structure. In the IRP, these PLOS fall under C3.
The reading that we have covered in class that most interested me in regards to writing and representing was "Structure and Freedom: Achieving a Balanced Writing Curriculum" by Mara Casey and Stephen I. Hemenway. The reason it drew my attention was because it was a case study that actively and critically looked at the results of the ELA educational system first-hand. I am not surprised at the results, however. As mentioned before, I believe effective teachers are the ones who find new methods for students to write and represent what they have learned. Page wanted a way to learn the basic material in the PLOs but by doing so through an unstructured process. She wanted an analytical writing program but one that gave her creative freedom. My response to this would be for Page to learn the basic writing formats through a variety of lessons that might include progressive teaching methods such as personal reflection or group reflection, where students would talk about their writing and help each other with ideas. Page could also start an online blog, helping her practice her writing. I would assess Page's work by reading her blog and presenting her with feedback. She could also benefit from one of our own class' examples, where we wrote one line of a story, folded it and passed it to the next student for them to add to the story. All of these ideas make writing and representing fun, while still sticking to the PLOs.
Ideas in class that we have done that reflect excellent examples of writing and representing that I will definitely be using in my classroom are reading out loud as a class, reading a poem and then writing our own using only words we can remember from the previous poem, the 'Bare Bones' story game, brainstorming with Robin Stevenson, the "Jigsaw" group discussion and reflection and finally the article group discussion, reflection and representation using chart paper.
Writing and representing are two topics that are essential to a student's personal and academic success. By encouraging my students to reflect and share through the English language, I will be helping them to prepare for their own journey through life.
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