Where am I? I can honestly say that this morning I wasn't sure I was ready to end the journey but then I had my last interview. I feel like it helped me close some of my still existing questions. I am okay with the fact that there may be problems I can't provide solutions for. I also feel that I've learned a lot about the gap and I think that both high school teachers and college professors want what's best for their students. To some that may mean laying a strong foundation and to others it may mean giving them a variety of opportunities to write. I know that high school teachers cannot assign the kind of writing that college professors can because their jobs vary. What they can do is encourage their students to write in a variety of ways so that students can enter college feeling comfortable with writing. I have had the opportunity to teach a couple of classes this semester. Although my lessons needed to be based on literacy strategies, I always made sure there was an opportunity for the students to write something. You know what I realized? They know how to think. It may not always be about the writing, it may be about the thought process. The students I worked with responded to my questions or prompts far better than I expected and I could almost see their thought process. So maybe bridging the gap isn't just about writing long research papers. Maybe, it's about helping students to get thinking. The last teacher I interviewed has her students write all the time about various things. Those are some of the students I had the pleasure of teaching. Honestly, reading their responses, I don't doubt that they would be ready for college, even if they never wrote a 10 page paper.
I still need to find a more recent secondary source. This is something I don't want to let go of; I need something more to close this out. Everything else, I feel is falling into place. Is it perfect? No. Does it need to be? No. Have I learned something? Absolutely!
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Interview Highlights
I have now completed all of my teacher interviews. Phew. I have been pondering the best way to post about my interviews. I have come to the conclusion that highlights would be the best choice of blogging about all the information I received from these willing participants. I am so grateful that each of these teachers took time out of their busy schedules to speak with me.
My first interview, as I have previously mentioned, was with a private school ELA teacher. I was really excited about all the information she provided me with. She mentioned that she had learned of the lack of persuasive writing in high school and had began working with her students on improving these skills. We also discussed the problem of organization. Her students are taught to write in a specific way. There should be an attention getter, or quote, the thesis statement should come at the end of the first paragraph and so on... I believe what we may have here is the traditional 5 paragraph essay format. She was kind enough to bring me samples of her students writing and I must say the way they articulated their ideas was very impressive. I felt these would build a good foundation for their future writing. Students in this school begin learning MLA formatting as young as 6th grade. We also discussed how the implementation of common core is helping to bridge the gap between high school and college writing. Specifically with the lack of non-fiction writing. After doing some research and discovering in my secondary sources that the length of papers were an issue, I e-mailed her to find out what length of papers their students write. She responded that the Seniors write a 10 page paper as part of their Senior project.
My next interview was with a college professor who teaches Writing 100. She was pretty helpful in talking about some issues there are with teaching students about writing the 5 paragraph essay. Some students who are very successful with this type of writing may become arrogant and not believe they can improve or change from what they are already doing. In these instances, it may be better to have the students who do not have a strong foundation with writing because they are more moldable. She also brought up how some high schools are starting writing centers. She feels this can be very helpful in bridging the gap. She also agreed that although there is a lack in the length of papers high schoolers are required to write, teachers have too much on their plates to grade a large amount of lengthy papers.
My last interview was with a public school teacher. I think this was the most interesting of all my interviews because there were vast differences in opinion. One of the things she felt was a problem was that she was teaching her students MLA format, yet she had students coming back to her after they had arrived in college saying they weren't using it. I found this surprising since everything I've done in college has been MLA, with the exception of one APA paper for a psychology class. She also felt strongly that writing should be about the quality not quantity. She felt that if they could effectively write shorter pieces, that would give them a strong foundation for longer ones in college. She also suggested that perhaps there didn't need to be such a close connection with high school and college writing because after all, the work should get harder and challenge them more as they move up in their education.
One thing I was specifically impressed about in this interview was that she does engage her students with literary criticism. This is something that I have not found at the high school level. It makes me wonder if where at times we may fail to close the gap but may provide students with other useful tools that may help them succeed in their college careers. Hmmm....
These interviews brought me far more information than I could write here, and I will have the opportunity to elaborate more when I write my paper. I did want to highlight just a few of the things I learned because some related to my previous posts and secondary sources.
My first interview, as I have previously mentioned, was with a private school ELA teacher. I was really excited about all the information she provided me with. She mentioned that she had learned of the lack of persuasive writing in high school and had began working with her students on improving these skills. We also discussed the problem of organization. Her students are taught to write in a specific way. There should be an attention getter, or quote, the thesis statement should come at the end of the first paragraph and so on... I believe what we may have here is the traditional 5 paragraph essay format. She was kind enough to bring me samples of her students writing and I must say the way they articulated their ideas was very impressive. I felt these would build a good foundation for their future writing. Students in this school begin learning MLA formatting as young as 6th grade. We also discussed how the implementation of common core is helping to bridge the gap between high school and college writing. Specifically with the lack of non-fiction writing. After doing some research and discovering in my secondary sources that the length of papers were an issue, I e-mailed her to find out what length of papers their students write. She responded that the Seniors write a 10 page paper as part of their Senior project.
My next interview was with a college professor who teaches Writing 100. She was pretty helpful in talking about some issues there are with teaching students about writing the 5 paragraph essay. Some students who are very successful with this type of writing may become arrogant and not believe they can improve or change from what they are already doing. In these instances, it may be better to have the students who do not have a strong foundation with writing because they are more moldable. She also brought up how some high schools are starting writing centers. She feels this can be very helpful in bridging the gap. She also agreed that although there is a lack in the length of papers high schoolers are required to write, teachers have too much on their plates to grade a large amount of lengthy papers.
My last interview was with a public school teacher. I think this was the most interesting of all my interviews because there were vast differences in opinion. One of the things she felt was a problem was that she was teaching her students MLA format, yet she had students coming back to her after they had arrived in college saying they weren't using it. I found this surprising since everything I've done in college has been MLA, with the exception of one APA paper for a psychology class. She also felt strongly that writing should be about the quality not quantity. She felt that if they could effectively write shorter pieces, that would give them a strong foundation for longer ones in college. She also suggested that perhaps there didn't need to be such a close connection with high school and college writing because after all, the work should get harder and challenge them more as they move up in their education.
One thing I was specifically impressed about in this interview was that she does engage her students with literary criticism. This is something that I have not found at the high school level. It makes me wonder if where at times we may fail to close the gap but may provide students with other useful tools that may help them succeed in their college careers. Hmmm....
These interviews brought me far more information than I could write here, and I will have the opportunity to elaborate more when I write my paper. I did want to highlight just a few of the things I learned because some related to my previous posts and secondary sources.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Memo #4
I have interviewed two teachers so far, one from a private high school and one from college. The one thing that really stuck out to me was the vast difference in how writing is taught. It seems that high school centers around the 5 paragraph essay, where college is trying to break that mold. When I interviewed the college professor she said that sometimes it was actually easier to teach the students who had no writing skills because she could start from scratch with them. Some students who do well in high school writing think they have nothing more to learn and can be difficult to break the habit of the 5 paragraph essay. The high school teacher I interviewed was very proud of the papers she showed me that seemed perfect examples of this 5 paragraph essay. I guess I don't really remember these. It's been a while since I was in high school but I just remember writing, not the structure. In a way, I think this was beneficial for me once I got to college because I had good enough writing skills to get into English Comp., or as it's referred to at RIC as Writing 100, but I was able to learn how to organize my writing in college. I think these differences in the type of writing is a large part of the gap that exists between high school and college writing.
After researching my secondary sources, I found two issues contributing to the gap: length of papers and form of writing. Students were not doing enough research papers in high school to have a good foundation once they get to college. Also, the papers they were writing were no more than 10 pages but many fewer than that. I e-mailed the private high school teacher to ask about this once I hit it in my research and she was kind enough to check with another teacher and confirmed that their Seniors write a 10+ page report as a "Capstone Project." She also said that students are utilizing non-fiction and political sources in their classes now because of Common Core. You know, Common Core gets a lot of flack but I am seeing more and more positives to it than I used to. I highly recommend that more people research it further before placing judgement. Do I think it's perfect? No. But there are positives to it and I think we can benefit from not strictly focusing on it's negative aspects. I digress...
I thought it was interesting that she got back to me and told me Seniors wrote a 10+ page paper. So, is that the only long paper they write? I will need to check back in about this because if that's the case this is definitely a valid contribution to the gap.
The college professor I interviewed reinforced that another problem is that high school teachers have so many students it is hard for them to grade lengthy papers. This is also something I came across in my secondary sources. This is a tough one to bridge because it is not fair to ask teachers to read thousands of pages a year on top of all their other work. I asked this professor what her recommendation would be and she said, first would be to reduce class sizes but considering that would probably not be realistic, she would suggest the use of peer review. Although this may not be ideal, I think this is a valid suggestion. Teachers could teach the students how to give critical responses to their peers papers. Hmmm.... This may be something I need to look into.
What's next? I have an interview with a public school teacher next week. I also need to interview a few students, which I will do within the next couple of weeks.
After researching my secondary sources, I found two issues contributing to the gap: length of papers and form of writing. Students were not doing enough research papers in high school to have a good foundation once they get to college. Also, the papers they were writing were no more than 10 pages but many fewer than that. I e-mailed the private high school teacher to ask about this once I hit it in my research and she was kind enough to check with another teacher and confirmed that their Seniors write a 10+ page report as a "Capstone Project." She also said that students are utilizing non-fiction and political sources in their classes now because of Common Core. You know, Common Core gets a lot of flack but I am seeing more and more positives to it than I used to. I highly recommend that more people research it further before placing judgement. Do I think it's perfect? No. But there are positives to it and I think we can benefit from not strictly focusing on it's negative aspects. I digress...
I thought it was interesting that she got back to me and told me Seniors wrote a 10+ page paper. So, is that the only long paper they write? I will need to check back in about this because if that's the case this is definitely a valid contribution to the gap.
The college professor I interviewed reinforced that another problem is that high school teachers have so many students it is hard for them to grade lengthy papers. This is also something I came across in my secondary sources. This is a tough one to bridge because it is not fair to ask teachers to read thousands of pages a year on top of all their other work. I asked this professor what her recommendation would be and she said, first would be to reduce class sizes but considering that would probably not be realistic, she would suggest the use of peer review. Although this may not be ideal, I think this is a valid suggestion. Teachers could teach the students how to give critical responses to their peers papers. Hmmm.... This may be something I need to look into.
What's next? I have an interview with a public school teacher next week. I also need to interview a few students, which I will do within the next couple of weeks.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Memo #3
My primary sources primarily consist of teachers but I also hope to interview a couple of students who have recently transitioned into college to get their perspective. To date, I have done two interviews, one with a private high school ELA teacher and another with a Coordinator of Learning Skills at a college. I will delve more into those interviews in a separate post. I have also scheduled an interview with a college professor who teaches college intro writing courses, and will be scheduling an interview with a public high school ELA teacher. I am mainly utilizing schools that I work with, for example the private school teacher is from the school my children attend, the public school teacher will be the one I am working with for SED 407, and the college professors are from RIC. I have contacted them via e-mail to request an interview and explained my project. I have yet to receive a rejection., phew!
Some of the questions I have been using include:
Some of the questions I have been using include:
- What do you feel schools/teachers should do or are doing to prepare students for college?
- Is there PD offered regarding this topic?
- What changes have you seen in the way students are taught writing?
- Some common issues I've seen with writing are organizational and grammar. Do you agree these problems are consistent with the gap between high school and college?
- Do you feel the implementation of Common Core has been helpful with teaching writing to high school students in preparation for college level writing?
- What do you do for students that struggle with writing?
After finding some differing information in my secondary sources, I may rephrase or add questions that will specifically focus on the types of writing done in high school versus college. As mentioned in my previous blog post, there seems to be a lack of research writing and use of non-fiction in high school, which has had a tremendous impact on students in college. I also hope to use my secondary sources to back up the information from my primary sources.
Finding secondary sources has been a bit of a challenge. So far, I have found my secondary sources through the RIC library website, JStor, and ERIC. I have also noticed that sometimes my interviewees drop a source in the conversation so I may look more into those. The biggest hindrance I have had is finding sources that are from the past year or two. The latest article I found is from 2010 and since I know there has been a lot of work done recently, I would like to find more current articles.
I am pretty happy with the way my research is going and I can definitely see how this project can take you in a completely different direction. I'm enjoying the ride and definitely learning a lot in the process. More to come...
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
A Curve In The Road
Preface: This will also serve as my "Memo #2" post.
This past week I've been researching some secondary sources. I found a few and as I read through them I discovered some common themes. First off, part of the "gap" between high school and college is the type of writing that is being emphasized. A couple of the articles focused on the lack of research papers that are done in high school verses college. Not only were students unprepared for the research portion of the paper but also the length of a college level paper. Part of the problem here was that students were not reading enough non-fiction material. Also, students primarily used the internet for their research but did not know how to find credible sources. Thus the issue of the dreaded Wikipedia citations. Many students have never used a scholarly journal until they get to the college level.
Another article talked about a pre-test that was given to college freshman to assess the types and frequency of writing instruction they received in high school. The most common, frequent writing assignments included literary analysis, analytical essays and lab reports (Beil & Knight 6). Moreover, the writing that is often expected in college, criticizing a written argument, defining a problem and posing a solution, and analyzing the needs of a writing audience was not found to be assigned in high school often (Beil & Knight 7).
Studies showed that more than one million high school graduates take remedial college courses, in addition to this insanely high number for colleges, "state governments spend nearly a quarter of a billion dollars each year on remedial writing instruction for their employees" (Fitzhugh 2). Therefore, the initial gap has now widened to include employers, not only colleges.
So here are the list of problems; where does the blame lie? Not the teachers! Believe it or not the teachers want to teach writing but they have a rather large hinderance often known as The Standardized Test. Teachers have to spend a lot of time teaching to the test and the writing that the test uses, which is completely different from college writing. Time constraints are a big issue for them. Will Fitzhugh notes that if teachers assigned all of their students a 20 page research paper, they would need to read over 3000 pages (3). As a future teacher, I can tell you 3000 pages of reading is impossible to do effectively. I think this is definitely something to strongly consider. College professors do not have the same capacity of students that high school teachers do.
I could go on and on with all the information I came across but these are some important points to note. I think my next job will be to look further into why there is so much of a difference in the types of writing students do in high school verses what they are expected to do in college. This seemed like it was a common theme.
More to come...
Works Cited:
Beil, Cheryl, and Melinda A. Knight. "Understanding The Gap Between High School And College Writing." Assessment Update 19.6 (2007): 6-8. Academic Search Complete. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. Fitzhugh, Will. "Meaningful Work: How The History Research Paper Prepares Students For College And Life." American Educator 35.4 (2012): 32-34. ERIC. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
This past week I've been researching some secondary sources. I found a few and as I read through them I discovered some common themes. First off, part of the "gap" between high school and college is the type of writing that is being emphasized. A couple of the articles focused on the lack of research papers that are done in high school verses college. Not only were students unprepared for the research portion of the paper but also the length of a college level paper. Part of the problem here was that students were not reading enough non-fiction material. Also, students primarily used the internet for their research but did not know how to find credible sources. Thus the issue of the dreaded Wikipedia citations. Many students have never used a scholarly journal until they get to the college level.
Another article talked about a pre-test that was given to college freshman to assess the types and frequency of writing instruction they received in high school. The most common, frequent writing assignments included literary analysis, analytical essays and lab reports (Beil & Knight 6). Moreover, the writing that is often expected in college, criticizing a written argument, defining a problem and posing a solution, and analyzing the needs of a writing audience was not found to be assigned in high school often (Beil & Knight 7).
Studies showed that more than one million high school graduates take remedial college courses, in addition to this insanely high number for colleges, "state governments spend nearly a quarter of a billion dollars each year on remedial writing instruction for their employees" (Fitzhugh 2). Therefore, the initial gap has now widened to include employers, not only colleges.
So here are the list of problems; where does the blame lie? Not the teachers! Believe it or not the teachers want to teach writing but they have a rather large hinderance often known as The Standardized Test. Teachers have to spend a lot of time teaching to the test and the writing that the test uses, which is completely different from college writing. Time constraints are a big issue for them. Will Fitzhugh notes that if teachers assigned all of their students a 20 page research paper, they would need to read over 3000 pages (3). As a future teacher, I can tell you 3000 pages of reading is impossible to do effectively. I think this is definitely something to strongly consider. College professors do not have the same capacity of students that high school teachers do.
I could go on and on with all the information I came across but these are some important points to note. I think my next job will be to look further into why there is so much of a difference in the types of writing students do in high school verses what they are expected to do in college. This seemed like it was a common theme.
More to come...
Works Cited:
Beil, Cheryl, and Melinda A. Knight. "Understanding The Gap Between High School And College Writing." Assessment Update 19.6 (2007): 6-8. Academic Search Complete. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. Fitzhugh, Will. "Meaningful Work: How The History Research Paper Prepares Students For College And Life." American Educator 35.4 (2012): 32-34. ERIC. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Memo #1
I intend to post to this blog while I am going through the process of my iSearch but I also have posts that I must do as a requirement for my SED 445 course. This is the first requirement simply titled "Memo #1." Some of this may seem redundant to my previous post so I will try to elaborate.
I have seen many teenagers and adults enter college unprepared for college writing. While I can understand that adults entering college may have other reasons for not being well equipped with writing skills, I struggle to comprehend why students who have just graduated from high school can't keep up with college writing skills. In my experience, it is because high school teachers did not hold their students to the high standards that college professors do.
I know many people are working towards improving the writing skills of middle schoolers as well as high schoolers. I want to discover what steps have been taken and how they are being implemented in the school system. Let's also keep in mind that the school system is a wide umbrella, so it will be interesting to also see how differently they may be implemented through public and private schools. Starting out, much of what I know is negative so I truly want to find the positives in this journey.
Through this process, I want to become aware of what the common issues are with writing and how I may help my future students become better writers who are prepared to enter the college setting, confident in their skills. As future teachers, the research we do for these projects is going help shape our teacher identities.
Monday, March 3, 2014
The Journey Begins...
This blog is all about the journey of my iSearch project for writing class. As you can see from my video, I have lots of questions I hope to have answered. I have seen too many students graduate from high school unprepared for college writing. I want to find where the disconnect lies. I know over the past few years steps have been taken to try and close the gap. I hope to find that there are more students entering college better prepared.
For my research, I will interview a variety of primary sources. I have already made an appointment with a high school English teacher in a private school and a college professional. I will be making an appointment with a public high school English teacher, as well as a few students. I will consult secondary sources for the remainder of the research.
I am excited to begin this journey. I have never done an iSearch project before, but I feel as though I will learn a lot. Wherever it takes me can only make me better equipped for my future classroom.
And so it begins...
I am excited to begin this journey. I have never done an iSearch project before, but I feel as though I will learn a lot. Wherever it takes me can only make me better equipped for my future classroom.
And so it begins...
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