YOU: A Course of Personal Writing -- My Reflection

After autumn term, the break flew by with various conferences and family obligations. I wanted to look back at my new course for ICU 2nd year students called YOU: A Course of Personal Writing.

Here's the link to the course blog.

http://you-personal-writing.blogspot.com/

It has the various course materials and links to student blog and writings.

This was a very fun course to teach, and I learned a lot. There's a saying that "the best way to learn something is to teach it" and this was very true, once again.

Basically, I allowed students free choice of topic, genre, and deadlines, and they just had to complete 20 blogs of free personal writing, and 3 published pieces that were drafted, revised, edited, and published on our blog.

The creativity of my students was very impressive. I also wrote a few pieces for practice, but since I have done very little creative writing since...high school, it was a very new and anxious process for me. I was very honest about that with my students, that I am not a professional creative writer in any way, and I was just one of the writers in the class trying to discover what is meaningful to me in terms of themes, and trying new genres.

How can the course be better? Students made excellent suggestions in their final reflections including adding a group project, introducing more examples of good writing, and ways to evaluate more transparently, and ways to help them squeeze out their creativity a little more efficiently with deadlines of some sort--so that not everything will be done at the last moment just before the end of the class.

I'm looking forward to teaching it next year!

Is ICU creating life-long English readers and writers?

ICU is a leader in English education in Japan.

People from other universities tell me this, and I feel it as an instructor in the ELP here. The students show generally high satisfaction on surveys, and companies seem to appreciate the quality of our graduates. ICU's leadership in the field also seems supported by the fact that many top universities like Tokyo U. have recently initiating programs similar to ICU's ELP and college of liberal arts. We get good students and drive 'em hard with a demanding curriculum similar in many ways to a college writing class in the US, and most students thank us for what we do.

ICU is doing many things well, but one question I asked myself today was: Are we nurturing lifelong writers and readers? After students leave the ELP, are they independent readers who know the joy and reward of reading in English and seek out new books on their own? Are they independent writers who know the value of writing for various life purposes (not just university assignments)? Or are we creating students who see English as something they do only as needed for grades or job requirements??

This question was born from a research group on reading/writing I am part of, and weighed heavily on my mind today as I attended a faculty discussion on the future direction of English education at ICU.

I want to do a survey of ICU students to see whether they have really developed as readers and writers in English. Where and when would I do that? One idea is to send an email survey to some of the seniors who I taught several years ago in the first year program.

Are you a regular reader of English books? Why or why not?

Are you a regular writer of English in any way? Why or why not?

I wonder what they would say. If many of them answer "No" and have no identity as a reader or writer in English, can we really say that are English language program at ICU has been successful?

Also, I wonder what they will say about their identity or awareness as readers and writers in Japanese?

Hm...

How to Focus a Topic: Example using Water Scarcity in Sub-Saharan Africa

This is the article that I plan to introduce to my essay writing class as an example of how to focus one's research by choosing one critical issue within a topic.

For example, if a student or student group is working on the issue of water scarcity in Africa, the following source would have a wealth of relevant details.

http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/Publications/Working_Papers/working/WOR55.pdf

One temptation of the group would be to make their essay or presentation simply a summary of one expert's results.

However, that does not lead to a well-researched, insightful analysis.

The important thing is to find an unresolved issue or controversy mentioned within the report and try to find other sources to develop an opinion on that issue.

RW/WW Atwell Chapter 6: Mini Lessons

Summary:
Mini-lessons (as opposed to "maxilessons") are 5~10 minute (or sometimes longer) sessions for the workshop teacher to efficiently "introduce and highlight concepts, techniques and information that will help writers and readers grow up" using an OHP or easel in front of the whole class. It is also a chance for the whole group to interact, collaborate and make discoveries about writing and reading together. Obviously, for concepts that many students need to become familiar with, whole class mini-lessons are more efficient than individual conferences. Atwell chooses topics for mini-lessons based on her experience and observations of what students need. The topics roughly fall into four categories:

1. Procedural, on how the workshop should be run: "How to use an editing checksheet" "Self-evaluation procedures at the end of each trisemester" and other basics such as schedule, folders, resources, how to do a conference or use reading journals (taught with good vs. bad role plays/examples-cool!), how to publish, how to set goals at the start of a term, "Establishing a portfolio-a collection of evidence that shows one's growth" p.157 WHAT AUTHORS DO is a nice list of the writing process:
   
2. Literary Craft, on "What authors DO, What readers NOTICE" to help students increase their repertoire of methods: "How to revise" (show that any author cuts/adds/changes a lot!) "Titles" "Style-Don't tell, SHOW!" (p.165) "Narration (person/tense)" "Focusing" "Types of Leads" (typical, dialogue, action, reaction/thought), "Genres" (parody-cool to teach!) "The Outsiders" "Resources" (when/how to use a thesaurus, rhyming dict.)--and 7 MORE pages of literary craft topics she teaches. I want to be a student in this class.
   
3. Conventions, what she calls "the agreements between readers and writers." It is important to remind students these are arbitrary agreements developed over time, but they are quite important for helping the reader. I like how she will present something like the difference between homonyms THEIR THERE THEY'RE and say "Now join the FUN and write two of your own (questions) (p.201)
   
4. Reading Strategies: What "real" fast readers do is to skim, scan, skip, read what they want, abandon books sometimes. "Schema" is extremely important. IRS example p.205 Laundry example p.206. What our eyes do in reading--focus on main words in chunks-skip small words (Paris in the the Spring p.210), process from context (top-down). p.208 has a nice list of 12 Goals for Fluent Readers. p.211 Comprehension Demonstrations (Keene and Zimmerman 1997) can show students a range of mental strategies for improving our understanding of texts, talk aloud to show how readers can Ask questions, use life knowledge to connect, make predictions, decide what's important, draw inferences, raise problems, create visual images/diagrams. Knowing vocabulary for such stategies helps raise metacognitive awareness of how to read well. She also teaches skills for test reading (p.212, interesting, quite practical)

p.215, Atwell concludes- In mini-lessons...."We can teach the happiest lesson of all--how the mind of the reader interacts with a text to create a good book."

☆良かった・参考になった点
まず、Mini-Lessonというコンセプトがとても好きです。学習の中心は学生主体の活動という前提で、「ちょっと聞いて」という感じで多数の学生が必用としている役に立つ情報をさっと効率良くプレゼンする・みんなでブレストする。一度に多くの点を語り過ぎようとしない。

トピックやレッスンの内容で「いいなぁ」と思った点は上記のSummaryにかなり盛り込んだので割愛します。

最後の言葉、
p.215, Atwell concludes- In mini-lessons...."We can teach the happiest lesson of all--how the mind of the reader interacts with a text to create a good book."これはとてもいいと思いました。この点はまだまだ自分がICUの学生に伝えきれていない。

☆難しい点・疑問点
やはり最も難しいのは：
・限られた授業数で何をmini-lessonの焦点にして語るか、そして
・どう短くまとめるか
これは経験を積むしかないかと思いますが、みなさんどうでしょうか？
言いたいことはたくさんあるし、ちょっとでは説明できないことがたくさんあるような気がして、mini-lessonの最大の効果を出すにはきっと少しづつ研究していくしかないのでしょう。

☆やってみたい事
Atwellと同じように、自分も「通常、ここは毎年みんな躓く」reading, writing, speakingなどの点に気づいています。そして毎年授業で言及し、個人指導で繰り返し、評価などのコメントでも繰り返します。それでも伝わっていなかったり、他のことを説明するのに時間を使ってしまったためにその年は説明が出来なったりもします。

その解決策としてははやり効果的な自主学習教材・環境の開発が不可欠だと思います。例えば必ずやるMiniLessonをVideoに撮って残し、少し編集してOnlineで学生がいつでも自分で学習・復習できる環境を作るという手があると思います。私自身のIT能力がまだまだ足りないのでInteractiveなものを上手に作る自信はありませんが、勉強したいなと思っている点です。ICUで数人で協力して少しづつ開発ができればいいなと思っています。

今やっているのはMoodle上に毎回の授業のNotesやPowerPointを掲載するぐらいです。Mini-LessonのSelf-Study Menuみたいな感じに編集し直したいと考えていますが、まだ手がついていません。でもICUも３年目になって２回、３回と同じ授業を教えたことがあるので、そろそろ手をかけなくてはいけないと感じてます。

目標としてはこのような「語りかける」プレゼンや：

Tips for Receiving Feedback from Speeches -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

何かの方法を見せる教材が作りたいなと思います。

How to Draw a Cartoon Character Outline -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

Graves氏もいました。Atwell氏はまだInternet上にWorkshopのVideoを出していないのでしょうか、検索では当たりませんでした。


みなさんの学校ではそのようなものはありますか？

今度の春の授業ではクラスの最初に何らかの「Mini-Lesson Time」を設けたいなと思っています。資料をOnlineで閲覧可能にし、授業の後でも学生が見れるということを整備できれば、時間制限をつけてもいいかなと思います。

その他みんなと共有したい事
みなさんの書き込みを読んで考えます！とりえあずここまで。遅れてすみません！

Reflecting on ICU's Winter term 2009 - ARW

Submitted winter term grades on Friday last week, and today is a good day for reflection.

Academic Reading and Writing-Winter:

I was able to keep all of my students engaged (more or less) to the end. All passed and many did an excellent job to the end. Since I ran the structure of the course more or less the same as last year, I was able to make some good minor adjustments to how I helped students improve their skills for academic reading, writing and presentations.

A. Reading Skills

This term, I eliminated for the first time ever my set of "reading comprehension questions" and moved to an open Summarize/Critique/Discuss format. This puts more responsibility on students to read for main points without guiding questions and to be critical and identify weaknesses or raise original questions about the texts we were reading. Students had to submit Discussion Preparation documents each class, which was excellent for making sure students were well-prepared for discussions, but a pain in the neck for me to check. When I do it next year, I wonder if I can delegate the checking process to students somehow...Also since the preparation seemed difficult for some students and lead to non-submission by some, I wonder if there are ways to help the struggling students who cannot spend enough time to read the text and prepare a good summary/critique of the text prior to class. For example, I might want to separate the text into parts and put students in charge of only one part. Each class I want students to come to class EXCITED about what they read or discovered or prepared...Adding audio to accompany the readings seems important too. Also, I need to give more examples of types of developed critical responses to texts such as not only just saying "Author gives no evidence" but also "Is there any evidence of.... The author should add more detailed evidence about... to make this point more persuasive." Not just saying "I disagree" but saying "I am not persuaded by this argument because..."

As a result of this term, do students feel more confident about their reading skills? Less confident? What do our end-of-term surveys show? If they feel less confident, what needs to be changed? Should some students be reading different texts? Should students be choosing their own in a workshop style? How should we be differentiating for different levels of reading ability and motivation? (At least prepare this....and if you finish, prepare this...and if you are really ambitious, prepare this...) Also, how can they be helping each other more-collaborating on grasping the meaning and practicing their critical reactions?

B. Writing Skills

Did two essays, one on "Should Japan allow reproductive cloning if the technology becomes safe?" and one allowing a free choice of topic. For the first essay, I was able to hand back my final comments in tutorials. I think that was good for dialogue. However, for the second essay, I gave it back to their mailboxes, and who knows how many will pick them up and actually read those comments. I feel like my efforts may be wasted. I want the dialogue to end with some sense of closure--for all students, not just the good students. The final essay should be submitted in a portfolio, with drafts/copies of sources, with a self-evaluation using the same form that I use, and with reflective comments on the paper writing process and goals for future papers. I want to be able to just sign off on their self-evaluation. I need to re-design the writing schedules in each term to include that more systematically. I want the writing to end with a tutorial that confirms the student's final reflection on the portfolio...

Many students were not able to submit drafts for the 2nd essay. That is a big problem because those students are the ones who need to most help with grammar, format, expressions, organization. They seem to get overwhelmed with the process of researching in English that they cannot write out their opinion on their topic. So...is the topic "propose solutions to a global problem" too difficult? How do I make the topic more manageable...In any case, I need to ensure that struggling students submit drafts and have a chat with me at an early stage in the writing process. The solution may be to have only one main essay. Also, I like Owen's idea of having a timed writing with just 1~2 sources in front. Giving students more support of "how to" do a research essay and avoid pitfalls like a monster topic is needed too.

C. Winter Project

Had 6 groups. 4 did a good job. 2 really struggled. For the four successful groups (Water Shortage, Food Shortage, Gender Discrimination, World Heritage), the project worked very well and seemed to be a productive experience--Starting in the end of January, the groups got their topic and outline started early on, had tutorials/rehearsals with me, and put together nice performances (Review video). The only thing I forgot was to build in group deadlines for some credit of points (outline submission, PowerPoint submission etc.).

For the struggling groups, I really needed a drop dead rehearsal deadline. In the end, the groups (Fair Trade, Obesity) pulled together a doable, but unorganized assortment of ideas for 15 minutes, but it was ugly to watch. I had a rehearsal with both groups, but neither were ready at that time. I couldn't give any support because they didn't have their ideas together yet, even just a few hours before the presentation. I should include a stipulation that only groups who have their rehearsal by the deadline can make the presentation. Other groups must...videotape their performance for submission so that they don't waste the time of the whole class listening to unprepared content.

Fundamentally, maybe it is best to just have one main essay about bioethics and let WP go without a new essay.

---------------
Overall, Winter Term should be a final confidence-building, skill-consolidating term. Based on skills learned in spring/fall, students should be finding that they are capable of doing work that would be acceptable by non-Japanese professors at ICU...but the reality is that many students are not at that level and many do not have the energy or motivation to push themselves. It is sad how Winter Term seems to only work for about half of the class...(and a good class I had in AA this term).

I really should get a few of my struggling students in for a chat in Japanese to listen to their account of winter term. Will they come?

RW/WW Atwell Chapter 5: Getting Started

Summary:
Atwell believes the first week of her writing/reading workshop is the most important to set the tone and get students started on their paths as a community of authors and readers. She starts by having students get to know each other with drama games and also to get to know her classroom's resources by scavenger hunts. Then, she introduces the idea of Writing/Reading Territories-a brainstormed list (that will grow) written in a notebook and covering all of the topics, genres, audiences, and book titles or genres a student has written/read or is interested in writing/reading. When a writer or reader runs out of ideas, they can go back to their "terrorities" list. The first week of the workshop method also includes getting students familiar with the "status of the class" report, which is a one-by-one sharing of what each student is working on, and with other aspects of the workshop such as mini-lessons, quiet writing time, sharing portions of one's writing to the class in a circle, and read-alouds by Atwell and quiet reading time.

参考になった点

今回特に印象に残ったのはAtwellから見て学生に「やって欲しくない」こと。

Writingに関してはp.142 "How I Spent My Summer Vacation"に象徴される"too broad"な題材、そして"safe subjects they don't really care about"というものを避けて欲しいとAtwellは書いてます。

Readingに関してはp.146 "My most important responsibility...is to make sure nobody is reading a book he or she doesn't like"

すばらしい考え方だと思う。従来の一斉教育だと"subjects they don't care about" "books they don't like"を押し付けることが教育になってしまっている部分がある。それを避け、学生がreal writers and readersとして開花するサポートをする教師の役割・手順をAtwellは書いてくれている。

その延長としてp.147もとてもいい文です。
"Reading becomes a whole, sense-making endeavor, and texts are open books--wide open to kids' opinions, questions, interpretations, and enjoyment. Writing becomes purposeful, personal, and world-changing--not the turf of a talented few but the domain of everyone who has something to say and someone to say it to."

自分のWriting/Readingの指導は上記を少しでも達成してみたいなと思う。

それにしても、AtwellのWriting/Reading Territoriesはすごい。自分がReader/Writerとしての自分を磨かないといけないと思わされる。

Workshop Methodではまず教師が自分の読み・書きを「本物」に変えなくてはいけない難しさがある。でもその中で得るものはとても大きい気がする。

以上、短くですが、Chapter 5のリアクションでした。

RW/WW Atwell Chapter 1: Learning how to teach writing

第一章
Learning How to Teach Writing:
Summary: Nancy Atwell tells her story of how she transformed her middle school writing classroom from one centered on making students "do excercises" for a perfect structured curriculum designed by her, the teacher behind the big table, to a workshop where all students and the teacher were authors on an equal basis, choosing topics, working on pieces, and talking about their writing. In this second edition of her book, she mentions how she has changed from the first edition, main in terms of realizing that certain orthodoxies of "freedom" such as "do not write on a student's paper" which she stipulated in her first edition actually can be flexibly changed to help students learn certain models or structures until they are ready to be independent authors. In other words, even in the writing workshop classroom, it is necessary at times to be a teacher with a capital "T."

①Interesting points:
参考になった点／学んだ点／よかった点／おもしろかった点

p.9 quoting Graves "It is entirely possible to read about children, review research and textbooks about writing, 'teach' them and yet still be completely unaware of their processes of learning and writing. "
日本人の学習者が英語で書くことに対してどんな思いを持っているのか本当に自分が分かっているのか考えさせられる。特にネーティブとして、もっと日本人の学習者が率直に感じていることを知りたいと思う。できた文を評価するだけでなく、「書く過程はどうだった？」と聞き、語り合い、その難しさを分かち合うことが大事かと思う。

p.12 "According to Susan, children in the NIE study learned to write by exercising the options available to real-world authors, including daily time for writing, conferences with teachers and peers during drafting, pacing set by the writer, and opportunities to publish what they had written. Most significantly, students decided what they would write."
ICUでは「Deciding what they would write」は「この条件の論文で、この範囲のトピックなら自由」ということになっている。基本的にargumentative essay with sourcesが条件で、長さや期限なども決められてしまう。アメリカの大学では典型的。でも、本当にそのシステムが「英語で書く力」を伸ばすことに最適なのか、学生によっては無意味に「やらされているだけ」でどうでも良くなってしまうことがあるように思う。では、どこまで自由にすべきなのか？評価の基準はどうなるのか？

p.13 "Together, we made an amazing discover: they did have ideas for writing."
今学期から初めて"reading comprehension questions”を出さず、生徒に「自由にリアクション」する読書課題を出した自分の発見に似ている。教師の狭い課題に学生を押し込むことはできるだけ避け、何が出るか分からないことを恐れずに課題をつくりたい。

p.17 "let myself fall in love with everyone one of my students"
すばらしいと思うし、自分のlanguage classesでこれを目指して接しているつもりでいる。でも現実的に今の大学のシステム内でできるのか？個人の自由な意思を尊重し、創造力を発揮できるWritingクラスづくりをしないと絶対にこれは言えないだろうな、と思った。

p.20 "It's a handover...not hands-off...not a handout." "In my classroom I could serve my students as a mentor of writing, a mediator of writing strategies, and a model of a writer at work."
自主的な英語作家を育てるプロセスにおける先生の役割って何だろうと思わされる。「こうやるといいよ」とか「こんな便利は方法があるよ」とか「自分が書く時はこんなふうにやってるよ。」っていう会話を学生とするためには彼らが「こんな文章書きたいんだけど、なんかアイデアありますか？」って聞いてくれないとできないと思う。それを聞いてきてくれるのって、大学院のDissertationとAdviserの会話しか思いつかない。そのような会話を聞くためにはやはり自分なりの目標に向かって自主的な作家活動をさせないといけないし、作家としての自覚とやりがい感がなければいけない。どうやってそれを育むのか？大学で可能なのか？可能な気はするけど、やるには勇気がいると思う。

②わかりにくい点／疑問・質問／さらなる説明・解説が必要な点
みんな自分で題材を選び違うことをやる場合、どうやって学生の成績をつけるか？

③やってみたいこと／応用できそうなこと
学生が自分自身で「やりたい！」と思っている課題に対して、英語を書く先輩として「こうやるといいよ」とか「こんな便利は方法があるよ」とか「自分が書く時はこんなふうにやってるよ。」っていう会話をもっと学生としたい。

④その他、何でも読み会のメンバーと共有したいこと
みなさんのChapter１の内容に別途反応しま～す。

Thanks for reading!

Mark

Making essay peer reviews work: one win, one loss?

Last Friday and today Monday, I had two in-class "peer review" classes, one for my freshmen and one for my sophomores. Both classes were reviewing drafts of about 800 words. The in-class peer review is one part of the draft review process, including in addition an online written review that students have to do for each other and a conference with me to discuss my reactions to their draft.

So, below is how I set the in-class peer review exchange up (copied from my handout). My personal impression is that this works quite well as long as I avoid some pitfalls. In my Friday freshmen class, I had some groups where the exchange of ideas did not really seem to be working, and I guessed it was due to two problems. After anticipating those, my Monday class went very smoothly.

The first problem you always run into to is people with no drafts finished. On Friday, I asked them to join a group anyway and read and give comments, but I have come to the conclusion that it is better to let them go out of the classroom or do their own work. The pair exchange between two persons with drafts works with a good balance of time and having a third person just does not seem to work logistically. On Monday, that was what I did and all pairs hummed along very smoothly.

Another problem is what to do with an odd number. On Friday, I made a group of three, but the three struggled because they had to read two papers to have a coherent discussion and ended up running out of time in our 70 minute period. On Monday, I decided to fill in the gap and be a partner to ensure all students were in pairs. If you have ideas for making a group of three work, please let me now.

Other problems....students who come in late, students who match up with different levels (usually by asking students to say how long their drafts are and matching up same lengths of drafts, the level gets matched too, but not always.).

Overall, students seem to enjoy their exchanges very much. I allow use of their first language if they feel it is needed, and a few took advantage of that while most groups stayed in English.

2. Peer Review of 1st drafts

The goal is to help you receive some specific ideas for improving your draft as well as give you a chance to practice reading critically and giving constructive feedback.

1) Find a partner who has a draft of about the same length. Sit close in pairs.

If you have no draft, you can read/write quietly or go to the library.

2) Ask Can I write comments on your draft? -> Exchange papers and read.

If the writer allows comments, feel free to annotate with ? or other comments.

3) After both have basically finished reading, discuss one essay first, then the next.

Use 3 steps: 1. Confirm Main Point, 2. Give Positive Feedback, then 3. Give Suggestions

Writer: So...Did you understand my main point?

Reader: Well, I think your main point is... (summarize your understanding briefly)

Writer: Right. What do you think about the draft so far?

Reader: I really like the point about.... (start by giving much positive feedback!)

Writer: Do you have any suggestions?
Reader: First, what's your feeling about your draft? How do you plan to improve it?
Writer: Well...I think the biggest need for change is... (do self-critique first)
Reader: I think those ideas are good. In addition...you could consider adding/changing...
Note: Try to give suggestions about main ideas and evidence, not technical things.

A difficult bioethics essay...

For my current academic reading and writing class (called ARW), I've assigned an argumentative essay of about 800 words on the issue of human cloning. We have a reading by molecular biologist Lee Silver of Princeton that argues for allowing cloning as a reproductive choice, and so my students' task is to answer the still hypothetical but most likely inevitable ethical question of:

"If the biotechnology for human cloning is 100% safe, should the government of Japan allow cloning as a reproductive choice?"

I find the essay is a good exercise of critical thinking in terms of requiring the learners to sort through their assumptions about cloning and clones and identify the most persuasive arguments for pro and con sides.

Most students instinctively choose "not allow" based on vague concepts such as "unnatural" and then struggle to defend the position with persuasive ethical arguments.

How would you answer something like that?