Mentor Texts and g2great Work by: Jason Augustowski

Happy Monday!  I have decided to revisit my theme of discussing awesome teacher texts I have recently read and thought this fall should be no exception.  Below I have brief explorations of Writing with Mentors by: Allison Marchetti and Rebekah O'Dell and g2great Teaching by: Mary Howard.


WRITING with MENTORS

1.  Love the idea of structuring a class: quick write, mini-lesson that investigates a particular writing craft within a mentor text, and then allowing students a chance to write and practice in that voice.  Will certainly help with "synthesis of voice" essays in APLang.
2.  It is important to keep the mentor texts relevant (especially when using nonfiction).  Kids nowadays don't want to read political articles from the 1990s nor may they want to read the "classics" when investigating literature.  I am not convinced if they will ever NEED to be able to write like Agatha Christie - BUT the voices of current YAL may be the precise sound of their generation.
3.  Class can be spontaneous and immensely differentiated based upon what individual students need.  If everyone is rocking "hooks" - ditch the week long lessons on "how to write hooks" and perhaps focus on character development or Rogerian argument strategies.  Talk openly with your students about what THEY want to get out of your writing class.
4.   Look at texts from both a reader's and a writer's lens.  Discuss critical lens theory and allow students to "get into the minds" of others when reading.  Then, once they get comfortable reading in this style, they can begin dabbling in writing from another lens during their quick write time.
5.  Bring in multiple texts: nonfiction, fiction, cartoons, graphs, charts, etc.  Help students read and write in the modalities that challenge them and that they feel like they will utilize in their real lives.

My takeaways:  Instruction is audience, tone, bias, slant, and style are married to the APLang curriculum.  Utilizing mentor texts is an extremely easy fit in a composition class.  However, stepping away from precise curriculum, this book is also awesome because it discusses how to take students through the publication process and how to make this level of critical reading commonplace in their everyday lives.  Using authentic audiences (actually sending student work to publishers) always engages students as writers.

g2great Teaching

1.  I love how Mary situates our thinking immediately in this text.  She clearly and thoroughly defines the ideas of bad, good, and great teaching and allows us to begin recognizing the impacts of each in our own classrooms.  She is able to categorize numerous practices under these headings in a manner that makes her readers want to improve "bad" teaching to "good" and "good" teaching to "great."  None of the tone is punitive but rather endearing and sometimes comical in nature.  I felt as the reader like it was okay (rather imperative) to admit my own flaws or shortcomings as a teacher and look for methods through which I could improve.
2.  Understanding that these practices exist on a continuum is important and that any specific tool could be elevated to great teaching or slide to bad teaching with relative ease.  The idea of charting our own methods and labeling under each category gives an immediate visual to any singular class meeting.  This can be extremely eye-opening when planning future lessons and units.  Bringing in student voice and reflection adds an additional layer to this introspection.
3.  Targeting differentiation to tailor learning for each individual student is a major takeaway from the text.  We should always make sure our practices are inclusive and allow each student (regardless of where they enter the curriculum) to achieve and master content at a high and efficient level by the time the exit at the end of the year.  Targeted differentiation also hinges on the assumption that students are engaged in the content.  It is not about filling students' time (busy work) but ensuring that everything they accomplish can be linked back to real world knowledge and skill acquisition.
4.  Frequent formative assessment is key in knowing exactly where students are on their journey to mastery.  These formative assessments should of course inform purposeful and skill-based summative assessments.  It doesn't help to quiz kids on what a character is wearing in chapter four of the novel - but assessing their ability to read critically and synthesize information IS a real world skill.

My takeaways:  I will discussing the ideas of bad, good, and great teaching with the students in my tenth and APLanguage classes.  Once they have the definitions as set forth by Mary Howard, I will allow them (at the midterm and end of each quarter) to enter the reflection and help me best assess how to meet their individual needs.  It can sometimes be hard to open ourselves to student feedback and criticism, but I find it necessary if we really want to improve our craft.  After all, we have no problem offering students constant feedback and criticism - it only levels the playing field if they are permitted to do they same.  We grade them.  I think it is important that they give us a grade too.  (And just as we are expected to be impartial and professional and separate our feelings about a student from the work produced, so should we teach them how to evaluate our instruction, assessments, and grading strategies without taking into account whether or not they like us or think we are cool.


That's it for now!  Next up will be a pre-NCTE conference reflection!  Can't wait to see you all in Houston!