Pinboard (robertogreco)
https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/public/
recent bookmarks from robertogreco40-year report – The Homebound Symphony2023-08-29T13:59:07+00:00
https://blog.ayjay.org/40-year-report/
robertogreco2022 alanjacobs education colleges universities highered highereducation teaching howweteach reading writing howwewrite howweread fiveparagraphessays bookshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:125b0261b500/John Warner on Twitter: "I see defenses of the five-paragraph essay which describe the template as "training wheels" for developing writers. I unpack this in "Why They Can't Write" arguing that training wheels are not a help in developing essential skills2018-12-31T00:37:24+00:00
https://twitter.com/biblioracle/status/1079043288596992001
robertogreco@biblioracle: I see defenses of the five-paragraph essay which describe the template as "training wheels" for developing writers. I unpack this in "Why They Can't Write" arguing that training wheels are not a help in developing…
@triciaebarvia
Especially consider what @biblioracle says about the faulty 5PE=training wheels analogy. Training wheels don’t teach balance. 5PE doesn’t teach thinking. #DisruptWriting
@triciaebarvia
I’ve also heard Ts say that 5PE is a scaffold. But scaffolds are temporary. A scaffold’s purpose is literally to render itself unnecessary. Yet the 5PE is being perpetrated into the middle and upper grades. #DisruptWriting
@triciaebarvia
Not to mention the fact that the 5PE, as a tool of standardization, is ultimately a tool that oppresses individual human voices—& by not making space for linguistic diversity & freedom, the 5PE is not culturally relevant pedagogy. (Or, I should say, it teaches culture but whose?)
@DulceFlecha
is #disruptwriting gonna be a thing??? online writing groups? sharing favorite mentor texts???
@edifiedlistener
Bring it. I'm ready. Still learning so much about process and potential. I still hold a lot of fear of experimenting which is why fiction writing stays out of bounds for me.
@DulceFlecha
I'm currently reading a book on trauma and memoir writing and its funny how many of these writers started off trying to write fiction instead. it's funny how desperately we cling to genre.
@DulceFlecha
and it's funny how desperately important the culture of a proofreader is. months ago I asked 5 (dope, wonderful) people to read a draft. only one caught the typo I made in the first sentence.
@TheJLV was the only Dominican. I forgot the A in tambora.
@DulceFlecha
it made me wonder how student writing changes when their primary reader-- the reader they give the most weight to-- is probably a white, middle class woman. what slips by? what changes does the teacher recommend that a cultural, racial peer wouldn't?
@DulceFlecha
when we prioritize the teacher as the most important reader-- the teacher grades, praises, deems finished or incomplete-- are we training kids to write for a white audience? and how can we disrupt that?
@triciaebarvia
Yes, yes we are. And I’d argue that most of what we’re doing in schools is teaching not just for a white audience but Whiteness itself. How to disrupt? Culturally relevant, responsive, sustaining pedagogy. I wonder how many Ts see their instruction as grounded in CSP, though...
@DulceFlecha
who gets to judge what is culturally sustaining? might be the next question. educators. families. students. communities. some combination of the four?
@triciaebarvia
Yes, definitely some combination. Too often it’s the culture of the teacher/school (Whiteness) that is perpetuated under guises like “college and career ready.”
@DulceFlecha
my new site yaught me that the only expert on a kid's culture is the kid. which I think I knew personally? my mother and I did not react the same way to the Poet X.
but I didn't know it professionally until immigration shelters.
@DulceFlecha
and now I'm always afraid, because the overwhelming majority of my kids are headed to U.S. schools. and there are so many aspects of culture we don't discuss in context of undocumented immigration."]]]>fiveparagraphessays writing howweteach teaching howwewrite teachingwriting eucation johnarner triciaebarvia sherrispelic https://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:b117f8e02d18/Blog—Jarrett Fuller — The Soul-Crushing Student Essay2018-04-29T20:24:55+00:00
http://jarrettfuller.blog/post/173425328147/the-soul-crushing-student-essay
robertogrecojarrettfuller 2018 structure form writing teaching howweteach content style teachingwriting education fiveparagraphessayshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:1705e73f081c/CURMUDGUCATION: Writing Junk2016-07-20T19:27:57+00:00
https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/07/writing-junk.html
robertogrecowriting education teaching teachingwriting schools 2016 howweteach howwewrite commoncore templates sfsh pedagogy curriculum practice fiveparagraphessayshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:0171fceae328/The Politics of the Paragraph2016-06-27T16:03:49+00:00
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/30_04/30-4_kenney.shtml
robertogrecowriting schools testing standardizedtesting howwewrite teaching teachinwriting michellekenney 2016 howeteach fiveparagraphessayshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:395d20809d9e/2 × 4: Essay: Ways of Seeing2016-03-04T06:01:57+00:00
http://2x4.org/ideas/14/ways-of-seeing/
robertogrecojohnberger michaelrock waysofseeing books 2011 bookdesign richardhollis fiveparagraphessayshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:48eed952f5b5/How Diverse Literature Can Make Middle School Easier - The Atlantic2015-11-28T00:52:10+00:00
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/11/middle-school-woes/415482/
robertogreconoahcho education middleschool cv teaching howweteach literature identity 2015 teachingenglish english pedagogy preteens adolescence fiveparagraphessayshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:fb7ab0bb47cd/Writing, Unteachable or Mistaught? | the becoming radical2015-06-11T07:49:31+00:00
https://radicalscholarship.wordpress.com/2015/05/27/writing-unteachable-or-mistaught/
robertogreco[M]any of [the students] checked out of the writing process and merely performed for the teacher. Their descriptions about their writing lack enthusiasm and engagement; instead, they reflect obedience and resignation. That is not the kind of writer I want in my classes; I want to see students actively engaged with their work, finding value and importance in the work.
•
As much as I love Vonnegut, I disagree about writing being unteachable. And his own role as mainly a writer who occasionally taught writing presents another lesson:
Nothing is known about helping real writers to write better. I have discovered almost nothing about it during the past two years. I now make to my successor at Iowa a gift of the one rule that seemed to work for me: Leave real writers alone.
Well, yes, we do know quite a great deal about teaching writing—and we have for many decades. So if “leave them alone” means do not use artificial scripts, I am all in, but certainly developing writers of all ages can be fostered directly by the teacher.
I am left to worry, then, that the main problem we have with teaching writing is that for too long, we have mistaught it as people who occasionally write, and not as writers and as teachers.
This is a herculean ask, of course, that we be writers and teachers.
But for the many who do not now consider themselves writers but must teach writing, it is the opportunity to begin the journey to being a writer with students by committing to genre awareness instead of genre acquisition.
Awareness comes from investigating the form you wish to produce (not imposing a template onto a form or genre). Investigate poetry in order to write poetry; investigate essays in order to write essays.
But set artificial and simplistic templates and scripts aside so that you and your students can see the form you wish to write.
Kingsolver’s warning about child rearing also serves us well as teachers lured by the Siren’s song of the five-paragraph essay: “Be careful what you give children, or don’t, for sooner or later you will always get it back.”"]]>teaching writing teachingwriting education 2015 plthomas vonnegut jennifergray zachweiner mikeroyko kurtvonnegut paulthomas fiveparagraphessayshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:0017bf45fe21/CURMUDGUCATION: Writing: Not Unteachable, Often Mistaught2015-06-11T07:44:40+00:00
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2015/05/writing-not-unteachable-often-mistaught.html
robertogrecowriting teaching education teachingwriting howwewrite fiveparagraphessays 2015 petergreene thinkinghttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:3f49b9cd766e/McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: A Generic College Paper.2014-10-05T21:37:20+00:00
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-generic-college-paper
robertogreco“Massive block text to lend legitimacy to this sorry endeavor.”
— Legitimate-sounding Anglo Saxon name (year between 1859 and 1967)
Obviously, non-sequitur segue. Utter misinterpretation of the only other author researched for this paper. Blind search for evidence reflecting increasing desperation (authors 4, 5, and 6). Moreover, loose observation to try to force coherence. Indeed, an attempt at humor!
Hence, statement violating every principle of syllogism followed by unnecessary semi-colon; forgettable punch line. Open-ended question undoing what little intellectual progress has been made? Filler sentence, which breaks entire flow of argument, specifically designed with maximum complexity in mind so as to solve lingering word minimum concerns.
Unconvincing conclusion statement. Empty belief that prompt has been answered sufficiently and requires no further investigation by anyone, ever. Last sentence, which consumed approximately 95% of the total mental effort dedicated—still reads clunky."]]>writing education essays academics howwewrite howweteach schooliness fiveparagraphessayshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:961147d4314b/Why Are We (Still) Failing Writing Instruction? | the becoming radical2014-02-02T23:20:54+00:00
http://radicalscholarship.wordpress.com/2013/12/03/why-are-we-still-failing-writing-instruction/
robertogrecoI am currently a student at Williams College, but I grew up in the public school system in Cambridge, MA and was among the first cohort of kids to have every single MCAS test administered, 3rd grade through 10th. Over the course of my years in the Cambridge public school system, I saw the scope of my education narrowed with increased testing, from a curriculum that valued student growth, experiences, and emotions, to one that was often cold and hard and moved on whether or not we were ready.
Brunetta’s experience should not be discounted as anecdotal since an analysis of twenty years of reform in her home state tends to reinforce her claim. As well, her message about how writing instruction distorted by standards and testing failed her is equally compelling:
In the years I attended high school, in which more focus was centered on testing, much more of our learning was directed toward tests. I wrote hardly anything but five-paragraph essays in high school English and history classes before 11th grade….
[upcoming paragraph!!!!!!]
Some students said that they actually remember more of what they learned in elementary school than of the material they had learned just the last semester in high school, because those pieces of history or literature were taught in a context and were talked about, not glossed over and memorized quickly. Others noted that they had actually read and written more in elementary school than high school….
Here’s a rubric that my 7th and 8th grade teachers used for evaluating our essays. This is what real rigor looks like to me. Our papers were looked at as true pieces of writing, with respect to our ideas, our structure, and our use of language. If you compare this to the rubric for an MCAS essay or an AP essay (both of which apparently test for a “higher” level of critical thinking), the juxtaposition is truly laughable. I would particularly like to point out the 7/8th grade criteria for good organization: “The paper has a thoughtful structure that surfaces from the ideas, more than the ideas feeling constrained by the structure. Paragraphs and examples connect with fluid transitions when necessary to make the relationships between ideas clear. The organization is not predictable but artful and interesting in the way it supports the ideas.” (emphasis my own)
To do this in writing is hard. It is a challenge. It is what real writers do when they write engaging essays, books, and articles. In MCAS essays and all the essays we wrote to prepare for MCAS essays, using an unpredictable structure was wrong. To do anything but constrain your ideas by the structure was very wrong. When we learned essay writing in high school, we were often handed a worksheet, already set up in five paragraphs, telling you exactly where to put the thesis, the topic sentences, and the “hook.” In my freshman history class, I was told that each paragraph should have 5-9 sentences, regardless of the ideas presented in the paragraph. The ideas didn’t matter–structure reigned supreme. There is nothing wrong with learning how to write in a structured and clear way–for many students, having certain structures to rely on or start with is very helpful. But when testing was involved, all of our writing was reduced to a single, simple, and restrictive structure–simply because that structure is simpler (and therefore cheaper) to grade. It is important to note here that I have heard multiple college professors specifically tell all their well-trained, test-ready students never to use this structure in their writing.
Furthermore, in elementary school, we were taught to edit our writing (a skill totally missing from any MCAS standards and tests and generally lacking from high school); we wrote at least 2 or 3 drafts each time. At the end of the year, we created a portfolio presentation, which we gave to parents, teachers, and community members about how we had grown over the year, what we still needed to work on, and what our goals were for next year. Almost all of my writing practices and skills that I use each day in college –and even more so, the ability to evaluate my own work and see what I need to do in the next draft or on the next paper–come from my middle school years in a school that was not following the guidelines and was refusing to prep us for tests.
Again, Brunetta’s experience is one student’s story that is typical of how high school instruction in the U.S. has been decimated by accountability, standards, and testing. Applebee and Langer, in fact, have compiled a powerful examination of the exact experiences Brunetta details: Despite teachers being aware of a growing body of research on how best to teach writing (in ways Brunetta experienced in elementary and middle school), there remains a “considerable gap between the research currently available and the utilization of that research in school programs and methods” (LaBrant, 1947, p. 87), notably in writing instruction in schools today."
[Post goes on. The passages above and the rest of the post are both rich with links to additional references.]]]>writing teaching teachingwriting learning education standardization howwewrite schools policy paulthomas 2013 howweteach plthomas fiveparagraphessayshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:bba3ee84278e/SpeEdChange: Why do we read? Why do we write?2012-11-15T06:51:48+00:00
http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2012/11/why-do-we-read-why-do-we-write.html
robertogrecofiveparagraphessays curriculum why howweread howwewrite schools deschooling unschooling rules sequence time memory rebeccanewbergergoldstein jamesjoyce ulysses umbertoeco literature standardization commoncore colonialism democracy linearity learning teaching 2012 communication writing reading irasocol linearhttps://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:0d19a340c946/5by5 | Back to Work #93: 67 Points of Articulation2012-11-14T08:10:07+00:00
http://5by5.tv/b2w/93
robertogrecogrowingup peakingearly graduation florida children adolescence knowitalls middleschool highschool vocationaltraining teaching schools obedience moving isolation learning writing fiveparagraphessays 2012 education danbenjamin merlnmannhttps://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:d8e71846f8b6/Minneapolis: Inside the multimillion-dollar essay-scoring business: Behind the scenes of standardized testing2011-02-23T20:38:37+00:00
http://www.citypages.com/content/printVersion/1782234/
robertogrecotcsnmy writing essays standardizedtesting standardization mediocrity rewardingmediocrity fiveparagraphessays rubrics grading organization sausagemaking pearson cv questar assemblylinewriting testgrading dandimaggiohttps://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:60454df54a01/News: The New SAT: Longer, but No Better? - Inside Higher Ed2009-06-23T02:58:50+00:00
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/06/18/sat
robertogrecotesting sat standardizedtesting assessment colleges universities admissions writing education fiveparagraphessayshttps://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:8d3ff8b0e7c3/