Excerpt from Classroom Publishing: A Practical Guide to Enhancing Student Literacy:
“In our History-Media class the content is always multi-disciplinary. We examine the periods of American history through the lens of the media. One of our main goals is for students to learn to discover slant and bias in publications. Students also use current journalism styles to produce newspapers and television shows about different periods of American history.”
Many students at Appleton East High School in Appleton, Wisconsin, elect to fulfill their 11th-grade American Literature and U.S. History requirements by taking the History-Media class. This course has an 18-year history of its own and is currently taught by Michael Bergen and two colleagues. The students learn about American history through media: pamphlets, newspapers, and other written sources, as well as newscasts and Hollywood movies. At the same time they learn how information is shaped by the media. The course has been successful, according to Michael, when students see that to understand history or current events, they have to take an active, critical role. They need to figure out how an author of a newspaper article, an editor of a newspaper, or a movie director may be shaping their values and beliefs. He teaches his students to detect the slant in historical sources that purport to be totally “neutral” and unbiased.
A major part of Bergen’s History-Media class is student production of media. Students produce newspapers and television newscasts which deal with different periods of American history. One newspaper is called the Columbus Clarion-Republican and is written from an abolitionist point of view. The Clarion, for instance, contains stories describing the hardships of slavery. The tone of articles about the underground railroad approves of its mission and notes the bravery of the conductors.
Another newspaper is called The Richmond Chronicle, and it is written as if it were published in Richmond, Virginia, in January 1866. This southern newspaper is written from the point of view of slave owners. One of the articles in this newspaper criticizes Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Other stories portray slavery as a benign institution that was better for the slaves than life in Africa. Instead of a positive or open-minded article about John Brown, one piece begins: “John Brown was hanged today in Charleston for his many abolitionist murders.” Students learn from their hands-on experience in journalism how world events are shaped by the language and images of the media.
Bergen sees some problems arising in student publishing. “Classroom publishing fits into my philosophy of education: it involves critical thinking, writing, and cooperative learning. But classroom publishing needs to be made more accessible to teachers by making more computers available and by devising less complicated software. Without this support, teachers can end up doing too much work themselves.
“Another problem that faces teachers is that as publishing becomes more common in classes K–12, it can lose some of its novelty and possibly lose some of its effectiveness with the kids. Teachers need to prevent this blunting effect by expanding their publishing curriculum, by getting new ideas.”
*Copyright © 1992 by Laurie King & Dennis Stovall. Published by Blue Heron Publishing, Inc. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
The Excitement of Contests
Excerpt from Classroom Publishing: A Practical Guide to Enhancing Student Literacy:
Entering writing contests can be a good vehicle for motivating students to do their best writing and revising. There are many kinds of writing competitions, and perhaps the most fruitful ones are those that actually publish students’ work.
Janis Cramer leads her 10th–12th grade creative writing students in Bethany, Oklahoma through a process of writing children’s books, beginning with a critique of children’s books, and culminating with students entering the Landmark contest. The Landmark organization publishes the books of winning students each year. Janis uses Written & Illustrated by… the guide to writing for this contest written by David Melton. Janis finds this guide to be helpful, although she thinks it underestimates the amount of time the different stages will take.
Her students do an excellent job. One year, with 7,500 entries across the nation, she had one student place in the top ten in the oldest age group category and five placed in the top one hundred. “My kids are very competitive with each other, and they also motivate each other in a lot of ways. They cannot stand for someone else to do a better job. On the other hand, they are extremely proud of each other’s product.”
Janis’ interpretation of the Landmark process strikes a careful balance of collaborative and individual work.
1. Critique — Students critique three children’s books. Students use the elementary school library to look for a good, average, and poor book to write about. They look at the art, style, plot, character development, and the book jacket. They do this to sharpen their own writing as well as to develop an eye for what book companies are looking for.
2. Pre-writing: Telling the Story — In their writing groups, the students first tell each other their stories. “It becomes a collaborative effort,” Janis explains, “because they just come up with the basic ideas, and then they get so many new ways to change and add to their stories from their groups.”
3. The Rough Draft — Janis agrees that if students have to write their stories in a short amount of time, they will be more creative. In fact, she has her students write rough drafts in one period! You may wish to keep to this time frame with your students, or you may want to allow them to have more time. When students write their rough drafts, they also draw sketches of their main characters and these are displayed so students can discuss them.
4. Revising — Students work on drafts with their writing groups. They then use the word processor, and revise and edit again, this time with the aid of new editing groups. The next stage is printing the story, cutting, and doing the layout on big sheets of paper. “They read each other’s books and write rave reviews for each other that go on the actual book cover.”
5. Artwork and Binding — “Students must do their own art work, which,” says Janis, “is a problem for some of the kids. This year I’m going to have the art teacher work with them. The books are hardbound, and they use the cardboard that comes off the backs of art tablets. After covering the cardboard with construction paper, they sew their books together with needle and thread.
6. Older Students Read to the Younger Ones — In contrast to other projects involving writing books for children, Janis only has some students go to the elementary school to read their books. The elementary teachers select the books they want read, and it is a special honor for students to be chosen.
7. Celebration — “We have a cookie and punch reception in the library which is filled with family, friends, high school teachers, and elementary school teachers. We make a poster of each kid, taking information and reviews off their book jackets. All the books are spread out on the tables for everyone to look through. The students gain a certain amount of fame, which is good, because my creative writing kids don’t usually get a lot of recognition.”
Some of these Mustang High School students achieve further recognition in the community. The Oklahoma Council of Teachers of English February 1992 newsletter announced that the students were available to go to other schools to read their books and explain how they made them.
*Copyright © 1992 by Laurie King & Dennis Stovall. Published by Blue Heron Publishing, Inc. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.
Entering writing contests can be a good vehicle for motivating students to do their best writing and revising. There are many kinds of writing competitions, and perhaps the most fruitful ones are those that actually publish students’ work.
Janis Cramer leads her 10th–12th grade creative writing students in Bethany, Oklahoma through a process of writing children’s books, beginning with a critique of children’s books, and culminating with students entering the Landmark contest. The Landmark organization publishes the books of winning students each year. Janis uses Written & Illustrated by… the guide to writing for this contest written by David Melton. Janis finds this guide to be helpful, although she thinks it underestimates the amount of time the different stages will take.
Her students do an excellent job. One year, with 7,500 entries across the nation, she had one student place in the top ten in the oldest age group category and five placed in the top one hundred. “My kids are very competitive with each other, and they also motivate each other in a lot of ways. They cannot stand for someone else to do a better job. On the other hand, they are extremely proud of each other’s product.”
Janis’ interpretation of the Landmark process strikes a careful balance of collaborative and individual work.
1. Critique — Students critique three children’s books. Students use the elementary school library to look for a good, average, and poor book to write about. They look at the art, style, plot, character development, and the book jacket. They do this to sharpen their own writing as well as to develop an eye for what book companies are looking for.
2. Pre-writing: Telling the Story — In their writing groups, the students first tell each other their stories. “It becomes a collaborative effort,” Janis explains, “because they just come up with the basic ideas, and then they get so many new ways to change and add to their stories from their groups.”
3. The Rough Draft — Janis agrees that if students have to write their stories in a short amount of time, they will be more creative. In fact, she has her students write rough drafts in one period! You may wish to keep to this time frame with your students, or you may want to allow them to have more time. When students write their rough drafts, they also draw sketches of their main characters and these are displayed so students can discuss them.
4. Revising — Students work on drafts with their writing groups. They then use the word processor, and revise and edit again, this time with the aid of new editing groups. The next stage is printing the story, cutting, and doing the layout on big sheets of paper. “They read each other’s books and write rave reviews for each other that go on the actual book cover.”
5. Artwork and Binding — “Students must do their own art work, which,” says Janis, “is a problem for some of the kids. This year I’m going to have the art teacher work with them. The books are hardbound, and they use the cardboard that comes off the backs of art tablets. After covering the cardboard with construction paper, they sew their books together with needle and thread.
6. Older Students Read to the Younger Ones — In contrast to other projects involving writing books for children, Janis only has some students go to the elementary school to read their books. The elementary teachers select the books they want read, and it is a special honor for students to be chosen.
7. Celebration — “We have a cookie and punch reception in the library which is filled with family, friends, high school teachers, and elementary school teachers. We make a poster of each kid, taking information and reviews off their book jackets. All the books are spread out on the tables for everyone to look through. The students gain a certain amount of fame, which is good, because my creative writing kids don’t usually get a lot of recognition.”
Some of these Mustang High School students achieve further recognition in the community. The Oklahoma Council of Teachers of English February 1992 newsletter announced that the students were available to go to other schools to read their books and explain how they made them.
*Copyright © 1992 by Laurie King & Dennis Stovall. Published by Blue Heron Publishing, Inc. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.
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