research papers and webquest

I felt the points brought to light in this chapter are great in laying out the expectations of a research paper versus an essay. While I understand the point Benjamin attempts to make stating “writing is not speech on paper” I fell that statement in itself discourages the writer to have a voice. He does detail that a research paper demands more structure and stronger language but there still needs to be a clear “voice” avoiding the use of euphemisms and commonly spoken terms and phrasing. In reading through his checklist of the categories, focus of the paper and the styles of writing, feedback was an idea expressed that I feel needs to be used more. Since entering Graduate school I’ve yet to receive much feedback from professor in regards to my writing or my ideas expressed. The first was the abstract for an education course this semester; it was an outline for my research paper but I honestly have no basis for how well my research paper writing is at this level and if I need to improve of not. Granted I can proof read it myself and or by another person but it’s not the same as having feedback from the instructor from which you receive your grade. I understand on this level of education we should already be equipped with all the necessary writing and related self assessment skills but I have no idea where I stand as a writer, on this level, as all my research assignments are collected, graded and never returned.

Frames, Clusters, and Stems

I was a bit confused a first reading through this chapter; I was used to more thorough examples of the previous chapters. After reading the paragraph again and letting the information marinate it made much more sense. Also, in reading the chapter, I realized this was yet another skill I was not taught in my English classes. Being able to ask the appropriate questions, identify, organize and categorize information helps students to be more skillful readers and writers.
Identifying patterns and clusters is a skill I was not taught I many of my English courses. I feel I would have benefited having a more discerning eye approaching text. Being able to assess a text and respond to the presented information specifically is another tool to help de-mystify the entire process. Now I know to actively search and determine if a paragraph is classifying, comparison/contrasting, descriptive, chronological as in a procedural report, support an assertion etc.
Identifying a pattern helps readers to ask the appropriate questions of a text aiding in the creation of a word bank of key words. Asking certain questions of a text can lead to the formation of more questions that need to be answered according to the prescribed or a decided pattern. Writing focused on answering questions is stronger and provides more depth on the subject. Creating a list of key words in relation to the pattern adds variety as well as keeps the writing more focused on the topic and idea presented. Having a clear focus, variety in words, depth along with a clear voice all help I producing well written work.

Word For Word

Like any good book these chapters are progressive and increasingly more concise after setting the stage and laying out the major ground rules. I liked the idea Right brain/left brain specific sentence structure feeding both halves strong clearly worded and visually relative information. More senses stimulated positively, a better response is elicited and the mind/body is able to better retain the information over a longer period of time. That idea also reminded me of a lesson i had last semester in how to structure an effective lesson plan leading it with a good anchor. Creating an anchor that stimulates both the right and left halves of the brain, and other senses as well, allows for a more relatable and memorable learning experience. The book touches on the importance of verbs in relation to languages. Having a solid "verb bank", as I've coined it, is key to better understanding and being very proficient with any language learned. As neglected as I often feel as a physical education major in these education courses, i browsed the content specific verbs and found a good relation to biology as those verbs are commonly used verbs in my content area of physical; all those "prefixes, suffixes and roots."

In Fifty Words or Less...

This is my favorite chapters so far because of the tips it presents for writers to be specific and clear with the ideas they want to present.   While I like to think I am a good writer, or at least I know how to present my ideas well enough with minimal grammatical and a good voice I know there is room for improvement; When writing research papers, while the goal generally is to "meet the quota" I'd much rather be more concise with my writing.  I think the "budget of fifty words" is a good trainer to weed out the main ideas of the topic to be written about to lessen rambling and inclusion of empty words and unnecessary information.  The use of action words/key words and connectors are points to keep in mind while writing as an introductory lesson for beginner writers or a refresher for more experiences writers.  Questioning the event is also a good way to list out the main ideas and be used for evaluation to help determine the usability of the facts.  Overall it's a solid breakdown of word and grammar usage to create more effective sentences.

Making the case

As I read this chapter I found myself laughing at the examples the author gave in relation to writing and the impact spelling has on the structure. There definitely time when I will restructure a sentence or “dumb it down” if I am unsure of the correct spelling or meaning of a word I thought of using. In cases like that I often look up the word for reassurance but if I don’t have access to a dictionary or thesaurus, either physical or digital, I find myself simplifying my sentences. If I do that this a moderately trained writer I’m sure younger writers adopt similar habits if not more. I agree when assigning a paper, a student should create an outline but they should also create a Pre-Writing Spelling List to practice writing words, topics and ideas they want to include. The pre-writing spelling list also is a great addition if not a starting point to a good outline. Students can create a pool of words and ideas to choose from to expand on in their paper; each word can be the topic for a paragraph. Along with spelling “terminology” was another point made that goes well with creating a word list. “Talk the talk” as the author states. Using the appropriate terminology in a paper provides more depth, credibility.

Concise and to the point: Framing and evaluating the task

Reading chapter 2 gave me a flashback to my first college English class or I think it was a Literature class.  After receiving or first or second papers, my professor held a class solely on "eliminating unnecessary words. While I was good at writing, I would often follow similar padding tactics on papers if I was rushing or uninterested in the topic.  It was usually because they only assessed my knowledge of the subject and nothing more.  After my professor talked to us about being more efficient with our writing, it gave me a better approach and understanding as to how to express my thoughts.  My second flashback was of an assignment I was given to create a lesson plan utilizing the 3^rd and 4^th levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.  I created a draft of the plan, discussed it with my professor and while he thought it was good and interactive it only satisfied the 1^st and 2^nd levels.  I was a bit of a challenge to create a thorough 20 min lesson that would give the students knowledge and comprehension of the material but also ask them to apply and analyze the information they received.  Teachers often get lazy and don’t put the effort into creating thorough lessons either after years of teaching, just in general and or they simply don’t realize they aren’t including those higher levels or learning.  I wish this simplification of the process was taught more and or better taught as early as middle school so many enter high school and college with better preparation and also with more confidence.  Granted my content area is physical education and rarely assign lengthy written assignments, like was discussed in the reading from last week I feel once students have a better understanding of how to express their thoughts and words on paper, they are better at expressing themselves verbally as it is connected.  It’s a skill that benefits all content areas.

Errors and Guiding Principles

"Errors"reminds me of my conflict when I comes to speaking and writing in Spanish and now Portuguese. As I'm still learning both languages, I struggle to find and arrange words to get my thoughts and intentions out or to be grammatically correct which resorts to me having to look it up using a translator or dictionary. In talking to friends who were going through a similar issue learning English it seemed more important to create what they wanted to say to simply use the language and then after making that attempt criticize it correcting the errors made not to interrupt and discourage communication . This reading also reminded me of a conversation with another friend, on the topic of differentiated learning, whereas I'm a visual learner while he is more auditory. When I'm learning things especially another language I need to hear the words, speak them but more importantly write and see the word; Seeing the word is what 'ties it all together' for me.
Guiding principles speaks of a time and place for types of writing especially as it relates to different content areas. It also encouraged and gave examples of positives teaching strategies to encourage learning and maintain eustress. Like a trainer was discussing with me in at my trapeze training session earlier, she said "I find it better to tell people why they should do it a certain way. They usually forget it anyway but I made the effort and for most eventually it'll stick. We were talking about how to use concise and efficient instruction in classes with new students.

Writing across the Curriculum

Reading these two articles reminded me of a conversation i had woth a family friend who is a librarian in the DOE and her son who has observed this topic through personal observations and ddis ussoons with his mother. We were duscussing my plans to teach, his plans to design programs for biochemistry company's and somehow stumbled onto the topic of the absence of writing fundamentals. He stated in order to have a better mastery of coding and the various language programs, one needed to have strong reading and writing skills. " You have to know the rules so you know how to break them" was an old saying that came to mind, especially in relation to the shorthand used in coding programs. That idea is exactly what the first reading "Programs in Writing Across the Curriculum" also states, "writing is vital to most subjects".
The second reading elaborated further on the topic giving me a better understanding and elaborated more on one of the major focuses of the Common Core which promotes "writing to learn". It highlights an association that it expands on and then clarifies whereas writing is a good source of input and not solely output, an assessment or even punishment. It pushes the idea of having students write as much as they can to promote reading and also learning. One interesting point it mention reminded me of the topic from last weeks discussion and reding in relation to language, discourse and the dominant cultural model. Often adults will dismiss children's scribbles as meaningless and nonsensical because they don't understand it. This reminded me of how the Europeans may have viewed the Native Americans when they first colonized dismissing the relevance of their language, culture and values.

Discourse Analysis

While I don’t believe all discourse analysis is inherently political and critical as Gee suggests, I do believe that often is the case.  The 3 readings reminded me of a topic being discussed in another of my classes whereas education, in its origins in this country, is a means of control.  Although it has evolved into a much larger and critical portion of today’s society education still is a somewhat deceivingly efficient method of dominance; Training individuals to be seemingly knowledgeable, productive, morally sound, law abiding citizens while securing the classes’ unbalanced state with little to no growth or upward mobility.  The elite create an ideology promoted by the intellectuals for all to follow through education, having teaching individuals to confirm to a limited cultural model.

In Language, the narrator talks about the idea of “the oppressors’ language” in relation to various ethnic groups but mainly focusing on blacks here in the United States.  Black Africans, being displaced, took bits and parts of the English language creating their own form of the English language in order to communicate and progress.  Similar to how the British viewed American English as a bastardized form of their language, so did the well educated Americans when viewing the southern black vernacular.  When submitted in use in critical essays, editors would correct it according to Standard English claiming it needed to reach a more inclusive audience.  Gee spoke of two principles that serve as the basis of ethical human communication and interaction, the second being of people having a moral obligation to change a cultural model into a primary theory when there is reason to believe that the cultural model advantages oneself or one’s group over other people or other groups.  The rejection of the usage of the southern black vernacular in works of literature as a means of introducing another cultural model to me is a clear example of long standing political views.

Although my primary language is English and British English at that, my recent experience in Brazil as well my experiences immigrating to New York as well as growing up in Corona, Queens allowed me a find a better connection with the stories told in Eleanor Klutz’s Outsider to Insider”.  I moved to New York when I was 9 and it was a bit of a culture shock adapting most everything I learned as being ‘right’ to what was ‘a better way’ as a classmate told me and basically trying to fit in speaking as ‘proper’ as I did.  Living in a Mexican and Dominican dominate area of Queens where most of my friends spoke Spanish was another experience.  Hearing them converse and Spanish and or Spanglish and usually not understand what was being said around me.  When spoken to in English, at times I did not understanding the meaning/context of some of the words and the slang spoken being that most because I recently moved to the country.  While that didn’t entirely compares to the experience of Quy, Abby or Sophia, my trip to Brazil gave me such an understanding as to what it’s like to feel like an outsider.  While in Brazil I had the opportunity to take martial arts classes.  While acquiring the movement patterns was as difficult as in any other setting, trying to understand and analyze the instructions and corrections was at times discouraging.  I often didn’t want to speak or would only speak in response to a question.  I was determined to get through each class and learn as much of the language and the skills I could but it was a factor I had to deal with but I was able to work through it positively; I’m used to throwing myself “into the fire”.  I felt the more I learned in those classes, the better I would be mentally, physically and definitely verbally far as being able to converse in somewhat complete sentences and not just fragments.

I felt Gee’s analysis on the theory was well explained especially highlighting the impact the cultural models we hold have.  I thought of the good 4 Agreements, namely the first agreement ‘be impeccable with your word’.  Words all have a story attached to them and it’s important to know that story to actually understand the word.  That story as a variety of influences that are internal, external, conscious and unconscious and even in the same cultural model will vary vastly from person to person.  With that in mind many of those same sources, the people and things that influence the story, are often influenced by those well aware of the power of a word and use their model as the basis when establishing societies; A dominant cultural model helps maintains social order on a larger scale. 

Language and the use of the language is a powerful tool.