blog 10

First, I'm not quite sure I agree with Williams' assertion on page 308 about students with good vocabulary using having better writing skills, and, therefore, standardized testing on vocab is a good measure of a student's writing ability. I've never used or even SEEN one, but don't they make those SAT vocab books? How easy would it be to memorize those meanings, memorize a few of the sentences the word is used in, and pass the test that way? Even if students aren't passing the vocab section that way, I really can't agree that having a good vocabulary means you're a good writer. Now, if the student scores well on, say, the reading comprehension part, I'd be willing to agree that student has a good grasp of writing. Good readers are usually good writers. Not always, but usually.

On pages 309-10, Williams talks about the correlation between performance and funding, and that there is very little correlation between more funding and higher performance. He references schools out in Ohio that were given plenty of funding, but had low performance and average to above-average performing schools had less funding. Who would have guessed that some problems just can't be solved by throwing money at it? (I hope you caught the sarcasm..) It doesn't matter what kind of books or technologies a school has. If the teachers are lazy and the students don't care, performance is going to be low. We need teachers who are willing to inspire students to work hard and actually learn some things. That's a hard task...humongous, really. But it takes time and perseverance to get through to ALL students.

Similarly, if students are going to learn anything about writing, we need to be willing to invest time into giving detailed, constructive comments to our students. Like Adrienne, there's nothing I hate more than an 88% on a paper with a "Great Job!" at the top and no comments. If I'd done a "great job," wouldn't I have gotten a 100%? Page 316 provides some good tips for evaluating papers. One of the ones I liked especially was reading each paper twice. Not every mistake or good point of a paper is going to shine through the first time. We need to slow down and really devote some quality time to each paper. Now, I know that's a little idealistic, but if we're going to teach these kids about writing, we're going to have to go above and beyond. As mentioned in class and in previous chapters of Williams' book, writing is a complicated process, and progression to becoming a better writer is slow. Feedback is essential if they're ever going to get better.