Response 4: Assignment Template...

ASSIGNMENT TEMPLATE: ALIGNED TO CALIFORNIA’S COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS AND LITERACY

Looking ahead to fall quarter when I will be student teaching, I realize I will need to use some introductory techniques to gauge student ability before I launch them into the first novel of their curriculum. They will need to practice some pre-reading exercises and close reading techniques on some short relevant articles before tackling a novel.

In an attempt to satisfy the language CCSS, I could do a 10-15 minute segment every Friday on pertinent vocab and/or other relevant language components that popped up throughout the week. These language recaps could address definitions, pronunciations, origins, and any other language-based digressions. I could pick my own words the first couple of weeks then turn it over to the students; requiring each of them to submit a vocab word or language question each week or every other week.

I really like the “Mapping the Organizational Structure” technique on page 8: determining the introduction, body, and conclusion of a given article. This technique will help prepare them to write effectively in the future. The questions posed on page 11 under “Analyzing Stylistic Choices” strikes me as particularly useful during an Edgar Allan Poe unit. When thinking about the writer (ethos) of a text, I am reminded of my Global View Children’s Literature class. One of the most important ethos questions we raised was whether the author had to personally experience something in order to write legitimately about it. Page 16 echoes a tool I snagged from my English 408 class last quarter: every draft of every paper must identify topic, focus, purpose, and tone. Students must always know what they are writing and why they are writing it. Another nugget I gleaned from that class relates to “Composing a Draft” on page 19; first drafts must be more about writing and less about editing. Natalie Goldberg’s Wild Mind refers to it as turning off the editor brain and allowing oneself to write freely.