Analytical Essay

Cristina Vera González
Language IX
Crystal Hickerson
27 May 2009

How To Teach Grammar

Sheila Wright, Robin Albretch, Morgan Blanton, and Stephanie Bogaert, in their “Strategies for Teaching Grammar in Context”, argue that “the most effective way to teach grammar is by teaching it in the contexts of students’ own writing”. After reading and analyzing their argument, I shall argue that, eventhough they base their opinions on different authors’ statements, which are not totally reliable since there is not information provided about who those authors are and also about their occupations, they provide a compelling argument based on research and tips for teachers which explains that teaching grammar in context is more effective than teaching it in isolation.

In order to develop their statement for the teaching of grammar within the context where students are writing, the authors, after gathering information provided by other authors, they support their idea by including implications of their theory, including strategies and advice for teachers such as conferencing and teaching minilessons. Further concern is found in the fact that teachers may be interested to know what this grammar into practice would look like in their own classrooms in order to know how students’ authentic writing work in class, since teaching grammar in this way “is the key for transferring the knowledge into their own writing.” Finally, the authors agree on the idea that, after researching formal and informal grammar, both types should be taught within students’ contexts.

What makes these findings more reliable in terms of teachers’ needs according to what the authors point out, is that based on the research they did, they give teachers recommendations in order to make the process more meaningful. They say that teaching grammar in context can be done by “conferencing and teaching minilessons basedon authentic students’ writing.” They also claim that this process work depending on the students’ needs. They advice teachers to conference with students about their writing skills, then, after have gathered enough information; they would be able to use it for minilessons which mean a real benefit for students in terms of the feedback that they can receive.


Even though the authors support their statement with different and very strong thoughts from other authors, in terms of evidence, they fail to show studies or figures which may help the readers understand why it is more udeful and more effective to teach grammar in context that teaching it in isolation.

While I think that this is a reasonable concern for teachers to as themselves why is it more effective to teach grammar in context that teaching it in isolation as the authors of this article state, I do not think that this is a reliable enough work where people can find reasons and relevant evidence for what the authors argue. Nonetheless, the information provided by the other authors existent in the text, opens a space for critical thinking and further discussion and research.

So, even if one thinks that the authors are a bit careless on the quality of their research, I think that they put the effort on discussing and providing information from other authors which support their idea on teaching grammar in context for developing students’ writing skills, althought they should have shown research done in school to demonstrate how effective is what they state.

References:

Wright, S. et, al. “Strategies for Teaching Grammar in Context.” UNCC (June, 2006).

Annotation and Book Review Corrected

Annotation

What teachers can Do to Improve Test ScoresBurns, David. “Will I do as well on the final exam as I expect? An examination of students’ expectations.” Journal of the scholarship of teaching and learning 8.3 (2008): 1-19. Some people might believe that talking about expectations only refers to personal thoughts and feelings about the performance before an examination. However, due to the fact that most of the time these expectations take part of the students’ evaluative process, these have been included as a field of study. Burns tries to demonstrate how these previous expectations may affect the score results. He explains the methodology in a very well organized way, in order to present the main four attribution factors that may affect students’ expectations, which are: Self Handicapping, Test Anxiety, Time Spent Studying and Absences. After having all the results, four hypotheses were obtained based on the students’ tendencies to each one of the attribution factors. After the data was interpreted, the results showed that there is not any relationship between the previous expectations and the performance. Since this was proved, expectations may no longer be an issue that affects students’ performance, so it is important for teachers not to consider this as an influence in students’ results.

Book Review

The Challenge of the First Year Teaching

Teaching can be defined by as many adjectives as each one of the experiences can provide, teachers may disagree on what other people may say about it, however, we can agree on the fact that is the most unexpected job in the world. Facing a group of students is always a different experience. Teachers who have just graduated tend to feel scared, threatened and anxious about their first day of work is going to be like. In all aspects, first impressions and first experiences can be crucial for the objectives we want to achieve; for teachers, these can even be more important because their main goals are related not only to giving contents to students for them to learn them, but also to educate them for life; offering the tools so that they can find their own opportunities to grow.

These 25 stories told by teachers from EUA nationwide, tell how hopeful and encouraging teaching can be. True tales about how teaching, as the most challenging job, influenced their lives. It provides information about experiences of working with handicapped, gifted, privileged and disadvantaged students, and also how dealing with immigrants, inner city diversity, discrimination and poor self esteem was like. It is stated that for each one of those teachers it was not the experience of the first year, but they are still in the labor of teaching, maybe not in the same place, but still struggling in order to make the school system better.This book is especially devoted to people who are contemplating teaching as a profession and for the teachers who need to be re enchanted. Each tale will give a sense of hope in each one’s teaching spirit. It offers from personal experiences to fresh perspectives and reliable guidance to the people in the path of choosing their future professions.
Since children are agents of change, as teachers should be as well, this book is a fundamental help for feeling that if we are committed to the school and to the students; we can succeed in our first year as a teacher.

Book Review

The Challenge of the First Year Teaching

Teaching can be defined by as many adjectives as each one of the experiences can provide, teachers may disagree on what other people may say about it, however, we can agree on the fact that is the most unexpected job in the world. Facing a group of students is always a different experience. Teachers who have just graduated tend to feel scared, threatened and anxious about their first day of work is going to be like. In all aspects, first impressions and first experiences can be crucial for the objectives we want to achieve; for teachers, these can even be more important because their main goals are related not only to giving contents to students for them to learn those, but also to educate them for life; offering the tools so they can find their own opportunities to grow.

These 25 stories told by teachers from EUA nationwide, tell how hopeful and encouraging teaching can be. True tales about how teaching, as the most challenging job, influenced their lives. It provides information about experiences of working with handicapped, gifted, priviliged and disadvataged students, and also how dealing with immigrants, inner city diversity, discrimination and poor self esteem was like. It is stated that for each one of those teachers it was not the experience of the first year, but they are still in the labour of teaching, maybe not in the same pace, but still struggling in order to make the school system better.

This book is especially devoted to people who are contemplating teaching as a profession and for the teachers who need to be re enchanted. Each tale will give a sense of hope in each one’s teaching spirit. It offers from personal experiences to freah perspectives and reliable guidance to the people in the path of choosing their future professions. Since children are agents of change, as well as teachers should be, this book is a fundamental help for feeling that if we are commited to the school and the students, we can succeed in ouur first year as a teacher.

Annotation

What teachers Can Do to Improve Test Scores

Burns, David. “Will I do as well on the final exam as I expect? An examination of students’ expectations.” Journal of the scholarship of teaching and learning 8.3 (2008): 1-19. Some people might believe that talking about expectations only refers to personal thoughts and feelings about the performance before an examination. However, due to the fact that most of the time these expectations take part in the students’ evaluative process, these have been included as a field of study. Burns tries to demonstrate how these previous expectations may affect the score results. He explains the methodology in a very well organized way in order to present the main four attribution factors that may affect students’ expectations, which are: Self Handicapping, Test Anxiety, Time Spent Studying and Absences. After having all the results, four hypotheses were obtained based on the students’ tendencies to each one of the attribution factors. After the data was interpreted, the results showed that there is not any relationship between the previous expectations and the performance. Since this was proved, expectations may no longer be an issue that affects students’ performance, so it is important for teachers not to consider this as an influence in students’ results.

Useful Information

5 Online academic or profesional journals:

1.- “Education atlas”

http://www.educationatlas.com/education-reference-journals.html

This site provides information of all kinds of Education issues. It is very interesting, organized and useful.

2.- “Current issues in Education”

http://cie.asu.edu/articles/index.html

The journals that are shown here offer information about the current issues in Education worldwide.

3.- “The International Journal of Teacher Leadership” (IJTL)

http://www.csupomona.edu/~ijtl/

This offers aprox 5 papers per volume, each volume is released every 2 years aprox.

4.- “Teaching Educational Psychology”

http://www.teachingeducpsych.org/

Since Students’ behaviour is connected to the way they perform in the lessons, this website is very helpful in order to find information about the origin of their problems.

5.- “The Internacional Electronic Journal for leadership in learning”

http://www.ucalgary.ca/~iejll/

This provides intersting information. The main idea of the articles offered here are about how to succed in learning strategies.

All these websites are totally free. You have access to all the information that they provide without paying and without subscribing.

3 online databases that reference education-related journals.

1.- “Journal Seek”

http://journalseek.net/educ.htm

In this database you can find plenty of journals related to the education field. It gives the different categories and the amount of journals that you can find on it. The only drawback is that you can not read the full text , you have to subscribe.

2.- “Google”

www.google.com

Most of the people may think that this is only an online researcher, it is, but apart from the websites, this also provides information about books, and the online version of some books.

Religion in the Classroom

It is said that religion is one of the topics we should never talk about in a small talk conversation, especially with someone we do not know. Since any different religion means a different belief, this is used to turning into a very controversial issue because of the reactions that may exist while talking. However, this certainly goes beyond small talk conversations, especially when it is about teaching students how to handle this topic at schools, regarding the fact that most of the Educational Systems do not encourage to teach about religion, but always a specific one.

When students are in their first years of primary education, usually (depending on the school) the whole class is taught the same religion, few years later, the children are able to choose if they want to be taught or not. This is for the families to teach them according their own beliefs. Nevertheless, if we talk about primary students who are people being raised by their families or any people closed to them, we can tell that they express themselves by the beliefs they have been taught; their faith is used to being strong and impossible to question as well.

While the years have gone by, being part of the Religion course, has lost all interest that it had once, students do not know what to believe in therefore, it is not motivating for them to be taught something that does not represent meaningful learning at all. Tp continue with this issue, the article posted in The Washington Post by Pamela K. Taylor, named: “Don’t teach Religion, teach about Religion," tends to answer why students have distanced themselves from Religion as a discussion issue. Despite the fact that new Education policies should be created about teaching Religion, this is where the teachers’ role takes place.
It is supposed that students are educated as critical thinkers; therefore teachers should not impose contents, instead, discussions should be opened for students to express their thoughts, so that everyone can learn one from the other.

Religion in the classroom is an issue where the teacher should behave neutral. This person should inform the children about the different cultures, their history and rituals, and also, give them the tools to be able to socialize and dicuss with people who believe differently from them. Educators are learning facilitators and models of respect as well, thus, students do not behave violently and are not intolerant either, while discussing.


Bibliography:
Taylor K, Pamela. "Don't teach Religion, Teach about Religion." On Faith. Mar 2007. The Washington Post <http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/pamela_k_taylor/2007/03/dont_teach_religion_teach_abou.html>.
Kafer, K. "Hoe to Teach Religion in Public Schools." Press. Aug 2002. The Heritage Foundation.
<http://www.heritage.org/press/commentary/ed083102.cfm>.

FORMALITY AND OBJECTIVITY

When we talk about academic writing, we refer to many characteristics that make it reliable. Two of these are: Formality and Objectivity

Formality: The main idea of this is to avoid colloquial language, such as “everyday speaking expressions”, swear words, contractions, abbreviations, phrasal verbs, “etc”.
For example:
-It is better to use the word “depart” rather “go”.
INFORMAL: She went at 4 pm.
FORMAL: She departed at 4:00 pm.

-We can use the word “opportunity” than “chance”.
IMFORMAL: You will just just one more chance to fulfill the objectives.
FORMAL: You will have one more opportunity to fulfill the objectives.

Objectivity: In academic writing, this concept aims for giving the reader only what is needed for him/her to be informed, it means, only the information, not what the author thinks or believe or what him/her has experienced in relation with the topic. The author should be more professional than personal for the ideas he/she gives.
For example:
“In my point of view this experience has been a great contribution…”

Exercise: Try to turn the following sentence, which is written in informal language, into formal language.
“Most people take drug overdoses because they find that it's difficult to sort out their problems clearly. That's why you should treat your patients in a clear way”.