Elise Harmening ENGL 481 Action Research Paper May 6, 2012 Reflecting on Journals

This semester I had the unique opportunity to create and implement a unit for an 8th grade class at Awesome-Town Middle School. The unit is on the novella Flowers for Algernon which is written in a journal format. The majority of the unit is directed through a reading journal that the students fill out as they go. There have been many advantages to this reading journal but also some serious problems. Ultimately, reading an entire novel during class without the ability to give any homework has been a challenge in itself. The journal proved to be an organizational tool that seems to have been moderately overwhelming and ultimately frustrating for many of my students. Considering how to create and design a unit based on writing and reading is a daunting task and must be fully thought through and engaging for the students. Mundane daily tasks provide little to no meaningful learning, and this journal unit proves just that. Overall, the level of engagement for this activity suffered, despite glimmers of effective material. The journal (attached) is a means of organization for the entire unit. As a teacher, it was a large amount of work at the beginning, but allows me to see exactly where I am going with the unit and can help me to diffuse work as the rest of the unit goes.

The following is a brief sample from the journal:

The packet allows for a simple way for students to keep on task and complete any make-up work. There are a series of activities each day that include directions and are self-explanatory. This helps with classroom management, as students can function almost completely independently. Students can refresh their memory through the directions on the page, and do not have to go further than they need to because the days activities are clearly marked. This is also a great teaching tool because the teacher can easily see the progress of the students and evaluate the material on a daily basis. I chose to collect the packets every day so I can look through and evaluate their understanding. The students do not have to keep track of the packet, and I am assured that the students will have them every day to work out of. It is very easy to see if there is a student that I need to catch up, or if there is someone that is not understanding the material. Also, it is an easier way to grade a cumbersome assignment by breaking it up day by day. The responses are relatively short and it is easy to read, respond, and grade their daily work. This being said, I looked back on the journal I created with a new perspective when considering Atwells work, In The Middle: Writing, Reading, and Learning with Adolescents. She discusses her desire to thrust greatness upon her students, and provides countless examples of the great writing she is encouraging her students to complete. Ultimately, I have to see my journal as a series of exercises, as Atwell was accused of as well (Atwell, 11). As you can see in the packet, there are opportunities for students to answer a particular prompt as well as the chance to respond in their own creative way or write about what they think is important in response to the text. I thought that this was an effective scaffolding method for my students to work through the text. I was wrong; I stifled my students. I took away the process of discovery through

language and expected a certain mode of learning (Murray, 2). Looking at the responses from each of my students, there was little to no creativity and everyone responded to the prompt I provided. Murray continues to outline the importance of the student finding the subject to have a successful writing experience (Murray, 4). Following the example of Atwell, I should have taken a step back and let my students really learn. She stopped being the assignment-giver, testmaker, paper-corrector and actually worked with her students and scaffolded their work individually. No matter the process, she was able to create a space for real writing and thinking. In my classroom, I had prescribed lesson plans, certain reading to be completed within the day, and a response that I expected at the end of class. I did not use the generic worksheet method, but I feel that I could have really taken this story further if I let my students write about something they really cared about. If I could have taken more time for this unit, I would have seen that I could have a journal for them to respond to but scaffolded the lesson in a different way. Instead, I could have considered having the students work as a class to respond to and think about what the first few progress reports were about. Next, I could have them work in small groups maybe and respond to a few more sections. By the end, hopefully the students would have the confidence and tools to create their own response and really think and analyze what is going on in the story. This would have lowered their affective filter and created a better learning environment overall, by increasing student engagement and deflecting the negativity associated with reading and writing in the context of this packet. On the students side, the packets are an easy way to keep up with what is going on in the class, and give the students a preview of where we are going. The students are able to look at what we are doing for the day, and mentally prepare themselves for that work. They can look

back at previous work to complete the work for that day, and have a record of all the writing and reading they have completed. This provides a sense of productivity and accomplishment for the students as they can see all the work they have completed. The packet is a constant reminder of the reading they completed and work they have been able to do. This opposes a series of worksheets that could be lost and forgotten, never to be used again. This packet however comes back and is a constant resource for the students as they continue to push through the text. It is a function of the journal that I utilize for a later project, a fakebook page. Additionally, for the students who are notoriously late, it is easy to pick up the packet and get to the spot that the rest of the class is on. They are able to easily catch up and see what they missed, without too much direction or disruption to the rest of the class. Considering there are about five students who are perpetually late, a daily disruption would be very difficult to manage. The packets help diffuse this type of disruption, especially as the students have gotten into the rhythm of the packet. On the other hand, the packet became a mediocre mediation between student comprehension and instructors comments. It was low stakes and almost meaningless to many of my students. I think if I were to create a space for the students to actually turn their journals into something more than just a reflection, viewed only by the instructor, their product would be much better. Atwell notes that her students were really motivated by publishing and in her class specifically, a contest (Atwell, 12). The ability to write for something that can be seen by others outside the classroom is huge. Reconsidering the journal idea, a series of blog posts may have encouraged the students to write more than one simple sentence for each response. Publishing to the world helps to encourage the best work from students, and gives an even greater sense of accomplishment. Students could easily share work with friends and family, and have a sense of

pride in what they do.

Reading through the basic journal responses, I noticed just how much my students were not enjoying the packet. While I cannot allow for a single student to discourage me, it is clear that a change needs to be made. His poem outlining the BORING nature of the packet reminds me of the process Atwell tried to impose on her students. This seems to be exactly what I did to my students. I forced a particular reading on my students with the guided prompts and reading journal. There are certain standards and requirements for each grade level to achieve by the end of the school year. The student still must learn the material, despite the potential mundane topic. The journal responses were supposed to engage the students in an understanding of a particular

theme of the text as we went through the entire novel (English Language Arts, Common Core Standards, RL.8.2). This could have been achieved through the use of a blog, as suggested earlier, or another more innovative and engaging way. Daily journaling is a great way to allow students to practice writing on a regular basis and has some positive scaffolding aspects to it. The journal allows students to practice writing, but also develop their own voice. As an instructor I am not looking to correct their work when reading through the journals, but rather to see that they are understanding the text and thinking about the material. This allows for the students to speak in their own personal dialect, and see that their language and culture are appreciated and understood. In the article, Scaffolding Instruction for English Language Learners: A Conceptual Framework Walqui writes that, students culture and language need to be appreciated and validated through class practices (Walqui, 160). By allowing the students to write and respond how they feel, I am allowing their own des and das to be a part of the accepted informal language in my classroom. To continue to appreciate and utilize the students culture and funds of knowledge to my advantage and theirs, I created an assignment through the journal for the students to create a fakebook page about the main character in the novel. The idea was to encourage students to look back at their journals to create a logical facebook page with status updates and comments from friends that we learned about in the book. This encouraged students to look back at their journals and dissect exactly what has happened so far, and what is important. The ideas they journaled about were a place to start, and a resource for those who were stuck. This activity was one of the few saving graces and truly meaningful elements of the journal. Students were engaged through the whole activity and asked for extra time to make their work even better.

Their interest in the format and excitement about using their creativity was more effective than any other activity and drove them to create something great.

Students took advantage of the open format and made the project their own. Some decided to use the computer to make the page, while others opted to draw by hand. Either way, the product was something more engaging and meaningful to the students than any journal they completed. This kind of activity helped to build on their knowledge of the reading without the negativity of the packet.

Building a unit based on reading and writing can be challenging for even the most experienced teacher. Students cultures and funds of knowledge are constantly changing and growing, especially with the new technology coming out daily. Activities that engage their funds of knowledge and interest are the most successful tools in helping students learn. This lesson can be brought into any classroom, but must be considered carefully. With changes to my plan, such as building in a blog, or publishing concept, encouraging students to write about what they find is important, and giving more freedom in my structure my unit would have been much more successful. This is a start, but not the end to my constant recreation of how I can step away from teaching and allow my students to learn.

Works Cited

Atwell, Nancie. In the Middle: Writing, Reading, and Learning with Adolescents. Upper Montclair, NJ: Boynton/Cook, 1987. Print. English Language Arts Common Core Standards Murray, Donald Morison, Thomas Newkirk, and Lisa C. Miller. The Essential Don Murray: Lessons from America's Greatest Writing Teacher. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook/Heinemann, 2009. Print. Walqui, Aida. "Scaffolding Instruction for English Language Learners: A Conceptual Framework." The International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism9.2 (2006): 159-80. Print.