Books, the Key to Imagination

Carol Jago’s 2010 NCTE Presidential Address: “To Cherish the Interests of Literature.”

Summary: Among other ideas, Carol Jago, president of the National Council of Teachers of English, suggests that technology is robbing students of imagination which is encouraged when children read. It was Joseph Conrad who defined his purpose for writing as “My task is by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make you feel—it is, before all, to make you see.”

Some other quotes by Jago:

“Students already addicted to their hand-held devices may soon spend every waking minute plugged into some digital device.”

“Speaking in a commencement address to graduates of the Stanford School of Education, Elliot Eisner (CEO of Disney, 2006) argued that ‘imagination is the neglected stepchild of American education. Questions invite you in. They stimulate the production of possibilities…. And the best ones are those that tickle the intellect and resist resolution.’ ”

“Some argue that it doesn’t matter that students no longer have the patience for words on the page.”

“Are books the old order? Have they, like Camelot, run their course? Is it time teachers simply accepted that today’s students no longer have the time or patience to read anything more complex than a series of Tweets?”

“The economist Edward Castronovo reports that what we are seeing among the youth population is a mass exodus from the real world to virtual worlds” (McGonigal, 2010).

Comment: A timely address. The challenge is to bring back the book, bring back the imagination. Develop the time and patience to read. RayS.

Title: “To Cherish the Interests of Literature.” The 2010 NCTE Presidential Address. Research in the Teaching of English (February 2011), 337-343.

Research: Comprehension

Summary: In response to reading Leah’s Pony, students were asked “What are some signs of hard times?” The publishers expected such answers as “Crops aren’t growing well,” “Businesses are doing badly.” Students’ actual responses included “When you get kicked out of your house,” “When there is not much food left” and “When…my sisters get taken away.”

Comment: What is the meaning of this research? Students haven’t learned the game of playing “give them (adults) what they want.” Instead, they said what the concept of “hard times” meant to them personally, not as they were depicted in the book.

In preparing students to read the book or as reflection on the book, personal experience should be invited. But to develop comprehension skills, students need to answer the questions according to the text. Their personal responses count as part of their reflections on the meaning of the text, but not when involved in comprehending the text. I.A. Richards pointed out this fallacy by students when they read literature—substituting personal experience for the ideas in the text (Practical Criticism).

Title: Announcing the 2010Alan C Purvis Award Recipient. Committee: S Filkins, D. Lloyd. S Looker. “What Hard Times Meant: Mandated Curriculum, Class-Privileged Assumptions and the Lives of Poor Children.” Elizabeth Dutro. Research in the Teaching of English Vol. 44, No. 2, February 2010), in Research in the Teaching of English (February 2011), 335-336.

Research: Plagiarism

Question: What is “common knowledge” vs. needs to be cited as references?

Answer: Summary: Deciding what is common knowledge vs. what needs to be cited as a reference is a tricky situation.

“…what one group considers common knowledge may not be so for another.” P. 308.

“”The heterogeneous nature of communities creates a situation whereby ‘common knowledge’ is not a stable construct but rather one in continual dynamic movement.” P. 309.

“The dynamic nature of common knowledge and the heterogeneous nature of community highlight the challenges of university students…. As novice writers, students ‘are forced into a guessing game. To cite or not to cite?” (England, 2008, p. 110). It is a difficult decision because not citing the source of a piece of special knowledge could be read as plagiarism.” P. 310.

Reasons students gave for not citing:

.Material drawn from classroom learning. “I learnt it sometime ago (in high school). There is no need to give references for information or knowledge learnt in the past.”

.Material drawn from a published source. “I did not cite the reference because it’s kind of information or fact, not an opinion.”

.Material drawn from unidentified prior reading.” I just take a whole bunch of stuff, think about it awhile and then come up with my own ideas.”

.Material drawn from classroom learning. “This is from lecture notes [handout] by the instructor. I didn’t think it warranted a citation.”

.Material drawn from published source. “That’s general information so I do not need to cite.”

.Material drawn from unidentified prior reading. “I did not indicate the source because I couldn’t remember where I read it.”

.Materials drawn from a published source. “I just kind of took it in my own words. It’s general information that I knew before.”

pp. 316-317.

Comment: This article is a “keeper.” I remember reading a New Yorker article in which the author (whose name I can’t remember in a copy of the magazine the date of which I don’t know) showed that everyone in the media commits plagiarism all the time. The author said that there’s a pretty thin line between common knowledge and specialized knowledge needing to be cited. The practical effect of worrying about what needs to be cited is that no one will write anything for fear of committing plagiarism. After reading this article, I feel that way myself as I write this blog. I make a good faith effort to credit my sources, but, as in the New Yorker piece I don’t sometimes remember where I found the information. And the idea is too good not to write it. RayS.

Title: “Common Knowledge, Learning and Citation Practices in University Writing.” Ling Shi. Research in the Teaching of English (February 2011), 308-334.

Research: Pre-writing, Revision and Quality of Timed Essays

Question: How do pre-writing and revision affect scores of timed essays?

Source: Worden, D. L. (2009). Finding process in product: Prewriting and revision in timed essay responses. Assessing Writing, 14(3), 157–177.

Answer: Examines the occurrence of prewriting and revision in 890 timed essays of university students, and the impact of prewriting and revision on student scores. Finds that prewriting and revision do occur in timed essay responses. Also finds that prewriting is associated with higher scores, while revision is associated with lower scores.

Comment: I’d be interested in how the researchers were able to determine that pre-writing and revision occurred in these timed writing samples. I’m not sure what to think about the conclusion that pre-writing affected writing quality positively, but that revision affected writing quality negatively. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” Richard Beach et al. Research in the Teaching of English (November 2010), Internet. Note: The editors of RTE said that so much research was available they did not want to burden the paper edition of the journal with it, so they relegated their annotated reports on research to the Internet.

Research: Workload and Feedback for Student Writers

Question: How does workload affect the amount of attention teachers can give to student writing?

Source: Lee, M. (2009). Rhetorical roulette: Does writing-faculty overload disable effective response to

student writing? Teaching English in the Two-Year College, 37(2), 165–177.

Answer: Examines the relationship between faculty workload and the quality of written feedback to student essays. Analyzes survey results and copies of student papers with feedback from 15 English faculty representing five schools.

Finds that work-load influences the amount based on average comment length and focus of feedback with faculty with higher work-loads providing less extensive feedback that might foster writing improvement. Suggests the importance of maintaining reasonable faculty workloads in terms of providing quality writing instruction.

Comment: The key words are “…might foster writing improvement.” Many students are confused by teacher comments on their writing. I’m still looking for research on student responses to the clarity of faculty feedback on their writing. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” Richard Beach et al. Research in the Teaching of English (November 2010), Internet. Note: The editors of RTE said that so much research was available they did not want to burden the paper edition of the journal with it, so they relegated their annotated reports on research to the Internet.

Research: College Faculty Criteria for Writing

Question: What do college faculty look for in students’ writing?

Source: Kreth, M., Crawford, M. A., Taylor, M., & Brockman, E. (2010). Situated assessment: Limitations

and promise. Assessing Writing, 15(1), 40–59.

Answer: “Analyzes results of a four-year writing assessment project from 2002–2006 at Central Michigan

University involving an initial survey/focus group of 115 faculty members regarding their writing

assignments and perceptions of students’ writing quality followed by an analysis of student

writing samples.

“Finds that few faculty gave more than six writing assignments or assignments longer than six pages, with the essay exam being the most common assignment, followed by critical analysis and research papers.

“Faculty perceived the features of ‘good’ writing first in terms of ‘correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling,’ followed by organization, clarity, logic/critical thinking, and support for claims, with 86% indicating that they found the latter two evident in only ‘some’ or ‘few’ of their students’ writing.”

Comment: If the most frequent writing assignment was the essay exam, it’s no wonder that the students did not produce correct grammar, punctuation and spelling. With the essay exam, students don’t have enough time to smooth the grammar.

Do the college faculty ever discuss with students how to write an essay exam? Here’s a suggestion: If the question is “What were the causes of X-War?” the students make the first sentence the thesis sentence, “The causes of X-War were the need for geographical expansion, economic expansion and the ambition of the king.” The first set of paragraphs in the body of the exam deals with geographical expansion, the next set of paragraphs deals with economic expansion and the final set of paragraphs deals with the king’s ambition. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” Richard Beach et al. Research in the Teaching of English (November 2010), Internet. Note: The editors of RTE said that so much research was available they did not want to burden the paper edition of the journal with it, so they relegated their annotated reports on research to the Internet.

Research: Peer Assessment

Question: What do college students think of peer assessment?

Source: Kaufman, J., & Schunn, C. D. (2010). Students’ perceptions about peer assessment for writing: Their origin and impact on revision work. Instructional Science, 38.

Answer: “Examines the factors that influence university students’ resistance to online peer assessment. Two hundred fifty students from six universities participated in the study by completing a survey about online peer assessment. Finds that students were more positive about peer assessment if an instructor graded their work in addition to peers’. Also finds that students sometimes regard peer assessment as unfair, and often believe that peers are unqualified to assess their work.”

Comment: What does “peer assessment” mean? Students are grading other students’ papers? I’m agin’ it. RayS.

Title: “Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English.” Richard Beach et al. Research in the Teaching of English (November 2010), Internet. Note: The editors of RTE said that so much research was available they did not want to burden the paper edition of the journal with it, so they relegated their annotated reports on research to the Internet.