SED 445 Cheryl's Writing Space

After reading Turner and Hicks, I wanted to go back and reteach my argument unit.  Although I found Chapter 1 to be very dense in content, it was necessary to lay the groundwork for the rest of the book.  Chapters 2 and 3 provided so many activities that I could use in my classroom.  From my earliest education courses, professors have discussed ways to make learning meaningful.  Students need to connect to the content in a personal way in order to be vested and engaged.  A professor at CCRI used to say, "Kids need something to hang their hat on."  The activities that used Yelp and Amazon were excellent examples of how to engage students in digital writing by using content relevant to them.  Additionally, students had the opportunity to have real world experience in crafting rebuttals from the actual comments posted on their reviews.  Turner and Hicks state, "Careful reading of arguments in social media shows the ability to respond to counterclaims...

In reading the article, "No Longer a Luxury:  Digital Literacy Can't Wait," I found myself nodding to the five practices that destroy digital literacy.  I was not nodding in agreement, but acknowledging that I am guilty of doing each and every one in my classroom at one time or another.  This is truly an area that we, as educators, need to address.  The question is how to do this with educators who have been teaching for years?  Excellent teachers who may be intimidated to admit that something is new and unfamiliar.  In my building, we are fortunate to have great resources within our faculty.  Administration recognizes this and offers professional development sessions given by our faculty members.  In an effort to offer opportunities to teachers, information about software programs and Google apps/extensions is often relayed through an email.  Having a faculty member give a demonstration is far less intimidating for some as opposed to watchin...

Ms. Crenshaw's Ted Talk was one of the most powerful pieces of video that I have viewed in quite awhile.  As she read the list of names in the opening, I was curious to see who would remain standing and what they had in common.  Ms. Crenshaw stated, "If we can't see a problem, we can't fix a problem!"  Just as she shared how Emma struggled with multiple injustices, so do many of our students.  We have shared in class the many challenges that students bring into the classroom on a daily basis.  However, some students deal with one challenge, while others deal with many.  When these challenges intersect, how do we best serve the student?  Which challenge poses the greatest obstacles or is it a combination of them all?  Do these combinations change daily?  I'm willing to say they do, as they do for us as well.  The term intersectionality reminds us, as educators, to acknowledge the many challenges that some of our students face.  I wa...