Blog 11: Writing

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     The first chapter discussed making student writing relevant and relatable. First, the author emphasized the importance of metacognition, or having students practice being cognisant of their own thinking and ideas. The author also discussed the difference between having students simply revise grammar mistakes and actually revising ideas and concepts. Further, the idea of connecting writing to the writing that students are doing outside the classroom was emphasized. Finally, the author pointed out that it is necessary for students to have real audiences to read their writing in order to give students' writing relevancy.
     The second chapter discussed the idea of multiple texts. Multiple texts are referring to the practice of having students read and write texts of different forms about the same topic. One way to do this is through integration of different texts with similar themes. The author emphasized the importance of using close reading with multiple texts, and suggested using one anchor text and introducing other texts branching off of the anchor texts.
     The practices of making student writing relevant to students' lives are very applicable to my content area. Since I will be in an English classroom, I want to give students as much choice as possible, so that they can pick different ways to communicate their ideas in writing. I have also considered the idea of multiple texts. One way I would like to incorporate this is to introduce more diverse texts into the curriculum. This idea was discussed at the IRC reading conference. Often texts in English curriculums may not be diverse or representative of all students in my classroom. I want to supplement these texts with other, more representational texts with similar themes. for example, The Great Gatsby deals with the failure of the "American Dream," which could be supplemented by other texts that deal with the failure of the American Dream for other populations (The Hate U Give, Piecing Me Together, etc.). This helps students get different perspectives on concepts and think about them in different ways.

Discussion Questions:
What are ways that multiple texts could be included in non-English content areas?
How can teachers incorporate multiple texts in writing?
How can teachers incorporate multiple texts without being overwhelemed?

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