Extra+Credit+Assignment

Kalpana M. Iyengar Dr. Lillemon Extra Credit Assignment 2/6/12 Jeff Anderson’s Keynote Speech Educator and writer, Anderson spoke about the //10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know// at the SAWP annual teacher conference this Saturday//.// This informational speech focused on several threads that teachers of writing must practice in their language arts classrooms to facilitate the love of writing in their students. The speaker based his arguments in the concept of neo-plasticity, where our brain is psychologically shaped by the instructions and guidance that teachers give their students. Our brain functions like the cross section of a tree trunk. It records all the experiences for future use in life. The speaker emphasized the value of teaching writing for the aesthetic value and not to train our students to take and pass standardized tests. He reminded teachers about how it becomes the obligation of every teacher to encourage the free flow of thoughts as against guided writing in classrooms across the disciplines. Students must be taught the benefits of writing such as – for expressing feelings, for cleansing, for therapeutic (confessional writing) purposes, and for building a network of people, etc. The speaker stressed on the lack of enthusiasm to use expository writing in today’s classrooms because of lack of trained teachers or the lack of models with this mode of writing. According to Anderson, “It’s not about finding an exact match. It’s about sharing authentic text”. If teachers provide students with writing models for expository writing, students will copy the model to begin with and later learn to write on their own. Students will be able to synthesize author’s moves to create their own message. The need for teachers and students to recognize the cognitive structure through modeling is crucial for “underdeveloped writers”. Models provide a linguistic data pool for students to emulate and learn. The ten factors things writing teachers must consider are as follows:
 * 1) Motion – Help keep the writer’s motivation
 * 2) Models – Show what successful writing is about
 * 3) Focus – Help with central idea/thesis
 * 4) Detail – Provide supporting details to augment the thesis
 * 5) Form – Use no formula, but form a tale
 * 6) Frame – Name the focus with beginning, middle, and conclusion
 * 7) Cohesion – Help with transitions and concrete ideas for support
 * 8) Energy – Discuss style and rhythm
 * 9) Words – Help with diction and expressive words
 * 10) Clutter – Take clutter out (“Let the rubber meet the road”)

The speaker referenced several resources to guide the participants with the above mentioned 10 essentials with writing. Bill Nye’s “Road to Knowledge”, Joyce Sideman’s “First Life”, Steven Jenkin’s “Bones”, etc were used as models. Reflection I teach writing to international students at a university in town, and some of my Students read at the elementary level and write at the middle school level. It is my responsibility to teach them both the fundamentals and the materials required for them to succeed across the disciplines. I teach the different rhetorical modes using models like Anderson emphasized. Linguists like Michael Halliday have agreed that reading enters into writing, especially in English Language Learners (ELL) like how speech enters into writing in the native speakers of English. So, it is important that writing teachers help students read and write simultaneously so the students become proficient and confident in both the language skills. I will begin using scientific texts to teach expository writing henceforth and "Bomes" looks like an interesting book for my ELL.