composition

Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher was recommended to me by a student in the early part of the semester, and I only now got a chance to read it. The story revolves around a high school junior named Clay Jensen, who mysteriously receives voice recordings of Hannah Baker, a classmate who committed suicide. It most likely falls into the YALit category, but I wouldn't let that deter you from reading it. This is a powerful story. It would make a great addition to a high school syllabus, especially in 9th or 10th grade. I don't want this to be a book review, though. That's not really why comPOSITION exists. Instead, I want to talk about this book's take on education and writing, especially education about writing. For Hannah, like real life student Phoebe Prince , writing became an outlet to address the confusion she was experiencing in her life. Hannah particularly took to writing poetry. It should also be noted that she made fun of the self-indulgent "miserable poets...

I saw this today on my way home from Staten Island, NY. Though defiling property is never recommended, I thought this particular piece of graffiti was rather awesome. I found myself staring at it as I waited for the traffic light to change. From the Elvis-like character to the use of shading and texture to the vibrant color pallet, I was wowed. I've seen graffiti before, as near as the fence outside my apartment building, but usually, it's standard run-of-the-mill scribbling. Someone quickly sprays a messy tag and leaves, without giving much thought. More often than not, they choose either black, white, or dark blue, and their creation is built from single lines of paint. But this one was really quite amazing. I can't even imagine how someone would get away with doing this. It was not only on the front of an abandoned house on a main street, but it must have taken quite some time to complete. I write about this, though, not because it's interesting to look at, but beca...

I was so astounded by the international readership of this blog that I decided to start keeping a record of the countries that have readers who have stopped by comPOSITION. The bright orange represents the many nations that make up my audience. I hope to see the whole may filled in one day! This application is created by interactive maps. You can also have your visited countries map on your site. If you see this message, you need to upgrade your flash player.   Make your visited countries map Flash charts

Just a little something to make you smile when writing gets you down, a short video about the fight with writing, created with Xtranormal . I also think Xtranormal is a great resource for teachers and students. I've seen some really creative uses of it, including practicing arguments and counterarguments and writing mini dramas. I also think it would be a great way to virtually perform SLAM poetry or record interviews where the interviewed subject's identity must remain anonymous.

Dear ENG1000Cers, Since Thursday will mark our very last class together, I thought it would be an appropriate time for me to reflect on our semester, and not so much about what I taught you, but as what you all taught me. I'm not sure how many of you knew that this was my very first time ever teaching a class, but if you were unaware, well, the cat's now out of the bag. Before September, I had never constructed a syllabus, never engaged with 23 students at once, and never had to give grades (which, by the way, I absolutely HATE doing). Sure I had tutored, led student workshops, and T.A.ed, but I never had my own class, which is something altogether quite different. I was worried, stepping into the classroom, that you would all think I was completely inexperienced and feel that I had nothing to offer you. I was afraid that no one would understand my writing feedback, and you would all think my rubric was crap. I was even more worried that, because almost all of you are Physician...

The end of the semester is rapidly approaching, and I've been thinking about the best way to do student writing portfolios, since I am committed to improving digital literacy, both for my students and myself. As a model, I created an ePortfolio  (work in progress) for my graduate course using GoogleSites with GoogleDocs . Here are the basic steps: Select Blank Template Add themes and design elements as you see fit Make homepage the table of contents Click edit side bar and delete the old navigation tab, then add a new one by clicking "add to sidebar" and "add navigation" Upload documents, powerpoints, etc. to GoogleDocs Create pages for the pieces of the portfolio On each page, add text introducing your work On each page, click "Insert Document" under the "Insert" tab, and add your document to the page Link in any additional work (such as blogs, wikis, websites, videos) Add pages to navigation bar by clicking "edit side bar," "...