Fifth Tips for Teachers Meeting

This time our Tips for Teachers discussion was based around the article, "Impact of Popular Culture on Communication Skills: A Commentary with Insights for Writing Instruction" by Linda Best and Christopher Lynch, which can be found at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4116/is_200604/ai_n17183359/pg_1 Again we had some teachers from Hackensack High School join us in this amazing discussion.

Our basic question was to discuss how much popular culture influences the lives and learning patterns of High School and College students. One Rutgers instructor said he thought TV short circuits students’ thoughts, and excessive numbers of activities substitute for deeper thinking as the quest is always looking for something to amuse. He said, for example, how students are often wearing headphones or listening to music on their iPods as they conduct their research. They are, in short, used to multi-tasking, but is this to the detriment of learning and the acquisition of knowledge? Or, to play Devil’s Advocate, is this constant noise and chaos actually realistic training for the workplace, in which it is quite likely that they will not work in complete silence? Maybe the distractions might not deter from learning, especially if students are taught a framework or structure within which to focus and organize their thoughts.

A High School teacher commented that most students at her school see education as a means to an end, as they have little incentive to learn. She said she asked her class if they ever use an encyclopedia, and students said they would not as they found them frustrating as there is too much information to thumb through, and they might be distracted by an article on another topic, or ultimately distracted by MySpace.

It seems fair to say that students prefer looking for information on the Web, but do they stop at the first piece of information they find, or do they browse further? A High School teacher said she thought that students stop at the first thing, as she asked facetiously why they would want to expand their knowledge! However, possibly the problem is that one can easily feel overwhelmed by excessive amounts of information, which is very typical of the age in which we live. One WP instructor said it would be advantageous to guide students so that they know how to be discriminating about what information to use, and that it should be acknowledged that it can take ages to find the exact information of true value for which one is hunting.

But how, it was asked, can we encourage students to do this? A High School teacher said she does this by telling students that they will need to know/do this in college, and a Writing Program instructor said that she tells her students they will need to know how to read and write well as it would help enormously when applying for a job. However, do employers care if their employees are not good readers or writers? It seems that some might care, as another WP instructor said that many US firms are offering their employees courses on how to write, and another said how accountants are asked to evaluate their writing frequently, since they often need to write reports. It seems that the answer lies in the fact that writing is a means of communication, so it is essential that everyone understands the same thing in terms of word choice and spelling.

Should we care that writing is changing, or should we recognize that the rules of language have always changed, a Writing Program instructor asked. After all, all we need do is read a Jane Austen novel to see how many differences there are in the spelling of certain words between then and now. Or should we be like the French, and have committees which strictly monitor word changes and mostly reject them? How far should it go? Some High School teachers said that they see students use “R U going…” instead of “Are you going…”, and one even admitted to having started doing this herself in her text messages. But another High School teacher talked about how cell phones now have predictive texting, and thinks that this might ultimately help students and other users with their spelling. However, in answer to this, one WP instructor said he sees a worsening of spelling in placement tests, and another said that she has a student who must so totally rely on the Spell Check feature on the computer, that he has so many wrong words as to make the overall paper incomprehensible. So it seems that Spell Check, as well as countless misspellings in society (ShopRite, EZ Pass) that bombard us with misspellings, are the ultimate culprits.

A WP instructor went on to say that it is well known that the US is lagging behind many other countries in terms of Math and Science, but what is not said is how it is lagging in terms of reading and writing.

A High School teacher remarked that most students are simply satisfied when they have written a paper rather than not. They do not seem to have pride in their work. Another from the High School said that all too often students are taught rules of writing, such as five sentences per paragraph, or how the letter [i]should be capitalized, yet are not sufficiently taught about inclusion of content. They might be told, for example, that a paragraph should contain a thought, but many students say they can express that thought in just one sentence. The High School teachers also said that they have to teach a recipe for how to pass the HSPA exams, and this is why they have to emphasise the rules. One teacher said how she had heard that the elementary school in their district had a 90% success rate on standardized tests, and this was because the children were taught a little song to better memorise the rules.

A WP instructor said that a lot of these changes in reading and writing reflect the incursion of technology at so many levels, and another talked about how many two year olds have a TV in their room, and there are such programs as Baby Einstein. Someone also made the comment about how in Japan some teenagers are writing novels on their cell phones, to which a High School teacher replied that students often bring in their homework on their cell phones!

We discussed how all this technology can lead to increased isolation. In fact one WP instructor asked her class why texting was more prevalent than voice mail, and they uniformly replied that with texting one can hide, be detached, and even lie because of the lack of intimacy. And often, as soon as class is over, students whip out their cell phones. It seems that they already have friends from elsewhere, and lack engagement with what is immediately surrounding them. Another WP instructor mentioned an E.M. Forster novel in which everyone lived underground in separate cells, and all were horrified at the thought of face-to-face contact. Are students currently living this way, he asked, shut in their rooms with their TVs and computers?

One WP instructor, who has been deeply involved in High School education over a number of years, said that our current discussion reminded him of a discussion they had had in the 1960’s in his school when they were lamenting educational standards. He said that he felt the real problem was not, in fact, isolation, but a lack of reflection. He said that reading, after all, is a completely isolated act, yet one needs to be solitary when reading so as to have a chance to ponder. However, as the article mentions, many students have become afraid of their own thoughts so avoid this isolation. Moreover, as another WP instructor said, in the workplace the emphasis is often on team work rather than individual work, so is isolation good?

And whether or not isolation is beneficial, we discussed the inherent irony in that we ask Expos students to enter into dialogue with the authors, yet they are increasingly not having dialogue with each other. Another Rutgers instructor talked about her son who is in seventh grade, who is capable of thinking things through, but he does not do this as he is not used to being in dialogue to explain and explore thoughts further. And we talked further about how young children can mend a computer yet are unable to write a coherent, meaningful paper.

A WP instructor said that given that technology exists, what should our teaching strategies be? He, for example, said that he told his students that he will accept e-mail from them, but will not read them if they are filled with errors instead of using proper language. To this, a High School teacher asked if it really matters if a student is reading Gossip Girl rather than something more scholarly, as it is still reading, and does it matter if a student writes on a Blog rather than writing an assignment paper, as it is still writing. He thought these acts might be beneficial, as he is willing to do all it takes to motivate a student. But another WP instructor said that the content of what students read or write, behind the technology, does matter, as it should be of substance, otherwise there is very little upon which to reflect. A High School teacher answered that students are only interested in what they already see as interesting or relevant to them as individuals, but we discussed how it might ultimately be important, if not glorious, for students to broaden their horizons and move beyond their preconceived ideas and a priori knowledge, to the wonderful discovery of new things.

Another member from the WP said that a lot of this depends on the teacher establishing trust in the classroom, which will help, if not enable students to accept new things. She said teachers should not only be entertainers and should not only try to be popular, but they should primarily be educators. After all, we all know how great it is to witness that moment when a student is excited by new knowledge and ideas. Furthermore, she said, as teachers we all have a lot to learn from our students, too. And also there are commonalities of activities between High School and College, in terms of peer reviews and group work, but where new activities are carried out in college, such as grammar presentations, it is always a good idea to explain to students why these are important.

However, some High School teachers thought that there is a big gap between teaching for the HSPA and teaching from the NHR, and that their students would probably find the readings in the NHR to be quite impenetrable. WP instructors answered that the idea of sequencing helps with tough readings, as they are revisited many times, and one commented on the teaching of Expos in the New Brunswick High School, which seems to be well received, and the students are relating some of their Expos readings to other subjects which they are learning in High School.