Blog #2 Brianna Huth

Gere wrote the quote “walls can be a means of communication as well as a barrier, and I propose that we listen to the signals that come through the walls of our classrooms from the world outside”. I don’t think I could find any better quote to start this blog. Inside of my high school classrooms, my teachers gave us direct topics that we had to learn and write about, and if we didn’t find any connection to the topic we usually struggled with the writing. Then when we would receive our graded papers back we wouldn’t have been evaluated on the content of our writings, but our opinions. Teachers, in my experience are only teaching to teach, not to develop students into professionals, but to pass the structured and repetitive tests that we are presented with. Students write because they have to and due to lack of interest in the topics, it is usually writing with lack of opinion, there is no self-motivation and there is no desire to take ownership or pride in our work. My senior year my English teacher would pick apart our papers with a fine tooth comb, which normally I would have found helpful for it would help me determine my writing level and skill, however she was not scanning it for proper grammar and punctuation, but rather the “proper opinion”. 4.0 gpa students in my class were receiving sub satisfactory grades on their papers and began to believe that they could not adequately write and started to stop being individualistic and creative in their work and stuck to the criteria.

“Kitchen Tables and Rented Rooms” emphasized how the extracurriculum groups took strength from sharing their experiences with others, they felt brave, their self esteem was boosted, and they gained confidence. The writers were no longer content to give “dry and detailed facts” but rather were able to bring in their own individuality and interests. In our classrooms we are taught to dish out the dry and detailed facts, and never are able to enjoy literacy. Teachers need to find a way to introduce the extracurriculum into their classes. This could mean giving more options on readings and allowing the students to pick the ones THEY are interested in, and it could also mean peer mediation and grading. Obviously the teacher needs to grade the papers for the final grade, but allowing the student to share the works they are actually interested in to their peers and receiving their peers opinions on their works could definitely produce a more, upraising in self esteem for students. Rather than only seeing the red marks on their graded papers from their teachers they can share opinions with their peers.