Skip to main content

Compare and Contrast: Writing UGP vs. Reading About UGP

Writing Outside Your Comfort Zone discusses writing in an unfamiliar genre to get kids to step outside of their comfort zones. Cathy Fleischer talks about seeing this project brought to life in class, and a lot of the things she noticed are things that I struggled with.

The worst fear that all students share is humiliation, which is exactly what I thought I would feel when I presented my project. I felt really good about it when I was working on my final draft and making it look all nice and shiny, but then came the time to present and my mind started playing tricks on me. Like it said in the book, I started looking at my mistakes and worried about sharing my project with others because I thought it was weird, and I thought it would look like easy work compared to what my classmates did. I was really uncomfortable writing in this genre because I didn't really know what I was doing. Making up the rules as I go along is how I live life, but it just felt wrong doing that for the UGP.

But after I started presenting I noticed something. All of us struggled! All of us were unconfident! We were all in uncharted territory. This made me feel better since I wasn't the only one who didn't know what I was doing.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My (really awful) Poem About Advocating For Students

I'm really bad at writing poems, especially if they are supposed to convey a deeper meaning. What I want to bring across is how I want to be a positive role model in kid's lives and get them excited to come to class. I want to make my class fun, and have really fun discussions about texts as well as learn how to write your own texts! (Essays, poems, short stories, etc.) I remember sitting in class, dreading every minute of it. Why am I supposed to be interested in a subject that bores me to tears? "You'll use this in real life" my math teachers always said. I think they forgot that calculators exist. But with literature class, I always looked forward to it. I liked discussing opinions and having fun, Our teacher knew how to make the class enjoyable. Our class environment was really friendly and supportive, Which is something I hope to bring in my future classroom. Like I said, my poetry skills are not the best. This is the best I could come up with in ...
2 comments
Read more

What Is The Use Of Poetry

I have never been good at poetry. Never. I can appreciate poetry because it's something deep and layered and has hidden meanings in it, but I can never write it. I guess I gave up trying after a few times. But then I went to Get Lit and I have to say, it was really great! To see so many poets sharing their poetry and in a way sharing a part of themselves was so inspiring to see! I got to see my friends share their poetry, I got to see the people listening to the poetry respond to it in a way that was inclusive and accepting. The whole environment of Get Lit was so great, I want to experience that again. That being said, I think poetry exists to let readers see a tiny part of a story. May that story be a person or an event. Poems have layers in them in which you get to make up your own rules. I love Emily Dickenson's poetry because of that--she doesn't conform to any rules, she makes her own rules! This shows the rebellious side of Dickenson that I have fallen in love with...
2 comments
Read more

Research Journal #2: Why My Project Is Important

I'm getting better at interviewing people. I went to the library and the park to interview people yesterday and to Olde Town today. Each location gave me a different experience. When I was at the library people were brief, and didn't really want to talk to me because they were reading or working. I was only able to interview three people there before running out. The park was fun. I interviewed some kids, which was a really fun experience. The kids were very honest about what they were seeing around them and were more opinionated than I expected them to be. Olde town was probably the worst place I could have chosen to interview people. I only talked to two people there, because everyone else was either scared of me or didn't want to talk to me. I think I will spend some time writing down their transcripts and work on my people skills.  I found an article that might help with my situation. " How to Conduct an Effective Job Interview " is a guide for employers to...
2 comments
Read more