Katelyn's+Portfolio+Assessed

Dear Katelyn: Your unit reflects a lot more than you say in your Reflection. Your main message seems to be that English is an integrated subject that needs to be relevant to young adult experience and interest, but it is not clear why that is true or why you devote an entire unit to oral forms of poetry, when high school graduates are more likely to have to read and write informative or explanatory documents when they move from school to career. What is the importance of genre study? Is it only to learn to write a poem or do students acquire other skills related to self-expression and identifying the structure in writing. The process of acquiring a genre is very similar, regardless of the genre, so that learning to write slam poetry overlaps with learning to write prose genres. Precision with language is also important in poetry and prose genres. Why should students //perform// poetry, when they may never duplicate that feat in their adult lives? Your rationale should uncover the cognitive processes that apply to genre study and, to some degree, to all genres of writing. I really like the selection of genres and examples in your unit. It follows a developmental process, from basic to complex forms, and it employs accessible and entertaining poetry. Focusing on meaning first is important, because that is why anything is written: to be understood. I like the portfolio assessment as well, and it would be helpful in your unit to explain the reasons behind portfolio assessment. It would be very difficult to assess poetry any other way, so how does it reveal learning in a poetry unit? You ask for “analysis” of the original poems in the portfolio, but actually “reflection” should include analysis. Students should reflect on how their poems conform to the qualities of the genre they learned in the unit, and that is the same as “analysis.” In your teacher research project you emphasize that grammar should be integrated into the reading and writing curriculum. Easier said than done. How can you integrate grammar into a poetry unit? You could identify descriptive and sensory language in poems and what parts of speech they represent. Sensory language is crucial for free verse and slam poetry. Your lesson design shows a depth of insight beyond what you describe in your reflection. As you reflect on what you plan for students, you will need to articulate what you wanted them to achieve and why. This is perhaps less crucial than teaching it, but you need to explain why you do what you do to parents and administrators. 63/70