Homework UWRT 1102

January 25, 2016

Brannon, Prose, and Parks
Dr. Lil Brannon discusses the importance and value and significance of
students keeping a daybook. He is addressing teachers and instructs them to
allocate a certain time throughout their day to allow their students to write in their
daybooks. Then, after students have written in their daybooks, they should allow
time for students to share what they have written so others can see how other
students write and feel and think. Brannon says, Daybooks are a place for students
to store all of their writing on the way to creating a final product. He also makes it
a point to state that teachers should not write in students daybooks or grade them,
but instead check to make sure the work is being done. A daybook works in
classrooms that are concerned with what and how children learn and where
teachers are curious about what and how children think. I like Dr. Lil Brannons idea
of daybooks and the ideas that surround them. I think it is important for students to
have a place to write freely without having the pressure of their writing being seen,
graded, or judged. I feel as though in todays educational systems especially,
students dont get many chances to simply write what is on their mind or jot down
new ideas because they are so focused on writing what is required of them and
perfecting that writing in order to succeed in a class.
Francine Prose is addressing both readers and writers in Close Reading.
Prose discusses the impact that her love of reading had on her way of reading,
thinking, and writing. Her love of reading eventually encouraged her to write. But
she found that she didnt learn how to write in writing classes but rather through
reading books written by her favorite authors. She studied their style and thought
about each word and punctuation carefully and saw how it impacted the story as a
whole. Prose explains that in todays reading and writing courses people are all
battling for the right to tell students that they were reading texts in which ideas
and politics trumped what the writer had actually written. Instead of focusing on
what the writer had written and focusing on their style and how that work
personally impact the student, students instead are focused on discussing the ideas
and politics they think the writer actually means. Instead of enjoying books
assigned to them students had complained that reading masterpieces made them
feel stupid. Prose doesnt understand the way students are taught to think when it
comes to reading because she grew up only focusing on the novel and what it
meant to her instead of hidden meanings she was required to learn to display her
knowledge of the text. I can relate, reading masterpieces can sometimes make me
feel stupid. I think it is important for students to take a step back and close read and
read for enjoyment rather than finding some sort of political meaning from the text.
Tim Parks writes about the importance and significance of holding a pen in
your hand when reading. He states that students become so involved in the
romantic nature of the stories that they forget to focus on the true meaning behind
the text.