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Show Fourth in series- - ' Beam's class teaches creativity By DONETA GATHERUM : Editor's Note: This is the final article ar-ticle in a series of four articles explaining ex-plaining the English core curriculum curricu-lum in the secondary schools and the innovative ways Davis District: teachers are implementing it :. BOUNTIFUL - If you own -something, you want it to be your best, even if the something you own is a ninth grade English writing as-; signment r " .7 This is the basic idea behind a workable, innovative writing and literature program used by Mrs. Mary Lou Bean, English teacher at Mueller Park Junior High School Mrs. Bean's classroom is a student stu-dent oriented setting. The teacher is a well informed motivator, guide, friend and inspiration. Students help each other by determining the standards by which papers will be judged. This is accomplished in a; variety of ways depending on the nature of the assignment, the student's stu-dent's proficiency level and the needs of the individual and the group. class. These numbers are placed on the board so that a consensus about what is good is reached. Mrs. Bean reads the best papers aloud and the students have the opportunity op-portunity to list the qualities a good paper possesses. Mrs. Bean says this method by 'which students create their own standard is called the Rubric method. 7' 77 "The ' main problem students have with writing are tliat the students stu-dents are egocentric. Once they say something, they believe there is no . other way the material can be said. Students don't have the skills needed to elaborate on a subject," Mrs. Bean noted. By seeing how another person , ' says something, the student begins to understand there are many ways to state an idea. They learn what word and combinations of styles, , sentence structures and; phrasing makes writing interesting and what methods are weak and dull to read. After this first group analysis, the students are given their papers back y and the second draft is prepared. , This is more detailed. ' Peer groups can be used to study the second draft, if they are needed. A second evaluation might be struc- tared so that the first reader looks for "honest writing, voice." The second reader would watch for "vivid, "vi-vid, concrete detail" A third reader notices "effectiveness" while a : fourth watches , for f 'language" (bland words, etc.) The final reader "checks spelling," punctuation, and precision of language. These eva-" ' luation tools are changed according to the assignment and the needs of. the class. As the year progresses 7 and student writing improves, less time is spent with mechanical cor-rections cor-rections and more time is spent on creativity and writing techniques and specific skills. Evaluations are positive and criticism is gentle. After the'second group peer evaluation, eva-luation, the student is usually ready to write the final draft of his paper and to "take ownership" and responsibility re-sponsibility for the end product This last draft, along with the entire writing process from the initial date," the brainstorming, clustering, first draft, second draft and other related assignments are turned in to Mrs. " . Bean for grading. , "I try to have the students com- -piete at least one writing assignment assign-ment per week," Mrs. Bean stated. ''Everyone has a story to telL We should teach what kids need to enable ena-ble them to express their ideas." , Mrs. Bean uses student work to -develop lessons in the mechanical aspects of , English. Misspelled .words are extracted from the students stu-dents papers. These, form individual indivi-dual lists for study and improve- . ' ment Sentences mat are poorly . punctuated, lack colorful verbs or are grammatically incorrect . are written on an overhead transparency transpar-ency and used for grammar lessons. . This year, Mrs. Bean has estab- ' lished die goal of constructing meaning for her students. A bulletin board in her room asks "How?".' The same visual aid gives the answer; an-swer; ,rWe interpret experience framed bywords." t . ; rV??" " Peer evaluation is a method Mrs. Bean believes helps students construct con-struct meaning through the use of words. By going through this analytical analy-tical process, the student develops a writing assignment that he is proud to own. - The typical writing assignment in Mrs. Bean's class begins with a decision de-cision on what to writer "This is the hardest part of teaching writing," Mrs. Bean stated. "I help them make the decision on their choice of topics by using several techniques such as brainstorming, clustering of ideas, talking about experiences." After a subject is chosen, the students stu-dents write a rough draft Before too much time is put into the paper, the student shares his draft with a group of five classmates. class-mates. Numbers are used on the papers instead of names. Members of the group evaluate papers belonging be-longing to students outside their group so that no one is under pressure pres-sure to defend their work in front of their peers. This beginning peer group analysis analy-sis can take many forms. It might be a simple "read around" where each student is given less than a minute to read the paper for good ideas, problems with style and other good or poor points. After smarts have me opportunity opportun-ity to read several papers, they list j the number pf thehest paper in the |