Week 11 Reflection: Writing and Grammar

The theme of the class this week was "writing and grammar," which probably my favorite thus far.

When it comes to grammar, there is a huge amount of resources available for students, though grammar (like anything else) requires scaffolding. Regardless, with traditional L2 instruction including grammar to the nines, it is no surprise that students can find drills and grammar-focused games all over the place. However, these activities are out of context and not always as helpful as they could be for students.

Writing was the other half of the theme this week. Having been teaching ENG 105 and working in the University Writing Center for about two semesters, I can relate to teaching this skill, and it is something I am passionate about (see Materials Development 2). Personal aside aside, I liked that we heard about blogs being great motivating tools, as I can relate. There is also something satisfying about submitting a post. Perhaps that is why I like TBLT. Regardless, one website I would like to share is http://writtenkitten.net. It's a silly website that I stumbled upon, but it is amusing and could maybe be motivating for a student or two. When the person writing hits 100 words (it is possible to change this number), a new picture of a kitten appears. While some people would not ever use this website, I find this website to be a reminder of the creativity of people when it comes to motivation.  

I also liked that we read an article about plagiarism checkers. Last semester one of my students plagiarized quite a bit, and it was useful to have a plagiarism checker embedded into Blackboard. Though I did not discover the plagiarism through the checker (it was clear it was not her writing), the checker helped document it, and we used it as a learning tool later in the semester, especially since she tried to write it off as ignorance.  It was interesting to see other peoples' takes on these checkers.

On a related note, here's a link to an article I read some years ago: http://chronicle.com/article/The-Shadow-Scholar/125329/. It's by an anonymous ghost writer, one who writes the essays people pay for to get through school. It's really scary to see what people get away with, and it's a great resource for a morals/ethics debate. In relation to this week's theme, it is highly relevant to plagiarism discussions in the classroom.