Sample college essays by Barbara Ellen Sorensen

Sample Essays for College Students Education Barbara Ellen Sorensen

Metacognition and Classroom Learning Barbara Ellen Sorensen, MA Metacognition has myriad facets and strategic properties so a precise definition may seem confusing. Having said that, a workable definition for the purpose of teacher education programs is helpful. The easiest definition is: metacognition is when a student learns how to control her own thoughts (Martinez, 2006). This shifts the focus of simply defining metacognition to how educators can draw out, improve and refine metacognition, which is present in every student. In this paper, cooperative learning and self-directed learning strategies as applied through metacognition are examined. Metacognition implies that the student knows his own thoughts, is aware that he is thinking, and has confidence in his own cognitive abilities. This implied situation is actually rare. Most students need to be taught, along with their teachers, on how to tap into that very organic property of the brain that allows for comprehension of complex problem solving (Martinez, 2006). A developed metacognitive state has a student so in touch with her own self-efficacy, she can move lucidly from problem solving to critical thinking to synthesis. For example, if a student has trouble with outlining her dissertation, she should ask herself: • Is the thesis clearly stated? • In the context of a paper, do most of the points follow specific paragraphs in a logical manner?

3 • Was self-interrogation used during the problem-solving stage and were the steps that

led back to the original question applicable in a real-world atmosphere (Martinez, 2006). Exploring a science problem is probably the best way to merge metacognitive skills with cooperative learning and highly strategic critical thinking skills. For example, in his paper, “Metacognitive instruction and cooperative learning-strategies for promoting insightful learning in science,” Jayapraba, urges teachers to teach students how and when to recognize that they no longer need to consciously solve a problem by themselves, that they can work collaboratively with other groups and can help another student examine the methodology “they are using to retrieve, develop or expand information” (Jayapraba, 2013). Jayapraba also notes that in most science classrooms, where metacognition has not been taught or encouraged, only a few students are engaged in discussions with the instructor, and that even though the teacher may have set up activities that combine “various intelligences and learning styles, [many students] still choose not to participate in classroom discussions” (Jayapraba, 2013). The pedagogy of metacognitive skills rests with the instructor who can encourage cooperative learning whereby “peer interaction is central to the success of cooperative learning as it relates to cognitive understanding” (Jayapraba, 2013). To paraphrase Jayapraba, working cooperatively with one’s peers, helps move the students beyond the rudimentary, basic memorization and what is considered lower level skills (my emphasis). With cooperative learning, a student can bounce her ideas off of her peers, receive feedback, and begin to develop and sharpen her researching skills to the point where she is comfortable with sharing her information. This is the perfect time for synthesizing to begin

and for the student to honestly evaluate herself, and prepare to share her point of view with the rest of the class. This type of encouragement during the ordinary school day, carries over into the outside environment. Now that this student has been exposed to cooperative learning, she finds herself connected with a whole web of friends and this naturally enhances her self-esteem. In fact, “cooperative learning has been found to promote interpersonal relationships and improved attitudes toward school and peers” (Jayapraba, 2013). But what about the student who just does not want to participate in group work? This student is a self-appointed “loner,” and yet he is open to learning about metacognition. As stated in the introduction to this paper, metacognition is multi-faceted. One of its most distinctive properties is teaching students better strategies for self-directed learning. Self-directed learning fits perfectly with metacognition because it shifts the responsibility of learning onto the student. “Self-directed learning integrates self-management with selfmonitoring” (Shannon, 2008). Identifying a self-directed learner is relatively simple since the student has probably been self-motivated, goal oriented, and self-regulated from a very young age. This type of student already has a well-developed pattern of metacognition, however, he may not be cognizant of it. The role of the instructor then is to help the self-directed student become aware of various strategic methods and how to apply them so that “thinking about one’s own thinking” (Shannon, 2008) becomes more finely tuned. Self-reflective questions are one way that a student can become aware of metacognition. These questions can be revelatory to a self-directed student who has not thought of them before: “What do I know?”, “What don’t I know?”, and “What do I need to know?” In tandem with those student questions, are the teacher-generated questions which are intended to encourage the

student to evaluate her work. The idea is that this line of questioning delineates the student’s weaknesses and strengths. These questions are specific and direct: “What are you working on now?”, “Why are you working on it?”, and “How does it help you?” (Shannon, 2008). Self-directed students tend to continually self-evaluate (Shannon, 2008) so prior to additional activity in study groups, students were asked to answer questions such as: •

What in my prior knowledge will help me with this particular task?

•

In what direction do I want my thinking to take me?

•

What should I do first

•

Why am I reading this selection?

•

How much time do I have to complete the task?

These type of questions are much more advanced and much more detailed than just a simple “What do I know?” However, all self-directed students should continually self-evaluate through a series of questions before, during, and after a participatory learning lab (Shannon, 2008). The days when an instructor lectured and students retrieved information in various ways—either through visual aids, listening skills, or aurally—are becoming less and less. As a society of interconnected groups of people, it seems organic and natural that the growth of reciprocal, cooperative learning and motivated, self-directed learners emerge from a muchneeded, updated model of learning. The fact that metacognitive learning has always been present in learning environments speaks volumes about its efficacy. Metacognition as a viable pedagogy, one that produces both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, is only in the beginning stages of a study that encourages selfawareness.

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References Jayapraba, G., (2013). Metacognitive instruction and cooperative learning strategies for promoting insightful learning in science. International Journal on New Trends in Education and Their Implications. 2013 January. 4(1), 166. Martinez, M., (2006). What is Metacognition? Phi Delta Kappan. 697-698. Shannon, S. (2008). Using metacognitive strategies and learning styles to create selfdirected learners. Institute for Learning Styles Journal. 14-20.

Global Englishes: Pedagogical Implications Using the Fine Art of Poetry to Teach English Barbara Ellen Sorensen, MA

Introduction

One of the lasting vestiges of British imperialism is of course the English language. So violently was this seed implanted in nearly every soil, worldwide, that today it remains the cornerstone of every political, socioeconomic, and scientific community in existence. How English came to be the world’s premier language affords a glimpse into how fleeting and fragile all languages are—English included. What should not be forgotten is that the English language has enabled artists and poets to etch out remarkable thoughts, ideas, and beauty. By similar process, the English language increasingly absorbs, readapts, and changes according to whatever dialect, language or colloquialism drifts past or is filtered through it. In this respect, the question at hand should be: in order to make the acquisition of English less a matter of politics, why not teach it as a creative tool to enhance and strengthen language skills, specifically through the study of poetry? Body According to The Economist (Anon., 2001), approximately 380 million people speak English and currently at least a billion are learning it. It is the language of international business, computers, the Internet, and politics. The rise of the English language has literally erased entire cultures. This is a tragedy. Each time a culture dies, a piece of every other culture is diminished.

This is because every language carries with it cultural insight into history, memory, story, art, and interpretations of beauty. This is just a quick summation. Inevitably, because all people and cultures are inextricably interconnected, what one loses, the other loses as well. Poetry has always played a significant role in the evolution of the English language. The linguistic history of English can practically be traced through its poetry alone. For example, Beowulf (Anon., 8th-11th century), was the first known poem to be written in what is referred to as “old English:” Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. Examining the text, it becomes clear that this text, though considered English, is a hodgepodge of Scandinavian and Germanic dialects. Then, English evolves to “middle English:” Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, And bathed ever veyne in swich licour Of which vertu engendred is the flour In this text from the Canterbury Tales (Chaucer 1387-1400), there are certain words that have semblances of the French language. Of course, it is a fairly common historical fact that any time any language changed, it was usually accompanied by a conquered, raped and pillaged community. Also of note, is that language was neither read nor written by the masses of people. English, like every other language on the earth was an oral effort that was utilized for stories that recorded a society’s history and culture—and its stories were performed or spoken aloud. So, English, like every other language was passed down from one generation to the next. With each

successive generation, the English language changed according to whom its speakers had conquered or who had conquered the speaker’s community. The rise of English continues to be unstoppable. The very tenacity of it has garnered hundreds, if not thousands of articles about how it can or should be stopped and researchers have actually developed algorithms to measure its efficacy in particular pedagogical settings (Abedi 2013 and Ewers 2013). If indeed English continues to be the dominant language, then instead of fighting against the abstract fear of homogenization, why not focus on recreating the pedagogy so that the English language becomes a tool for cross-cultural communication and understanding (Johnson 2009). And to break it down even further, why not use poetry as a tool that provides a universal bridge, of sorts, between many different cultures? Poetry does not have to be esoteric and inaccessible. Poetry, along with visual art, drama, and multimedia performances has adapted, much like the English language to new ways of presenting itself. Today’s populace, with technology at its fingertips can create an entire publishing empire from one website. First, however, the methods by which poems are taught must be brought up to date. Most students do not gravitate naturally to poetry. This is due to various reasons, one being many language arts teachers sometimes feel intimidated by poetry (Hughes 2007). Consequently, the teacher ends up teaching poetry as a flat, one-dimensional piece of text, not recognizing the fact that sound as a poetic technique has fascinated countless admirers from the moment poetry was first spoken. When a poem is read aloud it comes alive for the listener as well as the reader. This is because reading a poem aloud enables the student to actively engage with the text. Also, reading aloud can help the student understand what is going on either metaphorically or thematically.

The sounds of the words in a poem can trigger a “sensorial response” (Hughes 2007). Teachers could use the performance of poetry as a strategic tool to improve literacy. Poetry doesn’t have to be taught with heaviness and plodding solemnity. Poetry should be taught with joy and beauty, just as a poem represents itself. Pragmatically speaking, poetry can expand a student’s vocabulary as she discusses with small groups the meaning or emotional resonance with a particular poem. Other ideas for how poetry can be explored are, but not limited to choral reading, readers’ theater, dance, drama, shared reading, and role play. All of these methods require a student to actively participate in and gain knowledge in public speaking, oral interpretation, and dramatic exploration. Indeed, all of these elements of an oral literacy, if mastered, have been shown to improve reading and writing skills (Hughes 2007). As far as technology is concerned, a teacher has an endless array of opportunities with which to interconnect his poetry lesson. A teacher can start interesting discussions about how a poem’s line breaks at different places when presented through a digital format. How can a line break change the meaning of an entire poem? What if the teacher assigned a multimedia presentation of poems to each student? This would be an opportunity for the student to combine music, visual images and text together on PowerPoint or even Pinterest to create a hypermedia response (Hughes 2007). This is an interdisciplinary way of bringing the English language alive for an ESL student who may be quite adept at manipulating digital media but is not quite as good at being in a small group discussion session about poetry. Poetry can be a pleasurable and playful way to engage with the English language. A teacher also has the wonderful role of encouraging her students to create formal, or measured verse that keeps a rhyme scheme or particular beat. The different configurations of rhyme

include sonnets, villanelles, sestinas, triolets, odes, and haiku, to name just a few. Each of these forms has historical and cultural significance that also encourages imagination, and an ability to control and at the same time to play with language (Maley 2009). There are intrinsic and aesthetic benefits that can be acquired through the study of poetry. Poetry can stimulate the right side of the brain so that the student can learn to recognize feelings, emotions, physical sensations, intuitions and musicality (Maley 2009). For an ESL student, these acquisitions may or may not have been valued or recognized in her/his mother country. Perhaps because of the socioeconomic status of the child’s family, poetry was not deemed necessary or pragmatic. Consequently, this is another opportunity to open the doors of commonality within the context of language. All of these attributes cannot be achieved unless there is an atmosphere of trust established right from the beginning. If the teacher is sensitive enough to first create a safe space, he will begin to see many things besides language growth in his students. He will see motivation, self-assurance, dignity and pride (Maley 2009). In the effort to create universality rather than emphasize imperialism through language, the teacher should be aware that not all languages can be translated directly from English and produce the same effects. This is certainly understandable and presents a condition for which the language arts teacher may be poorly equipped to address. But address it she must. In an article about African literature, author Kristina S. Ten writes that African author Chinua Achebe’s philosophy is: “Though writers must tread carefully when using the language of the oppressor to tell the stories of the oppressed, one individual’s humiliation and country’s pain are both part of the greater human condition. Turmoil, oppression, defeat, hope, defiance, victory, happiness, life, death, and

12 above all change: these are all vital and defining elements of the human condition, combining to form a universal truth that everyone can understand to some extent and, furthermore, could stand to learn more about (Ten 2011, pg. 3).” Curriculum Development and Planning Lesson planning and curriculum development is key to lucidity in teaching poetry. Poetry

at first glance can seem formidable. In order to understand the musicality of poetry, a student must first learn how to scan a poem. Scansion is important because it teaches the student how to examine or analyze a poem for a particular rhythm. Every poem has a rhythm or beat whether it is considered free verse or formal verse. This is important to understand because rhythm is the backbone of poetry. Poetic technique such as alliteration can accent the rhythm of a poem, highlight a theme, or draw attention to a metaphor. Poetry is an almost organic interdisciplinary subject. It can be combined with almost every subject, including art. A white paper presented by the State Education Department of New York, states that: “ … the language skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking greatly motivate and enhance students’ artistic development. Visual arts educators can incorporate the reading of literature, news articles and textbooks; writing assignments such as journal entries, artist statements and research papers on art topics, artists and art periods; discussions revolving around aesthetics, art history and critiques; and oral presentations on artists and students’ own work. Generalists and ESL teachers can make connections to the arts and allow opportunities for students to look at, discuss and

13 create artwork in conjunction with language teaching and units of study. Visual arts specialists can participate in ESL professional development programs and team with a literacy coach to support their use of language development strategies in the art studio environment” (NYC DOE 2010). Poetry also has a necessary and unique role in helping emotionally disturbed students

learn how to articulate through the private act of writing poetry. Practitioners of “poetry therapy” believe that through poetry, journals, and literature, a person who is going through or has gone through some kind of trauma, can benefit by reading or writing poetry (VanMeenen 2002 and Rossiter 2002). A student may feel depressed or sad about something, but doesn’t know how to address the subject. Offering the student a vocabulary of grief can become a lifeboat. Poetry teachers will need to be quite flexible in terms of their curriculum. They will need to make sure that their curriculum is age-appropriate, with some prerequisites of at least a year or two of basic composition technique. The Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute recognizes the importance of student directives. In her paper, “Teaching Poetry in New Formats to Intermediate-Grade Students,” Maria DiPalma Laudano (1981), establishes organization and encourages reciprocity during her unit, immediately so that the students can be relieved from physical distractions and concentrate on what is before them. She writes: Create a motivating atmosphere in the classroom. The physical aspect of the room must be given careful thought. The most effective group and individual work can be accomplished in a room of sufficient size to provide for maximum comfort. Tables and chairs are preferred to conventional desks. Ample lighting is an absolute requirement. Sample Activities

14 (1) Have the classroom take on the physical atmosphere of poetry. Poems should be visually available. A wall space could be devoted to poetry. Put up bulletin boards that stimulate children to think about poetry. (2) Consider a “poetry corner.” This space would include books of poems, pictures, sculptures, models, objects, writing paper, pencils, etc. Allow students to freely express themselves. In all probability, students have not been encouraged to express their personal ideas and feelings. Teachers may need to place most of the emphasis at the beginning of the year on helping students feel comfortable expressing their genuine feelings. Students need to feel assured that they will not be exposing themselves to ridicule if others learn their inner most thoughts. The student must perceive their classmates as a unified group that will be responsive, respectful and nonjudgmental. Alternative and creative ways of teaching English should not start at the intermediate

level. It should start in preschool—and that includes the teaching of poetry. Perhaps, even, this may be the best time to expose children to poetry—their minds are completely open to the musicality and rhythm of words. The education editors of the publication, The Jamaica Early Childhood Curriculum Guide: Four and Five Getting Ready for Life (Maye-Hemmings 2010 and Wint 2010), believe in what is called the Thematic Integrated Curriculum. The integrated curriculum emphasizes the whole child and teaches language to fit in with every aspect of educational development from disciplines that demand the cognitive thought processes (intellectual skills) to the creative and affective domains, both of which would include the craft of poetry. The sample lesson plans below fall under the heading: Communication.

• Tell, retell and make up, explain, interpret and act out stories • Adapt and create own games, songs and stories • Describe experiences, events and objects with some detail • Use present, past and future tenses in conversation and in relating experiences and events; speak Standard Jamaican English (SJE) with guidance • Demonstrate understanding that stories have a beginning, middle and end • Introduce self and others, welcome and thank others • Understand time concepts such as “late at night,” “early this morning,” “next week” and “once upon a time” • Engage in conversation with other children as well as with adults • Participate in decision-making with group • Seek explanation of “why” and “how” • Begin to master some basic rules of grammar, e.g. past tense, plurals and comparatives • • Use appropriate language to express basic understanding of number, size, weight, color, texture, distance, position and time • Use exaggeration and words such as “enormous,” “huge” and enjoy extremes in their voices, e.g. shouting, whispering and telling ‘secrets’ • Construct longer and more complex sketches • Identify a specific shape from among superimposed shapes • Predict cause and effect relationships and guess story outcomes; use future tense •Sequence a series of three to six pictures to tell a story or to tell a process • Write simple words, phrases and sentences • Talk about where they live, where other people live and what they do

• Sequence words to make sentences of a story • Express preference for picture books traditional literature myths, fables, fairy tales, or poetry (Maye-Hemmings 2010 and Wint 2010, pg.94). High-school students still remain the most adverse to poetry. In a field test guide to teaching secondary students how to read and write poetry, the researchers found that by following a 15-step literacy program, the students in this particular age group responded positively. Part of the 15 steps was direct, clear instruction; teachers who could utilize and incorporate language arts into their specific content areas; teachers who could support and advise on how to learn independently after graduation; text-based shared learning, which required students to exchange ideas that were formed after reading diverse texts, and in-depth writing assignments, (NYC DOE 2009-2010). Specific to poetry was a series of questions that was meant to encourage divergent and creative thinking. Some of the questions were: What is poetry? What is a poem? How do we make meaning of poetry? What strategies can we use to understand poetry? What is the difference between the speaker in the poem and the poet? How does word choice help readers experience poetry? What devices do poets use? How do poets express themes of self and identity in their work? What makes a poet’s voice intense, unique and memorable? What are some different poetic forms and structures and how do they affect meaning? What is the significance of poem’s cultural and historical context? How does performance affect the meaning of the written word in a poem? How are song lyrics and poetry alike and different? What is poetry? What is a poem? What do all poems have in common? (NYC DOE 2009-2010)

Conclusion Human beings are fragile creatures and yet they have great minds. Humans have the ability to bring life to words. They have the intellect to put words to feelings, emotions, and intuition. This last point, selecting specific words that encapsulate a feeling is done best through poetry. In the Ohio Literacy Resource Center, teacher and writer Nancy Padak answers the question: Why use poetry? She asks this in her newsletter, Teacher to Teacher: Poetry in the Adult Literacy Classroom (Padak 2001). Padak finds that adult learners respond to poetry if there is some element of it that is relevant to their lives. She invites the students to write responses to specific musical lyrics. This is an assignment directly correlated with the ages of her students; they are students who grew up in the era when there was a great shift in musical taste. Rock and pop music took on many of the attributes of poetry, especially in the areas of performance and lyrics. Her curriculum emphasizes listening to music because it is the musicality in poetry that is key to good writing, whether a poem is crafted into a “formal verse” such as a sestina or sonnet, or in free verse: “I hear my being dance from ear to ear” poet Theodore Roethke (1961) writes. Poetry can be a kinetic experience alongside the aural. What is this strange, evasive, ethereal craft that we call poetry? What makes people fall in love with poetry over and over again, generation after generation? Poetry can be intensely personal or wildly political and subversive. Poetry can be disturbing and enigmatic. It is of the lowest monetary value out of any of the fine arts; no one has ever grown extremely wealthy because of writing it. So why do we even need it? Why should high-school students have to learn it and middle-school students recite verses of it? Many of these questions were answered from the point

of view of an academician: poetry enhances the vocabulary and sharpens literacy skills. Poetry does do all of that and more. But why is it so compelling to some and equally repulsive to others?

Poet Amy Lowell, (1930, pp. 3-9), wrote about it in her essay “Why We Should Read Poetry:” The necessity for poetry is one of the most fundamental traits of the human race. But naturally we do not take that into account, any more than we take into account that dinner, and the next day again, dinner, is the condition of our remaining alive. Without poetry the soul and heart of man starves and dies. The only difference between them is that all men know, if they turn their minds to it, that without food they would die, and comparatively few people know that without poetry they would die. Many people, including bloggers captured the posting that purported to tell the truth to the avid readers of poetry. Elena Aguilar (2013) deconstructs the question down to “Five Reasons Why We Need Poetry in Schools: poetry writing and reading is good throughout the community; it’s good for community building; poetry is kinesthetic; poetry opens venues for speaking and listening; poetry is extremely accessible to English Language Learners, and poetry builds a certain intellectual hardiness in both children and adults (Aguilar 2013). For all of these reasons and more, poetry should remain in the schools as a vital and necessary piece of the greater puzzle that is literacy in America.

Reference List Abedi, J. and Ewers, N. 2013, “Accommodations for English Language Learners and Students with Disabilities” PDF Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. <http://www.smarterbalanced.org/>[Accessed 1 June 2014]. Achebe, Chinua 1976, “The African Writer and the English Language.” Morning Yet on Creation Day Anchor Books. Aguilar, E. 2013, “Five Reasons Why We Need Poetry in Schools” Student Engagement, Blog Available through: Edutopia.html [Accessed 1 June 2014]. Anonymous, 8th century, Beowulf Anonymous, December 2001, “The Triumph of English” Website The Economist Special Edition, www.economist.com [Accessed 1 June 2014]. Chaucer, G. 1387, The Canterbury Tales, England Hughes, J. 2007, “Poetry: A Powerful Medium for Literacy and Technology Development” PDF The Literacy and Numeracy Sectariat, ONT www.edu.gov.on.ca [Accessed 1June 2014] Johnson, A. 2009, “The Rise of English” PDF Macalester International, Vol.22 pp.131168. <http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/> [Accessed 1 June 2014]. Laudano, M.D. 1981, “Teaching Poetry in New Formats to Intermediate Students” Webpage Yale-New Haven Institute, pp. (no page numbers). www.yale.edu [Accessed 1 June 2014]. Lowell, A. Poetry and Poets: Essays (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1930) 3-9. Maley, A. 2009, “Creative writing for language learners (and teachers),” Website BBC, TeachingEnglish, pp. (no page numbers). [Accessed 1June 2014].

20 Maye-Hemmings and Wint 2010 The Jamaica Early Childhood Curriculum Guide: Four and Five Getting Ready for Life, Webpages pg. 94. www.uwi.edu [Accessed 1 June 2014]. Moore, D. C. 2008 “A Conversation with Chinua Achebe” Transition. No. 100. pp. 1233. Indiana University Press; W.E.B. Du Bois Institute. NYC DOE 2009-2010 The State Education Department/The University of the State of New York pp.1-39. Padak, N 2001 Teacher to Teacher: Poetry in the Adult Literacy Classroom Newsletter, Ohio Literacy Resource Center, pp. 1-3. http://literacy.kent.edu [Accessed 1 June 2014]. Roethke, T. 1961 “The Waking” The Selected Works of Theodore Roethke Ten, K. 2011 “Vehicles for Story” Website Student Pulse VOL. 3 NO. 05 | PG. 3/3 WWW.STUDENTPULSE.COM [ACCESSED 1 JUNE 2014]. VanMeenen and Rossiter, 2002 Giving Sorrow Words, Pembroke Pines FL: National Association for Poetry Therapy Foundation.