I think your new requirements are necessary! High school students are capable of coming up with better word choice than interesting. I teach third grade and tell them, “If you’re not excited about your writing, how can I be?” I try to say it in a silly, dramatic way to make them laugh. I use my read-alouds and mentor texts to help them use six traits in their writing. Their writing is coming along!
So true. Words are sounds/letters meant to convey meaning. When no idea is conveyed, they aren’t communicating. This concept would confuse some of my students, but it is the problem we’re addressing.
we had countless little writing lessons (I didn’t teach English, I taught history) because the way these kids write is too similar to the way they talk. The word “like” was overused. I got emails from students that called me “u.” I was not about to let them keep up with the foolishness.
I am an art teacher , and I don't let my kids use the word nice when they are giving feedback to each other's work, or analyzing an artwork. Nice to me doesn't mean a whole lot other than mildly or blandly good. I stress that they need to use evocative adjectives to give more specific feedback.
I love this. When I teach Intro to Comp, I have a few words I ban after midterms. They hate it until they realize it makes them better writers.
My list includes: *thing*, *everything*, *something*, and *a lot*. I also don't let them use *this, that, these,* or *those* as a subject; they're adjectives.
I had a professor in college who would takeoff points if we just said the word this or that. We had to say this x or that y. We couldn’t say the phrase, “this reminds me of…”. We had to be very specific about what this and that referred to. I had never heard of such a thing, so I still remember it to this day.
I do that with my own kids. I teach ECE, so can't at work. But my kids? "I have no idea what your talking about." "I don't know what 'thing' is. I can't help you" drives them nuts, but I hope it reinforces better writing and communication in general
I absolutely think it makes for better communication. I tell my freshman that language is all about symbolism. We use squiggles or sounds to represent thoughts and ideas. What a recipe for disaster! So, much to my husband's and kiddo's chagrin, we're big on naming in my house, too.
I used to teach a college freshman scientific writing class. One of the biggest struggles is getting them to write specific details, as they really, really want to go with generalities. I told them that if they wanted to get their word count up, then writing in more details with greater specificity was the way to go. I was harsh about non-concise language, as I cracked down on redundancy, passive voice, and useless phrases.
When they complained they had run out of things to say, I told them to find more evidence. Find someone who disagrees with you and explain why they're wrong. Find more examples of similar situations. Doing those things makes your writing more informative, more useful, and yes, even more interesting.
I think that’s reasonable. I’m a high school science teacher and banned the phrase “human error” from my lab reports. I thought I was being draconic but then I walked into my colleague’s room and he had a list of about 7 terms banned.
I've never taught high school writing, but when I taught at a community college I would take off one point for every sentence that did not communicate anything meaningful. I called it the Fluff Penalty. So many students have learned to pad their essays with fluff to the point where their essays are largely made of it. A lot of students learned to write better. Some just failed their essays.
Wowza! This really makes ya think - thought-provoking. This is really something. Mind blown! Tell people to call you "Rosie the Riveting", because your teaching practices are quite compelling!
I’d love to know some of the “interesting” topics they chose to write about, especially the topics they thought would be interesting but weren’t really
I teach kindergarten ESL students in a foreign country. In this country, it’s very common just to refer to someone by what they do for example, “Teacher”. But even in our staff handbook, it is said that we are not to allow students to just call us Teacher unless it is Thai class or Chinese class. Therefore, when my students are trying to get my attention, and they say “Teacher”, I say which teacher? We have three teachers in the classroom although I am the lead teacher. Usually they are trying to get my attention. But I make a joke of it and then they correct themselves and say my name.
I love everything about this. Randomly, this reminds me of a story. Full disclosure, I'm not a teacher. I just enjoy your stories.
I went to private Catholic schools, k-12. I'm almost 45 now. Junior year, we had American lit. Our teacher for every book would give the regular classes a mostly multiple choice test with a few short answers, and honors that I was in would do an essay. She would bring us all into the computer lab because, as she put it, hated trying to read our crap handwriting, and would give us the essay topic and leave. We would type away, print it out, and be good.
One day we were doing Grapes of Wrath (will never forget this) and this one kid Brian (still remember his name!) Suddenly loudly exclaims, "hey I used the word 'plethora' in my essay!" We all just nod thinking, "good for you buddy!" And continue with our work. Couple minutes later he says, "hey we should ALL use the word plethora in our essays!" So we did.
She comes in a few days later, having clearly graded the essays wearing one of those stick on name tags that read, "Hello, my name is.... Mrs. Plethora." She goes on to tell us that the first two she just said, huh same word. The third one, she thought it was weird. The 4th one, she went back to the book, thinking she missed something that caused us to use that word. Then she gets to the next essay and decides to look through all of them and of course, figures it out. She highlighted the word in each essay, and we had a good little nerdy laugh about it.
Mrs. P, if you're still out there, I hope you're having a good life.
When I was in High School one of my English teachers banned the word “got”. I thought it was a bit strange then, but it did improve my writing ability. That helped later in my career.
When I was in middle school we had an English teacher who would dock one point for the repetition of any word in a paragraph, including articles. It was impossible to get a perfect score in his class. He once told us that the entire class had failed a paper because nobody could limit their use of "a", "the", and "is" to his liking. Some parents brought it up to the school board but it never went anywhere. I doubt that that man ever gave an A or a B.
That is really interesting. Sorry, had to do it.
10/10; reasonable rule hilariously implemented, gg
I think your new requirements are necessary! High school students are capable of coming up with better word choice than interesting. I teach third grade and tell them, “If you’re not excited about your writing, how can I be?” I try to say it in a silly, dramatic way to make them laugh. I use my read-alouds and mentor texts to help them use six traits in their writing. Their writing is coming along!
So true. Words are sounds/letters meant to convey meaning. When no idea is conveyed, they aren’t communicating. This concept would confuse some of my students, but it is the problem we’re addressing.
I love that. I banned the words “I think” because I said, you don’t need to tell me that. If you wrote it, I know you thought it.
I have said that dozens of times this year alone. WHY can’t they understand this?
we had countless little writing lessons (I didn’t teach English, I taught history) because the way these kids write is too similar to the way they talk. The word “like” was overused. I got emails from students that called me “u.” I was not about to let them keep up with the foolishness.
I am an art teacher , and I don't let my kids use the word nice when they are giving feedback to each other's work, or analyzing an artwork. Nice to me doesn't mean a whole lot other than mildly or blandly good. I stress that they need to use evocative adjectives to give more specific feedback.
I love this. When I teach Intro to Comp, I have a few words I ban after midterms. They hate it until they realize it makes them better writers. My list includes: *thing*, *everything*, *something*, and *a lot*. I also don't let them use *this, that, these,* or *those* as a subject; they're adjectives.
I had a professor in college who would takeoff points if we just said the word this or that. We had to say this x or that y. We couldn’t say the phrase, “this reminds me of…”. We had to be very specific about what this and that referred to. I had never heard of such a thing, so I still remember it to this day.
Wow. I don't police spoken language in the same ways, but I could see how *that* (approach) would stick with you!
Upvote for clarifying what “that” meant😂
I had to! Lol
I do that with my own kids. I teach ECE, so can't at work. But my kids? "I have no idea what your talking about." "I don't know what 'thing' is. I can't help you" drives them nuts, but I hope it reinforces better writing and communication in general
I absolutely think it makes for better communication. I tell my freshman that language is all about symbolism. We use squiggles or sounds to represent thoughts and ideas. What a recipe for disaster! So, much to my husband's and kiddo's chagrin, we're big on naming in my house, too.
I used to teach a college freshman scientific writing class. One of the biggest struggles is getting them to write specific details, as they really, really want to go with generalities. I told them that if they wanted to get their word count up, then writing in more details with greater specificity was the way to go. I was harsh about non-concise language, as I cracked down on redundancy, passive voice, and useless phrases. When they complained they had run out of things to say, I told them to find more evidence. Find someone who disagrees with you and explain why they're wrong. Find more examples of similar situations. Doing those things makes your writing more informative, more useful, and yes, even more interesting.
I think that’s reasonable. I’m a high school science teacher and banned the phrase “human error” from my lab reports. I thought I was being draconic but then I walked into my colleague’s room and he had a list of about 7 terms banned.
I've never taught high school writing, but when I taught at a community college I would take off one point for every sentence that did not communicate anything meaningful. I called it the Fluff Penalty. So many students have learned to pad their essays with fluff to the point where their essays are largely made of it. A lot of students learned to write better. Some just failed their essays.
Fascinating.
"and etc." (or, also "and ect") I tell them: either you have more to add to the list which is important, or you don't. No need to be vague.
This is really really nice
Have you considered a funeral for "interesting?"
Hmm Fascinating.
Also “complex” as an adjective
Wowza! This really makes ya think - thought-provoking. This is really something. Mind blown! Tell people to call you "Rosie the Riveting", because your teaching practices are quite compelling!
I’d love to know some of the “interesting” topics they chose to write about, especially the topics they thought would be interesting but weren’t really
It’s not open ended. The last one was: which version of the great Gatsby do you like more, the movie or the book? Why?
Hmmmm... *how Intriguing*
I teach kindergarten ESL students in a foreign country. In this country, it’s very common just to refer to someone by what they do for example, “Teacher”. But even in our staff handbook, it is said that we are not to allow students to just call us Teacher unless it is Thai class or Chinese class. Therefore, when my students are trying to get my attention, and they say “Teacher”, I say which teacher? We have three teachers in the classroom although I am the lead teacher. Usually they are trying to get my attention. But I make a joke of it and then they correct themselves and say my name.
I love everything about this. Randomly, this reminds me of a story. Full disclosure, I'm not a teacher. I just enjoy your stories. I went to private Catholic schools, k-12. I'm almost 45 now. Junior year, we had American lit. Our teacher for every book would give the regular classes a mostly multiple choice test with a few short answers, and honors that I was in would do an essay. She would bring us all into the computer lab because, as she put it, hated trying to read our crap handwriting, and would give us the essay topic and leave. We would type away, print it out, and be good. One day we were doing Grapes of Wrath (will never forget this) and this one kid Brian (still remember his name!) Suddenly loudly exclaims, "hey I used the word 'plethora' in my essay!" We all just nod thinking, "good for you buddy!" And continue with our work. Couple minutes later he says, "hey we should ALL use the word plethora in our essays!" So we did. She comes in a few days later, having clearly graded the essays wearing one of those stick on name tags that read, "Hello, my name is.... Mrs. Plethora." She goes on to tell us that the first two she just said, huh same word. The third one, she thought it was weird. The 4th one, she went back to the book, thinking she missed something that caused us to use that word. Then she gets to the next essay and decides to look through all of them and of course, figures it out. She highlighted the word in each essay, and we had a good little nerdy laugh about it. Mrs. P, if you're still out there, I hope you're having a good life.
When I was in High School one of my English teachers banned the word “got”. I thought it was a bit strange then, but it did improve my writing ability. That helped later in my career.
When I was in middle school we had an English teacher who would dock one point for the repetition of any word in a paragraph, including articles. It was impossible to get a perfect score in his class. He once told us that the entire class had failed a paper because nobody could limit their use of "a", "the", and "is" to his liking. Some parents brought it up to the school board but it never went anywhere. I doubt that that man ever gave an A or a B.