Field Experience Blog

Fostering Student Independence  For many students, writing an essay is a daunting task. Anxieties over writing can greatly increase when students are expected to compose a full essay during a timed exam such as a Regents. I recently observed a tenth grade English class in which students were assigned a literary analysis paper about William Golding's Lord of the Flies. The students will be composing their papers during class in the computer lab when school resumes after Presidents' Week break. During the class period that I observed, the teacher walked students through the planning process in an organized manner. First, the teacher had students take out blank sheets of paper. Before jumping into the planning activity, the teacher informed the students that they would soon be pulling out central ideas and literary elements from the text in order to find a focus for their papers. She then asked a loaded, deeply-engaging question: " Why are we doing this? Why