I don't know if I would consider myself a writer, but I do
like to do it occasionally. I really got the bug in 5th grade. My
teacher would give us story starters, which was a piece of paper with a picture
on it, and a whole lot of blank lines. Then you were supposed to write a
story with that picture. I loved it! I even started writing stories
of my own. To this day my teacher still asks me if I'm still writing.
She apparently enjoyed reading them, because that’s what she remembers about me
from her class. Or she’s just being
really nice. I do feel a little guilty
telling her that I don’t do much writing anymore.
Usually if it is something that I have to write, I don’t
enjoy doing it. Especially in
school. There have been a few teachers
that I did actually enjoy writing for them.
One was in my second semester of modern physics. For our final we had to write, perform, or do
something that showed the teacher that we had learned something in his
class. I decided to write a parody of A Christmas
Carol by Charles Dickens. I wrote a
Quark Mass Carol. It was about a Strange
quark who didn’t like other quarks, and was visited by The Cosmic Microwave
Background (Christmas Past), A Charm Quark (Christmas Present), and Dark Matter
(Christmas Yet to Come). Eventually the
Strange quark joined up with another quark, and made some bigger particle, and
life was wonderful. I enjoyed writing
it, and I learned a lot by writing it too.
I had to research, and make sure everything I was putting in there was
correct. I passed the class, so I guess
I did alright.
I hope that I can give my students opportunities to write,
that they will enjoy. I think I will try
out the, write, perform, or do something that proves you’ve learned something
in the class, just to see how it goes. I
hope that I can find other ways as well.
I know every student is different, and they’ll all enjoy different things. I don’t want writing to be a painful
thing. It can be very fun. Finding fun (and meaningful) ways to do it
will have to be one of my goals.
I really enjoyed your post. It got me thinking about how different my writing experiences were in secondary school compared to elementary school. I never hated writing in secondary school, but I LOVED writing in elementary school. I loved writing stories and felt like I could really express who I was. In later grades, writing wasn't as liberating because it was always formal(which has a place of course), and I rarely got to write informally again. I hope I can give students the chance to do both.
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
DeleteHi Morgan...I hope you share your Quark Mass Carol with your physics students come Christmas time. I'm sure they would have fun with that.
ReplyDeleteI have been reading a lot about scientific argumentation lately, which is really popular in modern science circles. (See citation below.) So, the idea is, you give students a phenomenon (maybe use a centerfuge or conduct an experiment or something) and then you give them two competing explanations of the phenomenon. Students have to argue for which explanation is right based on their understanding of scientific principles. It's not as creative as your play, but it's more intellectually engaging than just writing definitions.
http://www2.fiu.edu/~blissl/Arguement.pdf
Thanks for your posting!
First off, your profile picture rocks my socks off. Secondly, I wish I knew enough about physics to enjoy the Quark Mass Carol.
ReplyDeleteI love you thoughts and ideas for assignments. Giving students a picture with lines on a paper would be perfect in a French class! I also would like to give your write, perform, or do something that proves you’ve learned something in the class a go. I think we may be surprised at the work students do.