Final Project

For my final project I am planning on writing a traditional paper. This paper is something which has has the capacity to benefit me in three ways.
1) the requirement for this class
2) it allows to to focus on a topic of interest in a deeper way, this additional knowledge will hopefully benefit me in my future classroom.
3) I would like to write this paper in such a way that I can use it when I have to submit a piece of writing with my graduate school application.

Topic: I intend for my topic to be a three part question.

1) Due to the diversity of languages, dialects, etc. how might I as a teacher assess the individual needs of students with regards to their understanding and use of standard English?

2) Should I be assessing such things?

3) And if so, how do I incorporate, the findings of the assessment as a means to help expand understanding and use of language for students both individually and collectively?

I do not expect to find an answer which is hard cut and dry. After all, like the humanities themselves, I expect this answer is highly subjective. Instead of finding something definitive, I hope to explore what other educators may be doing within their own class rooms and how they tackle how and deal with the concept of enhancing student's use and understanding of standard English. I plan on  possible constructing a comparative analysis among  differing approaches. I might look into performance based education and the developmental continuum. I am sure I will also briefly touch upon stigmas attached to those who fail in mastering standard English.

I plan on using the journals which had been suggested by Dr. Branch in class.

~ English Journal
~Research in teaching of English
~English Education
~Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy

If any one else has any ideas, I'd love to here them.

Common Core

When I was an English major at MSU getting my undergraduate  degree I took a class on advanced composition. This class was a requirement for a variety of disciplines. The central activity of the class was the construction of a single research paper.  The instructor devoted the entire semester  for the construction of this paper. Using scaffolding, each student slowly constructed pieces of the paper. Each section was analyzed by the group, edited, expanded, and sometimes reworked. We worked together in groups and discussed our work together with the class as a whole.  Even though the format used by each student was similar, the differences in each discipline produced extremely different results. What was common in an analytic English paper might not be appropriate in a scientific research paper. A paper concerning art history was significantly different from that of an agricultural student, or an economist. Each discipline had its own unique terminology and format of writing. Seeing first hand the differences with in style was something which has stuck with me through out the years. A simple example of a difference is apparent when one considers the variety of citation styles.  here are a few commonly used.

- chicago style
- columbian style
-evidence explained
- harvard referencing
- modern language association
-modern humanities research association
-bluebook
-uniform legal citation
-british legal citation
- american chemical society
- american institute of Physics
-american mathematical society
-council of science editors
- the international committee of medical journal editors
-the institute of electrical and electronic engineers
- american psychological association
- american political science association
- american anthropological association
- american sociological association