research articles

so far these articles have really opened my eyes to what others (who are professionals too!) think about writing. it also gave me an insight of what others already in the field think, experienced, felt, and disagree with when it comes to teaching their kids about writing. im reading the set of articles in set three and these articles have surprisingly made me think twice and ask myself (many times through reading them) "what would i do?" "is that appropriate?" and notions that made me feel as if i would never do those things to my students and etc.

i really enjoyed the last two articles thus far in my set, because it made me realize that free writes are not necessarily "free" and that teachers are actually in control of those free writes as well. so i ask you....who is actually in control of the free write? you (teacher) or the student? the article mentions that the teacher is always in control of what students write about in class and i tend to agree with that statement after reading the article. on the other hand if you were to ask me before reading this article i would have said that free writes are great and that it enable students to write whatever they feel, want, or experienced that day in question. WRONG! the article gave me insights on how its sort of like a chain reaction when it comes to writing. the teachers have control of what the students should write as far as genre, style, format, and sometimes even ideas. the school board and higher administration has control over the teachers and what they have to teach the students. the state of california or any other state you may work in has control over the higher administration to tell the teachers what they must teach the students. get it? wheres the freedom in that?!?

im curious to get into groups today to really concentrate on what the other articles are about. i would like to actually here experiences in classrooms that did not work out as planned or expected to be...maybe the downfalls rather than the postives to see the spectrum. i would also like to possible hear the students points of view of writing and see if their thoughts and ideas are somewhat similiar to those of teachers. all these are good questions and research is inevitable but i think the main aspect of this is that we never know what we do in a situation until it actually happens to us...time is running out... =(