California State Universities Expository Reading and Writing Course Assignment Template

Understanding the different learning standards and lessons needed to get students to the Common Core State Standards could be hard. Reading the “California State Universities Expository Reading and Writing Course Assignment Template” provided an insight of the English high school classroom. Throughout the piece they discuss reading rhetorically, connecting reading to writing, and writing rhetorically.

Furthermore, reading rhetorically easily describes the pre-reading, reading, and post-reading throughout this section. Pre-reading are the steps that students take before actually diving into the piece of writing. Students pre-read in order to find purpose with the reading and to eventually dig deeper into the content of the reading. This section was helpful because it lays out the different strategies teachers can provide students with in order to successfully pre-read. For instance, reading subheadings, headings, titles of chapters, or any other pieces in the book provides students with enough information to make predictions on the piece. As a student observer, it is helpful to read about pre-reading techniques again because I can see how I can utilize this technique as a teacher. Next, the piece then discussed reading and how to acquire a better understanding of the text by considering the structure of the text. Learning strategies as such helps me as a reader and will be a tool passed on to my students later in the classroom. Lastly, the passage discusses post-reading. In this section “Thinking Critically” benefited me the most. Working with Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, was always hard for me in the past. Reading this sections solidified those definitions more for me and helped me understand how to more effectively use those in my reading and writing as well.

Additionally, this article had provided more ways on how to connect reading to writing when working with high school students. This piece provides many different ways on how to engage students in this process such as taking a stance, gathering evidence to support claims, and much more. As a student observer, reading questions on how to get students to think about taking a stance was the most beneficial. My biggest fear is not having the tools need to engage my students and stimulate learning. Having the article provide this information eases that stress and gives me examples.

Lastly, writing rhetorically is discussed later in this article. Creating a writing environment as a teacher is working through an example, with the classroom, in order for students to understand the expectation. Revising alongside students is essential in the classroom and this book brings up this really good point. Teachers should be creating writing environments by modeling student writing at the front of the class along with students. This article discusses how we can revise with our students in order to show them how to revise their own papers. Without modeling the process it is easy for students to revise the wrong way or get stuck in the process.

Overall this article helped me as a future high school English teacher. It showed me that there are resources available, that address all aspects in the English classroom, and that I can find help when trying to teach students.