Response to Murray chapter 7 and 8

            It is nice to get back to reading the Murray text because he is good at talking about all aspects of writing that will occur in a writing class. In chapter seven, the focus was on embracing the diversity of your classroom. By embracing diversity, the teacher allows the variety and uniqueness of knowledge that the students bring to shape the classroom and way students write. Each student will have a different upbringing, different educational opportunities, and different struggles that they face every day, and these things will shape the way each student writes. Murray pointed out the 50 years ago, schooling was left to white males, but in our current years, schools are filled with students of all different ethnicities and woman who are able to advance through society with an education. The current condition of our schools is so diverse that it would be foolish not to embrace the differences students bring to class. The differences are what will make each student unique as a writer.

            Chapter eight was filled with ways a teacher can hold a one on one conference with the students. Conferences can be a great opportunity from the teacher perspective because comments can be the most helpful when drafting a paper. The use of oral comments from the teacher will allow the student to respond, defend himself, and/or agree with the teacher. When we have done our workshops in class, I have found the comments of my peers to be the most useful because they have helped frame my thoughts into what I need to do to get my paper to where I want it to be. One of the things that I liked the best about individual conferences was where Murray gave a list of questions that should not be made while conferencing, and then a list that should be used in conferences. It is easy to say this is good, this is bad, but these sorts of comments are not constructive in helping the students. Questions such as what do you plan to do next or where do you think you got off track, allow the student to respond and give ideas for what direction he thinks he needs his paper to go in. The author of a paper is first reader and he knows what he wants to accomplish with his paper, so allowing the student to share his worries, likes and dislikes of his paper will make the conference more worth the student and teacher’s time.