Writing Circle Blog 4 (Reflection)

Overall, I really enjoyed this assignment.  I thought it was beneficial to receive feedback from my peers on both my research paper and timeline.  At first we took turns each time going over our blogs and viewpoints.  This then eventually led to each of us coming up with our research topics.


Katie's research topic is going to revolve around standardized testing.  She shared that as a student she did not have trouble with these tests and was a strong test taker.  We found that this could be an interesting twist/viewpoint for her paper, since she is overall against standardized testing.  I can relate to this also because I too did not particularly have trouble with these tests as a student.  However, as a teacher I tend to be more against them as a standard that our children need to live up to. Katie will also concentrate on NCLB and the current legislative actions towards standardized testing which are discussed in chapter 15.  Chapter 15 was the most current chapter, which I find to be very relevant and interesting to our specific class.


Emily's research topic is going to revolve around gifted students.  Emily was previously in the gifted program ever since she was younger.  She therefore wants to concentrate on the benefits of schools with gifted students.  However, she wants to also look at the other side of her topic and discuss the possibly negative outcomes and affects of gifted programs.  The public school system that I attended also had a gifted program.  I remember certain students around second and third grade being separated from everyone else.  I felt very confused by this and as a child did not understand why this was happening and why I wasn't joining them too.  I think this would be helpful for Emily to include in her paper.


Kayleigh's research topic is going to revolve around the different types of education systems.  She is going to split her paper up into each type and describe the benefits and downfalls of each.  These types of schools range from private, catholic, independent, charter, and public.  She is going to wrap up her paper by giving her own viewpoint towards the best education, which is the public school system.  I personally related to this a great deal because as I have discussed in my previous posts, my research paper is revolved around the public school system.  I found it very encouraging that Kayleigh and I shared the same viewpoints/opinions on this topic, and we each shared our ideas throughout our writing circles.


Aaron's research topic is going to revolve around demographics.  He plans on being a future English teacher and wants to discuss his opinions on including them in his classroom.  He is student teaching at Brush High School where this topic will occur in many of his classrooms, so I feel like he could include his predictions and expectations for this.  This is a very relevant topic currently in our schools, and I feel like Aaron will find a lot of information on this.


As I said before, writing circles really did help me work towards my research paper.  I was not quite sure which topic to choose for awhile, but as we continued to have enlightening conversations I came to the conclusion that the public school system is very important to me.  It was very important to me as a child, and student growing up, and is extremely important to me as future educator.