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Expectations


Last night I linked into a webinar not expecting much from it, perhaps some information to share with the English Department. But how wrong was I! 

The webinar from the New York Times Education section entitled  'Write to Change the World: Crafting Persuasive Pieces With Help from Nicholas Kristof and the Times Op-Ed Page', proved to a fascinating hour of information and explanation around the perennial High School essay - the discursive essay. As a school librarian I sometimes get the job of highlighting sources the pupils can use to look for ideas, sometimes with  a class, other times with pupils one to one if they are really struggling. This webinar though has given me a real insight into how I can not just promote sources of information to the pupils, but also encourage them to look at other ways of approaching their essay - choose an argument or pick a fight with something. Start it with a real bang! It also highlighted the option to use things that make them angry or really annoyed as the basis for their essay, keeping things personal and using their own story or their friends or family. A key key point for me was looking to use an example of one persons story to explain a situation, so making it very intimate and personal, rather than too general. 

What I feel this webinar has done for me is to enable me to feel more empowered when working with pupils on their discursive essays - I can take a holistic approach to assisting them not just help find information. The webinar also will allow me to confidently discuss approaches to discursive essays with the relevant teachers, so highlighting that the library and librarian are not just a passive part of the education process, but that we can be a pro-active  and equal  educational partner. 

 You can find the NY Times article '10 Ways to Teach Argument-Writing With The New York Times' with a link to the original webinar (as of 11/10/2017) here: 

 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/learning/lesson-plans/10-ways-to-teach-argument-writing-with-the-new-york-times.html

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