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http://screencast.com/t/REKZNu40G5
Mason Wooton
Ms. Coco
November 30, 2015
English 1001
Audience: Kids entering high school that are unsure of their writing and
reading abilities, along with the teachers that are teaching these kids
and need to motivate them.
Preface
I think I have very good insight from my own personal
experiences, which connect well with the sources Im using. I think
telling my own experience works well with this paper. I think my line of
inquiry is very strong as well and fits with the paper.
Some weaknesses I think are that I dont think I transitioned my
sources well into my paper. I also think my conclusion is very weak.
A roadblock I am facing is that one of my important sources was
taken down for some reason and Im having trouble finding it, but other
then that it is going well.

Motivation through Freedom of Choice

1.

Entering high school can be a tough time for many of us,

especially if you are unsure of your reading and writing capabilities and
are not motivated to improve upon them. Being unsure of your
writing ability is an issue that just adds on to the countless other
issues that come along with trying to fit into a new environment when
beginning high school. I also believe it is important for the teachers
that are teaching these kids, that are embarking on this huge journey
in their lives, know how to teach them and know how to push them in
certain ways that will improve their skills and give them the confidence
to continue improving on their skills; but do these teachers know how
to use different teaching methods and freedom of curriculum to
motivate students to want to learn and improve upon their reading
and writing skills? In my experience I was lucky enough to have a
great freshman year English teacher that did nothing but help my
reading and writing improve and was very open with his curriculum. I
also benefited from my sophomore year teacher as well but in a
completely different way then I had been taught the previous year. In
my high school career I was fortunate enough to have two teachers
that motivated me to be able to have the skills I have today and also
had a great influence on how I write today, but some high school

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students are not lucky enough to have teachers like this; or even
people in their lives that can do this for them.
2.

The beginning of my freshman year was a very nerve-wracking

time because not only was it my first year of high school but I had also
heard of how tough high school English was. I was extremely worried
about English class because I wasnt sure what level my reading and
writing were at and it was also my teachers first year at my high
school, Mr. Tritico. I did not know what to expect. One of the first
things he made us do was free write before every class for 5 minutes,
which I had never done before. This exercise greatly improved my
creative writing skills because we would write on a random topic each
day. He would also make us write in-class essays on something we had
to read the night before which made me be able to think and write
quickly at a high level. He was also very good at be able to teach
students in different ways so that everyone understood what was going
on. In an online article written by a group of high school English
teachers, one teacher writes, In my writing classes, students are free
to choose generating techniques consistent with their own learning
styles. (Mulvaney 81) I feel like Mr. Tritico allowed us to do this same
thing, which greatly helped not only me but also the rest of my
classmates. My writing ability was not the only thing Mr. Tritico helped
me improve on.

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3.

Mr. Tritico was also very big on public speaking and would make

us speak in front of the class almost anytime we had a project or paper

due. He also became the speech class teacher, which I took later in
high school and allowed him to help improve my public speaking even
more. This class wasnt required, but was one I was allowed to choose
due to the freedom of class curriculum. In David Kembers Motivating
Students through the Curriculum he writes, interests vary between
students, motivation can be boosted if students have a range of
courses to choose from; so that they can pick ones which they think
they will find interesting. Mr. Tritico sparking my interest in public
speaking, along with the freedom for me to choose the class is what
got me to choose the class and improve upon my public speaking. My
public speaking and writing skills were just a few things he helped me
improve upon; he also helped spark my joy for reading and improve on
my reading ability.
4.

Mr. Tritico would always give us readings or excerpts to read

before class and when we would get to class we would have to write an
in-class essay on what we read. This helped improve my reading skills
greatly because I had to make sure I understood what I was reading
enough to where I could write an essay. He was very big on in-class
writing because it caused us to not have time to think about what we
were going to write about and had to think on our toes, which caused
us to really have to know the information we were reading. In David

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Kembers Motivating Students through Teaching and Learning he
looked at the main things that sparked motivation in students and one
main them was interest. One of the themes that came through
strongly was in terms of motivation was interest. (Kember 82) I feel
like Mr. Tritico did very well with sparking our interests. One way he
did this and improved my reading and increased my joy of reading was
that he allowed us to choose from a list of very well known novels to
read. I read The Catcher in the Rye. This was the first great literary
novel I had to read and I absolutely loved this book. I loved this book
because the main character, Holden, was very relatable for kids like us
who were just starting high school. Before reading this book I was not
a fan of reading and never read in my free time. Being able to choose
this book motivated me to want to read it, which goes along with ideas
that Amber Simmons and Melissa Page talk about in Motivating
Students through Power and Choice. We think that individual freedom
would motivate students to achieve scholastic excellence and embrace
personal empowerment. (Simmons and Page 65) Reading this book was
absolutely crucial in the development of my reading skills because it
sparked by interest in reading. Mr. Triticos teaching style was a unique
one and extremely crucial to my development as a student.
5.

Mr. Tritico was not very big on criticizing our work; he would

always have positive things to say when we turned in a paper or

project. When you had a question about your writing, he was always

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there for you to answer any questions you had or help you with
anything you needed. I believe the style of teaching he used was very
crucial in the development of my skills. The way he taught gave me
nothing but confidence towards my abilities. I think it is important to
help build a students confidence; especially freshman year because, if
he had been negative and criticized everything I had written or done I
would not have enjoyed English the rest of my time in high school. In
my opinion it is very important to build a young students confidence
so that they continue to enjoy the things they have done later in life.
The teaching style I received the next year was the complete opposite
of the way I had been taught freshman year.
6.

Entering my sophomore year I had way more confidence about

my writing ability but at the same time I was still nervous because my
teacher, Mrs. Beckman, had a reputation of being one of the meanest
and hardest teachers there was. Shortly after beginning the class I
realized it was going to be completely different then the year before.
Her teaching was more to criticize your work then to always
compliment it. She was very big into editing and correcting your
paper. She was known for her infamous red pen, because when she
would grade our papers they would come back drenched in red ink.
This was very saddening at first because I wasnt use to all the
corrections but I soon came to the realization that it was constructive

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criticism and I needed it to become a better writer. She would also
make us do a lot of editing.
7.

She

was very big into peer editing which allowed me to see what

my peers thought of my papers and to see how my peers wrote. We

also had to write multiple drafts for each paper, which was something I
had not done before. She was very big into the writing process, which
included multiple drafts and revisions. Generally, the consensus among
researchers and teachers alike is that effective teaching and learning
of writing are conceptualized and enacted as processes that include
prewriting or preparation, drafting, and revising, and, at times,
publishing, with the caveat that the process is recursive rather than
linear. (VanDerHeide and Newell 301) She wanted us to be able to edit
our own papers and correct them to where they were as good as they
could be. Her teaching style was completely different then the way I
had been taught before, but had been just as instrumental in the
development of my writing.
8.

High school can be a tough time, and being intimidated because

of your writing can make it tougher. You just need to have confidence
in your reading and writing and learn from your teachers. You also
need to keep yourself motivated. Teachers also need to do a good job
of keeping their students motivated so they continue to improve.
There is also more then one way for a teacher to help your writing

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abilities, just like my two helped and motivated me in two completely
different ways.

50/50
Focus 3 / Devel. 3 / Org. 4 / Research 3 / Aud. 4

Works Cited
Ed, Marti Seaton, Ronda Kouba, Jeanne H. Warner, Maureen K.
Mulvaney, Deann Bateman, Lou Orfanella, and Teresa Sousa. "The
Round Table: Accommodating Students with Different Learning Styles."
The English Journal 82.3 (1993): 80. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.
Vanderheide, J., and G. E. Newell. "Instructional Chains as a Method for
Examining the Teaching and Learning of Argumentative Writing in
Classrooms." Written Communication 30.3 (2013): 300-29. Sage
Journals. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.

Brozo, William G., and E. Sutton Flynt. "Motivating Students to Read in

the Content Classroom: Six Evidence-Based Principles." The Reading
Teacher 62.2 (2008): 172-74. ERIC. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.

Simmons, Amber M., and Melissa Page. "Motivating Students through

Power and Choice." English Journal 100.1 (2010): 65-69. Web. 17 Nov.
2015.

Kember, David. "Motivating Students through the Curriculum."

Understanding the Nature of Motivation and Motivating Students

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through Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (2015): 99-105.
Web. 17 Nov. 2015.

Kember, David. "Motivating Students through Teaching and Learning."

Understanding the Nature of Motivation and Motivating Students
through Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (2015): 79-97.
Web. 18 Nov. 2015.