Week+14

__**Week 14**__ During today's class, we discussed legal and ethical issues that teachers may encounter during their teaching careers, specifically issues related to the writing classroom. We began class by completing a 3-2-1 for the articles we read for this week. This activity helped us to summarize the main ideas of the readings, to identifying thought-provoking passages from the readings, and to formulate questions we had about the legal and ethical issues described in the readings. We then created our own legal/ethical situations and each group was responsible for determining a solution to the situation. A few students chose to present their situations and solutions in a dramatic performance; other students chose to present their situations and solutions visually using chart paper/chalkboard.

__**Summary of Discussion about Disturbing Student Writing**__
 * Several students wondered how to be prepared to identify disturbing student writing. One student suggested that it is important to know your kids so that you can tell if their writing is concerning or not. Another student suggested that the genre of writing for a particular assignment can also be a helpful technique for identifying disturbing student writing. For example, if a student submits a five-paragraph essay that has alarming violent images, this could be a sign of disturbing writing because these types of images seem out of place in terms of the particular genre of writing.
 * A concerned raised by several students was whether students should be able to write a creative piece that deals with issues such as suicide, drugs, violence, etc. Several students saw writing as an outlet for coping with these issues. Other students explained that just because a student writes creatively about these topics that does not mean that the student is experiencing these issues in his/her own life. //Where should teachers draw the line between creative writing and writing that is a cause for concern / a red flag?//
 * Some students expressed a concern about what to do once a teacher identifies that a student's writing is disturbing/concerning. Since most schools do not have specific guidelines in place, what should be a teacher's approach to handling the situation. //Is talking to the student one-on-one a good approach? Is taking the writing directly to another teacher, a department chair, and/or an administrator the first step?//
 * Several students wondered whether it is better to overreact when faced with student writing that is disturbing/concerning rather than doing nothing.
 * Several students wondered if teachers should give a general disclaimer when describing an assignment. The general disclaimer would explain that if any writing was submitted that contained writing that was not school appropriate or was concerning/alarming, the writing would be submitted to the school counselors, administrators, etc. Other students wondered if this general disclaimer would stifle students' creativity.