We're finished! My group and I are teaching this week. It is exciting to see our finished product, and how everything came together. It took a good amount of planning, discussing, writing, and revising but it does eventually get done. I am excited for Wednesday to get up and teach. Our group had a good time planning and preparing this lesson, so hopefully that shows in our lesson. I am also a little nervous because we are new at this whole teaching thing. We have our lessons planned but it is impossible to know if everything will work out as planned- and that is what makes me a little nervous. Overall though, I know this is a learning experience so I’m prepared to learn things that work and things that do not. I think I am ready for Wednesday.
I think what I learned most looking back on the past couple of weeks is the amount of planning and work goes into just one lesson plan. There are thousands of things to consider, and you really do have to consider them all. Last week, when we thought we were pretty much done, we met with Shannon and she had has think of things we did not even really consider- but were necessary to think about. Without doing so, I don’t think we could say our lesson is complete and ready to be taught. I think this project has made us all realize the amount of work we will have ahead of us but I also seeing and applying our finished projects will make us excited for what is ahead of us.
You know how many people say that teachers have it easy? I do not think I ever really believed that, but now I know I completely disagree with that. This group teach is not easy- and this is just one three hour class. Soon we'll be doing this everyday, exciting and a little scary.
What I have liked about getting this group teach together is choosing texts, activities, and what we want our students to learn. I like that you can go many different places with just one text; I like that one year I may choose to teach American Born Chinese and focus on discrimination and the next I'll teach the same book but focus on identity. There is always something new or different that you can do with the same text and I just like that we can do that. This group teach has made me realize this because each group member has had different approaches to the same texts. It is not like only one group member is right; it's just the book(s) can be taught in so many ways (and I love that).
What I haven't liked is the uncertainty that goes along with every lesson. I do not know if it will work. Will it run smoothly? Will it engage my students or bore them? Will it clearly get the point across? I don't know until I try it and even if it works the first time it may not work the next time. I am just not a huge fan of the uncertainty.
Overall this group teach has been interesting. It makes me excited to plan my units, but it also has shown me how much work I will have to put in to diminish some of my uncertainty and worry. There is no way that any teacher has it easy.
I’d like to begin by saying lasts week’s class really got me thinking- are we part of the dumbest generation? I think many of us could really argue both ways. I think in some ways technology has taken away some of our excitement to learn and gain knowledge mostly because we do not need to- we have Google! On the other hand, we are all very smart when it comes to technology. Today society revolves around technology so in that aspect are we the smartest generation? I honestly cannot really argue for one side, but I can say that if we are considered “dumb” it is probably due to the lack of reading (this probably does not really apply to us personally but it will to our students). Good thing it is our job to create lifelong readers.
I read Bauerlein and Stotsky’s article “Why Johnny Won’t Read.” This article talks about gender differences in relation to reading. In the past decade or so studies have shown that adolescents book reading has decreased pretty significantly but also that boys have decreased much more than girls. Bauerlein and Stotsky point out that in schools curriculum has taken out many books that would initially appeal to boys. This made me think of Tarasiuk’s Robert. Was he not offered books that appeal to young men or did the teacher just need to take a different approach to reach him? I think it is more to deal with a teacher’s approach, I think a good teacher can even make the required, boring books interesting. I mean I am sure that Bauerlein is making a good point, and I do understand that there are gender preferences when it comes to reading (that’s why I am all for the idea of students having a say in what they read) but I think with the right strategies teachers can get their students to read.
Tarasiuk’s article was really interesting; I want to do her activities with my students. I think her ideas would help get adolescents, boys and girls, to read more often. It is a way to incorporate students’ interests and vast array of technological knowledge with literature. As we say time and time again, we need to relate what we teach to our students lives and this does this very well. When our goal is to create lifelong readers with many students who do not enjoy reading, we have to find ways to make reading enjoyable and I think Tarasiuk’s approach is awesome.
and just for fun I love this children's book
Monday, October 24, 2011
Based on a school banning a book entitled Open Minds to Equality "because it presents a “morally neutral” view of homosexuality"www.slapupsidethehead.com
It is almost disheartening to know that I may enter an English department that tells me not to teach specific books. I can’t believe that may job may be jeopardized because of a book. I completely understand that some books seem or may be really too inappropriate for middle school or high school students, but I also think there has to be clear justifiable reasons to why these books are too inappropriate. Are they that inappropriate that no student is to read it, or may they just be inappropriate for some students and if that is the case they can opt to read it? Are they to inappropriate that those opposing the book need it banned immediately, or can the teacher(s) and those opposing the book discuss their reasons for or against it?
Webb focused his article on Huck Fin. I found it pretty interesting that it is one of the most read novels in high schools, yet it is still fought against. It was written over a hundred years ago but is still so controversial. That is pretty cool for Mark Twain, I mean I would feel awesome if a hundred years later people were still causing scenes over my work, but I feel like it does not reflect well on our society. If a hundred years later we cannot read a book about a white boy and a black man being friends, it does not say much for our society. I do understand that there is the repetition of a very derogatory term but I think readers should take into account and understand the context of the story and when it was written. I do know that I am writing from my own perspective and therefore cannot relate to African American parents or students but I do not really see a reasonable explanation to why this book should be banned. I honestly do not see a reasonable explanation to why many books should be banned. These banned books usually say the most, they get almost every student engaged, they get them to really think. As we always say, our students should not always be comfortable, and these books may make them uncomfortable but won't that be a better learning experience?
Noll mentioned the best way to stand up against censorship is through communication. I completely agree. I think through clear communication to administration, parents, and most importantly our students we could help put a stop to censoring and/or banning books. Not everything is for everybody but I do not think that means that we take away the things that are not for some, because they may be for someone else. I think we should communicate with the students and parents what is being read, explain why it is being read, and then if the parents and/or students feel it too inappropriate they can be provided with an alternate text. There have to be ways to go about teaching controversial texts without upsetting everyone, I guess that'll be my job in about 2 years.
"Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only weapon against bad ideas is better ideas." ~Alfred Whitney Griswold
When reading both Wink and Cook’s articles, Hade’s ideas of being a tourist continually crept in my mind. These teachers are clearly not giving these students a tourist’s view of history and culture; the students are getting a close in-depth view- actually more like an experience.I think they are avoiding the tourist approach by trying to engage their students in what Wink called “creative conflict” (89). It calls students (AND teachers) to question their assumptions- to embrace discomfort. Cook and Wink are asking their students much more than just to read a book from another culture and be aware that it is there but rather to experience, connect, and create some form of meaning to it. They were challenging their students to do more than just read a novel or poem from history. I think from all the readings we have done in this class, it is clear that students learn best through challenge and experience. Experience and challenge is memorable and impactful- Cook named off many of her students’ future jobs and they all related to the content they learned in her class.
I also think when dealing with a subject so relevant to students’ lives they need to be challenge to have their own opinions, which both teachers do. They want to create advocates, they want them to have their own distinct voice.Cook doesn’t want her students to learn tolerance but rather inclusion; one has to have a strong voice for that because we are taught tolerance. Wink wants to transform her students’ apathy to feeling and creativity, and she noticed her students showed the most feeling in uncomfortable situations. Cook states that “education is about learning to live in a world community, about communication, and questioning and listening” and I think today that would a pretty good education to get, but to get it I think teachers have to challenge their students.
Lastly, we have to think about how we could take Wink and Cook’s ideas into our classrooms. I think most importantly we have to question and experience our own thoughts and assumptions. We cannot ask our students to do something we cannot do ourselves- also we are supposed to be good models for our students, right?I also think we have to come up with a creative way to expose our students to different history and culture. Cook was extremely creative; I would have loved to be in her class. I think we need to create fun ways to for to students to be exposed to but also be able to think critically about the work. Once we have them thinking critically, they will then be on their way to forming their own opinions. I think it is hard to know how I’d really go about helping my students find their voice and opinions but I do know that I will need to challenge then and have them not just read the content but experience it.
This week’s readings really complement each other because I think literature circles would work best in an untracked classroom. Also lc’s would help give students their individual voices that Christensen writes about. I was in “Honors English” (I use quotes because I honestly thought they were the easiest classes I had) all through high school and I really cannot see literature circles really working. First of all, most of us were all friends so we would probably only discuss the book when the teacher was watching, any other time we would talk about our social lives. I also think in “honors” classes students seem to be lazier because they are typically better at school, so in the lc’s I feel like only minimal requirements would be accomplished by the students. I also think the similar things would happen in other tracked classes (probably not for the same reasons though). Now I am not saying lc’s wouldn’t work in tracked classrooms because I am sure they do, but judging from my tracked high school I do not think they would really enhance the students’ reading practices.
Pam, Oscar, Angela, and Toby from NBC’s The Office (sorry for Office references for the second week) form “Finer Things Club,” which is a club where they meet during lunches and discuss a book they are all reading. Pam is a white receptionist, Oscar a Latino homosexual accountant, and Toby a white human resources representative. All these people are very different, however can easily get together and discuss literature. Our students can do the same despite different cultures and learning levels. Christensen’s writings emphasize having a diverse, untracked classroom. With his efforts to teach untracked classrooms that embrace difference, his students seem to be more confident in their ability to read and write; they also seem more confident in the classroom overall. I think to have effective literature circles students need to be confident in their own thoughts and ideas. I think students would get the most out of their literature circles with a diverse group. I would not want to be in a literature circle of all students like myself. I think I learn best from those different from me, they present things that I may never have considered, or present the things I have considered in a different light. I think starting literature circles in an untracked classroom would be difficult at first, but most beneficial in the end. Although the students may be on different reading and learning levels, does not mean they cannot discuss a book. Also, I think, lc’s can really challenge and help all students. The students can even challenge one another within their literature circles. I’m sure literature circles can work in most classrooms if the teacher and students put in the effort, but I think teachers and students would have really beneficial literature circle in a diverse, untracked classroom. What do you think?
I was in third grade and we were learning about how other cultures celebrated Christmas. For the month of December we would “visit” different countries and take a look at how they celebrated Christmas. We would eat different foods, play different games, and read different stories from the culture we were studying that day. If my teacher was trying to teach us multiculturalism I think there are a few problems with this lesson.
1.Not every culture celebrates Christmas
2.As students, we are contrasting other cultures to Christmas (assuming that all students celebrate this Christian holiday).
3.We were, as Hade says, taking a “tourist’s conception of multiculturalism.” We were just traveling to these other cultures for a short period of time and then going back to our own (240).
Hade discusses how for a good portion of his professional life he thought multiculturalism could best be taught by just teaching it and “addressing a lack of knowledge” (236). I think my teacher had the same idea. By making us aware of other cultures, we would understand them better and therefore have open minds regarding other cultures. After reading Hade’s “Reading Multiculturally,” I don’t think my teacher really helped us learn to have a multicultural perspective.
While reading Hade’s chapter, like every other reading in this class, I had that initial feeling of ‘how will I ever be able to do this.’ As Hade suggests, reading multiculturally is not just reading books about race, class, and/or gender, which I think we see a lot in the classroom. We think we're reading muliculturally because we're reading books about class, race, or gender, but that is the tourist conception. We are "visiting" these other cultures but only to go back to our own and compare it to that. I think Hade has a point when he says reading multiculturally is more about how we interpret it. It is how we interpret it and how our students interpret it. I think to aid our future students to read multiculturally we first need to incorporate Wilhelm’s ideas to make them engaged readers because Hade states that “signs of race, class, and gender are not just in books, it takes a reader to make them come alive” (243). Our students will not see these signs if they are merely surface reading. Then I think we need to ask our students the questions Hade presents in his last paragraph. Students need to search for their own ideas of class, race, and gender. Like Hade suggests, they (as well as myself) need to “challenge assumptions” (252). They need to read texts and question what is being said about class, race, and gender and form their own opinion. As a teacher hopefully I can encourage students to do so- it’ll definitely be a working project (as will all my other future classroom plans).
I think students will also be able to think multiculturally by somehow experiencing the life of those in different classes, genders, and races. Or as Atticus says, in our reading for this week, you can’t judge a man until you walk around his shoes. Jane Elliot had her students experience what is what like to be discriminated against based on a physical feature and look at the impact it had on her students and other observers. I mean her activity began in the 60’s and is still being looked at today. Also I thought it was pretty awesome how her activity worked on adults as well because at any age discrimination is present. I think if we were to tie in Elliot’s idea of having an experience and Hade’s approach we could really aid our students in having a multicultural perspective.
*** Just for fun, we can look at Michael Scott. I don't think he really has a multicultual perspective.
Wilhelm had his students never failed to give him a headache and Frey and Fisher had struggling readers and writers in the poorest community in San Diego. I’m sure every teacher has a headache giver, or a student that is far below their expected proficiency in English, but what matters is how each teacher engages that student. It is probably very difficult to try to engage these students and easy to accept that you cannot reach every single child in your classroom, but I think you have to try everything before ruling them out as “unreachable.”
Wilhelm took the time to find out what his students were interested in and was then able to apply their interests to reading. Frey and Fisher looked to popular culture to get their students to read and write. They embraced popular culture through the use of graphic novels as a type of “hidden literacy” (19). I like that they referred to it has “hidden” because I feel like that would make it ten times more enjoyable for the students. Kids seem to like to do the opposite of what they are supposed to be doing, so maybe novels that do not seem at all like normal classroom reading will make the students read. It will not appear as traditional literature, so maybe the students will embrace it. From reading Wilhelm’s experiences with Tommy, Walter, and Kae and Frey and Fisher’s study with Hoover High School it seems as though graphic novels are a great way to engage struggling readers. Also it seems like there are so many activities and lessons that can go along with graphic novels that can engage all different types of learners on all different levels. Graphic novels are something they’re familiar with but also something new and different at the same time. On the surface it seems like fun, simple reading but there is so much meaning to be explored and found. American Born Chinese, our graphic novel this week, proves that graphic novels could easily be incorporated in classrooms. This novel opens up readers to the ideas of multiculturalism, stereotypes, and self esteem (all ideas seen in classic literature). It also can be linked to different literary conventions such plot structure, mood, and tone.
So one way I can reach what seems to be an unreachable student is through incorporating art and graphic novels (which seems like a ton of fun to do in the classroom). However, I wonder what are others ways to engage reluctant readers, because I don’t think any student is really “unreachable.”
Jeffrey D. Wilhelm poses a question, in “You Gotta BE the Book,” asking “what if we took on the ‘tomorrow mind’ instead of the ‘yesterday mind’?” (59). Well I am sure it is easier said than done, but should not that be the mindset of a teacher? As a future teacher am I not teaching and guiding tomorrow’s future? And, when dealing with tomorrow I do not think it would be worthwhile to dwell on yesterday. From some of Wilhelm’s experiences with tomorrow’s future, today’s students do not embrace reading; they consider it to be “like…pain” (21), or something that if they like it will “destroy [their] reputation” (29). There has to be something wrong with our current mindset to make students think reading is harmful or embarrassing because as teachers we know it is completely the opposite. So, I think as a future teacher I need to try to think with a “tomorrow mind” and then hopefully tomorrow will have students that look at reading as helpful and they’ll be proud of what they have read (and it looks like Wilhelm has done this for his students so we should high-five him for his “tomorrow mind”).
It is easy to say I want to have a “tomorrow mind,” but I have no idea how I would go about implementing it in my classroom. While reading chapter 3, it was almost overwhelming; I found myself starring things I would like to implement in my classroom and underlining theories backing up the starred items. Now I have these stars and underlines and all these ideas I want to bring to my classroom, but it makes me nervous because what I think it seems like quite the challenge to apply them. It will be easier to teach a text as solely a text (and even refer to it as a text to further ward off any student wanting to read it) and provide the students with worksheets and end of the chapter summaries. Easy is boring, boring for me and boring for students. So I have no idea really how I will go about trying to apply Wilhelm’s ideas, but I will try and find out what works and what doesn’t.
I mentioned in my literacy profile that I like books that I can relate to, and that is why I was so drawn to Wilhelm’s evocative and connective dimensions. There is something about connecting your own life to literature that makes reading easier and simply more fun. These strategies encourage the students to get into and see the setting of the story and actually vision the characters and their actions. Also once the students have entered the story world and met the characters they are encouraged to relate to story to their own life and experiences. These strategies encourage deeper reading and thought- it makes the students more than surface readers (which is awesome). Wilhelm’s concluding findings “that without the bringing of personally lived experience to literature, the reverse operation, bringing literature back to life, did not occur” (93). So although I do not how I will go about bringing Wilhelm’s findings into my classroom, I’m sure through trial and error I will get a good system going where my students are applying the evocative and connective dimensions to their in and out of classroom reading; resulting in students hopefully forgetting yesterday’s dislike for reading and embracing tomorrow’s found enjoyment in books.
Because at the end of the day, when teaching reading and literature we do not want to have a Jonah who thought we just wasted our time trying to teach them reading and literature.
It all began in room 6, Mrs. Farmer’s first grade class. I, Bethany Acker, was learning to read and was going to be the best reader around. Unfortunately that aspiration quickly fell short, reading was too hard. I believe there were many a nights I cried to my mom after not being able to read assigned books. Also I gave many dirty looks when I heard “popcorn, Bethany.” My first grade self was not getting along with books too well. Luckily, I had helpful teachers, a persistent mom, and Beverly Cleary; by third grade I could read with the best of them.
Now I love to read! However, due to school, I’ve become primarily a “summer reader.” I love to spend summer days on the beach with a great book. This summer I spent a couple days in the sand with Katniss, Gale, and Peeta and I completely enjoyed myself. Lately I have been drawn books that are “coming to theaters near you.” I am a firm believer that a book is always better than its movie so when I see a trailer for a movie based on a book I feel the need to read the book. For example, I refused to see The Help until I read Kathryn Stockett’s same titled book (which was excellent and I would definitely recommend it). Also the little girl in me still has me drawn to books with a good ol' love story. This summer I read a 1969 Bestseller, Herman Raucher’s There Should Have Been Castles, and could not put it down. In end, I just like books that I am still thinking about when I put it down, the book that you read instead of the million other things you should be doing, the book that you wish never ended.
When it comes to classic literature and teaching it in the classroom I think prefer American lit. I enjoy reading Poe, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Faulkner (when I am up for the challenge) but at the end of the day I like what I can relate to. Not only is it more enjoyable to read a book you can connect with, but it also makes it more memorable. In the classroom I want to try to make the books we read as relatable to the students as I can. I want to try to incorporate current students’ interests into the books we’re reading, to let them know that a book that may have been written way before they were born can still be significant to their lives. I just want students to enjoy reading and I think they can do that best through relating to what they are reading.
