Blog #9

Planning for this group-teach has been an interesting experience and has really let me see how much work really goes on behind the scenes before a lesson is even presented to a class. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to produce a truly effective and engaging lesson, but hopefully in the end we will be successful!

When we first started out planning, it seemed chaotic and overwhelming. We had no clue where to begin with things and just looked at everything that had to be done. Needless to say, we barely got anything accomplished during that first meeting and knew that we had to approach everything differently. As we met more and more, we began to discuss ideas that came to mind when we thought about our topic of “Teaching Conflict: Adolescence at War” and the novels associated with it. Throughout our discussions, we tended to feed off of one another’s ideas and ended up coming up with some great ideas. From all of these ideas that we threw out, we began to build up what we wanted to do. This really showed me how important collaboration is to teaching and with your co-workers. Without this, you really cannot produce a successful lesson.

At our next meeting, we had a really great idea come about from a group member. We decided that the best way to go about this was to split up the different parts so that each group member could focus in on a small part of the whole unit and develop some strong ideas for a lesson. We could then bring all of these together and combine all of our thoughts into a powerful unit. We created a checklist so that each person had a part to work on and was held accountable for, which I think is very important. We then met and had discussions of what we wrote down as a rough draft lesson plan and what we thought might be interesting to do and where to go with the lesson. Everything seemed to be coming together nicely which felt really great and didn’t seem as much of a struggle. I think the idea of making a checklist of everything that needed to be done and distributing the lessons really helped us out a lot. This showed me how important of a role organization really does play into developing lessons and units and teaching overall.

At this point, we know exactly what lessons we would like to incorporate and what homework will be given. We now need to work on combining each individual part into a complete, organized unit. We are working on finalizing our own parts at this point, and then we are meeting with Shannon this coming week for our group meeting and hopefully this will help bring all of our findings and ideas together in a nice, smooth way.  I am really excited to see the final outcome of it all.

Overall, it has been a great experience with my group and I have learned a lot about the planning process with teaching. There is so much more to teaching than you really think. It amazes me to think that as a student I thought teachers had an “easy” job. My views have completely changed now! I am very excited to actually teach our lesson to the class and see how our hard work has paid off.

Blog #8

I loved the way that the teacher went about teaching in her classroom in the first article and thought that she was very effective and passionate about what she was doing. I hope that I can be like this in my own future classroom. I really liked how she found the idea of combining reading, writing, and technology as a way to help improve student’s literacy needs instead of a challenge that couldn’t be met. She really focused on what she thought could benefit her students the most and took the time to really understand them, which I thought was wonderful! Also, by stating a goal of what she wanted to get out of her teaching, I think she made her lessons even more powerful because she knew exactly what she wanted to accomplish.

Another thing I found interesting was the quote “the technology is present in schools, but the focus of curriculum in the schools is still based on traditional forms of text” (Tarasiuk 544). I think that this sends a powerful message that something needs to be done to change this. By having the mind-set in schools that “scarcity and production of goods is valued” (Tarasiuk 544) and the mind-set that “participation and dispersal of goods and information is valued” (Tarasiuk 544) among students, we are lacking at getting an effective teaching across. I believe that we should combine these two values and incorporate that into our teaching. Not one way is effective on its own, so I believe a combination of this should be used.

I agree with the author when she talks about how “schools should expand their notions of literacy instruction and treat it as reading and writing for the purposes of communicating in many traditional and contemporary modes using multiple tools and resources” (Tarasiuk 544). I think that by teaching in this way, students are able to relate better to what they are learning and they are learning skills that will actually be useful and put into practice when they are in the real-world.

The many different activities used by the teacher that helped to enhance the student’s skills they had already and build new ones were very creative to me. I loved that she created her own type of survey to figure out where her students stood before going about anything. I think the idea of using Wikis in the classroom is great! Students would definitely show much more effort in their work and enjoyment, especially since this is something quite different than the approaches so often used in the classroom. Just by using a different tool, she even saw that they had more collaboration and discussion among each other and created things on their own that were not even required assignments! I think that this is wonderful and shows that her teaching truly was powerful and effective. Also, the fact that students were actually proud of their work says a lot.

I would love to incorporate the idea of digital book talks in my classroom. I thought that this was great and a creative approach to a lesson. The fact that students “used strategies…for real reasons, not just to prove to me that they could use those strategies” (Tarasiuk 549) was very powerful to me. It showed me that even though you’re not teaching your lesson in a traditional manner, students are gaining knowledge that they should be, even more probably than they would from a “normal” lesson.

While I love all the ideas discussed by the author and how she incorporated technology with students, one question kept coming up in the back of my mind however. How would you go about teaching in this way to make it work for those students without access to technology at home?

The author’s use of reflection to see how she changed her teaching and what her emotions and reactions, as well as the students, were was very powerful to me.  I really liked how she would send students to other groups of students if they had a question about what another group did instead of explaining it to them. She was helping them to think for themselves which I think is important. I also really enjoyed the fact that she didn’t teach about the technology being used, but rather showed examples and explained the guidelines of their assignments and had students teach each other. I think that this is a key point when incorporating technology into the classrooms. While many teachers want to incorporate this, they go about it the wrong way. They often teach about how to use the technology before actually diving into it. I think it should be the opposite way because often the students know so much more about the equipment being used than the teacher.

When the teacher described herself as feeling uncomfortable and questioning what she was doing at times, I think I would feel similar to her. The important thing though was that she stuck with it and saw the many benefits that came out of it. After reading this article, I am definitely going to try and incorporate as much technology into the classroom as I can because I think students learn a lot more this way and will actually find it useful in their future.

Overall, I think it is important that teachers accept this change that needs to be made in the classrooms and realize that even though your classroom may not sound like the traditional classroom when using this new type of teaching that does not necessarily mean that students are not learning. It often means that they gaining much more than you or they themselves even realize. I think that we need to put our anxiety to the side, and incorporate these new ways into the classroom. Ultimately, I think that there will be a numerous amount of benefits that come from this.

I read Bauerlein’s article Growing Up for Dummies. I really enjoyed this article and agreed with some of his points made. I liked how he said that “the digital revolution has empowered students in certain ways while also eroding their attention spans and analytical abilities” (McGrath 2). I think that this is absolutely true. I think that students are very powerful with all the technology and can do a lot of beneficial things, but they have little attention spans and always need to be multi-tasking with things, which is not always the best thing. Also, “there are just too many choices to make” (McGrath 2) stood out to me and I believe this 100%! It is hard enough even going to the grocery store to pick out something like cereal when there are over a hundred different choices it seems! I often think to myself this same thought, that there are too many choices sometimes! I disagree however with the quote “never have American students had it so easy, and never have they achieved less” (McGrath 2). I don’t think that it is necessarily easy for students, in fact it might be harder, with having all of these different resources and choices to go to and not knowing where to begin. I also don’t think that they are achieving less. I think that there may be more distractions and not as deep of learning at times, but I don’t think that it all comes down to this generation being the problem. Perhaps the other generations are not doing enough to help teach this generation the correct skills to be a powerful achiever in today’s society. Maybe the educators need to change as well to help this generation no longer be the so-called “dumbest generation”?

All of the articles this week really made me think about the power of technology and I found Bauerlein’s articles to be highly enjoyable and fun to read!

Blog #7

There were definitely some interesting points in the article dealing with censorship and silencing the classroom. At first I was unsure of what censorship really was, but after reading this article I now understand it better. The quote “the teachers discussed a recent censorship incident and their subsequent hesitancy to use-or decisions not to use-certain pieces of literature for fear of negative repercussions” (Noll 59) really stood out to me. I think that this type of scenario happens often in the classrooms and I would probably react in a similar way out of fear which is not the best thing to do. I found it shocking that books were ordered to be cancelled because of offensive language and references to issues such as homosexuality. I feel that students need to be exposed to these types of controversial issues so that they can become well-rounded and understand many different perspectives of life and the world and learn that not everyone is the same, which makes the world so much more interesting and a better place. I also found it interesting when the article talked about how almost all of the teachers that were interviewed have been “questioned, challenged or censored for their use of certain literature” (Noll 60). When reading this shocking statement, I realized that this is something that I really need to be aware of when teaching. If I faced this situation however, I’m not sure that I would know how to respond/react to it.

A few other issues really jumped out to me from this article. The first one was when it talked about how “some teachers avoid challenges by simply offering their students alternative reading choices. Others however, feel compelled to limit…options” (Noll 60). This is a very big issue because challenge is needed in the classroom to help build critical thinking and deeper thinking. By avoiding these challenges, are we really helping our students to become the best learners they can be? The quote “newly hired teachers were instructed…against using certain literature in their classrooms” (Noll 60) also strongly stood out to me. I can really relate to this point because I feel like this will be the type of situation I will be facing when I enter the schools as a new teacher. I will want to be known as the “good” teacher who doesn’t question anything and goes along with everyone else, as Noll also quotes later in the article, but am I really doing my best if I don’t speak up and question the “everyday” material used. I need to learn to speak up and use my voice in this profession, so that I make sure that my students benefit and get the best education they possibly can.

I was shocked by how much I did not know about the issues raised with the novel Huckleberry Finn and I learned a lot about the importance and sensitivity of teaching novels dealing with race. First of all, I think that it is very important that when teaching novels dealing with strong issues such as race, alternative assignments should definitely be provided for students. In regards to Huckleberry Finn specifically, I never really thought about all of these issues while reading it. Perhaps that is because I am among the white race and never really thought of it from a different perspective since the issue was not really talked about in my classes? When I read novels dealing with racial issues, they seemed to not really be pointed out. I remember reading To Kill A Mockingbird in my 9^th grade English class and many students didn’t know if they should read the racial words or not and my teacher seemed to ignore our questions and then turned the class into more reading at our seats individually. Nothing really was done to help us think critically about the many issues that arise in the text. I think that is one reason that I found this article so interesting, to hear about all the controversy.

I liked how the author talked about how the film might be more effective for students than the novel. I think a great assignment would be to compare and contrast the two and have students explain what they got out of both and which they found to be more accurate. Even comparing another text to this novel would be a great activity to use for students and help them to develop critical and deeper level thinking. I think that reading this novel and then reading another novel dealing with similar issues but from an African American perspective would be great for students as well, and would help incorporate diversity into the classroom. This might allow students to pick up on issues that they had never really thought of before or realized. Lastly, I liked how the author summed up the article saying that “rather than “covering” all the great works, “cultural literacy” entails thinking critically about a wide range of texts-both inside and outside the canon” (Webb 140). I think it is important that as a teacher a variety of texts are used and the deep context behind them is explained and taught about. I think that this may help students gain a better understanding of the text and become more interested in what they are reading about.

Shocking and wow are the first words that come to my mind after reading the NCTE “Student’s Right to Read” article. I was so surprised and taken aback by what I read. The first thing that really stood out to me was all of the controversies seen among different novels. Even though there are all of these issues and concerns raised by people, students are going to experience these issues and differences in society. I personally feel that by teaching about them it would help better prepare students for the real world and help teach them about things they really experience. It should be a good thing to read novels that “focus on the real world of young people” (NCTE 1). The more I read, the more I started to think that anything can really be criticized by someone. Because of this, I believe that you should teach what you are passionate about and think would best benefit your students. You just should be able to back yourself up and have a strong standing. By doing this, you are putting your students before your own worries and concerns.

This whole idea of censorship really twists things and ultimately makes the students suffer in the end. I liked the ideas of having a program of action in place in case an issue arises. I also found it interesting that the English departments should have their own statements of why they chose novels and written rationales, as well as a committee of teachers to help prepare and inform the community. Overall, I was just very shocked that there could be this much controversy to these issues and that this much back up was needed to support the teachers and schools in their effort to educate the students.

The novel Feed can easily be tied into the issues discussed about in these articles. I could see this novel as being very controversial among parents and those in the community because of the language used and the concepts of drinking and partying, etc. that are seen at times. As a teacher, I personally would be very hesitant towards using this novel in the classroom because of the language and some concepts. I don’t know if I would be able to create a strong enough argument as to why I chose this novel over any other novel that could be used in the classroom to parents and the community, even though I really enjoyed the book. However, I definitely would like to work on speaking up and stating reasons as to why novels such as this one can be beneficial to use in the classroom and for students.

 All of the articles from this week really opened my eyes to the many issues that may come about while teaching, and made me realize that I must always be on my toes and think of what is in my students best interest, even if that means stepping out of the “normal” boundaries!!

Blog #6

In the first article, Beyond Tolerance, my eyes were opened to some points that the author made but I also questioned some practices used by the author as well. I liked the fact that education to her meant “learning to live in a world community, about communicating and questioning and listening” (Cook 19). I think that having this philosophy towards education would really help her have an effective classroom in which students gain a lot of useful knowledge.

I loved how she kept the course unpredictable! I think that by doing this, students become excited to come to class everyday and it offers a lot of variety, which would make students want to actually learn. “I designed the course like a journey, complete with passports and entry visas to various destinations” (Cook 20). This idea really stood out to me. I really enjoyed how she made her teaching hands-on and really got the students involved. I would love to create my classroom in this way because I think that not only is it more fun, but that students learn a lot more information as well. I was very interested in the opportunities that the teacher gave the students for critical thinking as well. Once again, she used a variety of activities which is very important. By using journals, having discussions about what they thought about the material being studied, and by critically analyzing photographs, I think students learned a lot about one topic in many different ways. Often times, they probably did not even realize that they were learning! She even pointed out that from doing these types of activities, “they finally started making the connection” (Cook 20), which is what, should ultimately happen. I also thought it was neat that she shared her own thoughts from her personal journal. That shows students that you are just as interested in the material and find it useful, which is portraying a positive role model. I also enjoyed the fact that she allowed students to design their own homework, as long as it fit the geographical region they were studying. I think that this is a wonderful idea. It still holds students accountable for doing work, but gives them a choice of what work is done so that they will be more motivated.

I questioned the author’s idea about discussing religion in the classroom however. I feel like this would cause a lot of controversy and that it would be better to leave it out. She goes on to explain how things began to get personal when students tried to distinguish between religion and culture and how they went on trips to visit places, like a mosque. I think that trips and similar events are great ways to reinforce concepts that you are teaching about, but I don’t think that using them for a unit on religion is a great idea. I think that by getting personal with students on such a controversial subject can be a danger and can lead to students feeling different and uncomfortable even though you are trying to teach about openness. I don’t think that I would test this in my own personal classroom.

I didn’t think that I would learn much from the second article since it dealt with a Coast Guard Academy classroom, however I learned some more important tips about taking risks and what to do to help create a successful atmosphere in the classroom. I liked how the author reflected on how she should have allowed her student to experience discomfort and explained how some discomfort is needed for learning and how you should move through the feeling, instead of around it. I thought that this was great advice and it dealt a lot with what we discussed in class. In class, we talked about how sometimes a student can learn more by being pushed outside of their comfort zone and I think that from this article, I learned even more about the importance of this.

Also, I learned the importance of risks, conflicts, and challenges in the classroom. Before reading this, I would have thought that only risks and challenges would be of importance in the classroom. I liked how she explained how Galloway “challenged them to attune their thinking and writing styles through self-evaluation” (Wink 85). I think that encouraging students to reflect back on their work and challenge their ideas is very important in the learning process and can teach them valuable skills that extend beyond the school environment. The quote “My risk gave way to their greater risk” (Wink 87) also stood out to me. I think that as a teacher, you must model risk-taking to students so that they learn to do this as well. Along the lines of conflict, “we must be willing to call on students to find their voices and to engage in “creative conflict”…because conflict is required to correct our biases and prejudices…” (Wink 89). I found this quote interesting because I never really had thought about conflict being an important part to the classroom, but I realized that this does help give students a voice which is important.

Lastly, I really liked how the author talked about the idea of bringing place to students by “relaying our feelings and thoughts from travel journals while we show photographs and memorabilia and encourage students to draw from their own travels” (Wink 86). This emphasizes the importance of connections to students and benefits both visual and auditory learners. By incorporating this into the classroom, it can help create a more welcoming and friendly environment among peers as well, since many connections will be shared.

These articles can relate to The Book Thief. I think that many of the methods used in the article could be used along with this novel as well since it deals with the Holocaust. Perhaps having student’s journal and analyze photos from this time could be used. Also, maybe a creative writing assignment could be used, in which students must create their own book and then exchange their stories with one another so that they can gain a perspective of each other, such as the main character, Death, does with Liesel’s story.

Blog #5

                When reading the two articles involving Standard English and tracking, I really became aware of the many issues that are presented in the classroom and realized that some type of change needs to be made soon! In the article about Standard English, I could connect with the author on the topic of being put on the spot in the classroom and that uneasy feeling. No student should be made to feel this way and I think it happens more often than not in today’s classroom. The quote “The problem is that every time I pause, I stop the momentum of my thinking. I’m no longer pursuing content, no longer engaged in trying to persuade or entertain or clarify” really summed up the type of reaction students experience when they are constantly corrected about their mistakes made. They lose all focus on the reading material and don’t get the overall purpose of the book, which doesn’t test their comprehension skills. This creates more of an issue for students overall! I think as teachers we really need to think about what we teach in the classroom and analyze whether our students are really engaged in the learning. We have to be able to show them changes they may need to make and where to find them, but at the same time show them that it is okay to be wrong and that we learn from our mistakes. I liked the author’s idea about sharing lessons and how after the students write, they listen to each other’s stories in a read aloud circle so that everyone has a chance to share and learn from each other. I think this activity would be great to incorporate but it would be very important that you have a comfortable classroom environment for it to be successful. I think that it’s great that students can relate to one another and find connections with each other. This helps them grow not only mentally, but socially as well.

                In regards to the article about tracking, I was shocked by a lot of what I read. I knew that tracking existed before but I didn’t know much about it. The first thing that stood out to me was when it talked about how students participate in different educational experiences depending on the social hierarchy within the school. Often the advanced students read things that the low-level students never get to experience. Why do we not expose these lower-level students to these materials and help teach them the skills they need to be able to understand these novels? Another point that stood out strongly to me was when it said “Many of the students who come from remedial or regular classes are bright. But the abilities they bring to class often go unrecognized because they aren’t the skills traditional education has prized”. I think that often these students have skills that teachers are surprised to find. I believe that these students keep what they know hidden because they view themselves as “bad students” or “dumb” because this has been reinforced to them throughout their school years. They often have other strengths, which should be built upon.

                How about the quote “Often the most creative students in my mixed-ability classes are the students who have not succeeded in school…They are risk-takers”. When I read this, I immediately began thinking that the “advanced” students can often learn useful lessons and skills from the low-level students which often time teachers only view it as the other way around. I believe that as a teacher, we should use this variety of learning abilities as a strength to teaching instead of viewing it as a weakness.  The article also discussed about how many view classrooms with low-level students as “rowdy” places, however when the expectations are clear and critical thinking is involved students are not as likely to act out. This made me think about how these students are often bored with grades and the typical schoolwork given. Shouldn’t this aspect ultimately help us to become better teachers by requiring us to change our teaching methods from the ever so common traditional ways and step outside of the established boundaries? Some other things I liked were the fact that she read fewer novels in her classroom because she decided to go more in depth with the novels they read. I really like this idea because students can gain a stronger understanding of a story. It also teaches students the importance of quality over quantity! One thing really stood out to me towards the end however about tracking. It talked about how tracking enables systems of inequality that lead to unequal education. We ultimately want to teach in our classroom the power of diversity and how inequality is wrong, so why are we continuing to use methods in today’s classrooms that promote inequality? Shouldn’t we be modeling what we are truly teaching about? I think that is a message that many educators need to step back and think about.

                I learned a lot about literature circles as well, when I really thought I knew all there was to know about them already. I learned how by using this type of strategy in the classroom, it can help to improve student achievement scores which is a great aspect. Also, they are very useful for all types of learners and they help to increase not only the fun of reading but also help with multicultural awareness, gender equity, and social outlet connections! WOW!

                Another thing I came to realize was how literature circles can be even more powerful without the role sheets being used. I remember doing literature circles in 5^th grade and even at the upper levels with the worksheets. After everyone in the groups read what role sheets they were assigned, the discussion seemed to go dead and we all thought that we were done for the day. I think that by not having role sheets, discussion may be easier to come by and it will seem like more natural “conversation”. Perhaps you could have the students fill out their sheets and then collect them to make sure they were complete while they had their discussions. This way, you could still make sure that the students were prepared for discussion and that they had something to say, yet the actual literature circle wasn’t so much of just reading from papers. It would be more of a conversation setting. Even if you used a different type of assignment as a participation grade, such as journaling, instead of role sheets, but something should be required of students.

                The chapter talked about the eleven key ingredients to literature circles which seemed to be how the literature circles I participated in school seemed to run. It was neat to read over these however and gain an understanding of why each ingredient is seen and how it benefits the students. Just a few of the reasons that I think that literature circles are great to use at any level are that it helps create strong critical thinking skills, encourages risk-taking, helps to focus in on student’s needs better, and shows how diverse groups can work together effectively. All of this can help give students the skills they need to be a better student and learner overall. I couldn’t agree more with the chapter when it explains that balance is the key. I think this is important with any teaching method. Lastly, I really liked the idea of incorporating online book clubs into the classroom. This is awesome because it includes technology that students are very involved with. You could use this as a type of activity to try with students after doing an example of a literature circle in the classroom. They may then begin to see that it is something that can be seen as a fun activity outside of the classroom. I’m not sure how you could manipulate this though for students without access to technology at home? Perhaps you could offer something like an after-school program or something along those lines?

                I think that literature circles are very powerful and also help with the problem of tracking discussed in the articles read about. I think that all teachers and schools should use this type of teaching strategy at some point in their classrooms! I know I can’t wait to incorporate this into my teaching and I hope that it can be as effective as it was for myself when I experienced it in school. In my use of this technique however, I would like to draw away from the worksheet roles and think of new, creative roles or activities for students to get into. Maybe have students create their own type of roles since they often know what things they really enjoy. I have so many different ideas that I would love to put into practice now!

Blog #4

Wow! That is the first thought that comes to my mind when I think about how much I have learned from the materials that we read this past week. I, like so many of the readers Hade talks about in his article, gave rarely any thought to the deep, underlying meaning behind so many texts.  I truly only read for face value and now that I realize how many deep messages there are hidden behind texts used so commonly in the classroom, it makes me want to go back and read every one again to see my thoughts about it and how thinking critically has changed what I get from the story.

When Hade started his article with talking about the underlying message in The Lion King, my thinking really began. I had never really paid any attention to how there was a deep rooted message behind the fluffy Disney story of The Lion King. I realized that unless you think critically, so many key messages just pass you by. In my Culturally Diverse Lit. class, we discussed in class about stereotypes and a lot of those issues discussed reminded me of this. For example we talked about shows such as Hey Arnold that portrayed stereotypical images of characters. For example, Gerald is portrayed with the stereotypical afro and having a boom box with him all the time. I never really thought that I was thinking stereotypically when I watched this show, but now looking back on it I just assumed that was the “normal” traits that could be connected with African Americans. We also talked about how even in the media, with commercials, those stereotypical gender issues arise such as how many commercials relating to girls have the play kitchens and household items associated with them and the boys commercials deal with electronic cars, etc. So we truly are teaching these stereotypes to children from the time they are little and as the article pointed out, “reading isn’t natural, it’s learned”. (Hade 238). We need to learn how to teach to be more accepting and open to others and their views.

“Reading is inherently social and is dominated by culture. And the meanings we hold about race, class, and gender (many of which may be stereotypes) mediate how we interpret text”. (Hade 235). This quote goes to show that what students were brought up learning about beliefs is what they will ultimately bring to the text. Because of all the different backgrounds that students have, I think it is especially important that as a teacher we express the fact that not just one answer is correct. Students should feel comfortable enough to share their views on a subject and everyone in the classroom will be able to learn from each other’s views. I think being open to everyone’s ideas will help lead to more open thinking on issues. I also think that I need to step back and really think and analyze about what I will be bringing into the classroom from my background on these issues and I need to make sure that my views don’t override any other students. I want my classroom to be open to all ideas and not one overruling thought.

I completely agree with Hade when he states that “pedagogy must accommodate learning how to read race, class, and gender” (Hade 238). I think that in schools we discuss how these issues appear in our society but we never really go any deeper than that and actually teach about it, which I think needs to happen. I liked his suggestion of choosing novels in which these topics are not forced, but rather are integrated into understanding the story. Like anything, I think if you constantly push a certain idea and nothing else, students will get bored and ignore the point that you are trying to get across. The most effective way seems to discuss the issues and slowly bring more novels and materials that integrate these meanings into them.

I really liked how Hade talked about the importance of comparing two books and how this can help to better show the hidden messages in some novels. I think that comparing books is a great practice to incorporate into the classroom and that many projects and assessments besides the typical tests and quizzes can stem from that. Going with this idea, I learned a lot about the underlying meaning of The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein just by reading this article and how he compared it to another novel. I never saw the gender issue behind this story until Hade compared it to another novel. I thought that was amazing! I also liked how Hade talked about how many teachers express doubt about children being able to pick up on gender themes in a story. I often feel this way and wonder how my students will be able to pick up on issues of this complexity when I pass them by so often. After reading more of the article however and seeing how the students actually picked up on this issue and had a discussion about it when they compared the two novels, I was surprised! I think that I don’t give enough credit to the students sometimes and really learned that often they can handle a lot more than I think!!

Overall I learned a lot about this article and found it very interesting. I think one quote that summed up this issue of multiculturalism for me was “It isn’t a month or week of focused study on a particular group. Multiculturalism is a perspective we take on and struggle to understand, a stance we take to our reading that race, class, and gender matter in the way we interpret stories” (Hade 241). I think this expresses the issue completely. Also the statement “This is not an easy or safe pedagogy” (Hade 252) was important to me. Even though these issues may be uncomfortable to bring up and teach in the classroom because it is so different from the “normal” way of teaching and how we were brought up, we need to step outside the everyday box and think in new ways to make learning even more powerful for students. Like we discussed in class, sometimes pushing yourself to be a little uncomfortable can help you learn and ultimately become a better teacher. Isn’t that what we truly want?

In “A Class Divided” by Jane Elliot a powerful lesson on racism was taught which I really thought was neat, especially since it was so interactive with students and they didn’t even realize at first the power of what they were learning. The lesson really helped teach students a real life message that they still remembered years down the road which is what I would like my students to have. I want to be able to teach them information that they will remember and find useful! It was amazing to see that how after just a few days of being treated as the superiors or the inferiors, the students really took these roles on, which is how it works in society. It showed me that beliefs really are learned and it showed me how powerful learning is. This lesson really showed the power that racism plays in the world. I think that by doing an activity such as this one and pairing it with some novels that deal with the issues of race, you could create a successful teaching unit.

The novel To Kill A Mockingbird would be one example of a great novel to incorporate with teaching about any of the three issues of gender, race, and class. All three issues are clearly seen throughout the novel and you could create a lot of great activities with the story. The issues of class arise just by looking at the setting of the story. Taking place in Alabama in the 1930s in a small town, the novel talks about how in the town you are treated all depending on whom your parents are, who knows you since it is such a small town and how long you have lived there. This shows how class played a role. For teaching, you could even connect this back to the early times and how important class was then and maybe ask students if they think that class plays as big of a role in today’s society as it did back then. The issue of gender arises with Scout’s character. She is seen as more of a tomboy. She seems to face a constant struggle about who she really is. Though her Dad accepts her for herself, her brother Jem makes fun of her when she does act like a girl, so she is in a constant battle to find her place in the world. I think that a lot of teaching opportunities could come from this, especially since she is the narrator of the story. Students could write responses based on what they would do if they were in the characters shoes or it might be interesting to have students compose a letter to the character giving her advice on what she should do or connect with the character about a time that they experienced a similar event or feeling. Also, showing media clips dealing with gender issues like I talked about earlier would be a great real-world connection. Lastly, the issue of race is very prevalently seen. The main issue of the novel comes about when Scout and Jem’s father, Atticus, represents Tom Robinson, a black man, on trial for raping and beating a white woman. The children face many racial slurs and torments because of their father’s role in the trial. For teaching, you could teach about racial issues seen today and incorporate other novels dealing with similar issues. I think it is very important to make students aware of these issues and show them how they are still very present in today’s world. If we have students think critically about these issues, maybe their future will be a more accepting and open one.

Blog #3

               With all of the diversity and variety seen among student’s in today’s world, I think it is time to bring this diversity to the classroom as well. That is a key point I discovered from the two articles read this week. In the “Conventions of Comics” article, I learned a lot about graphic novels that I would have passed by before. I read this article in Shannon’s Intro. To Culturally Diverse Literature class and it was neat to get to read it again and pick up on things that I missed previously. I really like the part that discusses the panel about multimodel analysis. The author explains how she had her students begin with what they saw, which incorporated visual meaning. They then went into auditory meaning, spatial meaning, linguistic meaning, and gestural meaning. I think it’s important that all senses of a reader are engaged when reading, which this panel clearly focuses on. I also like how this activity allowed for each student’s opinion and reactions to be heard without being considered wrong, since there is not one correct way to interpret the panel. The quote, “a pedagogy that embraces multiple literacy’s then is one that considers the multicultural and diverse society that we all live in and broadens our understanding of “literature” to include multimedia and visual forms of literacy,” really showed me the importance once again of incorporating new technologies. This will help keep students interested and make them want to learn. If you really think about it, would you want to do the same thing again and again? Neither do our students!

                In the second article, I liked how the author pointed out that when teachers attempted to start conversations about the works students were interested in, such as graphic novels, students tended to be very hesitant to talk about them. As the teachers looked into these different types of novels that so many students were interested in reading and saw how they allowed students to read and respond to detailed meanings while reading about subject matter they could relate too, they knew they had to incorporate this somehow into their teaching. I think that this shows effective teaching based on the fact that they took their students interests to heart and adapted their teaching to meet the student’s needs. I hope to be able to do this! I liked the large variety of teaching techniques the teachers used. I liked the “shades of meaning” lesson because it taught a basic concept but in a unique way and progress was seen among students from this type of learning. This really showed me that you can teach in a way that is different from the “normal” way and still be successful in your classroom. I really enjoyed the culminating project that the students used in which they used photographs for an about the author page, and continued describing fictitious events to go along with the photographs. I thought this was a great idea and a really neat project for students to get involved in. It allowed them to have fun with learning and they incorporated the real world into their writing which I think is wonderful. I would like to use a project like this in my classroom! In the conclusion of the article, I found the sentence, “having begun with the idea that graphic novels were comic books at best and a waste of time at worst, we now realize the power they have for engaging students in authentic writing” very important and it reminded me of a specific experience I had in an observation. In an 8^th grade classroom, students were required to choose a book of their choice to do a book report on. As the teacher went around the classroom checking to see what novels the students chose and writing down the titles he came to one very quiet student who had chosen a graphic novel. His response to this student was that it was not a book and that he must choose another book with words. I was appalled at this comment by the teacher and the rest of the class laughed at the student for choosing this type of book. Did the teacher really think that reacting in this way would make the student ever want to read again? This experience was traumatizing for myself to watch so I just wonder the effect it truly had on the student. I will never forget that moment and I think that that will really help me be a better teacher by experiencing that situation.

                In Chapter 5 of You Gotta Be the Book, Wilhelm really focuses on expressing the importance of visual information for students in order for them to truly understand a story. “Visual imaging encourages students to access and apply their prior knowledge as they read, increases comprehension, and improves the ability to predict, infer, and remember what has been read” (Wilhelm 158). This quote really showed me just how powerful visual information plays a role in a student truly understanding the background of a story. I believe that as a teacher you must use whatever techniques you have to help get this visual message across to students, whether they need it by visual, tactile, or auditory information. It is the teacher’s job to adapt their teaching to each individual student’s learning style. That is why I believe variety plays such a key role in the classroom!

                “I just have to wonder if school conveys a very limited view of literature that does not include picture books and comics, and if this limited view of literature contributes to how bummed out and distanced many of my student readers become from literature and the literary experience”. I really like this quote and think that it conveys an important message. I was only introduced to graphic novels in college, so the fact that the literature viewed in grade school is so confined is a big issue! I believe more students may find a love of reading when they see how much variety is truly offered. I also enjoyed the fact that Wilhelm noted that he read a comic book in a foreign language and learned how much easier it was to figure out words from the context and follow the actual story. I think actually putting yourself in the students place can really open your eyes up and reveal a lot! Also, by going about books in different ways, you can show students that there is not always a right or wrong way to show your ideas.

                Not only does having a visual image of a story help with comprehension, but it also allows the student to remember things much more. If you think about it, aren’t the lessons that clearly stand out to you from school the ones that you can actually picture in your mind? Mine sure are! Drawing pictures often really helps with visualization and this can be adapted so that all students can enjoy something even if they aren’t very artistic. I was that way in school. Whenever an assignment required drawing, you would hear the biggest sigh come out of my mouth. I like how Wilhelm explained that you could have students cut and paste pictures instead of drawing. I like how he gives students  a choice and offers variety. I think this makes students feel that their opinions matter.

                To sum it all up, there were a lot of benefits to incorporating art in the classroom noted by Wilhelm. As he explained, it helped his students take better notes for other classes, which shows that they can apply their best learning strategies to other areas which is a very good skill to have and helps them make intertextual connections. Also, it helped students to understand the “bigger picture” behind a story, which also helps with overall meaning. By using artistic responses, it helps give the students a voice as well and not just the teacher, which is drawing away from the bottom-up method. Perhaps you could have students take turns teaching about what they got from the reading and explain what ways they chose to express themselves and why.  I learned about so many benefits from incorporating visual artwork into reading that I never knew of and would have never guessed. I can now truly appreciate and understand the quote “Reading IS seeing and you do have to BE the book”!

Blog #2

                Just from reading the first 3 chapters of “You Gotta Be the Book”, I have gained so much knowledge about the profession of teaching and what it truly takes to be a successful teacher and role model for your students. From just the introduction, I saw how much of a struggle it can truly be to get students to be motivated and interested in reading and school itself. This is something that I feel I will struggle with when I first begin teaching. The thought of the first day where you enter your own classroom with all the students looking to you as a role model and educator and you ultimately affect their learning and who they will become in the future, is a lot of pressure but I love the thought of being that influential. I really liked how after Wilhelm got to know his students and saw that the methods he was currently using to teach weren’t being successful, he revamped his teaching style and decided that reading stories together as a class might be an effective method to use. I also really liked how he used a survival simulation in the classroom. I think these types of activities really help engage and motivate students and helps get them out of the typical everyday school routine. I think it makes them want to see what they might be able to discover and makes them want to learn! Another aspect that I enjoyed was the use of attitude inventories at the start of the school year. I like how this can give you some background knowledge about your students and their interests, which can really help you out a lot in choosing novels possibly at the beginning of the year before you really know your students. I would really like to incorporate something like this into my classroom to help me get better acquainted with students and to show them that I am really interested in their lives not only in the classroom but outside of it as well.

                When talking about teaching approaches used in the classroom, my personal view on what teaching style I think would be effective and that I would most like to use in my classroom was further confirmed. I had heard about these different types of approaches, such as bottom-up, top-down, and interactive, in my Reading in the Elementary School class that I took last semester. When I first learned about this, I was overwhelmed with information about them and wasn’t really sure what made up each approach, but after reading the chapter dealing with this, I learned even more about each method which really helped me build on the previous knowledge I had. I can say that I would most like to use the interactive teaching method in my classroom, but for most of my schooling I would say I was taught in a bottom-up method, which was ultimately “emphasized on rightness of literary interpretation” (Wilhelm 21). Every novel we seemed to read was just used to answer comprehension questions and we only gained one meaning of what the book was trying to say. I believe that since students bring so much different personal background knowledge to the table, everyone may gain a different type of understanding. By sharing all these different interpretations as a class, I believe some students may learn even better. Even for classic literature that’s studied, I believe that the teacher can still stress and emphasize the “correct” meaning of the text without disregarding other points that students might have gained from reading it. I believe that often times we are able to learn more from our students than anything else which is another reason as to why I think this discussion and sharing of everyone’s ideas is a good concept to add into the classroom. The reason as to why I really would like to have an interactive teaching method in my classroom is because I like the fact that reading is not seen as just a skill, but that it shows there is really meaning to it and I love the fact that students bring their prior knowledge to the story. Though this is how I ultimately would like to teach, I know it will be a struggle since I was brought up the bottom-up way. I really hope that I don’t revert back to this method since research shows you usually teach the way you were taught, so I hope that by reflecting and journaling about my experiences in the classroom I will be able to stay an effective teacher not only for my sake but for the students as well. One thing I do worry about however with using this interactive method is that by allowing students to work in groups and pairs to discuss, it will be harder to make sure they are being challenged and that they are learning different perspectives about the text. I need to make sure that I balance my lecturing, group work, and discussions so that students are learning from not only each other, but from myself as well.

                One point that really stuck out to me was in Chapter 1, when Wilhelm discusses the popularity of reading at this grade level. Students “did not want it pointed out that they like to read” (Wilhelm 28). I could relate to this because I think I had this type of attitude as a student in the middle school grades. It wasn’t the “cool” thing to do and at that age level being “cool” is the ultimate goal of many. I want to be able to make reading a popular aspect of school to students and make it something that students like to engage and converse about. The more students engage in reading, the better learners they will become which will help them out in the real world. I agree completely with Wilhelm when he mentions about “focusing on the process of reading, instead of solely on what was read” (Wilhelm 29) for my classroom. I think that knowing how a student processes the information read will allow myself to gain a better understanding of what they are bringing to the story and help them each with their own individual strategies. Overall, I think that you must have variety in your classroom and teaching practices to make students want to pay attention and you must show the student that you make mistakes as well, which in the end help you to learn. I believe that this will help them to relate better and trust me more which will help get more accomplished.

                I also connected with Wilhelm on the belief that sharing stories about reading and life with students whenever a chance arises is important. I think that this goes to show how you use reading as a useful part of your daily life and shows them that reading can be something that is seen as fun to do outside of purely the school environment. An issue was pointed out in Chapter 2 however about how one should help motivate those students that simply refuse to read? This is a question that I have thought about a lot and still wonder what the best strategy to use would be. I want to be able to create a meaningful learning space for all students even though not all show the interest in learning. I really think that learning some techniques on what to do with students who refuse to read and who lack interest would be a beneficial thing for myself.

                Wilhelm also mentions how he often saw the types of literature read by the students as not having deep meaning behind them and believing that they were mostly easy reads until he immersed himself in these types of novels. I could strongly relate to this from my experience in Culturally Diverse Literature with Shannon. In this class, it was the first time I had ever even heard or seen a graphic novel. I admit that at first glance I thought that it would be an easy read with little meaning too it, but my initial thought quickly changed. Throughout the course, I learned how to break down the meanings of these novels and realized that they often had very strong meanings behind them and led to important messages that we learn from today’s most “common” literature stories. I learned that just because a text might look easy it isn’t always necessarily the case which I think is important to know when thinking about children’s literature. The same goes with the new media literacy that we talked about in class and how many students use online forums and gaming as a type of literature. I personally would have never viewed this as relating to literacy until we discussed how in today’s world it can be seen as a type of literacy as long as it’s not the only type of reading being done. Speaking of reading not being done, I was shocked when I read how experts estimated that the “average child spends less than 5 minutes a day reading” (Wilhelm 52). This must be changed!!

                From Chapter 3, I gained a lot of ideas that might be good to incorporate into my future classroom. I liked the idea of literary letters. This would allow students to practice their writing skills as well as summarizing and telling me about how they read and what they liked. I think that it combines a lot of useful literacy skills together. It also talked about using SRI or the “Symbolic Representation Interview”. This initial concept sort of confused me and I’m not sure if I would be able to use it effectively in my classroom even though it helps with scaffolding a lesson. I think other ways may be more effective to present to my own students that I feel more passionate about. I also found it interesting that girls showed a tendency for perspective-taking, whereas boys were more for visualizing. I think this shows that it is very important to use variety in your teaching methods so that all students have a chance to learn material in their best learning style.

                There were many more ideas that I would love to bring to the classroom that I gained from just reading about the specific student’s responses to certain literature that they read. I liked the comment made by the student Joanne where she explained how in her mind she would write letters of advice to the character. I think that this could be a great writing assignment in which students could get a chance to interact with the characters of their book and gain a better understanding as well. Along these lines of writing, I also like the idea of making a creative writing prompt and having students respond to what they would do if they faced a situation similar to that of one of the characters in their novel which would require them to really put thought into the story. Also, I really like the idea of having students create their own ending to a story. I often was required to do this in my younger days, and it was fun to be creative. It felt like you had control over something important. Besides writing, I think that there are some effective ways to make reading seem not boring that I would like to try. One thing was role playing. I never enjoyed this in school but many students do. When I observed in an 8^th grade language arts classroom, they often did role playing of different key parts of chapters in the story and they were always thrilled to do this! It made them get excited and really think about what is happening in the story so I think that incorporating this into my classroom at times could be effective for many students and help bring other students out of their shells, which I think is what I needed. One of the biggest things that I would like to try though would be to turn my classroom into a visual scene of whatever story we are reading at the time. I think that this visual could create excitement among the classroom and interest students of all levels to really get into the story line. It could also help the lower level reading students gain an understanding of what the setting of the story really is, which could ultimately help them better understand the whole story. There are so many different ideas and strategies that I would love to try in a classroom and I can’t wait to get the chance! I know not all will be successful, but learning from my mistakes and seeing what really works will be half the fun!

Blog #1: Literacy Profile

              As I look back and reflect on my own literary practices that I’ve used as a student and reader in general, I have discovered a lot not only about myself as a student in general, but also some of the reasons as to why being a teacher of Language Arts/Reading is the right career pathway for me! If one would have asked me during my elementary school days if I considered myself a reader or enjoyed reading, I would have exclaimed of course I am! Fast forward a few years to  middle school days to ask me the same question, and I’m sure the answer you would get from myself is no. As a young student, I always enjoyed read aloud time and being able to choose any book I wanted from the huge library to read. Once I got into middle school however, it seemed like that wasn’t the “cool” thing anymore. I think this type of attitude that many of my peers had rubbed off on me. Also, my mom would also try and insist I read some more since I rarely did, and at that age I think I enjoyed being so stubborn. Once I got into high school however, I had a few really excellent teachers that got me interested in literature once again. I think the biggest thing that drew me back into reading, was hearing stories that I could relate to and being able to form connections and discuss how everyday life could tie into the story. This personal aspect got me interested and made me realize that reading isn’t just about being able to answer comprehension questions, like what I learned in middle school, but that literature can actually be fun!

            Nowadays, I would surely consider myself a reader. There are many things that I love about reading. One thing is that I love the feeling of being able to connect with another person and know that they have felt things similar to what I have. I also love when a book is able to draw me into the story and I feel as if I’m a part of it and I would love to be able to motivate students to feel that at least once when they read a story. When I first began reading, it was such an exciting time for me! I remember as a young child going around the house and reading all the stories that I could find. It seemed to find it relaxing. My parents strongly pushed me to read and as a child they constantly read stories to me which I enjoyed and it also brought us closer together which I really enjoyed. This is something that I think is lacking in a lot of households today and one of my biggest goals as a teacher is to motivate parents to read with their children because not only will this help with their children’s literacy skills but also I want students to be able to feel that excitement and happiness that I did when I was reading with my parents.

            I don’t remember exact titles of what I read as an adolescent but I know I enjoyed reading all different types. Mysteries and mostly fiction novels were the genres that I was generally drawn too. I really enjoyed reading stories about characters going through hard times and growing up, because I really felt like I could connect with them and enjoyed that aspect. In regards to the literature taught in my middle school classrooms, I found much of it boring. Many of my teachers at this grade level only taught what they had to out of the book and never motivated the students. I felt as if we just read stories to answer questions, meet the curriculum and then we would move on. In my high school, it seemed as if some of my teachers would choose books based on our interest levels instead and this is what helped me gain a love of reading. In middle school, reading felt like boring assignments and not a fun adventure, which is the way I feel reading should be for students. I believe that they should feel as if they are immersed in the story line!!

            I would consider myself today somewhere between being a motivated reader and a reluctant one. I think often times I am not motivated to pick up a book myself and start it unless I hear that is very good or have too, but once I find a story I really enjoy or an author I really like, I will go out on my own to find other stories similar to them because I can’t get enough! I hope to inspire my students to value reading and literacy by being able to show them that they can relate to others and that others go through the same types of things in life that they do and that they are not alone. I hope to inspire students by doing read alouds and incorporating literature in every aspect of my classroom that I can. I also hope that my love of reading and excitement for different stories will inspire many students to find the same enjoyment. I want them to view literature as a fun, relaxing thing to do and not look at it as always just reading for an assignment. I know this will be tough but I hope that through my love of reading, my students will get to that level someday as well.

            Lastly, I do believe that literacy extends beyond traditional reading practices. I think that traditional reading practices help to build up a person’s literacy. Also, the more reading that is done will help literacy become stronger, which will lead to further enjoyment of novels for students. In the end, I hope to inspire, be a strong motivator and role model for my students and that they will ultimately learn to have a love for Language Arts and reading as I do!