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!