A Time for Reflection

I feel as though I have been putting off writing this blog because I am not ready for this class to end because I have had a wonderful time reading and engaging with my fellow future teachers. I have also learned so much and I know that I will remember what I have learned in this class. Through this class I have been able to explore what kind of teacher I want to be and the strategies that I want to employ. I have thought a lot about student choice and how important I believe it is in fostering students' learning. I have also thought about how I want to be an active teacher. I want to participate side by side with my students in the activities that they are doing. When teachers participate in the activity, it shows the students that the teacher thinks the activity is important, which encourages the students to be more willing to participate. I also think this is beneficial because I believe that teachers' personal input (within reason) can be important in encouraging students to participate and provide their own opinion.

One strategy that I really enjoyed was Literature Circles. The fact that Literature Circles can enable student choice really appeals to me. Even if you choose several novels to include for the activity, the students can have the ability to choose one of liking out of the ones you have provided. There are so many roles that you can use for Literature Circles and you can even have the students create their own roles that they believe will be beneficial in the discussion of their particular novel. I also liked having students participate in a small-group discussion followed by a whole-class discussion. I believe that having the small-group discussion helps to break down any barriers that students may have in regards to speaking out loud in class. This strategy is also beneficial because it allows for students to hear good ideas from other groups that they may not have heard if there was not a whole-class discussion afterwards. I look forward to discovering more strategies during the time I have left before I enter the classroom, as well as when I have my own classroom.

This class has helped me realize that I should not answer for my students if no one volunteers to answer a question I have asked; they do not learn anything from this. I have also learned that sometimes you need to not let everyone offer their opinion in order to move on, due to time constraints. It is nice to hear what everyone has to say, but there are times where you will need to move on and let some comments be left unsaid (at least for the time being). Another thing that I have learned, is that there is nothing wrong with over-planning a lesson. If there are some things that will have to go untouched, make sure you deal with the most important facets of your lesson first, before you run out of time. For my discussion leader assignment, I had two more activities that I could have easily used, but did not -- due to time constraints. I have also learned that sometimes, things will not go exactly as you have planned them, but that you need to roll with the punches and not get caught up with what went wrong.

As an English teacher of today, I believe that I am constantly learning and reflecting. I am also constantly changing because not every lesson is going to work for all students year after year. I believe that I am given the opportunity to help shape the minds of our future and I am excited for the challenge.

Shakespeare in the Classroom

I chose the chapter entitled Getting to Know a Play Five Ways. I found this chapter extremely interesting because I like the idea of using different ways to "test" students' skills without having to give them an exam. This chapter posed five different ideas that can serve as an evaluation of the level of comprehension that your students have of the work at hand. They were all excellent ideas, but one of my favorite ones was about envisioning an experimental adaptation of one of Shakespeare's plays. I've seen a live performance of Much Ado About Nothing set in the deep south during the time of dixieland jazz (as well as A Midsummer Night's Dream set in present-day with the use of blacklights and electronica music). They were both wonderful adaptations and the main plots and themes were still present.

This idea of having an adaptation of an original work ties in with our reading for this week very nicely. Even though the manga version of Romeo and Juliet is set in Tokyo with the Capulets and the Montagues being mafia families, the themes are very clearly presented and may be more enticing to students because of its more modern take. I read the manga version after I had re-read the original play and could clearly recognize that they text was all but the same. The use of the same text that William Shakespeare wrote for the original version is what makes the manga version a comparable alternative or a work to juxtapose with the original work.

Instead of having students adapt the play in a unique way, they could cast the play in modern-times and use actors and actresses who they believe would play a role well. To make it even more of a challenge, it would be interesting to have them only cast males in all the roles, including the female ones, since that was the custom during Shakespeare's time. These ideas are closely related to Martha Tuck Rozett's idea that I stated above and her idea of having the students hire actors for their play. In her scenario, the students have a company of seven trained actors and the goal is to hire the least amount of actors to fill the roles (doubling up parts is encouraged) and avoid making a doubling mistake that does not allow the actor to change costumes or one that makes the fact that they are playing two (or more) roles explicitly known to the audience. There are so many interesting and fun activities that you can do for drama -- especially Shakespeare and I cannot wait to put them to use in a classroom.

Don't Judge a Book By Its Cover (or Its Genre)

This past week, I had the opportunity to read The Hunger Games. I cannot recall being more impressed with a young-adult novel than I am now. I hadn't heard about the trilogy until this past summer when I saw big displays set up in Borders with the third installment being advertised. I remember looking at the displays and the stacks of books and dismissed them. They wouldn't appeal to me -- I just knew it. Well, it seems like I have been proved wrong multiple times this semester so far. I have read and enjoyed many novels that I would not have picked up on my own accord, and The Hunger Games is no exception.

The novel was so fresh and I felt like I could not read it fast enough. I started it on Saturday evening and kept telling myself that I would read just one more chapter, until I looked at the clock and saw how late (or, rather, how early) it was -- and then I told myself that I needed to go to sleep. The emotions were so raw and I could really feel how Katniss was feeling, especially when her younger sister was chosen to be a tribute for the Hunger Games. I was devastated. I have a younger sister, and while we fight and bicker a lot of the time, I feel that I would do the same if put in Katniss's situation. All throughout the Hunger Games, I was there with Katniss. And I felt my heart shatter at the end of the first book when Peeta and Katniss's relationship is in jeopardy. I have a strong urge to find out what happens (and the answer is only a Google away), but I'm going to patiently wait until I have time to read the other two books.

By the time that I will be teaching in a classroom the movie version of The Hunger Games will be out (it's slated to open March 2012). I would like to intersperse activities that are based on the students' opinions and ideas of what is taking place in the novel with clips from the movie. I'm still unsure if I would use the whole movie, but I know that I definitely want to show bits and pieces of it. I found that I connected more to this novel than I did to Feed, but I feel that teaching them together would work since they both illustrate dystopian societies (or teach it alongside other works of dystopian literature, such as Farenheit 451 or Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series). A selection of dystopian literature would work well for literature circles and you can have the students rotate to read some or all of the novels, or the students could thoroughly present their particular novel so that the other students can get a "feel" for the novel and possibly be prompted to read it on their own.

Getting Past the Initial Shock...

I'll admit that I am one to judge a book by its cover...and Feed did not look like it would be my kind of book at all. I decided to get past the cover and begin reading and the first few pages did not spark my interest either. It wasn't until page 13, when Violet was introduced, that I was intrigued. I had to read the first few pages over because they honestly did not make any sense to me. The characters were using made-up words and talking about the moon. As I kept on reading, things began to make sense to me and I actually grew to like the novel. Another part of the novel that really helped me attach myself to it was the examples of information that is being heard on the feed (like on pages 14-15). The relationship between Titus and Violet also piqued my interest and allowed me to come to the conclusion that this novel can work for a wide variety of students due to the various relationships and the theme of being bombarded with media messages.

This novel also led me to think further about how our society is affected by advertisements from all sources of media whether it be the television, radio or internet. I don't think I ever really thought about how much I am personally affected by advertisements, but after reading Feed, I am definitely more aware. I have even found myself thinking about how companies use their ads to encourage you to make a purchase and how these ads personally appeal to me. I think that this could raise some interesting and beneficial discussions within a classroom. Students realize the pressures that these media messages place upon them (whether it be to buy certain items, eat at certain restaurants or visit certain attractions or places of interest) and I am interested in seeing how they would react to a discussion on the topic.

I was doing background research on Feed and found this blog that talked a little about how slang was developed by Anderson and used in the novel:

http://ozandends.blogspot.com/2007/03/units-of-slang-in-feed.html

Mice Have Feelings Too!

I know I blogged about being "present" in the classroom last week, but while reading Wink's article, I was reminded about how beneficial it is. On page 87, Wink writes, "I looked up to see students at rapt attention, but they quickly averted their eyes when I returned their gazes. There was a different air in the room. I had introduced some vulnerability, and they were uncomfortable. Typically, they participated with austerity, but today was different. I 'felt' in front of them--despairing, unsettled, passionate. I asked, 'Any comments?' Silence. Perhaps this was, instead, a writing moment. I let the moment stand and resolved to revisit it." This quote really struck me. I loved how Wink shared her journal of visiting the prison cell of Martin Niemoller. I also like the idea of the teacher's experience being a catalyst for learning (page 86). Letting the students know that we, as teachers, have emotions or thoughts that can be expressed in ways much like they express their feelings and thoughts, is something that we should strive for.

This week, I had the chance to read Maus for the first time. I heard about it a couple of years ago when two of my friends read it for their World History I course. They both really enjoyed it and I became interested. I have to be honest, though. I have never went to the bookstore and browsed the graphic novel section because I did not think that anything would appeal to me. At this moment, I can gladly say that I do not feel that way anymore. After reading American Born Chinese, my eyes were opened to a new genre of literature. After I had a good experience with ABC, I was more inclined to read Maus -- and I do not regret that decision. Even though the main characters were portrayed as mice, cats and pigs, I was able to have strong emotional attachment to the story of Anja and Vladek and their journey during the Holocaust. It was very easy to read, but I had to make sure to take my time. I could have easily read it in one sitting, but I needed to take some breaks to let my emotions simmer (and I didn't want it to end!). I even had a conversation about how much I love it with two of my other friends who have read it (and have loved it too!). I will surely be looking for the second one when I make my next trip to the bookstore. After reading another graphic novel, I am absolutely sure that I want to use graphic novels in my classroom. I know that before I was able to experience graphic novels, that I really did not consider them to be "real" literature. Now, I see them as a fun way to read and maybe a way that will encourage students who do not necessarily enjoy reading to view reading as tolerable or somewhat pleasurable.

One more thing -- last semester I took Intro to Theatre and absolutely loved it! My professor showed us a one-man play called Primo (that was based on a book) about a man's experience in Auschwitz. This is only one scene (I couldn't find the full-length play online for free), but I think it is worth the two and a half minutes.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/primo/video-scene-from-the-program/148/

The Importance of Being Present

During my reading of the chapters from Literature Circles, I was able to think more about one aspect of being a teacher that I think is important. This aspect is being "present" in your classroom. To me, this means that as a teacher I want to interact with my students in a way that makes them more willing to participate in class. I think that if a student sees that a teacher is participating (or had participated) in an activity or assignment for class, the student will be more apt to not find the activity to be pointless.

The reading connected to my line of thinking on page 24, where Harvey Daniels writes, "Perhaps the one element most grievously lacking in the experience of most American schoolchildren is regularly seeing a mature adult reader connecting with a book for the first time, constructing meaning, talking about the thinking process, and sharing here-and-now responses." During literature circles in my classroom, I would definitely consider joining one of the groups and becoming a member of a circle in order to encourage a positive response from my students. Daniels also writes about teachers being involved in literature circles on page 87 when he writes about literary mini-lessons saying that "One worth repeating frequently is when the teacher simply talks about whatever she herself is reading, whether an adult or children's book." Daniels also writes, "This is simply modeling in its purest form, with a veteran book person 'opening up her head' and showing kids how life-long readers think and act" (87). Being able to tell the students why you chose the book you did and what kinds of connections you are able to create with a book is very influential for students to know. Letting your students see you participate in one of your class activities can show them that you are interested in the activity also and if you view it as something that you would like to do, you will have more success in gaining the interest of your students (note that I said more, and not a complete success - we still have yet to figure out the perfect way to engage all students, especially those who do not like English).

With that being said, I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Book Thief and constantly pondered how I could use this novel in my classroom and the main difficultly that the text presented me with is the length. Perhaps it would bode well as a selection for a literature circle...

Making a Connection...

I was very intrigued by the novels that we had to read for class this week. I had never before read either titles and I spent all day Sunday reading To Kill a Mockingbird -- I thought it was wonderful! As I had a few spare moments today, I thought about how I had personally related to the novel (which was discussed by a few students in the earlier chapters of You Gotta BE the Book). I came to the conclusion that I felt like Scout's confidant and that she was telling me her story and allowing me to get into her head and see things how she saw them. Being able to make this connection to what I had read in YGBB was exciting!

In reference to one of the articles we read, Daniel D. Hade wrote "The way we teach has to change if multiculturalism is the reform movement so many have claimed it to be" (241). I agree with Hade's statement and think that when teaching a work that is multicultural, we have to change things up in order to get the results that will be best for our students. I like how he brings two works together in order to emphasize the deeper meaning and bring to the surface meaning that had been there all along. I believe that having a vested interest in our students' educations is one of the most important things a teacher can do. He also writes, "This, I argue, is not imposing, but exposing assumptions about gender by opposing different points of view" (Hade 247). I think that we as teachers also have to be careful not to impose meaning or thoughts upon our students. We must provide them the resources and knowledge so that they may be able to find meaning on their own.

I have never before thought about how I would teach a multicultural text, but reading the materials for class has put some perspective on all of this for me. I am excited to discuss multicultural literature in class and get some fresh views. I am also interested in learning about how I could teach To Kill a Mockingbird in my classroom and make the unit meaningful and interesting for my students.

I found this cool website that even includes NCTE standards for teaching To Kill a Mockingbird:

http://www.neabigread.org/books/mockingbird/teachersguide01.php