Time to do some catch up!

Rather than writing a whole bunch of different posts, I decided it might be just best to sum up the last month in a single LONG post that discusses what I have been learning.

Nonfiction Discussion

When we talked about nonfiction we talked about graphic organizers.  I'm not terribly enthusiastic about graphic organizers.  I mean they certainly have their uses.  I use them now to organize my thoughts or sometimes to draw up a picture for other people.  As a student I hated being told to use a graphic organizer.  They didn't seem purposeful to me and often filled like busy work.  Our discussion reminded me of something that I learned in Dean's class- Graphic organizers are a tool that you want students to have in their tool box.  It's good to have students do them at times so that when they want another way to do something they have it. I think using them needs to be scaffolded with the explanation that the student is doing them so they can later use it (or not use it) at their discretion.

  Also, in relation to nonfiction, one of my favorite science classes made us find a science article and summarize it every week.  I think teaching students to find interesting articles in the news on topics they would like to talk about is a good idea.

Picture Books

   It has been a blessing to be at BYU where several of the professors focus on methods for teaching from picture books.  Pictures books are such great teaching tools because they cover fiction and nonfiction, they use visuals, they are really short and sometimes quite long, and their use of language is incredible.  I loved the picture book that was all about perspectives.  I thought that was really cool.  Furthermore, I think picture books are a project that students can do in the classroom together as they do "writing to read".  I hope to use authors like Tomie DePaola, Patricia Polacco, and Dr. Seuss as works that my students can read and learn language and storytelling from.  AH!! That is something I haven't talked about in any journals.  I love storytelling.  I love people who are effective storytellers.  That can only be learned from other people who are good at it.  Picture books often have good storytelling elements.

Shakespeare is my homeboy

Oh wait, Cecil is my homeboy :).  Either way, Shakespeare is something I've been thinking about a lot.  I liked the teaching ideas were fun.  I think the biggest problem with Shakespeare has less to do with effective activities and more with sufficient time and scaffolding.  Fun projects are great for for student's learning and retention, but only after they understand the story.  Jordan and I have briefly discussed how much need there is for performances which student can watch.  Shakespeare is profound in performance; but its usually a muddle in the text book.  I rarely understood Shakespeare in the classroom.  I still think he is very difficult to read as a college student.  I don't think its a good idea to give students the text and say go read this whole thing.  I'm not sure I would ever have any students other than perhaps an AP class read the whole play (and then only perhaps).  Learning doesn't happen when it is that frustrating.

  One solution might be to have the class divided into pairs or even possibly on their own translate a small portion of the play and then read the classes translation together.  Before they could do that they would need some scaffolding, but at least I think they would have a chance to get into interpreting some text.  The next time they approached Shakespeare they would feel a little more confident that they could read and understand some with work.  I also think I would spend a bit of time on sharing summaries of plays with students.  Especially if I was in middle school or a freshman class I would do simple summaries of Shakespeare texts coming up.  That way by the time they got to do fun acting and performing arts activities they wouldn't have to spend all their time on interpreting text, but more on enjoying their performance.

Writing About Literature

   I do think that writing about what one reads is one of the singularly most important ways to remember and interact with texts.  Of course, you need to have read well and have good questions leading your writing.  But I also recognize that the reason I feel this way is that a lot of my best learning is based on what I write and not what I hear and see.  But I recognize that other students will not necessarily have the same learning styles and abilities.

Just some thoughts.

RoAR- Authentic Discussion

2 RoARs in One!!

How do you set up a successful discussion?
I really liked the ideas we read from Johannessen about sparking conversations through controversy.  Controversy is great because people often have opinions about those topics.  Even more importantly, students can be taught about persuasive and respectful rhetoric and good rules of common courtesy for participating in a discussion.  Another good topic starter that Johannessen talks about are conversations where there is no right answer. Sometimes I think teachers kill conversation in the classroom because they ask questions that everyone already knows the answer to and doesn't have anything more to say about.  Finally, I think the community has to be laid out before any of this happens.  Going back to our beginning discussions for this class, if the community isn't safe I don't care what topic you use, your students will not participate (or at least not all of them if they feel endangered.

RoAR for Beach Ch. 5- Young Adult Literature

I'm looking forward to taking 420 because I have a lot of catching up to do in the YA Lit field.  I've read a fair amount, but not a lot of recent stories.

I particularly like this quote on p.93:

"texts can be used as a catalyst for bringing troubling issues to the surface where they can be discussed with caring adults."

I think this statement informs me on how I might approach using graphic novels.  Using texts that I feel are questionable can still facilitate my goal as an English teacher - to help students discover and develop their own value systems.  I think I am a caring adult and I hope that students would feel comfortable talking to me.  More importantly I hope that I could help students talk to the adults in their lives about what they are reading and vice-versa.  At the same time, I recognize that there is unfortunately a lack of communication which puts great responsibility on me as a teacher to properly address difficult materials in the classroom.  If parents ignore this type of education, I don't think it should be the teacher's responsibility.  But if parents won't do it, I don't want to ignore the teaching of values and the "hard talks" in the classroom.

RoAR for Graphic Novels Day

Robyn Seglem and Shelbie Witte's article "You Gotta See It to Believe It" is an excellent summary and rationale for teaching visual literacy in the classroom.  Being able to read an advertisement and understand how the visual images work with rhetorical devices is particularly important.
Looking over Graphic Novels the other day in class has invited me to a return to a personal value question that I thought I had previously resolved.  I'm a little more liberal in what questionable or objectionable material I permit in the literature I read.  I'm more strict about movies because images stick with me.  I was fine with some violence/sexual content in books because I couldn't see it and I could easily move past it.  Blake shared a Batman graphic novel.  Suddenly I was approached by scenes that I could have read about but felt uncomfortable looking at.
As a person, I realize I am more sensitive than some, but how do I reach out to students who may so easily attach to things that I may not only feel uncomfortable but dislike?
I really dislike scary stories- zombies and the like- I wouldn't want them in my own home library.  But does that mean I should keep them from my school library?  I tend to think that no, but there is a part of my morals that needs to be worked out.  Especially since I think learning and understanding visual literacy is important.

Myths and Fables

 Myths and Fables

In reflection of my own experience with Myths and Fables- the words have always been in my mind the bottom end of fiction.  I think it’s the label.  Myth and Fables have always seemed to me stories set aside very far from reality.  But wherever I got that definition, in reading Beach, I realized I was mistaken.  Myths and Fables are rich in relation to life- especially in understanding historical context.  Myths and Fables really do set up basic elements of stories, they give us the archetypal characters and themes.  More importantly, they are often short and very direct making them an easy classroom reading activity to teach.  I think just doing this simple reading has made me appreciate what I once thought was silly.
P.S. My Disney Cartoon Archetype is Prince Charming.


My Teaching Idea: Using Tomie dePaola's Retelling of "The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush"
Grade: 10th
Read the book together.
Discuss the common mythic storyline in which a mission is assigned by a greater being to test a character.
Many of these missions explain something in the world.  The images in the book enrich us in the culture of the native americans.  
Many myths and fables are public domain that can be downloaded for free. Group students together and have each group read a different fable.  Students can then create a dramatic retelling of the story (i.e. readers theater or performance), a children's book, a movie script, or comic book/graphic novel. This project would take a few days, but would allow students to explore their talents - and each day you could read a new fable with the students and talk about an Archetype.

Short Story Response

I thought Jago's article was rather enlightening.  It helped me to think about Plot in a new way.  Perhaps one of the important ways was Freytag's Pyramid. . .but that wasn't new to me.  I've seen the Pyramid in every English class since sometime in elementary or middle school.  What came to me in thinking about plot was more about how Short Stories often have the power to draw the reader in and get them quickly into experiencing "flow".  If a year started off with a short stories unit that wasn't too bogged down in sucking details dry out of a short story, then such a unit could be useful in engendering reading endurance.  I think after a class has read several short stories with high "tellability" that sucks readers in then, on a 3rd or 4th you start to tease out one or two details to help students build there ability to follow "rules of notice".  I think in the case of reading, especially at the beginning of the year, less is more when it comes to learning.  Students will appreciate short to the point stories that they can discuss and get more out of them than if they jumped straight to something hard and long.  In time, their reading stamina will grow and more won't seem like so much more.

RoAR Journal - Response to Lenses

After our discussion on literary theory, how would you incorporate literary lenses into your teaching?
   Lenses are great . . . but I think some lenses are easier teased out of different texts.  For example, if I want to teach about the lens of feminism, I woud like to start students out on texts that are clearly feminist pieces - like "The Awakening".  Once they understand the lens, then I think they can tease it out of whatever they are reading, if they should so desire.
   Other techniques I would use for talking about lenses is to talk about persuasive and opinion pieces.  In opinions and persuasive articles, the writers are often wearing some shade of lens.  Comparing two pieces about the same topic with different view points can help us see how lenses shade our view of the world.  If we want to argue against one particular group, we should first understand their lens.  If we want others to understand our view, we should understand other lenses.  If we want to be individuals who mediate between lenses, then we need to understand all the strengths and weaknesses of each lens.
   Understanding lenses helps us outside of the classroom and students need to know that.  They need to know that a business deal is made by people who are shaded by different facts and opinions and ideas.  Understanding those "lenses" can help students communicate in a business deal.  In the family we wear different lenses and to come to understand each other we have to find the common ground in those lenses.   The applications can be very wide spread to benefit all students lives.