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.

RoAR for Monday 10/17 Beach 8 Gallagher 3

To answer a few of the questions from reading.
Beach, Ch. 8
1. How do we help students acquire knowledge of genre conventions?
   I think this answer is simple- use the variety of genres in the classroom and at times compare and contrast the elements of the different genres.

2. In what ways can you model ways that students can connect common features of text and transfer this knowledge to other encounters with that genre?

   Modeling comes as we use genres and examples of the genres that break with the common form.  The way to transfer that knowledge is to teach Genre's as sets of guidelines rather than rules.

4. Why do we need to consider students' prior knowledge as we work with genres?
    Students have experience with a variety of genres- starting with one they are familiar with, a movie perhaps, and talking about it's conventions allows us to move to another topic, like the short story, and start on common ground aspects of the genre like Plot, Characters, Setting, etc.  If they can recognize that they already have knowledge, students will be more confident that they can learn and connect with new material.

Gallagher, Ch. 3

3. What is the "chop, chop curriculum" and how can we find a balance between teaching the standards and enjoying real literary experiences?
   "chop, chop curriculum" is the teaching of a book in so many parts that it students are taken from the flow and lose the whole picture by analyzing every little thing.  It is damaging because students feel like the text has been killed.  Or, from personal experience, I feel like over analyzing books bit by bit can make the student feel like they are missing things, when really they got the point and just don't want to say that it's obvious.
   I think Gallagher suggests a good balance - have time for students to study literary works and fun reads. When reading something difficult, tackle it, but don't address every single possible little thing you could get out of the book- just pick a few points and don't go on about them for too long.
   One idea that I think would be good is to build students stamina little by little.  Start with a fun short story or article(s) that the teacher spends time reading.  Allow students some free time to experience their own reading flow.  Ask for basic reflections- opinions about the book without requiring analysis.  Then, as time moves, read more difficult works out loud, and assign some to read and then discuss first opinions, then for deeper meaning. When going into deeper things just keep it simple and rejoice in a few details rather than every literary significance possible.  If you want to cover more aspects, do it through supplementary texts or other vehicles.

Roar Journal for 10/14

Roar Journal for 10/14
In "Teaching Literature to Adolescents" in chapters 4 and 9 there is a discussion about teaching the classics and using different perspectives.  I thought it was insightful, especially in its idea that teachers should introduce the different perspectives to their students and also to let the students know they can become part of the argumentative voice for what should be in the canon of literature.  While I know I was introduced to the different perspectives and asked to view literature through various lenses, I couldn't see the bigger picture.  I didn't know there were whole journals devoted to critically applying lenses to literature to learn about what the words are trying to say.  Nor, did I realize how much literature was informing our society, it's norms, and it's changes.  And when I say literature, I don't mean just the canon; I have become increasingly more aware of the influences of all types of writing in our society.  Television and movie screen writing, radio and podcast writing, news and political campaign writing, are all forms of reading and writing we participate in that change our society.  For better or worse, Occupy Wall Street is writing a story, Obama's 2008 campaign was very much a story, television programs like Modern Family, Glee, Psych, and Big Bang Theory write other ideas into our society as well.  Being aware how we are written into society is important.  Since most students will not be writers and rather consumers who become literate in these different modes, it's incredibly important to teach students how they can interact with a variety of texts through different lenses, through their own ideology, and through other types of critical thinking.  The most important reason they may be given for reading the classics is so that they can develop that talent through critiques of the classics - not because they necessarily will read the classics for the rest of their life- but because the skills they learn in reading the classics will inform the rest of their interactions with the texts of today.