Dr. Agriss,
I have learned so much in this quarter and in this Teaching Literature to Adolescents class.
Some of what I have learned came from the work I completed in this course, and some of what I have learned came from my exposure to the work and ideas of my classmates. With the book talk, the biggest take-away with my own effort came with understanding the need to inform parents and school administrators about course content and my rationale. Anthem, and Ayn Rand in general, is loaded, and some parents, like Trish mentioned, would want to be made aware of it and the rationale if their children are poised to study the novel or philosophy of objectivism. I am thankful that I was exposed to so many different and diverse novels that my future students could possibly read or be reading. As a teacher, it is important for me to be exposed to those books and ideas. With the mini-lesson, the biggest take-away with my own effort came with understanding the time-restrictions that lessons can have and that I need to lighten-up and be human with my classes. I believe that my mini-lesson was excellently designed as it started with lower-level learning targets that would cascade into higher-level thinking questions and targets, but because of the time restrictions the class was only exposed to the first part of the lesson, which almost exclusively contained lower-level questions and learning targets, and was not exposed to the end of the lesson, which included the higher-level questions and learning targets. I need to make sure that I manage my lessons and my time better, or I should consider incorporating higher-level questions and learning targets more evenly in my lessons. As an observer and commentator on my classmates' mini-lessons, I came away with many different ideas on lessons to teach novels that I probably will teach. For example, I know that I will be teaching Night in the spring, so it was valuable to observe my classmates' presentations about Night. Regarding the unit plans, the most valuable thing I learned was about how individual lessons combine to create a cohesive unit. The rationale for designing lesson plans changed because I realized that, to maximize student learning, the knowledge of previous lesson plans would have to be built upon rather than cast aside. This change is very important and something that I will keep with me as I become a teacher and have to design many unit plans. For my classmates' unit plans, it was particularly interesting to see the lessons that they developed and the processes undertaken with constructing their unit plans. It provided contrast with what I could do in my own unit plan and enlightened me.
Some of what I have learned came from the theories and concepts that we explored in our readings and discussions. Using discussion as the method for instruction, examining social justice, introducing students to the larger issues of life, and really examining what it means to differentiate instruction altered my thinking about what I would incorporate in my lessons. Discussing critical pedagogy brings an element of, for lack of a better word, morality about what I want my students to learn. Do I feed them hegemonic information, or do I open their minds to a different version about the nature of contemporary society? This dichotomy raises a serious question that I have to consider as I progress as a teacher and it is a dynamic I was wholly ignorant about prior to this class. I also think that the discussion aspect of this class worked extremely well as I was able to debate and forge my own opinions and ideas about critical pedagogy and other theoretical lenses from doing so. It inspires me to structure my future classes around discussion. In addition, reading novels like The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and American Born Chinese was very pleasant and a benefit of this class. Those are two young adult literature selections that I probably would have never read had it not been for this class, and I am very happy that I read them as I enjoyed them very much. Plus, I Read It, But I Don't Get It is an important pedagogical book that will help me approach struggling readers and increase their learning. I am glad to have read that book, too.
My participation in this course has influenced my thinking about myself as a teacher. In addition to learning more about the mechanics and strategies of teaching, this class has helped provide me with rationale and an introduction to the philosophical underpinnings that great teachers have. I believe I participated in the discussions enough to where I hope that I increased my peers' learning as well as my own. There were some instances where I made a fool of myself, but I think that those moments were important as well because it increases and internalizes the learning that happens in me. Completing all of the work in this class was hard, but it was made easier by the compelling nature of the work and my own interests in it. I can actually envision myself a teacher now, which was something I couldn't have done at the start of this quarter, and this helps create personal incentives for investing in becoming a better teacher.
Thank you for teaching me this quarter, and I hope you have a joyous winter break,
Dominick
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Response to "American Born Chinese"
Gene Luen Yang's graphic novel, American Born Chinese, is great and can be used effectively in a secondary classroom.
First, since American Born Chinese is a graphic novel it offers a unique strength in its ability to engage a variety of student learners whom may not learn best with traditional texts. Providing options to our student populations helps differentiate instruction to those students because learners will engage better and learn more if they are interested in what they study or read.
Second, American Born Chinese has a style and subject matter that appeals to a lot of students. The mythical kung-fu-practicing Monkey King and his quest for recognition is something that would interest a lot of students who spend hundreds of hours a year playing video games with similar stories.
Third, American Born Chinese includes a lot of themes common to young adult literature: overcoming differences within one's self or community, integrating into other communities, dealing with attraction to others, etc. It includes parallel stories that weave together in the end to present its message.
Fourth, students struggling with reading comprehension could benefit from American Born Chinese too. Helping students find the meaning of words in the context of the graphic novel could be helpful. I wouldn't know what the abacus was unless I looked at the drawing myself. Instead of writing a prediction of what happens further in the story, students could draw their own cartoon of what they think could happen next. Adapting these reading comprehension strategies to a graphic novel could change the pace of a class and successfully help struggling readers.
Fifth, though American Born Chinese is over two hundred pages, I blew through this graphic novel in less than an hour. Due to how quick it is, students may be more likely to read this novel.
Sixth, American Born Chinese is a novel that can be successfully paired with another novel. How does The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian compare with American Born Chinese in its graphic art, with how the main characters encounter and react to differences and adversity, etc. There are a lot of avenues to go down with this text.
First, since American Born Chinese is a graphic novel it offers a unique strength in its ability to engage a variety of student learners whom may not learn best with traditional texts. Providing options to our student populations helps differentiate instruction to those students because learners will engage better and learn more if they are interested in what they study or read.
Second, American Born Chinese has a style and subject matter that appeals to a lot of students. The mythical kung-fu-practicing Monkey King and his quest for recognition is something that would interest a lot of students who spend hundreds of hours a year playing video games with similar stories.
Third, American Born Chinese includes a lot of themes common to young adult literature: overcoming differences within one's self or community, integrating into other communities, dealing with attraction to others, etc. It includes parallel stories that weave together in the end to present its message.
Fourth, students struggling with reading comprehension could benefit from American Born Chinese too. Helping students find the meaning of words in the context of the graphic novel could be helpful. I wouldn't know what the abacus was unless I looked at the drawing myself. Instead of writing a prediction of what happens further in the story, students could draw their own cartoon of what they think could happen next. Adapting these reading comprehension strategies to a graphic novel could change the pace of a class and successfully help struggling readers.
Fifth, though American Born Chinese is over two hundred pages, I blew through this graphic novel in less than an hour. Due to how quick it is, students may be more likely to read this novel.
Sixth, American Born Chinese is a novel that can be successfully paired with another novel. How does The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian compare with American Born Chinese in its graphic art, with how the main characters encounter and react to differences and adversity, etc. There are a lot of avenues to go down with this text.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Response to "Romeo & Juliet"
William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet is a bit different than the other texts that we have read in this class. Its most importance difference: if I end up teaching freshman ELA, it is not a question of if I will teach Romeo & Juliet, but a question of how. Virtually every freshmen ELA class in the country teaches this play and chances are that I will teach it too.
So, how would I teach Romeo & Juliet? The first important thing to realize is that I need to meet the students at their level and teach to that. I love Shakespeare. I find Elizabethan England fascinating. I loved English 350 (Shakespeare with Dr. Smith) and learning about previous works that Shakespeare's plays are often directly based on, how words were pronounced in Elizabethan England, etc. All of this context is fascinating, and high school freshmen don't need to know about almost any of it. In fact, it could be detrimental to their learning if I bring in tangents that I personally love when they themselves are struggling with the basic text, still learning about plot development and character development, etc. Romeo & Juliet is mainly a text to introduce students to for its difficulty and plot development. It is a good introductory piece to Shakespeare, arguably the greatest and most influential writer ever in the English language.
The great emphasis of a unit on Romeo & Juliet would be text comprehension. This could be the first truly difficult text that students encounter. When a large swath of freshmen ELA classes are below reading level, this creates serious challenges. First and foremost, this play will be read entirely in the classroom. Comprehension will have to be checked after every scene and after every act. Teaching students how to read a difficult text like this--how to comprehend a text like this--is the challenge. Some of Tovani's strategies can be useful with this text->making predictions, defining words (thankfully almost all Shakespeare editions have a list of defined terms at the bottom of every page for words that have dropped out of usage), visualizing what is happening, etc. This includes characters, characterization, plot and plot development. Having students understand and comprehend the basics from this text is the goal with a unit on Romeo & Juliet.
In addition to what I typed above, Romeo & Juliet does provide other teaching opportunities. If the curriculum calls for poetry, it could be good to teach poetry basics prior to reading Romeo & Juliet. I could end the poetry unit with a couple lessons on sonnets too. Since Romeo & Juliet begins with a sonnet and includes at least one other sonnet, in addition to poetry, the chance for student comprehension is instantly increased. The chance for student retention of knowledge is increased too as students will apply recently learned knowledge on poetry and sonnets. There would probably be an element of writing involved with Romeo & Juliet. It may be profitable for student learning to teach the Jane Schaffer essay style (or a district appropriate ninth grade essay style) and have students write an essay at the end of the unit on Romeo & Juliet too.
So, how would I teach Romeo & Juliet? The first important thing to realize is that I need to meet the students at their level and teach to that. I love Shakespeare. I find Elizabethan England fascinating. I loved English 350 (Shakespeare with Dr. Smith) and learning about previous works that Shakespeare's plays are often directly based on, how words were pronounced in Elizabethan England, etc. All of this context is fascinating, and high school freshmen don't need to know about almost any of it. In fact, it could be detrimental to their learning if I bring in tangents that I personally love when they themselves are struggling with the basic text, still learning about plot development and character development, etc. Romeo & Juliet is mainly a text to introduce students to for its difficulty and plot development. It is a good introductory piece to Shakespeare, arguably the greatest and most influential writer ever in the English language.
The great emphasis of a unit on Romeo & Juliet would be text comprehension. This could be the first truly difficult text that students encounter. When a large swath of freshmen ELA classes are below reading level, this creates serious challenges. First and foremost, this play will be read entirely in the classroom. Comprehension will have to be checked after every scene and after every act. Teaching students how to read a difficult text like this--how to comprehend a text like this--is the challenge. Some of Tovani's strategies can be useful with this text->making predictions, defining words (thankfully almost all Shakespeare editions have a list of defined terms at the bottom of every page for words that have dropped out of usage), visualizing what is happening, etc. This includes characters, characterization, plot and plot development. Having students understand and comprehend the basics from this text is the goal with a unit on Romeo & Juliet.
In addition to what I typed above, Romeo & Juliet does provide other teaching opportunities. If the curriculum calls for poetry, it could be good to teach poetry basics prior to reading Romeo & Juliet. I could end the poetry unit with a couple lessons on sonnets too. Since Romeo & Juliet begins with a sonnet and includes at least one other sonnet, in addition to poetry, the chance for student comprehension is instantly increased. The chance for student retention of knowledge is increased too as students will apply recently learned knowledge on poetry and sonnets. There would probably be an element of writing involved with Romeo & Juliet. It may be profitable for student learning to teach the Jane Schaffer essay style (or a district appropriate ninth grade essay style) and have students write an essay at the end of the unit on Romeo & Juliet too.
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Response to "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian"
First, I must say that I really enjoyed this book. I read all of it in the library yesterday and was pleasantly surprised.
With that noted, this book can be used in an ELA classroom for a variety reasons. At the back of the novel is a 'Discussion Guide' that provides plenty of ideas itself that can be adapted to study guides, projects that could involve drawing to engage more students, classroom discussions, individual or group research assignments, maybe even a field trip to locales in the book, etc. I'm not worried about that. I do want to touch on some subtle strengths of the novel though.
This novel has two real strengths intrinsic to teaching it.
The first strength is reader engagement:
Its cartoons can help appeal to students that may be hesitant on reading a 230-page novel. In addition, the cartoons help engage different types of students, such as artistic students that like to draw; Its relatively local ties may also appeal to students that may be tired of reading about far-off cities and worlds they've never seen and may never see; and that it is a novel, almost a personal narrative written in the first-person from a narrator of the same age as 9th-10th graders, so students may be more willing to engage the text because of that. Additionally, the personal issues discussed in the book make it more likely that young adult readers will connect and engage with this text.
The second strength is its ties to social studies:
The race relations, the history behind the plight of Native Americans and the challenges facing Native Americans and their tribes today, the local geography, the socioeconomic differences between the Reservation and Reardan, etc.
This novel could be used in a social studies/ELA block class effectively because of all it offers.
With that noted, this book can be used in an ELA classroom for a variety reasons. At the back of the novel is a 'Discussion Guide' that provides plenty of ideas itself that can be adapted to study guides, projects that could involve drawing to engage more students, classroom discussions, individual or group research assignments, maybe even a field trip to locales in the book, etc. I'm not worried about that. I do want to touch on some subtle strengths of the novel though.
This novel has two real strengths intrinsic to teaching it.
The first strength is reader engagement:
Its cartoons can help appeal to students that may be hesitant on reading a 230-page novel. In addition, the cartoons help engage different types of students, such as artistic students that like to draw; Its relatively local ties may also appeal to students that may be tired of reading about far-off cities and worlds they've never seen and may never see; and that it is a novel, almost a personal narrative written in the first-person from a narrator of the same age as 9th-10th graders, so students may be more willing to engage the text because of that. Additionally, the personal issues discussed in the book make it more likely that young adult readers will connect and engage with this text.
The second strength is its ties to social studies:
The race relations, the history behind the plight of Native Americans and the challenges facing Native Americans and their tribes today, the local geography, the socioeconomic differences between the Reservation and Reardan, etc.
This novel could be used in a social studies/ELA block class effectively because of all it offers.
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Response to Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart"
I recently enjoyed re-reading Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart." I first read this novel in my 10th grade non-honors ELA class when I was 15 and living in Scottsdale, Arizona.
I can definitely see using this text if the curriculum asks for multiculturalism of some sort. Even if the curriculum doesn't ask for multiculturalism, the text is still valuable and can be used to teach to other learning targets. It really two stories in one, and how Achebe intersects his topic with his focus allows for myriad teaching strategies. Theme, plot development, characterization, symbols and motifs, the book offers it all.
Achebe's hidden world can be difficult for struggling students to comprehend--in my 10th grade class we read the whole book aloud and never had to read parts for homework (non-honors)--but it is written at a reading level that is very low. Achebe writes with such fluidity, concision and clarity that it is very easy to read. This means that it is a good text that can be shared with struggling readers to encourage them in reading difficult texts. While the reading level is low, the comprehension level can be challenging and provides ample opportunities to have students identify the tribal terms, ask clarifying questions, make predictions, etc. As a teacher I could use this text to provide my students with practice (I have a good worksheet idea in mind that pulls passages from the text) in using contexts to identify words they are unfamiliar with too.
For a higher-level class, concentration on how the two parts compare and contrast, how Achebe maintains the balance between his topic and focus, theme development, etc., all prove that this novel can be used as a valuable instructional text.
This is also a text that can be used in a humanities class as it provides ample opportunities to teach social studies in addition to ELA.
I can definitely see using this text if the curriculum asks for multiculturalism of some sort. Even if the curriculum doesn't ask for multiculturalism, the text is still valuable and can be used to teach to other learning targets. It really two stories in one, and how Achebe intersects his topic with his focus allows for myriad teaching strategies. Theme, plot development, characterization, symbols and motifs, the book offers it all.
Achebe's hidden world can be difficult for struggling students to comprehend--in my 10th grade class we read the whole book aloud and never had to read parts for homework (non-honors)--but it is written at a reading level that is very low. Achebe writes with such fluidity, concision and clarity that it is very easy to read. This means that it is a good text that can be shared with struggling readers to encourage them in reading difficult texts. While the reading level is low, the comprehension level can be challenging and provides ample opportunities to have students identify the tribal terms, ask clarifying questions, make predictions, etc. As a teacher I could use this text to provide my students with practice (I have a good worksheet idea in mind that pulls passages from the text) in using contexts to identify words they are unfamiliar with too.
For a higher-level class, concentration on how the two parts compare and contrast, how Achebe maintains the balance between his topic and focus, theme development, etc., all prove that this novel can be used as a valuable instructional text.
This is also a text that can be used in a humanities class as it provides ample opportunities to teach social studies in addition to ELA.
Friday, October 25, 2013
Response to TPA
The TPA, or Teacher Performance Assessment, is a relatively new teacher evaluation process that EWU recently implemented. All of my official lesson plans are to be done in the TPA format and following the TPA guidelines.
Regarding the TPA lesson format or template, I think that it is a good tool for beginning teachers since it promotes thinking about the different aspects of teaching a lesson that we need to keep in mind: the context for learning, differentiated instruction, management and safety issues, etc. However, as you talked about in class on Wednesday, lessons should be designed with things like differentiated instruction intrinsic within the lesson rather than just having a short paragraph blurb that describes an isolated lesson as demonstrating the differentiation. I am satisfied with using the template as it will help me for when I have to do the TPA assessment this spring, when I am student teaching.
I think that the TPA should include something that covers units or more. I haven't had much training or much education about units or how units combine to reflect the curriculum. At this stage I am still designing individual lessons with the exception of your class and The Composition Process (which requires a week unit plan). How these units link together, how to transition from units, etc., are things that I'll have to observe in the classroom and improvise as I go along.
I think that master teachers may find the TPA overly cumbersome if they themselves were to design lessons using it. Most of the lessons my master teacher uses are ones she has already created. When she needs to make a new lesson, she usually draws on previous lessons. Once you teach for so long I think that you have many of these things in your head and don't necessarily have to articulate them or account for all of them in the precise way that the TPA asks for.
Regarding the TPA lesson format or template, I think that it is a good tool for beginning teachers since it promotes thinking about the different aspects of teaching a lesson that we need to keep in mind: the context for learning, differentiated instruction, management and safety issues, etc. However, as you talked about in class on Wednesday, lessons should be designed with things like differentiated instruction intrinsic within the lesson rather than just having a short paragraph blurb that describes an isolated lesson as demonstrating the differentiation. I am satisfied with using the template as it will help me for when I have to do the TPA assessment this spring, when I am student teaching.
I think that the TPA should include something that covers units or more. I haven't had much training or much education about units or how units combine to reflect the curriculum. At this stage I am still designing individual lessons with the exception of your class and The Composition Process (which requires a week unit plan). How these units link together, how to transition from units, etc., are things that I'll have to observe in the classroom and improvise as I go along.
I think that master teachers may find the TPA overly cumbersome if they themselves were to design lessons using it. Most of the lessons my master teacher uses are ones she has already created. When she needs to make a new lesson, she usually draws on previous lessons. Once you teach for so long I think that you have many of these things in your head and don't necessarily have to articulate them or account for all of them in the precise way that the TPA asks for.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Response to Differentiated Instruction Individual Exploration Assignment
For this assignment I read "Styles of Thinking as a Basis of Differentiated Instruction," an article written by Robert J. Sternberg and Li-fang Zhang and published in the journal Theory Into Practice, 44(3), 245-253.
In the article, Sternberg and Zhang describe how a thinking style is different from a learning style in that a learning style deals with learning while thinking styles are "the styles of which we speak deal with preferred ways of thinking about material." They continue to discuss and distinguish thinking styles for a length of time, bringing in mental governance, scopes and levels to help distinguish thinking styles. Once that is established, they talk about the thinking styles of teachers and how it impacts the way they teach classes, how a teacher's thinking style interacts with his or her students and their thinking styles, etc.
Though the article doesn't discuss it, I think of the idea of Bloom's taxonomy and how questions we develop and ask reach at different levels of thinking and how that affects learning. Sternberg and Zhang do discuss briefly some of the prompts that some people of different thinking styles may ask students, and it seems to me to be fairly segregated between Bloom's taxonomy levels--that is to say, an executive thinker may ask more level 1 questions, while judicial thinker may ask more level 3 or 4 questions, and a legislative thinker will tend to ask the deeper, more analytic level 5 or 6 questions.
Does that mean that teachers with an executive learning style actually teach less because the questions they tend to ask don't require their to think or learn as much? Does it mean that a teacher with a legislative thinking style will be a boon to his or her students?
Ultimately, it comes down to differentiated instruction, something which this article danced around. It is important to recognize our tendencies as teachers and to realize that we have to meet students where they are as individuals to help them learn to their full potentials as students. It would be near impossible to try to understand which thinking style all 180 of your students have in time to adjust how you teach all of the lessons to them individually, so maybe it is just best to leave the thinking style thing in the bag for now and teach to cover all bases effectively.
In the article, Sternberg and Zhang describe how a thinking style is different from a learning style in that a learning style deals with learning while thinking styles are "the styles of which we speak deal with preferred ways of thinking about material." They continue to discuss and distinguish thinking styles for a length of time, bringing in mental governance, scopes and levels to help distinguish thinking styles. Once that is established, they talk about the thinking styles of teachers and how it impacts the way they teach classes, how a teacher's thinking style interacts with his or her students and their thinking styles, etc.
Though the article doesn't discuss it, I think of the idea of Bloom's taxonomy and how questions we develop and ask reach at different levels of thinking and how that affects learning. Sternberg and Zhang do discuss briefly some of the prompts that some people of different thinking styles may ask students, and it seems to me to be fairly segregated between Bloom's taxonomy levels--that is to say, an executive thinker may ask more level 1 questions, while judicial thinker may ask more level 3 or 4 questions, and a legislative thinker will tend to ask the deeper, more analytic level 5 or 6 questions.
Does that mean that teachers with an executive learning style actually teach less because the questions they tend to ask don't require their to think or learn as much? Does it mean that a teacher with a legislative thinking style will be a boon to his or her students?
Ultimately, it comes down to differentiated instruction, something which this article danced around. It is important to recognize our tendencies as teachers and to realize that we have to meet students where they are as individuals to help them learn to their full potentials as students. It would be near impossible to try to understand which thinking style all 180 of your students have in time to adjust how you teach all of the lessons to them individually, so maybe it is just best to leave the thinking style thing in the bag for now and teach to cover all bases effectively.
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