Learning Letter Blog Post

Dear Dr. Agriss,

This course was by far the mostly helpful course I’ve taken in preparing to become a teacher. I loved the fact that we actually read literature we might teach, or one day want to incorporate into our classrooms. It seems that in other classes we often talk so much about what we want to do in our classrooms or incorporate but we never have to actually experience it or read the material. This class forced us to do and at least personally, I enjoyed it.

I thought the book talks were a really fun exercise. I enjoyed picking a book that wasn’t too mainstream and trying to decide how I can incorporate it into the classroom and whether it would be appropriate. It was fascinating to see the choices everyone came up with and to see if they would suggest their choice as outside reading or a class novel. The only thing I didn’t like about the book talks was I learned the ending to many books that are on my list to read! But that is just me being a selfish reader, as a future teacher it was great to receive those handouts that I can now use for a quick reference or reminder on the text. My choice of book, The Rules to Survival, was an excellent read and I will definitely use it as an optional read for my classroom. If I’m teaching at a middle school level (probably 7^th or 8^th grade) then I will think about using it as a class novel, as the language is relatively basic.

The mini-lesson was way more fun than I thought it was going to be. I was really nervous to do my lesson. It worked out that I was going to have to teach two lessons that day with the earlier lesson being my the first lesson I had ever taught, and then jumping into our mini-lesson. I ended up loving the experience. It was incredible to get feedback on my teaching performance and to put an idea for a lesson into actual practice. It was so extremely helpful. The other part I really enjoyed with the mini-lessons was getting to see everyone else’s teaching styles. It really drove home the point that everyone has a different methodology to their classroom demeanor and not one way is right or wrong. All the lessons we went through had aspects that were effective in teaching the lesson. I learned a great deal in watching my colleagues and taking what worked well from their mini-lessons.

The mini-lesson was really the catalyst that started to get me comfortable with the unit plan. Dr. Agriss, the unit plan…that was a doozy. But, you already know that. I am very proud the work that is portrayed in my unit plan. I’m not professing that it is good, or right, but I am very proud of my efforts on this assignment. I did the best I could based on research and what information I could glean off my classmates and people who had completed the assignment before. As I stated in our other reflection, I sure lost a lot of sleep over putting this plan together; but what an accomplishment. I am very interested to look over everyone else’s unit plans. I love to see the differences in ideas for a unit, as well as learning the strengths of my classmates. I love that we all go through this together and then can talk about it afterwards and share what worked and didn’t. It’s just such a great process to make us better teachers. There is a boatload that I would change with my unit plan and all that can be found in my unit plan reflection, but for now I’m going to stick with telling you just that I’m proud of my efforts on this assignment and that is something I don’t usually say.

The pedagogical study aspect of this class was beneficial and I liked that we began the class learning what would be the underpinnings of our development as teachers. The text I enjoyed the most was “Critical Pedagogy and Popular Culture in an Urban Secondary English Classroom.” It was the text I identified the most with because it specifically discussed the inner workings of the urban classroom which is something that interests me for my future teaching career.

The other text we dealt with that really comes to mind when I reflect on our class was the newspaper article about the local teacher using inappropriate song lyrics in class. I thought that was a great exercise where we began to explore the boundaries of appropriateness in the classroom. We also got to hear what our classmates thought about the lyrics as well as you chiming in your thoughts. That was one thing I would have liked to have had more of in the class, was your opinion. I’m sure it was intentional that you didn’t always share your thoughts on certain situations or articles to give us the opportunity to develop our own beliefs, but for my personal preference after our discussions I would have loved to have gotten your opinions more.

Through my bazillion years of school, I have always liked classes that warrant discussion over all-lecture classes. I always just thought it was a personal preference until we read the “Discussion as a way of Teaching” text. That was the first article that really helped me to realize you need research to back your reasoning for doing anything in a classroom (and I mean anything and everything), or especially when you go to write a TPA lesson plan.  Aside from those two texts, the other articles we read were fine, but they didn’t stick with me as much as those two did. The Paulo Freire text was a bit out there but I could identify with much of what he was saying, it just wasn’t a favorite of mine. Maybe that just means I need more experience or need to grow as an educator to really identify more with his message or methods? Not sure, but it was the only other text I even remember any content from besides the two articles I mentioned liking above.

In two classes this semester I have stepped a bit outside my comfort zone in the classroom. In your class I spoke up in the group setting more than I really wanted, partially because I felt as though we had a quieter group and partly because I wanted to see what my classmate’s had to say in response to my opinions. I wanted to learn from them. But…personally, I am more comfortable taking more of an active listening role until something really strikes my fancy and then I’d like to chime in on the subject. But for this class I felt as though our sharing was a bit more reserved or maybe we are all similar in we generally prefer active listening roles for participation. So, to sum it up and say that I was not exactly comfortable with how much I spoke in the whole-class discussion setting would be accurate. I felt like I needed to voice my opinion more for the sake of discussion in the class, than I would have liked. Maybe that was wrong move, I’m not sure.

Realizing that I am more comfortable as an active listener and occasional sharer in class reminds me that my students may be that way too. The fact that they don’t immediately raise their hand when a question is asked or a discussion begins does not mean they are not engaged or unprepared for the discussion. They may just like to observe for a while before voicing their opinion.  It also reminded me that speaking in class can either empower a student or make it so the other students are not actively listening to what they say. For instance, if in our class we had an “over-sharer” (which we didn’t in this particular class unless maybe it was me) students may begin to tune out to what that student has to say regardless of if the content was good or not. The fact that this person is sharing, yet again, might automatically make the other students tune out because they talk too much in class. Whereas, those students who only share occasionally are at more of an advantage because what they have to say the other students might view as being more  profound and have more of an impact on discussion; because they don’t speak up in class as frequently. Just some thoughts and things I want to recognize and be aware of for my future students. You always want your students to share their opinions in class as long as they are relevant to the discussion, but you always make choices who to call on if there are opportunities to hear from all students not just one.

Thank you again for such a wonderful class. I have really enjoyed the material we covered in the class (even though my ulcer says thanks for the unit-plan assignment). I feel more prepared to be a teacher after this one class than in any of my other classes combined. I’m sure I speak on behalf of my classmates when I say, “I look forward to taking senior capstone with you next quarter.”

Thanks again,

Shelby Ramirez

Night Blog Post

I had never even heard of the book Night before taking this class. So far, this has certainly been one of the best parts of this class. What a powerful and intense story. I can’t believe that Night is taught in classrooms, not because I think the content is too graphic, but because I sometimes can’t even believe that the Holocaust really happened. I’m not sure if that even makes sense, but my point in saying that was simply I was moved by this book and I’m shocked I hadn't heard of it before a month ago.

Night is obviously a great text in which to explore the pedagogy of social justice or rather in the case of the Jewish people in the text, social injustice. I think this is just the kind of book that would grab a student’s attention and have them mesmerized by the text throughout the whole book. It is actually a book that students might read all the way through. Because of its short chapters, intense subject matter, and the way in which the writing is setup on the page I think it would grip a lot of “non-reader” students, as well as die-hard readers of course.  It’s a book you could teach a whole unit on and pair with TONS of information text to supplement the unit as well as poetry and literature. There are so many possibilities with this text!

As a teacher, I would be most interested in reading my student’s responses through some sort of reflective essay with this text. I would want my students to use the text to look deeper into their own personal issues and relate it to struggle of a person in Night. A problem I foresee with this idea is that there are a limited number of people we truly get to know throughout the book, but they all face a mired of issues which gives the student options to choose from.  I’m not sure exactly what I would want to do with this piece as far as a writing assignment or project goes, but I would want to see some sort of self-evaluation from my students in comparison to the book. Of course, that could possibly create a situation of bringing a difficult experience to the forefront for some students. Clearly, there is more research to be done in using this book in class, but I support it.

American Born Chinese Blog Post

Reading American Born Chinese was my introduction into reading graphic novels. I have never read a graphic novel before, and when I was younger was not real big on comics either. I loved it! What a great experience and I highly recommend using this this type of text in the classroom. The only thing that makes me nervous about using this text is student’s being taken away from more intense reading by using novels, short stories, poems, and other text.

American Born Chinese does a great job of appealing to students and many of the “rites of passage” they face in the time of growing up. The ever-constant idea of fitting in and being “normal” and “accepted” was the common theme I found that was addressed by the characters and stories in American Born Chinese.

I found it interesting in the story told during Chapter 4 when the author introduces the character of TUT (Tze-Yo-Tzuh), how similar it is to the representation of God. The Monkey King is constantly questioning TUT and asking him to prove the things he claims. This would be an interesting way to have discussions with the class on religion and questioning of a higher power. That is of course if you could even have that kind of conversation in a classroom. If you kept it specific to just the characters of the book you might be able to get away with talking about proof of TUT as God and not expand or relate it to the student’s lives.

I did find the responses of the Monkey King to his obstacles interesting. The fact that he responds to his situations with anger and beating people up has me a little nervous about using the novel in class. But, this is also a result some students may turn to in real life when rejected from “being accepted as part of the group.” Students at this age do experience anger and use it as a response when they are not taught how to respond differently. I guess a teacher could address this issue and then teach students not to respond in such a manner. They can explain better ways to deal with their problems then turning to physical violence.

As far as using this book in the classroom, I think I’m for it…but I don’t know if I can say that wholeheartedly without any reservation. I worry about the stereotypes in this book and the derogatory comments (or images) contained in the book, but then I compare to any reading students would do on the Holocaust, slavery, or The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and realize it’s the same sort of concept. I guess it’s just a process of getting used to a new text and finding resources to tell me why it would be appropriate for the classroom, or why not. After researching the use of the novel in the classroom I will make my own decision with the information available and talk to my administration before incorporating into my lesson plans. Ideally, I think it would be a great book to incorporate into my classroom.

Romeo & Juliet Blog Post

I have never actually read Romeo & Juliet all the way through. I have read portions in high school, but embarrassingly haven’t had much exposure to Shakespeare (especially embarrassing for a soon to be English teacher). I definitely have seen the movie though, the rendition with Leonardo DiCaprio – loved it! Even though I don’t really understand what they are saying always. Shakespeare, for me is difficult but I am open to more Shakespeare experiences (I think my Shakespeare class will cover that).

As far as teaching Romeo & Juliet in a high school classroom, doing a class rendition of the play is always fun and exciting for the students. Assigning a role each day to a new student would keep most students in the class involved in the day’s lesson, or even having two different sets of students who read or “act” out the play. If there is the right allowance of space you could split the class up into their literature circles groups and have them take on character roles in their smaller group settings as well.

Because Shakespeare is difficult for me it is likely to assume that it is difficult for some high school students as well. I wonder if beginning the lesson with some scenes from a visual rendition of the play would be beneficial. For example, introducing the opening scene of the movie might help students in getting a mental picture of the characters while being able to hear the language of Shakespeare and putting this foreign wording to actions. Then after watching a brief section of the film, begin reading the novel. This would allow students to start the novel with a mental image of some (or all) of the characters as well as having digested some of Shakespeare’s language. I can see how this would inhibit some of the student’s creative juices in putting a mental image to the characters but it might help with comprehension.

It was really nice to re-read something from high school that I hadn't gotten the chance to read again. It will only help me as a teacher, or student-teacher when I am exposed to this text again in my career.

Edgar Allan Poe - The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pffaal

I will say upfront, I am not an expert in Poe. I have read a fair amount of his work, but never before “The Unparalleled Adventure…” For me, it was not one of his more enjoyable stories. I found it quite wordy and more difficult to follow compared to his other stories. This might partially be due to the fact that, again, this is my first introduction to this work so I have less background knowledge on the story.

Though the story was a bit difficult to understand it was quite inventive. Poe does a great job taking something as seemingly innocent and harmless as a balloon and turning it into an interstellar space traveling time machine! The balloon being newspaper covered could have something to do with its success in space travel though of course. This work seems to be on the far side of science-fiction for Poe, which is saying something.

As for the description of the main character, Poe makes Hans quite unique. He is very short (two feet tall) and has many distinguishing features. His crooked noise really paints a picture for me when Poe describes him as well as his height disadvantage and earless head. As is typical of Poe, he makes some of his characters mirror his own reflection but with Hans Pfaall, that is not the case.

This story is very science-fiction as I mentioned earlier, but I forgot to mention that it is heavy on the science. The fiction too, but the science was prevalent as well. It was hard for me to become so engrossed in the story with so much science getting in the way (in Poe’s vernacular). Like what in the world is that mystery gas? I think this would make a fantastic movie. I would supplement a movie with this text if I were teaching it because it is quite difficult for students. But, it can also push their boundaries of comprehension which is exactly the goal of the Common Core State Standards.

I think Poe is a genius. He is one of the few writers that I hear “real” English people always raving about that I can identify with and concur that he is in fact, genius. I’m looking forward to this lesson today because I had so much trouble with this story that I need some explanation and help understanding just exactly what happened. Can’t wait to be taught today!