The quote "The only good kind of instruction is that which marches ahead of development and leads it." by Lev Vygotsky is relevant and important to how teachers should aim to teach students. I don't agree that all learning should center around the zone of proximal development though. Lev Vygotsky's approach is much more teacher-centered than student-centered. I think there is room for creativity but I do agree that teachers should move faster and cover more content than just one small project for each unit they teach. One unit could encompass a multitude of different activities that touch all learning styles.
Jago has a good point when she talks about YA lit vs. the classics. I think there should be a theme to any unit a teacher decides to cover. There doesn't necessarily need to be a YA book paired with every single classic. Some classics speak for themselves. There also doesn't always need to be a classic taught with YA lit. Some units won't even require a book at all. I was assigned to read a book in college called Eats, Shoots, Leaves. Its a book all about correct punctuation. I think it would be a great book to introduce to my students throughout the year as we move to different lessons and write essays. It doesn't have to be something they sit down and read for a unit. I like the idea of using a book throughout the year for different purposes. Re-visiting books is something I would really like to do for all the classes I teach.
I am a little bit confused when Jago talks about using the same word in multiple contexts. I understand what she means about word comprehension as a part of the text you are reading. I agree that to understand a word completely you need to see it used in all possible contexts. What I don't understand is how she expects us to expose our students to everything. It's not our choice what goes on standardized tests, we can only do as much as we can and hope we've touched something on one of the exams our students have to take.
I'm reading Native Son right now in my U.S. Lit class. The image killing the rat is very powerful and it relates to bigger in a larger way than just what is described on the page.It will be very interesting to see how my students relate what they read to their future jobs or present day America.
Posted 2-22-11
I am a little bit confused when Jago talks about using the same word in multiple contexts. I understand what she means about word comprehension as a part of the text you are reading. I agree that to understand a word completely you need to see it used in all possible contexts. What I don't understand is how she expects us to expose our students to everything. It's not our choice what goes on standardized tests, we can only do as much as we can and hope we've touched something on one of the exams our students have to take.
I'm reading Native Son right now in my U.S. Lit class. The image killing the rat is very powerful and it relates to bigger in a larger way than just what is described on the page.It will be very interesting to see how my students relate what they read to their future jobs or present day America.
Posted 2-22-11
Classics In The Classroom Chapter 3
To start off, I want to comment on the most used book list. I have only read five of those twelve books. I really do think teachers have a choice in what they assign their students. One of my favorite books to this day is Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier. I've never heard of another high school that read that book. I read it in my AP lit class. I also read six other books in that class and the only ones that were on that list were Of Mice and Men and The Great Gatsby. I agree that you should wait until you can enjoy the classics before you read them. I think students will enjoy YA lit much more than they will enjoy reading the classics, which is why it would be a great idea to pair a YA novel with a classic.
I think a great idea for students to understand the concept of a "classic" would be for them to create their own idea of a classic work for them. They should choose a book that helps define them. They would be able to present it to the class for a grade.
I hope to put together a list of books and their summaries for my students based on each grade level. While the students are reviewing the books they read the year before. They will also be assigned to look through the list of books and do some background checking to see which books interest them. They will all vote on which books they like as a whole and we will read those books. I will pair the books they choose with novels and texts that parallel them so the students get a well-rounded literary year. I realize that my class does not just read books. I think by having them read books while doing writing work it will increase their responsibility and their critical thinking and they will be able to write more coherant essays.
Posted 3-1-11
Classics in the Classroom Chapter 5:
I want to start off by saying that I'm super excited to use song lyrics in our poetry studies. I also think playing classical music during a poetry reading will really enhance students' critical thinking and help them see the images in the poems. I think reading aloud will also really help the study of poetry. I would like to pair older poetry with contemporary poetry so students' can see the way new poems reflect their older counterparts. I'm not so much looking forward to poetry units as much as I am novels and grammar, but i'll be prepared and go in with my chin up. Jago talked about specific poems and "difficult poetry." I agree that some poems' meanings just completely escape me. I had an example at Firestone today. I was going over and extended response question with a student and the end of the poem was completely lost on me. We worked it out by inferring what the poem could mean by looking at how the beginning started out and progressed through until the difficult part. Then we read over the question and stuck to the prompt. We were able to come up with a solid answer by just sticking to the prompt and finding specific examples in the poem. I think the student now has a better grasp on how to interpret poems and how to read extended response prompts.
Posted 3-7-11
Classics in the Classroom Chapter 2:
I had vocabulary books in high school that I had to fill out for a grade. Every week we went over a vocab chapter and read aloud each word and the definition. There were exercises in the book to complete that helped you understand the full meanings of each word and how to use it in a sentence. I remember a lot of words out of that vocab book and I still have all my vocab books, but I also think it could work just as well if the students found confusing words in the novels we were reading instead of taking up time to go over a vocab book. The students have to read and discover new words before they can write anything. When I teach we will always read a selection of texts before the students write a paper for me to grade. If we as teachers expect them to make progress in each grade in school they have to take in more information and further their knowledge base before they can be expected to construct a new and better product.
Posted 3-28-11
Classics In the Classroom Chapter 4
I learned about Freytag's pyramid in high school. It describes how novels are constructed perfectly. It really helped me understand all the different elements of a story. We had to use Freytag's pyramid to break down The Most Dangerous Game and a couple other short stories. I think it may not always be obvious that students remember what they have to think about. I can remember distinct conversations I had in high school about different poems and stories because, on those days, I really had to think. That's the reason I have favorite teachers. They are the ones who make you think the most. I've heard of every terms list of terms on pgs. 69-71. I think they are all very important when you are trying to work through a story. Not all of them will be used, which is wonderful, because it gets students to really think about which ones are used and point examples of them out in the text. They have to closely read the text to find all the devices that further the plot. This chapter will be really useful when I start teaching. I feel like I can refer back to it to have a full list of all the devices used in any text. She mentioned that there has a been a loss of the use of literary devices since Rosenblatt suggested there be some sort of reader response to texts. To me, both can be accomplished in the classroom. By having a literary breakdown of the texts the students will form responses to the text. I would have them respond to a prompt about the text before we break it down and then the same one after so they can see how their opinions have changed.
Posted 4-8-11
Classics In The Classroom Chapter 6
While I was reading the first part of chapter 6 I was thinking what it would be like to have a meeting with all the teachers in one subject before school started and drawing names out of a hat for partners. Those two teachers would be working together the entire year looking at each others lessons and giving each other feedback on lesson and project ideas. They could also share insight into novels and poetry that they each plan in the classroom. There would be group meetings throughout the year for the department to get together and share the great ideas the partners have come up with. It relates to what Jago says is lacking in teaching. Teachers teaching teachers. ( I wrote this before I read the Japanese teaching section!)
I think it would have helped me a lot in high school if I had mapped out how I thought a character moved around in a story. I know I'm a visual learner and I like that Jago gave her students a map of how Odysseus moved around during The Odyssey. I had to act out a couple scenes from Romeo and Juliet when I was in high school. It made me really understand what the two star-crossed lovers were really going through. That idea of playing with the language is really cool! I've never had any teacher think of anything like that before. It would be really cool to use in the classroom!
I think maybe instead of doing a translation and comparing translations, this is where I would include YA lit. I could pair the odyssey with a YA piece and modify the chart on page 135 to compare those two texts. I may have students' start a new novel, but I could also just give them exerts and encourage them to read on their own.
Posted 4-11-11
Wiki Reflection
I found mostly lesson ideas for teachers. I made sure they had a standard aligned with them and that they were for high school students. I found a lot of student-made videos for Hamlet. I also found a numerous amount of lesson plans dealing with making Hamlet videos and I tried to weed through them and choose the ones I thought the students would learn the most from. I have three video lesson plans. I think making their own video of a text is a valid lesson because the students must really understand the text to be able to act it out. They would have to show in the video that they have an understanding of the characters, theme, plot, and conflict in the text. They also have to go above and beyond just the understanding of the text to make their video original. The students have to analyze the text even further to decide how to spin the text to make it their own.
I found a lesson plan that compares the movie to the play. I think it's a great lesson because the students again have to show their understanding of the text to be able to compare. They also have to understand the language used in both the movie and the play to look for the differences. I have a lesson on understanding old language as well. In the old language lesson the students put together their own story using old language. This shows that they know the language and can even use it! I have a Shel Silverstein interpretation of Hamlet as a lesson too. His "rap" has swear words in it, and I would edit those out for freshman and sophomores, but I think the students would really enjoy reading the twist Silverstein puts on the story. It's really funny. I couldn't believe that there was a modern version of Hamlet that was as hilarious as Silverstein's. I started looking up related videos that were funny for Hamlet as well. I found a clip from the movie Renaissance Man where they rap about Hamlet. I think this would be another great idea for a lesson where the students create their own version of Hamlet. Instead of a movie they could make a song or poem about the play.
These lessons were my favorite and the ones I found to be the most useful. I have some classic lesson plans that have essays worked into them and they show how to have discussions surrounding the play and activities to do as the students are reading the text. I like those, but I feel like they aren't quite as exciting as the ones above. They align with the standards, but I think the students would enjoy something that is more hands on and relates to how they think outside the classroom.
I think the lessons I found are appropriate for the 9-12 classroom. I also think students who have trouble learning could easily participate in all the lessons. I think their is room for the loud kids, the quiet kids, the shy kids, the developmentally slower kids, the visual learners, etc. . . I also think that by the end the students will know how to read Shakespeare and old english. By reading Hamlet, it opens them up to being able to read other old english texts. Some Shakespeare is really funny if you know what the words mean. I think at the end of our Hamlet unit I would probably assign my students to read an excerpt from one of Shakespeare's comedies so the students could see how Shakespeare could be funny and not just tragic.
I didn't just learn about teaching this text through this assignment, I learned strategies for teaching in general. I know I should look for as many different multi-modalities as possible and not just classic "lesson plans" I put tons of different search booleans in google and bing to find all the lessons I found. I would have never thought there would be something like Silverstein's piece floating around. It opened me up to thinking about finding some really abstract texts to supplement my lesson.
Posted 4-18-11
Classics In the Classroom Chapter 7
I feel like I have seen more talk of standards and benchmarks in this semester before than I have in my entire life in general. By reading these texts and being in our two curriculum classes I completely understand standards, benchmarks and indicators and even have some of them memorized. One of my projects over the summer is going to be to get the language arts standards for grades 9-12 blown up to huge posters and plastered on my bedroom walls so I have easy access. I'm not joking. I have to completely disagree with Jago's statement that standardized testing is a great way to test the students knowledge before the exit high school. Ohio is one of those 18 states that has an exit test to graduate. I think the OGT is the dumbest test i've ever taken. You have to work at not trying to fail that test. The student I tutored at Firestone could have passed the OGT without my help. She is great at reading and writing and she would have had no problem understanding the questions on the test. I know Mr. Martin said that literacy education had made the most impact and he acted like he had facts to prove it, but I think it was mostly because the students were more motivated when they had tutors who cared about them passing the test, not necessarily because they were benefiting from getting the extra help understanding the questions. My student was excited to see me every time we were together and sad to see me go.
I find the list of recommended books at the end interesting. I read most of them in different grade levels than the ones they are suggested for. I also didn't see a lot of the books I read in that list.
Posted 4-19-11
Semester Reflection
I actually learned quite a bit this semester. I'm going to make a list of the most memorable things and what i've learned.
1. There are a trillion different ways to teach one lesson. Not all of them are good.
2. Reading one book for an extended period of time and applying a learning theory to it gives more insight than just reading it one time for the superficial meaning.
3. Students need to be engaged in the process of learning to remember the information they learn.
4. Sometimes the system fails the students. It is what they learn from the experience that matters
5. I'm never going to know everything about one book.
6. I shouldn't expect my students to have the same take on a text that I do. I should be open to different ideas and I should embrace all my students views
7. Students use their personal lives to relate to texts. Drawing on their own life experiences is a great way to engage them in critical thinking.
8. Sometimes lectures are good.
9. Seeing a text from one learning theory is only one way to see a text. If I am going to teach a lesson through a specific learning theory lens I should inform my students about the different theories and why I am choosing a specific one.
10. kids learn at different paces and through different mediums. to engage all my students I have to be able to explain myself in different ways.
11. sometimes students just aren't interested. all students try to get out of doing work. I have to be able to deal with those students and effectively engage them.
These are the things i've taken from our class this semester. I'm sure there are more, but as I was looking through all my past work and posts, these are the lessons that stuck out to me. I feel like i've learned more about teaching this semester than all my semesters combined thus far. I am looking forward to next semester and student teaching!
Posted 4-24-11
