Chapter 5
I definitely have nothing bad to say about chapter five in “Talking in Class.” I had a couple of teachers who taught in similar ways when I was in high school. At the same time, I also had classes where the teachers were so desperate to get discussion going that they would give treats to people who spoke up or made a good point. If your students are only talking because they want a piece of candy I think that’s kind of sad.
The only thing I could add is that the seating arrangement of your classroom can also be an important tool for discussion. Much like the Socratic seminars we have in class some of my experiences have seen some other interesting choices. My 11th grade literature teacher had the class split down the middle with each side facing each other. Instead of all facing the front towards the teacher’s desk, the students are facing each other and actively engaging in debates. Circling the desks also works well as we do in class, but there are options for how to organize your classroom to encourage discussion not just with the teacher but with each other even if you don’t put them into small groups first.
Chapter 6
I feel like I read this chapter before. I imagine it’s because we’ve been discussing this kind of teaching and learning all semester so far. Maybe it’s just me, but the hero example and the case study one just remind me of things we’ve done in class already and I’ve already given my opinion about these types of activities. Anyways, I enjoy these preparations and think they are a useful tool in the classroom to help get kids thinking before they even read the text. I especially like the oppinionaire and case study examples for their simplicity in just asking the students their own views on the ideas presented, yet they get such interesting responses.
I would steer clear of the writing about personal experiences portion. From my own personal experience, this can be a very hard activity for some students. It was always a difficult assignment for me in high school and I wouldn’t want to put my students through that. Some pretty painful events can come up depending on what the subject matter is and teachers should tread lightly in this territory.
Chapter 15
I’ll admit, I only skimmed through this chapter because I worked late and woke up early to read and write this. Anyways, excuses aside, I liked what I saw. There were definitely some ideas that were new to me in this chapter. Of particular note, I thought that the silent discussion was a very interesting idea. It allows for active discussion and the shyer to speak kids in your class can be just as involved as your kids who talk incessantly. This would be a nice change up to use every now and then (not something to be used all the time) that would keep things interesting.
I can’t say I’m a big fan of all the self evaluating stuff I’ve been seeing in these chapters, especially in this one. I think it’s just me because it didn’t do anything for me when I was in school and I just never understood the purpose of it. I guess if you have a classroom full of really honest kids and you find it to serve some purpose I’m not seeing than kudos, but I couldn’t see myself using this technique.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Monday, October 8, 2007
Chapter 10 - Get Organizized!
While I agree that reading and discussion can generate some great ideas for students, it doesn’t appear that organization skills are ever discussed in this chapter. I don’t know if the book simply assumes that students already know these things by the time we get to them, but I’ve always found organization to be one of the most important fundamentals of writing strong papers. The structure of a paper is really the skeleton of you work. The ideas and evidence and the meaty part of the paper, but what the chapter seems to be saying to me is that they want the kids to find their own way. Students should definitely have their own writing style, but it’s tricky because they should also know what is expected of them and what their teacher holds to be a good solid paper.
I’m not saying this chapter didn’t have its good points. I actually enjoyed it. It just seems like there should have been some emphasis put on organizational skills. I really like the discussion prompts because the ideas are so juicy and full of questions for young minds. The right to kill, the death sentence, crime problems, the right to your own lifestyle, and other ideas were brought up here and I think any of them would be fitting for a classroom and many great papers could come out of those few little articles.
Teachers should let students know their standards, show them some basic organizational skills for putting a paper together and then get into the meatier stuff like real world concepts and moral conundrums.
I’m not saying this chapter didn’t have its good points. I actually enjoyed it. It just seems like there should have been some emphasis put on organizational skills. I really like the discussion prompts because the ideas are so juicy and full of questions for young minds. The right to kill, the death sentence, crime problems, the right to your own lifestyle, and other ideas were brought up here and I think any of them would be fitting for a classroom and many great papers could come out of those few little articles.
Teachers should let students know their standards, show them some basic organizational skills for putting a paper together and then get into the meatier stuff like real world concepts and moral conundrums.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
2 Lit Crit Examples
Example 1:
I found a section about a Kurt Vonnegut story and I couldn't pass that up. I read slaughterhouse five in high school and it's still one of my favorites. Anyways, bias aside, this section is interesting because it has pictures of unrelated paintings and other pieces of art which reflect moods of the story. At one spot it says, "Have students describe the mood conveyed by the colors in the this painting. Have them think of movement. What other aspects of the painting reflect the meaning of Vonnegut's story?" I believe this might be an example of Poststructuralist reader response due to the heavy handed nature of the artwork almost forcing the student to feel what the author wants them to feel; steering their mood in a way. I would actually add another step to this lesson and first have them read the story without the illustrations and artwork and then go back and look at certain scenes with the pictures and compare their reading experiences. This would allow them to compare two types of art and at the same time view how they can work together to create a certain feeling.
Example 2:
"Thinking Through the Literature" asks students to read a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks about a woman confiding in her mother about her lover who has gone to war. and then asks a series of questions such as,
-"What can you conclude about the speaker and her attitude toward war?
-"The speaker describes death as a rival, calling it coquettish and beautiful. What do you think she means?
-"What kind of answer do you think the mother might give to the question, "Where is happiness?"
I like this example because in my opinion this is the best way to teach poetry. I would definitely teach my students close reading skills before going into something like this, but asking open ended questions about such a short piece of writing can most times open up limitless discussion possibilities. This an example of individualized reader response because there are no right or wrong interpretations in these questions and in some ways helps the students to relate to character in the poem.
I found a section about a Kurt Vonnegut story and I couldn't pass that up. I read slaughterhouse five in high school and it's still one of my favorites. Anyways, bias aside, this section is interesting because it has pictures of unrelated paintings and other pieces of art which reflect moods of the story. At one spot it says, "Have students describe the mood conveyed by the colors in the this painting. Have them think of movement. What other aspects of the painting reflect the meaning of Vonnegut's story?" I believe this might be an example of Poststructuralist reader response due to the heavy handed nature of the artwork almost forcing the student to feel what the author wants them to feel; steering their mood in a way. I would actually add another step to this lesson and first have them read the story without the illustrations and artwork and then go back and look at certain scenes with the pictures and compare their reading experiences. This would allow them to compare two types of art and at the same time view how they can work together to create a certain feeling.
Example 2:
"Thinking Through the Literature" asks students to read a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks about a woman confiding in her mother about her lover who has gone to war. and then asks a series of questions such as,
-"What can you conclude about the speaker and her attitude toward war?
-"The speaker describes death as a rival, calling it coquettish and beautiful. What do you think she means?
-"What kind of answer do you think the mother might give to the question, "Where is happiness?"
I like this example because in my opinion this is the best way to teach poetry. I would definitely teach my students close reading skills before going into something like this, but asking open ended questions about such a short piece of writing can most times open up limitless discussion possibilities. This an example of individualized reader response because there are no right or wrong interpretations in these questions and in some ways helps the students to relate to character in the poem.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Learning to Read
When I checked out The Language of Literature from the library, I really wasn't thinking about anything too deep. It might have been the 8 hour shift I just finished, or it might have been the head splitting hangover. That's neither here nor there. Anyways, once I sat down and started scrolling through this book I realized how much material is actually in these books. I imagine being given that much material to work with and only being able to choose certain areas to focus on could be quite the challenge when making a curriculum. The decision of what to emphasize and what to skim over is a rather large one and it got me thinking about the areas I would put at the highest importance.
When trying to figure out material that I would teach I always think back to the lessons which helped me the most. That's when I came across an exercise on page 26 of the 10th grade edition about analytical reading. Something that I was taught by one of my old English teachers was that in order to write about literature you need to know how to read literature. Thinking analytically about the text is the first step in writing really good essays. This particular exercise had to do with determining themes in literature which I myself hold to be very important. Once the themes of a story are known everything else makes more sense.
Anyways, this is just one guy's opinion and it worked out alright for me. See you tomorrow.
When trying to figure out material that I would teach I always think back to the lessons which helped me the most. That's when I came across an exercise on page 26 of the 10th grade edition about analytical reading. Something that I was taught by one of my old English teachers was that in order to write about literature you need to know how to read literature. Thinking analytically about the text is the first step in writing really good essays. This particular exercise had to do with determining themes in literature which I myself hold to be very important. Once the themes of a story are known everything else makes more sense.
Anyways, this is just one guy's opinion and it worked out alright for me. See you tomorrow.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Authentic discussion is rare?
Obviously I'm no expert in this field, but all throughout high school my English teacher's always used discussion as a main tool for understanding class material. I'm not saying that they're wrong or that I'm right, but I honestly don't think they visited enough schools to make such a blanket statement. I do admit that I did not experience this kind of classroom environment when I was in junior high, but I personally don't believe that authentic discussion is as rare as stated in Chapter one. Other than that slight annoyance, I really had no other objections to the reading.
Authentic discussion, while possibly not quite as rare as some may think, is difficult for sure. As explained on page 3 of the text, classroom discussion has to be structured by the educator in such a way that students will have multiple and differing points of view to discuss rather than close ended questions which lead to no further understanding of the text. However, also discussed on this page is the main problem with leading these kinds of discussions. You can always count on student involvement in discussion to be shaky without some sort of a push or guideline. As discussed in chapters 1 and 11, some solutions to this are pre-reading material to get the students thinking about important themes ahead of time, and also small groups so that kids who are less inclined to speak to the whole class can open up and be heard.
I agree whole hearted that discussion should be used as a learning tool in the classroom and found the examples and methods discussed to be quite insightful. I especially found chapter eleven interesting. Not only can discussion help with the understanding of reading material, but it can also be a useful tool in helping students talk about important issues and themes within their worlds. This type of learning promotes equality and understanding in the classroom and the world outside the classroom as well. Authentic discussion is a tough teaching tool to master, but is possibly the most important thing a teacher can use.
Authentic discussion, while possibly not quite as rare as some may think, is difficult for sure. As explained on page 3 of the text, classroom discussion has to be structured by the educator in such a way that students will have multiple and differing points of view to discuss rather than close ended questions which lead to no further understanding of the text. However, also discussed on this page is the main problem with leading these kinds of discussions. You can always count on student involvement in discussion to be shaky without some sort of a push or guideline. As discussed in chapters 1 and 11, some solutions to this are pre-reading material to get the students thinking about important themes ahead of time, and also small groups so that kids who are less inclined to speak to the whole class can open up and be heard.
I agree whole hearted that discussion should be used as a learning tool in the classroom and found the examples and methods discussed to be quite insightful. I especially found chapter eleven interesting. Not only can discussion help with the understanding of reading material, but it can also be a useful tool in helping students talk about important issues and themes within their worlds. This type of learning promotes equality and understanding in the classroom and the world outside the classroom as well. Authentic discussion is a tough teaching tool to master, but is possibly the most important thing a teacher can use.
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