Leaning Letter

The book talk, mini-lesson, and unit plan were the first experiences I've had putting together curriculum on literature, so needless to say, I learned a lot from these activities. The book talk I enjoyed because I can remember re-reading the Scarlet Letter three times in High School, which was great once, but pointless the second and third times through from an academic perspective. My senior year I had a teacher who had me read another The House of Seven Gables in addition to the Scarlet Letter homework, which was good, but could have gone further to differentiate it to be meaningful. Come to find out, she hadn't read House of Seven Gables, so she didn't know what to do with it to give me something else to do.I say all of that because I think of the book talks and I heard about books that I haven't read that I'm excited to read and possibly suggest to students, for personal and teaching purposes. 

The Mini-Lesson and Unit Plan especially were challenging for me in thinking through all the aspects of assignments, handouts, rubrics, in-class activities, videos and all of the planning that goes into one class session. The mini-lessons were great for ideas of how to teach different parts of a text.  The lessons that came  from the readings we did were mostly much different than what I would have devised on my own, so I appreciated all of the different methods presented. It was valuable for me to take the theories that we talked about in class and use them to develop or justify the different lessons that I wrote. 

The theories that we discussed in class have challenged and formed the way the way I think about teaching as I am at the beginning of my journey to becoming a teacher. Having the theories and perspectives that we talked about to articulate my teaching philosophies is taking from thinking like a student to thinking like a teacher.  I had to write  a classroom management philosophy in Dr. Valeo's class this quarter, if I wouldn't have been in this class and reading about differentiation, assessment, and discussion, I would have struggled to have said anything meaningful in that paper.

I benefited greatly from hearing about the classroom experiences that everyone else shared this quarter. There are methods that I can use and incorporate in my teaching that I've observed and heard about from many of you this quarter. Being around the passion and excitement for teaching that was exhibited made it easy for me to want to engage with these topics. Talking about oppression, poverty, and social justice in regards to education is a conversation that I haven't thought much about especially as a teacher. The articles that we read about social justice and how individual teachers bring about social awareness in the classroom is crucial in building students who are critical thinkers and initiators of change.

Romeo and Juliet Mini-Lesson Plan

1.      Teacher Candidate: Michelle Dexter

2.      Subject: English Language Arts

3.      Lesson Title/ Central Focus: Romeo & Juliet

4.      Grade Level(s): 9

5.      Length of Lesson: 20 Minutes

6.      Academic and Content Standards (Common Core/National): CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

7.      Learning  Objective(s):

·         Working individually and in groups, students should be able to reflect on the themes and events in Romeo & Juliet to discuss the conclusion of the play.  In addition to their initial thoughts and reflections, students will be able to work in small groups to change part of the story to write a new ending.  This will require a summative knowledge of the key points in the play to create a new ending by interacting with the changes they outline.

·         We will be able to reflect on the overall story of Romeo & Juliet.

·         We will be able to interact with the details of the text by re-writing the details and re-summarizing the storyline.

8.      Academic Language:

·         This lesson is coming at the end of a unit on Romeo & Juliet; therefore, the language of Shakespeare would have already have been addressed in an earlier lesson.

·         Students will need to be familiar with the vocabulary pertaining to summarizing and parts of a play such as: Summary, plot, storyline, theme, act, and scene.

9.      Assessment:

·         Students will work through the handout in class, turn in both the handout and group activity as well as participate in class discussion.

·         The handout and group activity are formative as they will be used to check their progress and receive feedback upon their return. 

·            This assessment will measure students’ comprehension of the overall plot of Romeo & Juliet and how the details determine the outcome. This connects back to the Common Core Standard, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text, as it allows students to analyze the development of the text and interact with the details to create their own outcome.

10.  Lesson Connections:

·        I considered some of the excerpts from Kelly Gallagher’s Readicide where he references finding the sweet spot of education. His ideas include allowing creative avenues for assessing understanding.  This activity is a way for the teacher to see if students have understood what they read without taking a formal test, but allowing them to interact with their peers and build something new that requires that knowledge.

·        Students will have completed introductory coursework on Shakespeare and a unit on Romeo & Juliet.  They will have read the play in its entirety and will be building upon prior lessons.

11.  Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks to Support Student Learning:

Introduction

·         I will have the objectives on the power point and will have students read the Common Core Standard and our class objectives out loud at the beginning of class.

·         I will introduce the lesson by going over the objective, reminding students what we have done, and going over the day’s agenda. 

Student Voice 

·         Student voice will be measured by their own reflections on their handout and by their contribution to the group assignment. The group activity is based upon student voice and requires students to come up with their own ideas and assessment of how the events of the text determines the outcome of the play.

Learning Tasks

·         The students will be given the assignment with an example to guide their group activity. The students will learn to analyze the outcome of a play/text based upon the causality of the effects and characters.

·         The directions for all of the tasks will be available on the power point and the handout.

·         Students will complete Section 1 of the handout based on their personal reflections on the play and will complete Section 2 of the handout with their classmates.  The students will learn to analyze a text based on the details that build on each event.  They will also learn to collaborate creatively on a group project.

·         I will be checking in with each group to see what areas of the text they understood, had questions on and where they will be changing the text for their story.  I will also be checking in with them to make sure they understand where the activity should be heading.

·         The introduction of the agenda and the initial task: 2 minutes

                        Section 1 of the handout and discussion with group: 5 minutes

                        Introduction of Section 2 and time for the activity: 8 minutes

                        Presentation of group activity:  4 minutes

                        Conclusion of Lesson: 1 minute

·         In our class of eight students, I will divide them into two groups of three and one group of two.  Ideally I would like to have groups of three or four for heightened group interaction and varied perspectives and to allow for differentiation through group make-up.

Closure

·         We will be able to reflect on the overall story of Romeo & Juliet.

·         We will be able to interact with the details of the text by re-writing the details and re-summarizing the storyline.

·         I would see this lesson as a small portion of a summative assessment at the end of a unit; a fun way to interact with the text while analyzing the plot.  I would do this lesson at the end of this unit to give students more input into a bigger assignment or paper that they would be working on.

12.  Differentiated Instruction:

·         I would use these activities to check for student understanding. I would also form groups in order to allow for scaffolding.  This task is meant to assess overall understanding of the text and breaks away from conventions to give students who have difficulties with writing assignments a way to demonstrate their achievement of the objectives. 

13.  Resources and Materials:

·       Outside of the textbook and Readicide, I came up with this idea with a high school student from Ferris.

14.  Management and Safety Issues:

·         Students will be prepared for a day of discussion and group work based off of our calendar.  They will be supervised in their discussion by the teacher and will be guided by previous rules for group work outlined previously in the term.

15.  Parent and Community Connections:

·         This would be an assignment as part of a unit that would have been communicated with parents due to incorporation of videos and segments of plays in the classroom.  Parents will be kept abreast of their student’s progress especially if there are concerns with the student’s understanding of the unit.

Book Talk--The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games

By Suzanne Collins

1.      Text Overview:

In a post-apocalyptic society, there is division of the people of Panem, formerly North America, into districts ruled by the Capitol.  The Capitol is a modern city where the residents live in luxury by garnishing resources from the districts. The Capitol holds an event called the Hunger Games to punish and remind the Districts of their rebellion and of the Capitol’s absolute power. The Hunger Games require two tributes, a boy and a girl chosen at random by the Capitol, from each of the twelve districts to participate in a battle of survival and warfare until one tribute is left standing, all of which is televised and watched by the citizens of the Capitol and Districts.

In District 12, Katniss Everdeen becomes the female tribute by volunteering to take the place of her younger sister. Katniss is a hunter, strong-willed and is viewed as a strong contender in the Hunger Games.  As she travels to the Capitol from District 12 with her male counterpart, Peeta Mellark, the stark contrast between the poverty and bleak existence of her district and the lavish lifestyle of the Capitol leaves them awe struck. They begin a preparation process for the Hunger Games including interviews, training and an opening ceremony where it becomes clear that the tributes from the wealthy districts have long-term training in order to guarantee a winner.

Once the games begin, Katniss encounters fires, wild animals, forms alliances, and faces combat in the game arena.  In the end, Katniss and Peeta are the last tributes standing and the co-victors of the Hunger Games as they made a gesture that they would rather both die than kill one another.  Katniss was the main perpetrator of the mutual victory, which was viewed as an act of rebellion, and in the end she realizes that she is viewed as an enemy of the state.

2.      Rationale:

I decided on The Hunger Games for a few reasons. First, I think it’s smart to capitalize on what our students are already reading and use it to generate excitement and interest in the classroom. It could be taught to high school students, I think it could be taught to most junior high students as well. Second, I think it’s a book that is easily accessible without being shallow. It addresses issues that are pertinent in today’s global picture as there are themes of oppression, equality, the value of human life, independence, political power/role of government, and the capability to enact change. Third, I think that it could be taught in conjunction with other dystopian novels, literature from other eras, or with an historical era to provide depth through comparison.

3.      Teaching Ideas:

1.            Many students have read The Hunger Games or seen the movie, which allows for a wide berth of options and differentiation. I think it could be an easy way to engage students in writing assignments based off of comparing/contrasting the book to the movie or in tracking as character development throughout the three books if you have students who want to read the other books in the trilogy.  Another option could be to compare characters or dystopian settings from another book such as Divergent, The Maze Runner, Lord of the Flies, The Lottery, etc. Students could have choices about how to make the assignment meaningful or challenging to them and as a teacher I would be able to help guide them to an appropriate choice.

2.            I see this as a good option to read as a parallel to history in understanding oppression, rebellion, and warfare states. The story of Katniss and the oppression of her District allows with parallels with Nazi Germany, Roman Gladiators, or even Boko Haram and current events in Nigeria.  The point would be use interest in the book to bring a humanizing factor to events that can feel impersonal.

3.            The Hunger Games could be used as a discussion point on American culture and society down to the microcosm of a junior high or high school. It could be used as a tool in teaching students to think of themselves in the context of their environment and in developing their own personal narrative.

4.      Obstacles:

One issue with teaching The Hunger Games is that it has been on the banned/challenged books list due to its violent content.   The argument can easily be made that our students are reading it anyway and seeing the movies, but in a classroom setting at least the nature of the violence can be addressed.  The description of the violence is not overly graphic or glorified, but is designed to be thought-provoking. The other issue parents tend to have is the lack of strong parents for Katniss.  Her father was killed in a mining accident and her mother was debilitated and depressed by his passing, which left Katniss to pick up the pieces for her and her sister.  The reality is that many of our students can relate to growing up outside of the typical family structure and Katniss’ perseverance should be a positive illustration and encouragement to students. Knowing that those are the objections and having reasons/lessons that show that The Hunger Games can be an effective tool in the classroom should be sufficient.

5.    

  Additional Note:

The Hunger Games is a great text to use because of its popularity. Finding a way to use what kids are already reading, what they want to read and what is speaking to them should be capitalized on to move their education forward. Many teachers are using it in their classrooms already and there are plenty of lesson plans and ideas available online.

Secondary Standards-Based Grading and Reporting Handbook

The section on zeros derailing a students overall grade is alarming. I can think back to when I was a student and all the differing methods and policies about late work and remember how depressing it was to forget an assignment, get a zero, and have the whole quarter ruined. We were talking about that in one of my other classes last week and brought it back to what we hope students are getting out of that assignment. Is it our job to teach them to turn their work in on time or to have them gain the skills or knowledge from their homework? It seems reasonable to dock their grade for late work, but zeros can be debilitating and do demoralize them for the rest of the term.

There are a few key ideas that I see repeatedly which are related to grades being clear and meaningful. Not only should the grading methods be clear to students, but to their parents as well. Parents should be able to understand the progress their child is making and how that is being measured. I like the concept of Principle 4 that states that not all information gathered should be graded. Parents will want to understand the difference between what is graded, what is not, and what factors are outside of that process.

Principle 5 is interesting to me because I feel like we always grade on an average. Typically,  it seems like bigger assignments are worth more points or weighted to be a higher percentage of the grade, but I don't think I've seen grades later in the quarter worth more just on the basis that they're later in the term. Bigger projects and assignments tend to be later in the term and usually incorporate several learning points from that unit or term, but you can say the same thing about midterms or end of unit tests. It would be interesting to weight grades more as the quarter went on to track a student's progress as they learn their teacher's expectations as well.  Sometimes it seems like a student would prefer to keep the grades specific to the assignment and not the time frame if they struggle with a particular unit.  For instance, if you struggled with a particular part of ninth grade science, like chemistry, and the rest of your semester/year went really well, then you wouldn't want that unit towards the end of the year to drag your entire grade down.

Assessing and Evaluating Students' Learning

The practical examples of how to set up an assessment or evaluation of what the students' reading and understanding of a piece of literature are going to be easily applied to my classroom experience and unit plan.  I liked the criteria for classroom discussion and how it gave clear expectations of what that teacher expected from her students during discussion time. To me, it seems like I will want to find a balance between assessing my students critical thinking and engagement with what we are reading with some testing of the facts. I think about Tovani and how do we catch how much a student is truly understanding and the more varied the assessments in a class, the more opportunities we have as teachers to work with our students on finding their strengths and furthering the development of their weaknesses.

One thing that keeps standing out to me is the need to keep expectations clear to our students. As a student in junior high or high school, I remember a lot of my stress came from not knowing what to expect on a test, quiz or how I would be graded on an assignment especially early on in the school year. Another factor that I'm thinking about is differentiation. Even without ELL students or student with an IEP, there are different learning styles and proficiencies that should be thought about. We had a poetry exam my senior year which included writing our own poetry to show that we understood different poetry styles. Our teacher said she wanted us to have fun with it, but for me it was horrible because I'm not creative like that. For me, it would have been nice to have had some differentiation so that it wouldn't have weighed so heavily on our creativity and more on our knowledge of the differences between different poems. That being said, I remember a friend of mine thinking it was easy and she was happy about it. Finding some middle ground would have been nice, although I can recognize that finding that sweet spot is a balancing act and it will be hard (or impossible) to keep everyone happy all of the time.

Readicide

I enjoyed Readicide as a general guide to encouraging readers in the classroom. Where Tovani walked through specific students and scenarios, the theories presented by Gallagher are a great starting point for creating life-long readers.

The account of Chloe coming home and being frustrated by picking apart a book in class and wishing she were still in Australia where she would have been through four books in the same time frame is a great reminder that we need to support not only our struggling readers in class, but to support and encourage our student who enjoy reading as well. On page 117, he says we need to encourage fun reading, to do more reading in class, and to do it without grading it all the time. Teaching students to be good readers and to even enjoy it is life-changing.  Having the capability to read something and understand it fully and have the skills to apply it to your life is invaluable, not to mention the personal enrichment that can be gained from reading.

I thought Gallagher's take on reading the classics was interesting.  The idea that we develop cultural literacy and can share in that reading experience as a mode of communication is a departure from most of what I've been hearing lately.  Teaching in the "sweet spot" is a great concept that I would expect will serve me well when I get started teaching.  I don't expect to have a lot of control over what I get to teach initially, so having a teaching style that can help make any text palatable or accessible for my students will be a great resource. Referring back to what makes a classic valuable in finding what appeals to us in it as a teacher can be a great encouragement to students; the universals that are present are what make a classic a classic. Finding the balance of working through a text without over-teaching it is something I know I need to reflect on even as I am preparing my unit plan. I feel like it's easier to err on the side of over-teaching than to let students enjoy the text fully by keeping up a good reading flow.

TPA Format and EdTPA

In my overall career as a student who will someday be a teacher, I have only written and taught one lesson plan. The first time I saw the template I remember feeling pretty intimidated, but I was in a group with three other students who were familiar with the format and walked me through the process. After having one relatively successful experience definitely lessens my stress about writing and/or teaching lessons; however, I know there is a lot of room for improvement and that the edTPA is much more than a lesson plan.

In the lesson plan that I wrote last quarter, the only reference that I cited was one of my textbooks and there wasn't much thought on an overall teaching philosophy. I had ideas about how I wanted to do things, but I know that I didn't include as much detail as I should have and that detail should have included more than a mention of a textbook. Learning and implementing theories/theorists is something I need to get better at and more comfortable with. I want to be able to tell students why we're doing what we're doing in class and to have explanations for activities, assignments and readings, which starts with the lesson planning process.

The edTPA process scares me a little, mostly from observing the stress that I see in classmates who will be submitting theirs in the next few months, although I understand the purpose of the process.  It makes sense to have our teaching capability measured by our proficiency in lesson planning and enacting that lesson in class. I'll feel a lot better about the edTPA process once I start getting some classroom experience and can see how I need to improve or tailor my lesson plans to my classes.

We've talked a lot about differentiation in class, but that's not something I've had to actually do in a classroom setting. The hypothetical differentiation of a lesson plan to be inclusive to everyone in your class may be different than the actual needs of a class.  I keep hearing that every class is different and moves at a different pace and will have a different personality, which to me, means that I'll have to learn to differentiate my plans as the school year progresses. Time management or the amount of content to include in one class session is hard for me to get a good handle on for the same reason. Luckily, I'll get plenty of classroom time in over the course of the next year or so before I even need to stress about the edTPA to be thoughtfully preparing for my assessment.

I Read It, but I Don't Get It

This book gave me perspective on how readers who are struggling think and feel. The realization of how demoralizing it is for an adolescent student to ask for help with reading comprehension or to be placed in a reading class is important to reflect on as we think about handling our own students. I liked how Tovani says that, "reading must be about thinking and constructing meaning. It's much more than pronouncing words." Her initial focus on studying what good readers do feels like an empowering approach to give students instead of focusing on what struggling readers do wrong. The self-monitoring of where you're at in a text is so crucial; I think about paperwork I've had to read for buying our house or legal documents and I know that sometimes in writing especially where the terminology is unfamiliar, I have to reread it to make sure I am getting the full meaning of it. Having an image like that to reflect on when considering working on reading with a secondary student will be helpful to me moving forward.

The tools that she presents to help readers are easily accessible and practical for classroom application. I can easily see how a little work with a struggling student to help their comprehension can go a long way towards their success. The fake reading habits that she talks about at the beginning and then the inference drawing that she talks about at the end are going to be interesting things to tackle in the classroom.  The way she describes her success all through high school makes me wonder how I will know if my students are doing the same thing.  The inferences that aren't quite there seem like they could be an indicator for fake reading or lack of comprehension.  The questions I have after reading this are more about how to discover my struggling readers so that I can employ these or other strategies to keep them from getting through high school never having read an entire novel. The idea that finding connections between the students and the text is something that can be powerful in their overall understanding of a book and that we have to be creative to find, but in order to help a student make the connections, I would first need to know that they're struggling.

Social Justice

The article that I found and chose to read is the NCTE's statement and stance on social justice.  Here is the link: http://www.ncte.org/cee/positions/socialjustice I decided to go with this article because it seemed like a practical place to start my understanding of what social justice is in the classroom and especially as an ELA teacher.  The layout of the article is smart as it goes through seven points and gives suggested application in the classroom and ideas for teacher's individual growth as well.  The main takeaway that I got from this article is that social justice doesn't have a cut and dry definition, but it is an ever-changing definition as our idea of social justice as a society develops. The focus of social justice in the classroom is on equal treatment of every student regardless of their background and giving each student the same opportunity for success and achievement.  The idea of diversity awareness is greeted with the idea of putting yourself in someone else's shoes, which applies to both students and teachers alike. One of the striking statements in this article is that,  "Research on student achievement confirms that classroom teachers are directly relational to the 'quality and equitable delivery of education and student academic achievement.'" The representation of social justice in the classroom starts with the teacher.

The second idea that runs throughout this article is the topic of discussion. The tools and questions that are listed are intended to spark a dialogue in the classroom about what kind of oppression students see around them and where power comes from.  The topics of discussion also include praxis and putting social justice into action.  It asks students what they can do to personally make a difference in the world around them and charges teachers with helping them find the tools to make change. One of the reasons the NCTE says it's so hard to define social justice is that every student's story is different; therefore, their version of social justice or, conversely, oppression is different. These are ideas that relate directly to the conversation we've been having this quarter about discussion and student voice as well as to Freire and the conversation of oppression. It also speaks to the use of popular culture in the classroom as we will need to be in touch with the lives of our students to have knowledge of and compassion for how they're interpreting the world around them.

Critical Pedagogy in an Urban High School English Classroom

The case study presented in this article was both intriguing and inspiring. Allowing students to see the bureaucracy of the school system and allowing them to be the impetus for change is empowering and life changing for those students.  It seems like there are times when we as adults may not even know the answers to why things work the way they do. I know there are things my own kids ask me and sometimes I'm not sure and I give them a vague response; however, I know if I tell them, "let's look it up together" they enjoy learning about it more than being appeased.  For instance, my daughter wanted to know what sound a walrus makes, I had no idea so we looked it up on YouTube and we found out together. I can see how the principles that they're outlining in this article are similar, but with much greater implications. Showing students what they're dealing with in school and in life and giving them the tools to develop well-formed solutions sets them up for long-term success.

I felt like the ideas that were presented on combining traditional or classical literature with popular or mainstream media are practices that can be easily applied in our classrooms. The lesson structures and project outlines that they showed are practical and are practices that I would like to incorporate in my classroom. The focus on group work and collaborating as well as in-class participation and presentation give students great practice for whatever is in store for them after high school.

The section about cultural practices and the idea that all cultural practices are meaningful and valuable resonated with me. I like where they describe that studying many cultures and their customs helps us value our own practices as well.  All of our practices are unique and significant in our own way; they're what give each of us our individual voice in the classroom and in life.

The Critical Pedagogy Reader

The idea that the constructs that we'll be teaching in or that the subject matter that we'll be teaching could be oppressive to students is a scary thought.  I understand the concerns that McLaren brings to light about being critical of what everything we do in the classroom as that input is part of what shapes our student's futures.  The hidden curriculum as he puts it, that what we choose not to teach in our classroom and all of the subtleties that form the overall environment of our school, influence students as well as the actual curriculum is an important point to reflect on as we think about setting up our own classrooms in the future. The idea that boys are taught independence while girls are taught dependence is not something I would ever want to participate in, nor would most teachers, which to me validates the idea that we need to be more critical of our teaching practices so that we aren't unknowingly perpetuating that.

The conversation about the language of hope or possibility and empowering students is why so many of us choose to teach.  It's a daunting task to think about all the sensitivities that we need to have to so many different subsets in any given class of students.  We won't always know the background of all of our students and it's important to not just differentiate a lesson to make it accessible to students, but to find creative ways to make it accessible to our students.  He talks about the "great books" and how some people want to push for those to be the basis of our curriculum.  It seems like we may not always be able to immediately change what we're expected to teach, but I think that we can find ways to approach the material in a new way to make it interesting and applicable to our classrooms.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

This article was a little shocking and eye-opening for me.  First of all, it seems counter-intuitive to me to pursue a career in teaching if you don't have the best interests of your students at heart. By best interests I mean to give a student your best effort at allowing them to think, process and develop skills in the classroom that will help them build a productive future for themselves.  I was a director of a youth ministry on the South Hill for a long time and we had two sayings that we used with our volunteer leaders: 1. You are here for them, they are not here for you. 2. Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.  These two sayings were meant to remind our volunteers that the students are our priority and that any other agenda or ego-trip is not permissible and that we need to teach our students how to think own their own.  As students encounter challenges in life, they need the tools to process and think things through critically, they don't need someone telling them what to do every step of the way. Building critical thinking skills is imperative for students to discover who they are and who they want to be in the world.  The parts of what Freire wrote about partnering with students and stepping out of the banking system resonated with me because of how I've seen people interact with kids that doesn't allow them to shine as bright as they can.

The part of this article that presents a challenge to me as a teacher is in teaching students facts without merely making deposits. How do I find ways to creatively teach students in a way that is meaningful and empowering to them? This part did remind me a lot of the discussion strategies that we've been talking about in class and the way we as teachers have to be comfortable stepping back and letting students use their voices. I think that giving students a place to be heard and to be encouraged in their futures is a good base point to start at.

A Response-Based Approach to Reading Literature

After reading this article, I couldn't help but feel like these concepts were already familiar to me.  In most of the classes I've taken, there has been a focus on student engagement especially through discussion. The focus has been on student voice and developing student ownership of their learning experience.  That being said, I appreciated the practical approach this article takes to outlining potential methods to achieve the goal of student response.

The concept of the "horizon of possibilities" is important as a teacher of language arts as it reminds me/us that we don't have to wrap every lesson up in a perfect package, that we need to be comfortable with more questions and the presentation of ideas that we might not be prepared for.  The fact that all of our students and us as teachers have different life experiences to draw from means that we will all interact with a particular text in a unique way and the only way to share how we can all be moved by literature in different ways is to invite our students to share without feeling like they have to give a "right" answer. 

Langer's description of how literary and discursive interactions with reading are different but interactive was interesting to me. I liked her point that while one is the focus, the other helps inform or move the reading/writing along to build complex conclusions. Helping students find a way to incorporate their knowledge and facts into their interpretation and viewpoint on a literary reading encourages and develops their critical thinking skills. And that process works both ways, applying literature to fact-based classwork or information can bring life and empathy to an issue that students can feel disconnected to.  Students need to become well-rounded in the way they take in new information, especially if it's contrary to their stance on an issue, in order to be good students, college students, employees and to build good relationships in all areas of their lives. This is an area of education that extends far into the rest of their lives, so if we as teachers can help them become empathetic and critical thinkers, we've prepared them for more than college.

SIOP

Without having experience with ELL students in the classroom, finding creative ways to incorporate their educational needs seems like an intimidating task. After reading this article, it seems like there are very practical ways to help them achieve their goals. The overall impression I got from this article was that if you can thoughtfully use visual and other tactile methods of teaching so that ELL students are hearing and seeing what you expect from them, you can heighten their overall success.

Honestly, I usually think of ELL students needing help with their comprehension of the subject matter and instructions, but I hadn't thought about my role in developing their English speaking skills.  The process that students go through in doing group work or working in partners will give them opportunities to develop their speaking and comprehension skills in a more comfortable setting than in front of the whole class.  I like the idea of giving the ELL students opportunities to work in groups to build their language skills as well as to develop and capitalize on their social skills among their peers.

The two strategies for teaching that resonated with me were the thinking out loud strategy and the summarizing strategy. The thinking out loud strategy fits with my personality as I do that all the time with my own kids.  I have a five year old who wants to know why we do everything and I am constantly explaining daily tasks to her that go without explanation to an adult.  What I have discovered is that sometimes I wonder why I do things the way I do or she will suggest another way to do it. I can see how especially in using lingo and vocabulary that can seem appropriate will lose a student who doesn't know a specific reference or word. Which leads me to summarizing, I see that summarizing what you're going over in segments can keep things from slipping through the cracks and gives opportunities for questions. Overall I think that planning for ELL students keeps you focused as a teacher and helps you keep your expectations clear and your lessons creative.

The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts Instruction in Grades 6-12

I read over the Common Core Standards first and I was wondering where the need for these standards came from.  I know that there has been a long hstory of standardized testing, but the Common Core seemed like a different means to the same end. One positive thing that I've seen with the Common Core Standards is when we were visiting Ferris High School last quarter with Dr. Torgerson's class and the teachers that we observed there all went over the objectives at the beginning of their lessons. I noticed that students liked knowing what they were working towards; it gives them a concrete goal and a higher understanding of the purpose of their class times and assignments. Junior high and high school students thrive on structure and in the article it states that the standards give students "a more consistent set of goals." For students, I think it helps be keeping them in the loop of the direction of their education and their readiness for college.

As a teacher, knowing that I'll be teaching with the Common Core Standards, I don't mind having clear expectations of what I need to teach and a clear way of how my students and I will be assessed. It seems like I'll still have freedom to decide on my classroom curriculum and to allow for my personal perspective as a teacher to shine through. As I am not placed in a classroom yet, I don't have personal experience with how much the standards dictate what you do, but the teachers who I have spoken with about them seem to have a positive perspective of how Common Core has impacted their classroom. One of the teachers at Ferris reflected on finding her voice as a teacher and how being vulnerable with her class built a safe classroom environment. She also stated that the standards enhanced her ability to be open and honest with students because they knew why she was assigning the work that she was assigning and it opened up conversation about why.

Discussion in a Democratic Society

The first thing that stood out to me in this article was the idea that in order to have a successful in-class discussion, the most important thing we need to do as the facilitator is to foster a setting where students feel safe, valued and heard. To me, that's about making the classroom a place where relationships are built, trust is gained, and creativity is nurtured. It's important to recognize that not all students will feel comfortable in a large scale debate especially about a topic that is significant to them, so I like the suggestion of small group discussion to involve all students.

Aside from the ways to engage the class, the significance of why we want to go out on a limb and have discussions in our classrooms is much more complex than a simple exchange of information. The ability to have a discussion that allows students to think outside the box, get outside of their comfort zones, and put themselves in someone else's shoes is invaluable.  By getting our students to think critically about why they hold the views and perceptions, we challenge their capability to change and grow as a student and learner both in the classroom and in everyday life. The idea that everyone's point of view is important and brings a new dynamic to a dialogue because all of their individual experiences are unique. The back and forth nature of discussion brings out those nuances and the discussion thrives on differing viewpoints.

I do like the idea that we have to have hope for resolution and faith in the process, while at the same time not knowing what will be said or accomplished in the course of a discussion. Allowing an authentic discussion means allowing for uncertainty of topics and what the end point will be. I think it's intimidating and exciting to think about creating a productive environment to conduct a discussion of this high caliber. Building healthy relationships and engaging students in discussions enhances their desire to succeed and participate.