After Chapter 4's plummet into a state of despair, I was afraid to pick this book back up for fear that I would throw it into the fireplace and resign myself to a lifetime of banking. Thankfully, I am still on the path to being an English teacher and chapter 5 brought much hope. I think my favorite part of this chapter was her discussion on reader response. I was the student who would have said, "English class ruined every good book I ever read." And I think much of that is because of the way literature was approached in my academic world. I wasn't given much freedom in what to read. I wasn't asked to explore my own thoughts about the piece. I simply had to read and find the answers that my teachers wanted, thus ruining my love for reading. So when Christenbury talks about a reader response classroom, something inside of me screams that this is the answer!! I want to be a teacher that encourages my students to talk....a lot...to make a community of meaning.....I want them to be so tired of me asking question after question. I want my students to be able to make links to their personal experiences which I think might be the single most important key to keeping students in love with reading. And I want to be full of affirmation for my students.
I think one of the main reasons that I chose English as my content area, other than the obvious love for literature and writing, is that much of English is about a journey. In math, 2+2 will always be 4. There's not much up for discussion there. But there is so much room for exploration, for interpretation, and for examination in the world of literature. Rarely is there a "right" answer. If I do my job correctly, students will feel tremendous freedom to find out what a specific piece of literature means to them without trying to figure out what I want them to think or say. They will feel safe thinking out loud about the options and discussing it as a class. They will feel comfortable walking away from a discussion without one "right" answer but rather a plethora of options. They will read for discovery and not for a grade from me.
This whole reader response idea kind of scares me because I don't think I've ever really seen it for myself. I read about it and get excited but when I think about my own English classes in high school and the classes that I have observed, I don't think I've watched this in action. Why doesn't it happen? Do students not talk and thus teachers freak out and take over? Do teachers fear a lack of discussion? Are students not interested enough in literature to want this kind of environment? To me, the concept screams this is the way, walk in it, but I haven't seen it. I want to be able to model something I have seen. I guess for now, I'm going to have to resign myself to modeling something I have only read......
Btw, after hating Gallagher's baseball analogy, I will admit that chapters 2 & 3 changed my views on him and his book. I am impressed and hooked.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
I definitely agree with your statement about English being a journey. There's always something new happening in English.
Kendra, Kendra, Kendra, oh how alike we are. Except for the fact that you are 3'4" and I'm 6'3", I'm male you're not....anyways...(You know I love ya!)
I also agree with the fact that we have not seen a lot of the things we can do in a classroom. I like you have a pretty good job, but it will take a leap of faith to make the move to teaching.
I think one thing we have over some states is the requirement to student teach. My sister got her degree in English, in Florida, and was able to move right into teaching without even substituting one day and having taken no methods courses.
That is scary.
I kind of think that Christenbury's book will be a guide for a lot of use, and an invaluable resource when we start teaching. Finally, a textbok I don't feel like I'm wasting my money with.
what is scarier is you being in charge of a group of high schoolers and thinking they are going to actually be productive.
and I'm 5'2" by the way!!!
My main problem right now is putting "discovery" into the measurable objectives I need to have for professors and administrators. How do you measure discovery? What is an "accurate" discovery? For example, "Students will compare a scene of Romeo and Juliet to an event in their own lives, connecting to the text and making it come alive...with 95% accuracy." How do we write the measurable objectives demanded of us when so much of our subject is subjective?
katie,
that is definitely a good point that I don't know I had thought of. We do teach a very subjective subject that is hard to give objective grades to. Maybe this would make a good classroom discussion topic.
When I think of a good classroom I think of good class discussions, like with a reader response class. As I read the chapter and your post it is an incredible thing that we can use a technique that allows us to facilitate class. We can ask questions and let the students teach each other. As I began to think about this I thought it was pretty cool. But something I noticed about the classes Christenbury observed it seemed her examples had the few students that would talk and discuss. While in those classes all of the students may of spoken and particpated, I wonder how we go about getting all students involved with reader response? How do we get the quite kids that are so afraid to speak to relate with the rest of the class? Those are just a few questions I thought of as I was reading.
I totally agree with you Kendra. I want all the same things. I think that it is important to have your students learn to think for themselves and teaching them to take the initiative is a great way.
Post a Comment