Joining the "nerd" bandwagon

It was really great for me to read these two chapters because it opened my eyes to the idea of teaching aspects of English through other means besides a classic piece of literature. I guess I just get caught up in the notion that when I teach deeper reading and critical anaylsis skills, it should be based off of a piece of literature or through newspapers (because that is how I was taught). However, I love the idea of taking what our students encounter everyday in their world and using it to teach them how to critically analyze language and writing. I have to remember that not every student that goes through my class is going on to be an English teacher. Their needs and critical skills need to be developed through the means that they will encounter when they are older and out of my classroom. I fully believe that a student can learn so much through a piece of literature that we as English teachers love and appreciate, and these works should not be taken out of the classroom; however, I have been challenged by this reading to mix things up by bringing in elements and "everyday" examples to teach our students through means that they encounter in their everyday life and will continue to be influenced by in the future. By looking at the language and meanings in advertisments, statistics, and other media, students can look back on this part of learning and realize just how it important and beneficial is this part of their education.

I also just wanted to mention how I was reminded of the importance of keeping in mind what technology we expect to have alongside our lessons and assignments. I never really considered the importance of making sure that when we incorporate technology into the classroom it should enhance what we are teaching, and that we make sure every student has the same opportunity and resources available to them. I think it is really important that we as teachers keep in mind that not every student may have a computer at home or that the resources they need are right at the tip of their fingers. Yet, at the same time, I will be willing to let any student teach me the ways of technology because I already feel that I am behind the times in this area, and I definitely hope that technology can be used to expand aspects of English and my students' thinking.

I'm a nerd, too.

I guess I'm a nerd too for posting on the blog so early. Oh well.
Anyway, on to my reaction about the reading...
As for chapter 9 of MTJ,I am all for incorporating technology in the classroom. I think it's a great idea because it adds important diversity into the curriculum and it also allows kids to become familiar with vital aspects of today's society (i.e. the internet). However, let's not fool ourselves into thinking that technology will always be readily available for us to joyously integrate into our lessons. Some of the districts in southwest Missouri astound me at how dated they are when it comes to technology. I have subbed in schools where technology is more of a joke than a requirement...it's sad, but some districts just don't place a priority on it.
I enjoyed reading about all of the variety we have when it comes to possible online curriculum (blogs, webquests, chat rooms) but are we really ready to require stuff like this outside of the classroom? Stacey said that class time would be a good way to incorporate online activities in education (and I agree), but I don't think many districts are at a place where they can realistically require it outside of the class. Lots of students still don't have regular access to the internet, especially in rural settings. I think in the next 5 years or so it will be much more realistic and common to expect class work to include online curriculum.

I thought chapter 9 of Deeper Reading was interesting. I don't really have much to comment on though....except that on page 172 it says that kids as young as 6 months can recognize corporate symbols and my daughter is a testament to that fact. When she was eating baby food she knew the "Gerber" symbol and the baby's face on the label. She would get so excited when she saw that label and the baby's face.

Have a good spring break!! I teach my lesson next week and I'm a little nervous...

spring break is here-- post early!

First off, i really enjoyed Valerie's in-class lesson that incorporated media literacy into the classroom. Until recently, i didnt exactly know what media literacy was, but now that i have had some experience with it, i have been enjoying it. Chapter 9 had some really great information about media literacy also. From incorporating media and technology into the classroom a lot to just a couple times throughout the semester, the ideas were great. Although I enjoy the blog for this class, i have a difficult time thinking that it would be just as effective in a high school classroom- especially where i am from. Unless there was classtime given to student every week to blog, they would not be able to complete the assignment. I think the other ideas such as an in-class webquest or reading e-books would be effective, but i have a difficult with the blog in a high school classroom. Also, i think the part about the films is important. Although most of the information was common sense, it is important to be reminded of the obvious things sometimes. Don't make students watch long boring movies, but instead use specific clips; don't use inapppropriate language or scenes, but also dont restrict the meaning of the film. I think these and other ideas are important when showing a high school classroom a film. I remember when my high school teacher took 10 minutes out of class to show us the Simpson's take on Edgar Allen Poe and I can still connect them together. This was a quick, interesting clip that got students involved in the reading and it was really effective. Well- I guess it is time for spring break now! Everyone have a good one and see you in a couple weeks!

Chapter 9

You guys probably think I am nerd for doing my blog so early, but I have so much other stuff to do over Spring Break, I just wanted to make sure that I got it done. I felt like I really identified with what Gallagher's message was in Chapter 9. The questions that he poses at the end of the chapter on page 196 really got my mind going. "Do you believe our students are graduating adequately prepared to read the world at a deeper level?" "What will happen to students who leave school unprepared for the literacy challenges that lie outside the curriculum?" "What is more important ten years from now: our student's remembering the key literary elements in The Great Gatsby, or our students being able to make sense of a ballot initiative?" I want to do my in-class lesson about deeper reading, so this got me thinking about what I would say. I like how he provided some real life instances and incorporated them into the classroom. I especially liked the "Real-world Euphemisms" that he used on page 169-170. It was fun for the students, but it also got them discussing what it meant and how English is incorporated into the real world. On page 181, he also talks about a project he did where he had his students turn in interesting real life newspaper articles. He treated his students to lunch if they submitted the best articles, and i thought that was really cool. The students used deeper reading to find interesting articles, and then got rewarded with food. Can't get much better than that.

Chapter 7

Although I have no doubt that the traditional model was the one used most commonly in the past, I'm pretty sure that the new model is very commonly used in today's classrooms. It fits this whole new constructivist approach to teaching, i.e. one in which the student directs their own learning and the teacher is more of a facilitator and mentor rather than a dictator. I think it's pretty common for most high school English classrooms to have projects in which the students must choose their own topic, participate in collaborate learning, and do extensive revisions.

So while this information in the chapter wasn't exactly earth shattering, I do love the ideas. I feel like I could use as many ideas as I can possibly get and I like most of the prompts. I also love the multi-genre paper. I'm actually not familiar with that at all--we certainly never did anything like that when I was in school--and it sounds like a fantastic idea. Kids are so creative these days with all the media and Internet outlets for self expression that I'm sure they'd love something like that. I'll be looking into that further.

"Writing and Rewriting" + "First Draft Reading"

I really thought that the New-Model of Teaching Writing was a huge step up from the traditional method. I can remember being in high school, and during my freshman year, all of the writing that we did in class was structured by the teacher from point A to point B. We were given a topic by the teacher, the teacher decided that you needed a certain amount of sources, quotes, paraphrases, etc., and the teacher decided every structural component of the paper. All we did as students was find information for our paper and write it. The lack of choice that we were allowed when it was time to write papers really made it hard to stay focused on writing, because there wasn't any interest in what we were writing about.

I really like the fact that the new model offers so much choice from the students; if you think about it, giving so much freedom to the students takes a lot of weight off the teacher as well, because the teacher doesn't have to come up with topics for 25-30 students. I understand the need for the predetermined topics for the Writing on Demand, but students need to have that choice for their writing most of the time to keep them interested in writing.

I also like that Christenbury provides instructions for Writing/Revision Groups. That's something I'll use in my own classroom.

I really enjoyed Chapter 4 of Deeper Reading as well. There are so many useful strategies in the chapter. I think my favorite was the color coding. The only problem I could see with that is having students color code can become very time consuming, and if you're using textbooks, it doesn't really work out.

Timed Writing

In AP English I remember writing a LOT. My teacher, Ms. Hogg, would assign timed writings at least twice a week to help prepare us for the exam in the spring. I hated timed writing days and I often questioned the necessity of the pressure. In chapter 7 of Christenbury I found easy solutions to help prepare students for timed writings. Page 219 lists 5 prompts to help guide a student's thoughts about the writing topic. I found numbers 1, 4, and 5 to be most helpful. Number 1 explains that the writer must question himself/herself decide which arguments that he or she could make about the topic based on personal knowledge or experience. Number 4 suggests that a student concludes which strategy (compare/contrast, cause/effect, etc.) of writing would best correlate with the writing prompt. The last, number 5, requests that the writer look at the question and decipher in which way to approach writing the answer. These three steps help the student focus on writing to the question by providing specific answers.

When I read the section "Dealing with Time" I gathered useful tips for my own writing. The steps mentioned in this section could be modeled in a classroom to help students. The modeling would be beneficial for timed writings in class, and the steps could also provide a process of writing for students when they are writing at home.