Pytash: Final Refelection

     The semester is nearly over. If only the sun would come out and stay out, then it might seem like it's almost May. Going through the syllabus and looking at the various activities we have done this semester, I have realized how much I learned. 

      Teaching Literature in Secondary Schools helped me to see views out of my normal lens. Last semester we focused on young adult literature and I really enjoyed that class because I got to see different books and ways of incorporating them into the classroom. This semester I got to learn about different theories to apply to those books. I was not aware of the theories: Language as Artifact, Development, Expression and Social Construct. I had one way of how I viewed a lesson and did not take into effect all of these different ways of structuring a lesson based on a student’s needs.

            I had never read The Great Gatsby before, so that was a treat itself. Before reading it, I had a preconceived notion of this horrible book with words that I couldn’t even understand. I guess that’s my basic consensus of the canon. The book was not as bad as I thought. There were actually ways to relate it to a student’s life like understanding the aspects of loyalty, social class and gender roles.

            I enjoyed going back to Firestone, but thought it was a little unorganized. I did not get to spend the whole time with my assigned student, but in the long run that was probably better. I got the chance to see different learners and how they approach a pre-test like the OGT booklet. It allowed me to use different strategies with them, but more were test taking strategies than using language arts.

            One of the biggest benefits for me was reading Classics in the Classroom by Carol Jago. I have posted this in my blog before about previously hating canonical literature. She got me to look at it in a different way. There are a lot of things that I totally do not agree with her on, but there are things that I’m more aware of and willing to accept because of reading the book. I will give a book in the canon a chance now and have found that it can be used in ways just like young adult literature. To me, I almost see the canon as a tradition. We have traditions that we do particularly during holidays year after year. The traditions are just so good and a part of us that we can’t let them go. This seems to be the same way with canonical literature.

            The last thing that I thought was beneficial was learning how to write lesson plans. This is the only part that I was a little surprised on. I thought the whole course would be structured around making lesson plans. Before this class, I had only made one brief lesson plan. I was glad that we got to work in pairs or groups for a lot of this class. I know our lesson plans will need to be very descriptive and I wish we would have spent more time scrutinizing them. Perhaps we could have even performed different lesson plans and decided whether it was a good plan or needed more work. 

         I almost forgot to mention our blogs. I think you only get something out of blogging if you are willing to look around and have the time to read and browse others sites. I don't think it should be something that's extremely structured and tells you how many times you have to update. I liked the flexibility that you gave us on that. I actually think I was more apt to look at other people's posts in this class because I didn't have to keep track of the number of people's blogs that I commented on or how many post I made myself. It allows us to use another form of communication, but in a relative lax manner.