Pytash: Classics in the Classroom

"THE MOST IMPORTANT decision English teachers make in terms of curriculum is choosing which books to teach" (Jago 39).

Chapter 3

This was a challenging chapter for me. While I do agree that students need to read and learn, I think there is a line that separates reading and empowering students to reading and discouraging students. Jago wrote, "I argue that students should be reading and teachers need to be assigning about twice as many books as they currently do" (40). She then went on to say that outside of class her student must read five additional books per semester. They had about five books to read in class and then an additional five outisde. If that was me in high school, I would have never got them completed. I see a life outside of the classroom. You, or at least I, do not expect a student to spend hours on homework in my classroom every night.  While some nights I did spend hour upon hour on work, there were other nights I simply could not do it. I was involved in other groups and sports and that took up a lot of my time. I'm not saying reading is not important, but I think when you give so much for students to accomplish that you end up prohibiting them from wanting to read in the future. Having so much to do in one class might deter them from doing their work in another. Also comes the question, who is to say that English class is more important than any of the others. I personally think that we need to spend more time in health and physical education. Being able to correlate these subjects would offer students a great advantage. 

This is a huge debate and I know there are a lot of people that say sports and other activities are stupid but I can say hands down that they taught me as much or more about things in life that I will use forever, than certain things we teach in English class. Everything is good in moderation and I guess you have to find that moderation with your class and do what works best for them. 

I really enjoyed her idea of keeping track of the books that the students have read over the years. I think that would be a valuable way to let the students reflect on what they read and how they grew as a reader over the years. In conclusion, students are very diverse and I, as a future teacher, will need to work on what fits them best. Jago related many times that the students might not always like the books but it will make them grow and learn and in turn they might end up liking what they were afraid of before.

Pytash: Classics in the Classroom

"Simply assigning books is not enough; teachers need to have an instructional plan that makes difficult texts accessible to students" (Jago xii).

Chapter 1

To start off, I was eager to see what this textbook enclosed. I am not very familiar with the classics. That is not something we really talked about in my middle or high school. While we did read a few, half of the books that she mentions in the first chapter I have never even heard of before. 

I enjoyed that Jago was requiring more out of her students than most people think they are capable of doing. She explained how she picked texts that the students shouldn't be able to read without her. I never really thought of it in that sense, while I do agree that offering a text that is maybe a little more challenging would be better because then you could show them that they really can accomplish it (2).

One thing that made me quite angry was her view on young adult literature. She made it seem like it's good for pleasure reading but you can't study literature through it. I would have to disagree with her on that. While not all YA books have the capability of studying literature, I think many do and I think they are more appealing to students. You could say that I don't necessarily have a big argument for that because I did not read many classics but those that I did read would be on the bottom of my list. I would definitely rather read a YA book than any of the classics I did. 

Jago's third guiding principle was: Don't simply assign difficult books; teach them. She said, "It is [students] nature to do as little as possible and our job to help them do as much as possible" (Jago 6). I absolutely agree with her on that. If we look at it in a wider perspective, it's true in almost any case. We're Americans and we want to do the least amount of work possible, so it's no wonder that students will try to get away with the bare minimal. That is where I see our job as teachers to step in and encourage and enlighten them that they can and should reach higher than they're trying. 

A last point that I was caught by was in her fourth principle on reading literature requires language study and builds vocabulary. The statistics she gave of the gap between students with more or less privileges was no surprise to me. "Those who come to school with rich vocabularies thrive; those who arrive with a language gap never seem to make up the difference" (Jago 9). I think this is where parents need to be made accountable. I know that is a hard task to complete and how we do that I'm not sure. But it's so sad that parents want to have children yet don't want to take care of them or help them. Teachers cannot do everything and I think one way to get students on the right track would be to start making parents accountable for the lives they brought into this world. It's unfair to a student that really works and wants to learn but doesn't have anyone to help him. Perhaps the teacher could start a newsletter that would entail many ways a parent could get involved and resources they could use to help their child.

Foot: The Socially Networked Classroom

Chapter 4

New and Old

This chapter offered more in-depth technological projects, but I liked how a lot of the assignments could still be conducted in an old fashion way, if need be. Zac Chase's social action project incorporated using Drupal and RSS feeds but also said that the same project could be accomplished in a paper. Using technology, you have to leave room for error and set backs that might not allow you to use the internet during a certain class period. If a project is able to be completed both online and on paper then it will probably be more useful to have. 

Assessment

Half way through the chapter, one of the questions to consider was about students taking part in activities that don't have clear cut answers at the end. Based on what students are use to, I can see this to be a big barrier. So often teachers give lessons where at the end an assessment is a test. If there is not a test, students don't know what to do or how they will be able to show what they know. Using Web 2.0 seems to me a better way of showing students that you don't have to have a test after every lesson. You aren't always going to get a perfect answer overarching every question. Inquiry lessons might show students that it's not all about memorization and resuscitation. Paul, an English teacher in New York did a good job of summing this up. He said, "assessment is about self-assessment in the end" (Kist 91). Students should be able to assess themselves and see how much they have grown throughout the lesson

Our Classroom

After reading this chapter I had a number of questions about our own blogs and if we could participate in some other projects. The first question was should we be tagging our entries on here? I'm not sure how to do it or if we even can, but maybe it would speed up finding a blog entry to reply to and catch people's personal interests more, rather than just commenting on any old post. Another project I liked was Mike Slowinski's use of Google Groups to connect preservice teachers to students. I think it would be so neat to be able to connect with students about books and their English classes on a blog or wiki. This is an idea for a future class that maybe we could set up connection with Firestone High School, if not them then maybe another classroom that Dr. Kist has connections with. I think this would really help us, preservice teachers, by allowing us to get an idea of what interest and bores students and what kind of books they are popular in their classrooms.

Foot: The Socially Networked Classroom

Chapter 3

I was horrified when we talked about the canon the first day. We never really read much of it in my high school and they definitely didn't refer to it as the canon. So, when I heard we were going to each have our own wiki page with a part of it I was a little nervous. I'm glad I got something that I at least have read some of his works, Poe. Even though I haven't started working on mine yet, I'm excited to see the finished project and I think this will really help me out in the future with more than likely having to teach a lot of it. 

Online reading portfolios was another idea that caught my eye. While I do think more students should read in their free time, I think that two hours a week would be asking a lot out of high school students. I realize Dr. Kists modal was probably made for us, in college, but there are certain teachers that would probably try that in their high school classrooms. Silent reading is good and will help students with so many issues but it's very hard to complete out of class in high school. I think more time should be given in class to read than having to do it outside. There are so many activities available today to students that reading is probably not the first thing they would do. We have to figure out a way of getting them to read while enjoying the text in and out of the classroom.

Foot: The Socially Networked Classroom

 Chapter 1

To start off, I was so excited that this book enclosed a lot of activities that we have worked through in class. Sometimes it's hard to write everything down and get the names for all of the different assignments and strategies. I have scribbled down notes in this book about the ones we have done in class so far. The basis of this class is learning about multiple modalities and all of the various ways to teach a lesson. While I think that is excellent because it definitely is more interesting than sitting in a lecture hall, when I think back to my own experience we never used any of these technology ideas. I'm not sure if my teachers didn't know about it or they just didn't use it. Dr. Kist said, "Often, it is the new teachers who get caught in the squeeze between their knowledge of new media practices outside of school and the realities of rules that have been set up in school" (Kist 6). This is so true that it scares me. I can remember Dr. Hutchison talking about her experience when she was a newer teacher and even when she had experience. Other teachers use to pick on her and practically make fun of her because of her mission to help students. I can imagine what it would be like to go into a new classroom and want to bring all of this change about. More than likely, a lot of the other teachers would not like it and would probably be afraid that you would do a better job than them. I'm glad the book is set up in the Starbucks manner. This allows me to see only slight changes and use of technology that I could implement in my future classroom that might not seem to obvious and threatening to those around.

Chapter 2

I am enthralled with the multigenre project. We did multigenre projects in high school but they were on paper. It was like we all fed off of each other and I guess that's what we WANT to happen in the classroom. Given an ordinary paper project probably wouldn't have been that exciting, but because we get to add sparkle and pizazz it's like a whole new assignment. It's interesting to see how the assignments of Dr. Kist have progressed into more media projects, along with wikis and blogs. A huge issue dealing with this new techno world is safety. There are so many advantages to it, yet without the right steps it could be a disaster. I was pleased with the list of safer sights that can trap the public outside of the students learning. Those sights, like Ning and Moodle, might be the best places to start with until you get approval or the correct precautions to start a more open sight. In time, I think more classrooms will start using the not as exclusive types because it lets students know that anyone could be reading their writing and it's important to concentrate and decide what you want to put on the screen.

Foot--Little Brother: Chapters 1-8

I dove into Little Brother, didn't read the back cover or inside flap, just decided to start and see what it was about. At first, I struggled a little but once I met the characters and got a sense of who they were, I didn't want to put it down. The introduction of characters is vital to me. If you leave me wondering what's going on or who is whom then it's really hard for me to keep wanting to read, but this book gave a good description of each of the kids. Here is the description of Van. "Meanwhile, Van is half a head shorter than me, and skinny, with straight black hair that she wears in crazy, elaborate braids that she researches on the net. She's got pretty coppery skin and dark eyes, and she loves big glass rings the size of radishes, which click and clack together when she dances" (Doctorow 29). This extensive description allows me to form a picture in my mind and I love that. So far, the detail that Doctorow has shown is perfect for helping a student visualize the novel.

Not knowing what to expect, I was totally shocked to find Marcus and his four friends being kidnapped. I had predicted the whole book to be about a group of friends going on a mission to solve the game Harajuku Fun Madness. When I was struck wrong, I realized that reading what the book was about might have been a good idea. That reminded me of the activities we have done in Dr. Pytash's class on introducing your readers to a text. Sometimes it is best to connect their lives with the book and I think this book would be very easy to connect with students lives these days because they are so immersed with technology. Perhaps, you could have students come up with their own ideas of making a new and improved technology or creating something that would make their lives easier and then introduce the book, where a boy and his friends decide to make their own inventions in a extremely technologically advanced world. 

I realize this book is fiction and so it's not supposed to be true but sometimes I wish the technology tricks seemed a little more realistic. It's like I'm reading along about a boy in school with a family in San Francisco, which all seems real to me and then suddenly he is microwaving a book or switching numbers on FasTrak tags. Maybe I should believe more in the impossible, but regardless it's a great start.

The semester is over??

I really can't believe that the semester is over. I enjoyed this class so much. It's not that is was easy, we completed a lot of work, but that it really taught me and made me think like a teacher. There are some classes that you dread every week but I was excited to see what we were going to read next in this class. It is going to be very useful in my later classroom. Below I will list the things that I really enjoyed about the class and how it will help me later.

-Read alouds--When I was in elementary school one of my teachers would read like a chapter out of a book a day. Within a month or a few weeks we would finish that book. This is like the read alouds that Dr. Pytash did in a lot of classes; although, I liked how she read just a few pieces out of different books because that got us intrigued and made us want to pick up the book later. I think this is a great idea to get all students involved. All you need to do is pick a variety of books to read throughout the classes. That way one of the books will probably relate to all of the different students.

-Hands on activities--I enjoyed how the class was not a lecture. Dr. Pytash taught us so many strategies to use with the students from reader's theater, to tableau's, to jigsaws. I'm glad that we got to participate in these activities so we could see how they pan out. By being a part ourselves, we got a chance to feel what it's like to be in the students position and to see what we would change with the activity.

-Admit Slips--This was a way to see if we actually were prepared for class but it was not a hard sheet to fill out. I think this would be very popular with high school students because it does not require a lot of thinking. Obviously if you prepared for class then you would easily be able to fill out the sheet and if not, then you would stick out.

-Online literature circles--I'm glad that we got to participate with literature circles because I had never been involved in one before. This type of discussion seems to be really popular with teens. As we all know, teens are obsessed with the latest craze and technology falls under that category. So, anything that they can do that involves something that is cool will be fun and interesting to them. I would like to use online literature circles later on because I think it would really speak to students but I don't want to use it solely because I think they still should be able to have a discussion face to face.

-Book pass--I use to be a huge reader when I was younger, but nowadays I don't seem to have the time. I miss the joy of reading and my huge imagination that let me see the books in my head. I love the library but just seem to make it to the magazines anymore. So, when we had the book pass I was so excited. Afterwards I wanted to run to the library and check out all of the books that I starred but I knew I just didn't have the time to read them with my other school books. Although, this did make me interested in reading more. I'm going to try to make the time to read because it's very important as a teacher to be able to suggest good books to your students. I admire that a lot in Dr. Pytash because she has so much knowledge about the current young adult books today. Hopefully I will soon enough get back to reading and have relished seeing all of the great books out there.

Overall, this was a great class. I learned so much in it that I will be able to apply to my future classroom. I also enjoyed being able to share ideas with my peers and learning from this as well. The textbook was fabulous as well! I usually hate textbooks because they are so dry and boring but this one was fabulous! Great class altogether!