Engl 493 Teaching Literature to Adolescents

I was looking at the smarter balanced website and I'm glad that testing has improved since I was in high school. I remember having to do multiple things throughout the school year only for things to be halted for a week or two to focus on the upcoming WASL test at the time. It made it seem like what we were doing during the school year didn't really matter because there were specific ways of answering test questions that were never covered. And that's what we would spend our time doing. From the handout, I really liked the section that talks about the impact of zeros. This is why I personally don't like grades because many students associate their self worth around grades instead of it just being a tool to show how well they know the material. As a teacher of course I'm going to keep this in mind when grading. I don't want to make students feel like they are way behind and can't catch up. Then they will just give up. The section about homework also had me ...

The pdf file talked about the process a teacher should follow when one is working on a piece of literature in class. First I as teacher should start with a few activities to get the students ready for whatever literature we will cover. If I decide to focus on one piece of literature for my lesson unit, I will remember to include some activities that will introduce the literature to the students and give them the framework they need in order to understand the premise of what they are reading. This would include raising issue associated with the text and considering their biases and opinions before reading. I feel like that is something that is important because if I start teaching a book that raises current political issues, all those things need to be addressed before I continue with the literature. It's also important to generate questions that students should keep in mind when reading along with researching the author and knowing the time period the text was published. It's a...

This chapter touched on a few things that I've thought about before. Whenever I think ahead about becoming a teacher I always wonder how I'm going to make lesson plans that will get my students up to those state standards. But the section that really interested my most from the chapter was the influence of economic inequalities. As someone who has struggled to a certain extent with being poor and being of color, I'm not surprised that economic inequality can and does affect student performance. Student performance depends on many things including things that as teachers one can't really change like how much funding a school gets. The chapter talked about how lack of resources in the school, of course, leads to low performance which leads to greater things related to employment, housing, and healthcare. I feel this is something that we as teachers can't change, but we need to keep in mind and still have expectations that students can get to those state standards. A...

I think that it's a really good idea to use graphic novels in the classroom because it's sort of a different way students can learn the elements of prose. After reading a few responses of what current English Teachers think of this topic they came up with some good reasons on why we as teachers should teach graphic novels in the classroom. One teacher said that graphic novels are a good way to introduce elements of film which allow students to develop the skill to interpret image to meaning. Another teacher pointed out that a good graphic novel would have a plot that is well supported by the visuals which can help students visualize and understand complicated ideas. These are all good things to point out, and I agree with them. I would also add that especially if the graphic novel is an adaptation of a play, then it gives the students a medium of how it can also be read. Graphic novels also can a more interesting way for students to get into literature for students that may not...

I found this reading to be very interesting because of the different methods of approaching discussions that were offered. I also liked the idea of setting ground rules for discussions. This is something that I see myself doing in the beginning of the school year. I would set roles and what I would expect from my students and have my students put in their input as well. I also liked some of the different ways one can have a discussion in class. I liked the "Circle of Voices" technique where everyone in the group gets into a circle and we each go around and talk about what we thought about the reading. I like that it gets rid of the anxiety of needing to jump in or looking for a time of when to jump in. I also liked that it focuses on what others have said, so this makes students more attentive and good listeners because when we go around the circle again we can only expand on what others have said. The only thing that this doesn't solve as much are getting the shy student...