Final Reflection

ENGL 493 was, by far, one of the most helpful classes I have taken here at Eastern. The majority of classes taken by my peers and myself are either English or Education, with very little crossover. This course was specifically designed to target those of us planning to teach secondary English Language Arts. We were required to read an article or book for every class and reflect on our relationship with it as future teachers. In all honesty, there came a point where the blog posts felt tedious. For one blog, I did the reading, but failed to complete a post for class. There were times when this felt like just another thing added into my busy schedule. Ultimately, however, doing these blog posts forced me to read material that again focused on English Education and helped me bring so much more into the classroom. Having the blog posts be posted as blogs rather than Canvas discussions was an interesting concept as well. This was slightly inconvenient in that I was unable to do any work when at my placement (such as when the kids were map testing and I had spare time) . At the same time, I will be able to refer back to this blog and with its many references to current education research, that will be abundantly helpful.

    These articles and books we read were also so helpful with my unit plan. I used the “Discussion as a Way of Teaching” for several of my lesson plans. I did have to go out and do research on specifically teaching The Handmaid’s Tale, but having those methods which backed up ways I already want to teach was beyond helpful. The unit plan was the biggest assignment I have ever done and likely will be until I come to my edTPA. I had never constructed an entire unit from scratch. Initially, I was going to create a unit around whatever book my honors juniors chose to do as seniors in the fall and already have that completed. Ultimately, they chose a book I was unfamiliar with and which my mentor had just created a unit for. After discussing with my mentor, I went with a book that I love and really do view as being important. There were times where this project made me want to pull out my hair, but those moments came far less frequently than I anticipated. The first section, my calendar, was probably the most stressful because I was starting with nothing. After that, things came naturally. If I were to do this again, I would work more often and have less to do at the end, but even the I did everything, I never felt all that stressed. I know this unit is far from perfect and there are many things I will fix and add when I do teach this book. When it was all said and done, I created a large product which I was proud of. Building this unit, above all else, boosted my confidence as a future educator. This assignment reiterated to me that I am in the field I need to be in.

    Lastly, I appreciated the way this class was structured. Each day, my peers and I came into the classroom with new knowledge and were able to work together to develop our ideas. We discussed research and brought in personal experiences from our time as students or as current practicum students. Classes operated around small and whole class discussions. This set of was in line with how I want to format my own classroom. I know that with secondary students I will need to incorporate more activities, but discussion based classes are really what I view as being the most beneficial for ELA. Over all, this entire course was helpful. I was glad each day to come in and be surrounded by people who have this passion for literature and love of children, it was all inspiring.

"Night" by Elie Wiesel

At first, it took me some time to get comfortable with Wiesel's writing style. He utilizes several short sentences which create a choppy reading which I am not accustomed to. Ultimately, I think this was actually beneficial to the story. Having so many short sentences gave a truer sense of immediacy and fear, which is what the author felt while living through the Holocaust. This is an interesting prospect as I consider teaching the book to my own future classes. This is a book I would teach mostly for an accurate representation of the Holocaust, but I would also be able to bring up how sentence structure can mirror a story and that this gives way for more effective story telling. In turn, I could use that and have students write their own story about a difficult time in which they focus on how their word choice and structure effects the piece as a whole.
Moving into a slightly less geeky review, Night is a wonderful and tragic book. This is the book students should really be reading because it is done so beautifully and really does forces readers to feel something. Books that elicit strong emotional reactions are far more memorable and that comes with greater comprehension. Many WWII texts are emotional in this way, but this one is less widely used and that is appealing to me as a future teacher. I do think reading Anne Frank is important, but this particular story offers a very different view and would add a lot to student's understanding of that period of time. This is one of those topics where a bigger scope of reading is especially needed.
I do not know that I will end up teaching WWII units when I have my own classroom, but if I do, this is definitely a text I want to utilize.

"Uglies" Book Talk

Description:
Uglies is the first in a series of dystopian novels by accomplished writer, Scott Westerfeld. This is a science fiction text that follows a young girl, Tally. As the story begins, Tally explains that when she turns 16 in a few weeks, she will undergo a surgery to make her look "perfect". This is true with all people in her world. Normal or average are seen as ugly and only an extreme cosmetic surgery(required by all) can fix that. Once teens have the surgery, they go to another town with all other "pretties" to party and live lavish lives. Tally is generally okay with all of this until she meets Shay and David. They challange her initially thoughts and she is forced to recognize that after the surgery, people are different in their personalities.Still, Tally wants to be Pretty. When Shay runs away to the rebel camp, "The Smoke" Tally is told that she must infiltrate the camp for the special forces and bring back Shay or never be allowed the surgery she so desperately wants. When Tally finds her friends, she falls in love with David and his parents confirm that the surgery really does give people brain lesions to dumb them down. Tally is horrified by all of this and decides to fully join the rebellion. From there, she faces many risks and nothing really seems to go as planned. 
Rationale:
I am interested in having a lot of social justice presented in my classroom. This book has a lot of difficult themes for Tally to considers and make choices on and I think these are questions students are beginning to ask themselves as well. At the forefront of this novel is Tally making the choice between conforming and having an easy life and doing what is ultimately right. This text will require students to think critically about their own place in the world. Uglies is rated for grades 8-12, I would definitely teach it to a freshman class. The mixture of the lower reading level with the content would be most effective with this group. I think an average freshman group would be interested in the story as it involves action and love, would be able to understand the material, and could effectively work with the important themes. 
Teaching Ideas:
1. Have students write a 2-3 page dystopian story in which they chose one thing from society to change and be the premise of their short story. 
2. Teach this in lit circles where each group reads a different dystopian novel.
3. Students imagine they are in this world and write 5 journal entries from the point of view of a teen from before and after the surgery and then write a reflection on how they feel about being forced to change.
4. Have students create an Uglies Guide that breaks down all of the language used in the novel, there is a whole set of invented vocabulary.
Obstacles: 
Parents and adminstration could potentially have an issue with the fact that all normal people are referred to as ugly and that they only way to get away from that is to undergo surgery. The terms seem crass at first and parents may think this puts a bad message in front of students. Ultimately, however, the books message is that being content with oneself is important and healthy.
Parents and administraion may also be concerned with alcohol presented in the book. After the surgery, all teens participate in underage drinking. This is sanctioned by the government and glorified in a sense. I would need to make it clear that underage drinking is not something I am promoting by teaching this book.
This book does not have foul language or sexual content and any issues with the theme of physical beauty being of utmost importance can be dealt with by explaining that this is a character breaking out of that.
Sources:
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/uglies-uglies-quartet-book-1/user-reviews/child
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uglies

Teaching Graphic Novels

This week I read an article on using graphic novels in the classroom. George Jones. In “Teaching with Graphic Novels” explains why it can be so effective. He first discusses how much more time students spend on television as compared to actually reading. Jones argues that while graphic novels tend to get a bad rap when it comes to being academic, they are actually a great way to get students interested. Although I have never had an issue with graphic novels, I never thought of them as being a means to bridging that gap between interests.
I really do want to utilize graphic novels in my own classroom. Although this is something I want, I don’t know where I would begin. I think eventually I do want to get the Graphic Cannon and have that as a resource in my room. This is definitely a topic I need to learn more about and plan to do. At my current placement, many students do not enjoy reading and getting them interested is so difficult. If I can use graphic novels, it might help a lot. I don’t think I would teach a full length novel in this way, but it would be a good tool. I am mostly interested in using the Poe graphic novel alongside his stories. Any time when I can show literature in multiple formats, I like to.

The Absolutely True Story of a Part Time Indian

Alexis book left me rather conflicted. As I mentioned in my last post, there are better books with cultural representation than the Margot Sanchez one. I do believe that this book is far more accessible to students. The reading level is about the same, that of an 8th grader, but I feel that male students would enjoy it far more. While it is more inclusive of them, I do not think females would shy away from the book. I also this it is important that this book was written by a local author because it makes writing seem more real and less like an activity only for dead white guys. Additionally, there are not many books that appeal to Natives and that is a narrative that students really have been missing. 

With all of this, however, I still would not teach this book in my own classroom. I cannot imagine a setting in which I could reconcile the low reading level with the mature content. The book discusses pornography and masturbation and although these are very real topics, they aren’t ones I feel comfortable addressing in my own classroom. There may come a time when I am skilled enough to handle these topics and have a class that is as well, but that would be far down the road. Even if I found myself in that position, I still would not teach this book. Recently, it has come out that Alexis may be sexually harassing people. Until this is resolved, I will not support his career in any way. Regardless of the benefits of his book, I think it is more important to make a stand and show students that one’s actions matter. Violating other people is not okay and unless the allegations are proven false, I would not put that into my classroom. 

The Education of Margot Sanchez

The Education of Margot Sanchez was an interesting and enjoyable read for me. I say this as someone who can look back on being a teenage girl and having a hard time navigating the world as so many do. I say this as someone who did not have a steady and solid upbringing. I can identify with Margot even though our culture experience was drastically different. This book was well written and relied on heavy imagery. Although I thought this was a good book, I did not feel that it was one I would incorporate into my own classroom. A story that represents other cultures is important, but this particular book did not seem academic enough to rightfully teach. I think other books can portray cultural difference in a better way. There must be books that would accurately capture the lives of all rather than teenage females as well. I cannot imagine how the males would react if I were to teach this.
I understand that representation matters and it is something I do want in my classroom, but there are better examples out there. I do not believe that this book would be well received by students or administration. This book would be best used when looking at use of imagery and I could perhaps use excerpts from it, but I would not teach the entire novel.

Readicide by Kelly Gallagher

For a previous course, I read material by Gallagher and am fond of how he writes. He writes from the perspective of a teacher who truly cares about student success and does so in an approachable way. In this text, I remained engaged and never had trouble comprehending the material. This is critical, as many education texts are dense and difficult to understand-- let alone implement into the classroom.
 Readicide is a quick read that says outright they schools are killing a love for reading, explains HOW this is being done, and offers multiple solutions for the issue. Not every students will enjoy every text that I assign, that is normal and not the issue. The issue, Gallagher explains, is the emphasis we put on testing and the way students are being forced to read. State tests will often test kids on their recollection of data and when students are taught to read in this way, there is no way to draw enjoyment from the text. Reading is meant to be an active and personal task where the reader is consistently making connections to the text for themselves and connections with other material. That is the fun way to read and actually does lead to the critical thinking skills we wish all students to have when they enter the world as adults.
Gallagher does not call for the complete removal of state tests-- he recognizes that the presence of them is very real and will remain. Instead, he proposes that we teach kids not how to read for the tests, but to teach them to read actively and critically. Good readers will pass any test and with real knowledge of how to read rather than simply knowing how to be good test takers. Teaching with less emphasis on the tests will make reading more enjoyable for students and inevitably, they will take more away from the texts.
Again, what I love most about this text is that Gallagher is not simply pointing out an issue, he is giving tips on how to solve it. This will be exceedingly helpful as I see my own students lose interest in what we teach. Students will come in knowing how to read in its most basic sense. The way we read as English students is far more involved than simply knowing what words are on a page. By playing an active role in showing students how to read at a more meta-cognitive level and giving them to read how they want, readicide can be prevented.