YALIT/Crit

SATO's Article for Tuesday's Discussion

Sato asks a question,” What is the role of English in American Education and society?” She further explains that English cannot be “preserved” because language is a living, dynamic tool of human beings; it is inevitable that the American English will change, and we cannot stop it. According to this article, by the year 2020, it is estimated that the Latino population will total 17 million, and they are having children who can potentially sustain our future. I imagine that the whole country will speak Spanish-English by then, it sounds strange, yet seems possible if the population estimation is correct. In that case, the Standard English might also be regarded as book English, dead English, or it can be regarded as not quite follow the fashion. It reminds me the fashion of jeans in different period of time in China: bell-bottom style, narrow style, or loose style. The funny part is that we learn the correct, Standard English today, and then we will actually teach different, or non-standard English in our classroom in the future. I kind of wonder how do we, as teachers, adjust to the new language style. It also reminds me my observation in both schools, I haven’t seen any teachers teach grammar simply because they haven’t been trained to do so. If we are not trained to teach in different languages’ atmosphere today, how can we handle the challenge of the diversity of languages in our classroom and feel OK? I really think that the MAT program should have a course that trains us how to handle foreign students like me or any other nationality. Otherwise, when we have our own classroom in the near future, we will have a headache and not know how to deal with certain cultural, language, and other problems. I, personally, can only handle the Chinese students in an English classroom, maybe some Japanese students, but not Latino students because I don’t even know one word of that language. Sato’s idea is ideal, yet I really don’t know how to apply it in a classroom at this point.

Are Schools Today Killing Creativity?

OMG Factor 10... Watch This video! 

OMG... I just stumbled onto this... I could write a paper on this if I hadn't already found a topic!

If we were ever to watch a "film" in class, I think it should be this one. I would be interested in a discussion on this.

Viva la revolucion!

The Yagalski article/chapter is sooo inspiring!  Thanks so much Dr. Stearns for providing it.  And if people haven't read it for this week, I think you would all appreciate it. Especially if you love a good revolution. :) We have talked about these issues a lot in this class. And I am thankful that we are, seeing that there is so much resistence out there to any change away from standardized schooling. It's so frustrating working with individual students every day all year and then having to be judged by one day of testing. Most people outside of education do not take the time to  fully understand how to even read the scores of these tests,newspapers included, yet schools are ranked, and therefore, judged by the community according to them. I think the key thing is we as teachers have to power to either make our schools places of indoctrination or places of creation.

I have so much more to say-but I have to get to class!
See you all there!

Bold Books

The books mentioned in this article are definately risky. Then again, has anyone read The Gossip Girl series? Gallo makes a great point, "we owe it to ourselves and to our students to know what's being published and to judge it fairly." If we are to be able to help students read more and understand what they are reading, we have to read what they read. I do wonder though about the effects of these books. I am doing my seminar on war literature, so this is a question I have thought on a lot. Do these stories really have the desired effect on young people? Do they become more empathetic? Will they want to rise to social action? Does this type of literature help young people feel more connected to others?

O'Donnell-Allen Chapter 6

I was pleased to see that O'Donnell-Allen addresses the issue of assessment and evaluation in terms of Book Clubs in Chapter 6. I find that a lot of pedagogical texts either skimp out in this area or omit it entirely which is frustrating to teachers who want some solid, sound advice on how to approach assessment in a practical, meaningful way. On page 104, she discusses briefly the importance of giving students the opportunity for reflection, as well as emphasizing that the culminating activity should involve a recursive process--and I couldn't agree more. The focus in these activities is students discovering their own meanings within the book club experience, tying nicely into all of the things we've read about in Johnson and Freedman.

More than anything, I was thrilled to see that are appendices upon appendices full of practical and useful charts, handouts, and questions that would help any English teacher implement a book club in his or her classroom. Considering how busy most teachers are, these kinds of resources are gold!

Freedom and Johnson's Chapter 8

I enjoy the following sentences from Freedom and Johnson's Chapter  Eight. How do you think about them?

1.We hold the perspective that there is no wrong or right way to be in the world but rather places from which to view the world and learn the lessons offered us.(P.175)

2.Lesesne(2003) suggests that "history fiction give kids a sense of how we are all connected through time, that even though times change, the needs we have as people remain-unchanged"(178)

3.Some of the issues a society thought it solved in the past may still be a part of society today, only in another form.(p.179)

4 Students  will come to know that there is no objective story about the history of their country, but only people's ideas about why the past is important for the future.(p.177)

Let us think about  number four. It reminds me the history of Civil War between the South and the North. History is written by the winner. If  we give the South a chance to write the history, the story would have been quite different. It's like the Chinese civil war between

Taiwan

and Mainland. The historical textbooks from Mainland  are opposite to those from Taiwai even though we are talking about the same historical event. So, it's right here, there is no objective story. Politics influence historical story a lot.

"A Puzzle to the Rest of Us" by Bronwyn T. Williams

The thing I valued most about this article was how Williams shows us practical ways we can help any of our students see what we mean when we say "reader" in the context of our classrooms. Addressing the negative associations and stereotypes that are tacked to the notion of a "good reader" gives students a bridge from what they already know-- images and ideas about what it means to be a good reader portrayed by pop culture--to a new way of thinking about and understanding these portrayals so they can gain better access to an authentic reading identity that isn't alien to them. Afterall, why would a student want to aspire to be a "good reader" if it means that he or she is "absent-minded", "solitary", or "not to be trusted"? (3).

I'm really digging this activity with the "find-the-hidden-pictures" puzzle; I just might borrow that and use it someday. :)

Ch. 4 of O'Donnell-Allen: Practicality and Flexibility

The thing that I love most about the O'Donnell-Allen text so far is her willingness to provide practical, no-nonsense advice on the many aspects of implementing Book Clubs in classrooms with a sharp eye for the flexibility most of us teachers/teachers-to-be realistically need. The Planning Heuristic on p. 54 is not only completely useable, but it addresses a range of issues that can arise while planning a Book Club curriculum-- and acknowledges that these issues may vary as our goals, objectives, and constraints shift. I also appreciate how she recognizes the demands of district, state, and other standards and offers a practical, yet meaningful rationale for how Book Clubs can meet those demands and the demands, needs, and interests of our students.

The issue raised on p. 64 about students being "deceived" by book choices is an important one, one that demonstrates how sophisticated and conscious our students really are. Understandably, they want a clear idea of what they're getting themselves into when pursuing a Book Club text, so giving students an intiguing glimpse of their options is a way for us to show them that we value and respect their viewpoints and choices, which will hopefully inspire a reciprocal respect.

Arming Students with Lit Crit Ammunition (Ch. 3 of J&F)

I love that Johnson and Freedman propose that we give students the tools to communicate critically about a text through the use of literary theories-- especially at the middle school level. I think a lot of students, even at the college level, get completely overwhelmed by the idea of literary criticism, thinking that is a world that is and will remain completely foreign to them, as if they aren't qualified to use terms like "new historicism" or "feminist criticism." I remember being one of those students, not feeling like I had the right to talk about lit crit, even though I was already generating and answering the kinds of questions that are very much a part of why one should be responding to texts critically (and it's not because the "teacher says so"!). By giving younger students the chance to familiarize themselves with literary criticism in the way J&F suggest, we can empower them to see that they do have a voice when it comes to the texts they read, an important voice that can discuss texts on multiple levels with many, many meanings. The whole idea of literary criticism becomes accessible to students--before they can even think of getting intimidated by it. I wish I had teachers that took this approach back in the day!

Looking back

The author expresses in the text that when she first began as an English teacher, she wanted to be like the teachers played in the movies: Robin Williams in the movie "Dead Poets Society", and Michelle Pfeiffer in "Dangerous Minds". I love these movies and these are fine examples of english teachers but this is a very high standard to set for oneself as an educator. Ofcourse she realizes this later on as she continued her career but she still seems like she may be pursuing the goal. Her travelougues consists of lesson plans, teaching journals, research questions, and numorous drafts responses to tools and assesments. The whole chapter just seems like one big walk through of how she administered one of her chosen book circles. I don't know if book circles can be very effective without using some of the other methods used in previous circles or maybe we (as teachers!) can invent some new and improved circles which may help our kids more in near future.