Reading, Writing, and Rising Up

In class today we had the chance to try out one of the exercises in Linda Christensen's book. We had wrote poems, of a sort, of where we are from and had the chance to share them in class while commenting on other people's poems. At first, it was kind of nerve wrecking to have to share something that I had kind of made personal. I thought, as any normal person would, that there would be laughing or that awkward silence. Normally, I am the first to volunteer in many aspects, but this and other personal work gets me flustered.

After having heard Lindsay read her poem first it really cleared the air. The more I listened the easier it was to relax, hence me volunteering second. I honestly probably turned red while sharing my poem but after, I was glad I read it. I believe this exercise is hard at first, but as the time goes on and we do it more, it could actually be very fun.

In my future class, I hope to approach pieces the students write in this same manner. Linda provided such a great layout for accepting classroom activities and I found it very beneficial myself. I think that reading the book Reading, Writing, and Rising Up was very helpful for an understanding of how a classroom works. But not only does it do that, it'll also help us in the future with in-class work and activities to attempt. This book is definitely one worth keeping around if you are looking at becoming a teacher of english! Inviting kids into the classroom environment is the first step to that teacher-student bond.




(A link telling more about the invitation into the classroom)
http://www.csun.edu/~krowlands/Content/Academic_Resources/Diversity_Multiple%20Intelligences/Diversity/Christensen-Where%20I'm%20From.htm

Writing Brings Out the Real You

After the class session today, and discussing the matters in Reading, Writing, and Rising Up, I found that there are many different approaches to getting a student to open up in class. Typically, in a high school setting, you don't get much cooperation out of the student population. Teachers are not necessarily the heroes anymore, they are just the ones who force work onto the students in their eyes. So how does one really get participation in classes? Especially when it comes to writing in class.

From my perspective and personal experience, I found it relatively helpful to vent by writing. Our teacher didn't made it an assignment, he made it kind of like an adventure. We would get an idea or question to think about and that would be the topic of discussion in our in class notebooks. He allowed us 15 minutes at the beginning of every class to sit and think, then write. In this exercise, I never even saw it as writing to our teacher, even though we knew he would read it, it was writing to the notebook. These notebooks never left the class by any means, no one but our teacher read from it, and no in the class knew what in our journals (unless we decided to share).

I believe, as an upcoming teacher, I would take the same approach as my teacher did. I would be happy knowing that the students would take part in the assignment and I could watch their progress grow throughout the school year. I would put any matter up on the board, like "I am from..." and other things we have read from Reading, Writing, and Rising Up. I think the book itself also provides great ideas on material to discuss as well as in class assignments. I definitely plan on keeping this book around for when I become a teacher of english.

Life in The Classroom

For my blog post for this week I thought I would mix it up a bit and talk about the difference in classroom activity from Elementary, High School, and College. Recently, I have been working at an elementary school on Monday mornings, and I just observed a whole day in a high school class Friday. I found, like many other people, that maturity and willingness to learn definitely comes with age. In my elementary class it is pure chaos, nothing gets done, the kids always talk, etc., to me I found a freshman high school class works very similarly.

I found that I, in the elementary, am constantly trying to gain order and attention in the work day. In the case of freshman, the teacher acted very alike. The kids were screaming, not doing work, throwing things and so on. The teacher had to yell at the students, pull them aside, and even stop class to regain order. These kids wanted nothing to do with the course. As the day went on I witnessed a 12th grade class as well. These kids just sat quietly, all of them calm and respectful, and got all of the work done.

We all know how class goes once college rolls around. We pay a lot for an education so all tasks are done to demand, everything is orderly for the most part, and there is little to no distractions in a class. Most people in classes here are also living throughout the struggle of financing the classes and so we get the most out of what we pay for.

As I began running all of this information through my mind, I thought it would be a cool little timeline to share with you all. It is kind of fun to sit in on all these classes and see how the students change with time and how it effects the classroom environment. The more time that passes, the more respect we as teachers gain. I look forward to see what more time allows me to see in the class.

Huck Finn In Classrooms

After reading Why I Wouldn't Teach Huck Finn Anymore: Course Design as a Sociopolitical Act, I don't think I could do anything more than agree with Ms. Shoaf. I don't understand why a curriculum with a book like Huckleberry Finn should still be taught in schools. If exposure to racism and things of that sort is what you strive for, then take them for a field trip anywhere in America. We are living this every day, if you yourself aren't experiencing it, then you're watching it happen.

I feel that if racism and so many other types of discrimination and segregation take place now, a curriculum shouldn't be based on the stories of perception of the situation. It is something everyone lives now and it isn't needed to be taught by books like Huckleberry Finn, it can be learned first hand by the student. So why is it still taught today? Why do we still find this book a necessary means of education? Some people purely teach it because of familiarity, others because they still strongly believe it worth learning. In this article I read, http://www.tolerance.org/article/teaching-huck-finn-without-regret , the person finds it fully reasonable to teach in the perspective of realism. I don’t think many people consider actions that happen today instead of stories someone made a hundred forty years ago.

If anything, I believe we should be exposing our students to a curriculum with text depicting slavery, racism, and segregation through the eyes of where it all started. It is my strong belief that we need to enlighten kids from this day and age with past events that happened in other countries, as well as our own. Not saying they are more important, but it is definitely a necessary curriculum. It is real, and with more knowledge passed on about it, the more aware and likely we are to end it today.

Expanding Literacy

While reading our Early Career English Teachers in Action book, I found the discussion of expanding literacy very interesting. To me, literacy is something you have to want to expand upon yourself. If an education system attempts to force new literacy's on you, you will be more and more with drawn from the new material.

To me, the best way to expand literacy is to do so as inconspicuously as possible. For some cases, the literacy can be language barriers between home in school. In which case, you need to sit with the student with these barriers and help them understand more thoroughly. But, in the case of education, you should try to expand with high interest yourself. Literacy isn't something that comes with ease, as a teacher you have the duty to help the students inch their way toward understanding. For example, in my high school we barely learned about anything besides U.S. history and literature. How nice would it have been if we could've expanded upon other countries and their backgrounds.

Not saying baby steps of exposure to more sources will always work, but it is definitely worth the shot. Also, with students who seem far from interested in the expansion may become more distraught and withdrawn. In this case, you need to be aware of the situation at hand. Work with the student and better the way you are teaching the material. Not everyone is going to be interested in the task at hand, so it is better to find a teaching technique to help them want to learn, or at least be engaged. All in all, chapter 6 provided a great outlook on how to handle these situations and on how to help the students better themselves in the classroom setting.