Curriculum

After reading the chapter on curriculum, in the book Early Career English Teachers in Action it really made me think about the material that I will be required to teach when I'm a teacher one day. I was really intrigued by the first story by David Jagusch, the teacher in Kenya; because he discussing his experiencing between teaching in the states and teaching in Kenya. I like how he explained that he had learned that curriculum is something that you learn over some time and that you have to be open to change. 

Lesson Plan Building

Our class was asked to think of one book over spring break that we think should be included in high school English curriculum and how we would go about teaching the book. 

I had chosen the book The Uglies by Scott Westerfield, which is a series of books about a community of 'uglies' and 'pretties'. I explained to the class that I would like to ask my students what they think is the appropriate definition of "pretty" and what society defines as "pretty". I would then have my students write free writes and journals throughout the semester of reading the book. Then at the end of the lesson plan, I discussed that I would have my students do a final project on how society portrays those who are considered 'pretty'. There are so many companies that portray models in their ads as skinny and "perfect" but that's not how they look or any regular person. 

I really liked this assignment because it gave me the chance to really think about how I would teach my students and to put a mini lesson plan together in order to get experience as a future teacher. 

Teacher Observation

A couple weeks ago I shadowed Mrs. Alburtus at Portage Central High School! She teaches both honors and regular 9th grade English!

I was a little nervous at first but after I walked into her classroom she was so sweet and very welcoming. I got there a little early before any of the other students had arrived and I got to talk to Mrs. Alburtus for a short time about my major and what classes I was taking this semester.

Once I had observed about 3 classes it was clear that each class between the honors and regular English classes were very different. The material was all the same but each class of students was extremely different. The way that the material was taught between the honors and regular classes was the most different. Obviously since it was honors and regular classes I had figured that each class would be different but I thought it was interesting how much guidance that the regular classes were given compared to the honors classes. The regular class was given a graphic organizer for an assignment where they had to pick one character from Romeo and Juliet and give them 2 pieces of advice on what they could have done differently throughout the play. 

I really liked being able to get the chance to observe an English teacher specifically because Mrs. Alburtus gave me a lot of really good advice. She had told me some things that were a little discouraging for example she said, "I think you should consider a different profession because teaching is becoming very demanding and I'm worried for future teachers." I know that teaching is very demanding and it definitely doesn't get the credit it deserves but I tried to not let her comment discourage me too much because I have wanted to be a teacher for so long. Overall though I had such a great experience at PCHS and I would more than likely go back again if I could for something like student teaching or even another teacher observation/interview. 

Student/Teacher Conferencing

In Chapter 7 of the book "Clearing the Way", the author discusses the important role of conferencing. Most people think of conferencing between teachers and parents but in this chapter, it is discussed between students and teachers. 

Romano says "talk is essential in a writing class. Writers need to share their writing and hear others...talk about it with interest, asking genuine questions it has raised." As a future teacher, I think that this book has been such a help with ideas on how to teach students. Romano also discusses how important it is for teachers and students to talk one-on-one in order for students to properly learn and be engaged with their work. 

This article I found talks about some ideas and crucial topics on conferencing with your students. I liked this article because it gives you many tips of advice before you meet with your students. For example, establishing a good relationship, reassuring anxious students and elaborating on written comments you have written on papers and assignments.

All through high school I was never really required to conference with my teachers. We were always encouraged to meet during lunch or after school but of course like every other high school teen I never thought I needed the help. When I got to college, every single one of my English classes required a conference to discuss our upcoming paper or project. No matter what, conferencing with my professors was always beneficial, there was never a time that I wasn't given some kind of advice or tip to help better my work. 

Grammar Instruction

In the 2 readings we were assigned, a blog post written by Patricia Dunn titled "Does Bad 'Grammar' Instruction Make Writing Worse?" and the article "Teaching Grammar in the Context of Writing" written by Constance Weaver both authors discuss their views on teaching grammar and some ideas of how teachers should go about teaching grammar. 

In the article written by Constance Weaver I found it interesting how there is so much research and information on the affects of grammar instruction. I really liked how there were so many examples on what not to do with your students because it gave me a better understanding and better ideas to have for when I'm a teacher. For example, letting your students make mistakes in their writing so that they aren't afriad to try new things & branch out from their normal writing. There were many things the article explained NOT to do, for exmaple; teaching traditional grammar (those annoying worksheets you used to be handed everyday in english class) and not using difficult grammatical terminology. 

In the blog post written by Patricia Dunn, she discusses that we should encourage our students to be engaged in their writing. Dunn believes that grammar drills can interfere with the students ability to actively engage in their writing, meaning that having gramma worksheets for the students to do is not helping your students but making them hate learning about grammar. 

Something that I really liked about Weavers article were the 3 teachers who told their stories on teaching grammar and the things that worked & didn't work for them. I like Sarah's idea of making mini-lessons in a writer's workshop to teach her students grammar but by making it enjoyable. Each student wrote a five senses poem and then a couple weeks later had her students write another senses poem & it showed that her students poems were much better the second time around because of her mini-lessons. 

Reading, Writing and Rising Up

Monday in class we got the opportunity to do a read-around of our "I Am From" Poem. I really enjoyed getting the chance to think back to my childhood and all the memories I have of my family & childhood home. The poem that we wrote is from an exercise in a book written by Linda Christensen (hint: it's the title of this blog post) and the read-around is also an exercise Christensen implements in her own classroom. 

After finishing Christensen's book Reading, Writing, and Rising Up, I have really gotten a grasp on the different approaches and exercises that I can use as a teacher. Each chapter was a different topic and then exercises to use in the classroom. For example; Chapter 1 is called "Building Community Out of Chaos" and some of the exercises explained are to say everyone's name to begin the first day of class, the read-around to develop new writers, the where I'm from poems, sweet learning and lastly childhood narratives. 

What I found to be really interesting is the concept that Christensen has on reaching every student with different ethnicities and diversity. The exercises she uses in her classroom are pretty universal so that every student is able to use things like the childhood narratives or the where I'm from poems to reach back into their childhood where they may or may not have sensitive subjects. I mentioned in class last week that I didn't think that making your students write about really personal life experiences was the most effective thing to do. Yes, talking about your past and sensitive topics is good but when things like death and maybe something along the lines of drugs/alcoholism are in the family, it might make some of your students shut down in the classroom. 

There are so many situations that can/will happen when I'm a teacher and nothing can never prepare me for those moments but it's helpful to have things like this book to help with activities and exercises to use in my own classroom one day.

Language

I really enjoyed the presentation about African languages and the struggles that the people of Africa deal with every day. We learned that many countries in Africa have an official language of French but most only speak their native languages; which in Cameroon can be 24 major African languages.

 The speaker we listened to is from Senegal, Africa and explained to us that he has a really hard time getting his children to speak any language other than Wolof. The official/national language in Senegal is French and to be considered "successful" (in the business world at least) it is important to be able to speak French and/or English. Wolof, Pulaar, Jola, and Mandinka are the other languages spoken in Senegal and the speaker said that most people on the streets in his town speak Wolof.

It was really interesting to hear about different cultures and the many languages that are spoken in Africa (more than 2500!) It is upsetting to hear that so many Africans are struggling with the ability to be able to write in their native languages, mostly because most of the languages cannot be written. I liked the passage from chapter 3 of Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe from Nigeria. It was written in English but the tone and the way words were written made it somewhat difficult to understand, but I found it really interesting to be able to see (African) words explained in a story written in English.

I found it really interesting to hear the different arguments on African literature in Indigenous languages and in European languages. Achebe who wrote Things Fall Apart defends African literature in European languages saying "European languages offer Africans a medium of communication that transcends all ethnic groups". While Ngugi defends African literature in Indigenous languages because "literature written by Africans in European languages is not Africa literature but Afro-European literature." 

Overall, I really enjoyed this special lecture and it was interesting to be able to listen to languages other than our own, English.