It has been a very eye-opening semester. I truly have learned a great deal about how I want to conduct my future classrooms. I have had experience observing a variety of teachers, teaching a variety of grades. As well, I have had the opportunity to study literature on effective teaching methods. However, across the board, one message seems to be clear. As teachers we need to do more than merely assign novels and allow students to read them. We need to ensure they are reading assigned material through a critical lens. A critical lens will allow students to take a great deal more out of the literature than a surface read ever could. Not only that, by reading literature with a critical eye, students will be able to look at their own life situations more critically.
As I mentioned in a previous post, English class has to be about more than just teaching classic novels. English class should provide students with skills they will be able to carry with them in their lives. Their reading skills, and their ability to pick out deeper meanings in their readings should be upheld over whether students were able to gain the same appreciation for classic novels like Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as their teacher.
My time spent in a grade 10 English classroom this semester has shown me the real life importance behind these theories. Following the class having read the novel Of Mice and Men, the students were drilled continually on the underlying themes of the novel. It took a while, but I did observe some definite improvement in their abilities to understand the deeper messages in the text. At the end of the novel study, I quizzed a couple of the students in the class about whether they had enjoyed to book or not. A couple of them said no, while one did say they liked the movie better. This said to me, that while it is important that we strive to ensure that students are able to pick out deeper reading messages in books, we must make sure we do so in a way that does not alienate the reading experience. The love of reading must be fostered alongside the refining of reading skills. There has to be a balance. If I am able to find that balance, I believe that the two should be able to be taught hand-in-hand rather fluidly.
Monday, 3 December 2012
Sweat it out!
I'd like to write about a pretty amazing experience that my time in partner schools offered me last week. One of the teachers I observe invited me and a fellow classmate to take part in a traditional Aboriginal Sweat Ceremony. Since I had never taken part in anything like that before, I figured it would be a great chance to try something new, and become more well versed in Native Studies, a class that intend to teach in addition to English. The opportunity was also a great example of how beneficial place-based education can be for students. There is so much to be learned BEYOND the written curriculum.
First off, we boarded a bus and headed out to Brightwater, just south of the city. It was interesting to see how the Ceremony has experienced modernization. I am not sure what I was expecting exactly, but once we got out there, the tent we sat in was nowhere to be seen. Instead there was a heated building with a sheet metal covering, complete with public washrooms and other amenities. Inside the building was where the tent was, and where we all huddled inside for the sweat to take place.
It really was quite an experience. The unfamiliarity of the situation seemed to open everyone's mind to what was about to take place. The ceremony ended with a sharing circle, where everyone got to say a little bit about what they were thankful for and how the ceremony had affected them. I was rather impressed with their answers. Each of the students seemed to really respect the process and had definitely gained appreciation for the ceremony that had once been deemed illegal in the not-so-distant past. Trips like this are absolutely crucial for students - anyone really - to really gain an appreciation for other cultures. Learning about a sweat in a classroom does not teach anything about what it is really like. We must experience these sort of ceremonies first-hand to truly gain an appreciation for it.
First off, we boarded a bus and headed out to Brightwater, just south of the city. It was interesting to see how the Ceremony has experienced modernization. I am not sure what I was expecting exactly, but once we got out there, the tent we sat in was nowhere to be seen. Instead there was a heated building with a sheet metal covering, complete with public washrooms and other amenities. Inside the building was where the tent was, and where we all huddled inside for the sweat to take place.
It really was quite an experience. The unfamiliarity of the situation seemed to open everyone's mind to what was about to take place. The ceremony ended with a sharing circle, where everyone got to say a little bit about what they were thankful for and how the ceremony had affected them. I was rather impressed with their answers. Each of the students seemed to really respect the process and had definitely gained appreciation for the ceremony that had once been deemed illegal in the not-so-distant past. Trips like this are absolutely crucial for students - anyone really - to really gain an appreciation for other cultures. Learning about a sweat in a classroom does not teach anything about what it is really like. We must experience these sort of ceremonies first-hand to truly gain an appreciation for it.
What are we reading for?
In starting to think about developing my own English classes and curricula, I have recently been putting more and more thought into what types of books I would include in my list of required reading. Until recently, I had been basing most of my perspective reading choices on books that I, myself have enjoyed reading, and therefore I want to teach it in my class. As an English major, I appreciate classic novels that perhaps are no longer exactly relevant to today's world any longer. However, just because they are classics does not give these books enough credit to actually be taught in the classroom. There has to be a better reason for getting students to read these books.
Chapter 8 in Deeper Reading looks at addressing why we read certain texts to students. It is not enough to merely tell students "we are reading this book because it is a classic, and everyone needs to read this book!" Like students, we as teachers have to address why everyone needs to read the books we are teaching. Gallagher looks at the case for 1984, which just so happens to be one of my favourite novels. Yes, it is an older novel, having been written in the 1949. However, many of the themes in the novel are relevant and satisfy several cross-curricular competencies, drawing in social studies elements from the elements of propaganda and totalitarian society in the novel. The key here is to ensure that if we DO indeed decide to teach a novel like 1984 in our classrooms, we need to be sure we correctly frame the texts in a relevant way with students. It has to resonate in a tangible and relevant way with students if we expect them to adequately understand the themes and message that the author was intending to get across. If we do not do this, then there is no point in teaching these older classics. As well, students will have much less chance of developing an appreciation for classic works, similar to mine.
I wrote our recent iSearch assignment on books I felt are truly life changing and great for students to be reading at the high school level. The assignment made me challenge the reasoning behind my novel selections at the high school level. The books I used in my assignment were not classics by any means, but they all portray essential life lessons in an engaging and effective way. I think that's more in line with what English class should be all about.
Chapter 8 in Deeper Reading looks at addressing why we read certain texts to students. It is not enough to merely tell students "we are reading this book because it is a classic, and everyone needs to read this book!" Like students, we as teachers have to address why everyone needs to read the books we are teaching. Gallagher looks at the case for 1984, which just so happens to be one of my favourite novels. Yes, it is an older novel, having been written in the 1949. However, many of the themes in the novel are relevant and satisfy several cross-curricular competencies, drawing in social studies elements from the elements of propaganda and totalitarian society in the novel. The key here is to ensure that if we DO indeed decide to teach a novel like 1984 in our classrooms, we need to be sure we correctly frame the texts in a relevant way with students. It has to resonate in a tangible and relevant way with students if we expect them to adequately understand the themes and message that the author was intending to get across. If we do not do this, then there is no point in teaching these older classics. As well, students will have much less chance of developing an appreciation for classic works, similar to mine.
I wrote our recent iSearch assignment on books I felt are truly life changing and great for students to be reading at the high school level. The assignment made me challenge the reasoning behind my novel selections at the high school level. The books I used in my assignment were not classics by any means, but they all portray essential life lessons in an engaging and effective way. I think that's more in line with what English class should be all about.
Saturday, 1 December 2012
"Your" a WHAT?!
Throughout my semester spent at my partner school, I have to say I have had an amazing experience. Despite the horror stories I had heard prior to beginning my stint as a student teacher, all-in-all the students were far more respectful and motivated to learn than I had been bracing myself for.
This is not to say that there have not been challenges that have presented themselves though either...
I was offered an entire afternoon to teach two grade nine grammar classes, as I had mentioned in a previous blog. As part of my lesson, I gave the class a worksheet to work on their skills. I will admit, a worksheet is not my intended method of assessment, but my co-op teacher brought it up and I really just needed something that would fill up more class time. The worksheet was not overly difficult, and completing it did inevitably give students a clearer idea of what we went over in class.
I had the students hand in the assigned papers for a homework check. That night, I went over them to ensure that they were on the right track. The majority of the students appeared to understand the lesson quite well and answered the questions accurately. A few seemed to miss the point with less than satisfactory results, but it looked like they were trying at the very least. Finally, one of the last papers I looked at had no questions answered at all. In fact, all that was written on the page at all was "your a hoe."
I will admit, at first, I felt like a failure. I felt like I hadn't made an effective lesson at all. But then I thought back to the other students that appeared to be having fun and thought of all the students that legitimately DID understand my lesson and did well on the worksheet. Surely, my lesson couldn't have been all bad?? So after that, I started to feel kind of angry and insulted over the message on the page. This prompted me to correct "your" into "you're" and leave a nice red "0" on the top of the worksheet. Then finally, my thoughts transitioned towards what this student is really trying to say. Writing a message like that on a paper is not normal behavior. I would have NEVER done anything like that and I would be hard pressed to say that I know anyone who would do something like that either. I began to wonder whether the students was going through a difficult situation.
In the morning, I brought the situation up to my co-op teacher at school. Turns out, the student has had more than a few issues of acting out before. The behavior is also likely attributed at least in part to family problems at home that involves a messy divorce of the students parents. My anger quickly subsided and transitioned to concern for the poor kid. His message, although inappropriate and not appreciated was a cry for help more than anything. It was a learning experience for me as well. As teachers we should not act on impulses in these sort of situations. We need to get to the root of the problem first.
This is not to say that there have not been challenges that have presented themselves though either...
I was offered an entire afternoon to teach two grade nine grammar classes, as I had mentioned in a previous blog. As part of my lesson, I gave the class a worksheet to work on their skills. I will admit, a worksheet is not my intended method of assessment, but my co-op teacher brought it up and I really just needed something that would fill up more class time. The worksheet was not overly difficult, and completing it did inevitably give students a clearer idea of what we went over in class.
I had the students hand in the assigned papers for a homework check. That night, I went over them to ensure that they were on the right track. The majority of the students appeared to understand the lesson quite well and answered the questions accurately. A few seemed to miss the point with less than satisfactory results, but it looked like they were trying at the very least. Finally, one of the last papers I looked at had no questions answered at all. In fact, all that was written on the page at all was "your a hoe."
I will admit, at first, I felt like a failure. I felt like I hadn't made an effective lesson at all. But then I thought back to the other students that appeared to be having fun and thought of all the students that legitimately DID understand my lesson and did well on the worksheet. Surely, my lesson couldn't have been all bad?? So after that, I started to feel kind of angry and insulted over the message on the page. This prompted me to correct "your" into "you're" and leave a nice red "0" on the top of the worksheet. Then finally, my thoughts transitioned towards what this student is really trying to say. Writing a message like that on a paper is not normal behavior. I would have NEVER done anything like that and I would be hard pressed to say that I know anyone who would do something like that either. I began to wonder whether the students was going through a difficult situation.
In the morning, I brought the situation up to my co-op teacher at school. Turns out, the student has had more than a few issues of acting out before. The behavior is also likely attributed at least in part to family problems at home that involves a messy divorce of the students parents. My anger quickly subsided and transitioned to concern for the poor kid. His message, although inappropriate and not appreciated was a cry for help more than anything. It was a learning experience for me as well. As teachers we should not act on impulses in these sort of situations. We need to get to the root of the problem first.
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