Anna's ENGL493 Blog

Learning Letter This class has been a great experience, and I’ve learned a lot though discussion, versus on my own, which I think is a good experience to gain from a class that can contribute to becoming a teacher. I think that teachers should teach and collaborate with both students and other teachers through discussion. Humans are a social species, which often learn though social, movement, and ultimately discussion. I liked the book talk aspect of the class, and I found it to be very helpful to acquire not only the books assigned to the class, but other books that my peers liked. I even got to add some books to my own fantasy collection. (I got to add more books to the pile that I have started) I liked the book about human trafficking, and the discussion that it started. First off, I liked the book in general because it sounded interesting and I also think I would enjoy reading it for my own pleasure. Secondly, I think that students need to be aware of the evil in the worl...

My thoughts on Night... Wiesel's  Night is an amazing book, but I would argue that the book requires its readers to have a certain amount of maturity. Sure, the subject of the holocaust is a hard subject to talk about, and I think that young people need to learn about it, but Night has some aspects that might be hard for younger readers to take seriously. I think this book would be a good fit for a reader that is in the eleventh or twelfth grade, and all those who are older than that. I would like to point out the importance of this book. I do not have any knowledge on the elementary/middle school curriculum in public schools, but my thirteen-year-old sister does not know what the holocaust was. She also has little knowledge as to what the Nazi’s are and who Hitler was. She has indeed heard of the nae Hitler, but she doesn’t know the connection between Hitler and WWII/holocaust. As a Social Studies major, I was immensely surprised that someone who was in middle school did no...

My thoughts on Into the Wild… I read Into the Wild in high school (I’m not sure what grade) and it was a great coming of age novel. This novel is about a young man who graduates college and donates all his savings to charity/gives away all his possessions to embark the Alaskan wilderness. Christopher McCandless was born to a wealthy family and chooses to travel the Alaskan wilderness instead of moving into a prestigious career after he graduates college. McCandless ends up using an abandoned bus as shelter and unfortunately, he does not make it to see the end of his travels in the Alaskan wilderness. Into the Wild follows the assumed journey of McCandless, and his coming of age story. This novel would be a great resource for a coming of age unit because it is about McCandless coming of age. I would most certainly teach this book, and a lot of good discussion can come from this novel. For example, a coming of age discussion, such as asking a student or group of students “would you...

My thoughts on The Round House I loved reading The Round House. I do understand how it is a young ADULT novel, because there are some topics that are controversial, such as rape, political issues, and racial issues. I personally would be hesitant teaching this book because of the graphicness of the novel. However, if I were to get the novel approved by administration, then I would be happy to teach the novel. The events that follow the rape are hard to read; they are also true facts. It is often a true thing that women (and some men) face when they are raped; they are afraid to tell anyone, including law enforcement, even if they know who the perpetrator is. There is often a depression that follows the rape, such as not wanted to get out of bed. I think that this book would make students aware that this happens in life, and that they need not be sheltered from this anymore. I think that parents would be on the fence about this book, but I think that it is important to educate stud...

My thoughts on....  I Read It, But I Don’t Get It When reading I Read It, But I Don’t Get It, the first section that caught my eye was the section on already learning things in elementary school. I personally have heard secondary teachers say this to me, as I was not the best reader in elementary school and this reflected on my abilities in middle and high school. I think that it is important that teachers not assume things about their students; for example, one of their students could be English Language Learners in high school, and they are just now learning to read. Of course, this wasn’t taught to them in elementary school, because school was learned in another language for them. Later in the section, it was talked about to assign books and readings that students will like. If they don’t like the reading, then they probably won’t read it or even take interest in the reading. How are students supposed to take interest in a reading if they don’t understand it? By assigning ...

City of Bones Summary: City of Bones is one of six books that make up the Mortal Instruments Series. City of Bones is the gate to a fascinating world of fantasy, following the path of a fifteen-year-old girl named Clary Fray. Her life starts out as fairly ordinary. She lives with her mother in New York and was pursuing getting into Art School. On her sixteenth birthday, however, everything changes. Clary goes to a nightclub with her best friend, Simon, and witnesses a “murder,” which understandably freaks her out. Clary sees two people with strange swords stabbing someone else, which resulted in the victim completely vanishing. She runs away and is later found by Simon who convinces Clary that what she saw was a hallucination or that maybe she was drugged. As Clary hopes that her life gets back to normal, she goes to a poetry reading with Simon the next day. There, Clary sees one of the murderers and insists that he talks to her in the alley. He agrees. Come to find out, the “mu...

My thoughts on... Making Good Choices (edTPA) I do not have a lot of background on the edTPA, or the TPA lesson plan format for that matter. I wish the introductory classes like EDUC 303/309 would have been more informational on this subject. I almost think there could be a class specifically on teaching future teachers about the edTPA. This document helped a lot with explaining the directions and what exactly is expected of students to complete the edTPA. I thought that it was interesting that we would not be scored on spelling/grammar specifically, but rather we would be scored on the professionalism and how clear the edTPA would be. I also thought it was interesting that there was a page limit, which I personally think may be challenging when I actually make my lesson plan. At first I was glad that there was a page limit because I didn’t think that it would be too difficult to shorten down a lesson plan. However, this is simply not the case. Knowing myself, I tend to go down a r...

My thoughts on… “Five Essential Components for Social Justice Education” In my independent research for social justice in the classroom, I came across an article talking about the social and political climate and how such a thing can relate to the educational field and the classroom itself. I liked this article because it caused me to immediately think of a civics classroom or a current world affairs classroom where a teacher, or me in the future perhaps, can impact students in their senior year with regards to the political and social climate of today and the future. The article also touches on how educators can teach social justice while also empowering education and its students. The article defines the five essential components to be: “tools for content mastery, tools for critical thinking, tools for action and social change, tools for personal reflection, and tools for awareness of multicultural group dynamics.” It is noted, however, that these five components are not the so...

My thoughts on... The International Journal of Learning I did have prior knowledge that the media affects different cultures differently. However, I did not have the knowledge that the media and advertisements affect these same people in such negative ways. It is unfortunate that the media influences and disempowers urban youth, thus effecting their performance not only in their every-day lives, but also in the classroom. I LOVE that the article stated that schools either need to, or schools have already started to teach students about the media and how to interpret different messages, good or bad. I vaguely remember learning about media in high school, but quite honestly, it is the lessons in ENGL 101 and 201 that impacted me more. (Which not every child has access to college) I do agree that the media needs to be understood. If commercials, billboards, posters, etc. are hard for adults to understand, then imagine how hard the media is for young people to understand. Young adult...

My thoughts on..... Pedagogy  The Pedagogy was extremely insightful and aligns with a lot of my own ideals about teaching. I’ve touched on this in a past discussion, but students are people too and teachers/administration need to treat students as such. Some people think that school is a place to go where the teacher is supposed to lecture and speak at his/her students all day while the students just sit and listen. Some think that students should not ask questions and simply understand the lesson right away. Some think that students are just things going through a factory of learning (an assembly line) and hoping to make it to the end of the line (graduation). I especially liked the quote “The teacher cannot think for her students, nor can she impose her thought on them. Authentic thinking, thinking that is concerned about reality, does not take place in ivory tower isolation, but only in communication.” Thinking is something that someone has to do for themselves; thinking c...

Book Talk The Things They Carried I chose this text for a book talk because I thought that this text is the perfect specimen to combine both English and Social Studies classes. In  The Things They Carried,  the author, Tim O’Brien describes his Vietnam experiences in multiple short stories throughout the novel. Some of the stories are true, while others are untrue but are based off true stories. However, there is no way of really knowing which stories are true or false. The book follows feelings of guilt and fear, but there is also a focus on the true experiences that soldiers faced during their time in the Vietnam war. For example, one of O’Brien’s short stories follow a fellow soldier’s feelings of anxiety and his addiction to tranquilizers. The book follows feelings of courage, anger, sadness, death, and ultimately, can help teach empathy to a group of students.  The book also touches on O’Brien’s feelings of disappointing his family and his political view...

Response to Secondary Standards‐ Based Grading and Reporting Handbook After reading the Spokane Public Schools Grading Handbook, I gained a somewhat understanding of the grading that schools in the Spokane district uses. In the handbook it shows examples of PowerSchool and how it can help parents and teacher communicate through an online source. Instead of parents asking their children for their grades, they can simply log on to the website and check the grades themselves. I think that PowerSchool is a great source for teachers, parents, and students to use regularly. I also liked the section explaining the power of getting a zero on an assignment. Simply by getting a zero, a student’s grade can drop significantly, often by one or two whole grades. While I understand the significance of a zero, I don’t know if I agree with the idea that teachers have no need to use zeros as a score. What if the student never turns in his/her work and refuses to do so? Am I as the teacher supp...

My thoughts on...... Assignment Template After reading the Assignment template for California’s state standards, I noticed that they were similar to Washington’s standards. Similar to what was said in class last week, I noticed that the standards are pretty similar across many states. Furthermore, I thought that the section on Summarizing and Responding would be extremely helpful to students who struggle with noticing a difference between the two. For example, when I was younger, I struggled with summarizing in every piece of writing that I had to produce. While summarizing can sometimes be helpful, it is important for students to realize that there is indeed a difference between the two. Responding includes the student’s own ideas, and their own thoughts on whatever reading they are summarizing/responding to. I also liked the bullet points under the descriptions of each definition. Both descriptions used the method of annotating, which both summarizes and includes valid thoughts...

Response to Core Standards... Before becoming involved in the classroom and the Education Program, I was not a fan of state standards. I felt as if I was a machine in a factory that was being perfected to become “prepared for the real world.” Though I thought that becoming part of the real world was important, I felt that I was only to adhere to such standards and that felt boring and cold to me. I felt like the real world isn’t made up of state standards, so why should school be made up of it? However, now that I am pretty far involved within the Education Department, I now see the necessity for such standards. They are needed to hold not only teachers accountable, but students as well. On the other hand, I do think that there needs to be an improvement in how the standards are introduced to students. Teachers need to be able to incorporate these standards into their lessons, while also keeping their students engaged. When looking over the standards on the core standards website...

Response to Graphic Novels in the Classroom: I personally have not had a lot of experience working with graphic novels. Something that I remember clearly, however, is an experience that I had in college. I have not had any experience in high school; but I am glad that I had the opportunity to read such a type of literature in my schooling career. In my English 270 class, Introduction to Fiction, we got to read a graphic novel about Batman and Superman. I personally love superheroes, so I was excited to read such a thing. It was something that I was interested in reading and something that I looked forward to. Now that I have experienced reading something like this type of literature, I understand how graphic novels can help and get kids interested in reading in middle and high school. The graphics helped me, and I assume they would help young readers understand the story. When I was younger, I struggled with reading and had to often re-read passages or chapters to understand ...

Response to DISCUSSION AS A WAY OF TEACHING The “circle of voices” section of the assigned reading interested me because this would be an easy group discussion method I could use in my position as VP of Chapter Development in my sorority. (Basically I am in charge of retaining members and maintaining a safe and understanding environment). There has been a recent problem where people have been interrupting each other and stomping on each other’s ideas with their own. While I do thing that it’s important for everyone to have an opinion and express their feeling towards something, I do think that it isn’t okay to stomp on other’s ideas. This discussion activity would be perfect for that, by following the rules stated in the article. An example of this might be that one is only allowed to touch on another’s ideas by bringing up was has already been said, not by coming up with new arguments. Furthermore, by using “specific moves,” I would be able to teach the women to communicate bett...