Pytash: Final Reflection

Overall, this class was a real eye-opener. I learned a lot about taking the boring "classic" texts and making them more interesting. Last semester, I was really excited about teaching high school students literature because I was thinking that I could just teach them young adult literature and open their eyes to reading and make readers out of all of them. When this semester started, I remembered that almost all high schools require the reading of classic texts. I also remembered that I hate classic texts. I've never been a fan of them, and I find them really hard to get engaged in.

This class showed me how I can make these books more than just reading and taking tests or writing papers on them. One of my favorite things that I learned from this class is how to effectively lead a class discussion. Dr. Pytash said a lot how we can't just write in our lesson plans, "have a discussion" but instead we need to really focus on how we're going to form that discussion, how we'll keep it going it there are slow parts, and ways to keep the students on topic.

Then there was the Firestone experience. A lot of people loved this, but I didn't. To be completely honest, when we were asked what we learned from the experience I couldn't think of anything other than, "I learned that I don't want to teach high schoolers." While high school teachers have a lot of opportunities to get creative, I think my place is in an elementary school. I will be taking all of the lessons I learned from this class and apply it to my elementary teaching career in some way, but I'm glad I finally found what I'm passionate about.

Pytash: Jago: Ch. 7

When reading this chapter I was slightly appalled that Jago supported standardized testing. Most teachers, if not the majority of teachers, that I know do not agree with these tests because they have to teach to them. It surprised me especially because Jago has focused on classic texts and my experience with the OGTs is that the classics aren't really a concern for these tests.

I thought it was important how Jago told us to connect things with the students' lives. When she related Julius Ceasar to the elections, I thought it was cool that students could relate to something so classical. This has always been my problem with the classic texts: I can't relate and I find reading them pointless. After reading this chapter, I realized that most of these books can be related to our students' lives if we try hard enough and really look outside of the box.

Overall, I liked this book. It was easy to read and understand. Jago did well with her appendixes too, I liked how planned out they were and how easy they were to use.

Foot: Firestone Experience

First, I would like to say that standardized testing is stupid, but as future teachers, I believe that most of us agree with that. The student I worked with was really motivated to learn, but I found her only wanting to know if the answer she chose was right. I would try to work with her on how she got to the conclusions she made, but when I asked her, she would guess a different answer to see if I reacted differently to that one and if it was right. Most students are in school to get the right answers. They are not there to learn to think freely and come up with their own answers, but to pass the test, and get on with their life.

Okay, now that that's out of the way....

My student (We'll call her Sarah) had quite a few strengths: She wanted to do well on her OGTs, she worked hard looking for the right answers, and she would stay as long as she could without taking breaks so she could get through as much material as possible. But, while she had these strengths, Sarah had a lot of weaknesses too. A big problem she had was that she lacked having developed critical thinking. When asked simple critical thinking questions, she often guessed on the answer. For example, during the fall semester she encountered a question asking what invention had led to the increased population in suburbs. Instead of choosing automobiles, she chose airplanes. During the fall semester, we went over the critical thinking involved with this question and she finally chose automobiles. When I met with her again during the spring semester, we encountered this question again, and she once again chose airplanes. This shows that Sarah still needed to work on her critical thinking skills. The biggest weakness I encountered with her was her reading comprehension. This really affected her test taking skills because she not only misunderstood the reading portions, but she had a really hard time comprehending what the questions were asking her. When I noticed this I would ask her, “What are they asking you?” before she went on to answer the questions. Most of the time, she would pick out the biggest words in the question, and string them together in a non-understandable sentence.

I thought of a couple ways to make studying for the OGTs more Multi-Modal friendly for Sarah. I think it would be really cool to send out a mass text message (Much like our FLASHalerts) with an OGT multiple choice question everyday. The students could reply with a simple "A,B,C, or D" and practice for the OGT. This, however, is a really passive way of preparing them because if the student get the answer right, they could just shrug it off instead of actively trying to figure out why they missed the question. I think that if students had an incentive to work towards, like the student with the most answers correct by the end of the year winning a prize, they would try harder to get their questions right. By answering these daily questions, I think they would also be developing their critical thinking skills and comprehension skills just through practice.

Another thing I saw in a lot of different blogs was the use of music in the classroom. I love this idea, but worry about copyright laws. If there were no issues with the laws, or with parents complaining about music being used, I think this would be a great way to introduce poetry to the classroom. There's a song by the Band Perry called "You Lie" that has a lot of good imagery and figurative language.



Even if students don't like country music, I could print the lyrics out and they could read it as they would a poem, but by pairing the song with the poem, it gives them a rhythm to show how poetry is in their everyday lives through the music they listen to.

I think the easiest way to integrate technology/ multi-modalness into the classroom is simply by watching a movie along with the book you're reading. I never quite understood Midnight Summer's Dream until I saw the movie, but after that I reread the play and completely understood it. I know a lot of people think that showing a movie is just an easy way out of planning an actual class, but I can see how it can help students learn too.

Even by using this blog, we're using different modes of learning. I love the idea of using a blog in the classroom if the teacher effectively tells the students how to blog. If you lay down specific instructions, yet still leave room for creativity, the students will start to use their blog to better their understanding of texts just through writing about them. This strategy would actually help Sarah a lot with her comprehension. 

While all these strategies can help over time in the classroom, some won't work as well with test preparation. I really feel that schools need to do away with these tests because if anything, it is decreasing the amount of actual learning going on in schools. The more advanced students are wasting their time being taught how to take a test, and the students that need help are just being taught how to get through a test. I was one of the advanced students and I have always tested well. (In fact I sneaked into a class one time with my best friend and took an exam with her because I was bored. We found out that even though I wasn't in the class and hardly knew the subject, I still did pretty well!) My short high school career was spent preparing for the OGTs. I remember learning more how to take tests than learning about actual literature. Even our foreign language classes would lighten the load of work because they knew that OGTs were coming up and we needed time to "study." However, I feel that there is no way to study for the OGTs. Since these tests cover a huge array of material you never know what is going to be on them, and it usually covers things you've learned over your entire school career.

While standardized testing is a huge part of our school system, I think that it's hard to integrate multi-modal teaching into studying for them. However, Overall, I think it's important to integrate different modes of teaching into your classroom, either through movies, text messages, facebook groups, among other things.

Foot: Video Games in the Classroom

Playing video games as a part of learning is a great idea. The word “games” it probably what makes this type of learning a hard sell. If we look at a game as Salen sees it, “ as a “designed experience” in which a participant is motivated to achieve a goal while operating inside a prescribed system of boundaries and rules;” then I think we would be more open minded about using games in the classroom. How many times have we said, or heard, that school is boring. As stated in the article, “a 2006 study financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation set out to examine the reasons that almost a third of American public-high-school students fail to graduate with their class. Researchers surveyed high-school dropouts in 25 cities, suburbs and small towns across the country, where they were told again and again that school was boring. The final report recommended, among other things, that educators take steps to “make school more relevant and engaging.” Motivating students is a high priority in teaching them. If using video games (video teaching) motivates students to learn then who can argue is using the games.

 

One major argument would be the costs. It is difficult for cash strapped schools to acquire the video/computer equipment needed. However, the idea is slowly converting some of those who oppose to those who support. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor introduced a web site called iCivics that teaches civics. When government can be convinced that it is a good idea, the money will follow.

 

 I used to play the game Sim City where you build a city complete with buildings, businesses, fire stations, hospitals and everything below. The water system, the power system and the means of getting the power and the water to the city, basically everything you need to run a city. Though it was not used as a teaching tool for me, I learned a lot from playing the game on how a city is built. I can only imagine the mountains of knowledge we could learn by a video game while not getting bored with school.

Foot: Publish or Perish

Technology is everywhere and I feel publishers need to get on the boat. It seems that publishers are stuck in the old way. They need to advance with technology, not hold technology back. I agree with Grandinetti, “The real competition here is not, in our view, between the hardcover book and the e-book … we are all competing for people’s valuable time.” I feel that some publishers want to make people buy the book in hardcover rather than on e-books simply because they, the publishers, want a bigger bite of the pie.

If publishers are so afraid of losing their jobs and their percent of the book then I agree with Carolyn Reidy. She says, “In the digital world, it is possible for authors to publish without publishers. It is therefore incumbent on us to prove our worth to authors every day.” Publishers should take note that the world is moving in different directions and if they want to be a part of the book industry, they need to learn along with the rest of us. Technology is today…publishers need to learn to sell technology.

My mom met a publisher a couple weeks ago and he was complaining to her how ebooks are taking away clients and there won't be any need for him anymore. As my mother so eloquently put it, "He needed to sit his ass down and get with the times." I laughed at her for saying this, but it was true. If publishers don't want to lose their jobs, then they should really work towards making their jobs more technologically adaptable. 

On another note- I just found out my new phone has Amazon Kindle on it, and I can read books ON MY PHONE! ITS AWESOME!  

Foot: I Heart Novels

After reading "I heart Novels" I was amazed. An entire novel made through a cell phone? I can hardly write a 10 page paper on my computer! Honestly, I had never heard of anyone doing this until I read this article, but I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before. In conjunction with the last post from "I'm So Totally, Digitally Close to You", I wondered if someone could take all of their tweets or Facebook status updates and somehow make them into a novel? Just like the cell phone novel, the information would be raw and be exactly what the author intended.

I actually just got a smart phone, and with all the access I have to different websites, I could see writing a novel through it. (Even though I'm still getting used to the touchscreen keyboard) I actually have my own blog with my personal non-school writings in it, that contains my own raw reactions and opinions.

I have one small problem with cell phone books though: I feel like we may lose the credibility of literature if anyone can just write a novel from their cell phone. I'm fine with these books being written, but if we as teachers try to teach these books, will others appreciate that someone wrote their novel from a cell phone?

I do like the idea of using this in a classroom though. If I student has an easier time using their cellphone to write assignments, then I think I would let them have that option.

Foot: You're Leaving a Digital Trail

Leaving a digital trail is somewhat disturbing to me; however, in some cases I agree that it could be a huge benefit. For example, the “Personal Environmental Impact Report” discussed in the article is a great tool for those who live in the Los Angeles area. My dad grew up in Redlands, California where he was a member of the swim team. They had practice after school in the afternoons when the air quality was terrible. He has told me that there were times after practice that he found it hard to breath. Rather than simply looking into the sky to see if it was full of smog, the coach could access the web service “Personal Environmental Impact Report” to decide just how bad the air quality is and possibly change the team’s workout.

I believe using digital trails of individuals is a more complex situation. As Dr. Estrin points out in the article, “the project still faced a host of challenges, both with the accuracy of tiny sensors and with the researchers’ ability to be certain that personal information remains private.” Individual privacy is a huge problem today and I think it should be carefully monitored so that the individual remains undisclosed. Using digital trails for research is one thing but I do not agree with tracking an individual person’s habits without their consent.

This article reminded me a lot of "Little Brother" and how technology was used to heavily to track the kids in that book. Like I said, it's really disturbing to think that all this information can be used to track us and know the intimate details of our lives, but it can also somewhat come in handy.

Foot: I'm so Totally, Digitally Close to You!

My favorite quote from this article was, "For students, it was now like being at a giant, open party filled with everyone you know, able to eavesdrop on what everyone else was saying, all the time." I thought this was so true, but hardly ever realized it. I'm usually really careful about what I post online, but when I'm on my facebook, I see so many of my friends posting things that shock me! I have one friend on facebook that actually posted her positive pregnancy test. I was actually a little disgusted at that, but thought to myself, "since when has it become okay to share this much information with people that you don't see on a weekly basis?"  However, like the article said, I have become aware of my friend's emotions, and every little change in their behavior is somewhat noted in my head.

I just started watching a TV series that really kind of sucks, but it's about a lady that gets pregnant and her VERY young baby daddy moves in with her. At one point, the relationships in the show were getting super complicated and she said, "I better update my facebook status." It made me laugh, but it also made me kind of sad. Has it come down to getting to know people through technology? I have always liked in-person interactions so much more because you can tell the tone of voice someone is using and how their body looks. It's just weird to think that the way we get "close" to people is digitally. I wonder what technological advances are to come to make "face time" even less probably...

Pytash: Jago: Ch. 5

How Poems Work

I never understood why students hate poetry the most out of all the units that are taught in a language arts class. I love poetry. After reading this chapter, I learned how to make poetry more understandable and enjoyable for my students. Whenever I think of a poet (no matter how hard I try to stop thinking this way) I always envision someone that can just sit down, and write their feelings and come up with art on the first try. However, I know this isn't true, and I think it's important that students know that poets work at what they do. I loved how Jago explained how Poe came up with "The Raven" on page 93. After having students read "The Raven", I think it'd be funny to have them re-read it, but replacing "raven" with "parrot" and asking them what kind of changes that made to the mood of the poem. This can simply show them how much thought went into the poem.

On page 81, Jago tells us how to structure freewriting. I love her examples of getting the students started by saying, "Maybe Wordsworth was thinking..." When I first started reading about the freewriting idea, I didn't like it because I did not know what my students would come up with. I know that when I'm giving the option to do something like this, I have to discuss with my neighbor real quick about what they're going to write just so I have a slight idea on where to get started. I love that Jago gives structure to freewriting. 

Pytash: Jago: Ch. 3

Choosing Which Books to Teach

First and foremost, did anyone else giggle a little when they read on page 40 the guy's name that came up with the list of popular required texts? His last name is Applebee...I wonder if he's eatin good in the neighborhood? 

 Anyways, on to the content of the chapter!

I always thought that I would just teach books that I liked, and could have fun reading over and over again. But Jago challenged me to choose books that are in depth, and can be torn apart. As much as I love Sonya Sones, and as much as I would love teaching "What My Mother Doesn't Know", what WOULD I teach? This book only really has one layer (if there's more, then someone please enlighten me!) and I think the only reason I would want to teach it is because it's a quick read, it's fun, and it seems VERY relatable to high school students. But what would I be doing to my students? Nothing. They wouldn't be gaining any knowledge, so right now, I'm making a vow that I will only choose books that meet the six requirements on page 47.

The exercise that Jago did with her students while reading Frankenstein on page 55 was a really good idea too. It's weird how you know there's a certain mood set for a book, but if you actually look at the wording, you can see how the author planned their vocabulary for the exact mood. If you teach students how to discover the important words, they're that much closer to understanding texts as a whole. Thus far, I really enjoy the tips that Jago is giving us as teachers.

Pytash: Jago: Ch. 1

Seven Guiding Principles for Literature Teachers:

There are two defining differences between my best friend and I: 1. She only reads young adult novels and has a very limited vocabulary. 2. She is brunette and I am blonde. 

I always wondered how she couldn't just KNOW what words mean, but when reading the first chapter of Jago's Classics in the Classroom, I think I may have figured it out! The fourth principle that Jago brings up is that "Reading literature requires language study and builds vocabulary" (page 8) I'm not a huge fan of classics, but I read them and understand them. I grew up with parents that pushed me to learn new words, and use them, but if you don't grow up with this, then in school you would need to stretch your knowledge of words by reading them consistently, and using them. Jago mentions the best way of doing this by having students involved with literature, and not the every-day young adult literature, but classics. 

After last semester's young adult literature class, I was all for using young adult literature in the classroom, but what will it REALLY teach my students other than reading can be fun? While pairing these YA books with classic texts, I think we can show students that they can learn from what they read, build their knowledge base, and still have fun reading.  

Foot: Multi-Modal Experience with Social Studies

I know a local Social Studies teacher (she's my fiance's mom!) and she teaches a criminal justice class. She was talking about making her lesson plans and she was asking if she should use Criminal Minds or CSI in her class. I'm a huge Criminal Minds fan, but I asked her quite bluntly, "Are you just not wanting to do anything tomorrow in that class? Why show them a TV show?" She knows that I'm an aspiring teacher, so she told me that while a lot of teachers use movies and TV shows to kill time, that she just takes little bits and pieces from the shows to use as examples. She explained that she wants her students watching them outside of class so they understand the topics better, but that she tries to get them hooked by showing things that relate to class, but seem a lot cooler on TV. I thought this was a really good technique of getting students interested.

Here's a trailer for Criminal Minds if you're interested:


I also just got done with a court case, and I was telling her about it and showed her the results from the judge. She asked for a copy of the results so she could show her class. I thought it was cool that she could use an actual form that relates to her class and thought about using it too.

Obviously, there are different ways to get students involved in Language Arts classes too. There's a YouTube series called "Sassy Gay Friend" that CRACKS ME UP! (The Social Studies teacher mentioned above is the one that introduced me to them) But, it's obviously not suitable for high school students. However, it takes great texts and shows how the entire plot would change if the main female had a sassy gay friend. In an ideal world where no one could be offended, I would love to show my students these videos.

Here's the "Sassy Gay Friend" episode for Romeo and Juliet:

Foot: Pleasure Text

On the night of Valentine's Day I watched "The Romantics." It has Anna Paquin (from True Blood) and Katie Holmes. I'm a huge Dawson's Creek fan AND True Blood fan, so I  really wanted to see it just for the actresses, but let me tell you- it was horrible. Basically, Anna's Character is getting married, and Katie's Character and the groom are in love.

Here's the trailer:

I feel like more and more movies are trying to hard to be intellectual, and I feel like the storyline could have worked so much better if it wasn't trying to be an indie film. Plus, the ending was NOT fulfilling. I won't ruin anything for the movie, but let's just say the ending didn't solve anything.

Foot: Little Brother

Wow- So I absolutely LOVED this book. I think it’s a great book to introduce to teens in this age of technology because it makes them think about what information they’re putting out there, and how technology can be used to either hurt them or help them. It also shows how each student can make a difference if they really try.

As a high schooler, I had a science fair project where we had to come up with something that would make our community better and then we had to get involved and try to put the plan in motion. (I was in an honor’s class- ick!) For the “getting involved” part of the project, we wrote a letter to our mayor, and nothing really came of it. So, I thought that there was really no way to get involved and that one little student can’t really make a difference in a big community. However, Little Brother proved me wrong. Marcus was able to create Xnet and basically overthrow the government.  Even though the book seems to be set in the future, it’s a realistic future where our government puts us in a totalitarian state because of terrorists’ attacks.

Little Brother is like a modern day hippy story. In fact, in chapter 11, Marcus’s history teacher explains the movement that the original hippies went through in order to protest the Vietnam War. I thought it was clever that Cory Doctorow tied in “old-school” hippies with modern day hippies. If the reader hadn’t already made the connection, they would when Marcus said, “Suddenly, those lame, solemn, grown-up street demonstrations didn’t seem so lame after all. Maybe there was room for that kind of action in the Xnet movement.” (page 178)

               

Foot: Oh hey, Paranoia, what's up?

So after reading Little Brother, I have decided that the government is watching my every move. After seeing this video, I just feel a little more paranoid. This kind of reminds me of how the government was tracking people's traveling patterns throughout Little Brother.

Here's the video:
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/video?id=7621105

Foot: The Beginning of the Internet

While reading An Oral History of the Internet, I learned that the internet wasn't just a sudden invention in the 1990s. I knew that a lot of it came along in the Cold War era, but not that it dated back to 1969. I thought it was cool how in the very beginning, there were only about 5 computers linked up to each other. As time went on, the need for a browser came about, and when the article was talking about Mosaic, the first internet browser, Marc Andreessen said how him and a coworker were working on it as a side project. He mentions, "...there was the first issue of Wired on the shelf. I bought it. In it there’s all this science-fiction stuff. The Internet’s not mentioned. Even in Wired"
For those of you that don't know, Wired is a technology magazine that is super nerdy! hehe

I thought this quote was really funny, but also made me wonder what is being created right now that the general public has no knowledge of? This kind of ties in with Little Brother because so far (up until page 120) it seems like the government knows a lot more about technology and how to track people using it.

My favorite chapter from An Oral History of the Internet was "Going Public." I thought it was cool to know how Amazon.com was created. Something that really stuck out to me was how the creator, Jeff Bezos, had made a list of 20 things to sell online, and decided on books.

Growing up with the internet makes it seem like such a natural tool to use, but seeing how it was conceptualized and invented really brings it back to being an amazing invention. I can only imagine how the people interviewed in the Vanity Fair article felt while they were making breakthroughs and connecting the world.