Starting at the Beginning

This week's reading of Gallagher was by far the most beneficial to me. His last chapter The Art of Teaching Deep Reading should have been at the beginning, in my opinion. This is the foundation in which teachers work from, so why would it be at the end? Anyways, apart from the order of the chapters, this was a good chapter. When looking back on the mini-unit assignment, I believe that we used this process - having an endpoint and working backwards. One of the first things I did, after choosing a theme, was figure out my final assignment. Then we found resources and other student work that would prepare them with the frame of mind and background materials in order to be successful in their endeavor. This will definitely be a strategy I will use for the entirety of my career as an educator.

Just to get one last jab in at all the metaphor lovers out there, this chapter and its contents was like a baseball team. Yes, I said it... Every manager figures out the goal they want by the end of October, and they build their team around it. If they want to go for the pennant, they offload prospects and beef up on all-stars. If they want to rebuild, they offload the big contracts in order to get more draft picks. The team knows what they want, and create the roster around that. You never know, in a rebuilding season, teams may surprise you. Such as the Tampa Bay Rays and their unknown names making it to the playoffs in their infancy, or the San Francisco Giants winning it all three years ago (and this year as well, but they have built their team to go for it all). FYI, I was watching the news and the Jays made a huge 12 player trade and signed a new manager while I wrote this.

Here's a poem to end off the semester and the link of Frost reading it. Just to prove that poetry is meant to be read aloud : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie2Mspukx14&feature=fvwrel

 

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

 

Robert Frost

Is Reading still part of the three R's?

Reading Out Loud

As I stood up in front of the crowd
They all sat still and silent
Their eyes and ears aimed like rifles on me
And I slowly read my poem aloud

My knees shook with every spoken lyric
My lips quivered as I couldn't stop
They listened intently, focused
As if my every word was the word of a mystic

Heavy emotions make me weightless
My eyes are shaking and my heart is too
My poem is almost finished
But the words aren't bitter and tasteless

I look at the crowd's emotionless faces as I finish reading
Their monotone lips curve upward as they clap
I walk off the stage nervously trying to maintain balance
And in my head the words of the poem repeat

 

 - Christian Rivera

 

 

In every class I have been in so far in my partner school, none of the students read out loud. NONE. The ELA classes have ranged from grade nine to eleven. Is this not considered an important part of ELA anymore? The only class I have been in where the students have read out loud is World Religions 30. The teacher is of the traditional variety - transmission based - but at least she gets some students reading. I say some because the students are allowed to pass if they do not feel like reading. She also tries to get the students out of the classroom as much as possible by scheduling field trips to religious centers. So the question I have is: Why aren't the students reading out loud? I remember back to my time in high school - all students had to read. It didn't matter if you were nervous, because if anyone laughed about someone's reading ability, they were disciplined. 

Another thing I have noticed during my time at the local high school is the spelling ability of the students. Most of the grade nine's spell words exactly how they sound, which is often wrong. The teachers do not seem to take marks off for their mistakes, so why would they care? Actually, most students don't seem to care about much at all, besides getting out of class or causing destraction. I was growing extremely frustrated with that class until one student asked me an a colleague to read her poetry. It was unbelievable. There was so much feeling and emotion involved in her words and I was truly surprised that a student would let a relative stranger read such personal writing. These moments are what makes all of the stress worth it.  

Deeper Thinking?

Gallagher, Oh Gallagher. How you amaze me with your advanced skills with metaphors. First of all, I enjoy his baseball metaphors, mainly because I love baseball. I have been an avid fan of the game for as long as I can remember, but I have never heard of anyone fielding a grounder by moving your glove towards the ball. You are supposed to cushion it. I fell sorry for that group of girls and the wasted time in "learning" how to ground a ball. Secondly, I have an affinity for carpentry and woodworking. I have never used the claw of a hammer with finesse. Once that claw is around the nail, it gets wrenched out. There is no room to "ease" it out of that spruce 2X4. That's enough for chapter 7.

Chapter 8 offered me much more valuable insight into what I find to be the greatest challenge facing teacher: getting the students motivated. In his stock answer #1, Gallagher reiterates that the students do not connect with a great book. First of all, the world has changed since he went to school. All Quiet on the Western Front may not hold the same appeal to today's readers as it did for Gallagher. I think that we need to adapt to what the students are interested in - to a degree. I do find the value in the "classics" - especially with the lenses Appleman has offered us. The older texts seem to offer more blatant examples of classism, racism, sexism, etc. However, the canon is now adapting to incorporate the reader's interest. The Hunger Games and Harry Potter are being used in the classroom, and I find nothing wrong with this at all. Most people have seen the films attached to these literary works, which often ruins the reading, but I think this will only enhance the reading. Earlier in the year, we were talking about reading the text a second time; I think that the film can act as the first draft reading, and when they read the book and are enlightened by all the missing details or those that were altered due to adaptation, this will give the learners a deeper appreciation for the text. Maybe the next time people rave about a novel, the student will read the text rather than wait for Galaxy to charge them $13.
I do commend Gallagher for relating Orwell's 1984 to current events. From what I remember from my youth, not many of us watched the sic o'clock news after school. If we can relate the texts we use into present issues, there can only be positives. In my childhood, we did not have ten different CBC channels to catch the news whenever we wanted. On the farm, there was work to do (and I am not trying to produce a 'poor me' rant) and that was more important than catching the news. Not everyone has the time to be an engaged citizen, but I wished that I could have been more involved in my own current affairs. I am noticing that reminiscent events that are being covered in my classes are void from my knowledge. I do not know the past events that should have been my own personal current events. I will definitely try to get my students involved in their own awareness about what is going on in the world.

Secondary Lenses

Sorry folks, no poem this post. I was happy to see that Appleman answered the question I posed last week in chapter 7, at least somewhat. I asked if it was possible to introduce these lenses at the start of the year so that the students were able to use the multiple perspectives from the get-go. After reading the first paragraph, I started thinking about those students who have difficulty comprehending the text, let alone reading deeper. Luckily, I surged on and Appleman answered me. She stated that: "kids on the margins seem to be savvier about theory" (pg. 112). Why could this be? Is she assuming that those who experience difficulty with reading or comprehension have a certain set of life skills and prior knowledge that those who breeze through the readings do not? I believe she means that those children from minority groups have been forced to look at society in a different light, automatically allowing them to critically view the world. But what about those who are not from a minoritized group and still struggle? Are they able to comprehend how these lenses are to be used while not having experienced any of the "experiential knowledge" Appleman alludes to? I believe that in order to use critical theory, one must be able to comprehend the text first. If we do not know the surface level, how can we look deeper? It's like viewing an amazing comeback win in baseball, but missing the first seven innings where the winning team was losing. It's not really a comeback then, is it?

P.S.: I am writing this with the hopes that someone will dispute me. I can see the definite advantages to critical theory and lenses for ALL learners, no matter their grade. They are able to use the skills they have in order to understand the text in their own way, or in an opposing way, rather than struggle with frustration and give up. This process allows the students to argue their position, which brings in a democratic setting to the classroom - and studies show that discussion is one of the best ways to retain knowledge.