Reading for Pleasure

Last weekend I went to the drive-inn movies with my two girlfriends and saw Easy A. I thought it was a very cute movie. The message in the movie could apply to anyone, but specifically towards teenagers because teens tend to believe/spread rumors. This movie is about how a rumor spread and ruined a girl's reputation. If this movie wasn't centered around sexual content, I think some parts of the movie would be great to show in a classroom to show the effects of rumors. This movie also makes reference to The Scarlet Letter, which is where the movie gets its name. Click here for the trailer.

I don't get a lot of time to read for pleasure when I am in school taking classes. My cooperating teacher does Scholastic Book orders and I take advantage of this immensely. I can tell where my Resident Services pay check will be going. On the first book order I bought Al Capone Does my Shirts, The Hunger Games, and The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. I have yet to read any of these, but I am excited to start.

On the next book order I am buying a book about autism, a historical fictio

n book called Chains,and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part -Time Indian. When my teacher was in a meeting, I was in her classroom and I began to read the first part of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. I thought the humor was magnificent. The book is told by a male narrator who has brain damage/trouble. Throughout the book he has drawings throughout to explain what he is thinking/saying. I look forward to purchasing this book and reading the rest of it.

I am so glad my teacher does the Scholastic Book order because it is helping me build my classroom library. I see how many books she has in her classroom library and it inspires me to continue to buy books for my students. I want to give my students opportunities to read and I will do Silent Reading at the beginning of class so students get this opportunity.

(This is my teacher's classroom library)

Reflections of Course Content

So far in Teaching Language and Composition I have learned many activities to help build a better writing classroom for my students. Like I explained in a previous blog post, I love the idea of the traveling journals with specific topics to focus on. I feel like this is a great way to get students writing, and they help students continuously write. I want to try something like Erin Gruwell and have students just write journal entries daily. The entries can be about whatever they want, but it is a good way to help kids release their thoughts and get them to write. I think that if I had a criteria of how many posts they need to have for the week will be efficient. I don't need to read the entry, only if the student allows me to read it then I will. Journal writing can be very effective.

I also was surprised by the standardized test writing scores. I was shocked that so many of my peers and I had different responses to the grading. What shocked me even more was the fact that my peers and myself have different grading standards compared to the state requirements. This is a difficult situation because this type of grading can be very objective. As a teacher, you need to be cognizant of what is suppose to be in a student's writing. I fell in love with Kelly Gallagher's philosophy of writing. He makes the rubric with the class which I 100% agree with because then the student knows what is expected of him/her. I also like the fact that he personalizes the rubrics to fit each individual student. Each student will have two different comments on the bottom of their rubric for what he/she needs to work on in that particular writing piece. This helps that student perfect the area in which he or she is struggling. My cooperating teacher also values Gallagher's philosophy and I am glad we both get to apply his methods to our classroom. Visit his website for more details.

I am teaching Career Portfolios for my Strategy Demonstration. At first, I was hesitant because I didn't think this was too relevant to an English classroom, but I was wrong. I have found a great idea on a website that I am excited to share with the class. I am almost done preparing my lesson and look forward to presenting it to the class. I will be focusing on a Grade 11 indicator.

Atwell-Chapter 5 Getting Started

I loved Atwell's philosophy of writing territories. In the first section of this chapter, Atwell has students break up into groups on a scavenger hunt to find resources that writers and readers will use. I found this to be a very clever idea because it is engaging students with each other, getting students familiar with writing/reading materials, and it is a fun first couple of days ice breaker. The list is found on page 119 of the textbook if anyone is interested in looking at it.

Students are unable to come up with topics to write about a lot of times, so the idea of "territories" is a great way to get students brainstorming. According to Atwell, "the list of territories represents my self-portrait as a writer" (120). I think this is a great motto. Having students sit in a circle while Atwell discusses her territories, which include topics, genres, and audiences, allows students to get their imagination flowing. This is also a great modeling technique that Atwell demonstrates so students are aware of what she is looking for.

Atwell shares her writings with students, allowing them to build a trusting teacher relationship with her.

One thing I plan on doing with my students is silent reading time. I like that Atwell also has reading workshops. At my student teaching location, the teacher has book talks to get students interested in reading particular novels. Atwell has a similar approach. If a student finds a text he or she is not interested in, Atwell provides that student with 5 choices and gives a brief overview of the book. This is a great way for students to be introduced to many texts. She walks around with a clipboard documenting student progress. I don't necessarily agree with this because silent reading time is suppose to be free of distractions. I think it is a good idea to document student progress, but you could do that through book recommendations.

Overall, this was an informative chapter. This textbook is engaging and I continue to learn many great ideas through Atwell's experiences.

The Freedom Writers Diary

When I was a little girl I remember playing school in my basement; however, it wasn't until 2007 when I first saw the movie The Freedom Writers that I knew I wanted to make teaching my career. The movie inspired me to be an influential teacher just like Erin Gruwell. When I saw on Dr. Kist's reading recommendations that The Freedom Writers Diary was an optional book, I knew I had to read it. I knew the book came out years before the movie, but I was too busy reading other things. I remember starting The Freedom Writers Diary when I was a freshman in college, but because of my busy schedule I was unable to finish it. I am glad I started to read it again.

I have been tabbing certain pages. This diary of all of the students thoughts and feelings is an emotional roller-coaster. It's amazing to see how far these students have come. When I teach, I want students to keep a journal just like the students at Wilson High. Some students may roll their eyes because they have to keep a journal, just as many of Ms. Gruwell's students did, but after getting use to the journaling the students found it as a way to let out their emotions.

I enjoy reading about Erin's teaching strategies and I have some ideas of ways I could incorporate her ideas into my classroom. I am borrowing her "Toast for Change" campaign and lesson for my student teaching 10-day unit. I was moved by this story and feel as though my students could do the same. Erin does a fabulous job of bringing literature together and relating it to her student's lives. Erin knows her students and because she knows them, she is able to teach them.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to be a teacher, not just an English teacher. Reading about how "at-risk" students become successful is reason in itself to want to teach and help make a difference in a child's life.

Here are some links relating to the Freedom Writers:

Click here for the movie trailer.

Click here for the Freedom Writers Foundation.

Student Teaching

I am student teaching at Green High School. My teacher, Mrs. Schaub, is very helpful. She has provided me with many new materials such as textbooks and handouts. Her organization fits well with mine. I will be teaching Language Arts 10B, which is the basic Language Arts class. I will have one class of inclusion students. Also I will be teaching creative writing and mythology. I am a little nervous about mythology because I am not as familiar with it as I am the other subjects. In Language Arts I will be teaching Of Mice and Men and Julius Caesar. For my ten-day unit I will be teaching persuasive non-fiction. Mrs. Schaub has given me some great ideas and I have come up with the theme "Toast for Change." I will introduce persuasive speeches, read stories from the textbook, find propaganda and different forms of media that has persuasion. I will also be including a lesson on rhetoric. I look forward to student teaching.

Mrs. Schaub has a website to keep her students informed. I feel this is a great way to keep students connected. Click here to view her website. Mrs. Schaub is a firm believer in silent reading and reading for pleasure. She gives students 10 minutes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for silent reading. She also does Scholastic Book Orders to get students more involved with reading. I like her style and I am learning a lot from her.

M. Myers

✓ After reading what Myers had to say about recitation, I was turned off to the English curriculum of that time period. On page 64 where it discusses the oral recitations appalled me. Having a child sit on a bench facing a teacher to recite a piece of writing or literature is no way to learn. The toe-to-line approach is barbaric. The line, "children were expected to stand on the line, perfectly motionless, their bodies erect, their knees and feet together, the tops of their shoes touching the edge of a board in the floor" (64). The way a child stands, whether they are perfectly motionless or not, will not effect their learning. I can see how children were more disciplined with this method, but this style of teaching reminds me of a boarding school.

✓I was amazed to read about the circulating libraries in the 1850s. In today's society there is a library in almost every township that hundreds of people can use, but in the 1850s there was one library for every 600 free adults.

✓ I think the recitation method has many flaws, but may have worked for its time period. Because the recitation method didn't require all students to have a book in hand, it makes me wonder what the children did who didn't have a book. I understand that this helped with the shortage of books, but each student needs a copy of a book, or at least share. Also, on page 67 the text reads, "In recitation schooling, one's intelligence was determined by how many written materials one could recite." This is entirely not true because a student may only recite one written material, but acquire more information than a student who recites 15 written materials.

✓ I don't like how students were sorted by their order of "achievement." Students learn from each other so students need to be intermixed with their abilities. I feel as though this ranking is just a way to point out who is smarter, or richer in a classroom.

✓ Overall this article was informative of past teaching techniques. As a teacher, I do not agree with this method and feel as though it wouldn't work for students in today's society. Students need more hands on activities to help engage them in learning and teachers need to do more than sit on a bench as a child recites a line of poetry back to them. Teachers need to model what they are trying to conveying to their students.

In the Middle Chapter 1

✓ This textbook kept my interest. The way Atwell begins this first chapter, allowed me to get into her mindset. I am a huge fan of Erin Gruwell, and the way Atwell begins In The Middle reminds me of The Freedom Writer's Diary. Both Erin and Atwell have beliefs of how to teach a certain topic to students and they both didn't fully have support from their colleagues.

✓ I agree with Atwell that students should have an opportunity to write about what they want, and I believe I will adopt this technique; however, in some circumstances, teachers need to have a theme or topic to guide students when learning specific writing processes. I think in my own classroom I will have a mixture of both allowing students to chose their own topics and coming up with a theme for students to follow when we are discussing a more complex writing style.

✓ After reading chapter one, I realized that I resonate with Kelly Gallagher's style of teaching writing the most. I like picking five things for students to focus on rather than completely marking up their papers. Atwell discusses in chapter one how she would go home and continuously mark up a student's paper and they would not correct the error. Focusing on five specific elements allows students to learn better that way.

✓ One aspect of Atwell's teaching style I liked was the fact she would write with students. Although she was not writing well in the classroom, students saw she was a writer. I want to adopt this practice and actually write with my students. They can see that a teacher can write just like students. I like how she has minilessons for writing. I think for my classroom I would like to have a grammar lesson mixed with a writing lesson. I agree with Atwell when she says, "conferences with individuals are more important than minilessons to the group" (Atwell 17). I agree with this because if only a select few need help with a certain topic, teachers waste time lecturing the whole class. That whole list Atwell provides on page 17 is helpful.