Personal Reflection

1. Reflect on the work you’ve completed in the course (book talks, unit plans, etc.)

My favorite part of this class was the book talks. I learned about so many new books and found so many interesting topics to look farther into. I found that some books were not my style, but I could see students that I currently have that would be interested in them. As for the articles we did, I enjoyed learning about the edTPA that we will have to be doing very soon. I also enjoyed learning about creating my own teaching statement. These things will help me in the future. The books that we read could be used in history or language art, so I enjoyed finding things that cover both of my interests for teaching. The final 3-week unit plan that we had to work on was hard but very helpful. I found new ways to look at language arts in connect to other subject areas. I wish that I had been able to teach the unit in a classroom and seen how I would have changed it after teaching it.

2. Reflect on the theories and concepts we explored in readings and discussions

I think my favorite theory that we discussed was “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”. This was the most informative to me because I have often wondered where the line is between the teacher learning all the information and the students learning how to find information on their own. Often times, articles are given, or readings are given, then we expect students to feed us back the information in a specific way. I observed a change to this idealism this quarter. In my placement I saw students given a couple articles to read. Once they read the articles they had to get onto the online data base and expand their research on a specific part from the articles they already read. This was an argumentative essay that students had to find their own research to support their argument. The entire time the students were working on this assignment I kept thinking back to “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”. As teachers we always need to remember that our students are the learners, and for them to succeed we must teach them the skills needed to work it out on their own.

3. Reflect on how you think your participation in this course has influenced your thinking about yourself as a teacher

I know that I need to improve a lot as a student and teacher. We all have room to improve. I work really hard on somethings and not so much on others. I lose focus because of my own personal issues in life and often forget to check back in with my professor to make sure that I am on point. This quarter was hard for me. I had to learn to juggle more than I have ever had to do. Things got forgotten or left on the back burner. I need to do better organization in the future and focus on all that needs to be done well before it needs to be done. If I learn a better way to organize than I will be set.

Edgar Allan Poe

The Premature Burial (217)

Of all the ways to die there is no easy way, but to be buried alive must be one of the worse. We can appear dead or in a sort of suspended animation. Who is sure where the line between death and life truly lies. We have no way to tell. It is easy to say someone is dead or alive, or at least that is what we are led to believe. To bring someone back to life is another feet in itself, we must examine what it does to the body and to the people who witness it. To be touched by a soul that had been lost and then revived was a daunting thing, and it scared the people who witnessed it.

A Valentine (776)

Poe loved someone once and he describes how it felt all the way to the end. He has hidden the name of the person he loved in the poem and what I have found is that the person’s name was Frances. It must have been a great love and a great feet to put their name into the poem the way he did.

To – – (778)

To a mystery person Poe asks why he thinks so often of them. He wonders what has brought these thoughts to his head. Could it have been a dream? He now stands “motionless upon the golden Threshold” looking out upon a dream, waiting for an answer.

A Dream (833)

Does a dream only happen at night? Or do we have dream states during the day? Can some of our experiences throughout the day almost seem like a dream? In this poem Poe addresses the question of his dream is really a dream because it happens during the day.

Rationale

Poe wrote many great poems and short stories that are still widely praised today. What students can learn from Poe is how to take their thoughts and dreams and put them into words to share with the world. I personally have never cared much for Poe because I thought he was dark and over praised. However, after reading new poems and short story of his I can see that he had a wide variety of writing that he did. He used his life and dreams to write. We can all do this. A good age range for this would be high school because they would be able to understand some of the language that Poe is using better than a younger student. 

Teaching Ideas

1)      Some students may find it fun to write a poem with someone’s name embed in it. To mimic what Poe did in A Valentine. They could write a poem about someone they know and then change it slightly so that each line contains a letter like Poe did.

2)      Another idea would have students write a poem about a dream or dream like experience they had. This will help them translate what they are dreaming or thinking to words to share.

3)      Something else students could do is pick a Poe poem and write their own in a similar format. This helps them learn different ways of writing poems or short stories.

4)      One final lesson idea would be to have students write short stories that convey a thought or idea off a list. The list would be created by some of poems short story titles or his poem titles.

Challenges

Students: Kids may not be interested in Poe, but we can help them get more involved by giving them options of what to read and options of what to write. Like the lesson plan is to have students write short stories but they must pick the topic by using a title from one of Poe’s works to do so. This can show them how to see things from multiple perspectives.

Parents: Some parents may believe that Poe is outdated and overused. One way we can bring them on board with them is tell the lessons that we plan on using and how it can help their children become better writers and help them also to express their feelings.

Administration: Poe is still used in the public-school system, so I think they would be willing to let certain works to be admitted, but we still must be selective because some of his works can be a bit dark and depressing.

Night

Rationale:

Our world is filled with evil and to not repeat the mistakes of the past everyone needs to know the mistakes. Our world has seen some awful things with the Nazis. This is a great book to discuss in History class or in Language Arts class. This book is a real-life account of the things that happened when the Nazis tried to change things in Europe. There is a lot of symbolism and imagery in this book that can help students to learn how to write using symbolism and imagery. This book should only be taught to 11^th or 12^th graders because they will have more maturity to understand the content of the book.

Teaching Ideas:

History: By teaching this in a history class we can show students the impact of the Nazis decisions as well as compare this story to others that have been written about that period in history.

Language Arts: This is a great book to use for imagery and symbolism. As we work through the book we can have students analyze different things that are brought to the readers attention. For example, the title Night is an example of symbolism and represents death and the death of Wiesel’s childhood. Once we understand this symbol we can compare it to later symbols such as fire, silence, and corpses.

Challenges:

Students: This book is a bit graphic and is based on real life experience. Students will have to be able to understand that they are reading this to better understand themes and look at this as a historical piece of evidence.

Parents: Some parents may have an issue for this book due to the very vivid imagery and the content. As a teacher we must explain to them our rationale for teaching it and explain how we plan on using the content to help students learn.

Administration: The administration may have an issue with this book only because of some of the things that are discussed in the book, but this book is a real-life account of events and should be approached with that in mind. Explaining to the administration and parents the rationale and how to discuss certain topics in the book will help the students to understand it better.

Into The Wild

Rationale:

This book offers students a look at the difference between nonfiction and fiction. We can see in this book how nonfiction events can be just as powerful. This book covers important topics such as family dynamic, changing your life, and how we live our lives. Students can see how someone can want to change their life based on how they grew up.

Teaching ideas:

To have the students better understand the characters we could have them analyze the relationships between father and son and how it influenced the choices made in the book. Another thing to consider is have the students write what they would have done differently to go live out in the wild like this. What they would have wanted to make sure to bring and what choices they would have made differently. There are 3 things that I would want my students to analyze while reading: alienation, individual and society, and nature. These three things can be analyzed together or separately, but one thing the student needs to understand is how they work together and how they do not.

Challenges:

This is a book based on real events and that can be hard for some to read, especially since the main character dies at the end of the book. For students: we need to outline the events and make sure to keep going over that how the ending could have been avoided. Making sure that students understand what they are to learn from the book. For parents: lay out the rationale for reading this book and why it is important for students to read this book instead of a fiction story that covers the same issues. For administration: it is the same as the parents we need to lay out the rationale for picking this topic and why it is important to cover this book instead of another.

The Round House

Rationale:

The issues faced in this book show a teenager dealing with real life decisions. This book would be for high school students only because of its graphic topics like rape and death. There are great themes of family and coming of age. These are important issues that students may need reminded of. Family is something that not all of us have in the typical sense and it will help students to see that who we have are our family and how we stick together.

Teaching Ideas:

Some ways to help students to learn how to use imagery is to have them be news reporters and write up a report on the construction site where they find Mayla’s body. Another way to work with imagery is to have the kids write a diary from one of the character’s points of view on the events happening. The items that are throughout the book can also be turned into symbols that the students must write what they think there meaning is. By writing what they think there meaning is the students can learn about how symbols show emotions.

Challenges:

Because this book has some graphic content the students will need to be told what they should expect when reading. As for parents there will need to be a letter home explaining why we are reading this book and how we plan to deal with the graphic content. Some parents may disagree with the use of this book and so we can arrange a meeting with the parents to discuss why they think it is a poor choice and how we intend to deal with the content to protect their children. Administration may also have issues with the content and would request details on how we will deal with the student’s reactions. As a teacher we need to be prepared to give a valid argument for why we pick books and why we want to teach a book.

That all being said I personally would not use this book in a classroom because of the content. There are many other books that do not touch on these topics that could teach the same.

Book Talk 2

The Girl Death Left Behind Summary

            Beth’s, a young high school girl, family had been invited to the company picnic. She was not feeling well and wanted to stay home. That was the day her entire life changed; her entire family was killed in a car accident. From that day forward, she wished she had died. Her and her best friend had lived next door to each other for most of their lives and now she was being forced to move with her aunt and “perfect” cousin. She wanted nothing move for her life to be over or to go back to what it was, but now she was being forced into a new life and new situation she wanted nothing to do with. In her new life she made a new friend, one her aunt and cousin did not think was a good fit. This friend encouraged her to skip school and do things against the “norm”, and she met a boy who she wanted to make a connection with. Her life came to another screaming halt when she found out that her family home was being sold and her aunt was going to clear out the house. She was devastated, and with the help of her new friend she ran away home. Her aunt finds her and calms her down and they work out an agreement to keep all of her parent’s things in storage so that she can go through them when she is a bit older. The story ends with them visiting her families graves and her finally making peace with all that was happening in her ever-changing world.

I’ll Be Seeing You Summary

Carley was a sixteen-year-old girl who had been scared by a facial deformity. She had been in and out of the hospital trying to get it fixed so she felt more confident about herself. It is during one of her visits she meets a young man named Kyle. Kyle had lost his eyesight during a chemistry experiment with his friends. Carley kept the secret of her scaring from him and they struck it off. This story is a journey of her keeping her secret as they head back into the real world. The problem is that Kyle regains his eyesight and wants badly to see Carley for himself. When Kyle finally learns of her scaring he tries to convince Carley that he does not care but she lashes out and ends things saying she doesn’t want to be a charity case. Kyle is persistent and proves that he cares about her by flying with his uncle a banner over her school on Valentine’s day.

Rationale

            These books show a young reader how they can overcome bad things that happen in their lives. When I was a young reader I had self-esteem issues and dealt a lot with death. These books helped me to see the brighter side and how good can come out of the bad. We all need that push to see the good out of the bad. Life changes all the time and it is our challenges that make us who we are today.

Teaching Ideas

            This book has great topics and may be good for some to read it may not be good books for the entire class. However, these books would be great for an independent reading or a book club talk. It has some tough topics about death that would not be good for some to hear given their background, but it does have good topics of self-esteem and coming of age. Something to consider would be to have students who may be inspired by young women overcoming their personal issues could relate best to this. If I were to use this in the classroom it would be a good book for imagery and how to write comparison stories.

Challenges

            The only challenges I see is some kids my not want to hear about a girl’s struggle with what these two girls face. What I think would be fun is to see a young mans take on what these girls go through and how they shape them into men.

I Read It, But I Don't Get It my own personal experience

When I was young I hated reading. I really hated when a teacher would ask me to read out loud too. I had trouble reading and I couldn’t figure out why, so I just didn’t want to do it. I came up with ways to read without actually reading. However, I could never avoid reading out loud. My problem was I would stumble over words and have a hard time saying them because I have a slight dyslexia and it gets worse when I am put on the spot. For years it made me not want to read at all. Scared me almost to have to admit I needed help. Then one day I was hanging out in the library with my friends during lunch. We were the card playing nerds who did this every day. I was watching my guy play his game and I saw a book on the shelf that looked interesting. I loved looking at book covers because I thought maybe someday I could read a book like that without trouble. I had convinced my parents to buy me lots of books in the hopes that one day I would actually be able to read one. This day was that day. Without thinking I took the book to the counter and checked it out. I read it cover to cover by the next day lunch and returned it. This prompted me to just start grabbing books that I liked the cover of and just read it. If I struggled with it, I quit reading it and got another.

I still struggle today with my dyslexia, but I have now learned how to handle it better. Some days it is still pretty bad, but I power through. I recently met a kid who suffered from dyslexia, he is failing out of school and has no desire to even graduate. He is less than six months from graduation and less than two months from his eighteenth birthday. He told me he plans on dropping out the day after his birthday and getting a job. He and I talked for thirty minutes about reading required for school and how he just didn’t read because he could not find a helpful way to do it. When I told him that I suffered the same issue and was just about to finish my teaching certification he asked me how I do it. What I told him was there is no one way to read when you have dyslexia. Different texts take special treatment. I will sometime read and then reread the same thing 3 times before the text will understand. However, I also told him about reading for pleasure and what that did for me. When I finally got into reading my own things I was able to identify words and times my dyslexia would flare up and how to combat it or just take a break. He liked that I had figured it out on my own and wanted me to help him. I told him that I would help him no problem, but he had to put forth the effort and contact me on his own. I have never heard from him.

When we slow down and hear what is causing our students the problems we can really try and help them. Something I do know is if I don’t know a word or I am unsure I am reading it correctly I will type what I see into dictionary.com and they will tell me what I am reading. It has helped when because when I see that word again I remember what it means. We all have struggles when it comes to reading we just have to find the trade off of how to make it into something we can enjoy or want to read.