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.

The Art of TPA Lesson Plans

The edTPA is very strictly laid out and if done correctly and according to the guidelines a teacher candidate should have no issues. Three things to always consider while working on the edTPA is 1) Planning, 2) Instruction, and 3) Assessment Tasks. Each of these tasks will be working together to form the overall binder. When planning one part you must always consider all the parts. Artifacts that are going to be considered part of the edTPA are exactly what we do as part of lesson planning. We need to have the lesson plan, content, context, video clips of the teacher candidate teaching, assessments, and materials needed to teach the lesson plans.

What we learn going through the education program is how to write a lesson plan and prepare all the materials to teach. We learn how to focus our lesson but also to always consider how to make the lesson better. We do research and understand deeper how a lesson plan can be helpful to the students. All our learning throughout the education program helps us learn how to be teachers and how what we plan and organize can impact our students. No first-time teacher is perfect but if we follow our guidelines and what we are taught throughout the process we can slowly adapt and learn how to better serve our students.

When looking through the TPA lesson plan guidelines it is all clearly laid out so that someone can pick up the lesson plan, read it, and teach it. The lesson plan goes over in detail how long it should take for the lesson to what Common Core State Standards we are teaching to. Further analysis of the lesson plan would show a break down of the lesson during the class period; telling exactly how the class should move through the information they are learning that day. This process makes it easy for the student teacher to walk into a classroom well prepared for what may come at them that day.

The Dialogue of Social Justice

Critical Social Justice according to Gustavo Pereira in “What do we Need to be Part of Dialogue? From Discursive Ethics to Critical Social Justice” I learned that “critical social justice is to ensure the agency of citizens, which enables them to take part, not only in public discussions about how resources are distributed, but also about matters such as what should be produced, how to do it and through what kind of production” (280). Basically, what this translates for me is that to have the discussions that we have about education or our laws we first need to understand the world that we live in and the implications behind what is being asked. Pereira goes on to argue that without a “normative criterion for moral validity” we also must understand “justifications carried out by discursive ethics” (281). Pereira argues that to understand where social justice comes from and where it leads we first must understand the dialogue of how ethics play a role in decision making or in a sense “rational binding force of moral judgments” (281).

We all have a moral obligation to the world and people around us. What teachers need to show the students in their classrooms is that we all have a moral obligation to be involved in what goes on in our country and our state. Students can learn about social justice or moral obligations if they are pressed into situations that force them to make decisions; however, as teachers we have a moral obligation to introduce our students to the social justices before they reach that point. One way I can see teaching social justice is by having the students read a bill that is up for vote and then have them do research into it as if they were going to vote for it or against it. This brings the conversation of the real world right into the classroom and allows students to understand important issues that affect them.

Pereira, Gustavo. “What do we Need to be Part of Dialogue? From Discursive Ethics to Critical Social Justice.” Critical Horizons, vol. 16, no. 3, Aug. 2015, pp. 280-298.

The World of Popular Culture and Reading

Culture is something that very important and students need to understand the cultures that they will be subjected to as adults. Using popular culture in the classroom to help students learn is a great way to teach them but also introduce important ideas to them. In “Popular Culture and Critical Media Pedagogy they state: “…conceptualizes society as a terrain of domination and resistance and engages in a critique of domination and of the ways that media culture engages in reproducing relationships of domination and oppression”. What the writers are arguing is that our culture is an oppressed culture and must be understood as such. Another part to the oppression that should be understood is that the “rich” or upper class have all the power and therefore push their agenda and thoughts on the lower class, thus creating the oppression. When we read that lower class or different ethnicities are illiterate it is the upper class telling them they must be this way. In reality, the lower class or different ethnicities can read but often need to find what they are passionate about.

As teachers we must teach that students hold the power. Once they realize they hold the power they will succeed. By using Hip-Hop Culture we can show students: “their oppression because it relates to their own experiences and teaches them to be themselves, fight for what they believe in, and pursue their dreams”. The major thing that we should all consider when thinking of using any culture or text is: “Reading the world always precedes reading the word, and reading the word implies continually reading the world. Reading the word is not merely preceded by reading the world, but by a certain form of writing it or rewriting it, that is, of transforming it by means of conscious, practical work”. Why do we read? What meaning does it bring to our lives? Why should we understand the world around us? All things to consider when picking a text and reading it.

Oppression of Students

There are many ways to teach children information so that they excel in life. It has often been wondered how to teach kids and which way is best. Paulo Freire believes that children in today's education are being oppressed and many would agree with him. What he describes is called banking. Banking is filling children like they are a bank account and expecting the information to be fed back out just the way it was fed in. This is not the most recommended way of teaching a child because it leaves so many holes in the education system. A teacher does research and learns a lot of information. The teacher then feeds the information that they learned to the child expecting the child to remember it all and be able to feed it back. The problem with this is the teacher is doing all the work and the students are expected to remember everything.

The problem with this is the responsibility is all on the teacher. The teacher does all the work and learns all the information first hand, and the student is fed what the teacher deems as important. This mentality is set up as “the teacher thinks and the students are thought about”. Not the students think. The students need to learn how to form their own thought process on learning information otherwise they will always rely on someone else to give them key points. When a child graduates into the real world they know information but not how to expand their knowledge and keep learning about the world around them. It is our jobs as educators to teach them the information, but also to teach them how to find the information for themselves and how to work through the process on their own. Students need to learn how to “perceive through their relations with reality that reality is really a process, undergoing constant transformation”.

Book Talk #1 Dead Beautiful

Book Talk #1: Dead Beautiful
Summary:

Dead Beautiful is a fictional story about a young girl in high school. Renee is just a normal girl in California who is struggling with figuring out if a boy really likes here and enjoying her break from school. However, her life quickly changes when both of her parents are found by her dead in the forest. She is thrust into an ever-changing world with many different challenges she does not know how to deal with. Her grandfather takes custody of her and informs her that she will be transferring to a private school that her mother attended at her age as well as moving away to another part of the country. This is a coming of age book for a young girl who must not only deal with her emotions of losing her mother and father but also going to a new home and school. She quickly learns that she really knew little about her parents or her heritage. When she gets to Gottfried Academy she starts to learn about ancient texts that tell of children who died, were not buried properly, and came back to life without a soul. Renee starts to learn how to stop children from stealing other people’s souls, and how to help them and herself deal with death. All of this happens while she is trying to figure out why she is so physically drawn to a young boy on campus.

Rationale:

When I was an adolescent I was struggling with death and change. This book goes through the changes that some adolescent may experience but also adds a touch of science fiction to make the text more intriguing. What some kids may pull from this text is that we all go through things in life and it is what we do with those changes hit that really determine where we will go. Another thing, Renee finds new abilities that she did not know she had when she was faced with change, and this could inspire students to learn new things/interests. This book is about a girl who is their age going through a huge change that would move her perception of the world. This book is an easy read that would allow a student to learn some new vocabulary but can also help them to read easier. For me this is one of those books I could not sit down once I started and had to know what was happening next.

Teaching Ideas:

One of the central ideas of this book is adolescent change which is something all the students are going through. The thing that students connect to in this story may be different, whether it is death, moving, or just the changes that come with growing up students will be able to relate to the main character. Three ways to use this text in the classroom would be: read the text as a class, independent reading, or get to know piece. The reading this text as a class could easily be paired with the getting to know the students. By having them read this text and discuss how the character experiences relate to their own life a teacher can get the students reading as well as learning some something new about their students struggles and where we can help them. For an independent reading, this book plus another could be offered as options for students to pick one and tie it back to the subject of coming of age. This text offers students a relatable character that may be going through similar life changes as they are.

Potential Issues:

A potential issue that will arise with this book is religion. The Academy that Renee attends has students learning how to help the dead. This may cause issues for parents and administrators because many will argue that it is teaching a new religion. When you look at this book strictly from a coming of age piece it will be easy to point out that those components are there to help the character develop and grow into the woman she is at the end of the third book. Another argument to make is that this book helps students see how life can change but also how to make the best out of these changes.

Additional Ideas:

When I was an adolescent I struggled with many changes that I did not understand, as I am sure many have. This book helped me to find a passion in reading, but it also showed me how a life can change so drastically for someone who seems to have a normal life. Whether this is taught in the classroom or given as an independent read for a student it does help a student see the changes in a life can lead to a different outcome. Questions that should be asked: Is this a modern take on a coming of age book? How will the students relate to the text? How can we as teachers relate to the text?

The Idea of Assessing and Evaluation

There has been bad talk against assessment in the past and for good reason. Teaching to the test was a common practice and students did not always learn what they needed to because the tests were on a different subject matter. However, with the coming of Common Core Standards the world of education has changed in a way for the better. Research has found that students will retain information if they are tested on it but what a teacher also needs to consider is there are different types of tests and some students do better on one rather than the other. For example, there may be four to five students in one class that would prefer to write a paper as their assessment, where as others would prefer to take an objective test.

Two things that a teacher should consider when teaching and assessing is: “their ability to apply that knowledge to texts” and “’correct answer’ quizzes, tests, or worksheets provide little or no opportunity for the expression of individual open-ended responses” (Beach225). With Common Core State Standards teachers are asking students to show they understand texts or information they are given, not just to feed it back to the teacher. This is allowing students to understand the text from their point of view and pull information out that others may not have seen as important. By giving the students more freedom there is more of an interest in what the students are learning.

Of course, with new assessment there is new assessment grading. Grade points and letter grades do ascertain if a student is turning in and completing the assignments a teacher is assigning but that does not mean that they are understanding the Common Core State Standards or just understanding the assignment. From what I have learned being in the classroom is the scale of 0 to 4 helps both the teacher and the student understand where they still need to focus learning on and where to move from here. When my mentor teacher and I ask the students how many cell bars they have when they are considering what they learned today most will put up a 3. They put up the three and can explain what they were supposed to learn that day. However, there are a few who will put up a 1 or 2 and will not struggle explaining key terms and concepts we worked on that day. It is the job of the teacher to figure out who is falling where on the scale and see where they may need additional help.

A Look at Reading and Writing Assignments

Daily we are going to be asking our students to complete tasks that align with objectives that they need to complete to pass the class, and eventually, to graduate. One such assignment will include reading and writing. We need to understand what key points will be needed in such an assignment to get our students engaged and learning. There are three major components to creating a reading and writing assignment: reading rhetorically, connecting to reading to write, and writing rhetorically. Each component must be understood individually for them to work together.

Reading rhetorically means to not just focus on what the texts is saying but to also look at the purpose and intentions of the author, and to look at the effect the reading has on the audience. Reading rhetorically has three subsections that must also be understood: (1) pre-reading, (2) reading, and (3) post-reading. Pre-reading builds up to what the students should be looking for while reading. This is where the teacher helps the students look deeper at what the audience may be, how to connect to their own lives, and understand a purpose for reading. Once the students move into the reading section, they will use their knowledge that they obtained for the pre-reading exercises to help “understand the text and to confirm, refine, or refute the predictions” (7) they had made before reading the text. Helping the students to focus their thoughts before reading will help them understand their thoughts after reading. Finally, post-reading is understanding what they have read and processing it in the bigger scheme. The bigger scheme is what is the purpose of the reading the text, understanding what the student got out of reading the text, and creating an argument or idea to help them create a topic for their writing assignment.

Post-reading often goes hand in hand with connecting to reading to writing. In connecting to reading to writing the student must have an idea of what the text is arguing or stating. From there the students can generate ideas on what they would like to argue in their paper, and the students must learn how to connect their ideas back to the text they read. In this step student will have to learn how to transition their thoughts, ideas, and information into an argument or central idea to write for a specific audience.

When transitioning into writing rhetorically students must consider: “audience, purpose, ethos, situation, message, and genre” (19). Once they have considered these things, students will be able to organize what they want to argue and what they may still need to do this. This is where the students really start to organize their thoughts and information into a paper. The students will be asked to enter the conversation that is already started in the reading that they have already completed and build upon it. The first draft or two will be the students getting their thoughts out. They are intended to be rough. Once they start really revising and organizing their thoughts and see their order of importance the students will start putting it into a well formulated essay.

What we must remember all through these processes is that students need guidance and help organizing what they are learning. Once they get the entire process down they will need less and less help. This process will help the students when they read later in life to understand what they are reading and what the purposes of them are, and it will help students to have well rounded arguments when talking to people about their readings.

Understanding Common Core Standards

Common Core State Standards are easy to understand once you get an understanding of teaching. The reading literature standards are very straight forward and easy to grasp. All you are doing is writing a lesson that attaches to each standard. For example, RL.11-12.4 states students need to determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple means or languages that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. Words that we read can take on different means to different people and require further study and analysis. What Common Core Standards do is outline what a student should be learning. It is up to the teacher how they want to try and teach the techniques to the students.

I have recently been placed in a classroom to observe and teach. I have been excited to do this because you can only do so much reading and studying before you need hands on experience. One of the classes that my mentor teacher teaches is Bridge to College. This class is seniors who will not graduate because they did not pass the state tests and need more help making sure they can complete the common core state standards. The chapter “The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts Instruction in Grades 6-12” points out that the Common Core Standards were adopted to help students be prepared for the new skills that really must be acquired to live in our modern world.

I had not thought of how to adopt Common Core Standards and the current events into the classroom until I saw my master teacher doing an argumentative essay on “How close is Big Brother?”. The students are all given an initial article that they must read. Once they have read that article they must do further research based on what they saw in the initial article. They must complete all their own research and then formulate a thesis. Once they have done that they must write and well organized argumentative essay explaining their findings. This approach is having the students learn about events happening today while also formulating an opinion, but what this is also doing is teaching Common Core Standards in a way that students will become more engaged in.

Why Graphic Novels?

As I see it graphic novels are a way of bring picture books for an older audience or bringing older stories to new light. For me graphic novels are a fun way to read a story that allows me to picture exactly what the other pictured. I have always enjoyed graphic novels since I was a kid and the fact that so many people are now making quality stories into graphic novels excites me. I feel that students can relate to the graphic novel a little easier because they are tended towards a younger audience.

To this day I will always remember the first graphic novels I ever read, and they were the X-Men. I remember sitting there and reading what happened next to my favorite characters while seeing the actions that they were doing. The graphic novel made my mind almost bring the pictures alive to where I could see the characters moving across the page and it made the story become more alive.

What my hope is for my students is to bring reading alive where they enjoy it and want to read more. I watch the kids on my school bus read books to entertain them while we go to and from school. Sometimes it is a book for school and sometimes it is a book they wanted to read. Often times I will talk to them about what they are reading and what they wished from the book. The most common thing that I hear is that they wish that they could see some of the points from the book in picture form so that they could follow it better or have their mind picture it better.

Graphic novels are a way for people to have more fun while reading and be able to interact with the story more.

Discussing Discussion

Discussions can go one of two ways: really well or really badly. When they go really well it usually means someone has put a lot of thought and organization into what the teacher wants talked about and the questions are very organized to lead the discussion further. When a discussion goes really badly we can tell that the questions were not thought out very well and/or the students did not understand what was being asked of them.

Discussions are a great way to get students talking about the topic at hand. In many ways it can also show the teacher what the students are understanding and what they may need more clarification on. One specific type of discussion that I particularly liked was giving each person in the group roles and discussing a topic from the roles. For example having the students each taking on one of the main characters' persona while discussing something that happened in the chapter that day. This makes the students try to get into the heads of the characters in the book to try to understand them and their actions better. This can also help them to see why characters may act the way they do.

Another thing to think about when doing a discussion is making sure you have ground rules and you know where you want the discussion to go. If you let the students just run free reign of the discussion then most likely they will not get out of it what you are wanting from them. Kids these days easily get off topic. The teacher needs to be prepared with ideas on how to focus the group back in or make sure they do not get off topic in the first place. Ground rules and well focused questions can help the students stay on topic and learn from the discussion.

http://webshare.northseattle.edu/Sustainability_in_Healthcare/Discussion_as_a_Way_of_Teaching%20INC-Learning%20Circles.pdf