Having students engage in authentic writing is extremely important because it makes the writing assignment relevant to them.  It gives it a purpose.  Too often, teachers just give writing assignments to students without giving the assignment some sort of purpose.  I know when I was in high school, I hated assignments that didn’t have a point to them.  Those types of assignments send the message:  You’re in English.  Writing papers is what you do.

With the Internet, writing for an authentic audience has become so easy.  Students can easily create blogs and web pages.  They can create YouTube videos and voice boards.  Even doing something simple, such as posting a project in the hall gives the students an authentic audience.  It’s not difficult to create an audience for an assignment.  I think the problem emerges because too often teachers don’t want to put forth extra effort to design these non-traditional activities.

Getting adults to appreciate language is difficult enough; getting a high school student to do so seems nearly impossible.  BUT . . . I THINK I HAVE AN IDEA!

One of my main goals in teaching English is not to get the students to become passionate about the literature they’re reading; it’s to get them to understand universal themes and to appreciate what the author was doing.  Part of that appreciation is appreciating the language.  Traditionally, this is executed in poetry units, but I think it’s necessary for all forms of literature.  Part of what makes great literature great is the language employed by the author.

Another way to foster language appreciation is allowing students to complete any free writing, journal writing, or creative writing in different dialects.  I plan on teaching in my former high school, which is a predominantly African American high school in a rural area.  Very few students speak in any dialect resembling Standard American English.  Experts recommend allowing ELL students to complete assignments in their own language because that helps them to think better; why can’t we do the same with students who aren’t ESL?  Maybe writing in their home dialect will help their thinking.  As long as we emphasize code switching and explain appropriateness of language, home dialects will not transfer into formal essays.  I think code-switching helps to foster language appreciation because code-switching demonstrates how different dialects are used daily in different situations.  This makes language appreciation relevant to the student, and, I believe, will result in their own appreciation of language.

Is there such a thing as too much or too little poetry???

I think for some people there definitely is.  Poetry in and of itself is a fairly difficult genre for me to teach.  The poems that I love,  I love; all the rest I don’t particularly careful.  Poetry just isn’t my thing; I’m definitely more of a novel kind of gal.  BUT . . . I can definitely appreciate the art of poetry and the intellect and creativity involved in writing good poetry. 

Going into teaching, I realize that there are going to be students who despise poetry for some reason or another, students who are indifferent to poetry, and those who are poetry enthusiasts.  How do I appeal to all of these people?  Well, I think everyone needs a dose of poetry.  Because poetry can be written about anything and in a wide variety of styles, everyone can find at least one poem that they enjoy.  I want to explain to students that they don’t have to like the poems we read or even like poetry, but they need to appreciate the form and the work that goes into creating a poem.

The key, I think, to resolving the issue of too much vs. too little poetry is to offer CHOICES!  After giving students an  introduction to poetry and after reading a few poems with them, teachers should give students a choice into how much poetry students should be required to read.  If you’re working on a project, place a minimum number of poems, so students have a standard to meet.  I think choice will allow those students who don’t care too much for poetry to find some poems that suit them.  There is always a way in which to strike a balance with any two things.  The amount of poetry is just another item to add to the list.

When I think about teaching literature and drama, I think about students being actively engaged with the text.  Too often students are robotic and unable to comprehend essential elements of a novel or drama because they can’t get the tone.  Somehow, I want to break down the barrier of “coolness” and open the classroom up to active engagement with a text.  I want my students to feel comfortable in reading in the dialect of the text or in acting out absurd scenes.  Even though it may feel embarrassing at first, it will help in fostering comprehension.

I guess I want literature to be more than minds-on; I also want it to be hands-on.  Sure, literature and drama are meant to be discussed and analyzed, but they are also written for active readers.  Students remember more about something when they are actually performing or doing something with the concept.  It will be much easier for a student to remember “The Telltale Heart” if the students who read the story aloud read it frantically and in a tone of someone struggling with acute paranoia.

I am by no means an expert in drama.  As I’ve stated before, I’m realistic about the fact that few of my students will ever develop the same passion I have for literature; however, if I put my enthusiasm and passion into my teaching and foster an open environment, I think that students will feel more comfortable in actively engaging with a text. 

In establishing reading skills in our students, we need to spend more time focusing on vocabulary.  Too often, students encounter words that they don’t know and simply skip over them.  Students are losing too much context and understanding; we really need to take more time to stress the importance of vocab. 

I think having an open environment will foster exploration for students.  If we immediately explain to students at the beginning of the year that they should feel free to ask when they have any questions, we can also get them to actively engage with text and discover new meanings of words they don’t know.

Like every other good English major, I’m ridiculously passionate about literature.  There’s nothing I like better than to spend summer days lounging by the pool with a good book or to spend spring and fall swinging on the porch swing in the breeze, becoming completely immersed in the plot of a great novel.  While I want to incorporate this love for reading into my teaching, I know that thinking that I can make all of my students passionate about literature is completely unrealistic.  I would love for this to be the case; fortunately instilling a passion for literature isn’t the reason I want to teach.  

What breaks my heart most about students disliking reading is the fact that many of those students don’t actually dislike reading—they’re afraid of it.  My theory is that this fear originates from a lack of confidence due to a lack of reading skills.  I want to teach students that there is no reason for fearing literature . . . all they need is some confidence.  I want to be the one to give them that confidence.  It is my desire to show students essential reading skills and to teach them very helpful reading skills.  Confidence in reading skills is the underlying key to a great English curriculum.  

I think implementing reading skills will carry students beyond high school and help them when they are on their own.  This is something English teachers need to think about.  It’s great if some students develop passion for literature through your class, but the majority of our students aren’t going to feel that way.  So, we need to ask ourselves . . . what’s more beneficial in the work force . . . an in depth knowledge of classic literature OR reading skills that will help you follow directions and perform as your employer needs you to?  

Bat Assignment

Appeal for new mascot

Choose a group that you find that you most identify with or that holds the most interest for you.  Each group will be responsible for a particular area of research regarding bats.

• Scientific Info
• Cultural Impact
• Influence in Literature
• Refute Negative Stereotypes

Create a proposal to present to the administration about changing the current mascot to a bat.

• As a class, we will write the intro and conclusion together.
• Each expert group will create their own section of the proposal.
• We will develop a PowerPoint that compiles all information from each expert group.
  • Present to admin together

UBD helps students learn and be successful by utilizing large goals to frame the curriculum.  Teachers who use Understanding by Design must think about the big picture goals.  In doing so, they gear all instruction towards those goals.  This gives the instruction more depth and helps the students to do more than simply scratch the surface.

UBD also seems to inherently promote being very open with students.  It’s okay for teachers to talk to students about where they’re headed in the next unit and about what they want students to gain.  I think open communication not only fosters a great learning environment for students but also promotes discussion and interaction.

My biggest fear with UBD is that I will be unable to consistently focus on the learning goals and big objectives and will instead be more activity-oriented.  Too often I become extremely excited about activities I have planned, causing me to lose sight of the bigger picture.  I think this is a problem that many people face, and I hope I am able to rectify it before I begin teaching.

The section of Understanding by Design that I read for class today discussed the need for criteria in the classroom.  I really enjoyed the part in which the authors discussed holistic versus analytical rubrics.

Teachers too often rely on holistic rubrics because they’re so much easier to grade.  However, they don’t always fit the assignment/assessment well.  This is often the case in English.  For example, presentations include too many facets to grade in one rubric.  In my opinion, the actual presentation and the content of the presentation should have separate rubrics.  It just doesn’t seem fair to use only one rubric when considering the actual work put into the project and the project itself, AND the way in which a student or a group present and explain the work.

Even though it requires more work, I definitely agree with the authors that teachers need to make criteria important and specific.