Learning Letter Post

This quarter has been a very fulfilling one. I was happy to share my book talk with the class, over John Green’s Looking for Alaska, a great coming of age novel that could be used in literature classrooms from grades 7 through 10 based on the Lexile level and mature themes. Then in my mini-lesson I taught a literary devices lesson over Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat. And finally, I created a three-week unit plan that covered John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. I put in a lot of work for each project, and I think that I did a very good job with each one.

I really enjoyed the readings and discussions over the pedagogical materials we explored this quarter. They gave insightful techniques that could be used in my future classroom. I particularly enjoyed the using class discussions as a teaching practice because I think that discussion enhances the learning process for students. I agree with that practice because when discussion is used effectively, students share ideas and interpretations of texts and they do the majority of the learning. I think it is important to incorporate the different ideas that we learned about this quarter and try each one to see if they work in future classrooms.

I have learned a lot as far as my abilities are as a curriculum maker, and I have learned to collaborate with peers to help share ideas. I have been participating in my practicum for two quarters now, so I have been able to interact and teach my own lessons for a while now, but what I have learned is that you can always teach more lessons to learn and become better at your craft. I am more comfortable with the idea of being a teacher now more than ever and I know I will get better as I continue to practice and work on my craft. I look forward to learning more and practicing my pedagogical skills. 

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Post

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, is a powerful story telling the tale of a young boy named Junior who is growing up on the Spokane Indian reservation. The story deals with Junior’s quest to get a better education than what he was getting on the reservation.  He enrolls and attends an all-white school in the neighboring community, Reardan. At the school, Junior is made fun of for the way he looks and is bullied incessantly. A star athlete named Roger makes a racist comment to Junior and so Junior hits him. Roger is bewildered that Junior fought back and walks away, having a new-found respect for Junior. Junior eventually makes friends and even makes the varsity basketball team.

Junior undergoes tremendous adversity while trying to get his education. He is an outcast amongst his tribe, he loses his best friend when he goes to the new school, his family is very poor, and he has to deal with tremendous loss as loved ones around him either leave or are killed in alcohol related incidents. But despite the problems Junior must face, he makes friends at his new school, he does well in sports, and he does well in his classes.

I think that students should read this novel because it allows for students to see into the world of a culture they may or may not be familiar with. This novel is particularly important due to the culturally relevant setting that students in the area can connect with. I think a great way to teach this novel is to include it with other coming of age stories or to use it in a culture unit. Another way to teach the book could be in a Native American Culture unit, so that if students were learning about the different tribes they could have a story to match with a tribe. It is a great story that students should read. 

Night Post

Night by Elie Wiesel is a novel that every student should read. It is an autobiographical account of the events leading up to, during, and after the holocaust. It is a powerful story that every student needs to experience. It touches on important themes and ideas that many students don’t experience in books today. When I read the novel my sophomore year of high school, I learned a lot from what Wiesel had to say. The experiences that he went through were unimaginable and inhumane and no one should have to go through that. It touches on a piece of history that many people do not know a lot about.

The holocaust is a time in history that is shrouded in mystery. It is only from personal account stories that students can learn the truth. Just like with The Diary of Anne Frank, Elie Wiesel’s story tells of what he went through and for some it can be hard to fathom. With reading this novel, my class also watched a documentary of when Wiesel visited the death camp that he had be jailed at during the war. He told of what happened to his family, his friends, and himself.

There are many ways to teach this novel, whether by itself, exploring it as an autobiographical text, in comparison to other holocaust survivor stories, in contrast to the aggressor’s point of view, or as a historical unit within social studies, but the list goes on and on. When I was taught this book, it was during a war unit, and we had read All Quiet on the Western Front before we read Night. It was interesting to see how the stories compared to one another.

All in all, this book needs to be taught. Students need to know the survivors’ stories and they need to know the historical background behind it. 

Teaching with the Graphic Cannon

I think that the graphic cannon is a great addition to any classroom curriculum, and is a great way to differentiate instruction. There are many pieces of literature that students tend not to comprehend because during the periods that many pieces of literature were written, the English language was different from what it is today. Pieces like Beowulf or the Canterbury Tales are transformed in such a way that students can actually see what is going on in those pieces of literature, instead of stumbling across words that they cannot understand, completely missing the meaning or themes behind the words.

Presenting novels and other pieces of literature in different ways such as in the graphic cannons, films, or music can connect older material to students in a greater way. I know when I first read Pride and Prejudice I struggled with the words and way the characters spoke because it was a different time. It wasn’t until the second or third time when I read the novel that I began to understand what they characters were saying because I was familiar with the language, and could make out the meaning of words or phrases that I hadn’t before. The graphic cannon version captures the characteristics of the Bennet family well, and so you gain a deeper insight into their characteristics.

I think it is very important for students to have multiple mediums to study literature. The stories contained within the graphic cannon are illustrated beautifully, and so students not only are exposed to great artwork that is engaging, but they are also exposed to literature in a new way. Teaching novels with a graphic novel cohesively can allow for students to have greater interest in the “dated” literature of the past. Plus, who doesn’t love a good picture book anyways?