bell hooks and Student Empowerment

This is a song from Duncan Sheik's musical, Spring Awakening. It is sung by Melchior Gabor, the male protagonist of the show, as he expresses his frustrations with the adults in his life (and life in general) because he is a genius, yet it is a kind of genius not recognized by the stifling educational system of 19th century Germany. I won't spoil the show, but to suffice to say it does not end well for many of the disenfranchised youths not valued by their parents (yet all brilliant in their own way) that make up the show's cast. I thought of this song (and think of this show in general) when discussing the issues of multicultural or diversity education. I feel the show provides an apt metaphor for how many of our excluded students feel, and serves as a great warning for what happens when we cannot recognize these students' individual geniuses and embrace them.

bell hooks talks about education as liberation. I'd also like to add that education ought to function as empowerment for students. It is an idea implicit in her writings (and many others'), and something I will always keep at the forefront of my education as a teacher. A student shouldn't face a crisis when he must choose between his personal urban culture or school culture, acceptance by his family and friends or American society at large (this is crisis is particularly pressing in minority students), his identity or success in society. His education ought to empower said student to embrace his culture, make it a part of his identity; he ought to learn how to use his particular strengths and experiences to empower his education, not fight with it. And, as Banks writes, this stems not just from the content we must teach, but how we teach it.

This question of how we teach to accept diversity is another difficult question with many answers. it's daunting and I feel like the only way to truly learn them is to make the mistakes, to try different methods, and do actual work in a classroom until what works emerges. As banks writes, the classroom may be uncomfortable because of this; but we learn the most about ourselves when we're outside of our comfort zones. We can't learn anything new from the familiar because, well, it's familiar.

I believe all education should push students out of their comfort zones. No, I don't think students should always be uncomfortable in a classroom; I mean that they should consistently be challenged and provoked by their education. It's okay if their education confuses, upsets, delights, or whatever feeling word you may choose. It ought to. The most valuable lesson we can give to students as educators, I believe, is the ability and desire to learn. I may not remember exactly the contents of my fourth grade English class, what texts we read or grammar exercises we did, but to this day I have not forgotten the passion for storytelling and the language arts my teacher gifted me with. To do this, we must teach students to value themselves, to recognize their power, to empower them. 

The biggest lesson I got from reading "Skills and other dilemmas of a progressive black educator" was the ways in which Lisa Delpit discussed teaching with so many colleagues.  No matter who we are we are all coming from one background, one perspective on things and in order to be able to successfully teach students who are coming to our classrooms from all different backgrounds it is essential to discuss issues and strategies with a diversity of colleagues as well.  I have considered the conundrum she is in before, as part of me wants to be the kind of teacher she was in her first year and "throw out all the desks" and encourage creative thinking within my classroom.  At the same time this total divergence from traditional education could hold students back from practice in traditional schooling since it is those primary skills and abilities students need as they move on to higher and higher education.  I think finding a balance between the two styles of teaching is the difficulty Delpit and all teachers face.

With the second reading I liked how self reflective Delpit was, making the focus of education on teacher's actions and not students'.  One quote that really resonated with me from this reading was: "we
have to realize the difference between teaching and merely allowing children to display what they have already learned at home."  I liked her focus on getting to know the students so that teachers can create positive classroom environments and be able to use the information they have about students to mold instruction to exactly what the students need.

-Olivia

Delpit Readings - Be Like Water

Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend

 

I'm willing to bet most of us know who this is. This is a picture of Bruce Lee, a Hong Kong filmmaker, martial artist, movie star, philosopher, author and founder of Jeet Kune Do. He did most of this living in America, during the 1960's and early 70's, until his untimely death in 1973. The more I study education, the more I feel that my core teaching philosophy is succinctly stated by Bruce Lee's famous quote, "Be water, my friend." There are countless issues in the American Educational system, and countless conflicting views on how to solve them. Depending on the situation at hand or the educators/students involved, one's opinions can easily change, to further complicate the issue. As Delpit describes her own conflict with teaching "skills" vs "fluency" I feel we as teachers will struggle with putting into practice the theories we have studied, time and time again, because no one teaching method will ever work for every student. Every student is unique; I'm sure, if you've read through my blog posts, it may seem like I am copy/pasting these, but this seems to be the recurring answer to many questions our class faces as educators in a time of exciting, tumultuous change, in my opinion. We cannot abide by any particular theory. We cannot recognize one truth. We must, in essence, be like waters. As educators, we must adapt to the needs of every classroom, every culture, every school, and every lesson.

All of this is easier said than done, of course. But by making sure we understand varying teaching theories, and most importantly, our students, we can always create the best possible education for them. Notice how I said create, not select or apply a certain theory. No two lessons will ever be the same if they are going to be the best they can be for the particular needs of any given student or classroom. As educators, we are charged with developing what works for us and our students from what we have studied.

On the subject of minority students in education, I'd like to point out an idea I learned in Professor Diem's TAL 101. Low-income, minority urban school are not failing; they are doing what they are supposed to do. We need to recognize this as teachers, as Delpit has. Minority or lower-class students are not any less innately capable than students from other school systems; they are simply the products of a system designed to make them fail, to oppress them. As educators we are forced to work in this system, but we have the blessing of being aware of this; we can "fight back," in a sense. We don't have to force students to choose between their minority culture and the white-normative culture schools attempt to impose on their students; we can help them embrace the unique advantages of their cultures to help them learn in a way that is unique and special to them. I truly believe in the power of the unique talents of every student. Every student is brilliant, absolutely. It is our job as educators to find that brilliancy and teach students how to use it any context; not just the playground, the music studio, the football field, their sketchbooks, or what have you.

"Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it." Bruce Lee

For example, when I think about minority students, I think about Hispanic-American students primarily. As a second-generation Cuban-American myself (and a huge fan of Junot Diaz) I could not be more excited to teach about the wealth of beautiful and interesting literature written by Hispanics and Hispanic-Americans alike. These are texts that are rarely taught in the average American school (and often need to be translated), but I feel they are huge opportunities to help students translate their fluency and skills from their native languages to English, as a significant number of Hispanic-American students do not speak English as primary language, or have even received an earlier education in English. My grandfather, for example, was a professor at the University of Habana, yet when he graduated to Miami must have appeared an uneducated man to anyone listening to him struggle speaking conversational English. Yet ask him a question about Dostoevsky or Hemingway in Spanish, or ask him to play some Chopin, and he is a genius. I believe many Hispanic-Americna students are disenfranchised simply because of this language barrier, and an English clash is an excellent vehicle for translating, if you will, their brilliance.

"There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." Bruce Lee

(Bruce Lee seem to be speaking to generations of future theories on his writing, though it only makes sense- he is one of the greatest martial arts teachers to have ever lived, founding his own school, Jeet Kune Do. I recommend googling it; it is extremely interesting.)

Delpit Readings

Hello all,
I accidentally read "Lessons from Teachers" first and so my response/analysis is backwards =).

After reading Delpit's "Lessons from Teachers" I realized that this article was about how important it is that teachers weave multicultural education into the core of their curriculum. I think that this is still a problem today in that teachers don't create an environment that fosters a range of beliefs where students analyze racial groups and their contributions; this simultaneously encourages learning.  I believe that if this was implemented, all students would have an equal opportunity to succeed. Some ways that teachers can successfully implement a culturally responsive curriculum are to use different learning styles and techniques integrate multicultural education into every subject, and recognize that every student black or white has strengths, are capable of succeeding, and they need to be challenged. 

On the second page in the article, "Skills and Other Dilemmas of a Progressive Black Educator", Delpit says that "children should be in control of their own learning, and that all children would read when they were ready."I have to say that I disagree here because I think that if I were in charge of my own learning, I wouldn't know what to learn or where to start and wouldn't get a good education, if any at all. I think that teachers need to be facilitators while allowing students to make choices and get creative within the curriculum. On another note, I feel that this problem of stereotypes gets perpetuated because we put individuals into those groups of "poor black people" or "white rich people". If we can recognize that we have the same opportunity to succeed, I don't think this problem would be so great. 

-Amanda

Guiding Questions for the Delpit readings

“SKILLS AND OTHER DILEMMAS OF A PROGRESSIVE BLACK EDUCATOR” Consider Delpit’s conundrum and discuss where you see yourself as an educator. Is the debate she posits here still an issue in education or has it been replaced by one of equal merit? When I first read this article and later the Hirsch book we briefly discussed in class (the one which promotes canonical readings) I quickly understood that I would be one of those teachers that has to straddle the fence on this debate. Much like Delpit, I wanted to give my students voice by reading and writing in ways that did not stifle creativity but I also realized that my students desperately needed to be exposed to the canon and to the mainstream writing and reading skills that they needed to master before they could then continue to develop their more creative skill set. In other words, my students needed to be able to read and comprehend Shakespeare first so that they could then incorporate that knowledge in a rap or into a funny story usually told orally but with masterful strokes of poignancy. “LESSONS FROM TEACHERS” Now that you have read the first article, “Skills and other dilemmas of a progressive black educator,” do the suggestions made in this article make more sense, and if so how would you go about implementing them in your lesson plans? In essence, think of how you will reconcile teaching the skills with teaching how to think critically.

Reflection on 4 + 5

I like the way Chapters 4 and 5 laid out methods for writing unit plans because instead of simply saying "you should assess your students this way" or "you should organize a unit plan this way," Smagorinsky gave reasoning for why each strategy is an effective method and the situations in which it would be appropriate to use them.  The importance of this style of instruction was reflected in the vignette section in chapter 5, when he discusses the building of the railways and the importance of questioning ways of doing things.  As teachers and especially as English teachers I think it is important to teach our students to always be questioning rules and systems, and we should be modeling the same practices as teachers.  There are many methods in school systems that I believe are followed simply because that's the way it has always been done, when in order to be constantly striving for the best for students I think schools should always be reinventing themselves.

Class Discussions

My favorite class in high school was AP English Literature. That probably doesn't come as a surprise, but there was something about that particular class that set it apart from my past English classes. It wasn't the books we considered, it wasn't the the assignments we had, it was the classroom vibe. This vibe had virtually nothing to do with classroom decorations. The walls were bare ( a very stark contrast to past English classrooms) and the chalk board was the only visual aid. It had to with our desks and the scarcity of our teacher's contribution to class discussions. During class every Monday, Tuesday Wednesday and Friday (Thursday was prompt day), we had a discussion. Mrs. Morris permanently set up our desks in a circle and each class, she would start off our discussion with a broad (extremely broad) question. Sometimes her question would be simply, "What did you think?" 

The texts we discussed varied greatly in genre (i.e a poem, a passage from a speech, a chapter or section of a book, the lyrics of a song).  Each day 1 hour and 15 minutes would flash by as we all contributed to an evolving and extremely enlightening dialogue about our topic(s). Seldom was there a moment when Mrs. Morris had to pry for our input. The neutral set up of our desks coupled with her seamless  mediation nurtured our development into critical thinkers and analysers. It also helped us strengthen our ability to express ourselves eloquently and concisely. Because we knew we were expected to contribute to class discussions, our personal reading (for homework) became more exploratory and resulted in searches for meaning deep below the surface of the text. The process strengthened our confidence in our ability to decipher meaningful points from many texts. 

I was unaware of the transformation that was occurring during my senior year (my transition from a passive reader to a critical thinker), but I have come to understand just how much work  Mrs. Morris put into our class discussion during which she rarely inserted her own opinion. She challenged each of us to think in new ways just by saying, "What else?"

In chapter 1, Smagorinsky lists discussions as a unit of instruction. Mrs. Morris kept her questions open ended, topics varied with different genres of literature, and all were encouraged to participate and contribute to the discussion. I never gave much thought to Mrs. Morris's role in our class but I've come to understand how deliberate the structure of the class was. I hope as a teacher, I can provide that kind of transformative experience for my students. 

Reading in the Disciplines

What really struck a chord with me was the brief excerpt from a 9th grader's thoughts on reading, found on page 17. She outlines a method she and her classmates would use to complete work without actually doing any of the work; reading without reading. Paradoxical as it sounds, I am sure most of us can relate to this. Even I, as much as I love to read, have done the same in certain classes I did not feel engaged with (I'm looking at you, 10th grade chemistry). Instead of working through a text and understanding the subject, I would merely use small "tricks" and find answers, copy them down, and turn in the work, without ever having to think or comprehend anything. While a case may be made for the value of this kind of craftiness, the point is that the education I needed was not given. Whether it was the fault of the educator on engaging me, my own lack of initiative, negative peer pressure, or any other factor does not matter. I propose two main problems in the situation outlined above for our class to think about; the assignment itself, and the text.

The first problem I described, the assignment, can be ameliorated easily enough, in my opinion. As teachers the temptation to merely assign a passage of reading and the questions that came with it can be tempting; it's easy, the work is already done, and we can assume the students are comprehending the text if they are answering the questions specifically designed for the text. But we should know better. This is not always the case. As educators we need not only to engage our students in interesting ways unique to every class (which means more work than merely a blanket assignment for all classes, but teaching isn't easy as people like to pretend), but hold our forms of assessment up to the same standard. I will never use questions that come in a textbook or are presdesigned; my forms of assessment will vary from class to class for what is best for the students in them. Otherwise, situations like the one outlined above are bound to occur.

Secondly, I'd like to discuss the problem of text. The reading mentions more disciplines than English, such as mathematics and the sciences. I feel in those areas texts are less flexible (though, to be fair, my environmental science teacher did assign a companion text, a historical novel, to our class which was very interesting and generated much more fruitful education than the textbook). But as instructors in the Language Arts, we have a wealth of rich texts to choose from. We've discussed this before in class, but it bears repeating; choose texts you know your class will be engaged by, benefit from, and you know well. Don't be content with what is merely suggested or assigned to you, do more for your students. I also like the idea of multiple forms of literacy the reading discusses, specifically film literacy. English classes are the perfect opportunity to develop both reading and film literacy in students, and can be great ways to engage and connect students to the subject matter.

Response to an Open Letter to Educators

I agree with Dan Brown that educational institutions need adapt to the information age for them to succeed and for our citizens to succeed. Technology has enabled us to seek out most information that we need or want to know and thus, making fact memorizing useless. Fact memorizing is not deep thinking or learning, it is purely superficial. I forget all the “facts” I memorized for x test right after I take it, and have learned nothing. I think that the “signals” of our knowledge need to change. For example, a resume is the format that we use to see if one is qualified for x job. That resume is a signal that we have learned or are capable of doing something that is needed in our society. I could be the best chef in the world, but because I didn’t go to culinary school, I most likely won’t even get an interview because my resume says so.

I would be interested in exploring and implementing how educators could use cell phones in the classroom as a useful tool for learning, specifically Student Response Systems. Some examples of this tool are receiving answers instantly from students, taking attendance, and creating a community by sharing opinions. Sites such as www.polleverywhere.com track answers from students instantly and send the results to the teacher. Another site http://wiffiti.com allows students to instantly text in their opinions. I found an educational article that addresses how Student Response Systems in the classroom cater to our technological world and how adopting them creates many benefits and few considerations:  http://people.uncw.edu/lowery/SWSSA%20ms.pdf. An article from Cornell University simply lays out the benefits of incorporating technology into the classroom. The article focuses on SRS, how to integrate it into the classroom, and why it’s important. http://www.cte.cornell.edu/teaching-ideas/teaching-with-technology/classroom-response-systems.html. This past July, an article was published by the courier-journal about Jefferson County Public Schools thinking about using cell phones in the classroom to improve education, learning, and how they are going to try to adopt the tool: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130728/NEWS0105/307290010/JCPS-schools-can-apply-allow-cellphone-use-classrooms.

There are many possible barriers that could be encountered by allowing students to use cell phones in the classroom as an education tool. The three most immediate issues are that (1) cell phones could be abused during class time for personal use, (2) students could sign on another and (3) students could cheat by using other student’s phones to answer questions. To implement cell phones into the classroom in an educational manner we would need to be a program that allows students cell phones to sync upon entry into the classroom and allow the teacher to monitor their work via tablet. This however poses another barrier, which is that many students may not be willing to expose the personal information necessary to have their phones synced. I think my role in this would be to get the word out about using cell phones as educational tools, to promote the websites I listed above to engage students in learning, and get as many people on board as possible.

-Amanda

Teaching Students vs. Teaching the Subject Matter

One of the topics discussed in the reading that stood out most to me was about whether teachers are teaching students or the subject matter.  I've honestly never thought about this question, but it led me to think about it immensely.  I came to the conclusion that the reason I've never thought about this question is because most of the classes I've take in the education program has focused more on how to be a teacher rather then on how to teach students, and there's definitely a difference.

In being taught how to be a teacher, it seems we focus more on what we should and shouldn't do, instead of actually focusing on the students.  I feel that in our specific education program, we haven't been given the opportunity to engage in our field experience classrooms as much as is necessary.  I've only taught one lesson in a classroom and have worked individually with several students, but I've never felt I was entirely engaged in the classroom.  This may be on the part of the teachers and schools we are paired up with, but I'd like to be given more of an opportunity to engage with the students and prepare myself.

And what I've noticed from my field experience is that most teachers have also only been taught how just to be teachers rather then how to teach their students.  When I did my field experience at Southridge in an intensive reading class, while I liked my teacher, I felt that she was only doing what she had to do and wasn't focused so much on making sure the students were learning.  While this may not be entirely her fault, as her job description was to make sure the students passed the FCAT reading portion, I could see that the students weren't necessarily learning, as much as they were regurgitating what she gave them.  This shouldn't be how the classroom works, however.  We as teachers should be ensuring that our students are actually learning and most likely, if the previous teachers of the students in the classroom had taught their students rather than just taught the subject, perhaps most of them would not be in the intensive reading class.

Overall, I feel that we need to find a balance of teaching a subject and teaching our students.  We can't just completely abandon the subject, but we also need to remember that we're teaching people.  Perhaps to help with this, education programs in college and universities should make sure that their students are given ample time in the classroom and are better prepared to teach students, rather then them just taking classes on how to be and act like a teacher.

Response to Open Letter to Educators

I think Dan Brown's open letter hits the nail on the head - our systems of education need to evolve as the way the rest of the world processes information evolves. I can give a perfect example; an English class I am currently enrolled in assigned an anthology text on literary criticism, which some students purchased for, as Dan Brown says, somewhere in the neighborhood of one hundred dollars. I, however, will not. In fact, I will never even open that book with my own hands, because a quick Google search found a pdf of the entire text uploaded to archive.org, free for all to read. The best part of this is not that I will get to save a hundred bucks, but the implication that anyone with internet access can read these ideas and be exposed to the thoughts of influential thinkers like Nietzsche, Marx, and Althusser. I am sure when the time comes to do research for papers, I will turn to the internet again to find more ideas I can use to help develop my own.

I have one point, however, that may be obvious but something we as teachers ought to keep in mind. As we look to new, advanced technologies and methods of accessing information, we should look to them not as easier ways but better ways. Teachers that provide students with these tools in the context of just being simpler and easier risk missing out on teaching some fundamental skills. For example, a calculator certainly makes calculus easier, but there is a reason many good teachers urge their students to understand the theories and their applications before using a calculator to amplify their mathematical skills rather than simply replacing said skills. Too often does it seem people (including teachers and students) think of technology as a substitute for knowledge or ability, when it ought to function as an augmentation.

A resource I would like to bring into the 21st classroom is video games. Look at these statistics; http://www.theesa.com/facts/
Over half of all Americans play video games, and most of those have been doing so for over a dozen years (like myself). This number will only grow, and as the medium becomes more popular, its artistic value will do the same. Already a large population of what are called "indie" games exist, many available to play for free or less than 5 dollars, designed not as revenue-makers but as pieces of art. Much like cinema quickly evolved from simple videos of people sneezing or trains running (think the 8-bit days of Mario hopping on koopa shells and pac-man gobbling up power pellets) to the vastly respected and popular art form is today, I believe students ought to possess what I call video game literacy. Too often have I seen my younger cousin pick up a video game and shoot insurgents to death without understanding what he's doing. Video games can and do serve a higher purpose than that, I will highlight 3 that do so quite well.

1) Starcaft 2. Some of you may be familiar with this insanely popular Real Time Strategy title that has spawned professional leagues across the world and players who are worth millions for their talent. It is a strategy title that, essentially, boils down to micro managing workers to gather resources. These resources are used to build units that can destroy the opponent's base and units while protecting your own. Think of it as real time chess with over 60 unique pieces and a board that changes from match to match. It helps its players develop organizational skills, critical thinking, understanding other people's thought processes, thinking on your feet, and overall mental quickness, skills very much prized in today's high-paced, hard-hitting economy. Starcraft 2 is not the only game with such a fiercely competitive professional scene that students could benefit from understanding - other titles, such as League of Legends, are perfectly valid alternatives to Starcraft 2. I could link to a game on South Korea's StarcraftTV Channel, but instead I'll post a link to a class from UC Berkley, a university that has already identified this game's educational value and offers a course on it. (WARNING: heavy nerd jargon below)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7XiE_V0PZ8

2) The Oregon Trail. A classic that many old Windows computers came pre-installed with in the 90's, but nonetheless still a great educational tool. The game challenges players to plot a path from the east of America to Oregon circa the 1880's, to make the oregon trail. Players must manage food supplies, the stability of their wagon, the health of their family, and any other epidemics they may come across. It is a great learning tool for any unit on that era in American history. This game can be purchased fairly cheaply of www.microsoft.com, or played for free on one of many free flash emulations. Below I've included the original Apple II version, which can run on any modern computer very easily after installing the emulator.
http://www.virtualapple.org/oregontraildisk.html

3) Spec Ops: The Line. Now, the previous video games I've mentioned function mostly as teaching tools designed to develop a certain skill; organization, planning, predicting others' actions, etc. This game, however, is what some call the Citizen Kane of video games. It is the perfect game to teach students video game literacy; to understand the artistic intent behind a game rather than merely taking it at surface value. It is a vastly underrated work of art and something I feel every American ought to experience. The game puts the player in the position of three Delta force commandos charged with investigating the city of Dubai after a fictional war is ended by a massive record-breaking sandstorm, burying much of the city, the civilians left there and an entire regiment of American troops. The player arrives to find a situation akin to a military dictatorship, and as they attempt to find the source of the problem and complete their government-given mission (find General White and save him) they find themselves exposed to and committing acts of absolute horror. It does this in the way only video games can, by putting the agency of decision not in the main character of a text but in the student's hands. They connect to the themes and events of the story because they are happening to the student. I won't spoil anything, but it suffices to say the game forces players to question our military culture and why we glamorize warfare, and what our actions in the Middle East truly accomplish, something I feel our educational system often ignores when it is one of the most important aspects of recent history and today our students ought to understand as they become 21st century citizens. I'll leave a link to someone's analysis of the game below. SPOILER WARNING.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti2EGwW-Ihg

There are a few issues associated with utilizing video games as educational tools. First and most obvious, is cost. Not all schools have access to fully functioning media centers, and I imagine I'd be hard pressed to convince a principal to spring for a PS3 or gaming-capable PC for my classroom. There are ways around this; many games are free. For example, League of Legends and the Oregon Trail are free to play, any where and at any time. I myself own all of the titles I have described and would be more than willing to bring them to class for the purpose of accompanying a lecture. I would even be willing to donate them to the school if other teachers would be willing to use my lesson plans to teach their own version of video game-accompanied education.

Secondly, video games are a hard pitch too many people. But to this, much like my miniature banned book study, is simply a matter of being a motivated and educated teacher. I believe I can convince people of the educational value of the titles (and many more) I have outlined above. And those are just my brief arguments; believe me, I could keep going, and if anyone would like to hear any more, feel free to comment and I will gladly respond with more thorough writing.

Adapting with Technology

I really enjoyed Dan Brown's video because it identified a lot about how I’ve felt about student’s access to information both as a student myself and as a future teacher.  As a student with full access to the internet I always felt it was a waste of my time when teachers forced me to memorize dates and basic facts, because I new I could look up that information in seconds any time I needed it.  Since with the internet access to books and videos on all subjects no longer belongs to the elite, as future teachers we won’t have to spend as much time on reciting information and forcing students to memorize it, but can instead spend more time teaching students about what they can be doing with all the information they have at their fingertips.

I’m interested in what it would be like to use tablets in the classroom as it could make textbooks more accessible to students and give students access to the Internet while in class.  I think tablets can be used as a tool to give students more agency in their learning.  Instead of standing in front of the classroom and lecturing students on the history of a novel (the type of teaching Dan Brown was condemning in the video), with the use of tablets teachers could create a type of game or webquest, allowing students to find the information on the historical background of a novel on their own.  I think this kind of activity would not only make class more enjoyable for students, it would also help them remember factual information better than if it was simply told to them.

I found a website that lists the pros and cons of substituting textbooks with tablets in the classroom and I think it nicely lays out both the benefits and possibilities of using this tool, but also the realistic difficulties we would have to iron out before actually implementing this technology in the classroom. http://tablets-textbooks.procon.org/

Another website: http://www.tabletsforschools.co.uk/, is a resource for how to implement the use of tablets in the classroom for both teachers and parents.  The organization is obviously biased as they are also selling the tablets and partnering with companies like Pearson and Samsung, but a lot of the content on their website seems to spark a good discussion about the use of tablets, for example they argue: “The degree to which independent learning is enhanced depends on the extent to which independence is embedded into the existing teaching.”

An article out of Columbus on how a local school district there plans to use tablets into their school shows what schools are currently doing with this technology: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/08/18/textbook-tech.html

-Olivia

Student Interpretation of Literature

Hello class,

Thinking about what I would like to comment on concerning our first assigned reading, the anecdote of four student athletes' interpretation of Ernest Hemmingway's The Three-Day Blow immediately came to mind. As we discussed in class on 9/2/13, giving student's a solid context of what they are studying is very important. I believe it is of the utmost importance, as it can engage students or keep them from asking the infamous, "Why are we even reading this?" Yet I am concerned by the ideas we prevent students from developing by telling them certain ideas are valid, fact, or "generally accepted" as the truth. Too often, it seems to me, texts (particularly Canonical texts) are taught in strict accordance with what is generally accepted by Academia as the "correct" or "most likely" interpretation of the artist's work. Sure, proposing that Hemmingway wants to warn his readers of the danger of alcohol consumption may seem ridiculous to anyone who has read Hemmingway, but as someone studying creative writing, I firmly believe in the power of creativity. In all of my lessons I want to encourage my students to embrace their creativity and their individuality, two attributes I feel teaching a text with very traditional interpretations can often stifle.

I believe that in giving context we ought to be thorough, and dig really deep into how we can specifically connect the text with our students rather than simply giving students a miniature history lesson. I'll illustrate with an example; when teaching the Old Man and The Sea, my ninth grade English teacher encouraged us to ask our family if they had ever read Hemmingway. I discovered, thanks to this, my grandfather knew Hemmingway in his younger days, who would park his boat in a small harbor near La Havana where my grandfather grew up. He regaled me with some interesting stories Hemmingway loved to shout over his drinks in the local tavern, and when I brought these stories to class, my teacher encouraged me to share them with the class. Everyone was engaged; suddenly there was a personal connection to Hemmingway, even a sense of heritage in the predominately Cuban-American classroom.

On the subject of creativity, I believe it is best to encourage our students to develop their own ideas. Cliche as it is (something we should never let our students write in, the subject for another blog post), there are no wrong ideas in an English class. There are, however, complex, well-organized, and engaging ideas supported by a close reading of the text and possibly outside sources. There also are ideas that were made up in lunch and citing wikipedia. As teachers we ought to encourage to develop their own readings, and to defend those readings just as we would expect any academic writing their reading of, say, the anti-Capitalist nature of Dos Passos' Manhattan Transfer. Though we should definitely educate students on prior academic thought concerning a text, we can't say they are truly learning how to read a text if they simply regurgitate established ideas and cite the same sources we taught them with. By encouraging students to think individually, we develop a whole host of skills related to doing proper academic research, writing persuasively, critical thinking, and a whole bunch of other key terms school boards love. Of course, by no means does the idea I've outlined here mean students can't agree with established academic thought; but again, there is a difference between regurgitating information and explaining in a well-written essay why you agree with it.

- Jordan

Teacher preparation

           I liked that the reading addressed the issue of teacher preparedness because as I get closer and closer to actually entering the classroom I get more nervous and unsure about how ready I am to actually be a teacher.  I think the stereotype Smagorinsky refers to in Chapters 1 +2 of teaching being easy comes from a combination of teacher performance in schools and teacher preparation programs.  I’m sure everyone had at least one teacher in their lives who put in minimal effort, didn’t seem to care, and skated by at their job.  I think the way the educational system currently functions allows there to be teachers who aren’t completely committed and invested in teaching.  Over the summer I taught 7^th grade language arts for 8 weeks with Breakthrough Miami and this short time in the classroom really showed me that the amount of time and effort I put into writing my lesson plans, preparing for class, and connecting with my students was up to me.  I saw that teachers get a lot of choice in how much effort they put into classroom time and preparation time.  Unfortunately because of a lack of teacher accountability (which can’t simply be based on student performance) in schools, as well as lack of support for teachers, and because teacher training programs are not rigorous enough, teachers have the option of putting in minimal effort which contributes to the stereotype that teaching is easy.

            I thought it was ironic in Chapter 2 when Smagorinsky referred to teaching a subject vs. teaching students because I think in teacher training programs professors can be too concerned with teaching procedures and theories, rather than preparing individuals to become teachers.  A lot of the talk in teacher training programs about topics such as culturally responsive teaching, RTI, making learning relevant to students, connecting learning to the real world, etc. is not modeled.  I’m not entirely sure how this can be corrected.  I think there needs to be much more discussion about how social issues including poverty, immigration, violence, race, gender, access to health, etc, affect students and the education system because these are topics teachers should be more prepared to deal with.  Another idea is to make field experience much more engaging so that future teachers get more time actually interacting with students in the classroom, practicing teaching more lessons, seeing what it takes to become an effective teacher, while being guided by an experienced teacher, however this idea is contingent upon cooperation with schools in the county.  What ideas does everyone else have about how to better prepare teachers?

Hello all. I am expecting that you'll create posts over the weekend, which will either comment on Jordan's article/position paper for banned books--very well done---or will address the questions I suggested regarding our class readings of chapters 1-2 of the Smagorinsky book. Please make sure to read the emails about your next assignment.

On Banning Books

Hello classmates,

This is Jordan, whom you may remember from our class introduction. Something that I did not think I mentioned (but will become readily apparent throughout the semester, no doubt) is my love for comic books. I've been reading them since before I could read and believe them to be one of the most significant yet criminally underrated art forms of the past eighty years. And I'm not talking about artsy-fartsy graphic novels, like Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis or Alison Beschdel's Fun Home. Those are brilliant books in their own right, but I'm talking about the kind of characters people dress up as at nerd conventions. Spider-Man, Hawkeye, Superman, Swamp Thing, Batman, etc. While I could easily write a thesis on this (and other people already have. See Grant Morrison's Supergods, an excellent book) we are all interested in comic books' educational value. If people generally dismiss comic books as the toenail clippings of pop culture, then you can bet they rarely, if ever, have considered their educational value. But I believe they offer educators in English limitless potential for educating students not just in the art of English but about the world they exist in.

Enter Watchmen, published in 1986, created by the comic book dream team of writer Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. You may be familiar with it from the 2009 film adaptation, or from knowing remotely anything about comic books. It is considered not only one of the best comic books ever written, but one of the best books ever written. No, really. Even Time Magazine said so. It is listed in their 100 best books ever written, and there are many (me included) who would argue it to be among the best 10. It describes an alternate world where the Vietnam War was won by America, thanks to a superhuman god named Dr. Manhattan created by a nuclear reactor incident, and the wake of other "superheroes" who followed after him and existed before his creation in the early 60's. The book serves as a wonderful and instantly gripping analogy for understanding Cold War culture as well as our own pop culture. It's an excellent teaching tool for challenging students to think about social responsibility, how we treat our own celebrities, how much power and trust do we place in our government, and an excellent platform for debating philosophical theories on ethics such as Utilitarianism, Role Ethics, Deontology, and more. But I'll save the sales pitch. I instantly thought of Watchmen for our unit plan project. It's an excellent choice to engage the modern reader. But a question struck me.

Would I even be allowed to teach it at all?

 The comic book pulls no punches. It is unapologetic and upfront about its world's harsh violence, its characters' sexualities, psychoses, bigotries, fears, and desires. I was concerned that some people may look at it and see only a comic book, and not the vast profound purpose it was created for in the first place. Yet recently teachers have begun to make bold choices in what they teach their students, and they should. Our students' education, I believe, ought to be challenging, and sometimes force students to think outside of their comfort zone, or to face real life issues that may never be apparent in their school lives. Watchmen is a book everyone should read, and holds great promise for our American students. So I decided I would do a little research on banned books in American schools, to make sure I would be able to teach it one day.

I soon found a neat website called www.bannedbooksweek.org Besides including events and recent news concerning the freedom of our students' rights to read, it also contains an exhaustive history of banned books throughout our country. I found that many classics faced opposition, some in large amounts, such as J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (1951), which was removed from classrooms nationwide upon publication for being  “unacceptable,” “obscene,” “blasphemous,” “negative,” “foul,” “filthy,” and much more, I am sure. In today's school culture, it should be noted, it is unusual not to read this novel, though there are still many school boards around the country that face challenges all the time. Of course, the success of these challenges depends on the culture of the specific school and the community surrounding it.  Other books, such as Cesar Chavez's The Words of Cesar Chavez (2002) faced opposition in certain areas of the country. The Words of Cesar Chavez was banned in Tucson, Airzona upon publishing and faced challenges in other parts of the Southwest, a frightening prospect considering that many of the immigrant workers who Cesar Chavez fought likely had children in the very same schools. They also banned several other books on racial issues in America, and you can read more about this here http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/node/162. Very scary.

The website also includes a geographical map of bans, which can be found here http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/mappingcensorship. There are many cases, far more than I can recount here, but just click around for a little bit and you can get an idea about how certain communities might react to certain themes in books. It's worth noting that, according to bannedbooksweek,  most challenges to teachers' decisions aren't successful, though they do tend to result in the school board assuring parents by giving them more control in future student reading.
I did some more digging around and found this interesting article written by a Colorado English teacher and her response to having her books challenged in class. 

http://www.ednewscolorado.org/voices/voices-teaching-controversial-texts
I recommend giving it a read. I think she offers some good advice to take into our first years of teaching.

Today more than ever I believe teacher's possess the flexibility to teach texts they believe are important for their students. Challenging and mature texts such as Aldous Huxley's A Brave New World, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Slaughterhouse Five, and Joseph Heller's Catch-22 are becoming more and more common in high school educations. I know I read some of them.
So what does this all mean for my Watchmen unit plans? They're happening. I have faith not only in this wonderful book but in my abilities as a teacher to convey the powerful messages and incredible educational value this book possesses. If it is challenged for some of its more mature themes, then I believe in my ability to defend them and convince those concerned, be they school administration or parents, that they are worth teaching. It would seem that the fight for a good education must begin with securing the right tools for the job.

TEST

Hello all. I have updated the authors so that we can all create posts. I hope that the invites for that were received and that you will be able to post your comments about the readings before we see each other tonight but if not then we will discuss in class and view the blog together to ensure that it is in full working mode for the rest of the semester. See you soon :)