November 1st, 2012
I don't think I had ever heard of the literary critiquing tool- deconstruction- ever before in my entire English Language Arts experience (or atleast never specifically heard the process referred to as such). After reading the first 7 pages of Appleman's chapter on this method, I was EXTREMELY confused as to what she was referring to, and then became frightened: how I would ever manage to provide my future students with an adequate description or plan of action to complete this so-called "deconstruction" of a text!? Then I got to page 103. . . Introducting Deconstruction to Adolescents . . .
where she incorporated deconstruction references with pop-icon Michael Jackson and the DreamWorks Animated cartoon movie Shrek; immediately I was hooked, and onward I went!
I truly wish I had been taught how to properly deconstruct the novels, poems, plays, short stories, essays, etc. that I was exposed to throughout high school. Appleman points out that this is method is also relevant to the influences of the media, television shows, sports portrayals and advertisements that every single person confronts on a daily basis. We have to investigate each of these devices (whether it be literary, entertainment-focused, or informative) at a textual, face-value level, and then further dissect them to reveal their biases and purposely hidden, or unknowingly ommitted, agendas (either political, steretypical, economical, traditional, etc.).
At the end of this chapter, Appleman stressed the cautions of informing students on the tool of deconstruction, as some previous students have claimed to call into question their entire personal framework of ideologies after working to reveal opposing binaries. As a future teacher, I see the value and validity in teaching students how to properly deconstruct a text, especially with only the intention of proving that although authors may work to strongly enforce a certain viewpoint or ideology, that by doing so they are also working equally as hard to conceal the opposition of their view(s).
Monday, October 29, 2012
Friday, October 26, 2012
Columbus, eh?
October 26th, 2012
I begin with a quote from Deborah Appleman that I feel summarizes the direction in which all teachers should guide their students throughout every area of study: "the aim of postcolonial study [which] is to restore the history, dignity, validit, cultural contributions, and global significance of those whose experiences have been represented within a worldview that provided no way to include 'the Other' except through direct contrast with itself". There really should be no alternative.
After growing up on a farm and attending a rural school, I was only made aware of the "great and wonderful man of the hour", Christopher Columbus. He was glorified, bronzed, and put up on a pedestal that nobody could touch, but everyone could "oo" and "awhh" at. After attending university, my eyes were widely opened to the reality of his "great discoveries".
Seeing it through a different lens, particularly a Postcolonial lens, has made me truly aware of the perspectives of the oppressed and marginalized peoples in this overly romanticized story, which is told with MANY ommissions. If we are going to advance our society and make it a completely level playing field for all cultures, we need to bring to light these truths and tell the story honestly, so we may learn from mistakes, and build on, highlight, and work toward successes.
Where better place to openly begin discussing these issues, then in an educational setting, such as...say...as school?? Oh, and when better time to start then, oh...maybe...kindergarten?? All I'm saying is that we need to understand these stories through every voice, especially the silent ones.
I begin with a quote from Deborah Appleman that I feel summarizes the direction in which all teachers should guide their students throughout every area of study: "the aim of postcolonial study [which] is to restore the history, dignity, validit, cultural contributions, and global significance of those whose experiences have been represented within a worldview that provided no way to include 'the Other' except through direct contrast with itself". There really should be no alternative.
After growing up on a farm and attending a rural school, I was only made aware of the "great and wonderful man of the hour", Christopher Columbus. He was glorified, bronzed, and put up on a pedestal that nobody could touch, but everyone could "oo" and "awhh" at. After attending university, my eyes were widely opened to the reality of his "great discoveries".
Seeing it through a different lens, particularly a Postcolonial lens, has made me truly aware of the perspectives of the oppressed and marginalized peoples in this overly romanticized story, which is told with MANY ommissions. If we are going to advance our society and make it a completely level playing field for all cultures, we need to bring to light these truths and tell the story honestly, so we may learn from mistakes, and build on, highlight, and work toward successes.
Where better place to openly begin discussing these issues, then in an educational setting, such as...say...as school?? Oh, and when better time to start then, oh...maybe...kindergarten?? All I'm saying is that we need to understand these stories through every voice, especially the silent ones.
Monday, October 15, 2012
To Re-read, or not to Re-Read...
October 15th, 2012
Last week at my co-op school, Walter Murray Collegiate, I was priviledged to experience something I had never previously known existed: Slam Poetry (or as it is also referred to as- Spoken Word). Jeremy Loveday and Scott Thompson came to Saskatoon from Victoria, B.C. to participate and compete in the 2012 Poetry Slam National Championship last week. This was a phenomenal and educationally rich opportunity for the students in ELA throughout the school to gain insight into the various other forms of art and expression that are available for them to channel their creativity. After their presentation in the auditorium, my english class in the following period was invited to participate in a Slam Poetry workshop instructed by Jeremy Loveday himself. He taught the students attending how they can begin writing spoken word, or even just poetry/writing in general, and methods they can use to efficiently maneouver their way out of a writers block. The students were very engaged in this alternative use of class/instruction time, and all of them took it extremely seriously!
In regards to Chapter 5 of Kelly Gallagher's text, Deeper Reading, my enriched english class at WMCI, they are studying Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. My co-op teacher who instructs this particular class, had the students who had finished reading the novel go back into the text and find a particular passage that they felt was "significant". In terms of significance, it could have been a piece of the text (quote, paragraph, page, chapter, etc.) that they either liked or felt was relevant to the theme(s)/character development/plot context in the novel. This particular deeper comprehension method used by the teacher was beneficial for the students, in that some of the passages that the students in the class brought up exposed ideas or critiques that had been passed by in the first initial reading. A couple of the students' contributions even brought new light to the teacher regarding hidden ideas and/or relevances to historical occurrences that even he had not caught.
By applying this strategy in To Kill A Mockingbird studies in grade 11, I realized how many students were unable to successfully find relevant significance(s) in a passage. A first-draft reading is still the only exposure the students feel they need to have with a text for it to be relatable to them, or that they feel is sufficient in drawing all the deeper meanings. Unfortunately we know this is not true, so I feel it is very important, as educators, to introduce first AND second-draft reading techniques to students as early as grade 9, so that when they enter into older grades or even post-secondary education, they are prepared with the proper tools they need to succeed to the best of their abilities.
Last week at my co-op school, Walter Murray Collegiate, I was priviledged to experience something I had never previously known existed: Slam Poetry (or as it is also referred to as- Spoken Word). Jeremy Loveday and Scott Thompson came to Saskatoon from Victoria, B.C. to participate and compete in the 2012 Poetry Slam National Championship last week. This was a phenomenal and educationally rich opportunity for the students in ELA throughout the school to gain insight into the various other forms of art and expression that are available for them to channel their creativity. After their presentation in the auditorium, my english class in the following period was invited to participate in a Slam Poetry workshop instructed by Jeremy Loveday himself. He taught the students attending how they can begin writing spoken word, or even just poetry/writing in general, and methods they can use to efficiently maneouver their way out of a writers block. The students were very engaged in this alternative use of class/instruction time, and all of them took it extremely seriously!
In regards to Chapter 5 of Kelly Gallagher's text, Deeper Reading, my enriched english class at WMCI, they are studying Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. My co-op teacher who instructs this particular class, had the students who had finished reading the novel go back into the text and find a particular passage that they felt was "significant". In terms of significance, it could have been a piece of the text (quote, paragraph, page, chapter, etc.) that they either liked or felt was relevant to the theme(s)/character development/plot context in the novel. This particular deeper comprehension method used by the teacher was beneficial for the students, in that some of the passages that the students in the class brought up exposed ideas or critiques that had been passed by in the first initial reading. A couple of the students' contributions even brought new light to the teacher regarding hidden ideas and/or relevances to historical occurrences that even he had not caught.
By applying this strategy in To Kill A Mockingbird studies in grade 11, I realized how many students were unable to successfully find relevant significance(s) in a passage. A first-draft reading is still the only exposure the students feel they need to have with a text for it to be relatable to them, or that they feel is sufficient in drawing all the deeper meanings. Unfortunately we know this is not true, so I feel it is very important, as educators, to introduce first AND second-draft reading techniques to students as early as grade 9, so that when they enter into older grades or even post-secondary education, they are prepared with the proper tools they need to succeed to the best of their abilities.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Focus, Comprehension, and Reflection
October 11th, 2012
At my co-op school, WMCI, my high school mentoring english teacher (who I will refer to as Mr.X) is continuously stressing for his students to actively participate in "Deeper Reading". To achieve this, Mr. X works especially hard on framing the text by providing an accurate historical background of when the author wrote the book, as well as current events that are still relevent to the literature's issues and themes. He feels that this method provides a perspective for students to begin to comprehend the text, and to possibly even view it from a different lens's perspective. Mr. X understands that most of these students are reading the assigned text for the first time, and since he has read them and analyzed them a trillion times, he can help give them the tools to develop their own deeper understandings for the books.
He encorporated some various approaches and activities that Kelly Gallagher suggested to use to frame the text in his book Deeper Reading. Mr. X had the class participate in a large group discussion in which he exercised the use of a character chart- encouraging each of the students to contribute to the deeper development of some of To Kill A Mockingbird's essential characters- Scout, Jem, Atticus, Boo Radley, Calpurnia, the Ewell family, and Aunt Alexandra. From this chart the students were able to connect the historical context of the years when the book was being written (early 1950's-1960: the era of the American civil rights movement), to the attitudes and actions of the characters throughout the book.
Another activity that he had his students try, was to each pick out one "significant" passage from the book. They may have simply liked the particular excerpt, considered it to be well-written, or possibly have associated it with a critical concept or theme in the novel. Once they had chosen a passage they had to read it outloud in front of the class and discuss its relevance to the grand scheme of the novel. This method really encouraged and forced the students to develop a deeper reading of the book, past the basic plot that is seen and only taken for face value. After completing this activity, the conversation maturely escalated towards the controversy surrounding the events of the book, how the students felt about racism today, and if there was any way to eliminate racism in the future. This type of critical reflection unconsciously fostered these youth to look at the novel through a Marxist, Alternative Social Class lens.
At my co-op school, WMCI, my high school mentoring english teacher (who I will refer to as Mr.X) is continuously stressing for his students to actively participate in "Deeper Reading". To achieve this, Mr. X works especially hard on framing the text by providing an accurate historical background of when the author wrote the book, as well as current events that are still relevent to the literature's issues and themes. He feels that this method provides a perspective for students to begin to comprehend the text, and to possibly even view it from a different lens's perspective. Mr. X understands that most of these students are reading the assigned text for the first time, and since he has read them and analyzed them a trillion times, he can help give them the tools to develop their own deeper understandings for the books.
He encorporated some various approaches and activities that Kelly Gallagher suggested to use to frame the text in his book Deeper Reading. Mr. X had the class participate in a large group discussion in which he exercised the use of a character chart- encouraging each of the students to contribute to the deeper development of some of To Kill A Mockingbird's essential characters- Scout, Jem, Atticus, Boo Radley, Calpurnia, the Ewell family, and Aunt Alexandra. From this chart the students were able to connect the historical context of the years when the book was being written (early 1950's-1960: the era of the American civil rights movement), to the attitudes and actions of the characters throughout the book.
Another activity that he had his students try, was to each pick out one "significant" passage from the book. They may have simply liked the particular excerpt, considered it to be well-written, or possibly have associated it with a critical concept or theme in the novel. Once they had chosen a passage they had to read it outloud in front of the class and discuss its relevance to the grand scheme of the novel. This method really encouraged and forced the students to develop a deeper reading of the book, past the basic plot that is seen and only taken for face value. After completing this activity, the conversation maturely escalated towards the controversy surrounding the events of the book, how the students felt about racism today, and if there was any way to eliminate racism in the future. This type of critical reflection unconsciously fostered these youth to look at the novel through a Marxist, Alternative Social Class lens.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Beginning to Pack the Tickle Trunk of Teaching Tips
October 4th, 2012:
As I concluded my second week of "field experiences", I began to be more aware of the fact that this - a high school - is where I am going to be working for the majority of my adult career. I guess it wasn't so much me become aware as it was a sudden feeling as though a semi-truck full of reality had completely ran me over! The reality set in that I have to begin seeing myself as one of the individuals that is up at the front, or the back, of the class, molding the young minds of the youth of this Nation, rather than just a mere observor.
I am in 5 different english classes throughout the day, and Kelly Gallagher's book Deeper Reading, and Deborah Appleman's text Critical Encounters in High School English had really opened my eyes to the various ways you can prepare these young readers to relate to, and maybe even appreciate, the pieces that they are reading. During one of the modified ELA classes, the girl outright said to the teacher: "This book is SO boring!! I don't understand why we have to study this stupid book! Maybe THAT's why we all completely failed the chapter test...". It was difficult to listen to her speak this way about The Chryslids, after hearing so many good things about this text. After reading Gallagher's chapter on framing activities to use before reading a major work, I was introduced to different ways of possibly engaging this young person and her classmates into the ideas around the book before actually beginning reading, so hopefully they could gain some insight on how to make the piece relevant to their lives, and maybe, by some stretch of their youthful imaginations, actually excited to read the book.
Different approaches that Gallagher suggests are:
(1) Web Searches
For a possible web search prior to reading The Chryslids, a teacher could assign students to search, on the internet, for articles, books, music, magazines, business, art, tv, organizations, editorials, essays, political cartoons, etc. that pertain to the topic of the disadvantages of minorities in the past. They could possibly use the KKK, the Nazi's, the Feminist Movement, disabled peoples' rights/lack of in the past (or even present!), treatment of immigrants (BC internment, etc.), etc. This would give the students an insight into how John, Sophie, Petra, and Rosalind are feeling about their "place" in society - given that they have special abilities/physical "abnormalities".
(2) Anticipation Guides
A teacher could create a well-planned anticipation guide prior to reading The Chrysalids, just because it is such a deep book with issues that still pertain to our world today in regards to human nature, and human behaviour.
(3) Theme Spotlights
For this tactic, you could write up a group of examples of the range in degree of human nature and behaviour, from pleasant and accomodating, to cruel and inhumane. This approach will hopefully have students gain empathy for the characters in the book, and create a connection that encourages further reading.
(4) Focus Poems
There is an amazing ammount of poetry available to us now that we have access to the internet. Poems have been written by those with disabilities, or exceptionalities, and their struggle within their environment and societies. (A good example of an individual that students can hopefully relate to is Helen Keller).
(5) K-W-L-R Chart
I think this is an absolutely fantastic way to pre-frame a reading! You could ask the students what they know about world disasters and how society has had to be "repaired", and what exactly that meant for some individuals. What people know about typical science fiction works, the types of large changes that have been made throughout society that even our generation can still relate to, etc. We could even ask about our experience with exceptional people, and maybe how the world today is still making it challenging for them to succeed?
I am sure that there are a ton other ways you could frame a text, my co-op teacher used current events to get the students to relate on a more present level, and then brought events from the past in the conversation to force them to realize how the world changes, and sometimes history repeats itself. All of these tactics are worth the effort if you can make a student interested in reading the book assigned to them. They don't want to be in school as it is, for the most part, and would rather be anywhere but there, so the more engaging, exciting, and relevant you can make a potentially 60-year-old book ("*yawn*-boring! This book is old and doesn't relate to us" - is the general response), the better feedback and higher level of interest you will hopefully recieve.
I just know that I am going to pack these methods into my mental tickle trunk of teaching tips, and hopefully they will help me reach out to my students someday when their books are "boring" or "stupid".
As I concluded my second week of "field experiences", I began to be more aware of the fact that this - a high school - is where I am going to be working for the majority of my adult career. I guess it wasn't so much me become aware as it was a sudden feeling as though a semi-truck full of reality had completely ran me over! The reality set in that I have to begin seeing myself as one of the individuals that is up at the front, or the back, of the class, molding the young minds of the youth of this Nation, rather than just a mere observor.
I am in 5 different english classes throughout the day, and Kelly Gallagher's book Deeper Reading, and Deborah Appleman's text Critical Encounters in High School English had really opened my eyes to the various ways you can prepare these young readers to relate to, and maybe even appreciate, the pieces that they are reading. During one of the modified ELA classes, the girl outright said to the teacher: "This book is SO boring!! I don't understand why we have to study this stupid book! Maybe THAT's why we all completely failed the chapter test...". It was difficult to listen to her speak this way about The Chryslids, after hearing so many good things about this text. After reading Gallagher's chapter on framing activities to use before reading a major work, I was introduced to different ways of possibly engaging this young person and her classmates into the ideas around the book before actually beginning reading, so hopefully they could gain some insight on how to make the piece relevant to their lives, and maybe, by some stretch of their youthful imaginations, actually excited to read the book.
Different approaches that Gallagher suggests are:
(1) Web Searches
For a possible web search prior to reading The Chryslids, a teacher could assign students to search, on the internet, for articles, books, music, magazines, business, art, tv, organizations, editorials, essays, political cartoons, etc. that pertain to the topic of the disadvantages of minorities in the past. They could possibly use the KKK, the Nazi's, the Feminist Movement, disabled peoples' rights/lack of in the past (or even present!), treatment of immigrants (BC internment, etc.), etc. This would give the students an insight into how John, Sophie, Petra, and Rosalind are feeling about their "place" in society - given that they have special abilities/physical "abnormalities".
(2) Anticipation Guides
A teacher could create a well-planned anticipation guide prior to reading The Chrysalids, just because it is such a deep book with issues that still pertain to our world today in regards to human nature, and human behaviour.
(3) Theme Spotlights
For this tactic, you could write up a group of examples of the range in degree of human nature and behaviour, from pleasant and accomodating, to cruel and inhumane. This approach will hopefully have students gain empathy for the characters in the book, and create a connection that encourages further reading.
(4) Focus Poems
There is an amazing ammount of poetry available to us now that we have access to the internet. Poems have been written by those with disabilities, or exceptionalities, and their struggle within their environment and societies. (A good example of an individual that students can hopefully relate to is Helen Keller).
(5) K-W-L-R Chart
I think this is an absolutely fantastic way to pre-frame a reading! You could ask the students what they know about world disasters and how society has had to be "repaired", and what exactly that meant for some individuals. What people know about typical science fiction works, the types of large changes that have been made throughout society that even our generation can still relate to, etc. We could even ask about our experience with exceptional people, and maybe how the world today is still making it challenging for them to succeed?
I am sure that there are a ton other ways you could frame a text, my co-op teacher used current events to get the students to relate on a more present level, and then brought events from the past in the conversation to force them to realize how the world changes, and sometimes history repeats itself. All of these tactics are worth the effort if you can make a student interested in reading the book assigned to them. They don't want to be in school as it is, for the most part, and would rather be anywhere but there, so the more engaging, exciting, and relevant you can make a potentially 60-year-old book ("*yawn*-boring! This book is old and doesn't relate to us" - is the general response), the better feedback and higher level of interest you will hopefully recieve.
I just know that I am going to pack these methods into my mental tickle trunk of teaching tips, and hopefully they will help me reach out to my students someday when their books are "boring" or "stupid".
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