Finding the Right Balance

Texts:
Readicide by Kelly Gallagher 
What Matters: Meeting Content Goals Through Cognitive Reading Strategies with Canonical Texts - Mary Styslinger, Julianne Oliver Ware, Charles W. Bell, and Jesse L. Barrett 
When Kids Can't Read - Kylene Beers 
Bridging English - Milner and Milner 


Say:

For starters, I love the focus for this week: finding the right balance. This is important to me because as I read different theories and begin to develop my own understanding of my educational philosophy, I am coming to understand that it is a balancing act between everything I'm learning. I tend to be a cynical person when I hear someone say they are a one type of theory person because I do not think that translates well into the classroom. Plus I am cynical towards things that present themselves as the popular trend in education. I loved Gallagher's article because I felt like she really hits home to the challenges teachers face with teaching the classics and she seemed to have a very practical or realistic perspective for what works in the classroom. I loved the idea of finding the sweet spot in teaching a classic because we've all had those teachers that either under taught or over taught a particular text. In a class where students will role their eyes at the sound of Shakespeare, I appreciated that she stood up for the cannon and I think it is important for us as English teachers to show that love or appreciation for canonical texts. I also appreciated that her goal was not to convince students that classical texts were best thing ever; however, her goal was for the student to obtain something valuable out of the text. I think it is important for teachers to put the students in a position to discover something valuable, whatever that may be or however that manifests itself.  One thing that I found interesting was her level of guidance when it came to giving the students the lens in which they read that day. I thought it was interesting because I fear that giving students the lens to look at something will hinder their ability to look for themselves and find things on their own; however, I think this is a great way to start especially if you have students struggling with reading. I thought a lot of her activities helped to develop reading skills for both proficient and struggling readers. Throughout the article, I saw how much she modeled for her students as well as reflecting on the power of her role in the classroom. As a teacher I want them to become independent thinkers and learners; however, I have to acknowledge that they need assistance and my help to guide them which is a really powerful and amazing position to be in! The strategy and importance on modeling was also talked about in Beers and the What Matters article. I think modeling the reading process is such a simple thing that teachers often forget, but it can have a real impact as to whether or not students understand that process of wrestling with a text. Even though the teachers were teaching different texts, they all employed some modeling and visualization strategy. As a proficient reader I realize now how much I rely on my ability to picture what is going on in the book and it is sometimes hard for me to imagine not doing it when I read; however, I've seen students struggle with this in the classroom. I like the visualization strategies used for teaching drama and plays. Towards the end of the article, they noted that focusing on too much strategy can be a little crazy when students just want to move on. I've personal heard students complain about stopping so much for discussion or for comprehension. I know teachers are trying to make sure the students are getting it; however, I do think there is merit in sometimes waiting and allowing students to just read it. The article also talks about metacognition in which we get the reader thinking about their own process. The pre, during, and post reading strategies that Beers illustrates can all adapt themselves into helping the struggling reader become aware of his/her process. I think teachers will always struggle with finding the right balance because that balance is dependent on something that changes day to day, class to class, or even student to student. Even though it is hard, I believe that if you make that attempt at balancing by using a wide variety of strategies, genres, and critical theory then it can be very effective for your students. 



Say:

There are a few pre and during reading strategies that I liked from Beers that I would like to implement one day. I liked the probably passage idea, especially for poetry or a short story. Before reading the story, I would give students a list of words that relate to the story/poem and then have them use the template to predict, pose questions, visualize the many possibilities of what the story could be about. I also liked the during reading strategy say something because it could be done in pairs and works well with getting them to think, predict, or question while they read. I would also use this as a way to scaffold them into becoming more independent questioners, meaning that the questions or observations discussed would drive some of the whole group discussion instead of me guiding it! 

I had students look at pictures and then start to question, predict or guess the main idea/point of the picture. I thought it was great how the students were bases it off of their own views or feelings; however, they started to analyze and use those questioning and predicting skills. This is an artifact from one of the students! 

Inviting Other Theoretical Perspectives

Texts: 
Theory Overview- Feminism and Marxism 
Analyzing Text through Different Lenses 
A lens of of One's Own: Of Yellow Wallpaper and Beautiful Little Fools - Appleman 
Of Grave Diggers and Kings: Reading Literature through the Marxist Lens, or What's Class Got to Do with It? - Appleman
The Case for Critical Theory in the Classroom - Appleman 
Bridging English- Milner and Milner 


Say:

Appleman's, The Case for Critical Theory in a Classroom, begins talking about importance and issues surrounding multiple perspectives. As English teachers, we have such a wide variety of what we can teach and how we teach those texts are important for fostering those kinds of multiple perspectives. Appleman points out that many high school teachers are more removed from modern critical theory, therefore they do not know exactly how to implement it in the classroom. I think I this was my high school experience because we never talked about critical theory; however, we only brought up different lenses or multiple perspectives if someone was brave enough to say something in class or the book actually revolved around Feminist/Marxist theory. As a future teacher, one of my main goals is to have my students reflect on their expanding views and analyze how not only what they think, but how their thinking how their perspective and meaning is constructed based on a larger context. Milner and Milner also state that "critical perspectives produces very different approaches and generate different questions about them"(154). I think bringing in different critical perspectives is very important for high schoolers because it opens up the cannon as well as their thinking into multiple perspectives. 

Introducing all of these critical perspectives can be very daunting for both the teacher and students; however, I think it is important for teachers to show some critical theory in their classroom. No matter what theory a teacher wants to bring into the classroom, I think it is important to introduce it by giving them the background/definitions. Whether a teacher decides to do this with activities, a handout, or lecture notes, students need to have a clear understanding of what we are trying to get them thinking about. Especially for the Marxist and Feminist view because I don't want my students thinking that the Feminist perspective is only for the females of the class and that I am trying to push communism on them. In A Lens of One's Own: Of Yellow Wallpaper and Beautiful Little Fools, she gave a few ways to introduce the feminist lens which I liked because would like to do some activities that allows me to understand what they already know about these theories or at least what they immediately think of on hearing it. These critical theories all have multiple perspectives within them and I think it's important for a teacher to help students navigate all those different perspectives or definitions. These critical theories also help re-imagine older texts such as Shakespeare and Fitzgerald. This brings new perspectives for different characters and I think can help engage more students with these older texts. These new perspectives can be used in a variety of activities such as creating voices for the voiceless by looking at those different lenses. 

Similar to A Lense of One's own and the Feminist perspective, the Marxist perspective allows for students to see the text and literary cannon by looking through the Marxist lens. In Of Grave Diggers and Kings: Reading Literature through the Marxist Lens, or What's Class Got to Do With It?, the article refers to the importance of distinguishing between Marxist Literary theory and Marxism/Communism which is important for students to understand. I also like this perspective because it opens up the students thinking in the context of the socio-political world that they live in. I want my students to question the forces that dictate their lives and critical think about how their perspective is constructed by those forces. This kind of questioning also lends itself to analyzing the cannon and the works that they are reading. The English major in me is worried about these types of questions because we love the classics and trust the cannon; however, I do acknowledge that it is important to question the forces that affected how the cannon was constructed. All of the critical theories and lenses help develop multiple perspectives for our students while they are also becoming critical thinkers about the text they are reading as well as the world that shapes the texts, their lives, and meaning making. 


Do:
I always liked the Jigsaw Group activity from Milner and Milner for critical synthesis. I think it works well for initiating thoughts or perspectives on a particular text from looking at multiple angles. I also think this could be a great way for students to teach other students about the different perspectives, instead of a teacher having a handout with a powerpoint and notes. Each group could be responsible for a different critical theory and then teach what they learned to the other students. If we are focusing on one text, I think that jigsaw could work for one text because they could look at the text through different lenses. My students will eventually read Hamlet and The Great Gatsby so I would like to have a few activities similar to the ones given in the article Of Grave Diggers and Kings. I especially liked the idea of visualizing the order of the political society/power dynamics as well as going into the feminist perspective with the female characters. 

(Re) Introducing Reader Response

Robert Probst- Response and Analysis 
Louise Rosenblatt- Literature as Exploration 
Susan Henneburg- "Dimensions of Failure in Reader Response"
Deborah Appleman - Critical Encounters in High School English 
Maureen McLaughlin and Glenn DeVoogd- "Critical literacy as Comprehension: Expanding Reader Response" 
Mary Styslinger and Emily Eberlin "Where We Are: Responsive Reading Using Edmodo"  

Say:


I was introduced to reader response last year and as a future educator I was excited about incorporating it in my classroom. It made sense to me to have this transactional theory in the classroom because whenever I personally respond to a text, I automatically have a better grasp or understanding of the text. Probst states that "the uniqueness of the reader must be respected"(14) and I agree with the basis of that statement. I think it is important for students to know that when we have whole or small group discussions their opinions, thoughts, and personal responses are important to understanding the text. Their personal responses are a great foundation to start the analysis process and in Resonse and Analysis, Probst notes that responding to literature is a process that shifts and changes. I see reader response as part of the scaffolding or layering process. 
        

I really enjoyed the article, Lens of Reader Response: The Promise and Peril of Response-Based Pedagogy, because I felt like we haven't read anything that showed the practical response to reader response. I am also always hesitant when reading theories and pedagogy as a one size fits all model or basing my whole teaching philosophy on one perspective because as teachers we know that teaching is anything but a one size fits all model. I think teachers who only teach reader response are doing their students a huge disservice. Working with 9th graders has opened my eyes to seeing the crucial middle and high school transition. I have heard that middle school is geared towards reader response; however, I don't see them blending any analysis or rigor to the curriculum. I don't want my students to not be prepared for that next step in their education by only teaching reader response. I also think as English teachers, we are considerably lucky to teach such a wide curriculum that enables us to push our students into being critical thinkers about themselves as well as the world around them. Incorporating that transactional method, where students use their personal response as a way to interact with the text along with considering or analyzing through the more traditional methods. 


I thought that most of the articles and handouts had some good ideas for opening up students to a literature unit. Using reader response is just one part of the layering and scaffolding process for students. I think it is a great way to invite students into analyzing literature because it is important to teach them that they can connect to a text and transact with it. 


Do:

One of the reader response methods that we learned about were several activities that can be used in the classroom to get students thinking or connecting to an upcoming novel or unit. In my internship, my teacher allowed me to start off the new novel, Bronx Masquerade. One way of preparing students for the reading was to do an anticipation guide that had several questions pertaining to themes, related issues of teenagers, as well as some information that I wanted to find out. We had brief discussion about some of the questions, which was helpful for them to start thinking about the dynamics of their school and the people around them. 

Name: ______________________________________

Bronx Masquerade Anticipation Guide

1. It's important to have dreams or plans for the future.                                 

Agree   Don't Know   Disagree

                   

2. Everyone else is luckier than I am.      Agree   Don't Know   Disagree

                   

3. Kids my age don't think about other peoples' feelings.                               

 Agree   Don't Know   Disagree

                   

4. I like the way I look.                                      Agree   Don't Know   Disagree

                   

5. Choosing the right friends is important to me.                                                  

Agree   Don't Know   Disagree

                   

6. If you care about other people you're soft. Agree   Don't Know   Disagree

                   

7. Everyone wears a mask.                            Agree   Don't Know   Disagree

                   

8. Real friendships don't just happen. You have to work on them.

Agree   Don't Know   Disagree

                   

9. I wish people knew the real me.           Agree   Don't Know   Disagree

                   

10. Other people have it easier than I do.Agree Don't Know   Disagree

                   

11. Students in this class really listen to each other.                      Agree   Don't Know   Disagree

                   

12. Everyone has problems.        Agree   Don't Know   Disagree

                   

13. I feel connected to everyone in this class. Agree   Don't Know   Disagree

                   

14. I don't like writing poetry.    Agree   Don't Know   Disagree

                                   

15. I don't like reading poetry.   Agree   Don't Know   Disagree

Transacting with Literature

Say:

I think the reading this week speaks to the underlying issue of teachers not providing a wide variety of texts that foster a meaningful transaction with texts. As a student, I first started transacting with literature by reading poetry. I was instantly hooked by the way poets manipulate and controlled their language to construct a lot of meaning. As I think back on my experience as a reader, it is contigent on the fact that I had a personal connection with poetry. This foundation gave me the starting motivation to explore other texts, moving into more complex narratives and the so called "classics." I think teachers tend to forget that part of our scaffolding needs to teach students how to have that personal relationship with a text. 

Tovani calls for the unrepresented textual lineage for young African-American within the classroom and I have to agree that this plagues a lot of students. There are a lot of students who cannot name or locate a text or genre that really "got" them and made them a motivated reader, which I think directly correlates with their attitude towards the required reading that we give them. As teachers, we are doing students such a disservice by not allowing students the opportunity to lay that foundation that is crucial for the way they look at reading. We have to set aside time to share and experience what it is like to personally transact with a text. 

Part of laying that foundation for awakening the inner reader is to provide them with a wide variety of books. The genre of YA has vastly grown since I was in school and I am pleasantly surprised with how it has developed over the years. All of the readings this week touched on the key element of exposing students to every genre because it directly relates to whether or not students can intimately transact with a text. One of the benefits of being an English major in college was being exposed to so many different classes. I don't think I would ever know about post-modern novels or graphic novels without being exposed to them in college. The problem with this is that it wasn't until college that I was exposed to those genres and now I am obsessed with them!

A lot of the articles highlighted graphic novels as a great way to foster meaningful transaction with a text and I couldn't agree more. I love graphic novels and plan to use them in classroom. I think the biggest benefit of graphic novels is its versatility. It bridges the visual and the text so beautifully as well as functioning as a great supplemental text for many other works. I also have noticed that so many students are into Manga and using graphic novels is another scaffolding technique for bridging Manga, the graphic novel, and the classics. 

Overall, I think most teachers can relate to that one book that started it all, that one book that awakened their inner reader and motivated them to read more. For many of our students, they might not have found that book just yet and it is our duty to help them find it. Once we have laid that foundation, the next step is to take those texts and start connecting them with other texts. Also, those other texts need to show a wide variety of perspectives and genres. As teachers, we are all under the dreaded pressure of standardized testing and making sure we are meeting our standards, but I truly think that with whatever book your students connect with, they will have something that you can use to teach those standards. We can longer use this as an excuse for not exposing students to a wide variety of texts and showing them how to lay the groundwork for meaningful transaction with literature. 

Do: 

Since our articles discussed the graphic novel genre and it has become one of my favorite new genres to read, I had a lesson plan that I created for Speigelman's Maus. I plan to use this during the spring semester (we will be reading Night by Elie Weisel) as a supplemental text because I love that the visuals in the story as well as Speigelman's gripping tale of his father's survival story. I would probably use this graphic novel for several activities or lessons that go with Night. This lesson plan just looks explicitly at the animal imagery and goes into discussion about stereotypes, their effect on people/society as a whole. 

Daily Lesson Plan

Lesson Title: MAUS	Date/Duration:  90 min	Grade/Subject: 9th English		Lesson Goals: Understanding The Holocaust through Art Spiegelman’s MAUS.
Student Objectives: Students will recall their prior knowledge on the Holocaust. Student’s will compare Spiegelman’s graphic novel to other Holocaust’s stories. Student’s will classify and interpret Spiegelman’s use of animal imagery. Student’s will discuss the themes in MAUS.			SC Standards/PACT 7.      Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.* 8.      Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.		Unit and Back-ground or prior knowledge: Student’s will recall their prior knowledge on the Holocaust/WWII.
Resources and Materials Stereotype Handout MAUS handout Powerpoint
Assignment(s): Handout Writing Response
Activities: ·       Student’s will start with a journal entry (give about 5-10 min) ·       I will ask students to tell me what they know about the Holocaust and the type of Holocaust literature they’ve read in the past. ·       Then student’s will watch a youtube video that gives them a snapshot into Spiegelman’s MAUS. ·       I will start the powerpoint presentation beginning with giving information on MAUS and the graphic novel genre. ·       Then I will ask students to refer to one of the handouts where they will look for all of the different animals that Spiegelman shows. Then I will ask students to discuss which animals represent certain ethnicities/racial groups. ·       Once they classify the animals with ethnic groups, we will discuss why he chose to use animals to depict the Holocaust. ·       I will guide the discussion to bring up racial propaganda used by Nazis. ·       I will ask students if they think the animal imagery is problematic? We will discuss. ·       Then I will show two panels in which I show them that Spiegelman struggled with using the animal imagery. ·       Then I will go into the slide with Pavel. We will discuss survivor’s guilt and the future of racial stereotyping, ending with the question of how to racial stereotypes persist today and are we any better at breaking them. ·       At this time I will refer to the second handout (stereotypes). I will ask the students to fill out questions and discuss with a partner. Then with the whole class, we discuss the analysis questions.
Assessment: After the handout, students will write a response to the question: Do you think society has changed enough to where an event like the Holocaust will not repeat itself? Why or why not?
Extension/Enrichment

** Be sure you attach all accompanying notes, handouts, assessments, rubrics, etc.