Learning Letter

I really enjoyed this class and I can honestly say that the culture of the classroom allowed me to make my first college friend. By discussing much of the content with my peers, I was able to make connections and relationships with people I normally wouldn’t have. I enjoyed the book talks, mini- lessons, and unit plans. I thought the book talks were incredible because it provided me with 20 different titles of books to explore and read. It also provided me insight into what different people like to read and inspired me to widen my interests. The mini-lessons in our book circles were also a great tool. I enjoyed seeing everyone’s different ideas on how to present different aspects of a book. There are so many lesson plan ideas I have now based on my experience with the mini-lessons. I also liked how we each read the books but we all presented in “groups” on specific books. That way, we were all benefiting from reading but not required to do a full report or project on each.

The unit plan was also a great experience. I was really stressed throughout it but I learned a lot about lesson planning and myself as a planner, student, and as a teacher. It scares me to think about how much time, effort, and thinking will go into creating my lessons for the first couple years of teaching. I am told it gets easier and easier but the lesson plan provided a great way to think about all aspects of a unit. I also liked the added information to the TPA lesson plan because it required me share my thinking and planning in more ways than one and helped me to become an expert in teaching persuasion.

I was extremely overwhelmed after our first reading. I was unsure I was fit to participate in the class. After we discussed the article, and I realized I was not the only one totally lost, I felt more comfortable. Through the discussion, I made connections with some really confusing parts of the article. I re-read the article after our discussion (it was still confusing) but I did understand more of it than the first time. I really enjoyed talking about oppressors and the oppressed and how it applies to teachers and students. That was a theory that rocked my entire view of teaching. I now see the theme of oppressors and oppressed in other literary works. Plus, teaching what I had been taught in class to my mom and dad was so fun! Many of the articles we read in class I discussed with my family and was inspired and amazed by the amount of information I remembered and how I was able to present it in a way other people understood.

This class inspired me to include more discussion in my classes as a teacher. I have never had friends in classes in school. When I missed a class because of an illness or stress, I would wing it because I had no one to call or contact. Often professors became friends and helped me through the process but there is something important about creating relationships with peers when it comes to learning. I also noticed that once I had established relationships in the class, I was more willing to participate and contribute to the conversation, even if I wasn’t 100% or sure of my ideas. I also liked all the different reflective activities we did. I have been practicing on being more reflective in my life and I am amazed by its power. I also enjoyed all of the constructive criticism and feedback we provided for each other in class. Therefore, all of knew the expectations but we all trusted each other and reinforced learning and ideas. I learned so much from this class and I was always excited to attend. Thank you for working so hard to make this a great quarter.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang is the first graphic novel I've ever read! I enjoyed the experience, looking at the pictures and making inferences about the story's setting and mood almost made it like reading subtitles while watching a movie. The pictures are there, but in order to understand the entire story you must read the words. I love visualizing what the words are describing in my own imagination and the graphic novel kind of robs that imaginative side for me. With that being said, I am excited to extend my graphic reading experience by reading books like Maus.

I am excited for my observation time tomorrow because I recommended the book to one of the students in my 7th grade class on Wednesday. He said he liked comic books and that was it. Then I saw American Born Chinese on the shelf. At first he was convinced it was all Chinese and since he didn't understand Chinese he wasn't interested. We flipped through the book together and I showed him that the words were in English and then I told him I was going to read the same book over the weekend. By Friday, he was half way through the book and I still hadn't started it!

Now that I have read the book, I am interested in hearing what the kiddo has to say about it. There might have been some language and words that were a little above his reading level and I am interested in seeing if he looked them up, asked someone, or made inferences from the pictures. I think it will start a cool conversation and I might be able to find out a little more about him and where he's at as a student.

Night by Elie Wiesel

Reading Night by Elie Wiesel never ceases to amaze me. Each time I am captivated by the moments he described. This time, I thought about my grandma who just turned 98 years old. This could have been her and my papa's story. If things had been different, a different country, a different religion, a different Hitler, this could have been the story of my family. This perspective I took while reading the story made me much more sad while reading the book.

I find it interesting (for lack of a better word) that Night for  many people is the first "school assigned book" they read cover to cover. I know it was for me. There is a horror and sickening feeling that accompanies me as I discovered new things about the Holocaust. I remember being a student and wanting to read to the end - only because I knew it ended. The pain, fear, despair, hunger, and atrocities people endured throughout the time are unbelievable. For me that is why this book was so captivating.

This time through, I read Elie Wiesel's Nobel Peace Prize Award acceptance speech. He said, "give Isreal a chance to let hatred and danger be removed from their horizons, and there will be peace in and around the Holy Land." Reading this line impacted me on a deeper level, as did the book this time around. Thinking of Elie and his father as they could have been my GG and Papa filled me with more anger than I had felt reading the book before. In his acceptance speech, it is clear that Elie has  turned his hatred for good and has risen above his oppressors. He speaks out about atrocities in the world and reminds readers what some people are capable of doing and encourages them to speak out.

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

I totally felt like my 7th grade kids when I grumbled slightly as I pulled out Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. I opened the book and instantly flipped to the last page. Not as many pages as I thought! There is something about reading Romeo and Juliet when it is NOT in some million paged anthology that makes it much more enjoyable.

 

The play is still not my favorite of Shakespeare's work. I love the comedies and find them more enjoyable to read. With that being said, there have been so many adaptations to Romeo and Juliet that I think it could be taught effectively. There are so many adaptations such as movies and modern versions that students may find it easier to connect with Romeo or Juliet than other of Shakespeare's characters. 

 

When reading the play with my students, I would assign different students to different characters as we read. We would discuss the play the entire time to make sure students were comprehending the story as well as understanding the language used. After, students would be assigned to groups and asked to re-create their own version of Romeo and Juliet and present it to the class in some creative format such as a skit, video, picture video, or audio recording.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part -Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

I have heard numerous people talk about Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part -Time Indian but never took the initiative to read the book for myself. I am so glad I did! What a story of empowerment and life experience. I feel like students, teachers, and parents can all benefit  from reading this book.

I really enjoyed reading the book through the lenses of effort= success. In my education class 413 we have new n discussing how to teach students about effort and how to inspire students to put more effort into school work and daily ale an active role in their own learning. As a student myself, taking an active role in my learning is hard. It takes time, commitment and lots of late nights and support. Support from family, friends and teachers

This book shows me all the little things a teacher can do to inspire students. First, teachers have to believe in students and have expectations from them. Me. P saw something different in Junior. He saw a boy who hadn't fallen trap to the ways of the Natives and encouraged him to be better. Junior didn't believe he could accomplish anything or be anything more than the drink native like everyone else but with the encouragement or  ateacher and family support Junior was able to become a successful student and a successful basketball player.

I loved this book and I can see myself using  it in an 8th or 9th grade classroom. It models the idea that success depends on effort but it also reminds students that there is life besides school and sometimes life sucks. With poverty, death, and drunks Junior had to survive life and not give up hope. As a tracer I think it's important to foster a community where life can be lived and students can know that support from teachers and their peers will be alive in the classroom.

Differentiating Instruction

 "A Rational for Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom" by Paul S. George

“A rationale for Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom” is an article about by Paul S. George’s personal perspectives on teaching and the school experience. George claims, “Success for all students is more than a slogan or even a laudable goal; it may be a key to the survival of the American public school as society has come to know it” (186). George argues that differentiated instruction and heterogeneous classrooms must be the foundations for an effective classroom. He explains his theory by describing two possible “pathways” (186).

First, George believes that teachers need to “prize diversity” in their schools. He describes this kind of environment at being one that shows parents that their children are safe, making friends, receiving the support they need and so on. Secondly, George thinks that educators need to make more effort to include differentiated instruction, curriculum and basement that will support a wide range of students.

George continues to explain and support some key concepts of a heterogeneous classroom and its importance: racial integration, accurate placement, effect of effort, awareness of individual differences, equity, contact theory, and constructivist opportunities. He also shares the benefits in differentiating instruction in a heterogeneous classroom.

Overall, I enjoyed this article and what the author had to say. I liked that he started the article by stating that these are his personal beliefs from his own experiences. I thought it was interesting that he grabbed our attention by a call for change or a loss of public schools as we know it. I thought it was a valid point, especially with all of the charter and private schools emerging. Public school will be known as he left overs or the uncategorized if we cannot teach effectively to all types of learners. I thought it was interesting to note the importance of mixing differentiated instruction within a heterogeneous classroom to achieve higher levels of learning.

 

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3496997

Silent Reading Record

Read for 30 minutes and then stop and complete the following:

1. What did you read? (Include title and page numbers .)
--I read Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson from page 1 to page 57.

2. In four or more sentences summarize what you read.
--Frannie is a young 11-year-old girl living in the seventies. She reads Emily Dickenson's poem in school and starts to ponder the meaning of the "thing with feathers": hope. A new boy comes into her class and he is white but claims not to be. All of the kids call him Jesus-boy. When he makes eye contact with Frannie, he always seems to smile and she doesn't know why. Most of the other kids in class pick and taunt him, claiming he should be living on the other side of the highway with the other white folk.

Frannie's other brother, Sean, is deaf so he goes to a different school. Frannie admires her brother and wishes girls could see past his hearing problems. She thinks he would have lots of different girl friends if he could hear properly. Her mother has been sad before because of the loss of a daughter and another miscarriage. When Frannie returns home from school one day, her mother is in bed and Frannie is instantly worried. When her father gets home, he informs Sean and Frannie that their mother is pregnant again and that is why she is tired.

3. As you were reading, what were you thinking? Write at least four sentences. Did you make any connections? What were you wondering? What opinions do you have about what you read?
--When I started reading this book, I thought there would be more direct references to the Vietnam, War because of what the back of the book has said. Instead, (so far) it focuses more on the realities of segregation through the eyes of a young girl. I have enjoyed the "reverse racism" perspective the book provides. The "Jesus-Boy" is a white boy in an all black school and is harassed to go back to the other side of the highway. The bully, Trevor, is lighter black than the other kids with piercing blue eyes. Rumors say that his father is a white man but he is so mean to the other students no one will ask him or talk about it. The entire time, I was thinking of the movie Ruby. Ruby is a story about the first African-American girl to be bused to a white school through desegregation. The realities and the treatment of Ruby and "Jesus- boy" is extremely similar.

I am wondering if I need to investigate into the opposition around the Vietnam War in an effort to draw more connections to the text. I was also wondering if I needed to look into people with disabilities and how they were treated during the seventies.

So far I have truly enjoyed the book. I can relate to Frannie in a number of ways. At one point, Frannie says, "Some days, eleven felt like a whole long lifetime. All heavy like that" (19).