Learning Letter

On the first day of class when we went over the syllabus, I did not realize how much work I would complete, or how much I would learn over the course of ten weeks. Through reading various articles, teaching a mini-lesson, and giving a book talk, I’ve learned a lot about myself as a future teacher.

The three week unit plan was by far the hardest assignment of the quarter, and probably the hardest assignment I have ever had to complete. Although it was a lot of work, I am happy that I was able to successfully complete it. I realized that I have a lot of ideas as a teacher and really care about making what I teach student-centered. I know there are ways I can improve the unit plan, but already knowing some of those ways helps me as a teacher. I’ve learned that there isn’t a “right way” to teach. I appreciate the freedom the unit plan allowed, but that same freedom made it even more difficult.

The mini-lesson I taught had a lot of positive aspects to it. It was the first actual lesson I taught on my own, so it was a learning experience. I definitely tried to do too much in such a short amount of time. I also had way too many learning objectives that I would never be able to accomplish in 20 minutes. Teaching this lesson first made planning my unit a lot easier because I learned from my mistakes.

The book talk was a lot more work than I expected it to be, but I am happy we incorporated them in the class. There were many questions that I was required to answer about the book that I would never have thought about before implementing it in a classroom. I chose Slaughterhouse Five, a book that is often on the banned books list. There are many obstacles that come along with teaching the book. There are instances of sexual language, parts where different religions could be insulted, and swearing. I can see arguments for why parents or administrators wouldn’t want students exposed to that kind of material. But adult language isn’t exclusive to Slaughterhouse Five. There are many books that fall on the banned book list each year, books that I know I will want to teach and have solid reasoning for teaching them. Knowing the obstacles I might face as a teacher and how to overcome them will help me in my career.

I appreciate all of the readings we completed for class. The discussion reading and Freire are the two that stick out the most to me. I liked the reasoning for using discussion in class. Students take responsibility for their education as well as their peers’. Discussion exposes students to a variety of ideas, opinions, cultures, values, religions, etc. that students might not have appreciated otherwise. I implemented a lot of discussions in my unit plan based off of this reading. Even though it was dense, I enjoyed reading Freire. His idea of “banking education” really stuck with me. He says that students aren’t empty vessels that you deposit knowledge into. His pedagogy has helped me develop my own in the sense that I really value student-based learning.

I tried to participate in discussions by speaking as often as I could, but many times I got just as much out of the discussions by listening. I think this will help me as a teacher because I’ve realized that even if a student doesn’t open up during discussions, that doesn’t mean they aren’t learning. Having an environment where we just talked about our opinions and questions about texts was beneficial. I enjoyed hearing what other people took away from readings because sometimes people had a differing view than I did, which aided in my learning.

Overall, the assignments and readings in this course have helped me become a better and more caring teacher.

Book Talk of a Young Adult Text: Slaughterhouse-Five

Book Talk of a Young Adult Text
Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut (1969)

Description:                                                                                 

Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade, is told in a nonlinear order. Events become clear through various time travel experiences from the narrator who describes the stories of Billy Pilgrim. Billy Pilgrim, "tall and weak, and shaped like a bottle of Coca-Cola," was born in Ilium, N.Y., the only child of a barber there, (23). After graduating from Ilium High School, he attended night sessions at the Ilium School of Optometry for one semester before being drafted for military service in World War II. Billy is a disoriented, ill-trained American soldier who refuses to fight during the war. He doesn’t like war and is captured by the Germans during Battle of the Bulge in 1944. Before his capture, Billy meets Roland Weary, a bully who is in favor of the war and constantly chastises Billy for his lack of enthusiasm for it. It’s implied that Billy and Weary are both relatively young, in their early 20s. The Germans confiscate everything Weary has, including his boots, giving him wooden clogs to wear. As a result, Weary dies of gangrene in Luxembourg. In a train car full of prisoners of war, Weary convinces another solider, Paul Lazzaro, that Billy is to blame for Weary’s death. Lazzaro vows to avenge Weary by killing Billy.

During the war, Billy becomes “unstuck in time,” experiencing moments from different points in his life. By 1945, Billy and the other prisoners are taken to Dresden to do “contract labor.” The Germans put the prisoners in an empty slaughterhouse in Dresden. The building is known as “Schlachtof-funf,” Slaughterhouse-Five. During the bombing, the prisoners and German guards hide in a cellar. They are some of the few survivors of the firestorm caused by allied bombing between February 13-15, 1945. After the war, Billy goes back to the United States, receiving an honorable discharge from service in July 1945.

A few months after the war ends, Billy is institutionalized with PTSD and put into psychiatric care. There he meets another veteran, Eliot Rosewater, who introduces Billy to the novels of an obscure science fiction author named Kilgore Trout. Trout writes stories that bear a strong resemblance to Billy’s experiences on Tralfamadore. Once Billy is released, he marries Valencia Merble. Her father owns the Ilium School of Optometry, which Billy attends again and becomes an optometrist. Billy and Valencia have two children, Robert and Barbara. On Barbara’s wedding night, Billy is abducted by an alien space ship and taken to a planet, Tralfamadore, billions of miles away. The Tralfamadorians are two feet high, green, and shaped like plungers, with suction cupss on the ground and little green hands with eyes on their palms at the top of their shafts. They are wise, and they teach Billy Pilgrim many things. They teach him that humans cannot see time, which is really like "a stretch of the rocky Mountains," with all moments in the past, the present and the future, always existing. On the planet, he meets an actress, Montana Wildhack, who is also abducted. The Tralfamadorians put Billy and Montana together in a cage in their zoo. They have a child together. Billy is sent back to Earth.

In 1968, Billy is in a plane crash. He and the copilot are the only survivors. Billy’s wife, Valencia, dies of carbon monoxide poisoning while driving to the hospital where Billy is being treated. Billy shares a hospital room with Bertram Rumfoord, a history professor at Harvard. He’s writing a short history of the U.S. Air Force and insists the bombing of Dresden was necessary.

Billy’s daughter takes him home to Ilium. He sneaks out and drives to New York City. While wandering around Times Square, he visits a bookstore, sees some Kilgore Trout books and reads them. That night, he goes on a radio show to talk about his time travels to Tralfamadore and is kicked out of the studio. He goes back to his hotel room, falls asleep and time travels to 1945 Dresden where the book ends.

About Kurt Vonnegut:

Born November 11, 1922 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He’s known for his satirical literary style as well as the science-fiction elements in much of his work. After studying at Cornell University, Vonnegut enlisted in the U.S. Army. He served in Europe and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Vonnegut was captured by the German army. He was in Dresden, Germany, during the allied firebombing of the city and saw the devastation caused by it. Vonnegut wasn’t injured during the bombing because he, along with other prisoners, was working in an underground meat locker. After he returned from war, he married his high school girlfriend, Jane Marie Cox. They had three children and adopted his sister’s three children after her death in 1958. He died on April 11, 2007, at the age of 84 as a result of head injuries sustained from a fall.

The Bombing of Dresden:

The bombing of Dresden was an American and British attack on the city of Dresden during the final months of WWII. 722 heavy bombers of the British Royal Air Force and 527 of the United States Army Air Forces dropped nearly 4,000 tons of explosives on the city. The bombing and resulting firestorm destroyed more than 1,600 acres of the city. An estimated 25,000 people were killed, although in 1945, German authorities said 200,000 people were killed. The true number of casualties is still being debated. The bombing is controversial for a number of reasons: the number of victims killed, the deliberate creation of a firestorm, whether Dresden was a necessary military target, and the fact that it was attacked toward the end of the war. Many people question whether the bombing was needed to end the war.

Why I chose this text:

Slaughterhouse-Five is one of the most bizarre books I’ve ever read. It’s profound, political, and humorous. It’s perplexing and the non-chronological order of events challenge the reader. I like that it’s an anti-war book about a bombing, yet the bombing is never described. The book explores the relationship between free will and fatalism, which the Trafalmadorians believe. They accept all events as inevitable and submit to fate. Slaughterhouse-Five manages to be a WWII novel and a sci-fi novel at the same time, with a heavy dose of time travel, death, and alien abductions. Because of this, I think it has value in an ELA classroom.

The book is appropriate for 10^th-12^th graders. Although there is some mature language in the novel, I think high school aged students would be able to handle it. They’re the age of some of the soldiers in the novel and should be exposed to the important topics Vonnegut addresses. Vonnegut also has a unique way of writing that students should be exposed to. He uses elements like: manipulating fiction and reality; using short, declarative sentences; the disjointed, discontinuous sequence of events; and the point of view of Vonnegut throughout the novel. The strangeness of the book would also be appealing to them.

Teaching Ideas:

1.       Investigating the Historical Background

a.       The central themes of Slaughterhouse-Five grow out of Vonnegut’s personal response to historical events. Students might explore the following historical topics: causes and effects of the medieval Children’s Crusade and its relationship to Billy’s pilgrimage; causes and effects—military, political, cultural, and personal—of the firebombing of Dresden; justifications given for WWII and reasons for writing a novel against it.

2.       Looking at literary elements

a.       Examples of things to look at with students: character development, plot structure, tone. You can also look at the use of black humor, satire, parody, dramatic irony, anti-hero, ambiguity in theme, science fiction, first and third person points of view, symbols and metaphors, and use of short and clipped sentences.

3.       Examining the life of an author

a.       The book begins with a chapter on why Vonnegut is writing the book and his struggles with making it meaningful. There are direct correlations between the author’s life and the lives of the characters in Slaughterhouse-Five. Students can look at how events in Kurt Vonnegut’s own life influenced the novel. Is Vonnegut the narrator? Is he Billy Pilgrim? In Chapter 5, Billy encounters a sick American soldier who says he is the narrator. I think looking at this book with regard to who Vonnegut is and how he is reflected in the novel would be useful it an ELA classroom.     

Obstacles:

Slaughterhouse-Five is a controversial book that’s banned in some schools. The novel, originally written for adults, has graphic language, sexual and violent content, and there’s a drawn picture of boobs on page 209. Some have called it, “depraved, immoral, psychotic, vulgar, and anti-Christian.” I would expect an administrator to ask questions about the inappropriate elements of the book, but as long as a teacher is able to give well thought out reasons for why the book is important in and ELA classroom, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be approved. I would expect parents to be worried about the language and content as well. I think sending a note home saying students are going to read a book that is controversial, but also giving reasons for why it’s relevant will at least let parents know what’s going on. I think students would really enjoy the book because of the story and for all of the reasons administrators and parents might have a problem with it.

Sources:

http://www.biography.com/people/kurt-vonnegut-9520329#further-success
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDoQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Feolit.hrw.com%2Fhlla%2Fnovelguides%2Fhs%2FMini-Guide.Vonnegut.pdf&ei=Iln3VNzzLtO5ogS8zoKIDQ&usg=AFQjCNGCIECoGuk5PbBwmULGUcqex60leg&sig2=QFtlw6mbb8UL8bxkt5igjA
http://www.shmoop.com/slaughterhouse-five/teaching.html

 

Secondary Standards-Based Grading and Reporting Handbook

I think the idea of standards based grading is really interesting. When I was a student, there were many times where I saw people’s grades badly affected because they did not turn in a few assignments, resulting in zeros. Whether not turning homework in was out of laziness or other circumstances, A students became C students and their mastery or knowledge of the material was not reflected in their grade. I like that with standards based grading, the zeros would not negatively impact a grade and only the most recent, relevant coursework would. The handout we read gave an example about a student who, with normal grading, would have failed a course. With standards based grading, he got a C+. I think the difference in that student’s mindset on school would be incredible. He wouldn’t have to retake the course because later on down the line when he understood the material better or started taking the class seriously, he would have shown that he understands the content.

Our students’ grades should have meaning. Their work should have a purpose and demonstrate what they know or don’t know. I think standards based grading reflects this idea. I think if you asked most students k-12 what the differences are between an A, B, C, D, or F, they would give you a vague answer or wouldn’t know. I only say this because as I was thinking about the differences, I don’t have great answers to give. Not really knowing what a grade means or reflects is an issue if you’re a teacher, student or parent. I appreciate how clear the assessment scale is for standards based grading and I appreciate that it is student centered. I recently observed a few classes at Ferris and one of the English teachers told me that for the entire semester, he only has about ten assignments in his gradebook. He said that he gives the students plenty of work that he could grade, but what’s the point? Why would he grade their practice and their mistakes while they’re learning? He looks at their homework and assess how his students can improve, but he only grades the end work that shows what the student has learned. Even if standards based grading isn’t implemented in a school I work at in the future, I think this system of only grading specific assignments can work in a similar way.

Assessing and Evaluating Students' Learning

When I was a student in high school, I thought the main purpose of assessing and grading was to see if I met the expected teaching objectives and to earn points toward my grade for the course. After reading Assessing and Evaluating Students’ Learning, I’ve realized that points and fact-based questions shouldn’t be the only things teachers are looking for. I’ve taken tests after reading a novel where knowledge and factual information were what the teacher valued. While I might have learned what my teacher wanted me to learn about the novel, I’m not sure I got much else from reading.

I like that the article suggests to first define what you, as a teacher, values in literature. Then you can think about how you will ask students to show you what they’ve learned. I think this goes back to having a reason for everything you do in the classroom. It seems obvious to first know what you’re hoping students learn and then plan around that, but this article showed me just how important learning objectives are. I think it’s important that students know the learning objectives and how they’re expected to show their knowledge. When I knew a huge test at the end of a novel awaited me, I would read for facts. My focus wasn’t on my own interpretation of the novel and because of that, I’m not sure that I had my own interpretation.

I also liked the section of the article that talked about grading according to a group norm. I agree that the less-able students will remain at the bottom while the top students continue to perform above average. While that’s great for the top students, the bottom ones are just continually compared to kids who are doing better. Their own improvement, if there can be any in this type of assessment, is ignored. I think criterion-based evaluation is a great tool to help students grow, regardless of if they are in the top or bottom of a group norm. I think students should be evaluated based off of improvements they make because their education is their own and being evaluated based on how they perform will encourage students to try hard and perform better.

Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It

Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About it, by Kelly Gallagher, is a good read. As a student, I loved reading. But I did experience many of the things schools do to kill reading. Chapter three resonated with me because I’ve seen teachers over teach books. It kills the joy of reading. Gallagher makes great points saying you wouldn’t stay for a movie if it were paused 22 times to discuss it and by over teaching, many educators hit the state standards, but miss the real importance of reading a book. Having experienced many of the things he writes about, I understand how a student’s desire to read is extinguished or never even developed.

One of my other classes recently went to a local high school. We observed a freshman honors English class where they were reading To Kill a Mockingbird. The teacher had made a packet for students to fill out as they read. I grabbed one to look it over and saw most of the questions were asking students to relate the reading to their own worlds and experiences. He asked them to relate to the first snow Scout and Jem experienced. He asked them if they ever had a neighbor who was mysterious or creepy like Boo Radley. And he asked them to think of other texts, movies, TV shows and music that could help them relate to the novel. I really liked the packet and thought it was a good use of the students’ time.

Readicide made me think a lot about my three week unit plan for this class that’s due in a few weeks. I really want to go through it and make sure that my plans encourage students to read. I want to ask them thoughtful, relevant questions instead of over teaching and hitting state standards. I agree with Gallagher that schools are killing the love of reading. But as a future teacher, I can change that and allow students the time to read for pleasure and experience the “flow.”

TPA Guidelines

I haven’t had any experience with lesson planning, let alone the TPA lesson plan format. The guidelines for TPA are very extensive and it seems like a lot of work, time and effort goes into lesson planning. A lot of it makes sense to me, though. In class, we often talk about having clear reasons and purposes for doing what we choose to do in our classrooms. The TPA guidelines give clear reasoning for what the lesson is, why you’re teaching it, what you hope the students gain from the lesson and which state standards you’re meeting. The guidelines also talk about assessing the objectives, which are student-centered and measurable. I think it’s important to know how you’re going to be assessing a discussion or watching a movie, things that students aren’t going to turn in. I recently observed two classrooms at Ferris High School with one of my other classes. One of the classes was a Senior AP literature course. The teacher had students create a graphic organizer to recap what they read the day before. I asked how he would be assessing the students’ work. The teacher said he only has about 10 grades in the gradebook each quarter. While some teachers might not grade this way, I think it’s important to know how you, as a teacher, are going to grade your students. It seems this style of lesson planning really prepares the teacher for what they’re going to teach and how they’re going to do it. I’m a very organized person and I like planning things down to the last detail so I appreciate how extensive this lesson plan style is. I wonder, though, if schools have a preference on the style of lesson plan a teacher uses or are teachers allowed to use whatever type they are comfortable with. Do principals or administration ever check lesson plans? I know that we’ve talked about borrowing other people’s activities for our own lesson plans. For our purposes at Eastern, when we do borrow another person’s idea, should we somehow credit or cite them in our lesson plans?

Social Justice

I chose the article by the National Council of Teachers of English, the NCTE, called, “Beliefs About Social Justice in English Education.” It outlines seven beliefs about social justice in education. The first belief is about defining social justice. The authors say it’s “definitionally complex,” meaning social justice varies by person and the authors don’t feel they are able to write a blanket statement that encompasses all people and all of their life experiences. They do believe that social justice allows teachers to teach all students more fairly and want it to exist in schools by giving the same opportunities for academic achievement to all students “regardless of background or acquired privilege.” They go on to say in order to achieve this, educators must teach about injustices and discriminations. I like this idea because I think not talking about issues or problems doesn’t make them go away. In our last reading about critical pedagogy and popular culture in urban schools, the teachers paired a book about low-income schools with a movie about a teacher making change in a school that compares to the schools in the book. The students who were also in a similar school with a lack of resources seemed to take a lot away from studying and talking about social injustice. While I agree talking about injustices is necessary and important, it can also be a touchy subject and students will probably have differing levels of experiences with social injustices.

The article says that we, as educators, need to bring students up to their capabilities and prepare them to take on challenges in the future. “If any student is left behind, the system has failed, no matter how well some may have succeeded.” This line resonated with me because it’s really what social justice is about, equality regardless of background. If one student isn’t treated or challenged or prepared as the other students are, then that’s not equality.

The NCTE gives a lot of statistics in the article. They say less than 10 percent of teachers are non-white, while more than 40 percent of public schools are African-American, Latino, Asian and Native American. They say that more than 4.4 million second language learners enrolled in U.S. schools are expected to take standardized tests that are evaluated in the same way as students whose first language is English. These numbers really surprised me. It just seems like the system is failing these students. I don’t know what the solution is, but it’s proven that students from lower socioeconomic background perform worse in school. The article says that educators should be committed to interrupting practices that reproduce these outcomes.

While talking about social justice pedagogy, the authors say that social justice to one person might not be social justice to another. Different students have different needs. The article says that we must seek to offer the same, “educational, sociocultural and psycho-emotional opportunities.” But we will have students at different stages in their lives, having different experiences and won’t all be on an even playing field. It’s interesting because while reading, I kept thinking social justice was treating everyone equally. But it seems it’s more treating everyone based on experience so that we are all equal. This is a journey, one that can’t be attained in a day or maybe even in a school year, but it should be the intention to honor all students, all the time.

http://www.ncte.org/cee/positions/socialjustice