Learning Letter

Dear Sean,

Over the course of the quarter I have gained a lot of knowledge about the pedagogy that goes into being a teacher. This was hands down one of the most difficult quarters I have been a part of here at Eastern. I enjoyed the sections and coursework throughout the class.

In this course we completed three main tasks throughout the quarter. Starting with our Book Talks. The book talk was a good opportunity to explore the world of young adult texts. Our goal was to pick a text in the young adult world of fiction and dissect it as a piece of work we could or wouldn’t use in our future classrooms. My book was “Gathering Blue,” by Louis Lowry, and I would not use this book in the future. The only reason I chose this book was because I felt that most of the class would not be familiar with it. The book I originally wanted to do was “The Giver,” by the same author but the book is widely known and I felt that choosing the sequel, the class would be more intrigued. I found that the giver was much richer in context and in meaning. It had that it factor and really grabs the reader and when I was reading “Gathering Blue” I found myself bored and really out of it. I wanted the protagonist to have the same characteristics of Jonas, but Kira was her own person and had her own problems. I would not see myself using this book in my classroom, but I would see myself using “The Giver.”

My mini lesson was the first actual teaching of a lesson in this class. I chose to use the Graphic Cannon and cover one of my favorite Hawthorne stories, “The Scarlet Letter.” I felt that the story holds great imagery and the characters in the story are explained in great detail by Hawthorne. It was a success, I found that the picture in the Graphic Cannon aided one of the sections in my lesson. That was to picture what Pearl did after she inherited all of the money. The class was issued the task to come up with a story to finish the life of Pearl, and doing so by looking at the picture of her in the Graphic Canon and with images from the web. This lesson actually helped think about the pedagogy that went into teaching flat and round characters, which my lesson revolved around. I loved this opportunity and felt that it helped me grow as a teacher.

On to the unit plans. Hands down the hardest assignment I have ever done here at Eastern. If it was not the hardest, it was definitely the most time consuming. So right off the bat, time management and the way that we met up with you individually helped me tremendously in finishing my final product. The hardest part of the assignment were the EdTPAs, I do not enjoy doing them and quite frankly I am tired of doing them. I feel that a lot of teachers feel the same way, but as teachers, they are a part of the game and we have to get used to them. I enjoy the thought that really goes into coming up with the pedagogy of any lesson. Revolving a lesson around one topic and finding a way to teach it to your students so that it will stick is the real challenge, but I love it.

In this class we had a bunch of out of class readings that we had to do. One of the most influential readings was “Readicide.” Kelly Gallagher is a teaching genius. He really influenced me to allow my students to read things that they actually liked. I enjoyed all of his points on how teachers are killing their students inspiration to read and he influenced me to fix this when I become a teacher. I don’t want my students to be reluctant readers as I was, I want them to love reading and find things that they really want to read about. I want them to be able to tell me about their favorite books and their favorite authors. The goal as an English teacher is to be like Gallagher. Learning about the Common Core State Standards is something that I will carry with me after this class. They are set out for a reason. My goal is to be able to incorporate the standards in a way that they will stick with my students, and also being able to find a silver lining and transitioning from one standard to another in lessons will be the trick.  My goal is to master that.

This course opened my eyes on how I really want to be as a teacher. It showed me that I don’t want to be a traditional teacher, and much more of a contemporary teacher. I will find ways to influence my students to want to do well in school and a good way in doing that is by empathizing with them. Bring in pop culture as Morrel stated, or even just showing them that you are willing to try new things to get them to participate. This class showed me that being a teacher has much more to it than just teaching a lesson.

And for that I say, Thank You

                                Cecilio Aldaco

Poe Response

Edgar Allen Poe is hands down my favorite traditional author. It is something about his life, novels, and the mysterious way that he died that fascinates me. He is such a mystery and his works of literature reflect that. The load of my Poe readings actually came in college. I was not exposed to Poe much, other than “The Raven,” in high school and that really bewilders me. I feel that Poe could have really influenced my love for reading. In high school, I hated reading, I was the epitome of a reluctant reader. I just feel that pre-college students should be exposed to Poe early and often. He is one of those writers that can grab any reader and his pieces of work seem to entice any generation. Out of all of the classic authors, I feel that Poe is one of those guys can fit any genre. I mean just the way that the guy was found dead is a mystery in itself. He was found face down in a ditch and there are numerous stories to which he got there, but none of them have been proven and the mystery is still unsolved to this day.

My favorite story of his would have to be “The Fall of the House of Usher.” This story has all of the workings of a great mystery thriller. The story is set up by Rodrick Usher calling up his good friend to come visit him. The friend comes to his very creepy him on a dark and stormy night. The narrator finds that Rodrick’s twin sister had died, (or did she) and was entombed downstairs. The climax comes one night when the house was being extra weird and the sister burst through the door. The narrator guns it outside and finds that the house collapsed. This tale gets me every time I read it. 

CRITICAL LITERA CY AND POPULAR CULTURE

By bringing pop culture into the classroom, as teachers, we are showing our students that we are willing to interact and incorporate their everyday culture into our class. This offers them a sense of comfort and hopefully influences them to participate. As Morrell states, “The role of literacy research, then, is to simultaneously design and investigate the outcomes associated with pedagogies of popular culture in the process of developing grounded theories of practice that can inform literacy pedagogy, literacy policy, and the preparation of future literacy teachers.” Once it is a part of the classroom it is the teacher’s duty to decide if it actually works and adjust their teaching pedagogies where they see fit. Teachers need to do their research about the pop culture they want to bring in and assess if it is really effective and most importantly appropriate.

The problem with pop culture is that it is a broad spectrum of culture that can be accessed. A lot of students don’t have the same interests as one another, and what one student finds interesting another student will not. The teachers responsible for finding a common ground our common culture of the individual classroom. They need to find the common values and interests of their students in order for this to actually work. This is important in order to get everyone engaged and willing to participate.

There is something about moving away from traditional teaching that fascinates me. As teachers, something is not working with our young students. More and more students are finding that they do not need an education or do not find the will to want to expand their knowledge. By assimilating pop culture in the class we can get students to want to be there. We can bring in things that they enjoy and use that along with traditional teachings in order to expand their knowledge in the classroom. Pop culture in the classroom can work, it’s all up to how the teacher offers it. 

Readicide

In Kelly Gallagher’s, “Readacide,” he goes into a deep and thoughtful process of detailing how schools around the nation are killing the love of reading for students. He proposed in his introduction that the word Readicide should be added to the dictionary. His definition of the word being, ““the systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools.” He goes on to focus on how schools are doing this and how the students are responding. His stance on the issue is really mind-boggling because he is factual in what he says.
Gallagher believes that teachers are not offering the tools to students to become lifelong readers. He states many times that students in high school are vulnerable to flat and dull readings they are offered in school. He argues that teachers should not be so critical on teaching for standardized tests, but instead tend to what the students like. My take on the matter is that students are gaining knowledge by just reading alone, so why not allow students to find out what they like to read about and lend a hand with this area. As English teachers, it is our duty to get our students to fall in love with reading. We should not be boring them to death with reading, they should not be reluctant readers to novels that we think they will like. Instead, the students should be enthusiastic when we bring the new novel into the class.
Something has to change in the way that teachers are exploring options to get their students to read. Gallagher says to ask any kindergarten, 5th grade, and 12th-grade teachers. They will all be the same in saying that their students do not like to read. The way that we push test practicing reading on our students, teachers should offer novels and short stories that the students would enjoy reading. Readicide is a real thing and it’s our duty as future teachers to put a stop to this trend.

Night

“Night,” by Elie Wiesel is one of those books that can be taught in either English or History courses. This works well for secondary education teacher. In poverty based demographics Social Studies and Language Arts are studied simultaneously. Although, I would not use this book at the middle school level, I can see some teachers using it for advanced eighth graders. When I first read this book, it was my 11^th English course and we read it as a class. I remember our discussions were amazing because Eliezer is young and we put ourselves in his situation.

                The story follows Eliezer from being a school boy to his transition into the most notorious Nazi death camp in Auschwitz. Just like many other men and women, he was herded into Auschwitz. Like many children and teenagers, he was separated from his family upon arrival. Most that go through this never got to see their families again. He talks about the many cruelties he went through upon arrival and eventually put to work in slave like conditions. Eliezer is a Jew so he was subject to numerous beatings on a daily. At one point, a guard wanted the gold tooth in Eliezer’s mouth so he gruesomely pried it out of the bone with a spoon. The story progresses with Eliezer really falling into a huge depression like state. He does not find his faith and really doesn’t care about the people around him anymore. Being so malnourished and seeing so many deaths around him finally got to him.

                I definitely see this book being on my classroom shelves in the future. I enjoyed reading it again, and even noticed some things that I forgot about, like the tooth. I can see a lesson built around this book with the assessment being a presentation about the holocaust. Most kids now a days don’t even know about the holocaust, so this is a great resource for that knowledge.

I Read it but I Dont get it

While reading Chris Tovani’s text, I read it but I Don’t get it, I had to stop and think many times throughout. It made me think about the different style of reading teachings that I’ve had in the past. The book is based around different strategies that will help teachers at the middle and high school levels get their students comprehension skills up. It is both humorous and serious at times, and I feel that really helped the reading. For students, the learning never stops, there will always be different strategies to learn that will help guide their reading comprehension. Tovani really distinguishes what it means to read a text. Not just decode words but sum up a comprehension of what was just read. She wants teachers to help their students construct meaning for what they just read.

In my own experience, I got through all of my courses by what she says is “fake” reading. I found myself reading the text but not really understanding what was being read. I didn’t materialize the reading into a full understanding of “what and why” went on. She believes that if we guide our students correctly we can be a model for them to be great readers. We can help them with strategies to understand the reading better.  We can guide them using her classroom experiences and use what works and see what didn’t work and why. Overall this book resonated with me. She seems to have got the key to what it is to become a really good reader and teacher. She is really enthusiastic and believes that the classroom setting and teaching should be the same. Her strategies will not only be used in the single classroom but also in all other classrooms where they will read to comprehend the text.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Pablo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” is hands down one of the hardest reads I have encountered. That is not to say I was not fascinated by his stance on oppression and his take on humanization and dehumanization. Humans assume that we all fall under the humanization category and fail to see what dehumanization is. We are unable to fully understand humanization without truly understanding the latter. In order for humanization to come through, we need to get through all of the dehumanization that goes on in the world. We as humans must overcome all the bad in the world in order to really see all that is good around us. The oppressed are those who are dehumanized. People who oppress others see these oppressed people as things or objects, not humans to be treated with integrity. Oppressors also feel the oppressed are in their situation because they are “lazy” and ungrateful to the generous overtures offered by the elitist class.

One may ask, why don’t the oppressed do anything to change their state? Freire states that the oppressed have adopted the guidelines of their oppressor and they have the feeling of “fearing of freedom” (46). The oppressed are so used to being in this state that it is too easy to just stay in it. They only way they can get out of it is by working together with others who are oppressed.  The caution of the oppressed of becoming oppressors is emphasized by Freire in that oppression is what has been modeled for them as a structural situation. That is when he says that the oppressed can become the oppressors.