Freedom Writer Teachers

Listening to Ms. Pyles discuss her experience at the Juvenile Detention Center opened me up to various teaching options that I usually overlooked. For example, before hearing her talk, I immediately held the bias against urban schools and wanted to get a job in suburban America. After listening to how she cared for her students and showed them they love they did not get at home, I realized that I wanted to become a teacher in an urban school district. The story she told about the boy whose grandfather shot his dog at a young age brought tears to my eyes. Some students just do not get the support from their home lives as other students. In most urban schools and detention centers, I am sure it is easier to see the impact one has on a student's life; I want to be that impact.

Another part of her presentation I liked was the peanut mini-lesson. At first, seeing that I was hungry, I just wanted to eat the peanut. After learning the lesson in the peanut game though, I realized how important it was for all students to know. It's easy to judge someone from the outside, but the inside is what is hard. I hope to utilize that lesson in all of my classes at the very beginning of the year to attempt to lower bullying in my classes.

The last idea of the Freedom Writer Teachers presentation that appealed to me was the aspect of journal writing. I enjoy journaling in my own free time, and I feel that having my students keep a journal that I only privately read would be beneficial to them as well. Adolescence can be a difficult time and writing can help these adolescents focus their thoughts. Through it all, I thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Pyles presentation and think that all future teachers should witness a speaker such as this.

In the Middle

Reading Nancie Atwell's In the Midde seemed like an extremely daunting task at the beginning of the semester and definitely served as one of those items of schoolwork sitting at the back of my mind bugging me when I was not working on it. This being said, the chapter I enjoyed the most was "Chapter 3: Making the Best of Adolescence." As a teenager, I know I caused my parents a great deal of trouble; now, watching my brother progress through his adolescent years, it is interesting to be on the other side of the spectrum. Adolescence can be an incredibly rough time where the body is changing, the hormones are raging, and the mind is ready to become independent. No longer do these teenagers want to be under their parents rule. I know this was my problem in high school. The quote that stayed with me from this chapter was, "Surviving adolescence is no small matter; neither is surviving adolescents" (Atwell 53). I liked the play on words and realized the quote was, without a doubt, true. Stating this, teachers need to utilize lessons that relate to their students and the rough time they are going through. They need to understand that adolescence can be hard and need to listen to their students' problems. I remember a teacher in high school who allowed us to write an essay about any topic that related to our lives. I wrote about my boyfriend, which may seem incredibly unrelated to English class, but in writing that I worked hard because I was interested in the subject.

Another aspect of In the Middle that I found interesting was the section on mini-lessons. I think that mini-lessons are effective in teaching students important aspects about English. They also break up the 50 minute period into smaller increments, making it easier for students to pay attention the entire time. Because during my two week unit I have to teach ACT Vocabulary along with Beowulf, I plan to utilize a different ten minute vocabulary mini-lesson every other day. In addition to the vocabulary mini-lessons, I plan to add a mini-lesson about the Anglo-Saxons as well. This way the students will be able to pay attention the entire time during class, and get more out of class time. Overall, I feel as though Nancie Atwell presented some excellent teaching ideas that all English teachers should utilize.

"Changing Our Minds: Negotiating English and Literacy"

Reading this article, I immediately became interested in how religion had such a play in education in the 1700's. Another aspect I found that would be quite boring as a student was the recitation learning. According to the article, "Critics of the schools complained about the general meaninglessness of recitations of preannounced, familiar materials, and they began to call for a level of literacy in which citizens could read unfamiliar, unanounced materials using a new 'scientific' approach" (Myers 77). Basically, students were not learning from recitations and another approach to learning needed to be established. Though the earlier methods of the compulsory English classroom seemed boring, it worked for them because according to the text, "For a society desiring to establish national cohesion and to introduce the young to printed materials, the English class became a place for reporting and defining cultural traditions." (Myers 69). During the time period from 1600 to 1916, the student held the place as mostly the listener and copier, not really teaching the student to think on his or her own.

From 1916 to present day, the student gained the ability to think and reason in the English classroom, where he or she became the analyzer, decoder, translator, and interpreter. No longer were teachers using recitations as a means of learning (thank goodness!). They were having the students decode and reconstruct the text. Today, a large goal of the English classroom is the theory of equity. According to the text, "This theory says that proof of an equal educational opportunity in schools should be necessary to enter the world as a functioning citizen, thinker, and worker" (Myers 116). For this reason, the Academic Content Standards were created so that people from all different schools can have the opportunity to receive the same quality education. Through it all, it was interesting to read how the English classroom changed throughout the years.

On another note, I am currently reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon about a 12-year-old boy who has autism and is trying to figure out who murdered a neighbor's dog. It is interesting to read a book in the mind of someone who has autism. The writing definitely intriques me and opens my mind to what it is like to have a disability. I have not finished reading it yet, but I highly recommend anyone interested in special education to read this book! It is quite powerful, and I'm excited to find out the end!

"A New Assignment: Pick the Books You Like"

Upon first reading this article, my mind instantly sided with the schools who have strict curriculums and reading schedules. I fully believe that children should be able to read books they are interested in, but what about the classics? If I would not have been introduced to some of the classic pieces of literature in high school, I do not think I would have ever known about them, dumb as that sounds. I fully believe that students are in school to be educated on timeless works of art such as Shakespeare and the Romantics. Where else are they going to learn about that stuff? One part of the article that somewhat swayed my decision to letting the students pick their own books stated, "Letting students choose their own books, they say, can help to build a lifelong love of reading"(page 1). In addition to teaching students about the timeles world of literature, I feel that Engish class should instill in its students a deep love for reading. Could not there be a class that utilizes both methods?

Reading further into the article, I noticed the author attended a professional seminar led by Nancie Atwell, the author of one of our assigned books, about this same topic. What I liked about that seminar was according to the article, "She acknowledged that certain children needed to be nudged into books by allowing them to read popular titles like the “Twilight” series by Stephenie Meyer" (page 2). In her reading workshops, she allowed the students to pick the books they liked as long as they were not "crap," but she aknowledged that some students needed to be led into the harder titles. By introducing students to various titles, they became excited about reading the books on their own.

In my own English class, I hope to incorporate both types of learning, the traditional classical literature approach and the workshop approach. Students need to be introduced to the classics in a high school English class because they are timeless works of literature that need to be learned. In addition, they will have the opportunity to become lifelong readers by choosing their own books to discuss with the class. Overall, I like the idea of incorporating both into my future classroom.

On a different note, I recently finished reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. After hearing good reviews and finally seeing the movie trailer, I decided to finally read it, and was not disappointed. I could not put it down for two days until I finished it! The Lovely Bones enlivened me to a different perspective of murder and rape that one does not usually think about: the family's healing. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a fast, entertaining read! Now, I am excited to see the movie coming out December 11, 2009.