Unit Day Ten

My unit is over! I asked the students who really wanted and needed to show their film to the class, and I let those students present first. It ended up that the two students who were unable to present to the class were the two who did not have the technology to finish the project and wrote their hero's journey story instead of created a film about it. It was interesting to grade those projects, but somehow I made it work by analyzing the writing and story. This was another instance that reminded me of the teddy graham added to Dr. Kist's cookie rubric. Though those two students did not use technology to create a hero's journey movie, their stories still were exceptional and I could tell they understood the concepts in which I taught. Because they did not have the technology and told me of this prior, I could not take of points for them not creating a hero's journey movie. In the end, their stories ended up fulfilling the rubric I created, and thus graded themselves.

Also, I added the de-briefing after each student's film and had them pick out the hero, villain, and problem the hero faced. This worked well because they all were able to analyze these aspects. I am so completely relieved right now because I was able to grade all nine of the presentations. Now that everything is done, I don't have to come in on Monday! My unit is over and every one of my students seemed to grasp the concept of the hero's journey in relation to Beowulf and their own lives!

Unit Day Nine

Hero's Journey Movies were due today, and only two of nine students were able to present! This completely stressed me out because that meant that I would have to get through seven students presentations tomorrow in the shortened period of class in order to grade them because tomorrow was the last day of the nine weeks. Oh, and my teacher really did not want me to spill over my lessons onto Monday because she had to start The Canterbury Tales. And, to top it off, I really had no idea how to grade the movies because the two that I saw were completely different. This reminded me of the cookie rubric we created when Dr. Kist threw in the teddy graham, which threw us all off. Plus, I honestly wanted to give them all 100 percent A's because I knew they all worked really hard on them. Though I wanted to give 100 percent A's, I knew that was not the best policy.

Analyzing the two movies we watched in class today, I could see that both students used the hero's journey theme and created excellent movies with unique hero's they invented. This made me realize that the students were able to apply the concept and theme to their own lives and not just to Beowulf. Realizing this made me happy because I felt as though I actually taught them something. Also, because Dr. Kist came to observe my lesson today, he brought up a few pointers that I definitely realized I should adjust. After watching the two students' films in class, instead of de-briefing and relating their films to the hero's journey and having the students pick out the hero, villain, damsel in distress, and hero's problem, I just asked what the students thought of the film and went onto the next film. Bringing this up, I decided to change my lesson for the next day and add this aspect to my de-briefing of the students' films. This way, I would further push the point of heroes and their difficult journeys, and the students would be able to relate that to their movies.

On the aspect of grading, I am still completely and utterly terrified! I'm afraid to take off points for a project in which I know they worked really hard! Discussing this with my cooperating teacher, I asked if she would look over my grades to see if I gave them what she would have. Immediately after I mentioned this she told me she trusted me and whatever I gave them was fine. This made me more nervous. The entire night, I kept asking my roommates what I should do to the point where they became annoyed with me! Finally, I just sat down and graded the two I saw in class, and realized that once I looked over my rubric, they really did not achieve 100 percents according to my rubric. This made me happy because basically, my rubric graded their movies for me. Now, I'm excited and nervous to see and grade the rest of the movies tomorrow and add the hero de-briefing aspect to the end of each student's film. This should be interesting because I really have no idea how I'm going to get through seven movies tomorrow. My cooperating teacher told me that I should ask the students who really wants and needs to present their film to the class and have them present first. Then, the rest of the students can be graded on my own time. This idea appeals to me because then the grades will be finished and I will not have to come in on Monday. Hopefully all will work out well tomorrow because I am a bit nervous, and I'm ready for this to be over!

Unit Day Eight

Luckily, we were able to finish the Beowulf film today, which worked out perfectly! I really thought that because of the technological difficulties of the day before, we wouldn't be able to finish it. All worked out well, though, and we even had enough time at the end for a mini-discussion. Through this discussion, my students brought up the aspect of temptation and the human condition of how all humans must face their temptations because no one is perfect. We also discussed how Beowulf comes through his temptation by facing it and defeating it, which makes him a hero. From listening to their discussion responses, I saw that they grasped the concept of analyzing a text and film for deeper meaning than plot as I had hoped. For this reason, I am confident that their Hero's Journey Presentations due tomorrow will be excellent and follow along with what I assigned. I'm excited to see their movies!

Unit Day Seven

Today my technology failed me! For the first time, I finally experienced this and it was not pleasant! Because Mrs. Harris, my cooperating teacher had trouble with a student in one of her earlier periods, she had to talk to the Assistant Principal about that student during my lesson. For this reason,she left me by myself in the classroom. On any other day, this would have been an absolutely beautiful thing because I feel confident enough to teach on my own. Today, though, I needed her assistance in using the technology, and she was not there. Luckily, I thought quick on my feet and used the Snowball Activity as a time filler. Not only did my students enjoy the activity, but I also was able to see their reactions to the text and film. Right after the activity was completed, Mrs. Harris entered the room and assisted me with the technology so that we were able to watch 20 minute of the film. From performing the Snowball Activity, I gleaned that my students really were having thought provoking reactions to the text and movie. For this reason, I wanted to be able to finish the movie the next day even though there were technological difficulties today. In planning my lesson plan for tomorrow, I'm going to have to set aside extra time for the completion of the film because we weren't able to watch as much today.

Unit Day Six

Today we started out watching the Beowulf film unto which the students enjoyed seeing the Director's take on the story. The boys in the class found the battle scenes to be interesting, while the girls thought they were gory. After 30 minutes of watching the movie, I had the students circle their desks around mine so that we could have a discussion. From this discusion I found that my students really grasped the theme of the human condition. They found that although Beowulf held superhuman attributes, he still gave into temptation and created lies about how many monsters he killed in order to sound stronger. All in all, because my students seemed to be grasping these concepts from the film, I decided that my lesson planned for tomorrow would work effectively. Also, they were excited to see how Hollywood depicted Grendel's mother in watching the film tomorrow.

Unit Day Five

Because today the students had their Vocabulary Week Four Quiz, we did not have that much time for Beowulf. Though, in the time we did have, I made sure to have an interesting activity for the students. The activity I created was the Beowulf Boast. Because Beowulf and the other characters of the text are often times boasting about their great achievements, I felt as though my students should create boasts similar to Beowulf's about their own achievements. Considering they are seniors and soon to be applying to colleges, this gives them an opportunity to really talk about themselves. Upon completing this activity in class, many of the students created boasts very similar to the form of the Beowulf text, while also having interesting things to say about themselves. As a teacher, I found it fun to listen to the boasts they created in order to get to know them better. Overall, my students seemed to get the assignment and definitely enjoyed talking about themselves for the few minutes of their Beowulf Boast.

On another note, after grading the Vocabulary Quizzes, I found that none of my students received 100 percent on the test. This fact is perfectly fine, but it slightly disappointed me. Though there were no perfect quizzes, the majority only missed one or two, which made me realize that my students really grasped the vocabulary review from the previous day. Overall, today's lesson was executed smoothly and caught the attention of my students by relating to them.

Unit Day Four

We finished reading Beowulf today and discussed the themes in the novel. Many of the students were able to pick out the good versus evil theme and The Hero's Journey theme because of their Hero's Journey Charts. This made me realize that my lessons actually had my students analyzing the text for deeper meaning than just plot. Thank Goodness! Though I was able to see that they could grasp the concepts of the text, after being asked how they felt about Beowulf, many students responded that they hated it! When asked why, they said it was boring and not very exciting. My response to this was how could a man battling two monsters and a dragon not be exciting? They said they wanted some sort of love story. Hearing this, I informed them that on Monday we would be watching the Beowulf movie that adds a love story to Beowulf's life. Many of the students seemed more excited upon hearing this. It will be interesting to see what they think of the story after watching the film.

On another note, after spending half the period doing vocabulay review for the quiz tomorrow, many of the students participated actively in the "Around the World" Vocabulary Style Game. They seemed to enjoy the game and know their vocabulary words. Seeing this, I feel confident that they will do well on the test tomorrow! All in all, today went smoothly and I'm interested to see how the quizzes turn out tomorrow.

Unit Day Three

Finally, today I felt like an English teacher. Everyday, I've been growing more and more comfortable in front of the classroom. Also, the fact that my students respected me and knew what we were going to do today made me realize that I actually affected their lives and taught them something.

My students really seemed to grasp the concept of the Hero's Journey today because they were able to adequately analyze the steps of Beowulf's heroic journey on the Hero's Journey Chart. What I felt they had difficulty grasping was the Vocabulary Review Game. They really were not into playing it and some of them did not know the meanings of the vocabulary words. Considering they have a vocabulary test on Friday, I need to make sure I review this more effectively. Tomorrow, I plan to spend half the period on vocablary review so that they are ready for thir quiz Friday. Overall, I can tell that I am becoming more comfortable in the classroom, which makes me feel better about teaching Language Arts.

Unit Day Two

Today's lesson was 100 times better than yesterday's! First of all, I no longer had these crazy, ridiculous nightmares about how I would fail my students and be completely unprepared. Second, because my first day was over, I felt more confident to teach today. Third, my students actually related to the hero's journey theme and understood what they were reading! It was seriously the best feeling ever and I am so completely content right now! At least I'm not a totally failure as an English teacher...

I'm really glad I decided to completely change my lesson I had planned for today. The students responded really well to the mini-lesson over the hero's and "Grendel's" in their own lives. It was interesting to listen to my students' problems they must battle with in their lives. I feel as though through this assignment, I was better able to understand and relate to my students as well. In addition, when I asked why I had them perform that assignment, they all were able to relate the hero's to Beowulf, and their problem's to Grendel. It was beautiful! Finally, I had my students relating their lives to Beowulf! After this activity, we read aloud and stopped every so often to discuss concepts from the text. In doing this, my students responded very well and seemed to understand what they were reading. Once again, I asked my students how they wanted to read the text the next day and they stated aloud. My students said the text was easier to understand when we read it aloud as a class. Though I had not originally planned to read the text aloud on my third day of teaching, I definitely will change my lesson plan for tomorrow in order to accomodate my students' needs. I'm excited to see how my plan for tomorrow will turn out! I'm really glad today went so smoothly because I felt extremely discouraged my first day of teaching.

Beowulf: The Hero's Journey Unit Day One

My first day of teaching my Beowulf: The Hero's Journey Unit proved to be one of the most nerve wracking things I have had to do in my life thus far. For two nights before I taught the unit, I had horror nightmares about everything that could possibly go wrong on that day. Considering it would be my first day of teaching, along with the fact that my supervisor would be observing, and my teacher would be video taping me, I was extremely stressed! Because I had never taught a lesson that I actually created before in my life, I felt as though I would be completely unprepared and my students would totally think I was crazy!

Luckily, none of my nightmares came true. I executed the lesson exactly according to how I had written it, which according to my supervisor Ron Lukart was a bad thing. He said that I needed to leave more time for open ended discussion where the students could relate their lives to the story of Beowulf. He also would have liked to see more information about the background material of Beowulf. Basically, he told me that I should have lectured that entire day over the background material of the Anglo-Saxons and Beowulf. For some reason, I have this huge and riduculous fear of lecturing. First of all, even to this day, I completely zone out any teacher or person who lectures me about five to ten minutes into the lecture. I honestly just cannot pay attention that long! Secondly, I just have this fear of standing in front of my students lecturing them about this subject in which they might not be interested and having to watch their bored faces. I told this to Ron Lukart, who opposingly said that lecturing is neccessary sometimes. While I agree that sometimes it is perfectly necessary to lecture, I will never in my teaching career lecture for an entire class period. In my opinion, that is just putting my students through hell. Though I felt discouraged from what Ron Lukart discussed with me, I realized the criticism could help me in future lessons. Now, I plan to intersperse background information throughout my teaching of Beowulf. In the future, for the next unit I plan, I definitely will make sure I create some way of informing the students about the background material.

Through the criticism I received from my Student Teaching Supervisor, I was able to understand more of how to relate to my students and get them to really appreciate Beowulf. On my first day of teaching, some of the students did not seem to grasp the hero's journey theme or what was really going on in the text. Many of them were confused by the language of the epic poem and disinterested in the plot. This bothered me because I actually enjoyed reading Beowulf! Upon realizing that my students were not grasping this concept, I knew I had to change something about my lessons. Because I had them reading silently on the first day and then discussing the questions afterward with me, I decided that I would ask them how they felt about reading silently. Every single student said they would rather read aloud as a class and discuss the plot and themes as we went. Hearing this, I knew I had to change my lesson for the next day.

In changing my lesson, I quickly adapted it to include reading in a circle aloud with me. Another major concept that my students did not seem to grasp was the theme of the hero's epic journey and how it could relate to their own lives. In order to assist them in understanding this concept, I quickly created a mini-lesson over the hero's and "Grendel's" in their lives. In this mini-lesson, I will have the students name one hero who affects their lives or who they admire. After naming this hero, I will have them describe the qualities and attributes of this person that makes them a hero. Then, farther down on their paper, I will have them describe a "Grendel" they must face and battle in their own lives. This "Grendel" can be a problem or person that they must deal with and battle in their daily lives. After I have all of them write their hero's and "Grendel's," I will have the students state each to the group. I will state my hero and "Grendel" as well to show that I have difficulties in my life too. Then, I will ask them why I had them discuss these concepts with the class? After giving the appropriate wait time, and listening to their responses, I will say that Beowulf is a hero just like the hero's in your life, or the hero of yourself. In the story, Beowulf had to battle and face Grendel similar to how you (the students) battle and face your problems and difficulties in life. Then, because we will be reading the battle with Grendel on that day, I will explain to the students that we now get to see Beowulf battle his Grendel. Overall, my first day did not turn out as terribly as I feared, there was just a lot I needed to learn and think about in planning my lessons and relating to my students.

Beowulf: The Hero's Journey Unit

Tomorrow I start teaching my Beowulf: The Hero's Journey Unit to my nine Honors English 12 students at Ravenna High School. I am extremely nervous right now and even had a nightmare about it last night! As a final assessment in my Unit, I have the students creating their own Hero's Journey movies about a hero they create. In order for them to understand what I want, I am beginning the Unit by playing an example movie from a previous year. Not only will this prove as an excellent example, but it will also get them excited about learning about hero's such as Beowulf. After showing the movie, I plan to then pass out the Rubric for the project and explain more about it. Then, I will begin the teaching of Beowulf by giving a mini-lecture over the background of the Anglo-Saxons and having the students break up into groups of three and begin reading the first part of the text.

Even though I have what I am teaching tomorrow memorized completely in my head, I am still extremely nervous! I think part of it is because my supervisor Ron Lukart will be coming in to observe me and evaluate my teaching. So, not only will tomorrow be my first day in the classroom, but I will also be evaluated by my supervisor on my first day of teaching! Oh, yeah, in addition to that, my teacher decided that tomorrow would be a good day for me to video tape myself as well! Wow, I basically have a bunch of things happening in one day! I can't wait for tomorrow to be over! I hope it will not be as bad as my nightmares envision it...

Modern Library Writer's Workshop

Upon reading The Modern Library Writer's Workshop by Stephen Koch, I immediately became inspired to begin writing a short story. The first line stated, "The only way to begin is to begin, and begin right now" (Koch 3). Reading this made me want to stop everything else, and start working on the short story I have mapped out in my brain. Alas, though this thought sounds beautiful and I would love to begin writing a short story, I really do not have time at the moment. Though I am short for time, if it were the summer, reading that statement would have definitely caused me to stop doing absolutely nothing and start writing my story. From even the very beginning, Koch gave the reader insight into the craft of writing exceptional fictional stories.

A chapter I found interesting was "Chapter 4: Making Characters Live." A line that stuck with me was the quote, " In the end, stories are what their characters do, and characters are what they do in stories" (Koch 84). Though this may seem like a simple statement, when one thinks about it, it is true. A character is nothing without a story to tell, and a story is nothing without an interesting character. Realizing this, I will have to create a character to live out my story. In addition, Koch stated that what makes characters "live" is their actions and interactions with other characters. Basically, this means that the author of the story will have to create a mini-universe in which the author will act as God and create these human beings, also known as characters, and make them interact and do things. Koch's chapter on "Making Characters Live" definitely brought up some valuable points that will assist me in writing a fictional short story.

Pleasure Reading: Dangerous Angels

Recently, I've been reading Dangerous Angels by Francesca Lia Block, and I have not been able to put it down! At first, I found this text to be quite simple on the surface, but delving deeper, I realized that the characters dealt with some major young adult issues. One issue that was outwardly apparent in Book Three, “Horns” on pages 205 to 220 showed how the teenagers Witch Baby, Cherokee, Raphael, and Angel Juan acted without parental supervision. Their parents traveled to South America to film a movie, completely leaving their still developing teenagers at home to fend for themselves. Throughout this chapter, the four teens started to go down the wrong path, beginning with skipping school and having sex. Eventually their late night band gigs with the Goat Guys became so out of hand that Cherokee could not take it anymore and sent a letter to her family asking them to come home. On page 225, she stated, “I know the film is very important but sometimes I wish you were home.” Because of this lack of parental care and support, these teenagers lost their way in the world and started traveling down the path of destruction.

Another major young adult issue addressed in this novel was the theme of identity. Witch Baby struggled with her identity because she did not feel belonging in her family. After realizing My Secret Agent Lover Man was her real father, Witch Baby forged a connection to her family and built her identity upon this. Through this identity, she decided to become the black sheep of the family, seen in this passage, “…black sheeps express everyone else’s anger and pain” (Block 149). I really enjoyed this line because I felt as though it truly could relate to every human being on earth. Every family has that one member who just does not go along with what everybody else is doing. This member is ostracized because of their inability to work with the family unit as a core, though every other family member feels the same way as this “black sheep.” People can feel very cynical about the world at times, but they usually repress it or learn to live and deal with it. Witch Baby lives in this cynical and ambiguous world by outwardly showing her feelings toward it, making the world a more livable place for those that repress their cynical feelings toward the world. For this reason, Witch Baby forges her identity by becoming the black sheep of her family.

Through reading this young adult novel, I have really been able to find some timeless young adult themes that would definitely relate to my students. I highly recommend any high school English teacher to read this book in order to assist in understanding how their teenaged students may be feeling. In addition, it would be a great book to read in class that would get the students to really ponder these themes and relate them to their own lives.

Hungry Minds: Tales from a Chelsea Soup Kitchen

After reading "Hungry Minds: Tales from a Chelsea Soup Kitchen" by Ian Frazier, I at first did not know why we were assigned this article because it seemed to be about homeless people in New York City. Reading further, I quickly found that the author of the article, Ian Frazier, utilized these soup kitchens in New York City to get homeless people to participate in a Writers' Workshop. On this idea, he stated, "There are so many hungers out there; the soup kitchen deals, efficiently and satisfyingly, with the most basic kind. I consider it, in its own fashion, a work of art" (Frazier 1). Basically, he wanted to satisfy the desires of those who wished to express themselves artistically through writing.

Utilizing this outlet for others' expressions, his idea to encourage these tired and hungry homeless people to participate in a Writers' Workshop seemed like a very inspiring one. He wanted them to tell their story so that others could understand. The examples he gave of his Writers' Workshop participants proved to be interesting and funny at times. I especially enjoyed the story about "Jeff, who disappeared one year and returned the next saying that he had been travelling internationally as a player on a homeless men’s soccer team (a claim that turned out to be true)" (Frazier 2). The fact that Jeff's story turned out to be true made it even better! Frazier definitely worked with his participants to encourage and inspire them to write out their stories, and I feel that every teacher should follow his lead.

Another part of the article that I felt exemplified an excellent way of writing was in Frazier's talk with another homeless man who came into contact with the Workshop Approach previously. He stated, "'When he wrote something, he always had two things going on at a time. He told us, when you writin’, you got this surface thing, you understan’, goin’ on up here'—he moved his left hand in a circle with his fingers spread apart, as if rubbing a flat surface—'an’ then once you get that goin’ on, now you got to come under it'—he brought his right hand under his left, as if throwing an uppercut—'come under this thing here that’s goin’ on up here, you understan’. That was how John Cheever said you write'" (Frazier 2). John Cheever's description of how to write a powerful piece is absolutely true. The works of literature that are considered to be classics all have a plot on the surface, but when one delves deeper into the text, the true meaning of the story shines through. For this reason, I felt this part really touched me as a teacher and writer. Overall, I really enjoyed Ian Frazier's article about his Writers' Workshop because it inspired and intrigued me to do the same in my classroom and community!