Pytash Chapter 5: Learning Poetry and Literary Terms

Jago begins chapter five with explaining how she teaches literary terms.  I prefer a slightly different approach.  With my freshman year of high school came the most influential English teacher I ever had.  In the first week of class he had the class memorize a list of literary terms and we had a quiz at the end of the week.  The terms I memorized when I was 14 have stuck with me these past seven years, and I am grateful that I had a teacher who pushed the class to remember terms. I plan on using the same method as him when I become a teacher, unlike Jago.  After memorizing these terms, the class could educationally converse and discuss literature and apply the terms to the stories: they did not just disappear, but enhanced our communication and analysis of literature.  Adding to the term quiz, I will take Jago's suggestion of creating a word wall (one small poster for each term) to reinforce the terms as we learn and and apply them.
   When studying poems, especially, I like Jagos' idea of identifying imagery in the poems as a class, read on page 90.  It seems that above all literature, students complain about poems the most, and it is perhaps because students have the most difficult time understanding and relating to them.  By discussing imagery, and even emotions conveyed in the text, students can begin to understand and relate to the literature.  A final project idea could be some sort of study on one poet students choose from a list, where they select one poem (not one analyzed in class) and review it, along with a brief background of the author.  I loved Edgar Allen Poe in high school (and still do) and would have loved a project that gave me the opportunity to explore more of his work.  By doing a project like this would give students the opportunity to have some choice in what they study, and perhaps take interest in a canonical poet or poem.

Pytash Chapter 3: Reading Lit in Classrooms/Activity ideas

    While I like Jago's approach to teaching "in the zone of proximal development" rather that "the zone of minimal effort," the reading lists she recorded in her textbook contain too much reading in one year for students. She mentions that she is aware that the occasional student may refer to Cliff's Notes, but I think that nearly every student would refer to Cliff's Notes, skim the text or not read a few books at all.  20 texts in one year is a lot to assign for one high school class.  Avid reader that I have always been, I don't think I would have even read all of those texts in one year in high school--students should be well-rounded as well as well-read.  I would not have been able to enjoy reading unassigned books or partake in as many extracurricular activities as I did if I had to do that much intensive reading and writing for one class.  Even taking five books off of that total would allow for students to have an annotated knowledge of classic texts, acceptable for one year in high school.
    Two points Jago makes that I really agree with are, firstly, that students write essays on texts they read outside of class; that would allow students to analyze texts in class and on their own.  Writing an analytical essay on outside reading in the second semester would allow teachers to scaffold the writing assignments and analyses so that students could become more independent analysts by the end of the school year.  Also, I like the idea of having a list of books students have read throughout high school.  Perhaps in the freshman year (or even seventh or eighth grade, if the district is really cohesive) students can make an online profile of some sort, or even a blog, including each book he or she has read.  Writing a paragraph or two in response to each book read over six years of schooling would add up to a wide range of entries! After reading "Cyrano de Bergerac" again in my adult life, I would like to compare my thoughts now to when I read it the first time as a fifteen-year-old.
   While I agree that students should be challenged, I feel that there is a difference in challenging, insightful coursework and a syllabus that overworks students to the point of losing their interest and motivation to learn.

Pytash Chapter 1

I love what the author writes on page 5, about how YA literature is like a mirror and classic literature is like a window.  I have always agreed that we should not abandon the cannon just because people don't like it or it seems outdated--I, myself, have gained so much by reading and studying that type of literature.  The challenge is how to teach the cannon in a way that students will actually try to read it and pay attention in class.  For example, I love classic literature and some teenagers probably do too, but what about the ones who don't and think it is too tough to even try?  I agree with the author when she mentions on page 7 that all students in any level of English should have to read classics, but it seems so difficult to devise a lesson plan for every classic novel or play that will help these students.  I love the idea on page 12 where she just showed a scene from a movie to help students understand the novel's setting, but it seems tough to find a movie or a creative idea for everything we read--I guess that research and effort is just part of the job!

Kist (Blog Check 2)

First, I'd like to comment on this article: I heart Novels.  It seems crazy to me that this girl typed on her cell phone because she was bored, and out popped a novel.  Perhaps the use of technology made it easier--first because she was simply texting out of boredom, and secondly because she had a small audience who asked her for more.  She had readers as she wrote the novel.  This idea could definitely be integrated into a classroom, even simply by requiring students to have a blog or an online journal rather than one kept in a notebook or folder, as we are doing in this class.  I especially like the idea of having some sort of online forum for students to write in.
In the case of the girl and her cell phone novel, it does not seem overwhelming to text thoughts to cyberspace while a few people read and comment on them as it would to sit down and consciously write an entire 300 page novel.  This idea of not getting overwhelmed with a task, and breaking it down into small, manageable pieces can be applied as well.  Thinking back to the idea of an online journal--asking students to sit and write out a 6 page paper seems overwhelming, but students' journal entries may amount to about 6 pages of text when they are finished with them, also blogging adds a more modern feel to homework.

Next, I looked at the article Learning by Playing: Video Games in the Classroom. I found the article both exciting and scary. As i have expressed previously, I think it is an awesome idea to put educational video games into lesson plans--perhaps one day there could be different games created to meet certain standards and indicators, especially in math.  I love the idea of centering lesson plans around certain video games, but I still think that some of the old methods need to be kept in practice.  One guy mentioned in the article that learning to write is not as important--I wholeheartedly disagree.  People should not have to 100% rely on technology for every aspect of their lives, but incorporate it.  As the article mentioned, the study of video games in the classroom is still in its infancy, but I am very excited to see where this can go.  Something to consider, however, is whether the implementation of this new technology will further the gap in success for students across the country--countless schools struggle right now to afford athletic programs or music classes and could not afford this technology.  Perhaps creators could take a Google approach and make the educational video games free online so that every kid with internet access could benefit from them.  There is a lot to consider and discuss with this topic, and I am definitely going to be keeping track of the research's progress!