Beach ch. 12

The last reading! Teachers can assign students informal writing to help students think before they are expected to produce polished, determined, and definitive work. Students can record their thoughts through freewriting, notes, lists, journal entries, maps, diagrams, blogs, or even artwork. This type of writing should be spontaneous, exploratory, tentative, subjective, expressive, and even contradictory. In my own experience with informal writing, it has allowed me to materialize my thoughts without judging the quality of my work or ideas. Some of my best writing has sprung from informal writing. Often, when I use informal writing to direct my formal writing, I will only keep a the basic idea and maybe a few sentences—revised, of course—of my informal writing.

Ratz

As a new teacher, giving my students as much autonomy as Ratz did seems intimidating. I’m willing to give my students more autonomy when I have a few years of experience, but I’m not willing to try it now. Too scary. However, I really loved some of his ideas. I liked some of the culminating assessments: dramatic reinterpretations, deleted scenes, alternate ending, online profiles for the characters in the text, character improvisations, and text-based product advertisements. I really liked his MySpace characterization idea; however, I will adapt it to suit facebook because I think facebook it more popular today. I really think reading Shakespeare can be enjoyable for students so long as the teacher is creative and allows for creativity. After our drama/Shakespeare unit, I’m inclined to have my students engage in more hands-on, student-centered activities. I’m going to teach Romeo and Juliet next semester, and now I’m really excited to incorporate reader’s theater.

Neal/Miller

Both Neal and Miller advocated the use of children’s picture books in the classroom, specifically the English classroom. Like these two teachers, Dr. Dean introduced me to the power of picture books in the secondary education. Dr. Dean uses them as model texts for good sentences and as springboards for ideas and other writing. I think they are a wonderful resource. Because they employ an economy of language, the sentences in picture books are well-written but concise. They serve as excellent models for good writing. I am willing to use picture books in my classroom. However, most of them are too expensive. They range from $10 to $20 dollars. Like everything I’ll buy as a teacher, I’ll have to find them at a discount price or beg for someone else to pay for them.

Class Discussions

How do you set up a successful discussion?

I think three features create successful discussions: prepared students, good questions, and equal participation. First, students should be prepared for discussions by coming to class having already read the material and formed opinions about it. It’s difficult to discuss something you are not familiar with. Secondly, teachers need to prepare good, meaningful questions. These questions need to be thought-provoking, controversial, or open-ended. Finally, everyone should have equal opportunity to contribute to the discussion. This means that a few students don’t dominate the discussion while the more silent students go unheard. For this to happen, teachers can use homogenous small-group discussion or silent conversations, to name a few strategies. Ultimately, students need to be held accountable for contributing their opinions.

Dye: “Graphic Organizers to the Rescue!”

Graphic organizers can help teachers, students, and parents. They help teachers know exactly what needs to be covered in class; the provide students with scaffolding as they expand their schemas and link new information; and parents can understand when their children are learning in class with a quick glance. In my own experience, everything I give my students a graphic organizer to augment their notes or assignments, the quality of their work improves.

Here are the steps Dye enumerates to create graphic organizers:

1. Select the information you intend to present to the students. This may be a chapter, or a story, or a certain concept.

2. Decide what key components are necessary for the students to learn.

3. Create a graphic representation of that information. Your graphic chart should identify the key concepts or components and help illustrate the linkages among the key elements of the concept.

4. Help the students see the connections by examining the information in the graphic organizer.

Bromley

There were two ways I learn (at least consciously) new vocabulary. Whenever I enroll in a new class, I notice each professor uses certain words. The words I don’t know, I write down and look up later. By the end of the semester, I know most, if not all, the words and concepts my professor uses. The other way I learn new vocabulary is by reading. Depending on the text, I’ll keep my computer nearby with dictionary.com open. When I come across a word I don’t know, or a word I’m not sure about, I quickly type it in and read its definition. These strategies seem to work for me. While learning these words doesn’t always translate to my using them in my own diction, I can at least comprehend them. As far a vocabulary instruction goes, I think the main goal is comprehension. When students learn to comprehend new vocabulary, they will be able to read and understand a text. The vocabulary usage will come, but I think comprehension is the most important.

Beach: Graphic Novels

I am a convert to graphic novels. I was only introduced to them this semester in ENGL 420. I've read at least one a week since then. I love them. I find them challenging and interesting; graphic novels cause me to think symbolically and think visually. I've actually been surprised with how difficult graphic novels are to understand because of how much inferences I have to make. However, I find them visually stunning and rewarding. I am excited to read Hinds' The Odyssey--I just finished Beowulf. I think graphic novels are an exciting and challenging medium to tell stories. I'm excited to use them in my classroom.