English 493 learning Letter

My experience with this class has been incredible. For the better part of winter quarter, English 439 has given me many opportunities to grow and hone my skills as an instructor. The book talks introduced me to a variety of texts that I never would have had the time to evaluate on my own. There were some books that I had never heard of before they were introduced by my peers of this class. Night; speaking about the horrors of the Jewish holocaust in Nazi Germany, the way this text was implemented in the book talks and used as material for mini lessons inspires me to always be on the lookout for texts that can be both appropriate for use in the high school classroom as well as provide a robust and rich perspective on such a taboo topic in world history. During my time spent with using Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” as teaching material in both the three-week Unit lesson plan and the minilesson I have learned and reinforced the concept of lessons and teachable moments can come from unexpected places, much like Alice learns and grows about herself, finding her voice and aptitude within her story, I too have begun to find my voice as a literature instructor and I wish to continue flexing these new vocal chords through my career as an educator and continuous learner. Overall, this course has allowed me the time necessary to develop my skills as a creator of lessons and empowers me to continue seeking improvement through self-reflection and the critique of others’ teaching abilities.

I found the mini lessons to have been extremely fun and insightful. It hasn’t been easy but I really enjoyed the way this class implemented both theory, pedagogy and practical concept to classroom implementation. I feel the hardcore focus on building connections between the students and the instructor through cultural and technological relevance is one of the most important take-aways form this class. Constant and consistent reflections and self-evaluations play a larger role in teaching than I had originally thought and I find this concept rather enjoyable. Kelly Gallagher wrote on the subject of critical pedagogy multiple times and provided a great amount of wonderful insight and suggestion of what it takes to implement source material that students will feel attached to for years after their time spent with it in class. 

By participating in this class and an active contributor of my own and my peers’ learning environments, I have gained valuable insight into a variety of teaching material, teaching methodology and ways to not only enthrall my students but build connections through the relevance of their voice. Through student input, I have reinforced my teaching philosophy that the instructor learns just as much from the students as the students do from their instructor. Teachers and their use of pedagogy in order to learn and grow alongside their students helps me naturally to understand the rationale and effort put into developing unit lessons, curriculum and teachable content. The fact that this course has allowed me to prove myself and my abilities in the art and practice of teaching inspires me to continually be thoughtful of my approach to new methods of teaching and open to possible sources that would create interesting, useful and overall fun literature lessons for myself to facilitate and for students to participate. It was satisfying to both provide feedback on my peers and be a part of their growth as educators and to be on the receiving end of such thoughtful feedback as well. 

"The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie

"The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian", by Sherman Alexie, is an inspiring story; it explores complicated concepts and themes that are prevalent in everyday life. This text sends powerful messages in regards to overcoming and making the best out of difficult and almost impossible scenarios that typically have a huge impact upon a young person’s life as they move on from tough times just to be bombarded with more. Only a few good times of reprieve help the main character, Junior maintain a positive perspective and focus on his hopes and dreams.

Some of these concepts may be a bit heavy but they need to be explored in the school setting. Typical High school life, from what I personally remember from my time as a high school student, was very sheltered. This text acknowledges the difficulties in life that students may be dealing with outside of the classroom such as death of loved ones, dependency on alcohol and recreational drug use. Even racial, stereotypeification factors into these topics.

As an instructor, it is important for me to understand that some of my students may seek to look up to me as a mentor and might be searching for subtle examples on how to survive in this crazy world of ours without gong completely mad. In a world where it is impossible to shelter children and young adults from the struggles of the world outside the classroom it is important to explore connections with others where friendships can be fostered and help alleviate the extreme stress that eats away at us all. Every little bit helps. "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie explores these concepts in a very relatable way and provides some insight on how to handle these struggles and cope with them. It provides instructors with material for some very real teachable moments.

Poe's The Haunted Palace, The Black Cat, The Cask of Amontillado, Fall of the House of Usher, Evening Star, A Dream and A Tell Tale Heart.

Edgar Allan Poe is a literary master; he paints a vivid environment within which his dread tales occur. Poe’s tales often follow the path of decay where once beautiful palaces fall to ruin and corruption, outstanding young gentlemen fall to degeneracy, A proud individual seals an old friend behind a wall leaving him to starve to death, the last traditions of a once revered aristocratic estate crumbles to ruin, The reversal of the power struggle between man and women where man falls into a distant, isolation of submission and the guilt of a murderer that betrays him to the authorities through his subconscious and self-inflicted madness.

The haunted Palace Is described as decadent, powerful and beautiful through elaborate immersive imagery where a place of once great beauty and many lavish parties and dances occurred now lay in ruin as a haunt and shadow of its former self clinging to the hallow corridors of haunted traditions of its former glory.

The Fall of the house of Usher depicts the downfall of an aristocratic family ruined by mental illness and an overindulgence in an obsession for preservation at the cost of one’s humanity. As the estate falls deeper and deeper into decay, so to do the remaining sickly occupants slowly fade to corpses until the personified estate crumbles into the ravine, gone and forgotten.

A Dream and A Tell-Tale Heart Tells of an incident where a man is incessantly irritated by an old man and in his obsession over this annoyance, commits murder. His own beating heart betrays him to the local authorities who had almost entirely been convinced of the man’s innocence. Through the murderer’s hallucination of the “old man’s” beating heart growing louder and louder in the murderer’s ears; he is driven to confession to stop his madness in the hallucinations.

These stories and others by Poe not mentioned in name are aspects of the inevitable grotesque future of humanity. All things come to an end, but only some are willing to accept it.

Kelly Gallagher's "Readicide"

I can’t remember the last time I read anything for pleasure over studious instruction.  Kelly Gallagher's "Readicide" speaks out about an industrialized, counterproductive teaching methods that are unfortunate enough to be commonplace. The death of students’ desire to read of their own volition is a serious issue. It must not be perpetuated.

At the start, this book highlights major issues and pitfalls of reading in the educational environment; the struggle begins with the students’ association with “assigned reading” without any opportunity nor emphasis on their own topic interests and relevancy. Essay writing is often much the same way, but it doesn’t have to be. The disassociation and disinterest in reading and writing revolve upon an institutionalized approach to instruction where “nothing is valued beyond the material.”   

When I was a young child I was often given books that I was told “would be interesting and worth it in your future so read them now.” As a result, I had a habit of pushing away such books and readings as I had been deprived of the opportunity to discover those readings for myself and determine their personal value to myself. Later in my years I did end up going back to those old readings and books, but not out of interest nor for pleasure, but out of a feeling of obligation.

This “obligation” will eventually drain the fun and enjoyment out of reading for these students and as long as there is a lack of value being placed on the students’ interests, reading will become like a chore and an obstacle rather than a sought-after challenge or hobby. Kelly Gallagher's "Readicide" recognizes the endangerment that this issue causes and how it will be detrimental to the skillsets of young students and readers as reading, these days, is no longer optional but necessary in everyday life and as such should be preserved as an enjoyable activity rather than an obstacle that induces frustration in the future.

"I Read it, but I don't get it"

"I Read it, but I don't get it" is a statement that is often never conveyed in a straightforward nor convenient way; inconvenient to both the student and the teacher. What exactly does this mean though? Is it a student’s plea for help? Is it a sign of incompetence on behalf of the student? Is it an ill reflection of the teacher’s ability to convey the information in a way the student can comprehend?

It is none of these. The phrase, "I Read it, but I don't get it" is an opportunity! One that is easily overlooked or taken for an indulgence in pessimism. This is a statement of confusion. Confusion is good.  

The concept of confusion is that clarification is needed. An instructor should not be appalled at the instance of this confusion, but overjoyed in that such a rare teaching opportunity may exist! When this confusion is incited by the instructor the student and the teacher opens a dialogue from which it is possible to create connections between the text, its ideas, and concepts and the student’s own interpretation, their reactions and focuses them on an internal reflective perspective on the text. In doing so, questions can be asked, explored and eventually the text can be understood in at least some capacity through association and student familiarity.

This book does an excellent job of addressing this opportunity and provides many inclusive suggestions for how an instructor may meaningfully take advantage of this opportunity to create a better understanding of the core concepts and ideas the text could ever provide on its own.  Not understanding is an invitation for discussion and for discovery. A discovery that encourages the student to be mindful of when and what creates confusion or lack of understanding and provides the tools for which enable them to realize that “Not getting it” is an okay starting point from which a lot of meaningful concepts and ideas can be learned. 

Critical Pedagogy in an Urban High School English Classroom

The ideas and situations presented in Critical Pedagogy in an Urban High School English Classroom Is insightful towards the multi-faceted culture and educational struggles exemplified within the modern urban educational environment. It was a very thoughtful commentary and discussion on how students affected by this sort of learning environment can be given the same opportunities of not, more to develop their worldviews, accomplish their learning objectives and excel in the education system despite the setbacks and disadvantages set upon such students and schools that lack the proper amount of funding responsible for providing the most recent texts, lesson material and resources necessary to provide a decent education.

I enjoyed the emphasis and respect towards the concept of using the text and literary resources of the classic literary masters to supplement the need for up-to-date textbooks and actively engaging in teaching methods as simple in concept as ordinary class discussion to challenge, engage these students and encourage them to always seek improvement through dynamic analysis of texts that connect to them on cultural, personal and relevance to worldview. I find it increasingly necessary to provide the tools to students or help them to develop or refine their own tools for progressing towards their literacy objectives and engagement in the humanities and in extension, their own communities. In this way, these students will be able to achieve an education just as validated as students enrolled in schools with more up-to-date accommodations.

As the Greek Philosophers and great teachers of the ancient past embraced, “A classroom is not always a room with fancy books or tools, but an environment where student and teacher alike have a willingness to learn and a desire to always improve their understanding, in this way, a classroom facilitates a connection between knowledge, discovery and understanding.”

Urging students to look at texts and literature from different perspectives and worldviews is a surefire way to encourage empathic connections among the students and instructor that provide a positive atmosphere where true learning can take place, no matter what materials or resources are lacking.

PAULO FREIRE: CHAPTER 2 OF PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED

It is sickening. Sickening that educating has become so much an “industry” to forsake the very meaning of the term in its core, leaving nothing but an empty shell, a nobody. The oppression of the industry of educating is adequately explored in this chapter. It’s a nonsensical idea to be so absolutely deceived that your very role as an educator means depriving the less knowledgeable of the just opportunity to progress towards understanding or functioning in a meaningful way and becoming a contributing member of the social construct of humanity.  

“The teacher talks about reality as if it were motionless, static, compartmentalized, and predictable. Or else he expounds on a topic completely alien to the existential experience of the students. His task is to "fill" the students with the contents of his narration -- contents which are detached from reality, disconnected from the totality that engendered them and could give them significance. Words are emptied of their concreteness and become a hollow, alienated, and alienating verbosity.” (Paulo Freire).

This is not education. This is indeed oppression; it is an assembly line of pointless existence where the existence of the teacher is contrived only on the ineptness of the student body. To educate means more than just “depositing” arbitrary facts and dictations into the “receptacle” of the students’ minds. Education means to give purpose to those who have yet to discover theirs. To provide students with the tools and developmental progression to apply what they know and how they perceive the world to the environment and social connections that involve their lives. Education means to connect with others through understanding each other, whether they be student or teacher. The idea that an educator is meant to “Know everything” and that a student is meant to “know nothing” defeats the reasoning behind any such connection.

To educate means to learn indefinitely. 

http://faculty.webster.edu/corbetre/philosophy/education/freire/freire-2.html

Assessing and Evaluating Students' Learning

Evaluating how well a student can accurately remember facts and retell summaries of literary plot points is null in comparison to the importance of assessing what students interpret from their literary studies and how they choose to apply their understanding to their own thoughts and reflections. The goal of literature evaluations should hardly ever be based solely upon strict memorization and regurgitation of “key facts” and “observations of what others have said.”

While knowing the content well enough to pull facts out of the source material is useful, it has no inherent value unless these facts are discussed and students are allowed enough time to build connections, formulate questions and reflect upon their reactions and interpretations of the texts they are objectively reading. Therein lies the way to properly assess whether a thorough understanding has been achieved by the students. This selection ha provided wonderful insight into the experience and methods required to orient students away from strict, ambiguous fact memorization and regurgitation leading instead, towards reading the text, discussing the text within context relevant environments and creating relatable connections between the literary content and each students’ culture, past experience, likes and dislikes with the intent towards invoking a cause or motivation to actively understand and apply the literary content in a meaningful and rewarding way that will enrich the humanity of these students’ cultures and thought processes.

Creating opportunities for student feedback to actively shape their learning experience is a critical and non-negotiable part of evaluating student understanding and knowledge over the material an instructor has been teaching and learning alongside each student. While assigning essays on topics relevant to the literary text is a popularized and objective way of gauging student knowledge and research skills, Active and open discussion coupled with weekly student reflections can provide a more accurate representation of the students’ skill proficiencies, understanding and comprehension of the course material as comprehension and understanding is a subjective element that relies inherently on critical thinking, interpretation and personal connections to the subject matter.

The assignment template as aligned to California’s Common Core state standards for English and writing

The assignment template as aligned to California’s Common Core state standards for English and writing is highly suggestive of common core state standards utilized for its intended purpose. This purpose being an easily assessable, strict but non- restrictive set of guidelines intended to guide students objectively towards skills that are necessary for college education and the workforce. The template overview for reading rhetorically, making connections between reading and writing, and writing rhetorically is well organized and its expectations of objective skill based goals are explained thoroughly and clearly in such a way that the buildup of one objective upon the other is in plain view. The stress of connecting what is being said to one’s own writing is reflected to be well sought after as an ideal method of understanding the subject matter and drawing conclusions validated by the texts. As a practitioner of literature analysis and objective reading, the document’s description of the importance of annotations heavily implies that the bulk of learning and the acquisition of understanding stems from questioning the text and discussing the details in the context of the text and actively making connections orientated towards the objective of finding more questions to ask, discuss and pick apart.

Questioning the motives of the author and the meanings behind the author’s language choice is one of the most fundamental steps towards being ready for and participating in a productive discussion about the material and deciphering the relevance and importance of the content. It’s all about making connections with the text, the author and to each other’s interpretations.

“To know of a fact, does not make it relevant; one needs to impose it upon another and question its validity to make use of it.”

Pre reading the material, at least in part, is a critical foundation for objective reading and allows the reader to actively make connections while they process the information being presented.

The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts Instruction in Grades 6-12

What can I say? The common Core State Standards (CCSS) is a foundation, a skeletal structure that has room for organs, muscle, nervous systems and blood irrigation transit-ways. CCSS as a “standardized approach to curriculum” does not stand on its own. It is merely a framework from which instructors can pluck class expectation relevant guidelines to use as a starting point. As a fledgling educator, I intend to use the CCSS as such; adding to the overall curriculum or lesson plan by providing sources, assignments and experiences relevant to the unique student body reflective of the backgrounds, interests and innate knowledges of myself and of my students.

I hazard to say, “An educator is equally educated by the Acolyte as the Acolyte is educated by their educator.” An instructor who is actively learning from and alongside his or her students has greater potential of activating the students’ innate knowledge, yielding lessons that draw from relevant, prior experiences and command the interest of the student body thus creating an environment within which both the students and educator may, together, create progress toward their aspirations indicated by known expectation.

This “Core curriculum” is exactly as it appears to be; it is a core, and cores only have use when extensions are slotted into place. The CCSS is only useful when an instructor actively builds their lesson plans around it rather than trying to patch together a myriad of potentially unrelated topics creating a ragged “skin-suit” with no backbone just flapping in the wind; critical information is hazard to being easily lost on the students’ minds. 

Educators serve the purpose of creating standards and facilitating the experience of the students that are achievable and build upon the strengths and inadequacies of said students as they pertain to each student individually. While an instructor may not always satisfy the role of “life coach”, the instructor should be at least held responsible for presenting and providing instruction in the use of various life skills and tools from which students, through their own understanding, acquire a respectable level of proficiency and with it, build relationships and actively communicate effectively with others over a myriad of mediums.

Journal Response to Discussion as a Way of Teaching, Stephen Brookfield

Class discussion can be either a beast of terrible silence amidst awkward blank stares between students, each other and at their instructor, or discussion can be a relaxed and rewarding classroom social activity. I find that opportunities for class discussion can either make or break an experience that students and even instructors will look back, critique and reflect upon. It opens a dialogue option for folks to ask and answer various questions like, “why is this important?” “why did the author phrase this line this way?” among other, more precise queries. There is a strong difference between information memorized under the instruction of arbitrary assignments and a full-bodied classroom discussion that dissects and critiques the source material used in the lesson and the relevance of such material in context of both in the classroom setting and generating connections with the outside world or local culture. Having questions is where most of these dialogues can begin.

A wise individual once said “An intelligent man has all the answers, but if unwilling to share those answers with anyone, he may as well know nothing.”

As such, learning may be able to be achieved through strict memorization or practice with a certain skill set or tools, but for a student to acquire an understanding of the learning material presented they need to ask the right questions and test the validity of the material they have at their fingertips. Knowledge does no good if it remains unused. Healthy group discussion can lead to an opportunity to see the same question or material through different perspectives; more perspectives, mean a greater understanding of the true nature of whatever the focus of the discussion is. Even if your class discussion is as simple or as structured as a circular group meant to take turns responding to a single topic question, it is still more inspiring to hear others’ ideas and perspectives than to continuously rehash your own ideas over and over on repeat for it is madness to do so and think you are really understanding anything.

http://webshare.northseattle.edu/Sustainability_in_Healthcare/Discussion_as_a_Way_of_Teaching%20INC-Learning%20Circles.pdf