Engaged Learning

I loved the author's ideas on teaching for engaged reading. Sometimes I think it's easy for English teachers to get in a bubble and forget that not everybody loves dissecting literature as much as we do---in fact, there are some students who actively avoid and even dread it.

I especially loved the technique of the anticipation guide, which the author uses to teach "Letters from a Birmingham Jail." (page 94) This technique seemed especially effective in engaging students who might be turned off from literature, fearing they must look for "traditional" bits of information: metaphors, similes, and the like. Here, the teacher is allowing the student to be okay with searching for big ideas. More importantly, the teacher is encouraging the student to be in a dialogue with the text---the text isn't just some puzzle for them to solve; it's a serving platter giving students an idea to support or argue against.

This technique would be very useful when teaching Shakespeare. Imagine posing this for your students: "I would do absolutely anything to get what I want." Or how about, "Magic and the supernatural has no place in modern society." It'd definitely be a cool way to hook some of those less-interested English students.

Engaged Learning

I like the way Mr. Ernhart, the History teacher, models the process of searching for a research topic; he shares his thoughts about Hitler’s march into Paris and the way the French people reacted. He made a point of sharing his curiosity and feelings about this time period. This technique reminds me of Penny Kittle: the way she modeled composition by writing along with her students. Rather than taking a “teacher as authority” stance, she put her drafts on the overhead and considered aloud the edits she might make. In this way, her students got the chance to experience her thought process. I’m sure it must have demystified the process for many of her students. I imagine it gives students confidence, to be able to watch their teacher create while realizing that no one writes perfectly without revision. Mr. Ernhart’s students begin to think like researchers and to allow themselves to imagine, evaluate, and question.

Differentiated Learning

Today in class Jen and Corinne detailed Differentiated Learning. They addressed the importance of understanding how every student is different and learns in completely different ways. I particularly loved the activity they used to demonstrate the importance of differentiated learning. They had four or five stations, all centered around Macbeth and creatively using the play in a different way. Each student was allowed to CHOOSE what station they went to, which was the most important aspect of the activity, in my opinion. It allowed the students (or, in this case, the perspective teachers) the opportunity to work on whatever creative activity they chose to pursue. And, even better, Jen and Corinne allowed us to choose how we worked within our smaller groups. We were allowed to work individually, in pairs or as a whole. The whole activity was differentiated from top to bottom and played off really well.

Engaging My Class

Something I really learned last semester (and then was reinforced throughout our text Engaged Learning) is the importance of reflective work of students that isn't graded. For example in reading or writing journals: allowing part of the notebook only to be for the students' individual ideas and then another part where they fully know will be graded and read by me, the teacher. Also something I hope to implement in my classroom is great discussion which focus on the three separate questions: elicit information, shape understanding, press for reflection. I want a classroom to thrive off of quality classroom relationships so building a strong community where students can share and express ideas openly is very important to me. I know the engaged learning I hope for is dependent on my students, but my job as the teacher is to put the cognitive burden on my students.

Breakdown

Breakdown by T. Ott was a graphic short story that had no dialogue, just one character, and an interesting plot. The story portrayed an astronaut stationed in a space station by himself, with no other human contact. In the second panel with the astronaut, it is depicted that the "Emergency" light is blinking in the space station and upon further inspection it seems that a meteorite has hit the space shuttle and the astronaut needs to go a look at the damage. However, by the look on his face, the astronaut seems confused, and almost doomed, with how to handle the situation. He goes out and sees the damage that was done, and there is almost a state of panic that is depicted from the astronaut. Then, he starts seeing fish and squid around him, then he is touched by a mermaid. You don't see the reaction of the astronaut when he meets the mermaid, but he does try to follow her as she floats away. Then, after watching the mermaid float away, the astronaut disconnects himself and floats into space.

I have to admit, I was confused by the story when I first read it--and it still doesn't make sense to me how a mermaid, fish, and squid were in space and how it relates to the story. However, some of the themes that I came up with were: loneliness, darkness, sadness, distance, and loss. I was taking most of the themes from the title, and also how I saw the astronaut.

As for activities, I was mostly thinking about keeping it in the realm of freewrites, and some prompts I came up with:

• Why do you think the piece is called Breakdown? Consider the characters and the sceario of the story, and how would it translate into this universe?
• Imagine that you are the astronaut. What is going on inside you head?
• Since the story does not have words, what dialogue and storyline would you put in?

Best American - The Encirclement

The Construction Zone:

The Encirclement by Tamas Dobozy

Summary:

Blind wanderer, Sandor, makes his way around America on the charity and kindness of strangers eager to aid him. He follows Professor Teleki, an historian and lecturer who travels and shares his experiences during the war. However, every time Teleki begins to talk, he is interrupted by the blind man, who accuses him of lying to his audience, and the audience, eager to hear what the blind man has to say, urge him to continue in his accusations. Sandor’s claims of Teleki’s dishonesty become nation-known, and as Sandor’s stories are so specifically detailed, and told with such conviction, the nation believes him over Teleki. Teleki decides to end his tour and hide from the ridicule of the horrific, unjust accusations, but before doing so, he holds one more lecture. It is here, during Sandor’s final, most convincing speech, that Teleki realizes the man is speaking of his own experiences. He descends from the stage and finds the man who is not physically blind, but morally, and hugs him before escorting him from the auditorium, from his own public confession.

Teleki realizes that Sandor, who travelled across the country on other’s good will, also confesses his sins on the good will of others. He realizes that Teleki allows others to help him so that they may help themselves, as Sandor learned to help and forgive himself as well.

Themes:

Self discovery

Forgiveness of others; path to forgiveness of yourself

Blind “wise” man

Death and rebirth

Coexisting

War

Destruction

Sacrifice

Relationships

Learning from others

Learning about yourself from others

Activities:

Running with the idea of learning from other’s experiences, we could brainstorm within small groups when this may be beneficial, and share personal our experiences. As an entire class, we could talk about characters in a novel we are reading: how do they learn or do not learn, when perhaps they should, from one another. A critical question to build the activity around may be, “can we truly learn from others, or is it our own experience we need to finalize our understanding?” Have students write a 2 page short story about a time they thought they were able to understand someone’s situation, but it wasn’t until they experienced it for themselves that they were truly able to understand. As a class, discuss some of the reasons which prevented them from understanding this other person. Was it fear? Lack of a willingness to step out of one’s comfort zone? Social implications? Even though we may not truly understand someone’s situation, can we still learn from it? What is the difference between the two?

• Group discussion


• Class discussion


• Story about own experience to get students to consider why/what the difference is between fully understanding someone’s experience, and having the ability to learn and apply someone else’s experiences to ones on life


• Regroup as class – discuss difference between “understanding” and “learning”

Best Nonrequired Reading & Lesson Ideas

The Tiger’s Wife begins in 1941 as the Germans are bombing a city. A lone tiger escapes a local zoo and begins a trek for survival. The big themes are war, bravery, death, identity, and the intersection of superstition. The narrator relates events in the early years of his/her grandfather’s life. Described like a local myth or folktale, the characters and scenes move back and forth between fact and fantasy.

Lesson Plan for High School Students

Big Ideas:

War

Essential Questions: How does war change people? Are society’s rules suddenly different? Imagine the big picture (war) and move the camera in to view the small-scale, everyday “wars” between neighbors, friends, and family. Are the answers to the questions above the same?

Focus areas: Discuss the significance of bombs through the eyes of the tiger, body parts in trees, desensitization.

Bravery

Essential Questions: What does it mean to be brave? What do gender roles have to say about bravery?

Focus areas: Discuss the bravery of the tiger, the deaf-mute girl, the blacksmith, and the villagers.

Death

Essential Questions: Do life and death have the same value in times of war? Why? How do you know? What does this story say about death? How? Why?

Focus Areas: How is death viewed by the grandfather, the deaf-mute girl, Luka, the tiger?

Identity

Essential Questions: Who or what is the tiger? Who is the tiger’s wife? Who is the narrator?

Focus areas: Who killed Luka? What happened to the tiger?

Intersection of Superstition/Mythology/Spirituality

Essential Questions: Is the tiger real? Are Luka and the deaf-mute girl real? Is the story real?

What larger roles do these characters play in the story?

Part 2. Ties to Macbeth

War

Essential Questions: What is acceptable in times of war? Narrow the focus of war to the level of kings, families, neighbors, and friends. Who are the victims in both stories?

Bravery

How does Lady Macbeth use ideas of bravery, masculinity, and gender roles to influence Macbeth? What similarities do you see in the blacksmith?

Death

How is death viewed in Macbeth? Is death real or imaginary? Is death more real in The Tiger’s Wife?

Focus areas: apparitions

Identity

Who or what are the witches? What else could they represent? Are the ghosts/apparitions real? How do you know? Compare the witches to the tiger.

Superstition

What role do the witches play? How do they advance the story? What can they tell us about the people of the time period? How is the “tiger’s wife” like the witches? How are the stories similar?

Activities: (Break into groups of three)

Part 1: Each group will construct a short story containing a combination of any two of the themes above. It can be a complete work of fiction or a transformation of an existing story.

Part 2: Each group will come up with a symbolic rendering (art, poetry, mixed-media, video, music, or visual representation) of their story.

Part 3: (Individual)

Each person will choose one theme (war, bravery/gender roles, death, identity, or superstition/mythology/spirituality), and write a brief essay about how it has touched his/her life.