Late Learning Letter

This quarter was an enlightening one, and English 439 was a good chunk of that enlightenment.

Of the major assignments we performed in this class, each one had its merits and pitfalls. The Unit Plan was... strenuous. The biggest challenge was in dealing with the 15 edTPA longform lesson plans. They're time consuming, and time is precious. Not to mention that once on the job, edTPA lesson plans will be irrelevant. My mentor teacher literally jots her lessons down on a yellow legal pad. But I digress. The book talks were fun, and I learned about a lot of young adult/teen literature that I might otherwise have overlooked, and it's been helpful so far in my placement classroom. I saved all the handouts I got, as well, should I ever need to reference specific books. In such an instance, it would be nice to have those handy. I'll be honest and say that I have no idea what the "mini lessons" are.

The theories and concepts we discussed in class that I think will be most advantageous to me are the discussion methods (I tried once to employ them, bearing no fruit) and the idea of using graphic novels as a way to coax hesitant students into literature. They're very likely ideas I'll put into practice. Also there was something Dr. Sean mentioned about how when you're getting into the "difficult" topics, those are likely the important ones to explore. And that really resonated with me. If we avoid difficult conversations, we end up with a group of people who don't know how to handle strenuous situations in their daily lives, and that, to me, seems more a dysfunction than a boon.

I'm usually pretty good with participation. I'm loud, outgoing, and vocal, and will scarcely shy away from being in front of a crowd. And I also try to use humor to punctuate those skills. When we had our round-table discussions on things, I tried to offer what insight I could, sometimes in the interest of playing devil's advocate. I'm the sort of guy who will take a stance for the Aristotelian practice over whether I necessarily believe in what I'm supporting or not. It makes discussion much more interesting, in my opinion. If there was anything I think I could have done better, it was likely being organized. I've struggled with that this quarter for some reason, and I need to get back on top of it.

In the end, this class taught me much that I hope to employ in my classroom. And I hope I didn't get this in too late to at least get half-credit or so. Somehow I missed that it was supposed to be in at noon. To that end, I'll reap what I sow. Thanks for a great quarter, Dr. Sean. You're a bro.

Weisel's Night

Holocaust units are all the rage. And for good reason. Elie Weisel's Night is another in a long train of literary pieces that grants us a firsthand account of what it was to belong to be Jewish during the height of the Third Reich's power. What I think would be a worthwhile take on this book is to toss it into a mix with other heavy World War Two books and create a unit centered around lit circles, alongside the quintessential Diary of Anne Frank, Man's Search for Meaning, Number the Stars, Rena's Promise, and countless others. The possibilities here are endless.

We find ourselves in a strange time where the Holocaust no longer sits in living memory. The last survivors, the last people to experience the atrocities of the Second World War, are all dying, and with them dies the Holocaust as a part of living memory. It may fade into historical obscurity unless we keep the discussion alive and going and actively try to learn from our mistakes, and ensure that no one forgets.

Holocaust units aren't easy. For anyone. They're shocking and heartwrenching and real. For students to truly comprehend and appreciate the gravity of what happened and the pertinence of the voices that speak to us from the late 1930s and early 1940s, they need to be of mature enough mind to handle that kind of weight and take it seriously. Personally I wouldn't teach this to any students younger than 8th grade. And probably honors, at that.

Something my mentor teacher is doing right now with her Holocaust unit is that she had the students create butterflies that represent individual people, with written hopes, dreams, interests, etc. And as they read journal entries and people die in the concentration camps, butterflies are taken down forever. It's a powerful metaphor and really drives the point home for these students. Something similar to that could be reappropriated for use with Night.

KAPOW

While many teachers (usually of an older generation) might look down their noses at the prospect of bringing comic books into the classroom, comics and graphic novels are a deceptively clever way to get reluctant readers to engage in literature. The themes present in Marvel superheroes are every bit as valid as classics. Why should Peter Parker's Hero's Journey be scoffed at while Beowulf's is placed on a pedestal? Why should Jughead be ill-favored while "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" is praised? What's the real difference between "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and classic myth? While the use of graphic novels and comics may seem counterintuitive, it's definitely a way to teach literary concepts in ways that can reach more learning styles than simple reading and note-taking. The images engage readers and the reading doesn't feel like a chore, anymore.



I can imagine tasking students with a graphic novel about Batman. Some story that deals with the Joker in a fundamental, classic way. Then I can give an assignment that asks the students to analyze the relationship between Batman and the Joker and how they are a classic example of a diametrically opposed dichotomy. According to an article published by the National Council of Teachers of English, manga "are very popular with our students, so much so that many students are actually learning Japanese so that they can read the newest manga straight off the press, instead of waiting for translations.” The article mentions how graphic novels can be used to teach grammar, punctuation, and appreciation for the visual arts. Rachael Sawyer Perkins of Dolores Street Elementary School in Carson, California had this to say on the subject: “For students who lack the ability to visualize as they read, it provides a graphic sense that approximates what good readers do as they read. Moreover, it provides an excellent way for reluctant writers to communicate a story that has a beginning, middle, and end. I think comics and graphic novels are an excellent vehicle for teaching writing, as a story has to be pared down to its most basic elements. It is easy for the students to look at a short comic strip and identify story elements.” How any forward-thinking teacher could discount comics as a learning tool is beyond me.

More like Edgar Allan Broe

Ah, good ol' Poe. The tragic and deranged mad poet with the sort of clout to reach "The Simpsons" and "Altered Carbon" while simultaneously maintaining a firm grasp on the imaginations and curricula of students everywhere--he holds a special place in my heart, along with H.P. Lovecraft (Cthulhu Mythos--minus the racism), Percy Bysshe Shelley ("Ozymandias"), and Robert Louis Stevenson (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). I'm a massive fan of Victorian Gothic styles of writing, and Poe certainly brought those mentalities to America as one of the strange outliers of the Romantic movement.

The story of his that I'm most familiar with is "The Fall of the House of Usher," where through moral and philosophical degradation, the house and the House of Usher are deconstructed - the house crumbles and falls into the swamp and the House is ended when both Roderick Usher and his sister/lover/zombie Madeline die. Poe has a knack for bringing gradual madness to his characters, which is what makes his writing so compelling; the impending dread, the fear of the unknown, the mind playing tricks upon itself, these are all devices that Poe explores.

In the classroom, I think Poe is a fantastic source of figurative language and is a clear avenue down which to stroll when considering teaching lessons on subtextual clues and metaphor. The dark, "creepy" manner of Poe's works could be a nice reprieve from some of the other "typical" sorts of literature that make themselves present in the classroom, or they might be ignored by other students for how "weird" they are. However, I'm of the mind that students should experience literature that they otherwise wouldn't stumble upon themselves. Shouldn't we try to expand the repertoire of our students? In most cases, they won't do it themselves.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a staple around these parts. I've been to many of the places the protagonist--Junior--has been, himself. This book is similar in many ways to The Education of Margot Sanchez in that it offers a coming-of-age story from the perspective of a character who isn't one of the "usual" suspects--to mean white--and it can add a helping of multiculturalism to any classroom. What I said about Sanchez can be true of Part-Time Indian in reverse, at least as far as boys and girls are concerned. Boys will connect with Junior far more easily than girls will, even if they don't connect on a cultural basis. In that way, students are largely placed into the perspective of a student who doesn't go to a predominately white, more well-to-do school and punctuates that disparity by establishing Junior's surroundings on the reservation and then changing them to something students may be more familiar with. The effect in this way is twofold; students can see that not everyone is as privileged as they may be, or they might feel some measure of validation in sharing similar experiences with Junior, and students may learn not to take what they have for granted, as many don't have the same opportunities that they do, be it for cultural reasons, skin color, socioeconomic status, or location.

What would be tough to teach is the fact that the more...intimate parts... of students' lives may be laid bare via Junior as a proxy, dealing with pornography and masturbation and how to approach the opposite sex. However, these issues are simply a part of the "coming-of-age" formula and are separated and underscored by life lessons from which all students can learn. As I said with Sanchez, let this book be available to teachers who have the necessary experience and command of the classroom. Those of us who are still a tad damp behind the ears probably won't want to get into such a complicated book so soon in our educational career.

World War Z Book Talk

https://drive.google.com/open?id=18ZpY_BdPiiwVamCz8hrdqg6kZaW-vh2Y

The Education of Margot Sanchez

What I enjoy about literature such as this is its ability to bring more perspectives and cultures into the classroom, thereby creating a more worldly, inclusive, and accepting classroom culture. While others might see the difficulty in getting boys in a class to read it, I see an opportunity. Sure, it'll be a rough start, but I think proper encouragement and consideration for points of view and opening students up to the possibility of seeing things from another angle is incredibly important, especially in a world where the common societal attitude is "my opinion is the best and everyone else is wrong." By showing students events that occur through someone else's eyes, we're not only helping the students at a scholastic level, but at a level of empathy, as well.

As to whether it's appropriate to teach in a classroom is another matter entirely. I think new teachers would struggle with the content in this book, especially if the students are below 10th grade. Personally I wouldn't teach it below 11th, but that's just me. For more experienced teachers, I think that this book could work wonders in a multicultural classroom with the proper support and class discussion. The romance may be a tough sell for some teachers, but I think it's a good way to have students relate to the novel via the experiences they're currently muddling through. In fact, the entire "coming-of-age" subgenre deals with issues that these high school students deal with on a daily basis--that's why we call them "coming-of-age." I know that as I read, I found myself reminiscing about my own experiences at that age and how differently--and yet similar--the experiences are between Margot and myself; confusion about romance, the intrusive sexual thoughts, issues regarding friends and enemies, the notion of experimentation with substances, all of that. And on these bases, I'd likely teach a unit on this novel once I'd gotten a few years of teaching under my belt.