Pytash Course Reflection

I really enjoyed this class, and I like how I had the opportunity to read both Y.A. lit and canonical texts this year. I found Classics in the Classroom by Carol Jago to be extremely helpful in teaching canonical texts and reading texts more critically. I am glad I bought the book this semester because there are so many great ideas and activities throughout the text that I will definitely use once I am a teacher.

I am glad I had the opportunity to tutor my student from Firestone again this semester. I really appreciate that teachers gave the students class time so that we could tutor them for the OGT. I rarely tutored my student last semester because of our conflicting schedules so I was really happy to have the opportunity to have one on one tutoring sessions with him.

It seems like we were hardly in class this semester due to snow days and time spent at Firestone, but if we had more time I would have liked to go over teaching test strategies and test preparation for the OGT so that I could help my student more. I feel that I did help him but when I viewed the questions in his test booklet it seems that the test had changed a lot since I took it in high school.

The Firestone assignment really made me think about how to help students based on their strengths and weaknesses; however, I wish we would have discussed lesson plans more before completing this assignment. I am also glad that we completed the expert group presentations. I was glad to be in the role of a teacher and create a lesson plan with my peers. I wish that we completed more of these in class so that I could become more confident in constructing lesson plans and figuring out what does and doesn't work.

Pytash Ch.7

Jago begins the chapter by addressing the issue of  national standards. I agree that our country should have a national consensus of what students should know when graduating high school. Jago then brings up a group called The American Diploma Act which is a group that set standards describing what high school graduates should know and be able to do. I like the groups standards for writing about literature, which is: "A high school graduate should be able to analyze the complexity of moral dilemmas in historically significant works of literature, as revealed by characters' motivation and behavior (149)." To able able to reach this standard, students have to know how to apply different literary elements to a text.

I really appreciate how Jago strives to make literature relevant to her students lives and creates exciting activities when reading a text. My favorite activity is choosing a character from Julius Ceaser and using evidence from the text to support their answers.

I also really like the idea of creating a bank of questions for a test in which students choose which ones to answer. I feel that giving students some independence is important, especially high school students.

Kist- Reflection

Overall, I learned that there are so many different texts I have available to me as an English teacher other than print. I am very interested in using wikis, films, and video cameras in the classroom and love the ideas presented in Great Films and How to Teach Them by William Costanzo. I like wikis because they are easy to use and work well when creating literature circles. I love the idea of teaching literary elements using film because I feel students can easily see how these terms are applied when using film. I also like the idea of using video cameras because students can make movie trailers for a movie based on a novel which would summarize the text they read in class, or they can even act out chapters of a book or scenes of a play and record their work. I feel that students would be more interested in class projects and assignments if they are able to use different technologies and texts in the classroom.

I don't think I would have my students do a scene by scene analysis of a film, but I do like the idea of asking students questions of how a certain scene is essential to the film as a whole. I also like the film activities we completed in class and feel that they are completely relevant in teaching about different texts.

I also really enjoyed creating the multi-genre autobiography this semester and I feel that if students create one of their own, they would see how important different texts are in their lives. (I would probably assign this project at the beginning of the year.)

I found the wiki page to be helpful in thinking about what kinds of texts and technology to incorporate into the classrooms; however, I would have liked to take a closer look at the standards and create my own lesson plan. It would have been nice to go through the steps of creating multi-modal lesson plans or even a unit.The canonical wiki project was a challenge for me to create in that my assigned text is relatively new, but I was proud of myself in the end and I feel that our class wiki will prove to be an excellent resource when we are teachers.

Kist- Water for Elephants

Over the weekend I saw Water for Elephants, a film based off of Sara Gruen's novel. Because we focused on films this semester, I started thinking about what makes a good movie. I noticed that a majority of the films that I enjoy are based off of novels. My rationale for more preference in movies was that authors have an intrinsic motivation when they publish a book; in other words, they don't expect to become millionaires from publishing, whereas directors and all those involved in making movies want to make as much money as possible. Now, I feel that I am wrong in my previous thinking because I can see how film is an art form of it's own. 

Like authors, those involved in making movies are interested in reaching people through a different kind of text. I feel that their interest in making movies does not stem from money, but for the sake of telling a story through a different lens.

I also feel that movies based off of novels help the authors tremendously. For instance, I saw Harry Potter and Twilight before ever reading the books and after watching the movies, I could not wait to get my hands on the books. As a future teacher I could see this is a positive thing because maybe movies will make my students more interested in books. 

At first these students may read the book because they want to know what happens in the sequel or what the movie left from the story and so on, but after a while I feel that students will come to appreciate both of these texts as an art form. 

When I actually get around to reading Water for Elephants, I will not compare and contrast the two to see which one I like more, but I will focus on what each text has to offer as an art form of it's own.

Here is a trailer for the movie version that is in theaters now!

Trailer

Kist - Deadline

Last night, I continued reading Deadline for the Facebook assignment. The story is about a senior in high school named Ben who finds out that he has a terminal illness when he goes to get a physical to run cross country. Because his illness is terminal, he decides to forgo treatment and live the remainder of his life to the fullest. Ben wants to feel normal, so he decides not to tell anyone, including his loved ones, about his fate. Ben's deadline gives him a new outlook on life in which he decides to cram a lifetime into a short period of time.

I was only supposed to read the next couple of chapters or so for the Facebook assignment, but I ended up reading the rest of the story because I could not put it down. I laughed out loud and balled my eyes out while reading this book, it is truly a captivating story that makes you appreciate life.

I envy the students in Wisconsin who get to read this book for class, I would have loved to read this book in high school. I would definitely love to use this book in my classroom. I feel that they could learn a lot about life from it. But don't just take my word for it, below is a video of the author, Chris Crutcher, talking about Deadline as well as high school students and teachers.

Chris Crutcher at SMHS

Pytash- Wiki Reflection

            When I first drew The Help as my assigned text at the beginning of the semester, I was a little disappointed. Most of my classmates had classic texts whereas I had a text that was published in 2009. In the beginning of my search for lesson plans and activities I was under the impression that the links had to relate exclusively to The Help. With hours of searching and only three links to show for it, I was a little discouraged.

            I brainstormed some ideas for my wiki with Dr.Pytash, and I ended up finding a lot of great resources. I was surprised at the number of educational tools and resources I discovered through this project, and at the amount of lessons and activities that were multi-modal.  Despite the fact that the lessons and activities I found were relatively different from more traditional methods, they all met at least one of the standards and were theoretically sound.

            All of my links were based on the educational standards from grades 7-12, so I looked for a variety of different ideas. While I feel that some of my lessons and activities favor middle school students and others, high school students, they all meet the developmental needs of students within that age group.

            The Help takes place in the 1960’s during the civil rights movement when there was a lot of racial tension. I was careful to choose links that were sensitive to the needs of diverse students that may be in my class one day.

            This book has a lot of historical references in it, so I found a few links that dealt with this time period. A lot of the resources said that the lessons could be used for English or Social Studies, so I thought that maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to collaborate with Social Studies teachers when teaching this text.

            I learned a lot about the historical context of this book through completing this assignment. I also learned that when teaching a newer text I have to be creative in my findings. I couldn’t rely on finding activities and lessons which were solely based on the book but I had to think about literary elements in the text as well as the historical context.

            Overall, I think my hard work paid off, and I am excited to use the resources that I found in the classroom.

Kist Graphic Novels

Text and Dialogue 

Narration:

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- Told from first person POV.
Naruto- Told from third person POV.




Balloons:

Both Pinocchio Vampire Slayer and Naruto use a lot of balloons throughout the story.

Captions:

There are only a few captions in both of the graphic novels.

Emanata:

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- Rarely used.

Naruto- Used several times to indicate shock or surprise.

Labels/Signs:

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- None Present.

Naruto- Used to show readers which direction to read. 

Lettering:

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- Normal size lettering subtle uses of bold and italics.

Naruto- Large size lettering more obvious uses of bold and italics.

Sound Effects:

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- Some instances of sound effects (for characters actions). 

Naruto- Uses sound effects often for movement (ninja moves).

Visual Features

Characters: 

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- All look dark and creepy.

Naruto- All are very detailed and have an anime look.

Objects:

Both graphic novels have uses of objects. 

Icons:

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- Rarely (maybe only one instance).

Naruto- Several uses (exclamation points, question marks, and hearts). 

Scenery:

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- Used a lot and is very dark and ominous. 

Naruto- Used a lot to show location of characters (displays of nature classrooms etc).

Depicted action:

Both graphic novels use external action and internal action/conflict through dialogue. 

General Layout and Design

Borders:

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- Used often, but some pages do not have any because it is showing a whole scene.

Naruto- Used on almost every page.

Gutters: 

Both graphic novels use gutters but Naruto uses it much more whereas Pinocchio has more open space in between. 

Panels:

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- Several uses, but some pages do not have panels in order to show a scene.

Naruto- Uses on almost every page. 

Open Panel:

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- Several uses.

Naruto- Rarely used.

Splash:

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- Uses splash a few times.

Naruto- Rarely uses splash in the story.

Angles and Frames

Bleed:

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- Uses bleed more with characters.

Naruto- Uses bleed more with letters.

Close-up: 

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- Few instances of close up.

Naruto- Several Close-ups mainly used to convey the characters' emotions. 

Head shot:

Both graphic novels use head shots, but Naruto uses this shot more.

Head-shoulder shot:

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- Few instances. 

Naruto- Shot that is used most often in the story.

Full-figure shot:

Both graphic novels use this shot, but it is used more often in Pinocchio Vampire Slayer.

Longshot:

Both graphic novels use this shot, in Pinocchio Vampire Slayer we see the entire figure of a shadow that appears to be far away and in Naruto we see a full figure of a character running.

Extreme longshot:

Very few (if any) in both graphic novels. 

Reverse:


Both have few instances of reverse one where we can see the back of the protagonist and view the faces of those looking at him (Naruto) and the other where the protagonists does not see people looking at him and the reader can (Pinocchio).

Rhetorical techniques applied in text, visuals, and design

Exaggeration:

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- Some instances of exaggeration. 

Naruto- Characters actions were exaggerated. 

Empathy/identification:

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- Readers can empathize with Pinocchio because he feels like he is at fault for people dying and missing and has a large burden on his shoulders to protect villagers from harm. 

Naruto- Readers can empathize with Naruto because he is singled out because he is an orphan and a trouble maker. 

Mood/tone:

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- The mood is very dark. 

Naruto- Very suspenseful; some sort of action is always taking place.

Simplicity/complexity:

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- Simple, because it was easy to follow and understand.

Naruto- Complex, because it was really confusing and hard to follow.

Irony/satire:

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- Irony, because his creator turns out to be evil.

Naruto- Irony, because he finds out he is the nine tailed fox demon.

Realism/icons/symbolism:

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- Pinocchio's nose is a symbol. Realistic emotions (internal struggles). 

Naruto- Realistic setting (Icons mentioned above).

Order/disorder:

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer- Disorder in the village.

Naruto- Disorder in Naruto's life.

Juxtaposition:

Both have bad vs. good. Pinocchio faces monsters and Naruto, himself.

Relationships:


Both graphic novels show positive and negative relationships. Naruto has far more relationships in the story which were hard to keep up with at times.

Point of View: 


Both can be viewed as outsider and child. Pinocchio is told in first person POV through Pinocchio's eyes and Naruto is told in third person POV but Naruto is the protagonist/ main character.

Pytash Ch.6 Lesson Design for Classical Literature

I am going to be honest, the first few pages of this chapter scared me a bit. When describing teaching as a profession Jago states, "Some say of education that we are the only profession that eats its young (95)." Clearly, we need to re-examine the way that the teaching process works.

I personally really like some of the ideas from the lesson study in Japan. First I like that the program is made for teachers and by teachers. The idea of working collaboratively with colleagues would definitely help teachers with their lesson plans and teaching practices. As a pre-service teacher, I would value the time spent with more experienced teachers.

I found Jago's comprehension tools and activities very helpful. I can definitely see myself using some of her ideas in my classroom. I like the idea of charts for understanding families within a text. For character analysis, I really like the Odysseus' Open Mind activity. Overall, I think all of her ideas would benefit any new teacher.

Pytash Ch.4 How Stories Work

I can truly relate to Jago's thoughts as a student, "I can remember as a student being in awe of my teachers' ability to identify themes (61)."

I remember sitting at my desk thinking, how does this teacher come up with this? It made sense when the teacher elaborated and explained their thinking but I was never very good at performing this process on my own. If students become familiar with how a plot works as well as how other elements of fiction work they will be one step closer to understanding a difficult text.

Jago also brings up a good point when she describes literary devices, "What they don't understand is that understanding how literary devices work gives readers power over text.

To me, these literary devices and elements of fictions are like formulas in math; how can we expect students to get through a text without understanding these crucial elements?

Pytash Ch.2

I really love some of the ideas that Jago presents in this chapter concerning vocabulary. Rather than having students memorize lists of vocab, she uses methods that make vocab more relevant. The bookmark is a great example of how teachers can make vocabulary words more relevant. By using the bookmark, students are more likely to pay attention to words and write them down, rather than skimming over them while reading. I like how Jago takes her vocabulary lesson further by having students categorize the words they wrote down on their book marks by mood. By categorizing the words, students can see how authors use specific words to establish mood in literature.

Another idea Jago uses to help her students understand a piece of literature and vocabulary is introducing key words from the text and discussing the meaning of the key terms before reading. After reading the text, the students find instances in which the character demonstrates characteristics from the key terms. By completing this exercise, students will not only expand their vocabulary but they will have a better understanding of the text as well. The students than use the key words to describe someone they know, which can help them see how these terms can be used in everyday life.

Overall, I really like Jago's ideas about teaching vocabulary. Instead of teaching lists of words every week, she shows how vocabulary can be tied into class readings and student's lives.

Kist- Vincent Wants to Sea

To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to this Film Festival experience. I thought that I would have to spend time and money on something that I wouldn't even enjoy, but I was wrong. When I arrived to Tower City, there were a lot more people than I expected to see lining up to go see films. The film that I originally wanted to see was sold out, so on a whim my group decided to see Vincent Wants to Sea. To my horror, the whole thing was in German with English subtitles which usually annoys me. Despite the fact that I did not see the film I had originally intended to and the whole thing was in German, I really enjoyed it.

I would love to merge this experience with one of my lessons when I become a teacher and take my class on a field trip to the Film Festival.

Here is a clip of Vincent Wants to Sea if anyone is interested.
Vincent Wants to Sea


Review

Personal Issues- The three main characters; Vincent, Alex, and Marie all have mental health problems. Vincent has Tourettes syndrome, Alex has O.C.D, and Marie has anorexia. I was surprised at how much I could relate to the characters in that they were different from the people around  them. I have A.D.D and I was diagnosed while I was  in elementary school. I was really self-conscious when the school psychiatrist came to my class every week for appointments. Maybe this was all in my head but I felt that my classmates knew something was up, and that I was different than them in some way. Because of my own experience, I can definitely relate to these characters feelings about being different than everyone else.

Technique- I felt the camera work was truly spectacular in this film. One instances is when Vincent, Marie, and Alex are climbing a mountain. When they reach the top, they notice a large cross that looks over the entire mountain. The three climb on the cross and sit on it without saying a word. When the camera shows their faces they all look happy and free. I feel that climbing this mountain represents something more profound to all of these characters and the camera illustrates this beautifully.

Acting- Vincent, Alex, and Marie were the principal roles in this film. The actors and actress who portray these characters do a spectacular job of showing the viewer what its like to have these mental health problems. Marie was played by a girl who was very thin but this clearly was not the only reason that she was chosen to be in the film.

Plot- The story begins at Vincent's mother's funeral where we see the symptoms of Vincent's mental illness. Because of his mental illness and the fact that his mother just passed away, Vincent's father takes him to a mental health facility. He is greeted by a doctor when he arrives and his roommate Alex who has O.C.D. He is later introduced to Marie and the two have an instant connection. During an argument with her therapist, Marie steels the therapists keys and plans a get-a-way with Vincent. When Alex threatens to ruin their plan, the two put him in the back of the car and head to the Sea. They are soon pursued by Vincent's strict father and their therapist. This story is about how this journey changes all of them.

Themes- The issues in this film seem to surround those with the mental health problems. The viewer comes to question whether or not the characters are better of in the facility or on their own. While two of the characters seem to learn how to cope with their illness, one struggles severely. The relationship between father and son is an important aspect of the film, which changes over the course of the film. I feel that the message in this film is that we should try to understand those around us and help them in the best way possible.

Genre- I feel like this belongs the coming of age category because through this journey the characters learn to accept themselves and each other. The common characteristics of these films is that there is a change in a major character or they grow in some way. I feel this genre is popular because everyone can relate to it.

Representation- This film represents people with mental health disorders and portrays them as people with real emotions and feelings.I think the film represents them in this way so that viewers can look beyond the disabilities these people have.

Ideology- The father son relationship in this film is challenged throughout the film. The father seems to have had enough of Vincent and continually expresses his disappointment. When Vincent is missing his father is at first frustrated and angry with him, but in the end they both learn to understand each other.

Kist- Video Games in the Classroom

While reading this article I was intrigued by the study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2006 which researched why almost a third of American public-high-school students fail to graduate with their class. Most students told researches that school was boring. Sadly, I wasn’t surprised at the final recommendations which were to “make school more relevant and engaging (4).”

Schools have not changed in a long time, even though the students who attend those schools have. Obviously, this is a problem we face as educators. The solution seems simple, make schools more relevant and engaging, but why haven’t they?

Perhaps it is because we look at the way children use media so critically as Levine suggests, and instead of criticizing we should use their interests in media and technology to our advantage.  

“Kids are literally wearing digital media,” Levine says. “It’s present everywhere in their lives, except for in the learning environment(4).”

I whole heartedly agree with Levine’s statements; we need to incorporate these new technologies into out classrooms to make learning more relevant to our students.

Incorportating video games into the classroom is definitely a step in the right direction in that students are so interested in gaming. Even though it is relatively new to schools I am interested in seeing developments in this idea of gaming in school and how I can use it one day.

When speaking about the idea of gaming in the classroom Levine says: “Odds are it will take a long time. But I don’t know what the alternative is. My view of it is that we will never get to the holy land in terms of educational performance unless we do something about the engagement factor(4).”

This leads me back to my thoughts on test preparation- we need to go outside of traditional methods and incorporate students apparent interest in technology or nothing will change. We can’t just keep trying the same things and expect different results from our students.

Links

I found this website to be quite relevant to the article Video Games in the Clasroom. It even has activity ideas and all sorts of nifty ideas.

playingtolearn.org

Kist- I (heart) Novels & Publish or Perish

Both of these articles bring into question the future of books. Now-a- days, people have so many choices of where they can buy books and how they prefer to read a book.  People can buy the print copy of a book from a bookstore or online, they can also buy the e-book version from their computer, I-pad, cell phone,Kindle and so on.

The article “Publish or Perish” by Ken Auletta addresses some of the beginning concerns of the e-book:  “The obstacle was that no one knew how e-books should be read. Computer screens weren’t portable enough, and for many readers cell phones were too small.”

This obstacle contrasts with those of the author of Eternal Dream who began writing her novel on her mobile phone. This presents a whole new kind of text that is growing immensely popular, the cell phone novel. The article “I (heart) Novels” explains that the author uploaded her book to a popular website where it gained readers attention; however, I do not think the cell-phone should be marked off completely as a medium in which readers can read texts from.

In our generation, cell-phones are like a life line in that we always have them on us and are constantly using them. Now think about the next generation, do you think they will mind both reading and writing texts from their cell-phones?

When people buy expensive cell-phones, such as the I-phone, they want it to do everything from searching the Internet, playing their music, and of course perform the normal functions of a cell phone such as dialing and receiving calls and texting. If the phone also comes with the capability of uploading books why wouldn’t iPhone owners use it? Eventually, more and more phones will come with this capability and more people will read books from their phones. With that said, marking off the cell phone as a medium in which books can be read is out of the question.

As we all know, books are used in schools everyday, and with books becoming more readily available on cell phones and iPads will these devices eventually be welcomed into the classroom? Another factor that may contribute to the use of these devices in the classroom is savings. A point made by Russ Grandinettie, the vice-president of Amazon made me think about what schools could save if using these devices: “Look at the price points of digital goods in other media. I read a newspaper this morning online, and it didn’t cost me anything. Look at the price of rental movies. Look at the price of music.” He also mentions the low prices of books.

Not only does Grandinettie mention money, but he also mentions time.

“The real competition here is not, in our view, between the hardcover book and the e-book,” he says. “TV, movies, Web browsing, video games are all competing for people’s valuable time. And if the book doesn’t compete we think that over time the industry will suffer.

I think it’s safe to say that Grandinettie is including students when he says people, which would make this relevant to us teachers. Grandinettie also suggests an idea in this article which I find extremely relevant to this class: “publishers have to reimagine the book as multimedia entertainment.”

The article presents some publishers who are already taking this idea seriously.  

“David Rosenthal, the publisher of Simon & Schuster, says that his company is racing ‘to embed audio and video and other value-added features in e-books. It could be an author discussing his book, or a clip from a movie that touches on the book’s topic.’”

Not only have these books made me think about the future of books such as the composition of books and the mediums in which we can use books, but it also made me think about my stance as a future teacher. Will I use these devices in my classroom? Will I use e-books in my class instead of print one day? Will letting students compose work on their cell phones and collecting written work via text message, be acceptable when I am a teacher? Not only is the future of books in question here, but the future of teaching is as well.

Here are some links which relate to ideas presented in my blog:

Cell Phones in the Classroom

Ebooks in the Classroom

Kist- I'm So Totally, Digitally Close to You & You're Leaving a Digital Trail

This interest on keepings tabs of the people around you has spread like wild fire over the years. If you sit and think about it its kind of creepy. Do we really want people to know what we are doing at all times? All the information we put on Facebook gives people a pretty good interpretation of us. They know what we are doing, where we go to school, our religion, views of politics, interests, relationship status...need I say more?
So why are we interested in  “A stream of everything that’s going on in their lives (Thomas, 1)" as Zuckerberg puts it? Why did we turn against our initial instinct of "freaking out" and become obsessed? To me this is just an easy and convenient way for  people to be nosy. 


"You're Leaving a Digital Trail" brings up the same term used in "I'm So Totally, Digitally Close to You" and that is big brother. Young people don't seem to care who knows what about them and how they use their information for that matter. 


From a future educators stance, I feel that young people should definitely learn more about internet safety. So many people are not getting jobs because of what employers find on their Facebook and so many regrettable pictures get posted of people on Facebook that will be on their forever to haunt them. 


Scary to think about...


Solution?
Internet Safety