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.