When I looked at the book list over break for the texts I would need for this semester I came across something a little unorthodox, Great Films by William Costanzo. I can only imagine the look on my face when I read this, since I wasn't looking in a mirror at the time, but it probably looked like a kid's on Christmas morning. The idea of studying film is something I greatly looked forward to doing and adding that to education just made it all the more better.
I have loved film for as long as I can remember. My freshman year of high school I would watch a new movie everyday, no matter what, often abandoning my homework to do so. It was a great escape for me and I treasured every second of it. Most of my English teachers did not share my sentiments. I had one who refused to acknowledge that film even existed, even on our "fun days" we didn't watch movies, but he was actually the best English teacher I ever had so it didn't really bother me. Another teacher allowed us to watch a couple movies throughout the year, but I never really made a connection between the movie and the class's literature. I never really discovered a healthy medium in high school, which is something I think I subconsciously wanted very much.
Costanzo offers a wide varied of how to approach and look at film in a classroom environment. In high school all I knew about film was what I had taught myself. I even wrote my eleventh grade research paper on the depiction of race in film and how it reflects and affects our society. The ideas in the paper i used were all self taught I didn't have a book or teacher to tell me about film theories, or genres, or how to reach beneath the surface of a film.
Then I read Costanzo and realized something, I had actually been taught of all these things just not with film. Books have genres, characters, settings, and everything else you can think of, just like movies. I knew what to expect when watching or reading science-fiction, I knew what it meant for a character to have an epiphany, I knew all of this without even realizing it at the time.
We learn all of these different ways to incorporate technology into the classroom and how beneficial and can be, but my familiarity with those things is limited. Film on the other hand is something I am very familiar with and look forward to using in my classroom. I have seen countless films and because of this I find that I am able to "read" them. I can't not wait to share this with students, some who hopefully will be as excited about it as I am.
With books you have an author and an editor, with films you have to take into account of how many peoples visions are actually going into a final product. This is kind of how I see my classroom, multiple visions all contributing to how students view the world. Films can introduce them to a world they have never seen and opinions they have never heard. Every scene presents a new idea much like a lesson, all you have to do is be open to it.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
Jago Ch. 5
I will be the first to admit that poetry is outside of my comfort zone. That's why I took a special interest in this particular chapter. I do have experience with analyzing poems as I'm sure we all have since it was a requirement in high school, but I never really was comfortable doing it. I always felt like my answer was wrong and that I was reading to much into certain aspects of the poem. Then I found out that maybe that wasn't such a bad thing after all. What Jago does in this chapter is break down "how poems work." She does this mainly by enforcing the thinking aloud strategy. She wants her students to be proactive and work out there own list of unknown vocabulary and work through integrating these new words into there lives.
She gives us five helpful ways for the students to become involved with the poem. Pose questions, identify unfamiliar vocabulary and allusions, make connections to their own experiences, rephrase inverted lines, and comment on the poem. All very important tasks that must be remembered when working with poetry. Once again she has provided us with invaluable information.
Poetry is important. As a person I may not think very highly of it, but I have to ignore that and present it in a way that hides how I feel. Jago uses modern lyrics as a way to show kids that they experience poetry everyday without even realizing it. I try to approach the situation in a similar way. I do have a few poems that I am fond of and hopefully will discover more that I like or find a place for the ones I already like in the curriculum.
I think the main reason I am not a fan is because I am terrible at writing it. I do actually enjoy analyzing it, it's just as I said before I'm not really comfortable with it. Hopefully using Jago help I will become more comfortable or at least reach a level where I can convey the ideas to the students without revealing my true feelings. After reading the chapter I can already sense a sort of change in my view of poetry, but like all parts of becoming a teacher I'm sure it will take time to perfect.
She gives us five helpful ways for the students to become involved with the poem. Pose questions, identify unfamiliar vocabulary and allusions, make connections to their own experiences, rephrase inverted lines, and comment on the poem. All very important tasks that must be remembered when working with poetry. Once again she has provided us with invaluable information.
Poetry is important. As a person I may not think very highly of it, but I have to ignore that and present it in a way that hides how I feel. Jago uses modern lyrics as a way to show kids that they experience poetry everyday without even realizing it. I try to approach the situation in a similar way. I do have a few poems that I am fond of and hopefully will discover more that I like or find a place for the ones I already like in the curriculum.
I think the main reason I am not a fan is because I am terrible at writing it. I do actually enjoy analyzing it, it's just as I said before I'm not really comfortable with it. Hopefully using Jago help I will become more comfortable or at least reach a level where I can convey the ideas to the students without revealing my true feelings. After reading the chapter I can already sense a sort of change in my view of poetry, but like all parts of becoming a teacher I'm sure it will take time to perfect.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Jago Ch. 3
Choosing what books to teach, how important is this? The answer, very. You can't just pick any old book and go into your classroom and attempt to teach it. Jago manages to offer multiple examples of common texts in the classroom, with a few pointers on how to incorporate them. The chapter's strong points are definitely the list and supporting that list by using Frankenstein as an example. The list I am referring to is the 14 aspects that define a classic according to Italo Calvino. I respect this list for multiple reasons. For one, Calvino, in my opinion, is a great author and his input must be respected when it comes to classics because I consider a lot of his books to be classics. Secondly Jago could have just mentioned the list and left it at that, but she doesn't. Instead she expands on it by adding her own list of criteria and then she takes a popular high school book, Frankenstein, and describes how it falls into her six aspects of a classic. By doing this it helps me as a prospective teacher know what to look for in a book when it comes to planning a lesson.
Jago takes what could turn out to be a very difficult task for a teacher and turns it into a sort of formula, that if you follow it it would be impossible to fail. She tells us exactly what to look for and why it is important for a book to possess these qualities. I already have my own ideas of what makes a classic, but having a professional opinion to look at will help improve my outlook.
Conveying these ideas to students once again seems to be the more troubling task. You can tell a student that reading a book will improve them as a student and an individual, but where's the fun in that. If you come right out and tell a student that, most likely they will just shut you out and say something along the lines of, "you don't know me," or at least that's how a lot of my fellow students in high school would have acted. They didn't want someone telling them that they needed to discover or learn something new they wanted to do it for themselves. But if they weren't aware of the possibility of a change in the first place they would be very unlikely to display an interest in the first place. So basically what we have is a never ending cycle. So choosing a book is a very big deal.
The student needs to trust your choice as a teacher, so they need to trust you. Preconceived notions and personal preference are just two of the many reasons why students may not like the idea of reading in the classroom. I have so many thoughts racing through my head about this topic that it's hard to put them all into words.
The idea of choosing what students read throughout high school both excites and intimidates me. I hold myself to a pretty high standard and I plan on holding my students to the same thing. Experiences should help, but until then I feel like this book will act as a pretty decent substitute.
Jago takes what could turn out to be a very difficult task for a teacher and turns it into a sort of formula, that if you follow it it would be impossible to fail. She tells us exactly what to look for and why it is important for a book to possess these qualities. I already have my own ideas of what makes a classic, but having a professional opinion to look at will help improve my outlook.
Conveying these ideas to students once again seems to be the more troubling task. You can tell a student that reading a book will improve them as a student and an individual, but where's the fun in that. If you come right out and tell a student that, most likely they will just shut you out and say something along the lines of, "you don't know me," or at least that's how a lot of my fellow students in high school would have acted. They didn't want someone telling them that they needed to discover or learn something new they wanted to do it for themselves. But if they weren't aware of the possibility of a change in the first place they would be very unlikely to display an interest in the first place. So basically what we have is a never ending cycle. So choosing a book is a very big deal.
The student needs to trust your choice as a teacher, so they need to trust you. Preconceived notions and personal preference are just two of the many reasons why students may not like the idea of reading in the classroom. I have so many thoughts racing through my head about this topic that it's hard to put them all into words.
The idea of choosing what students read throughout high school both excites and intimidates me. I hold myself to a pretty high standard and I plan on holding my students to the same thing. Experiences should help, but until then I feel like this book will act as a pretty decent substitute.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Jago Ch. 1
While reading the first chapter of "Classics in the Classroom" my first thoughts were of how much this book acts as a different opinion on all that we have learned about using young adult literature in the classroom. The use of young adult literature cannot be underestimated, but at the same time classics must not be forgotten. This is the main message I gained from chapter 1.
Seven Guiding Principles for Literature Teachers is the title for chapter 1. The seven ideas that follow are definitely invaluable lessons for future and present teachers. When it comes to teaching classics I keep thinking back to the books I read in high school and how boring most of them were. I really only had one teacher who helped me to look beneath the surface of these ancient books and see the universal themes that could be uncovered there. Jago made me realize what he was doing and why it was necessary in order to improve my abilities as a learner.
Getting this idea across to the average high school student seems like one of the most difficult aspects to the job. This chapter provides the bare essentials to getting started with incorporating classics into the classroom. I'm hoping that by the time I have finished reading the rest of the book I will have a decent understanding of how to get the students interested and the books exciting and fresh as old as they may be.
Jago makes an interesting argument for classics that cannot be ignored. YA Lit may seem more relevant, but very rarely is it as layered as the classics. I think a failure to see these layers by student and even some teachers acts as the great downfall of us progressing as readers and in turn as intellectuals, or at least being able to maintain an intellectual conversation.
Whether the book is classic or modern literature it must serve a greater purpose and that must not be forgotten. The Zone of Proximal Development must be noticed and utilized. Bettering the students is the number one priority of a teacher and this book certainly helps in learning how to do that efficiently.
Seven Guiding Principles for Literature Teachers is the title for chapter 1. The seven ideas that follow are definitely invaluable lessons for future and present teachers. When it comes to teaching classics I keep thinking back to the books I read in high school and how boring most of them were. I really only had one teacher who helped me to look beneath the surface of these ancient books and see the universal themes that could be uncovered there. Jago made me realize what he was doing and why it was necessary in order to improve my abilities as a learner.
Getting this idea across to the average high school student seems like one of the most difficult aspects to the job. This chapter provides the bare essentials to getting started with incorporating classics into the classroom. I'm hoping that by the time I have finished reading the rest of the book I will have a decent understanding of how to get the students interested and the books exciting and fresh as old as they may be.
Jago makes an interesting argument for classics that cannot be ignored. YA Lit may seem more relevant, but very rarely is it as layered as the classics. I think a failure to see these layers by student and even some teachers acts as the great downfall of us progressing as readers and in turn as intellectuals, or at least being able to maintain an intellectual conversation.
Whether the book is classic or modern literature it must serve a greater purpose and that must not be forgotten. The Zone of Proximal Development must be noticed and utilized. Bettering the students is the number one priority of a teacher and this book certainly helps in learning how to do that efficiently.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Pleasure Reading - MMLit
For this pleasure reading I wanted to share two movies that I have watched recently and throughly enjoyed. The first is called Tell No One, a French film from 2006 based on a book by American author Harlan Coben. I've never read any of Coben's novels, in fact before I saw this movie I had never even heard of him, here is a link to his website for more information http://www.harlancoben.com/. After having read more about him and based on how much I liked the film I just might look into reading some of his books. The plot of the movie is a complicated one, it's a thriller first and foremost, but beneath the surface it's more like an intense love story. A man's wife is murdered and eight years later he receives and e-mail that makes him believe she is still alive, what follows is one of the most emotional rides I have ever been on. Most of this emotion is drawn from the soundtrack, which includes Otis Redding, Jeff Buckley, and U2. Now I am a huge Jeff Buckley fan, he could do no wrong in my book, and when his version of "Lilac Wine" started playing in the movie in felt like it was the reason the song was written, it matched the movie so perfectly. After watching the movie it immediately moved into my top 10 maybe even top 5 of the best movies I've ever seen. I highly recommend it to fans of Hitchcock and anyone just looking to enjoy a well written, acted, and made film. Here's the trailer, it does include some nudity so just a heads up.
The next movie is called The Signal, and the genre it belongs to is even harder to pinpoint. Often times funny, scary, bloody, with a touch of mind bending science fiction and romance thrown in, it's impossible to actually categorize this movie. A mysterious signal is being transmitted through people phones, televisions, and radios making them become very violent. I think it's summed up best by a line from the movie. "There's a bad sector in the electromagnetic spectrum which is causing a rift in logical thinking. Rational behavior has given way to primal... primordial action. We've reached a critical juncture in the consistency of everyday living. Societal norms are being completely abandoned. Anarchy has replaced etiquette. Chaos is the ruling class of this civilization, so I think coming to a goddamn New Years Eve party is the last thing on people's minds!"
The trailer makes the movie out to be strictly a thriller, but don't let it fool you although the movie is very thrilling the thrills are smoothed out with dark humor and great characters.
So that's what my pleasure "reading" has been for the past week. Two movies that I really liked and just so happen to have quite a bit to do with technology.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
How the Web Was Won - MMLit
Before reading this article my knowledge of how the internet was created and formed was basically Al Gore. I was reading and I kept wondering when does Gore show up, isn't he always saying he invented the internet. Finally he showed up and to my surprise he really didn't do much, that's not to say what he did wasn't important, but he definitely wasn't as involved as I thought he was. I mean funding could have come from anywhere when you really think about it.
The article itself actually turned out to be a lot more interesting than I had originally expected. I think most of the interest had to do with the way the material was presented, a series of interviews presenting different views from different people all involved in the creation of the internet. It definitely made the information more accessible instead of just reading a journalist's rendering of all of these interviews.
It's surprising to think about how much use everyone gets out of the internet but how little we actually know about it. It's more like this magical network that does what we ask without question and if it doesn't question us why should we question it. So we get this story filled with competition, with AT&T being the unlikely antagonist, and a sense that the people involved knew that what they were doing was going to be big but no one else did. The best way it's described is by Leonard Kleinrock, a professor of computer science at UCLA. He talks about the major accomplishments of 1969 and how with everything that happened that year the last thing anyone was thinking about was the birth of the internet.
The article goes on to discuss all of the recent innovations that deal with the internet and how it's always changing and improving. The internet provides us with more than we actually need, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Politics, music, games, the list goes on and on. I took a class called Media, Power, and Culture last semester and a good majority of that class was spent discussing the impact of the internet and how over the years it has changed our way of life. The internet cannot be ignored and knowing the history of it might just shed some light on the magic of it.
The article itself actually turned out to be a lot more interesting than I had originally expected. I think most of the interest had to do with the way the material was presented, a series of interviews presenting different views from different people all involved in the creation of the internet. It definitely made the information more accessible instead of just reading a journalist's rendering of all of these interviews.
It's surprising to think about how much use everyone gets out of the internet but how little we actually know about it. It's more like this magical network that does what we ask without question and if it doesn't question us why should we question it. So we get this story filled with competition, with AT&T being the unlikely antagonist, and a sense that the people involved knew that what they were doing was going to be big but no one else did. The best way it's described is by Leonard Kleinrock, a professor of computer science at UCLA. He talks about the major accomplishments of 1969 and how with everything that happened that year the last thing anyone was thinking about was the birth of the internet.
The article goes on to discuss all of the recent innovations that deal with the internet and how it's always changing and improving. The internet provides us with more than we actually need, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Politics, music, games, the list goes on and on. I took a class called Media, Power, and Culture last semester and a good majority of that class was spent discussing the impact of the internet and how over the years it has changed our way of life. The internet cannot be ignored and knowing the history of it might just shed some light on the magic of it.
Little Brother - MMLit
I finished Little Brother yesterday and I have to say that I was very disappointed. Throughout the novel you had Marcus explaining all the neat aspects of technology and I thought that it was all going to come back in the end, but it didn't. The climax was set up perfectly, you had this huge gathering of people wanting to play this weird game and the air was filled with a feeling of revolution, with the idea that something big was going to happen, but it never did. Marcus basically ran away, and then felt really guilty about it so he went back only to be arrested a day or two later. So now I was thinking, "o.k. maybe this book won me back an unhappy ending would fit the reality of the book's world fairly well." Wrong again, instead we get Marcus accepting his fate like he always new this was going to happen and then being miraculously saved by Barbara Stratford. Compared to the other exciting parts of the novel, such as the late night beach meeting and the concert in the park, the ending just didn't hold up. The book dragged on too much only to get to a rushed ending where I no longer really cared about what happened to Marcus. How are you supposed to sympathize with a hero who basically says screw it and then pees his pants? I had pretty high hopes for this book, it had my full attention by the second or third chapter, but after awhile I just couldn't wait for it to end.
The best part of the book I think is the idea behind the book. The idea that this is something that could actually happen. That we should be more aware of the role technology plays in our lives and how much of that role is positive and how much is negative. The book also has the idea of nonconformity going for it. In a world where kids are constantly trying to fit in to groups that already exist, Marcus is someone who starts his own group and still doesn't feel the need to fit in. He rolls with the punches and lives life the way he wants. He could be a role model to children and adults alike. Always stand by your beliefs no matter how difficult the obstacles that stand in your way may be.
The best part of the book I think is the idea behind the book. The idea that this is something that could actually happen. That we should be more aware of the role technology plays in our lives and how much of that role is positive and how much is negative. The book also has the idea of nonconformity going for it. In a world where kids are constantly trying to fit in to groups that already exist, Marcus is someone who starts his own group and still doesn't feel the need to fit in. He rolls with the punches and lives life the way he wants. He could be a role model to children and adults alike. Always stand by your beliefs no matter how difficult the obstacles that stand in your way may be.
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