Designing a lesson is something I feel I need to get better at doing. With this subject I'm going with the more experience the easier it will become, if that turns out to be false, well we'll just have to wait and see.
The chapter sort of starts out with a paradox, do we blame the new teachers when all they are doing is teaching the way they were taught by the old teachers. Well I say stop trying to blame and start trying to solve. Jago does this by explaining how she was taught to be a teacher. Much like students a teacher must always be ready and willing to learn. The teaching knowledge will never stop as long as you are open to it.
Then comes the actual lesson design, Jago uses The Odyssey as her example text, with a few other texts thrown in for good measure. She offers a very in-depth look at the thought and process behind designing a lesson, some new to me and some I've heard before but presented with new aspects. It definitely has a lot of helpful material that I don't think I could have ever thought of using. I really like the idea of comparing translations. It's a very implicit way to allow students to see other viewpoints of the same material. We want students to think critically, but at the same time allow for other opinions to intrude and possible change how they see things and what better way to model that then with two or more translation of the exact same material.
I think with a lot of the classics, you can have really great ideas on how to teach them in a fun and interesting way, but until the students connect to the text it may not be worth it. Take The Odyssey, which is an epic, and the story itself is immensely dense, complicated, and layered, all in a good way of course. Now some students may notice this right off the bat and it may even excite them. For the rest you need to figure out how to convey the mass amount of epic that is The Odyssey to them. I think Jago does and excellent job of this, she prepares herself and her students before they even start to read, which is always a good idea I think. "Students take over teaching" is another great way to connect the students to the text even if it is with a very specific part.
With this chapter I am trying to look beyond Jago's actual lesson and see something underneath the explicit assignment. I see encouraging participation, activating critical thinking, and comparing fictional characters to real life ones to establish and form a personal view of the world. All are important and none should be neglected. There is a lot to designing a lesson and I look forward to attempting it in the near future.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Jago Ch. 4 How Stories Work
Chapter 4 describes my favorite part of English, the stories. I love every aspect, element, and device. I love the way different things are revealed as the story progresses, and I especially love the way Jago describes the process as gaining power over the text.
Jago also brings up a point I never thought of before, "books that demand hard thinking on the part of a reader are more likely to be remembered that those students breeze through," (67). In order for a student to gain anything from a piece of literature it must challenge them.
Jago uses excellent examples with The Call of the Wild and The Grapes of Wrath. It is important to identify helpful passages that convey specific ideas necessary to a student's learning. As Jago states you don't want to ask trivial things such as "find the simile, identify the alliteration, spot the allusion" (68) instead provide the students with a passage that possesses these devices and let the reading do the rest.
Students are capable of analyzing text and identifying devices, what they need help with is understanding why it is important to know how to do these things. If students understood that already half of our job would already be done. They need to make the connection between what we are trying to teach them and how it comes into play in the real world. It all really boils down to critical thinking skills.
A hero on a quest is how Jago describes the basic story structure, for the most part this plot could be applied to just about any story. Students can identify with conflict and obstacles, they face them everyday, the teacher just needs to make sure they can see past that into the deeper meaning behind the way the author presents the hero's quest.
Jago also brings up a point I never thought of before, "books that demand hard thinking on the part of a reader are more likely to be remembered that those students breeze through," (67). In order for a student to gain anything from a piece of literature it must challenge them.
Jago uses excellent examples with The Call of the Wild and The Grapes of Wrath. It is important to identify helpful passages that convey specific ideas necessary to a student's learning. As Jago states you don't want to ask trivial things such as "find the simile, identify the alliteration, spot the allusion" (68) instead provide the students with a passage that possesses these devices and let the reading do the rest.
Students are capable of analyzing text and identifying devices, what they need help with is understanding why it is important to know how to do these things. If students understood that already half of our job would already be done. They need to make the connection between what we are trying to teach them and how it comes into play in the real world. It all really boils down to critical thinking skills.
A hero on a quest is how Jago describes the basic story structure, for the most part this plot could be applied to just about any story. Students can identify with conflict and obstacles, they face them everyday, the teacher just needs to make sure they can see past that into the deeper meaning behind the way the author presents the hero's quest.
Jago Ch. 2 All About Words
After reading chapter two there was a sentence that really stood out to me, that I had to go back and reread. "So much of what happens in school seems artificial to students, a series of meaningless assignments that they must perform for the teacher or else fail." (27) When I was in high school I remember thinking this exact same thing for just about every assignment in just about every class. The big question on my mind was "why?" and not a single teacher answered that for me. Jago not only answers "why" but also tells us "how" in this chapter.
Students need guidance and as an English teacher I think that is a big part of our job. Guiding the students to achieve a higher learning. Without a set purpose this task would be next to impossible, purpose meaning why as a student do I need to learn new vocabulary words. A higher vocabulary means a higher understanding, it is as simple as that. Understanding leads to knowledge and knowledge leads to success or power or whatever you want to use it for, but no matter how it is used the importance of it cannot be argued against. A student should be able to recognize the importance of the lessons we are trying to teach them, they should want to better themselves as learners. This can only be done with a teacher who possess the ability to motivate and interest. For the inexperienced teacher, such as myself, I think Jago offers plenty of decent ideas for a majority of situations that will occur in a classroom. She talks a lot about the zone of proximal development and rightfully so, since I agree that the importance of this zone cannot be overlooked, students must be pushed in all aspects of their schooling and that includes vocabulary.
Students need guidance and as an English teacher I think that is a big part of our job. Guiding the students to achieve a higher learning. Without a set purpose this task would be next to impossible, purpose meaning why as a student do I need to learn new vocabulary words. A higher vocabulary means a higher understanding, it is as simple as that. Understanding leads to knowledge and knowledge leads to success or power or whatever you want to use it for, but no matter how it is used the importance of it cannot be argued against. A student should be able to recognize the importance of the lessons we are trying to teach them, they should want to better themselves as learners. This can only be done with a teacher who possess the ability to motivate and interest. For the inexperienced teacher, such as myself, I think Jago offers plenty of decent ideas for a majority of situations that will occur in a classroom. She talks a lot about the zone of proximal development and rightfully so, since I agree that the importance of this zone cannot be overlooked, students must be pushed in all aspects of their schooling and that includes vocabulary.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Pleasure Reading
As busy as I have been with my schoolwork and work, I managed to get out and see "Battle L.A." and "Sucker Punch." I wasn't expecting much from "Battle L.A." I figured it would be an apocalyptic alien invasion and nothing more, which it was. They tried to insert some background on the characters which was unnecessary in my opinion. The background of these characters ended up developing into conflict between two of the soldiers in the company that the movie focused on and it really just didn't make sense. It seemed like "Independence Day" meets "Full Metal Jacket", which I think sounds like an awesome movie, but it truth It could have been much better. In the end though, if you went into the movie expecting a good action/war flick then you got what you wanted. Overall however, I preferred "Sucker Punch."
Now this is an action flick. The latest from Zack Snyder the direct of "300" and "Watchmen" two of my favorite movies from the past couple of years. I was excited beyond words for this movie. From start to almost the finish it completely held your attention. There was either epic fight scenes or moments that left you thinking "did that just happen" around every turn. The reason I said almost the finish is because the end left a lot to be desired. At one moment I prepared myself to get up because I thought the movie had ended, but it just kept on going. When I thought the movie had ended I was completely satisfied with it and was happy, but instead they dragged it along and milked it for all it was worth. Still, it remained my favorite of the two and one of the best films I have seen so far this year.
Now this is an action flick. The latest from Zack Snyder the direct of "300" and "Watchmen" two of my favorite movies from the past couple of years. I was excited beyond words for this movie. From start to almost the finish it completely held your attention. There was either epic fight scenes or moments that left you thinking "did that just happen" around every turn. The reason I said almost the finish is because the end left a lot to be desired. At one moment I prepared myself to get up because I thought the movie had ended, but it just kept on going. When I thought the movie had ended I was completely satisfied with it and was happy, but instead they dragged it along and milked it for all it was worth. Still, it remained my favorite of the two and one of the best films I have seen so far this year.
I (Heart) Novels, Publish or Perish, Video Games in the Classroom
I had never heard of cell-phone novels until I had read "I (Heart) Novels". I definitely like the idea of writing freely for yourself and allowing others to read it for free. The material is "unfiltered and unedited" so it is basically exactly how the writer intended it, which is extremely rare in any form of media at this time. I think the article acts as a way to inform the public of the ever-changing world of literature and how technology is a bug part of those changes. This makes me think of the different ways I could allow my students to express themselves in and out of the classroom. Who knows maybe someday we won't even have text books any more and we'll read everything from our cell phones or I-pads. There will no longer be formal writing assignments instead all assignments will be completed through some sort of mobile device. I like the creativity that is shown of this new medium in the article, but at the same time I would hate to see books and hard copies completely disappear. I prefer to do all of my reading with the actually book in front of me and some of my writing with pen and paper, and I really don't see that changing for me anytime soon.
Students using Kindles in the classroom
This brings us to the article "Publish or Perish". The future of reading is apparently electronic, which I am all right with as long as that means the world of literature will live on. Now I may be on of the people at fault for the decline of sales in the book world. When I was younger I would buy new books all the time, whether it was at my elementary school book fair or out of one of the take home book order forms, but these both stopped as I got older. So instead I turned to the library and used that for my reading needs for most of high school and some of college only recently (actually a couple of weeks ago) did I decide to start buying books again. I don't have an I-pad or a kindle so I won't be buying any e-books, strictly old fashioned for me. I'll still use the library, which I will also encourage my students to do as frequently as possible, but I simply plan on buying more books for my personal library. The world of literature is changing, but as long as I can still read whatever and whenever I want I'm o.k. with that.
"Video Games in the Classroom" describes something that I can only call awesome. Now before you jump on me and say video games have no place in the classroom, let me just say that I agree. But with this new generation of students video games are a way of life for a lot of them and with the class being only three times a week, I can begin to see the positive side of it. So what can a student learn from playing video games, how about accepting defeat, problem solving, and teamwork. Video games have nothing on real life situations but if that what we need to use to get kids motivated and ready to perform, why not give them a break three times a week and teach them something along the way. The article also deals with school budgets which I've seen get a little sketchy when I was in high school, so maybe this isn't for everyone, or at least the hands on activity or a stand alone class. But why not just present the students with the idea to look at their video games or other after school activities in a different way and challenge them to gain lessons and values from them instead of just zoning out. We as teachers must adapt to the students way of life, mostly for motivation and to gain some level of connectedness and I see no harm in doing this through video games.
Video of a teacher using video games in the classroom
Students using Kindles in the classroom
This brings us to the article "Publish or Perish". The future of reading is apparently electronic, which I am all right with as long as that means the world of literature will live on. Now I may be on of the people at fault for the decline of sales in the book world. When I was younger I would buy new books all the time, whether it was at my elementary school book fair or out of one of the take home book order forms, but these both stopped as I got older. So instead I turned to the library and used that for my reading needs for most of high school and some of college only recently (actually a couple of weeks ago) did I decide to start buying books again. I don't have an I-pad or a kindle so I won't be buying any e-books, strictly old fashioned for me. I'll still use the library, which I will also encourage my students to do as frequently as possible, but I simply plan on buying more books for my personal library. The world of literature is changing, but as long as I can still read whatever and whenever I want I'm o.k. with that.
"Video Games in the Classroom" describes something that I can only call awesome. Now before you jump on me and say video games have no place in the classroom, let me just say that I agree. But with this new generation of students video games are a way of life for a lot of them and with the class being only three times a week, I can begin to see the positive side of it. So what can a student learn from playing video games, how about accepting defeat, problem solving, and teamwork. Video games have nothing on real life situations but if that what we need to use to get kids motivated and ready to perform, why not give them a break three times a week and teach them something along the way. The article also deals with school budgets which I've seen get a little sketchy when I was in high school, so maybe this isn't for everyone, or at least the hands on activity or a stand alone class. But why not just present the students with the idea to look at their video games or other after school activities in a different way and challenge them to gain lessons and values from them instead of just zoning out. We as teachers must adapt to the students way of life, mostly for motivation and to gain some level of connectedness and I see no harm in doing this through video games.
Video of a teacher using video games in the classroom
Saturday, April 2, 2011
(818) Movie Review
The movie I saw at the Cleveland International Film Festival was (818), film's imdb page, directed by Robert Lee King and written by David Michael Barrett. The plot was about a washed up soap opera star who planned to kill her husband after he wrote her out of his will. The movie is first and foremost a comedy, with some suspenseful elements thrown in. There were a couple of cliche moments, wacky characters and certain plot devices, but it is almost impossible these days to find a movie without a single cliche.
The story wasn't the most original, but it was presented in a way that at least seemed new. The film acts as a two hour long day time soap without commercials. I think this is done on purpose in order to satirize the world of acting and to see what someone who never stops acting, even when cameras aren't rolling, would be like. So even if the plot was old news this was at least a way to keep it interesting and even added an air of freshness to it. I have never seen a movie that purposely took itself to seriously. The characters were over the top and the actors who portrayed them overacted perfectly. Even the score was something you would find in an usual soap opera. The filming was no different, very few if any long takes, which is exactly what you would expect from daytime television. Not to mention lots of back and forth conversations with overly dramatic pauses dispersed throughout. If you could get over the advertent cheesiness of the movie it was actually quite entertaining.
The story didn't deliver any strong, willful messages it was just simply there for your viewing pleasure. The characters were not role models or heroes, they were flawed products of society that allowed greed and fame to get the better of them. The only characters who seemed to have any kind of morals managed to get themselves killed within the first twenty minutes of the film. Its soul purpose was to entertain and in that I believe it succeeded.
The movie asked you to enter a world that few are familiar with, the world of acting. It asked you to accept extraordinary circumstances as real life events. It asked you to sympathize with deeply flawed characters. This may seem like the movie asked a lot, but I would rather a film ask something of me than I of it. The movie may not have been deep or emotionally strong, but it definitely didn't take you by the hand and spell everything out for you. So in other words I think it did exactly what a good movie should.
trailer
Cleveland International Film Festival
I just got back from the Cleveland International Film Festival and I would have to say that overall I had a pretty good time. I went to see a film called (818) with my sister and a friend of mine. I enjoyed the film and the company, but some other things were a little off-putting. First off I did not buy my tickets ahead of time, because my schedule for the past couple of weeks has been pretty hectic and nothing was really set in stone so I wasn't sure when I was actually going to get a chance to go to a film, so I didn't want to buy tickets and then not be able to go. Then I found out the movie was stand-by only, but I really only had the time to see that particular film, so I took a chance and went anyway. Luckily I was able to get in. Now I've experienced stand-by before and I must admit I did not find any part of it to be enjoyable, but in the case of the film festival it really wasn't that bad. It was really well organized and the wait really wasn't that long, so besides a couple of annoying people in line this part was o.k. So we got our stand-by tickets, numbers 10, 11, and 12, and had a pretty good feeling about getting in with such low numbers, so we spent the rest of the time walking around the mall until the movie started. We returned to the theater 15 minutes before the film was supposed to start and waited in line again, this experience was not as enjoyable. We didn't have to wait for very long, but as soon as they called the numbers people at the bag of the line rushed ahead like the building was on fire, it was ridiculous. I have never seen such a mad dash for what would be considered mediocre seats at best. But I didn't let that get to me after all I was at the Cleveland International Film Festival for the first time.
After the film ended there was a brief question and answer with the director, producer, and star of the film. This was actually really cool even though some of the questions were pretty mind-numbing. The director seemed like a really nice guy and had a lot of interesting things to say about the process that went into making his movie. This part was unexpected, but I really enjoyed it. I definitely plan on attending again next year and whenever I get the chance I hope to go to other film festivals around the world. It was a new experience and I loved just about every minute of it.
After the film ended there was a brief question and answer with the director, producer, and star of the film. This was actually really cool even though some of the questions were pretty mind-numbing. The director seemed like a really nice guy and had a lot of interesting things to say about the process that went into making his movie. This part was unexpected, but I really enjoyed it. I definitely plan on attending again next year and whenever I get the chance I hope to go to other film festivals around the world. It was a new experience and I loved just about every minute of it.
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