Okay, folks. Here's the spot for you to tell us what nuggets of pedagogy and practice you took away from our talk, our activities, and our readings from Monday's practicum class.
Even though I learned a lot on Monday about effective strategies for reading poems/short stories and great activities to do after them, one of the things that really stuck in my mind was one small “nugget” that Dr. Cook said. She told us that it was ok to read something during the class period, talk about it, and leave it at that - meaning, we don't have to assign homework every night, or comprehension quizzes, or an essay. It is such a ‘common sense concept’ and sounds very simple but it is revolutionary in its simplicity. My experience in high school never incorporated this idea! Even when the teacher tried to break out of the “read a book, write an essay” mold and have a class discussion about a text, it was all contradicted when we were handed the worksheet with plot questions or the short answer question about what we discussed for homework. I would have loved to have felt like our discussions were actual discussions, and not just a spring board to complete an essay at home. My sister is a junior in high school and I told her about this idea when I got home and she looked at me like she was amazed that I could be learning this and also relieved for future students that I would be doing this! She said that she usually loses interests in what she reads in English because she knows she’s not expected to truly connect with it during the class, but to remember plot details and elements of fiction/poetry for the essay she’ll have to do later. She has never felt like she cared about anything she read in school because she has been told to only look for things that she could incorporate into an essay and not to look for the things that really matter to her or would make her feel something for the text. When students are “allowed” to simply read something without being preoccupied with whatever activity will come after it will, I’m sure, end up feeling much freer to enjoy and explore the text. Showing students that reading and discussing can stand on its own and is a valid form of learning is such an important idea that actually prepares them for their real-life future outside of writing papers for school.
First, I'd like to say that I totally agree with Kathryn. It is liberating to validate a text outside of an official assignment. It is a way to validate the students thoughts and opinions about a text. Using reader sesponse theory is also a way to validate the individual students voice, rather than requiring them to produce a cookie-cutter response for the teacher's approval. I believe that reader response theory can be extremely applicable in the High School classroom. I feel that the idea of the text and the reader coming together to make meaning would be extremely appealing to a High School student. It gives value to their ways of seeing and being in the world. I love that Rosenblatt addresses the issue that, although all readers have different responses to a work, not all responses are equally valid. Helping the students to establish criteria by which to navigate through the responses to “judge” validity will be essential. I love the idea of giving the students concrete activities to do in the classroom, such as the “Looking for Trouble” activity, as a way to guide their adventure into a text and allow them to begin to feel comfortable with the process of forming responses to texts. What comes so natural to us, as college English majors, will not come so naturally to our students. Having ways to get the students to understand their internal though processes for reading and responding to literature will help them to develop critical thinking skills to interpret, not only literature, but the world around them.
I also agree with Kathryn and Tracy. It is freeing to know that we as teachers can just have classroom discussions about a particular work but then not assign an essay so we know the students "get" it. Through practice alone, students will learn how to read something and find not only a particular meaning but also what's meaningful to them. I love the "Take a Walk with a Line" exercise. I think students will enjoy an assignment like this because they'll be able to write about what a passage means to them, according to their experiences and their thoughts. If I didn't want to assign this as a homework assignment, I could have them do it during class. While reading the work out loud, I could have them underline what speaks to them, as we did in class yesterday ("Looking for Trouble"). I found this very helpful when I was reading "The Things They Carried" last night. I didn't feel the pressure of having to figure out what everything meant in a universal sense. I was able to pick out passages that were beautiful and thoughtful. Students in a high school class may feel the same, that their reading can be liberating and fun. I had never read "The Things They Carried," so when I did read it, I couldn't believe how beautiful the sentences were. It made me want to cry. I hope that through the activities we have learned about so far will help our students to find the beauty and power that we will continue to find in literature.
Monday’s class was a relief for me. At our first meeting we had discussed our fear of posing as a “fraud” when we stand up in front of our classes. This anxiety was caused from our fears of not knowing; at least this was how I felt. But after class on Monday, I felt as if my fear was slowly beginning to fade, mainly because of the poetry exercise. This activity was my “nugget” I will take away from this class simply because I was able to realize that poetry doesn’t have to be scary. As I mentioned in class I would never think of starting off the year with poetry, but I wouldn’t jump right into a novel either, so I guess I had no idea how I would begin the school year. Anyway, now I have the confidence and tools to use with poetry which makes it easier for the students as well as myself. Using a poem that I personally enjoy and can connect with and that is somewhat short is important to keep in mind. I will absolutely use the method of “Looking for Trouble” as an introduction to my English Class. I also want to comment on Kathryn’s post and agree with her statement about reading and discussing without an assignment and without drilling writing into student’s minds. By doing so I believe students will appreciate specific writing assignments more if they are thoughtfully and not overly assigned.
You women are blowing my mind with these reflections. Thoughtful, insightful, smart, and well-written. What more could a professor ask? Thank you for distilling our class into these precious nuggets. I can't wait until tomorrow!
Not to be a follower or anything, but I too really enjoy the notion of reading a text simply for the sake of reading the text, discussing it in class and leaving it at that. Not every book or poem or short story has to have a homework assignment or quiz attached to it--the simple class discussion (on in which everyone's voice is heard, of course) is a really great, informal, adequate assessment. It's so great that the students won't even know they are being assessed! There's no pressure...it's such a nice way to spend a day in English class.
I also really liked the "Looking for Trouble" activity. I am quite frightened of poetry (reading it, comprehending it, teaching it) but this activity made poetry slightly less scary! It was nice to see that I am not the only one who often reads lines of poetry and am afraid that there's a big cartoon bubble over my head with a GIANT question mark in it! This particular activity is one that I will certainly use in my classroom...and not just for poetry, but for that "dreaded" Shakespeare too!
Well unfortunately girls I have some bad news, you will all have to put up with me for the whole year!!! YAY!!! I had a speech prepared if I failed but thank god (for you and me both) that you don't have to hear it! Congratulations to Tracy as well!! See you all Monday, Nicole
I am an Associate Professor of English and Secondary Education at Rhode Island College, where I am also the Director of the Rhode Island Writing Project.
Even though I learned a lot on Monday about effective strategies for reading poems/short stories and great activities to do after them, one of the things that really stuck in my mind was one small “nugget” that Dr. Cook said. She told us that it was ok to read something during the class period, talk about it, and leave it at that - meaning, we don't have to assign homework every night, or comprehension quizzes, or an essay. It is such a ‘common sense concept’ and sounds very simple but it is revolutionary in its simplicity. My experience in high school never incorporated this idea! Even when the teacher tried to break out of the “read a book, write an essay” mold and have a class discussion about a text, it was all contradicted when we were handed the worksheet with plot questions or the short answer question about what we discussed for homework. I would have loved to have felt like our discussions were actual discussions, and not just a spring board to complete an essay at home.
ReplyDeleteMy sister is a junior in high school and I told her about this idea when I got home and she looked at me like she was amazed that I could be learning this and also relieved for future students that I would be doing this! She said that she usually loses interests in what she reads in English because she knows she’s not expected to truly connect with it during the class, but to remember plot details and elements of fiction/poetry for the essay she’ll have to do later. She has never felt like she cared about anything she read in school because she has been told to only look for things that she could incorporate into an essay and not to look for the things that really matter to her or would make her feel something for the text. When students are “allowed” to simply read something without being preoccupied with whatever activity will come after it will, I’m sure, end up feeling much freer to enjoy and explore the text. Showing students that reading and discussing can stand on its own and is a valid form of learning is such an important idea that actually prepares them for their real-life future outside of writing papers for school.
First, I'd like to say that I totally agree with Kathryn. It is liberating to validate a text outside of an official assignment. It is a way to validate the students thoughts and opinions about a text. Using reader sesponse theory is also a way to validate the individual students voice, rather than requiring them to produce a cookie-cutter response for the teacher's approval.
ReplyDeleteI believe that reader response theory can be extremely applicable in the High School classroom. I feel that the idea of the text and the reader coming together to make meaning would be extremely appealing to a High School student. It gives value to their ways of seeing and being in the world. I love that Rosenblatt addresses the issue that, although all readers have different responses to a work, not all responses are equally valid. Helping the students to establish criteria by which to navigate through the responses to “judge” validity will be essential. I love the idea of giving the students concrete activities to do in the classroom, such as the “Looking for Trouble” activity, as a way to guide their adventure into a text and allow them to begin to feel comfortable with the process of forming responses to texts. What comes so natural to us, as college English majors, will not come so naturally to our students. Having ways to get the students to understand their internal though processes for reading and responding to literature will help them to develop critical thinking skills to interpret, not only literature, but the world around them.
I also agree with Kathryn and Tracy. It is freeing to know that we as teachers can just have classroom discussions about a particular work but then not assign an essay so we know the students "get" it. Through practice alone, students will learn how to read something and find not only a particular meaning but also what's meaningful to them. I love the "Take a Walk with a Line" exercise. I think students will enjoy an assignment like this because they'll be able to write about what a passage means to them, according to their experiences and their thoughts. If I didn't want to assign this as a homework assignment, I could have them do it during class. While reading the work out loud, I could have them underline what speaks to them, as we did in class yesterday ("Looking for Trouble"). I found this very helpful when I was reading "The Things They Carried" last night. I didn't feel the pressure of having to figure out what everything meant in a universal sense. I was able to pick out passages that were beautiful and thoughtful. Students in a high school class may feel the same, that their reading can be liberating and fun. I had never read "The Things They Carried," so when I did read it, I couldn't believe how beautiful the sentences were. It made me want to cry. I hope that through the activities we have learned about so far will help our students to find the beauty and power that we will continue to find in literature.
ReplyDeleteMonday’s class was a relief for me. At our first meeting we had discussed our fear of posing as a “fraud” when we stand up in front of our classes. This anxiety was caused from our fears of not knowing; at least this was how I felt. But after class on Monday, I felt as if my fear was slowly beginning to fade, mainly because of the poetry exercise. This activity was my “nugget” I will take away from this class simply because I was able to realize that poetry doesn’t have to be scary. As I mentioned in class I would never think of starting off the year with poetry, but I wouldn’t jump right into a novel either, so I guess I had no idea how I would begin the school year. Anyway, now I have the confidence and tools to use with poetry which makes it easier for the students as well as myself. Using a poem that I personally enjoy and can connect with and that is somewhat short is important to keep in mind. I will absolutely use the method of “Looking for Trouble” as an introduction to my English Class.
ReplyDeleteI also want to comment on Kathryn’s post and agree with her statement about reading and discussing without an assignment and without drilling writing into student’s minds. By doing so I believe students will appreciate specific writing assignments more if they are thoughtfully and not overly assigned.
You women are blowing my mind with these reflections. Thoughtful, insightful, smart, and well-written. What more could a professor ask? Thank you for distilling our class into these precious nuggets. I can't wait until tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteNot to be a follower or anything, but I too really enjoy the notion of reading a text simply for the sake of reading the text, discussing it in class and leaving it at that. Not every book or poem or short story has to have a homework assignment or quiz attached to it--the simple class discussion (on in which everyone's voice is heard, of course) is a really great, informal, adequate assessment. It's so great that the students won't even know they are being assessed! There's no pressure...it's such a nice way to spend a day in English class.
ReplyDeleteI also really liked the "Looking for Trouble" activity. I am quite frightened of poetry (reading it, comprehending it, teaching it) but this activity made poetry slightly less scary! It was nice to see that I am not the only one who often reads lines of poetry and am afraid that there's a big cartoon bubble over my head with a GIANT question mark in it! This particular activity is one that I will certainly use in my classroom...and not just for poetry, but for that "dreaded" Shakespeare too!
Well unfortunately girls I have some bad news,
ReplyDeleteyou will all have to put up with me for the whole year!!! YAY!!! I had a speech prepared if I failed but thank god (for you and me both) that you don't have to hear it!
Congratulations to Tracy as well!!
See you all Monday,
Nicole