Goals of education

1. Self-knowledge

2. To teach students a culture that is new to every student - that of the classroom culture

The Power of True Cliches

I'm sorry I underestimated Nick Sparks. Why do people rebuff the cliche - as M said, there's still truth in them sometimes and isn't that powerful? Sparks uses a metaphor in Best of Me, of an otter trapped in a cage. A socialite's daughter feels trapped by the life forced on her in a way. Trapped in a cage is old and tired language. Yet it aptly describes so much such as:

- doctors stuck in the requirements of rigorous training structures

- administrators, teachers, and students trapped in education's disorganized traditions 

- anyone who is victims of inequality and discrimination

- everyone who inherits the ways of doing and thinking that don't work anymore 

We want control but sometimes the invisible cages confine our autonomy. Thinking outside the box is a rarity that must be fought hard for. It may be cliche but we're all in this together.

For now, though, here is a cold hard truth as tragic as the majority of the English curriculum texts: I live in a cage. You live in a cage. 

*another realization: the best writing and most motivated reading comes from real experience. I want to finish Best of Me to know how/if she gets out of her cage because I want to escape mine. I should ask the students what books or stories do you connect with and why? Ex: I connected with Henrietta Lacks because I have also felt afraid of things I don't understand. And frustrated when others won't tell me the answers. Or I can ask, what makes you interested in reading something? What are some of your favorite books and stories?

PBL

RnJ - healthy relationships; how is it a tragedy and a comedy?/debate love or lust - what's his political message?/prequel/hell

OMM - what's light and what's dark?/would you shoot Lennie?/why is George friends w Lennie?/who are the outsiders in our society?

Switch perspective to first person 

TKAM - what's mockingbird?/ Jem quote about people having things in common w each other or too many differences/New South vs traditional
Compare and contrast Harper Lee's time with your own (after watching the video)

Make newspaper 

Redo the trial so Tom has more dimension and wins

Sequel

Odyssey - who controls our destiny? / how does O and T gain independence? And how are gods responsible? fate or man debate?

Map

Death of a Salesman - what's the Am Dream?/why does Willy cheat?/ do you like Willy?

Act out a scene

Gatsby (w OMM) - what's Fitzgerald saying about the American dream and carelessness? / is the dream over? / do you like Gatsby? / what's happiness?

Gatsby newspaper 

Huck (w TKAM) - how does dialogue create identity? / when is it ok to lie?

River Journal 

Modern day huck

Jim pov

Crucible

Introduction Structure

TKAM

Day 1:
-Unit Plan: read components, answer questions, and answer why Harper Lee wrote the book
(read for homework)

Day 2: The 1930s
-Question: Look at Pinterest pics - What do you think the book will be about, based on the pictures?
-Watch TKAM historical context video & Scotsboro, Great Depression(John Green)
-Read about the author
Product:  Compare and contrast Harper Lee's time with our own: Great Depression, Class/Segregation, Scotsboro, Predicted Themes, Harper Lee
 Day 3: Community I
Present ProductsDo Now: How would you describe our town? What history do you know of it?
Who are the outsiders of our community? What kind of class system exists?

Homework: Would you want to live in Maycomb? 

Begin novel

The Great Gatsby

Day 1: The 1920s
-Look at Pinterest pics -  What do you think the book will be about, based on the pictures?
-Watch Introduction to the 1920s
-Read about the author, look at Powerpoints
Product: Create a mindmap or a mural of the book's historical context and purpose. Must have these labels: Prohibition, Automobiles, WWI, Fitzgerald, Predicted Themes, Economy, Women, Immigration

Day 2: Old money
Present products
Question:
Begin novel
Homework: Who is old and who is new money?

Romeo and Juliet

Day 1: The Bard
-Look at Pinterest -  What do you think the book will be about, based on the pictures?
-Watch Intro to Shakespeare (iambic), Shakespeare in Pop Culture, William Shakespeare.ppt Bio
Product: Create a mindmap or a mural of the book's historical context and purpose. Must have these labels: Shakespeare's schooling, Shakespeare's language/style, Shakespeare's influence, Predicted Themes

Day 2:
Question:
Begin play

Death of a Salesman

Day 1: Dreams
-Look at collected images - What do you think the book will be about, based on the pictures?
-Watch Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller and the American Dream
-Author Bio
Product: Create a mindmap or a mural of the book's historical context and purpose. Must have these labels: American Dream, Tragic Hero, Predicted Themes, Arthur Miller

Day 2:
Question:
Begin play

Of Mice and Men

Day 1: Dreams
-Look at collected images -  What do you think the book will be about, based on the pictures?
-Watch Of Mice and Men Context, Salinas Valley, John Steinbeck (Short Biography), Controversy, Introduction - OMM Background Information
Product: Create a mindmap or a mural of the book's historical context and purpose. Must have these labels: Great Depression/Black Tuesday, John Steinbeck,  Migrant Workers, Title, Predicted Themes, Social Divides

Day 2: Solitude/Setting
Question:
Begin novel


Huck Finn

Day 1: Breaking the Mold/N Word
-Look at Pinterest -  What do you think the book will be about, based on the pictures?
-Read Bloom intro, The River, Fishkin the N word, Dialect
-Watch Huckleberry Finn "The N Word", Mark Twain's Story of Huck Finn, Huck Finn-context & background
Must have these labels: River, Predicted Themes, Controversy, Mark Twain, Slavery, Dialect

Day 2:
Question:
Begin novel


Odyssey

Day 1: The Bard
-Look at Pinterest -  What do you think the book will be about, based on the pictures?
-Watch
Product: Create a mindmap or a mural of the book's historical context and purpose. Must have these labels:

Day 2:
Question:
Begin novel

Why do we read and write

Why do we read and write? John Green, bestselling teen fiction author, states that reading develops empathy for others' experiences. And the act of writing communicates those experiences and historical moments vividly. Therefore all activities in English need to facilitate these outcomes: remembering, connecting, deciphering meaning.

**students also need to be able to respond to literary criticism: no point in developing empathy if we don't fully know what we understand - reading others' interpretations and comparing to our own will help us know ourselves better and fully get the most out of our reading**

This is where to begin lesson plans and the first day of school - establish purpose and importance. So other subject at area teachers ought to discuss and align plans to:

1.) Why learn science? Teaches us to ask questions and detect patterns in life's organization. Understanding past research allows us to discover more mysteries. 

2.) Why learn math? Teaches us to 

3.) Why learn history?

4.) Why learn music? 

5.) Why learn art?

The child is father to the man.

Like doctors secondary teachers care for others long after prevention of the ailment is possible.

By ailment I mean non-ideal parts of their childhoods. 

I should have students speculate as much as possible about book characters' upbringing. Science agrees these are formative years, fears and insecurities are cemented like the woman who discovered infant-mom bonding.

And realize their own upbringings.

The trouble with love...

... (Romantic love) Is it's not explicitly taught. Or realistically portrayed. Or coherently historicized. And the formula - who I so regretfully don't know to attribute to - of friendship + sex - has been obscured, made too complicated. Love is friendship first and foremost and if you know how to be a friend then you are ready for romantic love.

Teaching Philosophy

The field of education is wrought with cliche and none of them belong in a truly effective philosophy of teaching, many would say. Phrases like "no child left behind", "closing the achievement gap", "21st century learners", "productive and self-controlled citizens", "college-ready independent thinkers". But like overused trite words, education jargon is not in itself meaningless. It is the context that surrounds them that undermines their power.

So in my philosophy I'll use the ideas behind the catch-phrases with different terminology and description.

John Nash famously had schizophrenia and has said that sanity is a form of conformity and insanity is escape: and when free from precedent and tradition, one can have groundbreaking insight. We don't want kids to become trailblazers by refusing to hear others' ideas and be a completely fresh page. After all, background knowledge is integral to building new knowledge, including creative ideas. Creativity however certainly should be sheltered from suppressing structures and impositions.

To view creativity more positively I'll turn to Dan Pink, who found that people are driven to produce when they have autonomy, competence and self-confidence. It is about teaching kids what their niche is. Students must be encouraged and always reflect on what they like to do - we must ask and make them evaluate their feelings toward something. School must teach them about themselves and not just content. Students must do the heavy lifting. It is not just ok to be yourself but you MUST be yourself- the world depends on it

But to gain background knowledge, such knowledge must be made accessible, no matter what level of difficulty. Knowledge-acquisition must be made memorable by drawing on the psychological findings about the memory: it must be meaningful, purposeful, relevant (from Why Kids Don't Like School). It must be presented dynamically, using all communication mediums, including visuals, gestures, repetition, story, song, mneumonics, humor, coming from students (esl class). There's that Einstein quote and research - you learn better by showing than telling and doing than showing. Get the students to move. Above all, know your students and how to make them interested because telling really is more time-efficient...

Is it too arrogant to want my own pithy Gettysburg Address, an education manifesto?

I want to write non-fiction and later when I am ready some fiction.

And we are teacher-facilitators and teacher-designers, never spoon feeders or artificial problem-creators (http://www.teachthought.com/teaching/changing-role-of-the-teacher/)
Passion-based projects http://www.teachthought.com/learning/25-ways-to-promote-passion-based-learning-in-your-classroom/

Daniel Pink, John Nash, Jacob (boy genius), equality/diversity benefits all

The better you know yourself, the better your relationship with the rest of the world.

Toni Collette

If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.

Sun Tzu

Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Already Taken - Oscar Wilde

Sequences

TKAM Sequence:
Look at Pinterest 

Great Depression newspaper

Anticipation - are you a victim or witnessed one? Historical examples?

How would you describe our town? What history do you know of it?

Who are the outsiders of our community?

Scotsboro - how and why were they victims?
Harper Lee bio - why did she write it?
[Harold Bloom narrator - no qs, just prime]
What are values you have that you've been taught? 

What do you know about the South? Or what are your perceptions of it as an outsider? 

Theme of tradition vs. new

Would you want to live in Maycomb? 

Consequences to everyone of discrimination and exclusion (perhaps bc we are all outsiders at some point)"

Ch 1 - Say-Mean-Meaning and Narrator
Read Ch 2-3 and summarize
Write fr Miss Caroline's POV or about an adult you don't like or opinion about education/has a teacher ever not allowed you to be ahead?
See from the perspective of Jem, Atticus, Walter and Calpurnia. Speculate why they behave that way (social influence)
Do children have a greater sense of justice than adults? 

Great Gatsby/Death of a Salesman

Create a mural or a Mindmap of the 1920s.watch another inteoductory video

Pinterest

What is the American dream? Who has fulfilled it? Look at images.

Look at PowerPoint of introduction to the times and jigsaw 

Huck Finn
Pinterest 

Watch Mark Twain video

Anticipation - what kind of books should not be allowed in school?
Subquestion - reasons might be racism, bad writing, inaccurate
http://www.takepart.com/photos/10-most-commonly-banned-books
1840s readings/topics
Shirley Fisher - N-word and Twain (Key & Steele - now blacks themselves author the satire, 28 Reasons - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHXwY1_n_cY,
Das Negro - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1bLXk6UVts&index=39&list=PLlFEm2SbRZaX16zt3fwh6WgAnAD41tA_R,
Auction Block (after 30 sec)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB7MichlL1k&list=PLlFEm2SbRZaX16zt3fwh6WgAnAD41tA_R&index=49
You Can Do Anything - http://youtu.be/nlD9JYP8u5E?list=PLlFEm2SbRZaX16zt3fwh6WgAnAD41tA_R based on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezmsGnZPsn4 - does comedy make racism excusable?)
River reading - what are your associations with rivers? what kind of person likes river-rafting? (connect to identity)

River Journals
Ch 1 - What strikes you about the language of the book and how do you feel? Begin char. chart as you read, with focus on language. Answer multiple-choice comprehension questions as you read.

Of Mice and Men
Look at images

Anticipation - when have your plans gone awry?
What do you know about the Great Depression?

Looking for symbols of light and dark, mood, inferring

Point of tragedy?

Romeo and Juliet

Mindmap of Shakespeare and mural 

Odyssey

Pinterest

INTERNETS!!

lol context clues rap: http://www.flocabulary.com/context-clues/

highlights: http://www.pinterest.com/mrstrobinson/literacy/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/teachers/huck/section1_2.html

Deconstructing Unit Plans

***The Takeaway***
If I were to teach someone how to teach, I would frame the stages of a lesson as
1.) activate prior knowledge to increase investment and prime opinion-formation
2.) Have various activities that generate ideas for opinion formation and draw attention to pieces of evidence to support the answer (a bit analogous to the I Do and We Do stages of lessons)
3.) Explicitly ask for the students' opinion and creativity (still some We Do, You Do)

Help kids think about and remember what they read.

Figure out what's being communicated and what it feels to be someone else. 

---

From Ready to Use Activities for Teaching Romeo and Juliet

Pre-reading (REMEMBER, UNDERSTAND, activate prior knowledge to increase investment and prime opinions): Speculation Journals, Small Group Discussions that put you in the situation about to occur in the reading [Personal/Themes]

Vocabulary

Plot Summaries [Summarize] OR another way to check for comprehension (give them quiz questions as they read in class, verbal summaries)

Read-Alouds

Sentence Starters
1. If you were... what would you do?
2. How would you feel if...?
3. Imagine...
4. What happened when...?

During-Reading (APPLY, ANALYZE, scaffold opinion formation) Activity: Response journals- Respond emotionally, make associations with your personal experience, look at the language, record any questions or problems [Talking to Text]

Character Diary & Chart [Character]

Introducing the Play with Videotape/Draw [Visualize]

Vocabulary in Context

[Analyze: Facts, Structure, Narrator, Purpose, Theme, Symbols, Create]

Language lesson [Language]

Sentence Starters

Post Reading (EVALUATE, CREATE, state your opinion with evidence)
Comprehension Check (Quiz or discuss)

Critical Thinking Questions/Focus Questions/Big Idea (ex: Ask some version of the EQ

R&J: "Evaluate actions. How does society feel about the idea of people falling in love instantly? Why do you think people feel this way? When you react with strong emotions to a situation, how do others around respond to you?"

OMM: "Evaluate George, Lennie, and foreshadowing. What is indirectly suggested in Steinbeck's language?"

Great Gatsby: "What do we learn about Nick? What are the conflicts in the lives of the people he watches?"

TKAM: "What do we learn about Maycomb? What are its values?"

Huck: "What are the various voices you hear?"

Vocabulary Quiz

Sentence Starters
1. Evaluate
2. What do you think of..
3. Create
4. Compare to a current event/issue

The Nature of Essential Questions

I figured out the major categories for Active Reading! Compared to other disciplines, there's not as much structure and concrete strategies in English. Well, why should English be any different? There's even a way to make personal connections. I've outlined it here, on a page called Reading Strategies poster, because I plan to post the strategies in a hopefully not too overwhelming poster on my classroom wall.

http://onwardteach.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

What I've also discovered is simple plot recall is the foundation for all the other higher-level English activities. In fact, it is literally the foundation in Anderson and Krathwohl's Taxonomy. There's also an affective reason for making sure kids know the plot of a book closely - their writing/evidence is therefore more specific, confident, and accurate! Factually stating the evidence is the crux of an argument, as much as linguistic flourishes dazzle and ease the reading experience. I must remind myself that transformative education means all students receive appropriate scaffolds. 

I love that I can ask personal questions at any comprehension level since the student just has to draw on his/her life - something they are all experts on! Personal connections enhance memory of plot details and evidence. And lastly, the personal connections provide the centralizing theme for each work. Here are some I've come up with:

R&J - What do you think a healthy romantic relationship is like - how should the lovers, their friends, society, and parents behave? In contrast, how do Romeo & Juliet behave and how do the other characters' advice/speeches influence them? (relationships, Character Chart)

To Kill a Mockingbird - Who/What are the qualities of a "mockingbird" as shown in the novel?(Boo, Tom, Cunningham, Dill, at times Scout and Atticus themselves). What is the appropriate way to respond? (Atticus, Calpurnia, Miss Maudie) What worsens their lives? (Miss Stephanie, Ewells, Miss Caroline, Aunt Alexandra, Mrs. Dubose). Who is a mockingbird in your life and how would you respond now after reading the novel? (Emotional Reaction, Symbols)

--> Supporting questions: What is a mockingbird? How do they become one? What are their personality traits? Who shoots mockingbirds and why and what are their personality traits (bystanders)? What does it mean to shoot?
How does society shape the individual?

Of Mice and Men - What is dark and what is light about the story? How does Steinbeck show but not tell us his opinion and why does he do it? Is the story ultimately optimistic or pessimistic? (Structure, Symbol, Character, Narrator)
--> Supporting questions: what is the mood of something? how do you know? is there ever a flip side to plans going awry? how do you grow through struggle? when are you truly helpless? what is the point of a tragedy? (Death Be Not Proud, Frederick Douglas, R&J)

---

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - What is the relationship between language and identity? What do characters' language (the way the talk and what they say and how people respond) tell us about who they are? Are characters who use the n-word racist? (lying = change identity/reality/start to believe it; the way you speak makes you who you are)
What are the effects of words in the novel? How does each character's dialect influence what you think of him/her? Pick moments where what is said has an impact and when it doesn't have an impact. (Huck's lies, Tom's persuasion, Pap Finn, Jim).  What kind of language do you want to use? (Language) When is language used for good and when for evil?

--> Supporting questions: what is identity? how do people change or do they? what is a personality? (psych study about situations, psych study about Drive, moral theory), copy down someone's language in a conversation ONLY dialogue to create a sense of who they are.
Is Huck Finn racist? Track appearances and uses of the N-word. Harold Bloom quote about satire and author knowing more than his characters do.

Writer David Bradley notes that many have criticized the ending of Huck Finn but "none of them has been able to suggest -- much less write -- a better ending. . . . They failed for the same reason that Twain wrote the ending as he did: America has never been able to write a better ending. America has never been able to write any ending at all." What do you think he means? Ask students to imagine they were Mark Twain's editor and to write Twain a letter explaining why and how he should change the ending. (To extend this activity, have students actually rewrite the ending, and compare their versions to the original.)

Have students write a scene or a "treatment" for a new movie or novel, set in contemporary times, in which Huck and Jim meet and become friends. Who would they be today? What would their issues be? Where would their journey take place?

The Great Gatsby - What do you think would make each character happy? In your opinion, why do people want what they want and what (on the individual and societal levels) makes it so hard to attain? (Character)

--> Supporting question: what is happiness (interview)? HAPPINESS PROJECT, interpret symbols to determine levels of happiness. What makes people unhappy? What are obstacles to happiness?
--

Discarded Questions:
Try writing the novel from a certain character's POV. (What is each character's dream and why do they go awry?) Now reflect on why Steinbeck writes in a third person omniscient - what are the benefits and costs? Does it help us to understand the characters better or their situations? Try imitating John Steinbeck's writing style to write about someone's broken dreams. 

What kinds of things create a sense of adventure? (river, no schedule, escape, lying, being a hero to the helpless).

or: Most characters in the book are in the same social class: Pap, Huck, Tom, Jim, king/duke. How are they alike and how are they similar? Which qualities do you want in yourself?

Returning to the ol wheel

Today I... Found complete units of all the core texts I'm teaching. They were pretty darn good. I now understand:

1.) keep it as simple as you can the first year. Creativity can be a cost for energy, confidence, and ironically, finding yourself in the way you implement existing plans

2.) relatedly, don't reinvent that freaking wheel. I'm not more special than others before me... In fact those others before me wrote some amazing, engaging, personalized plans. I just have to concentrate on executing... Which is a feat sufficient and noble enough the first year! 

Thank you to Plenaries, Sharelesson, and Phil Beadle!

Mr. Barthes: he really exists

First let me start with a review of reviews of British filmmaker Tony Kaye's Detachment (click here to watch it free with an Amazon Prime account). I've noticed tropes of movie reviews: a tendency to be very specific about some aspects and very general about others.  The NPR review noted the chalkboard scribbles between each scene but stated that the main character, Henry Barthes, is Christlike, unrealistically perfect among imperfection. However, I remember moments when he was rude, broken down, vulnerable, and selfish. Just because he was Adrien Brody and dressed well, does not mean he was not realistic.

Another trope of the reviews is being critical.  Psych studies have shown that people who criticize are seen as smarter. However, Gretchen Rubin (author of The Happiness Project and Happier at Home) has convinced me that being positive is underrated: "It is easy to be heavy, hard to be light." She also says when you frame something negatively you will find evidence to support it, as the reviewers somewhat sloppily do. When you frame something positively, you can also see it that way (Happier at Home, p. 75). So in that vein, I'll start with the common ground that Hollywood filmmakers and educators likely share:

1.) Improvement is needed in education. Heightened public awareness of the problems can lead to action toward a solution.
2.) There are a variety of causes of educational problems, and home lives of students and staff are a major cause.

The second point is why I am amazed that critics were annoyed that Detachment blamed parents as a cause. The movie's writer, Carl Lund, was a former public school teacher. Isn't he a good authority? The movie even focuses more on the home lives of the teachers - which are alternately abusive, lonely, and unsupportive. The staff seem to find support in one another, however.  Better staff and parent support is a possible solution for the first point - that improvement of schools is needed.

Reviewers also thought that the movie was exaggeratedly bleak - disillusioned staff, detached teachers, suicidal teens. I agree that if we are to heighten awareness of problems, they should be accurately portrayed. And overplaying the issue could lead to overwhelming the public into inaction. But the movie doesn't overplay the level of students aggression, staff instability, and parental neglect in many schools. I've never worked in schools that are quite as desolate but some of my teacher peers have. And in every school, there are students whose lives could be the subject of a cinematic drama. To say it is unrealistic is to dismiss the bleak reality of some actual students.

Furthermore, I think the response to the trauma in the movie was both inspiring and useful. Henry Barthes walks into a room, and with what one critic called his compassionate detachment but which I'll less confusingly call his respect-gaining calm, proceeds to engage the students. I've found that being calm really can be the key to great teaching - your mood affects the kids and staying calm helps you think clearly and be present with the kids. He even formatively assesses their knowledge with a writing assignment - Write what someone would say about you at your funeral. What a great, personalized, provocative and creative assignment. I might even use it!  I also liked his advice to a self-loathing girl: "Stick it out. It will be okay" and "People who make fun of you just lack self-consciousness. There will always be those people." These are wise words and I am convinced that curriculum-wise, more emphasis should be put on teaching self-consciousness and metacognition rather than covering content. Sadly his wise words aren't enough to prevent tragedy, which is another truth of education: You can't save every child.

The reviewers also seemed the miss the probably intentional connection between Henry and Roland Barthes, the French linguist and literary theorist.  Henry states that literature allows him to imagine other possibilities in a world of suffering and manipulation; it helps him think for himself. What a brilliant and motivational reason for teaching English -  the movie proves the fact that good teachers have personal relationships with their content area and are knowledgable.

The only unrealistic part of the movie was the fact that the movie didn't show Barthes lesson-planning - which is integral to remaining calm! A movie that shows the power of empathetic (Barthes himself had the mother of all bad home lives), calm teaching with scenes of lesson-planning would be the perfect educational film. Detachment comes closer than reviewers think to being a helpful message about the education system.

First Weeks (Expose them to the Structure)

Day One - [Transparency - being clear, open, and straightforward. Give an example of someone you think is transparent, according to this definition. Is this a quality you like? Why or why not?] Rules/Course Requirements/Quotes and Happiness Project/Syllabus
Curiosity, the engine of readers: students will note observations about me and about the classroom.
[Exit - How did I model transparency today? Is there such thing as too much transparency?]
HW: Book questionnaire

Day Two [Curiosity - how would you define curiosity? What makes people curious about something and not curious about other things?] -
Why take English class?/What would you like to do in English? (see First Day post)
What do you like to read?/How do you decide what to read?/What energizes you?

They will report out findings about curiosity. They will write questions they have. Then, they will interview each other, using questions they come up with. Takeaway: books are like real life and we need to be aware of how curious we are about them. Every student must answer: What are you good at? How do you decide what to read? What do you like to read (including websites)? What interests you/favorite subjects? [ask WHY after every question you ask]

[Exit - What did you learn as a result of the questions you asked today? What did you learn about curiosity?]

Day Three [Recall - What does it mean to recall something? Recall what we did in class yesterday. What helped you do it?] - Anticipation/Connection and Summarization practice: I will begin the year providing students with questions and background information to stimulate their curiosity about a book. Then I will ask them to summarize some short stories, perhaps Thank You Ma'am by Langston Hughes and a tougher one is A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury - collect their summaries; SSR Books. I will collect the summaries for assessment.
[Exit- What are strategies for plot recall of stories? How do your disposition/emotions play a part in recall?]
--

In the next week, we will have an introduction to critical reading. There will be two parts:

[Annotate - to add notes to, gloss, interpret, comment, mark up. Annotate this Facebook post. Then try to categorize what you're interested in. Ex: underlining an unfamiliar word]
1.) simply talk to the text. Make notes about what stands out to you (do a demo - Facebook feed, Huffington post, movie review)
[Exit - How is annotation a reflection of your interests? How is it influenced by background knowledge/schema?]

[Strategies - what is a strategy? What are strategies you know in areas besides English like - math, sports, science, chess, and nail painting?]
2.) I will ask analysis questions of the short stories that are reading strategies, which the students will name.  They will try to label which strategy best matched their natural interests.
[Exit ticket: what strategy did you use most naturally?  why? use it to reflect a little deeper on the reading.]

[Evaluate - did you like the stories we read yesterday? Why or why not?]
The next day, we will return to summarizing and focus on EVALUATING. Having assessed their skills, we will go over summarization tips, perhaps play a game.
[Exit ticket: what makes you like or dislike a story? What did you learn about your preferences?]

G.O.s from Holt Anthology

I think I will introduce students to the "lenses" of analysis on Day Three. Day Two will be about Talking to the Text/Books as Real People/Natural Curiosity. 

I like the three types of irony, aka, Sarcasm, Intellectual Irony, and Gossipy Irony

At first I broke Theme down into Role in Story and Specific Support. But on second thought, that is not scaffolded enough. This one is pretty thorough. Good one, Holt.

I dismissed the good-old plot outline lesson because my MT didn't like it. But when I think about it, it is a nice, simple way to uncover how an author makes a story -- which is the point of English class: uncovering the secrets of author's craft.

My character G.O. was also kind of lofty and confusing. General vs. small details? Thematic links? Uh-uh. I already learned from student teaching to make G.O.'s as internalizable and clear as possible. This one is like the plot outline: it asks for concrete separations such as what does the character Say, Do, Think, and Portrayal. Great, thanks, Holt.

There and back again

Balancing teacher-led with student independence:

Start with guided reading and move toward literature circles (have kids come up with own questions and observations eventually)

Give students thematic focuses and background info, and specific questions, graphic organizers, but also do open talking to the text.

I think there should be a part of teacher training called Empathy and Understanding Students. All teaching comes from seeing lessons from the students' perspective so you can develop material in their Zone of Proximal Development (what up, Vygotsky), where material is Just Right above the students' current abilities.  At times, I'm using educated guesses to figure out what students are and aren't ready for. I just watched a pretty phenomenal and by far most realistic depiction of teaching - Detachment starring Adrian Brody. Of course, it didn't show him enacting any lesson plans, but the students seemed very realistic, and he had connections to them because he himself had undergone a terrible upbringing. He was automatically empathetic. Not all teachers share the same experiences as their students so they literally need a crash course on What Do My Students Feel? Since MAC didn't provide this but tools for finding such perspectival information out, what I plan to do is learn about their interests at every turn, starting with the first day of school: What are your hobbies? What are your favorite websites?

First Day of School [Transparency]

I'm probably gonna make up my own classroom rules. But I'll ask students to explain the rationale.  Or, I will ask students "What ensures a safe, smoothly running classroom? (what should students do? what should the teacher do?)" Go over materials they need, other logistics, blah blah blah.

After we share out the rationale, we'll discuss them. The fun part will be the second half of the day - asking students Why Learn English? [Students brainstorm] - Scaffolds: Have you ever read fiction and learned more about something, like it was a how-to book? For example, reading Hunger Games teaches you a little bit about survival skills. Reading All Quiet on the Western Front teaches you about soldier life. Reading The Da Vinci Code teaches you some detective skills and French monuments. List those books. And, do you prefer to read fiction or non-fiction? Have you ever been emotionally invested in fiction? List those books and explain. What does the word empathy mean to you? What do you associate with Point of View? Write what you associate with it.

I'll also have a prepared answer:
1.) Reading to Gain World-Knowledge/Self-Knowledge
2.) Reading to Feel More --> Writing with Feeling

These lead to some ELA Truths:
1.) The meaning of books depends on YOU, the reader
2.) Make the books come to life by imagining the characters, the story, and the author are people you're meeting and interacting with. It's ok to ask yourself "how do I feel about this?" or "what does this say about my world?". Invest in book-worlds the way you invest in your real world.

Script:
So this sounds like the stereotypical English class touchy feely stuff. But this isn't fluff. What I'm telling you is that what you do in English - in any good class - will actually IMPACT your life [show picture of wind]. Like, it will make a difference in your lives. Ok, let me define what I mean and illustrate with examples.

1.) Reading to gain world-knowledge means that you literally just learn about what writers older and very observant decided to write books about: love, childhood, school, competition, war, justice, geography. Ok, World Knowledge is easier to recognize perhaps in other subject matters - Science, History, Math - which seem pretty factual. But... who thought of a time that what they read from a novel added to your knowledge of the world? Ok, so some of you might say, but novels aren't as reliable as a research paper - the Da Vinci Code perpetuated some lies. True, that's why people don't use novels as a major sources of truth. But more people are likely to read novels, especially children, than non-fiction. Why?? [Turn and Talk] It's because fiction is usually more imaginative, exciting, emotional. Which leads to self-knowledge.  Self-knowledge comes when you turn into yourself when you read and you start having feelings. Like who's been emotionally impacted by a book - not intellectually but emotions? For example, romances often have you rooting for a doomed couple or hero books have you HATING the evil guy. [so what do you learn about yourself when you have FEELINGS] You learn about yourself, your values, your fears, your maturity, your weaknesses even. Like in Divergent every time Tris made a fearless decision I knew I would not be that brave. [read a sample?]

The books we'll read also tell you about origins. These books are the "original" - love story = Romeo & Juliet; coming-of-age = To Kill a Mockingbird; American Dream = Of Mice and Men; Hero's Journey = Odyssey.

The books touch on the biggest philosophical questions that IMPACT your actual life - what is happiness? = Great Gatsby/Death of a Salesman; what is the right thing to do?/who am I? = Huck Finn/Crucible

2.) Ok reading to feel more. The key word here is Point of View. [Turn and share associations. Show Atticus quote. Give an example?] But... what I care about is not third person omniscient or first person limited but more what Atticus says:

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

 Who can explain? Give an example? What about when you watch those reality shows and then they're in the "confession room" and they detail their feelings. You gain more insight into what it is like to be them. Other ways you can walk in someone's shoes is to learn more facts about their lives. In the Miracle Worker we know Helen Keller's teacher Anne Sullivan suffered blindness and went to a insane house. So knowing this about Ms. Sullivan helps us better understand why she understood Helen. Or even when you go on Facebook and you flip through someone's pictures and learn they changed schools 3x and have a big family. Here's another exercise to illustrate the point. Answer these questions, or answer the ones you feel comfortable answering:
1. Who lives in your house?
2. What do you eat for breakfast?
3. How do you get to school?
4. What time do you wake up on weekdays?
Now, write a paragraph about What did you do this morning? Include detail.

Ok, now imagine what this person's day may have been like:
Name: Lena
1. Who lives in your house? 6 brothers, 5 sisters, mom (passed away when 11), dad (away in war)
2. What do you eat for breakfast? rice and soy sauce
3. How do you get to school? bicycle
4. What time do you wake up on weekdays? 5 am
Now, write a paragraph about What did you do this morning? Include detail.

Wrap up:
1. Exit Ticket: What did you learn about rules?
What do you think about the reasons to learn English? Why didn't you get to say about Reading to learn more about world, self, and to be better able to see from different points of views.
2. What would you want to do in this class?
What do you do in your free time?
What do you do after school?
What is your favorite book?
Favorite movie?

Any other questions/concerns?

Also turn in your other answers. You'll just get participation points.

Lit Circles: become less teacher (me) -centered

Literature Circles

Okay, I've overcome the uncertainty of what to do as I am reading the texts - write a variety of questions: discussion, quiz, and essay. From these will spring the themes and foci of each unit. But what about constructivism? naturalism? student-centeredness?

Like the principal who notices his hiring committee chooses candidates they would most like to be friends with, I have forgotten to prioritize the kids (also breaking my Teacher Rule #18. Students First).

Thankfully my MT's wife pointed me to a fabulous resource Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles by Harvey Daniels and Nancy Steineke. Now, they want their students to run their own lit circles and come up with their own discussion questions and lenses. I'm not sure a former teacher-centric, control-loving newbie like me can venture that far from her comfort zone. But I do love and can customize a few of the ideas for teacher-included small discussion groups (aka, Guided Reading), which would come from kids' answers to my questions as well as discussion of their own questions (which I could ask for first):

PRIMING DISCUSSION

An ice-breaker type activity where the kids can also come up with the categories by submitting answers to the question "What is something about you most people don't know?" This forces conversations to get the right people; you'll know who's faking; and you can see which kids are friends with whom.

Once I have my Guided Reading groups, the members will further bond by interviewing each other about topics of their choice. Later, you can use the grid again when you ask students to answer in "character" from their novels.

How adorable, fun, and QUIET. Students practice partner-discussion skills by exchange written letters back and forth ONLY. Both partners write at the same time. Hm... What is a good system for having partners? Maybe using the Find Someone Who grid and numbering each category? Or clock partners?

TEACHING DISCUSSION

A wonderful reading strategy is Visualizing from words. Here are ways to turn drawings into a catalyst for discussion.

Students share their Most Important Passages but they don't share their thoughts about it until other members of the group have chimed in. To demonstrate why Saving the Last Word for Me leads to better discussion, sample a passage where you immediately offer your pre-thought analysis - no one feels like saying much after that!

Questions to extend discussion, or even types of questions I would model from the very beginning. This will leave kids chockfull of ideas from the get-go. We'd practice each strategy with a shorter, maybe non-fiction text, first. Or I would distribute mini-lessons throughout rather than front-loading them as the book suggests.

REGULATING

There will probably have to be regulation of manners, but to fix flaccid discussions, I would do a mini-lesson on Skills that Make Discussion More Fun and Skills that Make Discussion More Interesting: seems to cover social and cognitive tips without being too lecture-y.

Unexpected productivity

I've been writing Essay, Discussion and Quiz questions for the core texts I will be teaching. It took me forever to do half of Romeo and Juliet, but that was when I was unfocused, still forming a clear plan of action as to how I would shape my units plans. Now that I had those discrete categories I breezed through the rest: finished 3.5 acts of R&J and 2.5 sections of Of Mice and Men with lots of questions. Of course I need to make full plans and there are 4 more core texts to go - including lengthier texts like Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird. But at this rate, with all of July and half of August, I am in good shape to finish... Are there details I forgot to think about? I guess there is good ol' grammar - but I'm glad I won't start T1 (year one of teaching, analogous to Med schools' M1) in a panicked rush :)

I'll post some of my work soon. Multiple choice questions writing - because all on the factual recall level - is pretty effortless and even creative in the necessity for clever distractors! 

Fusion

Teachers need to bring together the subject matter/disciplinary literature with knowledge of their teenage audience. Reading what critics say is one half of the equation. More on this tomorrow.

Planning for Planning

It's true what Gretchen Rubin says about happiness: once one goal is reached, the happiness is short-lived because you then have a new unfulfilled goal with challenges in between where you are and where you want to be once again. So after the relief and joy of promised employment, my next challenge is to lesson plan for the year. I know the 6 core texts I will teach.  For my Honors 9 sections, I will teach To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, Romeo & Juliet, and the Odyssey.  For College Prep 11, I will teach The Great Gatsby, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and one of the Arthur Miller plays either Crucible or Death of a Salesman. In addition to re-reading them all with critical annotations, I have to create unit-long daily activities. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed with how to begin creating my lesson plans. I needed a plan.

One principle hammered in us in my teacher ed program was to begin at the end, known as Backward Design (McTighe & Wiggins). The next step is to design activities and assessments with these pre-determined final objectives in mind. Simple... except I felt I did not know what my objectives for the classes were. I went to the Common Core Language Arts page (www.corestandards.org). Wasn't inspired. Hmm okay, stepping back, I realized that the end PRODUCT I wanted was a literary analysis paper and for students to be able to speak about these canonical texts confidently. So I had to read excellent literary analyses and make sure to teach how to write them memorably! Today I found contemporary Of Mice and Men book reviews (1930s-40s) that hit on all of the biggies in OMM succinctly and with specific references (score! Specificity is one of my teaching rules...).  I made sure to note mentions of themes, story elements, and tone/mood/diction in order to create graphic organizers that support getting students to appreciate Steinbeck's simple yet eloquent tragic storytelling about friendship/goodness in the midst of - not evil - but apathy/broken dreams/bitter adult reality.

A G.O. for Themes in Of Mice and Men

With Romeo and Juliet, I read a literary analysis rather than No Fear Shakespeare. A clear objective for R&J is simple comprehension of the language. But have they truly comprehended the book if they  don't know what overarching message Shakespeare is sending? That's why the unit has to scaffold understanding of an Essential Question, probably something like "What is the nature of love?" What I realized through reading the literary criticism is that Romeo & Juliet is structured in contradictions! There are so many things to point out - couplets, setting, voice, humor,  allusion - but I think I can hit much of it if I ask kids to find the contradictions (lust vs. love, love vs. violence, love vs. time).

Scaffold for personal connections in Romeo & Juliet

Whoo! It's great to know what the goal looks like and where it is. Now just gotta make the plays.

Gooooooooooooooals

In the game of teaching, does this matter more?

or this?

Or this?

I watched a World Cup game yesterday. I can't tell you who any of the teams in the above pictures are. But I certainly noticed what scenes made up most of the programming. It wasn't the scenes of winning - those came at the end.  No, the small advances, the blocks that prevented the other team from scoring, and the fans' reactions made up the bulk of the camera shots. There were also many shots of injuries on the field and quick recoveries. The analogy is that this blog will have its share of conflicts and resolutions, tangents, indulgences and drama. It will probably often be the recipient of stress release. And spectators, I need your feedback, in the comments.

In short (and many posts will be short and simple, a key principle to excellent teaching), this is my journal of moving onward - sometimes I'll stumble, under and overestimate, miscommunicate, miscalculate, hyperventilate, erupt, and neglect - but I'll be moving nevertheless. It is how I'll become a teacher.

--

...slightly longer introduction, if this is still interesting to you:

Just like teaching, it's ideal to start off with what I want to accomplish in this endeavor. Well, I want to keep notes - some more cohesive than others - of my first year of teaching, beginning now, the summer before AUGUST 25 (the first first day of school).

On this blog, I want the reader to:
-be interested. and keep reading.
-to assume some parts of the blog are just for me, and not try to decipher or care about everything I write. Usually the stuff with pictures are for you :)
-re-live yet read more than just narratives of my experience: synthesis, artistry, prose, fantastical ideas and proposals

I plan to reflect. Boring? But as an English teacher, I must discover how reflection is useful for the writer by doing it myself. I want to reflect on my plans for the kids and how they actually played out in order to figure out what I learned [teacher mode]. I will also reflect on the institution of teaching [teacher educator mode]. I hope the reader will enjoy both.

My grandest objective is to grow - in real life and right before your very eyes on this blog. Growth is, after all, happiness, and the reason that is hard to recognize is because growth doesn't always feel good.  The thrill is the journey, chase, and climb - NOT being at the summit, finish line, goal (Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project).  Don't get me wrong - I think there will be victories and concrete milestones. But I'll continue past them, a brief hiatus, a touchdown in a loooong football game filled with yards gained and lost (yup, a sports analogy. Please don't think I know anything about sports. The analogy was adapted from Matthew Johnson's Finding Success the First Year).  But maybe this blog will actually help me notice, track, and celebrate growth as I stumble, under and overestimate, miscalculate, hyperventilate, erupt, and neglect this year.

One more note. I read other teacher blogs, since the cliché advice is to keep a log of your first year teaching. I read mostly the ones that have the blogspot address I wanted (teacherdiary, iwillcontinue, firstyearteacher, teacherblog). Many seemed to have the spirit of a student forced to do what he/she should: a passable attempt, but really not intrinsically motivated, and ultimately abandoned. So a simple goal is to just keep doing it, get something down, even one sentence, and make it meaningful and authentic (Rubin again, her one-sentence diary).  A simple goal - such goals really are the secret to teaching - is to go onward, teach. (yeah this is the blog URL I finally settled on that was unclaimed. Somewhat unoriginal, but so are most students' titles. I'll talk more about the importance of inhabiting their shoes).

Thanks for reading through this first, semi-experienced post. If you liked it, you'll like the rest, and it'll only get better as I warm up my blog-writing skills. Stay tuned :)