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. 

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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!