Reflection on how I’ve grown personally, professionally and virtually because of ECI 512: Teaching Literature for Young Adults Personal GrowthWhen class began in mid-May, I hoped to gain a wider appreciation for different genres of young adult literature, specifically graphic novels. I hadn't read many graphic novels at that time and wanted to read a few and figure out how I could use them with my students. I love how much I read over the past five weeks because of this class! Over the past few weeks, I read eight books; four of them were graphic novels. I can say without a doubt that I gave grown in this regard. I know that I will use graphic novels in my classroom next year and feel confident that I can use them as a teaching tool. I loved Boxers and Saints and the brilliant way Yang depicted the same conflict through different perspectives. As a reader, you sympathize with both protagonists and finish the books torn between the characters and their points of view. All books about conflict should be written in such a way. We would understand so much more about one another. I read books that were out of my comfort zone, not only graphic novels, but others too. Reading Maggot Moon was difficult for me. There was such violence and despair in this book and the scattered, dyslexic narration (even though it was a brilliant stylistic choice) made it hard for me to connect with the main character. I probably wouldn’t have continued reading it if it was just a book I picked up on my own. Even though I didn’t like the book, I appreciated it. I loved the discussion that we had about this book in class because we had different opinions about it. It was a good reminder that I shouldn’t just stay in my comfort zone with books that I read or books I use in the classroom. Thinking back on our CCIs, something that will really stick with me is the importance of cultivating an inclusive classroom. It is so important that all students feel welcome, safe, and willing to take risks in my classroom. Reading Bad Boy by Walter Dean Myers was an important reminder to teach multi-cultural literature. Myers expressed that all that he read in school was written by white men and as a young reader and writer, this made him feel inferior and isolated. Myers had a few awful teachers in his younger years, but he had some great ones too. Teachers who acknowledged his background and his struggles at home, but still held him to high standards, who told him he was special, and who told him never to stop writing. It’s important to introduce my students to multiple perspectives on issues and help them work through questions they have. Something that I’m taking away from this course isn’t something that I anticipated on my pre-assessment: the validity of Pink’s theory of motivation being driven by autonomy, mastery and purpose. I’ll confess that at times, I found it hard to get used to the structure of this course. There was so much free choice that I sometimes was frustrated at the lack of guidelines. It took me a while, but in the end I relished the personal freedom that this method of learning allowed me. After I read Navigating Early, I responded to the book in a way that was completely new to me. As I reflected in my week three post, personal choice, or autonomy, allowed me to read books and respond to them in ways that helped me grow as an individual. It also allowed me to create things that I have a purpose for. Choosing our own topics, methods of delivery and collaboration for the CCIs allowed my classmates and me to participate in relevant discussions and create things that we can use in our classrooms. I am eager to continue develop my belonging unit so I can use it with my students next year. I'm also eager to see how I can apply Pink's theory in my own classroom to intrinsically motivate my own students. Professional GrowthIn my self-evaluation at the beginning of the course, I expressed a desire to become more involved in my school to teach professional development sessions. Because of our CCI on technology, I now can share some great new tools with my department and my PLT. Specifically, I plan on sharing the Intra-Act scaffolding technique and Wall Wisher. I loved the reader response method that we used in class. As I shared in an earlier post, I showed my students my blog post, poem, and video that I created for Navigating Early. We had a great discussion about the book and the process of creating! Allowing my students personal choice in what they read and how they respond will help them to form connections between what they read and why it's important to them. I was excited to share my work with my students and my excitement rubbed off on them. I am committed to offering more personal freedom to my students next year. I know that at times this will be challenging, but I think in the long run they will be more engaged, motivated, and will learn more. This class has provided many practical resources that I can use next year. I created an interdisciplinary unit centered around the concept of belonging that I plan to use the second half of first quarter and I can definitely see myself using Navigating Early with my 6th graders. Navigating Early would even work as an interdisciplinary unit for all subjects.
Virtual GrowthWhen I completed my funds of knowledge inventory at the beginning of the course, I was under the impression that I knew about many educational apps that are out there and was comfortable using them with my students. While I would still say that I'm comfortable with most new apps, (or at least comfortable figuring them out) my eyes have been opened to many new types of technology that I can use with my students and ways that I can provide those opportunities when a computer lab isn't available.
Here are my top ten technology moments from this class. Top Ten Tech Tips (gotta love alliteration) I learned from this class: 1. Twitter is a great way to network with other educators and stay current with trends in educational technology. 2. Wall Wisher (Padlet) is an awesome tool for collaboration. It allows contributors to embed documents, pictures, videos, etc. and is really visually appealing. 3. How to teach a class and screen-share using Google Hangouts. If we have 9 snow days next year, watch out kids! We're having class snow or shine! 4. Storify is a cool app that I need to keep exploring. 5. Scoop-it is a great tool for curating, which is an important component of digital literacy. I've been using Pinterest in a similar way, which I probably prefer because posts per day are unlimited and I can embed my boards onto my class website, which I'm not certain I can do with Scoop-it. 6. Cell Phones can be used as word processors. So... I really need to stop dragging my feet and figure out how a BYOD policy will work in my classroom. Students are using phones at home. We should teach the students to use the tools that they're using outside of school. They come to school with technology that will enhance their learning and are forced to keep it in their lockers. I will be an advocate for change in this regard. 7. Weebly makes visually-appealing blogs, if I do say so myself. I will use Weebly student accounts with my 6th graders in the fall so they can blog. 8. There are way more apps out there than I could ever learn to use. The key is being able and willing to learn new things, to use what works for you. 9. Ning... How did I not know about Ning? 10. Google Voice can be used for Podcasts and students can SMS to it as an alternative to Twitter. I would love to do something like this to provide an authentic audience for my students. In Conclusion... It's pretty cool that I'm taking away so many practical applications from this course. I wanted to explore the idea of a BYOD classroom and integrating technology and literature, and my classmate, Bethany, led a great collaborative critical inquiry that provided resources and information to start me on that journey. Sadie led a CCI for nonfiction around the idea of belonging and I was able to create a belonging unit that I will use next year. Dr. Crissman provided countless tips, resources, and connections via her Twitter feed, which I will continue to stalk for ideas in the years to come. I became more comfortable with graphic novels. I discovered new apps. I read great books that made me think. I learned new literacy strategies. I worked hard. If the rest of my experience in State's grad program is anything like this class, I know that I'll end up a much better teacher on the other end.
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Yesterday was the day that teachers dream of all year long: the last day of school before summer vacation. Okay, scratch that. Today is the day teachers dream of all year long: the first day of summer vacation, hooray! This week consisted of wrapping things up at school, dealing with a flood in my apartment, and a collaborative critical inquiry unit centered around technology and digital literacy. I also read The Plain Janes, a graphic novel by Cecil Castellucci. It has been a whirlwind, so it's good to sit down, to dump out the puzzle pieces of this week in my mind and see how they all fit together. My reading assignment this week was to choose a sequential art book. I loved The Plain Janes. I enjoyed reading a story told through both pictures and text. The idea of creating neighborhood art (People Loving Art in Neighborhoods gives the book it's title) and rebelling against "the man" was really cool and will appeal to teens. The Plain Janes is probably only my fifth or sixth graphic novel, and I'm excited to read more of them. (I bought Boxers and Saints today!) Many of my students read graphic novels and I see a lot of value in using them in the classroom to teach visual literacy, increase interest in reading, and to integrate other subject areas with nonfiction sequential art. I'm excited to read Sadie's Middle School Confidential book and see if I can use it somehow the first few weeks of school. I enjoyed our discussion on technology and heard about some great apps that I can't wait to try, specifically Storify, Story Kit, and Remind 101. Here's a Storyify that Dr. Crissman created to show our pre-class inquiry this unit. It was neat to think back on the technology that I used with my students this year. I used Google Drive for writing partners, Animoto for book trailers and vocabulary videos, Pinterest to compile resources and word walls. The students created online posters with Glogster, plotted the setting location of their folk stories on a Google map, and students blogged from the perspective of a character using Weebly. Thursday's discussion was a good reminder that technology should be used to enhance the literacies being taught in my classroom. It should be used to increase efficiency, creativity, and the research process. Something that I'm still processing is a BYOD policy. I see so many positive outcomes of a BYOD policy, but I was a little turned off the idea this week in school, when many teachers were lax on the rules and students were using their cellphones to snapchat selfies, text their friends, and who knows what else. It was challenging to enforce the rules when not everyone was. That's why it's so important that schools develop consistent BYOD policies. The truth is, kids are bring cell phones to school and they're using them. Why not have them use them to enhance their education? Smartphones make the internet and a web of resources available at a student's fingertips, so we should definitely utilize that resource. Personal Growth:My week was very philosophical. To be honest, I tried to avoid it. I didn't really want to think about thinking. Because when you're honest with yourself, and when you really think about the big issues, it's exhausting, and time consuming, and it's probably going to change you, which can be good, it's just not always easy. Really, it's not so much that I didn't want to think deeply. I just didn't want to think deeply and post whatever ideas I dug up on the internet. I read The Paradox of Vertical Flight by Emil Ostrovski. To say it's thought-provoking is an understatement. Paradox makes you think about the big questions in life. Why are we here? Can I be extraordinary? Does time exist? Does the world exist or is it just part of my existence? Are some infinities larger than other infinities? Can you really be friends with someone for your whole life? How did the universe come to be? Does the universe have ceilings? If so, who created them and who created the universe and what ceilings do I create and do ceilings even exist if the universe doesn't really exist except as a construct of my existence... It really made me wish that I hadn't saved my bookcast for this week. The bookcast project made me respond in a personal way to the book, drawing connections from my life, the world, and other literature. To do so, I had to confront these questions and I had to find a way to illustrate my connection to them in an artistic way that I would be comfortable sharing on the world wide web. I sat on my porch for hours this morning just thinking. It was kind of emotional for me and I had a hard time getting started. It was a really good reminder that a personal response to literature can be very difficult to create, not because a student doesn't have connections to a story or character, but because they just might be difficult to process and to share. It reminded me that I should complete projects alongside my students and experience what they're experiencing (or at least my own version of it) so I can anticipate issues and relate to their own reactions to literature and my assignments. Anyway, it ended up being kind of cathartic to create. Ultimately, I'm okay with the fact that there can't be faith without doubt and that there are some questions that can't be answered. I didn't share everything that I thought about. Just what I could comfortably share in four minutes with whichever strangers on the internet decide to read my blog. And you, dear classmates. Professional Growth:This week I led the collaborative critical inquiry unit over an inclusive classroom. I enjoyed using Padlet as a collaborative tool and appreciated the wealth of knowledge shared by my classmates. They provided unique perspectives that I wouldn't have considered otherwise. We also had a great discussion about the banning process and I feel better equipped to defend literary choices to parents and administrators should this issue come up. As I mentioned in last week's reflection, I decided to change my students' last literature circle meeting into a book club. Instead of fulfilling a job of discussion director, cartographer, researcher, etc., I gave the students complete freedom in responding to the end of Treasure Island. They were instructed to respond in an artistic manner that made obvious a personal connection or response to the book. Because my grades were due that day, I also told the students that it was not for a grade. (A risky move, but I thought I'd give it a try.) As a class, we brainstormed a list of possible products they could create which included a movie, poetry, letter in a bottle, board-game, painting, post-cards, a cardboard cutout of a character, and a life-size cannon ball made of paper mache quotes from the book. (How I could tell that the paper contained quotes after having been saturated in water and flour I do not know, but it was nonetheless accepted as a viable option.) Friday morning came around and I'll admit, I had a back-up activity planned. I thought that without a grade attached to the project, and on the Friday of testing week, surely only a small percentage of my students actually would have completed this project. I was very pleasing proved wrong. My students were brilliant. They delighted one another with a play of the first six chapters of the book (during which one young man had us nearly in tears with his portrayal of Pew) a "how to outsmart your crew" pirate video, a 3D "web-site" (see below), a Silver cardboard cutout (who sat in the back of class the rest of the day) a Treasure Island T-shirt, board games, a poem in a bottle, and even fan fiction! I sat back and let them entertain one another and felt very lucky to be their teacher. Sure, there were a few students who drew treasure maps the morning of on the bus. And there was even one young man who stood in front of the class and simply said that he did not like the book, did not understand the vocabulary, and thought it was stupid. I thanked him for sharing and told him that he should have gone all out and done a "bookshaming." I respected his opinion, but not his effort towards the project. I loved this idea and I will definitely change my teaching next year to allow for more personal freedom in how students respond to literature. Here are some pictures of my students' Treasure Island projects. Virtual Growth:This week I used Padlet's Wall Wisher for the collaborative critical inquiry, figured out how to file share on Google Hangout, and used Animoto to create my bookcast. I'm really grateful to be mastering these tools and am looking forward to using them in my own classroom. I can definitely see using Padlet for the writing process and to promote dialogic inquiry. (Thank you Wells for the fancy words!)
Video Revised 6/9/14 at 6:30pm. Map of Washington. Digital image. Infoplease. Infoplease, n.d. Web. 08 June 2014. Sivas, Elisiveda. Sheep. Digital image. Elisavetasivas Creation and Artistic Design. N.p., 5 May 2011. Web. 8 June 2014. Pic of Lakewood Elementary School from Kristinge A Knox Berkshire Hathaway Realtors JPEG IandRInstutue of Southern Illinois JPEG Michigan. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 June 2014. Ordinary and Extraordinary Infinity “It’s scary. Knowing you can do anything is the same as not knowing what you’re going to do,”(197).
When I graduated college, I felt a lot like Tommy. I knew that I could go anywhere and do anything. In a conversation with my sister, I described it as being a ship with no anchor. I had nothing tying me down, or holding me back. I graduated a semester early and worked as a part-time kindergarten teacher at the school where I student taught. I also volunteered as a youth leader at my church. After the school year ended, I went to my camp to work for the summer. I wasn’t yet sure what I was going to do in the fall. I could return to Michigan. I could perhaps get an internship at the outdoor education center at my camp in Wisconsin. I could sub in Illinois. Maybe I could teach in Colorado, or Washington, or North Carolina. I could even teach abroad. Seriously. I could go halfway across the globe. But that was also scary, and a little bit lonely, not having anyone or anything to tie me down. I momentarily wished that I was from a small town where no one ever left. That I could go home and live with my parents and be safe and sheltered. But I did leave Illinois. I didn’t want the ordinary. I wanted the extraordinary. The idea of searching for a golden fleece resonates with me. “I believed in magic. In quests. In fairies. And Harry Frickin’ Potter… in running after golden fleeces,” (200). My golden fleece is being the best teacher I can be. Traveling. Meeting new people and experiencing new things. It’s falling in love and starting a family. It’s maintaining a strong bond with my parents and siblings. It’s writing a book someday. Jack is afraid of being ordinary. He’s afraid that when he finds his fleece, that his quest will be over. That he’ll never have been extraordinary. That he’ll run out of time to make a big, lasting impact on the world. It’s the fear every young adult confronts at one point or another. What if I’m not extraordinary? What if I’m just ordinary? What if I don’t find my golden fleece? What if I do and then there’s nothing more? Is there a paradox between the ordinary and extraordinary? Or can the ordinary be extraordinary? Padlet has this really cool tool called Wall Wisher that's great for collaboration! The board above is set as a public board, so my group members can directly post questions, comments, pictures, videos, and hyperlinks to it. How cool is that? This week we're talking about inclusive classrooms and multicultural literature.
Here's a short tutorial on wall wisher. It's definitely worth the watch. This week in ECI 521, we broke down literacy and got to the bottom of what it actually is. We had our first book club, asked our guest speaker/teen writer, Oliver, questions about fan fiction and Dr. Crissman modeled the CCI process to set us up for next week’s class. The big topics that stand out to me from last week are literacy and the power of collaboration.
LITERACY First, literacy is basically competency in something. Thanks to our guest speaker for adding in that concise definition. To me literacy is taking in, putting out, and reflecting on information. That information can be transmitted visually, textually, auditorially, even numerically. A literacy based classroom looks like consists of dialogic inquiry, or project based, collaborative learning. Below is a visual representation Wells’s model. I currently facilitate research and collaboration in my class, but I definitely need to increase the reflection piece. As class goes on and I’ve added to my own blog, I’ve thought more and more about having my students blog next year. With Weebly student accounts, my students can blog in a password-protected online environment. I showed one of my classes this blog last week and talked about the book Navigating Early. It was a really neat experience for me to share my writing with them. I don’t do it enough! They enjoyed my poem and many students expressed interest in reading the book. Even better, they saw me as a writer and I was able to model the writing process for them and show them my authentic reaction to the book. I had a lot to contribute this week when we discussed Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell and fan fiction in general. I was (Was? Who am I kidding) am a huge Harry Potter nerd and would devour HP fan fic in high school. It was cool to hear Oliver’s Shakespeare fan fic and perspective on why teens (or anyone really) writes fan fiction. During class, Dr. Crissman asked Oliver about fan fic’s place in the classroom, whether teachers could use it in the classroom, or if that would, in fact, ruin it and defeat the purpose. I can see it working, but I can also see it falling apart. If writing fan fic was a person’s sense of escape, anonymity and freedom, having to write it for a class could spoil it. I think the key here is still allowing for personal choice. I can offer writing fan fic as an option for a way to creatively respond to a book, but it shouldn’t be the only option out there. Some of my students are reading Treasure Island right now and they’re meeting in groups next Friday to have a final discussion on the book. I liked the idea of book clubs so much that I scrapped the lit circle jobs they were going to do for the last meeting and instead told them to create something (anything!) in response to the book. We talked as a class and came up with a huge list of options for students to choose from (though if they though of something not on the list later they had the freedom to pursue another idea). I added fan fiction to the list and while most of the students didn’t know what it was, some of my sixth-graders gasped in excitement. I’m glad that it’s something they’re willing to pursue in a classroom context and will definitely reflect on how it works in an upcoming post. The book club was great and I loved discussing Maggot Moon. I look forward to discussing the other books during our next meeting. |
Jill Zappiateacher, grad student, bibliophile Archives
October 2015
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