Literature Circles II

So our first meeting with the literature circles went well, though there are a few things our group decided to change for next week. We read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, or in some cases, re-read it, and it was very easy to pick up a new thread of conversation when we were together. Before we began, we had not assigned roles, but instead we came up with 8 subjects for discussion, wrote them down, and referred to them throughout our ~45 minute talk. I couldn't believe how fast that 45 minutes went! We began by discussing the relationships Harry had with some of the other characters in the book, and how we defined them in the grand scheme of Harry's life/experience at Hogwart's and outside of it. We explored the villains of the novel, the over-arching themes, the parts we liked best, the connections to other authors in the same genre,our personal thoughts on the writing of J.K. Rowling in general, how this would work in a classroom of adolescents, and also the adolescent issues within the novel. We each took our turn explaining our thoughts in detail, and I know that I had a great time talking with everyone present.

My favorite part of the discussion was definitely the responses from the two people in our group who had never read any of the series. Only having seen the movie, they thought they wouldn't really enjoy reading the stories in this form. HA! Not so much. Jessica is hooked, I think...and if you ask me, it is hard not to be hooked. We actually discussed why it is that J.K. Rowling hooks you in after only a few pages, and decided it was her brilliant use of foreshadowing, and the conversational tone of her writing. The story is easy to read, but uses rich, descriptive language to convey meaning, and there are many sly references to things that will happen in the next book, which compels you to read on. Tricky, that woman, tricky.

We decided that next time we will change only one thing; we are going to come prepared with specific quotes from the text to guide our discussion of Burger Wuss by M.T. Anderson. We will touch on each of the eight questions from this first meeting, but we will bring in specific quotations to backup our points, rather than discussing the events in the novel from memory alone. In this way, I think we will add depth to the discussion and possibly even come up with more stuff to use if we ever decide to use the text in our classrooms.

Literature Circles

I just have to share this information with the class (well, Sara, since no one seems to leave me comments), in case anyone is interested in really trying to do a Book Club or integrate literature circles into their classroom. For my Methods course, Jessica Hickerson, Jen Ubel and I have chosen to take Dr. Kadjer's advice and buy the book "Reading and Writing Together: Collaborative Literacy in Action" by Nancy Steineke for our Literature Circle requirement. We are reading this book to try and get insight into the collaboration process, and to hopefully get some ideas on how to use it in our classrooms very soon. Our group tends to advocate the use of collaboration as much as possible, because we operate on the philosophy that students learn a WHOLE lot from their peers, and are often more interested in doing some work if they can interact with one another.
This text is WONDERFUL! It is so down-to-earth, and is written in a narrative style that is very easy to follow. It is the best $25 I have spent in a long time. It has helped me get really excited about trying out these literature circles, even in a school that doesn't really embrace group work for fear of discipline issues that may arise. I know I can make it work, and Steineke points out that if you aren't afraid to make mistakes, reflect upon them, and change things to make them work better, these literature circles can really work. She even takes the time to show her readers the mistakes she has made by adding little vignettes called "Trial and Error"; some of them will actually make you laugh out loud. It has been refreshing to read such a book among all the dense, handbook style texts that we have to buy for graduate school.
So thanks, Sara, once again...you have helped my group so much by suggesting this book!

NCTE Email

I hope that everyone in our class is a member of NCTE because their monthly email updates are WONDERFUL! I found a very interesting article on Adolescent Literacy today that is available for any members to read:


Excellence in Literacy Instruction

Reading in Middle and High School
Like their younger peers, only 31 percent of eighth-grade students scored Proficient or higher on the 2005 NAEP reading test. Yet the literacy demands for success in school and in life are rising.

NCTE supports educators who are striving to meet the needs of middle and secondary level readers. This includes acknowledging that adolescents are already reading in multiple ways and helping these readers grow their competence through engagement with various types of texts, encouraging wide reading for various purposes throughout life.

For more information on adolescent literacy, see "A Call to Action: What We Know About Adolescent Literacy and Ways to Support Teachers in Meeting Students' Needs" at
http://www.ncte.org/about/over/positions/category/read/118622.htm

I also got really excited because I discovered an interesting writing project that helps provide hope for children who are struggling to achieve literacy in other, more under-developed and impoverished countries. The whole premise of the project is that if we teach students to have compassion for those less fortunate and make them aware of social problems across the globe, they will have a much better chance of growing up to become adults that affect positive change in America and the world. I truly believe that students have such a hard time focusing on anything that doesn't directly affect them because they are so self-centered (in general) at the adolscent stage of development. As teachers, I don't see why we can't take it one step further than the program of studies and integrate humanitarian projects into our curriculum. This project in particular has two sections: the first calls for artistically talented students to create portraits of children in orphanages around the world to help them build/maintain a sense of identity and heritage, while also giving them a keepsake as they don't really get to keep many things because they are always moving from place to place; the second is more pertinent to my classroom in that it calls for students of any grade level to create story books, SRIs, art projects that tell a story, etc. for children in Uganda or India who have been victims of slavery or war and are striving to achieve literacy against all odds. The first project I will send to our Art teachers at Fern Creek, the second I would like to try in my classroom. There is no reason we couldn't work on the project with Juniors after our unit on Contemporary Literature, giving them the chance to include the writing in their portfolios if applicable and also allowing them to complete a portion of their Community Service requirements for graduation.

So, I was just a little excited and wanted to share!! Have a great week!

Just a quick note

I finished my filming this week and I just got a chance to drop it all on Movie Maker. I felt a renewed sense of my passion for teaching, and also in my quest to start a Book Club at Fern Creek. As part of the documentary, I asked students to indicate whether or not they are interested in participating in a Book Club, and the response was almost 100% yes, across ages, ethnic groups and achievement levels. I love it! I didn't have enough space on my movie to put that info in, but it also helped me get excited about teaching. I have been pleasantly surprised with the responses of my students, and also in their willingness to participate in my project. I had students fighting over who would go next! My greatest sadness with the whole thing was that I had to cut some of the footage. It caused me great distress to choose which parts wouldn't be included!
One other thing I wanted to mention: I tried very hard to include a diverse sample of student responses for my video project. I thought that this would help to give me a preview of what I can expect next semester. Also, I only used students that I will have in class, so that I can make it a point to try and use their suggestions in my teaching practices.
More later!

Video Documentary

I started doing my filming today for the video project and I have already seen some fantastic results. I have hand picked an assortment of students from all grade levels (high school) to interview on the following questions:

a. Do you like to read?
b. If you were a teacher, what would you do differently to make reading in the classroom more fun or more engaging?
c. Do you consider yourself a proficient or successful reader?
d. If there was a Book Club that met after school and you had some choice in the texts, would you consider joining this club?

I have chosen to ask the last question as a sort of pilot project with my mentor teacher, Carol Rietze. I am using this documentary to get ideas for both of us as we continue to try our best to reach even the most reluctant readers, and also to gauge whether or not there would be enough interest from students to support a Book Club that meets after school. She has wanted to do this for many years and never felt confident enought to try it, so I have nudged her a bit. We are purchasing the Steineke text that Sara mentioned and running with the idea. Students have shown interest, so we are going to try this thing out. The next step is gaining support from administration, but I don't think that will be a problem at all, as literacy is a big push at Fern Creek.

I hope to get the rest of my shots done next Wednesday, once school is back in session and I have survived a P.D. day with the whole faculty at Fern Creek. I am trying to get some students to tell me their problems with reading...so far I have gotten pretty positive and predictable answers. I really want to demonstrate the potential that lies within the students I will teach, and also the realities of the young readers I will deal with in my video. I will send an update soon!

P.S. Sara, please comment. I would love to hear your input if you have time. No one else does....

Appleman

When I began reading through the Appleman text, I was at once excited about the project being described and annoyed that I was being told about it, on a surface level only, for an entire chapter. The first chapter was so repetitive! I felt as if I was reading the same thing over and over. Questions kept popping into my head about the Breakfast Book Club, and I wanted answers, not a preview of what would come in the following chapters. I guess my suggestion for changing this in a positive way is to make the first chapter a Preface, because that is what it really is.
I got much happier when I read on, thankfully. I started whipping out the sticky notes to record my thoughts on certain sections. For example:

1.) "Through literature, students learn to explore possibilities and consider options for themselves and for humankind. They come to find themselves, imagine others, value difference, and search for justice. They gain connectedness and seek vision. They become the literate thinkers we need to shape the decisions of tomorrow" (Judith Langer, p.10 of the text). I thought of The Book thief when I read this quote because reading that book opened up my eyes to so many different things, and certainly made me "search for justice". I wanted so badly to step into the book and help the characters, to let them know that it would all be over soon. I can only imagine that it would do this for students as well.

2.) "Others like Carol Jago offer appealing literature lessons for teaching the classics, lessons filled with both wisdom and experience, sure to make teaching of a classic more successful" (11). I assume this quote refers to Classics in the Classroom and I am thinking of checking it out from the library before my student teaching because I know it will help me plan lessons for classic literature that are more engaging, exciting, and interesting for my students and myself. My students will be reading The Scarlet Letter for example, so maybe I will find something to help me within the text. It is often a hard sell, unlike The Crucible, says my mentor teacher, so maybe I can jazz it up a bit.

3.) "We choose literature that is enjoyable or playful" (19). These guidelines for choosing texts are interesting to me, and I am glad they were included. This is one of the few that struck me as particularly wonderful. I think it is essential to choose texts that are fun in some way; otherwise, the reading of the texts becomes like work to them, rather than an enjoyable experience outside of the classroom.

4.) I was shocked that the Book Club has funds to purchase books for everyone in the club! That is awesome, and I am sure that it helps to generate interest and encourage participation. What a wonderful way to help students build their own personal library, and to place value on the books they read. I hope we can do something similar in Jefferson County!

That is all for now, I suppose. I would like to hear what others think of the book, and the approach. I have found it easy to read, and interesting, beyond the first chapter. I wanted to read on, which is odd for a textbook in my world. :)