ReinvetingEnglish

The contact zone is exactly what the seventh graders I work with might need to be inspired to write. I hope I someday get the opportunity to find out. The reading of fiction and nonfiction texts which address social issues would have meaning for them that reaches beyond the classroom. The notion of schools being a place for human development, beyond rote academic tasks has been around for centuries, but the new obsession with standardized testing has squashed these noble goals for many teachers. In my future classroom, I will aspire to create units that have contact zone themes while adhering to core standards in the process. They do not have to be mutually exclusive.
The quote that we are all hyphenated Americans might be my opening line for such a unit. It makes the point succinctly and dramatically. Also, the note written by the Columbine shooters would be an excellent piece to discuss and write about a utopian school culture in which those boys would have been healed by their community. A question of what kind of school communities we can build in order to prevent the emotional pain of future school shooters. These kinds of units allow students to take ownership of their thinking and writing. Rather than scold Cliff for his headphones, I would say, "let's study the lyrics of Cliff's song as poetry and explore the merit of them as a piece of writing.". Rather than constant scolding and repression, I want to fold my students' social realities into the curriculum. We can still demand rigor in writing and reading skills while opening the hearts and minds of the generation that will someday lead us.

Contact Zone In The Classroom

Reinventing English was a pretty interesting, but at the same time some of the information kinda of shocked me. This was especially true when they talked about how racism, sexual orientation, religion, and the like dominate headlines in the news. Why do we feel the need to emphasize that (for example) "23 WOMEN Killed in the Name of Love"? It does make it harder for students to develop their own thoughts about this type of violence. I also think it makes it a lot harder for them to develop their own thoughts and opinions about other cultures, genders, religious beliefs, and so on.

After reading this idea of this contact zone, I found myself browsing books I could implement into my lessons that would challenge students to really take a look at the world they live in. after reading exerts from these books, it would be great to have them write in their journals how they feel after reading, what they would change, how their thoughts have changed about the subject at hand.

Another thing I envision in my classroom is the motto, "Leave It At The Door." By this, I simply mean that I don't care what your race is, what religion you practice (or don't), who your best friend is, who your enemy is, or even what gang you are affiliated with (as sad as this is, there are kids in the city schools affiliated with gangs as early as sixth grade). I want the students to walk into the classroom not worrying about others judging them because of the practices listed above. If a problem arises, I will address it, by why ignore what may or may not exist?

I have a lot more about this article that I've written down, but I guess it can wait until class! Any thoughts?

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What do you do when you have seventh graders who can barely read at a kindergarten level?
What do you do when your students are so low level, they can't even copy letters off a board?
What do you do when you have a student who writes about the memory of his mother beating him with a stick after he skipped school one day?

...I'm not really sure this is what I thought I was signing up for...

The Medium is the Message

This section was a really good one to think about. Postman talks about the students sitting there and listening to the teacher and how they don't have any real opportunity to help decide which problems are worth studying and they never have any opportunities to make observations or perform any intellectual operations (Postman 19). I'm thinking that I want my kids to make at least one test or quiz per semester when I'm a teacher. Why not? Individual students could make up a question or something and if they complain-hey, your friends made it, not me. That sound more engaging to me. Or what if we even let one of the students (kind of) teach part of a lesson or something? That would certainly mean something different for sixth grade than it would for twelfth grade, but wouldn't that be cool? When the students go to do their homework they don't necessarily have someone to keep them accountable or often they don't even see a purpose in it. Some do it just to get a grade and others just because they know the teachers wants them to. But talk about accountability and purpose-if you don't prepare well then you will be in front of the whole class and not know what to say. I mean it probably couldn't be anything elaborate, but why not get students that feel comfortable in front of the class up there doing something that might seem more worth while. Even just explaining what a part of speech is or something. I really want to do that with my students.

9/13/2011

As I was reading Teaching as a Subversive Activity, I found myself saying "wow, that's so true!". I found the chapter on crap-detecting particularly interesting because it made several valid points. I like the idea of "change revolution" because we often fear change, but change plays an integral role in the process of living. However, the degree of change is what has such a drastic effect on the world, and education in particular. I was in a team meeting last week and a history teacher was amazed that her students had never read a map before. When I was in middle school, we used an atlas to locate areas of the world and learn more about geography. However, that same history teacher was explaining that most of her students did not even know what an atlas was. The technology has changed so much since even 10 years ago. Today, students learn from the internet and television. But even looking at that, will we still have computers 10 years from now considering we have phones and tablets that carry the internet? This same idea applies to theory and relevance. The material that students were learning 40-50 years ago is similar but also very different from the information taught in schools today. We're taught about technology because it is essential to life. Students should still learn about classic literature, but added to that need to be lessons pertaining to the lives they face outside of class. My school does a 6-week unit on discrimination and tolerance because the students need to know the issues. To me, something is relevant if it relates to the factors that affect students in their every day lives, both in the present and the future.

Flipping the Classroom with Shakespeare

As I read Ollie's Blog 8 post about "flipping the classroom," it occurred to me that this could be a fun way to share an animated "Play Map" with students the night before we begin Lesson 1 of Shakespeare Set Free. Much of the background info could be learned in the comfort of home and p.j.s for those students who have Internet access at home. The solution for those who don't: I'm thinking I would create a lunch club in my classroom for those students to watch the video lesson. Also, I could remind them of library Internet access on North Duke Street. I'll let you know how it works out!

Rapid Rate Of Change

After reading Teaching is a Subversive Activity, I have to say that the one thing that really stood out to me is the same thing that proves I'm in the 25+ age group! In the "Crap Detecting" chapter, the author talked about how change occurs so fast that by the time we catch up with it, it becomes irrelevant because society has already moved on to something else. I believe the reason for all of this is technology and I guess I can point to our 330/530 reading regarding the digital natives versus digital immigrants as an example. Today's generation grew up on technology and while I am a mix of digital native and digital immigrant, I find myself finally catching up, only to find out I should be learning about something else.

I had to giggle at the quote about if you are 25-years-old or older, "you are a walking encyclopedia of outdated information." To that I have just one thing to say: I may be a walking book of useless information, but I'm pretty good at trivia!

On another note, does anybody else have a page 60 with this book/article? I only seem to have the Introduction and Chapters 1-4, which stops at page 58. Am I missing something?