Archive for April, 2007

Closing Statement: What I Have Learned

{ April 15, 2007 @ 4:29 pm } · { Religion in Schools, Standardized Testing, YA vs. Classic Literature }
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When I first received this assignment, I was unsure about it and what it was seeking to accomplish.  I am not very technologically advanced, and as a result was nervous to keep my own blog.  In the end, however, I learned to enjoy it.  It helped me to branch out and experience what technology has to offer.

Had I not taken this course, I never would have known about RSS technology and the endless possibilities it holds.  Although truthfully I will probably rarely use it after this course, it helped me a lot to study articles related to my topic of interest.  Rather than having to look through several websites, all articles concerning my topic were in one convenient location.  If I ever take a course that requires me to study a particular topic in current events, I will more than likely use Google Reader.  For my own personal needs, however, I will stick to the NY Times website.

This assignment expanded my thinking on young adult versus classic literature in the high school classroom.  I did start off covering No Child Left Behind legislation, yet after a couple posts I decided that the other issue interested me more.  When I first started studying literature in the classroom, I was dead set on classic literature being the only way to go.  It has been a staple of the literary canon for so long, and has been taught for a reason.  I felt that although YA literature is good for pleasure reading, it has no place in a school setting.

Towards the end of my blogging, however, I changed my tune a bit.  I realized that in certain cases YA literature is necessary to foster interest in reading.  Some students will despise classic literature, and as a result will be turned off to reading forever.  For these cases, the modern themes in YA literature should be used to help students connect with literature.  From there, classic literature can become more prevalent.  YA literature can also be used to segue into classical pieces.  For example, the YA novel Jake, Reinvented models the story of The Great Gatsby and can help students understand the latter work better.  The novel Special explores many of the themes in Lord of the Flies, and can thus be used as a starting point to understanding the more classic piece.

To be honest, this RSS Notebook assignment and ENG 311 in general were huge factors in my deciding to no longer go into education.  I really enjoyed the class and the ideas it taught, but it made me realize that teaching is not for me.  If I had a classroom, I would want to discuss in depth difficult issues in classical pieces of literature.  I have realized that what I want for a classroom is not conducive to the learning abilities of average high school students.

Therefore, I am glad I took this course when I did and glad that I studied this particular topic in my blog.  The point of the assignment was for students to get a better grasp on the teaching profession and how it will affect their lives.  It helped me enormously by teaching me that education is not the route for me.

Conference Review

{ April 15, 2007 @ 4:03 pm } · { Religion in Schools, Standardized Testing, YA vs. Classic Literature }
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On Saturday, April 14, 2007, I attended the Bright Ideas Conference on MSU’s campus.  Although I am no longer going into teaching, the conference was interesting and informative. The conference started off with a speech by keynote speaker Jacqueline Woodson, a celebrated author and multi-award winner.  After that, participants attended smaller sessions on a wide range of topics.

Woodson talked about the importance of writing, believing that everyone has the right to tell a story.  She gave writing hints, not only for audience members, but also for teachers to take back to their students.  She said that if one is to write, he must not allow fear to play a factor.  He should read everything aloud as a tool for better revision.  He should allow himself time to sit down and delve into writing.  Woodson said that if a person doesn’t read, he can never aspire to great writing.  She said that it is essential to foster a community of people who support your writing and will help you with it.

Overall, I enjoyed Woodson’s speech.  She read a lot from her work, which helped connect her points with actual examples.  However, I felt that a lot of time was spent praising herself.  She talked more about herself and her own writing habits than about how to teach writing to students.  In addition, her numerous comments about homosexuality had absolutely nothing to do with education and were flat out unnecessary.

The first session I attended was “Introducing a Twenty-First Century Curriculum: Incorporating Mass Communication into the English Classroom.”  The presenters discussed news as a rising form of media, and how it can be used alongside the literary canon in the classroom.  They talked in detail about Wikis, explaining the basic idea behind them and giving hints on how to start one.  They suggested developing a Wiki for the classroom to teach students about editing and social writing.  Not only that, but the Wiki can also teach students not to trust everything they read on the Internet.

The second session I attended was “macBeth: Using Technology to Enhance the Teaching of Shakespeare.”  The presenters talked about the idea of embodiment, in which students put themselves into the place of the characters in “Macbeth.”   Presenter Lindsay Steenbergen showed examples of videos her students had made as part of an interactive assignment.  Students were required to apply the story of “Macbeth” to pop culture of today, and used such programs as iMove and Garageband to create these videos.  Presenter Jeff Patterson showed the mock Myspace pages that students in his class had created.  Each student was a different character from “Macbeth” and had to create his own Myspace page and choose his Top Friends.  Because his school wouldn’t allow students to actually use Myspace, Patterson made a template in PowerPoint to model that of Myspace.

Overall, I enjoyed the two sessions I attended and learned more about technology in the classroom.  The second session especially presented ideas that would be extremely useful in high school classrooms.  Both sessions worked to link contemporary forms of technology with age-old areas of English study.  If I were still planning on becoming a teacher, I would no doubt use these suggestions in my classroom.

Footnotes: Essential to Classic Literature?

{ April 6, 2007 @ 12:09 am } · { YA vs. Classic Literature }
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In his article “You’ve Read the Novels (Now Read the Footnotes),” William Grimes discusses the importance of annotated texts and whether or not footnotes are essential to the understanding of a story.  He starts off by telling of his misinterpretation of the plant furze, evident in Thomas Hardy’s “Return of the Native.”  Though his understanding of furze did not alter his understanding of the piece, it also did not enable him to create the picture that Hardy envisioned him to.

Grime believes that footnotes are important because they help to put the reader into the time and culture in which the piece was written.  For example, he talks about Austen novels, which were written during the 18th and 19th centuries.  If a person were to read them and not understand the minute details, he would probably be able to understand the novel.  However, to be able to truly grasp the meaning and put himself in the mindset of Austen and the setting of the novel, he should know what all social elements mentioned in the text mean.

…reanimating the details does enrich one’s reading.  They can illuminate and sometimes enlighten.  Most facts are merely dated equivalents of present-day realities – one form of currency for another – but others help explain character and motivation.

While Grime believes that some annotation may be burdensome and even take away from the enjoyment of a text, he also firmly believes that footnotes can greatly improve one’s reading experience.

You may be wondering how this article fits into my topic of YA versus classic literature or into our class.  However, I believe that there is a clear connection.  Some critics argue that classic literature should not be taught because the language as well as the cultural elements are unclear to students.  For example they would say that an Austen novel is over 200 years old and has no connection with students today.  However, introducing annotated copies of works into a secondary English classroom could greatly improve students’ understanding of a work.

Earlier this semester I read Jane Austen’s Persuasion for a British Literature course, and I relied on footnotes to help me through the text.  It allowed me to understand elements that normally would have gone right over my head.  I truly believe that if students reading classic literature had footnotes to clear up certain issues, they would have a better time understanding.  They may not necessarily enjoy reading any better, but at least they would grasp better social norms of the time and perhaps even draw comparisons between life in the 18th or 19th centuries and life in the 21st century.

“You’ve Read the Novels (Now Read the Footnotes)”

William Grime: 16 March 2007

Complete Article

Students Crave Themes in YA Literature

{ April 5, 2007 @ 9:55 pm } · { YA vs. Classic Literature }
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So far I have been looking at the debate between young adult and classic literature from the perspective of the teacher. In her article “Dark Themes in Books Get Students Reading,” Kathleen Kennedy Manzo offers the other side of the debate from the perspective of the student. She interviews students who have experienced both YA and classic literature in the classroom, and most say that they prefer the YA literature. It is more accessible to them, not only the language but also the issues and themes. They find they can relate to a lot of the content, whereas in older novels they have a hard time doing so. The themes are modern and edgy, and although some may be rather dark, they reflect many of the issues that young people today must deal with.

Although many teachers applaud this decision to incorporate new literature into the English curriculum, there are still a great deal of teachers and parents who are against it.

Nevertheless, the use of popular literature has run up against traditionalists, who fear it will dumb down the curriculum, and parents who object to the controversial themes that characterize many of the selections.

Many of these newer novels that students are reading explore such topics as eating disorders, self-inflicted pain, and sexual assault. Parents are opposed to their children reading them, and some even believe that these themes will put ideas into their children’s heads. Certainly, such topics may be challenging and difficult for students to read because they are not pretty themes. However, they are very real issues that young people experience everyday. Students will be able to connect with them better, and perhaps reading this dark, edgy YA literature will help foster their desire for reading.

In addition, many of the pieces of classic literature that are studied in the classroom explore controversial topics. “Romeo and Juliet” explores the lives of two young people who kill themselves out of love. To Kill a Mockingbird discusses racial issues and a young woman being raped. “Oedipus” talks about a man who kills his father and marries his mother, then gouges his own eyes out when he learns the truth. Therefore, one cannot point a finger at modern literature for having inappropriate content when classic literature is just as bad.

This article has changed my views a bit on teaching YA literature versus classic literature. It seems to me that if students hate reading the classics so much and it turns them off to literature forever, why continue doing so? Perhaps pieces of classics can be offset with pieces of YA. Students can receive a better mix of books and themes. From personal experience, the books my literature circle group read this semester would’ve been ones I would’ve enjoyed reading in high school. I would have probably even read them on my own, because they were more applicable to what was going on in my life.

Therefore, teachers should begin to listen to their students about what they want to read. If it’ll be the difference between a student loving to read and hating to read, then there is no reason why YA literature should not be taught.

“Dark Themes in Books Get Students Reading”

Kathleen Kennedy Manzo: 30 March 2007, Education Week

Complete Article

Comments

{ April 5, 2007 @ 8:47 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Here is a list of links to the articles that I commented on this semester:

becoming more marketable???

Failing Schools See a Solution in Longer Day…

Is Huck Finn going down the river?

“What’s Black and White and Read All Over?”

External/Internal Pressure Cause for Cheating?

Do some authors go to far?

What should children be reading?

“We’re not against rap, we’re not against rappers…” -Bone Thugs & Harmony

Not Really Equal

Michigan Civil Rights Initiative

Introductory Post

{ April 1, 2007 @ 9:30 pm } · { Religion in Schools, Standardized Testing, YA vs. Classic Literature }
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When I started my blog, I forgot to include the introductory post so I am doing it right now. When I initially began writing, I focused on the topic of standardized testing, in particular how No Child Left Behind legislation affects language arts instruction in the secondary classroom. I used the major search query “No Child Left Behind” through Google News. Since taking education classes, my views concerning NCLB have changed and I wanted to explore the specifics of the issue so that I could be better informed. I wanted to know more of the specifics of NCLB and how it directly affects teachers in the secondary school English classroom.

I sidetracked on a blog and did an article on Religion in Schools. This post, however, is not included in my seven article posts for the semester. I simply wanted to explore how religion plays a role in schools, despite the fact that church and state are supposed to be separate.

From here, I changed my focus to young adult versus classic literature, which is what I will finish out the semester studying. We have talked a lot in class about the benefits of young adult literature and it seemed to me that classic literature in the classroom was being shown as bad. Therefore, I wanted to see what others say about this topic, whether or not YA or classic literature is better to teach to secondary students. For this topic, I am using the major search query “Classics + Young Adult Literature” as well as “Teaching Classic Literature” through Google News. In addition to these, I am looking at the New York Times and BBC World News news sources, in particular the education sections. I am also looking at a blog on “Teaching Classic Literature” for inspiration. Although I don’t think people will be able to change my opinion, I want to know what the general consensus is. It seems that nowadays people are drifting away from the classics, especially adults, and I want to perhaps understand better why that is.