Digital Natives

At my placement school, Mr. M’s 6^th period English class is currently in the midst of a unit on persuasive argument. The work in this unit involves what one might expect: discussions about current events, lessons on logical reasoning and argumentation, and examining how arguments are developed in literary works. But Mr. M is also including two documentaries into this unit. As he showed the documentary “Food Inc” in class one day, I was amazed to watch the students sit in rapt attention as the narrator addressed complex and detailed facts about food security. They took copious notes (note taking is usually labored and requires much cueing) and remembered a great amount as they were discussing the topic two days later. I realized that these students are part of a digital age and are used to consuming information in television, movies, and online. No wonder they get so bored after spending an hour reading a text with no pictures or music! Not to say that learning to read and comprehend the written word isn’t important (in fact, they will probably have to use this skill in their careers someday) but it was so interesting to see S.M. Sweeny’s article, “Writing for the Instant Messaging and Text Messaging Generation: Using New Literacies to Support Writing Instruction” play out in a real classroom. If watching these documentaries gets the students interested in analyzing arguments and begin writing their own persuasive essays, then it is a great example of how to use multimedia to support writing instruction.

 

In an effort to include my own mixed media (in a form that is perhaps more interesting and exciting than simple written form), I have included a video on teens and technology. 

One thing I would like to point out is when the researcher states that students may be required in their future jobs to be good at multitasking (if, say, they become teachers…) but will this strength mean they will struggle to focus on just one thing? 

As educators who are focusing on helping our students develop transferable skills that will be useful in their lives past high school, this is an important point to consider when incorporating technology in the classroom. 

Fostering comprehension through critical theory

In their 2009 book, Fostering Comprehension in English Classes, authors Raymond Philippot and Michael F. Graves consider how multiple theories can help foster responses to, and comprehension of, literature in ELA classes. Although it may seem challenging to incorporate deconstructionism and other critical theories in a high school classroom, the authors maintain that it can be done successfully. They write, "regardless of which theories you choose to use in your classroom, you will find that students can grasp the concepts and will be able to look at texts from various vantage points" (p. 88).
As a result of this part of chapter 4, I have created this matrix for the four main types of critical theory Philippot and Graves address in their book.

Theory	Definition	Strengths	Weaknesses	In the classroom
Reader-Response Theory	Response to “New Critics”. Asserts that the reader will bring his own experiences to interpret a text (Philippot & Graves, 2009)	Encourages students to share and engage with ideas in the text on a personal level (p. 80)	Discourages a close reading or encourages a superficial reading. Does not foster an understanding in the lives of others (p. 81).	Use as a “springboard” to engage students with text.
Marxist (Class) Theory	Concerned with the, “political and historical  contexts shaping a piece of literature” (Philippot & Graves, 2009).	Has students identify the author and intended audience of a text and what worldview it favors.	May cause concern or outrage with administrators, parents, or students when using term “Marxist” or “Marxism”.	Ask questions to help students consider power dynamics in text and society. Use charts to divide characters by powerful/powerless, rich/poor, etc.
Feminist (Gender) Theory	“[…] allows us to examine a text in terms of how women and girls are represented, explicitly and implicitly” (Philippot & Graves, 2009).	Helps students examine the way society dictates gender roles, specifically for women. Students question power relationships in texts.	Some students may be resistant to the idea of feminism or feminist theory and struggle to apply it to readings (Appleman, 2009).	Give students magazines intended for men and women and have them consider the magazine’s message and its implications for gender roles in society.
Deconstructionist Theory	“[…] deconstruction is a process by which readers examine language for its fluid and shifting nature, as opposed to the assumption that language is static and fixed”( Philippot & Graves, 2009).	Encourages students towards a more flexible way of thinking about words, authorial intent and, “the very nature of reality” (p. 88).	Is a challenge to present to students, particularly so they do not think that “anything goes” in deconstruction but to actually examine a text with a critical eye (p. 87).	Begin by asking students to deconstruct metaphors and look for multiple meanings. Once students have mastered this, you may move on to larger texts.

A political classroom

This week’s reading from Appleman’s Critical Encounters in High School English brought up the ways in which we can challenge our students in their reading of literary texts. As Appleman quotes Bonnycastle (1996),

“Theory is subversive because it puts authority into question … It means that no authority can impose a ‘truth’ on you in a dogmatic way – and if some authority does try, you can challenge that truth in a powerful way, by asking what ideology it is based on” (p. 56).

I liked this quote because it means when we ask our students to use literary theory, we aren’t just doing it to challenge them but to also give them tools to have power and control over their own minds when they are reading and engaging society in cultural discourse.

One theory that I have always found particularly important is postcolonial theory. Here is a comic that has been circulating around the internet for a couple weeks now that I thought was a funny example of this theory...

As bell hooks (1994) puts it in her book Teaching to Transgress:

Again and again, it was necessary to remind everyone that no education is politically neutral. Emphasizing that a white male professor in an English department who teaches only work by “great white men” is making a political decision, we had to work consistently against and through the overwhelming will on the part of folks to deny the politics of racism, sexism, heterosexism, and so forth that inform how and what we teach (p.37)

According to hooks, every educational choice is political in some way. We can choose whether we present only white male authors as part of the canon or “great books” list. We can decide if our classroom is going to be what Appleman describes as an “inclusive classroom” that “validates the experiences and perspectives of readers from outside the mainstream” (p. 89).

I have heard some people say that when we choose to include non-traditional authors we are missing out on an opportunity to read a “great” book. 

In this moment, we should question whether Death of a Salesman (by white male author Arthur Miller) 

is really that much greater than Death and the King’s Horseman (by Nigerian male author Wole Soyinka) 

or Pride and Prejudice (by white female author Jane Austen) 




has more literary value than Beloved (by black female author Toni Morrison)?   

The assertion that Jane Austen and Arthur Miller are worth the valuable time in a classroom more than Wole Soyinka or Toni Morrison is just evidence of the dominant ideology that postcolonial theory seeks to amend. We need to help our students recognize that a multitude of voices and experiences are worth their time and that reading literature through a postcolonial (and feminist and Marxist!) lens will help them not only help them navigate the power dynamics of society but also leave the classroom a more thoughtful and compassionate person.

Objectives

As I have progressed through the MAT program, I have found the concept of objectives to be both helpful and confusing. Reading the chapters in the Anderson and Krathwohl book helped clarify the meaning and uses for objectives.

Objectives are a concise and specific way of describing the end result of a learning event. They are

Intended results

Intended outcomes

Intended changes

Instructional activities, therefore, are a way of achieving that end. If you want students to be able to identify the internal organs of a frog (an objective), then the instructional activity would be to have the students dissect a frog.

 

                                                                     

There are three kinds of objectives…

Global objectives are, “complex, multifaceted learning outcomes that require substantial time and instruction to accomplish” (Anderson & Krathwohl 2001). These are objectives that are meant to inspire teachers and guide their multiyear curriculum (rather than day-to-day activities in individual classrooms). Global objectives provide vision and establish long-term goals.

Example: At my placement school (Orthopaedic High School), their goal for every graduating senior is that they be “career ready and college prepared”.

Educational objectives are more moderate in scope. These types of objectives can be accomplished in weeks or months as they usually dictate a unit of study or curriculum for an individual classroom. Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) write that educational objectives, “describe student behavior (e.g. to read, to interpret, to distinguish) and some content topic (e.g. musical scores, various types of social data, facts and hypotheses) on which the behavior will be performed”.

Example: A teacher prepares a unit of study with the educational goal that students develop “skills in distinguishing facts from hypotheses” (Anderson & Krathwohl 2001).

Finally, Instructional Objectives are the most narrow and detailed of all the objectives. The purpose of instructional objectives, “was to focus teaching and testing on narrow, day-to-day slices of learning in fairly specific content areas” (Anderson & Krathwohl 2001). Teachers use instructional objectives to prepare lesson plans and the daily activities in their classrooms.

Example: In my host teacher’s classroom, a recent instructional objective was that  the students be able to identify metaphors and similes in Martin Luther King Jr’s speech, “I Have A Dream”.

Commonplace Entry Unit 2

In response to the Wiggins & McTighe, I have created the following image that visually represents the distinction between the traditional content-focused lesson design and backwards results-focused lesson design. I found creating this image was helpful because it helped me recognize the differences between the two teaching methods and see the potential problems with using a traditional content-focused lesson.