Blog Session 5 Response to "Connected: An Autobiography..."

Content Knowledge Blog #5

Response to “Connected:  An autobiography…”

1.  One important point of the film is that emotional connection drives everything we do.  This concept is very important when trying to help the students make connections in English.  It is important to create curriculum that drives the students based on their emotional connections.  We want our students to care about what they learn, so they can take that and use it to become successful, thoughtful, creative members of society.  Authors want their readers to make connections to their literature.  If they feel an emotional connection, they will understand and care about the message of the story.  Not only can an idea of feeling connected be addressed through reading literature, but also when reading expository pieces.  Because technology has made it easier for us to connect with people outside of our inner circle, we learn about different perspectives about topics all over the world.  By being exposed to these different perspectives, our students are able to develop a deeper understanding and create opinions about societal issues and develop empathy for people all over the world. 

2.  With all this information available at our fingertips, we have the capacity for so much knowledge. One of the quotes that truly stuck out to me was “We have so much knowledge, why is it so hard for us to see the big picture?”   It is hard for people to realize that what we do affects others and that everything is interconnected.  Teaching that concept to high school students is a challenge.  How can we help our students use that knowledge and the exposure to other people’s lives to look at problems and issues that are not all about themselves?  I hear the complaint a lot of “why are we reading this”  “this has nothing to do with me”.  How can I truly teach these students that it has everything to do with them and the rest of the human population?  I think this is one issue that I am trying to grab hold of in my injury.  Maybe students will be willing to read more, if first they read something that they feel directly relates to them, and then show them another step and show them “classic” literature that has the same concepts. 

3.  English is a subject that is interconnected to a lot of other subjects.  In terms of looking at English not only as reading literature, but literacy in general, learning to comprehend text, learning to back up opinions with facts, writing skills, etc.  English can be connected with all subjects.  The basic four domains of English/Language Arts are reading, writing, listening, and speaking.   These are all skills that are focused on in English that a student needs to be able to do in order to be successful in their other classes.  In terms of reading and analyzing, this can also be connected with other disciplines.  When I teach a novel, I want my students to think about the possible social commentary throughout the novel.  In terms of the novel 1984 I want the students to think about government control, and how much is too much.  I would then have them look at articles about government control all over the world.  This is bringing in issues that they would be discussing in their history classes as well.  I want students to know that when people write literature, it usually reflects the society or some aspect of society they feel they are living in, or image will be living in some day.  This can also bring up topics in art, science, math, etc.  Part of the English curriculum is teaching students how to have educated conversations and be able to back them up with evidence.  This can be done with any subject.

4.  One aspect of being a well-educated person understands the interconnection between things.  We want our students to be able to take what they learn in English and be able to apply it in Math, Science, Art, History, Wood Shop, Etc. and visa versa. A well-educated person sees education as an ongoing thing that takes aspects of all parts of our lives to try and make some sense out of it. The more knowledge someone has about different topics, the better decisions they can make.   If students are exposed to interdisciplinary education and understand that all subjects in school are connected, the more they will understand that how the world is connected outside of the classroom.

I responded to:

Kathryn Leonard
Emily Esguerra

Blog Session 4- Content Knowledge

Content Knowledge

Disciplinary Lenses

What is one specific way that your content research thus far has caused you to re-think about an idea, or question, or caused you to challenge assumptions that you had previously not considered-or-even pushed you further in thinking?  Discuss.

1.  Through my content research I have started to really think about the benefits   young adult literature can have on students.  Before I knew a lot about young adult literature, I thought that it was all fluff and didn’t really see a place for it in the classroom.  Now, I think that it may be a great tool and starting off point to use in the classroom to get students interested about the “classic” literature that is read in English.  I believe that the “classics” should still be taught in English, but I think a lot of students feel disconnected and discouraged by them.  Reading young adult literature and linking it to the classics may be a way to help the students find joy in reading.   Adults may not feel a connection to these books or may even think they are silly, but these books are not something that should be disregard and seen as useless.  The more the students read, the better readers they will become, so young adult literature may help students become better readers. Through my research, I have found that students’ motivation to read goes down a significant amount by the time they reach middle school for a number of reasons.  Finding something that might trigger and increased that motivation may be these books and may help struggling readers reach a point where they can enjoy reading the classics.  My research has also shown that students are motivated by different things, so not all students will be motivated young adult literature, but it is a start. 

The death and Life of the Great American School System, Diane Ravitch

How do you think the Common Core Standards might fit this narrative of school reform?

2.  Common Core focuses on teachers being the facilitators and helping the students find the answers and helping them deepen their understanding of the material.  From what I have heard about Common Core is that the tests are no longer going to be about all multiple –choice, bubble in the correct answer questions.  They are going to be looking for students to have to solve problems and be able to explain their thought process of how they got to their conclusions.  They are going to be testing deeper level and critical thinking skills.  As educators, we want to move away from students looking for just one particular answer without any critical thinking behind it.  We want them to learn how to as questions and to discover things on their own.  I don’t know how exactly the common core tests are going to measure this, but I do think it is going in the right direction.   Although I think this will take time for students to change their mindset of what learning is, they will become more thoughtful and engaged students and will feel more of a connection and responsibility for their education. 

What argument does she present based on available research?  What do you think?

Ravitch says that unions were set up to “protect their right to think, speak, and teach without fear”(Ravitch174) Women began to join unions because they were treated unfairly and fired for sexist reasons.  They wanted job protection.  Teachers unions were designed to give teachers a voice, because individual teachers had a hard time doing this themselves.  People against unions say that unions are responsible for poor student performance, and Ravich says there is not research that correlates those two. 

I agree that unions are about giving teachers a voice to ensure they have fair working conditions. Teaching is a hard job, and teachers have been underpaid and have had to deal with conditions that make it hard to do their jobs well.  Unions help advocate for these teachers. In order to rebottle the people saying that unions protects bad teachers, Ravitch says that schools should have a system set up to mentor those teachers that are struggling and offer them the peer support they need.  If then they are not improving, then they should seek other professions.  I agree with this.  I think sometimes teachers who are seen as bad teachers may have just gotten into routines that no longer work and they need someone to help teach them new ways they can be effective teachers.  There are probably some teachers that hide behind unions to get by with the way they have been teaching, but I think that is a very small percentage, and should not be the reasons why people say unions do not work. 

I responded to:
Sara Carver
Jenn Bible

Session 3 The Raising of America

1.  What strikes you as most important in the discussion on the relationship between social policy, child development and later achievement?

1       What strikes me as the most important in this discuss is that studies have been done that proves that early childhood education is key to children becoming successful in the future, but in order for this to happen, all children need access to it.  Without the social policy, which gives access to all children, the more money will be spent later.  In order for this to happen social policy needs to be geared more to education.  One quote that I thought was interesting was “ our system is paying for failure, rather than investing in success.” If social policy was geared toward creating successful citizens rather than trying to fix problems that could have been prevented, than our country would be better off, and tax payers would save money.  The studies show that is accurate.  The level of literacy goes up, the level to retention goes down, level of special education needs goes down, the graduation rate goes up, and the crime rate goes down 50%.  By looking at the data, more money will be saved in the long run by providing childcare and early education to ALL children. 

2.  What do you think this perspective adds to the discussion of school reform?

2    School reform needs to start at preschool. In order for school reform to actually work, people need to realize that what children learn between the ages of 0-3 is essential in their development and will affect their success in the future.  School reform cannot just be implemented in secondary education and assume that it will work.  The skills that children learn, and the developmental stages of children are essential in the success of children in secondary education.  If children do not have that early childhood education, they are far behind those who did and are more likely to struggle when they are adults.  School reform is not just the teacher’s responsibility or the parent’s, it is everyone’s responsibility. Everyone needs to be invested in the success of countries children.  Their success affects us all.  Everyone needs to work together in order for school reform to be successful.  I think it would be interesting to hear from the people that oppose spending money on early childhood education, and what research they have to back it up.  Lots of money is being put into large corporations because they make a lot of money and also provide jobs, however, if people do not have the education they need and the essentials of life to be qualified for those jobs, the gap between the have the and the have not’s increases.  By investing in early childhood education, the achievement gap becomes less extreme.

3.  What is one question these videos raise for you?

 One question these videos raised for me was; how do we make everyone realize it is all of our responsibility to look out for the well being of our children?  Taxes would need to increase, and when some people hear that they will have to pay higher taxes, they automatically oppose the increase.  The video also stated, that the funds are there, but they just need to be reallocated.  This is where the government officials come in.  How do we get them to realize the benefits of early childhood education?  One quote that I thought was important was “what is socially responsible is also economically responsible.”   The more we invest in our children the better our economy will be.  How do we get everyone to realize this? 

I responded to:
Catherine Samhan
David Bowen
Kusi Espinoza

"Mind the Gap:" Session 2

"Mind the Gap:" Session 2

1.  “We must make sure that our schools have a strong, coherent, explicit curriculum that is grounded in the liberal arts and sciences, with plenty of opportunity for children to engage in activities and projects that make learning lively.  We must ensure that students gain the knowledge they need to understand political debates, scientific phenomena, and the world they live in.  We must be sure they are prepared for the responsibilities of democratic citizenship in a complex society.  We must take care that our teachers are well educated, not just well trained.  We must be sure that our schools have the authority to maintain both standards of learning and standards of behavior. “ (14)

I agree with Ravitch that our students need more than a surface education.  As teachers we should be trained and educated to teach our students to not just look for the right or wrong answer in order to do well on a test, but we should be preparing them for the world beyond school.  Because our society is so complex we want to prepare our students be able to participate and make decisions based on their educational knowledge.  We want our schools to create opportunity for our students to learn through creativity and self-discovery.  We need our schools to be able to help the students become critical thinkers that are not just trying to get the answers correct on a test.    Because there has been a lack of self-discovery and critical thinking in schools, the students have a hard time doing this when asked.  Lost of students are timid to share their opinions or questions in fear of getting things wrong.  We need to work with our students at a young age that their opinions about a topic and their insights are valid and worthwhile, and that having conversations in which they share their opinions and thoughts can lead them to a deeper understanding of the material. 

“They think they can fix education by applying the principles of business, organization, management, law, ad marketing and by developing a good data-collection system that provides the information necessary to incentivize the workforce-principals, teachers, and students with the appropriate rewards and sanctions.” (11)

The idea of incentives and sanctions only create a stigma around the educational system.  Every school and student deserves the right to be successful, and punishing schools for not being successful is not helping them become successful, it is making it harder.  There is not one right way to fix the problems in schools and giving sanctions to schools that do not do well on standardized tests, just perpetuates this gap between the schools that seem to be successful and the school that seem to be drowning. This also creates a poor relationship between schools and policy makers.  Instead of working together schools feel they are not supported and only punished for not producing the results that are demanded.  Money and support need to be given to the schools that are struggling.  They need this money to focus on curriculum development, after school tutoring programs, staff development, and time and resources for intervention for our students.  Instead of trying to get rid of the schools that are struggling, we should be helping them develop and thrive.  We should all be responsible for all of the students and all the schools. 

2.  “A well-educated person has a well furnished mind, shaped by reading and thinking about history, science, literature, art, and politics.  The well educated person learned how to explain ideas and listen respectfully to others.”

I agree with Ravich’s definition of a well-educated person.  I believe that a well-educated person is able to look at multiple sides of an issue and to be able to understand both sides without necessarily agreeing with them.  A well-educated person is a lifelong learner.  The world is always changing and there are new exciting things to be learned every day.  Like Ravitch said, a well-educated person should be able to hold a conversation with someone about current events, history, science, literature, the arts, and politics.  They should also be able to express their ideas and opinions in writing.  A well-educated person is also able to take their ideas and opinions and incorporate them into a collective team effort to create solutions to problems.

3.  One interesting point that Ravich brought up was that there is no one quick fix for the education system.  Accountability, standards, testing, school choice, sanctions and rewards, alone are not the answer.  The education system is very complex and there isn’t one set way to fix the problems.  Different schools have different issues and everyone needs to have an open mind when figuring out the ways to fix them.  I believe that the Nation at Risk has an outline that most educators believe in.  They wanted to strengthen the curriculum for all students, which set clear and reasonable high school graduation requirement, which demonstrated the student’s readiness for the world outside of high school.  A Nation at Risk recommended that there should be clear and appropriate college entrance requirements, that textbooks and tests should be improved, students should spend more time on schools work, higher requirements for teachers, and increased teacher compensation.  These recommendations from A Nation at Risk are reasonable, but people have different ideas about how to go about following these recommendations.  As well educated people, their needs to be conversations about how to improve education by working to come up with a plan that meshes different ideas together.  Not one idea or solution alone is going to solve the problem, and people need to be willing to see that in their own plan and be willing to change it in order to better the education system.  I think that people get convinced that their way of reform is the only way things are going to get better, and instead of focusing on the schools, people focus more on proving their point and solution and disproving others.  Finding the solution to school reform should not be a competition, but a collaborative endeavor to improve our schools and help our students become successful members of society. 

4.  One area in English that I need to learn more about is grammar and then teaching grammar.  I have found many websites that are beneficial in learning more about grammar and gives you techniques to teach it.  One website it the Guide to Grammar and Writing.  This website give you tips and lessons on sentence parts, punctuation, paragraph construction, help in writing essays and research papers, and different teacher resources.  The power points were very helpful in breaking down the different parts of speech and all the exceptions that go along with it.  I also learned more about diagraming sentences.  I have never been good at diagraming sentences and this website gave a great over view and examples of different types of diagraming.  Another website I found helpful was Grammar Girl.  I looked up the difference between “I” and “Me”.  I learned about how people commonly make mistakes between these two and gives great examples to explain the difference.  I think this website is great for brushing up on grammar, and you can also hear her explain common grammar misconception on her podcast. 

Website: Guide to Grammar and Writing and Grammar Girl

Book: Teaching and Learning Grammar by: Jeremy Harmer

Article: Re-thinking grammar: the impact of embedded grammar teaching on students’ metalinguistic understanding.

5.  One article that I thought was useful in learning about student motivation to read was: What teachers can learn about reading motivation through conversations with children. This article discussed the different motivators of students and based its data on actual conversations with students.  Some of the factors that motivated children were the knowledge gained by reading, whether the students had a choice in the text, if the book had something to do with their personal interests, if a friend recommended the book, or if the book was given to them by a teacher or a family member.  This is helpful to know when talking about motivation because it shows that the same things are not going to motivate every student.  This is important when coming up with lessons plans.  Differentiating instruction is important when planning lessons, because you need to make sure you your lesson address all the different types of learners, but I see now that it is also important to address the different motivations of the students and to try to incorporate them into the lesson.  This study was done on elementary school children, and I would like to see if these motivations change, as the children get older.  I have not seen yet a lot of research done with high school students and their motivation to read.  This study was helpful in learning how readers start out and how that can impact their future lives as readers.

Another article that was useful in learning about student motivation was the article: Choosing Not to Read: Understanding Why some Middle Schoolers Just Say No.  This was helpful because it focused on why a lot of middle school students do not like to read. Most of the students who said they did not enjoy reading also reported their parents did not enjoy reading as well.  This article discusses that according to this research there are four types of readers.  There area avid readers, dormant readers, uncommitted readers, unmotivated readers, and unskilled readers.  This article was helpful in learning about why some students have grown up not enjoying reading, which would then help teachers figure out ways to hopefully remedy this.  This study was done with middle school students, and I would like to see if the reasons change when the students get to high school.  

Responded to:

Erin Bindley
Taylor Francheschi
Kristen Harper

Content Knowledge (Course II)
Session 1

1.  One outside School experience that has expanded or deepened my subject area content was going to the Asimilar Conference.  Over one weekend I heard from a lot of different scholars about different aspects of English and Language Arts.  I learned about different pieces of literature, different ways to teach poetry, the connection to film and literature, and ways to teach personal narratives.  Although I could only attend sessions on one topic, I was able to talk to colleagues about many of the other topics and even those conversations deepened my understanding of broad range of English/Language Arts topics. This conference is something that I would like to attend yearly.  This conference teaches teachers about the most current content that is available and ways in which to take the current content and incorporate it with the traditional content.   Because curriculum and pedagogy is always changing, this would give me an opportunity to continue my education and also learn new ways of teaching the material

2.  Based on the discussion about the Ball article in class, learning content knowledge happens a lot in the field.  Although I learned and read some of the literature in high school that I teach, I do not feel that it prepared me to be able to fully understand and appreciate the material.  The few English classes I took in College, I felt were not sufficient enough in teaching me enough about the subject area. Especially as an English teacher I have to now look at literature a different way.  In high school reading literature was about understanding plot, characters, themes, and symbols, but now as a teacher I have to read with the intention of “how am I going to teach about these characters, themes, plot, and symbols?” The subjects are always changing.  There are always new pieces of literature, new concepts, and new ways to tie in your subject matter into everyday life.  There is no way that I can know everything about my subject matter, but this means, as a teacher having to always learn more and experience more.  Taking classes, going to museums, reading different types of literature are all ways to deepen your understanding of the content. 

Our class focused the fact that being an educator is not merely teaching subject matter, but helping students create inquisitive critical thinking minds.  Teaching is not just about giving the students the information in hopes that they can recite the correct answers back. We want our students to be able to go out in the world and ask those hard questions and work in a team to come up with solutions to a problem or to keep searching for answers. 

You also want to know your subject well enough where you can help the students get to the critical thinking process.  You want your students to understand the material well enough where they can start asking questions and deepening their understanding of the content.

3.  For my line of inquiry I know that I want to focus on student’s motivation for reading and writing in the classroom.  I want to look at what types of literature motivate them, bring that literature in the classroom, and tie it into the units and classic pieces of literature.  I also want to use these different pieces of literature to motivate students to use their personal knowledge about themselves and the world around them to make the literature or the articles more meaningful for them.  I don’t know a lot about the research that is out there about student’s motivation to read.  I have found a few secondary sources.  One of my experiential learning sources would be to talk to librarians about what they have seen students read and enjoy and to read some of that literature.  The Cal Shakespeare Theatre I believe would also be a good resource.  They run summer programs that work with High School Students with understanding and performing Shakespeare’s work.

Because my questions are so broad I am thinking that I might just focus on one genre of literature.  Maybe my questions should be “what are ways in which to motivate students to read and make connections to Shakespeare’s work?”  This may help me focus my Capstone Unit Plan.

Content Question: What motivates students to read and what types of literature are they reading?

Pedagogical Question:  How can you incorporate the literature the students find interesting and motivating into the core literature curriculum?

I responded to:
Allison Broude
Sarah Wilkerson
Monica Mitra