John Green Book Talk

Book Talk: Looking for Alaska by John Green

11.   (Before.) Miles “Pudge” Halter is looking for a “Great Perhaps.” Miles is a teenager with a weird (but cool) obsession with famous last words. Unfortunately for Miles, his life is a complete bore; no one would ever read a biography about his life. In hope of an exciting life, Miles goes to Culver Creek Boarding School. Within Miles first day at Culver Creek, he gets the nickname Pudge, makes a few friends (Chip aka the Colonel and Takumi aka the Fox), and gets thrown in a lake. The book explores ideas that teenagers go through including smoking, sex, alcohol, relationships, and of course school. Miles falls in love with a girl named Alaska (well it’s more infatuation than love.) Miles and his friends pull pranks on the Weekday Warriors, who are the rich kids of the school. Miles and his friends pull a prank on the week day warriors for throwing Miles in the lake. It ends with Miles getting a girlfriend (Lara) and having an “adventurous” relationship, which is new to both of them. All seems well in the story of a teenager exploring new ideas and possibilities Alaska dies in a drunken car accident. (After.) Miles and friends are heartbroken and try to cope with their friend’s death. They chase hope and try to figure out why this tragic thing happened and what they could have done differently. Nothing is ever the same, but they do eventually come to terms with Alaska’s death.

22.   I chose this text because it is very relatable to teens. I feel as though books like Of Mice and Men can be hard to relate to our students regardless of it’s great content. I want to give students the chance to think about how they perceive themselves and how other perceive them. Often times, teenagers can act like their invincible and that consequences don’t matter. This book also has a great set up This book addresses many ideas and thoughts teenagers have (sex, alcohol, cigarettes, friends, guilt, and old grouchy teachers). This text would be appropriate for 9^th to 12^th graders because the book is easy to read, but deals with difficult subjects many teens are familiar with. Many students are going through the same things that Miles is. The characters are all very diverse and come from different backgrounds as well. Some 9^th grade classes may struggle to be mature around some of the more descriptive scenes, but overall, it’s an appropriate book for growing teens. This book can also be used in addition to Common Core Standards.

33. This book covers so many ideas that it could be used in a multitude of ways. Writing topics and discussions can be taken farther than the normal theme lessons. My favorites lesson ideas include:

a.       Foreshadowing: Before the death of Alaska, she talks also about death in the before part of the book. Students can get a sense of her morality and her death doesn’t come as a shock to most readers. The barn scene is a key scene to look and discuss as a foreshadowing example and sets up other scenes in the story.

b.      Character Development: All characters have major development, but Miles development is the greatest in my opinion. He goes from this boring kid with no life to having friends and tragedy very soon in his young life. Students could use in-text evidence to point towards Miles development.

c.       Narrative writing and POV: Students could write a letter to Alaska as Chip or Miles and write their feelings about her death. Students would be able to think about their characters point of view and how that character would feel based on what evidence from the text suggests.  

d.      Discussions: There are many appropriate topics that students could discuss in class to practice their discussion ability: how they are viewed, and the lasting impact of best/ worst days are my favorite.

44. Some obstacles in using this text are mainly the talk of “teenage” things. Sex, smoking, drinking, and cursing are all used in the text. Some scenes portraying women’s body can be graphic and in some opinions objectifying. Also, death is a really heavy subject to talk about for many teens.

a.       For students: Some students made chortle when they hear the word breast or when a sexual scene arises. Students may struggle with talking about death because they made be able to relate it to a similar experience of a friend dying.

b.      Parents and administrators: may not be happy with the idea of sex and drinking being “taught” in the classroom. My rational is that all these scenes are used to prove a point. Most teens are already familiar with these topics through social media and television. Although there are sex scenes, it is mostly talk of it and is in no way descriptive. As for the scenes of a woman’s body, it is something students are realizing at that and would be able to open up a line about respecting each other and all the topics that come with puberty. Parents and administrators may not want a description of what her body looks like but again it’s used to prove a point and is helpful to the story.

55. John Green is amazing. He has online resources such as his YouTube channel and Penguin Book guidelines to teaching the text with Common Core Standards. (Link to guidelines in blog.) 

Ideas and Book Guide:   http://www.penguin.com/static/images/yr/pdf/JohnGreen_Guide_june_2014.pdf 

"Readicide" Response

“27 percent of adults in this country did not read a single book in 2007” (Gallagher, Readicide).

In the book Readicide by Kelly Gallagher, attention is brought to the changing levels of enthusiasm for reading. Forcing reading in school is most literally, killing reading. As I sat in my home this summer, I looked upon my book shelf. My book shelf was filled with book waiting to be read; most being brand new from the bookstore. I wanted to read the books SO BAD, but I didn’t. As an avid book lover, it makes my heart hurt to say, I just didn’t feel like it. I use to get lost in books. I could stay up way past midnight just to read “one” more chapter. That feeling was flown away because I’m tired of being forced to read dry, irrelevant material. I had to give my brain a break from reading, and that makes my soul ache.

The first thing that really stood out to me was that Gallagher pointed out that multiple choice tests don’t help struggling readers, it allows them to continue struggling. In the same section he points out that teaching to the test and giving students a purpose in their reading is part of good teaching. Although, shallow tests are a waste of everyone’s time. Teaching to a multiple-choice test with no real substance is a problem. Going through this program I’ve been told over and over we don’t want to teach to test. But I think there is a difference between teaching to the test and helping students gather knowledge and teaching the test. Teaching the test would be more of just giving answers and help for a multiple-choice scenario, that isn’t what we want to do. Gallagher points out that it’s all about the level of thinking students need to use. Our students thinking shouldn’t be limited to the standards and being able to pass a state test. Test driven curriculum is what leads to the death of reading… Readicide.

I like the Michael Phelps anecdote Gallagher provides. Students are not practicing enough authentic reading but are still expected to perform well on reading tests. Teachers aren’t worried about putting good books in front of students. It’s an issue that just isn’t really addressed. In my opinion, we should be giving students interesting material that they want to read in our classrooms. Added to that, students are spending too much time prepping for tests in school and not enough time reading. I don’t understand why all these studies are done and no one listens to them. If it has been proven that free voluntary reading helps students, why don’t more schools practice that?

The big question is: what can educators do to prevent readicide? Well, one thing we can do is teach students to value reading the texts we assign. Hopefully, educators don’t just assign things for the hell of it. There should be a specific reason to assign a text or passage and something a student can gain with that passage. In many cases, an old text can be compared with a modern text to give more meaning to the students. I feel like relevancy is the biggest factor in choosing text, you need to know why it’s important before you assign it. Finally, my favorite idea, is to adopt a 50/50 approach. Recreational and academic reading is so important, so student’s literacy can grow just as much as they can as young adults. I love the idea of having students read one book of their choice and doing a simple “one-pager.” It helps students read things that they are interested, improve their reading skills, and start to love reading. This book is filled with amazing tips, tricks, and explanations but this one was by far my favorite. I hope one day my students will love reading and literature as much as I do… Or at least want to read for pleasure or to better themselves.

"I Read It, But Don't Get It" response

In I Read It, But I Don’t Get It,” Chris Tovani reminds teachers that it isn’t too late for students to become good readers. Throughout the book, Tovani informs readers about the tips and tricks all future (or current) teachers can use in their classroom to create better readers. First of all, Tovani pointed out the reading is just pronouncing the words. Reading is a very complex system of thinking, asking questions, drawing inferences, comprehending, and constructing meaning. I personally relate to this book and many of the scenarios. I have always been a good reader. I was one of the select few students that could read something and comprehend it. My problem was that if I wasn’t interested in the text, I wouldn’t remember what I read. I didn’t know what to do when I read something and didn’t understand it. Tovani gives us strategies that will help us as readers and as teachers to help make our students better at reading.

To help our students understand what they are reading they need to have a purpose. The purpose can’t be given to the students, they need to create their own. If students have their own purpose they will be more able to remember the information. When you know what to look for you can remember those pieces of the text. I find this very helpful. When I assign short stories or novels in my future classroom the students need to know what their purpose is. Telling them, we’re not just reading this so you can take a test on it will probably help them get more into the story. Connecting what we’re reading or doing to real life situations can help the students determine their own purpose for reading what I assigned. It also helps me determine why I would assign something. I can ask myself what is the purpose of having my students read this, what will they get out of it.

Students also need to know how to identify when they are stuck and what to do about it. Now I remember this being my biggest problem. I knew I wasn’t getting it, but I didn’t know what to do. When we’re stuck on text we no longer create pictures in our head, we begin to day dream, we can’t remember what we read, and there’s no more responding to the text to comprehend it to name a few. Staying engaged in the text is the best way to summarize how to understand what is being read. Making a prediction or asking yourself questions is one of the easiest ways to understand the text. If that doesn’t work thinking about what you read, visualizing it, or physically writing about it may help. If we teach our students how to fix problems they encounter they can apply it to not only our class but other classes and real life as well.

The most important thing that I took from Tovani’s book was to always model what we want our students to do and to allow our students to make connections. Multiple times it comes up that we should model through different processes and think out loud. If students know what to do and why their doing it they will be better prepared when it comes time to do it. With modeling also comes practice. Modeling and letting students practice on something before doing it on an assigned reading will help them understand strategies. Thinking out loud will help both the students and the teacher understand the rationale behind what strategy is being used. Making connections between one assignment, to another, to another class, to something in real life is beneficial to our students. Blurring the lines between classes will help students comprehend both students. Overall, this book is a really good tool to help our students become better readers. It’s never too late to become a good reader. 

What is Social Justice?

“Social Justice: noun: justice in terms of the distribution of wealth opportunities, and privileges within a society” (Dictionary.com).

“Social justice refers to a concept in which equity or justice is achieved in every aspect of society rather than in only some aspects or for some people” (NEA).

Above are two different, yet similar, definitions of social justice. I personally prefer the second definition because it points to the idea that every single person is equal completely. No ifs, and, buts, or exceptions. The second definition comes from the National Education Society’s article “Diversity Toolkit: Social Justice.” In this article it is pointed out that “the absence of social justice results in social oppression.” Many cultures are oppressed, and often it comes in different forms. Socially oppressed people may face discrimination, lack of resource distribution, and emotional damage. As future educators we need to be aware of the oppression that may be going on in our community and how to be a social justice warrior for our future students. This article provides some strategies on how to focus on our students and fight social oppression in the classroom. We need to be aware of behaviors and attitudes in our classroom from both the “privileged” and the oppressed. If a student is feeling uncomfortable it is our job to make them feel safe in our classroom. All parties should be talked to and the subject should be addressed quickly before anything can get worse. Part of that has to do with how much focus on diversity we put in the classroom. The more acceptance and equality that is taught in the classroom the more the students will learn that everyone deserves to be accepted and treated fairly. This is very important to me because I was not treated fairly in school because of my background. Hispanic kids made fun of me for looking white, and white kids made fun of me for not being “all white.” Social oppression can happen in various forms and we need to be aware of that. It isn’t one size fits all. I also like the idea of addressing the consequences of being oppressed in class. That way the students can recognize why they should be accepting to diverse cultures. Diverse cultures doesn’t just mean accepting all cultures, it’s also accepting the people that come from multiple backgrounds. I think the most important part of social justice is to be aware of the oppression that is happening around you. Currently as students we see examples (or are an example) of social oppression. We can use these examples to prepare ourselves for what we will deal with when we’re teachers. I don’t want any students going through what I have, so I will always try my best to make sure all cultures in my classroom are appreciated and celebrated.

“Diversity Toolkit: Social Justice.” NEA 2017. http://www.nea.org/tools/30414.htm. Accessed 10 Oct 2017. 

Critical Pedagogy in an Urban High School Classroom

In the article “Critical Pedagogy in an Urban High School Classroom” authors Jeff Duncan-Andrade and Ernest Morrell talk about the importance of critical pedagogy in the class room and the use of it in an actual classroom. The authors first off start talking about the importance of dialog and empowering students in the classroom. In my opinion, the most successful teachers empower students, promote open dialog, and motivate students to think in innovative ways. I want to do all those things in my future classroom, so the fact that the article gives real life examples of that makes it easy to see how to do it all. It’s important to make students of all cultures and races feel at home in our classrooms. Being half Hispanic I faced a lot of problems in the classroom. There were always snide words about my dad not really being my dad (because my complexion is as white as it gets.) Growing up those words hurt and the teachers did nothing to help me; I was told to ignore it and kids will be kids. I liked that the article said that we shouldn’t be oppressing other cultures but embracing them. For me, that is especially important. I want the kids in my class to have tastes of diverse cultures different from their own. I want to build a classroom of tolerance and acceptance, so when my students go out into the real world they can be kind, understanding individuals.

Another point I loved was the article talked about the practical uses of a Secondary English class. I remember in high school people asking why Shakespeare or poetry was relevant and my teachers just used state tests as an excuse. If we teach our students using this critical pedagogy they will be able to be productive members of society. They’ll be able to use their skills in further education, future employment, and “civic participation” (Duncan-Andrade, Morrell 2). I think it’s important to prepare our students for the real world, not just state tests. 

Paulo Freire: Chapter 2 of Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Palo Freire talks about the idea that teachers aren’t so much as teaching but just filling the heads of today’s youth. He equates students to containers waiting to be filled with useless memorizations and missing the significance of what they are being taught. “Receive, memorize, and repeat.” Freire has a problem with our current education system and compares the banking problem with a problem-posing solution. Banking is the filling of the student’s head; the all-knowing teacher who is almost dictator like in my opinion. Teachers shouldn’t just teach so students can pass a test or memorize answers. I know I personally wanted to become a teacher to share my joy in literature and positively impact student’s life. It’s unfortunate to read Freire’s chapter and realize that some teachers at the end of the day, just want a check. Teachers should allow open dialog and a chance to grow in the classroom. Creativity and discovery should be celebrated, yet often times memorization is rewarded. Freire praises the idea of problem-posing and the open dialog classroom. Freire states that we need to be intentional with our communication to our students and be conscious of their consciousness. (Which, took a while to wrap my head around. I am not a psych major for a reason!) I also like the idea that in a classroom the teacher should learn from the students as much as they are from the teacher. A two-way street seems like it would be more indicative to a good learning environment than teacher who lectures and fills the heads of students. I think it’s important that a good teacher can present a material or a topic and then re-consider their original thought when the students discuss it. It is important for us to take in anything our students have to say and really consider their perspective. Considering our students perspective will help us learn just as much as it will help them. Freire brings up some great ideas on how to be an interactive teacher that gives the best environment for future students. 

Assessing and Evaluating Students’ Learning

Assessing and evaluating students can be tricky territory for a new teacher. We first have to know what we value, so we know what to evaluate. I like the idea that we can determine what is best suited for us to evaluate based on what we are reading and what our goals and objectives are. It’s a little intimidating thinking we evaluate our students really based on our opinions. I don’t really know much about evaluating students so most of this article is new to me. So far, most of it seems pretty common sense. An example is if a student is supposed to retell story events, I would need to evaluate their details given and the inferences made on a character’s beliefs and attitudes. Part of the evaluation, of course, would depend on me communicating to my students what’s expected of them in the first place. I really liked the section of the article about teaching students for to peer review. I know I personally was never taught how to give my peers feedback in school. I think peer review is a great group activity to help students along with their papers before it reaches me. It makes sense that we would teach kids to talk about the good and bad, praise others writing, what questions to ask, and how to use technology in peer editing.

In the standards based grading article I liked the idea of grading everything, but not including it in the final grade. I think grades should reflect progress. Sometimes students do poor on an assignment; that should not bog them down if they show improvement. I don’t think there’s a problem with helping students get better grades if they show initiative. Better grades show reflect improvement so the two go hand in hand. Ultimately, I think we should encourage our students to always want to do better and improve themselves and their grades.