Because I was more advanced...

I would first like to explain the title of this post. At first glance one may think that it has nothing to do with any of or required readings this week. For me, this excuse was why I had my first exposure to literature circles when I did. When I was a sophomore in high school I moved from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania, because of this move I was placed in all lower level classes. In my lower level English class I connected with my teacher who could see me and a few other students were flying through the material and need to be challenged. To do this she set up a single literature circle, so while the rest of the class was doing lord knows what, myself and a few select students were responsible for covering the rest of the years topics through literature on my own. Personally, I thought this was the teachers way of no longer having to deal with the fact that we were finishing the work so quickly, but know that I look back I realize that because of this I learned to appreciate the literature.
I think that is what literature circles can do for children, it gives them a deeper appreciation for what the book is talking about. My only reservation about with literature circles is sometimes the students don't talk about the books or you do have those students who are not interested in the literature, whether or not they picked it themselves.
When looking at the novel chosen for this week I freaked out, think there is not way I am going to be able to finish this thing by Wednesday. This is something I think will happen to our students. If we give them a long novel they are going to be scared by the size. I have been racking my brain for ways to deal with this novel size problem. How can we keep students from looking solely at the size of a book. I know it even happens in college. Students look at a textbook and think "oh know this  is going to be difficult" (often said in more colorful language), but really how can we deal with this problem?

Whatever the Language, We All Need to Learn

I remember in third grade I had a new classmate Emilio, who came into our class in October and by the time spring break came round Emilio was gone. I never understood why he was in my class. He didn't speak much English, he was constantly confused and he really didn't fit in. Now I lived in a very culturally diverse town, but I had never experienced this, why did Emilio speak a language that I did not know? Finally after leaving Milford Massachusetts I have learned why Emilio was in my class.
In other classes we are also discussing multiculturalism, and why it is important to appeal to those students who may not speak English. In the narrow minded world of  America we feel that everyone should have to speak the same language as us, but this may not always be the case, so we have to differentiate our lessons to work with these ELL students.
After doing some research and reading our assigned text I have come up with some simple solutions to help our ELL students feel more at home. One way to do this may be through labeling. Go around the classroom and label objects in not only English but in your ELL student's first language. This will help them to learn some key English words and phrases. Also invite your ELL student to teach lessons about his/her culture. This could create a fun break from the content and allow your students to learn more about the student.
Not all multicultural students are going to be ELL students. As teachers we are also going to have students who speak English but may look different. Not all students are going to be raised to be accepting of differences, so as a teacher it is important to embrace the differences. In A Class Divided we learned of a teacher who took an interesting approach to dealing with students not being accepting. While not every teacher is going to be able to facilitate that experiment, there are other ways to embrace differences. One important way is going to be through the text we use in our English classrooms.
Now after rambling about everything random I ask my future teachers of English a question: What do you feel some good texts would be to help encourage students to be more accepting of others who may be a little different?

Graphic Novels and Comics in the Classroom

When a teacher often thinks of teaching literature t a group of students they often think of reading a novel or assigning stories in a basel. These traditional methods to teaching do not always appeal to every student though. While reading YGBB chapter 5, we learned of students who did not react, or understand traditional methods of teaching. This will probably happen to everyone many times in their classrooms. This brings up the question, are there other methods of teaching these same language arts ideas?
Before reading American Born Chinese I was very skeptical about bringing graphic novels and comics into the classroom. I was not sure how I could connect these types of readings to my everyday curriculum. Post reading this novel I quickly learned that even comic based novels and text of this type can have good messages and connections to the readers. Although there are some good messages I am still skeptical as to how I would work these in. Although there are some ideas here and there in a middle school classroom would they understand the concept. Also how can the students imagine what the characters look like if there are pictures right in front of them? I would love some input on these ideas. This graphic novel concept is foreign  to me!  

You Gotta BE the Book ch 1, 2 and 3

Jeffery D Wilhelm's book " You Gotta BE the Book" poses lots of interesting thoughts about students and reading. I enjoyed how he used his own experiences and turned them around into lessons to help teachers. I know of many teachers who would love to read this novel and I know I am going to be able to forward these ideas to them to help them within their classrooms.
Wilhelm describes on page nine what he believes a teacher researcher is. He states, "a teacher who is consciously questioning, observing, theorizing, testing, adapting, and learning something every day in the classroom”. This made me question whether or not  the teachers whom I have encountered have had these qualities. I believe every teacher should be willing to learn everyday in the classroom.
This book is a very good resource for future teachers as well as teachers in the teacher-student relationship aspect. He states on page thirteen a teacher student contract. I thought that this was a fabulous idea to bring into the classroom. In my experience if a student believes you care about them and their learning than in turn they will care about themselves and their learning. As a long term substitute I have actually witnessed this idea first hand. Noting I work in a special education school in a low income area, there was a young boy who came into the classroom very upset and throwing things. He was constantly cursing about school, saying that it did not matter he wasn't going to do anything in life. His teacher, and therapist sat down with him and had him write out a contract to visualize what would help to make him successful in school, all three signed it. After this happening the student came into school with a much more positive attitude. This example very much shows that a simple contract, as described by Wilhelm, can bring about a lot of success in the classroom.
This book also begins to discuss the idea of New Criticism vs other literary critisism. I am curious to hear what all my blog followers have to say on this topic. How do you feel you want your students to look at the text? This is a very important question I feel should be posed to all Teachers of English.
I am very excited to continue reading this book and marking it up. I know that post school I am going to be using it's idea a lot and it is going to get passed all around the school in which i work.

Literacy Profile

As a young girl the idea of reading scared me. I hated the idea of having to read out loud in front of my peers. Around third grade my teachers finally realized that I was having a lot of trouble with reading. After many reading tests they finally concluded that I have a mild case of dyslexia. Which is why I would often mix up letters and words during my read alouds. Finding this out just frustrated me more. I had no idea how I was going to deal with this problem until my third grade teacher Mrs Icivelli finally recomended me to the Wilson Reading Program. This was an after school tutoring program which would help teach me to keep things straight in my head. After completing this program my love for the written word quickly grew.


I began tearing through novel after novel, falling love with the classics and old Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales. My passion for reading continued to develop as I wanted to help other who were having issues with reading and writing. Whatever it took I knew I wanted to help others develop the passion for reading.