By far I feel that Beyond Tolerance is the most inspiring article we have read in this class. The ideas are revolutionary (in my opinion). Students feel they are going to come into an English classroom in high school and they are going to learn "crap" that they will never use in the real world. I cannot remember how many times I heard in high school "why are we reading this, it has no purpose in the real world". Often students were referring to works we as Teachers of English find incredible. Raquel Cook brought the idea of teaching English to a whole new level.
This story kind of reminded me of the Freedom Writers story. Cook is so inspirational to these children, almost giving them a new outlook on life. This makes me feel like this is the type of teacher I want to be. I want my students to question and wonder. Cook says that many of her students questioned about her being a history teacher. Why must we limit ourselves to one subject matter. Isn't literature just history written in the form of a story. Isn't history just our ancestors story's just written down. Even a piece of fiction often has a glimpse of an authors life involved. I challenge each and ever future teacher to challenge their students. Make them question the world, make them wonder what their purpose it. Have your students constantly taking a walk in someone else shoes. This is how we as teachers are going to be able to shape society.
I apologize for my tangent on making the world a better place through our teaching methods. On another note I absolutely LOVE the Holocaust literature ad study. I find the entire time period completely fascinating. For the purposes of this class I read The Diary of Anne Frank, which is an incredible story. When I read this book many years ago I do not remember having the same reaction as I did this time I read it. (I guess rereading really does help sometimes). I think this is an amazing topic that should NEVER be skipped over in any classroom. My only reservation about the topic is some students maturity level. Especially if one is trying to teach the topic in Middle School. I am really curious to hear about how everyone feels about the Holocaust topic within a school. How should it be handled?
"Make them question the world, make them wonder what their purpose is"
ReplyDeletePart of what I want to accomplish in my classroom is having my students ask these types of question. Through literature we are able to have our students explore the world and their part in it. I think it is particularly fitting with a Holocaust, Slave Trade, and even Industrial Revolution topics. These three events that have taken place in the world have had huge impacts. Having our students thinking about these topics, getting emotionally involved with them, and relating them to their own lives can make them wonder about and question the world and their purpose.
I like how you bring up the point of students questioning a work and how it is relevent to their lives. I think that's one of the important aspects that we as Teachers need to show students. How can we take this piece of literature from a couple decades ago to even a couple of centuries ago and make it have practical value for a student's life. I think anyone can just stand at the front of a classroom and read from a book to their students and hand out tests, but I don't think just anyone can draw themes from a text and make a connection between that theme and the student that can make a lifelong impact and help shape that student's life - only an effective teacher can do that.
ReplyDeleteI said this to Lauren on her blog, but I think it's fascinating how we have a completely different reaction now to something we read years ago. You can definitely tell how much we have grown and how much more we can relate our own lives to these stories. Also, you said that isn't literature just history written in the form of a story? I can honestly say that I have never thought about it this way before, and it's kind of refreshing. Awesome!
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