Final Course Reflection ENGL 493

Overall this class was challenging and exciting. I learned more about being a teacher than I ever expected and spent time having quality discussions with others who want to go into the same field as myself. As a future teacher I think one of the most important and simple ways to encourage student learning is by having peer discussion and in this class peer discussion was our main form of learning. Being presented with new ideas or being asked to reflect on preexisting ones helped me grow in my critical thinking skills, which I believe is the most important thing a student can get out of an education.

One part of this class that surprised me in how much I enjoyed it were the book talks. Discussing literature is one of my favorite things to do and being able to listen and discuss books that people were very passionate about reading themselves and including in the classroom made for meaningful discussions. It also gave me numerous ideas about possible material I can use in my own classroom if I run out of ideas or draw a blank.

The most difficult aspect of this class was the three-week unit plan. Having never done a project like this even on a smaller scale increased the level in which this project challenged me. However, the overall quantity of time and effort put into this project would be difficult at any level to some extent. The feeling of pride and accomplishment at the completion of the unit plan can only be compared with few other projects I have ever completed in my college career so far. I know there is much I can improve on as a teacher and specifically with the plan I created but now knowing how to start and complete a project like this will only make the next one easier.  

Night By Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel’s Night was a heartbreaking story of the realities of the Holocaust. This book was a short read and quite the page turner but to call it an easy read would be to ignore the emotional impact it has on the reader. Often times books get picked up, the words get read, a story unfolds in the readers mind, and the book is finished and put down without a second thought. This was not the case for Night. This book is one that guarantees a lasting impact on its readers who have any compassion for humankind. The heartless actions and the numbness that are retold in this autobiographical text take careful pondering and reflection to process at every page.

While this text was difficult to read in terms of processing the content, I found it to be an easy book to read in terms of being an active participant in the words rather than a passive consumer of them. I believe this is because of how passionate I am about the inclusion of Holocaust narratives, or even just the teaching of the horrific event in general, in curriculum. History has a tendency to repeat itself when we forget about the actual horrors that have occurred in our global past. The inclusion of the Holocaust in curriculum should be treated no different than that of slavery, Native American genocide and mistreatment, or any other people group that has been categorized and mistreated over the course of our earth’s existence. While this is not the only genocide that should be retold and remembered I believe that as one of the most widely known issues it is a gateway into remembering that humankind is not always good, and that true evil does exist in the world. Night offers a less widely heard of retelling of the Holocaust while still revealing the horrors that occurred and how they impacted human life.

Secondary Classroom Management Pt. 2

In this article, the authors focus on the “winning of students hearts” as a central focus in order to successfully present content to a student. Engaging students’ personal interests in the classroom helps them want to be more engaged. This all starts with building personal relationships with each and every student. Classroom management and student relationship should go hand in hand and be the main focus in “managing” a classroom. As the author brings up, “One of the keys to effective classroom management is the development of a quality relationship between the teacher and the students in the classroom.” As we’ve been learning in our class this quarter, relationships are such an important part of forming classroom culture.

            Knowing your students will help you in all aspects of teaching. Coming up with lesson plans will be easier if you know how to differentiate instruction best for your students and how fast or slow to teach certain things. It is common knowledge that students learn best when they are in a safe a comfortable location. It is the teachers’ job to make sure that each student feels comfortable which starts with building relationships with them to understand their background and their daily struggles.

Another aspect from the article is that of recognizing negative attitude or actions as something that can be reframed in a positive and productive light rather than trying to eradicate it entirely. Students often have strong will and their own desires, as they should upon nearing adulthood and going out into the real world. This article talks about how to take this stubborn attitude and use it to your advantage. Appreciate students who are attempting to assert their independence and try to channel that attitude into a productive leadership position or by giving them a general assignment and letting them take the reigns on how they want to learn about something. Even this starts with building relationships with one’s students in order to know how to best equip them for their future.

Beaty-O’Ferrall, M.E., Green, A., & Hanna, F. (2010). Classroom Management Strategies for Difficult Students. Middle School Journal

Into the Wild By Jon Krakauer

Krakauer’s Into the Wild is a story about human adventure and experience in nature. Some of the main themes point to a desire to be self-reliant, the unpredictability of nature, and the difficulty in escaping family problems. This story reflects how impossible it is to actually run away from your problems no matter how badly you wish to escape from them. The elements of nature in this story show that life brings unexpected twists and turns to our lives. This story is formatted in a unique way in that the author acts as the narrator and even inserts himself into the story as a character from time to time. This unique reading experience adds layers to this story that students might not be used to and engage their thinking.

While I found this story to be interesting I am not sure how I feel about using it as a teaching tool. While there are unique literary elements that would be interesting to show students, it does not offer as wide of a range of teaching strategies as I would like to see from a book. The themes in this story are relatively basic in terms of literary analysis and I would much rather use a book that has a deeper layer of themes along with the ones mentioned so plainly in this book. I know that students get overwhelmed with the amount of reading they are expected to do and it either stresses them out or they don’t actually do the reading and I want to try to limit the number of texts I use and utilize them longer rather than do a significant amount of reading and cover the same number of topics. However, I think that this book would be an interesting one to recommend to students who have a desire to do more reading outside of our actual class assignments.

Edgar Allan Poe in the Classroom

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” is a mysterious drama whose outcome will shock the reader greatly. The short story discusses ingenuity and analysis and the importance of creativity and thinking outside the box. Poe’s work is an invaluable tool in the classroom as an example of exciting classic literature. Many students are often intimidated by classic literature and use the excuse that it is boring, uninteresting, or too confusing for them to want to read. While it is true that classic literature has the tendency to be linguistically dense and advanced, it is anything but boring. Poe brings in mystery and action into his writing which has a tendency to attract readers, even those in high school.

I believe that any of Poe’s work could be used as a building block in the classroom. Some of his works are easier to grasp than others which makes the grade level of when appropriate to use his work vary slightly. Specifically, for “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” I would not bring this story to any classroom below 11^th grade. This is most only due to the density of the language used and the advanced reading skill set it takes to dissect such types of literature. This story would pair greatly in a unit about mystery as a classic example of a still popular genre of literature. This story could also be used when discussing good versus evil and human versus animal responsibility for one’s actions. There are a range of lessons ingrained into Poe’s works which can be utilized at various points and their allegorical meaning spans greatly, making it easy to include in a thematic lesson along with more contemporary pieces. Overall, I would suggest utilizing any Poe pieces one can in the classroom to introduce your student to classic literature in a way that would excite them rather than make them fall asleep.

The Round House By Louise Erdrich

The Round House is a story about morality and the line between good and evil. This story focuses on these themes through the lens of a thirteen-year-old boy as he struggles to decide his thoughts and feelings amongst all the wrong that was done to his mother. While this story has rather common themes it is the setting and context that make this story unique. The story takes place on a Native American reservation in South Dakota and showcases the legal structures of local, native, and federal law enforcement and how that comes to play in this case. This story offers representation for the minority Native American population and diversity in literature that can be brought into the classroom.

While this story was a different lens to a common narrative I am not sure that I would personally use it in my classroom. The Round House gives voice to the often unheard Native American population which is a rare occasion in most literature. However, the story does have some elements to it that I think are unnecessary to be included in a teaching tool. The explicit language and sexualization of females in some portions of the story are elements that I believe would make this a difficult text to get approved by administration. This is unfortunate because I think that the bulk of this book is something that is important to look over, not just for literary purposes but could be used in Social Studies to present the different types of law enforcement agencies that we have in America. Overall, I think that this book has potential to be a useful classroom tool, but I believe that the push-back when attempting to use this specific book could be avoided if another book on the same topic was utilized instead. However, I do believe that the literary discourse about the differing law enforcement structures is an interesting one and this book could be utilized well in teaching that if a teacher is passionate about bringing that to the classroom.

Secondary Classroom Management Pt. 1

In this article Hozian discusses eight classroom management strategies that she utilizes in her own secondary English Language Arts classroom. She discusses the importance in building relationships with your students and setting clear expectations on the first day of class in order to avoid misunderstandings and have your instruction be effective in teaching content to the students. She argues that relationships are the key component to success in the classroom and without that all the other components are extremely difficult to achieve.

This article echoed the main theme that we’ve been talking about throughout the quarter, that building relationships is important everyone’s success. I agree largely with this approach to classroom management because as a student I know the importance relationships have in my connection to the teacher, content, and the overall class in general. I believe that a relationship-based classroom is the only foundation that truly benefits both the teacher and the students. Building those bonds with each of your students individually as well as creating a classroom culture that is built on interpersonal relationships helps students actually care about what is going on in their class and becomes a personal investment rather than just another class period they have to sit through.

This strategy fits directly into the management tips we have been discussing throughout the bulk of the last few weeks. Being personable and authentic towards your students allows for that personal connection to be made and allows for real life conversations to take place in your room. While it is not impossible for a teacher to successfully teach content to their students while having no personal connection with them it is sure to make this job extremely unenjoyable. To have a successful impact on your students that stretches beyond content and into real world application you must at least attempt to build real relationships with each and every one of your students.

Hozian, LaToya. (2017). Taming the Chaos: Eight High School Classroom Management Strategies That Work. Edmentum Blog. Retrieved from http://blog.edmentum.com/taming-chaos-eight-high-school-classroom-management-strategies-work