Historical Literature

We recently read the book Night by Elie Wiesel. I personally have always loved historical literature whether it is fact or fiction. In sixth grade, it was in our curriculum to read Number the Stars by Louis Lowry. I thought it was a very intense but super interesting book. It was very hard for me to put it down. I think it is interesting to see a view of something that we did not experience. It is just like a fiction, it takes us away to something we would never experience ourselves but instead walks us through and shows the experience that that character went through. Diving into a historical literature book is like diving into an alternate universe. Of course, in history class, we read the historical account of what happened and what people went through, but it is from a broad, far away lense. With the novels, however, we can see a certain character's journey through the events that took place in a time that we only know the history of.

I believe in the importance of historical literature within a classroom because of the different point of view it gives students. They interpret the human experience for us. So instead of just getting a timeline of events, we can see what the people actually went through, their feelings and emotions, and their thought process through the entire thing. I understand the importance of learning history and the timeline of events that happened within each event that took place in history, but at the same time, students aren't going to care or respond in the same way that a novel from a specific view will provoke. By having historical literature on events such as WWII and Pearl Harbor will help students gain a better understanding of what happened and what the people actually went through and thought about. This not only gives our students a more extensive knowledge of the events that took place, but it also gives them an insight into what those people thought and felt and what went through their minds. I believe this is becoming even more important as these events get farther and farther into the past. We are losing people who went through these events and who were there, so we will no longer have people to account for what happened. All we have left is what was recorded and written down.

Source: https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1987/09/09/07200064.h07.html

Graphic Novels in the Classroom

The use of graphic novels in the classroom has become a more loudly talked about topic. There are so many different opinions on using them or not and how to use them in the classroom. In looking for something to write about, I found an article from the NCTE - the National Council of Teachers of English - that talked about people who use graphic novels and what they could be used for. I found that I agreed with their opening statement on the fact that comics were considered something more for young children or dare I say it "nerds/geeks" and not something for classroom curriculum in secondary education. I have never really thought too hard about using graphic novels in the classroom, but then I had remembered that in my freshman history class we used graphic novels in the classroom and as an assignment, we had to make our own comic strip. This was used during the time that we were discussing Greek mythology. It was different and interesting and a new way of doing things and expressing our ideas or thought processes in a different way. 

There was a certain sentence that was in this article that really stood out to me about the concept of respect. "She also urges teachers to respect students’ enjoyment of comics and graphic novels and to view them not as “instructional materials” but as “tools for bridging” in- and out-of-school literacy experiences." Having respect and understanding for how our students connect to literature is important because not all of the student will connect to novels or poetry or to the same things you connected to. This saying says how we as teachers need to respect the students who enjoy graphic novels because they are still forms of literature that our students are reading on their own and connecting to outside of the classroom.

This article also goes over just a few different things that you could teach using graphic novels, such as, the punctuation of dialogue, paragraphing - beginning, middle and end of a story, and outlining. The visual aspect of the graphic novels can help students see the beginning middle and end and see the use of dialogue verses narration. This provides a visual for students to see what they are being taught and see it differently than a dialogue within a novel. 

Overall, it was interesting to me to even find an article by the NCTE that included something about using graphic novels in the classroom. The fact that this article not only talks up the use of graphic novels in the classroom but it also talks about different ideas and uses for them within a classroom that ties to lessons found within a classroom. 

I do love the visual aspect and showing students concepts in a visual way and in the future might even incorporate graphic novels myself in a classroom. 

On a completely separate note, this article was last edited 9 years ago. So as relevant as this topic is today, it has been talked about for almost ten years now. Maybe it's time to actually do something with this knowledge. 

http://www.ncte.org/magazine/archives/122031

Book Talk - The Rhyming Season - Edward Averett

Overview:

Squeaky clean, and devoid of any aspect of contemporary teen culture (no Internet, drugs or sex; rap is called "urban music"), this first-person narrative, set in a logging community, tells the story of a high-school senior who must learn to cope with a pile of grown-up issues: the recent loss of her basketball star brother, the shuttering of the town's mill and a peculiar basketball coach who believes in the power of poetry. Hanging tough, Brenda negotiates these issues by excelling in basketball and helping bring her team to the State Championship. At the same time, she must referee between her player pals, the antagonistic bunch of unemployed men and the eccentric coach who implements the practice of identifying each girl as a particular dead poet in the hope that poetry will help them develop insight into themselves and find the rhythm of basketball. Brenda's storytelling is superficial, her voice without personality and too often—particularly in her interactions with her father—rings emotionally false. Too many problems try to ratchet up the emotional temperature, and readers never get far enough in Brenda's head to heat up a connection. (Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2005)

Topics: basketball, basketball for girls, grief, loss, family problems, high school, poetry, teenagers, small-town life, perseverance, and teamwork.

WHY THIS BOOK/RATIONALE:

I picked this book up in eighth grade on my own and then shortly after I had finished it we did a lesson plan on this book within our reading class. This book was used to introduce us to poetry. I connected to this book because I was living in a small town with little job support and a close-knit community. Also, this book is set in Washington State which makes it a ‘close-to-home’ kind of book. This book would be a great connection book for students to connect to their own lives because of the setting in a high school and the events that take place. Students can find themselves connecting to the main character Brenda and how she handles what life throws at her. This would also be a great book to help remind people that bad stuff does happen but you can’t dwell on it, you have to keep moving forward in your life, but that does not mean you have to forget about what happened. A great encouraging novel to never give up.

USE IN A CLASSROOM:

                This book would most likely be used between the grades of 7-9 because of the easy read of it. It has a lexile of 660 which fits within the grade range it was given on Novelist. This book is set in high school so 9^th graders might connect more to the book, but I still believe that there will be a great amount of connection in middle school students as well in grades seven and eight.

·         This would be a great book to introduce a poetry unit and the versatile use of poetry and how poetry can connect to your life. You could have student’s google poems and find one that they really connect to and present it to the class.

·         Personal reflections/journals would be a great tool to use with this book to help students express what they are feeling while they read it.

·         You could connect this with pathos, logos, and ethos.

·         Great reminder of how literature (ex: poetry) can be connected to almost anything (ex: basketball/grief) as a way of expression.

OBSTACLES:

·         There is death within this book which could cause emotions in students

·         There is a gender issue that could arise from a class discussion of the book – something a teacher should just be prepared for if it does arise.

·         Deviant behavior – Ex: cutting down a rival schools tree

·         Family issues could cause more ‘adult’ topics to come up, might make parents uncomfortable if students go home with those topics – something a teacher should just be prepared for if it does arise.

Edgar Allen Poe

One of my favorite poems by Edgar Allen Poe is "Alone". I found it back in high school when we first were introduced to more intense poetry like Edgar Allen Poe's. I connected really easily to it because I was different in high school, I was weird and always had my nose in a book. So this poem I understood at a different level than most. I of course though did not completely connect fully to this poem until later on when I understood that just because I like different things does not mean I'm weird or abnormal. This is just another example for me that poetry is such a great tool to have in the classroom because of the many connections that students can make to poetry. Poetry opens the soul and can make deeper connections then we might even know, and it could help students get through something in their life.
Also, Edgar Allen Poe is somewhat a role model for some of the outcast students. With his style of writing, his topics of choice, and his self-expression within his poetry. Students can take his style and make it their own. They can express themselves by writing their own poetry and taking after Poe. Students can understand how poetry can be an outlet for them and how to use it outside the classroom as well.
Also, Poe's poetry can be used for so many different lessons throughout the years, but is it being overused? By the time I got to college, I was bored with Poe because of how much we studied it, analyzed it, and re-read it over and over and over again. It just got too repetitive. As teachers, we need to connect with the previous and post grades and figure out what they're using in their curriculum so that we can prevent turning a student off to literature or poetry, or any other thing we use within our curriculum.

Sherman Alexie

Sherman Alexis's book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was a different read for me. I'm used to actual fiction, romance, and dystopian writings more than anything, so having a fictionalization of a true account was kind of different for me. The connections I tied from this book to other true stories of Native American tales made me see this book as less fictional. I am almost curious to know if this book is considered fictional because of how he writes the book instead of what he actually says within the book. This would be a book that I would love to do a Q&A with the author.

On a completely separate note, the contextualization within the book was awesome. I strongly believe in added context and realia to everything. I love the little comics included and the further connection it added to what was being said. It reminds me of metafiction, where you just keep dumping your thoughts. When you are writing and this random thought of a comic or how a character looks or anything that relates to what you just wrote pops into your head and you decide to write it down. It was a great view of the subconscious thought process of the author and I loved it. Giving context or realia to the words you are providing and also help provide a better understanding of what is being said. Students can draw better connections to words that are given context and can relate more to them.
The book, in general, I don't think I would include in a curriculum, but instead might use as an example of something or a couple pages as an example piece. This book has some intense topics that I would not recommend for a grade level below 11. You would also have to think about your students and your environment around the school before even thinking about having this book in the classroom.

The Education of Margot Sanchez by Lilliam Rivera

This book was a great "discovering yourself" kind of book. It held great messages within it and had a great overall message of making sure you stay who you are and you don't change who you are for other people. This is an important concept for K-12 students to understand because of course, this is stuff they deal with on a daily. In school, you have the popular group along with all of the other groups and the totem pole of popularity. It is always the worst for the girls because of the passive aggressiveness, the gossip, and just bullying in general. This book would be a great read for teenage girls to maybe give them a second thought as to what they are doing in school and if they are truly being themselves.
The topic of urbanization is throughout the entire book but not the main theme. Rivera did a great job at showing the domino effect urbanization has on a small, locally-owned store versus a large superstore. I enjoyed that insight into this particular idea in this book. I am from a small town and every year I notice it growing more and more because more people are moving there. First, the high school was expanded and now housing is expanding. Currently, there are new apartment structures under construction which are awesome to see actually since there weren't any before. With more people comes change, unfortunately, all of the change is not always for the best. We are losing our only bowling alley because the owners just don't have the money to keep it running. The bowling alley is our only place of fun or activity for all ages. They have bowling leagues from ages 10-100. They have a special olympics bowling program to be fully inclusive, and they have a small arcade room for kids to just hang out in. That is not the only small business we have lost, we have lost hair salons, nail salons, mom and pop grocery stores, and we lost Rosaurs too. People are trying their hardest to come together and open a new shop here and there in the abandoned buildings, but it's becoming harder. Urbanization can be a good thing, but at the same time, it can have many consequences.
Also, Rivera did a great job with the multi-cultural aspect of the book. This book was not only centered around a Hispanic-American main character but also embraced the culture and environment they were living in. She did a great job with using the language throughout the book by including Spanish. I enjoyed the multi-cultural aspect of the book because of it diving into the culture and language of the family.
I'm not sure if I would personally teach this book in a classroom, but I might suggest it to people to read.

Readicide

I want to start off by saying I completely agree that schools are killing the love of reading because of the practices in place. I used to hate reading the required readings in school. They were boring, or stupid, or over analyzed and it sucked. I used to completely skim the required reading, for homework purposes, and then read my own book. I always had the problem that my own book though was not in the school system and therefore I couldn’t get credit for reading it in my class. I noticed many students in my class though never did any of the readings for the in-class text and was always ‘winging-it’ with in-class discussions and homework. Also, everyone always hated SR – silent reading. There were only a few of us that actually enjoyed the silent reading time, where we were able to read our own books in the classroom.

I think one of the biggest problems with the required readings within the class was that every time we did one, it was for the same purpose. Follow the characters, follow the plot, summarize, follow the timeline, and write a book report. We did that all through middle school and then even into high school. Constantly spitting out summaries of either what we read or the entire book. The same purpose over and over again throughout the many years in grade school.

As students get older, they need a better purpose to motivate them to do things. The purpose should not stay the same throughout the years, it should get more complex, more individual and provide an authentic reading experience. We as teachers need to remember to relate the students to the reading. We want them to stop thinking, “oh we are reading another book and summarizing it?” Also, as much as I love the books I read in middle school and high school, they are starting to become less relatable to the newer generations. For example, The Outsiders was what I read in seventh grade and was considered a “diverse” book because it was about a different era. Granted, I enjoyed it, it was an interesting book for me, however, today's generations are not going to relate to the boys in that book anymore and are not going to understand some of the things they do or say in that book. To teach that book today, there would have to be a ton of scaffolding to go before it and maybe even a history lesson for kids to understand how things were back then. So we have to make sure we are updating our curriculum and making sure that what we are using in our class is easily relatable to the ‘day and age’ we are in. It is the same aspect with the development of technology in the classroom and how that is updated almost every year or so, we need to be doing the same with our curriculum and readings especially to keep up with the generations.

The point Gallagher makes about the fact that schools are valuing the development of test-takers more than readers, or anything else for that matter, I completely agree with as well. I know by now everyone knows about how controversial the subject of schools teaching to the test is, and how people are for and against it and everywhere in-between. For Gallagher to bring up that point was interesting to me to see how he specified it as one of the causes of readicide. Don’t get me wrong, I see that it can be a cause for readicide, but at the same time I slightly disagree. This is where I believe the teacher over-teaching the book could play a bigger role than the teaching to the test aspect. We have to teach to the test and the standards with everything we do, it is just up to us as teachers to make sure our curriculum pertains to our students and is still giving students purpose, connections, and motivation.