FOOT: IPads, Cellphones and Videogames

Okay so I have to group these articles together because they all seem to share the idea that learning and reading is no longer, or should no longer be, efficient without the new technologies. I know that in this class we are learning about how to include much of the media talked about in these articles in our classroom, but it can't be everything. Sometimes holding the book your reading or the ability to analyze writing is the best part. There are too many people that I KNOW who can't honestly read or find meaning in what they do read, and most of these people are in college or already graduated! I am not saying don't incorporate these things into classrooms just watch how much. It is very obvious that media, other than books take up most of almost everyone's time. By teaching students these important skills with tangible literature we give them a tool for living safely and smartly. Many times the things we watch or play, maybe even read, simply pass time and are not often thought about outside of "I got that done." But if we make it interesting show proof to why things are important students will pick up on it. You have to be more creative than the media that surrounds everyone's life.
Publish or Parish
This article frightened me a great deal. I love books both in digital and hard copy forms. I don't want either to disappear. I think the main problem with the idea that bookstores and publishers are soon to be obsolete is in the consumers, maybe in the fact the consumers haven't been taught the value of such works. Few people really stop to think about what the piece is to the author or how much time and effort went into writing it. We are simply greedy consumers always wanting more of the best stories. If we can teach people the value of a book is the same of things such as films and movies the bookstores may not be closing. The biggest problem is the misunderstand of the worth of a book. The one point I agree with in this article, "To thrive,[Jobs believes], publishers have to reimagine the book as multimedia entertainment." This is what has to be done in classrooms too, but not to replace books, we want to accompany books. We need to rethink how to use the book in different ways not become stuck on utilizing only one form. We can handle it.

I Heart Novels
This article honestly and simply appalled me. I understand the convenience behind writing on your phone on the go, but isn't that just rushing things? When I think of good literature I think of how much work was put into making them great. (Kinda like how Carol Jago, in her book Classics in the Classroom, shows that Poe simply didn't write poetry on the fly.) Good writing takes work, and typing something offhand on your phone isn't the type of work I see making good literature. If you do write a novel this way there has to be editing and some writing done off the phone to make it good. Phones just don't make good writing utensils. Take a look at what texting has done to language in speach and writing! I can't talk to many of my friends without hearing "Oh my God!" or "BTW." What ever happened to full words? And in my opinion this is changing the way we view things such as the value of books or even an education. The question from students is always, "Why can't they just talk like me?" My question to students is, "Why can't you talk like them?" The answer I have seen most in my short period of experience is, "It's too much work. I'm not smart enough." We have to encourage students to see value in what they do and who they are and I don't think writing on the fly will help them see what potential they really have on its own.
Video Games in the Classroom
Ah, a refreshing idea but will student really get out of it what we want them too? I believe every experience is a learning experience, even if the experience is playing a video game, but making the classroom "resemble a typical American living room or a child’s bedroom or even a child’s pocket, circa 2010" may be taking it a bit far. Don't get me wrong I love video games and many people work to make them great pieces of literature. (A game can't be great without a good storyline and a conflict.)
I like the idea of utilizing video games in the classroom, but we must be very careful that the lessons we want to teach are taught. Just like movies video games can't be rewards or time passers, at least not without some outside meaning. The biggest problem I see with this becoming a reality in most classrooms is funding and school board permission. Not many people are going to see this as a possible learning tool, and are going to need a lot of time and convincing to allow video games in class. Then just like with movies there will be bunches of parental problems with ratings and content of the video games. Is this something that is useful enough to be worth it?

Overall, I think technology will soon run much of the classroom. But as it takes over we must not forget why/how things were done so we can prove the worth of anything for a student to learn. If we can't do that sooner or later students won't need us to teach them anything.

FOOT: Costanzo

                This book really hasn't yet tweaked my interests except for what we are using in the film study guide for class. Most of the information on how films are made, the genres of film that exist and how film relates to other forms of media is information that I had already studied in high school and in a couple college courses. It really seems to me that much of the information offered is very common. The chapters that did grab my attention were chapters 6, Theories of film, and chapter 8, representation in film.
                Chapter 6 really grabbed my attention because many of the ways to study film I had never consciously recognized. We all know that film is considered an art and that it descended from an art form, but I really liked how Costanzo explains looking at it in the Bazin and the Mise-en-Scene approach. I really liked looking at a film for the film study guide and in class through each camera shot. I really like how  Costanzo recognizes that, "[This approach] allows the viewer to become more deeply engaged in the film image, to explore its textures and ambiguities" (68). I liked this because as a viewer we rarely think, especially when we are young and untrained to do so, about what this image means and what the director wanted to convey by shooting the film in this manner. This is also a problem teachers have when teaching students to think of author perspective. This method of looking at film may help teachers teach this difficult concept due to how close students are to film. Maybe picking apart a movie in this manner would help them see the process and apply it to a novel. This method also allows viewers of film to see meaning in everything they watch by forcing them to think about what they are seeing and why they are seeing it. There are too many times where we sit and blindly watch something without thinking about what it is or why we watch. If we change this film becomes much more meaningful and even a very relevant topic to cover in high school classrooms.
                 Chapter 8 grabbed me because of the universality of the topics discussed. The chapter focuses on film and how certain cultures are portrayed, yes. But as teachers we can connect this to the real world and in conjunction with the things taught in chapter 6 we can prove meaning behind the representation and ask questions about life and society in reference to the film. We must not forget that film is literature, and it should be taught if it is to be consumed for so much of our lives. This is also a great way to teach students how to observe lens in which they view anything they do. We can do this by placing them in the middle of the representation of the cultures within film and again they may find this easier than within a novel due to film being visual. Don't get me wrong I love books but we have to recognize other literature in order to be fair to our students and give them insightful perspectives on all literature.

FOOT: Firestone

 My student’s biggest weakness was vocabulary and literature comprehension. It’s very common to have vocabulary problems in high school, in fact it is the number one noticed problem among students in high school, but my student’s problem was paralyzing.  I have never seen someone give up on a story or article after running into only one word they did not know, but this is the exact problem I witnessed. No matter what or where the word was within the piece of literature, if she didn’t know it, the piece didn’t get read. I attempted to teach her how to read between the lines and look at the context clues and nothing seemed to work. We tried different reading strategies, like sticky notes, highlighting and annotating, again with little results in understanding. It was not until I realized what her biggest strength was that we were able to make some progress on this issue. An issue I am sure will completely isolate her from any type of literature and from any passing grade on her reading OGT, maybe even other subjects that require analyzing. This absolutely petrified me for her, and I knew I had to do something to help her prepare for the test that could keep her from graduating.

            My student loves music. Even the songs with words she doesn’t know in them.  There is a song by Kanye West out that uses a form of the word aristocratic,  aristocracy, which is word my student became paralyzed by in one of our tutoring sessions. When I heard her singing along to this song on her mp3 player one day I asked what the song meant. She said it was about people who were really high in society, socially, which is a very close description of the word aristocratic. When I asked her how she knew that she said something to the effect of Kanye is always talking about people who have money in the song and what they buy with it, money is power and is what everyone wants, so he must be talking about someone high up in society. This led me to help her use that definition to find aristocracy's definition. She essentially read the context clues around the word in the song and figured out the definition of the word accordingly. After this instance of enlightenment both for her and me we began turning most of the OGT passages into songs or stories so she could relate to them and she successfully demonstrated the knowledge to answer most of the questions about the passage correctly. Her biggest strength is her ability to transpose literature from one form to another in order to understand it. She is a very fluent reader and enjoys the more creative styles of writing, such as poetry; she just had not been given the tools to make things she couldn’t understand into activities or forms she could understand. If she learns how to look for the same clues in literature, other than poetry and music, using the same tools she will succeed in school, but a teacher is going to have to tap into her musicality in order to even get her interested in the material.

            I think this is the case for many students nowadays. They just don’t see the point of understanding the material we give them, or the tests they must take. This is the challenge we face as teachers when trying to prepare students for a test that could change their grade or even their life. We have to make things important and we have to do some of the creative thinking for them. By presenting methods of literature analysis in another form, such as the example I gave with my student, we make them think differently and approach tests differently. This can be used in the classroom for anything, even if it’s not test preparation.

            I plan to use many of these methods in my classroom quite a bit. There is a teacher at Firestone that I observed last semester who was very good at utilizing multi-modal literature. She used music videos, movies and music to help her students prepare for a text or analyze it. Then there is the program the whole school uses to check students’ writing for plagiarism. It is an amazing piece of technology that helps keep students honest. All these things in the classroom will expose students to media and help them connect it to the literature and connect the ways they analyze and read all forms. Some things we have learned in class could also be useful. If there is a Facebook page or Twitter page set up for the students they could easily ask questions and make comments regarding the test at hand. The teacher could even post little sneak peeks or practice questions on the page, giving the students who utilize the technology good practice for the test.

            The only problems I see with using this type of literature in the classroom are the legalities surrounding what material we use and the ratings surrounding the materials and the time spent on material outside of what tests require students read. Along with time spent on possibly useless, at least for standardized testing, material, there exists a problem with the deletion of materials that may be covered on tests in order to teach more multi-modal lessons. There has to be a connection between using media and teaching necessary information. Also you must give students information in both forms, testing form and multi-modal forms. If they think the test will help them like you have in class with media compared to or paired with literature and analysis, they will go into the test already behind. And if they have a personality like my student this may make them instantly give up. Also if they are not taught the language and form of the test, they will not be prepared for it. You have to make everything equally important. Unfortunately our school systems are very heavily based in testing. Yes we want our students to be diverse readers of all literature, but the fact remains that they must pass tests to pass through, graduate and possibly attend college. Even if we do not like the tests, they are not changing anytime soon. Finally, there is a flaw in the tests. They are not at all multi-modal. I can’t remember ever seeing a test ask about a literary work that is not a play, poem, story or essay. What about the literature we see everyday, television, movies and music? There must be a way to test the students’ knowledge of interpretation on these forms. I can’t say I have any ideas now on what that may be but with some thought and a lot of minds there can be a way.

            Overall I believe test preparation can be easily paired with multi-modal literature, it is simply a lot of cautionary work on the teacher’s part, much like young adult literature or graphic novels. I have seen many forms of media inclusion in the classroom and have utilized it myself in test preparation. This form of teaching allows the teacher to know their students and teach them on another level. That is the most important way to get students engaged today, we need to utilize this form.

Foot: Lions and Islands

Well thanks to the presentation of everyone's multi-genre autobiography, I made a list of things I should watch and reserved many at the Kent Free Library. They came in today!!! And to celebrate, following my Lost obsession, I'm on season 5, I am watching Lion King, my favorite movie, Snow White, Sonic the Hedgehog season 1, and Taming of the Shrew. I must say I miss all of these movies but was very upset to see Disney had added songs to the DVD Lion King that were not in the original!!! I do not like it!!! The original will always be the best.

Foot: Me As A Teacher (Extra Credit)

There have been many times that I have asked myself, "What does this mean to you?" or "Why should I do that?" when I have been assigned a new project for class, the Multi-Genre Autobiography was no different. At first I honestly had no answer to these questions, but after some thought I think I see why we were assigned this project. Everyone is different. This means all our students, students’ parents and our colleagues, even though often very close in age, have very different needs and personalities. On the other hand, each group still has some things in common that can be used to help the entire group understand or become interested in a topic/activity. This could not have been more apparent then in the presentations of our class’s multi-genre autobiographies. We are all very different people from mostly different backgrounds. The fact that we are all in the same degree already gives us a common interest but after the viewing of the autobiographies we saw that most of us had even more in common. Most of the things in common were in the media. So if we were very similar in what we connected with in the media, my guess would be that our students are too. By using multi-modal methods in class you can connect to many of the students with something they are already connected with each other on. For example, Facebook and Twitter are very common tools for people to use in order to socialize nowadays, including, as we have seen through many of our classroom discussions, our students. If we can utilize these in the classroom we can connect to the students in ways earlier generations of teachers could not. By showing students that we can and do use the same technology they do, we show them that there are multiple ways we are connected.

            The multi-genre autobiography also taught me that what I liked and what I see as important directly affects what I will teach and how I teach it. For example, if I love the classics, I may teach more of them. If multi-media is something I was attached to I may focus on that. It is very important that these things don’t get us trapped in certain genres and methods. We have to be flexible and very up to date with new/current media so we can relate to our students. If we simply recognize media as old as Care Bears and Power Rangers as good media how can we relate to our students? This project also made me reflect on how many teachers I had were from the same generation, and how many had similar teaching methods/styles. They were so dull. Each class was very similar in activities no matter the subject and it became very boring and repetitive. We have to prevent this from happening in our generation.

Pytash: Jago Ch. 5

          Again this book amazes me!!! I am admittedly one of the many people to which Jago refers that openly hate poetry, until recently. I have only fund a love for it in discovering the many methods of how to read it and this chapter explains it all. Understanding the poem is everything. It is how we justify reading it and how we are able to take meaning from it. But if we don't try to understand it then it will simply be some group of meaningless words, in some set form that sits dryly on the page. The read aloud activity Jago mentions and demonstrates in this chapter is perhaps the most exciting and will probably be my most used technique when teaching literature. The way in which you think and demonstrate your thought triggers the thoughts and conversations you as a teacher want your students to have. And their use of the technique will make them more comfortable in a discussion on something, poetry, many people find difficult and  pointless. I also completely agree with Jago that difficult poems must be read. For example I put forth myself. I never liked poetry in school except for the work of Edgar Allen Poe and Shakespeare. We always read things that seemed to have little meaning or surface meaning, simply they meant what they said. Because of this I never understood what was so special about saying things in this manner, it's just more work to follow rules of a specific form and to try and rhyme. So obviously I think I was simply studying the wrong poetry. Jago suggests that high schoolers should be reading poems as deeply written as Wordsworth's "The World is Too Much With Us" and I would have loved poetry if my teachers would have felt the same way and pushed us to read poems with deeper meanings.
        Because of all the situations I have mentioned I'm sure you could gather that poetry is the one thing I fear teaching the most. But after having read Jago's advice on teaching it I am thinking much differently on how to approach the genre and even on how to have fun with it. I know crazy idea to have fun with literature, but I'm telling you this is a section I dread. My hope is that in these last few semesters before graduation poetry will become something that is way more comfortable for me and that while student teaching I will get to practice some of the activities Jago has presented in her book.
       Finally, I must say, I loved the discussion at the end of the chapter on Poe's "The Raven." This is by far my favorite poem and one that I have studied many times in classes, yet I have never heard of anything mentioned at the end of this chapter. I love that she brought up that Poe really didn't write on a whim without thought, again it takes work, and I think if students see that the work amounts to something they will be more willing to do it themselves. Many students, I think, believe that poetry comes naturally, I know I did. This example of a great author putting in work and time to make his poetry great would have really given me the idea that maybe I could do it too. Also by showing that even Poe had to go through some pretty funny ideas, example, the parrot, to find something really good and solid, a teacher could give students the confidence to make mistakes and think funny things. They don't always lead to nothing and often aren't even known thoughts after the finished work is published unless you tell people about your thought process. When writing often you have to get the weird and crazy out to get ideas for the good and solid, sometimes they are even one in the same. Way to go Jago, you have boosted my confidence in teaching and analyzing poetry with and without the students at my side!!!

Pytash: Jago Ch. 3

Wow how obviously important is this chapter? Choosing what to read is the most critical element of teaching literature. What you teach shows what you and society value as important and what the students should value as important. Also, because reading is what provides much of your vocabulary, you are choosing what words to teach the students. I must say I love the classics, but I find myself in a deep disagreement with many of the ways Jago is portraying as good techniques or choices. After looking closely at Young Adult literature last semester I cannot agree that these books offer nothing more than a mirror image of a student or their situation. I do agree that they shouldn't be the only thing taught but they should be taught. They are worthy topics for classroom discussion and can offer many occasions for teaching things such as vocabulary. While these books are certainly easier for students to read, they still offer words and not all of them are known. They may even be an easy connection to a classic novel. Much like the project we are doing this semester I believe a classic can and should be paired with a classic to lead to a better understanding of both novels. A good novel to choose for classroom discussion according to Jago is one that a student needs your help to get through, I agree. But can't all books be taught and looked at in different lights? And can't they mean different things to different people? So why is it not important to convey these differences and analyze why and where these differences lie? I believe this can offer just as much of an experience and knowledge as a classic taught in Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development. The key is to teach anything in this area. That's the great thing about novels, they can always offer new avenues to explore and new thoughts on life situations.

            Also in this chapter I really liked the idea of giving the students a way to record the books they have read. This would be wonderful to look at each year and see how much you have accomplished. To know that you had expanded your knowledge with each novel read and to see all the novels on that list, you know you must have accomplished something. Finally there was one quote in this chapter that really meant something to me: "'Your' classic is a book to which you cannot remain indifferent, and that helps you define yourself in relation or even in opposition to it." Because of this I believe everyone should have a favorite classic, "their classic." If a novel defines or relates to you, so will others. And if you can find other novels relate to your classic you can understand it better. Sooner or later through this process you have a lot of books to call yours and to define the world in which you live, not just the classics.

Pytash: Jago Ch. 2

             I loved this book so I had to just keep reading this chapter! I know it wasn't assigned but I think it offered many points worth discussing. My favorite part was honestly the quote from a student's paper, "Every book is made of words. In Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger uses many words." This quote made me think for a long time about what a novel or other literary work means and should mean to a student, because essentially they are simply words. But what those words mean what emotions they evoke are what is important to students and the novel. Words are what make us identifiable as humans and as unique individuals. I sit in class sometimes or on the bus and listen to people talk and it baffles me how different everyone is even with the similarity of being or getting educated. According to Jago the difference is mostly in how much these people have read and what they have read. I couldn't agree more. Jago also emphasizes that this is a natural process for people, this I also agree with, but I believe the process needs some help. Obviously with the information in the previous chapter we as teachers and even parents eventually have to jump-start the process by allowing or even making kids read. It's that simple! Yes some students will be reluctant but it will pay off in the end to find a way to get them to read. I really like the activity Jago introduces with Shakespeare's Julius Caeser. By making students focus on those words and on the character you bring them closer to the character and give them the opportunity to learn new words. This is a great way to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Finally I'd like to say the last activity connected to the words given for Julius Caeser where she has the students rate themselves was brilliant. This really gives the student a chance to relate to a character and even to the piece of literature. Again killing two birds with one stone.

Pytash: Jago Ch. 1

To my surprise, I really enjoyed this book. I was truly dreading having to read and now I can't keep the concepts Jago introduces out of my head. In the first chapter I really connected with the story about the similar lessons in the third and eighth grade classrooms. I am horrified to say I have personally witnessed this even on a college level! I have an acquaintance that just recently was accepted to KSU and in his College Writing 1 class they had to go over how to write a paragraph and a paper before they could get started discussing what the paper topics should be. This too me is outrageous and unacceptable, even in grade school, and I couldn't agree more with Jago that this should not be occurring at any level of education. I also found it interesting that she discusses the differences in the consistency of the curriculum with the content of the standardized tests. Like much of the statistics in today's society the lower class and lower income kids get the short end of the stick. This was not surprising to me, but it did lead to some thought on why it is this way. Parents in low income families are often busy trying to handle the trials of their lives and may not be able to constantly help their kids and the schools in these districts often can not afford good teachers in the schools. Beyond this many teachers fear being placed in these schools that cater to low-income families. All of these elements boil down to one conclusion for the students: they don't learn as much or as well as their middle and upper class counter parts. The biggest disappointment in the situation, however, is this problem could be fixed if teachers paid attention and followed their training. I think if teachers followed or utilized many of the things we are being taught now, such as reading strategies and more fun classroom activities, they could make learning fun and easy for all involved. This means we must stop asking level one questions and challenge our students with something more involving and thought provoking. That to me seems as simple as changing a couple questions, so why can't all teachers do it?

Also in this chapter I enjoyed Jago's points on what literature means to people and how it helps in human development. Too many times when I tell people I am training to be and English teacher or if I mention that my focus in English, I get a reaction like, "So you just read really good." This statement while very close to some truth is not very close to what reading means to our society. Jago points this out in many sections. My favorite point in this section of the chapter is that literature gives background knowledge. When Jago discusses London's novel White Fang and where she acquired her background knowledge for the understanding and imagining of London's fictional world I couldn't help to think about where I got much of my knowledge especially about places I have never been, books and literature. Mind you books haven't provided all of my background knowledge and I don't believe they can replace an experience of the real place, but they can give you a pretty accurate description and provide a unique experience that you can later refer to when thinking or discussing the area or thing you read about. Again I think so why is this not emphasized in the classroom? Sure teachers ask about where the characters are and may even have students look up what the area looks like, but what about the image the students see when they read? That's just as important as the real thing and provides more of a connection and reference for the student to go back to than some research project can create. 

Finally I must say I disagree with Jago in this chapter when she says common non-reading activities must be used sparingly and always with a writing activity. I agree they should not be the full focus of a class; however, I think these activities, when done properly, can expand the students knowledge just as much as writing activities and/or reading. In fact things that she mentions, like storyboards, require an understanding of the material and involve writing. And as we are experiencing in Multi-Modal Literature class now, film is a form of literature it simply needs to be treated as such, instead of it becoming a free day for the teacher and students. The amount of learning being accomplished is a direct result of how it is being taught and how interesting the material. That is our job as teachers, teach well and make it interesting.

FOOT I'm So Totally, Digitally Close to You

         This article really spoke to me on many different levels. The first is when Thompson is discussing  people's views on sites like Facebook and Twitter. One of the many ideas I share with others about this form of social interaction really shows that I was born 40 years old. On page 2 of his article Thompson says "For many people — particularly anyone over the age of 30 — the idea of describing your blow-by-blow activities in such detail is absurd. Why would you subject your friends to your daily minutiae?" This is really how I have felt about all of these sites for a long time and really still do feel about these sites. I have never really understood, until recently, why these sites were so popular or why they should hold any importance in my life and my career. I couldn't have been more wrong. While I admit I am still not comfortable or even good at speaking through these sites and making connections on them, after reading "I'm So Totally, Digitally Close to You" and after many of the activities in class I see how this could fit in with both. I don't think digital connections should or ever will take the place of face to face interactions, face to face is still the best way to teach and communicate in my mind. However, in the classroom if we utilize the students need to connect using tools they know and enjoy everyday and take advantage of our “ambient awareness” of them, the classroom could be a more exciting place to learn more than we have been able to teach in the past.

        From what I see social sites such as Facebook and Twitter can be great tools in the classroom to get to know everyone in the class and to allow them to get to know you, especially if you are the new teacher. These sites allow you to take a glimpse at things in people's everyday lives that you may not otherwise be able to see.  For example, your student Jane could be going through a hard break up and is randomly bursting into tears during class. If you had been able to read her Facebook status which states the situation, you would not have to ask her in class and would be fully aware of how to handle the situation. This does get complicated when addressing students privacy and how much do you as the teacher really want to know, but there are ways around that too. Like we have discussed many times in class we could easily have the students create a separate account for class use only. Now we are talking about how to use this in the classroom. Again I didn't see any use till recently and even now find my ideas to be weak, so I hope I discover more during the course of this class. However, this gives the students something they know how to use, something they enjoy, and shows them that you are just as multi-modal as they are. Also I really like the multigenre autobiography we did for the class and will probably use this activity as a starter, but the biggest use of these sites I see being good and possible is in the discussions of books. Sometimes in class everyone doesn't get a chance to speak or is too afraid. This medium eliminates the problem of time by allowing them to post anytime before during or after school and eliminates much of the fear of being instantly scrutinized over your comments. And it allows the students to follow more people than they normally would have the brain capacity to, according to Thompson's article. In the article Thompson talks about Shannon Seery and how he followed her blog and what she felt like following others. On the third page Thompson talks about the experience of getting to know your digital friends, "Like many people who live online, she has wound up following a few strangers — though after a few months they no longer feel like strangers, despite the fact that she has never physically met them." If this is the way many people find friendship in strangers, why not in people they see everyday? I believe that online interaction could lead to physical interaction and friendship in school. This could, admittedly this is optimistic, bring together the bully and the victim in friendship. I think this something we can all relate to and hope for.