Dear Prof. Agriss,

I feel like I am a different person after taking this class. I approach the world around me with a significantly different mindset; obviously, this also extends to the way I approach education. I still perceive education as fundamentally about communication, but the depth and complexity of that nature has greatly expanded. My education, for as far back as I can remember, was just teachers talking at me over and over again. I had been schooled with the banking method. As a result, that is all I thought education was. After I took a Communication Studies 200 and Education 309 with Mr. Syrie that perception was turned on its head. From Mr. Syrie I learned the importance of relationships. The idea that you must first have a relationship, that you must first know your student, in order to do anything else is a principle I consider constantly. Of course, relationships are built and maintained through communication. This class forced me to test these beliefs through my mini-lesson and unit plan.

Developing my unit plan illuminated for me the multitude of areas where I need improvement, but there are two specific areas that I need to work on: student voice and differentiated instruction. I need to find a worthwhile method for collecting student voice in a short amount of time. It seems to me that to actually assess all students’ understanding of the objective is not accomplished by simply having the class recite the objective off the board, or selecting only a few students to put it in their own words.  As for differentiated instruction, the idea of having a very modular classroom where students are working on whatever it is that will help them best to meet the CCSS is something I would like to pursue. Tailoring the education process as closely as possible to the needs of individuals is a principle I want to integrate more into how I approach teaching.    

Teaching my mini-lesson was a big highlight of the quarter. It reminded me how much I enjoy being in the position of a “learning facilitator.” Once the horrid, throbbing, heat of fear from being in charge subsides, and I find a little confidence, I just love being in front of people. Working with people, discussing the fascinating contents of the world, communicating ideas back and forth with potency—being able to do all of that is why I want to be a teacher. As a slight tangent, it really is perplexing to me why I just don’t find people my own age interesting. I find adolescents and the elderly to be the most interesting stages of life. The time in between is just so dreadful.

I decided to do very little preparation for the presentation of my book talk. I wanted to see how well I could function if I had to just wing it. While I did passably well, I think what I need to do is make and memorize a timeline before I present. For whatever reason I swing on either end of the pendulum in that respect. I either memorize a verbatim speech or completely wing it with poor results.

The concept that influenced me the most this quarter was “discussion as a mode of teaching.” In conjunction with my appreciation of differentiated instruction, I really want to research how best to incorporate a great deal more discussion into my teaching methods. I really like how it can create an open and equal classroom community between the students themselves and the instructor. I think if I had my unit plan to do all over again, I would choose The Great Gatsby or To Kill a Mockingbird, or maybe True Diary, and read either book as a class. Perhaps break students into groups of 4 that would all read the text together. Half the class time would be devoted to reading the novel aloud and the other half to discussing what was just read—just an idea. As I continue to investigate discussion as a teaching methodology, the obstacle I most want to confront in discussions is alienation. The culture of most classrooms is not sufficiently inclusive of all students to provide them with enough motivation to get involved in the conversation. Though I should note that I don’t think it is necessary for students to always be vocal in a discussion for them to be involved. I almost never make a claim in a discussion. I ask lots of clarifying questions, but I always write a response after all is said and done. I just can’t help myself not to. I bought Pedagogy of the Oppressed and plan to read it over break. I think working through that text will help me a great deal in understanding how to use discussion in the classroom, though I can imagine reading all of Freire in depth is no easy feat.

The book I most enjoyed reading this quarter was Tovani’s. She provided me with a much needed conceptual framework for how to read and then teach the skill within it. From fourth grade through eighth grade I was in the resource room for reading and writing as a dyslexic. If during that time someone had used Tovani’s practices and showed me the larger context of what literature is at the same time, the story of my public education would have been significantly different. I hope to be able to use her wisdom to affect this change for my future students.

After this class I am drastically more prepared to teach than I was before. But, I don’t think I will perceive myself as a teacher any differently until I am finally placed in a classroom. I still think of myself as chiefly student. I simply do not have enough real experience as a teacher of adolescents to think otherwise. Thus to put it mildly I am in great and pleasant anticipation of working with kids, as well as applying everything I have learned to Social Studies education. I was always writing down ideas for when I make my unit plan for SS 390.

Best regards,

                        Ethan Whitney

Alexie Blog

I can say, with confidence, that this is the first book I have ever read that had me trying desperately not to cry in the first ten pages. I feel like it is difficult for me to address many of the topics in the book with all that much validity. I am white. I did not grow up in poverty, at all. Nevertheless I did grow up, in some respects, so I can speak to what it is like to do that. Perhaps my favorite part of the book was how Junior approaches knowledge, literacy, and learning. He does it in a very frank way; he always maintains a unique view on the world that is always influenced by his age. As I said, I have had no experience with being locked in poverty, yet I think that Alexie does a superb job of communicating that way of life to people who don’t know what it is like.

My ninth grade literature teacher said that every book worth teaching has been blacklisted in at least one school district. He went on to say that this is because every book worth teaching, deals with subjects that make people uncomfortable. Diary certainly covers subjects that make people uncomfortable, and that is the key reason amongst a multitude of why I think it is worth teaching. Alexie faces topics like alcoholism, sexuality, and prejudice with a perfectly balanced voice of sage and juvenile.

It took me a while to get used to the writing style and I did have to think on whether this was the best model to present to students for their own writing. I’m still not sure, but I think the style makes the text all the more accessible to students and whatever detriment it may produce is far outweighed by the benefits inherent to the text. Furthermore, because the book presents complex issues while at the same time delivering it’s views in such language it can be a perfect book to get kids interested in literature and see what it’s all about.  

Night Blog

I have always had an interest in historical study. History class was the only thing I ever exceeded at in primary/secondary school, but it wasn’t until my sophomore year in high school in an English class that I gained a glimpse of what history was really about. What I was presented with in school, and what I believe most students are presented with, was an enigmatic paper wall of information. Sure, one could develop an understanding of the various life ways in a given time period, but it would always be chained to that wall.

When I read Night my sophomore year it was the first time I was presented with a human story of history. This allowed me to contextualize everything I knew about the period through what I knew of human experience—a very affective resource. I was able to break away from that “wall” that seemed so vast and see what was around it. The way I was presented history in school dehumanized everything. It never tapped into something I could feel. The Holocaust and the slave trade in America are two subjects every high schooler has been taught in some aspect. Both are given the accurate labels of barbaric, horrific, and so on. They are used to demonstrate the results of dehumanization. Yet, in my experience the very way these subjects are taught only furthers the process, which is obviously not the intent. When I read Frederick Douglass’s narrative, and when I read Night, it hit me like a bat to the face. “These are people, this really happened.” All of a sudden I truly cared; I was invested in knowing and having something to say about either subject. Perhaps I was just a self-centered teenager, well I know I was, but I don’t know if that was the particular limiting factor in this case.

Though, I should say I remember feeling lost most of the time. I think that Night is a heavy text for 9^th-10^th grade. Yes, the language is very accessible; however I think to understand the story one has to grapple with concepts that most students in 9^th-10^th grade will be challenged to do so. On my copy the cover reads, “A slim volume of terrifying power.” That is certainly how I remember it. Nevertheless, even for students like myself in those grades, the images and explicit observances presented can provide students with a “powerful” message.