This is my reflection email to Dr. Insenga on teaching--March 29th. I really didn't prepare as much as I would've like to for this class, mostly because I was out of town at the CEA conference. It's hard for me to really stay on track with work while I travel. I felt ok about class, not great but not bad. I am happy that we geared the conversation toward justification of teaching methods--context.
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Hey Dr. Insenga,
So I gave them an extension on their papers until Wednesday the 31st. I told them that I'd put a box outside my office and to turn them in by 5:00. Class went ok. A couple of people--Jess, Maegan, Zhirine, Heather--were really engaged, but I think most of them had not started reading. More than a couple didn't have the book and those who did seemed to kind of look at it like they'd never seen it. We talked mostly about representations of race, the disconnect between cultural assumptions about Native Americans and Alexie's representation of Indians. We first generated a list of characteristics of Native Americans that we gather from popular culture--the expectations that most students have of Indians. Then I asked them take a couple of minutes find textual representations of Indian culture in the opening of the text, kind of the first stagings of race. Since most of them had not read at all, they didn't really come up with much. I said that I was still in the middle of the book, too, but we are still capable of discussing the ideas that we've encountered in the novel this far. I guess I was expecting them to have started reading more than they had.
We did have a really discussion about bringing in context. Since most of us and our students don't have experience with Native American culture, we talked about when and how to bring that into the classroom and why. I'm happy with that part of the class. Overall, I think I wanted to talk more about the text than they were prepared for.
I'm planning on--ideally--getting the papers graded this weekend. I thought it would be good to meet with you to talk about the papers before I give them back. Hopefully, that will be Monday, but it might be Wednesday.
Have a good one,
Jessica
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This is a rough lesson plan
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Talk about paper: Extension until Friday?
How do they feel about it?
Alexie:
List of popular assumptions about Indians: look to popular culture. How do we collectively imagine them?
How does Alexie represent them?
Close reading exercise: First two-three chapters and find examples of how Alexie represents race.
How does humor fit in here? How do the drawings fit in? Does the humor work like his drawings, everyone understands?
What is Alexie up to here? Is he revising assumptions? Does his work stereotype Indians? Why? Why not?
How do we teach race, especially a race that is most likely not represented in class? How do we avoid the exclusive “them” conversation? Or, how do we avoid just sitting around making assumptions of our own?
How does the absence of Indian students affect teaching Indian literature?
Because there’s most likely no Indian students in class and we know such insufficient info about Indian culture, do we go in and talk about Indian culture in introducing the book?
I have lots of experience with students like Arnold, should I have given you a bunch of information about that? What would the effect be?
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29 March 2010
19 March 2010
ENGL 3400 Mar 17
This is my response email to Dr. Insenga about teaching class on Wednesday:
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Hi Dr. Insenga,
Class Wednesday went well. At the beginning we took a few minutes to reflect on Charles Shields's talk. They were really full of responses. Some people didn't like him. I asked what they though about his take on using biography with texts. We all agreed that his type of reading literary characters as people in the author's life--that sort of laying biography over literature--wasn't the most useful way to use biography with students, but they came up with strategies that would work better in the classroom and reflected on methods that did and didn't work in their past classes. That was a great discussion, I thought.
Oh my, I think that I forgot to email you the worksheet. I'll send you a copy. Before they got in pairs I reminded them about the combination of textual analysis and pedagogical methods. The workshop itself went well. They were great, engaged and asking questions.
The only complication was Jacquelyne. Your response does help so much. I agree that it seems really unreasonable to discuss teaching the model to students, but she was under the impression that she could have none of that emphasis on students seeing themselves. I think she misunderstood your advice, and she thought my advice contradicted yours. Right when they broke up into pairs she came to ask me questions and we talked for a couple of minutes about it. Then she had no partner. I asked her to get a three-way thing going, but people were already into the reading process and so she was stuck waiting. Of course, then time became an issue, so I told her that I'd talk with her about her paper. One of the things I would've changed would be just telling her to get a partner and ask me questions later.
I'm meeting with her in a few hours. So, I think she should be right on track.
Have a great break!
Jessica
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This is my worksheet for peer review:
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ENGL 3400
March 17
Peer Review: Paper 2
1.Read your partner’s introduction. Read the assignment sheet. Write down which assignment option your partner chose.
2.Are there any opportunities to be more specific in the introduction?
3.Don’t read the rest right now. Using what you know from your partner’s introduction, predict how the rest of the paper will flow. Do this verbally with each other.
4.Read through the rest of the paper. Circle any concepts or terms that one of our secondary sources might support. Mark opportune place to include secondary support. Name which text or chapter if possible.
5.Throughout the paper, underline all sentences that discuss pedagogy. Estimate a ratio between pedagogy discussion and textual analysis.
6.What is your partner’s pedagogical reasoning for using the specific section(s) of To Kill a Mockingbird?
7.Look at your partner’s thesis statement and topic sentences. Circle textual language and pedagogical language.
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Hi Dr. Insenga,
Class Wednesday went well. At the beginning we took a few minutes to reflect on Charles Shields's talk. They were really full of responses. Some people didn't like him. I asked what they though about his take on using biography with texts. We all agreed that his type of reading literary characters as people in the author's life--that sort of laying biography over literature--wasn't the most useful way to use biography with students, but they came up with strategies that would work better in the classroom and reflected on methods that did and didn't work in their past classes. That was a great discussion, I thought.
Oh my, I think that I forgot to email you the worksheet. I'll send you a copy. Before they got in pairs I reminded them about the combination of textual analysis and pedagogical methods. The workshop itself went well. They were great, engaged and asking questions.
The only complication was Jacquelyne. Your response does help so much. I agree that it seems really unreasonable to discuss teaching the model to students, but she was under the impression that she could have none of that emphasis on students seeing themselves. I think she misunderstood your advice, and she thought my advice contradicted yours. Right when they broke up into pairs she came to ask me questions and we talked for a couple of minutes about it. Then she had no partner. I asked her to get a three-way thing going, but people were already into the reading process and so she was stuck waiting. Of course, then time became an issue, so I told her that I'd talk with her about her paper. One of the things I would've changed would be just telling her to get a partner and ask me questions later.
I'm meeting with her in a few hours. So, I think she should be right on track.
Have a great break!
Jessica
************************************************************************************
This is my worksheet for peer review:
*********************************************************************************
ENGL 3400
March 17
Peer Review: Paper 2
1.Read your partner’s introduction. Read the assignment sheet. Write down which assignment option your partner chose.
2.Are there any opportunities to be more specific in the introduction?
3.Don’t read the rest right now. Using what you know from your partner’s introduction, predict how the rest of the paper will flow. Do this verbally with each other.
4.Read through the rest of the paper. Circle any concepts or terms that one of our secondary sources might support. Mark opportune place to include secondary support. Name which text or chapter if possible.
5.Throughout the paper, underline all sentences that discuss pedagogy. Estimate a ratio between pedagogy discussion and textual analysis.
6.What is your partner’s pedagogical reasoning for using the specific section(s) of To Kill a Mockingbird?
7.Look at your partner’s thesis statement and topic sentences. Circle textual language and pedagogical language.
15 March 2010
ENGL 3400 March 15
Today we have a guest speaker: Charles Shields, the author of two biographies of Harper Lee
I've read the introduction to one biography and composed a few questions for him:
Questions for Charles Shields
How do you see biography used most skillfully in scholarly work and also in the classroom?
How do you see the equation of Scout with Harper Lee or of other characters with people in the author’s life as helpful or a potential pitfall in terms of teaching and scholarship?
Why did you segue from teaching to writing biographies for young adults?
What topics do you choose to overlook in the biography and why? How do you make that choice?
In researching for the biography, you say that you relied on unorthodox methods such as google searchs, online reunion searches, etc., but then also pair that with first hand interviews, visiting locations, and examining materials. Given that most scholarship these days seems increasingly limited to online databases and print sources, do you have a particular stance on current research methods? Do you see research methods evolving and do you attach ideas about quality with the evolution?
Two years of re-writing—writing process
I've read the introduction to one biography and composed a few questions for him:
Questions for Charles Shields
How do you see biography used most skillfully in scholarly work and also in the classroom?
How do you see the equation of Scout with Harper Lee or of other characters with people in the author’s life as helpful or a potential pitfall in terms of teaching and scholarship?
Why did you segue from teaching to writing biographies for young adults?
What topics do you choose to overlook in the biography and why? How do you make that choice?
In researching for the biography, you say that you relied on unorthodox methods such as google searchs, online reunion searches, etc., but then also pair that with first hand interviews, visiting locations, and examining materials. Given that most scholarship these days seems increasingly limited to online databases and print sources, do you have a particular stance on current research methods? Do you see research methods evolving and do you attach ideas about quality with the evolution?
Two years of re-writing—writing process
10 March 2010
Native American Lit
My notes from meeting with Dr. Newton about the syllabus research:
Bibliography of Renaissance to Contemporary Native Literature, all genres. I'm planning to email Leah at UNM and Brianna at Tufts to see if they'll send me their phd reading lists in Native Lit. I think that would be the best place to start building.
Figure out what's in our library & make a list of stuff we need to buy
Bibliography of scholarship: what's in our library (studies on authors and theoretical texts)
What's in our references that works
Create a list of journals: SAIL, AIQ, Wicazo Sa, U of Nebraska has another...
Collect syllabi from the internet. I know I've already done this last summer.
Carol Goodson is my contact at the library who can help me. I've designated time for this work this weekend. Finally.
Bibliography of Renaissance to Contemporary Native Literature, all genres. I'm planning to email Leah at UNM and Brianna at Tufts to see if they'll send me their phd reading lists in Native Lit. I think that would be the best place to start building.
Figure out what's in our library & make a list of stuff we need to buy
Bibliography of scholarship: what's in our library (studies on authors and theoretical texts)
What's in our references that works
Create a list of journals: SAIL, AIQ, Wicazo Sa, U of Nebraska has another...
Collect syllabi from the internet. I know I've already done this last summer.
Carol Goodson is my contact at the library who can help me. I've designated time for this work this weekend. Finally.
ENGL 3400 March 10
Today I taught class. We looked at chapter five of Deborah Appleman's Critical Encounters in High School English: Teaching Literary Theory to Adolescents & chapter nine of To Kill a Mockingbird. I overestimated the amout of stuff I'd have time to talk about. Here is a copy of my lesson plan. It's rough.
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March 10
Tell them my plan for what we’re doing today.
Pair Chapter 9 of To Kill a Mockingbird with Appleman Chapter 5
1.How student’s view female characters and appraise author’s stance towards them
What’s literally going on here? What’s figuratively going on?
What does this text suggest about the relationship between genders?
How does Scout / Finch’s Landing reflect reality?
How does her character reinforce or resist social attitudes toward women?
How are we implicated in this reading? Do we want Scout to be more lady-like?
So, what is the message in this text about gender?
Does the message about Finch’s Landing reinforce the message about Scout?
Multiple perspectives: Write a description of Scout from Aunt Alexandra’s perspective, Uncle Jack, Atticus, Jack, Francis, Scout.
Who might represent the traditional perspective? Who might represent a feminist perspective?
Traditional v. Feminist lists: (79 &80) Recasts the women as victims, passive. What is the effect of this? Is there a way to make these active? Is there a purpose to making them active? Might this encourage activism or bring feminism into present?
Analysis of Scout / House: situation, author’s intent, consider audience, and what meaning derived from text
2. From text to context: Read gendered patterns in the world
Can men only see things from a male perspective? How might the reader’s gender affect his or her reading?
How might we teach it? Act it out staging opposite gender roles? To get younger students to identify gender as an issue instead of just providing them with the focus.
Give an example of some thing in real life—outside of the text—and ask students to describe it from each character’s perspective.
Example: There’s only one male in this education class.
3. Can we link the message about gender to any other binary discrimination in the text? Racism? Classism? Is the message linked? Francis’s name-calling
How does Lee’s gender affect this text then? Identify her with black people
What is feminism? Have students generate a list of impressions
Reading through the lens of gender
The goal of feminism is to “attend to the cultural imprint of patriarchy as we read” What does this really mean?
What assumptions about feminism might we encounter in the classroom? Why resistance? How do we address that in the classroom? Feminism is over. When do we say the F word? Do we start with the theory overview or the text? Does that change in different circumstances?
Exercise for students: Personal experience that is similar to the text. Also, key to linking text and context.
Why teach it?
Recognizing other perspectives
Ask questions about the construction of culture, of texts, and of meaning in the process of constructing interpretations. Why is that important?
Become aware of the ideologies with which texts and the world are inscribed
It does aim at changing the world and the consciousness of people in it. Are you making little feminists?
Consider characters from more than one point of view
Help interpret, understand, and respond to life
How does this approach fit with Reader Response or New Critical approaches that are so common? Reader Response: Focus on how reader’s gender affects interpretation
New Critical:
How does it move past both of those?
Focuses on abstraction by connecting the text to the world; it’s a tool to aid the process of learning to abstract.
**********************************************************************************
We spent most of the class time looking at the text. I was happy with the close reading of Finch's Landing. Some of the students' interpretations were exciting because I had never considered them. It was a good time to learn from the students. I wish that I had gotten to the pedagogy focus a bit sooner. The class is so engaged with textual analysis that it was actually hard to move out of the primary text. I'm excited that I can continue talking some about this maybe next Wednesday. We have a speaker on Monday. I'm planning to do some research on him to prepare. I think toward to end of class a couple of students on the left side of the room disengaged. I know that students do that in general when the end of class approaches. However, I do feel that if we transitioned into the secondary text sooner, maybe they would've hung on better. I feel comfortable with this group of students. I like them.
*********************************************************************************
March 10
Tell them my plan for what we’re doing today.
Pair Chapter 9 of To Kill a Mockingbird with Appleman Chapter 5
1.How student’s view female characters and appraise author’s stance towards them
What’s literally going on here? What’s figuratively going on?
What does this text suggest about the relationship between genders?
How does Scout / Finch’s Landing reflect reality?
How does her character reinforce or resist social attitudes toward women?
How are we implicated in this reading? Do we want Scout to be more lady-like?
So, what is the message in this text about gender?
Does the message about Finch’s Landing reinforce the message about Scout?
Multiple perspectives: Write a description of Scout from Aunt Alexandra’s perspective, Uncle Jack, Atticus, Jack, Francis, Scout.
Who might represent the traditional perspective? Who might represent a feminist perspective?
Traditional v. Feminist lists: (79 &80) Recasts the women as victims, passive. What is the effect of this? Is there a way to make these active? Is there a purpose to making them active? Might this encourage activism or bring feminism into present?
Analysis of Scout / House: situation, author’s intent, consider audience, and what meaning derived from text
2. From text to context: Read gendered patterns in the world
Can men only see things from a male perspective? How might the reader’s gender affect his or her reading?
How might we teach it? Act it out staging opposite gender roles? To get younger students to identify gender as an issue instead of just providing them with the focus.
Give an example of some thing in real life—outside of the text—and ask students to describe it from each character’s perspective.
Example: There’s only one male in this education class.
3. Can we link the message about gender to any other binary discrimination in the text? Racism? Classism? Is the message linked? Francis’s name-calling
How does Lee’s gender affect this text then? Identify her with black people
What is feminism? Have students generate a list of impressions
Reading through the lens of gender
The goal of feminism is to “attend to the cultural imprint of patriarchy as we read” What does this really mean?
What assumptions about feminism might we encounter in the classroom? Why resistance? How do we address that in the classroom? Feminism is over. When do we say the F word? Do we start with the theory overview or the text? Does that change in different circumstances?
Exercise for students: Personal experience that is similar to the text. Also, key to linking text and context.
Why teach it?
Recognizing other perspectives
Ask questions about the construction of culture, of texts, and of meaning in the process of constructing interpretations. Why is that important?
Become aware of the ideologies with which texts and the world are inscribed
It does aim at changing the world and the consciousness of people in it. Are you making little feminists?
Consider characters from more than one point of view
Help interpret, understand, and respond to life
How does this approach fit with Reader Response or New Critical approaches that are so common? Reader Response: Focus on how reader’s gender affects interpretation
New Critical:
How does it move past both of those?
Focuses on abstraction by connecting the text to the world; it’s a tool to aid the process of learning to abstract.
**********************************************************************************
We spent most of the class time looking at the text. I was happy with the close reading of Finch's Landing. Some of the students' interpretations were exciting because I had never considered them. It was a good time to learn from the students. I wish that I had gotten to the pedagogy focus a bit sooner. The class is so engaged with textual analysis that it was actually hard to move out of the primary text. I'm excited that I can continue talking some about this maybe next Wednesday. We have a speaker on Monday. I'm planning to do some research on him to prepare. I think toward to end of class a couple of students on the left side of the room disengaged. I know that students do that in general when the end of class approaches. However, I do feel that if we transitioned into the secondary text sooner, maybe they would've hung on better. I feel comfortable with this group of students. I like them.
09 March 2010
ENGL 3400 March 8
I feel disoriented from traveling to the Native American Literature Symposium. I am behind in a lot of my work. However, I'm teaching class on Wednesday the 10th. I'm excited about that. I'm teaching the Appleman chapter on feminism and its connections with To Kill A Mockingbird. I have a notepad full of things from class that I need to get on here. I'm planning to connect the secondary reading to a particular textual moment in the same manner as Dr. Insenga. I've really gotten a lot out of having a professor model. I feel like I have learned more about teaching from this position. However, I think that I've gotten so much out of it because of my experience in a classroom alone. It's as though I know what to pay attention to because I remember those situations in my own class. Mostly, those situations have been odd circumstances with students: seeing how she talks with students who aren't doing their work, watching her interactions and how she allows students to maybe flounder in ideas a bit in order to allow them to get to the learning objective on their own. Also, she models a lot for her students. Basically, since the paper assignment she has been modeling approaches. I think this is more affective than discussing the paper itself constantly. It might be beneficial to mix that, though, with students' ideas about connections for the paper.
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