Learning Letter

In my ENGL 493, Teaching Literature to Adolescents class, we completed a lot of important documents and ideas that we discussed as future teachers. More so, the book talks I really enjoyed and liked discussing certain books that I didn’t know or kinda knew about. The two books I choose to write about were “High Heat,” and “Slam!” which are great books for young adults that teach a good life moral lesson. But also, the unit plans were another piece of document that I completed in the course. This unit plan was tough and hard at times, but I pushed threw and finished in time, which it made me happy inside knowing I worked hard and completed this big unit plan. My unit plan that I created was Hamlet, as I had a timed-writing final for the end of the unit, but I had a discussion board points for the students and a library day, which allows my students to get an understanding on graphic novels. Also, I put so many other things that will show my future employers that I know how to make a TPA lesson plan. However, with some of the theories and concepts that we learnerd and explored through readings and discussions, I would have to say I really enjoyed “I Read it, But I Don’t get it,” as it gave many good ideas to help you as a reader, but to help your students out most importantly. Some of those ideas that I really enjoyed were Chapter Two: The Realities of Reading. The idea of the section called, “I’ll Do Anything but Read,” gives teachers ideas about some of the possibly students they could have in their classroom (14). That student could be somebody that doesn’t like to read, and is a “resistive reader,” who survive from listening to their teacher and fellow students (15). Henceforth, in Chapter Three: Purposes for Reading, gives the idea that every text we read has purpose and meaning behind the context. Most students determine what is important, “in the text, what is remembered, and what comprehension strategy a reader uses to enhance meaning,” these students who read difficult text often come up with these complaints such as, “I don’t care about the topic; I can’t relate to the topic; I daydream and my mind wanders; I can’t stay focused; I just say the words so I can be done; I get bored,” giving the idea that some of these students behave like this because they don’t have a reason for reading (24). Also, another concept or theory that we discussed would be the social justice in the classroom, which the article that I picked was called, “Creating Classrooms for Equity and Social Justice,” which one of the ideas that I thought was important was “Grounded in the lives of our students,” giving the idea to teachers that everything starts from the respect for our children and students. Those respects contain their innate curiosity and the capacity they can learn at (1). However, it should be the curriculum that must be rooted into their students’ needs and experiences. That can range from the teachings of science, math, and English, or even social studies/history. But also, the idea to think “Critical,” is huge, because it allows you as the teacher to think about certain questions such as, “Who makes decisions and who is left out? Who benefits and who suffers? Why is a given practice fair or unfair? What are its origins? What alternatives can we imagines? What is required to create change?” (1). Lastly, I feel that I could’ve talked a little bit more in class, but I loved hearing my fellow students talk about ideas first, then bounce a couple of my ideas on top of theirs. However, at times I liked to start of and give a few ideas for them to listen at times, but overall, I really enjoyed having these discussions in class, as it allowed other students who didn’t like to talk that much. It allowed them to get more comfortable and helped them with their speaking anxiety. Yet, I believe these discussions will help me as a future teacher, as I watch our teacher Sean bring us back on topic or helped guided us to keep the conversation going and on task. Overall, I really enjoyed this class and the ideas that will stay with us forever, and that’s what I really like and enjoyed about this class as it helped us as future teachers to create ideas to think about.  

Night By Elie Wiesel

Personally, I feel that the story “Night,” was a good book that made you want to keep reading and reading. But technically I wouldn’t teach this book in my English class-room, because not only would this story be far fetched with some of the reading assignments that I would like to accomplish. But also, I would rather teach other books that have similar themes and ideas that has more of an impact on these themes and ideas. I would rather teach the book of “Anne Frank,” if I was going to teach about the holocaust and how inhumane the Jewish people faced during World War II, but I would also teach the book “Escape from Camp 14,” which is about North Korea and up to date political topics that would get my students more engaged within a discussion group. However, I would have this book on my selves for students to read if they were truly interested with the story. Yet, I’m not bashing this book or even questioning why we read this story, because it does give great experiences that happened to the main character during World War II, and what he experienced during his time in the holocaust from the amount of deaths that happened and his family dying as well. But I would feel that it would be farfetched to teach this curriculum within an English course, and I feel that I would get some backlash from the students’ parents. Henceforth, I would probably teach this book in my history class, as it would be easy to explain why I have their children reading this book. But also, it would allow me to paint a better picture with my students the effects of the holocaust and how it ruined and killed a lot of Jewish people and their family members who were killed for no reason. I feel that this was a great book, but it would be hard to teach in an English course rather than having it for one of my history courses that I plan to teach.

Edgar Allen Poe

The short story that I choice to read was, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” by Edgar Allen Poe. Not only is it a great story but it gives a lot of imagination and suspense from the anticipation build up within the narrative character. I would totally have my students read this story as it gives such great examples of theme and imagination of the thumping and the scenes about the “vulture-eye.” Personally, I read this story in high-school or middle-school sometime, which the story freaked me out a little bit. Yet, I was really into the story and the themes behind it and often wondering why he finally broke-down and told the people about the crimes he committed against the old man and his “vultures-eye.” However, the reason why I choose this story to teach and talk about is because its one of my favorite Edgar Allen Poe writings, and I feel that if you love the text and present it to your students, they’ll feel that energy and excitement that you feel when your reading it out loud. Yet, the two poems that I find very interesting would be “The Raven,” and “Silence,” by Edgar Allen Poe, which both poems have read in class in high-school and I feel that they are appropriate to teach and dissect the context within the text. I feel that “The Raven,” will allow the students to see and understand the importance of long poems and the meaning or theme behind the poem’s context. I want my students to get an understanding of Narrative poems, and how they present themselves within the text. Yet, I want my students to get that the style Poe went for would be a musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere that I find very extravagant and a great poem that leaves you thinking a lot about. Then I feel with the poem, “Silence” I want my students to get an understanding that silence may at times associate with bad things such as dwelling and feeling lonely at times, but sometimes silence is the key to certain situations that allow you to get a better understanding on the situation at hand. Those situations could be a death in the family, but its best to sit back and reflect on the good times you had with them and remember that God is always with you as well. 

Book Talk #2 on High Heat

High Heat is a Young Adult novel by Carl Deuker published in 2003. The story opens with the first baseball game of the season for Shane Hunter’s high school team. Shane is the closer for his high-school team, which is the pitcher that is brought in at the end of the game to hold a lead for his team. Therefore, Shane attends a private school in Seattle. But one day at his game his parents were on the bleachers at Shane’s game the police come and arrest Shane’s father in front of everyone. From there the game ends and Shane’s coach, Mr. Levine, gives Shane a ride home to the exclusive gated community where his family lives. When they arrive to Shane’s house, they find police there with his mother, going through files and taking evidence away. Shane talks with his younger sister Marian, who is very upset and tries to figure out what happened to his father. When the police leave their mother takes them out to dinner and then has a long conversation with their lawyer. She explains that Shane’s Dad has been arrested for money laundering and may have been involved with drug dealers who needed to launder their money through a local business. However, Shane’s father gets released on bail and the story returns with Shane going back to school, but everyone begins to start talking about him, which leads to him getting into a fight with some teammates at his baseball practice. Yet, Coach Levine breaks up the fight and doesn’t punish Shane because of his current family situation. From there Shane tells his coach that his attitude will change, but as the story goes on, we see that Shane’s father begins to drink heavily, as he knows he’s going to be locked up. This begins to affect Shane’s pitching as he blows his next two saves from his father’s distractions and his teammates being typical high-school students that love gossip and making fun of people. Henceforth, the day that Shane gets a save and helps his team win the game, he realizes that it was the day when Shane’s father had to skip the game to meet with the police. Soon after realizing this it because really depressing for him as he wants his family’s support, but he wants to help his team win baseball games and he wants to pitch well too. Yet, another tragic event happens with Shane, as Shane gets a ride home from Coach Levine, they discover that Shane’s father has committed suicide by shooting himself. Shane learns that the family doesn’t have as much money as he thought, and his mother is forced to sell their large house and must pull both Marian and Shane out of private school. They move into a small, run-down apartment in a bad area of town and enroll in public school. There Shane begins to drink and smoke, and one day with a gang of bad kids he gets caught stealing. This is when he must do community service ordered by the judge to help fix up public baseball fields. However, one day the manager of one of the teams sees that Shane has a true love for the game and convinces him to start playing again for his team as the closer. Yet, Shane’s probation officer suggested that he do therapy instead, but Shane convinces him and his mother that it’s not necessary because he’s going to play baseball again. Shane believes that baseball will help him cope and become a better person by interacting with his new teammates and making new friends. This is when Shane finds his love for baseball again, but still deals with his anger issues and finds relief only when he is pitching. This changes when Shane sees a new family move into his old house. And soon realizes that their son, Reese, had begin to hangout with Shane’s old friends and got his spot on his old high-school baseball team. During, one of their games he finds himself pitching against his old team and the first batter he faces is the new kid Reese. There Shane gets very angry and decides to throw a fastball close to his head to brush him off the plate, but instead he ends up hitting Reese in the head and breaking his helmet and injuring him very badly. This affects Shane emotionally as he feels guilty for ruining Reese’s chance at playing baseball every again. Reese slowly recovers, but he’s not the same hitter that he was before. That when Shane decides to leave the team and stop pitching altogether. This is when he begins to visit with Reese and spend time with him, getting to know him and working through his guilt. He soon discovers that like him Reese’s life wasn’t perfect either. At first, they are angry to meet each other, but begin to practice together which Shane wants to help Reese get over his fear of hitting again. But its Reese who helps Shane out in the end as he convinces him to play baseball again and continue to be the dominate closer that he was. There Shane is able to release his guilt and anger and rediscovers his love for the game of baseball. Shane begins to start pitching well again and gets scouted to play baseball at the University of Portland.

Rationale: The reason why I choose this book for my book talk is that it’s a great story that has a lot of moral life lessons behind the text. Not only does it give great examples of situations that may be tough and difficult to handle at times, but the perseverance of the main character as he truly never gave up the love for the game, and somehow always came back and found his love and started dominating again. However, the text would best be appropriate for high-school from 9^th grade and up, or if a well matured 8^th grader wanted to read it.

Challenges: I believe that there wouldn’t be a lot of challenges behind presenting this text for my students to read, but I do believe some parents wouldn’t be too thrilled with their child reading about drinking and smoking and stealing during Shane’s dark days.

Teaching Ideas: Some teaching ideas that I would have my students discuss or write about would be the “Character and Values,” of each character and the meaning behind them; Also I would have my students discuss the “Culture and Diversity,” from the book and how it relates to our city or community as well; Lastly, I would have my students talk about the importance of “Friends and Friendship,” as some students understand the difficulty of not fitting in or having that many friends during high-school.  

Into the Wild

Personally, I really enjoyed the book “Into the Wild,” it gives the audience the idea that money isn’t necessarily that root of happiness as the main character Christopher Johnson gives up all his money to move into the wild. I read this book at a young age, and kind of understood the moral and meaning behind the story. At a young age, I was a little immature and didn’t understand why a man would give up all his money and move to the wild. But now at a more mature age and having a better understanding I feel that this book would be perfect to teach to my students, as it gives life lessons and a lot of morals within the text. The context that I would present to my students would be the themes, and the settings behind the text and how they relate to each other and the beauty behind the setting of the narrative. The setting part of the text, I would have my students gives descriptions of the bus and how they visualize the way Alaska looks and the beauty behind it. I would want my students to give possible themes and ideas behind certain text that I picked out and give their thoughts and opinion on the text to allow me to understand their way of thinking or thought process. However, the possible challenges that I could be facing would be from the parents, as the book discusses a lot of sexually thoughts and ideas that Christopher writes about his friends and gives his point of view whether the person was sexually active or not. But also, parents wouldn’t be to thrill with how the main character discusses him and his friends drinking, which could be a big influence on their children. Yet, with the school district and board, I feel that they would be understanding and allowing me to teach this book to my students, as my old middle school and teacher was allowed to teach us this book at a 7^th grade level, which was a great experience as we had a lot of great discussions inside the classroom.

The Round House

After, reading the book “The Round House,” by Louise Erdrich. I thought that it was a great book that was very suspenseful and kept you on the edge of your seat throughout each chapter of the book. However, the idea of teaching this book to my classroom would be very difficult and hard to teach the themes and the main plot to my students. But also, I feel it would be hard to get my principal and school district to back up this book as well. Not only due from the amount of cussing that goes on within this book such as Erdrich writes, “Oh fuck you, said Zack. Cappy laughed. Why don’t you let him stay on till he gets really big? They’ll call you Three Balls. Like Old Man Niswi, I said. He really had three. It’s true. My grandma knows, said Zach,” which most of their friendship interactions have a lot of cussing and talking about sexually reactions and encounters. However, another issue would be the strip tease that Sonja gives to both Joe and Mooshum for Mooshum’s birthday gift. The scene gets wild and almost leaves Mooshum having a heartache from Sonja getting naked and making his heart work-hard. Also, the graphic scene of Sonja showing Joe her cut-up boob that was messed up from her pimp or boss that she worked for at the strip club. Yet, another example of why I wouldn’t teach this book is because of the excess drinking from Mooshum, and the underage drinking that might influence other students in that type of behavior. Lastly, the main reason why I would have trouble teaching this book would be the rape that happens to Joe’s mother Geraldine. Not only does she give the description on what happened that night, as she was attacked and brutally raped and almost killed by getting burned alive. But the trauma and the depression that she goes through is almost hard to teach to my students, as I feel it would difficult to teach based on the graphic images and ideas that would affect students who had a family member that was brutally attacked, or something happened to them personally. This leads me to believe that I would recommend the book to read on their own, but to teach as a class I probably wouldn’t take on this book out of fear that their parents wouldn’t be happy and the school board as well.  

I Read It, But I Don't Get It

The book I Read It, But I Don’t Get It, was a very good piece of information that helps teachers and readers, such as your students and yourself. Therefore, some of the certain parts of the book I would like to discuss would be Chapter Two: The Realities of Reading. The idea of the section called, “I’ll Do Anything but Read,” gives teachers ideas about some of the possibly students they could have in their classroom (14). That student could be somebody that doesn’t like to read, and is a “resistive reader,” who survive from listening to their teacher and fellow students (15). Personally, I had a lot of friends that were “resistive readers,” and didn’t care to read that much, and would wait to hear ideas and the summary from other students or friends. However, it is up to us, as teachers to help guide them to understand the purpose of reading. Henceforth, in Chapter Three: Purposes for Reading, gives the idea that every text we read has purpose and meaning behind the context. Most students determine what is important, “in the text, what is remembered, and what comprehension strategy a reader uses to enhance meaning,” these students who read difficult text often come up with these complaints such as, “I don’t care about the topic; I can’t relate to the topic; I daydream and my mind wanders; I can’t stay focused; I just say the words so I can be done; I get bored,” giving the idea that some of these students behave like this because they don’t have a reason for reading (24). Yet, these students often believe that “They pronounce the words, finish the assignment, and rarely come away with a thorough understanding. It is a waste of time; they haven’t constructed meaning and can’t use the information,” but it’s up to the teachers to show the importance of reading and understanding the purpose of the text (24). Hence, the next idea that I thought was important and a good topic to discuss would be from Chapter Seven: What Do You Wonder, giving the reader the idea to always have questions and to wonder what is going on within the text. This thought comes from the idea that, “Questioning engages readers especially in relation to difficult or uninteresting material. If readers look for answers to their questions, they focus on the text and their mind is less inclined to wander,” as its our job to help guide and raise questions within our students to allow them to become better readers in the future (85).