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).   

EWU’s TPA guidelines and edTPA Making Good Choices

Personally, I like how the guidelines are very well organized, and lets the teacher know what to put in each section of the document going from the “Length of Lesson, Academic and Content Standards (Common Core/National), Learning Objectives, Academic Language, Assessment, and Lesson Connection etc.” However, having the information that goes along with each section that Sean gave to us to help guide, and gives us a better understanding what to put in each section and the requirements that go along with each section. Yet, the ideas that was given from the document on the “edTPA Making Good Choices,” was helpful for future teachers to get ideas to help guide them on making a good lesson plan. Some of the ideas that were good to think about would be “Planning Ahead,” as it gives good ideas that talks about time management and working steadily and regularly as you must save time for revisions and edits that will allow you to represent your best thoughts (Pg.2). Yet, another important idea on helping teachers to make a good choice with their edTPA lesson plans would be Organizing as it talks about giving good organization on the context you must give with you lesson plan. Then it gives ideas on to “provide specific, concrete examples to support your assertions,” which you must support your examples and evidence of your teachings (Pg.5). Lastly, another good idea is the importance of “Understand the Rubrics,” and “Alignment of Rubrics and Commentary Prompts,” that gives teachers ideas on the importance of rubrics and the structures that it gives for their students. This structure allows students the idea what you as the teacher wants within their essay structure and the grammar requirements (Pg. 6). Henceforth, the Alignment Rubric was very important for teachers to look at, as it gives ideas on how to grade a student with a chart structure that gives a 1-5 point system with a total at the end for their grade. Therefore, the grade rubric gives teachers an idea and examples on how to create their grade rubric. 

Creating Classrooms for equity and social Justice

Social justice inside the classroom is very important topic and way to conduct yourself as a teacher inside the classroom. However, the definition of social justice can be defined as a justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. Yet, an article that I found to be helpful and full of wonderful examples ranging from different ideas and scenarios that a teacher may face during the classroom. The article is 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). These questions are very important to ask to yourself and to think about. Yet, the idea on “Multicultural, anti-racist, pro-justice,” is another important topic that the article talks about. I really enjoyed the thought they brought up about the myth about how textbooks often value the “Great White Men,” over other minorities. Which I don’t necessarily agree with because a lot of text talk about the brotherhood of American and becoming one as a nation. But the idea they bring up about Native Americans with history is very true, but that was the past and its never good for history to repeat itself. In which, social justice is important to have inside the classroom as it allows students to feel safe, and as a teachers it is our responsible to create a safe environment.

https://www.rethinkingschools.org/static/publication/roc1/Intro.pdf

Book Talk on Slam!

Slam! by Walter Dean Myers 

Summary: “Slam!” is a young adult novel by Walter Dean Myers. The story revolves around the seventeen-year-old Greg “Slam” Harris efforts on playing basketball, while maintaining his academics and his personal life. Therefore, Slam lives in Harlem, New York and goes to a prestigious magnet school in the South Bronx called Latimer. The school is mainly white students with a couple minorities. In which, the high-school has a failing basketball program, which Slam is seen as this black hope to help them succeed and win a State Title. However, the real reason why Slam is attending Latimer is because he is part of a policy that enables schools to become more diverse. From there the story jumps ahead over the course of several months, Slam helps lead the Latimer Panthers to victory, including one over his former school’s team called Carver. At his old high-school Carver, Slam has a lifelong friendship with his friend Ice. But their friendship disintegrates as Ice turns to drug dealing to get ahead in life to make money for his family. Also, Slam’s love life heats up when he begins seeing Mtisha, who goes to Carver. Their relationship begins to heat up, as Mtisha tutors Slam in math. At the same time, Slam’s grandmother gets sick and goes into the hospital, which causes Slam a lot of stress and pressure on his shoulders to make his Grandmother proud. His grandmother will recover eventually from her sickness. Yet, Slam’s other like his father, who is unemployed, turns to the bottle to coup with not bringing money into the family. However, the person who holds everything together in Slam’s life and family is his mother. She works a bunch of jobs to help support her family. Lastly, his friend Ducky and Nick help Slam realize that it’s better to work as a team, then playing a lone wolf type of game. From there, this helps Slam understand the true value of teamwork and helps Latimer beat Carver and his best friend Ice during the state title game. Yet, it is the team’s assistant coach named Goldstein that becomes a grandfatherly mentor to Slam, telling Slam that life is a game as well- it can be won, or it can be lost. The choice is ultimately up to Slam. In the end, Slam takes Goldstein’s advice and looks ahead to the future.

Rationale: The reason why I choose this text, is because I enjoyed reading this book during my 8^th grade year. That year we learned about Walter Dean Myers, as we read the book “Monster,” which I grew to like his writing styles and the setting of New York. Myer’s gave detail of New York that made you always feel like you’re next to the main character. However, the text would be appropriate for students 8^th grade and up. I believe that 8^th grader will be able to understand the morals of the story and certain themes that are hard to understand at certain text. The text in the book isn’t small print, but rather medium print with over 260 pages. This text could be challenging to understand for a 6^th grader or even an elementary student, from the use of slang and the idea of drug dealing. But also, most young students don’t like to read 200 book pages as they believe those type of books are too long or hard to understand in their mindset.

Teaching Ideas: In this book there are plenty of examples of similes and metaphors in the way that Slam talks about his life and the challenges he faces, but also the deep and abiding love of basketball that he has. For example, how he introduces himself to the reader and how he described his love of his favorite sport:
            “I’m six four, and I got the moves, the eye and the heart. You can take my game to the                              bank and wait around for the interest” (1).

This quote would be an example of an implied metaphor, as the speaker is comparing his skill and talent in basketball to a financial investment. Slam believes that he is secure and safe as a basketball player that you can do nothing more but wait for his success on the court.  

Another, teaching idea would be the setting of Slam! In which, all the settings come from Myers’s own upbringing in Harlem, New York. There is a lot of quotes that help illustrate the setting and the nature of Harlem from the family’s neighborhood that is alive with family-run businesses, like Bill’s bicycle shop and the Wedgies joint, but also the threats and dangers of drive-by shootings, which Myer’s includes in the story to show the dangers of walking in Harlem.  

Lastly, another teaching idea would be about the themes of the story, and the importance of teamwork. Although basketball is a team game, Slam is a bit of a lone wolf, playing for himself more than for others. Also, the coaches begin to think Slam is bit of a showboat, and someone who’s not prepared to give his all for the team. However, with all the other problems going on in Slam’s life, he somehow needs to reconcile his heightened sense of individuality, both as a young man and as an athlete, with the needs of basketball team. At first, it’s hard for Slam to do because his ego holds him back from developing good relationships with his teammates. It’s only until the end he realizes the importance of teamwork and working together to help one another out.  

Challenges: Some of the challenges would be the slang that is used during interactions, which comes off hard to understand the meaning behind the text. I feel that the students wouldn’t understand these slangs that correctly or even their parent could be upset with the idea that their child his reading slang, which they could copy those same sayings that comes off as illiterate. Another idea would be the drug dealing. Slam’s best friend Ice begins to start drug dealing to make money, which could cause some students to believe that its morally okay even though it’s not. In which, I believe that parents wouldn’t be too happy with their kids getting ideas about drug dealing, or even the administrators wouldn’t be to be thrilled with the idea of these students learning about drug dealing and spotting people doing drugs by their looks and demeanor. Also, I feel that students would be uncomfortable with the idea of dealing with race, as Slam is an African American and the example of race is often brought up in the book.

Popular Culture and Critical Media Pedagogy in Secondary Literacy Classrooms

The article “Popular Culture and Critical Media Pedagogy in Secondary Literacy Classrooms,” had some rather interesting ideas on the framework of teaching media and cultural studies to urban youth students that need much academics and literacy within their students. It’s leading to believe that a “person of 60 years of age, for example, has seen, read, or heard as many as 50 million advertisements,” which the idea that media culture is the most dominant culture in our society nowadays. The idea that it is almost, “true that the media play a central role in the construction of race, class, and gender in problematic ways,” which often leads to stereotypes (3). These media framework can often lead minorities, “feeling of alienation and inferiority while also justifying individual and institutional racism,” which gives these minorities a message of uncertainty (3). However, it is up to us, as teachers to help make these meaningful “connections between out-of-school literacy practices and academic literacy instruction aimed at academic achievement, economic empowerment, and social change,” which allows teachers to draw upon these connections to accomplish multiple aims at media. Yet, it is up to the teacher to help students to “critically interrogate the mass media,” that plays a central role in their identity development and worldviews (4). Yet, it our jobs as teachers to help our students to identify and recognize the “difference between reality and the media’s various representations of reality. Individuals wishing to remain informed need to learn to ‘read’ news media carefully; they must also triangulate traditional readings with counter-reading of media texts writing or using other images when and where they can, whether through a web page, a community newsletter, a brochure, an independent newspaper, a letter to the editor, a message sent out on a listserv, or the production and distribution of digital films,” there our students can understand and get the meaning behind the advertisement (4). Lastly, I believe this article is good for teachers, so they can get ideas on how to reach their students using media. This will allow teachers to connect and understand certain students’ views and thoughts on society that involves media outlets. Not only, will it allow teachers to connect with their students, but it allows teacher to give their point of views on certain advertisement or media outlets that influence our students nowadays.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

The article “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” was quite interesting and gave teachers a lot of ideas to think about. The one idea that I thought was rather interesting was the teacher-student relationship, which gives teachers ideas on how to have a teacher-student relationship. One of the ideas was that these relationships, “involves a narrating subject and patient listening objects,” there the student would get to understand the content and empirical views of reality better from the views that the teacher gives to his students (1). However, the idea is that narrative education comes from students record of memorizing and repeating phrases. In belief that the idea of narration, “leads the students to memorize mechanically the narrated account. Worse yet, it turns them into ‘containers,’ into ‘receptacles’ to be ‘filled’ by teachers,” which it is our job as teachers to help fill our students with knowledge and ideas to help them succeed with schooling (1). From there the students will understand your approach and be more willing to permit themselves to be filled with knowledge, which will allow them to be better students in the long run. Yet, the idea of education becomes an act of “depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiques and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat,” there the teachers becomes like a bank (1). The idea of teachers being like banks are the concept of education, “in which the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits. They do, it is true, have the opportunity to become collectors or cataloguers of the things they store. But in last analysis, it is the people themselves who are filed away through the lack of creativity, transformation, and knowledge in this (at best) misguided system” (1). Lastly, another idea that I thought was important to think about is the idea of banking education is to, “minimize or annul the student’s creative power and to stimulate their credulity serves the interests of the oppressors, who cares neither to have the world revealed nor to see it transformed,” there teachers get the idea that it is our job to better educate these students and to take some of these ideas to help our own teaching in the future (2).