Final Reflection

This was, far and away, one of the most influential classes that I have been a part of here at Western. I feel as though the small class environment and the discussion based classroom really elevated the level of learning that we experienced. In all, the class was one of my favorites, and there are many things that I will take away from here and use in my future classrooms.

The blogs were an interesting change of pace for me. I have never been one to blog online so I had no previous experience with such a practice. At first I was highly skeptical, I put off blogging for a good several weeks before I finally got my rear in gear and began writing them. What I found, however, is that blogs can be a great way for students to share and express the ideas that they are encountering in the classroom. We are always promoting an atmosphere conduscive to discussion and sharing of knowledge, and what better way to do that then to have them share both in and out of the classroom? Looking at others' ideas can help you analyze and discuss your own ideas, and sharing your opinions can actually be quite cathartic in itself. I am honestly considering using something like this in a high school class to create the same atmosphere.

The Group Teach Project was a great way to end the semester and in our group we found ourselves wondering how to employ the various techniques and ideas that we had discovered in the 480 classroom. The Individual Final Project was a little more frustrating for me, but I realize that I didn't make the effort to talk with you about the project as much as the other students probably did. I felt a little awkward creating my own final project, a little unsure perhaps, but in the end I realized that we, as future teachers, are going to have to do this quite often in the future, so I'd better get used to it.

Everything about the class seemed to fit well with everything else that we were learning together, and the composition of the students really seemed to mesh well with the discussion centered teaching. I truly enjoyed this experience, and felt that it was benefitial to me as a teacher of english. Thank you Todd, and the class, for a great semester.

Appleman Activity 16

While doing activity 16 from the Appleman text I couldn't help but think about Jonathan Kozol's book, "Shame of the Nation." In this book, Kozol explains the increasingly segregated world that our public schooling system is becomming and why that is happening. Although you don't even need to put a marxist lens on to understand the arguments that he is presenting, it does help you to realize the significance of his argument. In this book the author explains how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and when the poor areas get too poor, the rich move out of the area making it more poor. In today's public school system, the kids are more segregated racially than they ever have been in American history. Understanding how social class plays a part in the creation of urban districts and schools (marxist theory) can help your understanding of this horrible phenomenon.

The Giver Group Teach

I think that our presentation on "The Giver" went over fairly well. I was kind of hoping that the discussion portions of the presentation would have been more lively than they were, but Eric (thank you) and Todd kept the banter going for the most part. :) I was happy that we included so many activities (and activities that no other group had used yet) because it kept the class occupied and engaged in new ways. I really liked how the "cross the line" activity played out because I wasn't sure if the class was going to get into it. At the end of that particular activity though everyone seemed to have enjoyed it, and I really think that I will use this in my classroom some day. My other favorite activity was the "create your own ending." I just think that the ambiguous ending leaves a lot to be desired, and I liked the opportunity to create for myself, Jonas's ending. In the end, I feel like every group did a fantastic job, and it was a learning experience for all of us.

Violent Cases Group Teach

This presentation kept me much more interested than I thought I would be. I've never been much of a fan of graphic novels or comics, or anything of that nature, but I think I might have to consider using them in my classroom now that I know what I can do with them. I really liked the activity which had us all draw seperate pictures of a comic and then have the last person narrate the story of what happened. It seemed as though you guys knew what you were talking about and knew where you wanted to go, although our discussion of "memories" seemed to get off track for quite a while. One area for improvement might be to not walk around while we were working on the first few activities. Sure, this is a fine strategy to use in your future classrooms, but we are all future teachers here, I don't feel like it is necessary to walk around the inside of the circle and "check up on us" (there were only 5 of us anyway) as if we were doing something wrong - it just felt awkward. Your group did a great job though.

The Bell Jar Group Teach

Your group did a great job! I felt kind of bad, at the time, that you had only 4 or 5 people to "teach to," but I guess that turned out to be about the norm for everyone. You had some excellent activities and the discussion never died. One area for improvement might have been to have a longer "summary" section of the presentation, but I guess everyone was supposed to read the book beforehand so that may not have been appropriate. I especially enjoyed the background info activity where we had to place our piece of paper up on the board. I liked it because most of the time I hate going over the background of the author (or whatever else the background information is for) but this activity got me up off my butt and involved. Overall, a great job!

"Literature and Lives" - Allen Webb

Of the three texts that we were to read for class, this one was, by far, my favorite selection. The author's description of each literary theory was simple, straightforward, and easy to understand. I also liked how each literary theory or practice was set off from the rest of the text in a gray box, this made it very easy to go back into the book and find the specific literary theory that I was looking for. Webb makes it easy for the readers to follow his ideas from beginning to end, and makes it even easier to understand the use for each and every theory. On top of this he includes activities, examples, and language that is easy to breeze through. Overall, this text was the most appealing and the most rewarding to finish. I feel as though it was a great choice for ENG 4800 and I know that I will use it again as a resource.

"Critical Encounters" - Deborah Appleman

This text is my least favorite of the three that we used for class. Overall, I feel like the author used far far far to many examples which, for the most part, didn't even seem like real students would write. I did like that the author toughed on many of the literary theories that we studied in class, but she was not nearly as extensive in her definitions of those theories as the other text was. I didn't have a particularly favorite or least favorite chapter, but as a whole I would have left this book at the bookstore. Too many words with too little information, but some of the activities at the end of the book were interesting enough to warrant my opening of this book at a later date.

"You Gotta BE the Book" - Jeffrey Wilhelm

Of the three texts that we had to read for this semester, I would place this one roughly in the middle. I think it is a great book for ENG 4800 because it does include a lot of activities that a secondary school teacher can use, and yes, I will be able to use it as a resources in my future classroom. My favorite chapter would have to be the one on using drama to enhance the experience of the reader because I have always been a fan of using drama and theatre activities to liven up the classroom experience. My least favorite chapter would have to be the first one simply because it doesn't have as much "stuff" as the rest of the book does. Overall, I'd say that this was a worthwhile investment for me.