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.

Webb Chapter 7

This chapter of Allen Webb's book discusses several previously untouched literary theory practices. The first of these that I want to talk about is Poststructuralism. This theory draws upon the Reader Response theory in the sense that there are no "fixed meanings" of a particular text, but it differs from RR in that there it sees readers and writers as not being altogether unique in their experience with a given text. Poststructuralism looks for patterns that are inherent within the text in order to render them as familiar in relation to other texts that have been written. Webb describes this theory best on pages 134 and 135 when he says that while using this theory, "no one has an isolated, complete, or 'unified' consciousness separate from the language and culture in which we all live. Individuals are cultural beings, and language, texts, institutions, and social practices script the way we think and act. In this view, rather than being universal, human nature is particular and depends on culture, social codes, and the historical moment." I tend to like this literary theory for the simple fact that it assumes that language creates reality. The only truths that could possibly be found in literature texts are the ones that we, as humans, have created, thus we must interpret and analyze literature according to its individual and collective relationship to all other literature texts. Another literary theory that I'd like to explore is that of Postmodernism. I like this theory because of its inherently subjective qualities. Indeed Webb even says, "postmodernism means different things to different people," (page 143). Postmodernism attempts to refuse any distinct difference between the "individual" and the "society," and instead views literature as a "collage" of every possible experience and interaction. Almost as a metaphor for our diverse student populations within each classroom community, Webb says that, "[i]n its best version, postmodernist teaching means respect for difference; recognition of compositeness, mixture, blending; and examination of the restrictions that prevent people from creative participation in the making and hybridizing of culture," (page 143). One final theory from this chapter which deserves mentioning is the Post-Marxism theory. Like Marxism theory, this approach to literature strives to realize the "power of the people." Putting on the lens of this theoretical approach would have you emphasizing the voices of the "marginal" or "oppressed" groups of people while exposing the threat of the "dominant" voices. Like the traditional Marxists who "believe that the way people think and believe, their 'ideology,' is not something that they freely choose," Webb says on page 150 that, "many post-Marxist scholars continue to draw insight and inspiration from socialist thought while rejecting its oppressive aspects." An interesting analogy that Webb uses while discussing this literary theory explores how this "approach to teaching might treat schools themselves as texts and ask students to explore the structure of curriculum and learning," (page 151). In light of the No Child Left Behind Act, and specifically its use of "Adequate Yearly Progress" to determine federal funding, this literary theory could be used to explain why failing schools (the oppressed minority voices) continue to fail, while passing schools (the predominant majority voice) continue to succeed.

Webb Chapter 4

The youth violence "crisis," as it is termed in this chapter of Literature and Lives is an issue that is prevalent in the public school system (especially urban districts) today. I like that Webb uses his selected texts, like Native Son, to facilitate discussion of this difficult topic. Using violence as a common thread among students, I feel, can actually have a positive influence on an English classroom, rather than a negative one (if used correctly, of course). In Jonathan Kozol's Shame of the Nation, he too uses personal experiences concerning violence and texts that involve violence to build a common understanding between students that would, under normal circumstances, not be able to easily find common ground. Since violence is such a universal theme in our world, more importantly in the world of our students, using it to promote discussion about controversial topics and to build relationships between your students seems like an effective strategy. This could also work to build the relationship between you (the teacher) and your students who might not assume that you share a common bond. On page 59 Webb writes that, "[m]ulticultural studies, like women's studies, has recovered lost literary voices, helped connect literature to cultural and social movements, and helped establish a theoretical base for understanding minority - and majority - cultural traditions." Adding to the English classroom's literature "canon," multicultural texts can include "rediscovered" and new authors that wouldn't have become so influential through the use of other literary theories. As important or significant as other theories may be, I think it is interesting to note that the author says, "[a] primary issue for all of the multicultural textbooks is that their incorporation of multicultural literature often becomes an assimilation of new texts to old literary approaches," (page 60). Looking at a multicultural literary texts through the lens of a New Critic, for example, would only "isolate the literary work from its author and culture," (page 60). Similarly, "reader response approaches [would] fail to assist students to bridge social, cultural, and historical distances in works outside their own cultural experience," (page 60). Another important idea addressed in this chapter is the idea of Media Studies. We live today in a global society that finds it easier than ever to influence ideas and understandings on a world wide scale. Ignoring the impact that mass communication and mediated communication has on our students (and ourselves) is a detrimental mistake. Rather than ignoring this phenomenon, why don't the English teachers try to embrace it? Like Webb states himself on page 67 when he says, "perhaps the most effective way to address media studies is to integrate media study into literature and cultural study. Understanding film, popular culture, or the mass media is serious intellectual work; combining media and literary studies allows a wide range of creative and critical possibilities."

Appleman Chapter 8

In the concluding chapter of Critical Encounters, Deborah Appleman does a decently successful job of reiterating all of her previous points and reemphasizing the ones that she feels are most important to her teaching pedagogy. The activity that she describes in the beginning of this chapter has students encountering and interacting with every theory that they've learned about during their year in the teacher's classroom. The "Theory Relay" allows students the opportunity to critically encounter the literature, the world, and each other by looking at literature texts through the lens of various literary theories, no matter how "messy" or "unpredictable" those encounters may be (page 138). "High school English teachers are under pressure to teach their students to read literature in ways that lead to more flexible formulations of meaning, in ways that are more relevant to their contemporary lives," (page 139). Doesn't this sound a lot like the progressive education techniques our ED teachers seem to embrace so dearly? I admit that through my reading of this book, I have come to accept the idea that teaching literary theory in an English classroom can go a long way in helping students develop their own personal strategies for interacting with texts. The passage on page 139 goes on to say that, "New forms of literary theory have useful applications in high school English classrooms and they support effective teaching practices in three different ways... [1] literary theory has implications for how people read... [2] literary theory has implications for what is read... [3] literary theory simulates the production of ideas and discourages reductive thinking." Knowing and understanding these three useful applications of literary theory can help me, as a future English teacher, to encourage my students to use and apply these practices in their everyday encounters with literature texts. Emphasizing the importance of using multiple perspectives when searching for meaning in a text can help the students become more informed learners and, as a result, also help eliminate biases and stereotypes that still exist in our society today. Encouraging our students to interact with, and affect change within, the world around them should be one of the most important goals that we have as teachers. We know that students subconsciously use literary theories as they encounter texts, but "letting them in on the secret" can be a seriously effective way to teach literature. As one of the last students in this book is quoted on page 146, "[y]es, we can use [literary theories] in the world, and I think that's why we are taught that we've used these lenses all along. We actually have a name for it now."

Appleman Chapter 7

"We may claim to scorn theory, but the moment we begin teaching, we enact our understanding - our theories - of what language and communication are all about and what kinds of reading, writing, and talking deserve student effort. Theory is there, although it may be either explicit or submerged, sensible or chaotic." This quote by Bruce Pirie on page 117 is precisely how I would describe my personal feelings on literary theory in the classroom. Whether or not you, as a teacher, are even aware of what you are doing, you are using some sort of literary theory when you teach. If this is truly the case, as I think it is, then the author's idea about letting the students "see behind the curtain" should be embraced and applied in our secondary English classrooms. Students who engage with literature texts at any level are going to be, either consciously or not, using literary theory when they try to determine a text's meaning. Why should we keep them uninformed like we're hiding some amazing secret? By letting them know what theories are out there, and how to apply those theories to every piece of literature that they read, we will create better informed and better prepared learners. The extended vignette about Martha's teaching career in this chapter demonstrates how a teacher grows throughout their career just like the students do. Just like we've been learning in all of our ED classes here at Western, the ones that push for progressive education at least, we must consider ourselves "more experienced learners" rather than simply "the ones with all the knowledge." It is interesting to see how Martha grew in her own learning with the help of her students, even as she was helping the students to grow in theirs. I, of course, never even considered this idea during my secondary education. I was too worried about regurgitating the information that they had thrown at me on the weekly quiz. It is interesting for me to see this teacher student relationship from the other side of the looking glass (as Appleman likes to describe it), and consider how I can better approach my own teaching strategies in order to more effectively impact my students. I was never really aware of my personal teaching "goals" until very recently. I have always known that I wanted to be a teacher and affect young minds, but I suppose I never really considered exactly why?... The quote I want to share from the end of the chapter, on page 136, I think best describes why teacher insight, as a more experienced learner, and the application of literary theory, by both students and teachers, are important tools in any secondary English classroom: "By introducing her students to several literary theories and approaches to literary interpretation, she encourages them to think about multiple meanings for the varied literary texts they read together. This multiplicity leads Martha and her students to unpredictable possibilities and challenges in their study of literature. The excitement is evident in the enthusiastic and wide-ranging nature of the classroom talk. Martha's classroom is filled with the energy that comes only when students genuinely invest in their own learning." Isn't that what every teacher should strive for in their classroom?... Unpredictable possibilities and challenges that are discovered when students genuinely invest in their own learning.

Appleman Chapter 6

I found chapter 6 of Critical Encounters to be less exciting than many of the other chapters. First off, I felt that Appleman's example of an MTV music video - comparing it to a deconstructionist theory - to be a little bit of a stretch. I understand what she was going for, but I just don't think that it really worked as an analogy. Another thing that I didn't particularly like about this chapter was that the author reverted back to her chapter 1 style of letting other authors do the talking for her. There were too many lengthy quotations and not enough explanation. I understand that DT is a complicated one, and hard to define, but some of the definitions that she chose to include were contradictory, or, at the very least, uncomplimentary of one another. She admits this fact on page 106 when she says, "[p]erhaps, as with this chapter, the most difficult part of teaching deconstruction to adolescents is the attempt to define it." Indeed, even her definition on page 103 seems slightly ironic in that she says, "[e]ven those who are firmly convinced of the usefulness of other kinds of literary theory readily dismiss deconstruction as both frivolous and difficult." It seems to me that practitioners of other literary theories may admit to deconstructions difficulty, but would they really claim it to be "frivolous?" Is it even possible for something such as this theory to be both "difficult" and "frivolous" at the same time? Her examples and definitions of this literary theory are weak at best but there was one definition that she included in the chapter that worked a little better for me. Leggo's definition on page 101 says that "[a]ccording to deconstruction, a text is not a window a reader can look through in order to see either the author's intention or an essential truth, nor is the text a mirror that turns back a vivid image of the reader's experiences, emotions, and insights. Instead, deconstruction is a practice of reading that aims to make meaning from a text by focusing on how the text works rhetorically, and how a text is connected to other texts as well as the historical, cultural, social, and political contexts in which texts are written, read, published, reviewed, rewarded, and distributed." The very idea of deconstruction theory seems ironic to me. If deconstruction says that language is unstable and ambiguous, then can't we also say that the conclusions we come to by using this theory in practice are equally unstable and ambiguous?

Webb Chapter 3

The first thing that I liked about this chapter concerning feminist theory and gender studies was the author's personal example of his inexperience within a classroom focused on feminist theory. He admits that prior to that class he had very little exposure to either FT or female authors for that matter. His example helps to make readers, like myself, who are unfamiliar with such material feel slightly more at ease. As a personal example of my own, about a year ago I was asked by a random person on campus if I would be willing to answer a few survey questions regarding feminism. I agreed, of course, and he asked me right off the bat whether or not I considered myself a feminist. I answered no, and his follow up question was something like, "so you don't believe in equal rights for women?" I was appalled! Just because I didn't consider myself a feminist surely didn't mean that I thought women in this world deserve less than a man does... I was unaware at the time that a "feminist," by definition, is someone who believes in equal rights for women. The negative connotations that our society associates with the term "feminism" conjours up images of crotchety old lesbians who do nothing but "man-bash," and I think it is important, as future educators of America, to dispel with these myths. I proudly consider myself a feminist now that I am more aware and knowledgeable about the issue, and I feel as though Webb would agree. The importance of FT and Gender Studies is obvious when we take into account the culture that our students are faced with every day. "[T]eenagers and young adults are immersed in a world where gender roles are supercharged. Unfortunately, young people typically have few opportunities to carefully examine gender codes, roles, and expectations. The work of women's studies and gender studies thus becomes particularly relevant to English teachers and forms one of the most important approaches under the cultural studies umbrella," (page 38). The author goes on to say, on page 47, "[l]ike feminist and multicultural studies, gay and lesbian studies is also tied to broader social movements and events." Using these types of studies in your secondary classroom is another way to explore controversial topics and the "broader social movements" that create such transformations in cultural ideologies.

Appleman Chapter 5

Chapter 5 of Critical Encounters deals with Feminist Theory and is very similar in many ways to Chapter 4 on Marxist Theory. The point of FT, as I perceive it, is a lot like MT because it strives to interpret literature texts by examining the treatment and perceptions of typical oppressed groups. FT allows readers to witness an expansion of literary canon beyond "dead white guys," to include works from previously unread and under utilized authors. The author suggests, on page 77, that there are "at least four dimensions in which using feminist theory can transform students' reading... [1] how students view female characters and [2] appraise the author's stance towards those characters... [3] how students evaluate the significance of the gender of the author in terms of its influence on a particular work... [4] how students read the gendered patterns in the world." An example of the application of this theory in the classroom is given concerning the work, The Yellow Wallpaper. Students are able to view this story from two complete separate perspectives. One interpretation shows the husband as sympathetic to his wife's needs, trying to do everything he can to help her "illness." Another reading of the story demonstrates the female character's insignificance compared to her male counterpart. Using an ambiguous text such as this can easily help students realize the importance and significance of such literary theories. One thing about this chapter that bothered me was the amount of student comments supporting the author's argument. Even despite the shear number of included comments, some of the comments themselves seemed to be sort of contrived like this one concerning Mount Rushmore on page 89, "[t]here are no females; are females just not good enough to be on national monuments?" I'm not suggesting that the argument isn't a valid one, but my reading of the comments suggests that some of the students were just looking for the "right" answer to appease their teacher. I'm sure, however, that this would probably happen regardless of the theory being used.

Webb Chapter 6

I really looked forward to this chapter of Literature and Lives because of the impact this particular topic has had on our immediate area. I liked that Webb uses the example from the Kalamazoo area school district because it allowed me to make a little personal connection with what he was talking about. On page 108 the author writes, "[u]pset that their freedom in the classroom was impinged upon, these teachers were also confused and pained that parents should find the text [Huckleberry Finn] and their methods insensitive." I think that, for the most part, teachers put a lot of time and effort into preparing for and applying their classroom curricula, and it is obviously hurtful when someone (or, especially, an entire community) tries to discredit your reasons for choosing a particular literary text. The relationship between censorship and teacher freedom is a perilous one but I think Webb is absolutely right in saying that communication is essential at all levels of the secondary school. Keeping parents and administrators well informed about how, and WHY, you are going to teach a certain text will eliminate most confrontations before they even begin. On top of that, he mentions the need for courage from secondary school teachers to continue tackling controversial topics in the face of opposition. "While there are many resources and organizations ready to help teachers create create intellectual freedom in the classroom, the courage teachers most need must come from within," (page 110). Just like he discusses in chapter 2, he argues in this chapter that controversial issues are not only a part of the educational process, but a necessary component in the enhancement of student learning and experience. I liked, also, that he gives teachers a few insights on how to handle dealing with such weighted topics in their classrooms, such as giving the students options on how to handle and discuss difficult material. Rather than forcing students to read the "n" word from Huckleberry Finn aloud in class, perhaps you let them skip over that word, or just eliminate passages that contain that word from the selected passages you have them read in front of their peers. I strongly believe that as teachers in the secondary classroom we should teach "in light of" controversial issues, not "in spite of" them.

Webb Chapter 2

The chapter dealing with homelessness in Literature and Lives was an influential one. I thoroughly enjoyed Webb's story of his personal experience and interactions with a homeless man near his house and found that it was, to a certain degree, rather enlightening (or at least entertaining). Using controversial issues in your classroom to encourage discussion among your students is a strategy that I look forward to using. I strongly believe that learning, even in a public school setting (perhaps, especially in a public school setting), facilitates learning on a whole new level. Not only are students involved with literature and the "content expectations," but they are also forced to evaluate their personal feelings and beliefs about a whole range of issues facing our society. On page 15 Webb writes, "It was evident from our discussion that the problem of homelessness was not only close at hand, but also something students had strong feelings about." He goes on to say, "I sensed that exploring the issues the students were raising would take us deeper, engaging us in new kinds of critical thinking about the world and our places in it." The author suggests that dealing with controversial issues in the classroom, as difficult as this may be for most teachers, is a crucial part in the facilitation of the growing knowledge and understanding of the world around them. It is easy to understand why some teachers might struggle with the application of this idea because the chances of alienating or offending certain students is greater when you deal with such issues, but I think that the benefits of making them culturally aware far outweigh the downfalls of a few angry students or parents. The activity where students were asked to write 'personal' responses to a text from the perspective of someone else seems like a good way to start discussion about controversial issues. "When I have taught about serious, difficult, or potentially overwhelming issues like the Holocaust, apartheid, or homelessness, I know that my students stand to gain vital cultural knowledge and significant academic benefit, but I find that I worry about how such heavy topics will affect them emotionally," (page 19). Obviously, dealing with these issues is not an easy task, but I believe that exposing students to discussions about these topics will help to fight the ignorance and bias that seems to plague our society at times.

Appleman Chapter 4

This was an interesting chapter for me to encounter because I was previously unfamiliar with Marxist theory and what it entailed. Like some of the other historically and politically focused theories, Marxist theory tends to highlight the prevailing ideologies of the author's political and historical climate. Viewing a text through a Marxist lens means understanding the significance of socially constructed ideologies and beliefs found within the author, the texts, and the audience. I liked the example of the gravediggers in Hamlet being more culturally aware than the rest of the characters even though they were supposed to be the "lowest" members of society. I think that it is important for students to recognize the existence of class lines, however and wherever they may be drawn. Marxism is a theory that is "political... interrogate[s] textual features with considerations of power and oppression... invite[s] us to consider the kinds of prevailing ideologies that help construct the social realities in which we participate (or sometimes become unwitting participants)" (page 58). One thing in this chapter that I didn't particularly agree with was Appleman's reasons for using Marxism in the classroom today. Although I do believe that we should expose our students to this theory, especially in today's growing use of progressive classroom teaching strategies, I feel like I have to disagree that a reason why we should use it now is because of the changing nature of our students. Appleman argues on page 59 that the "increasing diversity of our students, even in primarily White suburban school districts, underscores our need to integrate cultural criticism into our literary study." The diversity of our student population is (hopefully) increasing, but Jonathan Kozol argues in his work Shame of the Nation that public schools today are more segregated than even post-apartheid America. If this is indeed true, it is a sad indication of the state of our public schooling climate, and something that needs to be earnestly addressed. At any rate, I still believe that Appleman is right in promoting an atmosphere that encourages the use of such theories such as Marxism in our secondary English classrooms.

Webb Chapter 5

One element of chapter 5 in Literature and Lives that I found to be interesting was Webb's belief that our ideas about Shakespeare (and decidedly most of the British and World literature authors that we tend to focus on in English classrooms) are tainted by the historical tilt that western powers have placed upon the rest of the world. The ways in which high school students in America tend to decipher Shakespeare are significantly more idealized and lofty than how he would be read if the truth about his environment and the culture he lived within were revealed. The average student views Shakespeare as this untouchable author who found a way to gather insightful truths about the world we live in (which, of course, is how we can still get so much meaningful interpretations from reading his works), but the truth the we find in history casts many shadows on this idyllic representation. In actuality Shakespeare's time was alive with political reform and cultural unrest. The two literary theories that Webb explores in this chapter, New Historicism and Postcolonial Studies, attempt to shed light on literary texts by examining them through a lens that focuses on current and noncurrent political, social, and cultural movements, philosophies, and ideas. Rather than concentrating on one moment in time, NH likes to interpret texts using historically significant ideas from the entire history of humankind. PS approaches literature with a firm grasp on the idea that the "first world" countries have shaped the way in which the world has developed over time and also how those countries have influenced the development of "third world" countries. I find this second theory to be especially intriguing because I've never really thought about how the western world has had such an incredible impact on the way that the world has developed. I definitely think that a lot of students could gain something by learning and utilizing these theories in their literature studies.

Webb Chapter 1

This first chapter of Allen Webb's book does a good job of showing his audience exactly why he embraces the literary theories that he does, particularly Reader Response and Cultural Studies theories. I liked his personal experience of bringing Mrs. Golden, and Auschwitz survivor, into his classroom in order to help his students better recognize a connection between the literature that they were reading for class and the lived experiences of real people. I didn't find it surprising at all that his students really seemed to get into it when he brought Mrs. Golden into his class because I feel like allowing them to make those specific connections brings them closer to the text and, therefore, closer to an understanding of the text's "meaning" (as subjective as that may be). On page 6 Webb says, "the experimentation I was doing in [my] classes made it plain that all students, and especially those struggling in school, needed to discover that everyone, even the most persecuted or oppressed, has a voice that can and should be heard and respected." This idea is crucial for students to understand in light of the RR and CS theories that he promotes in this chapter because a significant part of both those theories is the importance of personal experience and cultural experience of the reader in transaction with the text. Another thing that I found interesting about the CS theory in particular was his acknowledgement that the limitations of RR are the strengths of CS. Before reading this chapter I never even knew that a CS theory existed, and now that I do, I honestly think that it is one of my favorites. Using a CS approach to literature sounds more appealing to me than using your typical RR approach because it embraces the elements that could have a negative impact in RR. As Webb states, a cultural studies approach to literature text, "urges us to be self-reflexive but not cavalier about the disciplines we work in. While mixing genres and crossing boundaries, cultural studies spurs us also to consider how the establishment of genres and disciplines has functioned historically" (page 8).

MCTE

I will start off this post by saying that there are several things I found to be beneficial concerning the MCTE. My personal opinion of the conference, however, was not a particularly favorable one. I'll start with what I disliked... When we first arrived we filled out a half sheet of paper that was our "registration form" (if you can call it that) which contained several errors and typos. In all honesty, this isn't that important to the quality of the conference, but I would have expected better from a council of English teachers. Secondly, the first session that I attended was about new classroom teachers, their experiences, their strategies, and their setbacks. It sounded helpful to me and I decided to go only to find out that there was no panel (not even one beginning teacher) and almost all of the information we were given was either obvious, negative, or both. I felt cheated, like I had wasted one of my draft picks on a player who wouldn't even take the field. Finally, another session that really disappointed me was the one on digital storytelling. I hesitated in my decision to go to this session at all because I am pretty experienced with digital storytelling already and I enjoy creating and editing my own movies in my spare time so I wasn't sure if they could teach me anything new, but I figured that perhaps they would have some good ideas about incorporating digital stories into the secondary English classroom. I felt bad for the presenters when their demonstration fell apart at the seams (although a conference room full of English teachers is probably one of the more forgiving audiences that you could hope for), because their technology, which the presentation relied heavily on, failed to work. We barely even got to see an example of a digital story until the very end of the session when we got a brief 15 second clip. Despite all this, I enjoyed the opening speech and felt as though the keynote speaker was very well prepared, engaged, and knowledgeable about her subject of technology use in the classroom. She actually made me chuckle a few times which is quite an accomplishment given the early time of day that it was. Overall, I do feel as though it was a beneficial experience for me to attend this conference, but it wasn't a particularly enjoyable one.

Appleman Chapter 3

Chapter 3 of Appleman's book finally delves a little deeper into her ideas about literary theory instruction in the classroom, particularly that of Reader Response theory. Before reading this chapter my personal opinions about RR were quite positive. As I read the chapter I came to a sort of acceptance of the idea that I only liked RR because that is what I had primarily been taught throughout my high school English classes, but that doesn't totally negate my personal opinion that RR is an overall positive experience (in most cases) for both the students and the teacher. One of my most trusted beliefs is that the student needs to KNOW, without a doubt, that their personal opinions and ideas matter to the classroom environment and that they are always significant to our discussions. I know that in my own personal experience, the classes in which I felt the my opinion actually mattered were the classes that I liked the best, and as a direct result of that, the classes that I gained the most from. I found it interesting to read about the potential negative effects of using RR in the classroom because I had never really thought that it could have a negative impact. Despite my previous notion, I do agree now that RR could put some students in an awkward position (by being afraid to share, or sharing too much as Appleman mentions), and could even put the teacher in a precarious position by giving the students too much "power." I'm not sure that "too much 'power'" is the best way to describe this idea, but what I mean is that the students now have the ability to say, "well, if my response and interpretation are uniquely mine, then what could you (the teacher) possibly tell me about it?" These would obviously be difficult situations but I feel like the classroom has the potential to drive itself to those unusual places every once in a while no matter what or how you teach. Finally, I especially enjoyed the activity with the ambiguous poem that had students read and individually interpret its meaning. I think it is important to get the students thinking about how many perspectives could possibly be taken from any and all pieces of literary text. As this chapter points out, students often know what their doing while they interpret a text (like applying their personal experiences) but too few times do they know why they're doing that and even fewer times are they told other ways to do that. We need to keep them better informed and do a better job of letting them "see behind the curtain."

Appleman Chapter 2

Chapter 2 of Critical Encounters was another mild disappointment. In this chapter the author tries to demonstrate the effectiveness of literary theory in practice within the classroom by giving us four short vignettes of different classroom settings and literary theory applications within those classrooms. Appleman accomplishes what she intended with this chapter - showing her readers examples of how literary theories can improve the English classroom climate - I am just skeptical on the importance of vignettes. I have never really appreciated personal experience stories as much as some other people seem to, so that probably influenced my opinion of the chapter to a certain degree. It was, I'll admit, annoying interesting to read about the "Star Wars" activity. My nickname (please don't spread this secret too far) is 'Yoda' and I'm admittedly one of the biggest "Star Wars" dorks you'll ever encounter. For this reason I was slightly more interested in that particular vignette than the other ones. I know that we all tend to scoff at the idea of showing a movie several days in a row in an English classroom (especially an advanced English classroom) but I would argue that watching any popular movie and allowing the students to analyze that movie through the lens of a particular literary theory (especially if your activities are as prepared as the one Appleman provides) could help them to realize the impact that viewing a story through different theories can have on your interpretation of that story. One benefit that film has over paper is its ability to tell a larger group of people the same story in a decidedly shorter amount of time. Since all of the students are guaranteed to have seen the same story, you can better explore the various interpretive conclusions that they came to. The point is to invite many literary theories into your classroom so that students will "[n]o longer... respond within a preselected theoretical paradigm. They [will] construct the theoretical context as well as the content of their meaning making" (page 21).

Appleman Chapter 1

This opening chapter of Deborah Appleman's book does little more than lay out the game plan for the rest of the text. Her main goal seems to be to get practicing and future teachers to reconsider how schools were made and determine what changes need to be made in order to better facilitate student learning. She argues that literary theory, in all of its many forms, can have a drastic affect on the ways in which our schools today (at least the English classrooms) are run, if they were only used to their full potential. The author tells us on page 2 that "[t]he guiding assumption of [this] book is that the direct teaching of literary theory in secondary English classes will better prepare adolescent readers to respond reflectively and analytically to literary texts, both 'canonical' and multicultural. The book argues that contemporary literary theory provides a useful way for all students to read and interpret not only literary texts but their lives - both in and out of school. In its own way, reading with theory is a radical educational reform!" My assumption after this introductory chapter is that the bulk of the book will be spent focused on different literary theories and how they can be applied in a useful and meaningful way in the classroom. I am a little apprehensive right now because I feel like, at least in this first chapter, the quotations she used did a better job of explaining her ideas then her own writing. I feel like she didn't really add very much of her own insight. I did like, however, the lens analogy in describing the importance of viewing literary texts from multiple perspectives in order to discover multiple interpretations. I strongly agree with Kathleen McCormick's comment on page 8 that "readers [students] can begin to see themselves as interdiscursive subjects, to see texts as always 'in use,' and to recognize that different ways of reading texts have consequence."

Wilhelm Chapter 6

This final chapter was a fairly good ending on a rather resourceful book. Wilhelm gives us a few more examples of activities to include in our classrooms and he allows us just a little more insight into his views on the world of education. I think that one of my favorite parts of this chapter is when he admits that through his years of teaching experiences he has learned to expand his view of what constitutes literature. He says that he "began to encourage readers to read young adult novels, picture books, comic books, illustrated books, organic nonfiction pieces, and student writing." I think that this is a very significant realization because I have always felt that as long as students are reading something that they enjoy, they will be more willing to explore other literature works as they develop as readers. The importance of reader literature that you enjoy should not be overrated because it is a crucial component in the never-ending timeline of what is the life of "literature." If nobody enjoyed reading at all, then we probably wouldn't even have those comic books, illustrated novels, etc, to begin with. One more thing that I would like to mention about this chapter (I've talked about it before as well) is Wilhelm's use of dramatic activities to encourage student interactions with the texts. I feel that drama and the use of these dramatic activities allows students to think about the literature in a way that they might not have done previously. Their experiences with the characters, themes, and other elements of the story are greatly influenced by these activities. Once again, anything that can get the stuents engaged with their literature and positively affected by it should be embraced by teachers in any content area.

Wilhelm Chapter 5

One thing that I liked about this chapter was the author's focus on struggling students. It seems easy (at least, easier) to engage highly motivated students with their reading, but a big concern of mine has always been how to deal with students that aren't necessarily interested in reading (or, don't think that they are). Wilhelm's experiences with several of his students is just that way, they are unmotivated, uninterested, and unprepared for what they have to deal with in a reading-centered classroom. One important thing that the author did in these types of situations was to (first) give them free choice in deciding what to read and (second) how to read it and demonstrate that they had successfully made meaning from it. The activities the he employs to get the students thinking about their own meaning-making processes are artistic and creative while still allowing the students to demonstrate mastery of the material. One student was allowed to draw a visual representation of what they had encountered in the text and after starting off with a few less engaging texts they quickly moved on to more advanced readings because they began to realize that reading was meant to stimulate and connect audiences, not fluster and annoy them. Once the student was able to demonstrate their connections to the text in a way that they felt best suited them, they were more willing to explore challenging texts and push the boundaries of their own readings. I think that the importance of choice is evident in both the selection of texts and in the demonstration of knowledge gained from those texts.

Wilhelm Chapter 4

I was especially excited about this chapter when I started reading it because it focuses on the use of drama in the classroom to help students engage in the literature that they are reading. My dream teaching job would be a theatre arts position that allows me to direct the school play and teach drama/shakespeare/speech. It is safe to say, then, that my classroom will use many dramatic excercises towards the purpose of "discovering" something in the texts that my students read. Some of the activities that the author describes are better suited for my teaching style than others, and some of them I have studied before as well. The guided imagery activity is something that several students used in an earlier education classroom group project, and it seemed to go over quite well. Having a theatre backgroung means that I also have numerous books on teaching theatre and most of them have many (it is a staple of the theatre world) fun and interesting activities to stimulate the mind and get people thinking as their character would (thus, getting them much more involved in critically analyzing the texts that they are interacting with). One of my favorite activities is one where the students create a character that does not exsist and have that character interact with characters from the text that do exsist. It forces them to analyze the characters they interact with in the literature and make decisions for that character based on their experiences with them through the text.

Wilhelm Chapter 3

In this third chapter of "You Gotta BE the Book," I really liked that the author began by giving his audience a list of reading activity strategies. It seems as though this chapter is much more practical than the previous two chapters have been. Several of the activities that the author lists I have had experience with before through some of my education classes here at Western, others of them were new to me. The Think-Alouds seemed to work rather well when I've used them in the past, and I like that they are so subjective. The teacher journal is something that I haven't started yet (I haven't been in the classroom enough) but would be interested in trying out once I am given the opportunity to do so. I enjoyed the last half of this chapter as well because of the artistic freedom that the author suggests giving to the students. A symbolic representation of a story or a visual role-playing activity are both excellent activities to get the students engaged with their reading and discovering meaning from the literature.

Wilhelm Chapter 2

"Most teachers must not read, or they'd not how to teach reading and not ruin it for us," is a quote from page 34 of this text which I think does a very good job of relating how most students feel about reading for a class. For the most part, students hate reading because the teachers try to stuff literature down their throats that the students have absolutely no interest in. I understand that giving the students a wide base of literature "classics" will allow them the opportunity to discover something that interests them, but by forcing each and every student to read the exact same texts for every single class will only isolate certain students (the ones who are labeled "poor readers") and will no doubt bore the majority of your classroom to tears. I feel very strongly about the importance of choice in regards to student reading for the classroom. If the reason for reading is to find meaning within the text, then shouldn't we allow the students to also discover their own texts? Think about the satisfaction that a student could have if they were allowed to first find something that interested them, and then rather than being graded on whether or not they could answer multiple choice questions about the story they had read, they were graded on a subjective essay describing their interactions with and discoveries derived from that text? It just seems to me that students are much more apt to become self-regulated readers in their lives after school if they learn to love reading while they are in school, and what better way to promote that kind of attitude than by allowing them to read literature that directly relates to them and their lives?

Wilhelm Chapter 1

While reading chapter one of "You Gotta BE the Book" I began to get a little apprehensive about the direction that the author was going. I have never really agreed with the "bottom-up" approach to teaching and I think it is ridiculous to spend so much time and effort (as teachers) focussing on the decoding of words rather than the search for meaning. The reason for my apprehension was mainly because the first few pages of the chapter were spent discussing the reasons to teach this approach to reading. I was relieved, however, when the author began talking about the "top-down" approach and the importance of reading for meaning. Perhaps I've just been brainwashed by Western's education department but in my Teaching Literature to Secondary Students class we spent an entire semester discussing the difference between "reading" and "decoding" and why the former is so crucial and the latter is so worthless (my teacher was highly opinionated on the subject). I think that it is important, at least it will be in my personal teaching endeavors, to help students realize the benefit of reading for meaning. So many students feel the being a "good" reader means that you read aloud well and you are able to read quickly. I want to do my part to dispell this myth and create classrooms of students who are able to read for meaning in a story. The point of reading is not to time yourself and chart how many miscues you make - we read because we enjoy it and are able to find connections and meanings from the text that we interact with.