Exciting news I wanted to share with my fellow education majors...

Jackie will probably be the only one that will fully know why I am just SO ecstatic about this. I was trying to find the way to get just the job I wanted my first year of teaching so today I went about emailing everyone I know at the local college, the teachers from where I went to Jr. High (Abell), and some teachers here at tech to ask for advice on how to get my foot in the door. My first response was from Midland College, and it was that in addition if I wanted they wanted to have me on as staff there!!!! Already?! It's in a study basics class, and I would be helping freshmen and sophomores achieve success just like my mentor did for me! I was so excited I was crying!

What a Song Can Do

First off looking at the book itself, I know if I had been handed this book as a young adolescent the pages filled with tiny fonts would have made my stomach churn. Another long one. Nothing really would have appealed me seeing I was not in band nor was I ever interested in music, but I know it would have appealed to a great majority of my class. Something great for them to relate to.

Then I read the first story. It started out okay, but then it got into talking about promiscuity and drinking in the back of the bus. I think this would be a terrific book for high school leveled readers more than jr. high.

The second I couldn't even get into. It moved slow, and I was taken back to seventh grade as I would grind my teeth through the Red Pony trying not to collapse from the boredom of it all! So I followed the rules that we had read previously and just shut the book for the night and went to sleep. Already with the mind set of, I can't teach this book in jr. high, I am having difficulty picking it back up again.

Don't get me wrong, terrific book, but just for a tad bit older crowd.

Armstrong, Jennifer, ed. What a Song Can Do. New York: Laurel-Leaf, 2004.

Craft Lesson 5::Street Love::Reading Between the Lines

Resources:
Myers, Walter Dean. Street Love. New York: Harper Collins, 2006.

Discussion:
I want students to understand the entire depth of poetry. I want to disperse my class into pairs across the classroom to cooperatively break down the poem and find its meaning. I will have them break down the poem piece by piece, and then with two brains working as one try to read between the lines.

How To Teach It:I

I will start the class with a quick mini-lesson over the over all idea of a close reading. I will start with a short poem like "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost. I know it's very overused, but for adolescents it is a great poem to reflect on and work with. I will break each poem down line by line. I'm going to model first how to do it with the first three or so lines, and slowly work the students into it.

I will make copies of each of the poems for Street Love, and hand them out to the class. I will also hand out bookmarks that each have these questions:

What were the tools used?
What does each word mean?
What is the author trying to say?
Why does he say it?

then with the book mark they go line by line asking these questions together, discussing and taking down notes. Then the next class period I hope that they can all share what they found about each poem to the entire class. Encourage discussion, additions, and opinions on each.

Practice, praise, and criticism makes perfect...

Why is it that ELA is the only concentration that is not going to do a lesson plan in our field study classes? Ms. Watts keeps questioning me about the lesson plan I'm supposed to do, and I keep arguing that I don't do one, but she still has yet to believe me. Although, I do believe that doing a lesson plan for our students we are working with would mean allot more than doing it for college kids I also believe by acting it out for our class we have other people in the field to do as we did in theater "critique our performance".

I'm mixed on it all...I mean I understand Thomas's standpoint at it seems like allot more work at achieving the same thing...but as the old saying goes it is easier said then done. As I have repeated time and time again, it's easy to come up with lessons in your head, but what you write and what actually happens when you enter that classroom often time vary...sometimes to a great extreme. You all the sudden worry about how to word what you want to say, especially when you are not used to presenting to this age group. So getting up and presenting really seems like an entire different world then just sitting around and writing out the ideas. We write lesson plans for every class, but we don't always act them out in front of an audience more than one, so in this way our new plan is beneficial.

I'm very neutral on the entire subject. I'm also very much looking forward to teaching my own text, and hearing all the different text's my fellow classmates will recommend. I was brought up on the stage so to actually practice in front of a audience of colleagues I feel is one of the best way to grow as an actor, just like I believe it will be a terrific way to grow as a teacher.

I don't know if that makes sense to anyone else...