I am almost a little saddened by the fact that this class is over. I really feel that it has been a fruitful and productive course, one that will surely aid me in my future endeavors concerning the adolescent populace. This course has forced me to think about the act of reading in a different light and from different angles. Wilhelm has been helpful up to a point, but I think that over the break I will have to invest in some further reading on the subject.
I was thinking about our synthesis project the other day during my observation, and how the teacher I am observing does a great job of fostering reading in her classroom. Many of the students in her class were reading Twilight and she decided to pick it up just so that she could converse with them about the series and see what they had to say. She takes a genuine interest in what her students are reading and tries to incorporate it into the classroom whenever she can. For reading projects she offers alternative assignments (like creating a Body Biography, which I thought looked like a lot of fun) that allows her students to explore their learning through creative venues. She attempts to value all types of texts in her classrooms (she uses the BOOK THIEF!) which I think is quite admirable. I don't ever want to be the type of teacher that will turn my nose up at certain types of books/genres. I think that as an English teacher, especially a high school teacher, that I need to be as open minded as possible when it comes to what my students are reading.
Lastly, I suppose I just want to reiterate that I enjoyed this course, and I think it has opened my mind to a lot of methods and techniques and questions that I didn't have before. I am still apprehensive about certain aspects of teaching, but I think that with a little effort I will (HOPEFULLY) have it under control... :) Thanks for a great semester and I wish everyone luck with all their future endeavors!!!!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Journal Entry 6: John Green is my hero! (Hank Green is not bad either!)
I have been waiting to do this particular post for several reasons. The first is that after reading Looking for Alaska I just felt really numb. I never ever could have predicted the book to end that way. So I felt like I needed some distance before I could talk about it objectively. Second, I really wanted to attend the lecture with John and Hank Green (who are now my idols) before writing this entry.
There were a couple of things that John Green said that really stood out to me, aside from Hank's many wonderful songs concerning Harry Potter. The first is that the ways in which we draw, or construct our world, affects the world as it exists. He said this in relation to his book Papertowns, but I was thinking about in the context of Looking for Alaska. Pudge goes off to this boarding school because he is not happy with his "world" at home, and he seeks out a new and more exciting one. When he arrives, Alaska largely informs his new reality through her own painted reality. She is such an interesting creature, and I can hardly blame dear Pudge for falling for her. But I have been thinking, I don't think that he just falls for Alaska, but he falls in love with the idea of Alaska, the illusion that is Alaska. As we come to find out, the cool veneer that usually adorns the surface of Alaska hides a lot of deeper and darker aspects of her personality. If the world we draw affects the world that exists, couldn't Alaska, and post-Alaska Pudge, have dealt with everything a little differently? I don't know. I guess Pudge really couldn't have because he bought into the facade, and regardless of the facade or not, he lost a good friend.
I really didn't see it coming, all along I thought this whole before and after thing was going to be about some prank that threatened to get them all expelled. The fact that it totally blindsided me was Alaska, though. It was just so like her to do something like that, and the fact that they don't know if it was an accident or intentional just kills me. I also know that when we talked about this novel in class some people were concerned about the teachability of the text. I can't say this enough: if a text evokes an emotion or a thought that is beneficial and generative, then why not read it? I know that as a teacher I will have to be cautious about what I have on my shelves, but I really think I could make an argument for this one.
John Green also spoke about his writing process. Apart from saying that he found the entire experience slightly traumatic (he reminded me of Pudge when he said that), he said something else that struck me as interesting. I have always said that if you read well, you write well, and vice versa. I know this is not necessarily true in all cases, but it can help. John Green said that for writers, reading is the only apprenticeship that we have. And I thought about how very true that statement is for myself, and how I could help others come to that realization as well. As a future high school English teacher I know that I will be bogged down with portfolios and core content standards, but I hope that I can find a way to promote and foster a love of literature in the classroom as well... because as Ron (from Wilhelm) says, school is supposed to help you live better, right?
There were a couple of things that John Green said that really stood out to me, aside from Hank's many wonderful songs concerning Harry Potter. The first is that the ways in which we draw, or construct our world, affects the world as it exists. He said this in relation to his book Papertowns, but I was thinking about in the context of Looking for Alaska. Pudge goes off to this boarding school because he is not happy with his "world" at home, and he seeks out a new and more exciting one. When he arrives, Alaska largely informs his new reality through her own painted reality. She is such an interesting creature, and I can hardly blame dear Pudge for falling for her. But I have been thinking, I don't think that he just falls for Alaska, but he falls in love with the idea of Alaska, the illusion that is Alaska. As we come to find out, the cool veneer that usually adorns the surface of Alaska hides a lot of deeper and darker aspects of her personality. If the world we draw affects the world that exists, couldn't Alaska, and post-Alaska Pudge, have dealt with everything a little differently? I don't know. I guess Pudge really couldn't have because he bought into the facade, and regardless of the facade or not, he lost a good friend.
I really didn't see it coming, all along I thought this whole before and after thing was going to be about some prank that threatened to get them all expelled. The fact that it totally blindsided me was Alaska, though. It was just so like her to do something like that, and the fact that they don't know if it was an accident or intentional just kills me. I also know that when we talked about this novel in class some people were concerned about the teachability of the text. I can't say this enough: if a text evokes an emotion or a thought that is beneficial and generative, then why not read it? I know that as a teacher I will have to be cautious about what I have on my shelves, but I really think I could make an argument for this one.
John Green also spoke about his writing process. Apart from saying that he found the entire experience slightly traumatic (he reminded me of Pudge when he said that), he said something else that struck me as interesting. I have always said that if you read well, you write well, and vice versa. I know this is not necessarily true in all cases, but it can help. John Green said that for writers, reading is the only apprenticeship that we have. And I thought about how very true that statement is for myself, and how I could help others come to that realization as well. As a future high school English teacher I know that I will be bogged down with portfolios and core content standards, but I hope that I can find a way to promote and foster a love of literature in the classroom as well... because as Ron (from Wilhelm) says, school is supposed to help you live better, right?
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