Common Core State Standards

It is really great being able to have full access to the common core state standards. Being able to go through and read all of the standards for reading literature and what students should be able to do is vital to not only becoming but also being a teacher in general. It was especially interesting to read because it really allowed me to see all of the things my teachers in high school had skipped over or just did not include in general. There were a lot of standards that I remember doing but we would not do the entire standard or there were just some things missing from the standard in our lessons. However the article did address how the standards are relatively general and teachers are not limited to them which I thought was really interesting and informative.

I feel as though the standards are well, pretty standard. There were not really any surprises when I went through each of them. It was all pretty much what I expected and would imagine there to be for a teacher's expectations of high school students. Reading through the standards was quite exciting for me. It got me really excited to become a teacher and to begin incorporating those standards into my own lessons. The ones that really stuck out to me were the ones that involved analyzing. I am a huge fan of this and reading the requirements for it and the different ways students are supposed to be able to analyze is really cool.

Not only were the standards intriguing to me but the article was as well. I especially found the section called “A Literacy Practices Approach” to be incredibly informative. I will most definitely have to keep this article to continue to refer back to as I progress into a teacher and even afterwards. I am really glad this was an assignment because I definitely learned a lot from it and it has me really excited to further my teaching journey.

Graphic Novels in the Classroom

To be honest I have never actually read a graphic novel nor really knew of their existence before this class. When Dr. Agriss brought in the set though of graphic novels on the first day I was very intrigued. Although some of those pictures were a bit much, I still thought that they were really cool and then the ones he brought in during Mondays class made me very interested in them. I feel as though every teacher should have graphic novels in the classroom. I wish I had known about them prior to this class.  

Some of the reasons why I believe teachers should have graphic novels in the classroom is because it would allow students to become aware of their existence. I had no idea that they were a thing, or if I had I might have thought they were just comic books or something. Not only does having these novels in the classroom allow students to become aware of them, but it could also help with the students that hate reading. It would help provide a different way of reading and seeing a text. Another reason why I think teachers should have graphic novels in their classrooms is because it could also allow the teacher to teach a new way of analyzing a text and it could give a new and more fun way for the students to analyze a text. I personally would have found it fun and interesting to write an entire paper on a graphic novel.

I am going to try to order that “Maus” series that our professor had brought in because it looked really good and interesting. I am looking forward to getting more involved with graphic novels in the near future and figuring out a way to incorporate them into my lessons once I become a teacher. I think that having students look at pictures and being able to analyze them could only help them grow as critical thinkers. I am very excited to get a graphic novel for myself and look more into them not only for myself but for my future students as well.

Discussion as a way of Teaching Response

I really enjoyed this text. Personally, I truly hate classroom discussions, however last quarter I came to the realization that even if I do not contribute much to the discussion, I am still learning a lot from the discussions themselves. This text was enjoyable because it provided numerous ways of using discussions within a classroom. Something that really stuck out to me was the ground rules and the case study sections. I think that setting ground rules at the beginning of any discussion is vital to trying to avoid what happened to Gary in the case study. Something like that has happened numerous times in discussions that I have had to partake in. When stuff like that happens it makes it really uncomfortable to contribute in fear of thoughts being shut down. I think that had the teacher stated ground rules then perhaps both the case study and my own experiences might have turned out differently.

I really enjoyed some of the discussion examples this reading had provided. I think that the section that describes conversational roles is an interesting idea. I think I would be willing to try that out in my own classroom with just a few tweaks to the different roles. Another one I really enjoyed was “The Circle of Voices.” I think that this is a very interesting idea and might have been something that I would have enjoyed doing while in high school. Like the section on circle of voices says, I think that it would be really helpful for the more quiet and/or shy students. 

Although overall I really enjoyed reading this article, there were some activities that I would not do in my own classroom. “Conversational Moves” was one that I did not necessarily like. I think that it makes the discussion more forced and not as natural or easy-flowing. Another one that I was not a huge fan of was “Quotes to Affirm & Challenge.” Perhaps I just do not quite understand the whole activity, but when reading about it, it just did not seem like something I would like to do now or even when I was in high school.

Even though there were some things I would not personally use, I still think that this reading had a ton of information on ways to make discussions fun, engaging, and comfortable. I was truly able to come away with learning a lot from this article. I know for a fact that I will be incorporating discussions into my lesson plans and this article helped immensely with providing me new and different ways of using classroom and group discussions.