The Absolutely True Story About How Much I Enjoyed This Book

I really enjoyed reading “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” because it wasn’t exactly what I thought it was going to be. I think that’s what makes a good book good, is when its not something you expected but everything you needed. This book tells a story that is relatable not only in the sense that the setting is in Spokane area but in the fact that we can all relate with the main character Albert. He struggles just like we all do but he has perseverance to get through the huge struggles he faces in his life. He shows commitment to his goals in life and doesn’t give up when the going gets tough (I mean really tough). I think this book would be a great book to teach in a high school setting, yes there is some profanity, but it is a book students need to read because its so relevant to what they all go through on a daily basis. This book is so teachable in the fact that its all about perspectives and when students first learn about Native Americans and White Settlers in 7^th grade that’s all they really know for the rest of their lives. They don’t know the story that Native Americans are living today. I think that by teaching the perspectives of the Native Americans, Arnold and the White people in this book would give students a different outlook on this situation still present today but a different outlook on this culture as a whole. My rationale for teaching this book would be that this book is not just educational in a present day sense but also relevant to what the students what to know about. It has solid themes of determination, family and school issues and how alcohol can be such a huge influence in someone’s life. Everyone needs to read this book! 

Test Score or Student?

In the book “Readicide” By Kelly Gallagher, I took away a lot of information on what reading looks like in our schools today and what it actually should look like. This really puts you into perspective especially when Gallagher gives so many facts, statistics, studies and professional opinions about the issues of reading for today’s students. I am on board with this issue that because I feel that I have been affected by the “readicide” in American schools. I think that from all of the testing and the pressure of always being required to read a certain book turned me off for my love of reading. I used to love reading growing up but I always struggled to finish books because of my schoolwork. I was always forced away from the book I enjoyed because I had to read what the school mandated. So usually, I gave up on the book I was interested in and settled for what my teacher “wanted” me to read. This is happening so much in schools today especially when it comes to what the government wants to see out of test scores. I like how Gallagher brought up how teaching to the test is not necessarily a bad thing but the way that we force the standards down our students throats and expect them to comprehend everything the first time they learn something is insane. By giving students to freedom to once again find their love for reading or to at least understand that reading, actually reading, is a huge part of their lives. We force students to be the puppets to spit out test scores but we sometimes loose sight that they are real people that we need to prepare not for tests but for life. How will they ever be “expert citizens” when we are only preparing them to be machines?

What Reading Should Be to Your Students

 I this book “I Read It, But I Don’t Get It” I learned a lot about what it means to actually read and what it means to be a constant teacher of reading. In the book, Tovani’s referred to so many times in her career where teachers have complained or wondered why they have to teach reading to secondary students. This is something, before reading this book that I wondered as well. Now I understand that not every reader gets to the same level throughout school and sometimes we, as teachers, have to get students to that level. This book also taught me a lot about what reading is and what reading is not. Most people think reading is being able to actually read and then comprehend what you read. There is so much more than comprehending but using background knowledge, inferences, inner voice and drawing connections. Being an active reader has been brought to my attention a lot lately. I am guilty of a lot of the things that Tovani’s students struggled with when it came to reading. Things like letting your inner voice drift off to something more relevant in your life or just accepting the fact that I don’t understand the text and waiting for the teacher to tell me the answer. It wasn’t until I got to college that I realized that teachers don’t want to give you the answer but want you to come up with it on your own. I think that it is important to teach students to become good readers because reading is in every aspect of our lives. I like the activities she used to help students understand their confusion when it came to difficult text rather than just telling them to correct answer but having them break down where things go astray. I think that the journals are a great asset to have because you can choose to focus on different components of the text like background knowledge so the students have a purpose for reading.

Social Justice: Beyond the Four Walls

The avenue I took to find out what social justice is was through Pinterst. This might seem unscholarly but I find that I can find articles written by real people I can connect with or that have had first had experiences with teaching about social justice. I found an article on Eutopia.org that explains what social justice is and why/how it should be used in the classroom. The definition I found is that “Social justice is recognizing and acting upon the power that we have for making positive change” (Dell’Angelo). There are many reasons that social justice is important to the classroom but everyday, as teachers, we participate in some sort of social justice in the classroom. The only thing is that teachers don’t always use it explicitly, this way the students might not completely understand how social justice is important in their lives. One way that you can incorporate social justice in the classroom is to link what you are teaching to what is actually going on in the real world. Breaking down the classroom walls so that students can understand that there is more out to learn outside of those 4 walls. Some important things that the article breaks down about having these discussions in your classroom is to help our students understands facts from opinions, figuring out their own view and other points of view and interpreting all the information before you decide the truth. Teaching this at such valuable lesson for students because they will use this method of understand controversial topics for the rest of their lives. I also like the aspect of the article to create a classroom community that is comfortable with discussion. I think it is important to let students share their OWN ideas not just the ones we “expect” them to share. Another component of the article was giving authentic assessments in your classroom. These assessments give the students the opportunity to write to real audiences, share knowledge with a wide amount of people and engage in the kind of work that happens outside the classroom. 

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/creating-classrooms-for-social-justice-tabitha-dellangelo?crlt_pid=camp.NRQhcTCRoPbX

Critical Pedagogy

I like how national literature texts like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are looked at not as something out of date but a timeless aspect of literature that teaches different ideologies to students and looks at how history has changed. This also made a good point about how to use literacy theories and multicultural readings to show students perspectives throughout literature that they can easily identify with. This chapter reminds me of the Common Core article about how the teacher had to teach the “Dead White Guy” series in her American Literature class that did not at any depth of multiculturalism into her class. I believe that many of the literature that is involved in that series is a very important aspect of the historical literature we need to teach. I also think that even if you are in a school that is not multicultural based then you still need to teach about authors of different races and cultures. I am in my practicum within a school that has 88% Caucasian students. To me it is even more closed minded to not teach students authors of different cultures and backgrounds because it gives students who are not prominently around another race different than theirs. I also think that the lessons they learn in the context of literature can also draw things that they can connect with like bullying or poverty. The aspect of critical pedagogy is part of the reason I want to be an English teacher because I’m not teaching to teach but to have my students gain a perspective on things they connect with and things they are not familiar with because this is what causes them to critically think and become career and college ready. I think that creating an environment where a student can truly connect with an old text in literature then that is creating a critical thinking environment.