Rhetoric and Affect Post #2

Quandahl was who I started with this week, and I was glad because her language seemed to be a bit more accessible. She seemed to explain her ideas better (at least for me). We see the word pedagogy again. Q. quotes Worsham when she says pedagogy is "the whole social education of members of a culture." Okay, I 'm with you there. In the first paragraph, I'm thinking that the question is "What are the things going on in the classroom beside the surface interactions?" The reason I'm trying to relate it to the classroom is that Donna said that he interest in affect and rhetoric began in the classroom where they discussed Ebonics. (By the way, I wish you, Donna, would blog about this. I keep thinking when I understand that situation and how it led you to affect and rhetoric then I can begin understanding it better.)

Quandahl says that emotion is "not merely an individual or natural phenomenon, but is rather culturally and historically shaped, and closely linked with discourse." I believe this. Emotion is not merely individual. Let's think of some examples. I'm thinking mobs, group mentality, panic, looting. Epistemologically, I lean toward the social constructivist camp and wouldn't they say that knowledge is culturally and historically shaped, so why wouldn't emotion be the same. When she says emotion is linked with discourse, I think I understand. Discourse can cause emotion. Right? But I'm afraid that may not be what she is speaking of.

On page 12, she explains her point: "What I wish to show is that not only the account of emotions in the Rhetoric, but also its location in the domain of ethics is significant for what it reveals about current themes--and silences--in pedagogy." In this use, does pedagogy mean a way to look at knowledge and how it is constructed? I'm interested in what she says here, especially about the silences, but I don't ever see this fully developed. She does say on p. 19 that "Worsham's argument that Composition pedagogies--now which routinely claimm to empower students--have been naive, often by variously focusing on individual passions and experiences as fundamental." Slam. What's funny is that as I read this article I really felt like underneath all of these articles that they were suggesting that you needed to ignite people's passion and emotion because it has been silenced in schooling (wouldn't that be Worsham). When you want people to find that emotion, you have to do that through individual choice and finding personal connections (these two things are pedagogical, for me). When I think of first year comp in some universities, especially if they are rhetoric-focused, aren't they taking the emotion out of the writing by focusing on "reasonable" and "rational" arguments?

I am seeing this huge difference between what I would call composition studies and rhetoric. Is composition studies concerned more with the writer and rhetoric concerned more with how you say something?

I'm onto this comp versus rhetoric idea, and I did a google search, just out of curiosity. Who do I find but Donna and Marcia's friend Collin? I'm completely taking his words out of context, but he makes a reference to pedagogy, and I want to share it. In blog etiquette, do I have to ask him if it is okay if I link him or share his words?
Collin writes, "I find it no accident that the method Fulkerson uses tends towards the latter model of envisioning the field, because he himself is one of the most active contributors (along with Berlin, Faigley, et al.) to that model. Tate et al. write in their preface that the word "pedagogy" is widely used and poorly defined, and while that may be true, I'd argue that "composition pedagogies" have seen a great deal of definition and explication, enough so that the weird flattening of the term that appears in the Guide doesn't merit a mention. In some chapters, it refers to particular sites, in some places to specific techniques or approaches, in some places to philosophies. The end result of this is that, for me, at least, "pedagogy" feels a lot like "excellence" as Bill Readings describes it, an empty term that can be infused with whatever seems appropriate. "

I am now announcing to the class that I created my very first blog link. Thank you. Thank you very much.

a question

A student asked me today about my experiences in class, specifically what controversies had come up with parents. I never had a parent tell me not to teach a book. I was always upfront with with students about what we would be reading, and I think what we read in the canon is pretty mild language, situations, ,etc. compared to what students see on t.v. I always tried to communicate with the students and allow them a lot of feedback. I think that's why I like exit passes because it allows me to detect frustration and be pro-active. I can meet with the students and allow them to ask me questions one on one.

I do remember that I had a a student who I loved and his parents came into the parent-teacher conference (his parents were very kind) and they asked if I thought my class was too hard. Or maybe she worded it more like "I think your class is too hard." I think I responded with, "I really appreciate your feedback. I understand the class is challenging, but here are my goals. Here is what this student has done. He seems to enjoy it. I allow time for reading in class because I value it." She was very nice about it. Now, as I look at this conversation, I think it helped that I knew the research about independent reading. I also had some philosophical underpinnings. I believed in what I was doing and I could talk about what was happening in my classroom clearly and coherently.

I'm trying to remember if any other really controversial things happened with literature. I'll have to think some more. Actually, sometimes I got comments that I was too rigorous. But then, at the end of class, those same students would all say that they learned so much, and it was the hardest and best class they had taken. So, I guess I like to challenge students. I don't fear talking about controversial topics. I remember in a composition class I did read a Tim O'Brien selection with the f word in it. I couldn't ignore it or skip it though because that piece was so amazing. I'm not sure if that was the same day where we had a long discussion on "curse words." One day we spent a long while talk about the word "bitch" and the meanings of it. What does it mean when a boy calls a girl a bitch; what's it mean when a boy calls a boy a bitch. I'll never forget a student making a comparison with the word "retard." He said he always heard students use that word and it really made him made because his sister was mentally handicapped. At the end of the semester, this young man wrote that he thought differently about the words that he used after that conversation.

In Donna's class, we talk about affect and I thought she said yesterday that as teachers we can't really change what someone thinks. Isn't awareness a change in thinking? He thought differently after this discussion, after becoming aware of language. On another point, I never got "in trouble" for these conversations, but if students aren't taking it seriously then you can 't have these discussions. Being a good teacher is so much about management. I read that this morning. You can know more literature and be the best write, but if you can't manage the students, get their attention and help them focus then you have nothing.

I also need to post about today's class. I probably go too fast. I was confused when Donna explained blogging last semester, so I understand that the Blackboard is a bit confusing too. I explained the course requirments, the lesson plan requirements, and the Discovery notebook requirements. They asked good questions, so I hope they are feeling better about class. Some seem to think ten y.a. novels is too much, but we have 15 weeks and I'm not convinced that it is too much. Like I said earlier, I will be getting feedback and looking for frustration so I can fix things if they don't work.

I had them do a line-up based on their birthday. I think in class on Thursday I'm just going to say, "here are some questions. Go talk." Then, I will ask them about the difference between putting them in groups like I did on Tuesday. Well, I told them to write their directions down. I guess I am losing my touch and I need to write my own directions down. I forgot to have them introduce themselves in their small groups although a small part of me thought they might do it on their own.

Class was fine. I hope we are on the right track.

Qualitative Research

I'm taking a qualitative research class, and it is making me think about a project I worked on last year. I began the project by interviewing three teachers at three different stages of implementing reading/writing workshop. One was a "verteran" of the group. The youngest and newest teacher who had been using workshop for a year or two. Another had only began using workshop the sememster I began this research, and a third had been exposed to workshop through district-wide professional development but had not tried workshop. She was a very traditional and teacher-centered.

The interview were all very interesting, but Sharon, the one who just began workshop was by far the most interesting. I think it was because she had considered quitting, and workshop had given her a renewed energy toward teaching. She loved teaching. She had completely changed the way she taught, from using a literature textbook and answering questions in the back, to implementing this reading/writing workshop where she gave students choice about what they read and wrote. What struck me about Sharon, not her real name, was that it was almost as if reading/writing workshop had changed her life. She was totally transformed personally and professionally. I went into this study thinking that it was because of workshop that she was changed. But I had also been introduced to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who wrote Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. I thought I had begun to see some parallels between his list of characteristics of people in flow and some of the things that were happening to Sharon.

Writing this paper has been so difficult for me. I guess I started it almost a year ago. In this qual. class we are reading Hatch, and I am realizing all of the things that I did wrong in this study. I didn't really know anything about methodology. Maybe my research questions were too broad. I did change my mind about what I was doing after I got started. I planned on sending this paper in to a qualitative journal because they had a call for papers about teacher transformation and action research. The deadline is Sept. 1. I just keep thinking this paper is not good enough. I also started all over again to see if I liked another version better. I wonder if I will get it done by Wednesday. Wish me luck.

What is media literacy?

I'm taking a media literacy class, and this is the prompt that we wrote about at the end of the evening.

What is media? What is literacy? Media = newspapers, magazines, television--things thtat inform society. At one time, we saw media as unbiased, purely informational. For a long time, we did not know what the results of television would be on society. Just like we don't know where the internet will lead us. There is this ignorance that media is something we use and we choose. We don't see media as using us. Media has a force on us. It affects us more than we realize. We spend a lot of time in classrooms analyzing old books, but I'm not sure literary analysis of The Scarlet Letter will help a majority of students to become critical thinkers. We might connect with students, gain the interest and motivation or more students, by analyzing media. It surrounds us, and many times students don't realize the messages being sent that are embedded in images and music and stereotypes (all beamed into the schools by Channel One). The literacy part comes with our reading of the media--our analysis of these visual and verbal messages.

Day 2

I think I'll be using this blog as a place to reflect on my teaching of a Young Adult Literature class for secondary English Education majors. I am also considering sharing my blog. I think I want them to see my reflections on my own teaching practices. I went to IRA in May and in a session a presenter talked about the lesson reflections that students were doing. She wanted them to look at their strengths and weaknesse. In the examples she showed us, she pointed out that students were not looking at what they could do better. Maybe by reading my reflections of my own teaching, it can help them be more reflective.

Here goes:
Time flies in the hour before class starts. I walked in and the tables were a mess. I checked out the overhead projector, but I knew I needed to do some last minute tweaking of the plans. I wanted to take the questions that they wrote for Of Mice and Men and then model for them a Fan and Pick. It's a small group discussion strategy. It is hard to fit in everything. I also wanted to be more explicit about putting my objectives on the board or on screen. It changed my teaching when I started with the objectives at the beginning of class and ended by reviewing what the initial objectives were. I wasn't explicit enough in my objectives. We did do an exit pass which I have sitting beside me, but I haven't had the chance to read yet.

I've been posting assignments on the Blackboard, and I hope that helps to keep things straight. I think it will help me with continuity. Also, I really wanted to discuss those informal lesson plans for OMM. Will I have time to talk more about that on Tuesday? I can't complain about being crowded because we are in a large room, but I wanted to show them a fish bowl--at least try it. We were getting near the end of class and I don't think my directions were as good as they could have been. But, at least they got to share or hear at least two or three other lesson plans. I would really like for them to post those informal lesson ideas and also respond to some. I'm not sure exactly how I should organize those responses. Is it good enough to say "read and respond to two or three postings? I also wondering if I am giving too much homework or not enough.

We did not discuss how teachers deal with the language of the book. We have got to talk about that. I know several teachers who send letters home to parents making them aware that some of the books might have inappropriate or obscene language. I wanted to know how they would deal with that.

We got started on the literacy autobiography. I need to post on the Blackboard my "How to Write a First Draft." There was a question about how long it should be. I probably should have said something like "however long it needs to be"--not in a smart aleck way, of course. I probably should be having them write their own scoring guides for assignmnet, and I need to be more explicit about collecting these writings that we are doing in class. So far, they have written about the following:
Why those chose to pursue the teaching of secondary students?
They chose a passage that evoked strong imagery for them and either wrote a poem, using that passage, or wrote from the perspective of the character.
All of these in-class writings needs to be collected in their Teacher Notebook.

I think class went really well. For the exit pass, I asked them to tell me one thing that they could take away from class today. I would also like to talk to them about why an exit pass is a good thing to use in class. I told them it was a good thing but not why it is a good thing. I gave them my rationale for having them answer questions. I also asked them to think about if students have to comprehend the text before they can respond. That's just a question to think about. Reader response theory suggests that students can respond to a text without understanding everything. Anderson and Rubano talked about a study where professors, students, and adults with only minimal education all responded to a text. In an unarticulated response (I think) they all responded pretty much the same way. I thought that was interesting.

Maybe this is what I should research? What happens when I reflect on my teaching and the students in my class read and respond to my reflections of the class that i teach them. Not a very well articulated 20 words, but a start, nonetheless.

What am I worried about?

I don't like the first week of class. Especially when I imagine all of the final projects at the end and December doesn't seem too far off. But how hard could this be when I don't have to work full-time as a high school teacher. I have two jobs up here but that is 20 hours probably, instead of the 32 hours that I was actually in class, not counting the time planning and working after school. I can do this.

First day of class

Today was the first day of Young Adult Literature. I was not throw-up nervous. I did feel strange. Apprehensive. There are 26 students in class and one other one that emailed me asking for an override. I haven't emailed her back. This is what we did today. By the way, my watch was 10 minutes slow! I thought it was 9:15 and it was 9:25. Note to self: Always check to see if your watch is correct. I gave them notecards to fill out with their name, address, email, and any learning concerns that they had. I introduced myself. Hate that part. I did Find Someone Who with them as a community building activity. I also talked to them about the dual nature that they must have in this class. On one hand, they are students. They needs to approach what they try in class as students. Then, they need to flip-flop and look at what they are doing as a teacher, as a practitioner. So, I spent a lot of time asking why. Why would Find Someone Who be a good thing. They answered what I hoped they would. It's a wonderful way to get to know people. It forces people to talk to each other and get to know each other. The questions are not threatening, so it is easy to talk about. You are up and moving around the room. I should have made them talk a bit about management techniques that make things go better. I should share with them the quiet signal and ask them why I had them stand back to back.

I had them write about what they hoped to get from this course. They stood up and shared that, and we also had a few people share with a larger group. I should also ask them about why I made them write down their answers, share with a partner, and then let a few people share with a larger group. Why does that work? I want them to think about those managment things, so class discussion goes well. I also had them share as a class their perceptions of teenagers. They perceive students as more advanced than they were, as young people trying to find themselves, egocentric, invincible. C. shared, "Hell hath no fury like a teenage girl." I should have had them end the class with a writing. I will always do that because I really needed and wanted some feedback.

This is what they said they wanted to know:
how to write lesson plans
how to teach literature
what methods can you use?
what are your responsibilities as an English teacher?
how do you reach students who don't like English?
How do you choose the books that best suit students in your classroom?
How do you help students who like to read and write but struggle with it?
How do you help alliterate students?
How do you teach to a variety of levels?

Here is an indirect question that I heard: Is young adult literature only for struggling students? I wonder why we have that perception. I wonder why young adult literature is not at the forefront of all of our English classes.

Here are some responses I jotted down about why they chose to teach secondary English:
Actually this is my response: I thought that it would be more challening and easier in some ways ( I was wrong about the easy part). I wanted to have intellectual discussions. I wanted to help them be successful in college. I wanted to have more of a one to one rapport than I could find in elementary.

personalites are forming
conversations about literature can affect them
strong-minded but impressionable
imagination
productive and exciting
motivation to stay in school and impact student choices
I want to be a good advisor
they can begin to see a trend in what they like and how they learn. I can help further students talent and potential.
Show them a variety of responses like Mrs. Goodlitz did.
Show them they can

I had them try a book pass. They only went through about six books. I asked them, as students, why they thought this exercise was good. Then, I asked them to reflect on the idea as a teacher. The one mistake I made. I should have had them each write down those reflections and then share, so they each had to think and write about it.

I also made a mistake because I didn't explain what a book pass was for. I should have told them that the goal was to find an independent reading book. I can't make copies of lesson plans, but maybe I should post lesson plans on blackboards with objectives, etc.

We did not have time to start the literacy timeline. I gave them the homework for Wed. I hope I didn't start too soon by having them read Of Mice and Men and then brainstorm how they might introduce the novel to their class. I asked them these questions: How do you introduce a novel? What do you want students to know at the end of the reading OMM? Andy, if you are reading this, I would love for you to post a response.

There are minor things that I would change. I am disappointed that I didn't finish class wi. th an exit pass. I will for sure do that on Thursday

Making Progress

I am continuing to work on the syllabus. Why is it such slow going for me? I've also been adding articles and handouts to Blackboard. I hadn't thought much about this class until the last few weeks, and I am beginning to feel a bit nervous. I enjoyed my internship in the same class last year, but now I am the teacher--totally in charge. You know, I notice the more time that I have on my hands, the more time I waste. As much as I think I hate it, when I am really, really busy, I get so much more done.

Today, I met a friend that I have known since kindergarten. We went to school together from K-12. She looked great; older and beautiful. We went to McAlister's. She still lives in our hometown and know pretty much what everyone who lives there is still doing. She says name and I remember the name, but I can't pull up a picture of the person. She's been working with and for lawyers for several years. I asked her if she thought about going to law school. She said that she would love it, and I could see her doing that. She has two kids. One will be in seventh grade. I reminded her that in 7th grade we heard rumors about a girl that we went to school with who had sex in the 7th grade. She said, "I remember. I was thinking about that the other day." I still have the notes that we wrote each other in junior high. There are initials of boys that we liked and I can't remember who the initials stand for. That's something when you are in seventh grade that you think you would never forgot.

I also noticed that she talked differently than I did. She talked kind of like my dad. I've heard my dad call trucks "rigs." And I've heard her use that phrase. I can't believe that we are thirty. It really does seem like "just the other day" when we were in junior high and high school. How can it go by so fast? My parents always said that it would, but remember how slow the time went before you were sixteen and then before high school graduation. Then, ZIP. You are 30.

Writing a syllabus

I'm not much of a planner. I like to see what happens in a classroom and go from there. So sitting down to plan the next 18 weeks is quite a task for me compounded by the fact I have to keep asking myself what do future high school English teachers need to know about Young Adult Literature. It is Wednesday and although I haven't been constantly working on this syllabus I still thought I would have gotten more accomplished by now. I used someone else's syllabus to guide me which was helpful, but then I got to the point where I had to start with me.

I remember when I sat in on this Young Adult Literature class that I watched lesson after lesson hoping that these students would give me a great idea that I could bring back to my own classroom, but that never happened. The lessons they chose to teach didn't seem practical; the lessons also didn't seem to have a point or a purpose. The objectives were in "Edu-Engfish." I remember stressing about how to write objectives that sounded like fancy objectives, but those sentences were pointless until I actually used them. I had to tell the class at the beginning what I wanted them to focus on, and then at the end, I went back to that informal objective I announced to see if we got somewhere. I remember not knowing that was how objectives worked for a long time.

Here are the things that I have brainstormed that seem important to talk about in this class:

• align objectives and assessment
• What is young adult literature?
• Why do you need to "know" young adult lit?
• Read y.a. lit.
• explore reader response--a lot--especially aesthetic response
• explore critical theory
• Use Think Alouds and use Wilhelm's book as a reference
• try lots of reader response
• have a list of reader response and reading strategies that students can pull from and use in their lessons
• the lessons need to be centered around books they are likely to teach--I would like to see the lessons they teach be centered around books that we read together--Of Mice and Men, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, To Kill a Mockingbird.
• the lessons needs to include writing, sharing, reader response, and reading strategies
• we need to think of students as taking a reading apprenticeship from us--not my term, but I love it.
• discuss the various ways to engage students in reading
• discuss stages of literary appreciation
• write a reading autobiography
• look at Allen's characteristics of effective teachers of language and literacy
• discuss shared reading, read-alouds, book passes, book talks--go over Beers 7 tips for selling books to students
• discuss how to facilitate and keep track of independent reading
• discuss building a classroom environment that encourages reading
• pair a read aloud with a young adult text
• think about how to organize discussions--work on listening and using what you hear guide the discussion rather than letting the questions you create guide the discussion
• actively search and brainstorm and write down, informally, ideas for lessons that you have--share and collaborate with your peers

If anyone reads this, can you add to this. What else should we talk about discuss? If you have taught literature, what do you wish you had known before you started?