Given two and a half days to mull it over, I've come up with a few things I wanted to share from the class we had last Friday.
I must say, I've been twiddling my thumbs a bit this last two weeks as the information we've been getting from all of our classes seems bewildering and not yet applicable to our actual teaching. The Ed Tech class activity of creating a lesson plan however tied that all together. Having no formal training in lesson plan creation, we already had the tools necessary to do it. We figured out what we wanted to teach in our units, we analyzed which information would be most beneficial and we created activities based on our decisions. It took me a day to realize it, but we actually hit on several aspects of the taxonomy. SCARY!
(If we'd been told to create the lesson plan based on the taxonomy however I'm not sure things would've gone so well, but that's my own opinion.)
That being said, meeting with my fellow English Majors, I was reminded of how much literature I still have not even heard of that I want to cover before I start teaching. I've never read a specific environmentally geared novel, and with the current events of the decade I feel that it would be an excellent genre to become familiar with.
The practice on the wiki was useful and will come in handy in the next hour or so as I add to my group's wiki for Shari's class. While I have read wikis before and am familiar with the concepts, I've never made one until now. The multiple people using the site at the same time and potentially saving over each other's work makes me extremely nervous; something that's caused me to save everything in Word first just in case it gets overwritten.
On that note, I've got the explanations for my taxonomy assignment left to work on and some brief notes for my Teacher Quality wiki.
More on life later!
~Ren
Ren, you make an excellent point about us (accidentally) using the taxonomy! I've been feeling the same way about the theory-focused content these past few weeks, so it is encouraging to see that it makes more sense when we apply it.
ReplyDeleteLet me start by saying that saving everything for the wiki in Word first is absolutely the best way to approach it. I had to do a wiki in undergrad, and the professor basically told us we're insane if we DON'T save our work somewhere other than the wiki, so don't worry, you're not being neurotic :)
ReplyDeleteI have the same worries about the literature thing... I'm slightly obsessed with the idea that I have to read every single canonical text before I should be allowed in a classroom, but then I have to realize that that's just crazy. There is SO MUCH out there, it would be impossible to be knowledgeable about every single genre.
And I'll finish by saying that your taxonomy observation is intriguing - I had not thought about the fact that we accidentally used it. I personally think that analyzing it in assignments like the one we're working on right now (cough) is ridiculous... and that using it accidentally and then examining THAT would be much more useful.
English is so tough that way, isn't it? Always making you feel self conscious for not having read the "right" text. I knew a fellow English major who owned every canonical text I can think of... but she still hasn't managed to read them all and I don't think she could argue she's more "qualified" to teach than anyone else.
ReplyDeleteBut I have to say, I think it was you that pointed out that "The Grapes of Wrath" could be interpreted through an environmental lens. If not, you certainly did a good job of conveying it during the larger discussion. Even if "Silent Spring" came out of left field (it did for me too), you managed to use something you *did* know. Way to think on your feet!
Hi, Ren -- There are some terrific dystopian novels dealing with environmental catastrophe. I highly recommend THE CARBON DIARIES: 2015 and TCD: 2017. On some level, the HUNGER GAMES / CATCHING FIRE / MOCKINGJAY series also focuses on environmental downfall. There are others ... this is a very hot topic in young adult lit right now! (There is some SUPERB YA literature out there right now -- it's addictive!)
ReplyDeleteDamn, Ren. I didn't even realize we got all taxonomical (word? it is now) the other day. That's a really important thing to realize because, like you, I've struggled with trying to find the practical purpose in some of the things we've been doing. By seeing perhaps the most frustrating concept we've discussed actually come into play with our first real teacher-like activity, gives me a lot of hope that this stuff won't all be in vain.
ReplyDeleteThanks for helping me realize that!
Ren, it was good to read that looking back at the activity you did, and that you were seeing your group employing some of the elements of the taxonomy in your work. I think that there are interesting possibilities related to making your students a bit more "standards savvy." My primary interest in this kind of idea is with helping students to take a bit more ownership over their learning process, and to engage the kinds of skills as observers that you showed in your work in class and ensuing reflection. My sense is that is that kids are more used to being "taught to" and being "done to" and that equipping them to use their natural talents as observers to think about the work *they are doing* can change their relationship with their learning process. A friend would share relevant standards with his students and would then ask them to think about their learning experiences and compare...called it "post-hoc" assessment.
ReplyDeleteI also find your speculations about what would have been different had the activity been explicitly *about* the taxonomy to be very provocative. As we've discussed in class, a lot of the learning is crystallized in the process of meaning-making through reflection and debriefing.
These are great things to be thinking about as you contemplate moving into the classroom, Ren.