Short Stories into Short Movies

Short stories are essential to an ELA classroom. Close reading is becoming a major part of curriculum due to testing, such as the Keystone Exams. It is asked of teachers to give students opportunities to practice close reading as an effort to build analyzing skills. The thought is that if students can successfully complete a close reading in the classroom, then they will be able to successfully respond to the prompts given on the Keystone Exam. The major problem with putting close reading activities is the amount of time it takes to instruct close reading skills. While reading a novel, the content of the novel must be moved through at a pace that will allow students to comprehend, participate in in-class activities, and then be assessed in a variety of mediums. Due to their nature, short stories open themselves up to the prospect of being placed in a close reading activity. I believe the 20-shot short story adaptation will provide the most effective learning experience for students. After a brief lesson on filming technique and rationale, it will be the students responsibility to recreate the themes and characters of the short story they are assigned. Reading and discussing the short story will take care of the lower levels of Bloom's taxonomy, but by forcing the students to adapt the story to film they must reach the higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy. This will result in a forced close reading, that will disguise the learning of critiquing and analyzing skills needed for the Keystone Exam. Students will also be able to relish in the fact they are being allowed to create their own movie as well, and should in turn attack the assignment with an invigorated enthusiasm. All this being said, I am anxious and excited to see how this assignment is realized through creating our own 20-shot short stories in class. Thoughts, comments, concerns, criticisms, and questions are always welcome.

A touch of reality

I would like to start this post on a positive note. That being said, all of the ideas and activities we, as a class, have produced and discussed are wonderful, positive additions to curriculum that is most likely outdated. Non-print media and multi-modal learning most certainly have a place in the classroom of the future. However, it has been my experience that placing these activities and ideas in the classroom is much harder than anticipated. This is for two reasons. The first being that you must get everything okayed by administration. The paper trail in high schools could probably match the equator in length. This, though, is the easier road block to get past. As a certified high school teacher you will have the knowledge and skills to provide rationales and justifications for everything that you wish to supplement your class with. The harder problem is getting the students to buy into what your doing. One way is to pour on the enthusiasm, and I have found and believe that I will continue to find that the more excitement you show for a topic, the more the students will buy into that subject. Burnout becomes inevitable though. I recently had a fellow student teacher tell me, "I don't even want to try most of the ideas that I think of for lessons, because I know the students will reject them and then I'll look stupid." I am not blogging about this to turn anyone away from the field. I have had a wonderful student teaching experience so far, and I cannot wait to get into my own classroom. However, I would like to place of word of caution to have realistic expectations. In the classroom we are able to develop an idealistic expectation of how our classroom will take a lesson or adapt to our presence, but once we step foot in an actual classroom the atmosphere affects the teacher. The hardest transition from classroom to classroom will be found in the urban environment. These students will test your patience and enthusiasm for your content on a daily basis, and it will be up to you to keep a positive mind set in order to further their learning. Earlier in the semester, I blogged about my idea to play the documentary "Marley." I showed "Marley" on Tuesday of this past week and while the students enjoyed the movie, they did not make the connections that I had hoped they would. I provided them with a handout of questions that would lead them to develop higher order thinking and provide in-depth answers on how Bob Marley's life connected to James McBride's life. What I got in return was half-completed questions and surface level thinking. I began to scratch a deeper meaning in discussion, but due to time I was unable to keep that discussion going. As I said earlier, DO NOT LET THIS DISCOURAGE YOU. However, understand that what we are learning now in class, will not translate easily into the classrooms you are placed in once you graduate. Thoughts, comments, criticisms, concerns, and questions are always welcome.

If You Have the Time

Ken Robinson on TED

Follow up Ken Robinson 4 years later on TED

I ask how can we, future educators, join and contribute to this revolution?

Use Activities as Outlets

My patience has been tried over and over in my 9th grade classrooms, and I finally broke on Thursday and yelled at my class. While I do believe that a teacher retains the right to yell or scold his/her class, yelling should be a last resort management tool. After I had used my other management tools: proximity, individual conferencing, in and out of class, referrals, and a call to home, my patience was gone and the class was still not making progress. In the middle of reading "I Have a Dream" aloud in class the side conversations would not cease, even after prompting. I walked over to the student reading, tapped her on the shoulder, and asked her to stop for one second. "I HAVE A DREAM THAT WE CAN ALL LISTEN TO THE READING! This is extra chatter needs to stop immediately!" Silence engulfed the room and I looked over to gain approval from my co-op, only to see her jaw on the floor. The remainder of the class was spent listening to the speech and working silently on analyzing the speech. This tactic, although successful, is not a tactic I wish to use in the classroom in future situations. While brainstorming on how I could have avoided this I came up with a few solutions. A teacher must always have an extra activity or two in case a lesson fails or needs adjusted. If I had a different activity or re-focused the class on an individual reading and analysis earlier I may have avoided having to scream. Writing activities are most beneficial, because it is my experience that students get bored with reading quickly, but will write off and on for long periods of time in silence. I would hope that I could trust to put the students into group to work on a poster, drawing, debate, etc. However, if they cannot be trusted to listen to a student read aloud, then why should I trust them to get work done in large groups. I believe that activities can be the answer to dealing with loud, obnoxious classes, but I need to hone in on what specific activities would work best. Thoughts, comments, concerns, criticisms, questions are always welcome. 

Resistance is Ignorance

Somehow I mixed up readings and ended up switching this week's and last week's readings. So here's to learning about podcasts. It is extremely frustrating to continually discover that I am ten steps behind the curve, and that literacies, such as podcasts, can benefit both teacher and student in the classroom. Podcasts were myth of radio stations until this week. I knew that most DJ's keep podcasts of their respective shows on the station's website, but I had never looked into what a podcast is or what it can be. After reading "The Book Report, Version 2.0: Podcasting on Young Adult Novels," my job may have taken a turn for best. As an educator, I embrace opportunities to bring my students love for non-print media into the classroom, and by assigning a podcast book report I can kill two birds with stone. The biggest upside to the podcast book report as described by Robert Rozema is making the students write a script. Now students are being forced to develop comprehension of content twice. Reinforcement then becomes natural, and the whole time the students can enjoy being able to use their precious technology. Rozema also brings up another most excellent point, that due to the podcast's compactness a close-reading of the text becomes a necessity. Students must choose the most important excerpts depicting characterization, tone, voice, theme, syntax, plot, and setting. Then, to put the cherry on top, Rozema indicates that creating a podcast is the perfect tool to practice writing to an audience. All-in-all, I'm a believer. My resistance to change to a tech-savy classroom has only been hurting me, and I will continue to combat my ignorance in an attempt to benefit myself and my students. Comments, criticisms, concerns, and questions are always welcome.

Addressing drug use in school

It is bound to happen eventually...a student brings up drugs in the classroom. I am currently teaching argumentative speeches in my 9th grade classes, and we started the unit by discussing their culminating assignment, a 2-3 argumentative speech. After going over the specifications of the assignment we went over a list of possible ideas for speeches. Not ten minutes in a student raised her hand and asked if she could bring up the topic of drug use in high school. She brought up the fact that there is a drug problem in the school, and that she believed the problem is fueled by the fact that the school is a creative and performing arts school. I decided to let this topic ride, and I opened it up to the class. Some students brought up the fact that drugs can help the creative process and some agreed that drugs will only deteriorate your brain. As always, I turned to my music. I played a song by an up-and-coming artist by the name of Macklemore. His song Otherside depicts how substance abuse, although glorified by some artists, "will leave you broke, depressed, and emotionally vacant." I played this song for my class, and the faces of all the students as they listened were priceless. I could tell that they had never even imagined that a hip-hop artist would write lyrics that placed drug use in a negative light. The honesty and intensity of the song resonated with each student, and after the music stopped it was as if every student had their mind completely blown. I easily moved right into the next topic, because not one student wanted to address the "fun" issue that had suddenly become serious. As always, comments, criticisms, concerns, and questions are welcome.