On "Pick Books You Like"

This article provided a different viewpoint about teaching novels. Instead of an entire group of students reading the same novel, each student is able to read what they want and participate in discussions and journal writing. I like parts of this idea, but overall I am a proponent for everyone reading the same novel. I think that students should be able to read what they want to an extent. Students should pick texts that are grade appropriate. For instance, the article states that some of the middle school students were reading the "Captain Underpants" series of novels. I think that is way below middle school level. They should be choosing books that are geared toward their age group, such as "The Outsiders," "The Cay," and "The Pigman." The school I am student teaching at has a program called Accelerated Reading. Students pick grade level appropriate books and take comprehension tests on them. I think this is a great way to get students to read. They read what they want and their reading progress is monitored.

After reading the article I agree with what the critics say. They state that "reading as a group generally leads to more meaningful insights, and they question whether teachers can really keep up with a roomful of children reading different books" (1). I agree that reading as a group leads to good discussions. In my college classes we all read the same books and the discussions are great. I always learn something new. Whether it be a different viewpoint or a different way to interpret something, reading the same novel has always been something that I have liked. I also question whether the teacher really can stay on top of thirty different books per class. That appears to be a ton of work and I do not know how a teacher can keep up with it, especially if they have not read the book.

I liked seeing that Nancie Atwell was discussed in the article as well. After reading her book, it was interesting to see her name pop up again. I like that Atwell is particular about students not reading junk like "Gossip Girl." I liked Atwell's ideas for the reading workshop, but I liked the writing workshop ideas a lot better! Overall, I found that this was an interesting article. It provided me another viewpoint on teaching reading. Although I do not really agree with it, it is something I may consider for the future.

On "In the Middle"

At first, I did not think that I would have the time to read Nancie Atwell's book In the Middle. However, once I picked up this book and started reading I could not stop! Atwell provides hundreds of useful mini-lessons, teaching strategies and forms that I can use in my reading or writing classroom. There are so many good ideas that I do not even know where to begin with this blog!

I think that chapter one is a good place to begin. In this chapter, Atwell says, "I participate with them in collaborative writing ventures, I submit poems and stories... (25)." Atwell explains that a good writing teacher is one that writes with their students. This is how a writing classroom should be. The teacher can not expect his or her students to go write a paper or creative writing assignment. The teacher needs to take the time to show students how it is done. This can be done numerous ways. The teacher could, and should, give an example of his or her writing. The teacher could model their writing habits on the overhead projector (I really liked this idea a lot!). Finally, the teacher could the time to just sit and write with the students. These all seem to be great ways to model good writing in the classroom.

Chapter ten goes into more detail behind modeling writing habits for students. "They begin to see the hundreds of choices I make every time I write. They see that almost nothing is accidental... (332)." I think that this is a fantastic way to show students the writing process. As Atwell says it helps students to "be ready." On page 367, Atwell receives feedback about these demonstrations. I found it interesting that the students were able to pick up on so much. These demonstrations helped the students to learn how to perfect their craft.

Chapter four in Atwell's book gave helpful tips on setting up the writing classroom. For instance keeping track. "...I put serious hours into the forms and folders we'll use for keeping records and collecting students' work throughout the year (104)." I found this section in particular to be very helpful. I really like her ideas behind the writing workshop and this provided examples of forms and ways to stay organized. I like the idea that the record keeping she uses puts the responsibility on the students. In student teaching, I have seen the amount of paper work that my cooperating teacher has to deal with. By making the students responsible for their record keeping, it alleviates some of the stress involved in teaching.

There are numerous other chapters that are very helpful as well. Chapter nine mentions portfolios and different goals behind them. Chapter six had hundreds of great ideas and mini-lessons that I would really like to use with my classes. Chapter seven gave some great ideas to evaluate writing, and the appendixes gave fantastic forms that I could easily use in my classroom.

Overall, this book was fantastic!! It gave me a ton of ideas for my classroom. I always thought that writing would be so dry and boring to teach, but Atwell changed my outlook on that!

On "Changing Our Minds"

I found this article by Myers to be quite interesting. It was fascinating to be able to see how education has transformed throughout the years. More importantly, as I was reading this article, I found some parallels between the past and now. One instance that I noticed was in recitation literacy. I remember being in elementary school and having the "'Drillmaster,' who led students in unison through their lessons (64)." When I first learned the alphabet I followed the teachers lead. We, as a class, would recite the alphabet on a daily basis until we had memorized it. What was also found with recitation literacy is that students were able to memorize the material, but they were not able to comprehend what it meant. When I was learning the alphabet, I memorized it, but it had no meaning to me. I did not know that these letters created words. I think that it is interesting to see that this form of education is still seen in classrooms today.

Finally, another parallel I noticed was later on when the article talked about decoding and analytic literacy. More specifically, this section dealt with "tracking." Students were given the tools they needed to become successful at analyzing in order to reach their specific goal. So for instance, a college prep track would be expected to become "advanced analytical readers (88)." This seems very true of English classes today. High schools seem to utilize this tracking so that students can achieve a particular goal for their futures. When I was in high school we had tracked English classes. We had general, which contained the more vocational students, and we had college prep, which had college-bound students enrolled. It is interesting to see how these movements in education are still being utilized to this day.

This article also provided insight into what composition studies of the past were like. I found it odd that students were required to copy essays. The educators of the past saw copying as a way for students to learn the conventions of writing. Unfortunately, students were not able to express themselves. Today, the writing classroom seems to be focused on what students think. The writing assignments are more creative in nature. It is important to make students think outside the box and consider issues and pieces of literature from a more abstract viewpoint.

On a completely unrelated note, I finally read The Lord of the Flies this summer. I loved it! I recently began reading a very similar book titled Battle Royale. The book is amazing! It is a modernized version of Lord of the Flies set in Japan. It has a very similar premise where students are trapped on an isolated island, and need to find a way to survive. If you liked Lord of the Flies, check this book out!