Response to Fu and Roswell

While completing the chapters in Writing Between Languages by Danling Fu, there were several things that caught my attention. Fu states that "while studying immigration in the 1920s, students were able to compare the experiences of those immigrants with their own" (Fu 33). This stuck out to me because not only in Christensen's text, but in texts I've read for other classes the authors tell us how important it is to include books and lessons that are relevant to the lives of the students. In this case, the ELL students are able to get more out of a lesson because they are able to relate to the material in which they are studying. This is further proof of how important it is to ensure that what we teach is something that students can connect to.

Fu also talks a lot about how students that are able to express their ideas in their native language and then translate to english typically have better pieces of work. Within the last year I've heard many school teachers say that by not allowing students to speak or write in their native language they are better immersed in english and learn more. After listening to our guest speaker last week and reading the Fu chapters, I wonder where on earth people have gotten the idea that only allowing students to speak english is in anyway beneficial.

In Roswell's article something that stuck out to be was the discussion of artifacts. When Roswell is talking about how artificats or objects can be used as a form of literacies I tried to think about what artifacts I own that tie into my culture or identity. What I came up with was the photos that I have collected during the past 9 years since we lost almost everything to a housefire. A lot of times my friends critique me for always wanting to document memories, but I find that these memories tie into the shaping of my identity and that if I don't document them I might forget important things.

Response to Stewart

Prior to finishing the first chapter by Stewart I felt myself growing annoyed. Not at the reading though, but at how our country currently operates. Valeria came here for access to education, and we shouldn't be turning down and capturing any child. Especially because we are a country of immigrants, so why are we discriminating now? I am someone who despises the idea that people can own land, and that places on the Earth are considered restricted to certain individuals. It makes no sense to me at all.

Another thought that came to mind as I continued reading was how I will interact with ELs students. Before I came to RIC I never even thought of the possibility that I could be teaching students who potentially won't know English well, if at all. After doing different observations at various schools in Providence, it is clear that this will be something I will most likely end up doing. I appreciate that Stewart talks about some approaches we can take as educators. Throughout different texts I've looked out in both this class and other education classes, it seems that they all encourage us to choose texts that are "relevant to the students' lives" (Stewart 2). I strictly believe that in order to encourage students to participate in the class they need to relate to the things that they read. When something becomes relatable to any student, the chances of them becoming more interested or passionate abot a topic greatly increases.

Stewart also tells us that they "regularly enter classrooms and tell students that [they] expect them to read, write, and speak in all of their languages at school and at home" (Stewart 28). This is something I found interesting because a lot of times we hear about teachers not wanting students to speak in any language other than English in a classroom setting. I believe that it would be very beneficial to have these students practice both their native language and english at home and in the classroom as it allows them to practice a lot more. This can lead to more progress in learning a new language and be a lot more beneficial than just forcing english on them.

Response to Podcast and Article by Hicks

As I was listening to the podcast this week (prior to reading the article) before I even got 15 minutes into it, I already found myself relating to Boyd. Feeling such a strong sense of connection to her made me pause the podcast entirely and begin writing here. One thing that she talks about is that how  in high school she "just really didn't feel like [I] belonged" and that the internet allowed her "to connect to people around the globe" (Boyd). I couldn't believe how her experience in high school almost mirrored mine. I always struggled to fit in with my peers and never felt that sense of belonging until, as I've mentioned before, I joined an internet community. Through this community I was able to learn so many things about how people around the world lived, the different struggles they endured in terms of prejudice and racism. Just like Boyd and myself, this community was a place for those who didn't belong to find comfort and solace.

I had always been fairly sheltered and if I'm  being completely honest, I was unaware of the fact that things like racism and homophobia were still totally prevelant in so many places. Through the community I joined, I was told so many horror stories. One in particular that always stuck with me was how one of my friends in the community had come out as transgender in his school. Not only was he bullied by his peers, but some of his teachers were just as horrible. He was not allowed to use the bathroom during the school day for at least the first few months after coming out. No one accepted him, not his family, not his teachers, and especially not his peers. Often times he would tell us if he hadn't found our little community, chances were he would've continued attempting suicide until he succeeded. There were many people with similar stories of not belonging, and without online communities they may have never known what it feels like to have friends and belong.

Boyd also points out that a lot of people blame the internet for us becoming as racist society, however, she states that "we are a racist society, and we're just making it more visible online" and based on the stories I've heard,  in online communities, this is completely true. These people were being bullied and dealing with prejeduice within their schools, in their towns, and within their families. We cannot put blame on the internet for making society racist, or homophobic, or transphobic, when these things go on in everyday life either way. All the internet is doing is showing us just how bad people can be. Just because someone is more comfortable making judgements and expressing themselves from behind a screen, does not make them any less awful in person.

In the Hicks article we learn more about bad examples of digital literacy in the classroom, and how important it is to include technology in the classroom. This is something I find myself disagreeing with, as I think our society needs to take a step away from technology before it is too late. While I'm sure there are some good examples of using technology, I agree with Hicks that a lot of teachers don't incorporate the use of technology correctly. 

3/24 Response

My first thoughts on allsides.com was that that home page was very chaotic to look at. I also wasn't exactly sure what I should be exploring here, whether it be the websites layout or the articles. The site claims that "by making the political leanings of hundreds of media sources transparent, AllSides frees people from filter bubbles so we can understand the world- and each other" which sounds like a great idea in theory. While I don't exactly have a lot of extra time to be currently exploring this site, this will be a link I save so I can get a better look at it in the future.

 In regards to Christensen's chapter on writing essays, I found the different techniques she shares that are meant to get students to collect evidence. As the chapter continued I found myself completely agreeing with the quote "when students write for the teacher instead of writing out of a compelling need to speak out, the writing is often tedious, not worth writing, and not worth reading" (Christensen 123).  As someone who finds writing to typically be a waste of my own time (especially when I could be working or actually enjoying my life instead) I wonder how, as a techer, I can create assignments that aren't just wasting everyones time like most of the assignments I have done. However this also brings up the issue that anassignment might be interesting for one student but completely tedious for everyone else. At this point would you have to alter the assignment for each individual student?

Response to Standards

When I was first introduced to the standards, I found them to be a bit confusing. There were so many different sites to use for different standards, i.e the Common Core, NCTE, State Standards and other's that I don't know off of the top of my head. I find that I prefer the common Core standards as I feel they are a bit more clear, and you can apply at least one to any lesson. I also found the common core standards website easier to navigate through, whereas in the past I have struggled to navigate through the NCTE/ IRA Standards. Even though I've looked at the standards in several classes I still feel as though I have a lot of questions regarding them. One of the biggest questions I have is do I have to make sure every lesson lines up with a standard, or do I just have to make sure the unit itself lines up with a few? How closely do I have to follow the standards? Do I need to use both the Common Core and NCTE/ IRA Standards?

Rick Wormeli talks about "unwrapping the standards" and making sure students understand what standards you are holding them up to, and what the difference between getting an A or not is. I appreciate how he talks about  showing "evidence of the learning" as I find that to be the most important thing in terms of assignments. Throughout High school, in the rare occasions that we were allowed to revise we were never really asked to show evidence of learning, mostly I would just fix the mistakes I made, add a few more quotes and explanations and hope for the best. Wormeli wants his students to be able to show that they have actually learned the material that has been taught in class. In school kids are mostly worried about keeping their grades up, and a lot of times they memorize material for a test but they don't actually learn it. By showing that they have learned something rather than just memorized it for the time being, they are forced to think a bit more critically, which hopefully gives them a better understanding of the material.

RIWP Conference

Going into the conference I wasn't expecting a lot, especially from the workshops. I remember going to Promising Practices my Sophomore year and the workshop I attended wasn't very interesting. But I really enjoyed both of the workshops yesterday, and I feel that I learned quite a lot from both of them.

The first workshop I attended was "What's Love Got to Do With It?": Revolutionize Your Relationships and Practice. In this workshop the teachers running it had us do a station rotation, which was fun but we didn't get a chance to go to all of the stations. The two I got to experience were lead by Ryan Burns and Ashlee Burns. Ashlee's station taught us about the importance of creating a personal classroom as well as forming relationships with her students. She told us how she uses Will Smith videos in her classroom, and I think prior to this I wouldn't have ever thought to do that. The other station I went to was run by Ryan Burns. We read The Sound of Genuine and then talked about the sound of genuine in ourselves. One quote from the passage that resonated with me was "you are the only you that has ever lived".

I especially enjoyed the second workshop I attended was called Finding Solace in Comics: Graphic Novels that Support Social Emotional Learning. One of the teacher's running this program was Micael Gianfrancesco, who also happens to be the teacher I will be doing observations with in my SED 407 class in the next few weeks. During this class we talked about including graphic novels in the curriculum as well as the importance of drawing and letting your students doodle. Personally I have never really been a fan of doodling, especially in notebooks or on worksheets because it ruins the aesthetic for me. I was a bit of a perfectionist with my notes in high school, and I felt that doodles would ruin them. However I do understand that it is important to let students doodle in their classes, Cara Bean, the other professional running the session, told us that when we are anxious we can lose between 13-20 IQ points. I found this session to be insightful, and already started drafting up lesson plan ideas on how I could include graphic novels in my future classroom.

I also enjoyed the key note speaker, Tina Cane. I appreciated that she shared her personal work with us, and also enjoyed the letter she had us write. I did not enjoy turning it into a poem though. Lately I feel like everyone is trying to force poetry writing onto me and it is taking the joy out of the activity. I hate feeling forced to do things, and I have continued to feel forced into writing poems, which is not something I enjoy or want to do. I don't like to do these things because then I end up in my head, and for anyone that knows me, they know I can't properly be alone with my thoughts or else I end up in a dark place mentally. I don't think it's okay for anyone to force someone to write when they don't want to, as it is leading me to really dislike writing and dread doing it.

Response to Narrative Writing

This week I really struggled to get the reading done for the blog post. I tried to take into account that last week we were advised to read the chapter first. While typically I enjoy Christensen's chapters, this week I just couldn't seem to focus. I also typically enjoy narrative writing, so I'm surprised I didn't enjoy the readings a bit more.

After reading the article The Politics of the Paragraph by Michelle Kenney, I ended up starting a conversation with one of my friends about writing. I very distinctly remember the thesis formula and how we were meant to come up with at least three ideas to dicsuss throughout our essay. However, as I got older I learned that you could have more than just three ideas. Similarly to Erica, I had to learn how to incorporate this into my thesis. Although I never faced nearly as much of a struggle as she did. While I always kept that 5 body formula in mind, and still do when I go to write, I don't strictly follow it.

I have always found a lot of the writing formulas my previous teachers gave me to be quite useful. There are really two formulas that I still think of today, one of which was a hamburger analogy and the other was a graphic organizer called R.A.C.E.S. R.A.C.E.S was very useful in getting my papers started. For those of you who never used this formula, the R stood for response to the prompt, the A stood for answer the question, the C was for citations, the E was to explain the citations and the S was a summary sentence. While these formulas don't particularly apply to narratives, they came to mind while I was reading the Kenney text.

When I was in high school I feel as though we didn't really cover narrative writing much after my freshmen year. While it took me awhile to get through Christensen's chapter, I do feel as though I learned quite a bit about narratives. I found that her dialogue strategy was insightful, as I have always typically shyed away from including dialogue in my works. I also learned about the "Read-Around Procedure", which I don't think I would ever implement in a class. While I was reading about it all I could think is how that would have been my absolute worst nightmare in High School, and would have most likely resulted in me skipping class or making myself sick in order to avoid that. Typically I find Christensen's strategies insightful and I think of how I can include them in my own future lessons, however the Read-Around Procedure is definitely one that I think I might avoid, as it puts shy students in a spotlight they might find to be horrifying rather than helpful.