Teaching Lit To Adolescents

In this week’s reading, I most enjoyed the section describing the seven-week poetry unit they developed. In the unit, teachers paired together a traditionally taught poem with a hip-hop song. Students were divided into groups and asked to create a lesson plan to present to the class that analyzed, compared, and contrasted the poem and rap assigned to them. In the weeks that they were preparing these lessons, students learned about different elements of poetry and were encouraged to bring in song lyrics that they recognized these units of poetry in. The article also states that students were expected to produce an analysis of the other poem-rap-duos in order to be prepared to fully participate in class. “We worked hard all year on developing a classroom culture where student participation in dialogues about literacy themes was normalized” (17).   I liked this section of the text because I feel that it embodied what it means to teach in underfunded, lower-income ...

The section “Different Notions of Learning Literature” of this weeks reading posed a really valuable question; what is the meaning of learning literature? The section highlights two main frames of mind surrounding the question. First, there is the “knowing that” mindset. Teachers with this idea of learning literature want their students to be able to recall factual aspects of the story. They might turn to worksheets or quizzes that ask students to find the correct answer. The other frame of mind mentioned is the “knowing how” mindset. This idea values students’ ability to apply knowledge to reading. Teachers with this mindset value their students’ reflection and opinions of the literature more. I find both of these ideas to hold great value and have an important role in the classroom. If I were to plan out a year of my teaching that, by some miracle, went exactly as I planned, I would spend a significant amount of time on both of these ideas. I think that it is important for students ...

When reading this week’s assignment, I was very drawn to the section that discusses the benefits of annotating a text. I was fully aware that annotating a text benefited readers’ understanding, but only really because that is what high school teachers and college professors have told me. The section, beginning on page 10, suggests that teachers encourage students to read the paper twice through. The first time, read “towards the grain” and agree with what the author is saying. Make note of things that you enjoy or agree with and things that make sense. The second time through, disagree with what the author is saying and read “against the grain.” I found this section particularly interesting because my goal is to teach grades 11 and 12. Common Core State Standards for these grade levels include a focus on the integration of knowledge or ideas into text. I will need to make sure that my students are capable of reading a text, identifying and understand the information presented, and dec...