Sam Hval - ENGL 493

I found this course to be highly valuable in the skills and concepts it taught me. Specifically, I found the activities to be a lot of fun and encouraged me to challenge myself and my thoughts about teaching and learning. My favorite of the work completed in this course was the book talks - and I'm sure it is a favorite of many others too. It was just so exciting and refreshing to get to come to class every day and hear about something new from someone who was passionate about it. I also enjoyed getting to do mine. Sharing two of my favorite books with the class was enriching and I hoped they gained something out of it. I also thought the complex, nuanced discussions we had about different theories and practices to be enlightening. The "social justice in the classroom" discussion was the most memorable one for me. Everyone had such fascinating, surprising insight on the topic - and I really came away with new ideas in my head about how to think about social justice. Wit...

I reread Edgar Allan Poe’s story “Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Black Cat”. I also read the poem “Annabelle Lee”, which is a poem I’ve had to read several times in different English classes throughout my academic career. Edgar Allan Poe, from my observation, develops quite a reputation among secondary students. Some students hate him, others love him. I, for one, really admire and enjoy Poe’s works both on an intellectual level and on a pleasurable reading level. I can see how some students and English students don’t like him. It is very aggressive, suggestive work that can be on one hand hard to understand and also very uncomfortable. But the importance of his work is hard to ignore. Which is why I like “Rue Morgue” so much. Historically, it is one of, if not the first, existence of the “detective” story. Poe crafts stories that are able to hide information from the reader and also reveal much at the same time. His poetry is just as suggestive and dark, providing images a...

Night is, simply put, one of the essential pieces of literature. There is a reason it is commonly used as curriculum in high school classrooms. It is rare to find someone who hasn’t encountered this text in some form or another. Criticizing this text is something that seems impossible. The goal of Night isn’t to be criticized – it is to be experienced, absorbed. No book, besides Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankel, has ever so eloquently and astutely captured the horrors of the extermination of Jews during World War II. Therefore, we teach it to students. Because reading all the history textbooks, documents, statistics, powerpoints, or lectures in the world can’t ever replicate what happened or what it was like. Hearing it from a survivor allows students to step into the shoes of Elie Wiezel and attempt to grasp his emotions. From this, students can at least see the Holocaust from an authentic angle. Even if they cannot understand the suffering on a concrete level, they...

Into the Wild is a harshly moving and fascinating piece of literary journalism. It is a remarkable story, one that will reverberate through time and continue to inspire people, elicit sadness, or astound people with disbelief. Chris is a polarizing figure, one who represents humanity’s naturalistic yearning for adventure, as well as the naivete and pain of young adulthood. It is easy to feel utter bafflement and contempt for some of his actions, but it is just as easy to relate to him and like him. If anything, Krakauer does right, is that he allows the reader to understand Chris. That’s the most important part of telling his tragedy. We cannot go on this journey unless we don’t understand what drives him toward it. Some later chapters meander a little bit, but when it gets back on course it’s a great book and well-told. Chris becomes the emblematic symbol of passion, love, and the desire to search for something greater than ourselves. Chris taught me that, perhaps, we can all go o...

The first thing I thought of when considering the question “Would I teach this book in the classroom?” was: good luck with that! I can’t see how this book would be able to slip past administrators without some pushback. It’s definitely not a book meant for young adults to read, as it feature mature and graphic language, violence, sexual conversations, and heavy psychological implications. I think all of these things, however, are what the novel so strong and profound to read. If I were given the opportunity to teach this to a class, I would definitely be up for the challenge. But I can imagine a lot of parent outrage and some student discomfort. But when I think about whether a young student should read this book, I begin to think back at whether I would enjoy or learn something from this book at that age. I think, without a doubt, this is a book I would have greatly enjoyed at thirteen. Even today, I found Joe a powerfully identifiable and relatable character. When I was twelve/t...

I Read It, But I Don’t Get It   by Cris Tovani was a brisk, though at times repetitive and droning, read about different strategies for reading better. These strategies are applicable for teachers, students, and casual readers. Tovani isn’t a necessarily a poor writer; the book was easy to read and understand and every strategy was laid out clearly and practically. However, I felt the portions in which she interacted with her students and provided anecdotes were stilted and awkward. The students’ dialogue felt forced, artificial, and inauthentic. The way she portrayed her students felt like stereotypes and a middle-aged woman’s crafted view of typical high school students. I’m not going to doubt the accuracy or truthfulness of some of the situations she presents, but the manner which she writes the students and her interactions with them just felt unrealistic to me. At times, it almost felt like she held a slightly negative view of her students as a whole, which put me off a li...

I have had very limited experience working with TPA format and the edTPA guidelines. I briefly discovered and used it last quarter, but there was little instruction or guidance with it so it was basically me and my group guessing what we had to do for each section. Also, the format was a little different than the template that’s provided for class. So this form of TPA and lesson planning is a new ballpark for me. It’s been a tough, tedious journey working out and understanding the lesson plan format and what exactly needs to be written out in each section. That, coupled with the difficult formatting, has created a challenging experience. In spite of that, I totally understand how crucial and vital it is to do these in pursuit of our education career. It’s important not just because we will have to do them; it’s important because it forces us to think deeply and critically about our lessons and pedagogical philosophy. Reading the rubrics and guidelines for the edTPA assessment wa...

A Monster Calls is a low fantasy novel written for children twelve and up. It’s set in England and follows a boy named Conor who’s dealing with the grief of his mother’s terminal illness. Helping him cope is giant, slightly terrifying tree monster that visits him every midnight and tells him stories. The monster asks for Conor to tell him a story as well – the story of his own truth. What is Conor really afraid of? Patrick Ness won the Carnegie Medal for this book in 2012. Jim Kay, the illustrator, won the Greenaway medal alongside Ness – making the only time where both an author and illustrator of a book have won medals. In 2016, the novel was adapted into a film directed by J.A. Bayona, starring Liam Neeson, Sigourney Weaver, and Felicity Jones. Rationale: I chose this text because its emotionally powerful and resonant story. It’s extremely well-written and a brisk read (only 200 pages), and I feel that students are likely to be engaged with this story and its themes compared...

In regard to social justice and its usage in the classroom, I had my own preconceived opinions and ideas about it. So I hoped that researching this topic would open up some perspectives for me and allow me to see different points of view. I also wanted to find a convincing argument for why it’s philosophically and politically sound to educate students as if they should be revolutionaries. Unfortunately, I did not. One of the first articles that pop up when you google the topic is by Edutopia.org and it’s called “Creating Classrooms for Social Justice”. From the header alone, I knew that there would be some holes to poke in this one. The subtitle reads: “ Teach your students about making positive change in the world by connecting with them, discussing real-world problems and multiple perspectives, creating classroom community, and including authentic assessment. ” Like with all complex subjects, some of these claims I believe are valid and agreeable – others I think are just wron...

I thought this article brought up some really interesting and important ideas regarding popular media in the classroom – specifically, how to incorporate it in a useful and engaging way for students. The text’s ultimate purpose seemed to evoke Freire’s ideas about students using their literacy as a voice to enact social change. In the context of the article, this relates to mass media (books, news, film, television, social media, etc.) because the text makes the point that it is not neutral, and that there are messages being conveyed to the consumers of mass media from all perspectives and points of view. Learning to navigate a world in which information is constantly being poured into us through mass media is difficult and confusing, even for an adult. It must be even harder for adolescents, who are growing up and being cultivated by this mass media. However, I don’t think this should be the main focus of incorporating popular culture into classroom. I would choose to teach pop...

I find “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” to be a fascinating document because of how widely read, shared, and discussed. That specifically, is fascinating because from my own personal experience (as well as observation from and of others), there many teachers who still follow this “banking” method of instruction. This material and philosophy has been around for a long time, yet some teachers don’t see the problem with the banking dichotomy. The idea of rejecting that notion is something that I’ve been very passionate about. So much so, in fact, that it’s one of the main reasons that I have decided to pursue teaching. I don’t believe for one second that my intellectual capability and intelligence is above any of my students. Nor do I believe that my knowledge is superior. I think where the superiority complex stems from improper cultivation of teachers is many of them were trained during a period of curriculum that was based on knowledge of the world and facts, as opposed to skills and un...

Assessment is one of those topics that appears to be daunting to me at first, but the more I think about it, and the more I read about it, the more I feel comfortable with it. I don’t think it’s really as tricky as topic as some people like to make it out to be. The handout provided offered some really good in depth looks at the different ways teachers can assess their students’ knowledge and understanding. It took a very neutral stance, investigating the pros and cons of all kinds of approaches. There wasn’t any tactics of assessment that I found particularly abhorrent. They all work in their own ways. I just think in order to have good assessment there needs to be a common, solid ground to base the assessment on. That’s where the debate comes to. This leads to the article about standards based grading. I think standards based grading, on a philosophical level, is a sound way to approach assessment. The issue arises when we talk about what specifically the standards are, and wh...

There was nothing about this template that really stood out to me. A lot of the practices and ideas are things students will come in contact with through class curriculum either way (at least, that would be my hope). It's extensive and wordy but at least it's very thorough and direct with the approach here. A student looking for detailed information about concepts like "rhetoric", "drafting", and "pre-reading" will find this template useful. But as a teacher, many of these concepts have already been burned into my brain. My approach to lessons will come naturally to look similar to this template, as well as the instruction that I give my students. The section that did interest me the most (and that I would find most beneficial for students to know about) was "Annotating and Questioning the Text" on page 10. Specifically, I liked how it said: "In rereading, it is helpful if students read 'against the grain,' or 'play the...

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is the fictionalized autobiography of author Robert M. Pirsig and his alter-ego narrator “Phaedrus” published in 1974. The book chronicles a motorcycle trip from Minnesota to Northern California taken by the author and his son, Chris. The trip is broken up by sections of philosophical discussions the author calls “Chautauquas”. The main topic the narrator discusses is what he deems the “Metaphysics of Quality”. This philosophical journey of discovering what Quality is, and how to define it, parallels the trials he and his son face along the road trip. All the while, Pirsig also flashes back to the past through a third-person narrative of Phaedrus, a college English professor whose path to discovering the true meaning of Quality and value eventually drives him insane. He is sent to an asylum and treated with electroconvulsive therapy which gives birth to a new personality: the narrator of the book. The book becomes a harrowing tale of the re...

My experience with Common Core begins with my high school education, where I was able to see firsthand the standards reforms happening in Washington State. At the time, the idea of Common Core State Standards was off-putting for a majority of my fellow students. We seemed to collectively agree that the standards appeared to be restricting our learning and creativity. But over time, as the standards have continued to be developed, and the implementation of those standards evolves, Common Core has become more palatable for me. The reading explains the goal of Common Core best when they quote, "standards provide a definition of what is possible, but standards are not curriculum documents". I think this sentiment is extremely important in understanding what the goal of Common Core standards are. Though my personal philosophy about education wouldn't include something like the state standards, they are a necessary and deeply integrated part of the public school system. Future...

I have had a fortunately diverse and stimulating experience with graphic novels over the years. While I'm not an avid consumer of them, I always try to read any that I find interesting when I get the chance. Most recently, I read a series of volumes called "Saga" by Brian K. Vaughn. It quickly became my new favorite graphic novel because of its literary power and consistent quality. This connects to my overall feeling that graphic novels should definitely be considered for classroom use. Sometimes, I feel like the resistance or apprehension toward graphic novels as a valid/useful form of literature comes from a lack of knowledge of them. Just as much literary effort is put into a graphic novel as a written novel. The scripts for each issue have to be written out. Every action, every word, and every development of the narrative is dictated by the writer(s) in the scripting process. The illustration serves as an extra layer to communicate those aspects. Just because the m...

    From the start, the most interesting aspect of the article was the idea that the most productive and insightful discussion occurs among a group when the "ground rules" have been set. This includes expectations of how to behave, what to talk about, and how to talk go about with the discussion. I think it's easy for us to assume that a discussion can just begin by gathering together and asking a question or something simple like that. But really we know as students ourselves that everyone wants to know what to talk about. Setting the ground rules and the expectations will also help quieter members of the group speak up and gain confidence and security in knowing they will be heard. The more prepared the discussion leader AND the members of the discussion are, the better and more productive the discussion will be. Everyone will be on the same page and in the same mindset.     One of the ideas for discussion activities that piqued my curiosity was the "rotating gro...