Blog 5 Research

This week has been great and mind numbing all at the same time. My students seem to lose intelligence while doing research and I can completely understand why. Yet at the same time it is a little frustrating.

Students have been in the library all week doing research. The topics we let them choose from were social topics we pulled from the texts we have read. So some of the topics include: abortion, police brutality, militias, gangs, war on drugs, mental illnesses, human trafficking, food safety,  and smoking. We pulled popsicle sticks and allowed students to pick a topic. Each student has a different topic however, students in one of our other classes could have the same topic. While figuring out what topics to et our students choose from we went to the library to see what resources were available. Luckily the library had books on the topics we wanted and the librarian was kind enough to do a presentation on how to use Galileo .

I found myself frustrated as we covered MLA citations and proper sources in about a day and a half and then turned our students loose. How many days do you normally spend on teaching MLA and research paper stuff?

We have gone over and over what a good source is yet students still constantly return to Wikipedia.

What do you think the best way to teach MLA is? We’ve used graphic organizers and handouts as well as worksheets and putting examples up through projector.

Baht- video literacy

We watched Baht a documentary on sex trafficking in Cambodia and Thailand as a tie in to Sold. The students responded wonderfully. I was so excited. In preparation for this I viewed the movie and tried to pull every thing we learned together into it. We had previously taught on figurative language as well as persuasive appeals. 


I stopped the movie frequently and asked questions to tie everything together. I asked questions usch as what does the rose symbolize? What type of persuasive appeal is being used here? How does the lighting and camera angles make you feel? etc.

It was great to see the students be amazed that we had taught them actually connected to things they watch on tv and advertisements etc.

I really feel that by using books that are interesting to students and are applicable to the world they live in is promoting reading. I have pulled some books and movies that relate to the two books and students are actually checking them out.

For their upcoming projects we are allowing them to make a sound track, writ a children's book based on the plot of one of the texts, make a recipe of a food item from a text, or compile a public service announcement. I can't wait to see how these projects go with the incorporation of multiple literacies.

the wonders of Busleft

So recently my students introduced me to a new word busleft. I have been assured multiple times this is indeed a real word, even after typing it on word and a red squiggly coming up beneath it. This wonderful term means that you were left by the bus. I don't know it because I'm not down.

Now, on to the real stuff. I have been reading two young adult books with my students. These books have been wonderful and students have really been connecting with them.

The first book is A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah and is a memoir about a boy soldier in Sierra Leone civil war. The main character is a young boy who is put in impossible situations over and over again.

The second book is Sold. This book is about a young Nepali girl that is sold into prostitution in India. It goes through her trials of being in a brothel and her changing life.

I would recommend both books. Next week we are watching a documentary about human trafficking called Baht and I can't wait to see how that goes.

Student Literacies

My first week has been full of meetings about why Gallagher states that students hate reading. We have covered such things as I can statements, attendance policies, and how to analyze a standard. Notice none of the things we discussed were how to help our students or encourage them. I find this incredibly frustrating. As our school didn't meet AYP we have a government official in the school. Thanks to this everyone at the school is always just trying to cover their butt. I guess enough of that rant, but I have to say its definitely the rules and laws.

My students reading literacies consists mainly of social networks. They are definitely digital natives and are technologically advanced. Another thing that is frustrating is that we have a Promethean board that would be great to use and add to class participation. However, it is not hooked up to anything and is therefore unusable.  My students don't like to read for the most part. We have been trying to use books that will entice them but its been a struggle. Soon we will be starting a X block where students are supposed to "Stop, Drop , and Read" however instead I believe we might try book clubs.

We also have one student that refuses to read the book that the rest of the class is reading but will read a book from the bookshelf or one of her own the entire class time. Any suggestions in how I can encourage her reading but still have her on task in class?

Time Line, Textual Lineage and Sharing with Students

Blog 1: Insights from your literacy time line and collage, continuing reflection on textual lineage, ideas about sharing your literate life with your adolescent students (Due 1/23).

I find it very interesting that so many of our literacy time lines were similar, especially at the beginning. I feel like they didn't really start diverging until we were adolescents. I find this divergence to be very interesting. I know in my own classes girls didn't want to read "boy" books and guys didn't want to read "chick" books. The past month I have been trying to read books that would interest adolescent males. I feel that with my own reading I could offer a variety of books to females. Through reading "guy" books I've found I enjoy them as well and that I believe a girl could easily pick up I am Number Four, or the Percy Jackson and The Olympian books and enjoy them. While in Sweden everyone girls and boys were reading Nicholas Sparks novels in their English classes. So the question becomes how do we get students to look past stereotypes and read wonderful books?

When listening to everyone talk about their textual lineage it was interesting to hear how many different books were mentioned and very few were repeated. So that makes me wonder as a teacher how to provide such a variety of books that will truly touch the lives of my students? My only conclusion so far is to use book clubs. I think this can be a great tool for us and hope to pick a wide enough variety to make each student happy.

When teaching my students I hope to be able to connect with them and in turn connect them with different cultures. I think I will definitely use the literary territories that Atwell uses with my students. I feel like if we show them our territories it will spark ideas in them and make them more open to sharing. One thing I believe I want to use in the first few weeks to teach about culture and perhaps stereotypes is The Story of the Nacirema this is a link for it  https://www.msu.edu/~jdowell/miner.html. If you haven't read it you might want to read it and then come back and read the next part.  If you look closely Nacirema is American spelled backwards. The rituals discussed are things such as shaving, magic charms are presriptions, the shrine is a bathroom and so on. This story makes students look at their own culture in a new light.