1 - What have you learned about yourself as a teacher (or future teacher) of adolescent literature (or English) in this class?

First of all, I learned that as much as I love the “classics,” I can absolutely see the value in teaching students books that they find more interesting. I still think the classics have something to offer, and I still want to teach them, but now I can see how pairing them with other literature that children enjoy might make for a more valuable experience all around. I also remember a time in class with Dr. M said something that really resonated with me: “You are the expert in your field.” I know it is simple, but seeing as I don’t teach yet, hearing this really made me think seriously about my role as an authority figure and educator, and that the sky really is the limit if I just put some work into justifying my decisions in my classroom. I don’t want to take the easy way out – I want to make a difference.

2 - What strategies will you take from this class to apply in either the Methods course next semester or your own English classrooms?

Quite honestly, I don’t know what the methods course entails yet, but I do like the “ticket out” idea a lot as a way of assessing the class at the end of the day/lesson. I also like literature roles, Socratic method, and the idea of teaching reading strategies to students. I feel like each teaching strategy has its advantages and disadvantages, but each can be used effectively depending on the lesson.

3 - What books resonated the most with you? The least? Why? Which selections do you think should be kept/removed from the class?

I guess I would say that the books that made the most impression on me in the way that they made me think about why we would teach them would be Boy Meets Boy, Forever, The Book Thief, and Persepolis. The first two because of the wonderful discussions that they produced (both on why they should and should not be taught, and also on what my classmates and future students and their parents might think if they were brought into the classroom), the third because I think it was a WONDERFUL book and a great perspective to offer to students who have read Anne Frank one too many times, and the last one because it was a graphic novel and it really helped me to see “the other” side of this argument – I always considered graphic novels just longer comic books, but I had no idea how much they had to offer until this class.
I guess if I were to say there were any that did not resonate with me, it would be Harry Potter and Twilight. I actually did like both books myself, but they didn’t really produce as much discussion as was possible simply because the class was divided over who liked them and who didn’t, so that swayed the discussion a bit. It was harder to get to the issues surrounding the books since some people didn’t think they should be taught simply because they didn’t like them.
I can’t really say that I think any of the books should have been removed. I think they were all worthy text. I really liked “Disturbing the Universe” as well – it provided a lot of insights into the adolescent literature that I would not have thought of right away, and served to get me into the groove of thinking of those and more issues surrounding the use of adolescent literature in the classroom.

4 - Would it have been more helpful for you to read "classic" or traditional texts alongside the adolescent novel? For example, would reading To Kill A Mockingbird (a frequently taught text in the secondary schools) alongside Monster have yielded more realistic approaches for using adolescent literature in the classroom?

I would have to say no on this one. Number one, it was already a lot of texts to read, and it was hard to keep up at times. Number two, probably having been English majors (at least some of us) but also high school students, most of us in the class have already read the classics, and it would have just been bogging everyone down. I felt that without pairing them, it exercised our brains to the point where we had to think of what we would pair with the nontraditional text provided, and I liked the different ideas that people came up with when thinking openly about it.

5 - What are your perceived strengths as a teacher of literature at this point? What remaining weaknesses or anxieties do you have regarding teaching literature (or teaching students!)? How might this class have better helped you to address these concerns?

I would say that my biggest strength is my true love of literature, my real desire to be a good teacher, and my willingness and openness to learn new things to better myself in my field. At this point, I don’t know what it will be like, but I hope that these things will at least serve me well, if not push me throughout my career.
As for my anxieties, I am scared to death to be an authority figure to kids. I am afraid that I will end being a push over or something. I’m hoping that becoming a parent in the near future will ease my concerns here, but I guess we’ll see. I think my problem is disconnecting myself from that age that I still remember all too well, and I’m also hoping that when I get to the point of teaching, it will come naturally to me. Again, we’ll see.
I think the Group Teach project actually helped me with my fear of speaking in front of people. Actually, in general as is probably obvious with my participation in class, I don’t have a problem speaking in front of my peers as much as to younger kids (with ultimately blank faces), but still, being up there and presenting an entire lesson made me feel that I might be more comfortable than I give myself credit for.

6 – Was the group-teach a valuable experience for you? What was beneficial? What was frustrating? What did you learn about yourself in this experience? Should this experience be included in future classes?

Well, back to my previous answer, it was really beneficial for me. I watched myself go from completely freaked out, to overwhelmed, to feeling a little more comfortable, to being really excited for it all to come together. The hardest part or the most frustrating was simply trying to coordinate the schedules of three other very busy people with my schedule. Group projects are always like that, and it is frustrating trying to work it out, but either way, I still thought the project overall was really beneficial. I don’t know if I could say the same for those in my class who already teach, but at least for me, not teaching yet, it solidified my decision to go back to school to become a teacher. It took me 5 years to decide to go back to school for this, and I must admit, I was worried I might have been wrong about it (aka: could I really do this? Is this really what I want???). But after finishing the Group Teach and being excited to be in front of the class presenting it just made me realize that I’m doing the right thing and that this is what I’m supposed to do with my life. I would definitely recommend keeping it for your future classes.

7 - Skim through the blogs you wrote this semester. Was creating your own blog and responding to the literature in this blog each week a valuable activity for you? Why/why not? Would you consider using a blog with your own students?

Hmm…yes and no about the blogs. I think blogging helped me get my thoughts in order before class, which made me feel more at ease in class discussions. And reading other people’s blogs was nice, too, because they often had interesting ideas or thoughts as well. On the other hand, I think what we put in our blogs almost always came up in class, and I’m not 100% sure that these ideas wouldn’t have come up anyway whether we blogged or not, so at times, it seemed like an extraneous activity that I would rather not have done.
Having said that, I do think it is valuable enough to use with my students. As a teacher, I think having students blog on the reading would be a great quick/easy way to see if the students read the material, and also to see what they got out of it (if anything). So, I think while at times it seemed like a lot to ask, it is still a worthy activity, and a great way to incorporate technology into the daily lessons.

8 - What recommendations or suggestions do you have for the content of this course. Was anything missing that you felt would have better prepared you? What was valuable to you overall? Feel free to address any other areas that may not have been raised here as well.

The only thing I would have liked to have seen, and this very well could just be me, was how to create lesson plans. When the group teach was introduced, I very nearly panicked because I had never created a lesson plan. Never. So I had no idea, and luckily I had a current teacher in my group who was able to help, or I might have completely lost it. So, it might have been helpful to have one class prior to the first group teach (aka my group) to show us different styles of lesson plans. In the beginning, we did a lot more on the novels themselves (which isn’t a bad thing) and not as much on different teaching strategies. One thing I thought that was really helpful was the list of different things we could use in our classroom to get our students thinking: KWL charts, story maps, free-writing, etc. etc. Really helpful. I’d like to see more of that, since it was a class on “teaching” adolescent literature, and not just on adolescent literature itself. I think it got better after the fourth or fifth class, but for the first few classes, it felt just like any other English class, except with younger, sometimes easier-to-read novels.
On another note, I think you did an incredible job catering this class to the many (and I mean many) different students you had in this class. I was so impressed with the way you were able to differentiate your instruction and adjust what was probably your plan for the class as soon as you found out how different we were. Your flexibility was amazing and notable. It really gave me a true understanding of how you can’t enter the class with a firm plan in mind; you have to be willing to adjust when needed, and I was really impressed with how you were able to do it so…seamlessly. Given another class that I have with a similar variety of students (Josh, you know what class I mean) where the teacher made no effort whatsoever to adjust her teaching or lessons to account for the variety, I was truly impressed. So, thank you so much. Having seen both sides, I really think you should know how much I do appreciate your flexibility and adjustments.