Case Study Interview #1

Student name: Dianne (pseudonym)
Grade: 9th

Dianne is a student in our 5th block collaboration class, and as I've observed Dianne over the past couple of weeks, she seems like a naturally cooperative and quiet student trying to fit into a classroom that is not.  She cuts up with her friends, but she is one of the very few that finishes her work way before the bell rings.

When she finished her work, I explained to her my assignment and she was more than willing to help me out. I started by asking her what kind of reading she has done in the last couple of weeks. She responded that she reads for every class, but she couldn't think of any examples besides the short story we read in class, "On the Bridge"by Todd Strasser. She went on to say she didn't really like the things she had to read in school, especially not Math. When I asked her why, she said because she just didn't like the stories the teachers picked out and she just didn't like Math. I sympathized with her opinion on Math. Word problems were my enemy.  Just as I was about to move on to another question, she jumped in and said that she also didn't like reading aloud. I definitely made a mental note on that.

I went on to ask if she had read anything outside of school in the past couple of days, and she said she liked to read "non-fiction stuff and history things." I asked what she had been reading, and she said nothing now but one time she read a book about Harriet Tubman. I asked her about other things such as blogs, magazines, Facebook, etc, and she looked at me like she had no idea those were possible answers. She continued on to say she doesn't get on Facebook (maybe once or twice this week), she sometimes reads magazines but only the ones about celebrities, and that she doesn't really understand blogs. She added that she likes to read the Athens-Banner Herald online sometimes and she remembered doing that a few days ago.

When I asked if she's done any writing in the past few weeks in or out of school, she shook her head and said just stuff in school and that she didn't like to write any other time. I asked if she texted and she said yea but not that much. I asked her about her writings in school and she said she kind of liked the stuff in Mr. Ginsberg's class like the essay we wrote for a college application. We didn't have much time to expand after that because the bell rang, but I told her to start thinking about the stuff she reads and writes and that it doesn't necessarily have to be "typical" reading and writing. She said okay, and away she went!

Scribble, Erase, Scribble, Erase Again

As an aspiring English teacher, I must have always loved reading and writing?  Wrong.  I hated English class; every assignment, every journal, every class discussion. I felt trapped in a box with millions of eyes locked on me and my ideas.  Whenever I was forced to participate, I fumbled around with a cookie cutter answer that would please my teacher. Of course, pleasing my teacher was always my ultimate goal. I would spend the entire year pinning down their personality so I knew exactly how to impress them. Their favorite books, TV shows, brand of pens--I wanted to know it ALL. For what reason? An "A" in their class.

My compulsive tendencies never failed me until I entered Mrs. Mary Ann Ellis's Writer's Workshop. I walked in, took a seat by some friends, and waited for all the clues--How could I impress this one?

"Hi, my name is Mrs. Ellis. We'll be writing a journal in the first few minutes of each class. They won't be graded for content, so don't look so overwhelmed. Today, I want you all to just write what you're thinking. Don't worry about punctuation or capitalization. Just write without stopping for ten minutes."

WHAT? No grade? Write about what I'M thinking? The smirk fell off my face and I started looking around the classroom for a translator. Can somebody tell me what she wants? Everyone sat in silence because they were in the same boat as me--USS Clueless. After staring at a blank page for 30 seconds, I heard Mrs. Ellis declare, "I want every pen moving." I stared, scribbled, erased, scribbled, furiously erased. I looked at the clock and counted down the seconds until the timer finally buzzed. What could be worse than this, I thought.

"Okay, who wants to share?"

I walked out of the room. Okay no, I didn't walk out of the room, but I wanted to as I looked at my two poorly constructed sentences laughing and pointing at my misery.  A few brave Seniors shared their masterpieces proudly and then when the room was silent, Mrs. Ellis called my name. My eyes darted across the room, looking for the other Megan. There had to be another one; there always was--except this time. After a few moments of silence, I found my voice and read my two mediocre lines.  No one laughed or complained or even rolled their eyes, and all Mrs. Ellis said was "Great, I wish there was more."

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Mrs. Ellis gave us freedom to express our ideas.

You Can Read Me Like a Blog

When I was in high school, my classes never had more than two computers for student use. We would take turns researching and typing up papers, missing a whole day's instruction. I remember hearing the frustration from each teacher as they complained about their spot on the library sign-up sheet--the only place where there were 30 computers compiled in one area.  They would send four or five of their most responsible students to search for spare computers; one or two would remain while the rest sulked back to the classroom.

In a town where computers were sparse and internet was barely existent, school became one of the only places where students could engage with "technology," yet as you've probably already guessed, my high school looked at education and technological advances as two separate commodities. In all classrooms, there is a need for these two entities to transform into a cohesive element, but as Henry Jenkins recognizes in his blog, Confession of an Aca-Fan, "teachers...talk[] about struggling to keep up with their students, about a lack of formal training to help them make the transitions being demanded, and about their fears of losing control over their classroom" (Jenkins). These are all real fears worth recognizing, and sometimes I feel the same way! That's why it's so hard to condemn my past teachers who shied away from the newly installed Smart-boards or those who blocked every website except the school's homepage. But now, we are living in a new age and "schools need to prepare young people to use these new resources creatively, effectively, and responsibly if they are going to prepare them for the lives they will lead in the 21st century" (Lacasa as quoted by Jenkins).

Teaching literature can seem especially challenging in this new age when you've already been given the books and you only need computers for typing up papers, right?

Preparing students for the 21st century entails much more than what a student can do on a computer. We want our students to relate to a text, but how are they going to make connections when all they can see are the words on the page? Teachers have to go beyond the context and give students the tools to read significantly. No, I don't mean you have to give every student a Kindle because that gesture alone will not help them, but the tasks given to the students should relate to their lives in today's world. The students need to experience and use those experiences to help guide their learning. As Beach, Thein, and Webb state in Teaching to Exceed the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards, "the fact that they have some say in framing an event in terms of their goals and plans means that they have some ownership in the success of an event" (Beach, Thein, & Webb 47). By first connecting an idea of the text to more modern issues, then students can involve themselves within the text and ultimately relate to the idea with multiple viewpoints that do not just stem from "what the teacher taught me."

Technology and literature actually have more in common than you might think.  I've always said Literature is synonymous to exploration. You explore the books and through them you explore yourself. Well guess what? Through technology we explore the world and through that exploration we explore ourselves by learning from others, gathering information, and creating an image of who we are for the world to see.  Technology and Literature long to be combined, so why force them to opposite corners of the room? By involving students in a relationship where the two commodities are combined, we are creating a new stance with which we can approach the world of literature.

In Nancy Bailey's The Importance of a New Literacies Stance in Teaching English Language Arts, she terms "a new literacies stance" as "the positioning taken up by a literacy teacher as she attempts to integrate new literacies into her curriculum," and she goes on to establish that "an effective new literacies stance, moreover, also calls for the development of an 'insider mindset'. That is, teachers must do the kind of thinking and doing that their students who are 'insiders' or 'digital natives' engage in regularly" (Bailey 56). Students have Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts, and I bet you would think differently of them based on each one. How do I know this? Because I have all three as well and I post different content on each. Why? Because it depends on my audience... Wait. Isn't that something we try to teach our students while reading and writing? Yes it is.

Developing a new stance can be done, and this new stance combines nicely with the idea of Connected Learning in Connected Learning: An Agenda for Research and Design. Schools should support students and give them the best tools available which means creating Connected Learning, "when a young person is able to pursue a personal interest or passion with the support of friends and caring adults, and is in turn able to link this learning and interest to academic achievement, career success or civic engagement" (Ito, et al. 4). When students feel like their classroom is accepting them for who they actually are in today's world, then we create an environment much like a social media outlet--one where they can create, share, and explore!

I don't think students want to hate school, but without an environment they can relate to, they see no alternative. Even those who do good, do so because "they have to." Why not create an environment where students can be involved with their own learning? Let them use the tools they use at home. Let them hear about the issues that are affecting them right now. It's up to the teachers to create a relationship between technology and education, and as Pillar Lacasa states beautifully in her interview with Henry Jenkins, "it isn't about the computer replacing the book.  It is about a world where students learn with a book in one hand and a mouse in the other, rather than one where they are taught that book culture is so fragile it needs to be protected from the computer" (Lacasa as stated by Jenkins). 

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References

Bailey, Nancy M. “The Importance of a New Literacies Stance in Teaching English Language Arts.” Multimodal Composing in Classrooms: Learning and Teaching for the Digital World. Florence: Routledge.

Beach, Richard, et al. Teaching to Exceed the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards. New York: Routledge, 2012. Print.

Ito, Mizuko, et al. Connected Learning. January 2013. <http://dmlhub.net/publications/connected-learning-agenda-research-and-design&gt;

Jenkins, Henry. “Learning in a Participatory Culture: A Conversation About New Media and Education (Part One)” Confessions of an Aca-Fan – The Official WebLog of Henry Jenkins. 8 February 2010. Web. 23 August 2013.

Finding Who You Are Within the Standard

What do you think about when you hear the word, “standard?” General… authority-driven… just normal? To me, the word seems lackluster, but it encompasses a multitude of meanings when placed in the education system.

When reading Teachingto Exceed the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards, we learned that the Common Core State Standards were initiated for the students, so teachers are held accountable for each and every student and the progress they make in the classroom (Beach, Thein, & Webb 4). But, when you here the word “standard” you don’t necessarily begin thinking about a positive go-get-‘em, fist-pumping attitude.  Instead, the words “homogeneous” and “standard” become interchangeable (Beach, Thein, & Webb 11), and when these words begin to merge into one another, you hear other words like “restriction” and “limited.”

So how do teachers break this barrier? Well first of all, don’t think of the Standards as a barrier. Beach, Thein, and Webb state that “the Common Core State Standards set general goals for student learning but they do not specify what or how to teach” (Beach, Thein, & Webb 4). Three years ago, I would have said, “Well, why not? Give me an outline, a schedule, something!” Now, my mindset is completely different.  I’m thinking, “What’s fun about that,” and I’m silently nodding my head as I read, “The needs, abilities, knowledge base, and interests of teachers and students vary from school to school, from classroom to classroom, and even within every classroom—they cannot be standardized” (Beach, Thein, & Webb 10).  I, honestly, feel like tattooing that quote on my forehead, so I’ll never forget it and so everyone can see it.  As teachers, we take the Standards and involve them in OUR created lesson plans and then implement it in our one of a kind classroom. 

The Common Core State Standards were not made to be set in stone, and Troy Hicks reminds us in CraftingDigital Writing that the educational world is not and should not be static.   As more digital and electronic features and devices become prominent, teachers shouldn’t look at the change as a burden they must fit into the Standards but as an outlet to express or even enhance the Standards.  We, as teachers, should use these tools as an asset that can help fit the Standards to the student’s needs, which will also NOT be set in stone. In fact, the needs of our students will encompass a wide range. How wide? Immeasurable.   

In the short time I’ve been student teaching, I’ve already learned there’s no golden lesson that will touch every student in the same way. They all have different opinions and different ideas, which stem from different environments—environments that will be different from your own! The Dynamics of Writing Instruction mentions that a teacher should understand his or her own beliefs, and I think this is helpful not only because you will begin to comprehend why you think a certain way but it will also teach you to think about why a student thinks a certain way (Smagorinsky, Johannessen, Kahn, & McCann). Once this technique is mastered, the Standards can be used to benefit the students, as it should.  When you figure out what works for the students, you, and your classroom, you will go above and beyond the Standard in a go-get-‘em, fist-pumping kind-of-way by finding who you are as a teacher within the Standard.