Foot: Cleveland International Film Festival Experience

I really enjoyed going to the Cleveland International Film Festival, I had never been to a film festival before Monday night. It was a great experience, I would gladly do it again, maybe take a girl to the film fest a on a date to get her to think I am artistic. I loved that it was in Tower City, as a child my dad brought me to Tower City before Indian's, Cav's, and Brown's games, when I went into the office with dad we would always go through Tower City, when I use to cut class in high school I would take the rapid transit down to Tower City, I got a lot of memories there. So right after I parked and got onto the elevator and saw Tower City again I was overcome with sensory memories from my past, the sights of how enormous the inside of the building was, the smell of the different foods, the sound of chatter, footsteps, and the water running of the fountains, unfortunately I didn't get to taste any of the food. I was pumped to see my movie, I felt like a high rolling adult, coming down to Cleveland, going to Tower City, and taking part in a artistic endeavour. I got my ticket from the will-call stand, the elderly man who gave me my ticket sang me an old Broadway tune about someone named Sam, he kept singing "Sam, you made the pants to long", does anybody know this song? Then I walked around Tower City for about 20 minutes taking in the scenery, until it was time to line up, I got a decent seat, and before the movie began, a Canadian diplomat talked to the crowd about how important Ohio and Canada are to each other because of how much we trade. The movie I went to see, "Whirligig", is a Canadian film.

Foot:Publish or Perish / Video Games in the Classroom

These articles were both very pro-technology, I am not. If I were having high school students read these articles, then I would tell them to identify the various instances of author bias. It is always important to know the authors motives for writing before reading that author. In the case of the "Publish or Perish" article the article wasn't biased towards Amazon or Mac, but rather biased towards the notion that books becoming more prevalent in electronic form is a good thing. The author went as far to infer that publishers of physical books will eventually become obsolete because of the electronic book craze, "Asked about publishers’ efforts to raise prices, a skeptical literary agent said, “You can try to put on wings and defy gravity, but eventually you will be pulled down”". I like electronic books because it makes books more accessible, this is the only aspect of electronic books I like, poor kids dont get access to electronic books, you don't have the sense of ownership that you get from buying a physical book and carrying it around and keeping it with you, you don't get that new (or old) book smell form electronic books. Lastly, I hate to see computer people profit from the hard work of literary people. The "Video Games in the Classroom" article was such a far stretch, unless you are teaching a class specifically on how to design video game software (which they were in the class in the article). The author completely ignored the most important question pertaining to video games in the classroom "how would a video game help a student become a better reader and writer?", The educational merit I have seen in video games throughout my life is that video games help the player foster some problem solving skills. But to have students come into school and play video games instead of doing academic work is ludicrous. The teacher who started this class made himself sound like an idiot (at least to me) " He talked about all the wasted energy that goes into teaching things that students don’t need so much anymore, thanks to the tools now available to them. Why memorize the 50 states and their capitals? Why, in the age of Google and pocket computers, memorize anything? “Handwriting?” Doyle said. “That’s a 20th-century skill.”" I apprecate this guy thinking of new ways to help teach students, but when the New York Times tries to present his ideas as something that could be implemented in any classroom it is misleading the reader.

Foot: Great Films and How to Teach Them

I went into this book thinking that I would most likely already know what the author had to say, I was wrong. Personally, I think Costanzo is putting too much emphasis on the importance on the act of students viewing movies, at least for the average high school English classroom. I honestly think there is a lot of chapters in here that I won't ever teach (unless I'm teaching some Special topic class dealing with film adaptation of literature). I had to sift through the first nine chapters to find theories and information that I will use when I teach. When I think back to the film adaptations of litterateur I viewed in high school I think of the modern day version of Romeo & Juliet with leo, Hamlet with Kenneth Branagh, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the Simpson's adaptations of literature, and of course To Kill a Mockingbird with Gregory Peck as Atticus ( I have always wanted to name my children after characters from literature, and Atticus is at the top of list for a boy). From skimming through the upcoming chapters I see Costanzo and I have similar taste in media, but it would be naive to think it is just Costanzo's own personal opinion of these movies that is the reason they were selected for this book. These movies were selected because they are the bet film adaptions of litterateur created to date, these movies have transcended time and are still played on the television today, and will be watched for generations to come, hopefully. Personally i only found the theories and information fro chapters 1 and 7-9 to be 'real' concepts that I will use in the classroom, but I am really looking forward to seeing how Costanzo would approach each of these 14 classics in the coming chapters. Check out this list of 100 best film adaptations This is my favorite scene in my favorite film adaption of a book

Foot: "I (heart) Novels"

I found this article interesting because I know very little about what drives young Japanese girls literary desires. Turns out it is not much different from what drives the interests of young girls all over the world; of course I'm talking about the traditional elements of a love story with multiple obstacles for the young lovers to overcome. The only differences that separate these low-brow love stories from country to country are cultural defences. The Japanese value Chastity and virginity much more than we do in America, so their love stories have the issue of a girl losing her virginity, and the shame it will bear on her. In American love stories it is no big deal if the girl does or does not have sex with her lover. In American and Japanese loves stories young girls value the idea of having a boyfriend, but in literature love doesn't follow these stereo typical guidelines created by the media and perpetuated by trendy young people. These love stories only hit the edges of what it means to be in a real relationship. The only good that I see going on in this article is that young people are writing, perhaps they haven't realized what makes a relationship yet, perhaps they are writing about the only things they know, what they see on the tv and in movies. I appreciate that people are at the beginning stages of learning how to express themselves through the written word, even if I don't like what they are writing. But I wanted to end on the comment that the original author of "Eternal Dream" said about the genre she helped create, "I regret almost everything I’ve ever published,” she said. “I could have done a lot to cover things up and I didn’t. I feel a profound responsibility about that.” The label of writer, she said, is unsuitable both to her and to the genre. “If I were some super-famous novelist, I would be running around saying, ‘Hey, I’m a novelist.’ But I’m not. I’m treated as this lame chick who’s written one of those awful cell novels. Do you think I can be proud of that? It really depends on which side the public is going to join. I’m considered a total loser for having done it, and I myself think that, too.” Her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes glittered. “People say these horrible things about cell-phone novels, and I’m not sure they’re mistaken. They say we’re immature and incapable of writing a literate sentence. But I would say, so what? The fact that we’re producing at all is important.”

Foot: Firestone Experience

I feel that during my time spent at Firestone I learned invaluable lessons about the realities of teaching language arts in a high school. I saw good and bad teaching practices; I saw how students responded to their teacher’s actions; most importantly I saw how much of an impact the teacher has on the class. I saw how each classroom is like a blank slate, and it is the teacher who makes the difference not the students, after going to Firestone I promised that I would always hold myself accountable for how my classes turned out (unlike some of the teachers I saw, who constantly complained about their students and blamed the students for not learning). I’m not going to lie; I saw absolutely no multi-modality in Firestone, except for movies being shown in classes, and the fact that parents could check their child’s progress online. I think the best way that one could use multi-modality to prepare students for a test is to use an online service like vista, which allows for students in class to login into a site and discuss with other classmates, digitally turn in assignments, and take tests. But what I am suggesting is that on a class site like I described there be practice tests that are representative of how questions will be presented. This would allow for students to practice at home, and all students want to get good grades on test, but not all students want to study, so if you told the student they had a chance to take a practice test I believe they would be much more motivated to take the practice test than to prepare for the test the traditional way. Making practice tests that students can take over the internet at any time would be an effective way of using multi-modality to help students effectively prepare for a test.

I say that I learned invaluable lessons at Firestone because what I experienced will definitely have a huge influence on how I teach once I get in front of a class. I was able to connect with my student very well because I had the time to listen to him and understand his situation. When I get a class I will make sure each of my students knows that I know them well, and that I have his or her best interest in mind. I saw how I had to walk a line between coach and peer, although I shared experiences with him in conversational manner, like one would with a peer, I believe that this allowed for him to see that I knew what it was like to be a teenage boy. But I also got tough with him when he didn’t want to do work and showed him that I would make sure he was giving his best effort, I think this made me coach like figure to him, and after reflecting on that for a while, I decided that’s how I want my students to see me, like a life coach. I feel that I did a good job of teaching my student test taking skills like using the test question to figure out the correct answer using context clues. Lastly, I saw that modeling my own thought process for answering an OGT test question was helpful for my student when he went to answer a question. I know that not all of these tutoring skills will translate to being in charge of a class, where one has to evenly disperse their attention and efforts, but the experience of being responsible for a student’s academic success is an endeavor that I would love to take on again.

On one hand it is important that the state governments can prove that their schools are producing capable students, but this creates issues in the schools. Principles and super intendents get recognized as ‘exceptional’ when their schools have a high percentage of students passing the OGT regularly, so since the boss of the building gets a pay increase and recognition when students pass the OGT, they have their teachers focus on OGT. The problem lies in that not all OGT test prep allows for a well flowing class that goes over many different aspects of literature and writing. Teacher must teach novels like To Kill a Mockingbird, and students learn good lessons that are society values, however, all the time spent doing To Kill a Mockingbird, won’t aid the student when they are taking the reading portion of the OGT. I do believe that teaching writing for a class directly helps students while taking the OGT, so while a language arts teacher is teaching composition for an essay on To Kill a Mockingbird they are preparing that student for the writing portion of the OGT. In my opinion, after a teacher has had a student for a whole year they should have taught that student everything they need to know for the OGT, whether or not that student retains everything isn’t completely dependent on the work of the teacher, it’s a two way street.

The biggest issues I observed at Firestone was that some of the teachers were completely worn out and it lead to them leading repetitive classes where the students were completely disengaged. One of the language arts teachers I observed did the same thing every day for three weeks while she ‘taught’ The Crucible (a play that none of the students related to, the class seemed like a waste of time to everybody involved). She had the students read the play in class, and that was all; no discussions, no talk about the deeper meaning and issues and how they could relate to the students lives, no writing activities to help them prepare for the OGT, no group work, nothing. All the while I’m thinking she is probably getting paid more than a good new teacher because she has been around for so long, and how there are so many young college graduates in Ohio that are eager to get into the classrooms and go above and beyond at a chance to teach, but Firestone keeps the terrible teacher around because of tenure and teacher’s unions. I think that the Ohio department of education could help students study for the OGT in a multi-modal manner if they were to have on their website a place where students could take practice tests and see least years test and from taking these practice tests the student will begin to see what the people at the OGT are looking for and how they ask questions. They might already y have something lie this at their website, but nevertheless, this is the best way I can think of to use multi-modality to help students have ready access to test preparation for standardized test.

Pytash: Chapter 5

I am one of the people who does not appreciate poetry. I know that it is the foundation for lyrical music, and that it discusses human experiences and issues through the written word. However, many others and I get no satisfaction from reading it. My feelings aside, I want to be a high school language arts teacher and I must know how to keep my personal feelings inside and present poetry in the most intellectually stimulating manner. I never want to be that teacher who reads a line... discuses it... reads another line.... discuss it.. etc., and I really like the advice that the author gives, I think it is a sure proof way to get through a poetry lesson.

My favorite poetry was William Blake's, his stood out to me among the all of the other Romantic period poets. If I ever teach the Romantic period I will focus much more heavily on Blake than the other poets. I think high school students would be very intrigued in his poetry and paintings. My senior year I had my best experience with poetry so far, I got to do a project/presentation on Blake and the time period, and after I went over the poems I turned out the lights, put on Vivaldi's Son De Spritza, which was written during Blake's prime, and played a slide show of about 20 Blake paintings. Everyone in the class was amazed by the presentation, the music in coordination with Blake's poetry and paintings was a moving experience.

The think aloud requires motivated students, it would be very important that the teacher pairs up stronger readers with average readers. I would definitely model how a think aloud goes for my students until they clearly understood how to ask the right questions when analyzing a poem. I like how the author pushes the students further to think critically about the poem, she does not stop once she creates a dialogue about the poem, she has them write personal reflections about the poem and the think aloud. I also liked the sensory imagery board she made, she students will be able to find sensory images regardless of reading ability, but once they can pull meaning of these sensory phrases they can relate physically to the poetry. The one aspect of poetry that scares me is that one day I will have to teach something that I don't relate to wholeheartedly, but I am confident that I can get through it, it will require a lot of extra studying after school, but I can do it.

Pytash: Chapter 3

At the beginning of this chapter I was reminded that when a rookie teacher joins a school's Language Arts department they usually have no say in the literature they will be teaching. There is limited time with students to get through the classics and prepare for standardized state tests in a year or semester. The list of the most assigned texts in high school didn't surprise me; I had read almost all of them at one point in my life. After looking at this list and thinking "what do all of these works have in common?", I concluded that these books stay on mandatory high school reading lists because their messages transcend time. Books like To Kill a Mockingbird, Huckleberry Finn, Of Mice and Men, and most of the other books on the list I have revisited since my initial reading of them in high school. Every time I go back I see something new, or figure out a way to apply the dilemma or theme of the book to my own life. This most recently happened in our class, when I reread Gatsby over winter break I a reflected on how some of my 'old sports' back home embodied the characteristics of 'old money', how they felt such an entitlement because of they way they were raised. I saw how I am like Nick in that I am not going to make lots of money relative to those I grew up with, and I am like Nick in that I don't worry about how much money I will make relative to those I know. I looked back on the women I have met in college and how there are still some out there that behave like Daisy, being wrapped up in material possessions and social status, and how there are women out there like Myrtle who are never satisfied with what they have and live a life of jealousy. I remember why I got into literature when I see how a classic can relate to the readers life and have a profound impact on them. The author gives us the reality of dealing with a mandated reading list and how to harness the power of the classics.

I admire the author's ambition, but I think that implementing all her theories on choosing literature and assigning it would not work for students who are not familiar with vigorous academic work. She says that teachers should be assigning 20 books a school year for their students, she says that the length of a book should never matter. For the latter criteria to work the students would have to be extremely dedicated, not be on athletic teams, and not have jobs. I hope that one day I am a veteran teacher like the author and can motivate my students to get through 20 works, she acknowledges that students will occasionally use spark notes and cliff's notes, and that it is hard to sell students the idea of giving up tv time for reading. In our education classes we learn to never use a 'one size fits all' approach, but the author sometimes thinks that all students have the same capabilities, like reading speed, she says that it will take a student 10-12 hours of vigorous reading to finish Black Boy, (430 pages small print), it took me twice that time to read it, I'm embarrassed to think that I wouldn't be able to keep up in one of her high school classes. A student must have some intellectual curiosity to be sold on the potentials of reading great literature, Jago makes a great stamen "I believe that teenagers want to have these experiences but have not realized that reading books can provide them" (47). She make a s very inspirational point that I will use one day to motivate my students, I will present a book not as an assignment, but as an experience.

Pytash: Chapter 1

All seven guiding principles discussed in chapter one are very true statements. From what I have seen at Firestone I can say that all of these principles deal with the student and teacher related issues that are directly related to a student's success in language arts. The first principle is so important because from all of my experiences in high school and college I feel that about only half of the students are doing the assigned reading. In Firestone I saw about a quarter of the students did their nightly reading, and they were the only students that participated and actually learned from being in the class room. I admit in high school I was not a consistent reader, If a book looked too long, then I would get the movie or read cliff's notes. But my freshman year of college in college writing 1 I had a professor who remedied the the class' not reading; he gave us daily reading quizzes over happenings in the book that wouldn't be on spark notes. I failed the first quiz or two, and decided I want to make it in college, so I made time at night for the reading. When my students start to show that they are not reading I will use this daily quiz approach to get them reading.

The second principle really opened my eyes to the debate over YA literature and the classics, I think this would be a great section to have INLA students read in Teaching reading with literature. This section got me to think about YA lit in a way I have never thought of it before, I now see (or remember) how reading mysteries and suspenseful books was one of the first times I ever associated reading with rewarding. We must begin to incorporate YA lit or exciting lit into the high school curriculum to create life long readers. Also, while reading this section I found myself agreeing with Oprah for the first time ever. I see how the INLA program is trying to incorporate a lot of these seven guiding principles in the program, like the idea of having a 'mirror' book and pairing it up with a classic, I don't care if scholar say that this will 'dumb down' the classics, if a student is actually trying to make connections between his or her life with a classic piece of literature, then we should be encouraging it no matter if some intellectual says we aren't teaching Shakespeare the proper way.

After reading section three I had my own idea about teaching difficult books and not assigning them. It is definitely important for a student to deal with the rigors of getting through a thick book at least once, but if we want to teach more than just one thick classic in a semester we could have the students only read the most important parts of the text and go over the theme of the text and other important parts. I know some one could say this is just like having students read cliff's notes, but if the teacher can guide the student through an important piece of literature that usually takes weeks to get through in one week, then think of how much more literature a teacher can cover in a semester, when we don't read a vary wide array of literature ,we focus in on the one area that the department has decided to focus on, we ought to throw many different types of literature at the students in a organized fashion, and see what they are interested in.

I like this how the author writes in this text book, I feel like her advice will translate in the classroom way more than some of the other advice I get from education gurus. She obviously has spent a lot of time teaching language arts, and her guiding principles are the issues we will have to deal with in the classroom, I feel that this text book is good preparation.