ELA Methods I

I don’t have much experience with Graphic Novels in a Secondary Education setting, I think the closest I got was analyzing a political cartoon in middle school and that was it. In college though, I’ve experienced a few graphic novels and I, as a student, find them confusing. It’s one thing to be able to make up your own mind about characters and how they look and act, but it’s another to read one thing and get a completely different idea of how the character responds visually in the text. But, despite my inability to understand graphic novels, I can see how graphic novels can help students process and understand a text better. I could also see graphic novels being introduced to middle schoolers to help develop their understanding of symbolism and connecting the text to real world concepts and ideas with the help of identifying these with pictures provided by the author and illustrator. Graphic novels can also introduce a complicated topic, like in  “American Born Chinese” by Gene L...

I personally struggle with active listening in conversations and classroom settings that do not have a visual presentation to follow along with. I don’t think there would ever be a time in my classroom that I wouldn’t have some kind of visual aid for not only my students, but for myself as well to follow along with. Using visual or auditory aids, like the book says, “ students like to listen to stories, poetry, and radio dramas and theater. Listening to literature can also be a great pleasure”, would be a great way to not only help students with getting better at active listening, but also would enrich curriculum and diversify lessons. With 16.2 , “we need to realize that some of the listeners and speakers we are communicating with may face challenges in understanding the nuances of what we are saying”- being able to be a clear and concise speaker is not important just for me as a teacher, but as a student that will eventually move on from your classroom and into others, and that the a...

One aspect of this paper that I really enjoyed and connected with was on pages 23, 24, and 25- the “Learning Audit” and “What would it take to engage me (as a skeptical, resistant, Hostile Learner) In Discussion?”, and “Common Claims for Discussion. I related to the feelings and questions that come with being a skeptical and hesitant learner. Using these tools not only helps me, as a potential teacher,  realize what my students may be feeling and be reluctant to join discussions because of negative and hostile feelings towards the topic and the act itself. Using the “Learning Audit” questions can help to not only ground your lesson and make sure to keep your students on track, but also to really get a honest response from your students and recap where the discussion previously was left at. The “What would it take to engage me in discussion” form is also a great learning probe that teachers could use for their students in order to see if discussion based lessons is what works best f...

While reviewing the PESB requirements for English teachers, a few topics seemed worrisome to me. Mostly the topics that I’ve struggled with since I first started school and others that I just don’t currently have even the tiniest bit of knowledge about. The major one is number 6.0- “Speaking and Listening Communications” is a real tough point mostly because I have an auditory processing problem due to my learning disability, and my learning disability also makes it so that I attempt to talk as fast as my brain is moving and move through material too quickly or it all comes out incoherent. The reason I worry about this is because how can I teach kids about speech  and listening when I’ve struggled with it my whole life and still work to get better at listening and slowing down? Obviously, it’s something that’s being worked on but to make it a requirement puts a bit more pressure on me to really get it all under control, and maybe the tools that I end up learning to pass onto my stud...