Teacher, How Would You Respond?

I am copying this email from one young adult listserv I belong to. Nice challenge. What would you say?

“I’ve got a very precocious 9 year old girl who is rapidly outgrowing
even my YA fantasy selection. Her teacher has set a project for her:
read 50 “classic” YA novels. The catch is that we’re looking at a 14-yr
old reading level (according to her father), but they need to be clean.

So I guess I’ve got two questions: What books would you consider to be
classic YA? and Which of those are clean enough for a nine year old who
loves the Septimus Heap, HP, and Pendragon series? I’ve seen the clean
reads lists come through, but I think that determining “classic” YA
books (I know, it’s completely subjective!) needs to be the first step.”

KES

NCLB redux in limbo

Check out this article in today’s NYT.  Will anything ever change?

J. Degan

Class Tonight

I’m glad to be back in town from Minneapolis. I hoped for some comments on my BIG READ post. I’m also glad to get back to internet access to read our blog. Access was spotty over the last few days as the Hilton conf. rooms were not wireless and my laptop didn’t serve me well (dead battery) in 9 hours in airports and on planes yesterday.

Have you tried to find an electrical outlet in an airport lately? I must be missing something but I sure couldn’t!

Do bring your developing unit plan binder to class tonight. We’ll share unit plan pieces tonight with one another–focusing on a few key elements of the plan. Be thinking about how you are representing your outcomes–what will students know, learn and be able to do as a result of their work in this unit? I was interested to see in a middle school classroom I visited on Friday the suggestion, “Begin with the end in mind,” on a poster tacked right next to the “homework” on the board.

What is the evidence you plan to collect (student work) that will support your being able to answer the key question, “what have my students learned?” Why does what they have learned matter?” Especially to them?

And how does what they have learned go to the heart of the disciplinary understandings I want them to have and the essential and unit questions I want them to ponder and move toward answering? You are continuing to bring clarity to this framework for planning instruction. This is a process….not ever complete.

What kinds of texts will they examine? Enjoy? How will those texts move them toward deeper understandings? Increased interest in the topic of my unit? How will those texts challenge readers? Help them to be better readers of complex texts?

How does my calendar allow for multiple kinds of learning opportunities? Different social structures for learning? How will my students engage the world outside our classroom walls in this unit?

Do add any questions here that have become essential to you as you plan your unit? Remind us here on the blog of how you have been thinking about your unit’s evolving? What is on your mind about your planning?

How would you be assessing the quality of unit plans you review?

We will also “re-structure” (the way in which we experience the world!) and “deconstruct” w/Sophia and Jessica.

I’d like to review the theories we’ve discussed to date. What are the key understandings and questions that inform those perspectives? Raph, Ray, Mandy, Jillian? Thoughts? Do any of those understandings/questions inform the YA title you are currently reading? Or any other text you are examining–perhaps in another class? Or in your general experience? As Allison points out above–in her reading of the magazine advertisement?

What are you reading for book club? We’ll spend some time tonight working w/drafts of the article you are writing. I’m very excited to see how you are developing your focus. Bring a few copies for feedback from classmates. What journal have you targeted?

A reminder that Paul Roberts, author of The End of Oil, speaks in Brown Aud. on TH night. I’ve read his book. I highly recommend this lecture as a follow up to Bill McKibben.

More as I comment on your own posts…KES

Cultural criticism: A brief introduction and things to be thinking about

 

Hi all,

Although my presentation on Cultural Criticism has been pushed back until next week, I thought I’d give everyone some things to think about, since some people might have already read the Tyson chapter.

Think back to the Apple readings from the very beginning of the semester. Apple’s thoughts on how ideology is ingrained into our schools gives us a great jumping point for understanding cultural criticism. Like Apple and the New Historicists, Cultural Critics believe that there is no such thing as objectivity, and that all human-made texts are tainted by the ideological beliefs of the creator. Cultural critics look for signs of politics and ideologies in a texts.

Tyson gives us some good ways to engage a cultural lens. How the “working class culture has been misunderstood or undervalued,” is one aspect of a cultural examination (296). Tyson states that we must ask what “social understandings” the work depends on (297). In other words, we might look for the status quo that is represented by a work, what beliefs create the status quo, and how the author praises or denounces those beliefs.

Although it can be difficult to decode our own culture in terms of ideology, I encourage you all to be cultural critics of our surroundings. I found myself unconsciously performing a cultural examination the other day as I looked at a magazine ad. The ad was for an affluent New York City hotel. The ad’s prominent image featured a doorman standing in the golden lobby. I thought it was interesting that our culture’s representation of luxury and comfort includes the subordination of others. The ad was saying that the hotel is a good one because someone will be serving you, and in a sense, that person will be beneath you. Of course, the doorman is undervalued. This is capitalism and social-class structure at their best, and most people would never notice it. This ad demonstrates how ideology is always at play in human-made texts.

Feel free to add your own observations as cultural critics throughout the week.

Allison