the Class overall

I really enjoyed this class this semester! I think that we had a lot of really beneficial conversations, and i feel a lot more comfortable about teaching literature in a classroom now. I think that i now have a good background about the various ways you can approach a book, and all the things i can do with a book, like guest speakers, field trips, etc. There is so much i didn't know about that is possible, while i was going through middle and high school. I hope that teachers are actually using these techniques in their classrooms, besides the ones we read about. I think some of the strong points of this class were the blogging. It made me want to pay more attention and not be so stressed about having to write a formal paper about the information we were learning about. That just adds a lot of added pressure that wasn't really needed because i feel like blogging gives just as much insight if we did the work or not. I also liked how our class focused on whole class discussion more than just lecturing. This also made me do the readings so i knew what to talk about, and when i did talk i didn't sound stupid or uninformed.
Something i would recommend fixing for the next semester would be to make more requirements for the chapter teaches. I felt that they were very redundant and when we had more in one day, it was pretty boring and i sometimes found myself not paying as close of attention. I would try to add some more creative ways to teach or discuss the chapters so each person isn't doing the same thing every time.
Other than that, i really enjoyed this class, and wish i could have you for 379!!

The Giver

I think that our teaching presentation went really well. I think that we were well prepared, and for only having six kids in the class, the discussions were fairly good. I really enjoyed our beginning activity, and i am glad that we were able to do a lot of things the other groups didn't do, especially since we were last to present. However, i think there are some things we could have done better. I think that it would have gone more smoothly if we had practiced the presentation a bit more. We felt that we should all be an equal part, and we didn't want one person to have to take control of any single activity, so we tried to all do a little part of each, even if it was just to ask questions. Speaking of questions, i think that we asked a lot of probing questions to the class, and made them think about the book. I also think that we could have had a lot more to talk about. I believe that we wanted more discussion about the banned book issue, which i was a little disappointed that we didn't get more discussion out of it. Overall i think we did a good job, and our group work really well together. I also like that we only had three group members, which made things easier, just a lot more work.

Violent Cases

I was interested to see what they were going to do with this book for two and half hours. I was surprisingly impressed though that you could do so much with the book and not make it extremely boring. I think this group did a really good job with all the different activities. I particularly liked the activity with drawing the comic in groups. I also thought it was a good idea of broadening the lesson into teaching comics, and graphic novels more than just the book. I think we did get off on a tangent though about memories, but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It was actually really interesting to listen to. I thought they were very planned out and had a good presentation. I had some reservations about the Marxist theory since it did change how i felt about the book. I still like the book, but i just don't think it was the best lens too look at the book through. We talked about this in class, but i think i would be one of those students, or teacher who might introduce the lens to give some students the ability to find things they might have missed, but i wouldn't focus on it, and i also think that i wouldn't outright say what we were doing. I think i would be a little more subtle about it. I liked the lesson though!

The Bell Jar

I thought that the Bell Jar teaching went well. It seemed like they did a lot of planning, and had everything worked out, so there were no kinks. I also liked the fact that they kept us engaged in everything. It was slow at some parts, but i think it had to be, while we were getting the background knowledge of Silvia Plath's life. It was needed to be able to better understand the book. However, the only thing that i am slightly confused about is what their objective was. I know it was to analyze the book, but i thought it had to be more precise. This could just be my misunderstanding though. Other than that, i liked how they used different activites, like the visuals, the youtube, and everything else. It was entertaining, and informational. i felt like i learned a lot that i didn't realize about the book while reading it. I think they did a good job, and should be proud of it!

Literature and Lives Ch. 7

I think that this chapter is a good one, but i am not too sure how i feel about it being the last chapter before the conclusion. I think that this chapter would do better after one of the first ones when Webb brought in the speaker. I only feel that way because I feel that a testimonial is the second best thing to getting a real life speaker in your classroom. i would love to use testimonials and or autoenthnographies in my classroom. I also think that they would work really well in a history classroom if the testimonial is by someone who dealt with a historical marker. They give such insight to specific things, just like a speaker would, however this way you can read it over and over again instead of only hearing it once. I also think that these forms of literature can give a very different, and more varied way to think about a specific topic. I didn't really like reading this chapter overall, but I do like the ideas it proposes.

Response to Literature and Lives

This book was the most enjoyable to read, and i also found it to be the most informative and beneficial to a future teacher. I really enjoyed how Webb connected a lot of what he was talking about to things that really happened in his life, and gave a lot of background as to why he was teaching the things he was passionate about. That is another thing. Webb seemed so passionate about his teaching, and you could feel his emotions as you read. You would feel troubled when he did, nervous when he did, and proud when he did. It really got you hooked into the book. I also liked how Webb gave a little description of each literary theory in the chapter it was talked about. This helped to give the reader some background information to what the theory was, and they could easily find it when reading about it. This book seemed much more intimate than the others, and i think that helps soon to be teachers because they see the not pretty side of teaching. They see that not everything works out how you thought, and sometimes things have to be adjusted on the fly. Another huge asset that this book has to new teachers, and old teachers is the lists of suggested texts, etc. at the end of each chapter that can help relate to that topic and other such topics.

Reaction to Criticial Encounters

I also enjoyed reading this book as well. I thought it was a good insight into the different theories and criticisms and how to go about teaching them in the classroom. I think the most beneficial part to this book is the lessons we read about by specific teachers and how they worked or didn't work, and also the appendixes in the back of the book with different activities. I also think this book would be completely different if it didn't include the conclusion, or the conclusion was different, as i have said before. Connecting all this stuff to the real world i think is a huge help to students, especially those that struggle with looking at something through a specific lens. Out of the three books, however, i liked this one the least. It just seemed a little repetitive, but also vital to have to read as a going to be teacher. I think Appleman could have done without A LOT of the responses that students gave to things and still would have gotten the same point across. But, i am not saying that i didn't like this book. I found it informative and useful for my future career. I just didn't enjoy reading it, like i did the others.

Reaction to You Gotta BE the book

I think that this book was my favorite one to read in this class. I think a huge part of that is becuase i prefer reader response theory. However, when i came into this class I had no idea there were so many other choices out there. I would have probably only taught my english class through New Critical, or perhaps reader response. i do think that reader response is important and a good way to get kids to really think about a book. It is a good introduction as well to the other theories and the idea of looking at a book through a lens. I also liked how this book got detailed in the case studies and looking at specific students, and how they read. It also wasn't the most advanced readers that were looked at. The stuggling students were also given attention, which i think can help teachers who might have a similar situation in their classes. It was also fun to read about the different types of activities that can be used to help specific struggles students might have, like acting things out or artwork. This was especially nice to read about becuase i was one of those students, and it is nice to hear that i wasn't alone, and it is actually a fairly common thing that students struggle with.

Literature and Lives Ch. 4

When Webb started this chapter, i couldn't help but relate it to my pre-internship. There were two students in my classroom who were involved with killing a student from Loy Norrix in a drive by shooting. Even though i was in a math class, and math is what we do, the worst thing i think my teacher did was ignore the problem. It was clear that students were worried, confused and concerned when the police came, during our class to escort one of the students out of school, and he never came back. Kids aren't stupid, but they don't always know what to do with their emotions, and i was really upset that my teacher just moved on like nothing had changed in the classroom. After that incident, the class became very separated, into African American students, and white students. The tensions rose, and i think it because the students were scared and confused above anything else, and if they were just talked to, things would have been different. Anyway, this is just my own personal experience with violence in the classroom, since i went to a mainly all white, upper middle class high school myself. I agree with Webb when he says that there is high racial tension in our society, and i think a lot of that has to do with the fact that so many schools don't introduce works like Webb did in the classroom. I know i didn't read anything like this in my high school, and that just makes me look ignorant to what is going on, and has gone on in the world today. I wish i had been able to read more text like Webb introduced and be able to work through them, with support from my teacher and my fellow classmates.

Critical Encounters Ch. 8

This is totally trivial, but when i was reading this chapter i was thinking "man, this sounds like a really good conclusion of everything we have read in the book so far". Little did i know that it was the conclusion, and when i found that out i felt a little silly, but Appleman really does a good job about concluding everything from the previous chapters. I also like how she broadens using the literary theories and the use of critical lenses into looking at our lives, and how we fit in the world. This is actually how i have always thought of literary theories. It is easier for me to relate them to things in the the real world than relating them to a text. A lot of the time, while i am reading i will relate the theory to something in my life, then use reader response, almost, and relate that thing in my life to the text. i know it is a little skewed, but it seems to work for me. The activity that Appleman did with her students to have them look at things in the world around them, i thought to be very beneficial to the students. It seems so obvious, that i think a lot of kids might over look these things in every day life, but when told to look for it, it is so hard to miss, and it will give them a more critical look at everything in life, and might help them out in the long run.
One topic that Appleman covers in this chapter that i really agree with didn't come from her. It is the idea about critical lenses being like a prism from Henry Louis Gates Jr. I think this is a great metaphor because it seems to visually fit really well with what literary theories makes the reader do to a text. I also think that this is supported by what the kids have to say about using many different ones on one text, and being able to pick out which ones work better for a given text.

Deconstruction of a poem

I am going to attempt to deconstruct Frost's The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
and sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
and looked down one as far as I could
to where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
and having perhaps the better claim
because it was grassy and wanted wear;
though as for that, the passing there
had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
in leaves no feet had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference


Even before the poem starts you get the feeling of regret in the title, The Road Not Taken, because the reader feels that there is something important about this road that wasn't taken. Then in the second line Frost says "sorry i could not take both". This again, is showing some regret and sorrow about only being able to take one road. The third line goes on to contradict itself when Frost says, "be one traveler, long I stood". If he is a traveler, he should be moving, not standing for a long time. Travelers travel. The contradictions continue when Frost is comparing the two paths, because he says the second was "just as fair" but has a "better claim/ because it was grassy and wanted wear" and then a few lines later says "the passing there/
had worn them really about the same". So, why did Frost even say the second one had better claim, if they really are about the same? He then says that he will save the first path for another day, and then says he doubts he will ever be back. Why is he trying to give himself false hope that he will get to see the first path? Then, the poem goes back to the feeling of regret when Frost says, "I shall be telling this with a sigh...I took the one less travelled by" So, with this deep sigh of regret Frost says he took the road less travelled, but if the two paths are the same, how does he know it was the one less traveled, and wouldn't it be more traveled if he has taken it? Then, the last line says "and that has made all the difference". However, is this difference a good one or a bad one? We don't know. If you listen to all the other regretful notions in the poem, it is easy to assume that taking the second path made all the difference into something bad, and if he had taken the "road not taken" things would have worked out for the better. But, we don't know how things worked out.

This was my attempt. i hope it worked!

Critical Encounters Ch. 7

In short....I want to be Martha. I think a lot of what she says is what i want to do, and how i feel about what i want my classroom to be like. I think her role as the "nudger" is the perfect way to describe it. Also, she says she wants her students to "see me as a collaborator and co-conspirator in their learning". These are my own feelings about my future classroom, in any subject area that i am teaching. I also think that she brings up a good concept of switching her physical place in the classroom from the center to moving around the room, and always changing. I agree with her when she says that it is better for the students, because i know i am a very hands on learner, and i frankly don't know anyone who learns well from being lectured at. However, something that i doesn't sit well with me is when Appleman says, "theory makes the invisible visible, the unsaid said". I feel like it is putting a whole lot on theory, when it might not necessarily be worth it...i dunno this is still something i am struggling with. i will have to get back on this when i have thought about it a little more and had more time to grapple with it. Overall, i liked reading this chapter and i think it can give a lot of insight to future teachers, and even current teachers.

Critical Encounters Ch. 6

This chapter was somewhat shocking for me to read. I always thought deconstruction was just taking apart and analyzing a text, or literary work. This is always the term my teachers have used, especially in our poetry units when we are supposed to pick apart what the author is saying, and what the true meaning is behind a work. I was never introduced to this form of deconstruction, until just now, so it is very interesting to read about. i liked this chapter and all it had to offer. However i agree with Appleman that getting students to understand the definition is probably the hardest part, since i am still a little confused as to what deconstruction really is. Also, i think it is a very good idea to put the definition on the hand out, and give a few different ones to students. I believe that it might even be easier to explain what deconstruction is not, than what is actually is. I will be wary to use this theory in my classroom though, just because of the negative effects it can have on students. Since it is such a high intellectual challenge for students, it can prove to spark feelings foreign to students that they might not be fully comfortable with. I also think this can be a good thing for students to struggle with though because it does teach them to be skeptical about what they read and to question things in their lives, and text without relying on their own personal reader response. They can take the text, and have examples, and back up to help defend their stance on issues.

Literature and Lives Ch. 3

I liked how the feminist theory was approached by Webb much better than how Appleman went about it. I think that bringing up gender issues related to feminism is a much easier way for students to be able to compare them to their lives. This doesn't mean that i think using feminist theory shouldn't be used in traditional text, but i think that gender issues are easier for students to relate to because that way they are not just focusing on the women in stories and how they are treated, or mistreated. Webb's example of this is in the book Macbeth, and i think that this is a wonderful way to do this because it isn't focusing on Lady Macbeth, but on Macbeth himself and how he traps himself with his masculine actions. I also think that since feminism is a gender issue it only makes sense that they should be brought up together. I am also glad to see that Webb brought up gay and lesbian studies as well in this chapter, because it goes along with the gender issues becuase i think that these are all issues that do bring up a lot of controversy, which as Webb states "serves as a stimulus to learning".

Critical Encounters Ch. 5

I think that reading this chapter just reemphasizes my own experience with the feminism literary theory. I say that only because a lot of the things they talk about i was thinking in my head. For instance, how my gender effects how i read the text. Being a female, i almost felt like this chapter was pointless. The feminist theory should just be known, and a lot of times when it is talked about i feel like women are just trying to make a bigger deal out of being different. This kind of goes along with how i feel about racism. I feel like a lot of time, if it just wasn't talked about as in depth and as often as it is, things might be better. However, in texts this is hard, since there are so many different ways to look at a text. I agree with Appleman when she talks about when she thinks that both "feminist" text and traditional text in the classroom. I think it would be more wise to start with the "feminist" text because i feel that it is easier to see the lens of feminism in that text, and then taking that into any text. I think that the feminist text make students more comfortable with the theory and looking at a text through that lens, and then, once they are comfortable, it will be easy for them to take that lens, and not only look at other texts, but also the world around them. i think that the activities that Appleman talks about are a really good flow to go from a poem, to text, to traditional, non feminist text, into the world around them. One thing that i thought this chapter could have done a little better is the amount of responses by the students. They were almost overwhelming, and i found myself just skimming them by the end.

Literature and Lives Ch. 6

This is a very controversial chapter, since even today we have to deal with race issues in the classroom. This also ties into chapter two, about controversial works of literature, and weather to teach them in th classroom. As controversial as this book may be, i think that Huckleberry Finn should still be taught in the classroom. I believe that in order to get rid of these issues they have to be addressed, and especially in the classroom. I also think though that if you talk about an issue too much you make it a bigger problem than it truly may be. So, as a teacher you have to find a happy medium between the two, and i think that Webb did this by talking about the book, and it's controversial issues before they even start reading the book. Since i have yet to actually be in the classroom and have to deal with issues with parents, i can't fully say that this will solve all the problems. Depending on the make up of the classroom, these issues could still be largely at hand. I also think that if your classroom only has a few minority students, that can also make it difficult for that one student because they will feel obligated to have an opinion, and will feel singled out. I am not sure how to go about solving this problem, and i am sure the answer will only come with experience.

Literature and Lives Ch. 2

This chapter was talking about teaching about Homelessness. When Webb runs into the homeless man, i knew right away, from just what we have read about Webb that he was going to find a way to use this experiences in his classroom. However, i didn't think he would use it so in depth, and focus on this topic for a whole class. It was very convenient that he again was able to find many different aspects to bring to the class such as a movie, texts, a speaker, and the class discussions that brought up a lot of controversy. I do agree with Webb when he talks about the fact that having topics close to home makes them more controversial and harder to talk about in the classroom without offending someone. When he taught Maggie: A girl of the streets was interesting to read about because right now, i am reading this story in my other English class. My class is having a very controversial discussion about naturalism and the influence of their surroundings. However, a huge topic that was brought up in my classroom was the homeless people around Kalamazoo. This is why i found it humorous that this story was brought up in the chapter about teaching homelessness.
Another thing that i agree with Webb about is the fact that it matters how he sets his lessons up, what he teaches, what texts are used, and what topics they discuss about the text all influence what his students learn in his classroom. I think this is very important.

Critical Encounters Ch. 4

I have never had the experience to work with Marxist theory, so this chapter seemed a little foreign to me. It was also confusing to read since i don't have a very strong political belief system. So, i have a hard time thinking that i will use this in my classroom. I also don't think i would enjoy teaching this theory in my classroom because i don't feel the pressure to introduce background knowledge of the time, and author, as i talked about in my previous blob from Webb. However, some things that i think are beneficial about this theory are the fact that it helps students understand themselves and others in relation to the text. This theory also encourages students to think about how the book is socially constructed for the reading audiences and the way the text is written. One quote that i agree with is from George Orwell when he says "No book is genuinely free from political bias. The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude" (pg. 60). However, i don't think that this idea should be used all the time becuase i feel like if you always thought like this it would be very hard to look outside this idea and see other theories and ways of thinking about a literary text.

MCTE Conference

The conference last week was beneficial for me to go to as a soon to be teacher. The two sessions that i found to be really helpful for me were the ones that talked about experiences from first year teachers and the pros and cons to their experiences, and the digital storytelling. I thought the session that surveyed 50 teachers, most of which were in their first five years of teaching was interesting to attend, since i am going to be a first year teacher soon. However, i thought it would have been more beneficial if we had actually had the opportunity to hear from the teachers themselves, not just read about the stats and information. I knew a lot of the positives to first year teaching experiences, but i was shocked to hear about a lot of the negatives from first year experiences. I think the biggest shock was when teachers didn't even have their own classroom. This would be hard for a first year teacher because you want to feel at home and comfortable, and if you don't have a room it is hard to do that. I also think that not having textbooks would be the biggest thing. Even though this was an English conference, i could see this being a huge hindrance for other subjects, especially math, which is my major. This would be really hard because if the students don't have textbooks, it is nearly impossible for them to be able to do the homework, or have a resource to look at while doing homework. This also relates to the digital storytelling session that i went to. the session started off a little rocky because the two teachers leading it couldn't get the technology to work, and sine the session was all about technology, they were a little worried. However, i think this happening only emphasizes that technology doesn't always work, and you have to have a backup plan. This is a positive lesson for all teachers to learn. However, i don't think i really would want to use this in my English classroom just because it seems to basic. I could see using it for middle schools but if i used it in the high school, i would want to find a way to make it more complex. However, in a math classroom i think this could be very beneficial to the students. I think this is true because it would be a good way to get the students thinking outside the mathematical way to explain things. It is a way to incorporate english into a math class, which can help some students who might not think very mathematically. They could use these digital stories to explain a concept in math and then show their stories to the class. It would be a good learning experience, and i plan on using something like this in my math class once i am a teacher. This conference was really helpful and gave me a lot of motivation as a soon to be teacher. I think it is especially beneficial when it wasn't even a math conference, but i was able to apply these topics to math.

Literature and Lives Ch. 5

I was torn when i read this chapter because new historicism, and Webb mentioned in this chapter about teaching Shakespeare, that in order to fully understand a text you have to look at the time period in which it was written and take everything that was going on during that time and apply it to why the book says what it says and why it is written that way. I believe that this is true, and especially for The Tempest which Webb describes teaching in this chapter because there was so much going on in London and the rest of the world at the time Shakespeare wrote his works. I also believe that it is a very powerful tool to use the history from that time period to support what was going on in the text and it can make the learning experience much more powerful for the students if they have a form of background knowledge about either a specific time in history, or a certain place in the world. But, as much as i agree with all this, i also want to just believe that some works were written without a deeper intent, and just written for pure enjoyment. I sometimes feel that if you read too much into the history, or purpose behind the words, you lose the story. it is almost like a lot of new historicism views are over analyzing the texts, and get away from the overall picture the author might have been trying to get across. I am not saying you shouldn't analyze a piece of work, but i think there is a fine line, and you have to find the happy medium. i can see both sides of the story, and don't know which one i agree with more.

Literature and Lives Ch. 1

I think it is very intriguing how Webb made such a deep and meaningful lesson for his students and himself without even really trying. He jut used the resources he had, and made the best of it, which i think was a lot more successful than he had hoped for. It is also interesting that the reader response and cultural studies are two theories that one would not right away put together, however, when they were used in Webb's classroom it is only normal to see how they would flow well together, and be able to build off the strengths and weaknesses of the other theory. Where reader response lacks, cultural studies fills in and vice versa.
It was a little disappointing to hear that the class Webb was teaching was taken out of the curriculum to follow a more standardized textbook content track. However, it was nice to see that Webb didn't give up his drive to change his ways of teaching. Something that i thought was really nice to hear that Webb learned was that he realized he needed to respect his students' responses and allow their questions and interests to set where the class discussion was going. I believe in this as well, especially when you are trying to make a meaningful lesson because if the student are interested in what they are reading about, writing about and talking about they will be more willing to participate and the class will have a richer conversation for it.

Critical Encounters Ch. 3

This chapter was somewhat eye opening for me to read. I have always been taught to use reader response, with out knowing it was reader response, but at the same time not let my ideas get too far off what the teacher's ideas were. That just wasn't allowed. We were often times told we were wrong if we interpreted a story a certain way. This chapter, however was good at showing the pros and cons to the theory and the shift in the classroom environment. The examples that Appleman uses are on page 27, with the five paragraph essays turning into reading logs, the desks lined in columns switching to the desks forming a circle, etc. I also agree with Appleman when she talks about emphasizing to the students that reader response is just one technique out of many literary theories. A question that arose from this chapter was which technique is better to use in the classroom, Doing one literary theory at a time, or incorporating many theories at the same time, like the teachers did in the examples form the chapter?

Critical Encounters Ch. 2

I really enjoyed reading this chapter. I thought it was really easy to follow, and convenient how Appleman put in the four different teachers, their styles and stories about what they were doing in the classroom. i also like how they were spread across the spectrum of age, and classroom set-up. However, i felt like the teachers didn't talk too much about the theories to their students. Yes, they talked about the different perspectives and voice, and tone and whatnot, but they didn't really say why they were doing these activities, or what they wanted to students to get from them. I had this same experience in my high school. We did a lot of really, fun entertaining activities, but i never really got the overall, "big" picture of why we were told to do certain things. That was one thing that frustrates me. However, my favorite part of reader response theory is the idea of taking on a different perspective and looking at a text through a whole new window. I agree with Appleman when he says that " applying theory should be neither mandatory nor automatic.". Overall I felt like i could really connect with both the students, becuase i did a lot of what they did, and the teachers in each instance.

Critical Encounters Ch. 1

When i started reading this chapter, i felt like i was in the middle of a book. It didn't start out as a Chapter one normally does, but it was kind of a nice change. I do like the quotes at the beginning of the chapter though, and that seemed like a nice way to get the reader interested. I agree with Appleman when he talks about how adolescence have to deal with a lot in their lives and just how they manage to lead productive lives. I think that this also has a lot to do with why literary theories may be put somewhat on the back burner. As we just read in Wilhelm, it is hard enough to get kids to read the books, let alone deal with literary theories. However, i think he is correct is saying that literary theories keep us understanding we are not alone as learners and readers and that they can also a good way to interpret different cultures. Which then leads me to question how the "canon" is becoming loose, and ever changing. From my own experience in high school, the canon has been the same for years, and we touched on this idea in class.

As far as the set up of the book, and chapter, i like how at the end it gave a brief idea of what each chapter is going to be about, and even thought i haven't gotten there yet, the chapters to come seem like they will be good with the examples from real classrooms.

You Gotta Be the Book-Ch 6

Wilhelm is a great example for the type of teacher i want to be, and the style of teaching i want to partake in. i want to be able to create a highly motivated learning environment and most of all, i want to learn things from my students. This is something that Wilhelm did through his research, but benefited him more than those students probably know. He not only got them to enjoy reading, on some level, he was able to make them into active, interested readers. Teachers have to be willing to refocus their agenda, like Wilhelm did to best reach his students. He went beyond the curriculum and introduced students to other works outside the "canon". Wilhelm makes a good point that we need to ask ourselves if we want to teach the texts, or if we want to reach students on a different level and make them engaged and make personal connections with texts that they can take with them through their lives. I think that this is a struggle teachers have with themselves, but also within their curriculum, school, and school district. I personally believe that as long as the reader can make a personal connection, on some level to the text and using any means possible, such as drama, art, etc. it is still giving them the opportunity to have an experience with that text. A few things i wish Wilhelm did were to not group his students so much when he talked about them. It would have been nice to hear what the engaged readers did with the drama and the visual arts way of approaching the text and if it helped them any father, or if they didn't get anything out it and just thought it was a waste of time.

You Gotta Be the Book-Ch. 5

As i ended my last blog i was talking about there being other ways of connecting with students, and using artwork was the highest one in my mind. There are many visual thinkers and it is easy for them to connect to things with images and using art as a crutch to understand a story better. I really enjoyed this chapter because it was easy to see from the actions these students took that art and visual stimulation would be most beneficial to them. I also love the idea of SRI's because students can be as creative or as literal as they want, but still create something that will help them personally understand and connect with the text. I also like the fact that Wilhelm also made them illustrate their own books. I think this technique helped the students a lot because it was a different way of getting their point across to the audience and they took pride in their work, where they might not with a written or spoken response (in Kae's experience). A huge aspect of why these students never made the visual connection and being able to "enter the text" i think is becuase they were seldom read to as children and don't remember any picture books. It is these base actions that can set up their entire future and that can be really hard to break. Luckily Wilhelm was able to do that for these kids.

You Gotta be the Book- Ch. 4

I liked the fact that Wilhelm has switched his focus of students on to the less proficient readers. It is nice to see how these students have changed in their reading ability, and makes me feel more confident in myself as a teacher that there will be a way to help any student, no matter what the struggle is. I think that the most important part of using drama in the classroom for reading was to get the students into the story, and being able to "enter the text". Libby could only do that with stories she could relate to, and neither of the boys seemed to be able to visualize a secondary, imaginary world in their heads while reading a story. However, using the drama skills that Wilhelm came up with, it forced the students into thinking more outside the box of what the book was literally saying through the text. These activities helped the students enter the text, and therefore, they could move onto so many other dimensions from that point. Another good thing about using the drama was that the students weren't dependent on it. Once they got used to seeing how to relate to the story and use their personal experiences to make connections they didn't have to use drama to always do that, and then they could use a form of drama to go to another dimension of reading. These students who were so reluctant and unmotivated at the beginning became so willing and excited about reading by the end of the study that is amazes me, and i am sure amazed Wilhelm. I am also sure that there are other tactics out there for other kinds of students if the drama didn't work for them to become connected to the text and be able to relate and experience the story. It is just a matter of finding different ways to reach students and what they might be interested in.

You gotta be the Book-Ch. 3

When students are truly involved in a book, and are getting their own personal experience out of it, then it is very easy for them to experience all the ten dimensions of reading. The students can get lost in a second world, and let that world take over. They take a perspective, they fill in missing gaps, they create a landscape, they expand beyond just the written text of the story. It is very easy for engaged readers to do this to a full extent. However, it was nice to read that Wilhelm was learning, from his engaged readers, how to better help his less engaged readers to be able to reach these dimensions.
A few aspects i am a little confused about in this chapter are when Wilhelm is talking about the differences between boys and girls and how they put themselves in the story and originally get involved. Are his finding really true about the differences between the two genders, and if so, why doesn't he go into more detail about those differences. I guess those are just a few issues i am having a hard time getting my mind around.
I was happy to see that at the end of the chapter Wilhelm is learning possibly more than his students. He is taking away a lot from this study, and i hope to be able to learn more from my students than they can learn from me. it is the only way to grow as a teacher. It was refreshing to see that he has come up with new ideas about what to do for the less engaged readers with role-play and the visual arts which he will talk about in the coming chapters. I would really like to read more about how he engages and gets those less interested students involved.

You Gotta Be the Book-Ch 2

This chapter was easier to read than the first one because i wasn't dealing with a lot of the same questions as Wilhelm was in the first chapter. However, i am still on the same page as him when it comes to a lot of his ideas about literature and teaching literature in the classroom. For instance, when he is talking about valid reading. I too believe that reading can lead to self-discovery, but only if the reader can understand what the author's intent for the story is. Some of his students gave metaphors for reading, and Wilhelm said that they fit with what Rosenblatt says about literary transaction. If students can learn to read for enjoyment, but also understand what the author is trying to get across to the readers, then that i what i take as valid reading. The readers should be able to make a personal connection, and experience the text but also not be mislead by the author's intent.
The biggest thing that Wilhelm says in this chapter that i wish to take with me into my classroom that the idea of winning three out of every five. It can be school days, students, lessons, etc. but as long as you can get three out of five, you will go somewhere. I think this is a good notion to have in the classroom because you can't reach all your students in the manor that you may wish to throughout the year, but as long as you can reach the majority, you will make a difference.
Another topic that is covered in the chapter that whole-heartedly agree with is to get students interested in a whole variety of literature. However, i don't think that this should have only been noticed through his engaged readers. I think that it would have been more effective if Wilhelm had learned this lesson from those readers who struggle, and are disinterested.

You Gotta Be the Book-Ch. 1

Reading this chapter was a very reassuring task for me because i finally felt like i wasn't alone in a lot of my thoughts on reading. I struggle with a lot of the same questions that Wilhelm does and agree with a lot of what he says when he talks about the struggles there are to get students interested in reading and having them obtain the ability to gain an aesthetic stance. I had a "bottoms up" approach when i was in school and that is all i have really witnessed in a school setting. The only time i have seen other people, or for myself, use an aesthetic stance is when people are reading for personal enjoyment. I feel it is in these moments that the reader is searching for meaning and understanding within the text. In the school settings, I have never experienced readers reading for their own personal meaning and understanding. They are all just searching for the best answers to pass the class.
As a teacher to be, I would just like to know the answers to these questions that i have personally struggled with and also that Wilhelm suggests. Rosenblatt suggests that the students have to explore on their own and interpret there own reactions to the text to make the reading more personally fulfilling to them. However, when I think about my past experiences of working on my own through a book, I would just get frustrated when i didn't understand something. So, i believe there needs to be some happy medium that allows the students to become comfortable enough to want to read the text but also to use the reader response and take an aesthetic stance to reading