Early Transcript Thoughts

Things I've noticed:

• Use of the words "like" and "um"
• Teachers pulling students into the conversation: calling on specific students to encourage them, planning activities such as the review game or smaller group discussions to include all students, etc.
• Following written transcripts is much more difficult than following a spoken conversation.  I'm not used to reading all the um's and pauses and repeats/corrections of words.
• Several teachers seem to be really comfortable with their students.  They can joke around and have relaxed discussions while retaining respect and control of their classroom.
• There is not as much use of the Evaluation portion of the IRE as I expected. Carl's and Julia's transcripts had teachers who actually evaluated student responses, replying with "good" or "not quite" etc.  Many other teachers merely acknowledged the response or repeated it without evaluating the answer.

My Class Discussions

I believe the best discussions are truly student oriented and originated.  As a teacher, I want to stay out of some discussions as much as possible to let the students talk and truly hear their ideas.  My role will to be guiding the discussion where needed, prodding the students to get a discussion going when necessary and pulling it back together if some student starts "Gregging" too much.  However, the point of discussion is not to get answers from the teacher.  I will also step in where necessary to encourage all students to participate in the discussion.The point is for students to share their ideas to open their minds and explore different options about the topic they are discussing.  I think this is especially important in literature.  There are so many ways to view a text and we lose some value of meaning if we don't explore as many options as possible.  The only way to achieve this is through class discussion.  That's what my classroom conversations will focus on: fostering new ideas through sharing thoughts from all students.

More Standards than We Can Define

As I being to dig through the new Common Core Standards for English Language Arts, I must admit I am a little intimidated.  The sheer number of standards is a little overwhelming.  I have spent the least amount of time going through the CCR standards and am therefore still unfamiliar with them.  However, their very name has me concerned.  College and Career Readiness?  What does this even mean??? My problem biggest problem is the fact that we are supposed to apply these standards to every student but each student's required "readiness" will undeniably be different.  A student who wants to be a doctor will need different skills than a lawyer, or a mechanic, or a teacher...the list is endless.  Every career requires a different set of skills.  For general purposes, I think these standards mean we must do our best to equip our students with the tools they will need to navigate the "real" world in either a career or college.  This includes being able to read and comprehend documents of all types that may come into their hands be they business related, social, or technical in nature.  Students also must be able to communicate through writing and speaking.  This may include the ability to speak in public while conveying the point and not throwing up on the stage.  This may include being able to type a professional email detailing your business concerns.  Regardless, students must be able to communicate clearly, concisely, and effectively.  I do not know if these are the skills CCR covers, but I sure hope so.

As for other forms of literacy, I hope my students will be socially literate when they leave my classroom.  College and careers both require the ability to work with other people.  Therefore, students need to be socially literate, able to communicate, collaborate, and compromise when working with others in a classroom or work setting.  This means I will be using a lot of group work in my classroom to help establish these skills.  I also hope my students will be culturally literate when they graduate.  They should know what's going on in the world.  They should understand cultural references to important works of literature and history.  My focus will be on introducing students to the literature aspect of our society's cultural canon.

College and Career Readiness will mean something different for each student.  As teachers, all we can do is give our students the best tools possible to navigate the general world and hope the student knows how best to apply their resources to their individual situation.

Literacy

By my definition, to say someone is "literate" means they have the ability to proficiently read and write.  "Proficiently" in this sense means reading and writing at a level which allows that person to function in basic society.  They can read bills, newspapers, and other life essentials.  Having a higher level of literacy would then mean possessing the ability to read at a higher level--dense academic papers and the like.  Someone who is "illiterate" is someone who can not yet read/write at the basic level required by society.  Reading and writing are an essential part of functioning in society.  They allow us to communicate with others, gather news, navigate using signs-the uses are endless.  The gap between literate and illiterate, then, is an important one.  Being illiterate would make functioning in society much more difficult (though not impossible).  As teachers, it is our job to at least provide students with enough skills to read the important documents and communicate with others in their lives.  A higher level of literacy would be preferred but is not absolutely essential at the basic level.

To teach or not to teach..Grammar that is

I do believe grammar still has a place in the classroom.  Most students don't enjoy learning grammar.  Most teachers probably don't particularly enjoy teaching grammar either.  Unfortunately grammar is something students need to know.  Like it or not, standard English is expected in higher institutions and the working world, and grammar is an important part of this knowledge base.  I plan on incorporating Grammar 4 (school grammar) in my classroom.  Grammar will not be a huge focus, but some lessons will be learned.  For example, I think punctuation is essential to writing a well written sentence.  Meaning can be totally misconstrued without proper punctuation.  Spelling and sentence structure are also essential to understanding.  The point of good writing is to accurately convey a message and this cannot be achieved without proper grammar.  I also don't think it's important to teach Grammar 2 or the strict science behind grammar.  Those rules are too complicated for any student to memorize or comprehend- I still don't understand most of them.  This article argues that grammar comes as a subconscious knowledge of the language, but I do not this this is always true.  As we have discussed in the class, students come from all different backgrounds which affect their basic concept of language.  For example, a student who speaks AAVE may not inherently know all the rules of Standard English grammar.  They must learn these rules to meet society's expectations (whether these expectations be right or wrong).  Ultimately, unless the entire globe agrees we can do away with grammar, the subject must still be taught in schools in order to prepare students to meet the expectations and communication standards of their society.