Overall Class Reaction

I really didn't know what to expect when I signed up for this class. I was curious to see how things were going to be set up, and how we were going to learn about teaching literature to students. After taking 4790, I wasn't entirely out of the loop, but was very excited to see how that class can be tied into 4800.

I am so relieved that we went over the literary theories and got to know them much better in this class. Although I am no professional, I feel like I've scratched the surface of what can become a great learning experience for adolescents. Additionally, I have decided to keep all three of the texts we had for this course. I sat in my room looking through each of them trying to figure out which one I could live without. Unfortunately, I couldn't find one that would not be useful for my in the future. It's definitely a good source to have but I won't be getting any money back in return for them. Oh well. I figured I would regret it later if I didn't take advantage of all the sources, activities, and information each of these books contained.

Overall, I feel this was a great experience for me as a near future educator. I glad this class was my last English course to take before my student teaching as well. This way, everything will be fresh and ready to use in the classroom I intern for.

Todd, you were also a great teacher. I like how you set up our classroom atmosphere and made it comfortable for everyone from day 1. You really treated us like professionals, and because of that we all were able to get as much out of your class as possible, and learn many new things to bring to the classroom.

The Giver presentation

I think this presentation went very well today. I thought our class discussion was very helpful and insightful to the novel, The Giver. This group's opening activity was very motivating and enabled the students to use their imagination. This is a great way to get students thinking about the novel and about their own perceptions of things as well.
My favorite part of the presentation was the Crossing the line activity. I was really intrigued when I first saw this done in the movie Freedom Writers. Actually doing this activity was fun and I felt a sense of connectedness with the rest of the class. I think this is a great way for students to open up to each other and to create a safe, comfortable, classroom atmosphere.
I also enjoyed the YouTube clip. The student who played out the ending to The Giver gave me hope for my future students to put just as much thought and effort into literature and the classroom.
Overall, this group's presentation helped me develop how I might want to teach this novel if given the opportunity in the future. I really liked the idea as a whole to provide the entire class with a Unit Plan to use when teaching each of the novels presented. These will serve as great resources for new teachers.

The Bell Jar Presentation

Throughout this project I found that we all learned from each other in different ways. I enjoyed working on this project as a group because it gave each of us a chance to work as a team and to gain different ideas from one another. Among the 5 of us, we all worked very well together and developed a concise, organized unit on this novel. I especially found the 5 different subtopics we taught to the class to be very useful and helpful in all aspects of our lesson. We touched on crucial parts of the novel that will enhance any student's knowledge and thinking when it comes to literature.
I am not sure I would really change much on the way we went about this project. I kind of felt this project snuck up on us, but we managed to put together a reliable unit plan on The Bell Jar. I think by each of us teaching different parts we wanted to discuss provided the class with variety, a chance to apply their knowledge, and discuss their own interpretations of the novel as well. Since our presentation included these three things I feel that our colleagues learned a lot on how to teach this novel as well as explore other aspects of the novel that may enhance their own learning as well.

Text Debriefing-Webb

I think Literature & Lives by Allen Webb is an enjoyable text. It is interesting to read and fun to read some of the experiences he had as a teacher. I think this is a great text for English 4800 because I think each student can find something useful within the book. It was not the average text that most students are used to here at WMU.
I like how we discussed each chapter in this book within the class period. I am not sure how you could do things differently but it would be cool to see that happen next semester for parts of it. I personally did not like the last chapter of the book. It was boring and didn't really close out the book too well. I was a little disappointed that we ended this book with that particular chapter.
I do not think I will be keeping this book as a resource for my teaching. I think Webb has some great insight in this book, although I think it mostly serves its purpose in an undergraduate class like this, instead of the actual teaching world. I will say that the only reason I would keep it is because of the chapter on Homelessness. I really enjoyed reading this chapter and I think it is a great theme to teach in a high school classroom setting.
Overall, great book for class, not so much to put on my book shelves in my own classroom.

Text Debriefing-Appleman

I think Appleman's book, Critical Encounters in High School English, is a tremendous and necessary book to use in this course. Without this text I do not think I would know as much as I do now about theory in the classroom. This is definitely a great resource for undergraduate students.
I like how we discussed the chapters in this book, although I wish we would have practiced using them more in the class session. This way it might have made us more comfortable going into teaching by having experience using them and implementing in specific activities. I think each chapter serves its own purpose. The deconstruction chapter is by far the most difficult chapter to discuss. Because of this I do not think a student should lead discussion on this chapter, but rather you as the instructor leading it instead.
I plan on keeping this book for reference for teaching. I think the classroom activities in the back of the book will be useful along with the chapters itself. The book is very reader friendly which allows the reader to find what they are looking for quickly.
Overall, this book was very useful and it gave me a good idea of literary theory. It will serve a great purpose if I forget what certain theories are or an idea of how to use them.

Text Debriefing-Wilhelm

Wilhelm's book, You Gotta Be the Book, is definitely a good text for English 4800. Having read this book this semester I feel like I learned a lot useful ideas for the classroom. I was not familiar with the term "Reader Response" up until this course and I now doing my final project on this theory. It is very reader friendly and quick read.
I think each chapter serves a significant purpose for any individual seeking an English Education degree. I like how the author provides real life stories within the book instead of writing a book with facts and boring text. It made the book interesting to read and I learned a lot from it as well.
I am considering keeping this book as a resource for me to use throughout my teaching. I think it serves as a great reminder of things to use in the classroom and how we can use it as teachers. Even if I do not keep the book, I think this book is definitely something I can look back on and remember key concepts.

Webb-Chapter 7

After reading Webb's chapter on testimonial and autoethnography, I found it an interesting approach and somewhat outside the norm of a traditional English classroom. I'm used to reading mostly about different novels and the theories behind each. Instead, I see varieties of novels that can be looked at through a testimonial or autoethnography way.
Webb states, "In my experience, teaching testimonial narratives leads students to ask challenging questions about the priorities of literature classes and their everyday schooling experiences" (137). Webb has had amazing responses throughout his teaching from students that we've been able to see throughout his book. Although this gives me hope for the future, I still want to know how he gets such thorough responses, especially using some of the novels that I did not read until college. As my internship soon approaches, and my career of teaching is right around the corner, I worry that although this is my ultimate goal as a teacher that I may never reach this mark. I want to be creative and touch on different aspects of literature like autoethnography and testimonials, but I feel that because the way I have been taught that these things will be overlooked based on the curriculum I am to go by. So how to I allow myself to break free of these barriers and incorporate things like this into my classroom in order to enhance the knowledge of my students, and enable them to leave my classroom with an honest learning experience? I think what Webb has done a great job throughout this entire book and has additionally been inspiring and amazing. I hope I can have the kind of impact he has had on his students along with the variety of experiences he has encountered that has made him a better teacher because of it as well. Overall, testimonials, autoethnography are only the gist of what I am interested in using from this text by Webb. I plan on saving this text and using it as a resource to guide me into become a great educator who teaches many young lives the meaning of literature and how to incorporate literature into one's own life.