Appleman-Chapter 7

After reading Appleman's chapter 7 on Poststructuralist, I was quite intrigued by Martha's story. I find it relieving to know that a teacher who at one time was teaching by the book (text-centered), was able to transition her classroom instruction by allowing change. Her change was to welcome literary theory into her classroom. Appleman states, "Theory can be especially powerful for those students who feel the most powerless, students whose performance in school, family background, or other factors put them on the margins of the academic and social life of the school" (125). Based on Appleman's statement here, I believe this can be a significant role literary theory can play in an individual's life. Throughout the chapter, Appleman also makes note of how literary theory can be useful outside of school and into real life.
Another quote Appleman states that I wish I could relate to is, "Literary theory may help students to "read" the factors that contribute to their status in school, may help them reflect on their own investment in learning, and may give them additional interpretive authority" (125). This quote really hit home with me and my experiences in high school. When I first declared my major at Western as English Education I was not prepared for what I was in for. I didn't know anything about literary theory (which I am no professional at now). I felt, compared to my colleagues, that my high school English education was taken from me. I felt steps behind everyone else who apparently had knowledge of theory in their high school classrooms. My point is that teachers need to better prepare their students for college. Using an aspect of literature like literary theory is not only beneficial for those pursuing English education, but also for those going to pursue their education in general. Learning literary theory forces you to think about what you are reading and how to think about literature in different ways and points of view. I wish I had this experience in English, not just because I am an English Ed major, but for the simple fact that I may have been more wiser now having learned it earlier.

Appleman-Chapter 6

After reading Appleman's chapter on deconstruction I am feeling a little uneasy about teaching it to students. For part of the chapter, Appleman explains how to use deconstruction, what it is, and approaches to using it; however, he then goes on to explain the dangers associated with deconstruction and adolescents. In particular, Appleman states that deconstruction, "teaches them to examine the very structure of the systems that oppress them and, in doing so, to intellectually dismantle them, thus making adolescents rebels with a cause" (106). I find this specific statement to be a good experience for students in the case that students can understand what deconstruction is and how to use it in literature. Appleman also places examples of student responses using deconstruction that I find will not be the results of every classroom.
I think that the use of deconstruction could be effective in an English classroom if the teacher uses a proper approach and the classroom environment is appropriate. If a class has bad chemistry, or has a hard time discussing literature in general, I do not think deconstruction would be effective. However, like in Appleman's chapter, he discusses the use the deconstruction in an AP English class where the student responses resulted very successfully. I am skeptical if the same results becoming of general education students. Maybe there is an approach to incorporating deconstruction into instruction without it being the entire focus?

Webb-Chapter 3

After reading Webb's chapter 3 on gender, I was a little disappointed. As always, I enjoy Webb's personal experiences within each chapter, however I didn't find this particular chapter very useful to me. I don't know if maybe it is because I have taken a Women in Literature course here at Western, or the fact that I am a female but I was not intrigued. I can relate to the fact that taking a course based on women in literature takes a different spin than the average literature course. Since it is based on women, the idea of gender roles, feminism, and women's rights issues do come about throughout discussion.
When it comes to teaching women in literature in the secondary schools I am definitely not against it. Although, I do think there should be a great deal of literature written by men as well. Basically, I want to find a happy medium within my classroom setting where the class can read a certain amount of literature by women, as well as a certain amount of literature written by men. This is allow students to see both sides of the spectrum from a woman's perspective as well as a man's perspective in writing.
As far as gay and lesbian studies go, I definitely want to promote this type of literature in my classroom as well (in a safe and comfortable manner that is). The way I feel about teaching women in literature, is exactly the way I feel about teaching gay and lesbian literature. It is a good learning experience and to have a healthy, diverse balance of homosexual themes in the classroom is something that can also be controversial, but a good education for many in the process.

Appleman-Chapter 5

When is comes to feminist theory, I agreed mostly with a particular quote that Appleman states in chapter 5.

"As students read and interpret literary text, feminist theory can help them to notice salient issues of gender--the portrayal of women in the world of the novel, the gender of the author and what relevance it may bear to how the work is both written and received, the ways in which the text embraces or confronts prevailing ideologies of how men and women are situated in the 'real world,' and the ways in which our own interpretations as individual reader are gendered" (Appleman, 76-77).

I think this particular statement in the chapter serves as a feminist theory mission statement when using it with young adolescent readers. Each thing that Appleman states as helpful when it comes to feminist theory creates different approaches and angles that can be done in an English classroom. Having this many approaches into feminist theory may be good to have for classroom environments that may not feel comfortable addressing each of these angles. However, it is good to touch base with each of these when reading a novel that displays feminist theory.

I really enjoyed Appleman's examples of student responses using a feminist perspective. Some of the conversations between the females in the class and the males in the class were quite intriguing. It was a bit of a reality check for me in terms of what issues and verbal attacks that can occur when discussing a theory like feminist theory. I think that allowing these conversations in the classroom, as long as they stay appropriate, is a great learning experience for both parties to gain perspective.

Since feminist theory can obviously become a controversial issue in the classroom, I think it is an important theory to teach in order for young adolescents to understand different points of view. This will then expand their horizons and allow each student to find deeper meanings in the text relating to the feminist theory.

Webb-Chapter 6

Webb's chapter 6 deals with issues of race in the classroom using an American literary classic Huckleberry Finn, as a prime example. Although the main focus is on this literary work, I want to touch base with something that really causes room for debate, which is the issue of censorship and teacher freedom. Instead of sitting here and preaching about all the reasons teachers should be able to do certain things, I am going to present Webb's specific quotes which I think speaks for most people who are opposed to censorship in the classroom.
The first point that I found the most inspiring is when Webb says, "Cultural studies teachers need to remind students, probably on the syllabus and on the first day of class, that controversial issues are part of the learning process, and they need to inform students that diverse points of view will be welcomed and explored" (109). Webb's point here is something for us future educators to keep in mind. By announcing this verbally and in writing for students will open up the doors for interpretation, perspective, and diversity. This way students will have a more comfortable atmosphere to learn in whereas with censorship, students may be alienated and/or isolated (walking on egg shells during classroom discussion).
The second point supports the previous quote by Webb where this may be a great suggestion for teachers to use during the school year to create a serious learning atmosphere for students and their families. "As a high school teacher, I found it useful to invite administrators, colleagues, and parents to my classroom to participate in the discussions my students and I were engaged in. These invitations helped create trust and freedom" (109). By doing this it may show these different groups of people that you as the instructor, are not going to portray and influence opinions on the students, but rather have a classroom setting where everyone can learn from one another and be comfortable with it in return.
The third point deals with self-censorship. Webb says, "self-censorship is probably more damaging to students than open censorship because it specifically avoids public discussion of the constitutional freedoms on which democracy is based" (110). This sentence as a whole, speaks for itself and a mission statement all of us should consider teaching by. We as educators need to uphold our rights as American citizens and condone that to our students as well. In doing so, our students will be more reluctant to have an open-mind and live their lives with independence and great knowledge of diversity.

Webb-Chapter 2

I was quite intrigued by Webb's chapter on homelessness. I was most inspired by his introductory story on the man he discusses in the beginning. I feel that because Webb came across a homeless man the way he did, that is inspired him to reflect and influence his own students to learn more about it from different angles. I really like the idea of teaching homelessness in the classroom, especially using some of the references Webb leaves for the readers throughout the chapter, as well as in the end. Some of these resources are things many people have heard of before, but have they ever really thought to base a unit around a theme like homelessness? I sure have not. The responses from his students in the beginning where some were unsure of homeless people, and a particular student who wanted to drop the class because he thought they would be learning "character, and plot", were interesting to read and even more exciting when Webb got "sharper" analytical papers after their findings and readings. Turns out most students were more interested than they perceived to be in the beginning.
One quote in particular is what I hope to be true above all when it comes to student responses in class, "If involvement with real-world issues and events developed consciousness, it also led to better written projects, extended and deepened reading, and provided a basis for passionate oral reports and intense class discussion" (20). This proves that having themes like homelessness create curiosity to young adolescents and in spite of their doubts, they may actually learn something and enjoy learning in the process. I hope to have this type of impact on my students in my own English classroom one day, where I can find the spot where each individual can find something we are doing in class to be useful and a great learning experience.

Appleman-Chapter 4

Chapter 4 discusses primarily the literary theory of Marxism. After completing the reading of this chapter I found 2 quotes or comments from the authors to be rather striking. The first one reads on pages 60,"In order for students to be able to understand themselves and each other, they need to be able to contextualize their knowledge in terms larger than themselves; in other words, they need to be able to place their own particular situations and the texts they read into a larger system or set of beliefs. It is for precisely this reason that the particular lens of Marxism can be useful". I found this to be quite interesting relating to the Marxism theory since I could not quite put my finger on exactly the purpose of Marxism. For students to go beyond their own personal situations like reader response, and to combine that with the text and form beliefs of their own appears to be quite productive and useful for students.
The second reads on page 72, "Some politically conservative communities may confuse the introduction of Marxist literary theory with the practice or indoctrination of communism, and teachers may receive negative reactions from parents, community members, administrators, and other teachers". This quote I found to be very irritating. I am so tired of hearing about all the things we cannot teach or things that are "risky" to teach in the classroom. I am also tired of trying to keep young adolescents so sheltered. By exposing them to things like Marxism and even GLBT themes within literary texts as well, allows students to become independent individuals, learn from other perspectives, and have their own voice instead of being influenced by everyone around them. Grrr...I say if we feel like teaching it, and it is relevant, teach it! After all it is our job to teach, and the students' job to learn.

p.s. I just went off on a tangent so hopefully that made some sort of sense.

MCTE Conference

When I arrived at the Sheraton Hotel in Lansing, I was immediately interested in what this conference had to offer. It was well organized, and filled with plenty of sessions for each time fragment. Kathy Blake Yancey opened the conference with a "Keynote Address" which I found was the perfect beginning to a English conference day. She was clever, witty, and had great metaphors for introducing English literature into the conference. However, Kathy was only the tip of the iceberg.
I was most excited to go to the sessions that I thought would be most interesting, and useful for me as an educator. The first one I went to was the session that provided advice for future teachers from new teachers. Jill VanAntwerp hosted this session and described to us how she went about developing this specific session for us most adequately. She conducted a study of teachers asking them a series of questions. The response from those questions were then advice for the audience. Jill had two sections which were "What Went Right" and "What Went Wrong". These two sections are responses from what new teachers have experienced as good things and bad things when they first began teaching. Some of the good things were, a nice room, great principal, wonderful mentor, great students, and a wonderful orientation. Some of the bad things were no room, no books, and no curriculum, which I found to be the most scary. Providing us as future educators, was a great preparation for what we may face in our first years as teachers.
The next session I thought would be most influential was teaching and implementing GLBT themes into the classroom community. I thought I needed to attend this session to get an idea of some approaches and books to read that have these types of themes. The two speakers, Susan Steffel and Laura Renzi-Keener, provided us with an Annotated Bibliography containing many novels and short stories dealing with homosexual themes for young adolescents. I appreciated this handout since many of them I have not heard of, although I may be interested in using in my classroom one day.
Overall, the conference was very influential and I believe it has made me feel less uneasy about stepping into the teaching world, and more excited than ever. It was a good experience that I feel anybody could learn to appreciate.

Webb-Chapter 5

Webb's chapter 5 relates to Shakespeare and other multicultural literature. In my perspective, Shakespeare is a very important genre to study throughout middle school and high school. Unfortunately, I was only exposed to Shakespeare in my 9th grade English class where we read the usual, Romeo and Juliet. I think most students are intimidated by reading Shakespeare seeing that the English language has dramatically changed since Shakespearean times. While reading Shakespeare, much emotion has to be displayed to get the full effect of the characters and themes of the text. I wish I had not been so resilient to read Shakespeare on my own growing up considering that it can be fun to read, and there are plenty of resources to guide anyone who is struggling with the language or overall comprehension. Webb states, "As with any of Shakespeare's plays, approaches such as reading the text in class, listening to recordings, viewing taped performances (of which there are many), and enacting scenes are necessary in order to help students of all levels appreciate Shakespeare's language and stagecraft" (87). Using all these approaches when teaching Shakespeare can significantly impact anyones comprehension and understanding Shakespeare and also make it fun.

Webb also discusses a few African American literature novels like, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. I was fortunate enough to read this novel in my African American Literature course about a year ago and I found it to be very interesting. I would like to say that veering away from the typical classic novels of American Literature was a nice change. It really broadens your horizons and exposes you to what different cultures are like. I think a novel like Things Fall Apart, can be used most definitely to influence, and teach young adolescents about different cultures they really do not have much knowledge about. As a near future English educator, I would sincerely enjoy teaching multicultural novels to my students. This way students have a higher chance of engaging in the readings since we can touch on several different cultures throughout literature.

Webb-Chapter 1

Throughout my reading of Webb's first chapter in Literature and Lives, I found that teaching a historical event like the Holocaust, would be an extraordinary unit to teach. I really found that some of his ideas that he displayed, especially the guest speaker, are things that students will find most interesting and educational. When Webb had Mrs. Golden come in I was astonished to hear about his students' reactions and interest in a old woman's experiences. I find that having events like these taking place in the classroom is beneficial and gives a different light, or perspective, for students to learn from.

Webb also discussed reader response and cultural studies. I am most familiar with reader response which we have touched base on over the past couple weeks; however, cultural studies is something new and interesting to bring to the classroom. Webb states, "cultural studies spurs us also to consider how the establishment of genres and disciplines has functioned historically" (8). English and History, unfortunately for me, go hand-in-hand. However, I find events like the Holocaust to be a great genre of study to bring into the English classroom where cultural studies and reader response can both be used by the students. There are many approaches to teaching the Holocaust with varieties of literature that could be a great experience for students to do in literature circles.

Additionally, the most useful information I got out of this chapter, is the many resources Webb leaves at the end of the chapter. He provides several genres and approaches to teaching the Holocaust which will be very useful to me if I were to ever teach a unit based on this historical event. I look forward to reading more in this book, as it seems to be a very reliable resource for new teachers.