Foot: Final Reflection

I think it is important for us as future teachers to be familiar with different types of modalities. I think this class did a good job at introducing us to different types of technology; however, sometimes I felt like this class was a review of information that I already knew. I already knew a lot of the information that was in the Costanzo book from taking Art of Theater and also participating in drama while I was in high school. I also didn’t like that book because it was really boring to read. I did like the activities that we did in class with film, but I don’t know that I would ever use it in my classroom besides a creative writing class. I had similar feelings about the Multi-genre Autobiography project. I liked that project, but I don’t ever see myself using that in a typical English class. I would use it in a creative writing class because it gets students thinking about different types of literacies and it allows students to be creative with their presentations.

I really like the idea of the canonical wiki. I think it’s a great idea to have many different types of multi-modal sources that we can use in our classroom. I had a really hard time with mine though because there wasn’t a lot of information out there about Puritan writers. I think one way to improve the wiki would be for the students who have a hard time finding sources about a topic to only find 10 sources instead of 20. That student could also look up another topic and find 10 sources on it so that it totals out to be 20 sources. I would rather find 10 good sources than find 20 sources, some of which aren’t that great.

Foot: Dancing with the Stars

When I have spare time, which is very rarely, I like to watch Dancing with the Stars. I love to watch anything that has to do with dancing. I started dancing when I was three old and I stopped taken dance classes when I was a senior in high school. My first experience as a teacher came through dancing. I was a substitute dance teacher for two years.

When I watch Dancing with the Stars, it reminds me of teaching dance lessons. It makes me think about how everybody learns differently and different students struggle with different obstacles. I think it’s interesting now that when I look at normal things that are a part of my life, I relate them to teaching.

Pytash: Final Reflection

I enjoyed our Teaching Literature class this semester. I learned a lot of valuable information that I plan on using once I become a teacher. In class, I benefitted the most from the literary theory classes. I loved the different ways we can teach literary criticism to a class. I think literary criticism is a hard concept for students to understand so that was one thing that I was worried about teaching. I think the activities we did in class were engaging and they really helped to simplify the concept so it was easier to understand. My least favorite assignment for this class and multi-modal was the canonical wiki. I think it’s a great idea and it’s really useful to have different strategies to incorporate in your classroom. I didn’t like this assignment because I had an extremely hard time finding information that I could use in relation to Puritan writers. As I was searching for links to use, I found myself comparing different websites to see which I disliked least. I did find some good sources and videos that I would use, but I had a hard time because there weren’t a lot of sources and some of them wanted you to pay. I think it would improve this assignment if the topics that are harder to find sources required then few hyperlinks. Maybe students could research two topics instead of just one then. Overall though, I really enjoyed this class. I like the idea of pairing classics with young adult literature. Over this summer, I plan to read many of the pairings that are on worksheet that we have.

Pytash: Chapter 7

“Literature frequently provides a context in which to examine moral dilemmas.”

I thought this was an interesting chapter. I smiled when Linda Evangelista said, “It was God who made me so beautiful. If I weren’t, then I’d be a teacher.” It made me think about the misconceptions associated with teaching. One section that stood out to me in this chapter was Applying Literature to Life. I really liked that she was trying to relate what they were learning to their own lives and the world around them. It reminded me of a high school journalism class. You are constantly asking “Why should I care?” or "Why should the reader care?" I think that’s an important point to remember when teaching. Why should students care about what you’re teaching them? I think students should be able to learn and gain new perspectives from the topics taught in a class. They need to be able to take something valuable away from the lesson. Otherwise, what is the point of teaching something if it will not affect the students?

I also liked Jago’s assessment for Julius Caesar. I really like discussion questions because it gives students more freedom in their answers. Students have to defend their thoughts. I also like this type of assessment because I think it allows the teacher to have a better understanding of how well a student understands the material.

Foot: Pleasure Reading

One of the books that I’ve had time to read this semester is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. When I first started reading this book, I didn’t think I would like it. I was happy with Jane Austen’s writing the way it was. I didn’t need any zombies randomly popping up in the text while I was trying to read a romantic novel. Once I actually got into the book, I really started to like it. It’s an easier read than Pride and Prejudice, but it still has the same plot and language that Austen uses in her book. In fact, a lot of the dialogue in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is straight from Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I’m actually really glad that I decided to read this novel because I really enjoy it.

Reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies makes me want to go back and reread all of Austen’s romantic novels. I’m also a huge fan of the movies that have been made from her books so I’m sure I’ll be re-watching them soon as well.

Foot: Pinocchio and Naruto

Text and Dialogue
Narration: There is narration in both novels. The main type of text that exists in both books is dialogue.
Balloons: Both books use balloons when expressing dialogue.
Captions: I don’t remember captions in Naruto. I know that there was dialogue outside of balloons, but that doesn’t add information about the scene. At the very beginning of Pinocchio, there are some captions.
Emanata: Pinocchio didn’t have any emanata, but Naruto did use emanata in the book.
Labels/Signs: There are signs on some of the shops in an overview of town in Pinocchio. In Naruto, there are chapter-like pages that give information to the reader.
Lettering: Pinocchio’s letter is in a smaller font, but it is in all caps. Naruto’s font is also in all caps, but the font size ranges drastically. Some words are bold, while some words are outlined. The font type is also constantly changing.
Sound Effects: There are some sound effects in Pinocchio, but not as many as there are in Naruto.
Visual Features
Characters: The characters in Naruto are given a lot of human characteristics. The characters in Pinocchio have a much more darker/sinister tone to their features.
Objects: Pinocchio’s main object is his nose.
Icons: I didn’t notice any icons as I was reading both books.
Scenery: Both books show scenery in the panels. In Pinocchio, you can see the room he’s in or the town surroundings. In Naruto, occasionally you can trees in the background or there will be a panel of the city.
Depicted action: Both novels have a lot of depicted actions throughout the texts.
General Layout and Design
Borders: There are almost always borders in Naruto, while there are not as many borders in Pinocchio.
Gutters: There are gutters in both books. Sometimes in Pinocchio the gutters appear as black instead of white.
Panels: Both books use panels throughout the text.
Open panel: Both Pinocchio and Naruto contain open panels where the action bleeds on to another page.
Splash: There are quite a few splash pages in Pinocchio. I could only find one splash page in Naruto.
Angles and Frames
Bleed: In both books, there are scenes where characters bleed onto another page, although it doesn’t happen very often.
Close up head shot: Naruto uses a lot more close up head shots than Pinocchio does.
Head-shoulder shot: Pinocchio uses a lot of head-shoulder shots throughout the book. Many more head-shoulder shots are used in Pinocchio than in Naruto.
Full-figure shot: There were full figure shots in Pinocchio, but I didn’t notice any full figure shots in Naruto.
Longshot: Both books contained longshots, although Naruto didn’t use them as much.
Extreme longshot: Pinocchio didn’t have any extreme longshots in the text. I only found one extreme longshot in Naruto.
Reverse: Both books used reverse in the panels, but Pinocchio used it much more frequently.
Rhetorical techniques
Exaggeration: There is a lot of exaggeration in Naruto. Sound effects are exaggeration by the size and font of the word and the effect it’s trying to have. There is some exaggeration in Pinocchio, although not as much.
Empathy/identification: I think it’s harder to identify with Pinocchio because I see that text based off of a fairytale. Naruto seems more realistic.
Mood/tone: The tone in Pinocchio is much darker than that in Naruto.
Simplicity/complexity: Pinocchio is much more simple compared to Naruto. There is so much going on in Naruto that it makes it harder to understand.
Irony/satire: There was some satire and irony in Pinocchio. It’s ironic that he has to lie so that his nose will grow so that he can kill vampires. I didn’t notice that so much in Naruto.
Realism/icons/symbolism: In Pinocchio, his nose is symbolic of the lies that he tells. Naruto feels more realistic to me. When I think about Pinocchio, I always associate it with a fairytale.
Order/disorder: I think there is a lot more order in Pinocchio than in Naruto. There is so much going on in Naruto that it feels disorderly to me,
Juxtaposition: I think there was juxtaposition in Naruto during the fight scenes. It made it easier for the reader to compare what was happening in the fights. I found very few instances of juxtaposition in Pinocchio.
Relationships: In Pinocchio, there is opposition and conflict between Pinocchio, the vampires, and the townspeople at times. In Naruto, there is also conflict.
Point of View: In Pinocchio, the point of view is from Pinocchio. We take his side throughout the book and we know his thoughts. Naruto is told from more perspectives than just his.

Pytash: Chapter 6

I really liked this chapter because it had a lot of useful information about lesson plans and the Odyssey. I love the Odyssey so this chapter was fun for me to read. I liked that groups of students were assigned one book from the Odyssey to present to the class. I like the presentations because I think it forces students to really know and understand what is happening in that particular book if they have to teach it. I had to a project similar to the expert group presentations when I was in high school. My class was divided into groups and we were assigned three books to cover in the Odyssey. We had to create a children’s book based on the Odyssey and then teach the book to the first graders in the primary school. I had to know what the books were really about before I could teach them to someone else and I think the expert group presentations would work in the same way. I also really liked all the examples of handouts for the Odyssey in this chapter. I think the cast of characters, Greek gods, and map all help the student to understand the Odyssey in a better way. I think the handouts would help students clarify the different gods and characters from each other.

On another note, I did like the example of the Cornell notes and her notes on note taking. I think note taking helps the students to stay focused on the material. I think it could be useful to collect notes in some classes to make sure that students are following along and understanding the information.

Pytash: Chapter 4

“I believe it is our job not simply to drag students through a series of books but rather to show them how stories work” (Jago 60).

I thought this chapter was interesting because it brought up a lot of useful information about elements of fiction and literary terms. I really like Freytag’s Pyramid to map the important structures in a piece of literature. When I was in high school, I remember having to complete a story pyramid similar to Freytag’s Pyramid. I think it really helps students to visualize what is happening at the moment and where that action falls in a story framework. One of the things I’ve notice as I’ve read this book is that Jago has a lot of information hanging up on giant sheets of paper around the room. She said she has a running list of literary terms posted on her walls in her classroom so students can see it every day. I really like that she did that because I think it exposes the students to those literary terms many more times than they would be otherwise.

One thing that I didn’t like about this chapter is the tone in which she occasionally spoke to the reader. Sometimes I felt like she was talking down to the reader and that annoyed me. What really irritated me though was when she talked about a book about literary terms. She proceeded to then tell me that I need to make sure that the book is returned when I lend it out. It just reminded me of a parent telling a child not to lend something out and it bothered me.

Pytash: Chapter 2

“Children who read build huge vocabularies from immersions in the world of language. They aren’t consciously trying to learn new words; it just happens” (Jago 22).

I really liked that this chapter focused primarily on vocabulary. I was surprised when I read that students make good progress as readers when they add 3,000 to 5,000 new words to their vocabulary per year. Since we can only teach students 400 words per year, I think it is really important to focus on specific vocabulary words. I also thought the section that talked about the four stages of “knowing” a word was interesting. I could definitely relate to Jago when she said that she knew almost all of the words that her students had asked her, but she struggled to explain what the words really meant.

My favorite part of this chapter is when Jago describes the activities for working with vocabulary and Julius Caesar. The way she incorporated the vocabulary of four specific words is what caught my attention. I liked that she gave the students the definitions, had them read an act, and then asked them to find examples of those words in Julius Caesar. I really liked that this activity required active participate from the students while still pertaining to what the class was specially covering at that point.

Foot : Crime After Crime Film Review

1. Personal Issues
What struck me the most was the constant need for hope. Throughout the whole movie, Debbie never lost hope that she would be released. I think it was such a strong emotion because it was real. This wasn’t a movie with actors pretending to play a role. These were real people with real emotions. I think other viewers can generalize with this response because everyone has experienced hope before. As an audience, it is easy to identify emotions we are familiar with.
2. Technique
I think this film was technically strong. The dialogue and the editing made this film very strong. The dialogue could have been very hard to follow if not for the editing. This film was based almost solely on interviews.
3. Acting
The principles roles in the movie were Debbie Peagler and her two lawyers: Nadia Costa and Joshua Safran. This movie was a documentary so the roles in the story were very realistic. The actors were extremely realistic because they weren’t acting. They were living their own lives.
4. Plot
The main idea of the film is centered on a woman named Debbie Peagler who has been wrongly incarcerated for 28 years. She was convicted of murder even though she was not the one who killed her then boyfriend Oliver. Debbie led Oliver to an area where local gang members were waiting to beat him up. Debbie took him to that area because she wanted him to leave her and her daughter alone. He was prostituting her out, beating her, threatening her life, and sexually abusing her daughter. After being bullied by the D.A.’s office, Debbie plead guilty to murder and she was sentenced 25 years to life in prison. The story follows Debbie’s attempt to be released from jail after two pro bono lawyers take on her case after a new California law allows cases to be reopened if the criminal is a victim of domestic violence. The story follows tremendous ups and downs through Debbie’s case until she is released from jail, shortly before her death.
5. Themes
I think the main idea in this story is to keep hoping. I think the main issues in this film talked about victims of domestic violence and those who have been wrongfully incarcerated. I don’t think the messages are distracting to the plot. I think the main idea and main issues are what makes this film so spectacular.
6. Genre
I would classify this film as a documentary. I think people think this genre because they know that it is real. It’s not a made up story.
7. Representation
This film does represent different groups of people. Debbie is a black, poor woman who is incarcerated. One of her lawyers is a woman, who comes from an affluent community and has experienced abuse as a child. The other lawyer is a male, who is Jewish. The film didn’t choose to characterize them in this way, it’s just who these people are.
8. Ideology
After watching this film, I had a stronger distrust for those who work in the criminal justice system. I saw how strongly they fought so they wouldn’t have to admit their mistakes. I also thought that there could be more people wrongly incarcerated just like Debbie. My beliefs were changed just by looking at all of the information presented throughout the film.

Foot: Cleveland Film Festival

I enjoyed going to the Cleveland Film Festival. I’ve never been to a film festival so this was a new experience for me. I was surprised that so many people attended the film festival. I didn’t realize that the Film Festival is such a big event. I’m used to small movie theaters so it was a bit of a shock to me when I saw how big the theater was. I was pleasantly surprised that the movie that I saw, Crime after Crime, wasn’t that busy, although many other movies were. Crime after Crime started at 4:35 on a Wednesday and I could not believe that that many people were at the theater for the Film Festival. I would like to know how far people travel to come to the film festival. It seemed like a variety of people were there.

I really enjoyed watching Crime after Crime. I really liked that this movie told the true story of a woman’s life. I would have loved to have been able to see other movies at the film festival. The only thing I don’t like about the film festival is that it is about an hour and a half from my house. It was kind of hard to find the time to go up to Cleveland during the week. I left Kent to go to Cleveland at three and I didn’t get home until nine p.m. For me, it was really hard to find a day where I could allot six hours of my day for this one assignment.

Foot: Great Films and How to Teach Them

I had a hard time getting through this book. I already knew some of the information in the book so it kind of bored me. I had a hard time staying focused when I reading this book. The pages were very plain and everything was black and white. I did find some of the information
interesting though. I liked when the book talked about the influence of literature on movies and the influence of movies on literature. I just thought it was interesting to see how film can be compared to other media. I especially liked when the book made a comparison between dance and film. “It’s worth considering how a movie can be like, or unlike, a dance number or a musical composition. Some movies do include dances, poetry, or music, of course, but there is a difference between a filmed dance and a dance film” (Costanzo 15). I really liked this quote because it made me think about film in a different way. Dance has always been a huge part of my life, so that quote really made me start to think about the differences in film.

I also found this book to be interesting because it introduced me to some terms that I had never heard of before. I really enjoy watching films, so I was happy to learn some new information. Chapter 2 offered a lot of information that I wasn’t familiar with. I was also surprised when Chapter 5 started talking about theories in film. Many of the theories were similar to literary analysis theories in English. For me, I have a hard time thinking about film and associating it with an English class.

Foot: Firestone Assignment

After spending time tutoring at Firestone, I think there are ways to incorporate multi-modalities into test preparation. I think it would have been very hard for the tutors to incorporate multi-modalities while working with the students, but I do think teachers can include multi-modality test preparation practices in their classrooms. I don’t think you can teach multi-modality test-taking strategies. I think the best way to incorporate multi-modalities would be to use it in your everyday lessons. I don’t think teachers should teach to the test so they wouldn’t use multi-modalities just for test preparation. If you use multi-modalities to teach, improve, or clarify a subject, then that is when multi-modal practices work at their best. As for preparing the students to take standardized tests, I do think there are a few ways that you can incorporate multi-modal test preparation. One way would be to have an iPad present with you when you’re tutoring. I know when I was working with my student through the OGT test packet we came across some questions that I couldn’t explain the answer to. I am not very good with science and I couldn’t really tell her why an answer was correct or incorrect. An iPad would have been great to have with me because I could have easily looked up information on the iPad while she was sitting beside me. Another multi-modal literacy that I could have used while tutoring my student would be a cell phone. I actually do have a cell phone, but I don’t receive the internet on my phone so I couldn’t look up the answers to some of her questions. I also was a little uncomfortable using my phone at Firestone because I know they have a strict policy against the use of cell phones.

If I had my own classroom, I do think that using cell phones could be a challenge. Even though the use of my cell phone would be for educational purposes, I do know some schools have policies stating that neither teachers nor students can use cell phones during school. When I have my own classroom, and if I can afford it, I would love to have an iPad to work with students in my classroom. I think it would be great to have an iPad in the classroom. I would be able to move around the room to work individually with students. If one particular student has a question, I can work with that student at his or her desk and still have a computer with me. I think it would also benefit me as a teacher because I wouldn’t have to carry around a huge book in the class. I could use the iPad to show students texts or comments on certain passages. I wouldn’t have to call students up to my desk to show them a grade or something on my computer because I would be able to go to the student.

I think students would be more interested in test preparation with the use of multi-modal literacies. When students get to use something new, it often perks their interest in the subject. It is very hard to get students interested in test preparation, so the use of multi-modal literacies would definitely be a benefit. I think there is a lot of tension between the expanding definition of literacy and standardized test preparation. Standardized tests are very formal and rigid. They don’t incorporate new literacies in the test. The test cannot incorporate new literacies because students can only take the test using pencil and paper. I think teachers are trying to use new literacies in their classrooms, but it makes it hard when students are going to be tested over subjects that don’t include new literacies. Literacy is expanding, but standardized testing has remained the same. I think that is what is causing the tension in the school system.

While I was at Firestone last semester, I did see some teachers incorporating multi-modal literacies into their classrooms. I predominately saw that in English classrooms. I observed a teacher playing a song on her mp3 player on her cell phone to demonstrate to her students the importance of beat in poetry. I also saw the same teacher play music videos and then she asked the students to identify archetype and theme from the videos. I really enjoyed observing this class because I liked the way the teacher used multi-modal literacies within her classroom. I think that is the best way you can teach your students for taking tests. I don’t think it would really help to just incorporate multi-modality into test preparation. It needs to be incorporated throughout an entire year for students to benefit from it.

I don’t see standardized test preparation easily merging with multi-modal literacies. One of the reasons I don’t see it merging easily is because the use of multi-modalities can cost money. Many schools are short on funds so I think a lot of schools would shy away from something that is going to be an added expense. I also think a lot of teachers are going to shy away from using multi-modal literacies with test preparation because there isn’t any use of multi-modalities in standardized tests. I know when I had to take the OGTs, my teachers prepared my class for the test by simulating what the test was going to be like. We constantly went over questions that had been on previous OGTs and we had to complete practice OGT test packets. My teachers wouldn’t let us use any multi-modal literacies because they said we wouldn’t be able to use them on the test. They didn’t want us to become accustomed to using something that we weren’t going to be able to use on the test. I think a lot of teachers would share similar sentiments. I think another problem would be that students wouldn’t always have access to the multi-modal literacies. Most students now have the internet, but not all students. I think as teachers, we need to remember that not all students have the same access to materials.

Foot: "I'm So Totally, Digitally Close to You" and "Your Leaving a Digital Trail."

“I’m So Totally, Digitally Close to You”

I really liked this article. I thought it was interesting that the article talked about things I had experienced while using Facebook. I was surprised that social scientists actually had a name for it: ambient awareness.
“It is, they say, very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through the little things he does — body language, sighs, stray comments — out of the corner of your eye.” When I’m on Facebook, I can tell the mood of my friends based on their statuses. Even friends that I haven’t seen in a while, I still feel like I’m close to them and I know what is happening in their life. I really liked when the article talked about how Twitter and Facebook don’t demand your attention like an email does. I get on my Facebook a couple times a day, but I’m only on for a few minutes. I actually get on Facebook so I can take a break from items that are demanding my attention. I just skim down through my news feed. I don’t even read half of the posts that are on there. I just read the ones that happen to catch my attention.

“Your Leaving a Digital Trail.”

I thought this article was interesting because this is something I’ve thought about when I use technology. I am actually more cautious about my privacy now with the use of all these new technologies that can leave a trail of what I’m doing and where. This article made me think about how some people don’t seem to think about their security at all when they are using social media. It’s very common for me to see people post status saying where they are going or using an application that tells everyone where they are at. I find it very creepy that people can know what you’re doing throughout the day. It really disturbed me that the digital trail that people leave may force some people to change their health habits like jogging. This article was a good reminder to me why I shy away from technology that can invade my privacy.

Foot: "Publish or Perish" and "I (heart) Novels"

“Publish or Perish”

I really enjoyed this article. I find it interesting how electronic book readers have become so popular lately. Personally, I don’t like electronic books. I find it hard for me to read off of a screen. It gives me a headache. I do recognize that there are a lot of positive features to electronic books. They often are very cheap and you have to book as soon as you buy it. For me, the instant access to the books is the best perk for electronic readers. I didn’t realize that there was such a scandal around the price of electronic books. I thought it was interesting to read about the war between the publishers and Amazon. As I was reading this article, I was wondering if textbooks would be offered as electronic books as well. I wonder how they would be priced in relation to new and used textbooks. I think once people have more access to electronic readers and iPads, then they can become a valuable asset to reading and learning in English classrooms. Students will have more access to books instantly and that is never a bad thing.




“Letter from Japan: I <3 Novels”

I thought this was an interesting article. I have never heard of cell phone writers before. It’s really interesting how the Japanese culture has impacted their use of the internet. I thought it was neat how the people reading the cell phone novels online were able to critique and offer feedback to the author.
I think it’s interesting that the cell phone novels are actually being published. I was really surprised when the article talked about authors not wanting to reveal their identity. It’s very different from American customs where we want to take credit for our work.

I think it’s really interesting how the internet and cell phones has drastically impacted our culture. I think this concept would be neat to incorporate in a creative writing class. I think it would be interesting to see how students respond to being able to write stories through their cell phones.

Foot: Video Games in the Classroom

I thought this article brought up a lot of interesting points although I don’t know that I agree with all of them. I liked that the article talked about a school that was trying to use technology to help students learn; however, I’m not really a fan of using video games in classrooms. In my College Writing class, I had to write papers on video games after I had played them. I actually hated the fact that I was forced to play video games for a class. I don’t like playing video games to begin with so this approach to learning didn’t appeal to me at all. I felt like my teacher was trying to incorporate “cool” things into the class. I do think this approach to learning could benefit a student who likes video games. If you had a student in your class who liked videogames, then I think the use of videogames could help the student become more interested in the class. I think a teacher needs to know who his or her students are in order to see if this type of approach would work.

Foot: Make-up Assignment

As a teacher, I think the multigenre autobiography would be a fun way to learn more about your students. The multigenre autobiography offers teachers a way to find out what types of topics your students are interested in. Knowing what your students are interested in would be very beneficial when trying to decide how to organize students for group projects. The multigenre autobiography lets teachers to have a better sense of who their students are and what type of background the students comes from. It also lets students learn more about each other. They may find that they have similar interests to one another. One of the lessons that I learned from completing my own multigenre autobiography was that even though I recognized that a text was too difficult for me, I returned to that text a few years later. That lesson impacts the way I plan on teaching because it showed me that it’s important not to get discouraged just because you struggle with something. I also learned just how important books were in my life. I read young adult literature because I could relate to that characters and what they were feeling. That reminded me how important it was to remember what types of situations my students will be going through and the emotions that are associated with them. One of the challenges with the multigenre autobiography is that it requires a lot of knowledge about computers in order to incorporate media in the presentation.

Another activity I would use in my own classroom would be to have students analyze a short piece of film after already viewing it once. I think this activity would be great in a creative writing classroom because it makes the students focus on their senses and specific details in the movie. I especially liked when students had to close their eyes and write down all the sounds that they heard in the film clip. It would make students realize how important specific details are when a writer is trying to capture a specific moment. I think this activity would also work in a general English class. This activity helps students realize how details impact a piece of writing. One of the challenges with this assignment is that it requires some knowledge of films terminology. It also requires students to be completely focused on the film clip in order to fully grasp the exercise.

Foot: Pleasure Reading

I just recently stumbled on the television show The Vampire Diaries. After watching one episode, I decided to watch a few more episodes to see how it compared to the Twilight series. I wanted to read some of the books as well to see how they compared. I’ve read the first two books in the series: The Awakening and The Struggle. At first, I felt like the author was stealing a lot of the same ideas from the Twilight series, but as I got further into the books I realized that they are quite different. The television show adds a lot of sexual appeal whereas the books don’t incorporate that as much. I think it’s interesting how this vampire genre seems to dominate young adult literature right now. I really enjoy reading the Twilight series as well The Vampire Diaries. I plan on reading the rest of the books in The Vampire Diaries when I have time.

Pytash: Chapter 5

This chapter immediately caught my attention after reading the first two paragraphs. I loved the Jago mentioned how song lyrics are actually a type of poetry. I think students have a hard time connecting to poetry in general. By drawing attention to song lyrics as a form of poetry, it offers students a way to relate to poetry. I’m not really a huge fan of poetry, but I know it is important because I will be teaching it in a classroom. In this chapter, I really liked that the Think Aloud strategy was used with reading a poem for the first time. I think it is really important for pairs of students to use this strategy in order to make sense of a poem. Poetry is often ambiguous when you read through a poem for the first time. I think this strategy would really help students to become more comfortable with poetry because they can ask questions and discuss the poem in a small group. This chapter also talked about why teachers should teach how poems work and how to approach difficult poems. I think as teachers, we need to be cautious as to how we approach difficult poetry. I think that is where we can lose a lot of students because they feel like they don’t understand what is happening within the poem. I liked that the section on difficult poems gave options on how you can approach difficult poems.

Pytash: Chapter 3

Choosing Which Books To Read

I really liked this chapter because it was very informative about deciding what types of books students should read during school and how many. I really enjoy reading and so it is often hard for me to choose just one book to read. This chapter made me think about what kinds of books I want to teach in my classroom. Personally, I prefer to read books rather than short stories. I think books allow me to get to know the characters better. I was really surprised when Jago said that she had her sophomore students reading twenty books. When I think back to my sophomore year in high school, I know I didn’t read nearly as many books as that. I liked that she had her students reading outside of class for their choice project. I also liked that she paired the choice reading project with literature circles. I know a lot of times when students are reading difficult texts on their own outside of class, it really helps to have a space where students can come back together to ask questions and discuss the text. This section made me excited that I will be able to choose the books that I want my students to read. I don’t know that I’ll have my students reading twenty books in a school year, but I am going to have them reading a lot.

One quote stood out to me in the reading in the empathy section. It said, “Literature allows for close, almost scientific analysis of individuals under duress” (Jago 52). I really liked this quote because I think it captures why a lot of people like to read. For me, I like to read because I like to see how characters handle complex situations. Overall, I found this chapter to be hugely informational as to what I should include and not include in my classroom.

Pytash: Chapter 1

I really enjoyed this chapter. One thing that I found interesting was the section that dealt with reading for pleasure versus studying literature. As I was thinking about this chapter, I was questioning how to use classical literature to get students interested in reading. I think that both young adult literature and classical literature have different advantages to each, but I think young adult literature is more effective in getting students interested in reading. I think classical literature can teach students a lot about themselves and society, but I think it is hard getting students motivated up to that point. I was also surprised to learn that Oprah now has “Traveling with the Classics.” I think it is great that a celebrity figure such as Oprah is promoting classical literature.

I really liked the section that dealt with reading literature creating background knowledge. I really liked that Jago pointed out that you gain background knowledge on subjects just from reading. I had never thought about it that way before. Lately I have been reading articles online on the NASCAR website. I don’t really know that much about cars, but I have noticed that I’ve become more fluent with the vocabulary. I guess I just haven’t paid that much attention to how reading can create background knowledge rather than just obtaining background knowledge from my life experiences.

Foot: Web gave ‘Twilight’ fresh blood

I really enjoyed reading this article. I had no idea that the Twilight fan base started from Stephenie Meyer’s own website. The Twilight series has an enormous fan base. I think the fan base is so big because a lot of people can relate to the character’s emotions in the book. Personally, I don’t like to read books that are extremely popular. I didn’t start reading the Twilight series until my sophomore year in college. When I started reading the books, the first movie had already been released on DVD. I never really gave any thought to how the books became so popular. I really liked that Meyer’s used the internet as a way to connect with her readers. I think people become more interested in something when there is some type of personal connection. As I was reading this article, I kept thinking that the beginning of Meyer’s online presence really wasn’t that long ago, yet she was one of the first authors to use the internet in that way. Since the internet has become so entwined in my daily life, I forgot how relatively new the internet is.

Foot: School Topics in the News

I like to read the news online. Lately I've noticed that a lot of things that we've talked about with schools have appeared in the news. On the View the day after the superbowl, there was an episode that dealt with a boy who was bullied at school. A few NFL players stopped by to show their support for the young boy. I thought it was great that these big guys were speaking out against school bullying. I also just read an article about a high school English teacher in PA who is suspended without pay because she made comments on her blog about her "whiny" students. I just thought it was a great reminder of why you should not put certain information online. I'm sure as teachers we will all have students that will annoy us and test our patience; however, I think as teachers it is important to maintain a level of professionalism and that includes NOT posting negative comments on the internet.

Foot: Just For Fun

When I have spare time, I love to read young adult literature. It is one of my favorite genres to read. Over winter break, I read the Percy Jackson & The Olypians series. I fell in love with the characters in the book after the first few pages. After reading all five books, I had to watch the movie, which is based on the first book Percy Jackson & The Olypians: The Lightning Thief. The movie is completely different than the book, but it was still pretty good. The book was much better though. I would highly recommend this series. Whenver I get a few minutes, I try to read a few pages just for fun.

Foot: The Socially Networked Classroom

As I was reading Dr. Kist’s The Socially Networked Classroom one of the first things that caught my attention was the multigenre autobiography. A lot of the information was repetitive from what we’ve heard in class, but I liked that the book gave more of an explanation as to why this assignment is beneficial to us. Another activity that grabbed my attention was the “This Is An Apple” Activity. I think that that’s a clever way of getting students to think about the way they multitask. I liked this activity because it reminded of how much I multitask throughout the day. With so much technology around me, like my phone, computer, television, and Facebook, I can hardly concentrate on one item alone. The third activity that stood out to me was the online literature circles. I am familiar with literature circles from Teaching Reading with Literature. I liked that this book offered suggestions on how to grade literature circles. I think it’s important not to just give points to students because they participate, but to reward them because they are actually thinking critically about what they are reading. My question about using literature circles online, like through Facebook, is what do you do if you have a parent of a student in your class who refuses to allow their child to have a Facebook account. Overall, I found Dr. Kist’s book very interesting and helpful. I think it offers a lot of good suggestions that I can use in a classroom.

Foot: Little Brother

When I first started reading Little Brother, I had a hard time getting into it. I was taken aback by the technology jargon. However, once I got fast the first few pages, I became much more interested in the book. I couldn’t believe that the government would act like that to American citizens. It made me so mad to think that people in our government could treat their own citizens like that. As I was reading Little Brother, I had a hard time believing that some of the technology could actually happen. Overall though, I really liked this book. The plot line kept my interest and I didn’t feel lost in all the technology terminology.

I do think I’ll use this book in my own classroom. I think I would offer it as a choice project reading rather than a mandatory text. I think for some students who aren’t that interested in technology or those who don’t know that much about technology, this book would be challenging for them. I did have a chance to look online at Cory Doctorow’s blog. One of the things that I found interesting was the news section for Little Brother. There was a small blog about a girl who wrote a song based on Little Brother. There was also a small blog that talked about a teacher who was trying to raise money to buy a classroom set of Little Brother to help his students better understand their rights. I thought it was really interesting that the author posted news information about his books on his blog.

This book also made me think of a show I used to watch. The show is called Big Brother. A group of people live in a house together and someone is constantly watching them. I hadn’t made the connection between the title and the reality show until I started to really think about Little Brother.

Foot: An Oral History of the Internet

I really had no desire to read this article about the history of the internet at first. I thought it was going to be filled with a lot technology terms that I wouldn’t understand and I really didn’t expect it to keep my attention. I was surprised that after a few paragraphs the article started to grab my attention. It shocked me that the building blocks for the internet started back in the 1960s. I was also surprised that the United States government had a lot to do with the origins of the internet. I had always assumed that the internet was created by some genesis one day. I just assumed the idea was something that came to someone over night, which is a little silly when you look at how complex the internet is. I liked when the article talked about the emergence of the internet into everyday life. It made me think back to how my teachers started to incorporate the internet into projects at school. I remember when I was first learning to research and write papers that I had to have so many sources and out of those sources two of them had to be internet sources. I remember thinking that it was such a pain to use the internet because I would have to either use the school library or go to my community library to use the internet. By the end high school, a lot had changed. My teachers were then telling me that I had to have at least two book sources in my papers. The internet had become the new source of information on everything.

Another thing that stood out to me as I was reading was how relatively new most of the internet is. Goggle, Ebay, and Craigslist are all a huge part of the internet and the oldest of the three was created in 1998. I think this article did a good job of showing me how the internet has changed over the years. As teachers, I think it is important for us to remember that as the internet changes, we need to change and adapt with it.

Foot: History of Facebook

I actually enjoyed reading this article about Facebook. I knew a little bit about Mark Zuckerburg and how he started Facebook, but I didn’t know that there was such a controversy over it. I was a little surprised and at the same time not so surprised to read that so many people were filing lawsuits against Zuckerburg. With any huge company, I would expect people to try to lay claims to some of that money; however, I was surprised that so many of Zuckerburg’s early friends ended suing him later on. Also at one point, I remember the article talking about Zuckerburg’s early interests in computers. In the article, it said that by ninth grade he had created a computerized game version of Risk. I couldn’t even imagine thinking up these types of programming ideas, let alone actually completely them. When I try to think about how huge of a project that would be, I can’t even comprehend the amount of work put into it.

I also liked this article because it made me think about the different ways I could use Facebook in a classroom. For example, I think Facebook would be a good way of hosting literature circles or study groups online. Facebook is such a huge part of people’s lives because it offers people another way of communicating. I think it’s important for teachers to recognize that Facebook is another way they can adapt the way they teach their content material to connect with students.