Learning Letter

This has been a fascinating course. The pedagogical texts we read in class were interesting in their variety and subjects. I particularly enjoyed reading Readicide and I Read It, But I Don't Get It. Those kinds of texts will be very helpful to remind us of what it's like for students who we may not immediately understand. The complexity behind reading is something that I often take for granted, but I should remember that it's been a well-honed skill that I can pick up a text cold, speed-read through it, and get general ideas without really knowing many details.
The unit plan was an extremely difficult, but also a very rewarding project. The time we spent meticulously going over each section of the TPA lesson plan was crucial to aiding my knowledge about it, though there are still a few things I'm not quite sure of, and that even teachers don't seem to completely agree on. I still consider the TPA a terribly unnecessary workload, and its specifications can be very frustrating. But while I've done these lesson plans, the most significant thing I've learned form it is that the whole point is not necessarily to train us to fill out this form (though this is the main focus), but instead the purpose is really to force us to put in serious time thinking about each lesson we're going to present. It would be easy for any teacher to take only fifteen minutes preparing a lesson, consider the job done, and move on to the next thing, but we've all had this kind of teacher before, where lessons were not well thought-out or helpful. It takes careful consideration for a lesson to be refined to its most edifying form, even though after this there will almost always still be revisions to be made. Anything less than spending two hours to design a one-hour lesson would be laziness, especially for a new and inexperienced teacher.
Projects such as this have been so helpful, that I almost wish the entire class had consisted of it, or that other classes had provided this kind of assignment. So much of what we go over in many education-required classes does not really seem very applicable to teaching in real life.
The mini-lesson also was helpful, to be able to teach among peers and receive constructive criticism. I even enjoyed talking about the texts we read in class, and on the blog I thoroughly enjoyed being able to freely express how I felt about them, though sometimes I was maybe a little too free.
I'll seriously consider having my own class use blogs, because I think this is something many students will enjoy, because of the freedom it provides. To get them writing and then sharing their writing at home might even spur them on to writing more independently, away from the blog, which is really the ultimate goal, I think. No matter what happens in the classroom, I believe the ultimate success for any English teacher should be when a student starts willingly reading and writing away from the classroom.

Graphic Canon

The graphic canon does fascinate me, as it must any experienced reader who also has an eye for the aesthetics of art. It could be very helpful to maintain the attention of students who are overwhelmed by viewing a page of text, of students who love to draw and express their ideas in unconventional ways.
However, I would not see this as a silver bullet necessarily, because it still only will present itself as engaging to a certain niche of students. In fact, even for the students who might benefit well from it, I think would be tempted to look at the pictures alone and not bother looking at the text to see if they can get the gist of the story without bothering with it. This tendency, I think, is increased by the fact that the text is sometimes difficult to read, even for me. Since most students are not even being taught how to write in cursive anymore (though I wish that this were not the case, personally), I've seen that many will not even attempt to read anything written in it. This is problematic especially for "The Hill." Also, in the selections where the text is lifted in its original form and put into the text word-for-word, I think students will still struggle to grasp meaning when they're presented with words like "fortnight" in "Pride and Prejudice."
If it were in my power, I would keep the powerful illustrations while maintaining the text in regular line-form below. The text could still be effectively abridged, and it would be almost a compromise between conventional text and this comic-book style, though the setback to this solution is that it might appear to students more like children's books.
I appreciate the diversity of texts that are incorporated here, and I look forward to more variations on this method, as I fully believe that these will inspire many more to take the same approach with their own favorite texts. The creation of something like this by the student would be a perfect way to assess his or her comprehension of the book, however it would of course only be appropriate for students who are talented already at illustrating.
The Graphic Canon would be well-loved by strong readers, and perhaps preferred by weaker-readers, and would be an effective way to share some knowledge of classical literature with the students without having them read the works in full, though no teacher should expect a very deep understanding of the stories from these alone. What it may aid in is the understanding of allusions in other books, and if the situation calls for it, this would be ideal.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Before actually beginning the book, I have to admit that it was one book I was not particularly looking forward to. Having been among Spokane English teachers for some time now, I've heard a fair bit about Sherman Alexie, mainly about how wonderful and brilliant they consider his writings. In my typical cynicism, I assumed that the lavish praise was academic hype for the home-town boy, being that Alexie is seen by many as representing the modern Spokane area, similar to the way Crosby represented old Spokane.
So I'm grateful that I was compelled to read the book for class. It may have been something I would have worked my way around to eventually, out of a desire to find texts that are relevant to students in this area, but it would certainly have taken a backseat to the stack of books in my room that I'm slowly grinding through.
Based on the political tendencies of those who advocated so strongly for the book, I assumed that it would take the tone of popular social justice warriors, of those who suggest giving rioters room to destroy, or who refuse to listen to any voice issuing from a different skin-color than their own. I was wonderfully amazed that this was not the case at all. Alexie speaks with the honesty of life experience that would likely have him derogatorily labeled an Uncle Tom by those political actors.
I know a little bit about the Res. My dad's first teaching job was on a reservation in Inchelium, and we visited back there a few years ago. A passing visitor like myself might consider it quaint. But Alexie's description of the community is sadly spot-on.
And by no means does Alexie spare the world outside of the reservation. The balance he strikes is admirably honest. His humor about all those situations allowed me to put down my guard and enjoy the book without analyzing its policy agenda (having found there isn't any).
The development of Junior's character is thoroughly interesting and enjoyable as he retrospectively simultaneously jokes and grieves about his own misfortunes. The characters he interacts with are believable without coming close to being caricatures of their "kinds." This book demonstrates well what it looks like to be color-aware, and yet to intentionally treat all fellow-beings with an attitude of colorblindness.
I would like to possibly use this book in the classroom, but I intend on reading at least one of Alexie's more autobiographical works to see if it might be just as suitable. While the events of his real life may not be so gripping, I am a strong believer that there is a special power in true stories that isn't in fiction. There is a different kind of power in fiction, but I'm not sure if Alexie's material is as well suited to it.
Also, if I ever do use the book in a classroom, I'll certainly take care not to use the part about masturbation. Some will call me a puritan, but my rationale in these matters is not that I think it will mentally traumatize students, but that a degree of professionalism should be maintained and practiced, as something that students will have to take into the real working world. If we insist that "all teachers teach reading," then it should be an equally high, if not far higher, expectation that all teachers teach decorum and professionalism. Some subjects should be taboo, and subjects approaching that line should at least not be treated with flippancy, as Alexie does with almost everything in Diary. This is mere decency to the students. Alexie may be able to broach the subject without expressing personal shame, but it is utterly selfish and tyrannical (as well as unrealistic) for a teacher to insist that all students respond the same way.

Night by Elie Wiesel

The first thing I will say for this book is how relieved I was to read Wiesel's Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech at the end. The book itself paints such a bleak and barren picture, not only of the concentration camps, but of life as a whole, that I feared the worst for the author even after having been rescued, even after having written about those horrors. While cringing from the hideous events and sympathizing with the man whose boyhood was suddenly ripped away from him, I still could not help engaging the text with what I know many others would consider "victim-blaming." I was angry with the author, if I am brutally honest about it. First angry, of course, with the inhumanity of the situation, but I've spent a lot of time in my life already being angry with the Nazis, and, even with the specificity that Wiesel brings, that hatred has settled into a steady foundation, rather than burning like a fire. What I have not been often exposed to is Wiesel himself, as he portrays himself in the book. I've seen the situation primarily through the eyes of Anne Frank (of course) and Corrie ten Boom. Especially with Corrie ten Boom, a lot of the same events were experienced, yet her book, The Hiding Place, never dwells for long on the horrific darkness that pervades Night. Instead, she never fails to bring the reader back into the light of God's Goodness. While I sympathized wholly with the boy in Night, I found myself unable to do so with with the adult author, whose tone was still that of a captive to Auschwitz. Throughout the book this disturbed me, to think that the author may have gone to his death in uncompromising rage for the God he had rejected, the God who had allowed such things to happen. So I was mercifully relieved that this edition included the speech from 1986, in which the softer and meeker tone reveals the beautiful and humble perspective that Wiesel attained in later years.

The second thing I will expound upon is my dislike for prefaces and forewords that contain significant parts of the story in them. With a fictional story, I'd call them plot-spoilers, but it does seem flippant for me to treat those events as such. But it would have been better in hindsight if I had skipped those parts, as I normally do. I convinced myself to read them this time because they were short enough that I didn't mind. They did have undeniable value, but most of it was not ideal for reading prior to the book itself. The exception to this statement is the very end of the foreword by Mauriac, whose response to Wiesel's dark perspective was a perfect model of Christlike love. My anger at Wiesel's seemingly godless and hopeless attitude was certainly tempered by the conviction that Mauriac's response should have consistently been mine as well, if I had been a better man. There is a time when there have been quite enough words, and the only appropriate response is quiet.

While I do not mind being overt, here at the university, that Mauriac's religious propensities are my own as well, I know full well that the expression of such in a public classroom could be highly problematic. If I were to assign Night in a high-school classroom, I would condense the foreword, purging it of its "plot-spoilers," and make it available to the students, because that image of non-preaching religion is valuable to the structure of the story. I would also have the students read Wiesel's acceptance speech before reading the book itself to alleviate the tension that consumed me when I read it believing that the graceless attitude of the author towards God and the world was absolute. I would not impose such a heavy book at all on any student younger than a senior. This book is very mature, in a truer sense of the word than is commonly used today, that is, not because of violence or sex, but because of raw and brutal passion. A comparison of the book with The Hiding Place could be very enlightening, however I would hesitate to add text after text of holocaust life-stories on top of the inevitable Diary of Anne Frank. It would be better, if possible, to encourage this as an independent reading book.

Poe Mini-Lesson: The Haunted Palace

Department of Education College of Arts, Letters and Education 312 Williamson Hall Cheney, WA   99004

TPA Lesson Plan #__1___

Course:

1. Teacher Candidate	Joel Crow	Date Taught	2/28
Cooperating Teacher	Sean Agriss	School/District	N/A
2. Subject	English	Field Supervisor
3. Lesson Title/Focus	Poe’s “The Haunted Palace”	5. Length of Lesson	20 min
4. Grade Level	11

6. Academic & Content Standards (Common Core/National)	CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings, analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful.
7. Learning Objective(s)	TSWBAT analyze imagery in a poem as a method to discover hidden meaning by reproducing in a rough sketch the picture that the writer paints with words.
8. Academic Language demands (vocabulary, function, syntax, discourse)	Vocabulary: tenanted, monarch, dominion, seraph, pinion, ramparts, plumed, pallid, luminous, lute, Porphyrogene, echoes, red-litten, stanza Function: analyze, reproduce Discourse: the students will discuss in small groups an assigned stanza of the poem and then share their findings in a classroom discussion

9. Assessment

**Attach** all assessment tools for this lesson The Haunted Palace Imagery Worksheet The students will be asked to reproduce the imagery from the poem onto the frame provided and will draw conclusions about the implicit meaning of the poem from the image that results. This assesses the standard because the students will perceive the author’s word choice and rationale for the connotative meanings and implications.

10. Lesson Connections

This will be the second lesson of a 10-lesson unit on poetry. The students will be familiar with several different kinds of poems, the distinction between poetry and prose, and the purposes behind the form of poetry. This lesson will focus on the need to constantly search for implicit meaning in poetry, which skill they will be able to put into practice in the ensuing lessons. In I Read it, but I Don’t Get it, Tovani says that effective reading can be achieved by spending more time with more difficult texts. In this lesson, we will be putting this into practice by taking each stanza of the poem individually in order to glean as much meaning as possible from Poe’s word choice.

11. Instructional Strategies/Learning Tasks to Support Learning
Learning Tasks and Strategies Sequenced Instruction 1)    00-02 Introduction to “The Haunted Palace” 2)    03-08 Review of vocabulary 3)    09-13 Group work on assigned stanzas 4)    14-18 Class collaboration 5)    19-20 Final Analysis
Teacher’s Role: 1.a. Greet students, ask them to open their books to “The Haunted Palace” b. Pass out worksheets, drawing attention to the lesson objective as the rationale for the lesson 2.a. Ask students if there are any questions about any words in the poem, or if any words seemed strangely out of place. Explain Porphyrogene. b. Draw connections between words on the whiteboard: seraphs=angels, monarch=ruler, dominion=realm, luminous=litten 3.a. Asking students to follow along, demonstrate drawing an illustration of the first stanza under the document camera while reciting it. Refer again to the objective as the purpose for the exercise. b. Get students into five groups, assigning each group a remaining stanza and ask them to illustrate it, emphasizing that the final two stanzas are to be drawn on the back c. Briefly visit each group to make sure instructions are clear and being followed 4.a. Stanza-by-stanza, invite a member of each group up to reproduce on the class collaboration sheet what they drew in the group. b. As each part is being drawn, read the stanza aloud to the class 5.a. Picture completed, lead a class discussion, asking students what the final product looks like. What is Poe really describing? What is the change described in the final two stanzas? What is the meaning of the final line? b. Draw attention again to the objective and remind the students that they should be on the lookout for similar hidden meanings in the poems we’ll be reading this unit. Ask students to submit to me any songs they know with hidden meaning that we can analyze as a class.	Students’ Role 1.a. Open their books, or review a copy of “The Haunted Palace” on an electric device b. Receive worksheets, read the standard and predict what the connection between them is. 2.a. Ask about vocabulary that is unclear or out of place. Ask about Porphyrogene. b. Recognize synonyms as they occur in the poem 3.a. Follow along with the teacher on the worksheet to reproduce an illustration of what is described in the first stanza. Note how this relates to the objective. b. Get into a group and make sure they are on the right side of the worksheet for their assigned stanza, illustrating what is described there c. Interact with the teacher, settling any confusion and speculating about the poem’s purpose 4.a. Elect a member of the group to go in front of the document camera and reproduce the illustrations from the assigned stanza. b. Note the illustration being drawn in concert with the stanza being read. 5.a. Speculate about what Poe is really describing, what the “palace” looks like. Pay attention to color and form, in forming an analysis. Offer ideas about the hidden meaning, eventually understanding, by teacher or another student, that the poem is about the face of a woman who goes mad. b. Recall again the objective, and internalize that this is the process we must use in analyzing poetry. Consider any interesting songs that the class may benefit from analyzing as poems.
Student Voice to Gather While meeting with small groups, ask if they feel like they’re starting to get a better idea of what the poem is about, or if they know they’ve discovered Poe’s hidden meaning. In the final analysis, ask the class if they feel better equipped to analyze poetry for hidden meaning.

12. Differentiated Instruction

Plan Audio learners will be able to hear the poem read at least once aloud. Visual learners will benefit from seeing the illustrations that students make. Kinesthetic learners will benefit from the opportunity to create the illustrations. Students who may not grasp the poem’s meaning will benefit from working in groups. As long as a group seems to have a good idea of direction, I won’t spend much time with them so that I will be able to spend time with any group that is having difficulty with the task.

13. Resources and Materials

Plan A set of colored pencils or markers for the teacher (Ideally) a set of colored pencils or markers for each student The Haunted Palace worksheet A copy of “The Haunted Palace” at each students’ disposal (Ideally) some form of dictionary in each group for difficult words to be researched

14. Management and Safety Issues

Plan            The morbid humor as entertainment surrounding the concept of madness may be a sensitive issue to some students. It should be acknowledged as a constant theme in the works of Poe, but the teacher should be sure to not insensitively trivialize mental illness. Some students will be reluctant to illustrate on their own worksheet, but they should be encouraged to do so as much as possible so that they will be able to remember the activity and what it represents. Some students may be thrown off guard by all the difficult words in this relatively short poem, so the words and their contexts should be explained quite thoroughly by the teacher. Students working in groups can always cause strife, but these students in particular are all on good terms.

15. Parent & Community Connections

Plan A weekly bulletin will be emailed to parents, detailing what we’re planning to read or view and encouraging the parents to write back with any concerns or questions. After this lesson, the students may be able to apply the analysis to songs they’ve never looked at in that way before, finding meaning in surprising places and honing their poetry analysis skills without even intending to do so.

The Ballad of Blind Tom, Slave Pianist by Deirdre O'Connell

Description
Blind Tom was born a slave in Columbus, Georgia in 1849: born with cataracts over his eyes. O'Connell recounts his surprising survival past infancy and the fascinating events that led to his becoming a celebrity all over the United States.
Tom spent his earliest years mostly closed up in a wooden barrel, not only to protect him from the slave-owners (who were aware of his presence) but also to protect him from himself, and even to protect the other children from him. Given the chance, he would raise havoc all he could by smashing chairs and pinching and harming the other children, delighted by their squeals and sounds, but either oblivious or insensitive to the pain that made them cry out. Later, he would wander fearlessly into the night to explore the sounds of the owls and dogs, and tales of the bogey-men did nothing to dissuade him, as they did the other children. These behaviors have caused many to speculate that Tom was autistic as well, and, without belaboring the point, O'Connell explores this diagnosis and the possible causes in terms that are easily accessible to those of us without much prior experience with autism.
Sold by the "master" Wiggins to pay off debts, Tom and his mother were bought by the kind General Bethune, whose daughters took a liking to Tom. Upon the instant of hearing the Bethune family piano, Tom was fascinated by it, and was eventually granted access to it as he wished, and in this easier environment he began to develop more social skills. In 1857 Bethune was able to parade him at events as a musical prodigy, able to quickly reproduce excerpts of Mozart and Beethoven after a single hearing. To this was added Tom's comedic talent of mimicry, as he lampooned the speeches of Georgia politicians, much to their offense. His on-stage antics undoubtedly contributed to the Jim Crow stereotype, with hilariously exaggerated dancing, but this was matched awe of the crowd for his talent. Bethune put him under the charge of Perry Oliver, who became Tom's manager, and brought him outside of Georgia, on tour with many other acts, but none of these won Oliver more fame than the incredible Blind Tom.
Tom became a spoiled adolescent under these circumstances, every request granted by his keepers lest he refuse to perform his act, and as Civil War became imminent, he feared only one thing: freedom.
Tom's keepers had kept him fed, not only with food and drink and candy, but also Confederate propaganda. He was told that the abolitionists wanted to take him away from his managers, so that he would be abandoned and alone, or so that somebody else might steal him, or even kill him. Because of this uncompromising solution, Bethune was able to keep him in his charge after Tom's emancipation. As General Bethune was growing older, he handed the responsibility to his son to watch after Tom. With nominal freedom, Tom continued to tour North America under the care of several managers.
In the 1880's, John Bethune's wife sued him for custody of Tom, as they were getting divorced. The rest of Tom's life he was cared for on her property, though myths constantly circulated about Tom's alleged death and countless copycats tried to hitch a ride on his fame. Where the real Tom is buried today is still unknown.



Rationale
This book strikes me as an ideal young adult book for 10th-12th graders. The students should already have some background knowledge about the American Civil War and American slavery, but I firmly believe that this book will cement the details and feelings of that time better than any textbook could. I chose the book because it crosses the paths of so many diverse interests: race relations, handicaps, autism, music, and history. There is enough of each of these elements that a student who begins the book with an interest only in music, and not the other aspects, will enjoy the story and learn to appreciate the complications of the other elements. Some of the vocabulary is challenging, but nothing that cannot be intuited from context.
One thing this book does that I've not seen in any other, textbook or otherwise, is that it accurately and humanely probes into the Confederate psyche, rather than leaving the reader to assume that all southerners, or all slave-owners, were heartless and consumed only by greed. The character of General Bethune in the beginning of the story will challenge the readers' prejudice about all slaveholders' intentions, while also not sparing the character of Bethune in telling the truth of what tragedies resulted from those good intentions.



Teaching Ideas
While there is value in the entire book, if time restraints do not allow all of it (260 pages) to be read, I would advocate teaching at least one entire part as well as the short, 4-page epilogue. With either selection, these three ideas should be doable.
1) Read excerpts from Blind Tom and also some from any of Frederick Douglass' autobiographies. Analyze the differences in their perspectives and discuss the possible causes behind such drastically different outcomes of thought. (Recommend reading part 2: Franatics)
2) In a persuasive unit, analyze excerpts (especially chapter 2) to determine how slavery, which is generally considered so obviously wrong today, almost universally across the nation, was defended with critical rhetoric in its own time, and discuss whether it's possible that seemingly justifiable acts today might be perceived negatively the same way in historical hindsight. Is it possible to know? (Recommend reading part 1: The Seen and the Unseen)
3) In a unit on historical fiction, read this true story and discuss how an author might convincingly form an original story around this time frame. What kinds of details and stylistic choices would be effective, and what would be ineffective?


Obstacles
O'Connell tells the story well, but because she chooses to put everything into thematic chapters, the chronology of the story is not always perfectly clear. The vocabulary is, at times, advanced, but easily deciphered from context.
Students and parents who are deeply concerned with the historical pride of the south may be made uncomfortable by the text, as it deals with the issue of slavery, however they may be able to be won over if they are given to understand that the way the story is told does not dehumanize the slave-owners as a complete group.
Conversely, some students and parents may be initially excited by a first glance at the book, but may be made uncomfortable by the humanization of slave-owners such as Bethune. We should encourage them to share their perspective on the matter, but should also insist that there is incredible value in our being able to deeply understand a perspective that we vigorously oppose.
I anticipate that an administrator's response to the text would be only positive.



Additional Details
Because of Blind Tom's fame, the book has several pictures in good quality (for their time) of Tom in various stages of his life, from 15 years old to 50. This will aid visual learners in relating to the story. There are also recordings of Tom's compositions, most notably a collection by John Davis, which will aid audio learners.

"Readicide" by Gallagher

Gallagher's "Readicide" offered many valuable insights to the problem facing many highschool students today. I discussed with my mom, who has worked as a teacher's aid for years with elementary grades, the assertion that 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders often have a love of reading that is slowly killed in later years, and she agreed emphatically. It's not a problem that I've seen firsthand yet, but it is a fascinating trend and clearly an important place to start if we are to improve the situation.
I agree with Gallagher that, for many teachers, one problem is torturing the text to death. There would be nothing worse than taking an interesting text and analyzing it dozens of ways until finally the students are sick of it and eager to move on. If we, as the teacher, find the text interesting, we should want some students to be able to choose to come back to it on their own, but too many students, including me, have determined to avoid certain books for the rest of our lives, even realizing their theoretical merit, just because they were presenting poorly for far too long. The poem Gallagher referenced was entirely appropriate, where the frustrated reader tries beating the poem to death with a hose to find out what it means. This poem should be shared in every poetry unit that any student ever takes, because it will be something that the student can identify with and finally see themselves from a bird's eye view so that they can change their strategy.
There were, though, as usual, some things I could not agree with. One of them is a sheer matter of practicality. Gallagher advocates that students read complete long works, and that they be given time to read them in class. I've never seen a classroom where this would ever be possible. Maybe it would be a wonderful thing if all students were given a reading hour every day so that they could delve into their books, but we all know that many students who would most have benefited from the practice would misuse the time with any possible distraction that presents itself. The solution that I think is far better is to make use of well-sized excerpts of books, of 50=150 pages. This would also allow the students to be exposed to many more genres and time periods. My mantra, as a teacher, would be that, at some point, every student will have read something that intrigues them enough that they want to return to it on their own time. If we have them read part of a sports story, part of a fantasy novel, part of a work of historical fiction, part of a science-fiction piece, part of a thriller, part of a murder mystery, etc. we have got to eventually stumble on something that each student will relate to. Each student should have a reason to go looking for more material that fascinates them. This is the teachers' real end-goal, not to get the students to read in class, but to get them to read outside of class.