Good Luck Future Lit Teachers!

ENG 375: Good bye! It is odd to be WRITING to you rather than saying good bye and good luck in person...It was truly a pleasure to have this group of people together this semester. Donna was impressed with how close-knit the class was. I loved that it was so small.

As I told ENG 305, I am sorry that I had to leave Plattsburgh when I did. But I also feel really proud of you all for handling the Big Changes in our class with such ease and grace. Doubling up on classes before I left was hard on all of us. THANK YOU. Being able to have all that extra instruction under our belts really HELPED us to finish the class in a way that I feel good about -- in terms of outcomes.

And thanks for diving into the online world...At least now you have a sense (two weeks' worth!) of what online learning is like. That will help you to be able to know if online teaching is for you! Also, you will have a real-world sense of teaching online for your careers as teachers.

I hope that many of you will keep in touch. I am happy to write recommendations and be supportive in general. Dana, if you get to Boston, look me up by emailing me here. Lauren, thanks for taking on the online challenge when that style of learning didn't come naturally. Ivan, thank you for Ella Minnow Pea, the song, which I LOVE to listen to. Seriously. Geoge, call me when you are a famous poet, and I will come to one of your readings in Boston! Cory, you are going to be a great teacher. Ame, keep believing in the Power of Your Ideas; Jennifer, keep in touch and good luck in everything. Heather, please let me know when Literopoly is going to be sold at stores! :-) Lindsey, thanks for your quiet brilliance; you brought a light to the class that often raised the level of discourse. And I will NEVER forget Lauren's lesson--and George's brilliant imitation of a 3rd grader, which provided good classroom management skills--and had us all in gales of laughter.

ADDED TODAY: And Ken, who could forget you? You are unforgettable! Sorry you were not on this original list when I first typed it last night. It was LATE at night (for me) after a long day. But seriously, Ken, thank you for your enthusiasm and for showing us all how to create a lesson on irony that was COOL, including music and video and a completely fresh approach. Keep it up. I keep singing that song "Isn't It Ironic" whenever someone says the word irony.

Be well all. I am glad that you will be teachers. The world needs you.

Linda

Best Ever, Linda

Closure--Mini Lesson

Hi everyone:

As we conclude this class, where you have been exposed to multiple learning styles and activities, I would like you to reflect on what you learned and how you might implement it in your classrooms.

--What are you taking from Blau?

--What major ed. theories will you think about as you teach?

--What are you taking from Jago?

--What did you learn from teaching your peers?

--What is your philosophy of teaching literature?

--What kinds of texts will you use in your own classroom?

--What, basically, did you learn?

Email correction

Hi everyone:

My email is luccapisa@gmail.com

Apparently, I mistyped it as luccapisa@pnn.com below.

Sorry!

Thanks.

Final Week!

Hi Everyone:

Happy final week of classes! I have decided to give you all an extension on final projects until May 8th--since we do not have a final exam for this semester. I also do wish for you all to post your portfolios using PNN.

FINALLY--AND MOST IMPORTANTLY--REMEMBER THAT YOU MUST REPORT TO CLASS ON MAY 4 IN OUR USUAL CLASSROOM TO MEET WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF PNN, WHO ARE COMING TO INTERVIEW YOU ALL!

In terms of the portfolios, I wanted you to do a page for each of the assignments. To do this you click on Preferences and then click on
"Add a Section." Simply add a section for each of your papers. I have decided to grade your Meta papers as part of the portfolio because several of you did not turn them in. However, I AM giving EXTRA CREDIT to those who turned them in on  time. Thank you.

Last, I thought it important to mention that these projects are vital to  your doing well in the class, so make sure that you get yours done by May 8.

I'm here to help. And of course I'd love to look at lessons and units for folks or communicate via email. You can reach me at luccapisa@pnn.com.

Take care everyone!

Jen, I Quite Love young adult literature! It is the genre that I write--and I also just really love reading it. The Curious Incident seems like such a good book though I actually haven't read it yet! Everyone  tells me, though, that it is fantastic and that I must. Have you all read Love That Dog by Sharon Creech? It is wonderful.

For now, I would like you to post your questions or short progress reports about your projects. I'll have a reading for you tomorrow or Wed.

Be well--
--L

Note: My availability

Just a note to let you all know that I should be super available in the next week or two...My new home is the public library. I practically live here!

Read and Respond

Hi everyone,

New Assignment...

Happy Friday and thanks to you all in advance for getting your meta papers in to me. Remember to send them via email.

I wanted to point out that my other class has taken the online discussion (on school violence) and run with it. Please take a peek to see what optimal posting looks like. Just go to the Writer's Box page and look at comments there. Thanks. We'll fine-tune this and get it right in the next couple of weeks here.

Rather than post a "lecture," I am posting an assignment. Please read Chapter Six "Lesson Design For Classical Literature" in Jago's Classics for the Classroom and then post your response here. Be sure your post is well-developed and meaningful.

Talk with you soon here.

Be well, --L

Mini Lecture on School Violence

I was planning to have you do a reading in Classics for the Classroom, which I definitely will still do (on Friday), but today it seemed relevant and important to me to talk about school violence in light of the tragedy of Virginia Tech.

Entire academic journals, dedicated to school violence, are being born. More schools are developing policies--from locking doors to having discussions about what to do with violent texts like the poem that I turned over to  police last month. When people around us tell us to be quiet about such matters, we must speak loudly. For if we permit such behaviors, the outcomes can be devastating.

As educators, as a community, we also must develop procedures, policies, and adopt instruction that seeks to limit such behavior. Meditation and yoga in schools--while they may seem far fetched or  too weak--are helpful tools. Consciousness, mindfulness, coming together to speak about the issues: All of this helps.

The answer is not in being more afraid, in locking more school doors, in reducing our lives to shells. The answer is in coming together to investigate why more of our youth are becoming violent. We are challenged to bring compassion to bear--even against those who would perpetrate such crimes. What, in their lives, can cause so much pain that they feel compelled to act in this way?

We must examine the role that community--and the disintegration of community--have played. What toll does our economy--relying the two-working-parent model--take? What toll does our children being left to themselves after school take? What role does technology play--as more humans become less connected to earth, air, and sky?

I wish I had more answers for you. This is an ed. issue that is relatively new--and as such we are seeing a major need for more research. But I do know that we need to keep talking. And keep speaking up.

Please read this article on school violence and respond via the link below. What are your thoughts on this? Have you considered how you might combat this in your school?

http://genesislight.com/jsv_folder/JSV_charter/JSV_hawkins_charter.pdf

Weapons in an Affluent Suburban School


Be well all, --L

The Online Portion of our Class

Hi everyone:

And welcome to the online portion of our class. Now that the compression part of the class (that you all EARNED!) is over, we will be meeting here for the remainder of the semester. As you all know, you must post at least  5 discussion entries (posts) here per week.

How are the unit plants coming? Rather than have a set "lecture" here, I thought I should open the discussion to your questions and concerns. It sounds as if a lot of good brainstorming is happening. That's good. I would welcome someone sharing some "good" unit plan or portfolio news here as well.

Also, the meta analysis papers must be written, so I've decided to post the assignment here. These papers will be due a week from today on Friday, April 20th by midnight. Please email them to me.

The Meta Analysis Paper:

Like the meta reading paper, this assignment asks you to perform deep, meta cognition--this time about your analysis process. This is an important part of teaching: learning how to self reflect, analyze your own lessons, and also teach analysis!

To write this paper, choose a poem that you wish to analyze. Try to choose a poem that you have not read before. Some options are Rilke's "The Gazelle" or Robinson Jeffers' "The Deer Lay Down Their Bones." (Google these to find them).

After choosing a poem, use any reading strategies from earlier in the semester to arrive at a strong, interpretive reading of the poem.
Be sure to come up with a clear thesis.

Then write a two-page explication of the poem--analysis driven.

After this, step back and write a three-page meta anlaysis reflective portion in which you ask yourself the following questions:

1) Describe your analysis process. How do you arrive at interpretive discourse? Do you find yourself using a lot of reading strategies? Freewriting? Annotation or annolighting? Other approaches?

2) How long did it take you to arrive at a satisfactory thesis and interpretation? Did you get frustrated? Did you take breaks? Describe the entire process as best as you can.

3) What did you learn about your analytic process that is new (you didn't know it before)?

Good luck everyone. Let me know if you need help.

Best, Linda

Class Meeting--Unit Plans

Hi everyone:

Homework and Lessons

Hi everyone:

First, DON'T use Explorer for these pages; the trouble with posting articles is apparently browser-based! So if you can't post text, use Mozilla Firefox or something else.

I just wrote a long post about lessons: Here goes again. Good job everyone with the lessons this week. Kudos to Lindsey, Ken, and Ivan. It is interesting this work that we are doing with practicing not only best practice but also classroom management. Thanks to George for being a wonderful actor...

Ivan did a great job handling George. Often, re-directing a student is the most powerful disciplinary tool.

For homework, you all MUST post a hello on this site by March 19th. If not, you won't earn credit for the assignment. Thanks.

Finally, I've enclosed a clip here of my favorite movie, "Ong Bak." What inspires me here is the artistry of this gymnast, the sheer mastery. May all of you gain similar mastery in teaching...This site, our practice sessions: This is how mastery is achieved.

One last note: Ivan asked if he could teach an extra session. Though we don't have time, I wanted to ask what you all thought about meeting while I am  gone during class time to allow you all some more practice. I would give anyone who wished to lead an extra teaching session extra credit though I'd ask that someone  sign out a camera with Heidi Schnackenberg in Education, so I could watch these from afar. Now that you all have PNN sites, you could upload the session to the site.

Be well.

Welcome to Our ENG 375 Blog

Hi everyone:

Welcome to PNN and our blog, which I've created so we can have linked discussions, come together, and build literary and educational community. Let's begin by sharing something about ourselves with each other...Let's see, I will  tell you that this picture is of my cat, who was born on Dec. 23 of last year, which makes her really close to my toddler's age, which is super fun. She is definitely a constructivist cat.

Just for fun, I added some comedy: The Flight of the Conchords. Enjoy.

Share away by adding an introduction and welcome! Be sure to take the survey too.