Amandas Blog

I think it is extremely interesting that there are very few standards for visual literacy. It is not a major part of standards so I feel that many teachers skip over it and don't include teaching visual literacy in the classroom. Most of the Common Core standards are under reading: literature under the .7 category. It is also interesting that visual literacy encompasses a wide variety of materials, that we don't really realize we see every day. Things like advertisements or movies are included in visual literacy. Visual literacy is sometimes taught or encouraged in elementary schools. At the elementary school I work at, the library has a wide range of graphic novels and students are encouraged to pick them out, as well as non-graphic novels. The students seem to be invested in the series and get very excited when new books are added. I remember in my elementary school, we would use graphic organizers when learning how to write essays and stories. We would draw pictures in boxes...

What's your familiarity with graphic novels? Why/how might graphic novels be useful for the secondary English language arts classroom? I am not very familiar with graphic novels. The first time I was required to read one was this quarter in Green’s World Literature class. I had friends in elementary and middle school who strictly read graphic novels, but I personally never was interested in them. Graphic novels, in my experience, are looked down upon, and dismissed as not scholarly or not real reading. They are also pushed on kids who have a hard time reading so the appearance of reading a graphic novel I thought would make me look like I was stupid or a nerd. When I was younger, I only read one graphic novel, as most people my age, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. This was one of the first books I read with my younger brother, because it was easier for him to follow because of the pictures. When I think of graphic novels, I often think of comic books. This is an issue that I originally had...

A big part that stands out for me within the k-12 standards is the speaking and listening portion. This is an extremely important and valuable part of teaching that is not outwardly spoken about in a lot of teaching situations. This must be a difficult part of the common core to teach because kids do not often know that they are learning how to speak and listen. Most of the time, teachers will let their students know what they will be learning about, but in my experience, a teacher has never outwardly said that we are going to learn how to speak and listen. I also think it is interesting that this is included as a common core standard. I feel that it would be very hard to quantify or test a students speaking and listening ability. With standards like  CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.1.A , " Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion)," the vague nature of the standard makes it extrem...

I think an important part of why discussion fails that wasn’t a part of the guide was that some students feel uncomfortable talking in larger groups. When I was in school, I never participated in discussions because I was afraid of sounding like I didn’t know what I was talking about and wasn’t confident enough in myself to interject in class discussions. This could partly go with reward systems being askew, because I would find myself only participating for a short amount of time when there was a grade attached to the amount of times you spoke. This issue is being more widely addressed with teachers including online discussions to support the in-class discussions for those students who feel uncomfortable speaking to the class. I also have found it helpful in my own life to get into smaller 3-5 person groups before coming together as a class so students who are uncomfortable with speaking to a larger group get an opportunity to throw around their ideas, and get some validation from ext...

Hello! As I was reading over the PESB standards, I noticed something interesting that was not prevalent in my high school career. The standard of incorporating more culturally diverse literary works is a hard one to tackle in todays society. In a middle or high school setting, I believe students are ready to, and should learn about more difficult topics, but it is difficult to navigate doing so without stepping on peoples toes. I think we have to think more about what parents want their kids to learn more than what we as educators think that kids should learn. It is a little discouraging to have to worry about teaching sensitive topics and the possible repercussions of offending someone unknowingly and without meaning to. There is a fine line between making students unccomfortable in a good way and in a bad one. How do you think we should tackle this issue as educators? The common core standards are to me, very confusing. I work with the City of Cheney for an after school program whe...