Inspring Dialogue: Planning for the Long Haul & Aligning Learning Talk and Assignments with a Dialogic Stance

In this weeks reading we read from our textbook Inspiring Dialogue by a handful of authors. The two chapters in this reading were about planning for your classroom at a unit, semester, or year long level and how to put all of your plans together. Taking a dialogic stance towards curriculum means more then choosing texts and assignments.

This chapter really emphasized how when teaching dialogic talk it is important to have strategic thinking about participation structures we (teachers) use, when you use them, and how you use them to build on what the students have learned before and prepare them for what is to come. 

Also in this chapter the authors touched on standards. "Standards set goals of knowledge and skills for students to master within larger units of time, but they do not dictate the means by which students will get there"(55). In the 1990's and 2000's most of the English language standards developed into speaking and listening. Today, the CCSS provides 6 standards for speaking and listening. Three of them are for presentation of knowledge and ideas, and the other three are for comprehension and collaboration. Having these standards is extremely important for teachers so that through their lesson planning there can be an ultimate end goal. 

Another part of the chapters was how to use Meta-Lessons to transition to Student-Led Tools. Meta-Lessons can be described as providing a good foundation for developing norms and expectations. The technique the teacher used was the Wonder Question method. The teacher had their students journal with their prompt about a poem and then they all created a question to be put into a hat then later pulled out for a discussion. I really liked this technique and will hope to use it in my classroom because I want all of students to be able to discuss with each other while also not having the pressure of coming up with their own individual question. 

As soon to be English teachers we will be expected to teach "the traditional fare of grammar, vocabulary, literature study, and writing"(73). In addition to this we are also expected to help students develop literacy skills in other areas as well. When teaching writing many English teachers take a formalist approach (instruction emphasizing the form an argument takes rather than its thematic and logical content). The structure that that exemplifies this is the five-paragraph theme. This structure is the most popular because it's an easy way to get students to produce well organized, easy to read texts. This structure is something I remember using all through out my own middle and high school careers. I think teaching students structure is extremely important, but like the text also said going beyond with dialogic. 

One teacher used dialogic along with the five-paragraph theme by also using a Socratic seminar. She had the students read a pro/con article, divided her classroom into two sections one side for and on against. The two groups of students then faced each other with a discussion. I really like this method to use in my class because it show the students all perspectives on a  topic along with reasoning their own perspectives. 

This chapter shows that by using the five paragraph theme and socratic seminar is teaches students three things. "First, they practice aligning themselves with available pro/con positions, a skill that will serve them in writing a formulaic argument, shuck as a five-paragraph theme. Second, they are articulating reasons for that position or for why the opposing position is wrong. Third, they are learning to argue strongly polarized pistons, another requirement for the five-paragraph theme"(76). 

Overall, these two chapters in Inspiring Dialogue were pact with information for our future English classrooms. After reading these chapters it has really showed me how much more work it is to plan for good lessons and not just picking texts and assignments. 

YA Reading #2: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

For my second YA novel I decided to read the ever so famousThe Fault in Our Stars by John Green. This book and film grew in popularity over this past summer, so I found this was the perfect time to read this stunning novel.

Hazel Grace Lancaster seems to be the stereotypical struggling cancer kid, until she meets Augustus Waters, the cute boy with a prosthetic leg. Hazel meets Augustus at a youth group of other teens who also have cancer. Hazel is shocked anyone is slightly interested in her, but Augustus proves her wrong. Hazel and Augustus fall deeply in love, until one of them finds their cancer is back.

The reading level for this novel is 850L. I would suggest this book to be read by the 8th grade level.

John Green's The Fault in Our Stars is an amazing story about two young people who care for each other unconditionally. This type of novel isn't common anymore and it was a great read to have. In my opinion this book though would be one to have on my shelf in my classroom. I think this novel is a great light read for anyone looking to read a novel for fun.

Three Discussion Questions:
1. How do Hazel Grace and Augustus relate to their own cancer? Does their cancer define them? Overall, how do both Hazel and Augustus confront the big questions of life and death?
2. In the end, Augustus writes Hazel a eulogy why does he do this? Should he have written an ending to An Imperial Affliction instead?
3. How did you the reader experience this novel? Was it too sad or too tragic? Or was it uplifting in any way for you?

This summer I of course saw this movie, and after reading this novel it really shocked me to how much they followed the novel. I decided I should put in a clip of my favorite part of the novel and film!

Philippot & Graves: Vocabulary Instruction in English Classes

In this weeks reading we read about vocabulary from our very own Raymond Philippot from St. Cloud and Michael Graves from the U of M. In this chapter the authors emphasize how vocabulary goes beyond elementary to the secondary level. All teachers are responsible for building students vocabulary, but as future English teachers we have more responsibility.

Learning vocabulary is important from the beginning time of a student. It is said that a student up to the 8th grade level should know about 25,000 reading vocabulary words and at the end of high school their reading vocabulary should consist of 50,000. This evens out to 10 words a day, including weekends and summers. It seems almost impossible to teach this amount of words, so as English teachers we must fill our classrooms with rich reading, discussion, and writing experiences so that our students will have incidental word learning.

I think this is a great way to look at how to learn vocabulary in the classroom. From my memory in school we the students always had some kind of vocabulary test on words we were forced to memorize. In my classroom I will promote incidental word learning by using our readings, discussions, and writing experiences. It would be a good learning experience for my students to find 10 vocabulary words in their reading they don't know and look up and make their own sentence. This can also be incorporated into using new vocabulary words in our discussion and their writings.
Also in this reading Philippot and Graves talk about how to teach individual words to our future students. There is step by step process with teaching them a word orally, or even using a glossary all of which are extremely helpful.

Most of all I enjoyed the section of Semantic Mapping. I have never seen this used before which really excites me to use it in the future. I like how when using this method the student finds more then just the definition. As mentioned before in my school years we always memorized the word and definition. With Semantic Mapping the student will not only have to know the definition, but also the uses, examples, non examples, and different types.

Overall, this chapter was extremely helpful to how to teach vocabulary to students in the most enriching way, something as a future teacher hasn't crossed my mind to often. After this chapter I've realized how important teach vocabulary will be to my students.