Ariel+Miles

=Performance Expectations Guide (PEG)=

Students will be expected to understand assigned selections of //The Odyssey// well enough to later relate them to //The Last Book in the Universe.// They should be able to express their understanding of their readings both through class discussions and writing assignments. They will be expected to discuss various themes from the selections, in order to write about and debate questions raised in class. Inclusion of poems will assist in students being able to write their own poems, to be turned in at the end of the nine weeks.
 * Overview**

Students will go over //The Odyssey// as both an iconic work of literature and cultural artifact, through studying its importance as a product of ancient Greek life and an influence on art, film, and poetry.
 * Plan**


 * Standards Addressed in This Project**

Week One: Day One (January 16-17): Activator: What elements do you look for in a good story?; Introduction to mythology, review of Greek gods and goddesses, coverage of events in //The Iliad// leading up to //The Odyssey.// Day Two: Activator: Do you believe that there are still new stories being told, or do all the current ones just use old ideas?; Beginning of //The Odyssey// with explanation of translation (including comparison to Butler's and Fagles's translated beginnings) and Campbell's heroic journey model
 * Calendar**

Week Two: Day One: Activator: Do you think you could ever stay at a single place your whole life, no matter how nice, if you couldn't see any of your friends or family?; Book Five selections (Calypso) and discussion of "Calypso" song Day Two: Activator: Do you ever feel that someone who had never met you could understand who you are just by reading your writings?; Presentation of authorship debate, with focus on Butler's essay and discussion of "Nausicaa" sections from Book Six of his translation; debate activity

Week Three: Day One: Activator: What do you think is one of the worst habits for people to have?; Book Nine (Lotus Eaters), with coverage of literary vocabulary. Day Two: Activator: What kinds of situations do you feel you are smartest in?; Continuation of Book Nine (Cyclops), along with comparisons to ancient poems and discussion of poem assignment.

Week Four: Day One: Book Ten (Circe), with discussion of themes for poem Day Two: Activator: If there was going to be a book written about your life, what episodes would you want to be included?; Book Eleven (Land of the Dead)

Week Five: Day One: Activator: Book Twelve (Sirens**/**Scylla and Charybdis/Cattle of Helios), with discussion of the Sirens in various artistic interpretations, including songs and Atwood poem Day Two: Books Sixteen (Odysseus and Telemachus) and Seventeen (Argos)

Week Six: Day One: Activator: What is a skill that you think you are best at?; Book Twenty-One (Test of the Great Bow) Day Two: Activator: How far would you accommodate difficult guests in your home?; Twenty-Two (Death at the Palace)

Week Seven: Day One: Book Twenty-Three selections (Odysseus and Penelope); Wrapping up with discussions of Odysseus and Penelope characters, using Tennyson and Millay poems and reviews of poem drafts Day Two: Review of //The Odyssey//; Unit test in library, poems due

=Unit Objectives=

Students will be able to discuss the relationships among different literary texts, in terms of themes, story elements, and character types.
 * RSL**

Students should be able to comprehend the historical backdrops of assigned texts.
 * RSIT**

Students should be able to express critical thinking of material through writing.
 * RSW**

Students will develop understanding of how literature influences, and is interpreted through, different forms of media.
 * RSSL**

Students will have typed assignments to show capability for formal writing, with understanding of proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation in paragraph form.
 * RSL**

= = Canonical Literature
 * Resource Palette **
 * //The Odyssey //by Homer, translated by Robert Fitzgerald
 * The primary text of the class, textbook selections of which will be used to establish major themes for later texts to study.
 * //The Iliad//by Homer
 * The predecessor to //The Odyssey//, which can be used to provide context.
 * //The Odyssey//by Homer, translated by Samuel Butler
 * An prose translation that can help students understand the influence of translating on a text, and an opportunity to compare reading verse and prose directly.

Supplementary Texts
 * Young Adult Literature
 * //The Last Book in the Universe //by Rodman Philbrick
 * The text that students will read in the second nine weeks, which references //The Odyssey// in a post-apocalyptic setting.
 * Poetry
 * "To Anaktoria" by Sappho
 *  An example of ancient Greek poetry, using the imagery of Helen and the Trojan War for a love poem. Being the work of the most prominent of the Greek poets, a brief lyrical work by Sappho can help provide students with an example of poetry that is brief, straightforward, and ties into //The Odyssey// with a female perspective.
 * “December” by Anakreon
 * Along with Sappho’s poem, part of the ancient Greek poetry packet students can use to expand their understandings of mythology and poetry. This one uses the image of Poseidon in a way that can be compared to Homer’s portrayal.
 * “Polyphemos” by Bion
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Another ancient poet (but much later than Sappho), whose use of the Cyclops can allow students to consider how their understanding of the character’s portrayal in Homer’s epic shapes how they read this poem.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">“Winning Charm” by Julianus Antecessor
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">An ancient poem referencing Circe in a humorous poem that serves as a clear example of a metaphor to teach students.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">"Ulysses" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">An interpretation of the character to help students think about the story's ending.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">"An Ancient Gesture" by Edna St. Vincent Millay
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">An imagining of Penelope's perspective.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">"Ithaka" by C. P. Cavafy
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">A Greek poet's effort to capture the city's appeal.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">“Siren Song” by Margaret Atwood
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">A modern notion of the allure of the Sirens.
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Omeros //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">by Derek Walcott
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Selections of this long work can serve as another example of how the concepts of //The Odyssey// have influenced modern writing, even extending to the literature of the Caribbean.
 * Drama
 * //Ajax//by Sophocles
 * A play set before //The Odyssey//, which can help students to re-consider the character of Odysseus.
 * Novels
 * //Ironweed//by William Kennedy
 * An American Odyssey set during the Great Depression, selections of which can be used to help students consider the significance of certain characters and plot points of Homer's epic, and what has made them so enduring.
 * Nonfiction
 * //Mythology by//Edith Hamilton
 * A reference for the gods and goddesses that appear throughout the story.
 * //The Hero With a Thousand Faces//by Joseph Campbell
 * A source to help students understand the idea of the heroic myth, and how //The Odyssey// is an iconic example of the model.
 * "The Humor of Homer" by Samuel Butler
 * An example of the authorship concerns related to Homer, to help students think about how they read "his" work.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Films = = <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Art = = <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Music
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind //(1984)
 * An anime film that utilizes references to //The Odyssey// in a futuristic setting.
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The Odyssey //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> (1997)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Reasonably faithful miniseries adaptation.
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">O Brother, Where Art Thou? //(2000)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">A more comedic counterpart to //Ironweed//, with the same type of setting.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">"Homer's Odyssey in Art: Sirens from Greek Vases to Waterhouse at http://traumwerk.stanford.edu/philolog/2009/10/homers_odyssey_in_art_sirens_f.html
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">A critical piece focused on the artistic development of the Sirens.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Art of the Odyssey at http://www.summitcds.org/ashcraft/art_of_the_odyssey.htm
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">A site featuring diverse artistic depictions of characters and scenes from the story.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Stories in Art at []
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">A website that features various classic artistic depictions of scenes and characters related to Odysseus (particularly Penelope).
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">"Sirenes" by Claude Debussy
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">A way for students to consider their own interpretations of the concept of the siren song through hearing a musical effort.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">"Song to the Siren" by This Mortal Coil
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Another musical appropriation of the Siren image, this time from the more modern perspective of a wandering Odysseus-figure.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">"Tales of Brave Ulysses" by Cream
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">A song that utilizes references to the Sirens and Aphrodite.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">"Lotus Eaters" by Moloko
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">A song that students can discuss in order to consider the significance of the title image.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">"Calypso" by Suzanne Vega
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">After reading the lyrics in their textbooks, students can consider how the music affects their readings, and whether it fits in with their notions of the character.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Online Resources = =
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Odyssey Online at http://carlos.emory.edu/ODYSSEY/GREECE/home.html
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Elaborate website to help students understand Greek culture in Homer's time.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The Odyssey at http://www.leasttern.com/HighSchool/odyssey/OdysseySG.html
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Website for ninth-graders providing study information about each book of //The Odyssey// (based on Robert Fagles' translation), useful for a more expansive understanding of the epic (along with an opportunity to see another verse translation).
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Quia.com
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">An online resource for creating computerized tests.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Encyclopedia Mythica at []
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">An extensive guide to mythologies from all over the world, to help students explore the extensive lineage Homer worked with, along with the counterparts that may come up in other cultures.

=**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Teaching Philosophy **= = = <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">If I were going to have a teaching philosophy, it would probably be that teaching is a job, not my life. I would never want to get wrapped up in any student or school issues that go beyond my duties in the classroom. I have to figure that if I’m going to get any benefit out of what I do, I need to keep in mind that I’m the one going through the trouble to develop these assignments, so I have to maintain some interest in the material I work with, rather than pandering to some notion of how to best please indifferent students. I’m not going to be distracted by unruly students or any complaining parents, because I figure my job is to teach, not please, so if they don’t like how I do things, that’s their problem. I don’t have any interest in pretending that the students or I will have any sort of interaction once the school year is over, so rather than worry about how to capture their interests, I want them to know that they will have to work to capture mine.

=**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Unit Rati ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">onale **=

//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">What makes certain stories endure for so long? Should current literature maintain a sense of tradition with classic literature? How important is literature in relation to history? //

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Since the literature my students will be focusing on is more classical, I want my unit to emphasize their readings more in terms of their status as cornerstones of contemporary literature. Dealing with students not accustomed to reading means that texts like //The Odyssey// and Shakespeare will likely appear daunting or irrelevant, so I would want to instead present them as text to help them begin to understand the roots of any of the more contemporary literature that interests them. To help create interest and contemplation of the selections, I would encourage students to think primarily about the concepts of mythology and history, to help them think of literary texts more as living documents that can constantly be re-examined and interpreted in different ways. The main points that I would want the students to be able to think about and discuss would be identifying archetypes, understanding changing contexts, and making connections among different works. By the end of the semester, students will hopefully show greater capability to comprehend their readings and the basic literary concepts tied to them, which they can express through their own writing, whether creative or analytical.

I have my MA in English from Clemson, and am now seeking to get my teacher certification. I'm interested in the research of literature, along with writing fiction. I got my BA in English from Coker College in Hartsville, SC, where I also minored in Art and Psychology. Among the literature that most interests me are revenge tragedies, gothic novels, fairy tales and science fiction. I'm also interested in film, and adaptation studies. I currently have no teaching preference, as far as age groups go.

=EdSec 324= http://edsec324.wikispaces.com/Ariel+Miles //Ariel Miles, September 1//

I think whether you can teach “literacy for love and wisdom” just depends on the kind of students/school you have. Some people just aren’t going to be motivated and there’s not going to be a way to interest them and that’s just how it’s going to be sometimes. But between the two, I think literacy for wisdom is something easier to approach teaching than literacy for love.

The definition set out in this section for “wisdom” (6) suggested to me a more personal journey, which I think learning to appreciate literature ultimately must be. For me, enjoying reading wasn’t something I could do until I felt like I could make my own path as a reader. I think a good English teacher can help start that kind of path for a student, but the student needs to feel free to pursue it alone. Apart from the “systemizing” (9) a teacher will have to face while trying to teach English, another issue is keeping the required reading that a school might have from appearing too daunting or irrelevant to students. The importance of wisdom as I see it is that it enables readers to realize in their own way what might make a work necessary for them to understand.

The concept of “love” is more problematic to me in this regard because anyone can just say they care about love, but I don’t know how well that can be practiced without lapsing into common moralizing, which seems as though it would be more likely to repel an adolescent audience. This is the period of life when one feels constantly moralized to, and a sense of self is developed not only through what one is, but the realization of what one isn’t. After reading the quotes before the book’s table of contents, I ended up feeling as though what is important in creating an interest in literature at this age is less some desire for uplift than a sense that literature can actually be something potentially dangerous, yet always accessible. I’m not sure literature can even be literature unless it can be said to have killed a man on occasion, that’s what separates it from the “cooking utensils and inventory records” (XIII) mentioned in the foreword. Not to say that literature should be presented as some kind of weapon to students, just that they deserve the chance to realize that great literature can be dark and ugly, but no one will try to prevent them from encountering it.

=EdSec 324= http://edsec324.wikispaces.com/Ariel+Miles

//Ariel Miles, September 8//
What is English? Please share in your own words how the field of high school English has evolved over the years. What were the major conferences and/or leaders who have influenced the field. What is it today? Do you think we should change the title of our discipline to Personal Studies? Why or why not? What would you like to see the field of English become in the years ahead?

Maybe because of the name, I’m inclined to think of the subject of “English,” at least at the high school level, as focused primarily on the teaching of basic language communication/comprehension skills, in both reading and writing. In my experiences, the function of literature in these curriculums seemed to be as a tool for ensuring a certain level of proficiency with vocabulary and writing structure, basically the “Unity Through Facts” approach (30), it would appear. Yet these concerns were not the basis of the subject’s appeal for me.

I was instead interested in the notion of becoming familiar with iconic cultural works, and the opportunity of being able to discuss and interpret them in my own ways. I don’t really go for spiritual concepts, which always seem dogmatic, but the “wholistic/Joy” approach makes sense to me in terms of the appeal of literature to me. Though I thus agreed with many of the points brought up by the authors, I don’t think I have much of a preference with regards to the name of the subject, since names often just seemed like names in my classes. Sometimes English classes would be referred to as “language arts,” some grade levels focused on a particular literature, but the general sense of standardization usually remained.

The worst aspect of this class uniformity was that it permeated even (or especially) any “creative” assignments we were given, emphasizing the need to adhere to a specific structure over the freedom of being able to communicate our ideas and interests. Attempts at group collaboration in turn had less the promise of constructive criticism than another form of regulation to deal with. Therefore my hope for English education is that it can just become more about the connections created by literature than the structures of it. It seems as though the English discipline often connects literature to other subjects like math and science by encouraging approaches to words and sentences in terms of diagrams and formulas. I would prefer to see instead the extension of the study of literature in a way that can relate the importance of its stories to other concepts, so that “English” does not have to be viewed as such an insular discipline.

=EdSec 324=

http://edsec324.wikispaces.com/Ariel+Miles
//Ariel Miles, September 15//

What is meant by the evocative dimension of a literary transaction? Explain what this is and give examples. Then, begin to imagine at least two ways that you could encourage the evocative dimension within your future English classes. Do you see any evidence within the field that the evocative dimension is being encouraged within literary transactions and instruction? Please share.

Note: I have not yet begun my field service.

The evocative dimension of a literary transaction, as set out in the book, refers to a way in which literature can be taught to students so that they actually feel a sense of investment in the work being taught beyond a basic reading assignment. The goal of the evocative dimension is to foster the same interest and pleasure in classroom literature for the students that they have with their personal literatures. This act is encouraged through methods such as allowing students to tie their own interests into discussions in a way that can help establish the key themes of the work to be taught, and frontloading the class in order to create interest in what the work is about before beginning the serious reading.

If I were to attempt to encourage the evocative dimension in an English class I was teaching, I suppose I would first need to figure out a way to get students interested in reading the text before they have to discuss it. I think what would be important in this regard to get them not to focus on questions and vocabulary related to the text, but instead to have a sense of why I consider the work significant enough to be discussed in class, through emphasizing what ideas might be of most interest for them to look out for, and how they could be relevant to them. Another method could be to relate particular elements discussed in class to a more modern context, particular older works that students might find too daunting to think they can understand.

I don’t know that evocative dimension is always encouraged, though even if it is, there’s no guarantee that it will work. A major par of the appeal is the apparent lack of boundaries in the student’s ability to introduce ideas into the class, but the classroom environment ensures that are bound to be some. Namely, the examples in the text mention that students could not include anything that could be considered “offensive.” There’s not always a way to anticipate what might upset people, and some are much more easily offended than others, so there could still be very narrow boundaries for students to have to work within.

=EdSec 324=

//Ariel Miles, September 22//

 * Reading is an intimate act, perhaps more intimate than any other human act, I say this because of the prolonged (or intense) exposure of one mind to another. Brodkey
 * As you think about this quote, please reflect on how the Connective Dimension of the Aesthetic, Transactional Response relates to it if at all. Please share at least two ways that you might encourage your future students to connect to the implied authors of texts. Are you seeing examples of ways that English teachers help students connect to authors?

Note: I have not yet begun my field service.

I agree with Brodkey that reading is an intimate act, at least as long as you can believe that you are in fact being exposed to the author’s real mind. For a book to really have this kind of impact, the reader needs to be assured of a particular type of perspective or sensibility being shared, with ideas that can go beyond just one work, or a single piece of literature. I also agree with importance of the Connective Dimension of the Aesthetic, Transactional Response as far as the concept emphasizes enjoyment and immersion in works when reading, though I felt the “loving” aspect may have been overstated by the authors.

The importance of the Connective Dimension is explained in terms related to “teddy bears and security blankets” (96), which I felt overly emphasized comfort, as opposed to criticism, in reading. Usually when someone reads something as “comfort food,” it means they consider it light entertainment that doesn’t require serious thought. I think that works can still be enjoyed even if they’re being read with a more critical eye, and that it is important not only to be interested in some authors’ entire bodies of work, but also to just be able to read any single work and find something of significance, even if the reader isn’t necessarily interested in moving on to the rest of that author’s writings. For example, I just recently finished reading an old book in which this particular quote stood out to me: “Apathy then was not was not a state of negation, but a faith of positiveness, and to practice it was to surrender to it.” The book (//Mister Roberts// by Thomas Heggen) was about 1940s Naval officers’ lives on a ship, but this basic theme of the story, the way people deal with unhappiness and tragedy through settling into regular routines, is one that I felt that I could connect to, feeling it to be a genuine reflection of a writer’s worldview, even if I don’t read Heggen’s other works (assuming he has any, and that they’d still be available anywhere).

To get English students interested in reading, I think it would be important to help them understand the pleasures of critical reading, otherwise assigned texts may all appear as simply daunting assignments or meaningless fluff. Students should be able to feel as though they could read any book with the chance to find meaningful ideas and concepts, and that they could still enjoy a work even if proves difficult or challenging, because they could still at least be able to develop the feeling that they have been able to seriously think about its points, and learn something, or been able to think about certain concepts in a different way because of it. An important aspect of this ability is the feeling of freedom, which in this situation I would think of as the student’s freedom to study any book in this manner, without having to feel the need to become a scholar in the works of certain author to properly be able to appreciate anything they’ve written. I thought the exercise with the Levertov poem was a particularly good example of giving students the chance to connect to the ideas of a work, since they have the chance to think about what interests them in this poem, and how those interests could reflect their own ideas. To really get students interested in studying literature, I think they just need to know that there doesn’t always have to be a right or wrong answer in their interpretations, and to be aware of their own capacity to really think about what they read.

=EdSec 324=

http://edsec324.wikispaces.com/Ariel+Miles
//Ariel Miles, September 29//

After you have read and reflected up "The Reflective Dimension" of the literary transaction, please share how you would encourage the entire literary transactional approach (guiding students through the evocative, connective and reflective dimensions of the literary meaning-making process) for the book Posted! No Trespassing! that you were given in class. How could you begin to develop a unit that would help students connect their personal experiences to the text? How would you help them make connections with the author, the zoology professor at Dartmouth, Professor Griggs? Then, how would you help them use the wisdom they have accrued to transform their worlds? How will you help them "live more artfully and meaningfully in the real world?" Elaborate as fully as you desire. I'm eager to read what you have imagined! Also, don't forget to share ways that your cooperating teacher or other teachers are encouraging the reflective dimension in their literary studies.

The key point I got from Griggs’s writing is the importance of paying attention to your natural surroundings, because so much happens in the world around you that you can’t just take for granted that living alone makes you secluded, or that there’s nothing around you. Therefore I would primarily encourage students to look closer at their own outdoor environments that they live in, and think about how they would write about them for readers the way Griggs did, paying attention to their own “signposts” and considering how various elements of their ecosystems interact with each other. Since I wouldn’t expect any of them to live in an area similar to that of Griggs, I would encourage them to think not only of animals, but also the people they live around, and how their interactions with family and/or neighbors helps them to create a living environment for themselves, and the kinds of signposts that humans can leave outside their homes. I would eventually assign the students to develop their own maps of their home areas similar to the one shown at the end of the book, which they would discuss with the class.

But to help frontload the discussions of Griggs and the book, I would first find some selections of //Walden// to present to the students, to help them understand something of Thoreau’s work, so that before they see his influence on Griggs, they can have some opportunity to consider his significance for themselves (and how their readings of his work may be different or similar to Griggs’s). We would also discuss our personal experiences with nature beyond our immediate homes, to better consider how it varies in different areas. For example, my apartment isn’t very close to any woods, but walking through Clemson has allowed me to see several groundhogs and chipmunks up close, while the dogs at my parents’ home in Hartsville have found various animals in their yard, from turtles and snakes to deer, rabbits and raccoons. In my field experience so far, I’ve noticed that reflective dimension of the students’ reading (//Animal Farm//) seems to be encouraged primarily through tying the themes of the text to major historical and current world events, to emphasize the importance and aim of the novel’s political themes. For a book like //Posted, No Trespassing!// the themes seemed more significant in relation to Griggs’s personal understandings of the world around him, so I would want to encourage that in student readings, though once they have developed some sense of the book’s relevancy to their own lives, I could hopefully then encourage them to consider nature and the environment in broader contexts, in relation to issues such as recycling and conservation, the kinds of issues students likely hear about a lot but don’t necessarily consider much in terms of relevancy to their own lives.

=EdSec 324=

//Ariel Miles, October 6//
In the chapter on Aesthetic Education, what were the qualities of the four teachers who were striving to teach for love and wisdom that you most admired and would like to embody? Please explain.

With the “good-enough” model, I did like the idea of encouraging community and mentorship with teachers, since I’d like to have sense of what I’d have to do if I started teaching, and have some clear examples. I wasn’t really clear from the book’s description exactly what kind of “experimentation” this model was supposed to entail, though, and I doubt I’d have much interest being a mentor myself, if that is supposed to be the ultimate goal of this model. I guess the most important point I took from this model was trying to ensure you get to know who the students are, and finding ways to tailor the curriculum to their personalities, though I don’t know if that would ultimately be as important for a teacher as just being able to know who would seriously be interested in what you say, and who are just liars and bullies who think they can manipulate you, since they probably should often be ignored. Being interested in students can be well and good, but I imagine there’s always going to be at least one per class who I’m going to have to just mentally weed out if I really want to focus on developing the best learning environment.

The “implied teacher” mostly just seemed to be a looser version of the same model, with more emphasis on frontloading. I wasn’t quite clear from the excerpt (164) how the “alter ego” concept was actually supposed to have played out, but I do generally like the idea of frontloading to get students more involved with the class and bring in new ideas. The “democratic philosopher teacher” seemed interested in a more introspective form of teaching, a model that I think appealed to me most out of the four, since I think it is important for students to be able to consider why they think or react the ways they do. I’m just not sure how well it can actually be implemented in a classroom, since it’s often hard to get students to open up or be interested in what’s going on, and attempting to get personal may just appear to them to be invasive (I never liked being called upon to talk about myself in class, and was never sure how to respond to teachers who did). I found it difficult to buy into the “all-round transactional teacher” model, since the episode of the student asking for an extension just came off like an example of someone who hadn’t actually done anything and wanted more time to put the assignment off, so I didn’t see how the extension would help him do better in any way. But I did like the idea of using children’s books for frontloading, which I think can be an effective technique for getting students to connect themes and ideas among different texts, probably the aspect of studying literature that appeals to me most.

=EdSec 324=

http://edsec324.wikispaces.com/Ariel+Miles
//Ariel Miles, October 13//

In the chapter on Aesthetic Democracy, the opening quote is this, "I've never been in a classroom that was a real community before. Is this your situation? Why or why not? What would it take for the "third space" to come into being, a space "in which the students took in one another's life"? Be as detailed as you can be at this point in your career. How do we help students move the third space from the inward to the outward world? Explain (if you dare).

Though I like the text’s conception of the “third space,” I don’t know that it is something that can be created in a school environment, outside of maybe college. I view the appeal of the third space as being based in freedom, composed of the knowledge of being there by choice (like discovering a store or restaurant you enjoy), the feeling of being welcomed (particularly as a “regular”), and the ability to leave at any time, elements that a school system by design has little or no possibility of replicating. In college, the closest I got to this sense was when a class (with people I had mostly already known for at least a year) would meet off-campus at a downtown area, like a coffee shop. Likewise in earlier grades, such as elementary or high school, a sense of community only seemed likely when a class where most of us had already been around each other for some time could meet somewhere off-campus in a more casual environment, such as a party.

But a key element to feeling like a community in these circumstances always involved a sense that there were some people I liked more than others. The most involved classes I was in often featured an “us vs. them” mindset, allowing me to get to know some people who I ended up liking most in school, but also recognizing those who I liked least. The text discusses democracy in terms of unity, but divergent opinions have always been part of democratic societies, and with these opinions likely often come values or behaviors that prevent any desire for a fully united front, even if this opposition is still be tolerated as part of one’s “community.” I suppose for a teacher to develop a third space type of classroom, there could be some effort to meet with students outside of school hours, or maybe encouraging the students to meet together in study groups or the like, but this would be difficult to achieve without just creating the sense of extra work, or simply having the students that are already friends meeting, without concern for other members of the class. Since adolescents who are beginning to develop personal ideologies will look for something to rebel against, a teacher could maybe look to some kind of outside force to direct these attitudes, but this could just lead to a sense of competition or manipulation that disinterests many students, because the only hope I see of approaching a third space community in a class environment is a feeling of organic development, which could maybe be achieved by the end of a school year, but likely not before.


 * Unit Rationale**

//What makes people come together to act as a community? How does a community find an aesthetic voice through literature? To what extent can/should literature be a communal activity?//

Our most recent chapter's discussions of the third space got me interested in considering not just in how a third space can be developed, but also how literature functions in a third space. Third spaces for me can include bookstores, libraries, or anywhere else that I feel free to develop my literary interests at, while others' third spaces might include more community-oriented activities such as book clubs. I assume that any class I begin teaching with may feel as though English lacks relevancy to their lives due to a common assumption that "nobody reads anymore," or that it is little more than a fringe activity. For a unit, I would then want to examine more community-wide efforts at encouraging reading (such as maybe the "Big Read" events that have occurred in different countries, or the efforts by various cities to encourage a single novel for all denizens to be able to read and discuss together), and the ways in which literary works have maintained cultural relevance over time. The ultimate culmination of this unit would hopefully be for the class to consider their own literary interests, and hopefully finding a work that they can all choose to discuss together as a class text.


 * Text Selections**

//The Heart is a Lonely Hunter// by Carson McCullers As part of my unit’s emphasis on community, my chosen texts (modern American literature emphasis) are ones that I hope can help encourage high school students to consider various aspects of the American community, in a range of literary forms. This work would be the central text of this unit, chosen due to its relatable setting, challenging themes and diverse cast of characters, all serving as a jumping-off point for discussions about the challenges of connecting to others. To get a better sense of McCullers’s themes, I would also include a showing of the film version of //The Member of the Wedding//.

“We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar A major concern that many adolescents have is with conformity, often either to or against their peer group, family, or other social environments. As the earliest featured work, this poem would be introduced early on, to help students begin considering their own identities, and to what extent they, and anyone else, “wears the mask.”

//The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg// by Mark Twain This novelette will provide an opportunity to consider the issues of values and hypocrisy within a community environment, while exposing the students to one of the more biting satirical works of an iconic author they may otherwise only associate with Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (the satire of which may be somewhat obscured by modern controversies).

“The Philosopher” and “Loneliness” from //Winesburg////, Ohio// by Sherwood Anderson As two examples of interconnected short stories, students can make some direct comparisons in regards to characterizations and themes, while also thinking a bit more about the importance of literary structure. These stories can also help develop questions about how an individual functions as part of a community identity, even when he or she feels separate.

//The Grass Harp// by Truman Capote This novella can serve as a somewhat gentler example of how a diverse array of people can connect to one another, through family, love, friendship, and rebellion.

“The Lottery” and “Biography of a Story” by Shirley Jackson Reading Jackson’s infamous story will ensure that students can understand a key literary example of the darker side of community customs, and the impact that such a portrayal had on its initial audience, through inclusion of Jackson’s essay about its reception.

“Mr. Morgan” by James Michener This short story will help branch out the literary focus of unit, as a tale of an American abroad in an island community, and the ideological responsibilities and expectations that this comes to entail. It can also help lead into comparisons with other selections that set up an individual as a figure of mythological significance, which could include another movie showing, such as //Mister Roberts// and/or //Cool Hand Luke//.

“Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson The advantages here include another type of perspective, related to the community against the individual, while also serving as a gateway to studying literature in other media, as students can listen to Simon and Garfunkel’s song variation and consider how Paul Simon’s musical arrangement and chorus affect their ideas of the poem.

“[the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls]” by E. E. Cummings Through Cummings’s depiction of his notion of mediocrity, students can learn about a more experimental model of poetry and discuss their own concerns about conformity within a community, and whether their ideas match Cummings’s.

“Mending Wall” by Robert Frost As another point of comparison in the poetry packet students will read, this poem will help them to better understand the famous claim that “Good fences make good neighbors,” and whether it is a notion they ultimately agree with.

“Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane” by Etheridge Knight As a poem focused on the desperate hopes and despair of the prison community, particular comparisons can be made with “Mr. Morgan” as a tale of an individual from a communal perspective, with a much harsher tone than any of the other selections.

“Brownies” by ZZ Packer This novelette provides a more modern setting and the perspectives of younger protagonists, as they face issues of racism, peer pressure, and conflict with another troop.

“The Swim Team” by Miranda July This selection can function as a possible example of a “short-short” story, along with another much more modern text for students to relate to. It also can serve as the primary example of how the individual seeks to shape an identity in a community environment.

=EdSec 324=

http://edsec324.wikispaces.com/Ariel+Miles
//Ariel Miles, October 27//

How do the teachers cited within the chapter "What Can English Become?" try to help students relate to and love authors? How will you help students do this within the context of your proposed unit?

The proposed methods for loving authors include the ideas of the author as craftsman, student as author, multimedia authorship, social relevance, and the human condition. Of these concepts, probably encouraging the student’s potential as an author appeals to me most. To be interested in literature, I think it would help if students could feel as though literature was something they could contribute to themselves. I think the other ideas are still important, but my concern with them is that they seemed as though they might posit the “author” as a figure a bit too distant for students, so they feel too much as though the position is a daunting, unreachable one for them.

For my unit, I would hope that students could understand that literature allows for many kinds of voices and perspectives. I’d want to talk to them a bit about the authors’ lives, so they have some sense of what authors go through to become writers, and view the authors as regular people rather than unreachable figures of divine inspiration, or purely historical figures of certain times and places. One of my reasons for choosing //The Heart is a Lonely Hunter// for my central text is that it is a work by a younger author than students might expect, so they can understand how much even the youngest writer could contribute to literature. I wouldn’t want to push any of these ideas too much, because I think one of the most important factors of loving particular authors and literature is the feeling of being able to come by both in your own way.


 * Resource Palette**

Canonical Literature o Story of the various ways in which people in a Southern town interact, as circumstances bring them together despite living different lives. o Another Southern tale, this one about how different people actually come together to form a sort of community of their own, in reaction against the established one they live in. o An account of community identity, and how it can be shaped by hypocrisy and scandal, even among well-intentioned people. o A depiction of how the interactions of people from different communities can lead to learning important lessons.
 * //The Heart is a Lonely Hunter// by Carson McCullers
 * //The Grass Harp// by Truman Capote
 * //The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg// by Mark Twain
 * “Brownies” by ZZ Packer

Supplementary Texts o “The Philosopher” and “Loneliness” by Sherwood Anderson § Examples of how individuals function within a community, in efforts both to resist and integrate. o “Mr. Morgan” by James Michener § Consideration of community responsibility, along with what it means to be “civilized.” o “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson § Examination of the disturbing values that can be held even by a seemingly ordinary, provincial community. o “The Swim Team” by Miranda July § A story of how people can be brought together even in the most unusual circumstances. o “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar o “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson § Dunbar and Robinson write of the difficulties (and occasional errors) of community perceptions. o “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost o “[the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls]” by E. E. Cummings o “Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane” by Etheridge Knight § Frost, Cummings, and Knight all touch on the issue of being apart in a community, whether from deliberate seclusion, rebellion, or association with an outcast populace. o “Biography of a Story” by Shirley Jackson § Jackson’s account of writing “The Lottery,” and its ensuing reception, offers insight into the kinds of perceptions and biases that can color the common readership. o “Salvation” by Langston Hughes § Hughes’s recollection of the dangers of misguided community influence, in this case creating a sense of religious disillusionment in a confused child.
 * Short stories
 * Poetry
 * Nonfiction

Music o This adaptation of Robinson’s poem adds a chorus that gives the narrative a more communal dimension through its suggestions of the narrator and his social status in relation to that of Richard Cory’s.
 * “Richard Cory” by Simon and Garfunkel

Art o Online at [] § A painting (with accompanying narrative) of the artist’s 1960s visit to Florence, resulting in an example of how stereotypical ideas of community can lead to incorrect assumptions of people as “Others.”
 * //Stereotypes and Admonitions: Florence, South Carolina//, by Roger Shimomura

DVDs o A cinematic depiction of Carson McCullers’ story of loneliness and the desire for belonging, seen through the bond of three individuals. A story of how community can develop even in the most shiftless and apathetic environment, thanks largely to the influence of one caring man.
 * //The Member of the Wedding// (1952)
 * //Mister Roberts// (1955)

=EdSec 324=

http://edsec324.wikispaces.com/Ariel+Miles
//Ariel Miles, November 2//

How could you use the //Dynamics of Writing// structured process approach to teach for love and wisdom? Please explain in rich detail. Also, explain how you might use this approach in your forthcoming unit? Begin to brainstorm. Finally, are you seeing bits and pieces of the structured process approach to writing within your field experience? Please explain.

Since all of the teaching questions presented in the first chapter of //The Dynamics of Writing Instruction// seem to amount to basically the same “freedom vs. control” conflict, teaching for love and wisdom would probably involve focusing on the more freedom-oriented approaches presented. Of the eight presented approaches, individualized instruction probably appealed to me most, though I would hope to find a way to incorporate beginning with an activity into any lessons I taught, to help students get adjusted to the idea of working creatively through understanding some of the possibilities open to them in sharing their stories (I would prefer they were shared among the class as a whole rather than limiting students to just one peer’s opinion). Beginning with a workshop-type environment is important to me because I know students will likely be dubious of the assurance that they can write as they like at first, so I would want to give them some time to find their voices as writers before they really begin to develop on their own, since I imagine the major impediment to their creativity will be lack of confidence.

In relation to my unit, the goal would be to get students to not only think critically, but also constructively, so they can go beyond simply thinking that they may or may not like a text to being able to argue for why they feel this way and thinking about specific elements that do or don’t work. My hope would ultimately be that students can begin to develop more awareness and comprehension of their general interests. The classes I’ve observed in my field work have been more classically structure-oriented due to the low-level abilities of many students, focused on composition of paragraphs and understanding of basic vocabulary and computer usage. But I have observed a film criticism class that includes in its requirements that students be able to not only explain the plots and know the actors and their characters, but to also give opinions of their viewings. Though some students have remained hostile to having to write about the older films screened for the classes, others have given positive responses, and I believe their lack of formal film knowledge and the simplicity of the requirements helps give an honesty and frankness to their criticisms, as they are given an opportunity to criticize works often viewed as “canonical” within their medium, even while being made to understand that these works are nonetheless important.


 * Unit Teaching Methods**


 * 1) Cultural Literacy- I believe this will serve as an important beginning method, as a way to help me determine student capabilities and interests, so that I may adjust my unit accordingly if necessary.
 * 2) Kids’ Books- I have already decided to add some more youth-oriented literature to my unit, to add variety and prevent the students from becoming too intimidated with the selections. My current planned additions are //I Saw Your Face// by Kwame Dawes and Tom Feelings and //Ella Minnow Pea// by Mark Dunn. The former is a children’s book (with poetry by a foreign-born author currently residing in SC) that can help put the unit’s focus on community in a more globalized perspective, while the latter is a young adult-oriented epistolary novel that uses a fictional island community off the coast of South Carolina to explore ideas of language and cultural values.
 * 3) Roundtable- I think it is important that students have the opportunity to discuss assigned texts as a group, both to ensure proper understanding of the works, and to help encourage them to develop their own opinions by understanding that the texts being required to be read doesn’t mean that they are required to be liked, but should still be understood as significant in terms beyond knowing the basic plot and characters for class.
 * 4) Picture This- Since I want to students to be able to understand a variety of perspectives and structures, I would try to find related photographs and art to help them better contextualize their readings of the works, both in terms of the cultural climates the authors wrote in and the types of environments they sought to create with their works.
 * 5) Downgrade- In order to ensure that the unit offers the students a more creative outlet, I would want them to have opportunities to experiment with different writing and artistic structures to interpret the stories with. In addition to “downgrading” a work, students would also be encouraged to try other structures to reinterpret the works with, such as hint and flash fiction, poems in haiku and 8-word forms, and prose as opposed to poetry, to help them think about the most important points of stories and the different ways that they as writers can convey those points in.


 * Teaching Scenario**

I envision the class I would teach this unit to as an Honors class at the Junior-Senior level, since my personal experience with English classes has been primarily at the Honors level, and because I think a more literature-oriented English class requires higher-level students who can be trusted to already understand the necessities of grammar and spelling, along with reading comprehension. All the same, I would be sure to begin my class by going over some of the basics of form and structure, to ensure that the students understood or allow me to make lesson plan adjustments if I find something they don’t get. The class structure would be that of discussions as a whole class, as we go over the assigned readings. With writing assignments, each student would have their own notebook that they could work on independently with any forms of writing. I would encourage their notebook writing as something to do more in their free time rather than as part of an established part of class time, in order to get them to think about writing as an activity that goes beyond class, and as something they can and should find time to do as part of their everyday lives.

To help motivate students and encourage them to work together as a class, there would be a class project that they would each be expected to contribute to in some way. This project would be a class literary magazine to be printed off at the end of the unit. Each student could contribute whatever work of theirs that they like, as long as they have something to represent themselves with in the magazine.

More than one work could be submitted, though there may have to be a limit established if an individual student contributes much more than anyone else. If there was any uncertainty about a work to be contributed, a student could talk with me or the class for feedback. The class would be allowed to work together to determine any kind of theme for the magazine they might want, and whether they wanted to share their works with anyone else outside of class by making (perhaps even selling) extra copies. To help give them ideas for their writings, I would go over some different varieties of fiction, poetry, and essay writing in class. The ultimate focus of the class would be to help them appreciate the questions of the unit by positing them as a small community themselves, not just of students but of writers and readers who are capable of developing and pursuing their own literary interests.