Chapter 7

As a future high school English teacher, I can agree with this chapter on the significance of students learning and truly understanding a wide array of vocabulary words. We are exposed to thousands of words in our everyday lives, through conversations, reading various materials, or watching TV programs. If students do not understand certain words, the meaning of a sentence or an entire message can be completely lost to them. In turn, students become frustrated when they do not know a certain word or when they think they know what it means but it is used in a different way. As future educators, it will be our job to help clarify to students the many definitions and meanings of words they need to know.

            This chapter’s stance on reading books as a means of gaining new vocab knowledge is also one I can understand fully. I learned to read at a young age, and I would devour any book I came across. As a result, I gained a huge store of vocabulary words and I was able to excel in almost every class I took because of my reading ability. I am very grateful to have been able to push myself and to have teachers who pushed me to gain as much knowledge as possible, because had I not then I may not be where I am today. I want to give my students the same opportunities to get ahead in life, and starting off with learning new vocabulary sounds like a good springboard.

Chapter 4

This day’s reading really spoke to me personally. The detailed discussions of how students only study for what they know will be on the tests, and immediately forget directly after they take the exams, is something that, although I don’t like to admit, I have done for years. The author stated how she believed that more kids these days find it difficult to truly comprehend what they are learning in school, which is possibly due to the complexity of some of the concepts, the fast rate in which topics are discussed and then new ones brought up, or even because teens these days have more responsibilities. I can say for myself that the main reason why I only memorized information for exams was if I did not really understand what I was learning. I never had any of the new information devoted to my memory, so I had to use note cards to memorize definitions and concepts that I knew would be on the tests. Of course, I did not do this for every class I was in, just the ones like philosophy and psychology where I just couldn’t seem to grasp the material. My teachers were all adequate, yet they just covered the topics far too quickly and I couldn’t seem to keep up.

                The way I was able to just memorize definitions and still do well in those classes was because teachers these days only test students at the lowest level of learning. As I learned in my Ed 249 class last semester, there are 6 levels of learning- remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and lastly creating. Teachers generally test students for remembering only, and maybe a few will venture off to understanding. These upper levels of learning require that the learner truly understand the material and be able to use what they know in a variety of different ways. If students were taught to understand better, and were given tests and essays that actually tested them on these upper levels of learning, chances are students would indeed learn far more. They would be unable to merely memorize information- they would have to have the concepts become a part of their lives. This type of learning requires more out of both the students and the teacher, but I definitely think it is worth it in the long run. Teachers need to expect more out of their students, because they can deliver and exceed even what they themselves thought possible.

Chapter 6

The reading from the Adolescent Literacy book brought up the idea of newer topics and items which are considered helpful for students to become more literate. The main focus was the changing faces of books and the novel themes and issues that they discuss. Decades ago, authors would never have dared venture into such controversial realms, and readers would not have been caught picking up such risky books. But now, these types of books are much more commonplace, and in fact they are an invaluable tool for the ever-changing teenager. When teens read these types of books that don’t hide those kinds of issues that teens may come across in their school or personal life, they appreciate the fact that they are reading something that has value to them. These books and stories can give deeper meaning into a young adult’s life, and perhaps teach them more than any educator possibly could. Teens these days especially don’t seem to like talking to parents or counselors about problems they might be having, so the ability to read these books and recognize that their problems are shared with others out there could have a great impact on the teens’ lives. I know that in my future English classes, I will gladly allow my students to choose books that may be a little more controversial but all the same are great books. I might come across some opposition from parents, but their children need to be able to experience their world from the eyes of another. It’s worth taking the risk of upsetting a few parents if it means that a student will get the chance to read a book that truly speaks to them.

Chapter 3

Our reading for this class once again brought into light an issue that I’m sure many other students were not aware of. This time it was about what the majority of people think of as literacy nowadays, which is simply the ability to read books. But in today’s society, being a highly literate adult (or adolescent) means having the ability to do much more than just read novels. We need to be able to peruse the loads of information on the internet, and decipher the good from the bad; we need to be up-to-date on current events and politics, and have a strong hold of what is going on in the world today. However, high school classes rarely teach their students to be literate in these ways- they stay true to their strict schedules of “traditional” teaching, only allowing the students to learn these further things on their own time. With teenagers’ hectic schedules and crazy lives, they rarely take their own time to learn how to do these things, and thus their literacy capabilities falter as a result. The chapter really interested me when it pointed out that something as far removed from books as video gaming is considered a solid teacher of learning and literacy. I never thought of video games in this way, and in fact I usually think of teens who constantly play as merely wasting their time. This chapter made me realize that these games are further tools for the adolescent mind to learn by, and in the future there may be even more unique ways for individuals to become more literate.

Chapter 10

The portion of this chapter which interested me the most was how the ACCESS class got to hear from a number of different professionals about the importance of being literate in all of their different work places. This notion may not be completely obvious to many high school students, especially those who are on a vocational track and know that they do not plan on attending college. For these teens, some who plan on working as say a mechanic or a construction worker, they may not think that they need to be highly literate, and these types of students will be less motivated to learn oftentimes. As this chapter highlights, every profession has an area where training and developing skills is essential, and having the ability to be literate and capable of advancing your skills for an ever-changing world can be the difference between keeping said job or being replaced. I hope that the students I will have in my future classes will see the relevancy of having these literacy abilities. Many students will always question why they have to do certain things- why do I need to learn this science theory, or what does it matter if this country fought that in that war? Well, if my students need reasoning behind what they are learning in my English class, then I can simply tell them that they need these invaluable literacy capabilities to be able to have a future career. Some may try and argue back, saying that whatever job they plan on getting doesn’t require any reading or literateness at all. But the fact of the matter is that every job requires these basic skills, and I can only hope that every student that I have will want to be literate in every subject that they have.

Chapter 1 Journal Response

       The first section of this chapter addresses the relevant issues of NCLB standards and how the AYP is not attainable for those schools which are unable to fully facilitate the students and their needs. This issue is obviously still prevalent today, and will surely be a cause of concern when we become teachers (unless they decide to change or completely eliminate NCLB). I for one would not want to focus on testing my students and preparing them for these ridiculous state tests that, as the author insinuated, don’t really tell anything of the potential of the students that they test. This chapter encourages me further to teach my students in a way that allows them to express who they are as people and to research and complete homework and essays on topics of their own liking. My main goal for my future classroom is to be able to get all of my students to have a strong interest in learning English, and giving the students the freedom to choose their own subjects should help them attain this. Taking valuable class time out to study for state tests would lower the effectiveness of my teaching as well as the motivation of my students. These tests severely hinder what can be taught, and the freedom to learn more about subjects that interest the students would be virtually eliminated. I agree with the author that lower-economy schools suffer the most from NCLB standards, but I have to argue that basically all schools pay a price for these standardized tests. I can only hope that when I am a teacher these state tests will no longer exist.