Ms. Best

Unrau’s Cultural Awareness with Struggling Readers and English Language Learners

Dreamer — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 09:21:01 +0000

“Few, if any, middle and high school teachers have any training in diagnosing and teaching students with profound reading limitations.” Unrau 312 It is true. Many teachers are so in love with their content area whether it be science, English, history or mathematics that they fail to take into account the importance of reading instruction. Without a firm foundation in basic reading skills students cannot learn very much in those ‘preferred’ content areas and fail to further their education in those specialized areas. Teachers’ lack of training in reading instruction leads to further gaps between academic success and student’s ability to perform in well in class. Norman Unrau’s chapter “Struggling Readers and English Learners: Addressing Their Cognitive and Cultural Needs” (Unrau 2004) hones in on certain strategies and reading intervention programs that can increase the lowest level readers’ performance in the classroom to achieve better in reading for all content areas. It starts here with a firm foundation in basic reading skills. Language is the most divisive tool in human culture. Language use, dialects and pidgins separate us into the groups we become and remain with throughout life. Understanding this key concept is crucial when teaching English language learners. Our job as English teachers is not to teach students to speak English but to teach students to read and write at their utmost ability in the English language through grammar, composition and literature instruction. Appreciating this job description will help us focus on what is most important in the classroom. Not to break down a language barrier, but create better learners through whatever venues necessary.

Combining Theories for Secondary Classrooms

Dreamer — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 17:32:21 +0000

In Deborah Appleman’s book Critical Encounters in High School English she introduces a helpful class activity that can incorporate various critical literary theories in a secondary classroom. The important thing is to make sure that when using literary theories, to combine them in a single lesson plan. This helps students have a broader understanding of how texts tie into literary theory. The activity is called Theory Relay. Set up four stations around the room labeled Marxist Station, Feminist Station, Historical/Biographical Station, and Reader Response Station. Divide the class into four groups and have them explore each station. Have the students read the various pieces of evidence in each station regarding the different theories. When they arrive to the Reader Response station they will all fill in a master RR diagram stating how the various theories connected with the text they have just read. Do your students a great service by involving other literary theories in your RR class sessions. This will create a better understanding of literary analysis for you students!

Want to make Shakespeare interesting?

Dreamer — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 19:05:45 +0000

Students often begrudge teachers’ comments that they will be studying one off Shakespeare’s plays. Oftentimes students feel that the language is too hard and the material was written too long ago for them to understand. One way to make Shakespeare interesting to students is to have them perform their own parodies. A common theme in Shakespeare’s plays is the world as a stage. In Macbeth, Julius Caesar and As You Like It Shakespeare provides a total of twenty eight lines of parodies regarding this theme (Gibson 136-137). After presenting the parodies to the students haven them write and title their own parody regarding this theme. Students can then volunteer to perform or just read aloud their parody. You can even bring in a video camera and have the students bring costumes to make it a theatrical event! Enjoy!

Higher Achieving Student’s Galore

Dreamer — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 00:05:31 +0000

Today’s blog will focus on small ways to make our students higher achieving student in the area of English Language Arts. These are a few tips from Arthur Applebee’s book entitled Toward Thoughtful Conversations: Fostering Discipline-Based Conversations in the English Language Classroom (2000). First, try not to have too much material in a single class period. Too much material may result in you the teacher spoon feeding the students what they need to know. It is important to give the students limited amounts of material so they can create their own interpretations and interact with each and you the teacher on such matters. Second, if there is class discussion on the material make sure that all contributions are “true and accurate”. Lastly, make each day’s material connect with the rest. The curriculum must be related in some way that students can create their own perspective of the whole class. Your students will become higher achieving students who include all the diverse texts read in class to create a higher meaning. I hope these tips will make their way into your classroom someday.

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Introduction

Dreamer — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 00:04:29 +0000

Hello literature lovers!! This is a site of several helpful blogs that will contain useful information for English Language classes for Middle and High School levels. You can feel free to make comments or ask any questions on the information you find. Thanks and happy blogging!

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