Here is our group project on the roaring twenties! Enjoy!

This article caught my attention because it was focused on something we just discussed last night: teaching to standardized tests. I like this schools way of thinking: they do not obsess about teaching to the test, but rather look at it as one section to teach for the whole year, like a poetry unit. Teachers cannot be ruled by standardized tests, but must take it into consideration when they are teaching students.

I love peer response to writing in classrooms, especially in secondary education classrooms. It build relationships in the classroom, gets the students focused on more than just the teacher's opinion of writing, and allows for students to strengthen their editing. This article points out an important component of peer editing, which is making students comfortable in the classroom. This means allowing them to sit on the floor, go out in the hall, etc. If we expect students to share something personal, like their writing, then we should allow them to be as comfortable (physically and mentally), as possible.

This New York Times article focuses on students reading non-fiction, especially in content areas other than English. The studies show that students gain reading achievements higher than students who did not have this program in place. I think that nonfiction reading has taken a back seat, and students should learn how to read informational text. Newspapers, lab preps, and the like need to be expanded upon and used more in the classroom. Nonfiction reading is another great way to get boys interested in becoming active and engaged readers. Not to pigeon hold boys as total nonfiction readers, but I feel that many boys become tired of just reading fiction book in the English classroom, and content area reading is a great way to strengthen male students reading skills and attitudes.

This news story seemed particularly important to me because it can seriously affect students relationship towards their education. Many states are thinking of holding back third graders that are not reading at grade level, and giving them more time to catch up with their peer. The article brought up studies of students that are held back having lower self esteem and are socially stigmatized. On the other side of this issue, many students in Florida that have been held back have shown enormous gains once tested in the fourth grade. The strongest point that I saw made in the story was that students who are held back for another year are costing the state an extra 10,000 dollars, so why is can't this be spend on reading programs that may give them the more individualized attention they might need in the future, and let them go ahead to the fourth grade with their peers?

This blog is run by two Engilsh teachers and is a great resource for teachers because it focuses on what teachers want to know about a book: who will want to read it and how it could be used in a classroom. For example, the teachers talk about "A Wrinkle in Time" because of its 50th anniversary edition.

This article focused on a study done in a second grade private school over a four week period. Two different instructional practices were implemented by the researcher (who was also the teacher), and observations, focus groups with students, assignment evaluations, as well as student surveys were used to collect data. The instructional practices were student-centered instructional model and skills-based instructional model. The student-based instructional model focuses on student interest in reading, small groups and personal reading time, and student driven goals with their reading. I love the idea of student -centered instructional methods in the classroom, especially in an elementary setting when student attitudes towards reading are formed and develop into life long habits. In the article, students expressed feeling better when they were allowed to make choices about the reading that they do. Observations also showed that when students were forced to read aloud the students who were struggling mouthed the words and were too intimidated to participate. Also, the advanced readers were disinterested in the reading that was given by the teacher, as they had moved beyond it. If educators expect to create enthusiastic and self directed readers, then we must allow them to feel empowered by the reading they do in the classroom. I did an article previously on given boys choices in what they read, and this practice seems to ring true in this article as well. Allowing students to read in smaller groups with peers at their reading level allows for students to gain self esteem that is so important when moving forward with their reading education.

Herbert , Thomas P., and Alexander P. Pagnani. "Engaging Gifted Boys in New Literacies ." Gifted Child Today . 33.3 (2010): 36-45. Print. This article discussed the issue of the achievement gap between boys and girls reading abilities and habits. Girls have reading habits that are recognized and rewarded in schools, while boys read more nonfiction, science fiction, and action novels that are not valued as much. The article discusses how boys do not find dialogue, character interaction, and other literary devices as interesting as girls, and prefer to read for the sake of gaining information, and have plots that are action driven rather than character driven. Although the achievement gap between boys and girls with reading comprehension and leisurely reading is well known, the article points out that less attention is given to this achievement gap than the one that occurs in math. Herbert and Pagnani discuss how high quality new literature is out there for boys to read, and can be incorporated in the classroom. This approach can lead to boys having a higher reading, writing, and comprehension level. I found this article helpful for several reasons. First, I think it is imperative that teachers change their thinking about what is considered quality literature. You can hook boys with things that interest them, and then guide them slowly into literature that is considered part of the literary cannon later on when you have built up their confidence level and academic abilities. The reasoning behind boys literature preferences needs to be not only understood but respected by educators in order to teach them effectively. Secondly, my English classes are ten to one girls, and this scares me as I read this article. As many already know, people tend to teach the same way that they learn. If women and girls have the same reading preferences and appreciate the same things about literature, than many boys will be left to the wayside in English classrooms. I hope to learn more

I heard this on my way to school and was fascinated. The statistics about the drop out rate of students with dyslexia was scary, but I also think that knowing the advantages that students with dyslexia have are important as well.

I choose Derrick Jensen's book Walking on Water to review, mainly because he offers specific details on how to reform education, but focuses on students' attitudes on writing and reading. Jensen teaches creative writing at a prison, but also teachers at a university level, and his conversational style of writing makes this book both insightful and easy to read. The paradox of why students hate school but love to learn is explored throughout the book.
The chapters go from specific to broad in ideas and views on education, but the basis for the book is education reform based on the principals of teaching students to become slaves to society. Jensen makes the case that this is done through the grading system and how schools operate. Jensen hopes to combat this social enslavement by educating students on how to have their own creative voice in writing, and to become empowered through reading and activism.
Jensen focuses much of his attention on how to create a social revolution that will begin in the classroom. Jensen gives many examples of his ideas for this social change through examples of his own classroom experiences. One of these experiences happened when he told students that one of the rules of writing is "don't bore the reader," and that they were allowed to submit whatever they wanted to him, with the stipulation that the subject was interesting enough to keep his attention. Jensen then explores with his class what makes reading interesting, what it does for the reader. Throughout much of the book Jensen makes his students grapple with a lot of important questions about writing, what it means to create something worthy of praise.
Some of the activities that Jensen did in the book would be impossible for a teacher to perform in a public high school, such as Jensen allowing students to break into groups and have each group teach the class for an hour. In a chapter entitled "Choices" Jensen discusses the lack of choices that students have in the education system. I agree with this, as oftentimes they are handed a book to read, told the proper way to read and analyze it, and then told why it is a part of the literary cannon. Jensen lets students choose their reading, and makes them handwrite one page out of the book they had read "they soon found themselves enjoying this process, too, and turned these copied pages into not only a chance to take someone else's writing into their bodies, but also as another opportunity for self expression, bringing me their favorite pages from their favorite books" (Jensen, 117).
I would like to teach my students to think for themselves, and that they have the opportunity to choose what they will be assessed on. At times I feel that Jensen steers to far from what is realistic to do in the classroom, his message is that schools should not be places where we train students to be mindless and choice less. Jensen has a wonderful practice with grading where students get points for things other than writing papers, but it has to be trying something new. Some examples were staying up for four straight days, getting food from Taco Bell, and trying to sing in front of others. Students would write about these experiences, and then Jensen would give them credit for them based on how interesting their writing was of the activity. I love this exercise because it allows students to be creative and have a say over what they will be graded on, and Jensen then transfers this to having students choose what they read. I want to know my students on a personal level, and have them be active participants on what they read and what they get graded on.
I would only recommend this book to certain people, because there is a lot of social commentary in the book that many would not find interesting or relevant to the field of education. I love how Jensen makes a case for how the educational system is inherently flawed, and how a revolution can occur that begins in the classroom. I found this book to be informative and thought provoking.

Link to article: http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED511811.pdf

Corrin, W., Levin, J., Salinger, T., Sepanik, S., Somers , M., & Zmack, C. Education Publications Center , U.S. Department of Education. (2010). The enhanced reading opportunites study . Retrieved from U.S. Department of Education website: http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED511811.pdf

For my first journal article I read a study funded by the U.S. Department of Education and focuses on research of ninth graders that are two years behind in reading. The students were broken up into control groups, and each given two different reading programs. These programs were given to students in place of their elective class for their entire ninth grade academic year. The goals of these programs were to help students with improve vocabulary, enhance comprehension, gain a more positive attitude towards reading in and outside of school, help academic performance, and decrease disciplinary and attendance issues.
The results were positive in the sense that they did increase the students overall G.P.A. for that year by about .6 points (for example, from a 2.3 to a 2.9), but only for their ninth grade year, and it did nothing to change their attitudes towards reading, increase their vocabulary, or change any discipline issues.
I found this study particularly interesting because it shows just how much intervention is necessary to help students that are falling behind by the time they get into high school. Also, I have always believed that attitudes towards reading begin in the home environment, and although this article did not confirm my opinion, I think it shows the limitations of secondary reading programs. I also think that an average of .6 raise in G.P.A. is huge, and can foster improved self esteem and change attitudes towards coming to school and doing the homework. As for decreasing discipline issues, I do not think that reading comprehension can solve that, and that a multi- faceted approach such as Big Brother Big Sister or some other mentor program is a better fit to deal with these issues. It is a shame that this program was not funded for the rest of these students' high school careers, as the benefits may have continued and grown.