What is the goal for the English Teacher? Have you ever considered this question? Aspiring English teachers or seasoned teachers, what is the goal for the English Teacher? Is our goal to prepare them for college or to develop them to be better writers? What about the students that aren’t going to college? What if they desire to pick up a skill or trade? How can you effectively reach the students that are trying to score higher on the SAT’s, while pouring into the student that is going into mechanics? If I can distill all of these questions into one question it would be, “How can we show students the worth of the English Language in every sphere of life?”
I must say, I do appreciate the answered questions I’ve received from Kittle within chapters 9-10. One of the questions that boggled my mind was, “What is the balance of letting students write what they wish while at the same time staying faithful to the curriculum standards that are in place?” The Great Gatsby is such a rigid story but I love the model she gives. Give them topics that reach out to them! Give them topics that won’t let them go! That was addressed with creativity and imagination. I appreciate how she give this statement, tells us how it’s done then she gives us the model in the person of Mr. Woodman. As an English teacher, I want to be unconventional but I also want to stay connected with the reading.
I appreciate Jason’s narrative-style approach on introductions. I take solace in that because I’m a story-teller and I love hearing people stories and journey’s in life. I was so disconnected from Introduction A than I was with Introduction B. I love the illumination that the narrative story displayed for the Scarlet Letter. The transition was smooth. The personal story made me want to read more about the Scarlet Letter.
The Composing A Curriculum article was a great article. The one thing that grabbed my attention for the whole article was, "If you prepare to fail, you fail to prepare." Jim Burke emphasizes the need for preparation as a teacher. Students know when their instructor is not prepared. In addition to that, another thing that convicted me in the article is that when you are making plans and curriculum's around a book, you must know that book inside and out. You can teach effectively what you have went though and experienced. A great teacher has searched diligently and plunged deep into the depths of the book,to grab the pearls that lay at the bottom.
Kevin, your opening question is an important one: What is the goal, or are the goals, of an English teacher? Obviously, as is the case with many state/governmental jobs, we too may become burdened by inexplicable bureaucratic mandates that we have difficulty justifying to our students. The obvious one here is, of course, standardized exams like the SAT that might not be accurate assessments of anything. But I think we have to trust, and our decision to enter this field suggests that we do, that the skills we transmit to our students in an ELA class will help them in all facets of life and if they learn these skills well, they will be better prepared for the common core assessments, the SAT, their future profession, and life in general. I think one effective approach is to consider how everything we teach is sort of preparing them for different fields from medicine, latin etymological roots, to advertising, rhetorical appeal to an audience. I like that you propose that even if a text seems rigid, like you suggest Gatsby does (though I don't entirely agree here), you can provide students with topics that reach and personally connect with them. I actually just began guiding my students through a research paper on the Great Gatsby, and I gave them 13 topic choices ranging from existential and marxist approaches to the novel to ethnic and psychoanalytical ones. In one class, almost every student was able to choose a different topic. In the other, there were maybe like 4 or 5 different topics, but, in both cases, the material was, hopefully, presented them in different ways that they could connect with and could find original ways to expand upon what we discussed in class and what the theorists and critics they are researching have to say. And ideally, they will do so creatively, as we workshop their free writes, outlines, and drafts.
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