The Sopranos

Hot subject right now: The Sopranos.

Their final season began last night--probably a highly talked-about topic for adolescents. Conceptualizing this media, I had a thought on how to incorporate this into the classroom.

Perhaps my idea could work with any episode of The Sopranos, since I will be focusing on the effect of setting to plot. However, this first episode would be highly effective in analyzing the significance of setting.

Like we saw in our field trip to the alternative school in Ithaca, use movies/tv to explain and analyze literary elements to students. Plot was essential in the first episode of The Sopranos last night because they left their home in a wealthy section of New Jersey to explore the quiet, rustic areas of Upstate New York. I plan on teaching in this area, specifically referenced last night in the episode as Glens Falls, so using a popular media source that references the area to which students live would be highly engaging and exciting for students.

The scenes were shot in areas that my students could be familiar with. They could analyze the significance of the change of setting to how the characters behaved. Last night, the characters behaved in a more primitive way, perhaps influenced by the new setting in a foreign, nature-esque environment.

The Sopranos is a bit touchy to bring into a class because of language and sexuality, but if a teacher only showed a certain length of time, the clip would be appropriate. There was not much language or sexuality in the clip I would envision using.

Students are familiar with Tony Soprano and the characters in the show, as Jennifer Donnelly pointed our during her presentation at the DATE Conference. We're starting with what students know and building on this prior knowledge. The Sopranos is just one example, and this would be a great example since many, many students probably watched the episode last night. Keep the curriculum relevant, intriguing, and most importantly, up to date.

"Struggling" Adolescents

I have heard the phrase "struggling adolescents" too many times throughout my education classes and observations at local middle and high schools. That phrase assumes that the problem lies in the student, not the teacher.

Perhaps that assumption is wrong.

David O'Brien conducted a study on such "struggling adolescents" with a focus on increasing student engagement through multimedia activities. His study looked to answer two questions:
1. Why do adolescents who "struggle" with reading print text--a complex processing act--competently engage in these media-rich practices and choose to engage in them?
2. What is the nature of that competency and how is it connected to engagement?

To any reader, pre-service teacher, current teacher, student, former-student--anyone!--which activity sounds more exciting to you:
Choice A: Read The Outsiders and write an essay about the effect violence has on the Greasers and the Socs.
Choice B: Use a range of different sources, print and electronic-based, to show the effect violence has on adolescents.

Choice A seems connected to any typical English class assignment. Many students will not be interested or engaged in that assignment. Choice B seems more relevant to their own lives, more authentic, more interesting, thus a higher engagement would result in this activity.

O'Brien discovered that student competency and engagement increased when he introduced Choice B to his research subjects. He discusses our transition from the "print-centric" world to the "media-centric" world. We used to solely live in a print-centric world, but now we also live in a media-centric world. We need our students to keep up with the world we currently live in, not just the traditional world that was around years and years ago.

I want to add some lines from the text that speak so loud to me, for I have seen these exact points in my own observation:

"Low achievement led to low perception about abilities, which resulted in increasing disengagement from reading, which, in turn, resulted in lack of practice, low fluency, lagging decoding skills, and the absense of strategies."

"When students discover, early in their academic careers, that they are not doing well in reading, and they attribute success to stable factors outside their control, success is perceived as unattainable, universal, and permanent."

"Helplessness is learned as a response..."

The last quotation is probably the most valuable lesson I attained at my recent observations in a middle school. Students would not do assignments because they would either get the answer from a teacher/observer who would tell them the answer, or they would not do the assignment and there would be no punishment. Helplessness was something that these students did not master in this class alone; this problem seemed to stem somewhere earlier in their academic careers.

So what does the teacher I observed do from there?

She has students who have learned helplessness and use it as a result. They are in a classroom that specifically targets Choice A above. They have little resources in their school, but they could perform Choice B at home or in the Mac lab at their school.

Why do I think this would be successful in this particular classroom?
These students are so busy texting on their cell phones and talking about TV from the night before that they can't listen to the teacher speaking to them. So, keep their focus on what they are talking about in the classroom, and put ELA skills to use on that topic.

The students I observe behave in ways described in the above quotations. I only see one school, but I am sure this is the case for many classrooms all around the state. Think about the points raised in this blog in order to change something in school systems now. Consult Hobbs, consult Richardson. These students are only "struggling" because we allow them to.

Are iPods Taking Over?

Okay, so iPods are everywhere now right?

Try sneakers.

Nike has just signed a deal with iPod, so runners can track their mileage through their iPods. A sensor from the iPod can be inserted into the sneaker so the athlete can record his/her distance covered.

How far can technology go?

What will be next?

I thought the iPhone was a bit much, but anyone could see that coming. I just didn't think sneakers would be incorporated into the mix. Check out an article on the topic--it's pretty crazy.

It seems that iPods are taking over everything now--what can't they do?

iPhoto

Tomorrow, my group will be presenting what we have so far on our project: iBook using iPhoto. You can check out iPhoto on this website.

If anyone is interested, check out the website, pay close attention to our presentation, and make sure you have lots and lots of patience.

Our group is focusing on creating a book for the Adolescent English Education program at Cortland, but the kinks of the project are really getting in the way. There are many minor glitches that we are encountering, so we will only get to show you all a portion of our finished product. We still need a bit of time to polish the finishing touches on our masterpiece.

I hope I'm not making this project sound like a downer, because collaborating pictures to an overall theme is really exciting. If you have an easily accessible Apple computer at home, then you will have no problem doing this project.

I could see so many amazing projects developed from this program:
-character collages
-plot sequences
-creative writing projects
-class progress/development across the year

Try it out for yourself.

Zines

Zines, pronounced as "zeens" answers.com informs me, are a new form of authentic writing practices that can go on in any classroom. Perhaps you have heard of e-zines, publishing non-traditional writing pieces on the internet for publication, but zines can even be incorporated in the classroom.

The article "The Zine Project" discusses how zines actually work within a classroom. One was quoted commenting on the zine project: "I think letting [students] speak about what was going on in their lives and then using them to invent writing prompts was a good tactic."

Agreed. What a great way to formulate interest in writing. Not to state the obvious, but people like to talk about themselves and what they know. Especially adolescent students... Perhaps those who are resistant to writing are assigned tasks that are not authentic; they have no relevance to them, they seem school-related and boring, so they give up before they start. I think there would be little resistance to writing if the task was focused on a topic of their interest on a writing topic they created themselves.

Main concerns? Maybe some are skeptical of zines. Maybe some of skeptical of Hobbs' media literacy project, but Hobbs poses a great argument. She provides a list of skills that English teachers are required to teach (in her specific school), but I am sure this list is similar to most schools. Here is a sample of items on her list:

-Examine the structure of persuasive arguments
-Examine the effects of word choice, tone, bias, point of view, and structure
-Incorporate research and critical analysis of topics
-Recognize structure as a part of the message
-Evaluate the competence and credibility of speakers
-Adjust your spoken and written language based on your audience

Quickly looking at these necessary skills, one can see how easily these skills can apply to either the zine project or the media literacy project. These projects are interesting to the students because they directly effect them. They are consumed in the media and with problems and issues that effect their every-day lives, so why wouldn't they want to express their concerns, complaints, problems, or praises through creative writing?

Zines and media literacy will appeal to students because they differ from normal "classroom" assignments. Writing can be cool--we just need to know how to approach it so that it will interest students. Both Hobbs and Tobi Jacobi have great strategies to get students motivated to write. Publication will motivate student activity; we just need to give students the appropriate tools to get their messages heard.

Type vs. Script

Personally, do you write better using script on paper or typing on a computer?

Is it different for every person, or are we (as technologically challenged adults) different because we grew up learning how to write first on paper?

I think we misplace the fact that computers were not writing tools when we were first educated. I remember having a computer lab in my elementary school, but we used the lab to play educational computer games. The computers were old school macs with no mouse and ran slower than we had time in the period. Now, I see computers in classrooms that can transfer information within minutes. My cousin who is in elementary school types her homework on her own personal laptop. The youth are learning writing skills on laptops.

This whole idea occurred to me when I was reading a live chat on Education Week. One person asked: "Has the use of computers to write meant that students are writing better? worse? no difference?"

Answer: "I think students are writing both worse, and better. On the worse end, teachers complain that students cut-and-paste from online sources or simply repeat or paraphrase information without thinking critically about it.
On the better side, researchers who have studied student writing since the 1980s have found students feel more motivated when writing with computers and they produced papers that are neater, somewhat longer, with fewer spelling and grammar errors. The quality of the style and content is about the same, researchers have found.
But researchers have also found that students who normally use computers to write perform better on writing assessments when they use computers, rather than pencil and paper. That's a logical finding, but it has implications for standardized testing, which today offers both paper and computer versions of writing assessments."

I don't know if this answer is really this cut and dry. I think students today have a more difficult time connecting with writing on paper because they are so used to transferring their ideas via keyboard. Writing on paper has now become associated with worksheets or mindless activity, like copying down a phone number (but even that can be punched into a cell phone). Allowing students the ability to write in both atmospheres seems to be ideal for me, but I think most of the long-term writing projects should be focused towards a computer.

Students will be working and writing on computers, so we should have them writing a lot on them. We (the older generation) have adapted to writing on this machine, but we must think about how this practice is completely natural to students. They are comfortable on the computer typing a mile a minute to their friends on AOL instant messenger. You want to get them interested? Type something. Paper is old news to them.

Keeping Up

I thought I would include the chart above in my discussion here. Look at how all schools, low and high income, have adapted so far to technology. Perhaps slow, but at least we have this domiant number of schools connected to the internet.

If we can get this many schools to connect to the internet, then maybe we can begin to incorporate other digital resources as well. We, as fresh, young, incoming teachers, need to bring in ideas to pitch to our schools. What technology resources will we ask for when we write grants? What will we be looking to bring to our school?

This article states that "For many educators, 21st-century digital literacy must hinge not on the superficial fluency with technology that many students exhibit in their off hours, but on proficiency in such skills as effectively sifting through a glut of electronic information and producing creative work that will be valued highly in the global marketplace."

Friedman's eyes would light up if he read those last few words in that sentence. Students will need to be competing globally by the time they reach adulthood, so we need to shift students attention from dull worksheets to internet resources.

On a different link from the same website, the author uses an example of a high-tech teenager who is bored with the lack of technology in his classroom. He feels bogged down by his inability to use the skills he normally uses throughout his day.

The student says, “When I step out of school, I have a pretty high-tech life. When I step in school, I feel like I’m not me anymore. I have to jump into this whole old-fashioned thing where everything is restricted.”

This should not be happening.

This exact instance reminds me of the presentation I saw from the ELA conference in Corey Union held by Shade Gomez. Clearly, his program where students used digital sources to convey deeper readings of Shakespeare's Hamlet demonstrates how students will go above and beyond our expectations of what they can produce. If we give them assignments that are up to their speed (in regards to technology), they will meet us there, or go beyond. Students will not feel restricted, like the student above, if we provide projects where students can explore their intelligence through the latest technologies.

That interests students; that's where we need to be.