Portfolio+-+Marlene+Menzel

“Teaching Reading and Literature” is not only the course title but the two most important, and at the same time most complex things, we have learned and discovered during our class meetings, projects and assignments. Teaching reading and literature to young adults is not as simple as it might sound. We have to get an understanding of what “reading” is and what is meant by “literature” to fully develop a philosophy for teaching reading. This course helped me to grow as a reader, as well as a teacher. It is a long process and it takes time to grow. I think, I am still at the beginning of my journey, but this course brought me closer to what is really important for an English teacher. When I look back of what we did in this class, I can say that I went through a progress. I came to this class with no expectation. I took it, because I wanted to have an English class that focuses more on the work with young adults than just any English class and I wanted to have a class that will help me grow some teacher qualities. How does this class differ from all the other English classes I took? It is also about literature and reading. But it is not just literature and reading in general. The main focus is on how we are going to teach it as future teachers. In all my other English classes I have to read so much literature that it is normal for me to talk about it. But I am a University student and this is what is expected of me. But my future students maybe don’t want to study English in college. They might not like reading books or talking about literature. They might not even like to come to school. For all those students I have to find a way to make literature and reading interesting enough so that they can grow as readers and are passionate about books and literature. So far I can say that this course helped me understand that teaching reading is not simple but there are lots of different ways in doing so. I first have to make clear what kind of reader/learner/teacher I am, and then I can start looking at my own students. Everybody is a reader, but not everybody reads the same. We learned in class, that there are different kinds of readers: **the developing or struggling readers, the dormant or reluctant readers and the underground readers.** 
 * __Final Reflective Portfolio - Marlene Menzel __**

As a teacher, I have to be aware of the fact that not every student is the same. Everyone needs different learning conditions and different support. I am not sure in which category I would put myself. I like reading and I remember I liked a lot of the books we read in school. But I also remember that I had difficulties with the assignments and the time, the teacher gave us. I like to be independent, study on my own, take my own time. I don’t like performing to the teachers expectations in the way the teacher wants us to. I am a very visual learner and I like to get a picture of everything. This is why worksheets in question form don’t really fit to me. I like to act out scenes, like we did for //The Absolutely True Diary of a Parttime Indian.// I also enjoyed the **one-pager**, where we had to draw a picture that stands for two related quotes from the book //The Good Earth//. This exercise is not about drawing a nice picture. You don’t have to be an artist. It is more about the idea behind it and the thinking process that stands behind it. This was the one that I made: 

Another good task was the “**glog**”. Creating a glog for a book we have read in class helps to develop a bigger understanding of its content. It is very visual and it helps to remember the overall theme of the book. My glog was about the book //Go Ask Alice//, which was about drugs. This is why I tried to make the glog very dark and scary looking. [|Glogster]

But not everyone is a visual learner. As a teacher I have to find tasks and exercises that suit every student and help them learn. I think it is very difficult to find different forms of teaching. Usually teachers find one teaching strategy that they will use over and over again, and for all their classes. I don’t want to be such a teacher. I want to vary in my strategies. I want to show that there are different ways how to teach literature and that there are many ways to talk and learn about books.

In this class, I saw a bunch of different approaches for teaching reading and literature. Before this class I have never done a **quick- or freewrite**. I usually think about a long time before I start writing. I never just start writing down random things that pop into my head. But I actually liked it. It makes things much easier. I felt free and stopped thinking too much about something. I actually wrote a lot of things down that I would normally never consider writing on a piece of paper. You don’t think about spelling or grammar when doing a quickwrite. Procrastination doesn’t exist because you just write down very quickly what you think. It is something for yourself and helps you with further assignments for that topic. It’s the little things that help you grow as a reader and writer.

Another example for something little that affects a lot is **reading a chapter out loud** every beginning of class. This is something I haven’t experienced before attending this course. Usually students read passages of a book to the class. Rarely, the teacher reads whole chapters to the students. But I enjoyed listening to //The Cay// in class together. We all experienced it together as a class. We were all on the same page every day. We could hear each other laughing or mumbling at the same things we just read. It is amazing how this brings students together. This might be a good thing to adapt and apply for my own teaching.

It is also a repetitive element so that students feel safe and know a little bit where they are going. “**Tell them where they are headed, where you are going**” is something I take out of this course. I think this is really important. Students know what the teacher will expect of them and why teachers are doing something the way they do. It helps students to understand the process of learning. Sometimes it is overwhelming and students are swamped by the teacher’s goals and course expectations. But it also helps them to get an overall picture of what they are doing. For me, as a future English teacher, this is very helpful. This is why I also found the **WHERE-page** from //The Understanding by Design Handbook// so helpful. On this page, there is very visually shown, how to plan lessons as a teacher. It includes all the different steps, which the teacher has to go through, when teaching literature. Taking all those steps in account, you will have a well-planned lesson and the students will take something out of it.

Another way to make students feel safe and show them where they are going is with the use of a **handout**. It is always very helpful to have something written in front of you. Students like having a handout that goes with what they just heard. It makes it easier for them to study and it is something that they can keep and have for the future.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">In this class, everyone made a handout for their B-Projects. We have all those different handouts, introducing and summarizing texts and books, and suggesting literacy connections and activities. Those handouts are a help for the creator as well as for the ones you get it handed out. Here are the most important things from my handout. My topic was "Drugs".


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 11px;">Classroom Activities: **

<span style="font-family: 'times new roman','serif'; font-size: 11px;">- write a letter/email to a drug addict/ character from the book

<span style="font-family: 'times new roman','serif'; font-size: 11px;">- go to the computer lap, research facts

<span style="font-family: 'times new roman','serif'; font-size: 11px;">- in groups, create a daily plan for a drug addict in a treatment center

<span style="font-family: 'times new roman','serif'; font-size: 11px;">- with a partner, find a different ending to one of the books

<span style="font-family: 'times new roman','serif'; font-size: 11px;">- invite a police officer and let him talk about that subject

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">Title: __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;"> **Drug Information for Teens, 2nd Edition**

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">Editor: __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;"> Sandra Augustyn Lawton

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">Publisher: __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;"> Omnigraphics, Inc. (2006)

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">ISBN: __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;"> 0-7808-0862-2

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">It is a non-fiction book for young adults. It is not so much a book that you read as a whole for pleasure. It is more like a reference book that you can use when you need help or want to look something up. It provides facts about drug use and addiction. It describes the physical and psychological effects of drugs that are often abused. It also covers topic of the health-related concerns and gives treatment information.

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">Title: __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;"> **Go Ask Alice**

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">Author: __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;"> Anonymous

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">Publisher: __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;"> Simon Pulse New York (1971)

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">ISBN-10: __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">1-4169-1463-3

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">The novel is written as a diary from the perspective of a troubling teenage girl. She gets introduced to LSD at a party, where someone puts it in her drink without her knowing of it. Since then her life gets out of control and darker and darker as she slips into the drug scene. She experiences a swing between optimism and despair but the book is seen as a testimony against drug use which is shown especially with the ending.

__<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">Title: __<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;"> **Crank**

__<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">Author: __<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;"> Ellen Hopkins

__<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">Publisher: __<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">Margaret K. McElderry Books (2010)

__<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">ISBN-10: __<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;"> 0-6898-6519-8

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">Crank reads like //Go Ask Alice// and will horrify and pierce older teenage readers just as //Alice// did 20 years ago. The book is about Kristina, who gets introduced to the “monster” crystal meth, or “crank”. Bree, Kristinas new side of herself, is wild and crazy and is doing everything that good girl Kristina would not do. The reader sees her downfall and her drug addiction. She ends up pregnant from a guy who raped her. Bree may never be free from her addiction to drugs.

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">Title: __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;"> ** The Perks of Being A Wallflower **

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">Author: __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;"> Stephen Chbosky

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">Publisher: __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;"> MTV Books (1999)

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">ISBN-10: __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">0-6710-2734-4

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">Charlie is a wallflower – shy and introspective. The reader gets to know Charlie and his problems as a teenage boy through the letters he writes to someone we don’t know. It’s a coming-of-age novel, and drugs are just one of the things he experiences during high school

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">Title: __**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;"> Rooftop **

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">Author: __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;"> Paul Volponi

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">Publisher: __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">SPEAK, Penguin Group (2006)

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">ISBN: __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;"> 978-0-14-240844-5

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11px;">It’s about two cousins, Clay and Addison, who grew up together in the projects until they got separated because of a family argument. Clay got caught smoking pot and Addison was arrested for dealing crack. They are reunited and back together at Daytop, a drug treatment program where they try to work out their problems. But their path out of rehab is quite different. One night, one of them gets shot on a rooftop. The story is told very realistic and the reader not only gets an insight into the center for drug abuser but also into the rough lives of the characters and living in the projects. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">In this course we learned what reading is through the articles on D2L, the Milner textbook and the “You Gotta BE the Book” by Wilhelm. We also learned how people develop as readers through those books used in this class. Students have to become linguistic detectives and need to explore their own inquiry questions using their reading. In a way, they have to use text as a lens to examine the world (Article iv on D2L). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Interaction with the text is a main goal of becoming a stronger reader. Conversations about a text in class are equally important to the conversation the reader himself has with the text. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The teacher has to engage the students in the reading. The best way to teach literature is through the “pre-reading”, “as they read”, and “after reading” concept. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Keeping a journal **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> is another good way to keep students engaged in the reading and learning process. It is a good way to discuss, interpret and evaluate literature. It helps to develop an understanding of reading and engages students with the text over time. In this course, we kept a Daybook during the whole semester. At the beginning, I was confused what has to go into the Daybook and what do I need to write somewhere else. But now I am glad that I have something organized that I can flip through and know where I can find things. Another visual way to create growth over time.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Before reading **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> a text, the students need to get prepared for what they read. It is the teacher’s job to give helpful tips in how to read the text and maybe even provide information about the author, or a time-setting info through articles, films, music, etc. It is always good to make connections between the books topics and other topics or to read previous texts about the same topic.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">As the students read **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> the text it would be good to have parts of the text read out loud and then talk about it together. As they are reading it, it is also sometimes helpful that the students draw symbols next to what they have read, to visualize and organize.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">After reading **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">, there have to come some activities. A few examples would be tableau and gig-saw activities, writing a letter to a character or a diary entry, dress up as a character, watch a movie, or book talks. There are million ways of connecting to literature through activities.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">But why do we study literature **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">? This was an essential question in our course. We came to the conclusion that it is important to teach literature to gain an insight in someone else’s work and life. Linking to that is the fact, that when we read literature, we get a better or bigger view on certain themes and topics. Every author has his own style of writing and uses different vocabulary. Reading literature expands the student’s horizons and works their brains. It is a way to socialize with others, get an overview of history and enhance vocabulary. All in all, one could say, that literature helps to build an understanding in all facets of life.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">This is why it is so important that we teach literature and help our students develop to strong readers.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">A lot of **students are struggling** through texts. As a teacher, I have to recognize the many reasons that causes their reading problems and help them develop the patience to stick with a text. Sometimes it is helpful to read a text several times, every time with a different focus. The first reading could help to get the general idea of the text, the meaning. Reading it for the second time would clear up uncertainties and raise questions about the text.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Another way of reading would be the pointed reading, which asks for underlining words. For some students visual clues would be helpful, so including a graphic novel would be an option for them.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The teacher has to get to know his/her students and try to match the students’ interest with the choice of text. This is not always possible, but sometimes it is good to let the students decide what they want to read. The most important goal, and what I learned from my Reading Partner Profile, is that teachers should never give up on their students. Students are only standing at the beginning of their reading journey. It is the teacher’s responsibility to guide them through texts and literature without destroying the student’s connection to the books. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Teaching reading and literature is much about understanding: understanding yourself as a teacher, understanding your students, understanding the connection between them and literature and reading and understandings that I have to go through on my journey.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">In the beginning of this portfolio I said that I would place myself at the beginning of my journey. But reading is a journey and it doesn’t matter how fast you grow and how fast you can call yourself a teacher of English. It is about what you do with it. I know that I am not that experienced as teacher at this point. But that is okay. You have to take little steps to get where you want to be. This course opened up my understanding of teaching reading and literature and provided me helpful data and brochures that I can use as a teacher. I still have a few years of university classes before I can get to teach in a school. But for right now, I can’t wait to stand in front of a classroom and teach.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Marlene Menzel