Travis Dalsis
Eastern Michigan University
Dr. Baker and Dr. Daumer
4 February 2012
“Where do I see myself as a teacher of English?”
If one doesn’t take a step back from their position within an framework, he or she cannot see the situation they are in. They cannot examine and subjectively judge how or why they do what they do. Reading Santora’s article helped define some of the elements and pedagogical schemas that are working in my school and in my own mind as a teacher of English. His definition of the progressive movement in teaching English, characterized by: self-discovery, broadening one’s horizons, and using literature as an aid to form social/moral values resonated with my thoughts of allowing students to self-select texts. In my classroom, part of our curriculum is that students are able, once a week on Mondays, to choose a text for their own purposes. I often valued this experience because I saw many students find interests in books where characters were “like” them or they felt connected to a plot-line. Looking at the progressive movement as a whole, there are still elements lingering in my mind and in my school’s agenda with regard to reading.
I also am reminded of the rigor that is needed in our day and age of MEAP testing. The academic period of teaching English revolved around being mechanistic and studying the very fundamentals of literary structure and theory. This method was aimed at providing a college experience in the high school classroom. I see elements of this being forced into my English classroom at the eighth grade level. In our school, students are being asked to connect many elements together to produce literary papers and doing close readings. I see value in this model of teaching—I am most familiar with it as an English major. Overall, this academic period seems most familiar and it covers most of the landscape of teaching at my school with regard to studying literature and teaching the elements of it.
I didn't realize they were pushing the college model into the middle schools, but I guess that doesn't surprise me. I wonder if these sorts of changes are being made based on fear. I'd worry that we'd make kids hate English before they can enjoy reading.
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