Foot: Great Films and How to Teach Them

My favorite chapter of this book is Chapter 7 because it is all about movie genres.  I like this because it would be a great way to get students to understand literary genres.  I would like to use movies in my classroom and I want my students to appreciate the film versions of the books they read.  If there is a film version of a book I have my students read I want them to see it after they read the book.  I want them to compare the book and the movie.  It would make a good project.  And if there isn't a film version of a book they are reading they could make a project of taking a scene from the book and filming it.  They could also write a paper about if a movie was a different genre.... For example if a Western was turned into a Musical, how would it change?

Chapter 8 was also very interesting to me because it is all about how different people are represented in films.  It can be different than how people are represented in books.  In movies camera angles and the actors that play the characters are very important.  In books the way characters are described determines how the reader sees the characters.  I think it is important for students to see both aspects of a story.

Foot: I'm So Totally, Digitally Close to You

When I read this article I started thinking about my Facebook habits.  On page three of the article it says, "For many people - particularly anyone over the age of 30 - the idea of describing your blow-by-blow activities in such detail is absurd."  I agree with this comment.  I am 30 years old and I can't imagine telling everyone every little thing I am doing.  I post something when it's important or exciting.  I don't tell my entire life story, and I don't post something 20 times a day. 

I also agree with the rest of the article about keeping up with all my friends.  I have over 200 friends on Facebook.  I know each and every one of them because most of them I went to high school with.  I do exactly what the article says, I skim through the news feed and and if anything important pops up I can talk to that friend about it.  Also when I see my friends in person I don't have to ask how they have been doing because I have been keeping up with their Facebook pages and I already know what is going on but we can start talking like we left a conversation and not miss a beat.

I like Facebook because it is a great way to keep up with my friends.  I also like the idea that updating Facebook can make you more aware of who you are.

Foot: You're Leaving a Digital Trail

I honestly don't care if "They" track a GPS chip in my phone or if "They" track my Google searches.  I don't have anything to hide.  If it would help doctors to track the flu patterns and they could save a lot of people from getting sick I don't see a problem with any of it.  People post so much on Facebook and on blogs there isn't much privacy anyway.  I understand that there is always a possibility that this can be used badly but I would rather save a lot of people by tracking data than worry about my privacy.  The government could put up cameras everywhere and be able to watch me wherever I go and I wouldn't care.  They would get really bored watching me anyway.  I think there would probably be less crime if the government could watch everyone all the time. 

I understand that this article ties into the book Little Brother that we read earlier in the semester, but even when I was reading that book I didn't see any problem with the "Big Brother" type of technology.  I wish at least law enforcement was able to watch the city with cameras or something.  If there were cameras everywhere then criminals couldn't get away with as much stuff.  If people were more accountable for their actions maybe they would act better.  I would love to see a world where there was no crime because people couldn't get away with it.

Foot: I (heart) Novels

Before reading this article I didn't know people wrote novels on their cell phones.  I guess you could do pretty much anything on phones now.  I have a smartphone and I can go online and get an app for just about anything.  I can even post to this blog from the Blogger app I have on my phone. 

I can't believe the people who have written cell phone novels got them published too.  Some of them were even adapted for manga, and film.  It is really hard to believe that they have that large a following.  It's even harder to believe that a lot of people look down on the people who have written cell phone novels.  Even the authors of the cell phone novels don't think of them as real literature.  It seems that a lot of these cell phone novels are based on true stories and I think these people are brave to put their stories out there for everyone to read.

I think this would be a good assignment for students.  I think they need to learn different ways to write.  They need to know that stories have not always been told at once.  A lot of stories were told in serial form.  It would help the students realize that their stories have to keep making sense especially when they are written in serial form because the audience could wait a week or even a month before they get the next installment.  I think a good way to have the students execute this assignment would be a class magazine or something.  Or if all the students had access to computers they could each have a blog.  Students need to be exposed to different ways to get their stories to an audience.

Foot: Publish or Perish

Most of the time when I go shopping for books I go to Borders.  That is my go-to bookstore.  I remember the first time I saw the Sony e-Reader sold at Borders.  I couldn't understand why anyone would want to read a book that wasn't really a book.  I hate reading on the computer, I print out all the articles we need to read for class because I can't stand reading them on my computer.  Finally, I took a good look at the Sony e-Reader and read everything I could find about it.  It's not like reading on a computer screen.  The screen of the e-Reader is just like a book.  You can even "flip" pages with a swipe of your finger.  I bought an e-Reader because I thought it might be interesting.  It is...... I still buy real books but I buy alot of e-Books because I like that I can bring a whole library of books with me on vacation but it's just the size and weight of a small hardback book.

I don't think I would ever just buy e-Books because I still like to flip through my books.  Sometimes it is easier to find a spot in a real book.  I can highlight, anotate and bookmark pages in my e-Reader..... But I still can't give up my real books.

For Christmas I bought each of my children a V-Reader made by V-Tech...... They are kindof like my e-Reader but they are for children..... For the most part they have book cartrages that they put in the V-Reader. They can have the books read to them by the reader or they can read them by themselves.  They also have reading games on them so they can work on their comprehension, spelling, and other reading skills.  I can also connect their readers to my computer and download other books for them.  My kids love their V-Readers because they can use them by themselves.

This whole article is about how everyone is afraid how e-Readers are going to destroy the publishing industry.  My personal opintion is that we will need both for a long time.  I know I'm not going to give up my real books anytime soon.

Foot: Video Games in the Classroom

When I first started reading this article I didn't think I could understand how video games help students learn.  I liked that the teacher Al Doyle expected his students to chart the patterns of the robots in the game on pieces of graph paper.  I also liked that they got to design their own games.  I understand how doing this is teaching them problem solving.  I think its cool that there is an entire school devoted to teaching students using video games. 

I remember when I was in sixth grade computers were still relatively new in my school.  Each classroom didn't have their own computers but we had a computer room and we had a computer class twice a week.  I liked my computer class because we got to play games on the computer.  One of the games which was my favorite looked like a race track and a car drove around the track  but it only went as fast as you typed.  You had to type the words that floated in the middle of the track so your car would go.  Before we played this game for the first time we played other computer games to help us remember which fingers we were supposed to use for the different letter keys on he keyboard.  At the time I remember wondering why the keys weren't in alphabetical order.  I really liked these games, everyone in my class thought they were fun.  At the time I didn't really think I was learning anything, I just thought it was fun to make my car go faster by typing the words.  I now understand that gaming can help students learn because now as an adult I can type 60 words per minute.  I wouldn't have been able to do that if we hadn't used those games.  I don't know if everyone in my class learned to type as well as I can but the games worked for me.

I also think it's neat that the school in the article wanted to set up Rock Band for the teachers to unwind with.  That would be really cool.

Foot: Make-up Assignment

I really enjoyed doing the multi-genre autobiography and I think it would be a great tool to use in the classroom.  Not only would it help me get to know my students but it would help the students get to know each other too.  Students who know each other and who are comfortable around each other are more likely to join class discussions.

Also, by watching other students multi-genre autobiographies students can learn about texts they didn't know about before.  Maybe they didn't know a movie was a book first, or that it was also turned into a play.  It could be a great start on a paper comparing the different forms of one story.

Students could also use this project as practice for a bigger project about their favorite author.  it is important that student learn and know how to use technology, and this project could be a great start for students who don't know much about technology and great practice for students who know a lot about technology.

I would love for my students to really dig deep for their multi-genre autobiographies and choose things that really meant something to them and then find a pattern in what they find.  there is always a pattern in what people like.  It can show these students who they really are.  They might learn a lot about themselves and each other.

Pytash: Chapter 5

I really enjoyed this chapter because poetry was really something I struggled with in high school.  I think it is an interesting idea to include familiar song lyrics in classroom lessons.  Song lyrics might be easier for students to interpret and analysis and it can help them get their feet wet in poetry. 

I like the thinking aloud exercise because a lot of times students don't know how to start to think about a poem and if the teacher shows the students how to think out loud they will get used to doing it and will eventually be able to do it when they read to themselves.

Jago also has her students to free write before a class discussion so she is able to call on any student and they should have something to say.  She gives students questions that will have exploratory answers; "Maybe Wordsworth is thinking. . ." "I wonder if. . . ."

I think this chapter will come in handy when it is my turn to teach poetry.

Pytash: Chapter 3

I never realized how much goes in to chosing books for a classroom.  I really enjoyed the lists of books Jago gives her 10th grade students.  The list of fourteen definitions of a classic were also interesting.  The first one, "The classics are those books about which ou usually hear people saying: "I'm rereading..." never "I'm reading..."  I have noticed that I say that about classics that I am reading.

Jago said her 10th graders read a total of twenty books.  That is alot of books.  I don't think I read that many books a year.  I think those are high expectations.  I would never ask my students to do something I don't think I could do myself.

I really like that she has her students keep a log of all the books they read throughtout high school.  I wish I had a list of all the books I read back then.

The Criteria for Choosing Books was my favorite part of the chapter because, I always wondered how teachers choose books for their students.  I am going to make sure to always have this book on my shelf so I can go back and look over the criteria for choosing books so I can best serve my students.