Lesson Reflection

I think that overall the lesson went well. I believe that this chapter of Reading, Writing and Rising Up is all about getting to know those in your class and from there forming a safe community where one feels comfortable participating in the class - and as we know, for learning to take place one needs to be participating. I believe that by the end of this lesson everyone knew each other better and hopefully everyone feels like this class is a safe place for them. 

I was so thankful that Allie shared about her personal high school story because it allowed for the class to reach that next level of vulnerability because Allie was so open and honest with us. 

For negative feedback about the lesson I feel that it could have been at times boring and some people may not have felt heard. If I were to do it again I would hope to give more people the opportunity to share. I also received feedback from classmates about improving transitions and not including as much writing. I totally agree with both. I always think transitions can be improved and I felt like I learned a lot from doing this lesson about what could go better next time. For the feedback on too much writing - I agreed with that too, but felt like because of what was required for the lesson I had to include lots of writing and it was one of the only ways that I could meet the 1 hour time cap.

I really loved this topic and I was so glad that I could teach a lesson on it. I believe that building a community in our classrooms is so important and is vital to student progress. I hope that my classmates enjoyed it and learned about an activity or novel that they could do or share in their classroom. 

Social Justice

I recently listened to To Kill A Mockingbird on tape and I believe that it would be a perfect book to use in a classroom when teaching about social justice/injustice. This book unpacks the injustice that a black man living in the rural south faced while participating in the criminal justice system. This man was wrongly accused because of the color of his skin and was prosecuted and was deemed guilty because his skin color. To Kill A Mockingbird was originally published in 1960, but it is very much relevant today.

This book would allow us to begin a conversation about social injustice in the classroom. To Kill A Mockingbird would be a difficult book for students to read because of how upsetting the book is and because students are likely to feel a mixture of emotions - they might personally relate to this book through Tom, Scout, the Yules, or Boo Radley. All of those characters are seeking to overcome trials and when a student relates with them, they might be experiencing those similar emotions. I believe that by introducing this text, as the first introduction a class would have to the topic of race in the classroom, would allow for students to be able to have a discussion about race in a way that would be enabling students to critically think about their views on race. Every student will come from a different background, so this whole unit would walk the line of possibly having a heated discussion -- but it is 100% necessary for there to be conversations about race in the classroom. Reading and studying To Kill A Mockingbird would allow for that kind of discussion.

Favorite Short Story

When I was asked about my favorite short story, I had no answer to give. There was no short story that immediately came to mind that I absolutely loved. The only short story that I remember reading was The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. I have read this story multiple times and find it to be so intriguing and disturbing. This story is unimaginable, which makes it that much more fun to wonder about if it were actually true or if it could actually happen. The story uses a relatable real world setting and makes it into a sci-fi fantastic world, which is one thing that I liked about the story. In this short story a young boy wakes up one morning and finds that he has transformed into a "gargantuan pest". The American public has interpreted "pest" to be a cockroach. 

In my study of The Metamorphosis I found there to be multiple ways that we, as students, could explore the story. Sometimes we came to similar conclusions, but there were a lot of times that our individual reading brought about individual ideas about the story. All of the different ideas allowed for us to unpack this short story in a very fruitful and thought provoking way. Through our own ideas we were able to discuss literary techniques such as: extended metaphor, symbolism, tone, and euphemism. 

I have not read the story in a couple years, but if I were to design an essay prompt I would ask students to critically analyze one moment in the story and to show the impact that this moment had on the entirety of the story. An example could be Gregor's relationship with his sister and how she feeds him. 

Here is a link to the short story, The Metamorphosis.