Poetry Instruction When teaching on the poem "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks, I presented the class with the terms "speaker" and "voice." The definitions were presented to the class and then we went even further in discussing the "narrative" and the "narrator." When using literary terms with poetry, it opens up the piece to better analyze the work and the student's understanding. I played a YouTube video of Gwendolyn Brooks reciting her poem so that the class could see these terms at work. Gwendolyn Brooks was inspired by individuals she came in contact with outside a pool hall to write the poem. She discussed this in the video and it helped the class orient themselves with the poet and how she wrote her poems. Then, the class looked at some discussion questions of deciding who the "speaker" of the poem is. Who "tells" the poem? Are there things you can see about the personality and perspective of the speaker? etc. We also discussed how the speaker might not necessarily be the poet. A poet can take on the perspective of any one and then write like or from this perspective. If I teach on this poem again, I would make more time to discuss the background of Gwendolyn Brooks and maybe compare this poem to her other poems so that students might have a better understanding.
Bellringer- Formal vs. Informal Language In a world that blurs the lines between formal and informal language, it is important to teach students the difference so that they can be successful in their endeavors. The students enjoyed participating in the activity because I provided candy for right answers. In the activity, there were options such as switching formal language to informal, asking if certain language was formal or informal and then asking students to give examples of formal and informal. It seemed that it was more difficult for students to change informal language to formal language. For example, "Howdy partner," is obviously informal language but what is it in the place of? Students don't always know the proper formal greetings that should be used in different settings so it is important to assist them in knowing when to use language with their friends and language with their future bosses.
Red Son- Postcolonialism In this teaching demo, critical theory was applied to see the graphic novel Red Son from a postcolonial perspective. In the presentation, we first discussed what postcolonial was and its place in literature. Postcolonial theory has developed as a critical reassessment of the legacy of colonialism and imperialism in relations between the West and the Third World. In the graphic novel, the United States is near social collapse but the Soviet Union is powerful except for its infringement of individual liberties. Superman then creates robots he controls if they conflict with his ideas which in class we saw it as "colonizing the mind." Superman is supposedly saving these people by enacting socialist values when instead he is taking away their freedoms. He even marginalizes other super heroes such as Wonder Woman. The perspectives change when Superman was in Russia instead of America but contrasting that with what America does, who also has history of colonizing and forcing out the natives, it is very interesting.
Group Teaching Demo- Zora Neale Hurston "How it Feels to be Colored Me" We all put a lot of effort and thought into what we planned to teach for the Zora Neale Hurston piece. I also believe the class was very receptive of our content. We had a relaxed environment and I could sense that everyone felt comfortable and able to discuss our topics. It was my responsibility to discuss the background of Zora Neale Hurston, the Harlem Renaissance and conduct an activity. The activity I changed at the last minute. I was thinking to myself how I could better impact the class and I thought an exercise on labeling and why it is in no way a good thing would help with the discussion. In my activity, I handed out different colored envelopes and then had students write facts about themselves inside the envelopes. Once they were finished, I went around the room and put negative labels on them. I believe we as a society are too quick to label others and an exercise showing how silly and pointless such a thing is, when we don’t even know what is on the inside, opens other's eyes. Even preforming the activity I was thinking how easy it is to just slap a label on something without even knowing the contents. The best part of our teaching demo is I believe it flowed really well through the different parts we were speaking on. All of what was focused on was different but it related back to the story closely. I think we could have continued on for an hour because we had very quick discussions due to the amount of material we each had to get through. I would have liked to conduct more discussion so that we could really see how prejudice affects each and every one of us. Maybe when I teach this exercise in a classroom, the students can share their own stories on how labels have negatively affected them. Since this was the last presentation, I also felt much more prepared and ready to teach in the future.