The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckely

General synopsis:

The Sisters Grimm follows the story of two sisters (Sabrina and Daphne Grimm: elementary and middle school) whose parents have mysteriously disappeared. The sisters are shipped off to the rural town of Ferryport Landing to live with their rather eccentric grandmother who was just recently allowed to care for them, who they had never heard of, and whose license was revoked (and not because of age). The series follows the sisters as they realize that Ferryport Landing is less than normal (a.k.a filled with disguised fairy tale characters-who knew Snow White was a karate master?), their parents’ disappearance was a fairy-terrorism kidnapping, and their “roommate” is a Shakespearean fairy who looks and smells a lot like tweenage boy (not to mention the big, bad (?) wolf who lives downstairs). Oh…and magic is totally real.

Book 1: 
As the sisters adjust to this new home they discover that they are the descendants of the Brothers Grimm (who wrote history books not fairy tales). They also discover that their family mission is to be fairy-tale detectives. A.K.A. snooping around in their neighbor's business and making sure that the Everafters (magical fairy tale people) are behaving themselves. Also...someone has set a giant loose on the town and it is their job to find out who, why, and how to stop it. 

Why choose this text?

·        The graphics allow for a break from the text and stimulate student imagination

·        The pages are seeped with adolescent humor (farts, first kisses, embarrassing moments, crazy family members)

·        Many important real-world themes portrayed in a digestible story  

o   Family relationships (sisters, parents, grandparents, uncles…the list goes on)

o   Romantic relationships (between kids and between adults)

o   Abandonment and the foster care system 

o   Terrorism/cult organizations

·        There are 10 books. You can hook the students on book 1 and then they might keep reading on their own time

Who should we use this text for?

• Elementary and Middle school readers: Share age with the characters, allows for a mix of abilities (via the long text and the visuals). Could be used with a higher level ELL
• High school readers: For those who are having trouble stomaching larger texts but who still need the experience of reading a full novel

Teaching ideas:

·        Have students follow a character through the text and note character development and struggles and have the students relate their own life and struggles to that character

• Have students write their own shorter versions of a modern-day fairy tale and draw graphics to accompany the story
• Have students do skits of the scenes (there are a smorgasbord of hilarious and embarrassing scenes) and then have them analyze them

Potential Problems:

• ·        The text involves the use of magic (albeit in a very innocent manner) and this could be seen as undesirable by some parents and possibly administrators
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• ·        The text does talk about parents abandoning children and this could be a trigger for some students
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Kelly Gallager's Readicide

I honestly do not know what to say. There is so much in Gallager's Readicide to think about that I feel like I'm drowning in a flood of passion, revolution, and just plain old good teaching skills and ideas. In order to cope with my thoughts, I will approach them in chunks of awe.

First chunk:
Gallager put to voice the inner frustrations and anger that I have felt for so long regarding the ridiculous amount of testing (specifically standardized) that students are forced to wade through. I remember being frustrated as a student with the constant testing and the constant test prep that I had to do in order to "prove" that I was smart enough for the state. I remember the horrible stress of realizing that all of my hard work during the school year and all of my passion and dreams could be smashed or upheld in one stupid test. I remember feeling the injustice of spending hours struggling to prep for a test that took away from my actual enjoyment of learning. I don't blame my teachers for this because those teachers got me through the tests that I needed in order to succeed and reach college. I blame the educational institution that has been too blind to fix this problem. As a teacher in training I feel that injustice and anger all over again because I know that I will be forced to prepare my students for those myriad of standardized tests. Gallager stresses that prepping students for these tests takes away valuable time from actual learning and forces teacher to instruct students in a way that stresses shallow, not deep, learning. Students are not going to remember shallow learning-they will remember the deep projects and the units that encouraged them to think deep, to reach new levels, and to connect personally with content. With all of the standardized tests that students are being prepared for, teachers are limited in what they can do to actually help their students learn content that will stick with them and support them in the long term. Schools should be focusing on what students need and what actually benefits students-not on how to fudge test scores and make their school district look good through standardized testing.

Second chunk:
Gallager writes about a time when he was only able to get his students interested in a book when he brought it to the classroom and made it easily available to them (instead of asking them to go to the school library). He made the point that sometimes we have to bring the library to students. I appreciate this sentiment because honestly, students are busy and sometimes asking them to go find yet another thing is just more than they are willing to handle. If we can spark their interest in books and bring them a flood of options just waiting for them to grab, take home, and devour...we are much more likely to gain their interest. Sometimes students just need that extra push and that little helping hand to get them going.

Third chunk:
Gallager also mentioned that many students have forgotten how to read for enjoyment. To these students books are a school only thing and something to be avoided at all costs. He encouraged giving students the opportunity to read silently for simple enjoyment. I have seen this in action at a school I have observed in. The students do minimal analyzing and reporting on their books but they read and read and read. The focus of the class is to encourage students to read a smorgasbord of materials and to give them the resources they need to be successful readers and to find more materials for reading.

Concluding chunk:
I could write for hours on this topic but I will leave it here. I have always loved to read. I was homeschooled from 2nd grade and up. I remember the first day of "class" as a homeschooler. My mom sat down on the couch with me and together we read through picture book after picture book after picture book. I loved it because she was so proud when I finished a book. I remember picking out a harder picture book and racing to her room to show her that I could read it. Not long after, I remember venturing into my local library and feeling the excitement of choosing whatever book I wanted to read. I LOVE that library. I returned all the time as I grew up and continued to find joy in reading. I remember leaving the library with literal stacks of books (my limit was 30 and I almost always hit it) and feeling so excited to delve into the worlds of magic and wonder just waiting inside those covers. It wasn't until years later that I learned from my mom that my school had told her that I was struggling with reading. I remember those school classes too...I hated reading in those classes because there was no focus on joy-it was all about correct or incorrect.
What I'm trying to say is that reading is an incredible experience and a life-long passion and skill that our students can possess. We owe it to each and every student to give them the opportunity, support, and resources necessary to help them become life long readers.

Cris Tovani's "I read It, But I Don't Get IT"

As a person, a student, and as a teacher I am an avid reader. I love to read and reading, generally, comes easily. So, when I read Tovani’s I Read It, but I Don’t Get It I was both struck and saddened by the realization that so many students struggle to read, see reading as a negative, and have simply given up on the entire process. It is naïve of me to think that everyone loves delving into text in the same way that I do but I hope that I can help my students develop good readings skills and strategies so that when presented with reading, they don’t feel as if it is an impossible task.  

One important teaching method that Tovani mentions is that of modeling how to read and helping students understand that different types of reading require different types of strategies. This goes along with the idea that Tovani shared that students too often focus on just decoding and reading with fluency and thus, read and don’t comprehend. Students will absolutely need to know how to read and comprehend what they are reading if they are going to be able to survive in either college or the work world. If we can model that reading is much more than just sounding out words and show students the wealth of knowledge that is to be found in text, we are that much closer to helping students become successful readers themselves. I think that so often we, as teachers, forget that while something might make sense in our head, it does not necessarily make sense in the heads of our students. We can’t just explain why we think reading is important or tell students how to read. We have to show, to model, and to guide students through the action of reading. Sometimes the hardest part of growing a new skill is the start where the student must jump in and start trying. Helping those students see (via modeling) the kind of behavior that will make them successful is essential to helping them into that initial plunge.

Another thing that struck me about this text was the example given at the beginning where a classroom dialogue about reading was written down. Some of the students seemed almost proud that they hadn’t read an entire book before or that they were pros at cheating on book reports. The way the teacher handled this by showing that she too hated book reports was fantastic! Students have predetermined ideas regarding reading and what a reading class entails and when a teacher can shake those ideas up, add interest and intrigue to a “boring” class, students are more likely to finally respond in a positive manner. I think that our job as teachers isn’t to just teach the same old things in the same old ways but to respond to our students’ needs and to alter our teaching methods so that those students can be successful and gain the necessary skills. 

"Music Teacher Educator Perspectives on Social Justice" by Karen Salvador and Jacqueline Kelly-McHale

The first thing that struck me when reading this text was the idea that social justice is connected to diversity. Of course! This makes sense but I realized as I was reading that I wouldn't have connected social justice with diversity right off the bat. But...in order for there to be justice in society and in order for there to be a dialogue surrounding social justice an acceptance and willingness to discuss diverse peoples is necessary. We can't have social justice if it is only focused on one section of society. For educators, this means recognizing that our students are diverse-they don't fit into any molds or cookie cutter shapes that one might imagine when thinking of the stereotypical "student." Realizing and embracing this diversity then leads to improved education methods, curriculum, and relationship with students.

The next idea in the text that struck me was the fact that many schools that have a more diverse population do not offer a music program at all to their students. The reasons for this are numerous but the fact that these students are unable to access content that a more homogeneous school population are able to access is disturbing. Music is one of the few "languages" that everyone can speak, that everyone can create with, and that everyone can interpret and enjoy. It allows students to show worth and skill without having to be able to read in English, or Spanish, or any other language but instead focuses on the diligence and creativity of the individual and the perseverance of the group. Any student can access musical content in some way or another and the fact that some students aren't able to access it because they are in a diverse school is disturbing. This, it seems to me, is an example of social injustice.

One fact that this study found was that the music educator population in the United States isn't very diverse and thus, often doesn't consider ideas of diversity and social justice in the music classroom. However, in order for this to change, a more diverse population needs to be taught music skills (in secondary and primary school) so that some can then move on to be music teachers.

Duncan-Andrade and Morrell’s “Critical Pedagogy and Popular Culture in an Urban Secondary English

As I read this text it struck me that all the ideas mentioned therein and all of the values that the text called for are ideas and values that have been mentioned so many times before in other books, articles, texts, and lectures that I have been subject to. The truly troubling thing is that these essential values are often forgotten or not deemed important enough in our classrooms. It isn’t that these ideas of critical pedagogy, discussing similarities and differences in cultures and in texts, and connecting the students’ lives to classroom instruction are new. It is that these ideas are so often trumped by what is “easy” and by what teachers themselves were taught, are familiar with, and can easily create units on. However, school is not for teachers…. school is for students.

Beyond these musings, there were a couple of ideas that truly stood out to me in this text. The first idea that stood out to me was that of the importance of connecting student lives to the content. However, this text suggests combining the use of popular media/culture with the use of classic classroom texts in order to connect ELA content to student lives. The key isn’t to choose an either/or method but a both method. It is okay to use classic texts. What isn’t okay is using those classic texts to teach in a way that is irrelevant to students and, essentially, lazy. The texts we choose to use in our classrooms shouldn’t be chosen because it’s what has always been done but they should be chosen because they can be used connect students’ personal lives to the content area and to elevate their thinking and classroom discussion.

The idea that stood out to me (in a negative light) was the idea that the authors of the text integrated teaching SAT and ACT prep in their units. Why is this a thing? What are we wasting valuable classroom time in teaching to a test that won’t apply to student lives except in the form of entrance to higher education. This isn’t to say that I feel that the authors of the text are at fault for preparing their students for the SAT and ACT. I think that they are absolutely right in their assumption that students need help preparing for the exams. What bothered me is the fact that they have to devote valuable classroom time to test takings skills. It is a reality of our current world and not one that is easily remedied but still one that needs to be recognized. 

Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” Chapter 2

The first thing that struck me from this chapter was the thought that TEACHERS TALK TOO MUCH. I think all teachers love to talk just a little bit (even if they deny it) because we are passionate about our content area. We love what we teach. However, while what we are teaching may seem alive to us, that does not mean our endless droning is positively impacting our students. We, as teachers, have the responsibility to connect content to real life application and to help our students experience what we would be inclined to just lecture about.
The idea of the teacher depositing facts into student minds to be memorized also struck me. This idea is so real to me because I, as a student, have experienced this countless times and I can say with complete confidence that after taking the test, I forgot all of those facts that were "deposited" into our brains. Our job as teachers is not to teach facts that students can regurgitate and forget, but to help bring our content alive and help our students apply and experiment with what they are learning. Friere's description of the dehumanization of men and women through this depositing approach to teaching is truly terrifying because the great thinkers and achievers of the world are those who are able to teach themselves, look outside of the box, and think critically. The depositing approach does not facilitate those skills.
I also love the idea of the teacher being taught while he or she teaches the students. The idea and reality that teacher and students are part of a communication and dialogue that both teach in and learn from is refreshing and true. The teacher isn't the source of all knowledge but should instead be the facilitator to guide students and push students to ask their own questions and create their own meaning.

Assessing and Evaluating Students' Learning

There are a few things that stood out to me in this book chapter. The first item that stood out to me was the idea that how you look at your content and how you view what you are teaching directly impacts how you choose to assess it. This means that if you think understanding literature is all about facts and dates and details then that is what your assessments will be about. If you think that literature is all about personal connections, interpretations, and inferences, then that is what your assessments will focus on. While this seems like a very common sense train of thought I think it is actually quite important to recognize. If a teacher doesn't realize that assessment and teaching values/goals are supposed to line up then that teacher could easily assess in a way that is opposite to their teaching methods. What if that teacher's instruction focused on personal connection and interpretation but their assessment was primarily facts and textual details? That teacher wouldn't be assessing what the students were taught in class.
The next idea that stuck with me was the idea that objective tests inhibit students' individuality. Because of this I think it is important for teachers to use multiple types of assessments. Students should be able to express themselves, their opinions, and interpretations but students also need to know certain objective facts and details.
The third idea that stood out to me was the idea that when we use reader-based feedback on students' writing we are teaching students how to teach themselves. Students who receive reader-based feedback aren't given explicit instructions but instead have to choose how to react to the feedback and how to change their writing because of the feedback. This, I believe, is a step towards helping students learn how to facilitate their own learning. This, in turn, is the key to continuing education and successful, life-long learners.