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Question #7: Post a piece of personal writing generated from the text set theme—poem, short story, blog, etc. This writing should be representative of the writing product (or choice of writing product) being assigned in the final curriculum unit. 

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Question #7: Post a piece of personal writing generated from the text set theme—poem, short story, blog, etc. This writing should be representative of the writing product (or choice of writing product) being assigned in the final curriculum unit. 

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A Day in the Life of Someone Homeless

Oh God, Why is this happening to me?

Could I just go back to the way things used to be...

I don’t think I have eaten anything in days,

Please tell me this is just a faze.

All I want is a decent meal,

Some type of meat, like steak chicken or veal.

I think all I have eaten in the last week was a strangers leftover turkey,

A half slice of pizza and a thin peice of smokey beef jerky.

What did I do to live like this?

My home, my bed, and my dignity is what I miss.

Not having a permanent living place can be scary,

But with the help of kind strangers -- I know this is only temporary.

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Question #6: Brainstorm 8-10 texts focused on a high-interest or literary theme. "Texts" are to be defined broadly to consider a wide variety of genres and modalities that include (but are not limited to) picture books, video, cartoons, novels, poetry, short stories, editorials, etc.

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Question #6: Brainstorm 8-10 texts focused on a high-interest or literary theme. "Texts" are to be defined broadly to consider a wide variety of genres and modalities that include (but are not limited to) picture books, video, cartoons, novels, poetry, short stories, editorials, etc.

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Theme: Financial Hardships (poverty or homelessness)

Book titles:
"Fly Away Home"
(novel) Fly Away Home tells the story of a boy and his father who live in an airport terminal with no hope of finding more permanent housing.
http://www.signature-reads.com/2017/10/homeless-human-too-books-understand-homelessness/

"Can't Get There From Here"
(book) The focus of this gritty work is an "asphalt tribe" of homeless young people trying to survive the winter on the streets of New York City. Almost without exception, the "kids" have been driven to their situation by home lives so harrowing that anything seems better by comparison.
https://www.enotes.com/topics/cant-get-there-from-here

"The Hundred Dresses"
(book) One day, after Wanda's classmates laugh at her funny last name and the faded blue dress she wears to school every day, Wanda claims to own one hundred dresses, all lined up in her closet at her worn-down house.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hundred_Dresses

"Concrete Pillow"
(poem) Poem of a formerly homeless man, and is struggles with the past.
http://www.friendtothehomeless.org/homeless-poetry.html

"Poverty"

(short story) This short story is about a person

who talks about their own suffering, and dealing with their homelessness, hunger and poverty.
https://www.wattpad.com/story/1560011-poverty

"The Homeless Man in Pale Blue"
(short story *based on a true story) A mysterious, yet heartwarming short story of an encounter with a young girl and a positive, optimistic, and kind homeless man.
https://www.poeticous.com/dandria-smith/the-homeless-man-in-pale-blue-short-story

"Homeless Woman Shares Heartbreaking Story of Homelessness in Los Angeles"
(youtube video) - "I'm a human being, but sometimes I don't feel like one anymore," although it's hard to put homelessness into words, that heartbreaking statement made by Michelle comes close. She continued by saying that she doesn't care if she'd go to jail because at least she would have a roof over her head.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tVHXHQ09JE

"The Family Under the Bridge"
(book) Armand, an old Parisian living on the streets of Paris, relished his solitary life. He begged and did odd jobs for money to keep himself warm and fed, and he liked his carefree life. Then one day just before Christmas, a struggling mother and her three children walked into his life.
https://www.amazon.com/Family-Bridge-Natalie-Savage-Carlson/dp/0064402509

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Question #5: Consider how to engage students in developing meaningful and appropriate Accountable Talk or conversation stems for classroom discussion.

Communication skills are truly important. We shouldn't need to spend every small minute of free time on our electronics, it is not healthy. Our generation needs to change our way of thinking. The importance of communication skills becomes obvious when you think of the many times that you communicate with someone during a single day. Taking the time to improve our personal skills is definitely worth the effort! Communication also strengthens relationships because we get to know each other (either in business or personally) by talking and listening. Knowing more about someone strengthens that relationship.

That in which brings me to the importance of conversation stems for classroom discussions. You can set the stage for productive discussions
by constructing ground rules about how talk will work in the classroom. "Researchers recommend establishing clear norms for turn taking in class discussions, such as asking each student contributor to select the next speaker" (Michaels, O’Connor, &

Hall, 2010). I feel that these would be good questions to ask yourself about your students’ talk:

Who is participating?

Who is silent?

Are the students making reasonable connections?

*These rules I saw (adapted from Mercer & Dawes, 2008, p. 66) were great and I think can be implemented/reminded to the students before their classroom discussions:

Everyone joins in.

Explain why you think what you think.

Listen to what others are saying and try to understand their points of view.

Give others the chance to try out new ideas.

You can respectfully disagree with someone else’s idea if you give reasons.

You can respectfully disagree with someone else’s idea and offer a different idea.

Let each person share their idea before you make a decision as a group.

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Question #4: Part 1--Compare standards (themes, key ideas, anomalies).

The NCTE standards had a list of about 12 standards relating to English/language. Upon reading this, I hadn't heard of NCTE so I decided to look it up and do some research as to what it stood for and what it meant. NCTE stands for National Council of Teachers of English. It mentioned that the standards were set in place "to improve the quality of assessment by providing standards to guide decisions about assessing the teaching and learning of literacy in 21st-century classrooms." Most standards applied towards a wide range of strategies/literature. They were written as students apply knowledge, conduct research, develop an understanding, etc.

Although the NCTE document was long, The Common Core Standard was a bit harder read for me. Maybe because it was a ton of information crowded with really small font. It was organized a bit better because It was grades K-5, however, the small font made it seem overwhelming. Some of there were already familiar to me, I have looked at this document I believe once before. Common Core is something that everyone knows about and this document was very helpful. It was separated into a variety of categories: K-5 reading standards, literature standards, foundational skills, writing, speaking and listening, etc. Although this was very neat and organized, I still felt it was a harder read.

Part 2--Continue Standards conversation by comparing Robb’s surveys and Atwell’s experiences with the CCSS to locate your position within authenticity and accountability (not necessarily a dichotomy).

In Robb's chapter from Teaching Middle School Writers, he separated his chapter into 4 total sections: research, teachers’ realities, students feedback, and his own teaching experiences.  I really liked how under each section, a “How this information helps you” paragraph was underneath a description. As students, we all have had thoughts such as “why do i have to read this?” or “how will this help me?”, so that section was great to have. It provided information as to what he provides within that specific section. This chapter was interesting because it was well written. He had a section titled “different ways to use this book” which included ways to use as a lesson to improve writing.

Atwell's chapter mentioned “the daily poem” and how she introduced a different poem every morning and asked her students to read along. I particularly enjoyed reading this because I also had a teacher do that with us. It was every Friday if the week where she would choose a different poem and had  us all read it. It made us all grow fond of poetry and become better at writing. I related that to Atwell's experience with writing and how she chose specific poems geared towards the liking and interest of her middle school students. Standards are put in place for a reason and although they can be a bit of a pain to meet per grade, they are there ways as to seeing what is being taught in that grade.

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Sevdia,

It's really interesting to hear about your literacy development and how you learned to talk Albanian. I love it when people think back on their lives and appreciate the experiences they've had even though they might not have liked them at the time. Reading your post reminds me of how I wish I continued learning Arabic when I was younger. Since I was away from it for so long and I didn't have the opportunity to go to an Arabic school, I lost most of my knowledge of the language over the years. But, like you said, everything happens for a reason. I truly believe that as well.
It must be very helpful to you and Nuria that you guys have a sister who is already working in the career field you are pursuing.  It's cute how she acted like a teacher when you were younger!

I, too, thoroughly enjoyed Atwell's article. It was so fascinating to hear her real life experiences and the challenges she faced in the classroom. She must have been freaking out when she found out there wasn't a set curriculum at her school. I know I would have! Most importantly, I loved how Atwell invited her readers to experience her journey to discover appropriate writing instruction. She described her actions as a teacher as well as the mentality she held at every moment. It was amazing to witness her change of perspective.

In regards to implementing your own lessons and ideas into the classroom, I agree with you. It's important for teachers to feel free to teach the curriculum the way they'd like to. I used to always think that curriculum and standards were so restricting. However, I've come to realize that I was wrong. They are simply guidelines to follow and teachers must be able to reach the outlined benchmarks. But, they can do this in a creative way of their choosing.  On the other hand, I've heard of schools requiring teachers to follow lessons and activities set forth by each subject department. For example, the entire English department teaches the exact same way and conducts the same classroom activities set by the department chair. I would hate to be in a school where I have no leeway or opportunity to teach on my own accord.

Great post!

-Sireen

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Question #3: (Part 1) Charles de Lint once said, “Don’t forget -- no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell.” I really love that quote because we all have different experiences that have shaped us into the kind of people that we are. Without good -- or even sometimes bad -- experiences, we probably wouldn't have gotten to where we are today. Everything that happens in life does happen for reason, and I truly believe that. Even when my mother was growing up, she said she always loved that saying - everything happens for a reason. I had it written on a picture hanging above my bed for the longest time as a reminder that it is okay to struggle sometimes; it's all a part of life. My mother and father have always been my biggest influence in life from the very beginning.

I started to talk when I was roughly one and a half, which is about the same time my twin sister did also. I don’t necessarily consider myself an “early talker,” because my older sister said her first words at the age of six months. My first words were probably everyone's first words. They were “baba” and “mama” which of course means dad and mom, but in Albanian. My mom said that I said “mama”’ first and that my dad would get mad because we didn't say “baba” until a bit later. Even now when I come home later sometimes and out of habit just scream, “Hi mom”, he yells back “No. HI DAD!” Still obviously having some built up anger from us not saying “dad” first. As I was growing up, my father always wanted me to talk in Albanian so I could talk to his parents (my grandparents). They only spoke Albanian as I was growing up so it was a bit difficult trying to tell them anything. I was still trying to learn English let alone Albanian. My parents signed me up for classes at a local Albanian school that taught kids how to read and write. I went there from the age of 7 to probably 12. Once you hit 12, you ‘graduate” so that meant we couldn't go anymore. When I first started there, I didn't like it because i didn't know what anyone was saying. Most of the kids were a bit older than I so they were at the advanced stages. I didn't know what they were saying because we had to speak in only Albanian. I truly learned so much Albanian there, and also, of course, my parents were teaching me too. By the end of our lessons at Albanian school, my sisters and I walked out pretty much speaking fluently. It was really cool because in awkward or weird situations, I could speak Albanian to my family and people would say “what language is that? It sounds so cool!” Speaking another language is still so cool to me. Being bilingual as a teacher can open many doors for me because I could possibly be an ESL teacher. At my job, there are a couple Albanian customers that only speak Albanian so they always wait for me to come in so they can do their bank transactions.  I love that my father signed us up for Albanian school when we were younger because if it wasn't for him, we wouldn't know all the Albanian we do today.

My mother was always the one constantly making us learn new words to say in both English and Albanian, and what they meant. She loved school; in school came her passion for reading. As a young mother, she always read us a new children's book every night growing up. Or at least I thought they were new ones because of how well she read them. She read with a new silly voice and she would just make up new characters that would fit perfectly. I started to read when I was about three and a half or four, and my mom was the one to teach me. With the help of my older sister, who is three years older than my twin sister and I. My older sister, Alia, always had us read a page aloud to her and she critiqued us as we went. She always knew she wanted to be teacher so she made up worksheets for us to write and fill out. She had a timer for us that beeped every two minutes and therefore she would say, “You guys are taking too long!! Hurry!” so then Nuria and I would rush to fill it out and hand it in. She told us to get back to our seats and sit in silence as she ‘graded’ them. As tough (and annoying) she may have been as a teacher, she still always gave us a 100% and a gold star. As I see that she is still the same teacher she acted like when she was younger, it has given me the passion to become one just like her. I wish to pass along all that I have learned and all that I will continue to learn in both reading and writing to my students.

Part 2: In response to your Question#3 Padlet link post: Make observations about what you have learned about yourself and others (specific and general) with specific connections to the readings. What do we know now about students, school, classroom, and ourselves that we can apply to our middle grades philosophy of teaching?

I would like to start off with saying how much I enjoyed reading Atwell's first Chapter. I was hooked from the very beginning. Reading her story and my classmates posts made me aware of many things I hadn't necessarily thought of. As I stated, I enjoyed reading Atwell's story, a particular part that stuck out to me was when her first day of the school year, she stated, "The principal handed me "the curriculum," which turned out to be a copy of my schedule: six periods each day of reading and English. Then he scurried back across the blacktop to the safety of K-6..." (Atwell, p. 5).

After reading this chapter, I went to the classmates posts, and something that Toni mentioned resonated with my thoughts. She stated, "I have an integral conflict when it comes to teaching. Of course, I must abide by the curriculum that my school will provide for me to teach my students. But I would love to include my own lesson plans." I have the same thought. And after reading the quote I quoted from Atwell above, I can't help but think how hard it is for those teachers that can't implement their own ideas into the curriculum. I guess it depends on the state and school, but I have heard stories from friends and professors of mine that in some districts you can't implement your own lessons. My older sister Alia is a teacher and I talked to her about how the curriculum is where she teaches. She mentioned how at her school, they do have a set ELA/Math pacing guide that they follow to assess their students based on common core standards that have to be met each quarter. However, as long as the standards are being met per grade level, they are allowed to add their own twist of strategies to incorporate in the classroom. There also is set books they have to real aloud to their students but they have the choice on how to teach it.

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Question 2: Most of my high school classes were grammar focused, so that is why I like spelling and grammar so much. Although I did like grammar, I hated the rules behind them. Prepositions, adverbs, adjectives... we honestly didn't have much experience that I can remember with them. In college, I placed out of the basic English courses so I didn't have to take any. I did however take British Literature, and it was okay. I like to read more current and relatable books so it was a bit hard for me to get motivated to enjoy reading them. As I got older, more and more homework was handed out, and my love for reading slowly got pushed back. I do not have any time to truly read with juggling school work, work life, and helping out my parents at their business when needed. Nonetheless, when it comes to a long weekend or if I do have some down time, I will pick up a book. If the genre is something that interests me, then I can finish it all in an hour or so. But like I said, only if it interests me. If you give me a book about the Odyssey, or King Henry, I will read it but trust me, it will take me so long to focus. I will read and reread one page at a time and literally forget what I read. On the other hand, I enjoy writing. I was always that student who was happy when it came to writing essays. I do not write in a journal, but I would like to try that. I am pretty open with my feelings so I don’t really see the need to write in a diary or journal, but it would be cool to try something new. I just feel that I won’t have the time or ‘make the time’ to write in it. I do procrastinate because of everything that I have to do. But to be honest, I procrastinate because of stress. When I know I have a lot of things to do, I wait til the last minute because then I don't have to think about it. I am continuously working on it though because honestly waiting does the exact opposite. It tends to add more stress because I try to cram everything in at the last minute. It's a work in progress.

Because I am getting my endorsement in English, I am going to be taking more and more English courses that include both reading and writing. I want to make my students love to read and write as I did and still do. I feel that as a teacher, if you show that reading and writing can be fun and if you let students choose the kind of books they want to read sometimes, then the kids will reciprocate that same love that you show. Thats how teens' experience might shift -- It's important to be nothing but positive to students when talking about reading and writing.