Author: Sara Martens

I really enjoyed the group presentation on the use of pop culture in the classroom and certainly could relate to some of the examples provided. At the top of the presentation when the group members staged a conversation that exemplified “speaking in code” as it might seem to someone that is not familiar with the pop culture reference being discussed, I could relate it to my experience of watching a sporting event. While I will occasionally watch a hockey game for entertainment, I in fact know very little about the rules of the game itself. Therefore, when I am watching with a group of people that enjoy analyzing the game and responding to the calls that are made, I often feel very isolated and disconnected from the whole experience. Yes, I could ask questions about the rules or do my own research so that I would have a better understanding and be able to contribute. However, if this same situation happened in the classroom with a student feeling lost and disengaged from the conversation involving a pop culture reference, I’m not convinced of the likelihood of a student taking the initiative to research or ask questions about the reference.

I do think that bringing pop culture into the classroom can be a great learning tool, but as the teacher I would want to do as much as I can to set up the lesson in such a way that I am not excluding students from the learning experience. I believe that even with a little bit of background explanation of the pop culture material I am referring to, it will make a huge difference to the accessibility for all students. For example, if I were teaching a lesson on the structure of writing stories and wanted to draw reference to “How I Met Your Mother” as an example of telling a story through flashbacks, I would not simply just refer to the show as an example and assume that most of the class would understand. Instead, I might frame the discussion by describing what the show is and how it uses flashbacks as a tool to tell the story, and perhaps then show a clip from the show so that everyone could understand my reference.

Sara Martens

In chapter five I can really relate to the subject of “Rethinking the Use of Questions” (Zwiers 110). Throughout secondary school and even through university I often felt that being bombarded with questions through work sheets or tests was the least enjoyable part of the learning experience, and also where I often learned the least. I would sometimes become so caught up in trying to memorize the names of authors, the plot development or the correct spelling of a character’s name and thereby lose the essence of what was important. However, I always felt I had to put these things as a first priority in order to achieve high test marks or to score well on the provincial exam. The funny thing is, I certainly don’t remember all of the characters or key plot development from memorizing and regurgitating all of the information from my grade twelve exam on George Orwell’s 1984, but I remember why the book was important and I attribute that more to class discussions and activities than any questions I answered on a work sheet or test.

I fully agree with Zwiers’ suggestion that as teachers we can assess learning through other means than questioning all of the time (110). He argues “[t]he real world doesn’t have as many lists of questions as we hear in school and see on tests. Real-world people are asked to produce or perform, asking their own questions along the way, and are not being stopped every few minutes to answer less important questions. Questions should be a means to learning, not the end” (110). I believe that creativity in planning can assist in finding new ways to assess learning. I hope to provide a variety of English classroom activities such as group projects, skits, art-driven assignments and debates to name a few. While questioning, both orally and written, is an essential tool in the classroom, I don’t believe it needs to become the dominant vehicle to control the learning process.

Sara Martens

The section in chapter four titled “Interpretation in Language Arts” prompted me to consider the ways in which I will approach “interpretation” in my teaching, as it is such a major component to any English literature class. Zwiers reminds us that “[s]tudents are still apprentices in the types of thinking needed to read between the lines and interpret deeper meanings. We must be creative at scaffolding the complexity that has now become automatic to us” (72). After spending so many post-secondary years in English and theatre classes, I need to be constantly aware of my “interpretive” discourse that has become a second nature to me, recognizing that my students are in the early stages of developing this form of dialogue as well as understanding all of the jargon that can be used to interpret.

I could appreciate the text’s example of scaffolding through a conversation in which the teacher discusses interpreting the story with a student (72, 73). I find that interpreting and textual analysis through discussions such as this one are tremendously helpful to the learning process. When teachers ask questions to break down the “hidden” meanings in a text it enables the students to come up with the answers themselves rather than the teacher providing the answers. Also, it models the thinking process for the students, so that they will eventually be able to ask the critical questions themselves when trying to interpret meaning from a text. This method is also directly relatable to interpreting in a drama class, as the teacher will often prompt students with a variety of questions so that they can interpret certain characters or derive meaning from the scene they are rehearsing.

Sara Martens

In the article A Focus on Vocabulary by Lehr, Osborn and Hiebert, I was particularly interested in the concept of “knowing” and acquiring “ownership” of words. I have found myself pondering my own vocabulary bank and how it came to be, as explained “[k]nowing a word by sight and sound and knowing its dictionary definition are not the same as knowing how to use the word correctly and understanding it when it is heard or seen in various contexts” (3). My own incidental word learning was brought to my attention recently in my volunteer classroom experience. While in the process of contributing to some class conversation on their discussion topic, the teacher interrupted me and asked if I could please explain what the word “rationalize” means to the class. I knew the purpose of this was to have the students understand this potentially new word in the context of my conversation. However, I was surprised at my awkward attempt to be able to define the word in a way that would make sense to the students! This was certainly a word that I understood and could use in a specific context, but I had a difficult time defining it in a simplistic way. In my first attempt, I had used a few synonyms to give meaning. While this method does work and is usually my go-to tool in my own learning, I quickly realized that I had just given them a bunch of other words that perhaps were just as new as “rationalize.” To my relief, the teacher stepped in to help with a couple examples of how a person might “rationalize something.” I will remember this method in my own teaching of new vocabulary. I think that teaching vocabulary by giving examples either through lessons, discussion and/or activities is a powerful way to develop understanding and accumulation of words.

Sara Martens

Something that appealed to me from the third chapter titled “Cultivating Academic Language Acquisition” was the section describing the use of gestures and facial expressions as tools to demonstrate the meaning of language. I am a huge advocate of using physical movement in education, and I am intrigued by the notion of intentionally using it as a tool to promote learning.

I’m familiar with the natural tendencies to use gestures and facial expressions, being a person that “talks with my hands” frequently. I’m encouraged by the idea of making a conscious effort to utilize these tactics the same way visual aids would be used in the classroom. Zwiers explains how one teacher “often emphasized the words however and yet as she moved one hand in an arc in the opposite direction” (Zwiers 49). I can appreciate this action as a powerful way to reinforce meaning thereby aiding in the acquirement of academic language. It also seems to be a relatively simple way to enrich any lesson plan. Whether I am in the drama class or the English class, there will always be a certain amount of time given to lecturing and facilitating discussion. If I can plan to incorporate the use of gestures and facial expressions into my part of the discussion, it will surely provide one extra layer of communicating language use in a fairly efficient manner.

This first chapter of Zwiers’ text Building Academic Language: Essential Practices for Content Classrooms has really prompted me to consider my acquisition of academic language and how my background and experience will vary greatly in comparison to the students that I teach. Having been drawn to language arts from a young age, I hadn’t really considered all of the factors at play in my upbringing that eventually lead me to pursue theatre and English in a teaching capacity. While I have always appreciated the benefits of growing up with English as my primary language knowing that it has been advantageous in the learning process, I hadn’t thought of many other factors that Zwiers brings attention to. My “mainstream” upbringing provided me with a world of knowledge that was fostering my English academic growth (Zwiers 1, 2). I’ve had the advantage of a large family that has encouraged deep discussions around the dinner table; toys and games that were specifically designed to foster growth in the English language; exposure to television, movies and books; extra-curricular activities that furthered my experience interacting with others and putting my language skills to use; the list goes on.

I think it is imperative as a teacher to have an understanding that in any given classroom, the students will be coming from all walks of life and vastly different backgrounds and upbringings. In order for every student to learn and grow, it is necessary to recognize the needs of individuals and adapt teaching strategies accordingly. One idea from the text that really resonated with me was that “Devaluing students’ ways of making sense of the world also devalues them” (Zwiers 11). If a teacher were to only value the language comprehension and expression of students that demonstrate mainstream level academic discourse, the result is always going to marginalize and devalue any students that do not meet those expectations, thereby creating a learning environment that would not encourage participation from all students. This is something I will pay attention to in my teaching, to be sure that every student will be given that sense of value regardless of the level at which they are expressing themselves.