Book Talk

Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

This book by C.S. Lewis, is about four siblings, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie, who are sent to the country side to get away from air raids that were occurring in WWII England. They stay with Professor Kirke, a mysterious man. While in his house, the four find a room with a large wardrobe in it, they soon leave but Lucy stays behind and steps into the wardrobe. The back of the wardrobe opens into a snowy wood which lies in a  magical land called Narnia. In Narnia, she meets Mr. Tumnus, a faun which is a creature half goat and half man. The faun tells Lucy that Narnia is ruled by an evil queen who has cursed Narnia into always being winter, but never Christmas. Tumnus' job was to take any humans he found to the queen, but he let Lucy go after getting to know her.

When Lucy returns from Narnia, none of her siblings believe what happened to her as the wardrobe returned to normal, and Edmund teases her. During hide and seek the next day, Lucy goes back to the wardrobe and succeeds into going to Narnia, Edmund follows her this time though, intending to tease her more but finds himself in Narnia where he stumbles upon the queen of Narnia, the White Witch. She entices him to bring the rest of his family to her in promise of Turkish Delight, Edmund agrees. On his way back to the wardrobe he runs into Lucy, she tells him about the evil queen but Edmund denies her wickedness.
The next day, the four siblings all jump into the wardrobe to avoid the house keeper, they then all fall into Narnia. Lucy tries to show them Mr. Tumnus but they find out he has been taken by the White Witch. A beaver appears, known as Mr. Beaver, and leads them back to his home. He tells the children that the only way to save Mr. Tumnus is to meet Aslan, a lion who is like a king in Narnia. Edmund sneaks off though to warn the queen about Aslan. The queen is outraged by Aslan's return and plans to kill the children to prevent a prophesy from coming true that would put the four children in rule of Narnia.

Peter, Susan, Lucy, and Mr. Beaver head off to the stone table where they are to meet Aslan to save their brother. On the way, they meet Father Christmas who gives the children gifts, a sword for Peter, a bow and horn for Susan, and a magical healing potion for Lucy. While traveling, winter begins to change to spring. Meanwhile, Edmund is treated poorly and like a prisoner in the hands of the queen. He sees first hand that the wand

The siblings make it to the stone table where they meet Aslan. Aslan says he will do what he can for Edmund. While at Aslan's camp, Susan and Lucy are attacked by one of the witch's wolves. Peter slays it and some of Aslan's forces follow a wolf that was hiding in the bushes and ran off. The wolf leads Aslan's soldiers to Edmund. After rescuing Edmund, he is reunited with his family and has accepted the White Witch is evil. She soon appears at Aslan's camp calling for Edmund's death as he is a traitor and the Deep Magic of Narnia gives her the right. Aslan makes a deal with her and spares Edmund's life.

Aslan leaves camp during the night, and Susan and Lucy follow him. Aslan allows their company until they reach the stone table. The sisters hide and the White Witch appears. Her and her followers torture, humiliate, and beat Aslan, for Aslan gave his life for Edmunds, and then the queen kills Aslan. Susan and Lucy come out from hiding when the queen had left along with her army to prepare for battle. Lucy and Susan stay with Aslan's body all night. In the morning, there is a cracking sound and the stone table is broken, Aslan has disappeared. The sisters hear his voice from behind though and are astonished to see Aslan back from the dead. He then carries the girls to the witches castle to rescue all the prisoners that are imprisoned there, including Mr. Tumnus. The new army then joins up with Peter's army that has been fighting the White Witch, and with the new reinforcements the queen is defeated.

The four siblings are then taken to Cair Paravel, the castle from which they will rule Narnia, where they are made kings and queens. Aslan soon vanishes, and the children rule into adult hood. Many years later, the four are hunting a white stag where they stumble upon the wardrobe they used to enter Narnia all those years ago. They fall into it and find themselves back in Professor Kirke's house, but no time has passed since they first entered the wardrobe as they are children again. They tell the professor what has happened and he assures the children that they will return to Narnia someday, but through a different means than the wardrobe.

     I chose this book because I enjoyed reading the whole series when I was younger. The reading level is modest so all students should have little issue reading through it, also the length of the book is modest so it is not a daunting task to read. It has a Lexile number of 940 so it is appropriate to use at middle and high school level though more appropriate for 9th or 10th graders for high school, not as much for 11th and 12th grade, reading level wise.

     As what a teacher can do with the book, here are some ideas. You could focus on the religious aspects of the book, how there are similarities and symbols between the Christian faith and the story. Another idea is comparing the book to the movie, similarities and differences, were the changes for better or for worse. Lastly, you could focus on how the theme of family is addressed, possibly looking at how the children treated each other throughout the book and how their love was tested.

     Administrators, parents, and students may have an issue with the religious themes that are in the book. So a careful approach should be taken when discussing this part of the book. A teacher should not push the Christian faith on their students, but rather show how there are similarities and inspiration from Christianity. Some students will not like that it is a fantasy book, but all genres should be looked at in school.

Readicide

Readicide by Kelly Gallagher brought up all the good points as to how reading is being killed in classrooms. Some of Gallaghers statements are a little dated as no child left behind was still around during that time but has (mostly) changed to common core, which has tried to fix some of the problems. One such problem Gallagher brings up is teaching to the test, taking exams consisting of all multiple choice. In common core though, one should always be teaching to the test.

One of my favorite ideas Gallagher suggested to use was the article of the week. Students, and even myself, either have a hard time keeping up with politics or current world affairs or do not care about them, leaving a lack of real world knowledge when they graduate. Article of the week allows students to read one article and respond to it. By doing this, students are learning about the world around them so they will be more roundly educated. An article of the week would benefit everyone, including the teacher.

Gallagher raised an interesting point when he said that students drive and wanting to read by the overuse of analyzing, worksheets, and quizzes, among other assignments paired with reading. By having so much work coupled with a text, the text becomes a weight, weighing down a student’s inspiration to read. Gallagher put it best that when someone buys a book or rents one, they do not do it expecting a test to follow, they read because they are interested. A student, however, cannot be held completely accountable to read on their own, there needs to be a balance of teacher guidance and work.  A teacher must be careful as to not over work a student when it comes to reading.

Tovani’s “I Read it, but I don’t get it”

Tovani’s “I Read it, but I don’t get it” was a very insightful look into how to help students understand and comprehend what they are reading. I enjoyed how the book used many different student dialogue examples of what students say when reading or given an assignment. It helps me be able to respond more effectively when I am asked questions by students in class.

One of the biggest problems students have when reading it seems like is zoning out or not being able to concentrate on reading. I myself struggled with this problem a lot through my education career (and to be honest still do sometimes), but what the book suggested to do to help, and that also helped me was using a reading strategy to stay focused. An easy strategy to have students use is marking the text. Marking the text simply askes students to use different symbols on the reading and write down their thinking next to the symbol. This strategy keeps students focused while reading. Another strategy I liked was double entry diaries, this strategy has students write down several quotes and for each quote the write one of several thinking options such as I wonder, or this reminds me of. Strategies like these will help the students tremendously.   

I agreed with the books emphasis on connecting the reading to the reader’s life, drawing connection to their own life, world, and other texts, by so doing the reader understands the reading better. Besides connections, another emphasis I agreed with was questioning, students need to know that it is okay to have questions about the reading. Nobody will understand a text perfectly the first read through. Questions always arise. The activity of “I wonder” poems is a great way for students to practice writing questions and to show them that it is okay and beneficial to ask questions. Students must also learn how to answer these questions as well.

Reading is becoming a more and more difficult activity for students to do and want to do, but this book helps students become better readers and therefore increases the chances of students wanting to read.  

Critical Pedagogy in an Urban High School English Classroom

Every year the United States becomes more and more diverse, and this is reflected in the increasing diversity in schools. Any teacher knows now that a multicultural classroom learns differently. An urban school is often very diverse and the “Critical Pedagogy” article had the perfect ways to teach such a classroom.

I liked how it talked about instead of purposely using authors and stories that was produced by a minority, as by doing such can have a negative connotation, but that you use the classics that are already being used in the curriculum and find what is in their content and apply it to pop culture and issues that are happening today. Of course it is always good to update some of the book selection, the classics should still not be thrown out altogether. Connecting the old works to relevant times is one of the best ways to get students engaged in the material as well, for students are far more likely to participate in an assignment if they are interested in it.

The unit plan involving the use of rap songs was a great idea on teaching poetry to students. Not only does it use the multi-cultural pedagogy, but it also still uses poetry classics like Shakespeare. A problem students tend to have with poetry is that they are often old, several hundred years old. Letting students look at the music they listen to and compare it to classic poetry lets them see that there are similar themes, and it can show them the quality of what they are listening to, for better or for worse. Besides rap songs, this compare and contrasting unit could also be used for any genre of music, rock, rap, blues, etc.

Using a multi-cultural pedagogy is very beneficial for both the student and the teacher. 

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

Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” Chapter 2 was quite the interesting read. Freire brought up how teachers will have their classroom learning environment set up in a way that he calls “banking” where the teacher deposits information into the students. While the student may be learning something, Freire rightfully criticizes this method as all it does is have students memorize information. Memorization is important, but students are not really understanding what they are memorizing, what is being deposited into them. Critical thinking is what pushes students to truly understand and think about what it is they are learning and why it matters that they learn what they learn.

The list Freire made which bullet points the problems of baking teaching, were a nice summery of what happens when one uses such a method,

• the teacher teaches and the students are taught;
• the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing;
• the teacher thinks and the students are thought about;
• the teacher talks and the students listen -- meekly;
• the teacher disciplines and the students are disciplined;
• the teacher chooses and enforces his choice, and the students comply;
• the teacher acts and the students have the illusion of acting through the action of the teacher;
• the teacher chooses the program content, and the students (who were not consulted) adapt to it;
• the teacher confuses the authority of knowledge with his or her own professional authority, which she and he sets in opposition to the freedom of the students;
• the teacher is the Subject of the learning process, while the pupils are mere objects.

The teacher is doing all of the thinking and speaking, there is little to no room for a student to really grow or have the freedom to grow. The student needs to be able to take the helm in that students need to be the ones teaching sometimes. And, any good teacher knows that a teacher never stops learning, and they certainly do not know everything. From my experience, this banking method of teaching is disappearing, all the classroom I have sat in and observed have seldom used this strategy, though it is almost certain that many teachers still use this method, I do not plan on being among them. 

“Assessing and Evaluating Students’ Learning: How Do You Know What They Have Learned?”

“Assessing and evaluating students learning” supplied many useful ways to assess students, go figure. Many of the ways that it suggested I am used to seeing, either from first hand experience when my teachers used them on me, or in the different ed classes I have taken that also suggested similar ways to asses students. One section from the article I liked was avoiding too many “correct answer” tests, when there is one single right answer and I student simply looks for it without much thought let alone critical thinking. In my opinion, English is a subject that is all about discussion and debate. A literary piece will have a different interpretation to everyone who reads it. Students should be given the chance to come up with a conclusion of their own and support it with evidence. So, to narrow questions to a single right answer does not appear to make a whole lot of sense. Now there is a time and place for “correct answer” tests, but people, myself especially included, should not use them as often as they are used.

One section in the article that always worries me is student to student peer review. The article suggest teaching students how to give feedback on their fellow students work. The list to follow to give good feedback is a great list, but I have seen students lead astray by other students on what to change in their paper or other assignment they are working on. Peer review is affective, everyone should have their work looked over by a new set of eyes, but teachers should be careful how often, and how much feedback students give to each other so “wrong” corrections are not made. A possible alternative is have a small group formed where the top achieving students in the class are the peer reviewers and they look over the lower achieving students work.