Learning Letter

Learning Letter

            Throughout this course I feel like I have come to a deeper understanding of what it means to be an Educator. There is so much more that goes into being an effective teacher that I have failed to think about prior to this course.

            I feel very satisfied with the work I’ve produced throughout this course. The book talk was my favorite assignment overall. I liked being able to provide my peers with a text that they could use in their classroom or that they could just read in general for enjoyment. I don’t think I would do anything different in regards to that concept except maybe change how I presented the text. I could have probably used a PowerPoint or some type of visual aid, but I do not think not having visual aid hurt me. I enjoyed listening to my peers as they presented their books to the class. I even bought some of the books that were presented. It was a fun assignment that I may try to adopt in some way for my classroom.

            The mini lesson went over well even though we did only earn a 90%. Ryan and I worked well together and we developed a lesson that was fun. We also created a lesson that was designed for a twenty minute time slot which is something that other groups struggled with. I am proud of the work we accomplished although I would like to change the things that caused us to get a 90%. I enjoyed teaching with someone else in a cooperative manner. It was a fun assignment and I am proud of the work that we produced. It definitely was one of the highlights of the quarter.

            Overall, the number one hardest thing that I had to do for this course was designing my three week unit plan. It was an assignment that was much larger than I thought originally. Creating a whole unit takes a lot more work than I could have ever imagined. I do wish I used my time more wisely throughout the quarter to turn my drafts on time. I also wish that I could have finished my unit before the last day of instruction but life got in my way. One of the things I learned doing this lesson is how hard it is to find and develop activities that build on top of each other for my unit. I am glad I decided to switch from The Bell Jar to Romeo and Juliet because it made research and other aspects of the project a little easier. I also learned to save everything from all my education classes because the materials I did have from my previous courses did help me come up with some ideas for lessons, and the material provided some of the theory I used to support the activities that I used within my unit. This project was difficult but it was a needed difficulty because it showed me how much work it is to develop units and it basically previewed what I can look forward to when I become an educator.

            The unit was also very useful in helping me become comfortable with the lesson plan template. I finally feel like I have a grasp on the different aspects that go into the lesson plan. For example I am much more comfortable with the parent and community portion of the lesson plan. Before I was always unsure how to connect my lessons to parents and the community but it was simpler than I expected it to be. Doing 15 lesson plans that built upon each other was helpful and it was a nice change for only developing lesson plans for lessons that are independent of each other.

            The readings throughout this course were inspiring and useful as I developed my unit plan and I began to think about how I want to shape my future classroom. Although I enjoyed all of the texts, I am only going to talk about the texts that made the biggest impact on me. The readings I enjoyed the most were, “The Pedagogy of the Oppressed” and the team teaching text.  

One of my favorite readings that we explored was the “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”. The introduction to the idea of the banking model of education is something that opened my eyes. I know in my personal education there have times where I have felt like a bank in terms of what I was learning. I absolutely agree that the banking system of learning leads students to be passive not only in terms of their education, but also in their life. I do not want my students to be passive. Instead I want to create an environment that supports active learning and thinking. This text was probably one of my favorites from the course.

            Another text I found helpful was the documents on team teaching. I am not sure if I will ever be put into a team teaching situation but if I am the text will prove effective in helping my partner and I develop our teaching style. It was useful when developing my mini-lesson and is definitely something I will hang onto.

            Overall, I think I have come a long way from the start of the quarter. Everyone has always told me that being a teacher is a lot of hard work and I finally see why. Although it has been a challenging quarter I am happy with what I have learned and I am happy the growth I have seen within myself. Although I do wish I could go back and make my unit plan better, this quarter has been amazing and I will truly miss this course. 

In the Name of God

                In the Name of God was an intense book but was also very inspiring. I think using it in the classroom would provide students an alternate perspective on the world that they may have not been previously introduced too. We live in such an overt Christian nation, I believe that this text could be used to give insight into other religious views that people may have. But, I do see how this book can be deemed problematic as Nadia joins an anti-American terrorist organization. This story shows how a person can become blinded by their beliefs but it also can be read as standing up for what you believe in. Although, you would probably have to clarify that you do not condone terrorism.  This also could be a good text to portray religious fanaticism and explore how religion can be manipulated to justify acts of terrorism and cruelty.

                This book does a great job of showing both sides of the fence on the idea of religious fanaticism. It would be a cool idea to hold a mock debate debating both idealisms. This book can also be used to teach social justice. Because it gives such good insight on a perspective that most students will have never experienced before. I fear that this book could be used as anti-Islam sentiment but, I am hoping the best from the educators across America. Overall, this was a very thrilling read. I do not know if I will ever have the opportunity to teach this novel within my classroom but if I did I think it would be fantastic for my students. The ending was very good. I was literally reading as fast as I can to see what was going to happen. I think this text would engage students and was overall a really great text. 

Romeo & Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is one of the first plays that I have ever been introduced to. It’s a classic tale of star-crossed lovers (not Starbucks lovers as Taylor Swift might have you think) who both die at the end because of their families’ feud. Although, it’s not my favorite play it does have a lot of great uses in the classroom. Dramatic structure is the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about lesson plans for the play. Teaching students about rising action, falling action, climax, resolution and the other terms for dramatic structure would be something easy to do.

                When I was in high school my favorite activity that we did when we were learning about Romeo and Juliet was recreating a scene in my class. We were each assigned groups and we reenacted a scene of the play. It was quite fun and it helped my comprehension of the play.  I also think it would be fun to do a critical analysis about how the characters are portrayed across different versions of the film. It would be fun to compare and contrast the difference between Leo’s Romeo and the Romeo of the 2013 version of the movie.

                Shakespeare has such a huge impact on literature. It would be fun to do a unit on Romeo and Juliet but also just Shakespeare in general to help students understand the cultural impact that this one man made. Romeo and Juliet also makes use of different literary techniques like Irony and Puns making it easy to teach students about these as they go through the play.  Overall, I think this play should be taught and I hope to one day teach it in my classroom. 

Maus

Holocaust literature is something that everyone experiences when being educated in the American school system. Most frequently, book that students are assigned are classics like Night and The Diary of a Young Girl. Prior to this course I had never been introduced to a graphic novel encompassing the history of the Holocaust. Maus by Art Spiegelman is definitely a text I would use in the classroom. This graphic novel was very interesting to read and because of the medium very easy to read. The visuals provided in the books were amazing and it really helped to create a experience in my mind.

These books would be great for differentiated instruction. The text was not hard to read and the visuals made it even easier to understand. Struggling readers should be given this text because it is engaging and the medium makes it easier to read. I don't think that we should stop teaching the classics surrounding the Holocaust but I think this text would be great for supplementary instruction. Obviously, book one would be the book that would have the most focus. These books could also be used to teach social justice and inequality. The text can be violent and it can be hard to process so it will be important to create an environment in the classroom where students feel safe. The Holocaust can be hard to learn about but books like this make it engaging and really highlights the atrocities that people experienced during this time in history.

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allen Poe’s work can be used in various ways throughout the classroom. I always have loved Poe’s work. It is weird, creepy, and iconic making it perfect for the classroom. Mainly, I have worked with his short stories but there is value within his poetry. Out of the four texts that we are working with today in class “The Tell Tale Heart” is by far my favorite. It is a text I would like to work with in my classroom as an educator. Poe is a master of imagery, and symbolism. There are also great themes in his works. I would love to spend time analyzing the imagery throughout his body of work and see how it compares and contrasts. I think “The Tell Tale Heart” would be good to use when introducing the idea of reliable and unreliable narration. The narrator in this text is unhinged and it shows in the text.

I also think that Poe is highly accessible. His writing is not hard to process. It generally is an easy read and because it is creepy it is engaging. I know that I am always intrigued by Poe’s horror/supernatural elements found within a lot of his work. A good project that could come from Poe is analyzing how Poe interprets death. Death is a common element explored in his work and it would be easy to compare how death is viewed throughout a variety of his work. I also think that Poe would be easy when having to incorporate pop culture elements into lessons. A lot of his work has been parodied by The Simpsons so it could be a fun lesson to teach parody using Poe. The "Tree-House of Horror" episodes of The Simpsons could be a good way to engage students because everyone has seen at least one episode! 

Book Talk: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
By: Steven Chbosky

Description:

            This book follows Charlie, a fifteen year old boy, as he progresses through his freshman year of high school. This book is written as a series of letters that Charlie writes to an anonymous recipient who he chose randomly making it feel as if you are reading Charlie’s personal diary. Exploring intense social issues such as suicide, mental health, sexual violence, domestic violence, drugs, homosexuality, sex, bullying, and abortion through Charlie’s perspective creates a sense of empathy between the reader and characters within the text. Although this text covers sensitive topics, it does it in a way that creates a platform to talk about the various social issues that students may be dealing with as they enter high school and throughout their life. This text can be a difficult read because of the scenes of rape, acts of homophobia, and mentions of child molestation. It is important to know that at the end of the novel Charlie comes to the realization that he was molested by his aunt throughout his childhood and that there is a scene depicting rape between two high school students during a party. Although these scenes are difficult to read, this text can be used to show students the importance of talking about social issues rather than keeping them hidden.

Rationale:

This text is appropriate for the ninth grade student. This text explores Charlie’s life during his first year of high school and may mirror some of the topics or experiences that students may have to begin to face and deal with as they change during adolescence. Erik Erikson in his research outlined different stages of life as various situations of conflict. For adolescence the conflict that is experienced is identity verses role confusion. During this stage individuals discover their sense of self and who they are in comparison to the world around them. The key to being successful in this stage of development is finding and establishing one’s personal identity. This novel can be used to help students understand what they value as Charlie figures out what he values throughout the novel. Charlie is a resource that students can use to help them as they discover what they value and how their values shape their identity.

            Another important factor of this novel is the conversation the novel creates about the many social issues that people may experience in their lifetime. This novel explores issues like suicide, mental health, sexual violence, domestic violence, drugs, homosexuality, sex, bullying, and abortion. Although talking about social issues may be uncomfortable, keeping these issues a secret perpetuates a culture of silence that is oppressive to the individuals that may have experienced one or multiple of the social issues explored in the text. Allowing open dialogue about these issues will educate teenagers who may be struggling with them and provide a support system through the classroom setting. Starting the conversation about these social issues will show students that it is necessary to talk about these social issues in order to promote change and for society to move forward in a positive way.  

Obstacles:

            This book contains many social issues that parents may feel like their child may not be old enough to handle. This book explores sensitive topics that can evoke emotions and memories that may be hard for students to process as they read this book. In order to help combat this it is important for the teacher to be a source of information and resources when using this text in the classroom. Helping the parents understand the importance of teaching this text is crucial. Parents should also be notified about the social issues the text encompasses. It will be important for them to understand what their student is reading about in this unit to promote a safe environment in the home. I expect that in every classroom there could be potential resistance from parents. I think that it is the educator’s duty to advocate for this text and help parents see how this text could be important for their student.

According to the ala.org The Perks of Being a Wallflower was the eight most challenged book of 2014. This could be a hard text to advocate for using in the classroom. I think that school districts will allow this book to be taught but there must be a plan. If one was to do a unit on this book I would expect them to have resources to help students who may struggle with these social issues. I would also expect teachers to have resources available for parents and students who may need extra help to comprehend or cope with what they are reading.          

Students may not feel comfortable reading this text. There are moments in the text that can be uncomfortable or awkward to read so it will be important to process these scenes together as a class. This text may evoke memories of social issues students may have already faced in their life. This book also may mirror social issues that students currently are facing as they read the text. Although most students will enjoy the text after they have finished reading it, it is important to understand how serious the social issues are that are discussed in the book. It will be important to create a safe and open environment where students will be able to process their emotions and reactions when reading the portions of the text that are uncomfortable to read.

Ideas:

1.      (W.9-10.3) Students write a personal narrative using the letter format that Charlie uses throughout the novel. Students should write a narrative reflecting on a time in their life where they went through some sort of personal change that helped define who they are as a person. The teacher should also create a narrative that can be used as an example and to describe the assignment.

2.      (W.9-10.6) Charlie loves creating mixtapes throughout the novel.  Students can create their own mixtape that uses music that tell the story of their life. Using YouTube students can find 5 – 10 songs that are meaningful to them and then create a playlist (aka a modern day mixtape) that can be shared on a classroom blog. Students should be asked to explain how the each song relates to a specific moment in their life as they embed the songs they use in their post. This will allow students to get to know each other in a unique way and will take advantage of technology.

3.      (RL.9-10.3) Students can choose a character of their choice and explore how that character develops throughout the text to advance the plot of the text or one of the themes. This assignment may be less fun but will help students understand the importance of character development within a text. Most of the characters in this text have multiple conflicting motivations making this assignment easy to do in the classroom.

Final Thoughts: Stay away from the movie! It is not worth the class time to show. If students are interested in watching the movie encourage them to do so outside of class and after the unit is completed. 

Readicide

                Honestly, because I have never had a bad reading experience I find it hard to believing that so many kids can get around reading for class. Looking back I can remember the few kids who would explain how sparknotes was their life and they hated reading but I never thought it was as bad to the point that a book was written about how schools contribute to the death of reading. One of the things I enjoyed learning about was that students who have fun reading had better standardized testing scores. I fully believe that reading should be fun and that educators need to make reading fun again. Every child begins with a love of reading. But throughout the education system that passion gets foggy and ultimately is gone by the time high school graduation comes around.

                I also like that Gallagher suggested the idea presented that schools are setting up students to fail. One of the things that come to mind as I reflect on this book is the idea of a dearth of books in schools. It was interesting for me to think about how schools have to be committed to helping students become better readers. Having a variety of interesting texts for students to interact with is necessary for students to become actually interested in reading. If I did not have the opportunity to explore the variety of books in elementary school I am sure I would not be as enthused about reading as I am as an adult. As a future educator I want to fight back against readicide. I want to take a stand and help students love reading. It’s a shame that we live in a society where hating to read is celebrated. I liked this text and I and excited to have it in my library as I pursue my educational goals. 

I Read it, but I Don't Get it!

I enjoyed this book. Overall I found it very insightful and it had a lot of good ideas to help students with their comprehension. One of the concepts that I found the most interesting was the idea of having multiple voices as you read. When I read I generally only hear myself reading the text. I do not have any other voice reading the text critically. But, this does not stop me from thinking critically because I am able to make connections as I read… I just don’t have a second voice doing it as I read. It made me concerned that I have been reading wrong but also I probably will keep doing what I am doing because I do not know how to have two voices happening at the same time. Plus, I have made it this far.

I really liked the sections about how she used her strategies with her reading workshop classroom. It made this book a lot more interesting and it helped me see the effects of her strategies as she used them. I am a good reader. I have never struggled with comprehension or reading a text. My biggest problem is that sometimes I lose focus as I read but I catch it before I am on to the next page. It was very interesting to me to see the ways kids can skip reading and how much it actually takes to comprehend text. One of the most shocking sections to me was the section on questioning because questioning text as I read is something that just occurs naturally to me now. I do definitely think I will use this text to help my students. I want to be able to help my students with their comprehension and this book gives me the tools to do that. 

Vernon Wall: One Better World

Yesterday, I was reminded about an opportunity to view Vernon Wall speak about diversity and social justice. His presentation was about an hour and a half long and it had some really good insight that helped stimulate my understanding of social justice.

Something that really affected me as I was listening to his speech was his short emphasis on the difference between “equal” and “equitable”. I think a lot of people do not understand, me included to some extent, that equal is not equitable. In my opinion a lot of privileged groups claim that want equality for all but do not think about what that actually means. Vernon used the example of shoes. “Every child deserves a pair of shoes” that is equal. Equitable is the saying “Every child deserves a pair of shoes that fit”. That sentence opened my eyes. Social Justice is the fight for an equitable America. There are so many underprivileged groups in America that people claim that want equality for but do not fully understand that equality is not the same thing as equitability. It’s important to recognize underprivileged groups and to come together as a community or a society to make changes so that everyone’s experience is equitable.  When you look into someone’s bowl of food you shouldn’t be looking if they have more food than you, you should be looking to see if they have enough.

I think it is absolutely necessary to be teaching students about social justice in the classroom. We need to teach kids that in the real world there are systems of oppression. To help students see the experience of other groups of people will help them become aware of the systems of oppression in our society and hopefully inspire action in order to create a better tomorrow. We would be doing a disservice to students to not teach them about the perspectives of others. We have to expose inequality and oppression in order for it to change.

Reading different articles and websites I stumbled upon this quote that I think is important in regards to social justice and education.

What does it mean to teach for social justice? It means recognizing oppression in its multiple forms, and then taking action in the classroom to interrupt the cycles of oppression. When teachers teach for social justice they are working to end the cycle of oppression.

Critical Pedagogy in an Urban High School Classroom

This article was super interesting and aligned with values that I already have kinda developed through my education journey. I loved the fact that the authors were able to make their English class relevant for their students. They addressed that student’s felt like school was pointless. Using pop culture allowed them to create a curriculum and units where students could make connection with their real life lived experiences. One of my favorite aspects of the text was when the authors addressed showing movies in the classroom. In my school experience I have had a lot of movie days in my classes. More often than not the movie would be the film version of a text we read or even worse (from the perspective of an effective educator) had no connection to what we were doing at all. I liked that in the context of using pop culture in the classroom the authors were able to help their students make connections with the world that the students lived in. Movies were not used to pass time but to help make connections and help students understand that the ideas they were learning could also be found and applied in the real world.

I think the authors of this text were incredibly creative. I loved the idea of the poetry unit. Comparing poetry and poetic devices to modern rap is a genius way to show how what a student learns in English class can transcend the classroom. I also really liked the emphasis on the fact that the authors wanted their students to be able to think critically. It is amazing to see how effective the authors were in their ideas. Their students took what they learned and used it to try and help their daily lives. Overall, I loved the idea of using pop culture to bridge what the students were learning in the classroom and how what they were learning could be applied to the real world. 

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

I once was a student who learned passively. Sometimes I still find myself still memorizing for a test and then dumping what I had memorized shortly after. It is a problem that I think a lot of students are guilty of doing throughout their educational experience. This article calls out teachers for using the bank method of teaching. Teaching where the only person only being active in education is the teacher. This text was interesting to me and I generally found it to be true. I do think that students are not learning the skills that they need to be successful outside of the educational system and I do think that this teaching style could be to blame. I think that the educational world needs to make a major shift and help students develop critical thinking skills.  

My favorite part of this text was the idea that banking concept leads students to be passive. It does not engage students instead it helps them become adaptable to any situation leaving them to be passive for their whole life. It does not ask for new thought or ideas. This obviously is a step back for society. If we are to move forward to something better we need people to participate. We cannot remain passive and hope for our reality to get better. Creating an engaging learning environment can be difficult to do but it is necessary for teachers to engage their students. No longer can students be treated as “receptacles”. It is the job of the teacher to help students learn how to think for themselves in order for them to be able to engage in the reality. The banking method cannot be used in the pursuit of liberation or a better tomorrow. I am curious to see how these ideas will pan out in the education system. 

Assessing and Evaluating Student Learning

I found this reading to be helpful. When reflecting on some of the ways I've incorporated assessment into my lesson plans I have realized that some of the ways I phrase my criteria is not super effective. One thing I liked about this chapter was the focus on rubrics. A rubric is something that every single English teacher uses at some point in their classroom. For me creating the criteria for my assignments has been difficult. I never have had a full grasp on what to include that would help my students succeed. A lot of the time I would just google rubrics and find something that fit my needs. The section on developing rubrics is something I will probably keep in my pocket for this class especially when creating my unit plan. This is definitely going to be a good resource for me.

Another assessment guide I found super helpful was the section about providing feedback to student essays. I have never thought about the idea if reader based responses when editing an essay draft. In most of my English classes feedback on my essays has always been from the teacher's perspective. I think that editing a draft from the eyes of a reader can be more effective for students because it probably ends up being clearer when they revise their draft. I will probably keep this tactic in mind when I grade future essays. Overall, I found this chapter helpful and interesting to read. Assessment can cause a lot of anxiety so it's always good to have as many resources as possible when crafting assessment.

Assignment Templates

My favorite part about all of the Assignment Templates was the emphasis on reflection. Reflection is something that I do not think students always do as they learn. For a long time I was one of those students who did not spend time thinking about my writing process and in some ways it did hinder me in school. Once I realized that I should have been reflecting on my writing process and in my work I started to improve. I have found that reflection can be easily forgotten but when used effectively it can be very useful to students. It allows students the opportunity to think about what they did well and ways to improve themselves in any areas they struggled.

I also liked the emphasis on thinking critically. One thing I have heard, although I have never researched this for myself, is that students are not being taught how to think critically in secondary education. Someone once told me that their son had to take a critical thinking class as one of his required college courses during his first year in college. It makes me sad that as an education system students are not being taught the skills they need to help them succeed in higher education. Critical thinking is something that needs to be taught in the classroom. Being able to analyze their text is essential in college. Students need to be able to question what they learn in a way that will help them gain a deeper understanding of the subject.  Even in the work force critical thinking is an essential skill. Using teaching practices that place an emphasis on critical thinking is something I want to do in my classroom. I know the goal of all teachers is to help their students succeed after they finish your class and that is a goal I want to work towards in my classroom.  

Team Teaching Articles

On the subject of team teaching I think yes. It seems like a really good idea that can result in some great accomplishments for students in my classes. I think I would have to team teach with another teacher I actually liked. Effective team teaching means that there will be some compromise and that can be hard to do if you are trying to compromise with someone you do not like. I have never been in a classroom where there were two instructors but I have always wanted to see this magical process take place. The closest I have come to hearing about team teaching is from students who have taken classes with rotating professors. A lot of the students I have come into contact with at Eastern did not like the rotating professor class structure. The common problem I have heard that it was very inconsistent between each week because the students never had the opportunity to fully understand what was expected from their work. I think team teaching is more effective than rotating teachers because it forces the teachers to work together and collaborate. I also like the idea that the second teacher in the classroom can transform into different roles depending on the needs of the classroom. It can be difficult to mirror ideal classroom skills when you are leading the class as a teacher. Having access to someone who could model the “model learner” or the “devil’s advocate” would give my students an opportunity to see what it looks like to be an effective student. It takes educating to the next level and that is really exciting to me. I would love to have the opportunity to team teach in a secondary classroom. I think it would be a good experience and it would probably help me develop my education skills.  

The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts instruction in Grades 6 – 12

Prior to joining the education program I was like most people who believed that Common Core Standards would be the downfall of education. I believed that initiating standards would standardize the educational system in America. An effect of these standards in my mind would cause more teachers to teach in preparation for national tests rather than to make students effective learners. That myth was quickly shattered as I realized how many interesting and creative lesson plans used the same Common Core Standards. Common Core is not meant to hold an educator back but rather guide them as they create curriculum for their classrooms. This is something that has proven difficult for me as I have begun to craft my own lessons. The standards ask you to help students build skills not suggesting any way for the educator to do that. On top of all the other skills a teacher needs to be effective they must also be creative enough to make effective lessons that will be most effective in their specific classroom. As I get closer to becoming an educator, I know it will be important to pay attention to my creative peers and research ideas that I can use in my own classroom. There are so many skills that a person must develop to become an effective teacher it can sometimes become overwhelming. I know that skills will be developed through student teacher and as I learn more in my education courses.

Overall, I found this chapter to be very interesting and insightful about Common Core. I have never read in detail about some of the shortcomings of Common Core so it was interesting to see what I will need to look out for as I use the standards in my classroom. Using Common Core may be challenging but I know the standards are in place to help me help my students to become effective learners. 

Discussion in a Democratic Society

Discussion is something I have known about and participated in since middle school. Coming together as a class to discuss a topic has helped me see ideas from new perspectives and has challenged my thinking on many different topics. This chapter opened my eyes to what it takes to make discussion a rewarding and essential tool to use in the classroom. One of the many things I liked about this chapter was the emphasis on how it is essential to enter discussion with an open mind. I have experienced times where my classmates would shut down when conflicting points of view came forth in a class discussion. Their stubbornness to see things outside their perspective set back the learning and the point of the whole activity. To learn through discussion one must be able to empathize and see topics from multiple points of view even if it is conflicting with your own point of view. The sections of the text on hospitality and mindfulness has taught me new ways to help my classroom prepare for a good discussion. Explaining that one must be hospitable when participating a discussion is important so that students can help empower their peers. Teaching students to be open to learning about viewpoints that contrast their own in an appropriate way is a skill that they will use throughout their lives.

Another section of the text that I found incredibly useful was the section on appreciation. I agree that in discussion many times people are not appreciated for sharing their viewpoint and thoughts. Appreciation is something that I have struggled during my journey to become an educator. I have read many articles about effective praise in the classroom but often struggle to find the most concise words to give appreciation to students. Appreciation should be used when participating a discussion but like the text says it is important to not oversaturate expressions of appreciation. Finding the middle ground for praise and appreciation is something I struggle with but know that it is essential for education.  As I continue to grow as I know that effective appreciation is something I will work on and continue to develop.

Overall, this chapter was helpful in teaching me the components of an effective discussion and why the components are important. Discussion is an incredibly useful tool to use in the classroom when used effectively. After reading this article I know that it will be a lot of work to develop the skills needed to have an effective discussion in my classroom but the end result will be worth it.