Literacy Activities in Literature Classes

Literacy is extremely important to teaching English Literature classes. Reading, writing, and thinking are essential to the class. However, not all students like to read. As a way of getting students more involved with the books that they might read and encounter I had devised an exploratory activity to engage the students in the next book they would be reading.

The copy of The Odyssey that I have has a very dull and boring cover, it is blank. When a student goes to pick up a copy of the book they will find it boring and probably would want to read something else that is more entertaining. Therefore, as a homework assignment the students would need to do some research on the Internet, go to the library media center if they do not have a computer in their home, and see what The Odyssey is really about. Find summaries, or websites that take them through the adventure, so that when they get to class the next day they will have some semblance of what the book is about.

The next day in class I would have the students discuss what they found and share the information with their peers. I would hope that the students would find the story fun and engaging and that they would want to read it after all the research that they did about The Odyssey. The other point is to have them not judge a book by its cover. As much as we try not to prejudge anything, we do anyway. Hopefully this approach to the book would help students see that prejudging is not always an accurate course of action to take. Especially when it comes to a book.

Knowledge presented in the Health subject

The Health subject covers lots of areas such as nutrition, sexual education, hygiene, study of human diseases, and much more. There are many ways of how knowledge is presented in the Health subject, and these include of course the usage of books, web articles, showing posters, bringing guest speakers, playing educational videos and/or brief clips to spark the visual understanding of the class, handouts, tape recordings, and so on.

I have had humorous teachers and their style definitely tend to wake up students' attention (small jokes helps to keep students' interest into the subject matter) while the learning process still takes place.

In the schools, some teachers still rely teaching Health only through one textbook and when that happens, students' interest into Health sort of dies because they get bored. Teenagers need variety and when teachers are successful at introducing all Health topics with creativity, not just the books but also using video clips, bringing guest speakers, and so on, these simply sparks all students' interest into learning and that's what matters, that the new generation learns Health with pleasure.

The Presentation of Knowledge in History

Knowledge is passed on in history through many different forums. Originally knowledge was passed orally from elders to younger people in groups or tribes. Today people can look anywhere and learn about history. Anything from a book to a family photo can tell someone a lot about past events. Many people who don't enjoy history see it a monotonous reading with many dates to memorize. I don't see it that way. I think history is just story telling. It's the story of how we got to where we are. True, that can be told through books, but one can learn a lot about time period by listening to music, seeing how people dressed, or watching a movie from that era. History has as much to do with dead presidents as it has with everyday working families.

How Knowledge is Presented in Mathematics

I think Mathematics can be presented in a few ways. The usual way is textbooks. In the beginning stages of math, the textbooks are good. The student isn't bored by it, there are pictures and many examples, its colorful and so on. But as you get higher into your math courses, the books get so boring. I am taking Modern Algebra this semester, and if you open the book to any page, its all words. It's boring and has way too much writing. I don't even understand it most of the time. I think the textbooks should be used as a guide, not followed step by step. This brings me to my next way.
Supplemental materials is another way to present mathematics. I think this is a great idea because it lets you see other ways things are applied. Lets say the teacher teaches a new lesson and they hand out a worksheet or something like that. It is another way of teaching students. And I know I always liked to get things like that because it took us away from the book.
And of course, there are hands on activities, projects, movies, and current event things. A hands on activity could be doing measurements. For instance, the perimeter of the room... I loved doing hands on activities because it was fun, and you got to see how it is used in the real world.
It all depends on the teacher and how they present the material to get the students involved and wanting to learn. If they keep using the book and nothing else, it will be really boring. But if they use different methods, it will be more interactive and fun.

Knowledge in the Art Classroom

In the art field there are several different tehniques used to present information and knowledge to students. The first is of course text books, as well as other written media, such as magazines, books and the internet. These sources are used mainly to present facts, like art history, design concepts and vocabulary. Pictorial sources, either text books or otherwise, provide a visual example. Another method is through example. By visiting museums, children get to see first hand what great art looks like. Living and eventually teaching is such a close vicinity to NYC is beneficial for an art teacher, because of all the local museums, with a variety of work on display. But the most important way of passing on information to students is verbally, and through demonstration. Students learn technical skills needed for art making, many of which would be difficult to comprehend if presented only as text.

As students develop their internal catalog of knowledge, these basic skills can be essential in moving on to bigger and better things. They say you need to crawl before you walk, and, likewise, you need to learn the basics before you can make a finished work of art.

Methods for Presenting Knowledge in the ESL Classroom

Depending on the method that a teacher adheres to, the way of presenting knowledge in an ESL classroom varies greatly. Here are some of the most common methods used today:

In the Grammar Translation Method, knowledge is presented primarily through famous works of literature. Students are asked to read, to discuss (in their native language), and to translate famous works by English and American authors. They are not taught to speak the language but rather to read and translate it. While this method is not typically used in the United States, it is still very popular in other countries (like Japan, where I want to one day teach).

In the Direct Method and the Audio-Lingual Method, the emphasis is on teaching students to speak the target language (in this case, English). The other aspects of literacy are addressed under these two methods as well, but speaking is considered to be the most important. With these two methods knowledge is presented in the target language (again, English) only, and it is distributed to the students in the form of either vocabulary items or grammar drills. (Grammatical rules are not supposed to be directly given to students using these two methods, but some teachers give them anyway). In high school and in college, my teachers taught me Spanish using (what I believe to be) a combination of the Direct Method and the Audio-Lingual Method. (My teachers “cheated” a little, however, because they spoke to us in English as well.) The school I am observing in Clifton right now also seems to teach ESL using a combination of these two methods. (These teachers don’t “cheat” by the way, so imagine yourself being in another country and being taught the language in that language – scary, huh?). Thus, it appears that this is currently the main way that second language knowledge is being presented to students in the United States.

In the future (and to some extent currently), ESL teachers in the United States are being expected to adopt programs like the SIOP Model or CALLA. Under programs like these, academic content (i.e., math, science, social studies, literature, etc.) is presented to students through modified instruction in English. This way students develop reading, writing, and speaking skills both in BICS (i.e., conversational language) and in CALP (i.e., academic language). In the past, many ESL learners in the states had BICS but were not familiar enough with CALP to succeed in the mainstream school system. Thus, this is why we (as ESL teachers) are trying to implement methods that distribute knowledge in ways that better accommodate our students and their needs.

Alright, well, I hope that wasn’t too boring to read! As teachers who might have ESL students in your classrooms, I think it's important for you to be familiar with how these students are learning English. If you are, perhaps you will have a better understanding of where they are coming from and what additional help they might need.

Knowledge in Social Studies

Knowledge in social studies is presented in many ways. The first, and most common, comes in the form of textbooks. Personally, I hate textbooks (especially history textbooks). I feel textbooks give students a very generic and boring view of history. This generic and boring view of history given in textbooks is definitely the #1 cause of statements such as "Why do we have to know this?" and "History class sucks." Textbooks are fine to use a guide through history but using them as the only source of knowledge in a history classroom can really kill the subject matter for many students.

Another way knowledge is presented is through primary sources. Primary sources can be anything from newspaper articles, documents, interviews, etc., from a certain time period being studied. With the growth of the Internet and the easy access to information, the use of primary sources to present knowledge to students has become extremely popular. I feel primary sources give students a better connection to subject matter, especially in history. It's one thing to read about the Civil War in a textbook. But to read a newspaper article detailing the events of the Battle of Gettysburg will give a student a new kind of connection with history.

A third way knowledge is presented is in films. Documentaries and feature films lets students actually see what they are learning about. Personally, I feel pretty lucky that I'm going into a content area where there is an ENTIRE CHANNEL devoted to it. Not to mention, there are literally thousands of movies about historical events out there.

To sum it all up, there are ways to present knowledge in social studies everywhere. It's up to the teacher to use these ways in an interesting and worthwhile way in order to prevent hearing those seven deadly words: "Why do we have to know this?"