Matt's Blog for English 486

Even though there is not direct guidelines on visual literacy on the Core Standards site, there is many ways that a teacher could go about introducing visual literacy, especially that of graphic novels. There is a few different sections, such as, Craft and Structure and Integration of Knowledge and Ideas where visual literacy could hold a place in a classroom. Visual literacy could be easily integrated into a lesson by a teacher by exploring how a play that was being performed or recorded or how it was structured, and how it differs from other forms of literacy that other mediums may not be able to provide in detail, content, and structure.  As far as the Integrated Knowledge and Ideas section, there is a definitely a place for visual literacy in this section as in some upper level grades the guidelines even suggest showing students a movie or recorded play, or even a live play experience that the students could use to be able to analyze different forms of literacy such as, plays v...

My familiarity with graphic novels was very limited before coming to EWU. Since coming to EWU, I have read many graphic novels, many of them were assigned in Dr. Green's classes. I find that they can hold just as much meaning as other novels, and often times can be even more expressive because they allow for the chance for the author or illustrator to create pictures not just with words, but with colors and pictures too. Graphic novels can be left open to the interpretation of the reader as well as key the reader in one important parts of the story that the reader may have otherwise overlooked. Something as simple as looking at a character's expression in the story, could change the way that the reader thinks and feels about that character, or perhaps even change the whole story for the reader. I find that the most interesting part of reading a graphic novels is the colors. True, a picture is worth a thousand words, but I think it's very important to stop and think about ...

The CCSS for speaking and listening seemed very much like what students in college do. As the grades went on, either new information/standards were introduced or some were just re-phrased. From my understanding of the information, it is very necessary for students to read something outside of class, take time to think, reflect, and possibly write about what they believe the article is expressing or try to form some sort of idea related to the text that they can discuss in class. These discussions seem to start basic, and increase in what is expected as the students age increases. Now, naturally this will take place, but perhaps the teacher has a set of questions to fall back on, so that if the students don't know what to talk about, the teacher can start the discussion and allow the students too take it from there. I was actually very pleased reading these standards, because I learn best talking in a classroom. However, I believe there is better ways than others to meet those stand...

I wanted to answer the first couple of questions listed on the documents page because I feel as though it helps provide the framework of what I am looking to learn from this lesson and teach students through discussion. The best discussions that I have ever been involved in have taken place in a classroom where the instructor, professor, and students all have expectations and set rules of what is expected from the teacher and the students. The teacher also was adjustable, and occasionally left the conversation fully open for students, and would take a step back and act as a guide. On the other hand, some of the worst discussions that I have ever been involved in took place in a classroom where the teacher did not deliver the material well, and did not engage the students, and in return the students did not feel motivated to participate in the discussion. As I continue to read on, I do not think that showing a video to students would help them learn how to participate in a classroom d...

    Starting the discussion by writing about the Professional Educator Standards Board Competencies, I have a few concerns that I found while reading through them. Even though I just took linguistics last quarter, I know that I need to start this quarter off by reviewing all of the vocabulary words. I understand what  syntax, semantics, morphology, and phonology are, I sometimes get different definitions of them mixed up with others. Beyond that, I feel as though more preparation should have been done in high school, or required in a college class, for understanding root words. This may have been because I chose to do Running Start, but I have had no classes that practice root words, or how to understand where a word was originated. This is not a good thing because I have been practicing for the NES and know that is part of it. I want to make sure that in the future, for both students in high schools/college and those...