Resounding Truth

At this moment I believe Literacy is Freedom.

At this moment I believe Learning is Passion.

At this moment I believe Teaching is Fate.

For the past few nights, I’ve sat down to write this blog, but it’s been difficult to keep anything on the page.  It’s hard for me to clear my mind, and decide what I have specifically learned from this course.  This semester, my first at Chico State, has been an incredible experience for me.  Not only have I learned new things about literacy, I’ve learned a lot about myself.  Because I’ve been exposed to so many new and interesting concepts, it’s difficult to sort them out, and decide exactly what I’ve taken from this course.  I know that my understanding of literacy and teaching has been drastically altered, in a very positive way, but a central theme seems to elude me now that everything is wrapping up.  One aspect of this course that I can nail down at this moment is the fact that the value of literacy is completely up for interpretation.  Literacy is evolving even as I sit here writing, and consequently my understanding of it is changing as well.

As it applies to me, and my career, literacy is a tool, but it is also a passion.  These two uses may seem to counteract each other, but I believe they can, and must be able to coexist, especially in an academic setting.  I plan on becoming a high school English teacher, so conveying the importance of literacy to my students will be the focal point of my career.  Over the past few years, when asked why I want to be an English teacher, my answer would typically revolve around this idealistic sentiment – that I’d like to instill the same passion I have for reading in a younger generation, that seems to be losing touch with an appreciation for books and language in general.  Although this is still a key concern of mine, this course has taught me that the scope of literacy and learning go beyond a mere understanding and appreciation for The Old Man and the Sea.

I’ve learned that the norms of teaching and learning, established over the centuries, although still valuable to a point, may be used more productively as ancillary to more modern techniques.  Techniques that focus on the skills young people already have in the technologically blessed dynamics of today, and more importantly the future.  This does’t mean the smart-board will be continuously running in my classroom, but it does mean that the already exceptional technological abilities of my students will be accentuated by the resources available to me.  Incorporating the inevitable paradigm shift toward highly regarded movements like making, hacking, and playing, are pivotal to my success as a future educator, and facilitator of the texts and ideals there within, that I hold so dearly.

So, I guess that I have sort of honed in on a argument here.  Although it seems like more of a call to arms to myself.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I’d like to focus more on some of the concrete things I’ve learned over the past few months.  First of all my entire concept of literacy has been altered, due mainly to the new ideas expressed by Kim Jaxon.  Even without the enlightening texts we were assigned throughout the first weeks, a new understanding would have undoubtedly emerged from each of us, simply through exposure to your message.  That message, overall, seemed to manifest itself into one resounding truth – that there is value, and something to be learned from the literacy practices of each and every individual, within the each and every culture, and background, and lifestyle.  The concept that students have something meaningful to say, regardless of, actually in spite of the domineering structures that have attempted to stifle their unique voice and style of expression.

Over the semester I spent a couple hours every Monday, Wednesday, and the odd Friday at Pleasant Valley High School, observing and participating with two groups of Juniors.  Both classes were completely unique, and I learned different things from them both.  I would arrive after their lunch period, with my own backpack and pencils and notes, probably more inclined to learn than most of them.  At least that was my initial impression.  After only a couple of sessions I found myself leaving with a sense of disappointment, mainly in the lack of effort displayed by the students.  The young teacher who I interned with seemed to fight tooth and nail just to get a hand raised by one of the uninterested, unmotivated students.  I found myself formulating a supremely negative outlook on their generation, which seemed so far removed from my own, although I knew the difference couldn’t possibly be so drastic.  It seemed that within the social confines of the classroom, the worst possible response a student could give to the begging teacher was an insightful answer, and conversely the best response in this bizarre atmosphere of willing failure was – “I don’t know.”  Translated neatly into – “I don’t care, and even if I did, I don’t want any of my peers to know that I care.”

But, the more time I spent, the more I saw that things were not so different from when I was in their shoes, only a handful of years ago.  They did care, and they were interested, but they required more than the age old conventions of sitting and reading aloud to engage their highly active minds.  Simply reading and discussing texts was not enough.  As my hours increased, so did my understanding of the students that I initially though of as so far removed from myself.  I learned that they did indeed want to learn!  Almost all of them, when given an opportunity to actually engage the text, and discover the themes, and relate to the characters and their struggles, were more than willing to give feedback to the teacher, and myself, and perhaps more importantly, each other.  I was thrilled to see that, not only did they respond positively to the material, but they seemed to be genuinely proud of themselves to be learning something new, even if it seemed foreign to their own life experiences.

As the semester progressed the teacher used more and more exercises that asked the students to apply the text to their own lives, and this seemed to capture their interest far more than just understanding the themes present in The Great Gatsby.  The teacher, seemingly in conjunction with our own course, incorporated a Vine project that required the students to use their smartphones – each group of about four had at least a couple of these useful gadgets between them – to explore a theme of the novel.  The variety, and creativity of these short recordings were astounding.  Given the creative platform to delve into the text, the students showcased a truly remarkable understanding of the characters, symbols, and themes, and more importantly had an opportunity to make a personal connection with them.  I thought that this example of creativity, which required each group to make, hack, and play with the text, was a perfect amalgam of all the things we learned this semester.  In just a few hours these students taught me a lesson that I’ll never forget, solidifying all of the various sentiments expressed by Kim Jaxon regarding literacy, learning and teaching.

I’m going to walk away from this course, and the corresponding time spent at a local high school, having learned more about myself and my future than I could have ever hoped or imagined.  My entire concept of the values of literacy have been stretched and widened, bringing even more unique and useful conventions into my reach.  Now the scope of my goal, which was once encapsulated by trying to get my future students to love reading as I have, has gained in so much.  Perhaps most importantly I’ve learned from this course that every day I spend with my students, is not only an opportunity for me to teach them something that will ignite a lasting interest, but that they in fact can teach me something equally profound.  And, that I have to make them understand this fact!  I have to give them the resources and the confidence to know that they have within them the ability to teach their teacher, and potentially the world.  I have to show them that their voice is their power, and through literacy they can lift themselves to the greatest of heights.  And, that they already have the ability to do this with the literacy which seems second nature to them.