My Last Chapter Here

Hey there!

    I am so proud of how far we've come with this literature course. I really thought that I was going to feel overwhelmed and threatened because of the many things we had to do. However, I do think I got to learn a lot of important facts and tips on how to teach literature. I really loved the digital resources we got to use in this course since I really think it is the future in education. I believe, students crave for those resources in which they feel related to the era we are living in. Frankly enough, I share the same commentary on the evaluation methodology since I really felt I was overloaded and overworked. For me, quantity on assignments could be best distributed in in-class assignments for instance. 

    As for the rest, I enjoyed it very much and I learned amazing tips and ideas when I get back to work at my school. 

    Thank you for everything professor and classmates, 

    -Esteban Andrés Fuentes

About the Demonstrations

Dear readers, 


In my new blog's installment I would talk about what I learned and experienced from the demos we had in our literature course. I really adore the idea of having these kind of opportunities for us (student-teachers) to get to know new ideas and techniques for approaching literature. In my personal opinion, I cannot choose just one of the activities presented to be the favorite one. All of the demos had nice and not-so-common resources in which we can all take advantage of their features. Furthermore, the adhere to authentic materials' point of view. 

Having web2tools resources is great and ignoring the use we can get from them is an educational crime. I see them as the law, nobody can express ignorance of it.As a result, I cannot wait to implement all of the ideas shared in a new school year. 

Sincerely, 

            Esteban Andres Fuentes

About Weeks 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th

Dear readers, 

There has happened a lot in the literature course throughout the last four weeks and I think the learning produced in those weeks could be enhanced by watching HOW AND WHY WE READ. In this video, John Green goes over some of the key reasons why we read literature. Truth be told, the video's content could be related to the ideas discussed in the previous course's sessions. 

We have discussed a lot about different topics from choosing literary texts to how to how to implement different genres and visuals in the literature class. I consider that one of the topics that have caught my attention the most is the one about using songs in the English class as a way of engaging students to do the needed tasks.

In regards of the video Shaping the Way We Teach English: Module 12, Younger Learners I have to say that I really learned from the information on how to clarify instructions when implementing activities in the classroom. I really think I could implement some of the ideas that were presented in the video. Especially, those that can be implemented with little kids at early learning stages. 

I have to admit, I wish I could slow down a little bit in the course pace so we could focus on implementation rather than on presentation of activities. Either way, I am definitely implementing some of the ideas studied in the class. 

Time to Thrive

Hello dear readers,


 I want to share that last class was one of the coolest so far because I got to learn by doing instead of by repeating what I read. I only wish every class was this way, or at least, a little bit more like this. Even though I read the short story very briefly, I got to see different ways of how to implement literature in class. I think what we could do is having a little round table on how to approach each content we study before coming to class, so in this way we could have a variety of activities like the past one each week. Anyhow, I have to confess that I could have enjoyed more the class if I was not very tired. I promise I will try to perform in a better way next class.

Learning Goes On and On

Dear readers, 

     Hello! I hope you are all fine! In this week´s installment of my blog, I will review what I learned in my Teaching Literature class at ULACIT. 

We got the chance to have a presentation by a classmate on Lazar about different approaches for teaching literature. I can recall many important aspects from this presentation; for example, choosing selected literature is key in all the approaches, there should be a general aim when choosing a piece of literature, and there must be a set of well-thought tasks to do before, while, and after reading. 

I have to admit that I really like to learn about the exciting approaches to teach literature. In my personal opinion, I like that Lazar gives a well-organized bunch of information, and that makes me understand everything in a clearer way. 

• Language-based approach helps students to develop linguistic evidence from a text.
• This approach enhances analytic tools to reach own interpretations.
• This approach does not help students to go beyond in meaning about what the text is really about.

• Literature as content views literature itself as the content of the class.
• This approach sees the social, political, and historical background of the texts.
• Implementation of situational tasks.
• This could be very mechanical and demotivating. 
• Time availability could be a problem when using this approach.

• Literature for personal enrichment is amazing for encouraging students to draw on their personal experiences, feelings, and opinions.
• It increases acquisition.
• Group work is enhanced. 
• It may represent a problem when selecting books since every student has different likes and dislikes.

Should we change what we teach at class?  

In regards of my previous questions, I have

not found any possible answers yet. 

Thanks for reading, 

Esteban Andrés F.

Learning Paths

http://blog.commlabindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/learning-path-for-elearning-curriculum.jpg

Dear readers, 

     I hope you are all great! In this weeks' installment of my blog, I would like to share with you what I have learned througout this week so far. This week, we had a very enriching lesson in which we discussed many approaches and methods to teach literature in our classes. As a matter of fact, we compared and discussed Literature in the EFL/ESL Classroom by Bagherkazemi and The Role of Literature in Instructed Foreign Language Learning by Paran.

https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/505918102_640.jpg

As for Bagherkazemi, I learned the pays off from teaching and learning from literature. The ones that called my attention the most are:

• It provides meaningful contexts.
• It appeals to imagination and enhances creativity.
•  It encourages critical thinking.
•  Learning is facilitated through involvement and joy, which can be created by literary style.
•  The role of teachers as facilitators, guides and active planners is embodied in the process of
  literary work and analysis.
•  It helps language teachers foster their own cultural, linguistic and interpretive skills.
•  It encourages talking. 

 As for Paran, I got to meet some new ideas which are listed below:

• The findings on the interaction in the literature and language classroom illustrate the importance of two factors:
  the role of the teacher, and the role of the task.
• There must be effective involvement of students for a successful literature class.
• the interpretive mode centres on the appropriate cultural interpretation of meanings that occur in written and spoken form.
• All learners and teachers have different experiences with literature (there is not a single generalization about this).
• the key to the success of the telecourse has been the translation of reliable classroom practices to the virtual environment, along with an extended use of electronic and audiovisual
  educational resources.

 Also, I learned and felt identified with many situations from the studies that Paran presents. I think that there are moments in which it seems everyone feels or thinks the same, but in fact we are far from experiencing the same when implementing literature in our classes. 

http://usercontent1.hubimg.com/7599708_f520.jpg

 

Now, I still have some questions that I really want to clear up whenever possible. I still don't get what the stylistic approach is about and if it is bad or good. I also want to know how appropiate it is to extend the curriculum, if there is a possibility of getting off topic and how can we know is that is happening. 

Probably, the line that catches my attention the most is by Paran: 

 

"...we also need
more systematic evaluation of courses, and systematic enquiries into the views of
the learners."

 

The last line does so because I feel that it is time to give students their preponderant role in the learning process and we should stop worrying about breaking paradigms and failing while trying it. Let's take risks!

 

 

             - Esteban Andrés F.

 

Getting to Know How it Works

Dear readers,

      In my new blog's installment, I will dedicate it to various key concepts we as English teachers must have in mind forever. It is a pleasure to share everything I am learning at ULACIT, so I will try to be as concise as possible.

     In a video that we were asked to watch (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-LkN-Pm_zA) on Language Awareness, I learned that the actual fact of building language awareness in our classes is an outstanding way of raising the bar at second language acquisition. For further analysis, I would like to include the Language Awareness definiton by The University of Alberta, Canada:

"Language awareness is part of WHAT the teacher chooses to teach. As language teachers know, there is much more to a language than simply knowing vocabulary and grammar and reproducing them in either written or oral form. Becoming aware of the nuances and meanings of a language is part of language learning. By increasing students’ language awareness, the students are better able to understand, appreciate and use the language. In this section we will look at what the phrase ‘language awareness’ means, what role it plays in the second language classroom, and ways teachers can increase their students’ language awareness."

Taken from http://www.educ.ualberta.ca/staff/olenka.bilash/best%20of%20bilash/languageawareness.html

     As a result,we as teachers must comprehend that language is nothing without a context that grounds and explains how it works. Thus, students will be able to become more independent and would be able to solve real life problems that language (for our purposes, literature) present on a daily basis. 

  

 www.wiziq.com 

      To complement the video, we were asked to read Lazar and Parkinson so that we could enhance our vision on teaching literature. To be brief, I will list what I consider the highlights of both authors' texts:

1. Reading comprehension is a function of cultural background knowledge.
2. Chomsky's Grammatical Competence (quoted) explains that all speakers of any language possess an internalized grammar which allows to produce and understand utterances confrom the grammatical rules of the language they are speaking.
3.  We as learners (readers) are interested in metaphorical or symbolic meanings.
4.  Teaching literature is important because it is motivating, it is authentic material, it helps students to understand other cultures,it develops interpretative abilities, it expands language awareness, and others.
5.  Literature may provide meaningful and memorable contexts for processing and interpreting a new language.
6. Parkinson makes a comparison between old-fashioned ways of teaching literature and some "new-age" activities we can implement in class.  
7. Reading for pleasure should be encouraged in our students so that this does not become a torture for them. 
8. Contextualizing literature is key in understanding the how,why,what,when,and who. 
9. Exhorting students to be critical is important if we want them to have opinions on what is being read. 
10. There are plenty of "fun" games we can implement in literature so we bring to life the artworks read in class. 

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