"Discussion of Democratic Society"
    In reading this article, I was struck by a notion on page five. The author argues that there are differences between discussion, dialogue, and conversation. Conversation is thought to be a bit less formal while the others require "mutual responsive" participants and exploration of new ideas and opinions. One philosopher, Richard Rorty, believed that conversation created a "we" in a group instead of "they." This is what struck me. In my own practicum school, there is a bit of us and them. There's students vs. any authority whatsoever. There's cool kids vs. really poor kids. There's general ed kids vs. non-general. Our responsibility as teachers is to help these kids learn 1) to be tolerant and respectful and 2) to learn how to think and communicate. When we ask our students to discuss an idea with their table partner after thinking it through themselves first, they often struggle with showing that respect. Most commonly, I see students copy another student's work. Sometimes, I see one kid trying to share his idea and his partner cuts him off to say how wrong he is. We may think that discussion and conversation is easy. But it is not. They do not know how to share and build ideas naturally. Politeness and higher level thinking is mostly foreign. As we practice having conversations with our students, building relationships, we can model the type of discussion we hope for them to have. But we also need to give opportunities for them to take a complex idea, and stretch their brains as they pull it apart and build it back up together.
    I know that my students have told me they do not give their best effort in school because our class is pretty much on repeat of what they have learned before. The work we receive reflects that they do not have the skills (or are choosing not to demonstrate the skills) that would allow the class to move onto new material and ideas. In discussion, need to show mindfulness and deliberation. To reach a goal or come to a conclusion, they need to listen and work with others and they need to be greatly open to the thoughts of others. I wonder how to close the gap between what we teachers are trying to do (scaffolding, collecting data, teaching skills, etc.) and what the students think is happening. I realize we can provide them with practice and we can model behaviors. We can correct their methods as they work, but how can we show them that each lesson and skill (at least in language arts) is deliberately chosen to teach them a skill they will truly need later in life?

   Hi! I'm Sharon McClintock, a student in English 493 at EWU. Like all my colleagues, I am a teacher candidate working on an endorsement in English (and in Social Studies). This class will be about the philosophy and practice of teaching reading in the classroom. In my current placement, the entire school is working on raising student reading levels. Sadly, a huge percentage of students are at least two grade levels below what they should be. Therefore, we teachers, student teachers and support teachers are working on finding books that are interesting and challenging but attainable for every student in our classrooms. We assess their reading level with several different tests. My hope is that this course will allow me to help my students meet the goals set for them. I cannot tell if my coursework before this point are relevant to this course other than that they have taught me how to read better and have provided a variety of texts which could potentially be used in my classroom.
   I have only been in a classroom for about a month. My master teacher has allowed me to try out my wings with a few of his lessons and continues to give me more opportunities to find my niche as a teacher. I am continually working on my patience in the classroom and my ability to teach well. I want to create engaging lesson plans that allow my students to experience class time more like how they want to experience life. It is difficult to be kind to a student and get to know them when other students are rude or disruptive. However, I think being personable might be one of my current strengths. Most of my students trust me and feel like they can talk to me about whatever they want. As a potential teacher, I think another one of my strengths is my creativity. Currently, curriculum is fairly regulated. But I think I can fit in creative and fun activities to facilitate the learning of the set objectives and learning targets. (Example: Simon Says- Prepositional Phrases).
   By the end of this course (English 493) I would like several things. One, I want to have a really great unit plan ready for my spring student teaching. Two, I would like to comprehend how to teach and encourage reading to my students. Three, I would like to gain a range of methods and strategies of teaching reading literature to students at a range of reading levels and interests. I believe that we can do better in our classrooms. I do not want to be the teacher who does district prepared activities just because it is easy. I do not want to bore and frustrate my students. Instead, I want them to feel that my classroom is a place where they can learn about ELA, because I care about each of them and provide them with what they need to succeed.