This semester is coming to a screeching halt. I feel like I still have so much to learn and so much to do. This class has just been really good for actually covering a canonical text. I feel that even though I liked the set up of last semester’s class a little better, I feel very prepared to actually teach some lessons on Gatsby. I also really liked having the group projects. It really allowed group collaboration and generated many more ideas about teaching than I could have come up with on my own. It helped me realize that asking for other teachers’ opinions does not mean that you cannot do it; it just means that you want to make sure that what you are teaching is going to be the best possible option for your students. I just wish that we could have covered more books and I am totally going to keep the Jago book to refer back to once I start teaching. I almost feel that the one class a week was not enough, even though it was still a decent amount of week! I wish that there were a class very similar to this one but that just covered a ton of different canonical texts, almost like how we covered YA literature last semester. Even though it would probably be hard work, I think that students could benefit immensely from that kind of a class. I am definitely going to miss having Dr. Pytash next semester because I feel that I have learned so much about teaching from the two classes this year.
Monday, April 25, 2011
PYTASH: Final Reflection
This semester is coming to a screeching halt. I feel like I still have so much to learn and so much to do. This class has just been really good for actually covering a canonical text. I feel that even though I liked the set up of last semester’s class a little better, I feel very prepared to actually teach some lessons on Gatsby. I also really liked having the group projects. It really allowed group collaboration and generated many more ideas about teaching than I could have come up with on my own. It helped me realize that asking for other teachers’ opinions does not mean that you cannot do it; it just means that you want to make sure that what you are teaching is going to be the best possible option for your students. I just wish that we could have covered more books and I am totally going to keep the Jago book to refer back to once I start teaching. I almost feel that the one class a week was not enough, even though it was still a decent amount of week! I wish that there were a class very similar to this one but that just covered a ton of different canonical texts, almost like how we covered YA literature last semester. Even though it would probably be hard work, I think that students could benefit immensely from that kind of a class. I am definitely going to miss having Dr. Pytash next semester because I feel that I have learned so much about teaching from the two classes this year.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I also would really like to have another class devoted to other canonical texts. It was benefical looking at The Great Gatsby so closely, but I would like to apply these different ideas to other texts as well. I just wish that I had even more experience with canonical literature. I am really thankful for the wiki, and find it to be a great resource for more canonical information. What I am really curious about is how many of these different books we should have read before entering our professional careers?
ReplyDeleteI will have to keep that in mind for next semester (adding more books). My rationale for using The Great Gatsby is that I wanted you to become very familiar with one book so you could think about how it could be used in a variety of ways. I always assumed you would be exposed to "the canon" in your English courses.
ReplyDelete