Book Talk Handout

Luna by Julie Anne Peters

Background

·      Published in 2003 as the first young adult novel to have an explicitly transgender character

·      Highly controversial and banned in many schools

Text Description

·      It focuses on the main character, Regan, a sixteen-year-old girl in a conservative family.

·      Her sister, who has chosen the name Luna, is transgender. To her family and everyone else but her sister and close friends, she is Liam.

·      The novel is told through Regan’s point of view.  

·      The story focuses on the relationship between Luna and Regan, and Regan’s growth that she is forced to come to through her sister.

·      The book explores religious upbringings, and a family that is unaccepting of their child. At the end of the book, it is revealed that Regan and Luna’s mother knew all along that she was transgender and refused to acknowledge it. Most of this refusal stemmed from the fear of their father.

Rationale

·      This text would be more suitable for high school students, because it does reference sex and drugs.

·      However, since it is told from the point of view of a non-LGBT person, many students could connect with the story. This would help students who are not exposed to transgender issues see that all people should be treated with love and dignity.

·      This novel does require an open mind, so I would not teach it in an extremely religious school, unless I am trying to make a statement. If I knew that there was homophobia and transphobia going on in my school, I would try to teach it.

·      Even though the book is controversial, it would be essential to have in your library to help students who may be coming out as transgender.

Obstacles

·      Despite this being a great novel, administration, parents, and some students would have issues with it. It is considered a “controversial” subject, but I think that teachers could normalize the topic through this book.

·      Depending on the school, many administrators may not allow teachers to share this book with students. Because of this, teachers would need a strong rationale and unit surrounding it. I would also foresee many parents being upset, if they saw it on an attack of their religion or other beliefs. This would reflect directly on student reactions, which teachers can combat or foster through discussion.

Teaching Ideas

·      This novel would be perfect for many open discussions, before reading, during reading, and after reading.

·      To end the unit, I think a reflective, personal narrative style essay would be an appropriate choice. Students would explore how they view the importance of family acceptance and their personal tolerance.

·      A written reflection of how students have faced or witnessed any prejudice or intolerance in their lives would make students think critically about how other people affect their lives, and how they can do the same.  

Blog Post #10: Gallagher's Readicide

Much of the sentiment that Gallagher shows toward the education system is similar to Tovani's point of view. Their critique is on the banking system, which is essentially just attempting to "fill up" students with knowledge, and then prove their "knowledge" on standardized tests. Gallagher concludes that most high school students are not ready for the real world, and not by fault of their own. It is not necessarily teachers' faults either; because of our world of standardized testing, students are not being taught meaningful learning strategies. Like Tovani, Gallagher also acknowledges that students are not comprehending reading as well as they should be. Most students do not know what they are reading, even though they know how to read the words. I also like how Gallagher took the time to point out that students need an introduction to what they are reading by using the "farrier" story. Based off of students' literal locations, they are at a disadvantage to some texts unless they are given background information by their teachers. Since most of the time they do not want to or do not know how to make connections themselves, we (as teachers) will have make that bridge between them and the text. From that point, students can make personal connections with the text in order to understand it better.
Another point that surprised me was Gallagher's view on SSR. In most of my education classes, I have been taught that SSR is a wait of valuable time for students and teachers. But in the studies that Gallagher has shown, SSR turns out to be more effective than directly teaching reading. Many of the values that are necessary for students become readers come from students being consistent readers. Without giving students the time and opportunity for this, how do we expect them to pass any tests or comprehend any reading past an artificial level? Personally, I love SSR. However I do see the downsides to it; we already have so much to teach that it can be very difficult to find time to allow for SSR when that time could be used to teach. The statistics show positive results, though, and I would like to try to include SSR in my class at least once a week. I remember in my school experience that SSR fostered my love for reading and was the one of the main things that encouraged me to be an English teacher.
I also think that the over analyzing point that Gallagher talks about is very important. So many good books are murdered because of the tiny details focused on that do not help students critically think. For example, my sophomore year of high school we had to read A Tale of Two Cities and it was accompanied by an 80 page packet with detailed questions of virtually every word in the book. We were expected to read it completely independently, and answer the questions in the packet. To this day, I still refuse to read that book because of the horrible connotation due to that class.

Blog Post #9: Tovani's I Read It, But I Don't Get It

I love this book, quite honestly. I appreciate that straight from the beginning, Tovani clarifies that this is not a book that will give readers direct instruction on how to teach reading, but will instead give readers tools to help build up their students. It reminds me of Gallagher's "Teaching Adolescent Writers" at some point because of the modelling strategies Tovani uses through the book. For example, she makes it clear that students need to know how good readers read before they can become good readers. I especially liked the Signs of Confusion; I think I would make an anchor chart with students of those signs and hang it in the room. As I read this book, I realized that a lot of the suggestions are already being used in my placement classroom. As soon as school starts, students begin learning how to annotate and communicate with their text (she suggests using symbols for annotating, and my students do this). Throughout the year, I have also given students a variety of different note taking strategies that help aid them in understanding. I have several students in 7th grade classrooms that have between a kindergarten and a 3rd grade reading comprehension level. I think many of these tools could definitely help students, especially the chart of identifying confusion. I also like all of the fix-up strategies that are provided through the text that are short and quick ways for students to check themselves for understanding.
I also think that the list of "what to do when you get stuck reading" can tie in with critical pedagogy. In order to make students have connections with the text, it's important to compared it to something that they do understand. Whether on their own or through teacher guidance, I think that is one of the main tools that will help students learn. I also think that by incorporating reading in the classroom to "real life," students will become more invested in what they are reading, and more eager to understand. Some of the metaphors and analogies she uses are perfect for getting students to think like this. I especially like the car metaphor, where she says that just like a driver is trying to get to their destination, a reader should be trying to come to understanding. Of that list of what to do when you're stuck, I might make a graphic organizer of it for students to log their thoughts into during different texts.

Lesson Plan Template

TPA Lesson Plan #_1__

1. Teacher Candidate		Date Taught
Cooperating Teacher		School/District
2. Subject		Field Supervisor
3. Lesson Title/Focus		5. Length of Lesson
4. Grade Level

6. Academic & Content Standards (Common Core/National)
7. Learning Objective(s)
8. Academic Language demands (vocabulary, function, syntax, discourse)

9. Assessment

**Attach** all assessment tools for this lesson

10. Lesson Connections

11. Instructional Strategies/Learning Tasks to Support Learning
Learning Tasks and Strategies Sequenced Instruction
Teacher’s Role	Students’ Role
Student Voice to Gather

12. Differentiated Instruction

Plan

13. Resources and Materials

Plan

14. Management and Safety Issues

Plan

15. Parent & Community Connections

Plan

Blog Post #8: Social Justice and LGBT Students

Using information from a research article conducted by the GSLEN at http://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/Teaching%20Respect.pdf, we can see that LGBT students face a disproportionate amount of bullying and victimization (verbal and physical) in their schools. Part of this victimization occurs from the lack of an LGBT inclusive curriculum, which, like many marginalized students, leaves LGBT students feeling less connected to their schools. In order to have positive LGBT curriculum in schools, teachers must positive representations of LGBT people within history and literature. As educators, it is our job to include the histories and experiences of all students in our classrooms. By default, we should be teaching to not only the majority, but arguably more so the marginalized. LGBT students are not the only ones who can benefit from positive representation within curriculum; for example, students who are straight are more likely to stand up to bullying, and more likely to be accepting of their LGBT peers. Rather than trying to enforce a strict no tolerance on bullying policy, it would be much easier to incorporate acceptance into our curriculum. In my placement classroom, my CT is very quick to shy away from anything that may have to do with shining a positive light on the LGBT community. While I understand that the school district is strict, I think it is important for students to know facts about the authors they are reading, and the acceptance levels in said time periods of those authors. One instance of this issue was during class one day when we were discussing the Holocaust. My CT was trying to get the students to understand that Jewish people were not the only ones victimized in the Holocaust, but refused to mention that gay and people of color were also persecuted. By doing this, we assume that our students are less intelligent and aware of the world than they are. If they can call each other “fags,” they are mature enough to understand the implications behind the word. If they are old enough to bully one another, they are old enough to accept one another. I think the issue with this is that teachers are so afraid of being challenged by students and parents, that they forget that a student who needs them might not be getting that acceptance. All teachers are bound to have LGBT students in their classes throughout their career, so I think it is essential to normalize and humanize LGBT people in our classes. Even subtle differences will stick out to the kids who really need it.