Week Nine

I have found this experience of participating in an online community both interesting and informative. Over the past eight weeks, I have learned a great deal about digital citizenship and how important it is to demonstrate positive digital citizenship online. I thoroughly enjoyed participating in a community concerning literature. I spent a large amount of time reading posts in this forum made by fellow teachers. It was interesting to observe how teachers responded to one another, especially veteran teachers. I found that in the education portion of the literature forum, negative digital citizenship was often being displayed by veteran teachers, who appeared to think they knew much more about a given topic than naive young teachers. This is something that I will definitely be aware of in future years as I become a veteran teacher. That being said, I very much enjoyed this assignment and the time I was able to spend learning and discussing literature and strategies for teaching literature. This is a forum that I plan to stay connected with as I have found it to be a wonderful resource for my study and teaching of literature.

In addition to observing the digital citizenship in a forum of my choosing, I enjoyed keeping a weekly blog. I have always wanted to keep a blog, but I haven't ever found the time to actually do it. Being required to blog on a weekly basis allowed me to prove to myself that I can make the time to sit down and write about a specific topic if I put my mid to it. I think blogging is something that is appealing to me because I enjoy writing and I think that writing about something that is particularly interesting to a person can be extremely beneficial. I definitely want to try to incorporate blogging into my English curriculum in the future. Currently, my students write in journals multiple times a week, but I think blogging would be a powerful experience for them and enable us to engage in productive dialogue conceding digital citizenship.

Thanks for reading my blog!

Week Eight

Last week I commented in a thread about the Lord of the Flies and shared my opinion on the most significant Biblical allusion in the novel. I attempted to give an answer that was different than the answers that members had previously given. Unfortunately, my comment did not receive any feedback. I assume this is because five members had posted in the thread before me. I have found that threaded discussions seem to lose their hype quickly in this forum unless some sort of controversy is sparked.

I decided that I would start my own thread this week in the “General Teaching” discussion section. I wanted to ask fellow literature teachers their feeling about a topic that they would be passionate about. This was the question I posted: “I have a question for all of my fellow literature teachers. What are your thoughts on transitioning to ebooks in the classroom? My school is in the process of adopting tablets and I am having to decide how I am going to require students to purchase their novels next year. I personally love holding an actual book, but I realize ebooks may be cheaper for students. What are your thoughts?” Since posting this question on Sunday night, I have received two responses. One teacher said, “The transition to ebooks has been amazing! Students rarely come to class without a way to access the text and they are able to easily refer back to texts that we covered earlier in the school year. Paper books are the way of the past.” I was encouraged by the way this teacher shared their experience and opinion with me in a positive way. Another member, who I am assuming is a teacher, said, “I will NEVER allow ebooks into my classroom. They will have to throw me out with my paperback novels.” Though this user disagreed with my opinion, I felt they were able to share their thoughts in a comical and non-threatening manner. I feel that both of these forum members demonstrated positive digital citizenship. I am excited to see what other members will have to say about this issue.

Week Seven

Over the past few days, I have spent some time observing conversation and digital citizenship in a number of different forum areas. During third quarter of this school year, I am going to be focusing on symbolism and Biblical allusions with my English 10 class as we read Lord of the Flies. I came across some really fascinating ideas about the Biblical allusions used in Lord of the Flies. I read through a long threaded discussion that was initiated by this simple question: “What do you consider the most significant Biblical allusion found in Golding’s novel?” I thought this was a bit of a strange question given the allegorical nature of the novel. There are many Biblical allusions and the story is deep rooted in symbolism. I don’t believe one Biblical allusion is necessarily more significant than another, but the question is posed in way that welcomes opinion. This was obvious as I read through the thread of responses. Members were voicing their opinions, but in a way that was respectful of the comments of others. I decided to respond to this initial question in hope that I would have a better experience than the last time I responded to a post. My response was this: “I am not sure that one Biblical allusion can be more significant than another because each one is so intricately woven into the story and serves a specific purpose. If I had to choose one Biblical allusion that seems to focus my attention on above the rest, I think I would choose the beast, which alludes to Satan in the book of Revelation. It seems significant that the beast, which is found within the boys themselves, alludes to Satan.” I decided to focus on the beast because the few members that commented before me seemed to be in agreement that “the lord of the flies” was the most significant Biblical allusion. I thought I would see if my post would draw attention since it was different than the others. I posted my response on Monday and no one has responded to it so far. I am interested to see if I receive any feedback and if that feedback will be positive or negative.

Week Six

About two weeks ago, I posted a comment in response to a 12^th grade English teacher who decided that he was going to remove classic literature from his classroom in order to teach more modern to engage his students. My comment was the second response to his initial post and not extremely controversial. For this reason, it seems like my comment was lost among a threaded discussion that quickly became very heated. There seem to be teachers on both sides of this argument that are very passionate about the literature that they have chosen to use in their classroom. The one response that I received was this: “How can you prove that contemporary novels do not belong in the classroom if you have never taught them?” I am assuming that this response was written by a teacher who has chosen to teach more modern works. I can’t decide how I feel about their question. I totally understand what they are suggesting. Of course there is no way that I can prove teaching classics is more effective than teaching modern literature, but I feel like posting a question such as this in response to my comment is a bit condescending. Throughout this threaded discussion, there were multiple examples of both positive and negative digital citizenship, and ultimately all users were doing was defending their own opinion on the issue. My favorite post from the discussion was this: “Does it really matter what novels students are reading? Teachers can cover standards utilizing a number of different literary works. As long as students are being taught the skills they need to analyze literature and effectively communicate, they can read anything.” I thought that this was a valid and tasteful statement. I really appreciated that this user was able to make a point without being arrogant or offensive.

This week, in addition to reading through this threaded discussion, I spent some time reading through discussions surrounding the Romantic period in England. I am preparing to introduce Frankenstein to my seniors and wanted to find some poems that illustrate the sublime to have them read before beginning the novel. As I read through discussions of Romantic poems, mostly the work of Shelley and Byron, I found that for the most part members demonstrate positive digital citizenship when they are simply stating facts. It appears to be when members begin stating opinions that are contrary to the initial post that negative digital citizenship comes into play. Though I came across some fascinating discussions, I decided not to comment again this week.

Week Five

As I was exploring the Literature Network Forum this week, I came across an interesting discussion thread about literature and education. The initial question posted in this thread was this: “Teachers, is it still essential to teach the classics or should we be designing curriculum around more modern literature that may be more relatable to students?” I found this question to be both alarming and bias. The forum member who posted this question seems to be attempting to justify teaching modern literature in place of classics, which have earned a place in the literary cannon based on their merit and timeless themes. I was more alarmed by the number of forum members who were validating the notion to teach modern novels and non-fiction in place of classic literature. After reading through the responses in this thread, I decided that this would be where I would make my second post.

            I came across a response posted by a 12^th grade English teacher, who stated the following: “Over the years I have found that I have to present my content matter to students in such a way that they care about it. My 12^th graders would zone out reading Hamlet or Heart of Darkness so I decided to stop teaching these works. This year I have had students reading novels like Life of Pi and Looking for Alaska. They have found these stories much easier to relate to and their engagement level has been much higher…” This teacher went on to state his or her thoughts about the way education is changing and that because education is changing, curriculum should be adjusted to better meet the needs o students. I wanted my response to be simply, while still expressing my strong feelings of disagreement with what this teacher had said. I responded with the following: “I also teach 12^th grade English and I totally agree that half the battle is engaging students in the content. While I love reading more contemporary novels in my free time, I do not feel that they belong in the classroom in place of classic literature. Using modern writing as a supplement to a unit is one thing, but to completely replace the classics with literature from the 21^st century seems irresponsible. Eliminating the classics from curriculum communicates to students that classic literature is not important. There may be some classics that students just don’t like, and that’s okay. I think part of being a teacher is teaching students that sometimes we have to do things, or in this case read things, that we don’t like.” I posted this response on Saturday afternoon. I have not had any feedback to my response at this point, but I am anticipating responses in the near future. For the most part, the digital citizenship throughout this thread has been positive, with members agreeing or disagreeing with one another in a respectable manner. I am hoping that any responses to my post will be the same. 

Week Four

Over the course of this week, I have continued to explore communities within the Literature Network forum. I spent some time reading through threads pertaining specifically to authors who wrote during the Italian and British Renaissances. I spent the majority of my time reading through posts about the works of Dante, Petrarch, and Shakespeare. Members posed some very thoughtful questions concerning the works of these famous Renaissances authors.

As I was reading through the threads concerning the works of Shakespeare, I decided to respond to the following question: “What is the most prevalent theme used by Shakespeare?” When I responded, a few members had already weighed in with their opinions. I attempted to keep my response rather simple. This was my response: “In my opinion, Shakespeare’s most dominant theme is that of appearance vs. reality. This theme is evident in Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and many of his other works. It seems that Shakespeare utilizes this theme to comment on specific elements of English society, during the Elizabethan era, such as the relationship between men and women, the division of social classes, and the consequences of mans pride.” I posted this reply on Wednesday and have not received any responses so far, not even from the member who initial posted the question, which surprised me.

Reading through the responses posted before mine, the digital citizenship appeared to be pretty positive. What I noticed was that posts seem to get a good deal of initial feedback, but after a few days the responses seemed to dwindle. I am wondering if this is true of all posts or only posts that do not raise controversy. My goal over the next week is going to be to find a post that appears to be controversial and observe the dialogue that is taking place in the thread. I am hoping to find some interesting digital citizenship and a lengthier discussion. 

Week Three

As I have continued to explore the Literature Network Forum, I have been intentionally observing the digital citizenship that is taking place within this online community. This week I spent a good amount of time reading through discussion threads dedicated to specific authors. I spent a good amount of time reading through threads specifically related to the works of Shakespeare. What I noticed was that digital citizenship was pretty positive. For the most part, discussions consisted of members answering questions posed by others or affirming the interpretations of others. I was pleased to see that the discussions surrounding Shakespeare had sparked such positive responses.

After reading through numerous Shakespeare threads, I decided to explore the discussion of other well-known authors. Though I do not teach American Literature, I greatly appreciate many of the authors whose works have influenced this literary compilation. For this reason, I decided to read through some threads dedicated to one of my favorite American authors, F. Scott Fitzgerald. I stumbled upon an interesting discussion surrounding the teaching of The Great Gatsby. A high school English teacher posed this question: “Do you believe that allowing students to watch a film version of The Great Gatsby, either while reading the novel, or after finishing the novel, is beneficial for comprehension? If so, which version do you recommend?” Another English teacher responded to the post and expressed that they felt it did help students better understand the text and that they are excited to show their students the new film version this year. In response to this post, yet another high school English teacher chimed in and gave a rather longwinded response sharing their thoughts on the matter. Before sating their opinion, they made sure to cite their educational and professional credentials in an effort to justify their response. This Stanford graduate, with twenty-three years of teaching experience, expressed that a “good” teacher would not need to show a film version in order for their students to understand the novel and that anyone who thought that Luhrmann’s adaptation of the novel was worth watching should not be permitted to teach English. This response also included some inappropriate language that I felt revealed the immaturity of the forum member. Though it was disappointing to read this response, I was pleased to read further and see that the forum member who had posted this question replied to the post in a very dignified manner and expressed that they felt the response was a bit harsh.

As an English teacher myself, it was fascinating to read the dialogue of other professionals. I was most surprised at the fact that a simple question sparked such a heated response. Despite this instance of poor digital citizenship, the literature forum seems to be a pretty safe place to share opinions. I am looking forward to getting involved in conversations taking place in this community.