Dystopian Education

    So last week I had submitted a lesson plan as part of my midterm project assignment for one of my grad courses.  We had to include an aspect of reading comprehension, including before, during and after reading activities culminating into a 3-5 part unit.  I chose to use Divergent, which is a book not a lot of teachers use in their English classes, not because they don't want to, but because they probably can't.  Honestly, the book is just too new to have any sort of concrete lesson plan attached to it.
    For my own lesson plan, I focused on three non-consecutive sections featuring one before, during and after reading activity for each section.  Students would be reading the entire book over the course of a few weeks, so they obviously wouldn't be expected to finish in three days.  Although I did well on my unit plan, (A!), I'm always looking for new things to add or enhance my own lessons as I finish up my graduate work.

    I've done a lot of research into dystopian literature and I find it fascinating.  Students seem to enjoy this sub genre as well.  Due to the large cult following of The Hunger Games, (there is now a trilogy in the making), more authors are pumping out dystopian or apocalyptic novels for teens and young adults.  Where did all of this literature come from?  Why now, and why do teens seem to relate more to characters in an alternative universe in comparison to our own?
    I believe teachers should start to focus less on the classics in the classroom and more outside the box.  Due to the high demand and obvious desire for new and exciting material in English and Language Arts classes, I think it's time to move along with the times and let kids decide what they read in school.  I understand that sometimes letting kids choose isn't the right thing to do; giving them a false sense of power would undermine the authority of the teacher and everything will implode from there and so-on...  However, I don't think there's any harm in letting the students have at least SOME say in what books they are required to read through core standards.  As long as the books follow the curriculum requirements, I see no problem with them picking their own books.
    Being a substitute teacher, I like to ask students their opinions about school, especially in English classes.  I'd like to know what they think and how they would run a class if they were given the opportunity.  You'd be surprised at how many students actually have good ideas and would relinquish the ability to abuse the privilege of being an educator.  They all look out for each other as students, and I think educators should look out for them as well by taking their interests and thoughts into consideration.  That being said, I think dystopian literature is a great choice because it's an up-and-coming sub genre in school systems.  With the popularity of The Hunger Games, some teachers have caught on to the hype and have started implementing these lesson plans geared towards students' interests and less towards the interests of the administration.

    I think dystopian literature has both great common themes as well as independent themes depending on the type of book.  Some themes that are present in The Hunger Games are also present in books like Divergent, Gulliver's Travels, The Giver, and Animal Farm.  Dystopian literature dates back to the 18th century and has evolved over time.  The 21st century saw a significant increase in dystopian literature, including popular books like the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld, The Maze Runner by James Dashner, and The Passage by Justin Cronin.  There is literally a book for every age group, every reading level and every interest.  They appeal to males as well as females and command attention where ever they are found.  Kids are starting to become more adventurous with their reading material outside of the classroom and it's given them a chance to see that it can be fun to read.
    This is why I can't wait to be an English teacher.  I get excited about the possibilities that books give us.  I'm happy about students enjoying their reading experience and giving books the amount of attention they deserve, (and haven't seen much of since Harry Potter).  I'm eager to introduce my kids to a book they might have never heard of before, but I know they'll love.  I can't wait to write about our experiences with books together.  I can't wait to have my own classroom!  I'm just really looking forward to the teaching experience and I can't believe I'm almost there, finally.  The internship is right around the corner, and I'm so ready!

    In other news, I'm proctoring a testing session at my local middle/high school, (boring...), and spending the day in the music/band room, where I'll be learning how to play the guitar.  Jealous?
    My YouTube research has been slow, but steady.  I'm still trying to figure out if I want to be serious about my channel or turn it over to the project and be done with it.  To be honest, I'm not that great in front of the camera and I haven't had time to really film anything significant.  So far the last video I made I wasn't even happy with, so I understand why it only have about 6 views as of today.  But I do plan on vlogging my trip to St. Louis next week and probably a few more small events here and there.  I realize I didn't have a lot going on until now, so I guess it's finally a good time to start filming things.  I'll try to keep you as posted as possible on any new videos I have up on my channel.

    I've also been knee-deep in this Pinterest 30-Day Challenge.  It's a lot harder than it looks to stay focused and remember to do it each day, (not to mention finding people to follow when you're already following everyone you know is difficult...).  I'm having fun with it though, and I'm doing pretty well gaining fellow Pinners as followers, so if you want to start now, you can find the link to my Pinterest boards on the right near the top of my page.  In fact, all my links are now on display in a pretty lilac color up at the top of my page, which took me over three hours to put into my layout, (I'm not very HTML code savvy unfortunately...took me back to my Neopets days...good God, was that horrible).  So check them out!

    That's all I have for now.  Until next time, I remain your faithful correspondent.