Class Reflection

I learned a lot this year in TE 448.  One of the most reoccurring themes from the semester was that different people are going to interpret and react to different situations and literature differently.  Just because a statement doesn't affect me personally, that does not mean that it is not offensive or embarrassing to the person next to me. Although this is something for me to consider, I do not have to apologize or feel bad for being set in my ways and confident in how I feel.  

I think that my favorite book from the semester was Al Capone Does My Shirts.  It addressed a cultural group through literature that I had never considered before.  It was done in a way that i thought was thoughtful and respectful to all cultures addressed.   I did like some of the other books, but I would have really liked to read a couple of books designed for a higher reading level.  I don't think that the class really addressed any books that a high school classroom might be able to use.  

The discussion in class was usually alright.  Somedays it was really good, but most of the time it was a little tired.  I think something that could have helped the classroom atmosphere would have been doing more fishbowl conversations.  Because there were two sides to almost every issue we discussed in class, the fishbowl set up really helps everyone feel like they have something valuabel to say.  Sometimes in class I think that people wouldn't want to add to conversations in class simply because there was nothing else to say.  What I want to say probably got said a few minutes before I wanted to say it, so I might just keep quiet.  In the fishbowl, people were able to respond to the comments of others and play a sort of devil's advocate.

I think that this class was relatively valuable to me and my learning about diverse literature.   I would have liked to get better discussion in class and I didn't feel like the blog was an appropriate venue for meaningful discussion.  With so many of the discussion prompts in class coming from the readings we were assigned, discussions often turned into what felt like tests rather than heartfelt conversation.  I think the class would have been more meaningful if we spent more time on what we thought was appropriate children's literature and less time on what strangers thought of as diverse literature.