Learning Letter

This was a very enjoyable and informative course from beginning to end. It was nice having so few people in the class, most of which I had taken classes with prior to this one, making it a nice relaxing environment to learn about teaching English. This is one of the first classes that I took the time to read every book that we were assigned and didn't just skim over them or read parts of. each book and article had me genuinely interested and was ready and willing to discuss it in the class. I think that the blogs we had to post for the class was a new and interesting way to post assignments that were due. Most of my classes used canvas, but in this way I felt more obligated to get it completed and posted for some reason, and I can easily read what my other peers wrote to see what they had to say in their blogs. I will also be able to come back to this at any point down the road to review what I posted and refresh my memory. I was scepticle of the blogs at first, but was glad I did them by the end of the quarter.

I want to talk about the specifc readings that we did for the course. Starting off with the articles we read at the beginning of the quarter, those were a nice intro into how the class would be set up and helped me prepare for later big projects in the quarter as well. Reading about the standards we have to follow and ways to make discussion work in the classroom directly affected my mini lesson that I taught and how I planned out my unit plan. Going over the TPA guidelines is always helpful, I have gone over this with three different teachers now and it is important to see what different teachers expect from the TPA to get a general concencus on what to expect for the actual EdTPA. Not only did we read about teaching discussion and standards, we then discussed these in class and I was able to get insight from my peers and the teacher to see where everyone else stood on certain topics. I always tend to lean away from the standards and standards-based testing, but I learned some good aspects to them that have swayed my beliefs on the subject.

After reading the articles we then moved into reading books about teaching, the first being "I Read It, But I Don't Get It" and then "Readicide." I really enjoyed both of these books and am glad I took the time to actually read them instead of just skimming through them. I plan on using many aspects of each book in my teaching. the only downside was that discussion in the class kind of lacked when it came to talking about the books. I don't know if this wasy because not everyone read it or did not want to talk about it, but I feel like we didn't discuss the books as much as I wanted to. I also did not want to be the only one talking so I did not push the matter at all. We then moved into probably my favorite part of the quarter, which was the book talks. I was so excited to get the chance to pick any book I wanted to read that would work well with teaching to students and was even more excited that I read "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep." It was such a good book and I hope that I expressed how everyone should read it in my presentation. i feel like I did a poor job selling the book to the class, no one looked that interested, and I didn't do enough research into reception of the book, but I loved reading and talking about it anyway. And getting the chance to hear all of the other book talks abd learn strategies and ideas for teaching classics, to teaching books I had never heard of. It was such a good lesson and made me really excited to become an English teacher to expose students to as many books as possible.

We then moved into the last part of the quarter, which was the mini lessons. Same as the book talks, reading "Night" really made me want to teach it in the classroom. It was such a sad and rough but important book that I could not believe I hadn't read it yet, and I want to make sure all students get a chance to read it if they can. I was let down a little bit by the Graphic Cannon. The volumes are really great but I expected each story in the cannon to be presented in its entirety, and not only parts or pictures representing certain stories. It makes me worry having it in the classroom and students reading just those sections or comics and saying that they have read a book rather than actually reading it. I still love it and will find ways to use it in the classroom to supplement readings, but I may not leave it out for students to look through during their reading time. And, of course, you can't go wrong with Edgar Allen Poe. I am glad that I now own his whole collection and know how to teach some of his works. Not much else to say with him though, Poe is a no brainer when it comes to English. I was surprised that no one else decided to do Absolutel True Diary of a Part-Time Indian for thier mini lesson (and still kind of peeved no one brought their books to class). That book is really good and I loved re-reading it and teaching my lesson on it. I did my reflection for it already but I will just reiterate that I thought it went really well and it showed me that I still need to work on time management when it comes to lesson planning and knowing how long discussion and reading will actually take. I also already reflected on my Unit Plan, but I will say that it is the weakest of my work from this quarter. Meeting with Sean every week was extremely helpful, but I did not utilize it as much as I could have. I didn't put as much effort into it as I should have, even though I was still happy with what I came up with for the lesson and still want to use it when I teach if I can. I didn't print out all of my lessons and actually ran out of money for the EWU printers and couldn't print out anymore anyway. It is the only thing I wish I could do over in this entire course.

This course has taught me so many things about teaching and becoming a teacher. I need to work on my procrastination and time management both in and outside of the classroom. I need to remember al of the strategies that I learned and apply them to my teaching. I need to keep using TPAs for my class because they are really helpful in making the best class possible. But, most of all, it has just solidifed my belief that I am in the right profession. I love standing in front of a class of students and teaching to them. I love reading books to learn, and reading books to teach. English is a great passion of mine, and so is teaching, and this class helped me know that that is true. This quarter was great, and I plan to remember it when I go on to teach full time. Do androids dream of electric sheep? I am still not sure, but I know I dream of being an English teacher.

Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Lesson Plan

Department of Education College of Arts, Letters and Education 312 Williamson Hall Cheney, WA   99004

TPA Lesson Plan

Course:

1. Teacher Candidate	Sammy Roderick	Date Taught	November 30, 2016
Cooperating Teacher		School/District	Gotham City Middle School
2. Subject	English	Field Supervisor	Sean Agriss
3. Lesson Title/Focus	The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian: Native American Stereotypes in	5. Length of Lesson	30 minutes
4. Grade Level	8

6. Academic & Content Standards (Common Core/National)	CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.6 Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.8 Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; recognize when irrelevant evidence is introduced. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.1 Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
7. Learning Objective(s)	The students will be able to apply their knowledge of the debate of using Native American mascots by reading “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” and the provided text through discussion and  completing a T Chart.
8. Academic Language demands (vocabulary, function, syntax, discourse)	Vocabulary: Stereotypes. Racism. Function: Analyze. Apply. Discuss. Debate. Discourse: Students will be analyzing the pictures in their entry task and the readings that will be handed out during class. They will apply what they have read to fill out a worksheet. They will discuss with classmates around them what they have found or what they can add to the worksheet, and debate with the entire class about the specific topic.

9. Assessment

Formative: The formative assessment will be the T Chart that they will be completing in their group or alone during class. This will check that they are participating in the class readings and noting what other students say during the discussion. This will be collected at the end of the day to check understanding and participation Summative: This is the first day of preparing the students for the persuasive essay that they will be writing on whether or not Native American mascots should be used anymore. This essay will show their overall understanding of what they have read in the story and in other texts to make a stance on the topic.

10. Lesson Connections

https://iknowwhatyoushouldread.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/why-the-absolutely-true-diary-of-a-part-time-indian-is-so-controversial-and-why-you-should-read-it-anyway/ ·        This article discusses the importance of reading Absolute True Diary of a Part-time Indian in the classroom, and why students should read the story. IT is a controversial book, some schools do not allow it to be read, but there are many reasons for why it should be covered in the classroom. http://www.tolerance.org/talking-race ·        This article talks about the importance of discussing racism in the classroom with your students. It is a difficult topic to discuss and there are fine lines that need to be followed, but it is something that should be done so that tolerance is commonplace in schools.

11. Instructional Strategies/Learning Tasks to Support Learning
Learning Tasks and Strategies Sequenced Instruction ·        Go over the day’s objective and definition of the day, and have students write in the journals for the entry task (5 min) ·        Have students share with the class what they wrote for the entry task and make sure they understand what a stereotype means (5 min) ·        Have student(s) read page 56 in Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian out loud and discuss why Junior thinks Reardan is racist (6 min) ·        Introduce their persuasive essay, pass out the worksheets, divide the class in half. Half the class being “For the use of mascots” and half the class being “against the use of mascots.” Have students work together or individually to fill out the T Chart as they read the articles (5min) ·        Debate as a class whether mascots should be used or not based on textual evidence and own ideas in a “claim and then rebuttal” format. (5 minutes) ·        Show video clip “6 Misconceptions of Native American People” (3 min) ·        Review what they learned for the day (1 min)
Teacher’s Role: 1.     Make sure the students stay on task as they write and share for their entry task 2.     Facilitate discussion, making sure that it does not get off topic and stays appropriate for the classroom 3.     Select students to read if they do not volunteer 4.     Make sure students stay on task as they read and complete the T Chart 5.     Facilitate the debate making sure that each side of the argument is represented 6.     Have video clip ready to go to show to class 7.     Have final questions prepared in case there is time left over	Students’ Role 1.     Write in journal for entry task 2.     Participate in class activities throughout the entire day 3.     Be respectful to other students when they are speaking or reading 4.     Stay on task when working either alone or in groups 5.     Be considerate in the debate and only make arguments with evidence, not personal statements 6.     Pay attention to the video clip
Student Voice to Gather Student voice will mainly come through in the entry task at the beginning of class. The students will be writing their own opinions on a topic or their own experiences and will get to write whatever they want and however much they want in the time that they are given. They will also be able to share their ideas and thoughts with the class throughout the discussion and debate.

12. Differentiated Instruction

Plan This lesson tries to cover for all types of learners as much as possible. Visual learners will see the pictures for the entry task and the video at the end of the period. Auditory learners will hear other students talk about the text and read the text so they will be able to comprehend it more than just reading it. And kinesthetic readers will be writing in their journals and filling out the T Chart to get a more hands-on approach to the lesson. Technology will be used to appeal to the students and a video that was released yesterday will be showed to relate to the students and connect them to the lesson more. If a student struggles with reading, the teacher will read the article to them or partner them with a student who will help them through the reading. Students will be allowed to type for their journals instead of write them if that helps them more. Students will not be forced to talk during discussion or debate, so they will not feel pressured to do so if they don’t want to. This is why the T Chart is present so the teacher can see that they are still participating by writing down what is discussed even if they do not speak. Arrangements will be made for students who are not allowed to read the book or do not feel comfortable being part of the discussion for that particular day.

13. Resources and Materials

Plan A copy of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Writer’s notebook, pens/pencils “NCAA Takes Aim at Indian Mascots” handout Projector/Media capabilities to show video clip. “Should Sports Teams Use Native American Names and Mascots?” and “NCAA Takes Aim at Indian Mascots” handout  “For or Against” T Chart worksheet

14. Management and Safety Issues

Plan Racism is a tough subject to cover in classroom. It needs to be handled with care and made sure that the students understand that they need to be respectful and conscious of what they say and write during the class. This book is also a controversial boom and needs to be handled in the classroom with care to make sure that no students feel uncomfortable or attacked while participating in this unit.

15. Parent & Community Connections

Plan Since this book is controversial, a letter will have already been sent home to the parents explaining what we are reading in the classroom and what we will be covering with the book. It will be stated in the letter that it is important for parents to talk to students about racism and tolerance of other cultures outside of just this unit and culture that is focused on in this story. This book was written by a Spokane native who grew up living some of the events in the story. There will be a community connection with the story as the students read and recognize places that are mentioned in the story. This will also bring the importance of the story to a better light knowing that it happened in the city that they live in.

Articles Used:

 Should Sports Teams Use Native American Names and Mascots?

Against the Use of Mascots…

Team mascots are racist

In response to previous letters about American Indians being mascots for sports teams, the writer of “Mascots don’t belittle Indians” (letter, Jan. 9) stated that the fans [don’t think lowly of American Indians because of] an American Indian mascot.

By definition, racism is discriminatory or abusive behavior toward members of another race. While the fans of these sports teams feel it is fine to have an Atlanta Brave or a Washington Redskin, it is abusive behavior toward members of American Indian tribes.

“The Washington (blank)s” — in the blank space insert any race, and you will come up with a team mascot that would not be tolerated in today’s society.

These team mascots need to be retired and we as Americans need to see that if we are to have freedom from oppression, then we need to start with our own homeland.

Dante Halleck
Kuwait

In Favor of Mascots…

Names prideful, not racist

In response to the letter “Team mascots are racist” (letter, Jan. 17): Team mascot names are not racist. The writer correctly gave the definition of racism, and no team mascot comes remotely close to meeting that definition.

Teams, whether they be high school, college or professional, choose mascot names that demonstrate strength and power. Cleveland Indians, Florida State Seminoles, Atlanta Braves, Washington Redskins … none of these display discriminatory or abusive behavior toward members of another race, or more specifically, toward American Indian tribes. In fact, when humans actually flesh out the part of those mascots, they are done with what most would agree is dignity and pride.

Perhaps we should rename them, though, in order to appease the letter writer. I wonder how he would feel about Cleveland Daisies, Florida State Kittens, Atlanta Peaches or Washington Pussy Willows? Those names would certainly strike fear in their opponents’ hearts and minds, wouldn’t they?

Jim McDonald
Camp Virginia, Kuwait

NCAA Takes Aim At Indian Mascots

(CBS/AP) Fed up with what it considers "hostile" and "abusive" American Indian nicknames, the NCAA announced Friday it would shut those words and images out of postseason tournaments, a move that left some school officials angry and threatening legal action.

Starting in February, any school with a nickname or logo considered racially or ethnically "hostile" or "abusive" by the NCAA would be prohibited from using them in postseason events. Mascots will not be allowed to perform at tournament games, and band members and cheerleaders will also be barred from using American Indians on their uniforms beginning in 2008.

Major college football teams are not subject to the ban because there is no official NCAA tournament.

Affected schools were quick to complain, and Florida State — home of the Seminoles — threatened legal action.

"That the NCAA would now label our close bond with the Seminole people as culturally 'hostile and abusive' is both outrageous and insulting," Florida State president T.K. Wetherell said in a statement.

"I intend to pursue all legal avenues to ensure that this unacceptable decision is overturned, and that this university will forever be associated with the 'unconquered' spirit of the Seminole Tribe of Florida," he added.

The committee also recommended that schools follow the examples of Wisconsin and Iowa by refusing to schedule contests against schools that use American Indian nicknames.

While NCAA officials admit they still can't force schools to change nicknames or logos, they are making a statement they believe is long overdue. Eighteen mascots, including Florida State's Seminole and Illinois' Illini, were on the list of offenders.

Those schools will not be permitted to host future NCAA tournament games, and if events have already been awarded to those sites, the school must cover any logos or nicknames that appear.

"Certainly some things remain to be answered from today, and one of those things is the definition of what is 'hostile or abusive,'" said Tom Hardy, a spokesman at Illinois.

The NCAA did not give a clear answer on that.

President Myles Brand noted that some schools using the Warrior nickname will not face sanctions because they do not use Indian symbols. One school, North Carolina-Pembroke — which uses the nickname Braves — will also be exempted because Brand said the school has historically had a high percentage of students, more than 20 percent, who are American Indians.

"We believe hostile or abusive nicknames are troubling to us and it can't continue," committee chairman Walter Harrison said. "We're trying to send a message, very strongly, saying that these mascots are not appropriate for NCAA championships."

The decision, however, quickly evoked passions and complaints from both sides.

At Florida State, Wetherell said the NCAA was trying to embarrass the school for using its nickname, even though the Seminole Tribe of Florida has given the university permission to continue using it.

"Other Seminole tribes are not supportive," said Charlotte Westerhaus, the NCAA vice president for diversity and inclusion.

Supporters also were unhappy.

Vernon Bellecourt, president of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media and a member of the Anishinabe-Ojibwe Nation in Minnesota, approved of the ban but had hoped the NCAA would take even stronger action.

"We're not so happy about the fact that they didn't make the decision to ban the use of Indian team names and mascots," he said.

Harrison, president at the University of Hartford, said the executive committee does not have the authority to do that, and schools can still appeal their inclusion on the list.

Brand and Harrison said they hoped school officials would pursue policy changes through the NCAA first, before going to court.

"I suspect that some of those would like to having a ruling on that," Brand said. "But unless there is a change before Feb. 1, they will have to abide by it."

Two years ago, the NCAA recommended schools determine for themselves whether Indian depictions were offensive.

CBS News Correspondent Tom Foty reports that the NCAA had investigated 33 schools nicknames and that about half have changed their names since then, leaving the 18 schools now subject to the new mascot and nickname restriction.

Among the schools to change nicknames in recent years were St. John's (from Redmen to Red Storm) and Marquette (from Warriors to Golden Eagles).

But that hasn't changed opinions on either side.

"They're not willing to give up this money," Bellecourt said, referring to merchandising revenue. "We would hope that it (the decision) was the handwriting on the wall that would urge them to drop these team names and mascots."

Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar Allen Poe is an essential author to study when it comes to English education. I remember learning Edgar Allen Poe in every step of my education. I even remember reading books for fun that had to do with Poe. In elementary school, I remember reading them as scary stories for fun. When I was in middle school I learned the history of Edgar Allen Poe and even wrote a parody of "The Tell-Tale Heart" for an 8th-grade assignment. High School was when it finally came time to dissect the stories and learn about the symbolism and messages in each story. We ready The Raven, of course, but I don't remember any other stories popping up much until I got into college. In one of my first college classes we read Fall of the House of Usher and the Mask of Red Death, but I had not read the Cask of Amontillado until now. But, clearly, Edgar Allen Poe has been in education throughout my life, and I am glad that it has.

Having the collection that students can read is a good idea to get them interested in reading Poe. Most will probably jump to The Raven or Tell-Tale Heart, but on the way they may read some more and that is what is important. I wish that I would have been exposed to more Poe in my younger years besides the classics to learn that Poe's work was more than "scary stories" to read on your own time. But, at the same time, Poe is aimed at a more mature audience to comprehend it more than just being scary. High school or late middle school, like where I was taught it, is probably the best time to be teaching it to students. It will be interesting to see where the presenters decide to put their lessons and how they decide to teach it.

I would love to teach Edgar Allen Poe in the classroom and really dive into some of the more obscure works for the students to read. I might introduce the students to Poe by reading the more well-known stories to the class, and then have them pick unknown works to read on their own to expose them to more. I am not sure how I would teach it to the class because some of the stories are complicated and take a bit to understand. I know I struggled a little bit even when I read them in college. I want to see how the presenters decide to teach the class and see different ways that it can be taught. Edgar Allen Poe is already being taught widely in the classroom, and I definitely think he should be here to stay.

The Graphic Cannon

I want to start out by saying that I think The Grapic Cannon is really cool and I am glad I purchased it. I have already spent a few hours just looking through the book and reading snippets of the stories or looking at the art and style of each section. I agree that maybe an essential thing for English teachers to own for their students, if not just for themselves. But there are some issues that I could see arising from it depending how you let students use it.

The Graphic Cannon has an assortment of styles that it uses to illustrate iconic stories. While some illustrate the entire story summarized, others only illustrate a chapter, or an image. A problem could occur when a student uses the summary as an excuse to reading the actual book, or tries to get by reading stories from these volumes rather than the actual books themselves. I think The Graphic Cannon is a good tool for students to use to get them interested in reading one of the stories portrayed in it. Seeing just a picture based on the story or a few comic strips could really get a student interested in wanting to read it. I could also see using it as a comparison if you read the chapter that is depicted in the Cannon and compared it to the actual text to see how the artist interpreted it and how the students might have interpreted it differently. I don't know how you could teach a lesson solely on just the picture, like Scarlet Letter, so I am interested to see how Cecilio does it in his presentation today!

Again, I am still very happy that I purchased The Graphic Cannon and I am interested to see how I can integrate it into my classroom someday. I just have to make sure that it is not the only thing that the students read and make sure that they read the actual stories as well. I went through most of elementary school saying that I had read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when in reality I had only read a Graphic novel version of it. When I finally read the story I saw how much better it was using my own imagination for the images rather than the ones that were already given to me. So I will just have to be careful with how I use graphic novels in general in the classroom.

Night by Elie Wiesel

Night was a sad telling of the struggles, despair, and horrible reality that the Jews had to go through during the Holocaust of WWII. It cuts deeper than just reading the number of deaths that happened during that time period, instead you get to read about it firsthand through the eyes of a 13 year old as Elie recalls what happened to him. This historic personal story teaches you lessons about humanity, good and evil, and strength through family in a way that a story told any other way wouldn't be able to connect. The book is short but you want it to be shorter as you read about atrocity after atrocity that the Jews had to go through, never getting better and only getting worse. It was a powerful read and I regret not having read it sooner.
Teaching this in the classroom would work really well paired with a history class that was teaching WWII at the same time. Even if that is not the case, I think it is a good read for students to learn the about the experiences of the Holocaust through a primary source. While the Diary of Anne Frank shows the dangers of being a Jew who had not been found, Night shows the other side of a Jew going through being found and living through what Anne Frank tried to hide from. It is a very heavy book and will take a lot of discussion to make sure that the students get more from the book than the initial sadness. There is also great strength in the narrator fighting through all of the hardships to stay with his father and live although everything was against him. Discussing with the students bravery and strength through adversity is something that could be done to alleviate some of the sadness. But the sadness is also something worth touching on. A book does not have to have a happy ending or happiness in it to still be an excellent book. Discussing the abrupt ending and having the students question what they think would happen next be an interesting activity.
If there is not a history class that would be teaching this material at the same time as this book is being read, it would be important for the students to know about the history of the holocaust and have background knowledge of Jewish culture and the different places that the main character ends up. A good activity to do would be to have the students look up another person that had lived during the holocaust and follow their lives and see what happened to them to get more exposure to all of the different lives that this event affected. This book is so good and important for students to read and learn from and there is so much that can be discussed even though it is short. I would definitely want to teach this in class if I could.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

Book Talk

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick

Description

• Dystopian future fiction. Year 2021 after World War Terminus, Most people have evacuated the dying planet to Mars where they are given androids as incentive to live there. Those who stayed on Earth are the poor, the ones too affected by nuclear fallout, and the ones whose jobs make them stay. Rick Deckard’s job is to hunt down androids that have escaped from Mars and “retire” them.
• Owning a real live animal is a status symbol, and some people own realistic-looking electric animals to keep up the façade
• Penfield mood organs: the mood organ can induce any desired mood in the people nearby, such as "an optimistic business-like attitude" or "the desire to watch television, no matter what is on."
• Religion: Mercerism makes a cultural push for greater empathy as a technology-based religion. Mercerism uses "empathy boxes" to link all users together to a virtual reality of community suffering, centered on a Christ-like victim, Wilbur Mercer, who eternally climbs up a hill while being hit with stones.
• Empathy Test (Voigt-Kampff Test) A toll used by Rick Deckard for identifying androids posing as humans since androids lack the ability to feel empathy.
• Two perspectives throughout the story: Rick Deckard (hard, straight-forward, hates androids) and J. R. Isidore ("special," simple-minded, oblivious)

·       Plot Summary:

Bounty hunter Rick Deckard signs on to a new police mission to earn enough money to buy a live animal to replace his electric sheep for himself and his depressed wife, Iran. The mission involves "retiring" a group of six Nexus-6 androids that went rogue and fled from Mars to Earth after their creation. Deckard visits Rosen headquarters in Seattle to confirm the validity of his question-and-answer empathy test. Deckard is greeted by Rachael Rosen, who quickly fails his test. She was built to try and discredit his test, but she does not fool him.

Deckard soon meets a Soviet police contact, who turns out to be one of the disguised Nexus-6. Deckard retires the android, then flies off to retire his next target: Luba Luft, an opera-singing Nexus-6. This android, however, has him arrested by a police officer he has never met and taken to a police department he has never known. An official named Garland accuses Deckard himself of being an android. After a series of increasingly mysterious revelations at the police station, Deckard for the first time ponders the questions his line of work raises regarding android intelligence, empathy, and what it really means to be human. Phil Resch, the station's bounty hunter, finally gets testing equipment to determine if his coworkers as well as Deckard are androids or humans. Garland reveals that the entire station is a sham, completely staffed by androids, including Garland himself. Resch shoots Garland in the head and escapes with Deckard and they travel together to find and arrest the android opera singer, which Resch retires in cold blood. Deckard takes the empathy test for himself and for Resch, which confirms that Resch is just a particularly ruthless human being, and that Deckard is also human, but with empathy for androids.

Half of the story is told through the events that happen with John R. Isidore, a radioactively-damaged, intellectually slow human classified as a "special." One of the 3 remaining Nexus-6 android fugitives, Pris Stratton, moves in to an apartment building where Isidore lives and he tries to befriend her. Roy and Irmgard Baty, the final two rogue androids, visit the building, and they all together plan how to survive.

Meanwhile, Deckard with his reward money buys Iran an authentic goat. After quitting work, Deckard is pulled back in after being notified of a new lead and experiencing a vision of the prophet-like Mercer confusingly telling him to proceed though his mission is immoral. Deckard calls back upon Rachael Rosen, since her own insider knowledge as an android will aid his investigation. Rachael reveals that she and Pris are the same exact model, meaning that he will have to shoot down an android that looks just like her. Rachael coaxes Deckard to have sex, after which they mutually confess their love, but she reveals she has slept with multiple other bounty hunters in order to convince them to stop their missions. After threatening to kill her, Deckard deserts her.

Isidore develops friendships with the three android fugitives, and they all watch a television program giving definitive evidence that Mercerism is not real. Roy Baty tells Isidore that the show was produced by androids to discredit Mercerism and blur the distinction with humans. Suddenly Deckard enters the building, with supernatural warning visions of Mercer appearing to both him and Isidore. Deckard becomes legally justified in shooting down all three androids without testing them, since they attack him first, and he successfully does so. When Deckard returns home, he finds Iran grieving because Rachael Rosen recently showed up and murdered their goat.

Deckard goes to an uninhabited, obliterated region of Oregon to reflect. He climbs a hill when he is hit by falling rocks and realizes this is an experience similar to Mercer's. Rushing back to his car, he stumbles abruptly upon a toad, an animal previously thought to be extinct, and one of the animals sacred to Mercer himself. With newfound joy, Deckard brings the toad home, where Iran quickly discovers that it is just a robot. While Deckard is unhappy, he decides that he at least prefers to know the truth: whether the toad is real or artificial, remarking with an exhausted reflection upon the events that have taken place that "The electrical things have their lives too, paltry as those lives are".

Rationale

·       Most students need to do a dystopian unit, and this book an entertaining and challenging read that brings up a lot of important questions to debate and discuss. The class should be taught at a junior or senior level to be able to discuss the deeper meaning of the book and make sure the students can comprehend the more difficult parts of the text. The book touches on what it means to be human, equality, the importance of religion, following the norms of society, life and death, emotions, and the age old question of “should AI be treated like humans.”

Teaching Methods

·       Discussion: Plenty of things that will need to be talked about throughout the book as the students read it and could lead to some very good discussion like the use of the mood organs, religion, the importance of fitting into society, what it means to be human, the deterioration of the world, etc.

·       Debate: There are also plenty of topics in this book that are worth having a class debate over. The main one being “should AI be treated like humans?” This could be expanded for this story to include the “special” people as well.

·       It would also be a fun activity to have the students take a test to see if they are human or not, for fun, and talk about their results. Or make a game where some students are androids and other students have to ask a series of questions to see if they can figure out which students are androids or not.

·       Listen to the audiobook: Gives a real feel and atmosphere to the book and helps understand the story a bit more. Listening to the audiobook can help break up the story for the students so they don't get overwhelmed with reading the entire thing.

·       Watch the movie: Bladerunner is critically acclaimed but notorious for being very different from the book. I think it would be a good lesson at the end of the unit to watch the movie and compare and contrast the book and movie and discuss why those changes were made and ask them what they would have done differently.

Obstacles

• Mild language

·       Complex concepts: mainly Mercerism and the empathy box

·       Sex scene between man and robot: Isn’t explicit but sex is discussed a few times in the book and will need to be talked about.

·       Religion: The book focuses heavily on the religion of Mercerism and how people feel about it. At the end of the book it is proved to not be real, but people still worship it anyway. Religion is always a hard topic to teach.

·       Mild violence: the only people who die are androids, but they are very lifelike so some of the details are a little excessive

·       The ending is a bit anti-climactic and weird: build up to the final showdown that turns out to not be as exciting. There is a supernatural element that comes into play that is a bit out of nowhere. And then just kind of ends.

·       Could be considered a classic at this point (written in 1968) and should be easy to get administration to approve it, but may have difficulty with parents with the religious aspects

Readicide

Schools are killing the want to read in students in a thing called Readicide. Schools are so focused on teaching to the test, making sure students score high on the test, and get rid of parts of the curriculum to prepare students for the test that important reading is lost on students. Reading the statistics of students that stopped reading or didn't know how to read was shocking and knowing that schools are not attempting to fix these issues was insane. Schools focus too much on multiple-choice testing which focuses heavily on shallow answers and prevents struggling students to learn and stop struggling. This book suggests changing the system and getting students to love reading, even if the reading isn't something they love, and making sure that they are prepared for reading in their life past your classroom.

But, this is no easy task. It needs to start with the faculty and getting them to accept that there is an issue that needs to be fixed before anything will actually get done. As a student teacher, I can see the problems that Gallagher brings up and want to try some of his strategies, but it isn't my place and the school needs to start making changes before real changes can be made in more than just one classroom. Students need to be exposed to more reading not only as a class but on their own. I remember in elementary school the trips down to the library every week or so to get a new book, look at all the books, and the time spent in class to read our own books. I remember my English teacher in 7th grade that, at the beginning of every week, would have three books that the students would vote on that she would read from for 10 minutes at the beginning of class each day. This made students interested in those books and made us want to read them. I also remember the small amount of time I spent in the library at high school and that I don't think I checked out more than 5 books in the 4 years that I was there. The more exposed students are to reading, the more they will read. Gallagher says that the three things needed to create a reader is to have them be interested in books, be given the time to read, and have a place for them to read their books.

But, it doesn't just stop at giving the students personal reading time. Students are also struggling reading their assigned readings for class, and it goes beyond the obvious reasons of why they aren't reading and understanding. They need to know the value of reading academic texts first and foremost. Also, something that the book focuses on is that students do not have enough background knowledge to understand everything they read. More exposure will help this, but framing the books you teach will help this more as well. Give the students the background knowledge they need to understand, don't just throw them in blindly. It is hard to find the "sweet spot" of not over-teaching a book, but not teaching a book enough to lose comprehension. I can remember how frustrating it was to read books that the teacher would chop up too much and I would lose interest because we weren't able to just read the books, I will definitely have to use the big chunk to little chunks method in my teaching when I can. That method being that you have the students read big chunks of the book on their own, and then go back to a class to focus on small chunks that they have read to analyze it more and let them get more from the book.

I agree with the 50/50 approach that the students should only analyze and work through their academic texts but be allowed to freely read their own books they are reading. You want students to enjoy reading and not feel like it is always a school assignment. I grew up in a school where Accelerated Reader was used and I was the top AR reader in the school for 4 of the 5 years that I was at that school. I contribute Accelerated Reader to why I still love reading so much and why reading is a big part of my life. I do understand the point of not making the books about points or assignments and just have them enjoy reading. The more they read for fun the better they will do on their testing as well. I just have a special place in my heart for AR I suppose. What is important is that we get students reading more for enjoyment and understanding than just to take a multiple choice test. Having good grades and doing better in school will follow with the more the students are exposed to some good reading.

*Looking through Appendix A I saw the book I am the Messenger which is crazy because I read that book years ago when I randomly picked it out of a shelf at Barnes & Noble because of the cover and the blurb. It was just happenstance that I found that book and thought nobody else had heard of it and I read that book numerous times. And apparently it is a popular book and people know about it. I am going to have to read it again now. And people who haven't read it should read it too.