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Lydia Sheldon

09 March 2013

EDUC 515

Penn Mentor: Sandi Richards

Fieldwork Notebook Entry 6Personal Connection to a Character in Literature

As my students have been readingAnne Frank, Ive emphasized to them how relate-

able she is. Ive pointed out that shes around their age, and that she asks herself questions

that most teenagers ask. One day this week, an informal discussion grew around the idea of

a teenager keeping a journal. I asked how many students kept journals, and I was surprised

to see even some male students raise their hands in response. (I was surprised because I

wondered if the male students might identify Annes diary as feminine). In 8A, students

talked about how they wrote in journals occasionally when they really needed to express

their feelings, but couldnt figure out how they felt yet. In 8B, our students brought up the

idea of Facebook as a type of journal. Sometimes you just need to vent, said Rachel. Wetalked about the idea of online posting as a type of venting to an audience, and the

differences between that and Annes private diary. This prompted a fascinating

conversation about the appropriateness of Annes diary becoming public. Was her father

right to publish her private thoughts? Students seemed unsure. I wanted my students to be

aware of the connections they were making to Anne Frank. These connections not only

reflect the diverse personal links the students are making to the text but also their

willingness (with your nudging!) to consider the more academic ideas of audience, genre,

voice, and purpose in publishing a story. Hence, there seems to be wonderful blurring of

the lines between individual and learner. The power of a young girls story to change

the world an observation that is so central to any conversation about Anne Frank that it

has sadly become a clich is an idea that seems to be reinvigorated through your studentsresponses in your recent discussions and writing prompt included in this entry. No small

accomplishment!

At this point in my inquiry process, I was focusing my question onto students

metacognition. How do students learn about themselves as learners? How does their

perception of their learning guide whatand howthey learn? In particular, Im interested in

this question in the context of a literacy classroom. How can a teacher facilitate students

learning about themselves as learners through writing and discussion? What is the benefit of

that type of knowledge for students, anyway? Should I focus just on their developmental

learning in terms of learning styles and differentiation in a pedagogical sense? Or should I

focus also on learning about themselves as people and building their identities? I wonder

whether ones identity as a person can really be separated from ones identity as a learner:Does a students initial and strong personal connection with a text propel him/her to

engage more intellectually with it? Or are the two so inextricably joined that they work

simultaneously together to cultivate a rich array of understandings and meanings, both

personal and intellectual in nature?

In its current nebulous state, my inquiry prompted me to question how my students

personal connections to Anne Frank were influencing their learning, if at all. In fact, were

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my students connecting to Anne Frank on a personal level, or was I just forcing those

connections on them? To find out, I asked my students to respond to the writing prompt, 1) In your reading of Anne Frank so far, what character, OR theme, OR topic,

or IDEA, stands out to you the most? 2) Why do you think you connect with this topic? Use information that isunique to you, personally.

The responses were thoughtful and richly revealing. But are how, precisely, are they useful

for me or for my students?

Ramzy, a Muslim student born in Indonesia but raised in the U.S., compared the

stereotypes of Jewish people during this time to stereotypes of Muslims in America after

9/11. Just cause of that, because of the war in Afghanistan, and the prior war on Iraq

people just hates Muslim for no other reason, other than what the media tells you. Simran,

a quiet student from the U.K. who is new to our school this year, connected with Annes

inner development as a teenager especially when she was describing how she is

different on the outside; and how she wishes she could show her inside person. From

Baowei: Parents over protect at sometime I think its most stand out to me because

some time, my father or mother too care me. Like they want know where Im at all time.They wont let me go to some where to far alone. I think I am a big kids know. I can do

something by my self. And Sallie: The topic about Anne finding out who she is as a person

stands out to me most. It relates to me personally because I dont know who I am either. I

have a sense of who I am but not a full understanding.

Alright, so my students are connecting to Anne Frank! I think they enjoy these

personal reflections. I suspect that they become more interested in the text and in the

characters the more personal connections like these they make. Certainly, their reflections

are informative for their teacher. I can locate each one of these responses within what I

know about these students; this new piece of data fits into my developing understandings

of them like a missing puzzle piece.

So now what? Do these reflections really have a place in the literacy classroom? Dothey count as metacognition? Are my students learning something useful about

themselves as learners? A couple of students seemed to make the leap into a higher level of

metacognition. Nahaadja wrote, I think I connect with the topic because its informational

and interesting and it gives me a different experience about like because know I see what

people like Anne Frank and her family had to go through back then Here, I think

Nahaadja is not just connecting to Anne Frank based on her own experiences, but analyzing

that connection itself. Similarly, Mark writes: Sometimes I feel like life is a stage play and

we all just have to do our part I write many things and many of them are based on

escaping reality. I do this because reality is often times painful and what is beyond it is up

to the imagination. Mark seems to be responding to his response to Anne Frank. Both Mark

and Nahaadja are questioning whythey connect to a literary character.

This is sophisticated thinking. What are its effects? Im delighted with Mark and

Nahaadja for probing their own understandings. But what do I do with that information?

When I ask my students to think about the connections theyre making with the text, Im

asking them to evaluate their own reading. Its as if Im asking them to zoom out with a

camera, to watch themselves read. Mark and Nahaadja take it a step further, drawing

conclusions about what they observe in their learning. This seems valuable to me not only

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because of the practice of higher level thinking, but because of the conclusions these young

people are drawing about themselves as learners. My adolescent students are constantly

occupied by questions of identity. As they study literature in their language arts classroom,

thinking and writing about their identity as learners must enrich their understanding of

themselves as people. Yes! This statement seems to capture beautifully the core of your

inquiry study. Without personal engagement in the literacy tasks and texts, it is difficult (ifnot impossible) to begin to assess and understand oneself as a learner, especially for 13-14

year-olds whose identities are in the chaotic throes of being formed and appreciated.

Perhaps Im getting off-track here. Im trying to isolate a tangible goal for myself as

an instructor in all this student metacognition. What do my students need? Will or should

my instruction of them change after reading their reflections? And yes, Im going to ask it:

does this fit into my inquiry at all?

Lydia,

Your entry and questioning posture really resonate with me after an experience I had

yesterday at a Penn Mentors meeting. We were asked to read, grade, and discuss some

sample past portfolios in the interest of troubleshooting the process and establishing some

common ground when accessing these culminating projects next month. One of theportfolios focused on a chemistry-related inquiry and, though well-written and

thoughtfully executed, I just couldnt find my way in to fully absorb this analysis because I

was unable (unwilling?) to grasp the content and cared so little about the topic in the first

place. I was not a science enthusiast growing up and never felt any affinity for the required

science courses I had to suffer through as a student. While this is shameless, I admit, the

experience reminded me of how incredibly useful it might have been to know myself more

as a learner all those years ago. Your efforts to help unearth patterns of meta-cognition in

your students are admirable and essential if they are to evolve into confident adults and

self-knowing learners. Yes, indeed, I believe your students poignant reflections fit perfectly

into your inquiry for they serve to illuminate how vigorous personal engagement can

organically invite a child to see the complexities of the world and oneself more fully anddeeply.