Redkudu: Similar Situation

If you've read the beginning posts, you know that Ms. Q and I decided to experiment with a virtual collaberation after finding ourselves asking similar questions and sharing similar concerns about academic vision (or the lack of) in our schools.

Now a little about me: I have an English degree, and have dabbled in the writing world outside of teaching as well. This will be my 9th year of teaching ELA (grades 8-12), my 4th teaching English III. Like Ms. Q, our school teaches English I and II: World lit, English III: American lit, English IV: British Lit. As with Ms. Q, our school has no set English curriculum, and little in the way of a curriculum guide. We do have something called a "scope and sequence" but it is so hotly contested it is rarely used as a guide. (The latest version had us teaching Colonial Literature for 8 weeks, which is a bit long for any unit.)

The idea for the blog title came from something I discussed with Ms. Q, regarding the novel "The Great Gatsby" which was not originally one of my favorites, but which has grown on me over time. I've often felt that Daisy Buchanan's epiphany that her social class left her with little option but to be a "beautiful little fool" (as she advises her daughter) it could in some ways be an apt metaphor for lowered academic expectations, especially in reading and writing. Therefore, the title refers to an effort to recover the underestimated potential of students and reinvigorate a literature curriculum which is at best, in my case, abstract and without any set expectations except, as Ms. Q said, the state test.

This experience is new to both of us, and as we've never met and are separated by a state, it'll be an interesting one. I'm going to start off with a follow-up post describing what preparations I've already made for the next year.