July 5: End of Year Interview

Travis reflects on how the class progressed after the school year.
 
Interview - Audio Only (WMA format)

(0:50) Travis reflects on the course overall and how to make group discussion a more integral part of the class.

"...I want to think more about how to have at least have one sustained group discussion per week..."

(3:30) Travis talks about what he thinks students learned through group discussion.

"...she was able to, from one of the last books we were reading in June, make a connection to a text we were reading in September."  

(7:14) Travis describes a group discussion about "Johnny Got His Gun" from the end of the year and the evolution of the discussions over the course of the year.

(13:00) Travis talks about what students learned in the Othello and Poetry units and other units.

"...the discussion of, for example, 'Ode to the West Wind', they brought out elements of this poem that I myself had not even thought about."

"My sense is that their comprehension increased because of their ability to build on their classmates comments."  

(20:00) Travis discusses how he tried to scaffold students' learning in Othello and the growth they showed in their essays over the course of the year.

(29:00) Travis talks about students' growth in other areas like their use and understanding of literary terms and devices and the development of critical thinking.

"When they read Oscar Wilde, they understood that this was irony; they understood that this was satire.   It was clear. It was kind of fuzzy when we talked about it in Chaucer in October, but by May, they understood the satire, and they laughed with Wilde..."  
(34:55) Travis speculates on how he might change his teaching next year.
(40:02) Travis talks about what he got out of looking at Yvonne Hutchinson's website.
(42:02) Travis returns to discussing "Ode to the West Wind" and his overall goals for the year.