Pandemics in Literature- Aiden Markoff

 Class 10 was heavily focused on the works of Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet. Hikmet's work is so poignant I decided to included two of his poems into the class today with "On Living" and "Things I Didn't Know I Loved".  Perfectly tying into one of the selected texts, And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again, one of the featured authors, Matthew Zapruder, pens a poem inspired by Hikmet in his chapter "Poem for Hikmet. After reader Zapruder's chapter, I created another Menti inspired by Hikmet's poem for the class to share what they didn't realize they loved. I decided the best way to assign the reading for And We Came  Outside and Saw the Stars Again was to use the five different parts which the anthology is divided into. The class will be divided into each group and assigned one of the five parts. Then, each chapter in the part should have a summary in a Google slide, and then culminate into a poster for the entire part, including pictures an

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q5ZLgKfuH1z6bDAx5y1OjSVpjjreziIl1WTKAiO0sX8/edit  Today I completed the Class 9 agenda, which was heavily focused on an article featured in the The Washington Post, called "The Poetry Which Spoke Most to the Pandemic". Initially, I used this to find a suggestion for the daily poem, which worked perfectly as it was actually my Poetry Out Loud poem, "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth. After reading that poem, I wanted there to be a brief class discussion on the poem, focusing on the concept of solitude, which is the central message of the poem. I decided to have the class then read the entirety of The Washington Post article. I was able to turn this into a reading and writing assignment, as the article suggests twelve other poems to read which spoke to the pandemic. The assignment is to read at least one of those poems, then write a 5 sentence reader response paper, (I included the rubric for that), as well as a th

While this week I officially declared my major at Union to be economics, my passion for English has always been, and will continue to be a massive part of me. The objective of this project was to experience what being an English teacher is like. As expected, there are elements which I love and others that have proven to be a challenge. First off, I love the creative aspect of formulating something new, with a precise attention to detail. Each assignment, note, discussion which I have created thus far has been done with intention as I constantly imagine a classroom setting where my class is actually taking place. I want the students to feel a way to process the collective experience of the COVID pandemic, and through that process reveals themes that can be carried forward with truths about humanity. That component of exposing themes is what has always drawn me to English, as I know that it is deeply applicable to understanding life itself. I myself have been able to take time to reflect

 Today I created Class 7 and 8 agendas. For the Class 7 Poem of the Day, I read through Pandemic Spring again looking for a shorter length poem, yet one that would still allow for conversation and analysis. I ended up selecting a short poem called "Graduating College During a Global Pandemic", and then asked for a discussion focused on the poem's structure and its effectiveness. Following the daily poem, I found two introductory videos after perusing to introduce Station Eleven finally. First I included an interview with the author, Emily St. John Mandel, to give an initial look to the text; secondly, I felt that it was important, (especially given that King Lear is not part of any other course at Proctor) to give context for the novel as it heavily references Shakespeare's King Lear. To help with this, I found a synopsis video which should help with at least giving a base level introduction to Lear.  Class 8 I intentionally kept simple; first, I found an article whic

 I decided to go back to look at Class 5 and 6 and found that I wanted to do some reworking to both. One of my favorite English class exercises has been the Socratic seminar. I felt that the introduction of intersectionality in 2020 would lead to a very in depth conversation, so I wanted to accommodate my class plans to fit that. I also added my own twist to the Socratic seminar format, including a "hot seat" in the inner circle which allows for the observer to jump into the active conversation. In order to accommodate the seminar, I added homework to class 5 in order to have students begin to draft discussion questions to be prepared.  I am considering diving the material from class 6 into at least another day and push back my plan for Class 7, which I have started with the Ulster University article and assigning Station Eleven. 

 Today I created class agenda 5 and 6. Class 5 I focused around the topic of joy. Using the poem "These Times" by Dan Szczesny, I wanted to emphasize the simple beauties of life which were a direct result of quarantine experiences. I connected this back to the previous class' brainstorm exercise, which was then used to assign the first poetry writing assignment. I deliberately did not require a specific form for the poem to take, as Covid Spring goes to show, there are so many ways to express the emotional experiences of COVID. For Class 6 I emphasized the intersectionality of race and climate change during 2020, as well as the direct connection to COVID. This focus was not only to have important discussions on this period of significant changes, but also to tie to the theme of dramatic changes which occur during a pandemic. 

 Today I received my second vaccine shot and was feeling under the weather. While trying to take it easy, I listened to Station Eleven on audio. I also researched for more video resources, mostly pursuing through TEDEd. I am considering implementing a piece on education reform based what has been revealed through the online transitions which took place during COVID. I also found an article from Ulster University which perfectly relates to my course objective as it delves into how literature has dealt with pandemics. The piece includes an article, video, and two radio discussions; I will most likely use the video and article in my next daily agenda.  https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2020/0319/1124105-literature-culture-pandemics-plagues-death-disease/ https://www.ted.com/talks/nora_flanagan_what_covid_19_revealed_about_us_schools_and_4_ways_to_rethink_education?language=en#t-57956 

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KlyW5R3W98l8n3vUFCdtXF9FwtGC4NU5KeUdyDInkew/edit   Today I had a great sit down meeting with John Bouton. I looked for his wisdom, sage advice, and recommendations for my course. I looked for both specific advice in terms of managing reading assignments and reading multiple texts as well as broader guidance when it comes to teaching like how to always incorporate joy, allow students to be comfortable while being vulnerable, and always having purpose with material. I am greatly appreciative for John's support and advice. Today I also created Class 4, which delves into the theme of loss through Elizabeth Bishop's poem, "The Art of Losing". I then created two brainstorm activities about both loss and joy through COVID. As suggested by John, I have also included a TED Talk from Brene Brown on vulnerability, as this is early on in the course and encouraging the class to be comfortable to challenge themselves to express their emotions an

  While this week I officially declared my major at Union to be economics, my passion for English has always been, and will continue to be a massive part of me. The objective of this project was to experience what being an English teacher is like. As expected, there are elements which I love and others that have proven to be a challenge. First off, I love the creative aspect of formulating something new, with a precise attention to detail. Each assignment, note, discussion which I have created thus far has been done with intention as I constantly imagine a classroom setting where my class is actually taking place. I want the students to feel a way to process the collective experience of the COVID pandemic, and through that process reveals themes that can be carried forward with truths about humanity. That component of exposing themes is what has always drawn me to English, as I know that it is deeply applicable to understanding life itself. I myself have been able to take time to refle

 Today was a material collection day in addition to still working towards finishing Station Eleven. Wanting to have a variety of media, I listened to 4 episodes of the “Pandemic: Coronavirus Edition” podcast. This is an active podcast, with one of the most recent uploads coming from as recent as Monday, so it’s been valuable to have material relating to coming out of a pandemic and not just the trials and tribulations during. Also, since I now have incorporated radio, podcasts, non fiction, fiction, and poetry, I want to add film and TV to the mixed media aspect of the course. To do this, I tried out Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak as well as a movie about an intense quarantine experience called Only.

 One of the gifts of this project has been reading for fun again! However, there is just a lot of reading to get through. Emily St. John Mandel's storytelling ability makes Station Eleven extremely enjoyable. The fact that this book was written in 2014 makes it feel like a premonition of the COVID pandemic, which plays perfectly in terms of using literature to express themes of pandemics. I do feel in my course design I am behind schedule slightly in making lesson plans, so going forward I think I'll have to mix reading and drafting agendas instead of separating the two. 

As mentioned yesterday, today's focus was solely on reading. I spent almost all of my work time listening to Station Eleven on audiobook. Getting to experience the book from an audio perspective is definitely altering the experience of the book, which I think will be important to consider when assigning the book and accommodating learning styles. Also, as part of being a good teacher will be work load management, seeing the time in which the book takes to be read aloud (over ten hours) helps me as an indicator of what is reasonable to expect from a student in a night's work of reading. With the amount of time it is taking me to read even as a fast reader, I think I will include multiple class agendas with a mini assignment but the majority of that day being for independent reading. The difficulty of choosing what materials to include in a literature course is definitely not a problem of scarcity. The challenge lies in that there is so much amazing content to go through and only

 Due to taking the AP Lang exam today, my ability to dedicated time to my project was significantly diminished. However, I was able to work with Morgan Hill Bookstore in order to get the second core text, And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again. I delved deeper into reading Station Eleven, while also starting the stories from the anthology, with chapters from Peruvian, Italian, and Nigerian authors respectively. The amount of material processing has been eye opening to me. In order to be a success English teacher, you must be constantly active in reading new works that can be incorporated. Additionally, you must be deeply well versed and well read in existing works, like with my having to research Dante's Inferno in order to understand And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again. Tomorrow, my goal will to spend the entire age just reading, hopefully finishing Station Eleven and selecting the most important excerpts to include in assignments from  And We Came Outside and Saw the

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wgiV0Rn4SkuC-GpGfzaccanmG65Hf4tJsClnGGo2KN0/edit  The focus of my day was split into two primary objectives; creating the agenda for class three and starting to read Station Eleven. Class 3 starts with a poem of the day which I selected from the Covid Spring collection. After reading through the anthology, I selected Mike Nelson's "Coronalove", transcribed the poem, and created a quick write assignment with it. For the rest of class 3, I researched and sampled various podcasts which I could include in the class. I found a piece of the Spanish Flu produced by the History Channel, which I listened to and found fascinating. To then connect it to class, I assigned the first major paper, having the class actively take notes while listening to find connections or distinctions to the COVID pandemic, and then writing a one page compare and contrast essay. After completing the Day 3 assignment sheet, I spent the rest of the work day starting to

 My first experience as an English teacher has begun. Today, I was able to complete the first two daily agendas of my expected thirty to make up the entirety of a semester course. The first day focused around two different radio pieces; the first, an NPR special interview with Ilan Stavans, who created an anthology of coronavirus pandemic experiences through global authors in a book called And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again, the second piece from NHPR on the increase in poetry activity as a result of the pandemic. I have selected Stavans anthology as one of the primary texts of the course as well as Station Eleven. I coordinated with Morgan Hill Bookstore to get both texts and have been able to start Station Eleven with  And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again coming within the next couple of days. The title for  And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again comes from Dante's Inferno, so additionally I read the Capo XXXIV of that classic text, watched an analysis, and i