Women in Wyoming Equality State

A red-haired retiree (Liz) from Oregon greeted us when we began our guided tour of the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historical Site. We learned Liz and her husband travel around the USA volunteering at various historical sites. When we met them at the end of June, they had been in Laramie, Wyoming only since May. Lucky for us, our guide's love of history made for an interesting tour of the facility and grounds.

Wyoming Territorial Prison

One of my favorite parts about our visit included learning about women in Wyoming, including these interesting facts shared with us by our guide as I asked her questions about women's rights in the state.

•  In 1869 Women in Wyoming were granted the right to vote, and Eliza Swain of Laramie cast the first vote.
• Nationwide the first female Justice of the Peace was in Wyoming.
• Wyoming elected the first female governor in our country in 1924.
• Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cody Stanton traveled to "the land of freedom" in 1871 via the Transcontinental Railroad.

While there were some female prisoners housed among infamous outlaws such as Butch Cassidy, the woman who captured my attention on our visit was May Preston Slosson, who was one of the few women granted the right to purse a PhD at Cornell University before the twentieth century. She served as Chaplain at the prison from 1899-1903. She was also an advocate of the women's suffrage movement.

Replica of wagon used to transport the prisoners

Slosson gave many speeches about her time as a female chaplain in Wyoming--The Equality State and proclaimed "a woman's rights to absolute equality with a man, in education, financial independence, social and political opportunities." She eventually moved to New York City with her husband and there remained a strong advocate for brining a better world for women, even marching in the 1917 Women's Suffrage Parade.

Slosson was a painter, poet, teacher, speaker, and advocate for women

Other reasons to appreciate Slosson include the facts that she was an artist and had a love of learning and knowledge.  She "cherished books, especially literature and poetry." She at one point taught at at Hastings College in Nebraska and believed that her one gift, one thing she could do--"I could sway an audience."

We spent only 24 hours of our vacation in Wyoming, but I must say it was an experience not to forget, with the massive amounts of open land and the history represented in Laramie. 

Wide open land in Wyoming

I'll leave you with a photo of a beautiful sunset from our one night in Wyoming and a quote from May Slosson "Literature has been the passion of my life, my chief recreation and a resource when in trouble. A long walk under the open sky is reading's only rival."

Sunset in Laramie, Wyoming

Why Are the Reading and Writing Scores So Much Better?

Educators often feel like Atlas, carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, especially at this time of year when state test scores are being released.  As it is each year at this time, it's my hope that we will remember what's important in our profession.

Walking through the hallway with my principal one afternoon several years ago after our state test scores were released, my principal asked me "Why are the reading and writing scores so much better?  What is your department doing?" 

As an educator who has long been an opponent of the "teach to the test" approach to teaching and learning, I was, honestly, not incredibly happy to hear this question asked of me.  My reply-- "we taught our hearts out."  She probed for more information--"surely you had a technique or strategy that helped the scores be better?" 

Perhaps we did, but that strategy was not test prep! Our department utilized Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) to plan instruction, study student work, and make adjustments to our approach so we could keep teenagers engaged and interested in learning.  We had a system of grade level teams and each team focused on the needs and interests of the students on those teams.  We also had many young and new teachers who kept all of us on our toes and learning new and relevant strategies.  A nice balance of classic and contemporary print and non-print texts were key; we typically paired texts. Text based discussions were integral to helping students write better.  When we taught writing, we focused on real audiences and specific instructional strategies we knew would help our students think more and write better.

We taught the standards and we used the formative assessment process to make adjustments, but we always focused on issues, ideas and humanity in the informational texts, literature, music and film that our students enjoyed.

In Kentucky today, educators, parents, community members, and members of the media are discussing the release of state test scores.  For the second time, students in our state were assessed over the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics.  It is my deep hope that if administrators ask teachers today what they did to impact test scores (shudder at this question--but know it's a reality), teachers will feel confident in saying "we taught our hearts out."  And that the test prep we all hate so much will not be a stronger focus in schools where the test results are not what people want them to be.  Because, didn't we all get into this profession to impact lives, to have discussions about issues, ideas, the world and humanity?

A Day Destined to Create Nurturers of Children and Lovers of Literature

I happen to share my birthday with two other English teacher friends--only one of whom is still in the classroom.  Jana is a former student of mine and now a young and fabulous teacher at a local high school.  The title of today’s blog post comes from Jana in her comment to me on Facebook this morning. Cherry was a colleague and has been a mentor, of sorts, to me as I made a transition, even if it's temporary, out of the classroom.

This birthday morning, I awoke to greetings from family and friends and to read a new blog post at Edweek; this post links to Learning to Muse and has caused a flurry of online dialogue this morning among my colleagues and friends.  The post has also caused me to ask—am I lying to myself to think what I do now in public education matters because I am so passionate about teaching and learning? Is it a lie to tell myself if I still loved teaching I’d stay in the classroom “for the kids?”

A friend from graduate school, now an administrator in Georgia, asked: “I struggle, too…does it get any easier?”  My reply:  “I don’t know if it gets any easier.  In a way I hope not because I don’t ever want to stop loving the classroom, even if I’m not there and especially if I ever return.  My love of teaching inspires what I do daily and the input I provide to the field of public education. Tough, for sure.”

I had a telephone conversation and subsequent online conversation this week with another amazing English teacher who has been teaching for 20 years.  He said to me: “I will simply look at this as a delay…Someday soon!”

 

Another friend, who spent 5 years in the classroom before pursuing other interests, encouraged me by stating “while you may have stepped away from the classroom for a time, you have not left education.  Your work is vital, and its effects are far reaching—across many classrooms.”

Delicate balance.  After reading the Edweek post, another friend and colleague, who spent 27 years in the classroom, commented:  “We absolutely need the best teachers to remain in classrooms teaching our precious children.  But, don’t we also want the best teachers helping negotiate and mediate all of the mandates and dictates that are being imposed on districts/schools/classrooms/teachers/students?

An anonymous educator who retired in May at the top of her game commented on my blog: “The worst thing is for teachers to leave when everyone else knows s/he's ready. What next for me? God knows. But, at least I carry with me the joys and successes no one can take away from me. Leave before everyone wants you to go. Hard to find that kind of high" in the real world. Finding something half as satisfying will be a challenge. What a wonderful journey!”

Life’s great balancing act.  Indeed life is a journey and as I sign off to spend my birthday with my husband and sons, who just made me a delicious brunch, I’m grateful for family, friends, colleagues and others who are working daily to nurture children and create lovers of literature as I continue to do per my 8 year old son who gave me a Dr. Seuss inspired birthday card. 

  

Informational Texts and the Common Core

& the importance of literature to humanity

As you may have read in previous Learning to Muse posts, I enjoy nonfiction texts, both the reading and writing of such texts.  Reading other blogs, online community boards, and articles, I continue to find a mix of emotions about the teaching of informational texts as required in the Common Core State Standards.   Some people are freaking out because they feel it’s a new mandate that will keep them away from the literature they love; others are making learning what’s best for students and are working with the mandates rather than being used by them.

Four years ago when my then eight-year-old was struggling to read well, I had a heart wrenching conversation with his classroom teacher.  Love her heart—she was in her final year before retirement, and she pounded her small hand on her chest saying “I want him to feel literature here in his heart.”    I shared with her my background as a high school English teacher, lover of literature, and my husband’s work on a PhD in American literature.     A love of literature is not lacking in our home, that’s for sure.  In fact, I concur with a quote read in the March 17, 2012 online issue of The New York Times.

“Reading great literature, it has long been averred, enlarges and improves us as human beings.”

Does this mean we give up nonfiction completely because literature makes us better people?  Not necessarily.  Though I agree with the opinion that literature makes us better people, I believe a balance of nonfiction and literature is what’s best for our students.  You can read more about a few of my suggestions for pairing texts here.

Long before the Common Core I was teaching informational texts, and usually that involved pairing not only non-print text with literature but also informational texts with literature.  We paired poems by Joy Harjo, Wendell Berry, Gary Snyder and haiku by Issa (translated by Robert Hass) with current event articles about the earth found in the local newspaper or various magazines.  One time we even explored Earth Day editions of magazine covers to learn more about audience, purpose, argument, and information. We looked at covers of TIME, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, Elle, Outside, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic Monthly, Business Week,  Sports Illustrated , and Backpacker.  

A few of the questions examined in our study of informational text paired with poetry included:

• Who would read each magazine and for what purpose?
• How is the earth portrayed in each of these different magazines to meet the needs of the varying audiences?
• What type of information would we find in each magazine? What information can we learn?
• How is argument conveyed in the cover images?
• How is argument presented in poems? 
• How is the earth presented in poems?

Through Shared Inquiry discussions and student led presentations we enjoyed informational texts and literature together.  Since student interest was an important part of my classroom approach, I invited students to bring articles for us to read in class.  This invitation served dual purposes—it allowed students to take ownership of texts they wanted to read, and it also required them to be aware of happenings within our community, our nation, and our world.

We want students to be productive citizens in a changing world. By allowing them to read the types of texts demanded in the Common Core, we are preparing them for the increasingly complex texts demanded of them in life after high school.

P.S.  Fortunately both of my sons made it past second grade and into the hands of a fantastic third grade literacy teacher who believes in the power of matching texts to readers, and they are both enjoying life as the sons of English teachers (even if they do prefer math).