Why I Struggled to Write About My Visit to the Bread Loaf School ofEnglish

Relaxing in an Adirondack chair outside the distinctive yellow buildings at the Bread Loaf School of English, I soaked in the atmosphere of my surroundings while contemplating the excellent blog posts I would write following my visit to Vermont.   I returned home over a week ago and--Nope, nada, nothing.   My weekly blog post didn’t happen.  A number of excuses could be to blame, but ultimately, I just wasn’t satisfied with my attempts to write about my amazing experience.  Since I didn’t want to let the occasion slide without noting it as part of my own learning (to muse) experience, I decided to share pictures and a few anecdotes.

When my invitation to spend three days at the Bread Loaf School of English arrived in my inbox, I immediately grew excited knowing the opportunity would allow me a chance to renew, refresh, and relax.  This is one of those times when I felt proud to represent my state in conversations about teachers and professional learning.  The Bread Loaf Teacher Network arranged for me to stay in Maple during my three day visit.

Since I thrive on conversations, my appointment with the directors was a highlight for me.  Strategizing about how we can create more opportunities for Kentucky teachers to be involved with Bread Loaf was thrilling because I know this means more teachers will have the opportunity to learn from distinguished professors, to hone their own close reading skills, to create digital literacy projects, and to participate in collaborative exchanges with fellow educators from around the nation and around the world.

Knowing my interest in English academics and digital literacies, Kentucky’s coordinator of the Bread Loaf Teacher Network (BLTN) worked with the director of the Bread Loaf School of English and the Director of the Bread Loaf Teacher Network to design an energizing itinerary for me.  We practiced our own close reading skills in a modern British and American poetry class where we discussed poems by Robert Lowell and Geoffrey Hill.  I heard presentations by BLTN teachers during a network meeting--these presentations focused on how youth in English classrooms link literature to current events and public service using the digital literacies they bring to school.

At Bread Loaf there is a literal breaking of bread and connecting with others around meals served by Bread Loaf students in the Bread Loaf dining hall.  My hosts arranged for me to dine the first night with BL faculty and to enjoy other meals with groups of students who are English teachers during the school year.  The conversations were an excellent way for me to learn more about the potential for leveraging the voice of Bread Loaf teachers (who see themselves as agents of change) in our state.

I’m grateful for my three day retreat to the Bread Loaf School of English nestled in the Green Mountains of Vermont.  I feel rejuvenated, relaxed, and reconnected.

Hiking Exclamation Point at Chimney Rock

While on vacation visiting extended family in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, we hiked a few trails, including three trails at Chimney Rock.

  We started with The Outcroppings moderate to strenuous trail that involved taking a network of stairs and boardwalks (approximately 615 steps).  We looked out over Lake Lure and enjoyed the stunning scenery; we were not at “the rock” (elevation 2280) long before my eleven year old son started asking about the next trail to Exclamation Point.  My younger son and husband decided they did not wish to continue hiking up; they were saving their energy for the Hickory Nut Falls Trail to see the waterfall. Thinking it couldn’t require much energy to hike another couple hundred feet up, I quickly told the eleven year old that I would make the hike with him while the other two family members rested at the Sky Lounge.

Ascending stairways we were surprised by the switchbacks but observed interesting geological formations and noticed we encountered fewer people (good thing since the path was narrow now) than we had on our previous climb with the family.  Up, up, up we climbed with my eleven year old in the lead turning and stopping often to offer words of encouragement that we were “almost there.”  That’s the tricky thing about this switchback climb—we thought we were almost there the whole time. I began to ponder the name Exclamation Point and the fact that I should have known the hike would be steep, with such a name.

    

Reflecting On My First Six Months Blogging

 Reflection has always been an integral part of my practice as an educator, and it was certainly one of the most important skills I taught my students because it was a skill they could use throughout their lives.  At the end of every class day, my students reflected on their learning for the day.   I called this a reflection slip for most of my career, and then the language of “exit slip” started appearing, and straightaway, every teacher was required to have an exit slip.  The problem with the implementation of the exit slip school-wide was that many teachers were just complying with a mandate from the administrators and were not thinking about the purpose of an exit slip (to know if students mastered the learning objective for the day).  Some teachers were even known to throw the exit slips in the trash as the students exited the room.

Not only did we reflect at the end of each day, we also wrote reflections at the end of each unit and at the end of each year.  The students wrote reflections on what they learned, and I wrote reflections on the strengths and weaknesses of each unit as well as the skills I saw students mastering and those that would need re-teaching, depending upon the individual class and/or student(s). 

To get my students started for an end of the year reflection, I utilized the following quote often attributed to Albert Camus:  Life is a journey not a destination—as long as you continue on that journey you will always be a success.  Students then wrote about each of the units we studied, applying the quote to each unit as well as applying the quote to their growth in class.  We thought about where we were going with our learning, where we were at the moment and how we would meet our goals.

However this post isn’t intended to be about exit or reflection slips.  This post is my six month reflection on blogging at Learning to Muse.  I started this blog on 2 January 2012 as a way to encapsulate my musings, readings, and conversations about teaching and learning. 

What I’ve learned

·          As an over analyzer, it’s important for me not to overanalyze everything I blog because otherwise I would never post.  Just as I mentioned in that first post—learning is a journey.

·         As an educator, it’s essential for me to follow other educators to be connected and to continue learning. 

·         As a reader, it’s vital for me to keep reading anything I’m in the mood for—fiction, nonfiction, poetry, videos, images, anything that catches my interest each week.

·         As a mom and wife, it’s fun to reflect on family life and how it helps me maintain balance in my life but also how it connects to my education musings.

·         As a writer, it’s necessary for me to journal, to blog, to create, to read, to explore, and to listen.  Listening and exploring inform many of my musings here.

·         As a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT), it’s crucial for me to reflect, to learn, to analyze results and outcomes—this informs decisions I make.

·         As a blogger, I need to link to other people, blogs, websites, resources, organizations, anything that connects to the content and livens up the text.

My favorite parts of blogging so far

·          Noticing that people from all around the world have read my blog (See image above)

·         Sharing my musings with as many or as few people who read

·         Establishing my digital footprint

·         Reading comments from readers (There haven’t been many so far, but the ones I’ve read have been meaningful to me)

·         Sharing two posts with guest blogger, Gwyn Ridenhour, who is fabulous and passionate about education

·         Watching one of my former students who is now a friend, Amanda Riley, soar as a blogger

·         Keeping my personal commitment to blog weekly

·         Seeing a link to my blog in an Edweek blog

My blogging goals for July-December

·          Continue posting at least once per week

·         Redesign the background template to something more interesting

·         Learn how to add video clips

·         Invite guest bloggers

·         Explore ways to connect more with other bloggers 

·         Peruse websites and blogs of others to learn from them about design & content in the online world

~~Thanks for reading~~

Renee

Narrative and Informational Texts & the Common Core

“There’s my nonfiction loving friend”— my friend announced to me not long ago when we ran into one another on the soccer field where our sons were playing.  Indeed, I enjoy reading nonfiction, as I’ve blogged about previously, but I love a good novel, short story or collection of poems, too.  One of my favorite aspects of the nonfiction book I just finished was the narrative embedded throughout.   While reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks  by Rebecca Sloot, I experienced a biology refresher without having to read an informational textbook like text.  I’ll spare you my version of a summary or book review because the New York Times did a better job than I will, and I’d rather write about the topic of teaching narrative and informational text to K-12 students, especially given the dictates of the common core standards which call for greater emphasis on informational text.  

This demand has caused a wide range of feelings and reactions from educators across the United States.  Some embrace the idea; others are outraged.  Most teachers with whom I have spoken plan to do what needs to be done to meet the needs of their students.  In a PBS Newshour report from May 14, 2012, John Marrow stated befittingly “savvy teachers do what works best.”  The report included interviews with teachers and administrators implementing a variety of reading programs for elementary aged students, and it questioned whether the common core standards will pay off.

As you will likely have noticed in the Newshour report, I’m not alone in thinking we don’t actually have to give up narrative completely.   Savvy teachers will do what works best when teaching students to read, write, speak, and listen and to be intelligent citizens in a global society.  Let’s consider Thomas Newkirk’s argument “Narrative is the deep structure of all good writing.  All good writing.  We struggle with writers who dispense with narrative form and simply present information because we are given no frame for comprehension.”   Acting on this proposition, we need to help students analyze text when they read and teach them to employ similar structures when they write.

Others have also written about not giving up narrative completely and with good reason; we can learn about various topics by reading narrative.  Take for example the way I experienced a biology refresher when reading Rebecca Skloot’s book.  I guarantee I would not have cared as much about DNA, cells and chromosomes had no narrative context been provided for me.  Skloot drew me into the story by telling me about the life of an African American woman from poverty whose cells were taken from her without permission and then used in research allowing scientists and researchers to profit.

Consider this explanation of cells and DNA from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

“Everybody always talking about cells and DNA,”  Deborah said at one point, “but I don’t understand what’s DNA and what’s in her cells.”  “Ah!”  Christoph said, excited, “DNA is what’s inside the cell! Inside each nucleus, if we could zoom in closer, you’d see a piece of DNA that looked like this.”  He drew a long squiggly line. “There’s forty-six of those pieces of DNA in every human nucleus.  We call those chromosomes—those are the things that were colored bright in that picture I gave you.”

Told within the context of narrative the explanation makes sense and serves as a nice biology refresher for me.  Would this explanation work in a biology classroom?  What if a teacher paired this explanation with other print and non-print texts to help students comprehend?  By providing students opportunities to read and to write interesting and complex texts we prepare them for life and the experiences that await them.

Thomas Newkirk.  “How We Really Comprehend Nonfiction.” Educational Leadership.  March 2012.

Rebecca Skloot.  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  New York, Crown Publishers, 2010.

Resources:
http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/26/engaging-nonfiction-the-times-the-common-core-and-a-question-for-you/

http://dogtrax.edublogs.org/category/common-core/

For elementary: 

http://www.ucrl.utah.edu/pro-dev/instruction/lesson3.html

http://www.csun.edu/~bashforth/305_PDF/305_FinalProj/TeachingNarrativeStructureAwareness_RT_Oct2007.pdf

For secondary:

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2012/05/analyzing-text-structures

http://www.adlit.org/strategies/23336/

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/improve-student-writing-skills?fd=1

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. 

  

What a Liberal Arts Education Did For Me

 With all the talk about College and Career Readiness in our nation, I have been thinking  intentionally about my own college experience at a small liberal arts college in northeast Georgia.   My liberal arts education was not intended to train me for a specific job, nor did I even dream I would become a teacher until after I graduated.   A liberal arts education prepared me for life beyond the world of work because it taught me the benefits of lifelong learning and much more.

My values of tolerance, sympathy, and respect for others were enhanced in courses, internships and service learning projects where we studied cultures, people, humanity, literature, sciences, music, art, and philosophy.  At Piedmont College I learned to think critically and analytically, to communicate effectively, to solve problems, to collaborate, and to create--all integrated (not isolated) skills which are never obsolete; these skills allow me to thrive in an evolving global society.  These skills and the desire to continue learning enabled me to become a teacher who--

• Established rapport with students
• Engaged students in authentic learning opportunities
• Employed effective instructional strategies
• Empathized with students, parents, and colleagues

 Since I'm not currently in the classroom, these same skills--Critical thinking, Collaboration, Creativity, Problem Solving, Communication and a desire for lifelong learning allow me to provide leadership and oversight of projects in education.

Sometimes I question myself and my choice for leaving the classroom, as I've blogged about previously, but colleagues and former students remind me of the possibility for impacting change in public education.  And, thanks to numerous esteemed colleagues, I am reminded that we need more lifelong learners making decisions.

Thanks to my dad I enjoy learning through travel.

This Father’s Day I am contemplating my love of travel because my dad instilled this love within me.

Always on a tight budget growing up, our family still did not lack for travel.  Dad always found a way for us to explore various regions in the United States.  In fact, we not only traveled, we also resided in four different states in the first sixteen years of my life--Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida  (When I left for college, the family moved to North Carolina, where they still reside).  The whole family (6 of us) traveled to multiple other states, always by car, but we were continually looking for adventures to as far-away places as Mexico while traversing Arizona and the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls and Canada while driving through New York, Washington D.C., the White House, all the memorials, and the Iwo Jima motel (infamous story in our family), St. Louis and Houston to visit relatives,  see the sites and Disney World, Sea World and various beaches in Florida, in my birth state, the Great Lakes, and Mackinac Island.  Through all these adventures, my dad instilled in me an intense love of travel and, to this day, he loves to go, to see, and to experience learning through travel, and so do I.

What did I learn from my childhood traveling experiences?

To dream.  Dad is a dreamer, and his dreams are often realized because he works hard to achieve them.   I am a dreamer because dad is a dreamer and working to achieve dreams brings me satisfaction and enjoyment.   Many of my travel dreams have been realized, and I continue to dream of adventures and journeys I will have in my lifetime, adventures I will provide my children, and adventures my husband and I will have as we live our life-long journey together.

To keep a positive attitude.  Dad taught me to always look on the bright side of life when we traveled and when we were at home.   Even when life was sometimes tough financially growing up, dad always modeled a positive attitude by being grateful for our close family and by (forgive the cliché) turning sour situations into lemonade.  We still joke about the trip to Washington, D.C. when we ate fast food three times a day in an effort to keep travel inexpensive.  Boy, were we sick of McDonald’s!  But we had a positive attitude about the very fact that we were exploring new places and learning about our country.

My reflections and pondering in education frequently include musings on various in and out of state travel experiences because I enjoy traveling as much as I enjoy learning, and I believe you can learn through travel.  

Ruminating on Aki Kurose and Seattle

Generally when I travel out of state for work, I fly in to the destination, spend time working and meeting with colleagues and fly out with little time for exploration.  Last week, however, my friend/colleague and I traveled to Seattle, Washington for work.  Since it was my first visit to Seattle, my friend decided to utilize her hotel points so we could arrive a day early and do some exploring. 

We visited many of the Seattle tourist spots including Pike Place Market and the Space Needle.  Still trying to keep our spending low, we skipped the ride to the top of the Space Needle and instead walked around the perimeter of the attraction, taking in many of the gardens and sculptures surrounding the Space Needle.

One of my favorite observations of the day was in a garden where we saw a stone with a quote by the late Seattle educator and peace activist, Aki Kurose.  “If you don’t have peace within yourself, learning cannot take place.”   Aki Kurose lived from 1925-1998.  Her rich life included time as a teenager in a Japanese internment camp after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, but she learned not to harvest hatred toward the guards at the camp.  According to Jennifer Ott, writing for HistoryLink.org, Kurose spent much of her adult life teaching children and learning from children, and she became excited about what she learned from them.  This sounds to me like a woman whose work to embrace differences, create peace and promote justice is work from which we could all learn.

Reflections from a trip to Washington D.C

A recent trip to Washington D.C. left me feeling thankful for the country in which I live.  The United States of America is a diverse place with a rich history of both acceptance and non-acceptance of people for who they are.  Though I am not proud of the parts of American society that produce hate or un-acceptance, I am thankful that I live in a place where diverse opportunities are available to average citizens like me.

During my K-12 schooling, I moved many times and never had a consistent schooling experience.  In fact, my high school counselor told me it was unlikely I would even graduate from college because I was on the “general education” track due to losing credits and having to re-earn credits over and over from state to state.  I never failed a course and never even earned a lower than average grade.  That counselor’s statement has been with me for over 20 years and actually became the impetus for me to not only graduate from college but to also obtain a Master’s degree.

I didn’t go to college with plans of being a teacher, but I did believe I would work with people because I like people.  I like learning from people.  I like that everyone has something different to bring to the table.  I especially like conversations. Conversations with teenagers were a driving force for me to pursue the field of education after earning my Bachelor’s degree in psychology.   Plus, I was adamant about being a resource for teens that needed support—I didn’t want any other teens to be told they had no hope of going to college, if they desired to go. 

No matter the school where I taught, there was always a common factor—teens who were waiting for adults to believe in them.  For the past 14 years, I have devoted my professional life to education.  With four diverse experiences under my belt, I continue to seek opportunities and challenges as an educator and learner.   If you are interested in learning more about how I’ve spent the past 14 years, feel free to check out my updated bio page (tab at top).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

(Note:  I have citizenry and government on my mind because I was in D.C. for a meeting of states to discuss the common social studies standards being developed)

What Being a Classroom Teacher Taught Me about Being a Leader

In January 2009 I left the classroom and have been working in various leadership positions since then.  Even though I long often for the classroom, I have found if I remember these ten things I did in my classroom, I am more successful as a leader.  I only wish being a leader hadn't meant having to leave the classroom because it shouldn't have to be that way.  Teachers are leaders too!

1.  Value each individual.  No matter how busy my schedule became or how many students there were, I found it important to treat each unique individual with respect because respect goes a long way in building student/teacher working relationships. 
2. Provide choice.  Student choice in learning was by far one of my favorite tricks in my teacher goody bag.  When people feel they have a choice about what they need to do, they generally enjoy the task and learn in the process.
3. Provide frequent feedback.  Frequent, descriptive feedback has been shown to be one of the greatest factors for improving student achievement. 
4. Use passions positively.  I entered the teaching profession because I am passionate about teaching and learning.  Sometimes these passions cause me to react emotionally to imprudent decisions made in public education. 
5. Be creative with resources.  I spent my entire teaching career in Title 1 eligible schools, so we always had to be creative when looking for books, supplies, and equipment.  It’s amazing what you can get when you ask for help from the community.
6. Encourage collaboration and creativity.  These skills are supremely important for living a productive life, so I always liked to provide students opportunities to collaborate with one another and with opportunities to express their understanding of text in creative ways (e.g. through creating a painting, a poem, a song, a movie, a skit, etc.).
7. Listen more than talk. This goes back a long way for me.  As an undergraduate, I practiced Rogerian Therapy (Person Centered Therapy) for part of my graduation requirements for a B.A. in psychology.  This was all about listening to the client.  I employed similar listening skills in my classroom.
8. Provide experiences. As a believer in John Dewey’s philosophy of education, I believe students should experience positive interactions and learning opportunities which will prepare them to be confident and capable citizens in society. 
9. Don’t try to do everything because I can’t and shouldn’t.  This theory applies in the classroom and in the work place.  For a smooth running classroom where learning was happening, I needed the students to work harder than me.  This took a ton of up-front preparation, but my classroom always ran itself when I was a facilitator of learning rather than a deliverer of knowledge.
10. Set specific and measurable goals, but don’t forget the stuff that can’t be measured. While achieving success and reaching goals often meant I needed  to have numbers or measurable data for my students, I believe we must remember that being human centered doesn't always equate with measuring in numbers.  

High-Stakes Testing and Video Games

2011-2012 is a big year in our state because it’s the year students are assessed on the Common Core State Standards, standards which are intended to up the ante and prepare students for college and careers.  Our state worked with testing vendor, Pearson, to develop new reading, writing, and mathematics standardized assessments.  Last week’s blog post referenced my youngest son’s feelings of anxiety and desire to “chicken out” of the test.   The testing issue weighed heavily on me all week as conversations regarding the stresses of high-stakes testing continued.

With a large grin and sparking eyes, my eleven year old asked if he could have time to talk with me about the test when I finished talking with his younger brother.  Honestly, I wasn’t sure I could take another conversation that might rip out my heart with sadness if we had to discuss the way the test made him feel defeated. 

But this conversation was different, instead of being distraught over the test; Ethan wanted to use it to his advantage.  “Mom, you know how you are always telling us research says… well, guess what happened on today’s state test—I actually knew vocabulary because of that video game I’ve been playing.”  Since the video game is set in Medieval times, Ethan accessed his prior knowledge while reading the passage and responding to a question about the meaning of the word outskirts.  His argument then—he should be permitted extra time to play video games since it helped him on the test. 

My husband and I make parenting decisions based on facts, discussions, and a little bit of parent intuition.   We know well what research says about spending too much time playing video games and watching television.  However, I am also a parent and an educator who understands new literacies. So while the state test may be traditional and lacking in an effort to assess new literacies, my son found a way to leverage new literacies in response to the traditional state reading assessment. 

May I Chicken Out of Testing?

Thursday afternoon I was on my way home from working with educators when my sons's 3rd grade teacher called me. You may know the momentary panic a mom feels when seeing the school number appear on the phone. I answered calmly, mentioning that I was in the mountains with a weak cell signal and then waited to hear the voice on the other end of the line. The reply "well that explains some of it" was not immediately reassuring. I was thinking oh no--hope he's okay. What I learned was troubling. My eight year old had a melt down during state testing because he ran out of time to read the long passages and answer the accompanying questions. He had placed a tremendous amount of stress on himself because he wanted to perform well after benignly being told by his teacher that the scores would not affect him;they would only affect his school and his teachers. She regretted telling him that, telling me he had likely taken the statement to heart. He is a sensitive child who cares about others and his community, and he really likes his teacher.

 My position in education has benefits and challenges. One of the challenges is that I provide content consultation to the office of assessment at the state department. This is challenging because of my conflicting feelings of angst about the amount of standardized testing forced on children in public education. Now, I must say here that I do see the benefits of SOME standardized tests, but as a nation we have gone overboard with the amount of time spent testing our children.

As a parent advocate for my child, I am in a difficult situation because my professional life demands I be sensitive to the requirements set forth by our state and school system.  At the same time, it's difficult hearing my child tell me he wants to "chicken out" and skip the test because it's just too stressful. What do I say when he asks me if it's okay for him to chicken out, knowing America's public education system will continue to demand he take these tests throughout his entire schooling and even to gain college entry?

I don't know the answers, but I will continue to seek them and will continue to join forces with other educators and parents trying to make a difference in public education. For the sake of children in our country, we must not chicken out of looking for answers to change our test driven culture!

Literary vs. Informational Text: it's not either/or

An eruption of face to face and online conversations over the past year have centered on the demand for more informational texts to be taught in classrooms across the United States as part of the Common Core State Standards initiative.   As I’ve blogged about previously, I don’t believe this directive requires us to stop teaching literature.  A carefully balanced approach to instruction provides students with opportunities to read a variety of complex and appropriately challenging texts.  We do not have an either (literature) /or (non-fiction) scenario. 

 

Yesterday I was with educators from elementary backgrounds who claimed English teachers need to learn from them because they have been “pairing texts forever since that’s the way basal readers are designed.” (Pretty sure the Dick and Jane series wasn’t designed like this, but surely these educators are referencing the more contemporary design of American textbooks today) No doubt, we all have something to learn from one another, regardless of our teaching level. Nevertheless, creating text parings is not a novel idea; it is something teachers at any grade level have been doing or can start doing with ease.  Text pairings have been part of my teaching approach since I entered the teaching profession in 1998; it just makes sense to design lessons drawing on multiple perspectives, genres, or disciplines. 

Following my day with the educators referenced above, I returned home to find my husband, unexpectedly, cleaning out our garage (where my 8 tubs of teaching materials are stored), so I decided to peruse a few of those tubs and to ponder (again) text pairings I used in my classroom. 

Unifying focus:  Freedom from convention

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

Greyed Rainbow by Jackson Pollock

Scholastic Art borrowed class set from art teacher to for class to read article about Pollock.

Colors by Ken Nordine

Unifying focus:  Complexity in life and nature

Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

The Starry Night by Anne Sexton

Starry Night by Tupac Shakur

Van Gogh in Auvers from Smithsonian magazine January 2008

Unifying focus:  Identity

The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Mommaday

Identity card by Mahmoud Darwish

Poems written by students

Various non-fiction writings by students

The skill of pairing texts rests in selecting texts to meet the needs of learners in an individual classroom, so let the text pairings referenced here serve as inspiration for selecting texts that will suit the needs of your students’ demographics and learning needs. 

As you look for more inspiration, consider following the work of Sarah Brown Wessling.  Last spring I participated in NCTE’s virtual conference Supporting Teachers in a Time of Core Standards.  It was here where I met (virtually) 2010 National Teacher of the Year, Sarah Brown Wessling, who talks about fulcrum texts, context, texts, and texture texts.  What an inspiring way to think about text selection!    

Anecdotes from Poem in Your Pocket Day 2012

Top favorite anecdote:  My 11 year old son carried Falling Up by Shel Silverstein in the front pocket of his jeans and then proudly read the poem to his 5^th grade class at the end of the day. 

Sentimental anecdote:  My sister shared a poem about mothers in honor of our mother who recently suffered a heart attack. 

Marriage anecdote:  Robin gave a poem to Kevin on their wedding day; he has carried the poem in his wallet every day for the past nearly 20 years.

Mary Oliver anecdote:  Two friends separately mentioned poems in the days preceding Poem in Your Pocket Day 2012 —Jackie shared a youtube clip of The Summer Day or The Grasshopper  and Mary shared Wild Geese.

No Title anecdote:  Cindy shared Emily Dickinson’s  I taste a liquor never brewed.

Epic anecdote:  The never ending joke of the day regarding what one is carrying in his pocket included Milton’s Paradise Lost

War anecdote:  My cousin shared a poem written by my uncle while he was in Vietnam

Facebook friend anecdote:  Carie shared my request for poems with others  on her facebook page and listed  Wordsworth’s  I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud as the poem she would carry.

College Roommate anecdote: Amy carried a Sara Teasdale poem in honor of her 1992 college crush and husband.

Colleague anecdote:  Mikkaka listened intently as I shared my poem of the day  and then she shared with me Mad Girl’s Love Song by Sylvia Plath.

Twitter anecdote:  New York Times Learning Network retweeted #pocketpoems all day

Kentucky Women Writers Conference anecdote:  Julie and Vaughn shared their pocket poems through the conference listserv, a great way to promote the September conference.  Julie shared  [As for me, I used to be a bird] by — Alda Merini, translated by Susan Stewart.  Vaughn carried Pocket by Julia Johnson, a presenter for the upcoming 2012 conference.

Poem in Your Pocket Day: Ode to a Book II

For the past several weeks I have been asking friends, family, and colleagues what poem they plan to carry for Poem in Your Pocket Day.  While poetry is desirable to me all year long, it’s lovely to have one month a year where we see an extra emphasis on poetry.  Adding to the pleasure is a day of carrying and sharing poems for Poem in Your Pocket Day.

Today I am carrying Ode to the Book II by Pablo Neruda.  I selected this poem because I really love Neruda’s poems, and I’m ruminating on a summer when my husband and I enjoyed reading Neruda’s poems together and drinking fine beverages from Chile.  Since neither of us read Spanish, we were careful to select translations we thought would be reliable and settled on The Essential Neruda:  Selected Poems edited by Mark Eisner.  A City Lights Books publication, the selection includes the poems written in Spanish on one side of the page and in English on the other side.

Our Neruda reading summer bled into the fall when we returned to school, and I found myself sharing Neruda’s poems with my students.  Because a large number of my students were bilingual, I enjoyed listening to them read Neruda’s poems in Spanish and then in English prior to our vibrant text-based class discussions.  This classroom memory obviously stayed with one student because she spent last semester (her senior year of college) in Chile studying through an exchange program at the University of Kentucky.  She posted a picture of Neruda’s home on facebook and considerately tagged me in the post; she actually thought of her former high school English teacher while she was in Chile!

Tomorrow I plan to share poem titles and thoughts on Poem in Your Pocket Day 2012, so if you are reading and carrying a poem today, please tell me, so I can add you to my list of people who shared their pocket poems with me.

Why I Left Teaching

Yesterday I had an opportunity to interview students while on a visit to a high school in the eastern region of Kentucky. My colleague and I asked a number of questions to capture a snapshot of life for students at this high school. The students were very impressive, and they praised their teachers for providing challenging course work. They mentioned the research papers being written for English class; they emphasized the literature they are reading (Heart of Darkness); they conveyed the importance of studying literature to “better understand people.” They talked about the pig they were dissecting in science class and the challenging work required in pre-calculus.

 Following the interview with students and the subsequent conversation with our team, another colleague asked me: “Why did you leave the classroom— It’s clear you are passionate about teaching?” Coincidentally, I have been asking myself the same question and was even preparing a blog post on the topic a couple of days before her question. So, why did I leave the classroom?   Difficult to answer but important to ponder (and I ponder it often).

What I love about teaching

 Interacting with students
 Helping students make connections in learning
 Advising students about life after high school
 Designing and delivering engaging and effective instruction
 Collaborating with colleagues in other disciplines
 Establishing a positive and safe classroom with high expectations for all
 Coaching, mentoring, and learning with new teachers
 Reflecting and refining the art of teaching and learning

 What I don't love about teaching

 Lack of respect for profession
 Pressure to practice for “the test”
 Hoards of papers to grade
 Lack of time to plan, grade, meet with parents
 Rigid daily schedule (no time to sit, eat, use the toilet, attend events for sons)
 Constant interruptions of instruction from outside sources (walk-throughs, intercom requests for   students, etc.)
 Lack of funding for attending professional conferences and other events that invigorate
 Lack of time to spend with my own children because I spent so much time with my “other kids”

 No one item had any more impact on my decision to leave than another item, but after eleven years, I grew weary and needed a change. I certainly never thought leaving the classroom was a permanent choice, just an opportunity to try something new in the field of education for a few years.  I’m often asked if I will ever return to the public school classroom. It’s hard to say, but with many of the impending changes in public education I don’t imagine my list of what’s tough in teaching will become any shorter. That’s why I persist with a commitment made to myself when I left—I aim to raise the voice of teachers and students in public education.

Connecting Poetry and Experience

An exciting day of exploring and hiking at Mammoth Cave with 100 curious fifth graders leaves me thinking about the poem which awaited me in my inbox last Monday morning. Robert Frost by George Bilgere was listed in the The Writer’s Almanac on Sunday, April 8th. My friend sent it to a bunch of teacher friends, and he included me in the group of people to receive the poem, fitting given that I spent spring break musing on my teaching days. I related well to the essays stacked on the table waiting to be assessed and evaluated and the Sunday evening blues that sometimes crowd the thoughts of an overworked teacher. 

Now, you might be asking—what does a poem about teaching and Robert Frost have to do with a cave in Kentucky? Perhaps it’s the notorious ambiguity of Frost’s poems and the stories we heard today on the historical tour. Perhaps it’s the differences between the learning experiences referenced in the poem and those of the 100 fifth graders today. Which student would you rather be—the one writing an essay about ambiguity in Frost’s poems or the one exploring a 4000 year old cave?

Thought to be the largest cave in the world, with over 350 miles of interconnected passages, Mammoth Cave’s rich history includes uncertainty about the real reasons Stephen Bishop led adventurous expeditions in the cave. To learn more about this uncertainty, next on my poetry reading list is Ultima Thule by Davis McCombs.

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O Captain! My Captain!

I was never one of those wildly popular teachers who stood on desks, ripped pages out of textbooks, or spoke with a bellowing voice (think Dead Poets Society).  My approach was less showy but equally compassionate and filled with high expectations and a love for poetry.    In fact, I used to say poetry was part of the reason I chose to teach English over social studies.

There are two times each year when I become especially nostalgic for the classroom—in the fall when it’s time to welcome back former students and greet new students, and in the spring when it’s close to graduation and students are all a buzz with their minds focused on life beyond high school.

Inspired by a college graduation invitation received in the mail yesterday, I dug out old notes of appreciation from former students.  I still have some notes and pictures from my early days of teaching on the Cherokee Indian Reservation in North Carolina, and of course, there are notes from my students right here in Lexington, Kentucky.

One of those notes was from a student who addressed me--O Captain! My Captain! Now, if that isn’t one of the most honorable ways to address a teacher, I don’t know what is.  

Today’s Favorite Text Friday is the poem by Walt Whitman O Captain!  My Captain! 

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather'd every rack,

      the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,

      While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart!

      O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

      O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up- for you the flag is flung- for

      you the bugle trills… keep reading  

Walt Whitman may be one of the dead white authors, who garner much criticism for being part of the Cannon, but it’s still important to read authors like Whitman, and it’s essential to me that I share this poem with my young sons, who enjoy poetry along with me.  They like to hear me recite it, read it, and they like to read it to me as well.  Last night we read Whitman’s poem as a tribute to the interest my 8 year old has in Abraham Lincoln.  But, we also read it so I could relive a nostalgic memory of my days as a high school teacher.  

Spring break adventure to Lincoln Homestead in Springfield, Kentucky.

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Memorizing Poetry & Preparing Students to be College and Career Ready

With all the work around preparing students to be college and career ready, one today might say a student like my grandpa, who never finished high school but went on to fight in World War II and then to own and run a successful excavating business in Michigan, had no reason to memorize poetry.   I disagree.

One of my favorite memories is of my grandfather reciting for me The Chambered Nautilus by Oliver Wendell Holmes.  I last heard Grandpa, at the age of 86, recite this poem, a couple of months before he died.  I asked him what inspired him to learn and remember that poem; he said it was his tenth-grade  English teacher.   Because he had committed The Chambered Nautilus (and other poems) to memory,   he gained an opportunity to share that memory with me, his granddaughter; I gained an experience of a special time with a great man.  Since I was a high school English teacher who, for many reasons, asked students to memorize poetry, I liked to share with my students this story of my grandpa reciting poetry at the age of 86.  This story was also inspiring to some of my speech and debate students who competed in  poetry interpretation.

True our world today is different from the days when my grandpa was in high school in the 1930s.  Workers need to be better educated to fill new jobs that don’t even yet exist, and they need to be flexible and adaptable to be literate members of a 21^st century society.  However, let’s not forget the soft skills associated with being successful in the 21^st century and beyond.  As conversations continue about the economy and the bottom line, we cannot lose sight of the important benefits one can reap from memorizing poetry.  The practice of memorizing poetry can even help us prepare students to be college and career ready. 

Memorizing poetry can…

• provide you an in-depth understanding of a poem (if memorized thoughtfully and with repeated readings)
• help you through a hard time (important if you don’t especially want to wake up and go to school—or stay in school)
• provide an occasion to celebrate (important in life to celebrate one another, achievements, life itself)
• help you survive heat (literally and figuratively—and another post on that coming soon…)
• help you remember history (We need to learn from history, right?)
• move you beyond your comfort zone—a learning place
• help you build memories
• improve analytic abilities (Obviously, one must be taught how it can do this—not just told to memorize)
• improve comprehension and learn vocabulary (Again—one must be taught)
• help you learn about culture
• keep you in touch with ideas and experiences
• allow you to enjoy the beauty of words aloud (Think of all the poetry aloud and speech team competitions that continue.)
• help you think about the world in which you live
• provide you interesting party conversations
• help you learn about language, grammar, syntax
• help you make sense of life
• help you tell a story (Stories are still important, right?)
• provide you opportunities to connect with others

Maybe we could even consider connection the 5^th C in 21^st century learning because it is an integral part of being a globally aware and responsible citizen.  

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