Monday, October 29, 2007
Tatum's message
Tatum takes on the thorny issue of identity construction in Black adolescent males and says explicitly that schooling is largely an affront to their self-esteem and masculinity. His message is consistent with Rosenblatt's in that it's about knowing your students and beginning with meeting them where they are through the use of short, dense texts of clear personal interest to these young men. I like how he uses every opportunity to both teach the language and challenge the underlying assumptions. The Pledge of Allegiance was a case in point. Graff and Cain (1989) propose that we "teach the conflicts" which requires that students become anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists and more when deconstructing the "they say" reasons for doing what we do in this culture. He's big on word study....I like that he teaches all kinds of reading including reading the stock page -- and helps his students learn that branch of power-speak. It was helpful to see some vignettes of teachers not quite getting it -- as in the story of the unwilling little girl to whom the teacher said essentially, okay -- you don't have to. It brought to mind Precious's outburst toward Rain -- and Rain's kindness to her -- BUT her firm insistence that she "push". Ann brought up a great point in her blog about her concern that this book become another set of "activities" to bring up the scores. Tatum is pretty clear in the last two chapters that it takes consistent teacher-centered and teacher-run professional development to establlish a climate of inquiry into one's teaching -- with enough collegial trust to open one's practice to discussion. It's interesting -- because I think it's teacher-to-teacher observations and feedback, and teacher research done in a community of colleagues that will help the teaching profession take back its power.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Kylene Construction
A long time ago, my husband and I were building a house in Vermont. Our builder went belly-up in the midst of our house, and we had to fend off his creditors and angry well-drillers. We became the contractors. One day a lumber yeard truck pulled up and delivered boxes of new windows that should have had "Anna C-------" on them but instead read "Anna Construction". It seemed apt then ...and now as a metaphor for this book. What a useful, user-friendly book! I like Kylene's voice here -- and her emotional honesty in her retrospection. Whether George is one real student, or a composite, the idea of George as a thread through the book works well... I too had to figure it out on the job. One year I was in a district-wide study group for teachers of struggling readers. The book that stuck with me from that was Chris Tovani's "I read it, but I don't get it" -- a wonderful toolbox as well. Beers' structure works well -- discussion, visit to a class, out-take and student work samples, the strategy, teacher questions and reflection functioned for me to unfold the concepts clearly. There's lots of take-away with this book. Lots of actual co-construction of knowledge going on in the keyhole classroom visits. Her distinction between independent and dependent readers is useful. I really liked how she told the brass ring story )pp. 8-10)...Leah's persistence and the one-on-one situation created a condition where it became possible for Kylene to actually (eventually) hear Leah. Eegad. how many of my students haven't I heard? I wished I had this book much earlier.....I've got a book full of notes....
Monday, October 15, 2007
pull-back on Push
Watching myself read this book was a very slippery task. Only in retrospect can I think about such matters. Mine was mostly a aesthetic reading of Push...I read the book in three installments and each time, had a hard time putting it down...due to a pretty intense emotional engrossment, which I talk about in my first "Push" posting. Efferent reading happened during Precious's walk through Harlem, as she commented on the character transformation of junkies -- the "HAIRRUN shooters" (105)-- that in such a state, they'd steal anything from anyone. I felt like a cool observer, too, while P stayed that night at the Armory-turned-shelter. I felt myself sometimes an observer...like conducting an observation...in Blue Rain's writing classes. That she wrote back and did so as both a supporter and an asker-of-questions presumably for all her students, was good practice. That she fostered a trusting atmosphere was good practice. How she handled conflict showed that she was in control of herself, mature, clear about her vision for the outcome -- for example how she handled one woman's insistence that she belonged in the GED class, not the pre-GED class; and especially, how she handled P's explosive temper (pp. 96-97) when Rain asked her to write, that "writng could be the boat carry you to the other side"... P screams at her...and Rains gently persists, "I know you are [tired] but you can't stop now Precious, you gotta push." She actually used the language of good practice...in the face of the ever-so-useful [2.8] reading score :"A good reader is like a detective, she say, looking for clues in the text. A good reader is like you Precious, she say" (108).
Rosenblatt talks about how "(r)eason should arise in a matrix of feeling" (216). I think a book like Push is an exemplar of a feeling-inducing book for the purpose of connecting with an inner reality and outer world that we may never really "get" otherwise. We help students develop habits of mind: the "habit of reflecting on his primary transactions with books." Then the student finds him/herself in a "situation" that permits "possible alternative interpretations and responses" ...to then better "understand his own preoccupations and assumptions better." Then, the developmental next step is for the student to "seek additional information concerning the work, the author, and their social setting......" (p. 214). Rosenblatt extends the experience with literature -- which is one of practice (as in rehearsing) -- to the student's real life. That the habits of mind of noticing his/her primary responses, taking into account the responses of others, examining his/her own assumptions, and to look beyond the pat answer...are the habits of mind that critical thinkers who are participants in a democracy, need.
Rosenblatt talks about how "(r)eason should arise in a matrix of feeling" (216). I think a book like Push is an exemplar of a feeling-inducing book for the purpose of connecting with an inner reality and outer world that we may never really "get" otherwise. We help students develop habits of mind: the "habit of reflecting on his primary transactions with books." Then the student finds him/herself in a "situation" that permits "possible alternative interpretations and responses" ...to then better "understand his own preoccupations and assumptions better." Then, the developmental next step is for the student to "seek additional information concerning the work, the author, and their social setting......" (p. 214). Rosenblatt extends the experience with literature -- which is one of practice (as in rehearsing) -- to the student's real life. That the habits of mind of noticing his/her primary responses, taking into account the responses of others, examining his/her own assumptions, and to look beyond the pat answer...are the habits of mind that critical thinkers who are participants in a democracy, need.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Push
What a disturbing book...or rather, evocation of the book. Through Sapphire's pen, I'm able to see Precious's life and hear her voice. From page one of the text, Precious's voice is in my ears. I am dropped into the ongoing flow of Precious's inner landscape and outer life...Her realities have all the more force because of the way Sapphire posiitons them as ordinary. About her math teacher --
"I didn't want to hurt or embarrass him like that, you know. But I couldnt' let him, anybody, know, page 122 look like page 152, 22, 3,6,5 -- all the pages look alike to me. "N I really do want to learn. Everyday I tell myself somethin gonna happen, some shit like on TV. I'm gonna break through, or somebody gonna break through to me -- I'm gonna learn, catch up, be normal, change my seat to the front of the class. But again, it has not been that day" (p. 5).
What is ordinary, though repugnant, to Precious is there for the reader to see full on, or, for me, even more graphically when it's a fleeting image....like Mrs. Lichenstein's "white bitch hands" (p. 6) Or Carl's knees on either side of her head....
The whole horrible flashback that overtakes her as she's going back to school at the hotel....seven, second grade, abused and traumatized (pp. 38-39).
And...filling out forms when Mongo was born....
"Father," she say. "What's your Daddy's name?"
"Carl Kenwood Jones, born in the Bronx."
She say, "What's the baby's father's name?"
I say, "Carl Kenwood Jones, born in the Bronx" (p.12).
Invisible woman --
"What it take for my muver to see me? Sometimes I wish I was not alive. But I don't know how to die. Ain' no plug to pull out" (p. 32).
Not one, but both parents, depraved.
And hope....
Instead of sitting in the back of the class as always, "But something like birds or light fly through my heart" (40).
"I'm alive inside. A bird is my heart. Mama and Daddy not win. I'm winning. I'm drinking hot chocolate in the village wif girls -- all kind who love me. How is that so I don't know" (p. 131).
It makes me think of Peter Johnston's talk on Saturday (and his book, Choice Words) -- about how it's our moral responsibility as educators to teach our students to be critical of, well, everything. If Precious's objectification by her parents hadn't been reinforced by the people that were supposed to nurture her and teach her at school, she might have had to live through the abuse for a shorter time.....might have been able to find herself a little sooner. Johnston told us of studies that showed how one, single assault of language that implied that the subjects were "smart" or "dumb" had observable ramifications for poor choices that they made afterward...choices that reduced perceived risk to a fragile self-esteem.
"I didn't want to hurt or embarrass him like that, you know. But I couldnt' let him, anybody, know, page 122 look like page 152, 22, 3,6,5 -- all the pages look alike to me. "N I really do want to learn. Everyday I tell myself somethin gonna happen, some shit like on TV. I'm gonna break through, or somebody gonna break through to me -- I'm gonna learn, catch up, be normal, change my seat to the front of the class. But again, it has not been that day" (p. 5).
What is ordinary, though repugnant, to Precious is there for the reader to see full on, or, for me, even more graphically when it's a fleeting image....like Mrs. Lichenstein's "white bitch hands" (p. 6) Or Carl's knees on either side of her head....
The whole horrible flashback that overtakes her as she's going back to school at the hotel....seven, second grade, abused and traumatized (pp. 38-39).
And...filling out forms when Mongo was born....
"Father," she say. "What's your Daddy's name?"
"Carl Kenwood Jones, born in the Bronx."
She say, "What's the baby's father's name?"
I say, "Carl Kenwood Jones, born in the Bronx" (p.12).
Invisible woman --
"What it take for my muver to see me? Sometimes I wish I was not alive. But I don't know how to die. Ain' no plug to pull out" (p. 32).
Not one, but both parents, depraved.
And hope....
Instead of sitting in the back of the class as always, "But something like birds or light fly through my heart" (40).
"I'm alive inside. A bird is my heart. Mama and Daddy not win. I'm winning. I'm drinking hot chocolate in the village wif girls -- all kind who love me. How is that so I don't know" (p. 131).
It makes me think of Peter Johnston's talk on Saturday (and his book, Choice Words) -- about how it's our moral responsibility as educators to teach our students to be critical of, well, everything. If Precious's objectification by her parents hadn't been reinforced by the people that were supposed to nurture her and teach her at school, she might have had to live through the abuse for a shorter time.....might have been able to find herself a little sooner. Johnston told us of studies that showed how one, single assault of language that implied that the subjects were "smart" or "dumb" had observable ramifications for poor choices that they made afterward...choices that reduced perceived risk to a fragile self-esteem.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Ah....Louise
Ah Louise. This book (The Reader the Text the Poem) was a lot harder to pull together for me. I didn't hear any Hallelulia chorus in the background while I read-- like I did with Literature as Exploration. But, It's all good. Talk about brilliant. I'm a little all over the place so I'll share a couple of noticings.
In her shredding of Hirsch, Rosenblatt helped me clarify my thinking some concerning the fervent quest these days for the scientific. I played around with her wording at the end...but I think it's apt. "The scientist retains and reports only the logical and evidential proof; the prior intuitive process is taken for granted. HIrsch seems to want to do the same thing to a literary work of art -- and in stressing so much the logical processes of validation he has forgotten the essential difference between science and art. In dismissing the creative evocation of the poem as mere imaginative guesswork, Hirsch has thrown out the experienced work of art and retained only the scholarly apparatus" (p. 110).
Some poetic license - with apologies to Dr. R. -- It made me think of how education policy makers have "forgotten the essential difference between science and" what it is to be a person, a social being. And, "in dismissing the the creative evocation" of the person's internal, self-logical, non-linear, and unpredictable inner life, "as mere imaginative guesswork" Dr. No has "thrown out the experienced" life of those who inhabit schools "and retained only" the statistical analyses.
Personal news flash:
I did a conference presentation on Oct. 4 (my first as a doc student) at the Curriculum and Pedagogy Conference held in Marble Falls. The theme this year was Democratizing Education. My paper was The Canon Wars Continue: Resistance, Power and Reading in High School English. The format I chose was roundtable - which was perfect for me as a newbie-to-conferences. When I signed on, I chose the mentoring strand. As a result I met a lovely woman -- English Ed - from Boise State who had some good vibes and advice for me. Jeff Wilhelm, who I quote in the paper, is her colleague. He's written a LOT of books and I think is especially well known for (1997). You Gotta BE the Book: Teaching Engaged and Reflective Reading with Adolescents. He's got another that calling to me to read -- written with Michael Smith (2002). "Reading Don't Fix No Chevys: The Role of Literacy in the Lives of Young Men." I digress. The conference is well worth checking out for next year. Apparently, they hold the conference at the same site for 2 years in a row. Next year it's in Atlanta.
http://www.curriculumandpedagogy.org/
More on LMR:
I think that the resistance to reading may well be a sane response to a not-sane situation of being "militated against" (p. 101) as a reader -- enough with erasure, already! She talks on p. 39 about the systematic taking-away of the aesthetic response and replacing it with an efferent one. The illustration she uses is after reading a poem about a cow, the workbook asks "What facts did you learn?" -- eeggad. It's like training kids to see even poetry as a phone book, or encyclopedia -- no wonder they resist. Shades of Lowry's "The Giver", anyone? Of course this is not the case all of the time....but enough of the time to be worrisome. Check out Brian's blog for an in-the-trenches post on this theme (http://rojoag.blogspot.com/).
LMR in that passage was pondering a child's literal response to a fictive story and how it was possible to develop....how it was possible to lose the natural child's inclination to the 'willing suspension of belief' -- it makes an awful kind of sense. It helps me understand the Roadville kids from Shirley Brice Heath's "Ways With Words", a little better too .
Rosenblatt underscores in this book the primacy of that first step -- the actual internal, personal, evocation -- which cannot be skipped or shortchanged...this is the inclusion of the reader in the equation -- the opportunity to "live through" the reading, not vicariously, but as an experience in its own right.
Cheers all. Looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts in class.........
In her shredding of Hirsch, Rosenblatt helped me clarify my thinking some concerning the fervent quest these days for the scientific. I played around with her wording at the end...but I think it's apt. "The scientist retains and reports only the logical and evidential proof; the prior intuitive process is taken for granted. HIrsch seems to want to do the same thing to a literary work of art -- and in stressing so much the logical processes of validation he has forgotten the essential difference between science and art. In dismissing the creative evocation of the poem as mere imaginative guesswork, Hirsch has thrown out the experienced work of art and retained only the scholarly apparatus" (p. 110).
Some poetic license - with apologies to Dr. R. -- It made me think of how education policy makers have "forgotten the essential difference between science and" what it is to be a person, a social being. And, "in dismissing the the creative evocation" of the person's internal, self-logical, non-linear, and unpredictable inner life, "as mere imaginative guesswork" Dr. No has "thrown out the experienced" life of those who inhabit schools "and retained only" the statistical analyses.
Personal news flash:
I did a conference presentation on Oct. 4 (my first as a doc student) at the Curriculum and Pedagogy Conference held in Marble Falls. The theme this year was Democratizing Education. My paper was The Canon Wars Continue: Resistance, Power and Reading in High School English. The format I chose was roundtable - which was perfect for me as a newbie-to-conferences. When I signed on, I chose the mentoring strand. As a result I met a lovely woman -- English Ed - from Boise State who had some good vibes and advice for me. Jeff Wilhelm, who I quote in the paper, is her colleague. He's written a LOT of books and I think is especially well known for (1997). You Gotta BE the Book: Teaching Engaged and Reflective Reading with Adolescents. He's got another that calling to me to read -- written with Michael Smith (2002). "Reading Don't Fix No Chevys: The Role of Literacy in the Lives of Young Men." I digress. The conference is well worth checking out for next year. Apparently, they hold the conference at the same site for 2 years in a row. Next year it's in Atlanta.
http://www.curriculumandpedagogy.org/
More on LMR:
I think that the resistance to reading may well be a sane response to a not-sane situation of being "militated against" (p. 101) as a reader -- enough with erasure, already! She talks on p. 39 about the systematic taking-away of the aesthetic response and replacing it with an efferent one. The illustration she uses is after reading a poem about a cow, the workbook asks "What facts did you learn?" -- eeggad. It's like training kids to see even poetry as a phone book, or encyclopedia -- no wonder they resist. Shades of Lowry's "The Giver", anyone? Of course this is not the case all of the time....but enough of the time to be worrisome. Check out Brian's blog for an in-the-trenches post on this theme (http://rojoag.blogspot.com/).
LMR in that passage was pondering a child's literal response to a fictive story and how it was possible to develop....how it was possible to lose the natural child's inclination to the 'willing suspension of belief' -- it makes an awful kind of sense. It helps me understand the Roadville kids from Shirley Brice Heath's "Ways With Words", a little better too .
Rosenblatt underscores in this book the primacy of that first step -- the actual internal, personal, evocation -- which cannot be skipped or shortchanged...this is the inclusion of the reader in the equation -- the opportunity to "live through" the reading, not vicariously, but as an experience in its own right.
Cheers all. Looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts in class.........
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