Rise from the page!

Poetry lovely poetry!
Do you have a home?
On the page? On bathroom stalls?
Or in the chords of a microphone?

For all of my avid followers--hey Momma--you know my feelings on new literacies. Not crazy about them myself, but thrilled that they exist. I when I say not crazy about them, I only mean that I do not yet fully grasp them. However, I admire those who do and am very thankful for their tech-savvy skills. The chapter that I read for today was written from the perspective of a teacher who wanted to show his 21st century digital boys and girls (big ups to Bad Religion) that poetry had a place in the digital world. He laid out a number of different assessments for working both with poetry and new literacies to engage his students who wouldn't normally did on villanelles, sonnets, and the sort, which tends to be a large percentage of students. By encouraging students to read, analyze, and learn to appreciate poetry through a more student friendly medium, he was able to reach them in a way that simply reading "Locksley Hall" as a large group never would. My one hang up: This guy taught at a competitive and prestigious school where students had access to all the new literacies they would ever want. Not knocking the guy, just saying that he only know one said of the access story.

Allow poetry to jump off the page. To hell with the purist nay-sayers! They don't own poetry. It is for everyone, and wherever it is that people will enjoy it is alright by me.

Check out Motion Poems created by Todd Boss and Angella Kassube. The two of them take poetry to a new, and lovely, level.
http://www.toddbosspoet.com/Motionpoems.html

Can I click it? Yes you can!

I have often wondered what it would be like if the sound letters made when you typed them or the sound a computer mouse made when you tapped it made a sound other than, CLICK. Sometimes I pretend that I am not only communicating with words that I write, but also with the clicks themselves, like Morse Code. But what if the sounds were different, like CRACKS. I suppose that wouldn't be too pleasant, and it might just blend with the sound of advanced carpel tunnel. On second thought, computer companies should create mouses and keypads that make the CRACK sound; this way people would just keep on typing without the auditory reminder that they are irreversibly damaging their digits. Get on that, Jobbs. How about a pleasant keyboard sound? Though I suppose unless you tapped certain letters in succession, your standard sentenced could sound quite cacophonous, musically that is. diiieschlke ahij ahguyuwww couhjlrccsiong (the tune to Piano Man).

So, these new literacies. Some folks are getting on board and some aren't. I think that it is unfair to say that these are the "literacies of the younger generation" because I know plenty of folks on Medicare who play blogs and wikis like Santana strums that geeeetar. Also, I know folks my age and younger who avoid Facebook like tofu. I think that instead of saying it is the "literacy of the younger generation" we should say that it is the literacy of the people with the kind of personality that always wants to be up on the new thing, regardless of how much ear hair they have.

My opinion on new literacies, bring em on! Will I chain myself to that bandwagon? No. Will I hop on for a few blocks? Sure. New literacies are important but I don't think they are vital. I think that there are enough people out their who understand them and will help others with them, if need be, that not everyone will need to be a sorcerer of the stuff. Hell, talk about job creation. Years back lawyers did not know how to type because they did not need to know that stuff. They just needed to know how to argue abrasively and drink martinis like they were choco milk. They had secretaries to type for them. Today there are people to handle the new literacies and they will help those of us who aren't as savvy. This will save the economy. You heard it here first. KAPOW!

Fabel out.

As a wise dojo master once said...

"Practice is perfection." Writing and revising is practice, and it is important. It is annoying the first few times you are on the receiving end of criticism and suggested revision, but with a few lashings and some trust in those dealing them out, criticism and revision are lovely. Convincing students of this will take some time, as will teaching students to constructively criticize, and I liked the different suggestions that our readings offered.

When I first read about teachers offering their own writing for student revision I did not like the idea. I thought to myself, "How will this help them? Teachers are (should be) good writers. Show that to students and they won't have any revisions to suggest." I thought longer and harder about this and eventually changed my mind. I thought of a scenario exactly like the one I predicted happening, but I saw the beneficial side of it. If a teacher shows their writing to their students, it could be difficult for the students to follow. The criticism could begin there: who is the author's audience? If the author is going over their audience's head, shouldn't they simplify their writing? From there the students could offer revisions about confusing sentences, unnecessarily large words, and other cocky things that good writers usually incorporate. Once the students have had their go at the teacher’s writing, they will be more prepared to revise each others, but the process may take a while to run smoothly.

Atwell’s clear guidelines for conferences were refreshing, like a teacher’s jellybeans: take the ones you want and toss the ones you don’t. Guideline #1 suggests that teachers begin with very short conferences looking for just content and craft. Also, Atwell suggest short conferences because long conferences can create dependency for the students; the exact opposite of what we are trying to do.
Finally, long conferences only allow teachers to meet with a few students. It will take me some time for me to do this well because I have always thought of editing papers as needing to be long detailed processes. I got to break that habit.

Dornan’s “Higher Order Concerns and Lower Order Concerns,” were a flashback to freshman year of college, when I actually learned to edit papers. I had an amazing freshman composition professor who required us to have five 4.0 papers by the end of the semester, no matter how many revisions it took. The fewest number it took me was 4; the most it took me was 9. The most exciting part of his revisions were the “Close,” “Very close,” and “Damn close!” at the top of your paper before you received one that said “Finished.” The first revisions were all higher order concerns; he wouldn’t even touch our grammar. As we clarified and strengthened our arguments, then he would begin tacking on the “awks,” “wc,” “pt,” and all of the other grammar-correction tidbits. Revising student papers in this fashion is good for the students revising, the teachers, and the writers themselves because it prioritizes the revision process.

As with Atwell's guidelines, VanDeWeghe's "Techniques to Teach Response," are helpful and concise.


The following website is dedicated to creative writing. It has several tips and tools as well as writing contests, book reviews, and author interviews. Pretty extensive, but quality stuff.

http://www.creative-writing-help.com/

Keeping it classic with Strunk and White

Timeless as parachute pants:

http://www.bartleby.com/141/strunk.html

The online version of the book on grammar all Language Teachers should have under their pillows.

Grammar is alright with me

Too often I feel like grammar has been relegated to a separate camp, away from content analysis and critical lenses, or maybe this is just the feeling I am getting as a U of M student. I will admit it though, I love grammar. Never used to when my lovely mother clenched her teeth while editing my book reports, but now grammar gives me the same joy that stacking rocks does: pile the pieces just correctly and look at the confidence with which that structure, or sentence, stands! Its fun, but more importantly, it is important. Weaver touched on the tizzy that a reader experiences when reading the writing of a writer who carelessly deems their piece "finished" without editing it. It is true. It is true for adults and it is true for students. Hell, I even tense up a bit when someone posts on my wall without capitalizing the first letter of their friggin sentence fragment. Grammatical mistakes speak volumes whether we want to admit it or not. Impressing this upon students is important, because it will affect them down the line. The lovely thing about critiquing writing, as opposed to critiquing speaking, is that all people suck at it early in their life, and few people become good at it later in life. Kind of an equalizer, I guess. Of course, it usually comes easier to folks of the dominant culture, whose culture wrote the rules, but not to the same degree that speaking does. As hopefully most people would agree, criticizing the way a person has been raised to speak is just ignorant. Writing, however, puts people on a more level playing field, because by nature people are more conscious of what they write and how they write it than what they say and how they say it. I don't write the way I speak, otherwise my sentences would be littered with "likes," "errs," and "goddamns," and all potential readers would dismiss me as a fuzzbrain. Teaching grammar as part of the writing process, not aside from, is hugely important. Making it applicable to what students are doing will serve them better than the tedious sentence corrections that we remember so well. Writing is a craft. Writing is also necessary for communication ("calling Cptn. Obvious, come in Cptn. Obvious"). It is particularly important when communicating on a professional level. It might be one of the simplest ways to gain professionalism. Teaching it to students does them a great service and darn it, I want to see grammar, strict and strong grammar, rejoin the Language Arts camp and take to the battle fields! For language!!!!! Arggggghhhhh!

Resource

Hey friends,

Here is a list of 25 different brainstorming activities, because we can't have enough of those at our disposal, right?

http://celestinechua.com/blog/25-brainstorming-techniques/

It's the five paragraph essay Chalie Brown!

The five paragraph essay is dull, but we shouldn't do away with it. It is a form of communication that has its place in this world, and to do away with it would be a shame and a loss for the world of Language Arts. I do, however, agree with Wesley in that if students are taught the five paragraph essay, they should also be taught to critique it. This serves two purposes: it teaches critical analysis, and it shows students that there is a time and place for certain styles of writing. My one major concern with the five paragraph essay it how easy it is. It is basically an equation: Intro + Transition and Body Paragraph + Transition and Body Paragraph + Transition and Body Paragraph + Conclusion restating each supporting argument = Baa baaaa ba ba baaaaa ("What a good student, in sheep speak). Being that it is so formulaic, it is so tempting to resort to the formula when writing an essay. I mean, it does, however dryly, pose an argument with supporting evidence, and that is a pretty good thing. It is so important to impress upon students that the five paragraph essay is NOT the only way to write an essay and is actually a weak way to write an essay. Now it is just a matter of either coming up with a formula for a quality essay, which would take away so much of its excitement, or just help students to foster a creative and analytical mind capable of striking out on their own with confidence and the necessary skills to produce strong and original essays. That is where our jobs will challenge us the most, not to mention the students.

Poetry. YES. I am very excited to teach poetry but was thinking yesterday that I am not sure what my purpose would be for teaching some of poems that I yearn to teach. Curse you UBD. In my experience, and the experiences of many poetry lovers, a poem hits you like bird poop. You start walking, sometimes against your will, and then SPLAT. "What is that! Oh my God!" Now, at this point, the reader is either disgusted--they get to a point in the poem where they realize they are completely lost and annoyed--or, the read stops, twitches, and then realizes the sheer hilarity, chance, and madness of the situation. The latter readers are then hooked. Now, enough analogies. People can be taught to appreciate poetry for a number of reasons. In that way, the purpose is an appreciation of a form of literature and the content therein. As with the analogy I explained, these readers find in a poem something that is related to what others appreciate, but is also unique, empowering, and secretive. It is their moment and they want to replicate that moment again and again. In those moments, so much more is learned, and directions towards other ideas, disciplines, and experiences-to-come are made clear. Getting students to appreciate poetry in this way, the "bird poop is magnificent" way, is a gamble. It won't always work, but every once in a while it does, and it relies more on the student and the piece of poetry than it does the teacher. Here is once instance where I put faith in my students' inquisitive minds, the power of poetry, and maybe just a dash of fate.

The big bad shift

Being a product of the heavy-on-the-expository generation of education, I am relived and enlivened by the shift that is taking place in writing education. Somehow I had never heard of multi-genre papers until I read Romano's text. How exciting! I think that one of the main reasons that students do not like writing is because it is, well boring. Some forms at least. I liken expository essays to marathons and multi-genre papers to triathlons. Training for a marathon is almost exclusively running, with one day per week set aside for cross training. Unless you really like running day after day, and not doing anything physical besides, training for a marathon and the marathon itself are physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually draining. Training for a triathlon on the other hand demands a practically endless amount of training techniques. Basically any form of exercise is recommended for triathlon training because the event in itself is varied. What is also lovely about triathlon training is that your exercise surroundings are varied, you social interaction while training is varied, and you muscular usage is varied. Now that I have exhausted (pun intended) this comparison, let me get back to multi-genre papers and my love for them.

When writing a multi-genre paper, students have a variety of writing options. Some of these options may appeal to a student more than another option--ie student digs poetry more than dialogue or student digs newspaper story style more than comic form--but at least they don't have to spend all of their time and energy on the option they don't like. It is important for students to write outside of their comfort zones which is why it is important for students to write in a style they don't prefer, but a multi-genre paper also allows for them to write in styles that they do like, both challenging them and satisfying them. Also, from an assessment perspective, multi-genre papers are awesome for portfolios.

The shift in writing process is equally exciting. I cannot remember how many time I was required to write the same dull essay that the rest of my class was writing. In my class of 30, many 3-8 were actually interested in the essay topic, leaving the rest of the students to simply go through the essay-motion without any real motivation. The grades and teacher comments that resulted reflected who was and who was not interested in the given topic. On this point, I am reminded of what Jack and Dan often bring up in class, which I think is a valid concern. They often criticize student choice and "engaging" activities as setting students up for a rude awakening when he real world requires them to sit down, take instructions, and produce something that they would not have chosen in a million years. Valid critique boys.

In the writing process, the authors say that the writing process varies as much as students do. I wholeheartedly agree. Outlines, as helpful as they can be, are not the only way to organize a piece of writing. Free writing, as helpful as it can be, is not the only way to generate ideas for a piece of writing. The book offers a number of techniques to generate ideas and spark creativity. My favorite was "Six Objects" on page 53.

Finally, I appreciated that the authors disrupted the traditional editing process. Turning in a piece of writing to teacher and having them "correct" it without getting the input of other people is just silly. Thankfully, even in the dark ages of writing instruction, teachers did go over the "corrected" paper with the student, but still, this was only two people. Student ownership and student involvement in editing is hugely important. As teachers, one of our main goals is to prepare students to be independent, but also teach them to work with their peers. Writers workshops and other forms of student-involved instruction do just this; they remove the teach, to a degree, from the equation and put more power in the hands of the students themselves.

The loft literary center is the nations largest non-profit literary center. It offers gads of great courses for writers of all skill levels. The price of the classes are based on how much money the student can pay, and they also offer scholarships to low income students. The loft also showcases a number of literature readings including Equilibrium which is a bimonthly spoken word series dedicated to writers of color.

http://www.loft.org/