Revolutionary Action

Here are some ideas I've been thinking about concerning how to really get the revolution going. 

1. Dorry had suggested making a list we can hand out to teachers about how to keep a professional and collaborative environment.  This is a very rough (and probably too informally voiced) list.  Please add to or adapt this list in the comments:

Ways to Promote a Collaborative Environment

Here I'm thinking we may need a short passage about why a collaborative environment will benefit teachers.  We could also include a quote from Andrea Lunsford's article on collaboration.  Suggestions?  (We could lift language from point #3.)

• Respect the voices of younger teachers.  Collaborate with them so you can gain their newer perspective on teaching and they can gain your insight as an experienced teacher.
• If you talk about another teacher, keep your comments positive and productive.
• Speak positive things into each other.
• Tell other teachers what you have seen them doing well.
• Share resources and ideas with your colleagues.
• Reflect on your teaching often and ask other teachers for ideas for improvement in your weaker areas.
• If you notice a hindrance to the collaborative environment, seek out and talk honestly and respectfully to the source.
• If allowed, come out into the hallways between periods.
• Observe other teachers so you can learn from each other.
• If possible, eat lunch with other teachers.

2. I am thinking we can make a blog of all the positive teacher stories.  It could be called "All That and A Bag of Chips Campaign" or something like "Revolutionary Teachers".  We could get the blog site out - write it on sidewalks, post it on FB and Twitter, get the news paper to publish something about it, hand out flyers to people on campus or to people at our schools... The blog could also encourage others to send in their positive teacher stories - either teachers sharing their stories or nonteachers sharing how teachers have positively impacted them, their children or someone they are close to.  These stories could be sent to an email set up specifically for this purpose (allthatandabagofchip@gmail.com or revolutionaryteachers@gmail.com are possible email suggestions.  It'd make sense to have it fit the name of the blog.)  There would also be a clause explaining that sending in the stories (which could be videos, storifies, paragraphs, etc) would imply permission to post the story on our blog and that we would only share first names.  (The name of the blog post could be "Sally's Story", "Billy's Story" and so on.)

3. Finally, I think we need a mission statement.  I loved the way everyone talked about the revolution and why the collaboration at Si was so successful.  In the comments, leave ideas (even copy from your blogs) about things we could include in the mission statement.

Reflection for SI

I created a second blog for my reflection in order to be able to flesh out my thinking.  Here is the link:
http://megansreflection.blogspot.com/2011/07/reflection.html

Reflection for Day 7 - Discourses

In her demo today, Carrie opened with a question about what it means to construct an identity.  I started thinking about Gee.  James Paul Gee, who says that "A Discourse is a sort of 'identity kit' which comes complete with the appropriate costume and instructions on how to act, talk, and often write, so as to take on a particular social role that others will recognize" (142).  Connecting this idea back to encouraging students to add writer to their identities means teaching them how to be part of the writer Discourse.  So when Johnston encourages teachers to say to their students, "This is what reader/writers do," he is suggesting that teachers talk about the writer Discourse with them.  Phrasing things this way might make talking about writing easier.  We can read in various genres and say "So what do the writers in this genre do?  What language do they use?  How would you imagine them dressing?  What would they do on a Friday night?"  We could almost make a Fakewall for these authors (Thank you, Carrie, for introducing this platform to us).  Having these conversations will allow students to really look at the different contextual writer Discourses and give them an opportunity to make informed decisions about whether to add "writer" as part of themselves.

Revolution - Teacher Respect and Collaboration

Rebecca's words from yesterday's ranting circle are still with me: So are we going to do anything about it?  I heard those words ringing in my head again as we talked about the weight of assessment and how powerless we feel to it today.  But we are a group of almost 20.  As the kid in Melissa's video said, "It takes one person to change something little and more than one person to change something big."  So, I want to start thinking about how to change things.

What I think we can start changing is the way teachers interact with and talk about each other.  Yesterday, we talked a lot about how teachers are in constant competition and tend to have a lack of respect for each other.  Today, Carrie and Aileen pointed out how newer teachers are called "baby teachers," which does not respect the work they have put into being teachers and the ideas they can and do bring to their students.  Lacy pointed out to me today that this competition is driven by the fact that testing and evaluation pits teachers against each other.  I think there is a way we can get people thinking about how this competition affects us and how much more effective and efficient we, and our students, could be if we all worked together. I also think it'd be important to get administration involved - not just approving it, but actually taking part - because the whole building should be part of the community.

Lacy told me to start thinking through this on my blog so here is some thining.  First, she talked about open verses closed doors.  I have been trying to mull over the benefits of closed doors.  So far, I haven't come up with anything positive.  I feel like whenever I've closed doors it's because I am either shut out by others or I'm shutting others out because I am scared of what they may say and offer or because I don't want to do the work of pushing my ideas against others.  This is just what I have done; I would really like others to contribute reasons they have closed doors before so I can think through and push against those reasons for my own thinking and argumentation.  Open doors would allow us to reflect on our practices constantly because we would be sharing with and seeing how others are teaching in their classrooms.  Open doors would also allow us to work with writing across the curriculum more easily.  Like at SI, teachers could collaborate for the most beneficial lessons and concepts for their students to learn.  It would also help ease the tension between grade levels.  Teachers above or below a certain grade level will be able to know where students are coming from and where they are going so that teachers could collaborate to cover all the gaps.  Now, some negatives to open doors... the first thing I think is that it's scary.  It would require stepping out and allowing yourself to possibly be shot down.  It would require the right kind of environment - one like SI - or people may end up squashing potential instead of increasing it.  Building this kind of environment would take time (which teachers already have little of), patience and a voluntary desire to build the collaborative community.  It would also be easier with administration on board, which won't always happen.

As for how to start enacting this change... Melissa brought up the idea of all of us taking something back to our schools and working to enact change throughout the year.  We could use each other as support - keeping in contact through Twitter, the blogs and the site - and, maybe, try to meet after 3 or 6 months to talk about where we are in our progress and what we can do from there.  (This has the added benefit of keeping us all in contact and keeping the community together instead of most of us falling away, which, let's face it, usually happens when groups separate.)  We could maybe talk to our principals/department heads about adding some of the activities we've done in SI to staff meetings, starting with some simple community building activities and working toward our candid conversations that push us to reflect on our teaching.  Before we leave SI, we could talk about specific activities and language to take to them.  (For example, all teachers and administration can share stories - like the riffing or ranting circles - about times of competition or collaboration and how that affected their jobs.) We can collect research or stories from past SIers about how a collaborative community has influenced their teaching and improved their classroom environment and led to more student learning.  If those in charge don't accept it, we could still work on it in small teams - the tenth grade team or the social studies team or even as small as the eighth grade English team.  The small teams may eventually bring others, even if its one by one stragglers, to the community and it can build from there.

This is just some preliminary thinking.  I've never tried to change something like this before but I really believe this is the perfect group to start the revolution.

Reflecting on Day 6

Today, my two inquiry questions - (1) how can we change the language use to talk about writing to eliminate the good bad binary and (2) how do we get our students to add "writer" to their identities - finally collided together.  While we talked about complicating the definitions and understandings of the word "writer", a lot of people started talking about exploding categorization.  They suggested listing genres, qualities of good/bad students, or qualities of good/bad writers and then complicating those categories like we did with the definition of writer.  I can use that idea to cross into changing the language in my writing studio (my new name for classroom).  We can begin to talk about how writing shifts based on context and is therefore not good or bad, but effective (I need a different word....) in a given context, but not others, for many different reasons.  Also, since writing is about idea invention, learning, discovering, inquiring, meaning making and making choices, it shouldn't be labeled as "good" or "bad".  There is no "good" or "bad" learning, for example.  This is also why I may start using the word "composing" instead of "writing" to expand what students consider as writing, which will hopefully allow them to imagine more choices.  I also want to think of different words to use that suggest writing as more meaning making and discovery.

Today also challenged me to think about what I will do if a student refuses to add "writer" to his/her identity.  My ideologies tell me that no one is not a writer in some form (partly because everyone does the act of writing and I think of writing as composing, creating and learning).  However, a student may not adopt my definition of writer and decide not to identify him/herself with it.  I am very glad these questions were posed to me because, once I got over the original "How dare you! Of course they will add it to their identities" reaction and the "Holy crap! It'll be mayhem and I will lose all my students and I'll get fired" reaction, I started to think about third space.  I think a student's resisting would be a great conversation piece, whether a student is currently resisting or not.  Students (and I) would benefit from analyzing what the benefits or drawbacks would be from adopting the writer identity.  It's also a good opportunity to talk about how students do not have to accept ideologies and discuss the outcomes of accepting or not accepting those ideologies.

Multivoiced Poem: "I am Mismade"

As my group talked during Ashley's demo about people having authentic voices to claims their own identities, I started thinking a lot about the damaging effects of stereotypes and the things people say that reflect these stereotypes.  The identity traits that get built into those who do not fit the stereotypes are only negative.  This struck a very emotional chord with me - as I told the group about our discussions, my voice cracked as I tried not to cry - and this mutli-voiced poem became my outlet.

I am Mismade

Boys shouldn’t cry. Boys should play tough.  Boys should play sports. Boys should be muscular.

GIRL: I like to play in the mud; boys don’t like dirty girls. BOY: Emotional movies make me cry; girls don’t like sissies. GIRL: I feel angry; if I show it, they call me irrational. BOY: I hate playing the rough games.  I come away with bruises; if I don’t play, my friends abandon me. GIRL: I like football; they call me a dyke. BOY: I like to play the piano; they call me gay. GIRL: I am a size 14; they call me ugly. BOY: I have an illness that makes my body small; they call me weak. GIRL and BOY: Something is wrong with me.  I am not like everyone else.  I am a mistake. I am mismade.

Girls should be dainty and clean.   Girls should be ruled by their emotions and not rationality. Girls should play house. Girls should be skinny.

Joining Storify and Writing Circle

Today, when Tara told me to write about something in the social studies field, I froze.  I remember almost nothing from history and social studies classes from K-12 so I couldn't write from past experiences.  Also, the only new I get is from CNN tweets because, honestly, the news just made me angry and depressed so I stopped watching/reading it.  Fortunately, we were able to write in any genre so I picked a genre that would allow me to both write and learn at the same time, Storify.  My group picked "conflict".  I chose to write about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.  One of the real cool things about Storify is that - simultaneously - I can learn the history of the conflict  through Wikipedia and other links to historical documents, the current events through posted links on Youtube, Twitter and Facebook and get real life reactions from people all over the world.  This was an awesome way to be able to learn about something I didn't know before because it was both fun and gave me many sides of the story to examine all in one place! 

Click here for Palestinian and Isreal Conflict Storify

Day 5 Reflection - Digital or die?

So my musings at the end of the fifth day of SI have little to do with my inquiry, except for the fact that it deals with language (though, honestly, what doesn't?)  I am thinking about the ways teachers and students talk about digital as compared to non-digital composing.  I feel like we've begun to talk about non-digital composing like it's taboo.  Those who do not compose digitally are labeled as those who either are not comfortable enough with it, are not proficient enough to use it or do not have access to it.  Digital composing, on the other hand, has become privileged.  We may only show digital examples for students and push strongly the new (and, yes, very cool) technologies we've learned.  In our language, we seem to have forgotten that both digital and non-digital genres are just modes that are used to convey some sort of message to some sort of audience.  Using non-digital genres may be more successful in reaching an audience in some circumstances.  Also, I worry that this type of language will not only build a digital snobbery in our students but will also shut some students down both emotionally and creatively.   Some students may prefer to compose as assignment non-digitally and, if we want students to have agency and take control over their learning, they should feel as if they have the option to do that without feeling as if they will be ridiculed by classmates or the teacher, be labeled negatively or possibly receive a lower grade than those who composed digitally.  And though none of that may happen or be our intentions, our language may reflect those consequences.   For example, I am considering trying out a scrapbook - a physical one, not a digital one - for my portfolio.  However, today, the examples were all digital and the implication was that if we did not do a digital portfolio, we are not comfortable with technology.   I feel very comfortable learning and using technology and feel very proficient in that use, but I wanted to do something creative with my hands as a wrap up to SI.  I know everyone at SI has the best of intentions and no one will say or think bad things or lower my grades because I did not do a digital portfolio.  But even with that knowledge and the security I have with my ideas and my abilities as a student, I still felt a little squeamish about trying out something non-digital.  A less secure student would like have felt like he/she had no other option but to throw away his/her ideas and find something digital to do.  Technology is awesome, useful and a lot of fun to play with.  At the same time, I think it would have disastrous consequences for our students if we do not reflect on the language we are using to present and talk about digital and non-digital composing spaces.

Writer's Mission Statement - Thinking Continued

Here is the newest list of things on my mission statement.  I think I'm struggling most with trying to decide what form this should take.  Poem? List? Prose writing like a personal statement?  A brochure?  Suggestions are welcome and hoped for!

This is Who I Am as a Writer

• I am insecure as a writer; I rarely believe my writing is good enough to interest real world readers.
• I am a re-visioner
• I am a social writer; I need to talk it out
• I am a writing procrastinator; because starting a piece of writing is the hardest part for me, I put it off.  Once I have started writing, I usually hit the writer’s high and writing becomes easier.  Also, the more often I write, the easier it feels.
• My biggest struggle as a creative writer is currently with character development
• My writing – whether academic or creative – is always personal.  This may be because I attach the word “writer” to my identity.  As such, I feel a little offended when others try to change my writing - for better or worse.
• I write what I know; my characters echo my personality or the personalities of those to whom I am closest emotionally.
• When writing creatively, I include a lot of descriptive imagery.  My writing contains a high level of vocabulary.  This may occur because I started my writing development as a poet.  My creative writing also usually contains serious subject matters to which most people could emotionally relate and can, as a result, be moved by my writing.  (Madison says that, as a writer, I’m not a pop song, I’m a symphony.)
• I use writing as therapy.  I use it to understand myself, my experiences and the world around me.

This I believe about Writing

• Writing is hard
• Writing is riffing
• Writing requires revision
• Writing requires vision/goals/attempts/failures/mistakes
• Writing means taking risks
• Writing means being honest
• Writing means admitting you need to revise/rewrite in the direction you'd been fighting
• Writing requires collaboration at some point in the process.
• Writing requires deciding when to end
• Writing is always for an audience and for a purpose
• Writing requires mentor texts, so reading is essential.  To become a proficient writer in a given context, the writer needs to  have several opportunities over a sustained amount of time to write and read in that context.  In addition, the writer needs to be able to analyze, reflect and discuss the strategies, techniques, structure, etc. of works in the context.
• Everyone’s writing process is different.  Even a single person’s process will change for different contexts and over the course of one’s growth as a writer.
• Writing is multi-voiced.  These voices include all the voices of the different identities in a writer as well as those who have influenced the person as a writer (authors, teachers, literacy sponsors).
• Writing goes beyond mechanical rules.  As a writer is immersed in a writing context and becomes an “expert” in that context, he/she is given more license by readers to defy the readers’ expectations.
• Writing is about choices.  All these choices have rhetorical consequences.
• Challenging oneself to write outside of one’s comfort zone, making mistakes and being willing to wobble are necessary for growth as a writer.
• Writing is not confined to the classroom, to books or to works typically defined as creative.  Writing can be text messages, social media texts, graffiti, shopping lists and so on.
• Writing is contextual; therefore, it is impossible to give a single general definition of what writing is.
• Writing is about meaning making
• Writing is about generating ideas
• Writing is about exploration, inquiry and learning.
• Writing is messy

Negotation and Resistance

Just yesterday, I said that "negotiation" is my new favorite buzz and today I end up reading Rethinking Negotiation in Composition Studies by Thomas West and Gary A. Olson, which analyzes and critiques how we use the word negotiation (at least as they saw it in 1999). They emphasize that, used a certain way, negotiation is really just a way of keeping the status quo.  Those in power make it look like those under them are able to negotiate and affect change when, in reality, the powerful do not intend to give up their power and use these "negotiations" as a way to keep the people calmly in their subordinate positions.  After all, if one believes that one has power - even if one does not actually have that power - one is a lot less likely to want to change things.  West and Olson encourage readers to begin engaging in "critical negotiation."  Below is a chunk of the text that summarizes their main points.

I was completely with the authors, excited to use this critical view of negotiation in my classroom, giving my students agency and power in the classroom and really working together to shape our identities.  And then I read a sentence that made me think a little less ideally and a little more realistically.  "Critical negotiation ... allows for the realization that some parties may not be interested in compromise so as to maintain the status quo, and that others might be interested instead in disrupting and transforming the status quo" (249).  In classroom terms, I will have students who are not from the same background and ideologies as I am and who believe that the way I have attempted to build the classroom community does not work and will want to change it.  I am not talking about a student who doesn't want to "have to write so much" or some crap like that.  I'm talking a student who honestly want to hold me to the fact that I want to allow my students to craft and take control of their learning and their learning environment.  This idea both excited and terrifies me.  These students will push me to consistently reflect on my practices and the theories behind those practices, to keep growing as a teacher and as a student and to keep me from creating yet another space where only those who match the status quo succeed.  At the same time, let's say a month into the semester, after we've already gotten into the flow of how the classroom works and how we are going to work together, and a student comes to me suggesting a way to radically change the classroom - an idea that would work, but an idea that will both challenge what I have left unexamined in my teaching theory.  I know that negotiation does not stop after the first few weeks.  I am just wondering what negotiation of a classroom community looks like after that time period.  And what type of language does one use with the student who suggests change and with the other students if one decides the change may be beneficial?  I imagine that it would look like a conversation with the class, "Someone suggested this plan.  What do you all think of it?  How would it change our class?  What would the possible results of changing/not changing be?"  At what point does negotiation stop - or does it? - in a class?  Is there a point where the teacher just has to make an authoritative call?

Writer's Mission Statement and Practicing What I'm Preaching

So I had a BIG realization today.  I have been thinking about how to help students find their identities as writers and, guess what... I hadn't stopped to think about my own writing identity.  (I have begun to realize how often I am not doing the things that I intend to ask my students to do.   Fortunately, I am aware of this now and can you start working on it!)  Jessie asked us, today, to create a mission statement describing who we are as writers.  And I'm struggling!  I can tell you the writing I've done and where I've come from as a writer... but WHO I am as a writer is super difficult.  (Not to mention the fact that I feel like reflecting is akin to trying to pull out my teeth with my point finger and thumb... though, obviously, much more useful and necessary.) I plan on working more on this defintion over the weekend and throughout next week (and to infinity and beyond).  For now, I've written out and included below the brainstorming that I wrote during Jessie's demo.  I came at my mission statement from two angles: (1) This is who I am as a writer and (2) This is what I believe about writing. 

This is Who I Am as a Writer

insecure
re-visioner
social writer - I need to talk it out
procrastinator
need a lot of work with character development
I'm sick of my voice
I feel a little offended when others try to change my writing - for better or worse
I write what I know


This I believe about Writing

Writing is hard
Writing is riffing
writing requires revision
writing require vision/goals/attempts/failures/mistakes
writing means taking risks
writing means being honest
writing means admitting you need to revise/rewrite in the direction you'd been fighting
writing requires talking
writing requires deciding when to end
writing is always for an audience

What is the Conversation? - Wordle Process

As Lil was helping us figure out the buzz words for topics in the compostion/literary/literacy fields, I recalled the notes I was taking last night on Bruce Horner's Sociality of Error.  I have decided that I am going to create a series of Wordles with the quotes that I feel are answers to my inquiry questions.  I will be making a new Wordle for each article I add to the bunch.  Theoretically, I will be able to visually represent the important and frequently used words.  I can then use these words as search terms and as words that I can pull into the texts I write to add to the conversation.

Wordle 1

Wordle 2

Wordle 3

 

Let('s) Go

This is the poem-ish thing I wrote for Writing into the Day today.  When I write about different color zones I'm referring to a relaxation exercise in which a person chooses a color for stress and a color for relaxation.  The person then imagines an inhaled breath going to the stress zone and then breathes out the stress.  As the person relaxes, she imagines the zones changing from the stress color to the relaxation color.  For me, stress is red and relaxation is blue.  Enjoy.

Let('s) Go

Close my eyes
Breath in
Air fills the lungs
     oxygen rushes through my blood
Inhaling targets the red zones
I breath in
                 peace
                 excitement
                 learning
                 discovery
                 socializing
                 bravery

Breath out.
CO2 exits the lungs
      taking tension out through the nose
      now purple zones
I breath out
                    exhaustion
                    anxiety
                    fear
                    the bad word binary

Breath in.
Targeting stress zones again
Let's get ready for today.

Breath out.
Now blue zones.
Letting go.
Moving on.
Releasing whatever is in the way.

Breath in and out
            in and out
            in and out
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.

Open my eyes.
Let('s) go.

Ghosts of a Writer's Past

This is my digital story video about my writing history.  I used ToonDoo to create the comic frames and then put them into Windows Movie Maker.  I wrote and designed the video.  W. Madison Keaton and I were voice actors.  W. Madison Keaton engineered the voices and sounds and composed the score.  Check out W. Madison's Facebook page for more information about his composing.

Parrotwriter

Here is my Scranimals poem and picture from Rebecca's demo.

 Parrot Writer

As a parrotwriter, I parrot write

Mimic others with great delight

These’s a Monster at the End of This Book

Oh, that’s one idea I took

Created a birthday card for Dad

With the construction paper and staples I had

I told the reader not to go on

And at the end of the card the money was all gone

Like the book, no danger was to be found

I used its structure as creative solid ground

Though grad school was a new experience indeed

The parrot writer still replicates whatever she may read

Professional writers in the field

Analyzing and understand their techniques will yield

Good grades and real life documents

Learning to be the writer who my writing represents

Eager to discover how to write in a new context

The parrotwriter keeps her eyes peeled for what she can imitate next



My Identity as a Writer - Storify

Here is my exploration of what "writing" means and how one defines oneself as a "writer."

http://storify.com/meganfire/how-do-i-find-my-identity-as-a-writer

Day 3 Reflection

I am super interested in all the technology -particularly Glogster, Storify and Tagxedo - I learned how to use today and to start thinking about how to integrate them into my classroom.  I want to do further exploration in how these tehcologies can help build a community of writers and help my students add "writer" to their identities.  Part of what I am rolling around in my mind is how I drew/draw inspiration and advice from models of experts in the field or genre in which I am writing.  These technologies can be either model genres of writing - while encouraging a conversation about what "counts" as writing since these genres don't fit the typical school defintion of writing - or help student think about and reflect on themselves as writer.  Below is an example of how I could use Tagxedo to explore my thoughts on a topic, in this case, changing language.  I could use this Tagxedo as a brainstorming device, slowly combining and expanding on the words I thought of when I thought of the phrase "Changing Language in the Classroom".

Changing Language Freak Out

Revising does not equal improving; it's fluidity - Lil
Making it play - Carrie W
Recognizing that it's hard - Lacy
Hiking as metaphor for writing - Megan
Revising as responding to others - Lacy
It's like learning to swim in handcuffs. - Lil
Draft means ideas. - Lil

I'm thinking more into my inquiry question about changing the language we use with writing.  (I apologize for starting to sound like a broken record.)  I think I can start saying stuff that encourages constant progress and start gaining identities as writers.  However, I still fall into the binary and a non ZPD type of language.  I think part of the problem is that I can't decide which words aren't ok.  For example, "improving" and "making a better draft"  still implies that someone can move from "bad" to "good".  Even the writing center's motto is to make "better writers".  The writing center is one of the most process and collaborative orientated place I know and they still use the binary language.  So what words can I use?!  What can I say my goal is in helping students with their writing?

Identity and Writing

As I was writing into the day this morning, I was writing about why a person would throw away unused writing, and I landed on why I have such an aversion to doing that; I would feel like I was throwing away bits of myself because I connect my identity so heavily to my writing.  So, now I am wondering why I do that.  Is it because I'm passionate about writing and, therefore, put everything I have into it?  Is it just a desire to have my passion, time and effort honored and valued?  Even when I write something that has nothing to do with me, I have to fight feeling insulted when someone gives me constructive criticism on the piece.  It is so easy to make the leap from "They are critiquing my writing" to "They are critiquing me."  Why is that?  What links writing to identity? 

Also, once that connection is realized, how does that affect the way we respond to writing?  How do we help students improve their writing without making them feel like we are telling them to improve themselves.  Especially if we change the language - as recommended in Choice Words - to get students to make "writer" part of their identities and tell them that "this is what writers do," what language can I use when responding?

Writing History (July 5 - Responding to the Day)

I am thinking a lot about my writing history and about the link to reading.  Previous to today, I have been thinking about myself and my development as a creative writer.  I have attempted to grow creatively, moving from poetry to narrative (non)fiction and now moving to entirely fictional writing.  I've been struggling mostly with character development.  On all three stories I am working on, people's comments have been geared toward deeping my understanding of my characters, their personalities and their motivations.  Today, however, I backed away from the trajectory as a writer and started thinking about my history as a writer.  I have tried to think about where my love of writing - and my desire to write - as come from.  Though I wrote in school and typically succeed in that endevour, I never got really excited about my writing in school.  Occasionally, I would get excited because of an assignment but it was not school that encouraged me to write beyond that assignment.  For example, I wrote a poem in the seventh grade.  It was this moment that led me to realize I could express my emotions - and, therefore, deal with them - when I wrote them down.  I hit the ground running and started writing poetry constantly.  A school assignment triggered this, but I don't really think school was what got me writing.  I think the link comes back to my father; however, my dad never encouraged me to write.  He encouraged me to read.  He has always asked what I am reading, why I'm reading it and has pushed me to analyze the texts.  I think it was this analysis and my excitement of reading that pushed me to want to write.  In writing, I can create my own worlds or work through my own.  So, this thought is not completely worked out yet, but, essentially, today got me to start thinking about the lin between the motivation to read and the motivation to write.

Third Space

I am attempting to start the delve into theories about third space.  Can anyone recommend articles to begin my descent?

Choice Words Book Review

I had previously plogged this, but let's go ahead and get this on the interwebs.  :)

Choice Words, by Peter Johnston explores how language affects learning.  Johnston analyzes key words and phrases of four elementary school teachers, explaining how the teachers’ language can influence children’s ability to name and notice, their identity, their agency, their flexibility and ability to transfer, the type of knowledge they gain and their ability to become members of a democratic community.  In his first chapter, Johnston lays out his theory and his purposes for writing the book; in the subsequent chapters, the structure becomes more like bullets lists, giving an example sentence from one of the teachers in bold followed by an explanation of how that sentence or the particular words in that sentence affect learning.  These explanations range in length from a paragraph to a few pages.  Johnston emphasizes most highly that children must learn to develop a curiosity to discover and learn about the world around them (naming and noticing) and have the opportunity to shape their learning as they figure out who they are in the classroom and in the world (identity and agency).  The rest of the book depicts how the topics in the other chapters encourage the development of naming, noticing, identity and agency.

Johnston has obviously put a significant amount of work into this book as he looks at very specific word choices and explains thoroughly how those words affect children’s learning.  Given how much information is given in a short space, Johnston seems to recognize that a reader can easily forget what she has learned.  To combat this, he calls uses a wealth of examples, calls back to what he deems as the most important words to use and ends each chapter by asking the reader to apply what she has read in the chapter.  In these ending applications, Johnston seems to be practicing what he is preaching, allowing the reader to begin to notice how language can shape learning, discover who she is as a teacher and have some control over her learning.  Johnston also gives the reader a sort of “get started” guide, describing five ways the reader can initiate changing the conversation in her classroom to look more like the language in the book.  The combination of specific word choices, the five concrete examples and the applications allow the reader to walk away from the book with real ways to apply the book to her classroom.  In other words, the book takes small nuggets of theory and concentrates on putting these theories into practice.

I would have been interested to see a deeper critique of the use of questioning in classrooms.  Johnston seems to imply that questions can have different purposes, spending a paragraph discussing how teachers can use questions to drive conversations in particular directions and control responses, while highly praising teachers for asking questions that allow children to problem solve and explain their thinking.  Johnston does not explain, however, what kinds of questions stifle learning nor how they close down conversation.  Moreover, he does not explore how changing a question into a statement – or vice versa – would have changed the learning that gets done or affected the community formed in the classroom. 

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