Melinda Awards Reflection, bookhenge

Once again, I was thankful for the livestream that allows us to go back and experience the classroom setting even if we've missed it. I wish I had been there for these awards! Everyone seemed like they had a lot of fun and we could see a number of young students speaking unabashedly about the books that they've read. I highly enjoyed the fact that students, teachers, and potential teachers meshed so well during the awards. Here are some highlights from watching the archived version:

1) Hearing about all the books... If I didn't read a certain book, I now have a feel for what kind of book it is and whether or not it's worth reading. Unfortunately, a lot of the books on the list that I had wanted to read had been difficult to find in the libraries. I had really wanted to read Rot and Ruin, and from all the reports and discussion that happened at the Melinda Awards, that desire seems justified.

2) Seeing students confidently talk about literature. They didn't have to worry about what the group would think or what people watching live might think, they just had to defend why they enjoyed something. That alone made this a worthy night to me.

3) Collaboration. So many different people working together for the sake of literature.

4) It was kind of hilarious. Perhaps not with the comedic flair that backs the Oscars or Grammy's, but it was enjoyable to watch and I know I would have been laughing if I had been there.

All in all, I thought the night seemed tremendous. I'm not sure how many students were there (it seemed like a number of the same ones came up with regularity), but for those students it is sure to be a memorable experience. I think it also gives us a great idea of how to run a book club in whatever local areas we end up being teachers and the best way to try and honor those books through ceremony and fun. Thanks for the example of a good time and a good literary book club.

bookhenge , #bookhenge

Speaking to a Young Writing Club- bookhenge

The following is the general outline I used for speaking to a Young Writers club at Carrboro High School yesterday. They took it a lot of different, great directions with their questions, but I got to relay just about all of this information to them.

Writing Group Tomorrow

First off, I’m not some stud writer… I’m not published… and I’m not even yet licensed to teach, though I’m working on all three. My goal, for right now, is just to write. To make it a habit, to make it second nature (A habitual writer is someone who writes while they're not writing... you walk into a room and what you see can be salvaged for literary purposes, your experiences funnel into the creation of your works)… and as hard as those first three are, writing everyday can still be hard. But I have to write, I remember I was a junior in high school and I slaved over the first chapter to a book… It was the fantasy series I’d always dreamed of writing, and I very shyly asked my teacher to read it. And the next day she surprised me by saying it was one of the best things she’d ever read. She then forced me to drop Spanish and get in the Creative writing class where I spent 2 wonderful years and wrote 150 pages of one book, before deciding it wouldn’t work and writing 150 of another book… that I later decided wouldn’t work. So whats the point? I can’t stop writing, my teachers taught me that I had a unique perspective and a creation to offer that no one else would… And that’s the first thing I’d have you guys walk away with today.

-          You have a unique perspective

o   You see things, notice things, experience things differently

o   Even if we all went through the same exact events, same exact  life: what you pull out of it is different? Scene: One notices a tree, one notices the bird, one notices the sun reflecting off the water.

o   Go to any art gallery and for the most part, when you look at a landscape painting or a painting of a small village, you’re going to choose different things. What does this mean?

-          1) You offer a unique perspective, and if you choose not to write, we’ll never get to learn from it, we’ll never get to see what you would have seen, we’ll never hear that story they way you would have told it, and we wanted to, because here’s the other thing

-          You go to that same painting and you both notice different things right? One of you see’s the beautiful birds that are barely specks that the artist drew, and one loves the way the light falls on a barn at the edge of the village… And you might not have noticed that, but when they say it… you really look at another perspective, another side of the painting. In essence, you get reminded that there was more than one beautiful part of that painting.

SO, I know that’s a pretty deep start and from there its going to get a little more on the practical side… what can we do? How do we become more effective? How do we take this “unique perspective” and actually write?

My second piece of advice: Just write.

-          Journal, write poems, write short stories, work on novels.

Why?

1)      If you’re not writing 3 times a week (but why not more) it’s harder to come up with topics, its harder to sustain projects, and it’s harder to behave as writers

2)      Our power is patience… You just never know when it comes to inspiration. Sometimes it will take writing a whole book before you get to the really good idea that’s actually worth writing about.

a.       Anne Lamott- “Just get it all down on paper because there may be something great in those six crazy pages that you would never have gotten by more rational, grown-up means. There may be something in the very last line of the very last paragraph on page six that you just love, that is so beautiful or wild that you now know what you’re supposed to be writing about, more or less, or in what direction you might go—but there was no way to get to this without first getting through the first five and a half pages.”

b.      Personal example: I wrote 150 pages of a certain book, and realized I wanted the story to go differently… I sat down and wrote 150 more pages. After re-reading them both in the months that followed… I knew neither would be a publishable work. Just no chance. BUT, still today there are things in there worth salvaging. I take a character, or a setting, or a reaction, or a scene and I find a perfectly good use for it in writing that is much crisper, much more likely to be read by someone. You never know, until you’ve written and written what will be useful to you and what won’t. But never throw things away, because you don’t know when that character on page 33 will want to come bursting into another story you have… and it will be that much easier to re-create him if you have the source.

3)      Don’t limit yourself to form! Stuart Dybek's story "Paper Lantern"- Started as a poem, longer poem, short story, then full story. It released images he might not have had otherwise.

4)      Another reason to always be writing… Beyond the Pale, it’s by an editor/publisher that is speaking on YA literature. Disconnect between the writers and the teenage life they want to capture. Its been so long that their much improved writing skill cannot connect with actually being a teenager… Journal, write down your feelings and ideas and thoughts and struggles and keep that with you because one day you’ll look back, and have a much better perspective perhaps of how to capture all of that and turn it into literature. And there you are, in the pages of that journal waiting to be funneled into a real work that can actually connect with teenagers, or whoever your audience might be.

bookhenge

Back to Class, bookhenge

The title of this blog is a reference to the fact that I had to go BACK to visit our class and experienced it via the transcript and going through the archives. I wasn't there for the live session, the interaction, and I missed out on that to be sure. I love being able to react live, but it was still a wonder that our class can be made so available. I did feel like I missed the portion of live interaction, but enjoyed the fact that I didn't "miss" the content and the conversation of my classmates.
         Now, to the actual class. I thought any conversation on literary quality and the value of books for our lives, and the lives of teenagers, is a worthy one. I really enjoyed the thoughts of my classmates and how well they argued for certain books, characters, and writing to be considered. I continue to see that different people just have different perspectives. That is why we read and write. Because the things we notice and see and experience will be different than anyone else. I might have felt one thing while reading Will Grayson, Will Grayson, but I'm assured that my classmates noticed something else and I can only learn about that through sharing and conversation. I made such an effort to talk about the Cardturner because I had a perspective that I thought was worth sharing. I'm glad my classmates felt the same about the various books and points they made about them. Great class leading up to the awards.
bookhenge

Literature as a Performing Art- bookhenge

I have to admit that I had my doubts about this feature of the class. I saw bookcasts as a way to double check that we were expanding our knowledge of and experience with YA literature. Unfortunately, the idea of making these seemed phony to me. To report a "stirring" up inside of me and to link it to past events or present thoughts just seemed phony to me. Certainly, certain books I have read make that happen and link me back to the past in a way that I couldn't experience elsewhere. However, the thought of reading these books and just forcing a response seemed like something I could not do.

However, I broke through on my second book cast and really enjoyed creating my own story from the story that we read. It just was an interesting way to have kids thinking about something other than a summary. They have to connect the characters feelings and story to their own. It was an empowering release for me, but it also presents 2 problems in my opinion.

1) Students being afraid. They haven't experienced as much as a lot of us have (though I'm aware that some might have experienced more). A lot of kids won't know what to bookcast, they won't have an experience that the literature draws them towards. What do we do about those disconnects?

2) Why I think the disconnect is an issue is because I think it leads to a false front. High school students don't want to dig deep emotionally most of the time. I'd say that most of them might take an assignment like this and completely make some experience up that sounds like it works. We have no way of checking if the experience is authentic and moving; or just another way for that student to bs their way for a good grade. I don't see how we can check those things.

bookhenge

Three is Me, Im three-- Bookhenge entry

I have to admit that my professional self has very limited experience. I am certainly engaging in many of the topics that are listed above here; curriculum, social justice, critical literacy, and creativity… However, I have no classroom and am only taking part in the theory side of this process up to date. The closest example of me as an actual “teacher” is the bible study I have led at Riverside High School for the last two years. I found this to be a useful example in my other graduate school classes when we talked about certain reading techniques that teachers employ; as I used many of them for teaching the bible to high school students. My goal is to continually prepare my “professional” self by every means available to me. I don’t just want to hit the classrooms as an enthusiastic teacher that has his positive attitude bubble burst because he wasn’t prepared for the many challenges that face teachers every day. I want to use these classes and all the technology and information outside of these classes to equip myself for the task that is ahead.

I know that the literate self requires one to responsibly immerse in literature, both that we like and that young adults of our age like. I feel like I have done just that with regularity in the past years. People talk about how graduate school can be stressful, and you’re working harder, but I feel as if I’ve never read more in my life. At every chance, I have been diving into novels. Most recently, I read the entire Chronicles of Narnia series, and before that I re-read several Harry Potter books. Believe it or not, I even read the entire Twilight series. The lore behind it is strikingly rich in how it strays from typical vampire lore, and yet that isn’t exactly why most “young adults” are enjoying the series. My literate self is constantly trying to find new and intriguing reads (whether this is based off my own interests, the suggestions of friends, or the suggestions of the general public). In spite of these efforts, my literate self is also consistently surprised by what is out there and by how little I have actually been able to read! My goal in this class is to continue adapting my style to teaching the literature that I love. It is a simple task for me to read and soak in a great novel, but how do I share it with others? I certainly have friends that ask me about books and will bring out my opinions, and those are enriching experiences. However, it is my goal in this classroom to meet others who want the same kind of feedback and are willing to constantly challenge my literate self to not rest in stagnancy.

The virtual self is particularly interesting to me. While I feel particularly available in the virtual world, it became quite clear that I’m unfamiliar with a lot of the technology that teachers out there seem to be using! I use facebook for a number of things, have played MMORPG’s like World of Warcraft, and even enjoy tweeting. This is also a field that has been particularly aided by my love for video games growing up. My brothers and I were hooked on an MMORPG called Asheron’s Call when we were in middle school. We also ran a guild together in the much more modern World of Warcraft. These games teach a number of modern skills and require a large amount of preparation and organization when you reach end-game content. The result was that I learned valuable skills while simultaneously growing to love fantasy even more. Every dungeon has a new story behind it. However, I have done very little research or implementation with these worlds and education. I see them as avenues to network and enjoy myself, but it makes perfect sense that these convenient technologies could enhance the learning experience. I can’t wait to find out more about this.

Upon reflecting over what I’ve written, I noticed that it feels as if my life has been a long preparation for teaching English. I love to read and I love to write and a long time ago I did that without the knowledge that one day I would be teaching it to others. I think I want to continually have that initial sense of wonder, where I read and write for myself and as a means of enjoyment. But I also realize now how I have to mingle that initial approach with one that hones my ability to pass this sense of wonder to others. I have to find ways to share this and to inspire young adults to find the things that are worth seeing in what I already love. Sounds fun.