46.2 Spring 2010

Statement

The Journal of the Colorado Language Arts Society Spring 2010, Volume 46, Number 2

For the Sake of Collaboration

Inside this Issue: Articles: Applying the 4 C’s to Consumerism

by Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher, Kelly Johnson, and Heather Anderson

Making Collaboration Work

by Stevi Quate

Articles: Reading, Writing, and Social Change: A YA Author Collaborates with Secondary English Teachers

by Lauren Small

Let’s Collaborate on CLAS Talk

by Alan Olds

Columns: Teen Lit in Our Own Backyard

by Dr. Jill Adams

Literacy through Collaboration

by Philippe Ernewein, Travis Macy, and Sarah Hall

Spring Cover Artwork Title: Water Bug and Pond Artist: Jessie T. School: Fletcher Miller School

Statement

The Journal of the Colorado Language Arts Society Spring 2010, Volume 46, No. 2 Statement Columns

Making a Statement: All Kinds of Collaboration

by Mike Wenk............................................................................................................................................................ 4 Poems, Poets, and Poetry: Collaborating Poets

by Jim Hobbs and Lary Kleeman.......................................................................................................................... 26 YAL Update: Teen Lit in Our Own Backyard

by Dr. Jill Adams..................................................................................................................................................... 33 The Third Pillar of a Flatter Classroom: Literacy Through Collaboration

by Philippe Ernewein, Travis Macy, and Sarah Hall............................................................................................ 35 Before the Bell: Inner / Outer Life Dichotomy

by Josh Curnett....................................................................................................................................................... 38

Feature Articles

Applying the 4 C’s to Consumerism

by Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher, Kelly Johnson, and Heather Anderson . .......................................................... 6 Making Collaboration Work

by Stevi Quate........................................................................................................................................................ 11 Uniting Readers: Bringing Together Pre-Service Teachers and Teens Through a Brown Bag Book Club

by Dr. Jill Adams and Dr. William Sewell.............................................................................................................. 14 Preparing Pre-Service Teachers for Collaboration: Professional Book Study in a Content Area Literacy Class

by Margaret Berg................................................................................................................................................... 19 Inspiration in a Classroom Classic

by Paula Reed........................................................................................................................................................ 24 Reading, Writing, and Social Change: A YA Author Collaborates with Secondary English Teachers

by Lauren Small...................................................................................................................................................... 28 Let’s Collaborate on CLAS Talk

by Alan Olds............................................................................................................................................................ 30

Resources

Call for Manuscripts.................................................................................................................................................. 2 CLAS Fall Conference Save the Date................................................................................................................... 39 CLAS Membership Form......................................................................................................................................... 40

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Call For Submissions Statement is published three times a year, and is one of the benefits of being a member of the Colorado Language Arts Society. The mission of Statement is to advance the teaching and learning of English Language Arts in Colorado. While we welcome readership beyond the Centennial State and we encourage submissions from outside of Colorado, what makes our publication most relevant for our members is content which addresses the interests and issues of Colorado teachers.

Theme for Summer Issue: Getting It All Done Socrates is considered one of the greatest teachers in history, and yet his methods were strikingly simple and unadorned: meeting youths in the marketplace and asking them questions to reveal what they did and did not know. While it still should be a basic tenet of instruction, there’s so much more to education today.

Unlike Socrates, teachers have curriculum to implement, assessments to design and administer, writing to grade, gradebooks to maintain, students to engage, parents to placate, committees to serve, professional learning to attend, and so much more. The demands on educators in 2010 are arguably greater than ever. How do we reach every child every day? How do we avoid the “mile wide and inch deep” approach to English language arts? How do we save time in communicating with parents, in building stimulating learning activities, and in grading? How do we get it all done? Deadline: April 15, 2010.

Theme for Fall Issue: Words In Choice Words (Stenhouse, 2004), Peter Johnston writes, “The language that teachers (and their students) use in classrooms is a big deal” (10). It is a big deal because schools can serve as a counterbalance to the bloated rhetoric and vapid conversation that children may encounter in their lives outside of school. It is a big deal because patterns and rules can lead students to a world of meaning; building background knowledge through wide reading and explicit instruction can unlock understanding of critical concepts. It is a big deal because just the right word, spoken or written, can extend a curfew, circumvent an argument, or land a job. It is a big deal because democracy depends on everyone being able to participate in the dialogue of our country. It is a big deal because children are listening to what we say. So, the question is, what are your students learning from you about words? Deadline: August 15, 2010.

Recurring Topics for Articles The theme is only one source of inspiration for contributors. Statement is also seeking articles that address a variety of topics, especially written by Colorado teachers, but also from writers who can speak with authority about current issues or best practices in ELA. Contributors may wish to consider: • • • • •

Teaching ideas Current issues Outstanding lesson plans Book reviews Expressive writing by Colorado teachers

• • • • •

Quick teaching tips Interviews Vignettes from the classroom Technology Reviews of professional research

Submission of Photos and Artwork We are always seeking original artwork or photos: classroom images, Colorado scenes, artistic representations, etc. We value contributions from youth and adults equally. We also enjoy featuring the work of professional Colorado artists. Please send images to the editor as a jpeg attachment. Student work must be accompanied by a “permission to publish” form signed by a parent.

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Guidelines for Contributors Formatting Issues and Submission Process Submissions to Statement should be in MLA style, using intext documentation with a list of works cited if needed. Documents should be single-spaced and formatted in Word. Charts, graphs, or illustrations should be sent as separate files. Manuscripts should adhere to the “Guidelines for Gender-Fair Use of Language” which can be found on the NCTE website at: http://www.ncte.org/ about/over/positions/category/lang/107647.htm.

Statement is a refereed journal, meaning that at least two outside reviewers will read each submission. Once the manuscript has been accepted, the editor may consult with the writer regarding revisions, and may share comments from the editorial board as an aid to revision. In light of deadlines, we reserve the right to make minor revisions or formatting decisions. Because we recognize that

many of our contributors are not professional writers but instead actual educators, we will collaborate with contributors to ensure that the article meets the personal standards of the writer as well as the high standards of our readership.

In the body of the email which contains the attachment of the manuscript, include the title of the piece, author’s name, author’s job title, affiliation or place of employment, city, state, email address, and website (if there is one). Also include a statement verifying that the manuscript has not been submitted or published anywhere else. Contributors will receive an email acknowledgement once the manuscript has been submitted.

Please direct all inquiries or submissions to the editor, Mike Wenk, at mjwenk@hotmail.com.

Editorial Information Statement Editorial Board Members Jessica Cuthbertson District Coach, Secondary Literacy Aurora Public Schools, Aurora

Nicholas Kawalec Reading Teacher Adams 50, Denver

Katheryn Keyes Instructional Coach Adams 50, Denver

Vince Puzick K-12 Literacy Coordinator Colorado Springs School District #11

Shari VanderVelde Writing Consultant and Coach Mesa County Valley School District 51, Grand Junction

Mark Overmeyer Elementary Literacy Coordinator Cherry Creek Schools, Denver

Julie Meiklejohn English Language Arts Teacher East Otero School District, La Junta

Editor-in-Chief Mike Wenk English Language Arts Curriculum Specialist Jefferson County Public Schools, Golden mjwenk@hotmail.com

Layout Editor Kate Murphy English Language Arts Teacher Smoky Hill High School, Aurora kmurphy@cherrycreekschools.org

Before the Bell Josh Curnett English Language Arts Teacher Eaglecrest High School jcurnett@cherrycreekschools.org

Becoming Better Teachers Dr. Gloria Eastman Associate Professor of English and English Education Metropolitan State College of Denver geastman@mscd.edu

ELA in the 21st Century Phillipe Ernewein Dean of Faculty Training & Development Denver Academy www.rememberit.org

Teaching and Learning Rick Wing Air Academy High School, Colorado Springs rick_wing@q.com

YAL Update Dr. Marge Erickson Freeburn University of Colorado, Denver Marge.Erickson@ucdenver.edu

Poems, Poets, Poetry Jim Hobbs Eaglecrest High School jnu68cu81@yahoo.com

Barb Doerr Retired, Cherry Creek Schools, Denver bjdstellar@comcast.net

Dr. Jill Adams Metropolitan State College, Denver jadams82@mscd.edu

Lary Kleeman Arapahoe High School lary_kleeman@msn.com

Statement, The Journal of the Colorado Language Arts Society, is published three times a year. ISSN: 1085-2549. The subscription price is included in the membership dues. Single copies are $10.00. To join, visit www.clas.us.

Reproduction of material from this publication (excluding poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction) is authorized if: a) reproduction is for educational purposes; b) copies are made available without charge beyond the cost of reproduction; and c) each copy includes full citation of the source and lists Statement as the original publisher. Address other requests for reprint permission to the editor.

Statement is a member of the NCTE Information Exchange Agreement.

The Colorado Language Arts Society opposes discrimination against any person and promotes equal opportunities for access to its activities and publications.

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Making a Statement: All Kinds of Collaboration

by Mike Wenk, Editor

Michael Wenk is an ELA Curriculum Specialist, Jefferson County Schools.

His email address is mjwenk@hotmail.com.

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t is true that on many days we as teachers close the doors to our classrooms or lecture halls and engage our students in meaningful instruction. And during a day of instruction we make decisions, hundreds of decisions, and we make them quickly and imperiously, because the seconds and minutes and hours rush past us and we have so much to do on behalf of our students and we have been given so much power and so much trust. In a moment’s reflection we sometimes might feel satisfied with our work, or worried about a student’s well-being, or wondering about an instructional decision. That’s when it’s nice to leave our classroom and seek the company of a colleague, a sympathetic or understanding ear to listen to us tell a bit about our day. This affirmation is necessary for our well-being.

Each of us needs to stoke this thought in our mind as we perform our work in the classroom: I am not alone.

I used to take comfort in the teacher next door playing classical music for his students to write by, because I knew another professional was near and was laboring in the same way I was. For the sake of expediency, if not sanity, we must acknowledge all the instruction that is happening around us, as well as the instruction our students received before they reached us or after they left us. How many times do we need to teach students comma rules? Faith, pretesting, and monitoring the progress of our students should obviate a cover-to-cover approach to the grammar book. In the course of a young person’s educational career, we are one of many teachers. We must only play our part, and play it well, in concert with our colleagues. If we do, our students will learn well. And we should not forget the role others play in supporting the students we see in our classroom: • The cafeteria worker who feeds some of our children all they will eat in a day.

• Local mental health providers as well as school counselors who save some kids from oblivion.

• The athletic coach who builds time into practice for studying or who counsels athletes about the importance of academics.

• The classroom grandma, among many community volunteers, reads to children and serves as role model.

• The administrators who answer emails from concerned parents late into the evening.

• The bus driver who climbs narrow mountainous roads to transport a child to school miles away.

There are many more: the custodian, numerous paraprofessionals, the homeless liaison working for the Colorado Department of Education, devoted parents, the curriculum writer, the school tech, school board members and state legislators (so easy to condemn), LMC specialists, businesspeople, school secretaries and nurses, the school resource officer, and so on.

I won’t repeat that Hillary Clinton adage about the village, but it would do us good to remember, the next time we shut the doors to our classrooms, that we are not alone. It does not diminish our importance to say that we are one of many, part of 4

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Title: Science & Art Meet in the Body Artist: Brandi B. School: Fletcher Miller School

a complex collaboration, which shapes the lives of our students.

Producing each issue of Statement is a collaboration among many. It could not be done without the skill and dedication of the following: • Kate Murphy, teacher extraordinaire at Smoky Hill in Cherry Creek by day and gifted layout editor by night.

• An outstanding group of educators who comprise the editorial board and who read each article from the perspective of a thoughtful practitioner.

• The creative geniuses who write the columns for each issue.

• Contributors from around the country who submit their ideas for all to critique, and then upon acceptance, kindly cooperate with the editor on petty editorial issues.

• The Cherry Creek Print Shop for taking a document and manufacturing a cool journal.

• The CLAS board members who offer support and guidance.

• And the reader: almost all writing involves a profound collaboration between writer and reader.

We invite CLAS members to join the collaboration and write for Statement. There are so many good ideas waiting to be written and shared with colleagues. Please consider Statement as your forum to exchange great teaching ideas.

Title: Beauty is Computer Artist: Isak S. School: Fletcher Miller School

The artwork in this issue of Statement was created by students at Fletcher Miller School in Jefferson County. According to the school’s web site, “The Mission of Fletcher Miller School is to provide interactive and interdisciplinary approaches to academics while meeting individual needs in the areas of medical, physical, social/emotional and communication supports in order to successfully transition each student in special education to his/her least restrictive environment.”

Art teacher Jenni Halsted says that producing art opens doors for her students: “Coming at a subject from a different angle facilitates learning in a new way for the student. Through the creation of art many fine motor and gross motor skills can be developed and maintained. Repeated exposure to a multitude of sensations inherent to the materials used in the art room can help students with the process of integrating sensory experiences.”

She adds that art liberates her students’ voices: “Perhaps the most profound benefit of art education is to help those who have difficulty with verbal expression to express themselves. Not only does the artwork carry a powerful mode for expression in and of itself, but students sometimes become so excited by the artwork they are involved in, they are moved to speak beyond their normal scope of verbal ability. I have also seen students initiate communication with sign language who do not normally initiate communication without a request.” We are proud to be able to add the voices of Fletcher Miller students to this issue of Statement.

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Applying the 4 C’s to Consumerism A 21st Century Instructional Approach

by Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher, Kelly Johnson, and Heather Anderson Kelly Johnson, Ph.D., is a faculty member in teacher education at San Diego State University and a classroom teacher at Health Sciences High & Middle College. She is the recipient of the Constance McCullough Research Award by the California Reading Association, and has been published in The Reading Teacher, The California Reader, The Reading Professor, and Literacy. She has coauthored the following books: Accommodating Differences among English Language Learners: 75+ Literacy Lessons, Designing Responsive Curriculum: Planning Lessons that Work and Teaching Literacy in First Grade (Tools for Teaching Literacy). Contact Kelly at kjohnson@hshmc.org.

Heather Anderson has been teaching in San Diego Unified for over 12 years. She has taught K-12 and has worked as a bilingual peer coach, math specialist and cooperating teacher. She has her masters in Curriculum and Instruction from San Diego State University. Heather currently teaches tenth grade English at Health Science High & Middle College in San Diego. Her email is handerson@ hshmc.org.

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t’s no secret that the nation has been hit hard by what some are calling “The Great Recession” and that one of the sectors most impacted has been the adolescent worker.

Part-time afterschool jobs are scarce, as many recently unemployed adult workers turn to service industry employment traditionally held by teenagers. As teachers in a high school in California, we’ve witnessed firsthand the ways the economic downturn has collided with the consumer-driven beliefs of a generation of adolescents. With 62% of our students qualifying for free/reduced lunch, many need to work in order to contribute to the household income. In some cases, the goal is not to save up for a new piece of electronic equipment, but rather to help pay the rent for another month.

This has been a reminder to us about the purposes of secondary education, especially in equipping students with the skills they will need as adults. For many, this means college, a career, and a family, or some combination thereof. And while their individual pathways may vary, without question they will need the interpersonal and academic thinking skills necessary for new kinds of work. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2006), a think tank of employers and educators, says that high school should be a time for cultivating the 4 C’s: critical thinking and problem solving; communication skills; creativity and innovation skills; and collaboration skills. Students not only need to exhibit the basic “get along” skills that were a hallmark of cooperative learning, but they also need to know how to solve problems and generate new 6

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Nancy Frey, Ph.D., is a Professor of Literacy in the School of Teacher Education at San Diego State University. She is the recipient of the 2008 Early Career Achievement Award from the National Reading Conference, as well as a co-recipient of the Christa McAuliffe award for excellence in teacher education. In addition to publishing with her colleague, Doug Fisher, she teaches a variety of courses in SDSU’s teachercredentialing and reading specialist programs.

Nancy is a credentialed special educator and reading specialist in California. She is privileged to learn with and from students and teachers at Health Sciences High & Middle College every day. Nancy’s email is nfrey@mail.sdsu.edu.

Douglas Fisher, Ph.D., is Professor of Language and Literacy Education in the Department of Teacher Education at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High & Middle College. He is the recipient of an IRA Celebrate Literacy Award, the Farmer Award for excellence in writing from NCTE, as well as a Christa McAuliffe award for excellence in teacher education. He has published numerous articles on reading and literacy, differentiated instruction, and curriculum design as well as books, such as Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessments for Your Classroom (with Nancy Frey), Better Learning Through Structured Teaching (with Nancy Frey), and Contentarea Conversations: How to Plan Discussionbased Lessons for Diverse Learners (with Carol Rothenberg). He can be reached at dfisher@ mail.sdsu.edu.

solutions within a group structure.

We felt the time was right to create a learning space for students to explore the challenges of an economic downturn in a culture of consumerism using the context of the 4 C’s. Our intention was to surface these complex issues in our English classrooms so that students could discover what they think, as well as what others believe, about consumerism and society. Using a critical literacy approach that problematizes issues in order to foster inquiry (Freebody & Luke, 1990), we developed a compelling essential question that would serve as a touchstone for reading, writing, and discourse. Over a nine-week term we invited students to consider this question: Can you buy your way to happiness?

Structuring a Place for Inquiry Two principles lie at the heart of education at our high school. The first is that we must be intentional in the ways we foster inquiry. To that end, our school selects several schoolwide essential questions designed to provoke discussion and cause students to seek answers. Each year, the students and staff identify, and then vote on, the following year’s essential questions. For example, we have asked students to investigate such questions as What sustains us? If we can, should we? and Does age matter?

The second principle for an inquiry-based classroom lies in the instructional design of the course. Using a gradual release of responsibility model first described Pearson and Gallagher

(1983) and expanded by Fisher and Frey (2008), students are afforded time to witness how their teachers understand and apply information through the use of think alouds and teacher modeling.

They try on processes and practices during guided instruction as their initial attempts are scaffolded by the teacher’s strategic use of cues, prompts, and questions. These initial phases of instruction provide students with grounding in the content of the inquiry, as well as the skills needed to do so successfully in the company of others. Therefore, productive group work (collaborative learning) is an important linchpin in the overall instructional design. In addition, learners engage in independent inquiry using literacy letters to write about the books they are reading, as well as more traditional essays and exams that come at the end of the unit.

Our English classes addressed the consumerism essential question through the lens of persuasion, a key element in the state’s content standards. Students examined how persuasive techniques are used in advertising and learned methods for crafting persuasive arguments in writing. The importance of this skill cannot be underemphasized in an age where dubious information can be cloaked in the superficial dressing of a credible source and made instantly available to a worldwide audience.

However, the wide range of student talents and abilities present in these classrooms challenges teachers to find meaningful ways to offer content and ideas. We have found that while worldly in their outward appearance and behavior, adolescents are vulnerable to information and have difficulty scrutinizing texts closely. Therefore, the teacher uses a core text to model thinking and present information, while students select from a list of books ranging from easier readings to those that are challenging (see Figure 1). Selected portions of Buyology: Truth and Lies About What We Buy (Lindstrom, 2008) were used as the core text and provided the English teachers with the opportunity to build background knowledge and discuss examples of persuasive techniques used by the author.

Teacher Modeling

Teacher think alouds afford readers a window for observing the ways an expert makes decisions about text comprehension (Davey, 1983). In our English classes, the core text is the primary platform for using the think aloud process to model content and process in reading. We typically model for 8-12 minutes of each class period, introducing students to our thinking about texts.

Buyology, the core text for this essential question, provided ample opportunities to model reading comprehension For instance, after reading the opening paragraphs of the book, a teacher said,

“Now that’s given me something to think about. He asks a question: ‘What determines which information makes it into our consciousness, and what ends up in our brains’ industrial dump of instantly forgettable Huggies ads and other equally unmemorable encounters of the consumer kind?’ At first I thought it was a rhetorical question, you know, because I was thinking that’s a good opening. But when I gave it a little more thought, I realized it’s a good predictor of what I’m going to

find out as I read this book.”

At other times, teacher modeling is about the content itself.

The book’s author has been in marketing for his entire career and holds a particular perspective on the role of neuroscience in making marketing more effective. In a passage that addressed “Orwellian” concerns of critics, he wrote: “But to be honest, I didn’t share these ethical concerns. As I said in the introduction, neuromarketing isn’t about implanting ideas in people’s brains, or forcing them to buy things they don’t want to buy; it’s about uncovering what’s already inside their heads…” (35). The teacher then interjected her response in the form of a think aloud:

“Wow! I’m kind of startled at how direct he is about dismissing counterarguments and replacing them with his own. It’s an appeal to authority, because he’s told me about his experience in the field. I may not agree, but I can’t say it’s an example of card stacking, because he did acknowledge criticisms. I’d like you to think aloud with a partner about what’s going on in your heads as you listen to this.”

Tenth graders Isabella and Riley, self-described alternative music fans, immediately started making connections to song lyrics.

Riley said, “You know that Nine Inch Nails song, ‘The Hand That Feeds’? That part about ‘Will you bite the hand that feeds? Will you stay down on your knees?’ Isabella replied, ‘Yeah, this is his [the author’s] hand that feeds. It’s how he makes his money, so it makes sense that he’s going to be pretty positive about it. Now I’ve got that tune in my head, too!”

This exchange highlights an aspect of teacher modeling that is sometimes overlooked. Thinking aloud isn’t meant to be a solo act for the teacher, with students passively witnessing the teacher’s cognitive moves. Student response and discourse is critical if students are to begin to notice how they understand and utilize text. Even within a modeled portion of a lesson, students are continually asked to take on more of the content through scaffolded experiences.

Productive Group Work As part of their daily experience in class, students engage in productive group work or collaborative learning. This provides students an opportunity to interact with their peers, use academic language, and interrogate ideas. And getting students to talk about course content with one another is a critical component in learning. Learning is social, after all. The key, however, lies in the individual accountability that must be part of every collaborative learning activity.

For this unit of study, students engaged in a number of group discussions, taking notes about their perspectives and the perspectives of their peers. We used a conversational roundtable (Burke), but instead of photocopying the tool, we have students fold their paper into four quadrants and then draw in the lines.

In the top right quadrant, they summarize their initial response to the question of the day. In the remaining three quadrants, they Statement Vol. 46, No. 2

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summarize the responses of their peers as well as changes in their perspectives. Some of the daily discussion questions used during the this unit included: • What are indicators that we live in a consumer-obsessed society?

• What are examples of consumption expenditures designed to save our increasingly valuable time?

• What is the relationship between high levels of consumption and general satisfaction with life?

• What methods do corporations use to market to children?

• What is “affluenza” and how does it impact our lives?

In addition to the daily discussions and reactions used in productive group work, students also collected ads to create posters which featured a specific persuasive technique. The list of techniques we studied can be found in Figure 2. For example, one of the groups focused on emotional appeal. As they found examples, they cut them out of magazines and glued them to a poster. They included advertising for Windex glass cleaner (“Johnson: A Family Company”), a photograph from an ad for Whisker Lickin’s cat snacks of a woman and cat napping, framed by a heart, and a statement on a Jolly Time popcorn box stating “No Diacetyl Flavor” (the ingredient implicated in some studies about lung damage resulting from inhaling the buttery popcorn aroma). After a group conversation, the person who found the ad wrote a rationale for its inclusion in an assigned marker color. This way, their teacher knew which students contributed which ideas to the poster, the expectation being that all students had to be able to defend the inclusion of an image.

Guided Instruction While the students complete their productive group work tasks, the teacher meets with small groups for guided instruction.

The group members are identified based on assessed needs.

Often, the literacy letters serve as fodder for identifying needs.

And the identified needs vary from grammar errors to conceptual misunderstandings about the unit of study. For example, a group was identified based on their struggle with consumerism in the books they had selected to read. As noted in the excerpt of the conversation they had with their teacher, the focus of this guided instruction event was on exploring the word and its varied connotations.

Teacher: I’ve read your letters this week and noticed that you’re all really enjoying the books you’re reading. It seems that you’ve all made some great connections with the characters that you’ve met. [general nodding from the students] I also noticed that you’re not as sure of yourself in the second paragraph, which focuses on consumerism.

Can you each search the word ‘consumerism’ and see what you find? [students use various tools on their laptops to search the word] Mariah: I typed ‘define: consumerism’ and got this: ‘the equation of personal happiness with the purchase of material 8

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possessions and consumption.’

Brandon: I used the ask.com website and I got this: ‘The movement seeking to protect and inform consumers by requiring such practices as honest packaging and advertising.’

Jessie: I used Wikipedia and found this: ‘People purchasing goods and consuming materials in excess of their basic needs.’

Teacher: So are those ideas the same or different?

Mariah: Well, they’re both about buying things.

Brandon: And about how people respond to buying things.

Mariah: So, it’s not just going shopping?

Jessie: Can it mean that we sometimes buy things we don’t really need or want? I do that. Like when I was at the mall, I was bored and just kinda bought random things.

Teacher: Exactly. And you want to think about why you bought the specific things you did. Some people would say that it wasn’t really random, but more about how you were taught to like certain things.

The conversation continued as the teacher validated and expanded students’ understanding of the concept. The use of guided instruction allows the teacher to differentiate instruction and avoid teaching and re-teaching content that certain students already understand. Importantly, the teacher did not confine her student interactions to one student at a time. Instead, she facilitated discussion among the group, as she knows this is critical to their collaborative learning experiences.

Independent Tasks: Weekly Literacy Letters Each week, our students write literacy letters about their choice books to their teacher. The structure of the letter is consistent across the year. The first paragraph is an update about the events in the book they have selected and the personal connections the reader is making with the story. The second paragraph focuses on the content standards. Some weeks we focus on story grammar, such as plot, setting, theme, or mood. Other weeks we focus on the way in which the book is contributing to students’ understanding

“

Like our society and ad campaigns, the Brave New World government actually uses peer pressure on citizens so that they will oppress each other.

”

of the essential question. English teachers read the weekly literacy letters to check for understanding and plan guided instruction groups (Fisher, Frey, & Moore). Using a checklist (see Figure 3), the teacher provides feedback on letters; peers also offer each other feedback. In addition, teachers comment about the contents of

the letter in writing, noting connections to the essential question or providing guidance and support for the writer.

Daniel, a reluctant reader, chose Brave New World (Huxley).

When asked why, he said that he showed the list to his dad, who reminisced about a college class that compared Huxley and Orwell.

Daniel read the book in three weeks and wrote three letters during that time. (Parenthetically, he reports that in 8th grade he read a total of two books and didn’t like either.) His second literacy letter, written at about the midpoint of the novel, demonstrates Daniel’s increased understanding of consumerism and the impact of messaging. As can be seen in this excerpt, Daniel is integrating course content related to persuasive techniques and the group discussions he’s having into his thinking:

Of all the brainwashing, the consumerism beliefs are most important. The citizens of the world state are taught to believe that they should buy new clothes if one of their own rips, spend money to scent their houses, travel to areas they do not entirely enjoy for insignificant reasons, and overall be quite wasteful. This allows the government to manipulate almost every other aspect of life. When a person spends his or her time alone and does not purchase goods, that person is considered strange. Like our society and ad campaigns, the Brave New World government actually uses peer pressure on citizens so that they will oppress each other. The social pressure, mixed with the belief a person has to purchase items to be “cool,” takes away almost all of the uniqueness and free will of a person.

Importantly, Daniel chose this book and was therefore motivated to read it. Other students in the class selected other books and wrote their literacy letters on the books they read.

Addressing the Inquiry Collaboratively As we described earlier, we use a gradual release of responsibility model of instruction to teach the content and collaborative skills students will need during the unit. The ultimate purpose of an inquiry approach is to provide students with both the means to question, as well as a forum to respond. Daniel’s group constructed a multimedia presentation for the school’s wiki and presented it to the class. In advance of their presentation, they posted a position paper they had written to provide their peers with the context for their remarks. An excerpt of it read:

The act of purchasing and consuming goods that are unnecessary is called consumerism, which has existed since the beginning of civilization. It was not until the Industrial Revolution, however, that mass production started, which lead to mass consumption. Some believe that consumerism is negative and that it is wasteful; others think it is positive and fuels the economy. But most people agree that the techniques used by companies to coerce people to buy their goods are the problem. Marketing campaigns that exploit a group, reduce free choice, or that result in rapidly changing trends or

fads are most criticized. Interestingly, consumerism has been the topic of many pieces of literature and entertainment, including Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

Clearly, this unit of study resulted in Daniel’s increased understanding of the topic as well as his ability to speak about the issues at hand. Their position paper also addressed issues concerning world economics, free trade, trends that coerce people to buy, and the impact on small businesses.

Is Frugal the New Black?

Our job is not to tell students what to think, and this unit of study did not result in students who stopped shopping. It is our job, however, to ensure that our students understand why they do the things they do and when they are being manipulated by powerful images and techniques. By inviting student learning focused on an essential question related to consumerism, students had an opportunity to consider their perspective about buying happiness. In doing so, they were introduced to a number of informational texts and interesting pieces of literature that helped them clarify their understanding. As another group wrote in their position paper entitled Is Frugal the New Black? “the economy is a powerful and not well-understood machine” yet companies have a “responsibility not to take advantage of people and exploit them for pure profit.” Armed with this information, our students are more likely to make informed decisions about what they need versus what they’ve been manipulated to want.

While it could be argued that some of this learning could be accomplished using a more traditional approach that emphasized individual and independent learning, we have serious reservations about the relevance of it in light of the growing demand for collaborative skills in this century (one that Heidi Hayes Jacobs likes to point out is 10% over). While some jobs and careers of tomorrow are not yet imagined today, the trend toward collaboration with others across time and space continues unabated. Learners of today and tomorrow must be able to draw on the both individual and group experiences to create, innovate, question, and inform.

These skills are the substance of human endeavors and are necessary as citizens in a global economy. In an economic climate that continues to exercise a toll on the young, this may be the most valuable currency we can offer them.

Works Cited Burke, Jim. The English teacher’s companion: A complete guide to the classroom, curriculum, and the profession. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1999. Print.

Davey, Beth. “Think-aloud: Modeling the cognitive processes of reading comprehension.” Journal of Reading 27.1(1983): 44-47. Print.

Frey, Nancy, Douglas Fisher & Kelly Moore. “Literacy letters: Comparative literature and formative assessment.” ALAN Review 36.2 (2009): 27-33. Print.

Fisher, Douglas & Nancy Frey. Better learning through structured teaching: A framework for the gradual release of responsibility. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2008. Print.

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Freebody, Peter & Allan Luke. “Literacies programs: Debates and demands in cultural context.” Australian Journal of TESOL 5.7 (1990): 7-16. Print.

Common Persuasive Techniques

Leonhardt, David. “Maybe money does buy happiness after all.” The New York Times. April 16, 2008. Web. May 9, 2009. [http://www. nytimes.com/2008/04/16/business/16leonhardt.html].

1. Emotional Appeal: An appeal to fear, anger, excitement or joy, or any other emotion

Lindstrom, Martin. Buyology: Truth and lies about what we buy. New York: Broadway Business, 2008. Print.

2. Word Choice (Diction): Choosing words that will influence the perception of an item or issue

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Results that matter: 21st century skills and high school reform. Tucson, AZ: Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2006. Author.

Pearson, P. David, & Gallagher, Margaret. “The instruction of reading comprehension.” Contemporary Educational Psychology 8 (1983): 317-344. Print.

3. Repetition: Using the same word, phrase or entire sentence over several times for emphasis 4. Appeal to Authority (association): Mentioning an important event or person who is directly related to the topic and is seen as an expert 5. Hyperbole: Completely overstating and exaggerating a point for effect

Sample Books on Consumerism

6. Testimonial: Using words of an expert or famous person to persuade

Anderson, M. T. Feed. New York: Candlewick, 2004.

Cummings, Priscilla. Red Kayak. New York: Puffin, 2006.

Dalai Lama. The Art of Happiness: A handbook for living.

New York: Riverhead, 1998.

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. New York: Penguin, 2002.

7. Bandwagon: Convincing people to do something by telling them all are doing it 8. Transfer: Using names or pictures of famous people but not direct quotes or experts

Eggers, Dave. What is the What. New York: Vintage, 2007.

9. Free or Bargain: Giving away something for nothing or almost nothing

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1925.

10. Glittering Generalities: Information provided in glowing terms and offering no evidence; the speaker or advertiser supports a candidate or a solution to social problems

Grisham, John. (2001). Skipping Christmas. New York: Doubleday.

Hinton, S. E. The Outsiders. New York: Speak, 1997.

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1932.

Kinsella, Sophie. Confessions of a Shopaholic. New York: Dial Press, 2009.

Tashjian, Janet. The Gospel According to Larry. New York: Henry Holt & Company, 2001.

11. Name Calling: Describing negative aspects of something so that the advertised product seems better 12. Plain Folk: Using actors who represent “average” people to suggest that, because people in advertisements resemble friends and neighbors, the product they are using must be good

Twain, Mark. The Prince and the Pauper. New York: Prestwick House, 2007.

Westerfeld, Scott. So Yesterday. New York: Razorbill, 2004.

13. Card Stacking: Telling the facts for one side only

Literacy Letter Peer Edit Check List 1. Literacy Letter Format

Date

Greeting

Body – indent 1st line of paragraphs

Closing – not indented

Signature - name capitalized?

Rating

2. Paragraph #1 Name of book, author, update on your book (where are you in the book and what is happening?)

/2

4.

Mechanics Typed, double-spaced, 12 Times New Roman font, black ink Spelling – spell check?

Capitalization There are no run-on sentences There are no incomplete sentences Do your sentences make sense?

5. Letter turned in on time

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/2

/2 Total

3. Paragraph #2

Answer the prompt for the week using

complete sentences.

/2

/2

/10

Making Collaboration Work

by Stevi Quate

W

e’ve all seen it: group work that is actually the work of one or two students. Students who drop the pretense of working collaboratively as soon as the teacher moves away. The student who just happens to be absent the day the project is due. Students who collaborate more on their weekend plans than the group task.

Groups are just plain hard to manage and monitor. It’s difficult to teach English well without having students collaborate. After all, how can students respond to each other’s drafts in an effective workshop setting without collaboration? How can students have a meaningful discussion in their literature circles if they don’t know how to work well in groups? How can students produce the classroom blog if they rarely have a chance to work together?

Beyond writer’s workshop, literature circles, or other group projects common to the English classroom, student engagement depends on effective collaboration. In Clock Watchers: Six Steps to Motivating and Engaging Disengaged Students across Content Areas (Heinemann, 2009), John McDermott and I review the research that underpins motivation and engagement. We noted six classroom conditions that lead to motivated and engaged students: a community of learners who care about each other; meaningful choice; challenge that matches students’ skill levels; assessment practices that involve students and include timely feedback; regular and predictable celebration of good work; and collaboration. Of these conditions collaboration is often most problematic, but it’s viable and worth the effort. The initial challenge is to create and foster the kind of classroom climate that supports good collaboration. In addition, we must teach students the skills needed to work well together, and then assign the kind of tasks that demand teamwork.

Fostering Classroom Culture Developing a caring classroom community is the lynchpin for fruitful group work. If students don’t know each other, how are they going to work productively together? How are they ever going to feel safe taking risks that lead to authentic learning?

Many teachers work hard at setting up the classroom culture in August and September. For example, John’s first assignment was a passion poster so that students could introduce themselves to their classmates by sharing their interests. Students also formed pairs to conduct interviews, turning the highlights of each interview into a “wanted poster” that also included a photo of the interviewee.

Assignments like these aren’t new, and most English teachers have abundant team builders that they use in those early weeks.

With new students joining the class throughout the year and with the ways that classroom climate can shift, it’s important to monitor the

Stevi Quate is an education consultant who works with teachers across the nation and internationally. Prior to consulting, Stevi taught English for over 25 years, served as the literacy coordinator at Colorado Department of Education, and taught at several universities, including the University of Colorado at Denver.

She was president of both CLAS and CCIRA and for ten years directed Colorado Writing Project.

Stevi continues to co-direct Colorado Critical Friends Group and edit Colorado Reading Council Journal. She is the co-author of Clock Watchers: Six Steps for Motivating and Engaging the Disengaged Student. Her email is Stevi.

Quate@ucdenver.edu.

classroom culture and continue nurturing it throughout the year – and it’s not that difficult to do so. A simple instructional move that gets students to learn about each other is by occasionally asking them not to answer “here” when roll is called. Instead, pose a question, such as “Do you prefer a Big Mac or The Whopper?” or “Would you rather watch Dancing with the Stars or Survivor?” It’s fun to watch what this one question can do for a classroom community. Joe Trainor, a teacher in La Junta, commented that he saw the culture of his classroom shift when he began asking such simple questions at the start of each class period.

Understanding that building relationships is an integral part of the classroom culture, John is vigilant about making sure students know each other well. Whenever students work in new groups, he insists that they reintroduce each other – even if they’ve known each other since kindergarten and even if it is late April – and add a new tidbit of personal information. Small efforts such as these cultivate a classroom culture conducive to first-rate collaboration.

Establishing Norms Just like adults in professional learning communities, students need to develop norms for working in groups. To assume that students know how to collaborate is to doom a group to failure. In the process of developing these norms, students voice their thoughts about effective ways to collaborate and can vent about the times when group efforts failed. From these discussions, students develop a set of working agreements for their groups.

One way I set students up for this discussion was by telling them about a successful group project that I did when I first started teaching.

I described in detail how we worked together, moving through some rough moments and making sure each of us carried our fair load. I also told them about another project that wasn’t so successful, expressing my frustration at how my colleagues had dropped the ball over and over again. I then moved students into “quads.” In those groups of four, I asked them to write in response to this prompt: “The worst experience that I had with group work was …” For two minutes and 42 seconds, they would free write in total silence. ( John and I suggest giving students an odd amount of time to do work; it seems to catch their attention.) At the end of the time, they quietly passed their writing to the person sitting next to them for that person to read and to respond to. Again, they had a short amount of time to read and write silently.

This “write around” continued until each person received her original piece back. From there, I asked them to talk about what they learned about working together. This discussion led to a set of norms we used throughout the school year and were posted on the wall.

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Sample Group Norms • Monitor your own airtime.

• Hold yourself personally accountable.

• Listen attentively.

• Pay attention to goals and objectives.

• Discuss issues, not people.

• Probe ideas; do not criticize people.

• Show respect for views of others.

• Avoid side conversations.

Teaching Social Skills

“The secret is to gang up on the problem, rather than each other.” – Thomas Stallkamp Often a caring classroom culture and norm building aren’t enough. Students need the social skills necessary for working together effectively, and those skills must be taught. As a teacher candidate just learning how to teach English, Andrea Rodriquez was brilliant at getting her very recalcitrant students to work collaboratively. Her first attempts at group work were disastrous with every predictable sign of a group gone bad: resistance, passivity, acting out. She knew that she needed to do some teaching if groups were to be effective. She began by role playing with a small group of students. She talked one boy into playing a sleeping student, another to be the student who did all the work herself, another to get up and wander away from the group, and a fourth to play with his cell phone rather than pay attention to the group. After the simulation and lots of laughter, the class debriefed what the students had observed and generated a list of what effective group work looked like.

Andrea learned that she needed to explicitly teach collaborative skills. For instance, she taught students the language they needed to get back on track: “I’m on page 25. Where are you?” She also taught them how to encourage silent students to participate. Another teacher, Jill Sanchez, taught students how to monitor their own contributions to the group, how to disagree without being an obstructionist, and how to send “I” messages. Both Andrea and Jill stressed the importance of multiple perspectives so that students didn’t land too quickly on the first thought or fall into “group think.”

Of course, teaching students still isn’t enough. Both teachers and students need to monitor student behavior. Without this monitoring, successful groups can easily drift downhill. Here’s where assessment, or what John and I call “checking in and checking out,” plays a role.

After discussions about effective collaboration and the anchor chart with the norms posted on the wall, students should have a clear picture of productive collaboration. With that in place, they should regularly assess how well they’re working collaboratively as well as receive feedback from their teacher.

Intervening: Troubleshoot Triads When students still aren’t working well together, it’s time for intervention. For instance, I don’t know a teacher who isn’t familiar with “social loafing,” a term coined by the cooperative learning gurus, Johnson and Johnson (2006). “Social loafing” refers to the times when students rely on group members to complete the work at hand and to do the thinking for them. We watched one teacher deftly handle this situation. The first time that she saw social loafing in action – and she looked for it, knowing the predictable nature of groups – she 12

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called the class to attention, letting the students know that they had a problem that they had to address as a community.

“I’m noticing that some of your groups are falling into a common problem—a few group members have become ‘social loafers.’ ” She named the problem and expected students to use that language in the future. She also made sure that students were clear why this behavior was unacceptable. “Social loafers rely on the rest of the group to do the work and are slacking off, hurting not only themselves academically but also the rest of the group. What happens is the group gets resentful, and the dynamics can easily fall apart.”

She then moved students out of their familiar groups into what she called “troubleshooting triads.” The triads consisted of three students who didn’t typically work together. Reminding students that in brainstorming all suggestions are welcomed and none are to be judged, she urged students to brainstorm solutions to social loafing and listed them on the whiteboard. Then she moved students back into their original groups.

“Your job is to look through this list and find three possible solutions for the next time this happens, two solutions if you need to follow up, and one solution as a last resort.” For the next few weeks, she carefully monitored social loafing and encouraged students to also self-assess. Often she’d ask students to respond to one of these questions on their exit slips: “How has your group addressed the issue of the social loafer? What’s changed since we held our troubleshooting session on it?” Her interventions made a difference.

Students began monitoring their own “social loafing” and addressing it within their groups.

Designing the Work of the Group “Keep in mind that you can study with your group. After all, two heads are better than one,” instructed the 7th grade language arts teacher before turning students loose to complete the study guide for Friday’s test. With desks clustered in groups of four, the room looked as though it was a collaborative community; however, students rarely looked up from their work. Each student worked alone, and the few comments tended to be academically neutral. “What time do we get out today?” one student asked another. Another asked to borrow a pencil. Other than that, the students plugged along in silence.

Even with this opportunity to work with each other, they chose to work alone, surprising for this highly social group. And one of the contributing factors? The assigned work could easily be completed independently. The goal was an individual one: do well on the test.

No student depended on another to complete the task; no one felt obligated to work for the sake of the group.

Unfortunately, the assignment of reviewing together missed the mark. As Johnson and Johnson remind us, effective group projects are based on the notion of “sinking or swimming together” (1998). A football team serves as an example of the work of an effective group.

The goal of the team is a shared one: to win the game. Each team member, with his indispensible role, functions both independently and interdependently. Without the quarterback or wide receiver, there would be no team. Each person is responsible for carrying his weight – individual accountability – as well as being accountable to the team.

In an English classroom, what does that work look like? It looks like what happens in forensics classes with the debate team studying together in order to win at the upcoming meet; or the newspaper staff scurrying around together to meet the deadlines for the next edition;

or the group working to design and air a podcast; or the drama troupe working on a script for an upcoming performance. Students know the goals of the work and understand how their responsibilities are critical to meeting those goals. They know that the task is one they couldn’t complete on their own and trust that their team partners will carry their fair share of the load.

Questions for Designing Effective Group Work • Is the task structured so that group members are working toward the same goal?

• Is the task designed in a way that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for a student to do it alone?

• Is everyone accountable for his effort?

• Is the work of each member vital to the success of the project?

Even for everyday activities, teachers can structure tasks so that the group and the individual are accountable and so that there is positive interdependence. Four Heads Are Better Than One is a fun, energetic way to review for a test, for example Four Heads are Better Than One 1. Divide the class into four groups (or more and change the name to the Five Heads are Better Than One or however many groups you have).

2. Give each group time to study the content together.

3. Near the end of the class period, have each group count off so that each person has a number.

4. Write down each of the numbers on a slip of paper. For instance, if the largest group has four members, have four slips of paper numbered 1–4.

5. Ask a random student to draw a number from a hat or other container. Then place that number back in the hat.

6. One member per team with that number goes to the front of the room and stands in a row.

7. The teacher asks a question connected to the content the groups have studied.

8. Here’s the tricky part: each person in the line contributes to the answer, but each person can say only one word, and answers need to be in full sentences.

9. The sentence continues until someone says “period.”

10. After the laughter quiets down, each person returns to the home group to discuss how the question could have been answered.

11. The teacher draws another number, and a new representative from each group goes to the front of the room for another question.

and the teacher granted them another five minutes.

Contrast this situation to the veteran teacher. “You have eight minutes and thirty seconds to complete the work in the envelope at your table. Remember your roles established yesterday. When the timer goes off, you’ll need to put your pencils down.” The teacher started the class timer and the students began feverishly working to accomplish their goal. With three minutes gone, the teacher announced, “You have five minutes and thirty seconds.” Students groaned, but renewed energy passed through all teams.

Pacing is a critical scaffold for effective collaboration. When students have more than ample time to complete a task, they often take advantage of the time and socialize, daydream, or text. By giving them a limited amount of time, a teacher creates a sense of urgency, and by using a timer, students have a visual reminder that inflames that sense of urgency.

Celebrating Good Work At one time on her show, Oprah Winfrey said, “The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” In a similar vein, Thomas J. Peters, the author of In Search of Excellence, stated, “Celebrate what you want to see more of.” The same holds true for students. The more you acknowledge the good work students do collaboratively, the more likely you’ll see more of it.

As you see students follow the norms and display the characteristics of a good collaborator, publicly acknowledge it in the classroom. And then take a few minutes to call home. Parents hear about what their students don’t do well, but to follow the advice of Oprah and Tom Peters, let parents know also what their students are doing well. You’ll be surprised at the results. We can guarantee you this.

So, yes, group work is just plain hard to manage and monitor. But it’s important and worth our time. Vince Lombardi had it right when he said, “Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”

It’s also what makes our classrooms work.

Works Cited Johnson, David W. and Roger T. Johnson. Learning Together and Alone: Cooperative, Competitive, and Individualistic Learning (fifth edition ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. 1998.

Johnson, David W. and Roger T. Johnson, and Cary J. Roseth. “Do Peer Relationships Affect Achievement?” The Cooperative Link 21, 2006: 2-4.

Quate, Stevi and John McDermott. Clock Watchers: Six Steps to Motivating and Engaging Disengaged Students across Content Areas.

Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2009.

Pacing Many teachers err on the side of giving too much time for collaborative work. As just one example, John tells the story of an English teacher who allowed her students forty minutes for a task that could be completed in ten minutes. The result was predictable. The students began to work, realized they could be done in a minimum amount of time, and took advantage of the situation. After all, they were teenagers. To make matters worse, when the time had run its course, the teacher asked, “Who needs more time?” Hands went up

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Uniting Readers:

Bringing Together Pre-Service Teachers and Teens through a Brown Bag Book Club

by Dr. Jill Adams and Dr. William Sewell Dr. William C. Sewell is an English teacher at Ottawa High School in Ottawa, Kansas. He teaches English 10, CP English 12, Debate, and Science Fiction Literature. He can be reached at wsewell71@gmail.com.

A

n important goal among English educators is providing pre-service teachers with opportunities to work with secondary students so they may utilize their preservice training prior to student teaching. Unfortunately, finding such opportunities is no easy feat.

Negotiating busy schedules and finding access to high schools are part of the many obstacles in uniting college and secondary students.

At the same time, secondary schools are facing a significant dilemma: more than 75% of teenagers leave high school stating that they “will never read a book again” (Lesnene 18). This problem is compounded by the fact that time devoted to reading for pleasure in English classes has been severely curtailed because students must prepare for and take state reading assessments.

Though English teachers are trying to cultivate lifelong readers, they find themselves with their “hands tied” by a system that treats reading as a task rather than something to be enjoyed.

The topic of motivation for reading is not new: Decades of careful research have elucidated a number of distinct factors which influence students’ motivation to read, for better or worse. These factors are both applicable to most classroom situations and relatively simple to influence: choice of what to read, easy availability of high-interest materials, teacher read alouds, a regular time in the school day dedicated to reading for pleasure, positive models of literacy, opportunity for social interaction around books, and clear, legitimate purpose for reading. (Stiller 3) Clearly, implementing ways to motivate students to read is within the realm of possibility.

In order to provide opportunities for preservice teachers and address the issue of reading motivation for secondary students, a secondary book club was formed at a local urban high school (referred to in this article as Urban High School, UHS). The club was to meet once a month during the lunch hour. Since both pre-service teachers and secondary students participated on a voluntary basis, the organizers felt that the potential for genuine collaboration between the two groups was high.

As a final project involving learning through service in a young adult literature course, pre-service teachers were offered 14

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Dr. Jill Adams is an Assistant Professor in the English department at Metropolitan State College. Her email address is jadams82@mscd. edu.

the option to participate in the Brown Bag Book Club. As for the high school students who voluntarily participated, the book club format permitted them to select high interest texts with a central purpose of reading for pleasure. In addition, the high school students had the opportunity to collaborate with role models for literacy, a benefit that is supported by Deborah Appleman, who noted that “In order to be inclined to read into adulthood, adolescents need to see reading as an act that adults voluntarily engage in” (14).

Creating the Brown Bag Book Club Throughout the program, an emphasis was placed on utilizing books that would hook students’ attention and also provide fodder for excellent discussions. Therefore, book offerings focused on the following qualities of young adult literature: 1. Has characters and issues young readers can identify with; those issues and characters are treated in a way that does not invalidate, minimize, or devalue them.

2. Is framed in language that young adult readers can understand.

3. Emphasizes plot above everything else.

4. Is written for young adults. (Blasingame 11) For the first book selection, the pre-service teachers chose a text that some may not identify as adhering to Blasingame’s definition of young adult literature: House on Mango Street.

When asked about their decision, the pre-service teachers felt that the book adhered to Blasingame’s four characteristics and also that it held a strong cultural connection to the students. Because a play based on the book had been performed at the school during the previous semester, the college students hoped that UHS students familiar with the title would be interested in the actual text.

UHS administration supported the organization of the club.

During the fall semester, donations provided the necessary funding.

For the spring term, a college faculty member obtained a grant in order to pay for the books and lunches. Administrative support

for the activity continued throughout the school year, with one assistant principal participating in the last discussion group.

Collaboration was highly necessary for the success of the book club, as was evident throughout the entire process when challenges necessitated a high degree of cooperation. Not only did the college students have to collaborate with the high school students, they found that they had to collaborate with each other, too.

The greatest challenge of starting the book club, however, was not choosing a text nor obtaining funding; instead, the challenge was recruiting participants. The book club would be a sponsored activity through the UHS’s secondary writing center, a collaborative effort between the college and the high school. Even though the writing center was becoming a part of the landscape at this high school, it was still viewed as an extra entity. Therefore, the college students initiated a strong marketing campaign, including posters and announcements, recruitingmembers with the slogan “Free Book, Free Pizza, Free Conversation.” The first discussion drew in seven participants; attendance at remaining sessions ranged in numbers from six to fifteen.

Connecting Teens with Literature: Description of Brown Bag Discussion For the pre-service teachers, typical discussion group occurs in three parts: a pre-session, the actual group meeting, and then a wrap-up session. In the pre-session, the pre-service teachers meet with their young adult literature professor to coordinate the discussion before the UHS students arrive. At this time, preservice teachers organize the room and discuss any potential issues that may necessitate adjustments in their planning. For instance, at one session, UHS student attendance was extremely low because of conflicts with other school activities. Instead of

over 25 students, only five said they planned on attending. Rather than having multiple small discussion groups, it was decided to have one collective group discussion.

The UHS students entered the writing center room excited by the prospects of eating pizza and talking about books.

Once everyone was seated, a pre-service teacher typically initiated the conversation by asking about important things that the UHS students noticed as they read the book. A challenge for the YAL students was not to dominate the conversation, and they constantly yielded the floor to the UHS students. Throughout the discussion, the organizers found that both parties were very engaged in talking about the books.

Before the group discussion ended for the day, participants discussed potential books for the next meeting. Usually, a theme was presented to provide a starting point. Since the club was a cooperative endeavor, the UHS students voted on three options that the pre-service teachers provided. Over the course of the school year, the high school students chose to discuss the following books: House on Mango Street, What Happened to Cass McBride?, Maus, Uglies, Tuesdays with Morrie, Twilight, and My Sister’s Keeper.

Sadly, the discussions ended much too quickly for both parties. As the UHS students departed, they signed up for the next meeting on a sheet posted outside in the hall next to the writing center door. The pre-service teachers used the list to order food and books for the next session; they also sent reminder notes to the UHS students just before the next meeting.

After each book club meeting, the pre-service teachers and their professor talked about what happened during the course of the meeting. This gave the pre-service teachers an opportunity to get feedback on any questions they might have had, such as how to encourage talking, how to keep someone (including themselves) from dominating a discussion, and how to talk about key parts of

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Please visit us at www.clastalk.ning.com for more information.

Title: Heart Artist: Brandi B. School: Fletcher Miller School

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the book without sounding too much like a teacher. In addition to this debriefing, the pre-service teachers kept a record of their thoughts through a reflective journal.

Discovering What the Young Adult Literature Students Gained: The Research Process A researcher conducted an initial research project in order to discover the answer to the following question: How has leading a book club in a secondary urban school impacted pre-service teacher views of pedagogy, young adult literature, and discussing literature with teens? This research aimed to provide essential feedback for teacher educators looking for strategies to enrich practicum experience in order to better prepare pre-service teachers.

The six research subjects were students from YAL courses who chose this activity as a final project option, volunteering to share their insights for this research study. The participants were not all from the same section of their YAL class: two of the students started the club in the fall semester, three students were in a daytime section of the course, and the sixth participant was in a night section. Confidentiality of subjects was maintained throughout this study, and pseudonyms were used throughout the research process.

Multiple forms of data were collected over the course of the school year to provide a broader context of the group, including a focus group that was formed after a book club session. Additionally, an online survey tool called Survey Monkey was utilized after the focus group in order to ask follow up questions, and the students’ reflective journals for their final group were analyzed as well.

Initial Findings During the analysis of the obtained data, several important themes emerged. First, the pre-service teachers suggested that the UHS students were gradually able to connect the literature with their lives and perceived literature as something to enjoy rather than something to be assessed, an idea that connected to the YAL course on the college campus. As one pre-service teacher stated: The best, BEST thing I noticed was a specific example of how the participating students are talking about the books outside of our book club. One of the members had gone through a breakup and another of the members had quoted a passage of the book to her several times. Not only were they both talking about it outside of class, but they were relating it to their own lives.

It was clear to the pre-service teachers that the books chosen by the UHS students for the various sessions engaged them beyond the meeting times.

Second, participating in the discussions helped the preservice teachers gain a grasp of effective discussion techniques with secondary students. One student noted the following: I soon found that silence in a discussion group is not necessarily a bad thing. In most cases if the right question is asked, then it will take a few more seconds for the participants to respond…A great deal of patience and planning are needed to run a good 16

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discussion.

The pre-service teachers tried not to dominate the conversation or interrupt its flow; in the same vein, they also focused on not having secondary students dominate or interrupt others during the talk. Additionally, decisions made during the pre-planning session enabled the pre-service teachers to reflect on the choices made regarding the book club’s climate, including the physical organization of the room and the creation of a supportive environment in which a secondary student would feel comfortable participating.

Third, despite the many scheduling conflicts, the Brown Bag Book Club program grew steadily. Even though all students did not always attend, the book club was a priority for many of them.

The pre-service teachers attributed the club’s growth to the food and the ability to choose books for discussion. After the initial marketing was done, the pre-service teachers did not have to do much advertising, because the high school students promoted the club.

Last, it is evident that the pre-service teachers benefited greatly from the program. A primary benefit was that they were able to put their instructional and content knowledge into practice. As one student noted, “I got to see theory in action.

We can talk about teen reading all we want in the classroom, but it is in situations such as the Brown Bag Book Club that we can truly understand YAL readers’ thoughts and reactions to young adult literature.” More specifically, pre-service teachers connected with this activity on a much deeper, more personal level than they would have if they had chosen other options for their final project.

They took ownership of the project and expressed a desire to improve the book club, thus working to establish its longevity.

Some reported that they continued on with the project even though it was no longer an assignment.

Pedagogy: Future Classroom Possibilities The collaborative practices of the Brown Bag Discussion Group yielded numerous pedagogical insights. The pre-service teachers felt that they were learning some essential skills that they could employ in their future classrooms. One student said, “The experience as a whole has helped me to connect the dots, if you will. Reading and writing and teaching are not isolated from each other, but closely related in such a way that I can see for myself how I will use the experience in my class one day.”

The pre-service teachers also noted that the book clubs encouraged critical reflection that lead to the reframing of attitudes and practices. They gained experience in the effective matching of books to students within the context of student choice, the need for instructional flexibility when leading a discussion, and the power of “modern texts” that enable the secondary students to connect to the material at hand.

The book club also provided these pre-service teachers with real-world practice in preparing and sustaining class discussion.

They noted that they had learned about the importance of creating a positive, open atmosphere as well as the value of creating lifelong readers. As one put it, My students will read for fun. :) I will model critical thinking

and question asking in a way that my students can see the value in such things and do the same for themselves. Hopefully my students will be able to see how connections are made, and in the end, see themselves as readers.

The college students also seemed more cognizant of grouping issues and moderating class discussions. One pre-service teacher reflected: If I come prepared with questions, especially a well thoughtout essential question for the beginning, then the discussion gets deep fast and can be entirely student lead...I think teens see the value in literacy and reading for fun when they are able to make connections to themselves and their world and to other texts.

When I have quality questions, students will make connections and continue to read.

Another student considered the importance of not dominating the discussion: “We (the college level students) DIDN’T run it.

That is one thing that is getting more and more obvious. Soon they will not even need us!” The value in full collaboration between college and high school students in the discussion was also noted: Each person in the circle had something to contribute. They were also very cognizant of the fact that it was giving them an opportunity to talk about something that isn’t often discussed… the participating students are talking about the books outside of the book clubs.

Connections to YAL Class The study participants also saw many direct connections to their young adult literature class. The class is a survey course, aimed at exposing students to the wide genre of YAL. As one student reflected, It seems to me to be counterintuitive to talk about what young adults would think of the books without actually ever talking to a young adult. When I participated in the book club, what I was learning in the class about what young adults might think came alive.

The book club helped to link what students were learning in their college course to what was happening with real young adults.

As one pre-service teacher noted, “I see theory set in action…This connection is necessary.”

The nature of the literature that young adults were reading surprised some of the pre-service teachers: “It is mature, shocking and often addictive.” The pre-service teachers were often amazed by depth (which was sometimes immediate) of the conversations and also the presence of such a positive climate in the group, as the high school students introduced their own experiences into the discussion.

Future Outlook While all the pre-service teachers understood the merits of the book club, they also recognized its limits. The pre-service teachers will need to consider how to adapt these practices for their future classrooms. It is clear that at least they will have a positive foundation to begin with, as well as real-world experience from which to draw. The power of choice was evident in the book

club, but ways to infuse this practice into the secondary classroom was not so clear. One pre-service teacher said, The book club is a special situation and does not necessarily reflect what I will get in the classroom. I have learned that giving students choice can make them less resistant to reading books they are not familiar with.

The financial aspect of the book club may be another possible barrier for future implementation. The book club began as a proposal to the administration with no budget. Coupons and initial donations provided the books and pizza for the inaugural semester of the book club. Grant funding was obtained for a second semester, which was fortunate because the group grew in size. Individuals interested in seeking funding for groups such as this should first explore opportunities for funding that are available at the local, state, or national levels.

Through this activity, however, the pre-service teachers developed a more hopeful, positive vision for teaching English.

The book club enabled a group of collegiate readers who were immersed in young adult literature to meet a group of high school students who may not have had the opportunity to discuss such literature. One pre-service teacher acknowledged, “I am so glad that I got to be a part of the Brown Bag Book Club. I have learned so many things from taking my classroom knowledge out of the classroom. I am a better student and will be a better teacher because of this book club.”

Such groups are not prevalent in secondary schools across the nation: little information was found in educational literature.

Our hope is that this inquiry can inspire future teacher educators to form their own Brown Bag Book Clubs at local high schools so they might replicate the wonderful collaborative atmosphere that can occur when young people talk about good books.

Works Cited Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie. New York: Broadway, 2002. Print.

Appleman, Deborah. Reading for Themselves: How to Transform Adolescents into Lifelong Readers through Out-of-Class Book Clubs.

New Hampshire: Heinemann, 2006. Print.

Blasingame, Jim. Books that Don’t Bore ‘Em: Young Adult Books that Speak to This Generation. Scholastic: New York, 2007. Print.

Cisneros, Sandra. House on Mango Street. New York: Vintage, 1991.

Print.

Giles, Gail. What Happened to Cass McBride? New York: Little, Brown Young Readers, 2007. Print.

Freedom Writers with Erin Gruwell. The Freedom Writer’s Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World around Them. New York: Broadway Books, 1999. Print.

Lesene, Teri S. Naked Reading: Uncovering What Tweens Need to Become Lifelong Readers. New York: Stenhouse, 2006. Print.

Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight. New York: Little, Brown Young, 2006. Print.

Stiller, Adam. Unpublished master’s thesis. University of Kansas, 2004.

Print.

Piccoult, Jodi. My Sister’s Keeper. New York: Washington Square Press, 2005. Print.

Spiegelman, Art. Maus. New York: Pantheon, 1996. Print.

Westerfeld, Scott. Uglies. New York: Scholastic, 2005. Print.

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22nd Annual

Colorado Teen Literature Conference

Saturday, April 10, 2010

On the Auraria Campus (at the Tivoli) in Downtown Denver Luncheon Keynote Speaker: Ellen Hopkins, author of Tricks, Identical, Glass, Impulse,

Burned, and Crank.

Morning Keynote Speaker: Matt de la Peùa, author of Ball Don’t Lie, Mexican White Boy, and We Were Here Registration: Adults $50.00 Students $25.00 DEADLINE: March 19, 2010.

Visit www.coteenlitconf.org to register online, or to print a mail-in registration form. Application forms for the CLAS-Bellin or REFORMA student grants available online.

Sponsored by Metropolitan State College at Denver, University of Colorado Denver-SEHD, Colorado Language Arts Society, FleetThought.com, Colorado REFORMA, Colorado Young Adult Advocates in Libraries, and the Pikes Peak Library District.

For Program details, information about graduate credit through UCD Office of Continuing and Professional Studies, and book bag pre-sales, visit www.coteenlitconf.org.

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Preparing Pre-service Teachers for Collaboration: Professional Book Study in a Content Area Literacy Class

by Margaret Berg

T

Margaret Berg teaches adolescent literary courses in the School of Teacher Education at the University of Northern Colorado. Berg has been a teacher of English for over a dozen years within the United States and abroad.

She received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a Literacy and Linguistics focus from the University of Kansas in 2009. Her email is Margaret.Berg@unco.edu.

he common literacy class for secondary pre-service teachers is a hard sell. For a variety of reasons, future teachers of diverse subjects think they don’t need it. Future English teachers think they’ve already learned everything in their methodology class. Physical education majors believe the obesity situation in the United States dictates raising a heart rate, not a reading level. Math majors consider the class to be useful for word problems, but fail to see how a literacy class might produce something else. Few education students intuitively understand the strong parallels between this required class at the university and the diversity of student interests in the traditional secondary classroom. The general content area literacy class is one of the few courses in a teacher education program that prepares teachers to participate in a collaborative effort across the curriculum.

After taking an assistant professorship in a university in Colorado, I carefully considered the design of my content area literacy class. Rich inter-subject discussion was vital. Since my dissertation work included an extensive review of research on motivation, choice also became a key element, reflected in the reading list for the course. Along with weekly readings from a variety of professional education journals, students were asked to select a book from a list, and a book study group was formed around their individual choices. It surprised me to learn that over half of the future teachers in my content literacy class had no experience with book study groups, according to their responses on a questionnaire (unlike my graduate students in another class who all reported having taken part in at least one professional book study).

For the purpose of this article, I will provide a short introduction to and rationale for professional book study groups within my content area class. I will describe the process of implementation and then discuss some of the student responses after the collaborative practice, paying particular attention to a single class and the six English education students in it. (All names used within this writing are pseudonyms.) The arguments for disciplinary literacy, defined as “advanced literacy instruction embedded within content-area classes” (Shanahan and Shanahan 40), to replace content area reading in teacher education programs, will then be presented in the light of these collaborative professional book study findings.

The complexity of knowledge and interconnectedness of areas of

study seems to be overlooked by researchers who advocate for specificity of reading strategies for particular disciplines. Content area literacy courses can play an important role in preparing teachers to collaborate and to be open for change in their classrooms, within schools, and across disciplines of study.

Rationale Professional book study groups are reported to be on the rise within schools (“Bring on the Books,” Keller, Roberts). With the increasing costs of education and the declining revenue available to schools, book study groups provide quality teacher development at an extremely low price. Teachers hold the potential to transform their own practice and the culture of the school through the grassroots leadership created in study groups (Hinkle and Kinney).

“In a professional book study, teachers examine instructional techniques with the goal of implementing these practices in the classroom or broadening their pedagogical knowledge” (“Bring on the Books” 2). Book studies encourage deeper understanding of concepts, transference of the ideas to practice, and support of colleagues for this transformation. Since in-service graduate students tend to report having taken part in professional book studies within their schools, I want undergraduate students to feel comfortable functioning in these groups. Also, when these future teachers see a weakness in their practice, I do not want them to be shy joining or suggesting group study to fellow instructors within their future school context.

Process Within my undergraduate literacy course, student teachers are familiarized with Ebony M. Roberts’ “5 Keys to Successful Study Group” (Roberts 17). Roberts gives descriptions of four common types of professional development groups and asserts that their success depends on these five elements: volunteers, small numbers, shared goals, shared responsibility for planning, and writing for discussion. These points became my guide in planning for this book study project. Unlike a school building where teachers may volunteer for a book study, this one is held within the time period of the course, so class members only get voluntary rights for the book they will read from a short list I provide. The Statement Vol. 46, No. 2

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groups are limited to five members to keep the numbers small.

After the students have selected their book and completed a pre-questionnaire about expectations for group work, they spend their first professional book study session establishing their goals for reading in the following seven sessions. Each person shares in planning the chapters to be read and in facilitating the group discussion, which is then reported to me in a simple worksheet format (see Appendix A). Finally, to prepare them to actively participate in the group’s discussion, students are expected to have either notes on paper or highlighting and column notes in the text they have chosen.

The pre-questionnaire, completed by 29 undergraduate students, demonstrated that the students had high expectations of each other, and that many had no previous experience with book studies. For the prompt that read “Behaviors that are important to me in a study group discussion are:” the three most common words in responses were hard-work, prepared, and read the text (see Appendix B). Sixteen students reported having no experience with book study groups, and thirteen students reported having taken part in book studies. I did not make a strong distinction between professional book study groups and other book study forms in the questionnaire because I wanted to allow a more open interpretation of the term “book study.” Of the thirteen students who reported past book study encounters, four of them were English education majors; for these students it had been a positive experience. As one of them responded to the last prompt, “Of course! English major. All small. All involving coffee, all exquisite.” Of the remaining students with experience, two wrote that the book study had been a negative event because the other members had not read the text.

After all students had submitted their pre-questionnaires, I compiled the results with the most common answers and presented them to the class as a whole so that they would know the expectations of their colleagues before the study groups began. The most common student answers follow the prompts in Appendix B. Students completed the questionnaire after having taken part in this class in a literature circle for a short story. Some students requested an assigned role like that of a literature circle, but this seemed counterproductive to a process that was intended to inform future teachers about volunteering for and functioning in a professional study group that might not assign roles. Many of the students’ responses on this questionnaire indicate the types of attitudes that will benefit teachers in collaborative efforts within schools. Their desire for discussion as a means for decision-making (prompt 6), for resolving concerns within the group (prompt 7), for a respectful, safe, and comfortable atmosphere (prompt 3) demonstrates ambitions for participation and input from everyone.

Because the need for a respectful environment is also extremely important to me, I wanted to gauge the feeling of my English majors.

As a former language arts teacher, I had found my initial teacher preparation reading class uninspiring. The teacher had limited the readings to a single text limiting author perspectives, and offered little time in class for discussion with classmates. So, approximately six weeks into the course, I asked the English education majors to remain for the last fifteen minutes of class after the other students 20

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left. I was interested in knowing if they were taking something new from the class that might benefit their future practice. Many of the English students valued the mini-lessons I had asked each student to teach. At the beginning of class meetings, each student taught an instructional, study, vocabulary, or reading strategy and then suggested content specific adaptations for it, particularly in the subjects represented by classmates. The English students mentioned enjoyment of and pedagogical growth through the study groups. Ingrid pointed out that she really benefitted from talking to students from other subject areas. The other English major who found herself among very diverse education students, Helen, agreed with Ingrid’s statement. The remaining English students had found themselves in a less content diverse group.

During the seven weeks that students were engaged in their book study, they rotated the responsibility of facilitator. In this role, they set goals for the group prior to the meeting that took place within the last half hour of the week. The weekly log provided me insight into the workings of the group through prompts completed after each meeting. Ingrid’s opinion of the benefits of hearing from students specialized in other content areas proved to be valued by most pre-service teachers in the class. Facilitators’ most frequent goal focused on having all members of the group apply what they were learning in their chosen text to their particular content area. Examples of these written goals include: “How we could incorporate this in our own class?” and “How can this relate to our own content area?” These types of prompts/questions and the creation of a fitting response better prepare these future teachers for the dialogues that occur within schools. Voicing how a new idea can be adapted and/or applied to a particular classroom setting marks an important point on the path toward a continuallyevolving pedagogy.

Despite the expressed desire of many students on the pre-questionnaire to have assigned roles, students rose to the expectations of the class and did “read the text” as requested through prompt 4. With six different groups over eight weeks of book study meetings, no one complained that an individual was not reading in these in-class professional book study groups.

Group discussions mostly focused on the text: in the entire period of book study only three facilitator sheets cited a goal for keeping the conversation focused on the text.

The final book study meeting of the semester is set aside for the students to achieve three things: to prepare a presentation of their professional book for the rest of the class; to hand in a short reflective writing on the process and two key ideas from the text that were personally and professionally beneficial; and to complete a post-questionnaire (see Appendix C). Although the presentations were well-prepared, it is the latter two artifacts of that final meeting that better inform me as an instructor and convince me, once again, of the positive transformative power of collaboration.

Following Professional Book Study The completed post-questionnaires reveal overwhelming satisfaction with the professional book study. All students, with the exception of one, said they would willingly take part in a

book group again (prompt 6). The single student who did not want to participate in a book group again felt collaboration was better for music than reading, but wrote, “That being said I did enjoy this project.” Without exception, all students reported in response to prompt 5 that the groups functioned harmoniously.

The two students who had reported poor prior experiences with book study found these professional groups rewarding. Under prompt 4, one of these students (an art major) wrote, “It made reading the book a lot better because it was nice to relate with others and their thoughts, and know that I wasn’t the only one that didn’t understand something.” The statement indicates both an appreciation for other people as well as the talk surrounding a text, which is so important for reading comprehension. The other student who had had a negative experience in the past (a math major) wrote, “Previously I had never participated in a study group where everyone read, or where everyone participated. But the in-class time and the people in my group helped that idea.” This change in attitude will hopefully make these pre-service teachers more willing to engage in study groups within the schools where they will eventually work, and to allow their students opportunities for collaborative work.

The students who found themselves in the most diverse groups in terms of content area focus were more likely to see themselves gaining insight from and using the expertise of their colleagues. For example, in a group made up of students from physical education/health sciences, math, art, and English, the P.E. student wrote “[Study group] allows you to grow as a future teacher by utilizing the knowledge gained from other content areas.” The art student wrote of the alteration of her views on collaboration: “I think it is very easy for teachers across contents to help each other with ideas for planning class activities.” In her short reflective writing, Helen, the future English teacher, wrote, “The meetings were also [in addition to the rotation of the facilitator role] successful because each member of my book study group is a different major and had different insights and responses to ideas presented in the text.” Within her post-questionnaire she stated, “I really valued my group members’ input on how to reach other students who may not like reading as much as me.”

Students in the class who found themselves in a less diverse group focused more on the texts they had read than the potential for gaining ideas from teachers of subjects other than their own. In a group made up entirely of humanities students – four English (two of them combined with theatre) and one history – it was the student of history who wrote to prompt 4 of the postquestionnaire, “I realized how many great ideas I can get from other people and people from all different content areas.” The English education students did value “different perspectives” and one of them wrote as a facilitator goal to get input from “every member.” Still, these English students did not acknowledge in writing how a historian (or thespian) contributed anything unique in terms of pedagogical expertise. This trend was repeated in the reflective writing. I could have simply assigned students to groups, insisting on content diversity, but this would have destroyed the high level of motivation that was gained through student selfselection. Furthermore, by offering choice I provided a model of using text variety that might be emulated by the students in

their own classes. As these teachers begin to use ideas they have acquired from the book study, I hope they will be more open to deepening the knowledge through work with future colleagues from their own and other departments.

In their reflective writing, all students in all groups easily identified concepts from the professional books that they would employ in their future classrooms. Of the sixteen students who reported no experience with this type of collaborative work, only two did not to make any explicit connection between the process of professional book study and their own practice in either the reflective writing or post-questionnaire. Five of these future teachers wrote at the end of the process that they will use collaborative groups with their future students. Two English teachers who may have had theoretical exposure to book study were convinced that effective group work is possible: “Apparently, it can be done.” Four teachers found it a useful endeavor for future collaboration with teachers. A math major stated the feeling most clearly: “Yes, I would [participate in a study group again] because I thought it was a very helpful exercise. It helped me learn to work with a group of my peers and possible future coworkers.” Other benefits of this collaboration included: a music teacher’s realization that she could teach an idea with a variety of texts rather than with a simple textbook (a reflection of the process and chosen text); a P.E. teacher realizing how much his comprehension of texts had suffered in the past because he did not discuss books with other people (hopefully, translating into the opportunity for his students to discuss sports writing rather than just sweating); and a history teacher’s expressed desire to use the ideas of three P.E. teachers from her group to instruct in “less ‘typical’ ways.” (Obesity has a new enemy.)

Content Area and Disciplinary Literacy The issues and problems of our society, and those that plague the world, will only be solved through thinking outsidethe-box (to use a hackneyed expression). If we move the literacy training for teachers back into their respective departments, future teachers may become so enclosed in their specialized box that they don’t bother to look outside. One problem with the disciplinary literacy view is that it separates fields of study into minute conveniences rather than recognizing evolving and merging nature of the disciplines. Another problem with the disciplinary idea is that different teachers within a single content area see different strategies as the most important; for example, a biology teacher may see reading visuals as the most important skill for comprehension, while another biologist may view the ability to summarize as the key to understanding. I discovered this first hand when my graduate students began to argue about the strategy preferences cited by English, history, and science teachers in an article (see Fisher and Frey) they read in my graduate level adolescent reading class.

Disciplinary literacy advocates argue that experts from different content areas read professional texts differently; and therefore, what teacher education programs need is “a literacy curriculum that directly guides students to better meet the particular demands of reading and writing in the disciplines than Statement Vol. 46, No. 2

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has been provided by the traditional conceptions of content-area reading” (Shanahan 57). Since my background is in media and English before I took a PhD in literacy/reading, I perhaps don’t have the extensive schema, or prior knowledge, necessary to understand the “traditional conceptions of content-area reading” that the Shanahans intend; however, I do find shortcomings in their arguments. The greatest of them has to do with the supposed discipline-specific strategies that experts employ.

The Shanahans’ examples of math, chemistry, and history are used to demonstrate this idea of disciplinary literacy.

Mathematicians stated that close reading and rereading were the most important literacy strategies in their area with close attention to function words. However, the use of function words that the Shanahans’ research provides is also important in other subject areas. For example, the use of the prepositions in this phrase from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address requires close reading and rereading: “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” How could the intent of this message be changed by altering these phrases? How might a frustrated environmentalist rework them? A successful lobbyist? For the literacy of their discipline, historians felt attention to the biases of an author and the sources used for their research were crucial skills. Again, these abilities are probably necessary in any subject.

I would need to apply this idea to the numbers my government is reporting to me about a current war, or the numbers provided by a non-government organization. This analysis might require the skills valued by historians and mathematicians alike. Finally, chemists stated that going between words and visuals (like pictures and graphs) was essential to a complete understanding of their discipline. A reader perusing the Internet would need this ability when looking at the many graphics of numbers and relationships for issues related to past and present wars: numbers within ethnic groups that died in Gettysburg, military and civilian deaths in Iraq, the cost per barrel of fuel in relation to the number of soldiers and their equipment in a landlocked country like Afghanistan, etc. For each of these charts, graphs, and visual representations, the reader needs to consider the source. A greater task for content teachers is building the background knowledge necessary for students to understand the letters and symbols on a page.

A course I took in neurolinguistics demonstrated to me the interrelatedness of disciplines and the need for strategies like going between words and visuals, rereading, and considering the possible biases of writers. With the use of medical machinery, linguists examine how language is processed in the brain. For me to read a neurolinguistic article that employed “fMRI,” for example, I needed to understand what the machine measured: the change of levels of glucose and oxygen in the brain. I also needed to understand the angle of brain that the computer-generated images displayed. The articles I read were short and dense, requiring me to reread when I recognized that I had not comprehended some aspect. I had prepare questions for clarification in dialogue with my professor. I had to determine whether or not the research design was sound, and compare one researcher’s results to another’s to determine whether or not I accepted the theories being presented. The professor helped build a schema for me about the anatomy of the brain and the technology used to measure 22

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its internal activity through analogies and metaphors, which made me love the content of his course. The merging of neurology and linguistics exemplifies the dynamic nature of the disciplines and the need for literacy strategies that can be applied to both arts and sciences.

Conclusion People require an array of strategies that they can use to read and write in a variety of genres. They also need a willingness to learn from other people’s interests, and collaborative learning fosters that openness. A student (from a group composed of an elementary education major taking the course as an elective, an English student, an art major, and a P.E. student) wrote, “[Book study] opened my mind to different ways of seeing things.” The history and four English education students’ members will be better prepared to teach (with) metaphors after reading the Gallagher book they chose; however, Helen, Ingrid, and the other students in the more diverse groups possibly gained more. An appreciation for the various subject areas, the people who study them, and the ideas that can be gained from them was most evident in groups where individual members ventured into a dialogue that extended well beyond their discipline and expertise.

If these soon-to-be teachers can nurture cross-curricular discourse in their own schools, perhaps they will cultivate future generations of creative problem-solvers that are not bound by a discipline.

(Notice the function word “a” just before the end of the sentence.

Is it necessary?)

Students enter classrooms with a plethora of interests. Some pre-service teachers have entered education because they love a particular subject area. Hopefully, at some point they learn the importance of trying to make connections to each student that enters their classroom and the unique histories and interests they bring with them. These connections to learners increase a school’s chances of actually affecting each student in a positive way. When teachers create a safe, respectful, comfortable environment for learning that extends beyond the confines of individual classrooms, the chances of success are improved. Professional development groups, like book study, push teachers to continually learn in and beyond their content.

Author’s Note: The author wishes to thank Dr. Donita Shaw from whom much of the wording of the appendices comes. The sources are used with her permission.

Works Cited “Bring on the Books.” Teacher Professional Development Sourcebook.

2.2 (2009): 2.

Fisher, Douglas and Nancy Frey. “Student and Teacher Perspectives on the Usefulness of Content Literacy Strategies.” Literacy Research and Instruction. 47.4 (2008): 246-263.

Gallagher, Kelly. Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Texts.

Portland: Stenhouse, 2004.

Hinkle, Theresa and Patti Kinney. “Collective Wisdom.” Principal Leadership. 9.2 (2008): 30-33.

Keller, Bess. “ ‘Book Study’ Helps Teachers Hone Skills.” Education Week.

27.38 (2008): 1-15.

Roberts, Ebony M. “Join the Club.” Instructor. 113.3 (2003): 16-20.

Shanahan, Timothy and Cynthia Shanahan. “Teaching Disciplinary Literacy to Adolescents: Rethinking Content-Area Literacy.” Harvard Educational Review. 78.1 (2008): 40-59.

Appendix A: Form for weekly reporting by the facilitators Study Group Weekly Log (to be submitted by facilitator) Date: Group members present:

Facilitator: Group members absent:

--Complete prior to class— My goals (collaborative processes or content) for today are:

--Complete after study group— My reflection on these goals:

A brief summary of today’s discussion and activities (chapter #, main points, main contributors):

Ideas for your future classroom based on reading and discussion:

At the next meeting we need to bring/prepare/read…

Any concerns or recommendations:

Appendix B: Pre-questionnaire Please complete this questionnaire and bring to class next week. It will guide your group goals and dynamics, so give it serious thought.

1. What book did you select and why?

2. How quickly did you sign-up on Blackboard to establish your desire to study this particular book?

3. The kind of atmosphere I would most appreciate during study group is one that feels: 4. Behaviors that are important to me in a study group discussion are: 5. The most important thing I would like to gain from participation in a study group is: 6. My ideas for making decisions in the group include: 7. How should concerns and frustrations be handled?

8. Any other thoughts/ideas.

9. Have you participated in book study groups before? If so, please describe the experience: when/where, what topic, size of group, positive/ negative memories. (Answer on back please.)

Appendix C: Post-questionnaire Your name: Group member names: Book you read for study group: Please answer the following questions to the best of your ability. Be as thorough as possible.

1. How has this study group experience supported your thinking and growth in knowledge about comprehension?

2. Do you think you will teach reading of content differently now than you did before your participation in the study groups? If so, what contributors can you mention?

3. Have your beliefs changed? If so, articulate your former and new beliefs and the key factors that have influenced your belief system. Be as specific as possible.

4. How has this study group altered your collaboration views, if at all?

5. How did you work through the complexities of learning with a small group of teachers? (Some ideas to address include power, authority, problem-solving, structure, tensions, conflict, goals, sharing/delegating of work, domineering member, responsibility of all members, learning styles, time management, maturation of group, trust.)

6. Would you participate in a study group again? Why? Why not?

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Inspiration in a Classroom Classic

by Paula Reed Paula Reed is an English teacher at Columbine High School. After surviving the tragic shooting there, she, not unlike many students and teachers who were there that day, decided the time to pursue all of one’s true passions is now. Paula’s passions are teaching and writing. Her fourth novel, Hester: The Missing Years of The Scarlet Letter, was released by St. Martin’s press in February of 2010. Visit her website at: paula-reed.com.

Email contact: paulareed@comcast.net.

I’ve been an English teacher for over 20 years, and for the lion’s share of them, I have taught The Scarlet Letter. It’s a book students tend to love or hate—often their first taste of challenging nineteenth century literature. It seems like every few years we talk about it in our department: is it too hard for our digital-age students? Is it still relevant?

Hawthorne’s classic novel opens with the heroine, Hester Prynne, standing on a scaffold, holding her illegitimate daughter, Pearl, and wearing a scarlet letter “A” as a punishment for committing adultery, though her husband has been gone two years and is presumed dead. As fate would have it, he is very much alive and spends the majority of the novel in pursuit of the man who had seduced his wife—a man who turns out to be the village’s most beloved minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. Every year, no matter when I’m teaching it, someone prominent is in the news (video today being what the scaffold was in colonial New England) due to a scandalous affair. Relevant? Always.

You’d think I would get tired of it, Pearl’s incessant chant: “What does the letter mean, Mother, and why does the minister keep his hand over his heart?” My students’ questions never change, either: “Why would Hester marry such an ugly old man, and why, oh why, did she ever fall in love with Dimmesdale. He’s such a wimp!” For years, I could only venture educated guesses: “Well, you see, marriage wasn’t generally romantic back then. It wouldn’t have been uncommon for a young woman from an impoverished family, as Hawthorne hints Hester was, to marry for financial stability.” (They never found that one satisfying.) As for Dimmesdale, I could only assume that he’d had something going for him before the book began, before his hand was always over his heart. Then there are the suppositions about Pearl. Upon Arthur’s death at the end, Hester and Pearl disappear, only for Hester to return alone years later, the events of her time away a mystery to the village and the reader. Did Pearl marry? The kids overwhelmingly believe yes. Was she happy? Almost certainly, they say. But for all their conjecture, I wondered with them…

Like most of us who teach English, I love to read and write.

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And, as I suspect is true for many of us, I had a hard time in college deciding whether to teach English or history, since I am passionate about both. English, I decided, was a perfect blend.

I begin every novel in class with some historical perspective on the time, and I have always had an odd fascination with Puritans.

I suppose it was only natural that, when I got serious about writing novels of my own a few years ago, I gravitated toward historical fiction, and my first published novel was about a Puritan woman.

That’s another thing we English teachers have in common, isn’t it? Many of us dream of being published. I had started to write a historical romance novel in the late 1980’s, but I was also coaching speech and debate and grading essays as an English teacher at Columbine High School, not to mention raising children, so the book went on the back burner. Then in 1999, everything changed: two of our students made Columbine the site of one of the worst school shootings in the U.S. Like many of my colleagues, I struggled with depression afterward. There was also the added pressure of a new state test called CSAP. I craved escape—worlds I could control with guaranteed happy endings. Writing romance novels seemed like a pretty good solution, so I finished that abandoned novel (which reads like a first attempt at a novel), and then right afterward I wrote another, better novel. My second book, Into His Arms, is the story of Puritan Faith Cooper, and Kensington published it in 2004. I lingered in that genre and had two more books published, comfortable with happy endings and rollicking good times in petticoats, but my students’ questions about Hester and Hawthorne came up every year, beckoning.

I’ve learned a lot about being a writing teacher since I became an author. Years in a critique group have made me much more conscious of how the critique process works. I chucked “peer editing” years ago and started critique groups like my own in class, giving the kids more time and more guidance in evaluating each other’s work. I also learned firsthand the value of praise, even for someone as thick-skinned as I am about criticism, so I truly understand how much my approval means to kids who are insecure about life, much less writing. I’m

better at finding honest merit in every student paper. Now that I am so conscious of my own writing voice, I am much more likely to remember to point out authors’ voices when we read in class and explain to students how to refine their own voices from these examples.

Obviously, my school life and my writing life have been on a collision course for a while. They couldn’t just keep firing shots across each other’s bows forever. My romance plots were trending darker and more serious while the market was calling for lighter and lighter fare, so my agent suggested that I consider a different genre. It was then I admitted my secret to her: I wanted to write the missing pieces of Hester Prynne’s story. She and Pearl leave New England, and while Hawthorne hints at what becomes of Pearl, we never know for sure. And why did Hester fall in love with a wimp like Dimmesdale? And what drew her to her aging husband, Roger, to begin with? I waited for my agent to say, “The Scarlet Letter? Have you lost your mind? The only people who read that book are high school kids who are forced to.” Instead, she said, “Ooh, Hester Prynne? I love her. Go for it!”

At first, I approached the story in Hawthorne’s voice, but it didn’t take long to realize that I would lose the modern reader.

Many of my students love the story of The Scarlet Letter, but they almost universally hate grappling with the language. I, of course, love the language. Seeking a middle ground, I scrapped my start, switching to first person and a writing voice designed to echo without emulating the original. I think it was fortuitous that we needed an extra ninth grade teacher when I started writing the book that quickly took on the simple title of Hester. It meant that while I was writing my book, I wasn’t teaching its source. I could let go of the “literary analysis” lens I’d peered through for two decades and immerse myself in the title character as a woman.

In the meantime, I told my students about the book I was writing. Because my freshmen wouldn’t read The Scarlet Letter until the following year, and I didn’t want to reveal that plot, I had to focus strictly on process. I told them about throwing out over 50 pages that weren’t working, without getting discouraged. I showed them the pages I had received from my critique group, covered in writing, just like the papers they got back from me. From this, they learned that every writer has to revise, that no first draft is perfect, and that I, too, knew how it felt to be told, “This isn’t good enough, yet.”

I also had a student teacher for the first semester of the year it took to write Hester. That meant a lighter paper load and more time for the extensive research it took to move Hester Prynne from Boston to Oliver Cromwell’s Commonwealth of England. Here, too, were insights for the classroom. I’ve become quite adept at teasing the most obscure facts from Google, and I’ve come appreciate Google Books as a mine of primary sources. I almost never really needed a paid, scholarly search engine, and I’ve gotten pretty darn good at helping kids

do the same.

It was also fortunate that I was back to sophomore English and Hawthorne last year, right after I’d finished the book and when it sold at auction to St. Martin’s Press. This year, just as we finished reading The Scarlet Letter, the art department at St. Martin’s finalized the cover art for Hester, and I’ve shared that process with my students as well.

Hawthorne found a beginning for his masterpiece in his years working in a Custom House. I found a beginning for my story in my classroom, along with inspiration as a teacher from my writing. Hester is more than an homage to Hawthorne. It is the culmination of class discussions with over a thousand kids who wondered.

Excerpt from: Hester: The Missing Years of The Scarlet Letter If it is a lonely life to be the embodiment of sin, lonelier still it is to be a legend. Day to day, little enough changes. I need never jostle my way through a crowd, for it parts where I walk, my neighbors never quite certain what might become of them should they brush against me. Once they feared I might taint them. Then they feared that I might come to know them too deeply, and through me, they might come to know themselves better than they would have wished.

That was long ago. Now, women come to my little cottage to seek my words of advice and comfort, for they see in me a woman not unlike themselves: One who has sinned, suffered, and survived. My touch, however, is not a thing to be borne until, like the minister I loved, one reaches the end of the journey and must lay open the soul and confess all that it was, good and bad, to be human.

Fearful of hell, those at the brink hold my hand—a fellow sinner to walk them to the gates. I do not take them past the threshold, but I have felt the heat of eternal fire and showed no fear, so they trust me to give them courage, too. Such is the nature of my legend…

In truth, the tale of the letter I wear was but the beginning of my journey. That story may fade as it will, until it is little more than a footnote in some public record house. Herein lie the events of my years away—the middle of my story. For myself, it is my favorite part.

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Poems, Poets, and Poetry: Collaborating Poets

Lary Kleeman teaches at Arapahoe High School in Littleton Public Schools. His email is lary_kleeman@msn.com.

by Jim Hobbs and Lary Kleeman Jim Hobbs teaches at Eaglecrest High School in the Cherry Creek School District. His email address is jnu68cu81@ yahoo.com.

Continuing a tradition of collaborative writing between us, we wrote the following poems over the months of November and December 2009. Jim wrote the “Nebraska” pieces and Lary wrote the “Colorado” pieces. In most cases, Jim sent what he had written first, and then Lary would write his piece. We both find that the following are some benefits of collaborative writing:

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• • • • • • •

Provides an audience for writing Encourages opportunities for sharing personal experiences Allows for constructive editing Sparks an interest in points of view Models a new way for organizing writing Gives each writer confidence in his/her writing ability Opens up dialogue about the writing process

The Environment

Nebraska

by Jim Hobbs

October—tawny-beige and golden crisp are the wheat stubble fields and the dry rustling of the corn in long rows waiting to be harvested…the milo fields are filled with shorter plants with heavy heads of russet kernels…the trees are ablaze with color—the yellow cottonwoods, and the fiery sumacs…fields already harvested ripple with dust and the sweet smell of the earth…after a lingering evening in a long glowing sunset, the sky houses a rising harvest moon (a part of my birthright) blood-red from the refraction of the dust kicked by the harvesting…in the first days of October, this is God showing His love for you as God kisses you…

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Colorado

by Lary Kleeman O pod O sectioned one shake & shiver in the wind of sensation gone wooden not woolen gone whorled not toothy but opened & opening spilled & spilling dried fruit of no tillage fruits the wind with toothsome rattle a dark-chipped death chips at death (air-pressed earth) O pod O podsome empty of reason unless reasoning with wind

Nebraska

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Traditions

by Jim Hobbs

I can cross over in my mind to my old hometown,

York, Nebraska, and I can walk up the steps to the large City Auditorium, a beautiful building, a block long and half-a-block wide, built by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression (and probably not a penny squandered in those tight times, but nonetheless, built with a lasting, classical quality).

I can walk thru one of the three entrance doors where I waited many a winter night to get in and watch a basketball game, and I would walk down the wide hall, cross the concrete floor, noticing the old pop machines (the long coolers where you lifted the lid and slid the upright bottles to the slot, and after you deposited your coins, you would pull the pop out of the chute and use the bottle opener on the front of the machine).

I could walk the length of the court to the stage with its burgundy curtain which opened to many stage shows produced by York High School, including Oklahoma my senior year.

If I were to walk alongside the stage and move toward the south exit doors, I would see a handrailing heading downstairs to the basement.

There would be a rope cordoning this off, but I would step over it and walk downstairs to a small door not seen from the landing, and I would open the door like I did on many a Saturday afternoon, and the hallway would be dark, but I would enter anyway, and I would pass by unlocked vaults which held old York memorabilia—flags and bunting for parades, even a silver Key to the City, pointed fireman hats…

Colorado

by Lary Kleeman Just because I forget nearby and natural I take a daily stroll around the yard— a way to exult in the fabric of the grown and growing. Certain plants assemble as if there’s a neighborly agreement between species—the mullein favors that which the blue fescue favors, each wayward clingers to slopes and washouts, they disarm any coordinated effort to keep things orderly and respectful, they’re declassified co-minglers, youthful and dumb, just the sort that the sheepish need to look upon in order to let go of sheepishness.

There’s a perky profanity to the mullein, it sends skyward a stalk knocking against the spoken kicks of wind, voicing an oblique obedience to all that is wild and wayward.

There is no faith like that which fastens to the beyond, but the nearby, the natural, can school us with a scrappy belonging.

I would walk past these bins and come out into the light and see tables of old town-men, retired friends resting here in the USO alcove, quietly playing cards—this tableau would play upon me and they could have been Christ’s fishermen, the Disciples at the Last Supper, I held them in such respect.

I would stand and watch them, these old guards of the city, and they would nod to me (just a town kid) in welcome.

One of the purposes of this poetry column in Statement is to encourage and to publish teacher and student writing. Help the Colorado Language Arts Society celebrate the empowerment of poetry. Please email or send your original poems, any topic and any style, to: Statement/Poetry Jim Hobbs 621 S. Paris St. Aurora, CO 80012 jnu68cu81@yahoo.com

The following release statement must accompany all student submissions:

I grant Statement permission to publish my student’s writing.

Student Name: Parent/Guardian Signature: Date:

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Reading, Writing, and Social Change:

A YA Author Collaborates with Secondary English Teachers Denver native Lauren Small earned a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature. Her scholarly work has appeared in academic journals such as MLN and German Quarterly, and she has published fiction in literary magazines such as Fiction, StoryQuarterly, and Partisan Review. Her short story “Livia” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Small has spoken at numerous schools and conferences around the country. She is an Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing at the Community College of Baltimore County.

Choke Creek (Bridle Path Press, 2009), her first novel, has been taught in high schools across the nation. Her email is lcsmall@comcast.net.

by Lauren Small

C

an we help students connect more deeply, and personally, with reading and writing? Is there a way to teach them the importance of literature, to see it as a means of transforming both themselves and

the world?

I teach creative writing at my local community college, and questions like these are always on my mind. But last year, when my YA novel Choke Creek was published, I found myself thinking about reading, writing, and teaching in an entirely new way.

Writing Choke Creek had transformed me, and had convinced me that literature could be an effective vehicle of social change. The question remained: could I find a means of sharing my experience with students, and leading them, too, to view literature with new eyes?

I’m a Denver native. The story I tell in Choke Creek is based on the Sand Creek Massacre, which took place in southeastern Colorado in 1864. On a cold November morning that year, over one hundred and fifty peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, mostly women and children, were brutally murdered by federal and volunteer troops on the banks of the Big Sandy, later known as Sand Creek. Afterwards the troops remained on the site for several days, scalping and mutilating the bodies of the dead. It’s a horrifying and disturbing event to read about, but the Sand Creek story does have a redeeming moment. Two of the cavalrymen who witnessed the massacre were so outraged by what they had seen, they wrote letters about it. The letters led to an investigation and, ultimately, for the truth to be revealed. One of these whistleblowers, Captain Silas Soule, was later murdered on the streets of Denver by one of his fellow cavalrymen. But the legacy of his bravery lives on—and is one of the most powerful examples of writing as social activism that I know. Soule’s story is a key moment in my novel, the turning point that transforms my protagonist, a fifteen-year-old reluctant student, into a young woman determined to use writing to change the world. This was the example—and the message—I hoped to convey to high school students. By visiting classrooms, I hoped to model the role of writer as social activist and encourage students to view themselves the same way. But first I had to find a teacher willing to invite me into their classroom.

I decided to attend the annual conference of the National Council of Teachers of English, held that year in San Antonio. A few weeks before the meeting, I joined the conference Ning—my first time to participate in a social networking site. I founded a group called “Social Justice” and posed the question: “How can we use literature to teach social justice in the English classroom?” Soon teachers began commenting in the group forum. One came from Tenafly, New Jersey: Dana Maloney, a twenty-two year veteran of the English classroom. Dana and I, it turned out, were asking similar 28

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questions about literature and social responsibility. Through that conversation on Ning, our collaboration was born.

We met in San Antonio, where Dana was giving a presentation on work she had done in her classroom: teaching literature as a way of understanding—and solving problems—in the world. To Dana, the power of writing—what she calls global voice—is the ability to use literacies to take action in the world. Soon Dana’s creative writing students would be embarking on research-based stories, and she was looking for a way to encourage them to write creatively about issues for which they had deep interest and concern. She decided to invite me to speak to her class.

“Meeting Lauren put a face on authors for me,” Dana says. “I began to see her as a social activist, and her novel as her project to better the world.” Dana had long been an advocate for breaking down the walls of the English classroom, allowing students to think more deeply about the relationship between what they learned in school and the outside world. Perhaps collaborating with an author would be one more way to make that connection.

“

Lauren’s visit influenced my students to take on issues that concerned them, to exercise their voice so as to comment on the world.

”

A few weeks later, I traveled to New Jersey to tell Dana’s students about Choke Creek. “Lauren’s visit influenced my students to take on issues that concerned them,” Dana says, “to exercise their voice so as to comment on the world. I found them writing more about their heritage, about the historical experience of their ancestors, including relatives who had lived through—or died—in the Holocaust.”

Since that first visit to New Jersey, I have had a number of

opportunities to collaborate with teachers like Dana. When I visit a classroom, I always read a bit from my book and tell the students about Sand Creek. I talk about my research and writing process, and when time permits, lead them through writing exercises that help them ground their work in real life. If nothing else, I hope my visit will help “demystify writers.” I never met an author when I was growing up, and as a result, thought they were mythical, magical beings. It never occurred to me that I could actually become one.

I was over thirty when I finally took what felt like an enormous risk and began to write. I was pleased this past fall when, after speaking at an inner-city high school, I received thank-you notes from the students. Several mentioned specifically how meeting an author made them think that one day they, too, could write books.

In several cases, after my visit, students have emailed me, sharing their writing passions and dreams. I am always happy to extend the conversation this way. Daniel Sass, a teacher in Baltimore, confessed that his students were stunned when they heard it had taken me seven years to write my novel. “My students think working on a story for two or three days should be enough,” he says. He had always struggled to teach his students the importance of revision. Hearing about the numerous times I wrote—and rewrote—draft after draft gave his students a new perspective on the writing process. Working with a contemporary author can also rekindle an interest in literature among students who see little relevance in classics written long before they were born.

“Books can be a powerful kind of activism,” Dana says. “A big message we can send to students is that they can use writing— including research-based writing—to comment on issues and problems in the world.” Meeting an author can be the key to opening the door to a radically different kind of thinking. “As readers, students can see how writers are impacting the world, and imagine themselves making a difference, too.”

Teachers who want to collaborate with authors might begin by consulting the Colorado Council International Reading Association (www.ccira.org), which maintains a list of authors willing to visit schools in the state. The Colorado Authors League (www. coloradoauthors.org) also has a list of speakers. Sometimes finding new authors is just a matter of reading widely, consulting with your colleagues, and keeping your ear to the ground. A number of blogs on YA Literature, written expressly for teachers, offer reviews of new books, for example, Lindsey’s Library (www.lindseyslibrary. com) or The Goddess of YA (www.professornana.com).

A good way to connect with YA authors is through social networking sites like the NCTE Ning (http://ncte2008.ning.com), or the Ning offered by the Colorado Language Arts Society (www.clastalk.ning.com). Other effective sites for networking include English Companion (http://englishcompanion.ning.com) and Collaborative Classrooms (www.collaborativeclassrooms.ning. com). Nowadays most authors maintain Web sites, making it easy to contact them and learn more about their work.

A good time to schedule an author visit is when your class is actively involved in a creative writing or research project. Prior to the visit, you might want to contact the author to prepare a list of topics to be addressed. Suggestions include:

• • • • •

The story of how the author became a writer The author’s writing process, including research, drafting, and revising The particular passion or interest that drives the author How the author views his or her work in the context of the greater world Paths to effective writing, to achieving authenticity and resonance

Sometimes teachers are reluctant to contact authors, fearing they will expect a large speaking fee or demand that the class purchase their book. In my experience, most YA authors are eager to meet with students. Sometimes I speak to students who have read my book, but more often not. I am always glad to have the opportunity to make the connection—and I always learn from it.

“I want my students to understand literature as an instrument for social messages and as an agent for social change; to take action in the world, and write creatively to convey their views of issues about which they have deep interest and concern,” Dana Maloney concludes. “Bringing an author into the classroom who modeled that kind of social activism helped my students understand what I was driving at, and brought the message home.”

Excerpt from: Choke Creek

by Lauren Small

“No one knows the truth anymore,” Evie said to her father. “Not even the Swales. Cyrus thinks his grandfather was a coward. And he won’t even talk to Indians. He doesn’t want to admit there was a massacre on his land. . . . I thought Eason killed a girl in Vietnam, but I was wrong. He didn’t kill anyone. He witnessed a massacre, just like his great-grandfather. He told me so himself. He said he saw a dead girl. He didn’t understand that his failure to act was a moral choice, so he deserted.” A stunned realization came into her eyes. “But now I can show him.” She clutched the letters to her chest. “He can go to the authorities.

He can tell them what he saw. They’ll have to forgive him. After all, he didn’t do anything wrong.” She was seized by an air of feverish excitement. “I’ll show him the letters in the morning.” A wistful look came over her face.

“It will be all right, won’t it?”

She turned to him with a hopeful air. It was the last time, he knew, that he would see his daughter like that, wanting him to reassure her, to tell her that the world was a fixable place, and everything would be all right. But he had no such assurances to give. He was done lying to her, and now he had no idea what the morning would bring.

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Let’s Collaborate on CLAS Talk www.clastalk.ning.com Alan Olds, a past president of CLAS, is retired from Jefferson County Schools in Colorado, where he also served as Senior Consultant to the Colorado Department of Education. He is currently the CLAS webmaster, and can be reached through the CLAS Ning.

by Alan Olds

I

team taught a technical writing/electronics course with a colleague many years ago, a collaboration that was popular with students and a highlight of our careers to that point.

We often wondered aloud why more teachers weren’t enjoying the fruits of collaboration – hybrid thinking, synergy from melding experiences in different disciplines, shared planning and grading, and the glow and confidence that comes from knowing you’re not in this alone.

My partner, Dick Lightner, would shake his head and remind me, “You know, if you take the roof off most schools and look at the classrooms, what you see is an egg carton.” His point was that schools are physically and socially arranged to isolate teaching and learning. As I heard more than once during my teaching career from other colleagues, “Teaching is what happens when you close the classroom door.”

While that autonomy may have a place in education, too often it is used to justify a “Don’t bother me, I’m teaching” attitude that eventually results in frustration and burnout after years of going it alone in a job that demands high energy and endless adjustments in curriculum and pedagogy.

Twenty-first century technology leaves few excuses for isolation. A few keystrokes can connect us to people and information almost anywhere in the world. Cell phones, search engines, video conferencing technology, social network platforms – all these and more give us the capacity to work and think and play together, even when we physically reside continents apart.

The social networking model, familiar to many on Facebook and My Space, has recently become customizable, so that anyone can create a social network around a specific interest with a unique visual design and choice of features. Colorado Language Arts Society (CLAS) has taken advantage of the best and most widely used of these new platforms, called Ning, to create a website (clastalk.ning.com) that is a place for teachers and other interested persons to interact around language arts topics.

What is a Ning and how has CLAS used it to create a website where collaboration is possible?

Ning was developed in 2004 by Marc Andreessen (also the developer of Netscape) and Gina Bianchini. According to their 30

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website,

Ning is the social platform for the world’s interests and passions online. . . . Ning offers an easy-to-use service that allows people to join and create Ning Networks. With more than 1.8 million Ning Networks created and 39 million registered users, millions of people every day are coming together across Ning to explore and express their interests, discover new passions, and meet new people around shared pursuits (about.ning. com).

Among the millions of networks created are those started by teachers and education organizations. In 2008, CLAS joined the ranks of education-related Ning users, when it created an interactive Ning website named CLAS Talk (clastalk.ning.com).

Tools for collaboration on CLAS Talk The Ning platform has a number of social networking features embedded in its basic service. CLAS Talk has been designed so that these tools for collaboration are nested under the Community tab in a drop-down menu on its main page. They include: Groups, Discussion Forum, Blogs, Photos, Videos, and Chat. All features are available to anyone who becomes a member of CLAS Talk, a simple procedure that involves signing up on the site using an email address and personal password.

The two features with the greatest potential for collaboration – Groups and the Discussion Forum – will be explained in detail below. The other four features – Blogs, Photos, Videos, and Chat – can also be employed as tools for collaboration, but (at least so far on CLAS Talk and similar education Nings) they tend to be peripheral to central conversations. As a result, they will not be covered in this article.

As with everything in the virtual world, how media gets used changes from minute to minute, so the explanations and advice that follow are subject to the breakneck evolutionary improvements and discoveries of new uses that are occurring as you read this.

But, what is described below should serve as a reasonable starting point for making use of CLAS Talk as a mechanism for collaboration around the English language arts.

To join a Group

Groups One of the networking features on the Ning is called Groups.

Groups deal with broad interest areas and serve as umbrellas for discussion of a range of issues under their heading. Groups can be started or joined by anyone who becomes a member of CLAS Talk. If you have a question, are seeking advice, or just are excited about something you’re doing in language arts, look here first. Members of Groups tend to have a passion for the issue they address. Examples of interest areas currently posted in the Groups section of the CLAS Talk site include: New Teaching Voices Urban Schools Rural Schools Elementary Teaching Voices Young Adult Literature Writer’s Workshop CLAS Talk is only beginning to grow its membership, and is certain to spawn many more groups and discussions. The CLAS Executive Board has been among the first to discover the power of using Ning groups for collaborative long-range planning (CLAS Strategic Planning) and for online meetings (Virtual Meeting Space).

To start a Group Select +Add a Group on the Groups main page, and post a description that invites a broad audience. For example, the Elementary Teaching Voices group, started by Lori Mahnke, invites members with the following description: This group is designed for elementary educators to share ideas and engage in discussion centering on literacy.

A description like this says: come one, come all, if you are interested in literacy and elementary education. It affirms the power of the Groups feature, namely the aim to create large communities of shared interest and inquiry.

You can “lurk” on the CLAS Talk site, meaning that you can read what is posted there without becoming a member of the Ning. But you cannot add your voice or media to any of the site’s community features unless you first Sign Up for CLAS Talk, a simple process of providing an email address and personal password. You can also choose (or not) to post a few personal profile statements or a picture (or avatar) of yourself.

After signing up you can start groups, discussions, or blogs, engage in a chat, and add video and photos to the site. And you can add comments in the Group and Discussion Forum areas.

In addition, you can join any group by selecting + Join [Name of Group] – an invitation that appears on the front page of every Group on CLAS Talk. By joining a group yourself, you can then Invite others to join as well (more on that process below).

Joining a group also means you can choose to receive emails that inform you when someone has added a comment to a discussion that you are following in that interest area. If at any time you wish to Leave group, you may do so by selecting a link with that phrase on each group page where you are a member.

To invite others to join a Group Simply starting a group (or discussion) on CLAS Talk and passively waiting for collaboration to get going, is like posting a For Sale sign on your front lawn and waiting for offers to come pouring in. Two simple actions increase your chances of getting a vital conversation going. You need to get the word out to others who share your passion for the Group topic. And you will want to post a sub-topic or two in the Discussion Forum embedded in each Group to get the conversation started.

First, once you have started a Group you will want to Invite others you know who share your interest to join the conversation.

You do this by selecting + Invite More People, which appears to the right of the Group title on the main page of any group you have joined yourself. Remember, you must first sign up to be a member of CLAS Talk, and then sign up to become a member of a group before you can invite others to be a part of a specific interest area. (You can also select Invite from the main menu on the site and issue an invitation for others to become members of CLAS Talk, but this will not point the invitees to a specific group or discussion.)

Inviting friends to become a part of a group not only tells them there is a place to interact around your topic, it also starts the process of enlarging the membership of your group. If you tell 10 friends, who tell 10 friends, who tell 10 friends, and so on, you will find yourself connected to people who share your interest from around the region, the country, and maybe the world.

Second, you will want to make use of the Discussion Forum contained in each Group on the CLAS Talk site. This is where anyone who joins CLAS Talk (and the Group as well, if they Statement Vol. 46, No. 2

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choose) can post questions, sub-topics, advice, and information that fall under the Group heading. For example, in the Young Adult Literature group, Jill Adams has started a discussion titled Adventure? where she states, “I’ve been working on my syllabus for YAL next semester, and I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestions for great adventure reads.”

The responses that follow suggest specific titles with annotations and possible classroom connections.

In the New Teaching Voices group, Marissa Madl started a discussion titled, Beginning of the School Year as a First Year Teacher, which elicits a sympathetic response and plea (“I struggle because I know I can teach better, but am just trying to survive.

Does this make sense to anybody?”), an offer of assistance (“What can we do to help you?”), and a follow-up question from Marissa (“Is there anyone you feel you can go to other than your mentor?”)

As this discussion continues, it is easy to see how anyone, including other beginning teachers, teacher educators, or new teacher mentors, could join the conversation. This kind of discussion topic under the Group heading of New Teaching Voices helps foster focused, rich dialogue.

Discussion Forum The second tool for collaboration under the Community tab is the Discussion Forum.

This is a place to ask smaller questions that, in general, demand a quick answer rather than an extended conversation.

It is a bit confusing to have two areas on the CLAS Talk site with the same label – Discussion Forum – one as a sub-section of every Group page, and another which is a separate area for topics that either do not fall under existing groups or that do not warrant a group heading. Despite their different locations on the Ning, they share the attribute of helping to focus conversation on smaller topics.

Unlike Groups, when you post a topic in the Discussion Forum section you cannot invite others to join.

An example of a topic that fits well in the general Discussion Forum is Lacey Wilson’s post on CLAS Talk about the CCCC conference (titled CCCC 2010), providing information about a Facebook page that deals with the practical concerns of conference attendance – room shares, travel shares, travel times, etc.

In another example, Jim Van Pelt and I shared a few comments about teachers as writers in the Discussion Forum area under the heading English Teachers as Writers. Jim started the conversation 32

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by sharing a bit of his own experience as a teacher and published author. He went on to ask about what strategies other teachers use for finding time to write amidst the demands of the teaching life. Our conversation amounted to only a few posts and hopefully satisfied some of Jim’s curiosity. If it did, then it will have served its purpose as a Discussion Forum topic. If he wants to connect with others who have experience as teacher writers, he could also start a Group under that heading, which would likely increase the chance of broader interaction around the topic.

In fact, if you look through the Discussion Forum topics currently on CLAS Talk, you will find that many could become Groups, if the discussion moderators wanted them to. For example, discussions on graphic novels, film and literature, creative non-fiction, and technology in the classroom all are examples of topics that might also be posed as broader interest areas under the Group feature.

So how do I make the choice – Group or Discussion?

Of course, the Ning environment is all about choice, so anyone can post a comment or start a group or discussion where they will. But the nature and depth of collaboration that results from a post is partly determined by the choice of where it appears. So members would do well to ask themselves before posting: Does what I want to post deal with a broad interest area? Could my topic serve as an umbrella for discussion of a range of issues under its heading? If so, this would fit best under the Group feature – either as a new group topic, or a separate topic in the Discussion Forum section of a group that deals with my question or concern.

Do I want to pose a smaller question? Am I looking for a quick answer rather than an extended conversation? If so, this would best fit under the Discussion Forum feature

Join the conversation Take advantage of CLAS Talk and the Ning service and start collaborating online. Anyone – an individual teacher, an interest group, a school or department – can make use of the social networking features there.

Two easy-to-use social networking features – Groups and the Discussion Forum – provide tools for collaboratively exploring issues, sharing experiences, tackling problems, locating resources, or planning actions. Whether you connect with new friends online or want to keep in touch with colleagues you already know, CLAS Talk now offers a place to join the professional language arts conversation beyond the occasional conference or workshop.

YA Literature:

Teen Lit in Our Own Backyard

by Dr. Jill Adams

F

or over 20 years, the Colorado Teen Literature Conference has brought together librarians, teachers, pre-service teachers, and students to celebrate young adult literature. This is one of the few conferences in the nation that unite such a variety of participants. Authors featured at the conference clearly represent the pillars of the field—Laurie Halse Anderson, Chris Crutcher, Lois Duncan, Walter Dean Myers, Lauren Myracle, Tamora Pierce, and more. This year, add Ellen Hopkins and Matt de la Peña to the list.

Ellen Hopkins New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins has certainly made her mark on the field of young adult literature during this decade, with frequent mentions on “best books for teens” lists.

Through poetry, Hopkins tackles tough topics such as drug addition, suicide, religion, molestation, and prostitution. The stark subject matter is portrayed in striking form and fluid language that packs a powerful emotional punch. Perhaps it is this novel format of the books that enable Hopkins to tackle difficult subject matter while also connecting to the soul of the reader. Each poem can stand and be interpreted alone, but the singular pieces also seamlessly lead into the next poem and collaboratively create a striking narrative tale. The result is an absorbing and at times unsettling read that will linger long after the last page. Although she has published other nonfiction and poetry texts, Hopkins is mainly known for her narrative poetry in such books as Crank, Class, Impulse, Burned, Identical, and Tricks.

Crank, Simon Pulse, New York, 2004. This is the book that started it all. Loosely based on her daughter’s descent into meth addiction, Hopkins rivets readers with a unique, fluid narrative poetry, as illustrated in the following excerpt (the first poem in Crank, page 1): Flirtin’ with the Monster Life was good before I met the monster After, life was great, At least for a little while.

Dr. Jill Adams is an Assistant Professor of English at Metropolitan State College of Denver. She teaches courses in composition, young adult literature, and teaching composition. Her email is jadams82@mscd.edu.

The tale focuses on 17-year-old “good girl” Kristina, who becomes Bree (an alter ego), a dominant and dangerous personality who loves risk-taking and danger. As Kristina spirals out of control, Bree becomes more powerful, fueled by meth. It’s not just Kristina’s/Bree’s story, however. It is also the story of her family, who are also greatly impacted by her choices and demise. The book clearly demonstrates the highs and lows of drug use. Ultimately, though, this is a warning for all: mess with the monster, and it will bring you down.

Glass, Margaret K. McElderry Books, New York, 2007.

Readers demanded to know what happened to Kristina at the end of Crank. The result is the second book in the Kristina trilogy, Glass.

Since we left Kristina/Bree at the end of Crank, it was unsure which direction her life was going to take. Would she clean up enough to raise a child? Could she overcome the desire to dance with the monster? This second book begins a year later. Kristina is working at a gas station and living at home. In an attempt to lose some weight gained during her pregnancy, she starts taking speed. Kristina/Bree quickly loses control of the habit and begins taking rock meth, or glass.

The hopelessness of Kristina’s situation pierces the reader’s heart even more in this tale, as readers are carried along in her realistic, devastating descent.

Flirtin’ with the Monster: Your Favorite Authors on Ellen Hopkins’ Crank and Glass, Benbella, Texas, 2009. One sign of a great book or series is when readers constantly want more. That is certainly the case with the Kristina trilogy. This collection of works (titled for the initial poem in Crank), edited by Hopkins, includes reflections on the bestsellers Crank and Glass. Hopkins notes that people often wonder why she wrote Crank. Her answer is clear: “I didn’t start the book with strangers in mind. I started it for me, to gain some understanding and answers to my questions. I write from Kristina’s POV because my point of view didn’t matter. I needed to climb inside her head and look at her world through her eyes” (5).

Other issues about the series will be addressed in this book as well, including themes and topics derived from the books. The first part of the text focuses on nine of these, such as “Role Models”, “Love is an Addiction”, and “Letting a Loved One Go” (written by Gail Giles). The second part of the book is much more personal, for Hopkins’s family shares their own views regarding the books and living through and with Kristina’s addiction. John Hopkins (“Scott”), Kelly Foutz (“Jake”), and Orion Hopkins (“Hunter”) all have brief chapters, and “Kristina” herself adds her own perspective. For true Hopkins fans, this book is a must read. The book not only adds context and depth to Crank and Glass, but it gives the reader additional fodder to absorb and contemplate as well.

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Fallout, Margaret K. McElderry Books, New York, 2010.

In the final book in the Kristina series, readers will once again have the chance to see if Kristina/Bree can break away from her brutal addiction.

Impulse, Margaret K. McElderry Books, New York, 2007.

Three teenagers—a cutter, an overachiever, and a homeless boy—are brought to a psychiatric hospital after they attempt suicide. Initially, it seems that the main characters have “nothing in common except age, proximity, and a wish to die” (2). As the book proceeds, however, each shares stories of neglect and abuse; as a result, they form a close friendship. Tragedy brings these individuals together, yet hope permeates throughout the novel as they proceed in their journey towards healing. The book culminates in a wilderness trip in which all aspire to achieve the final level of treatment and hopefully be able to leave the hospital afterwards. Readers will want all three characters to succeed, but sometimes the impulse to die runs too deep.

Burned, Margaret K. McElderry Books, New York, 2006.

Few young adult novels include the topic of religion, but this book is an exception. Meet Pattyn, who is named for an army general by her domineering father. As Pattyn discovers literature (and therefore knowledge) in her school library, she begins to question everything.

She is starting to feel “burned” not only by her father (who is mentally and physically abusive to Pattyn, her mother, and her seven sisters), but also by her church, which seemingly looks the other way. This burning creates the desire to rebel, to be strong, and to find love.

Initially, this pursuit does not end well. Her father and the Mormon Church condemn her actions, and she is sent to live with her aunt on a remote Nevada ranch. It is here that Pattyn truly finds herself. She also discovers love and acceptance. Living happily ever after isn’t in the cards, though, for Pattyn’s father has sent for her return. The question remains: Will she continue to burn brightly when she goes back? Or, will love conquer all? Is there even a choice at hand?

Identical, Margaret K. McElderry Books, New York, 2008.

All of Hopkins’ books are intense. This one seems even more so.

Kaleigh and Raeanne are identical twins who are struggling to survive in a seemingly apple-pie household that, beneath the surface, is full of dark secrets. The twins’ mom is a politician running for office and is therefore frequently absent, both physically and mentally. The twins’ father blames himself for a car accident that injured the family years before. Each girl handles the situation differently—one becomes the father’s substitute for a mother’s sexual touch, and the other sees this and pursues her own addictions (alcohol, sex, and drugs). Is it even possible for the girls to survive such a horrific life? Can they depend on each other for salvation? Readers will be riveted as the book proceeds to a startling climax.

Tricks, Margaret K. McElderry Books, New York, 2009.

Hopkins’ most recent novel begins with meeting five individuals—all from different walks of life. The three girls and two guys are living vastly different lives as the book proceeds. We learn of each individual’s struggles with love and sex, and even though all of characters are unique, it is obvious that they all have one thing in common: the desire to be loved. Of course, this brings its own struggles as each individual faces challenges in their pursuit. The lyrical passages are in sharp contrast to their often-times graphic content. Scenes of sex, violence, and abuse will propel the reader through the text and repel their sensibilities at the same time. As each of the individuals finds 34

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their way to prostitution, they learn tricks of the sexual nature, but survival as well.

Matt de la Peña Arriving on the publishing scene in 2005, Matt de la Peña has already made his mark in the field of young adult literature by publishing three novels: Ball Don’t Lie, Mexican WhiteBoy, and We Were Here. De la Peña’s novels feature young male protagonists straddling two different worlds, which mirrors what Matt has done in his own life. He is an athlete and author, Californian and New Yorker, Mexican and white. Complexities are present in his books as well, for the main characters are struggling to navigate the known and unfamiliar. These powerful novels about survival and identity will resonate with all teens trying to find their place in the world.

Ball Don’t Lie, Delacorte , New York, 2005. Heralded as a breakout urban masterpiece in numerous book reviews, de la Peña’s first novel brings the street and basketball together. Meet Sticky, a teenage foster kid, whose troubled home life melts away on the basketball court. Readers will want to know if basketball can save Sticky or if he will survive the game of life. In June the book will be released as a major motion picture featuring Ludacris, Nick Cannon, Emilie de Ravin, Grayson Boucher, and Rosanna Arquette. (A trailer for the film can be seen at http://www.3stonesback.com/.)

Mexican WhiteBoy, Delacorte, New York, 2008. Baseball provides the backdrop for de la Peña’s second novel. And as important as it is to be on a team, that exactly what the protagonist Danny doesn’t have. Being half-Mexican in northern San Diego County leaves its mark on him, so he travels to Mexico during the summer to live with relatives. He discovers, though, that he doesn’t quite fit in there either because he’s “half brown.” As Danny struggles to get his fast ball and life under control, he also attempts to find the place where he truly belongs on and off the field.

We Were Here, Delacorte, New York, 2009. A judge has placed Miguel in a group home and required him to keep a journal for a year. Although we don’t know the crime he has committed, it’s obvious that it’s torturing him. “Guelly” befriends two other teens in the home, Mongo and Rodell, and they escape in hopes of traveling from San Jose to Mexico in order to find a place where they can live peacefully. Each of the main character’s background is discovered on this journey not only to safety but to redemption as well. De la Peña’s newest novel is a bit reminiscent of Of Mice and Men, and Miguel and Rodell’s friendship is especially touching. This is journey readers will certainly want to take, as their affection for their characters and empathy for their situations grows throughout the novel.

Come hear Ellen Hopkins and Matt de la Peña at the Colorado Teen Literature Conference on Saturday, April 10 in the Tivoli Union on the Auraria campus in Denver. Additional information can be found at:

http://coteenlitconf.org/ Register early because space may be limited.

The Third Pillar of a Flatter Classroom: Literacy Through Collaboration

by Travis Macy, Philippe Ernewein and Sarah Hall

Philippe Ernewein is the Dean of Faculty Training and Development at the Denver Academy. His email is PErnewein@denveracademy.org, and his website is at www.rememberit.org

Travis Macy is a teacher at the Denver Academy. His email is tmacy@denveracademy.org, and his website is at www.myteacherpages. com/webpages/TMacy/

Prologue (Sarah) What’s the easiest way to sell a new literature project to a group of 15-year-old, self-proclaimed “non-readers”?

Tell them that they will be teaching the entire faculty about the value of the graphic novel. “You mean we get to read cartoons? And we’re going to be teaching it to teachers?”

Buy-in. As a first year teacher with a group of eight students with varying learning differences, this was something I was eager to try. Skip forward a month and there I was, listening to one student define literacy in front of 60 literacy professionals. Another student proclaimed that this was the first time in his entire life that he was excited about starting to read a new book. Through genuine collaboration on a variety of levels, the concept of literacy was examined through a new light: the graphic novel.

Teacher/Student Teacher/Teacher Parent/Teacher

Student/Student Administrator/Student Parent/Parent

Student/Administrator Teacher/Administrator Administrator/Parent

Online, 8:37 pm: Two Young Teachers Geekin’ Out (Travis and Sarah) TMac: Hey, nice job in the presentation at the in-service today!

I was thoroughly impressed with the way you and your students incorporated graphic novels into the high school classroom. And the presentation for the staff by your class was awesome.

MsHall: Thanks. The kids really did a great job!

TMac: Indeed! You know, as teachers of Millennial students, we are constantly searching for and grappling with a new pedagogy for reading and writing.

MsHall: I agree. And as teachers of students with learning differences, we truly need to think outside the box.

TMac: Hmm… I wonder what being Millennials ourselves has to do with all of this?

Literacy Redefined: A New Thesis from an Older Generation (Philippe) A few years ago I reached a personal milestone: I have been in education long enough to witness a generational sea change of the student body. Alumni now come back to visit and comment on how young the current students, sitting in their former seats, look.

Along with the characteristics and labels changing from Generation X to Millennials, there has also be a redefining of critical educational concepts like literacy. Along with mastering traditional standards and

Sarah Hall is a high school teacher at Denver Academy. Along with teaching Literature, English and World Geography, she also coaches the girls basketball team.

More information can be found at her website: http://www.myteacherpages.com/ webpages/SarahHall/.

curricula, 21st century skills are become a ubiquitous feature of the educational landscape. The National Council of Teachers of English captured this paradigm shift in a definition published in February of 2008: Twenty-first century readers and writers need to: • Develop proficiency with the tools of technology • Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally • Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes • Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information • Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts • Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments (“The Definition of 21st Century Literacies”).

As technology continues to infiltrate the entire educational landscape and most directly our classrooms, it also places new demands on teachers, demonstrating once again that teachers must also continue to be learners. We must operate with the same curiosity and wonder that we want our students to have while reading Shakespeare or composing analytical literary essays. The authors of this article have learned that the best way to navigate the information superhighway is to carpool.

Millennials Teaching Millennials: “All Tech Considered” (Travis) I’m not a tech-geek by any means. Heck, I’ve had the same cell phone since 2005. My students think it’s archaic. My day of birth, February 13th, 1983, did, however, position me as a native of the digital universe. I’m an early Millennial who came of age with dialup and remembers pay phones. I teach hard-core Millennials who are high-speed online/in-mind and can’t imagine a day without text messages.

I realized the other day that “All Tech Considered,” a Monday regular on National Public Radio, keeps me listening religiously. I also like the station’s global scope and its “always-on” presence, two other distinctly Millennial traits. These revelations got me thinking about the future. I’m no fortune teller (I only look at palms when they grasp Statement Vol. 46, No. 2

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iPhones tuned to Google), but I have a few predictions for the not-sodistant future of education: • As more Millennials enter the teaching profession, they will naturally integrate technology into the curriculum. We don’t know how to teach without it.

• Innovative teachers and students will work together to reveal best practices for educational potentialities including, but not limited to, cell phones, iPhones, MP3 recorders, blogs, podcasts, clickers, SMART Boards, and social networking sites.

• Effective non-Millennial teachers and administrators will be those who learn, adopt, and support these possibilities.

These predictions in mind, I would like to share a few ways my students and I have explored our common Millennialism in Room 102 this year: the blog, our SMART Board, and those clickers.

Screen print of clicker activity to test vocabulary.

Screen print of classroom blog response to novel, Three Cups of Tea, chapter 14.

Screen print of classroom SmartBoard.

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A New Avenue for Literacy: Graphic Novels in the Classroom (Sarah) Perhaps it was the newfound invincibility I felt having successfully completed my first semester of teaching; or it could have been the obvious cabin fever settling over my class during the cold, dark months of February and March. Whatever it was, I decided to undertake a new approach to teaching literature in the fourth quarter, with the hopes of lighting a fire under the chairs of my students: use graphic novels to spark an interest in reading, and do so through collaboration.

Teaching at a school for students with varying learning differences had started to change my views about literacy. While it was definitely a topic of focus during my teacher training in graduate school, literacy had been defined within a narrow and traditional lens as the ability to read and write and use printed and written information. As I began working directly with students who learn differently – be it visually, kinesthetically or auditorily – my definition of literacy started to shift.

I realized that there were a multitude of ways to be “literate” in the classroom and I didn’t want to my group of 9th grade students to be deprived of these opportunities to shine.

Our goal as a class was to define literacy and examine the role of the graphic novel within that definition. Through our experiences we learned that graphic novels can serve as a bridge to full literacy for English language learners. They can motivate struggling readers. They can be a literary and visual tool for discussing sensitive social issues.

They can provide a plethora of lessons for visual literacy. They can act as a vehicle for ethics discussions. Because of the buy-in resulting from high interest reading material, this experience helped many students transition from non-readers to readers. Buy-in for this unit was also enhanced via collaboration in the following ways: Student-student collaboration. Using a well-formulated tool like literature circles provided students with the opportunity to choose their own graphic novel. Within this format, students took on the roles of “Discussion Director,” “Literary Luminary,” “Investigator,” “Summarizer,” or “Illustrator.” Not only was there an element of choice when it came to the book, which we know can lead to greater student investment overall, but there was also autonomy granted when it came to class discussions. Through each of the roles listed above, students came to class prepared to lead their fellow students in a lesson surrounding their individual novel (students teaching students).

Student-community collaboration. To help illustrate the validity of the graphic novel (pun intended), both as a piece of literature and an art form, students spent a day in workshops with three prominent graphic novel authors and artists from the Denver area. Rotating through interactive stations where they scripted their own stories and practiced outlining, students learned about the process of creating graphic novels and about the legitimacy of the profession itself. By the end of the day, these artists were heroes in the eyes of eight 9th graders.

Student-teacher collaboration. To my surprise, the most significant and memorable part of this graphic novel unit for the students was not their anticipation of getting to read “comics” in school, nor the excitement generated from a visit by professionals in the field. When I informed my class that they would be presenting about the graphic novel with regards to literacy to a room full of teachers, they were ecstatic. Wanting to set students up for success, each was interviewed about their experiences with graphic novels and their responses fueled what later became their roles within the presentation. Following much rehearsing – a flurry of nerves, excitement, focus, confusion and of course the inevitable chaos – a group of students with learning differences stood before a room of literary professionals (most of whom they had as former teachers) and shared their personal and classroom experiences around the power of reading and learning about graphic novels.

The months following our presentation involved more communication with teachers outside of my own department than I’d ever experienced before. From simple messages of “THANK YOU!” to more in-depth questions pertaining to graphic novel research and resources, a door had been opened wide. Not only did this unit bring to light the significance of student choice and facilitation among hesitant readers, but it provided teachers the opportunity to redefine this thing called literacy within a school that has anything but typical learners.

Millennial Adaptation for Instructors: Teaching Teachers about Contemporary Literacy (Philippe) The faculty in-service started after an intense day of teaching and it showed on the teachers’ faces. An email at lunch reminded them of the meeting. Like tour-weary rock stars shuffling from the bus to the venue, the teachers arrived with notebooks, files, clipboards and water bottles. Have I been in education too long? Is this like Peter Frampton or Bob Seger writing and singing about the demands of touring?

There are numerous parallels: each school year like a tour, groups of students like bands, textbooks like liner notes to great albums, teacher evaluations like album reviews, lesson plans like sheet music, agenda’s like set lists, curricula like lyrics…I should stop. Standards like gold records, read alouds like guitar solos… Back to teachers arriving. This is the common challenge of those organizing, facilitating and leading professional development for educators: how do you energize and motivate within the constructs of the schedule of the school day? To this end, in partnership with high school teacher Sarah Hall, I had been working with a group of students on a presentation about the literary value of graphic novels. When the students walked in the room, the teachers sat up a little straighter and their faces became a bit more animated.

Epilogue: A Student Voice and a First Year Teacher Reflection (Sarah) “Hey, Ms. Hall, when are we getting our next book?”

Success. The inevitable sweat and tears poured into my first year of teaching could not have been honored more perfectly.

Works Cited “The Definition of 21st Century Literacies.” National Council Teachers of English. 15 February 2008. Web. Retrieved 12 December 2009.

Title: Beauty is Orange Artist: Trey M. School: Fletcher Miller School Title: Jackson Pollock Artists: Ms. Halsted’s Art Class School: Fletcher Miller School

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BEFORE THE BELL:

Inner / Outer Life Dichotomy

by Josh Curnett, Regular Contributor

L

ast week, my AP Literature students took their semester exams. The essay question portion of the test asked them to consider a character who is not what he or she seems to the outside world and then try to explain how that character’s inner life/outer life dichotomy informs the meaning of the work as a whole.

“Avoid mere plot summary, please,” they were cautioned.

I knew it was a relatively hard question, one they’d sweat over at this point in the year. I was also eager to see if anything had sunk in during the fall. I wanted to know if Raskolnikov’s tortured existence would perhaps occur to them, or if they would target Delaney Mossbacher from The Tortilla Curtain or Catch-22’s Yossarian or even Troy Maxson from Fences. I knew many would go for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as well.

For the most part, the students did not disappoint: I read many solid, upper-half (of the AP rubric) essays that highlighted the duality of all of these characters and more, many more.

Frankenstein’s monster. Dorian Gray. Winston Smith. Holden Caulfield. Nick Carraway. Siddhartha.

I was slightly proud and cautiously optimistic for this group of seniors.

As I speedily read and graded these essays, so that I would not get publically shamed and have my name screeched out over the school loudspeaker (which happens to the unfortunate teachers who do not press their “grade submit” button before the exam grade deadline), I started to think about how we teachers have an inner life/outer life dichotomy, too, one that we have to cultivate to survive and endure, much like the characters listed above.

Perhaps I am only speaking for myself regarding this teaching duality, but I am relatively confident that the “teacher firewall” in my brain (which preserves the inner/outer dichotomy) keeps me gainfully employed.

Here are a few examples of my split existence, and most happened in just one day: Outer: “Happy haircut, buddy. Looks great!”

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Josh Curnett teaches at Eaglecrest High School in the Cherry Creek District.

His email is jcurnett@ cherrycreekschools.org.

Inner: “Oh my god. A riding lawnmower escaped and attacked this poor kid’s head. Good thing prom’s still a few months out.”

Outer: “I understand that you don’t have your homework again today, Chrysanthemum. You will still have the consequence of a low grade, but I really want you to learn this concept. Can you work on it in class for me?

Fantastic. Let me know if I can help you, ok?”

Inner: “If I have to listen to one more excuse from this kid while her eyes search the ceiling tiles for the next fib, I think I am going to start doing that monkey screech/cymbal clang/foot smack thing – right here on my desk.”

Outer: “Of course I understand that you are taking a twoweek family vacation in the middle of the semester, Mrs. Farragut. I would be glad to gather all of Norbert’s work for him in advance—by tomorrow morning, you say?— so that he might complete it on the intercontinental flight.”

Inner: “Are you kidding me? Are you KIDDING me? Would you like me to compile it in a three-ring binder on heavybond paper with category tabs for him?”

Outer: (during a conference at a student’s desk) “Let me just show you how to make this comma splice into a compound sentence—there. Just like that, with the comma and the coordinating conjunction. Does that make sense to you, Claude? It does? Not too hard, right? Great. That will add sophistication to your syntax!”

Inner: “When was the last time this kid brushed his teeth? I need a respirator and some Vicks Vap-o-Rub over here!

I am barely hanging on! Tell my wife and children I love them!”

Outer: “Don’t worry about it, Tabitha. Spills happen all the time. How could you have known that your backpack is four feet wide and would decimate everything on my desk when you turned to maniacally hug the friend you haven’t seen in just under ten hours? (laugh jovially, go for paper towels) How foolish of me to set my lidded travel mug full of steaming, freshly-ground java from the Rwandan highlands there, at the back corner of my

personal space. It’s only coffee.”

Inner: (staccato, like perhaps a crazed lab rat in a cartoon, or as keening witches on a rainy heath, might speak) “What is Josh going to do? Oh, what is Josh going to do? No more coffee! No more coffee! It’s 8:54 in the morning!

He is going to die! Yes, he is going to die!”

Outer: “Class, I’ll wait once more for you to be ready to listen. I will begin again when I feel you are ready.”

Inner: “I am going to my happy place now. There I am. On a beach. White sand. Nice blue waves. Reggae music. Very serene. Because if I don’t go to my happy place now, I might do something to earn free room and board in a SuperMax correctional facility.”

Outer: “Oh, yeah, yeah. Right. Riiiiiiiiiiight. Yes. Of course. That continuing education class entitled ‘How To Weave Wonder into Your Teaching Blanket’ we all signed up for during the first week of school, when our schedules were wide open and when we were full of energy, is

tonight, four months and thirteen days later. Yes, I am READY for this! I have been waiting all morning to talk with you about it!”

Inner: “Oh my god! I completely forgot about this class. What am I going to do? I have to take Fluffy to the vet and then Scooter to practice and then . . . where’s my cell phone?

I have to call my wife and have her cover everything tonight so that I can stay here until 8:00. This is going to be a fun call.”

I could go on…

If I had to analyze my character’s dual existence and how that contributes to the work as a whole, I might conclude that this guy has some serious issues and that, perhaps, he sees himself as normal. This obvious delusion would be dramatically ironic and satirically pleasing to the reader because the character himself does not realize or comprehend the constant dance between tragedy and comedy (landing on all points between) which seems to define his professional life each and every day of his career.

2010 Autumn Conference For information and updates, visit: www.clastalk.ning.com

SAVE THE DATE

OCTOBER 29 & 30, 2010 Denver, CO

Featuring NCTE Co-Sponsored Speaker, Teri Lesesne.

Teri Lesesne is a Professor of Children’s and Young Adult Literature in the Department of Library Science at Sam Houston State University. Author of three professional books and numerous review columns and articles, Teri maintains a popular blog about books and reading at LiveJournal. She is the chair for the Standing Committee Against Censorship of NCTE and has served NCTE in a variety of capacities. In 2007, she was awarded the ALAN Award for her contributions to young adult literature.

and Graphic Novelist, Gene Yang!

Gene Yang began publishing comic books under the name Humble Comics in 1996. In 1997, he received the Xeric Grant for Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks. Since then he has written and drawn a number of stories in comics. His most recent graphic novel, American Born Chinese, became the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award and the first graphic novel to win the American Library Association’s Printz Award. In addition to cartooning, Gene teaches computer science at a Catholic high school in Oakland, CA.

Statement Vol. 46, No. 2

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J oin CLAS

Renew Yourself, Your Teaching, and Your Profession What you can offer CLAS

What CLAS offers you a a a a a

a

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Rejuvenation, inspiration, ideas Links to Internet and other resources Updates on CSAP, standards, and legislation Licensure Updates for English teachers Conferences Fall Writing Conference Regional Spring Conference Colorado’s Teen Literature Conference (co-sponsored) Publications Currents newsletter Statement journal Contests for your students High school writing (co-sponsored with the Colorado Writing Project) Middle-level writing Elementary storytelling Grants Kirby Writing Matters Gilbert Fellowship Bellin Grants for teens

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New ideas to meet professional needs and strengthen the organization Presentations at conferences Diverse, transcultural viewpoints Representation across grade levels and throughout the state

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Statement Vol. 46, No. 2

Areas of Expertise

This membership is a renewal.

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