Becoming a Writer

Not being a writer and often being shy when speaking about myself I found that this first week of the institute allowed me to push myself. I was able to speak about myself in such a wonderful environment. All of the activities I improved who I am as a writer. I would also like to mentions how everyone was so accepting of who we all are and celebrated who we all are. I am amazed with all of the ideas that were shared and discussed already that I can bring back to the classroom. I look forward to these following weeks and learning so much more.

A reflection on 1st week at Philwp

something I heard this week....."Becoming a better writer myself will make me a better teacher of writing." Everthing we have done this week is leading me there. The readings, the storytelling with Dr. Schultz, and take a line for a walk technique were helpful to my personal growth as a writer but most valuable to me was the collaboration with my journal group and the suggestions from others in writing my autobiography. Thank you Jeff for recommending I
"Stretch." I am glad I didn't play it so safe.

"Shared Reading" : What books do your kids love?

Today I overheard Jessica discussing how much her students love the Bluford books, a series of young adult fiction written by a few different authors and telling the loosely tied stories of adolescents at the a school called Bluford high. The Bluford books are great in a way-- they are low- reading level/high interest stories that depict African-American kids in an urban setting with both accuracy and respect. Kids really, really love them. Beyond entertainment, though they have a pretty low literary value (ok, this is my opinion...but I stand by it!), and students who love them don't always let this translate into an interest in classroom reading, especially when confronted with harder texts. Jessica and I had a quick quick talk about using slightly more advanced realistic fiction as a bridge between easy reads like Bluford and harder literature. I said I would try to make a list of books that my 7th and 8th graders really enjoyed, and then I got inspired by the Technology Day and decided to put it on the blog so that everyone could add on ideas and we could use each other as a resource. I have read a bunch of these books but not all of them. I hope thisis an ok use of the blog.  

Chelsea 

Some authors and books my students enjoyed:

Sharon Flake: 

Bang!

The Skin I'm In

 Begging for Change

Who Am I Without Him?

Angela Johnson: 

The First Part Last

Heaven

Rita Williams-Garcia:

Like Sisters on the Homefront

Walter Dean Myers:

Monster

Bad Boy:  A Memoir

Hoops

Slam

145th Street

Paul Volponi:

Black and White (this book isn't that well known but it is AWESOME, my kids, especially the boys,  loved it!)

Gary Soto

Taking Sides

Carolyn Mackler: The Earth, MyButt, and other Big, Round Things

Roald Dahl

Boy 

Gary Paulson:

Hatchett

"Reading the World of School Literacy: Contextualizing the Experience of a Young African American Male"

Arlette Ingram Willis uses the example of her own son Jake and his reluctance to enter a writing competition and his primary grade teachers' teaching styles to illustrate school society's inability to include diverse cultures in its curriculum. Not to make light of the issue, but after I read about her third experience with a teacher who still did not incorporate multicultural literature into her curriculum, I thought, "Where does this lady live?" Then I compared Willis's disappointment (too weak a word) with the limited view each one of her son's teachers had about culture with the deflation I feel when one of my students writes a research paper on adoption and comes up short on what I understand about adoption as an adoptive parent. The paper may be well written, technically perfect, cited appropriately, but the interpretation is off. Willis writes, "Educators have not effectively built upon the culture and language of every child, and have set arbitrary standards of acceptance and defined them as normative" (47). I like to think my education as a librarian has prompted me to be aware of diverse cultures and addressing their needs, gender issues, learning styles. But this article, the one about African-American venacular, and others in the packet remind me that I can never get too comfortable, to be open to my students' ( and their parents') needs and ideas. B the Book Lady

Video I mentioned in class

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfwf8  

If you put this in the address bar it should work.  The video has the same message as the one from this morning.  I think this one is slightly more powerful.

Technology in the classroom

This was a very useful discussion for a person who is a little shy of using tech in the classroom. My personal computer is very old and has really limited my ability to extend my own technological knowledge. I will, hopefully, have a new computer as of this weekend and I am going to push myself to learn more. Unfortunately, my school has limited access to tech, but high expectations for its use. I'm going to use FaceBook or MySpace pages by photocopying the framework and using it for published student work. We will also use 3x5 cards to simulate e-mail exchanges. This might not be directly tech, but it will bring the concepts into my class. Any other suggestions to use tech without the available hardware?

Wednesday Reading Ball AAVE

Evaluating the writing of culturally and linguistically diverse students: The case of African American Vernacular English Speaker
Arnetha F Ball

This article addressed specific grammatical structures I have seen often I student writing but marked as grammatical errors. I failed to recognize the legitamacy of AAVE. The author states "Since AAVE does not require the use of the -s present tense marking following a third person singular, Jelani does not use one in this instance." How many times have I seen this as a grammatical error without recognizing it as a structural element of another language?

As teachers, this poses a conflict. By red penning AAVE, are we taking away from the cultural expression? Would Nina Simone's song be as powerful if it was called "I Don't Have Any" instead of "Ain't Got No"? How can AAVE be appreciated while simultaneously preparing student for "mainstream" writing and speaking?