Blog #5: Two websites for student use (English)

1) This site is called "Lightning Bug" and is an ideal resource for writers in secondary school, because it not only helps you how to write but to help you discover what kind of writer you are. The website's creator, Martin Jorgensen, emphasizes that the kind of writer you are is emphasized by your interests and strengths. For example, an 'active' writer may prefer writing about sports that put them at the center of the action, or dramas where writing it in (screen)play form is easier for them to plot out the action of a story. Jorgensen is also a big fan of mind maps, which is an effective way for students to flesh out their story and character development. There are also links to the blogs of published authors, which gives insight into the lives of full-time writers and where they draw their inspiration from. The students would also enjoy the nice list of writing exercises, which would serve as inspiration for writing assignments in class. A great group activity would be to write a story in a series of text messages, which is something they are familiar with, but may not recognize that they tell stories on their phones almost every day.

2) This site is called "Whichbook", which is perfect for students to independently choose what book to read next. They could use this when they need to choose a book for a book report, or for when they want to read a book during their free time. On the homepage of the website, there are 12 sliders which indicate different factors that readers take into account when choosing a book to read. You can choose if you want a book that is "Larger than life" or "Down to earth", "Easy" or "Demanding", "Funny" or "Serious. You could also search books by author and look at suggestions by other members of the website. Each book also has parallels, or suggested reading, which would help students extend their reading into a particular genre. For example, for my Annotated Bibliography, I am reading Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman; according to Whichbook, I should also read Dreamsongs by George R. R. Martin. This is appropriate, because I really enjoy Martin's Game of Thrones series. Ideally, the students will also enjoy Anansi Boys and read more works in the fantasy vein for their personal enjoyment.

Blog Post #4: Why Should I Care?

Question: What is the importance of writing poetry in contemporary society?

Answer: In order to convince students to take a poetry unit seriously, I think it's only fair to discuss why it matters. When I was in high school, I never understood why we had to spend an entire class period dissecting a piece of poetry that was less than 20 words long. The one that comes to mind is by William Carlos Williams called "The Red Wheelbarrow":

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens

Talking about such a little poem for so long frustrated me. How many things did my teacher expect us to find? Why would someone write a poem about a wheelbarrow? Was it this easy to become a famous poet? Apparently, the 14-year old version of myself was not alone. Adrienne Rich, in her discussion on the importance of poetry, acknowledges the more popular critiques made of poetry: "it's not a mass-market "product"...it's too "difficult" for the average mind; it's too elite, but the wealthy don't bid for it at Sotheby's; it is, in short, redundant. This might be called the free-market critique of poetry." So, even rich adults don't see the significance of poetry. My average mind definitely didn't understand the importance of those words, and my classmates tried their best to tell our teacher what she wanted to hear. Then we discussed the reality of the poem, how Williams was writing what he saw and what the image meant to him. That became my definition of poetry: life in words that are short but sweet.

In the same article, Rich goes on to say that "critical discourse about poetry has said little about the daily conditions of our material existence, past and present: how they imprint the life of the feelings, of involuntary human responses - how we glimpse a blur of smoke in the air, look at a pair of shoes in a shop window, or a group of men on a street-corner, how we hear rain on the roof or music on the radio upstairs, how we meet or avoid the eyes of a neighbour or a stranger. That pressure bends our angle of vision whether we recognise it or not." Much like a photographer can make a glass of water look beautiful, or a man can put a urinal in the middle of an exhibit and transform it into an art piece, poets have managed to provide us with written snapshots of the human experience. With that understanding in mind, it makes it much easier to poems at face value.

Dave Gessner's blog was quoted in the New York times article titled "Does poetry matter?", and sheds some serious light on why writing poetry today has taken on a very universal quality. His wife makes the comment that "We are all poets now", which would be depressing for a writer seeking fame and fortune through their words in such a competitive pool. Despite this uneasy thought, Gessner makes the brilliant statement that I want every one of my student's to take with them from my creative writing unit: "If it doesn’t really matter, if it truly isn’t possible to be heard on a large stage, why not just focus all your energy on making the thing itself as great as you possibly can? You can’t please the masters anyway, no matter how hard you try, so why even try to please them? And since your efforts to win favor by sounding like someone else are bound to fail, why not sound exactly like yourself?" Individuality is something young artists can easily lose sight of; it is my responsibility to introduce as many creative outlets as possible. And even though the reputation of poetry is less than outstanding in most minds right now, a student's 16 words on a page can become worth more someday than a best-selling novel.

Below is a link to Roger Ebert's blog from The Chicago Sun-Times where he put together multimedia inspired by "The Red Wheelbarrow":

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/poetry/so-much-depends-upon-a-red-whe-1.html

Blog #3: Websites for Student Use #2 (Theater)

1) This site is called "The Tongue Twister Database" and is wonderful because vocal exercises are a necessity in any theater classroom as warm ups, but can be difficult to find. Independently, the students can use the website to choose tongue twisters that will help them master using "the tip of the tongue, the lips, and the teeth". Tongue twisters are a great way to work on the annunciation for students that are not native English speakers and students that may be in speech therapy. I think the best way to use this in a class would be to pick one at the beginning of the week (i.e. "A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk, but the stump thunk the skunk stunk.") and have the students practice it at home. We will use this same tongue twister for a whole week so that the students have time to learn it and can eventually store it in a mental catalog of tongue twisters to use when independently working on their diction.

2) This site is called "Charles and Mary Lamb Tales from Shakespeare" and would work very well for middle school Theater and English classrooms. I love that the plays of Shakespeare of been condensed into narratives that would take a class no more than a class period to read as a group. Most students are not introduced to Shakespeare until high school, but the majority of his plays have significant, universal themes (i.e. "ambition" in MACBETH and "man vs. society" in ROMEO AND JULIET) that should be discussed in middle school classrooms. If I wanted the students to perform select scenes from THE TEMPEST, we would read the tale from the website first so that the most important themes and symbols are understood. This website would be just as effective as the "No Fear Shakespeare" series as a companion piece to Shakespeare's tragedies and comedies.

There is also a link to the Librivox recordings of each tale for students that would prefer to be read to; this is an excellent alternative for special needs students. Because the Lambs' writing blends modern English with Shakespeare's language, it can be easier for a young reader to hear it read to them; this goes along well with the idea that teachers modeling how something should be read aids student reading comprehension.

Inquiry Project Update

The aim of my inquiry project will be to find effective methods for poetry writing instruction, since it is the form of creative writing I am least familiar with. Kelly's goal is to teach students how to write objective critiques of different forms of art (theatre, painting, etc.). Josh's mission is to find effective management and motivational writing practices in a secondary English classroom.

Blog #2: Poets Need Exercise, Too!

Question: What poetry exercises will students enjoy and actually help them develop their writing skills?

Answer: "Entering the Image" is one exercise that is a great way to stimulate the imagination of high school students. Because poetry heavily relies on the use of imagery and symbolism, it would make the most sense to give the students paintings, photographs and drawings to inspire their writing. By looking at a variety of art, students could write a poem about the action of a certain image. They could also pick more than one image and write a poem about how those two images could be related. For example, if there is a picture of a bicycle and a drawing of a woman bathing, a student could make a connection and write about how the woman is taking a bath after a long, scenic bike ride. Another exercise using images is writing a poem from the perspective of the image's artist or photographer.

Writing poems from first, second and third points of view can help students understand how different one event or character could be approached. I also feel that writing poems using the "Entering the Image" exercise, will help students turn these poems into short stories. This would be an exercise used after we have compared the structures and styles of different poets; students could adapt the structures of their poems accordingly, or come up with something completely original. Personally, music gives me just as much imagery when I am looking for inspiration, so age appropriate songs could be played for the class. The structure of a song is very similar to that of poetry, so students could also be inspired by the lyrics and rhythm of the song writer.

http://catherineowen.suite101.com/writing-exercises-that-teenagers-will-enjoy-a77944