Post-FOKI #bookhenge

A reflection on my progress towards achieving my professional goals:

Professional Self:  Where I need to learn and push myself is to find ways in which that same kind of critical thinking and engaging with a text can happen in venues other than in a seminar format.  As I mentioned, I like projects, but I don’t want to be limited to the same kind of thing every time.  My goal is to find ways that will engage my students and allow for more freedom and creativity in my classroom in order to achieve the same kinds of learning outcomes currently held.  Also, I feel as if I need to find a way to achieve a balance in my class with what I want the students to understand about the way the world works while respecting their own opinions and ideas as well.  I realized that when I design a project, often it’s a product of my own viewpoint.  I’d like to find a way to allow my students to help design these projects so they feel as if their own ideas and viewpoints are also being heard.

I do feel as if I learned a great deal about opportunities which I can provide for the students to interact with literature.  I loved the book-cast idea and the concept of performing literature.  I needed a reminder about multiple intelligences and was struck with the many ways we can incorporate kinesthetic and musical learning in the classroom.  This class opened my mind to the many ways we can engage our students in critical thinking beyond a traditional seminar.  Likewise, engagement with the literature should not simply be evaluated in a literary analysis.  The knowledge I gained about participatory learning enabled me to envision a class in which we all contribute to a shared learning experience.  Some of that will come with time – I know I’m going to wrestle with giving up some of my perceived “control” of the classroom, but I am just as much a student here as they are and I have much to learn from my students, particularly with regards to technology.  This attitude, I believe, will also provide me with the chance to have the students work with me to create our own learning environment, projects, a class blog, etc.

Literate Self:  My goal for developing a more literate self is to expose myself to more Young Adult Literature.  I think some of why I am so inclined to put the book down is because I just don’t know enough about the genre.  For example, I read John Maberry’s Rot and Ruin, and I enjoyed myself.  I got sad for Nix when she lost her mom, and I got scared when Tom fell off the car into a pile of zoms, so I’m obviously resonating with the book on an emotional level.  I do get a little tired of the many conversations between characters about the comparison between zombies as the monsters or the monsters that are people.  When I’m finished, I’m glad I read the novel, but don’t know what sets this one apart as an award winner from so many others on the shelf.  My goal here is to learn what I can so I can make those kinds of judgments for myself, but also to bring that new knowledge into the classroom and into my discussions so my students can also come to their own informed decisions about the literature they are reading as well.

One of the items I was discussing with Will about multicultural literature is that, in some ways, I think more exposure is the key.  The more we are exposed to those “differences,” the less different they will seem.  I feel the same way about my literate self.  Although it was literally the tip of the YAL iceberg, my exposure to young adult literature and the CCI’s gave me enough information to begin to understand not just the complexity behind YAL, but the importance of the genre in the development of teen readers.  If any time was an important time in an adolescent’s life to be able to make a connection with others, even if those others are characters in a book, it’s the teen years.  I certainly have a greater appreciation for the niche that these books fill and feel more confident in my own experiences with YAL.  However, I also feel as if no matter how well I know a book or how strongly I feel about it, chances are the students I teach, at least some of them, will always feel differently.  But I look forward to having those discussions.

Virtual Self:  My goal for this is to begin to understand the ways in which developing  an effective online and inworld identity can help to make me a more effective teacher.  It’s all about baby steps for me, and right now, I need to familiarize myself with the technological tools that are available and understand the implications of these tools for the classroom.  And, I’d like to not break out into a cold sweat every time I have to tweet or blog.

As you are probably guessing, this was huge for me!  Not only am I much more comfortable with the idea of my own online presence, I’m just starting to have an inkling of how effective using social media in the classroom can be.  I’m already planning on creating a class blog, bookcasts, voicethreads, and although I don’t think I can handle it this year, I want to start researching the possibility of using Twitter in the classroom.  I no longer break into a cold sweat when I think about using technology tools, but rather, I’m looking forward to my break in the month of July to see what I can do with those tools.  In many ways, this aspect of the course was exactly the shot in the arm I mentioned needing with regards to my teaching.

Reflection:  In the past few years I’ve felt as if I needed a shot in the arm and realizing I’m heading into my 17th year of teaching, I now know why.  I think in some ways the fact that I do have quite a bit of classroom experience is both a blessing and a curse.  The blessing is that the day-to-day on my feet teaching that occurs is something I have a grasp on.  But with today’s students that’s going to only get me so far, and I’ve been relying too long on that experience.  I need to push myself and strive to learn what I can to connect to my students which means learning about as many technological tools as I can.  For the first time in years I am unsure of myself as an educator and uncomfortable with much of the information I am trying to process.  After stepping away from my blog for a bit and then coming back to it, I feel as if I’m giving myself a pep-talk.  I realize how often I try to push my students outside of their comfort level and encourage them to meet the challenge head on.  I guess it’s time for me to do the same and live the words I speak.

In my initial reflection I spoke about being unsure and uncomfortable for the first time in years.  Although five weeks ago I would have said I hated feeling that way, in the end it was one of the best things to happen to me.  I’ve pushed myself (with a great deal of help from this course) in a direction I’ve been interested in taking for a while, but haven’t had the time, nor the opportunity to really explore.  And that’s what this has been for me, an exploration.  I’ve been challenged to stretch my own ideas about teaching literature and realize all the many other opportunities that are out there for me and my students rather than the methods I’ve been relying on the past few years.  I’ve learned a great deal about literature and myself and I look forward to the challenges ahead.  I have a feeling those feelings of insecurity and uncomfortableness will be back, but this time I’m going to revel in them because I know at the end I’ll have been pushed to be a better teacher.

Bookcasting – A wonderful way to “perform” literature #bookhenge

It makes sense that if we are going to encourage our students to experience literature then we need to find ways to allow them to interact with reading and meaning that go beyond simply reading the text.  Certainly, when thinking about multiple intelligences we need to try to create opportunities in which our students can learn with literature that incorporate linguistic intelligences, but also appeal to our visual, or kinesthetic/spatial, or musical learners with meaningful learning experiences.  The idea of “performing” literature taps into these types of opportunities.  Bookcasting is a wonderful way to “perform” literature.  I enjoyed the creative aspects of bookcasting and feel as if it is a way for readers to respond to literature that takes them beyond the traditional reader-response that is most often found in our classrooms.

The difficulty for me did not lie in the creating of the bookcast, but in my response to the novel Nothing, by Janne Teller.  The author provokes the reader by delving into the existential discussion of the meaning of life.  In an attempt to prove that life has meaning, the characters, a group of seventh graders, each are forced to give up that which is most meaningful to them.  The book ends in death, yet through this death the meaning in life is found for our main character.  It’s a dark book, but that wasn’t the problem for me.  The problem was, I didn’t have much of a reaction to the book.  I found myself engaging in one way existential debates as I was reading, but in the end it did not leave me with much of an emotional impact.  There were many ways I could take my bookcast, and the difficulty for me was choosing which way I wanted to go with my video.  Overall, the process was fun and it is certainly something I will continue to do with my students.

Here it is . . .

Back to the Beginning: What is Literary Quality in YAL? #bookhenge

So, our class began while I was still teaching.  I was in the middle of reviewing for my exam, grading, attending graduation, etc.; consequently, I pretty much missed almost all of our first session of this course.  Now that we’re at then end, I’m going back to the beginning to try to come up with some answers to the questions that began my journey in this class.  It began with the idea of literary quality.  What exactly, does literary quality look like particularly with regard to YA literature?

I began this course believing that the truly best books for young adults spoke to them in some way, and I still feel that way.  The question then becomes, what are the criteria for the way in which that book speaks to the reader?  I’ve found throughout this course and our original readings that this is something that is at the heart of almost every conversation about young adult literature.  As Marc Aronson states in his article, “Calling All Ye Printz and Printzesses,” there is a distinction between popularity and quality.  If we judge a book solely on its teen appeal, then who exactly are we speaking of?  Are we talking about a standard group of “average” teens who enjoy the book?   What about all the other teenager who don’t fall into that category?  Yes, teenagers often self-select when their lives begin to revolve around the group of friends they spend time with, but that does not mean that every person within that group is the same, therefore, they will all enjoy the same book.  When you think about it, the fact that there is so much diversity within the teenage population is truly wonderful, especially because so much of that time is spent for teens trying to be like everybody else.  So this brings us back to the idea of creating a criteria or definition for the best in Young Adult literature for such a diverse population.

One thing I like about the Printz award is the idea that there is a direct line between the Printz committee and teen readers.  I believe this speaks to what Aronson meant when he said, “if the best readers believe in a book, they will become its advocates to the second best, and so on”(114).  Listening to the group of teens speak about the 2011 Printz Award winners, there were some definite trends among the top contenders that many of the students noted as they supported their books.  For the most part, those books the students enjoyed the best were books that had a unique or different setting, such as the wasteland of Jon Maberry’s Rot and Ruin.  Often the narrative structure was different, using flashbacks instead of moving in chronological order.  There was an unpredictability to the book that the students found engaging.  Often, there was a moral dilemma, but this was not presented in a way that the students felt they were being preached to.  There was room for the student to engage with the text in an interesting way.  Sitting back, one has to wonder if these standards are so different from adult literature.  To me, the main difference between the two is the extent to which the teen can relate to the work.  There are certain things that, due to the nature of the time and experience, are unique to the growth we all experience in our teen years.  Great young adult literature, it seems, speaks to that time in such a way that those who are living it find in the novel a kind of kindred spirit.

With this in mind, I can certainly see the appeal of Jon Maberry’s Rot and Ruin.  Although I feel as if there’s much out there right now about a post-apocalyptic future, so the setting wasn’t terribly unique, the spin on the zombies was one that was intriguing and refreshing.  I agreed with one teen reader who during the video of the Melinda awards (http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/12780506#utm_campaign=synclickback&source=http://bookhenge2011.wikispaces.com/Session+1%2C+Topic+2+Activities&medium=12780506),  mentioned the new perspective given to us by Maberry.  I was also impressed by the perception of the romance between the protagonist, Benny, and his friend, Nix as one that is more mature and aids in the character’s growth.  In the work, it wasn’t the zombies who we should be afraid of.  In fact, through the novel they were the ones who we pitied, for they couldn’t help who they were.  Rather, the real understanding came through our knowledge about people,  about human nature and the capacity within people to be truly evil.  This was the real terror found in the novel.  Likewise, I could also see the appeal of a work such as Nothing by Janne Teller.  Somewhat darker in nature to me, where this book distinguished itself from others was in its unique narrative structure, the unpredictability of its story line, and, as one teen reviewer mentioned, it makes you think.  Of an existential philosophy, the search for meaning in life by a group of rising 8^th graders is one that I feel as if most teenagers can relate to.  I also appreciate the fact that it was read in translation, a good translation from what I can tell, and it is a sample of world literature from a Danish author.

In closing, what I like about the idea of an award for YA literature is that it puts a focus on teenagers and reading.  Just as we can do a quick search for a Newberry or Caldecott, or CSK award, we can do the same search for the Printz award which gives credibility to the importance of nurturing the interests of our teen readers.

Sources:

Aronson, Marc.  “Calling All Ye Printz and Printzesses.” The Exploding Myths. Lanham:  Maryland.  2001.  pp. 109-122.

 

My ALP Project Video – Teaching Empathy with Dave Eggers’ Zeitoun – #bookhenge

Can Empathy Be Taught?

For the multimedia part of my ALP I created an introductory video to show my students what they would be doing for the next few weeks.  I used Imovie to create the video and found it was relatively easy.  I had thought initially to include some videos from Youtube but had way too much fun creating the movie myself, so I included some links at the end.  Originally, I had a voice-over of myself listing some of the information that I wanted the kids to have but they found it distracting.  They said it was more powerful without me so I took my voice-over out and let the movie speak for itself.  I previewed the movie with a few of my former students.  They had all read Zeitoun but the unit was much less developed than my ALP, so I figured they would have some nice insights.  The overall reaction to the video was positive.  One of my students said he thought the music went well with the presentation.  A few students said they weren’t fast enough readers for the slides that had a lot of information but others said it was just fine.  All of the Multi-media project specifications will also be on our Moodle class website so this was not the only opportunity to have that information.  That made them feel better.  The other concern I had from one student was about the project itself.  She student said she loved the idea and was excited about seeing how she could help others, but it seemed unfair if some students were better than others with the technology.  So, when groups are formed that will certainly be something I will take into consideration.  Overall, it was a great reception from my students, although I did get the comment that it looked like a lot of work (as was expected).  I’m excited to try it out in my classroom this year!  I’ll let you know how it goes.

We Have a Responsibility to Be Bold in Education #bookhenge

I just completed a voicethread for our course regarding ideas of censorship, and I spent the majority of the time talking about my firm belief that schools should be a place where information about the world we live in can be discussed in a safe, intellectual way with the pursuit of knowledge as our primary goal.  I’ll put that voicethread at the end of this blog.  Likewise, I believe firmly that if something is happening in our world that we don’t like or we wish to change we have a responsibility as citizens to take action to make those changes.  The parents in Waukesha County, Wisconsin were well within their rights to challenge the inclusion of Stephen Chomsky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower in the curriculum of an 11th and 12th grade elective literature course.  They saw something happening that they didn’t like and they decided to take action.  It’s a perfect example of the type of experience I promote in my classroom.  There was an exchange of information that took place, although I would argue the school board meetings were not the “safe environment” I think is necessary for this kind of discussion, and in the end the best possible decision was made based on the information presented.  And to me that’s the key – “based on the information presented.”  How can we expect our students to make the best possible decisions if we restrict the kinds of information necessary to those decisions?  Children have a right to read.  As stated in the NCTE’s Guidelines on the Student’s Right to Read, “This right is based on an assumption that the educated possess judgment and understanding and can be trusted with the determination of their own actions.” It is our job to help educate them so that they can increase their understanding of the world.  Limiting access to information in no way furthers this education and will hinder the opportunity for growth and trust.  And to me, that’s the real danger of censorship.

And in case you’re interested, here’s the transcript to my voicethread:

If ever there was a time for educators to be bold, I think it’s now.  As a teacher I think that one of my top responsibilities is to aid my students in gleaning as much information as they can from the world and then giving them the skills they need to make the best possible decisions they can make to become happy and productive global citizens.  If I limit the information because it might be “too real” then I feel as if I’m doing them a grave disservice and not fulfilling my job as an educator.  The classroom needs to be a safe place for the exchange of information and ideas.  I believe strongly in what Justice Douglas stated in the Adler v. Board of Education case in 1951:  Where suspicion fills the air and holds scholars in line for fear of their jobs, there can be no exercise of the free intellect. . . . A problem can no longer be pursued with impunity to its edges. Fear stalks the classroom. The teacher is no longer a stimulant to adventurous thinking; she becomes instead a pipe line for safe and sound information. A deadening dogma takes the place of free inquiry. Instruction tends to become sterile; pursuit of knowledge is discouraged; discussion often leaves off where it should begin.  We need to be allowed to have the tough discussions with our students.  And I know it’s scary for parents.  It’s scary for me.  I worry about my two children every day – will they have a good day, will they be safe, will they be happy, will anybody be mean to them? I can’t imagine what those concerns will be once they hit middle school.  But I do them no favors by trying to shelter them from the reality of the world.  To me, literature is a perfect vehicle because it offers us a way to deal with reality through an indirect experience.  In my mind, I would much rather have the opportunity to process “life” with my students and my own children through a work of literature before they encounter those similar experiences on their own.  As a parent, I feel very much the same way as I do about teaching – I provide my children with a safe place to talk about whatever is on their mind.  I try to be honest and forthright, not sugar-coat things, but to try to allow them to see the world from as many different perspectives as a six and nine year old can.  My philosophy is similar with regards to my classroom.  I try to allow my students to see an issue from as many different viewpoints as possible and let them come to their own informed conclusions.  For there will be a day when our children will have to live their lives on their own, and I’d like to think that my students and my children will be ready for the challenges of life because they will have been taught to think critically about the world they live in and be confident in their knowledge and abilities.

Are we Post-Multicultural? The Value of Book Awards #bookhenge

I’ve always felt that there is a need for such awards as the Coretta Scott King and the Pura Belpre.  It seems to me that although the world is rapidly changing, there are certain institutions that move as slow as molasses.  Sometimes we need to give a bit of a push, and if progress means we need to take an indirect route, then so be it. Were we not to have awards such as these, how much longer would it take to recognize minority authors with our more mainstream awards?  My guess is it would take much longer than it needs to be.  I do feel as if having a place where minorities can look to find people of their own culture being recognized for their talent is an empowering opportunity, and hopefully an inspiration for future writers.  As a white female, it’s easy to find award-winners who are of my same ethnic background.  It shouldn’t be so difficult for others of African descent, or Asian, or Hispanic, or Middle-Eastern ethnicities, but it is.

Although I lean very much toward the sentiments professed by Andrea Davis Pinkney, in her essay, “Awards that Stand on Solid Ground,” I do think Marc Aronson has a point as well.  He speaks in his essay, “Slippery Slopes and Proliferating Prizes” of the criteria for the CSK and Belpre awards.  The problem, as he sees it, is that “if the award is from the community to the community, then it is up to the surrounding communities to decide if those experiences – which they are inherently excluded from completely understanding – are vitally important to them.  If the award celebrates, instead, individuals who delve deeply into aspects of human experience, no literate, aware reader can afford not to read the books”(6).  In some ways, Aronson speaks to the effort that a reader must make to consciously decide to delve into the lives and experiences of others in an attempt for understanding.  However, if a book speaks to the human condition, this is one that all can relate to; thus, the decision to read might be a bit more effortless.  Aronson goes on to assert that “Expanding the knowledge base of librarians and reviewers is where I think ALA should be turning its efforts”(7).  Maybe I’m just more cynical than Aronson, but I think the reality of the situation is that many people simply aren’t going to put in that effort.  Likewise, the focus on expanding knowledge, with the many other priorities in education that are out there, simply isn’t going to happen.  I think when Aronson makes the point, “Let those committees – who should have a deep knowledge of the cultures and literatures (as well as a knowledge of culture and literature) encompassed by the awards they are judging – struggle with judging a work strictly on its own merits, not its author bio”(10) he is, in my opinion, dismissing the craftsmanship and the quality with which any award winner is credited.  The CSK and Belpre do have criteria for the author, yet the work itself is also held up to the highest standards and should not be diminished by the ethnicity of its creator.   The fact remains, even in publishing we have yet to overcome the history of prejudice found in most of our capitalist institutions.  As Pinkney asserts, “These awards are a gateway to progress.  They provide a door for authors and illustrators into the world of children’s literature, a world that, despite its increasing diversity, still too often maintains a quiet indifference that is racism in its most subtle form”(12).  Therefore, if the CSK provides a “tool that works . . . an instrument, a vehicle, which makes things a bit better”(21) then there is something to be said for that.  I did like Aronson’s response and in principle I agree with him.  He talks of “history, where these categories have defined human lives, I think of principle, where the categories must be challenged”(21).  What he speaks to is a time when such issues as race, gender, etc. no longer factor in the world and the art speaks for itself.  The optimist in me agrees with the principle; however, the cynic in me would say that we are still a long way off from that day, and until that day comes we need to do what we can to promote multicultural literature in our stores and on our shelves.

My final thought regarding definitions of “the best” ends with the fact that there are no Best Books for Teens on the ALA site for Multicultural Literature.  In my opinion, this is a huge oversight.  As I mentioned earlier, we want to make finding a good piece of literature as effortless as we can and Best Book lists can do that.  Although the connection seems thin, while I was thinking about ideas for best books, I was struck by the article written by Bonnie Ericson for The Alan Review.  In her article she talks about the idea of the home and its importance within all cultures.  As she states, “Promoting the reading of books that look at homes in the lives of teenagers from many cultures can, therefore, be an important beginning in the exploration by young adult readers of what they have in common and how they differ.”  What Ericson is driving at, which is also an idea very dear to my heart is one way in which we can encourage empathy in the classroom.  Allowing students to see the similarities and differences between themselves and others in something that is profoundly important around the globe, and is a building block to teaching empathy to our readers.  Best Books classifications, particularly ones for Multicultural Literature can do a lot to promote that connection between reader and culture, and any time we allow our students to walk in a pair of very different shoes, we are doing what we can to promote that shared human experience that Aronson speaks to in his initial essay about awards based on ethnic criteria.

Sources:

Aronson, Marc.  Beyond the Pale:  New Essays for a New Era.  Oxford:  Scarecrow             Press.  Print.  2003

Ericson, Bonnie.  “At Home with Multicultural Adolescent Literature,”  The Alan             Review,  Vol. 23, Number 1, Fall 2005

Graphic Novel Group Project – Ghostopolis #bookhenge

Our group decided we’d try our hand at a reader-response using a graphic format – Toondo.  Here’s the link to mine:

http://www.toondoo.com/privateView.toon?param=TMju21eDL4fRNutmdkM9mZQPKXzfi%2FPvjAjE%2FvxkGHgHTm7Q4eul1Q%3D%3D

I hope the link works – you might have to cut and past.

My ALP Project – #bookhenge

Can Empathy Be Taught?

My ALP is based on the teaching of Zeitoun by Dave Eggers.  Eggers narrates the story based on the real-life experiences of one family living in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina –  Abdulrahman Zeitoun, his wife Kathy, and their children.  Eggers explores both the disaster that is Katrina as well as the civil rights disaster that ensued after the hurricane.  Through this novel I hope to engage the students in an evaluation of justice, discrimination, and government, as well as discuss what we feel is our social responsibility to our community and the world.

PRE-READING

In order to give a basic overview of the project I’ll be creating a five-minute introductory video to hopefully engage my students’ interests. (this will be what I submit to the course).  After the video we will head to the computer lab for further engagement activities:

The students will research two ideas and create a class fact-sheet that we can refer to during our reading –

• New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina – statistics, maps, facts, economic stability, racial issues, education, revenue – anything that might give students a picture of what it was like to live there – to be a resident of New Orleans before Katrina.

• Muslims in America- particularly in the South.  Personal accounts, statistics, places of worship, etc.   What do we know about Islam?  How do we feel about Muslims?  Where did those feelings come from? What do we want to know about Islam and what do we need to know about Islam?

DURING

While reading we will be engaged in reader-response journal entries made up of a variety of genres – letters, diary entries, newspaper articles, etc.

We will do what we can to put ourselves in the shoes of the Zeitoun family and understand what they went through utilizing guiding questions.  For example:

• What are the major differences between the Zeitoun family and other residents?
• What do we learn about Islam?
• What do we learn about the people of New Orleans?
• How do they respond to Zeitoun?
• What kinds of feelings do the people of New Orleans experience? (helplessness, abandonment, discrimination)
• Have you ever experienced any of those feelings?  Why?  What were the circumstances?  What was the outcome?
• What is the political situation in New Orleans?  How do you know this?  What kinds of reactions did you have to Zeitoun’s arrest?  Do you think it was fair?  Was it justified at all?  How does it make you feel?
• Were you in charge, what would you have done differently for the people of New Orleans?

AFTER

After reading Zeitoun I’m hoping that the students will have gained an understanding of the way in which many citizens of New Orleans, particularly those of low socio-economic classes, were treated.  The hope is that they are sitting on feelings of frustration and sadness.  Likewise, I’m hoping they will also have an additional perspective of the Muslim faith to counter much of the bias I anticipate they will be bringing into the classroom with them.  I’m hoping to capitalize on this by engaging the students in a project based on the essential question:

What are you going to do about it?

Project specs:

1. Research an area of the world that has been devastated due to a natural occurrence – hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, etc.
2. What is the greatest existing need for the people in that area?  Once you have figured out the need – housing, food, water, education, healthcare, etc., come up with a plan to satisfy that need.
3. You can dream big, or think grassroots, but you need to come up with an idea of how you are going to raise funds.  Are you going to have one huge fundraiser?  A bunch of little fundraisers?  Is it going to be an annual event?  Get as creative as you want.
4. Where is that money going?  How are you going to implement your organization?  Are you going to build something from the ground up?  Are you going to join with an existing organization?

We will have a week in the lab and all the technology that is available at school is at your fingertips.  Likewise, the technology department will be on hand to help us figure it out.  What if this was your chance to make a positive impact on someone else’s life?  What would you do?

In order to help inspire and empower the students I will show them examples of other student-led social organizations so that they can see for themselves that they truly have the power to make a positive impact in our world.

Lit. Review Lite – “Promoting Empathy to Inspire Action” #bookhenge

Critical Inquiry Question: How do we create empathy in our young adult readers and inspire them to action?

Recently, we read an article by Marc Aronson entitled, “How are Children Affected by the Books in Their Lives?” published in World Literature Today, May 2004. In this article he wonders about the impact literature has on a person’s beliefs. As educators, we’ve all been taught that the meaning a student makes from a work of literature is unique to the individual and is dependent on many other factors beyond what is simply written on the page. Students bring with them their own experiences, cultural histories, family dynamics, and more that informs the way in which they will respond to the printed page. So, how much can we impact the attitudes and beliefs of students through a fifty-minute class, five days a week for one hundred and eighty days a year? Although, apparently the budget the General Assembly just passed increases the school year from one hundred eighty days to one hundred eighty five eliminating the requirement of five teacher workdays including those that occur before school year and at the end of each grading period. We do know connections are made with the literature. In the article, “Why Sharing Stories Brings People Together” from Psychology Today, a new neurosciences study is examined to discover “why telling stores builds empathy and also why, when you tell a good one, people act as if they’re watching it unfold before them.” The article goes on to explain that studies show when a storyteller relates a story, the areas in the brain that light within the teller of the story are the same for the listener: “When the woman spoke English, the volunteers understood her story, and their brains synchronized. When she had activity in her insula, an emotional brain region, the listeners did too. When her frontal cortex lit up, so did theirs. By simply telling a story, the woman could plant ideas, thoughts and emotions into the listeners’ brains.” Thus, the implication is that “When you tell a story to a friend, you can transfer experiences directly to their brain. They feel what you feel. They empathize. What’s more, when communicating most effectively, you can get a group of people’s brains to synchronize their activity. As you relate someone’s desires through a story, they become the desires of the audience. When trouble develops, they gasp in unison, and when desires are fulfilled they smile together. . . For as long as you’ve got your audience’s attention, they are in your mind. When you hear a good story, you develop empathy with the teller because you experience the events for yourself. This makes sense. Stories should be powerful.” Building on this premise, what we’ve been saying as teachers of literature for years would seem to be validated – making connections through literature is essential to creating citizens of the world.

My question centers around the idea of empathy and whether or not we can create empathic students through our literature classes. Empathy is an important emotion that is different from sympathy in the sense that sympathy centers around compassion for another, feeling for another. Empathy, on the other hand is about compassion with another and feeling with another. With empathy there is an understanding of what the other is feeling, almost as if you are having those same experiences in your own life. This understanding seems to be key – if you can’t understand the emotions and experiences, then you can’t empathize; consequently, the goal for educators is to promote that understanding in our classrooms to foster the ability to empathize within our students. Thus, there is a need in our schools to focus on both the cognitive aspects of learning as well as the social/emotional needs of our students and to foster this thinking in the early years of education. As Susan W. Cress and Daniel T. Holm argue in their article, “Developing Empathy Through Children’s Literature,” ideas of empathy occur as a child is beginning to understand the difference between self and others and perspective. In the later years of childhood, “children become able to empathize not only with what happens in the present and in a person’s absence, but also with chronic problems of a person, a group of people, or society as a whole.” Basing ideas on the premise that “Through stories, children are able to bring meaning to their lives and make sense of their world,” (Cress and Holm), it can assumed, then, that literature can be used as a tool in our early-education classrooms to expose students to realistic situations, to facilitate connections, to evaluate values, and to discuss feelings and emotions relevant to the situation setting in place the tools for empathic thinking. Reinforcing the idea that empathy can be taught, Kristen Renwick Monroe, in a course she taught at UC Irvine in 2006, attempted to tackle issues of discrimination and prejudice through empathic involvement of her students in the effort that this would lead “to seeing the world through the eyes of the other,’ hoping that this process would increase understanding and tolerance of ‘differences’”(Monroe). Her course consisted of reading and writing, focusing initially on the evaluation of one’s own prejudices and an examination of a group that is largely discriminated against, the elderly. Through the analysis and reflection of her students, the lessons learned were that fear was often a driving force in discrimination as well as a lack of respect for one’s individuality and humanity and battling these forces require a desire to change. Empathy, as one student said, is the foundation for that change as she elaborated, “Would you like someone to clump you into a group and not see you as an individual? Would you want to be discriminated against, treated badly, not for anything you had done, but rather for things other people like you might have done?”(Monroe). What this student was getting at was the idea of putting yourself psychologically and emotionally into the shoes of others and making that personal connection – empathy.

Based on the assumption that empathy can, indeed, be taught in the classroom through literature, how then can we use this emotion to inspire our students to action? Using literature that highlight characters who overcome obstacles in order to achieve their goals is one way to do so. Exposing our readers to these stories and guiding them to make the connections to the ways in which the decisions the characters made were reached, evaluating the actions, and discussing the outcomes are all ways in which we can guide our students to ideas of empowerment. A final way in which we can empower our students is by asking the question, “Can you put yourself in the position of the character when he or she triumphs over the barriers?” As Louie and Louie assert in their article for the NCTE, “Empowerment Through Young Adult Literature,” that this question is important because “in order to be empowered by a literary work, students need to taste the glory of victory experienced by the characters. It is also important for them to think about what kind of winning principles they can apply in their lives.” In other, words, help those students create that empathic response.

Finally, there are examples of like-minded teachers out there who are using their classrooms to motivate their students to take action. I was inspired by Shelley Wright, a teacher in Saskatchewan, Canada, who invites her kids to immerse themselves into the problems of our times and asks them, “What are you going to do about it?” In her blog she explains, “I think empathy is one of the most important attributes for young people to develop. We need to cultivate in our students from a young age the gift of empathy; the power of understanding and imaginatively entering into another person’s feelings. And we need to act. In some way, every one of us on the globe does.” (http://plpnetwork.com/2011/05/23/the-power-of-the-connected-classroom-why-and-how-im-teaching-social-justice/). Her willingness to discover, with her students, what the meaning of justice is and encourage them to fight for it in their own lives is the type of inspiration that I do believe we can offer our students in the classroom. Asking the essential question of our students: What are you going to do about it? and providing them with the tools and knowledge to empower them to seek ways to figure out the world on their own is the type of learning I want to promote in my classroom.

Addendum:  How my Lit. Review Lite informs my ALP

When developing my ALP I took some time to reflect on what Marc Aronson had to say about a reader’s response to literature.  He states, “No literate person who has taken college or graduate courses in the humanities in America in the last twenty years can possibly believe that words on a page directly shape, or even predict, a reader’s response.” If this were true, then my whole idea of teaching empathy was simply a shot in the dark.  No, we can’t predict a reader’s response, but not even help shape their reactions?  If a reader were left up to their own devices, I would agree with Aronson; however, in a classroom where we can provide for an exchange of ideas and process information with them I do think we can help shape our students’ responses.  If, through the literature, we can guide them into the shoes of the characters, or into the problems the protagonist might face, then we have a real chance in building empathy.  I was emboldened by the ideas of Cress and Holm as they discussed the emergence of empathy in children.  If empathy occurs naturally in children, then there should be ways we can promote this feeling as adults.  Likewise, the article in Psychology Today helped to reinforce this by discussing the neurological response between the storyteller and the listener.  Finally, the words of Cress and Holm drove the idea home when they spoke of the fact that children learn to make meaning in their lives through stories.  With this being the case, then through stories we should be able to promote the development of creating empathic meaning with our students.  With all this in mind, the question of how best to teach empathy became the central idea for my ALP.

Sources:

1. Aronson, Marc.  “How Are Our Children Affected By the Books in Their Lives?”  World Literature Today.  May, 2004.
2. Cress, Susan W. and Holm, Daniel T., “Developing Empathy Through Children’s Literature,” Indiana University, South Bend.
3. Gowin, Joshua.  “Why Sharing Stories Brings People Together | Psychology Today,” http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/you-illuminated/201106/why-sharing-stories-brings-people-together.
4. Louie, Belinda Y. and Louie, Douglas H., “Empowerment through Young-Adult Literature.” JSTOR: The English Journal, Vol. 81, No. 4 (Apr., 1992), pp. 53-56   http://www.jstor.org.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/sici?sici=0013-8274%281992.
5. Monroe, Kristen Renwick. “Can Empathy Be Taught?,” Academe 92, no. 4 (July 1, 2006): 58-63.
6. Wright, Shelley.  “The Power of the Connected Classroom: Why and How I’m Teaching Social Justice | Powerful Learning Practice,” http://www.diigo.com/annotated/14484400d56a9263e08091515fc76c9f.

“Just How Radical is the Radical Change Theory in Literature?” #bookhenge

I like to think I’m open to radical change.  I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of “nontraditional” form, whether it’s in poetry or prose.  Toni Morrison’s blending of the voices of Denver, Sethe and Beloved as their three souls seem to merge into one voice is a challenging, yet beautiful section of her novel Beloved.  Recognizing the use of form in e.e. cummings poem “l(a” only adds to the beauty of the meaning of solitude.  So I was all set to enjoy “Skeleton Sky”:  A Millenium Poem by Carolyn Guertin (http://beehive.temporalimage.com/archive/25arc.html).  I have to say, it was a challenge.  I found myself reading each page as an individual poem rather than connecting them all together; however, each page drew a fairly consistent emotional reaction from me except for one.  I found the poem to be extremely melancholy as I read of how the author would “shake my head/ nothing moves/ nothing works/ even as I rise,” or, in another section how she would speak of how her deadness “ignites,” or even the “circle of days vortex of years swirl of starry waters.”  Although, in the midst of the melancholy there was one page that seemed to be different from the others, and on this page we discovered the girl with “her face young with the power of living.”  From this contrast I derived my meaning from the poem of the dualities of life – young and old, life and death, movement and inaction.  It was certainly an interactive experience, and although it was difficult to carry my thinking from one click to the next, I enjoyed the emotional response it garnered from me.

Eliza Dresang promotes her Radical Change theory in her book, Radical Change Revisited:  Dynamic Digital Age Books for Youth.  She defines this theory as:  “Radical Change means fundamental change, departing from the usual or traditional in literature for youth, although still related to it”(5).  This idea of change in literature is not new.  In fact, I enjoyed reading the list of literature that, although not produced in the digital age, signified a fundamental literary shift for that time period.  In fact, it would seem to me that literature, in particular, is susceptible to change as it is a reflection of the time in which it is produced.  Thus, as Dresang asserts, “the types of literary changes identified by Radical Change ultimately depend on the creativity of authors and illustrators and their understanding of how to provide intellectual and emotional access for youth, exhibiting these traits has always existed”(38).  Thus, what has changed with digital-age books is the prevalence of technology in our young adult lives.  As Nicholas Negroponte is quoted as saying that “‘computing is not about computers any more.  It is about living’. . . . All forms of information – voice, video, and data – have begun to move around not in linear streams, as with previous media, but rather in bits that are nonsequential and reaarangeable”(11).  This is the pattern in which our students are reading and processing information, thus, the Digital Age books are a reflection of this time.  It seems to me that the qualifications for good literature remain the same regardless of what type of story one is reading.  The plot needs to move purposefully, authentic characterization is conveyed, the point of view is consistent and appropriate to the purpose of the work, the setting is not overly detailed, yet specific enough, the style is creative and not distracting, and the theme is universal.  These are all elements of literature that have been taught in the classroom for years, and although the form may change, just because we are dealing with books for a media-savvy audience does not mean our literary standards get thrown out the window.  Just as handheld books have a place in our lives, for they offer “young readers time to explore the thoughts, feelings, and various possible reactions of youth like themselves, . . . It does not suggest competition between books and digital media, but partnership”(13), so too must we adapt to the new principles of processing information that are recognized as valid tools for our students of the Net Generation.  These principles of “Connectivity, interactivity, and access are principles of the digital world.  They permeate the culture of childhood.  Children act and react in remarkable ways”(268).  With this in mind, the task ahead for educators as well as publishers is to understand the value of these three principles and find ways to validate and incorporate them into the learning experience.

Again, I  can’t leave without a kind of P.S.  I wasn’t sure how to incorporate this into the body of my blog, but it’s too good not to mention.  I absolutely loved the quotation that Dresang highlighted of David Macauley’s Caldecott acceptance speech in the opening to her work, and it prompted me to read his whole speech.  In case, you’re interested, it’s located at http://bit.ly/lqkwl5.  The part I liked, and is included in Dresang’s work are the lines in which he talks about the Caldecott honor going to him.  He says, “It tells readers, especially young ones, that it is essential to see, not merely to look; that words and pictures can support each other; that it isn’t necessary to think in a straight line to make sense; and finally, that risk can be rewarded.”  Words that I know I will display with prominence in my classroom next year.