10 MINUTES on the INTERNET: LESSON GOLD!

I am in the middle of finals, so I cannot post anything lengthy right now. But I cannot let this go by: the perfect rhetoric lesson is playing out on the net this spring with the publication of Eli Pariser's FILTER BUBBLE. We talked about the Filter Bubble as they worked on their digital dossiers two weeks ago. Next fall, we can start with this:

First my students can watch Pariser's TED talk introducing the filter bubble:
TED talk Eli Pariser

Next, we will read his OpEd piece in the NYT to compare written vs spoken rhetoric: OpED 5.23.11

I just found Snarkmarket's analysis of the OpEd piece today: Tim Carmody of Snarkmarket on the Filter Bubble.  We'll probably take a look at Snarkmarket's style as well while we're there.

Moving through my Google Reader feeds, I happened upon this Sociological Images post on Google Maps and the disappearing Native American Reservations: SocImages

10 minutes on the Internet, and I've got a great lesson plan and  a great issue to discuss. Can't wait.

MY JUNIOR ROMANTICS ROCK

   Just finished reading my BritLit Romantic poetry tests. I hesitate to call it a test, because really they wrote about Romantic poetry. I am so delighted by what happened. For instance, one of the prompts asked them to choose a poem which exemplified the iconoclastic tendencies of the Romantics and explain their choice. So many chose poems I never would not have chosen, but they really convinced me. What makes me smile the biggest? Almost every single essay showed a strong point of view and followed through. Great unit, great kids: this bodes well for 4th quarter British folklore/myth/legend research essays.
   This year I focused on the link between the poetic devices and the feeling/idea the poet wanted to convey. If we could not connect the strategy to the ultimate purpose, we ignored it. The farther we got, the less they wanted to let a device go: so their poetry illuminations were great, the blog posts were authentic, and they had the tools to argue their personal choices. And they wrote concise, sharp essays. I hope they feel as good as I do about it.

HOW TO GET AN "A" FROM ME

We are hitting the home stretch on our research essays in my World Lit classes. It is a long haul for my seniors, writing that 4th research masterpiece in as many years. They drag their feet, hoping against hope that I will tell them what to do: and I do, really. We discuss the process, plan deadlines together and then even research for a couple of days in the Tech Lab. But it always seems that it comes down to at least half of the class attempting to write a significant essay overnight. So this is my first attempt at voicing what leads up to an A paper.

So how do you get an "A" from me?


THE BASICS:
Pass it in on time.
Do the easy stuff right--MLA, cite your sources appropriately, include the pieces I request    in your final submission, follow directions on the original assignment sheet.
Don't distract me with typos, mechanical errors, format inconsistencies.

THE REAL DEAL:
Write me a real essay: so what did you really think about everything you have learned about your topic? Think before you write. Please.
You have a job to do: Use that thesis to guide your writing.
Aim for full paragraphs with authentic topic sentences, illustrate through example, use your resources in a logical fashion. Mostly I want to hear what YOU think, not what your sources told you.
Strategize your writing. Give me some variety in your paragraphing and sentence structure, try to interest me. Will I want to read what's next?
Don't worry about how many paragraphs it is. Worry about telling me the story of your topic.

ICING ON THE CAKE:
Consider me, the reader. In a better world,  I would not be the only reader, but for now, regard your essay as communication. The words are not flying aimlessly into the ozone, they are flying to me. Will I want to read it?
Catch my interest. Set me up in the intro. Vie for my attention.

I'm sorry that this is not a concrete list of  the steps to writing nirvana. It is not even close to my own best writing when I am inspired. But remember, you have never written a more informed, sophisticated piece of prose. You have been doing the school thing for 12 years: you are in charge.

High School juniors 1, Coleridge 0

photo © 2010 Stephanie | more info (via: Wylio)
Some days, you just have to go where they lead you, and you cross your fingers that it is a road that leads them to identify your purpose with theirs. As part of the British Romantics unit, I'm teaching "Kubla Khan" this year, trying to make up lost snow time by skipping the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." One of the pitfalls of "Kubla Khan" is that they don't always get how exotic the poem is, that eating honeydew and listening to an Ethiopian play a dulcimer would not have been in the realm of Coleridge's experience when he wrote the poem. They, of course, don't think it is all that big a deal. And then there is the inevitable fixation on Coleridge's opium habit. If you are not careful, the discussion can wind its way to heroin production in Afghanistan--and they tried it today.
But then magic time started when one student protested that she did not know what was going on in the poem, that yeah the imagery was great, but nothing happened in the poem fragment. And suddenly there was a poll on the whiteboard to judge whether it was a bad, good or great poem.  "Good" won. The discussion moved to each person's criteria for judging the poem, and most of those who voted "good" decided the vivid imagery made it good, but it could not be great because it was only a fragment. They felt the poet's purpose was missing, and therefore, the reader's satisfaction would be limited. The person who hated it said it made no sense. We all had to agree to that one too. And finally, I asked, should this poem even be in the book at all? And they answered pragmatically, as only teens can: only if it means we get to skip the longer poem. They crack me up! Have a great weekend.

So Was Blogging to the World Her Only Option?

The controversy over the Pennsylvania teacher blogging about her students this week has unfortunately highlighted a weak minority in the teaching profession. I am not sure this should even be a controversy--this teacher represents a group of people who will probably quit teaching because the stresses soon outweigh the rewards. Teaching is not a job for the faint of heart: it is never easy if done well. It is exhilarating when it works.  And I feel almost as strongly for my students some days as I do about my own children. I belong to them; I serve them. I wish that teaching programs made this clear, that it is is not a 9-month year, that if you do it right, your reflection is daily and the new creative approaches happen in the summer when you have had time to digest the wins and losses. The missteps always become clear right away, but it is sometimes the middle of July before I see what worked and the seeds of the best year ever in those little victories.

So this teacher who felt the frustrations of teaching so keenly and exhibited such poor judgment handling that stress wrote of her emotional defeat instead of the myriad of other choices she could have made. She could have made her blog private. She could have looked for another school. She could have changed careers. For the perception that she and I are the same, I am angry. She did not speak for me. I am a professional teacher, but more important, I have a vocation to teach.
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/02/16/technology-us-teacher-suspended-blog_8310984.html
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=7961932

TEACHING IS A CONTACT SPORT

  I have been quiet on Twitter the past three weeks, have only skimmed my Reader files, stopped most posting to my delicious and diigo accounts, even forgot to check facebook (!) One week of that was vacation, so I was doing much more interesting stuff, but for the other two weeks I needed the noise in my head to go away as I hold my breath before school starts. And I am about to write a post for me,  without bullitts and and way too long.
  I don't know a teacher anywhere who doesn't hold his/her breath in those last days before the onslaught: I live inside my head more than most people (my family tells me so), so once school starts, I will spend some of the next nine months missing the time to think, savor, reflect, READ, make connections, explore any flights of fantasy that appear as I tackle each new text for the umpteenth time, and generally, let my abstract random learning style take my mind where it wants to go without considering the practical aspects of the time I am spending on non-school work. I am not going to write a book that will make it all clear for every single teacher who ever walks into a classroom. Don't want to.  Can't: it has become clear to me that it will take my whole career for me to develop the wisdom to teach anyone other than my students. And though this is certainly not the attitude I "should" have in this collaborative learning age: I know things my students need to know.
   For all of history, learned people have passed knowledge to the young. Methods have differed, but there it is. I have read anything I could get my hands on for 45 years, and this experience makes me invaluable to the kids I am about to meet. My enthusiasm for what I do makes me invaluable. We had a good laugh during one class last year, when someone asked if I slept. Surprised, I said "well, yeah, but not much--I can sleep when I'm dead." (They did not get the Warren Zevon allusion. Point to Healigan) They all laughed uproariously, and I realized that they wanted to know how I taught them, had three teens of my own, read books they would never read, stood at the movie theatre in line for both movies they wanted to see and the boring old stuff, liked both the Roots and Mozart, cared about punk art and knitted two of the hangings on my wall, noticed the weather change before they even saw it in the window, watched TV (though they do understand my lack of interest in Jersey Shore) and played video games, went to church every Sunday but admired Islam, etc. We stopped for a minute and I reminded them not to believe everything they saw on TV: regardless of the fact that I was getting older and I was living with wrinkles (horrors) and had to color my hair (toss of the head), the truth was, experience and age made people smarter, and THAT feels good. Class got more interesting for all of us after that. Sometimes kids just want to, need to, listen.
   SO.....though I have spent much of the summer getting great new ideas and techniques from my PLN on twitter and the EC Ning and a Way to Teach, and practicing how to manage a social life on the internet (not too good at it. Still a fan of face to face), I'm done now. Teaching is a contact sport, and summer is for reflection, but September is for playing the game.
   Now is for realizing
 1) what can really be accomplished in the next nine months, and
 2) the power that my particular school environment will have on what I can do with my
    new group of personalities,
 3) it does not have to be new to work, and
 4) we all have to have fun AND work hard. Oh, and that as of September, I will have to  
     avoid mixing my metaphors.
  The best part is that I concentrate on them day to day, that the roller coaster ride that is teaching teens just has to be enjoyed. It is a Zen thing: be in the moment, Leslie. Be mindful of this second and love it, no matter what happens.

Teens and Music...could I make that Teens and Books?

Since my last post about movies and kids, I  found this blog post about the style rookie's obsession with Hole. Hole is (was?) Courtney Love's band. I'm not a huge fan, but the style rookie is,  and that is what is important. Style Rookie is a blog written by Tavi, a 14 year old girl obsessed by fashion and in possession of unique talent and aptitude for fashion-and self analysis. I read it for fun--and it is fun, ranging from complaints directed at Seventeen's addiction to appearance, to explaining her love of certain music, to her favorite shoes (miu mius at present), etc. Tavi's videos and photos show real talent.  But this post is about the power that music wields over all of us, all our lives. It starts before we realize it, but I became aware of its influence at about Tavi's age. We all laid on our beds for days listening to whatever touched our hearts, unconcerned that our parents could hear it too. It never occurred to me that my mom might learn something about me that I did not want her to know. I don't think she did, because she was mostly upset at how loud it was. She did protest "Dead Babies" by Alice Cooper, so I played it louder. I would have tortured her with "Cop Killer" if I was a little younger.

So...knowing all that, I felt tears rise in my throat reading her recent post about Hole and getting through 8th grade. For me,  it was a mixture of Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin, and Simon & Garfunkel. OK, that was embarrassing, but true. I swore that I would have "Bridge Over Troubled Water" played at my wedding because it was so romantic. Even my best friend asked, really (little dark)?  By the time I did get married, I was much more likely to play Bowie, Talking Heads or the Tubes, but that is another story. "I'm 18, and I don't know what I want...I've got a baby's brain and an old man's heart" explained exactly how I felt then, and for Tavi it is Hole:
At some point during the second half of 8th grade, I became sadder and angrier; to this I do not credit teenagerdom, or angst or any hormonal whatever, just learning, and not the kind that I was supposed to be getting from school. This is when it became necessary for me to talk my way into the computer room during art class to listen to “Northern Star” instead of researching whatever I said I would research and to bring my cassette player to gym class so I could silently confide in Live Through This...

So I want to remember Tavi's post when the school year begins, and they walk in with a song in their head, sure that what I have to show them could never deserve their time or attention. It does, but it will be competing with some important "teenagerdom" muses........

BOONDOCK SAINTS VS BEOWULF

As I prepare to start a new year with Beowulf as my headliner, I  am struck my some of  the incongruous ideas that my students and I will share regarding heroes. Beowulf can be a hard sell in 2010, but I usually manage to make them remember it. They will agree that many of the ideas they hold about true heroes probably do come from this 1500-year-old adventure story, without much change once it was written down.  But does Beowulf still represent any kind of hero they would recognize today?

Many of my male students are great fans of the 1999 cult movie BOONDOCK SAINTS. I must admit, it has a certain appeal for me as well.  The heroes are Boston twins who decide that the justice system--nor their religion-- cannot handle the sins of the truly evil anymore, and God tells them to handle it themselves. At the end of the movie, the twin "saints" invade the courtroom where a mafia boss is about to be acquitted of his crimes and take justice into their own hands-violently and irrevocably earning the title "boondock saints" in the neighborhood. This is their pronouncement as they prepare to kill the defendant:

"Now you will receive us.

We do not ask for your poor or your hungry. We do not want your tired and sick. It is your corrupt we claim. It is your evil that will be sought by us. With every breath, we shall hunt them down. Each day we will spill their blood til it rains down from the skies.

Do not kill, do not rape, do not steal, these are principles which every man of every faith can embrace. These are not polite suggestions — these are codes of behavior. And those of you that ignore them will pay the dearest cost.

There are varying degrees of evil, we urge you lesser forms of filth not to push the bounds and cross over into true corruption, into our domain. But if you do, one day you will look behind you and you will see we three and on that day you will reap it. And we will send you to which ever god you wish.

And shepherds we shall be, for thee my Lord for thee, power hath descended forth from thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out thy command. We shall flow a river forth to thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti."

These sound like the words of righteous men, but are they? Our children have grown up in an American world in which it probably seems that  justice is not often served--the unethical practices of Wall Street, dueling political parties who deal in the lowest common denominator when serving their constituents, religious leaders who have betrayed, hurt those they are meant to protect, ridiculous people becoming famous celebrities while true heroes struggle in anonymity, school bullies implementing new, more humiliating ways to denigrate the innocent--so it is no wonder that this kind of  "saint" becomes heroic.

 Sometimes it feels as though I am swimming upstream all day long, just to stay in place, with my discussions of good vs evil or blog prompts that attempt to connect their lives with the novels and poetry we read. And then I wonder if the Boondock Saints have just returned the justice system to its Anglo-Saxon days, where the evil are destroyed.
http://homepage.mac.com/mseffie/assignments/beowulf/beowulf.html

THE QUEST FOR THE PERFECT COLLEGE ESSAY: SENIORS 2010

I wrote the following post last August as I planned for a senior class which blended Honors Seniors and AP level seniors. The AP level seniors elected not to take AP Lit, so they came to me. I figured that if they were willing to do a little extra work (1 mini project a quarter), then they deserved the extra quality points. We would design how that happened as we went along.

 Unfortunately, I was taught by their unremitting insistence upon resting on their AP laurels that sometimes things do not go as expected.  I dragged them kicking and screaming through some innovative (my judgment) mini projects that I will assign to my Honors students this year, because they could have been fun.  But one project will remain the same--the college essay. I had been reviewing college essays from first semester seniors since I began teaching at my school, and was always upset at the gap between what I knew about the students and how little of that showed up in their college essays. Having AP students in my class last year, I decided that there was an opportunity to use their superior writing skills to lead the entire class to a superior group of essays sure to make all of my kids make it to the top of the pile in the Admissions offices of their chosen colleges.

To no one's surprise but my own,  the best essays came from the students who were not afraid to think about themselves and their futures "outside the box."  We listened to a few of  NPR's This I Believe segments, and used that prompt as a way to start. The higher level students had a tough time letting go of their As being the defining trait of their personalities, but we got through it. This I Believe confounded most of them at the beginning.  It is, to an extent, about how well you did in school, but the best essays came from the interesting kids, no matter the level.

And my only job in this assignment? I told them to write about themselves and what THEY judged to be most significant about their experiences. I told them: Write about yourself, remembering what you believe. This year, we will be sharing our essays with each other, after the trauma of college admissions letters arriving February through April. Revisiting their September essays in April will be a good exercise in self-reflection: another critical skill for a successful adult. 

From August 2009:

 First essay this year is going to be the college essay: I review so many that are BAD, and it happens primarily because they do not know what to write about themselves. I think I will start by having them make a shortlist of the most important ideas in life. They can all tell me what they want to OWN in 10 years, or what they want to be DRIVING, or what JOB they should score, but few of them are able to identify what lies at their own core--maybe I should do a kind of "this I believe" (NPR)thing--they could podcast it, and then they could create an essay from that--the podcast will eliminate some of the conversational smoke they all blow in the written version. Now I have to come up with some models.

UPDATE February 2011: This project went great this year: different kids, different experience. I have the privilege of teaching 10 AP level seniors which includes an Asian and a Hispanic student, two musicians and two artists in addition to my more "traditionally" gifted students. (this is pretty diverse in a religious school.) Wow.  What a difference a year makes. They each made a personal blog, and they keep me honest. And we are all having fun and learning.

see high school bits

CAUTION: smoking brain!

   I have reached the portion of the year in which I question my skills, my purpose and my expectations. Third quarter is always tough, especially in British Literature (juniors). They have learned my tricks, as I have learned theirs, and it becomes difficult to engage those who resist it on principle. Frankenstein, so full of ideas and feeling, so modern, leaves some of them COLD. I always remember at this juncture advice from an old boss in another career long ago: she told me that my enthusiasm intimidated others, that toning it down a bit would earn me the good will of my team mates. Was this an awful thing to say to a 24-year-old out to change the world? Sure. But... was there some truth in it? Absolutely. My enthusiasm for my subject can be tiring, and I need to refocus on my kids.
   Here's what I have noticed during this Frankenstein cycle. Since many of them have not read on their own since middle school, they seem unable to recognize plot, characterization, metaphor, and themes of classic works or even contemporary adult novels. I have noticed that some are no longer doing my "Readers Write" extra credit projects for each quarter. I generally offer a short list of novels as extra credit opportunities each quarter. So for British Lit, they could read and review The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh or The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett, or even a William Monk mystery by Anne Perry. Should I be backing off to young adult books--maybe just for extra credit choices? I do not want to, but need to work through my purpose in offering extra credit projects--to spark reading. To be fair (to me), those who do participate usually like the book they choose. But they are a tiny group, this year.
   This generation of students is so isolated from general knowledge in some ways--for some kids in my parochial high school, their parents make enough to buy them cars, but don't have the time to teach them how to change a tire (really!). They can buy fundraiser T-shirts for $20, but can't do their own wash. They know all about the opposite sex, but little about themselves.  Does this mean that this most technologically savvy, worldly generation of American teens is actually not mature enough to handle adult themes, though they partake of adult behavior?????????? I won't really give up treating them as if they are ready for my content, but the nagging question of whether or not I serve them as they need to be served will not go away. I think there is smoke coming out of my ears!