The use of visualization to read aloud poetry

One of the most challenging, yet rewarding, reading activities is visualizing poetic meanings that involve negotiating meanings between two languages. Gayle is an English poet and she recruited me an ASL poet because she knew I enjoyed ASL poetry as a hobby. She spearheaded her project for Oregon School for the Deaf (OSD) as the first school for the Deaf to participate in national-wide Poetry Out Loud contest.

Participating students worked with Galye to analyze the shades of meaning with their selected poems and they worked with me to visualize these poetic meanings in ASL. It was not a simple task for each student. First, a student must visualize and interpret meanings in English. Then, she/he must interpret these meanings in ASL. Gayle and I faced the tremendous challenge of helping students to visualize and interpret in both languages and these students often worked back forth between us at least four times before each student finally could retain the original poet's voice with the final ASL expression.

Usually, Gayle relied on my intuitive hunches to evaluate their uses of ASL to visualize the English meanings. Poems expressed in ASL may look nice in appearance for others, but I often coached these students to explore a range of nuanced meanings through subtle movements and facial expressions so they can create the appropriate moods for the speakers of the poems. When they experience the moods through signing, I ask them to re-read their poems again. At this point they discover the speakers’ voices coming alive through their own words. The speakers’ moods finally flow through their ASL expressions. Then, they were ready to express poetry out loud on the stage.

Tiffany Hill was one such student who worked constantly until she fully understood the poem she chose for the poetry contest. Her visualization in ASL perfectly matched the mood and the implied meanings of the poem in the English form. Gayle and I decided that she was ready but we didn’t expect her to win state championship for Oregon Poetry Out Loud. She was the first Deaf contestant to participate in national Poetry Out Loud contest and she has become an inspiration for other Deaf students.

Gayle and I were thrilled to see the positive experience for her and our school. Based on this experience, visualization turns out to be a natural, inherent reading process for any Deaf student, as long as there is a dedicated support to facilitate it.

A student's perspective on Twilight

Last year, my high school female senior wrote a term paper on Twilight. I often asked why is it so appealing to adolescents and she decided to share her perspective. She mentioned two things: use of gothic elements and realism. She claimed that the author created realistic scenarios of teenagers interacting in certain locations such as high school classroom, parking lot, etc., and she could relate to Bella as a teenager that shared similar longing to feel belonged. She enjoyed getting to know her more. Since she already has an impression that Twilight is a tale of vampires, she enjoyed the dramatic irony that Bella initially wasn’t aware that she was attracted to a vampire.

Actually, she didn’t really like any gory vampire tale, darkened with sinister atmosphere. She said that she enjoyed mild gothic elements in the beginning so she could be more drawn to Bella’s tale of romantic longings. She mentioned, ‘less blood and gore’ and she appreciated how the author modified traditional vampire characteristics. Instead of a vampire sleeping in coffin during the daytime and hunting for human blood nightly, she created Edward a vampire that can subsist on animal blood and interact peacefully with humans.

Based on her comments, I think the author succeeds creating internal consistency - new rules for my student to adopt and follow along throughout the novel. She enjoyed reading Bella's star-crossed romance with a high school vampire as if the Romeo & Juliet tale is retold within the fantasy genre.

A chat with a history teacher

We had an interesting chat about supporting our struggling readers in content classrooms. Last week I mentioned using picture books for older adolescents. This afternoon, she showed me some picture books she just bought. I was surprised how quickly she acted on the suggestion that she could use picture books for cross-curriculum reading, especially with text-to-text reading activities that can develop her students’ higher level thinking skills.

By the way, I shared my concern that Accelerated Reader program may have these titles listed and the quizzes, in this program, tend to evaluate on knowledge recall. These students cannot just read independently and take computer quizzes; they need modeling opportunities to practice their thinking skills. I described Pam Cole’s questioning techniques and the use of graphic organizers to help with clarifying meaning with text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections. Also, I mentioned some questioning techniques. When she appreciates that I teach literature as a content course, she shares a common perspective: We don’t just teach subjects but students with literacy needs.

Pam Cole’s integrated content/reading instruction model encourages me to get out of my box as a reading teacher and explore a history teacher’s vantage viewpoint on user-friendly instructional approaches. By working together, we will be able to model these approaches with other teachers. I believe Pam Cole is suggesting these constructive approaches for us to supplement the lack of teaching preparation for secondary teachers to deal with the struggling readers. She inspires us to move in this direction.

-RJ

Karen Cushman's "The Midwife's Apprentice"

Karen Cushman’s The Midwife’s Apprentice was on my classroom shelf for quite a time. Other books attracted my attention until I saw The Midwife’s Apprentice listed as a historical fiction in Pam Cole’s textbook. The book cover illustration of a young woman and a cat didn’t work well to pique my curiosity but I urged myself to consider its merit as a Newberry Medal literary work.

The young female character begins her life as a filthy, dirt-poor orphan in medieval England. An experienced midwife exploits her as an apprentice, rewarded only with meager meals and dismal accommodations. Someone mistakes her as Alyce and she adopts this name so she can overcome anonymity and build a reputation as a midwife. When she fails to deliver a baby, she runs away. However, she doesn’t want to relegate into a mere existence of a homeless beggar. She has an unexpected opportunity to deliver a baby at a local tavern and she triumphantly returns to work as a successful midwife.

At first, the plot seems simple, not as exciting as other novels. I think Karen intends her novel as a character study of a commoner. Typically, a medieval story features a prince charming, and commoners are just static characters that create a historical backdrop. The Midwife's Apprentice takes a reader into a different direction. Alyce is featured as a plain commoner, but with a human heart. Following Alyce through the novel becomes a journey into a past to appreciate a plain commoner as a human being seeking avenues for better living conditions. The reading ends with some respect for such a gentle character that represents an unsung heroine in the medieval world.

-RJ

My visit to the Border’s book store was an eye-opening experience. I have my new shopping list:

Wabi Sabi represents an age-old Japanese worldview. The intricate paper-cut artwork speaks for itself: the Japanese concept of beauty. In this picture book, Wabi Sabi is personified as a cat, seeking to discover the true meaning of her name. Along the way, a variety of surroundings reveals more about herself. While children may be delighted with a simple tale with an adorable cat character, themes of simplicity and beauty within the world of impermanence and imperfections are complex enough for older readers. The publisher’s web site comes with an educator’s guide.

This picture book illustrates a story of a boy who posed questions about his life. Through different situations, he discovers answers to: What is the best time to do things?…Who is the most important one?…What is the right thing to do? After reading the story, adolescents can start discussing these questions even if the character in this book may be just few years younger. These life questions are still significant for any ages. Also, the watercolor artwork is quite exquisite, not too childlike.

Leo Tolstoy is the original author of the short story, “The Three Questions,” and it makes a nice introduction to his other literary works.

DiTerlizzi created beautiful representations of Mary Howitt’s famous poem: “The Spider and the Fly.” The black-white artwork nicely complements with its dark tale. Although DiTerlizzi uses cinematic illustrations to achieve its childlike appeal, it is meaningful for older readers because they can interpret DiTerlizzi’s fly as a metaphor to their real life human experiences, especially vanity, flattery and the danger of date-rape.

I haven’t used these books with my students but I definitely will add them to my classroom library. J