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

Survey: "A Long Way Gone"

The survey revealed A Long Way Gone as the most popular book. Avid readers already mentioned Twilight and Harry Potter and few others. However, reluctant readers only mentioned just this one book. These are students who wouldn’t bother going to any library or bookstore. I knew them very well but I underestimated the effect of a ‘right’ book. I thought some of these students were not willing to view themselves as readers and some of them often already explicitly expressed, “I don’t like reading.”

My classroom is filled with books left behind by a former Language Arts teacher. I left Gallaudet University for a high school teaching position and I wasn’t really paying attention to the idea of ‘young adult literature.’ Too many of my classroom books have adult protagonists.

I bought Speak, written by Laurie Halse Anderson because I wanted to start a collection of young adult literature for my classroom. My older sister, also a reluctant reader, stopped by for a visit and saw this book on the kitchen table. I watched and waited for few minutes because she normally will quit reading after a page or two. However, she continued reading and made some positive comments. She asked if she could borrow and read it. I was so thrilled to see such a quality selection that has appealed her.

I am beginning to understand how my students would respond better with adolescent protagonists. I started exploring some similar selections that they would want to respond, There’s one interesting website Penguin dedicated for young adults: http://www.pointofviewbooks.com/.

I reviewed the questioning technique in the textbook and I decided to modify my questioning approach. Since these reluctant readers often struggle with comprehension breakdowns, I often posed questions to check comprehension. I decided to try using reader-response approach and they asked, “Are you asking me for my opinions?” I was a bit worried that they would take advantage writing their opinions without really clarifying what they read. So I decided to ask them to support their responses with some ideas from the book. They got busy thinking about their responses while they worked together to clarify what they read so they can write more meaningfully. Two students came to me and they said they liked with the way I adjusted my questioning approach.

The Bluest Eyes by Toni Morrison

The Bluest Eyes by Toni Morrison

I selected Toni Morrison’s 1970 novel, The Bluest Eye because I was curious why it has sparked the censorship debate. Toni Morrison’s novel is so rich with implied meanings that my first reading only glimpsed its depth. Moreover, my initial impressions naturally were based on sensorial impressions. The experiences of sight, sound, taste, feel and smell, which Morrison skillfully recreates through her characters in her novel, elicit strong emotional responses. Particularly with explicit details, a would-be censor can react as ‘too graphic.’ Actually, I felt self-conscious as if a would-be censor was looking over my shoulder when I could identify controversial passages. I decided to reread and explore thematic meanings, from a teacher’s point of view.

Morrison, through the eyes of her characters, explores the dark side of the Black experience during World War II era. Preteen African-American female protagonists bear witness to the devastating effects of racism and sexism. Peroca, a major character, adores the blue-eyed Barbie, which is the white culture’s ideal of beauty. She internalizes the society’s hatred of her dark color as ‘ugliness,’ and her self-rejection intensifies, as she ardently desires blue eyes. Her dehumanizing experience becomes more complicated when her father rapes and impregnates her. She ends up ostracized from her Black community.

According to Werrlein, Morrison creates distinctive female African-American voices through her characters. These characters encourage readers not to condemn the Black children but think critically how their families and the nation created their misery. Trapped within a Black character, Pecola’s preteen voice suggests an innocent desire to be a beautiful child but her family and the racist society have shaped her ugliness. Pecola still idolizes Shirley Temple, the Hollywood ideal of innocence and beauty, and she silently becomes victimized with her internalized racial hatred. A separate African-American voice is expressed through Claudia, a character that survives through resistance. The contrasting voices challenge readers’ preconceived notions of innocence. In effect, Morrison uses their voices to raise critical questions about the reality of innocence.

Elizabeth Becker believes that teaching The Bluest Eyes helps high school students connect literary characters to their lives. Powerful, emotional scenes can elicit their responses to racism and sexual abuse. Then, she guides these students to appreciate Morrison’s use of her literary work to raise awareness that hatred and sexual abuse are not inborn human tendencies. In The Bluest Eyes, Pauline and Cholly are Pecola’s parents and their behaviors are learned through harsh environments imposed by the racial society. They eventually commit child neglect and abuse. Through reading, the students understand that when no one cares enough to prevent them learning to hate and abuse their own people, the cycle of hatred and abuse continues.

Amy Garret, a high school teacher, also believes that this novel is an important literary work worth exposing to her students even though a parent can find it too graphic. She suggests that a teacher can plan carefully for insightful classroom discussion, which leads to positive results. Students may experience disgust, anger, or sadness when they read about a particular group of Americans, however, the novel can initiate discussion about child abuse affecting all not just African-American females.

Both teachers share the similar purpose of teaching the novel: they want their high school readers exposed to the hatred and abuse so they can prevent them in their own lives. They can make connections to Pauline and Cholly as human beings whose learned behaviors make Pecola a victim. They can understand why some human beings commit abuses and how these actions can be prevented from happening again. If these issues are not addressed, then who will? Like those teachers have accomplished, a classroom can be a place where adolescents think critically about these issues through reading a literary work, even including Morrison’s The Bluest Eyes.