Keep Writing...

*“We’re all born with 200 bad poems in us.” 

~~Billy Collins on “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!”

*The former poet laureate was asked about the quality of the poetry written during his youth.Nov. 1, 2013. I heard the segment when it re-aired on WHRV, July 5, 2014. 

I need to figure out if I've reached 100 poems (texts) yet.

Whew! What have I been reading?

I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood. —Audre Lorde

 

 

 

Cited in

 

''For Our Words Usually Land on Deaf Ears Until We Scream'': Writing as a Liberatory Practice by Shantel Martinez, 2014, Qualitative Inquiry, 20.3,3-14



About the Article

I recommend this article to anyone who might need/want a story about how we teach writing/literacy matters. Martinez responds to (and conjures up) several questions I have thought about (or someone nudged me to consider) over the last academic year as I struggled to write, teach, and learn:

What is valid and true in the writing process?

What/which writing rules really matter?

Can critical thinking exist within the way we teach writing right now?

Is writing linear or recursive?

Wait a minute! Which texts are mentor texts?

Obviously, the article challenged my thinking, but it also validated some of my own frustrations with what gets valued as scholarship in academia.

 
 
 
 

A Regular English Teacher

In my line of work, when the conversation turns to teaching for social justice, culturally relevant teaching, or equity in education, someone inevitably interjects with talk about a regular English teacher.

Claudette Colvin's description of her English teacher's stance is informative:

"We were supposed to be in English literature class, but Miss Nesbitt used literature to teach life. She said she didn't have time to teach us like a regular English teacher--we were too far behind. Instead, she taught us the world through literature."

Italics are mine. See p. 26 in Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

Get lucky; read a book

from Google

"If we are lucky each of us has, in our reading lives, a book that leaves us forever changed, a book that causes us to think about ourselves before and after we met the characters and ideas on the page." ~~Pamela K. Coke

 

 

 

So What?

Coke sums up why I wanted to become an English teacher, why I write this blog, and why I have chosen to write articles and books about authors and their work.

I am convinced my life would have taken a different turn had it not been for books read during adolescence that changed me forever.

I can’t thank all those responsible, but thanks, especially to,

Mama, who put the first book in my hand.

*Ms. Artis

Maya Angelou (autobiographical series)

Mildred D. Taylor (e.g., Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry)

Malcolm X (autobiography)

Judy Blume (e.g., Tiger Eyes)

 

Source:

“It's in My Hands: Creating a Space for Nonfiction in the Literature Classroom," Signal Journal, 31.2, Fall 2008, p. 20-24.

*Ms. Artis was my eighth grade English and French teacher.

The goal is to promote lifelong reading

from Google images

“[N]o single book is so important as to warrant reading at the expense of the development of a

voluntary habit of good reading.”
~~Dora V. Smith

 

 

 

 

(Smith, Dora V. 1964. Dora V. Smith: Selected Essays.

New York: Macmillan. 115, qtd. in Linda M. Pavonetti, “Dora V. Smith: Echoes
of a Strong Voice in English Education,” English Journal 1996, 85.6, p. 91)

 

from Google images

The Right Speed for Intelligent Reading?

"Most of us have been taken in by the notion that speed of reading is a measure of our intelligence. There is no such thing as the right speed for intelligent reading. Some things should be read slowly and even laboriously. The sign of intelligence in reading is the ability to read different things differently according to their work."
~~Mortimer Jerome Adler

"Reading is Ultimately Dangerous"

Walter Dean Myers interviewed Robert Lipsyte back in 2001.

Did you know that?

 I didn’t until recently.

This line from Lipsyte stuck with me:

“I don’t think the culture really wants young people to read. I think reading is ultimately dangerous and subversive to any kind of authority.”

 

Want to read it?

(June 2001). “Pulling no punches.” School Library Journal p. 44-47

Golden Line

I was reading a piece by Tchudi & Lafer (1997) and got to the section where they say nonstandard English, particularly *Black English Vernacular (BEV), has its own rules and correctness, and simply thought,  amen. Z and I have had this conversation before.

BEV “can, and does, make for effective communication in certain situations, situations in which ‘proper’ English would prove to be highly ineffectual. Ain’t is, at times, preferable to isn’t” (italics in original) (22).

*See almost any of Geneva Smitherman’s books for details



Tchudi, S. & Lafer, S. (November 1997). Interdisciplinary English and the Contributions of English to an Interdisciplinary Curriculum. English Journal,21-29.

 

Sharing YA Lit.

"If your enthusiastic booktalk encourages one student to read that book, that student is likely to do two things: 1)ask you for another recommendation, and 2) tell other students about that book." ~~Don Gallo



Source:
Gallo, D. “Ice Cream/I Scream for YA Books,” Voices from the Middle, 17 (4), May 2010
 

Golden Line from “Watch What You Teach”

“There is violence in naming, because once people are labeled gay/ straight, black/white, or male/female, they can be controlled and limited. On the other hand, labels can be useful to give otherwise invisible groups, such as lesbians in the early gay movement, recognition and identification.”



Sieben, N. and Wallowitz, L. (2009).“Watch what you teach”: A first-year teacher refuses to play it safe. English Journal, 98(4), 44–49.

Golden Lines ~~Sharon G. Flake

“'So often we think we know young men, especially African American

males. 'They don’t read,' we say.

'They misbehave,' we whisper.

'They drop out early and cause society a host of ills.'

Often, before they even show up to class or walk into a store, we think we know who they are and what they are capable of doing and becoming.

As an author, I get to say, 'Open your eyes and see what is often unseen by so many of us, regardless of our ethnicity.' When I open my eyes and see you for who you truly are, I see myself differently, and I allow you to see me more fully as well. It becomes a win–win for everyone, I think."


~~Sharon G. Flake qtd. in Najat Omer’s Interview with Sharon G. Flake, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy v. 54 no. 2 (October 2010) p. 152-3

Don't Be Afraid to Write Badly

“It is dangerous to write it well the first time.”


~~Peter Elbow qtd. in Yvonne Siu-Runyan, The Council Chronicle, Nov. 2011, p. 24

Revision can be rewarding.

Golden Line

“At NWP [National Writing Project] we're taught to ask our kids, ‘What have you read which is like what you are trying to write?’”


-from “Altering One's Aspect Towards the Sun” by Brian Kelley

Engaging American Novels

“There’s nothing more practical than a good theory, and nothing so theoretical as sound practice.”


~~~qtd. in Engaging American Novels, Eds. Joseph Milner & Carol Pope, p. xi

Golden Lines: Ho Che Anderson

“Every artist and every writer has to produce a certain amount of s----- work before they start getting to their good stuff and I feel it’s only been in the last few years that [I was able] to achieve any degree of competence.”


~~ Ho Che Anderson qtd. in Dale Jacobs’ interview w/Anderson in the International Journal of Comic Art 8.2 (Fall 2006), p. 376.


*Anne Lamott says something similar in Bird by Bird, but I never get tired of hearing this; it gives me hope.

Golden Lines: ZZ Packer

"I believe that if someone is going to give up a piece of their life to read this story (my novel), I should have at least given up a piece of mine to write it."

 ~~~ZZ Packer qtd. in Writer's Digest, September 2011, p. 43

Golden Lines

Today I saw the first demonstration lesson of the Summer Institute. The teacher read First Year Letters by Julie Danneberg. This line displayed in the classroom in the book stuck with me: “In this classroom everyone is a student. Everyone is a teacher.”



I will display this message during the beginning of each class next semester.

Golden Lines

“I tell the kids, write about what’s important to you. The old advice used to be ‘write about what you know.’ That’s a ridiculous saying. What does that mean? You need to write about what is important to you, what you care about. All kids have things that are important to them.”


~~Roland Smith qtd. in Arth and Williamson’s “Roland Smith: Story-ologist” in Library Media Connection (Oct. 2010)

Golden Lines

“Those who tell the stories rule the world.”

I’m not sure who said the quote above. If you know, please tell me. I was watching “Literary Visions” and Sandra Cisneros was interviewed. It looked like she was working on a word processor (circa 1989) and just above the keyboard was the quote above.

Golden Lines

“That first step is key. You may be so unsteady that you actually fall. But you must pick yourself up and keep stepping.”


~~ Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee’s Giant Steps to Change the World