To further our exploration of The House on Mango Street, we will be reading Carol Jago's book Sandra Cisneros In the Classroom: "Do Not Forget to Reach"
Our reading/post schedule is as follows:
Week 1 (post before 4/4): Chapters 1 and 2
Week 2 (post before 4/11): Chapters 3 and 4
Week 3 (post before 4/18): Chapters 5, 6 and 7
In each post, be sure to talk about:
-What ideas and activities you liked or didn't like. How/ would you use them in the classroom? Why or why not? Do you think students would connect with these activities?
-Jago's approach to the text and Cisneros's other works. What do you think of her take on the book and her ideas for teaching it? Do you agree or disagree with them?
-How you would teach THOMS or Cisneros's other poems and novels. What might you teach it along with? Where do you see Jago's ideas and themes from the text fitting into the curriculum or an inquiry unit?
Start here, and see where it takes you.
Our goal is to come up with as many ideas for teaching THOMS as possible, and to use Jago's text as a starting point!
Hannah
ReplyDeleteChapter One: Where Life and Art Intersect
While I appreciate the discussion of Cisneros’s history, I think Jago gets it right when she says that starting with author biography “is dangerous.” I don’t think it’s necessary for THOMS at all. I personally don’t even think that it helps the reader connect with the story any better, because you become so wrapped up in Esperanza. It’s all about Esperanza. We don’t need any knowledge of her representing a piece of Cisneros – she is a complete character all on her own.
What I wish Jago would have started right off with is “Turning Students’ Own Lives into Art.” This is my type of teaching – starting with the students and their stories. I love the photograph as an inspiration for creative writing, but I love a personal photo even better. When we used photos in 518, I had wished that I could write about a photo that was special to me, so I could tell my own story, and that is exactly what the activity Jago discusses asks students to do. I would definitely use this activity in my class, and I love the idea of using it in conjunction with THOMS, because I think the vignette style is easy for students to work off of and the first-person writing Esperanza does is one that students are comfortable with. I also like how the language used in THOMS inspires students to be creative and more expressive in the way they choose to write.
One of the more important details in this activity is that the picture be of an important moment or memorable time. I feel like THOMS is made up of little snapshots that Esperanza wanted to remember from her life, and we get a quick glimpse into this day, or that event. If students were inspired by this activity, an option for them to extend this could be to make up their own novel by piecing together vignettes written from different “pictures” – either printed pictures or ones in their mind. This is something I would even want to do for myself!
I think the stories of Cisneros’s experiences with students from all walks of life further proves Fecho’s point that our classroom needs to become not a departure from our students’ lives, but rather simply an extension of it. I thought this section echoed Fecho sentiments in Chapter 2 of Is This English? (“Reasons for Being” in particular.)
Also liked the shout-out to Raymond Carver in the additional resources section. The other book club has made me want to read his stories – cool that they can connect for this activity! I’ll have to read them.
Hannah
ReplyDeleteChapter Two: Writing From Models
I’ve never read Cisneros’s poetry, so while I was disappointed that we weren’t getting more from THOMS, I enjoyed reading “Abuelito Who.” I think writing from models can be a really powerful writing experience, especially when it comes to poetry, when students sometimes are initially intimidated by the format itself. I like that this poem is about a person who is very important to Cisneros. These are the types of topics I want to write about – again, starting with the self – a person important to the students, a place that is special, or an important, memorable time or event in their life.
What troubles me about this section, and which I will talk about again when it comes to chapter 4, is Jago’s focus on the literary elements of the poem. While I think “Abuelito Who” is a great way to talk about metaphor, I personally don’t think that this is one of the things students “will love best about this poem,” so I don’t think this is where we should start. Jago seems very into finding ways to do literary elements in more creative ways. When I taught a poetry unit last year, my CT wanted me to use poetry to teach literary elements and devices, because they’re so concentrated in poetry. I totally agree that they are – but perhaps this is one of the reasons many students don’t care for poetry in school – because we use it as the spoon to force down the medicine of tons of literary terms? I think the discussion of metaphor is one that will come up naturally, as many of the comparisons made between Abuelito and all of the things that he is are unusual. This is where we must keep in mind how important it is to save the “naming” for later – learn the power of this use of language first, and name it later, so that we don’t take the focus away from the power and beauty and simply turn the poem into school.
The discussion of the issue of homework is an important one. I’ll be interested to hear what everyone else thinks about this. Jago says that “teenagers will make time for whatever is important to them,” suggesting almost that if they can watch tv, then there’s no question we should be able to give them homework. I’m not down with this. Just because students are engaging in other activities outside of school doesn’t automatically mean that we should give them a school activity to do at home as well. It’s almost like she’s saying they should be doing homework instead of watching tv or video games or talking on the phone. I agree that if something is important to them they’ll do it, but I also think that we need to create a greater amount of class time for them to work on any assignment or activity we ask them to do. By valuing the assignment enough to dedicate time in class to it communicates its value to students. I buy more into the arguments that she discredits on page 20. What did everyone else think about her take on homework?
Is there a way that we can add new posts here so we don't all have to reply as a comment on this page? There has to be a way to make it more organized....
ReplyDeleteBrooke- post 1
ReplyDeleteChapter 1
In chapter 1, I was most impressed with the writing activity based on photographs that students bring from home. I think this was a really interesting idea because not only did the photograph serve as a type of inspiration for the students, but it also asked the students to write about their own lives, so the writing became personally meaningful to them. I thought it was an interesting idea to have the students write a letter to their younger selves to help students to generate some emotions about what they feel now about the photograph. I think students would have fun with this activity and I think it is a good preparation for the final result: the THOMS style vigniette. It would be really neat to compile all of these vignettes from each class so you could make your own sort of THOMS book together as a class. This could also help with team-building because it would allow each member of the class to get to know one another more intimately.
I hadn't heard of Woman Hollering Creek before reading this chapter, but I think this text is something worth investigating. Jago says it is "a collection of stories focusing on the lives of girls and women in the Lation community, strong females who struggle with the daily business of living in the barrio." I think this text could be used in several ways in the classroom. 1) Jago says that each story could stand alone as a short story, so it might be interesting to take a story to compare to Esperanza's experience in THOMS, since she is a strong female character also. 2) It could be a part of an inquiry unit focusing on the role of women in society, or what it means to be female in society. 3) You could use this text to have students become familiar with critical theory- they could read the story through a feminist lens. Either way, I think this text could be very useful in the classroom.
Brooke
ReplyDeletePost 1, Chapter 2
I liked the idea of writing from models in chapter 2.I think that providing the students with a model can help to encourage reluctant writers to feel more comfortable expressing themselves, because they can use this as a sort of formula to write their first poem if they are feeling unsure. This activity could also work well for more experienced or for writers that feel more comfortable experimenting because these writers can take what they know about the model poem and play with the form in their own poem to try and create a stronger meaning in their work. I really liked Cisnero's poem "Abuelito who" for this activity because it allows the students to write about their own lives, someone who is important to them. I feel like every student has at least one person that they care deeply about and this activity can be a good one to help students to feel comfortable talking about their own lives.
Although I thought Jago makes an important point when she says that she wants to make sure that "every student who has written a poem has a chance to share that poem out loud to at least one other listener", I don't think I would have students share these as a Think-Pair-Share activity. I would rather see students working in writing groups, where they have been developing a community all year (or for the semester) and are thus more comfortable sharing with this group of students. This seems better to me because not only are students more comfortable with a writing group, but they will also receive more feedback this way than by just sharing with one other person. This eliminates the issue of having to share in front of the entire class, but makes it so that more than just one other person has heard their work. I mean, the students work hard on these poems, there should be more than just one person to listen to the finished product.
Jago has an interesting take on homework in this chapter. I am still unsure how I feel about homework. I really don't like the idea of just sending students home with homework just to make sure that they are "developing responsibility." I think that Jago has a point, though, when she says if she DOES assign homework, it has to be meaningful/ I just worry though that if we are assigning the most meaningful work outside of class, what happens when students don't do it? I think the most important work should be done with the class in a learning community so that all students are doing the most important work and discussing the most important issues together. After all- Vygotsky would argue that learning is social and we learn the most when working with others. How can that happen if we are sending students home to do all of the work on their own? Finishing a poem for homework? Maybe. Assigning homework on a constant basis? I don't think that works. Other thoughts on the homework dilemma?
Jess-Post one
ReplyDeleteCHAPTER ONE
"Where Life and Art intersect"
I really appreciated learning about Cisneros background. Throughout reading this book I was always wondering how much of THOMS was her sharing her own experiences. I thought it was also interesting to learn that she came from a family of six boys and began to wonder how this impacted her writing. Cisneros' encounter with prejudice in her neighborhood was extremely interesting. All this time she had been longing for a home of her own and when she finally got it, people were telling her what she could and couldn't do to it. This was after her completion of THOMS and I thought it was interesting that her personal life was connecting with her work long after she had published it. I enjoyed reading Jago's idea of using the photograph as the basis for a poem. This in a way reminded me of the writing activity we did in 518 when we were given the photograph and had to create a story around it. I like this idea because it incorporates student's own lives into the classroom. I think that it is important to allow students the opportunity to share their work with their classmates, or families. I think that if this were part of a larger unit, you could even have students create video poems like we are doing in 536. Students would be in full control of the way in which they felt would best represent their poem. In high school I did the letter to "your ten year old self". I liked the activity and thought it was interesting and definitely a nice change from the essays and worksheets. Jago also allowed her students flexibility when it came time to writing about their photo. Students were asked to write a vignette, but she was open to them creating poetry or any other means to express their photograph. Choice and authenticity are present in Jago's methods of teaching THOMS which is why I would use her ideas in my classroom, tweaking a few things here and there like maybe instead of sharing with a partner doing a gallery walk with comments so that each student gets feedback and a larger audience.
CHAPTER 2
"Writing from Models"
"What is frustrating about this is that these hand raisers are not always the most thoughtful students, only the most confident" (p.14). This is a great point that Jago brings up. I always wondered how to get quiet/shy students to participate in class discussion without embarrassing them. Jago also discusses another important issue: homework. I feel that homework is something that is important, but only if its purpose is important. Students will most definitely get homework in college, and work to do outside of their jobs which is why I think it is important to prepare students. "Teenagers make time for what is important to them" (p.19). If homework has a purpose and is a continuation of what is being discussed in class, students will realize that it is important to their success in making connections and furthering their involvement inside and outside the classroom. I like the idea that Jago uses to have students create a poem about someone they know or are related to, but I'm not sure I completely agree with the dissection of Cisnero's poem. I feel like students could do something like the last activity like bringing in a picture of someone and using it as a base for the poem. I think that the idea that every student gets their poem heard is vital. "...a way to ensure that all poems begin to live in another person's head" (p.21). I think that giving students the opportunity to understand poetry and allowing them to share their own is the basis of Jago's ideas which is why I would use them in my classroom.
Brooke- NCTE Post 2
ReplyDeleteChapter 3: "A Feast for the Senses"
I thought that the activity that Jago suggested here is pretty interesting. It might be a good way to help students to understand imagery and its appeal, although I wouldn't use the term first. I would go through this activity and then say, "these appeals to the senses are what we call imagery." I think it might also be interesting to let the students story board a poem or a short story to show how they envision the piece, like we've done in 536. It would be interesting to see how vastly different each student imagines a piece of literature from the rest of the class.
In the conversation with Cisneros, I really liked Cisnero's suggestion for helping students to develop a "true voice." She said, "From the years of being socially conditioned, poeple write in a voice that has a suit on. I get them to write from a true place by having them imagine that they are wearing pajamas...But you're so comfortable with who is sitting across from you that you don't have to clean anything: you can stay just like you are."
I thought this was a really interesting way to get students thinking about their authentic voice, which relates directly to the use of authentic language that we have been talking about in class. Again, if we want students to be able to use their "true voice" for writing assignments, we need to allow students to write in their primary discourse, otherwise it will sound stuffy, unnatural and inauthentic.
Brooke- Post 2
ReplyDeleteChapter 4: Teaching Literary Terminology in Context
I can't even begin to explain how frustrated this chapter makes me. I do think that using Ciserno's poem "Peaches-Six in a Tin Bowl, Sarajevo" is an interesting way to help our studnets explore "personification", I don't think that the emphasis should be on the literary term itself. I especially dislike her idea of giving the students the term right off the bat, before they have any experience with what personification might look or sound like. Jago writes, "When students arrive for class, the first thing they see on the board is a definition of personification." Ughh, really? Is that really what we want our students to see as soon as they walk into our classroom? A definition of another unfamiliar literary term up on the board? Although I agree that students should have knowledge of these literary terms to help empower them as they write and talk about literature, I think that Jago is going about this the wrong way. I think the students should start first with the poem and listen to it to enjoy it, then listen a second time to take down notes about what they noticed, as Jago suggests. Then, through the discussion about what the students noticed, you can link that to the term itself. If students don't mention that Cisneros makes the peach have human characteristics, then it is our job as facilitators to ask questions to help students think about that part of the poem. "Hmm why do you think Cisnero gave the peach arms and feet in this poem? Why would she do that? etc." After the students have had a chance to discuss it, then you can put a label on the term. I think the understanding and experience should come first, and the label should come second. I do agree that background information kills the exploration and the joy in reading poetry, but I think that reading it only to learn a term kills it too.
One idea I did like from this chapter was Jago's free-write. I have been extensively reseraching authetnic discussion and I have found that writing is one strategy that really works in helping students to formulate ideas before asking them to speak in class. That is a strategy that I definitely plan on using in my classroom.
Brooke- NCTE Post 3
ReplyDeleteChapter 5: The House That Everybody Knows
I really liked the discussion in this chapter about the difference between a house and a home. I thought that this would be a great place for students to bring in their own experience and they could either write or draw what their home is like and then describe what makes it a home. I think this could be a really rich discussion because “home” means something a little bit different for everyone. I thought that Jago’s emphasis on “creating meaning” via discussion in this chapter is really important. She quotes Cazden, who said “It is easy to imagine talk in which ideas are explored rather than answers to teachers’ test questions provided and evaluated… easy to imagine, but not easy to do” (55). Easy or not, I think that authentic discussions are the only ones that we should be having in the classroom. If it is not meaningful to the students, then why even bother to talk about it? I think that is why this discussion could be really successful if related to the students’ experience of home, then perhaps it will be rooted in a topic that is meaningful to them.
On a similar note, I also really liked using Cisnero’s vignettes as a model for student writing, particularly about their name. Again, this would be an activity that could be really meaningful for students because they would be writing about themselves. As Jago writes, “In order to write persuasively and analytically, students must not only know the world, but they must also know themselves” (62). I think this activity could be a great way to engage students in writing and it could be a good community building activity if used towards the beginning of the year.
Brooke- NCTE Post 3: Chap 6 &7
ReplyDeleteChapter 6: Taking a Critical Stance
I was a little bit confused while reading this chapter. Although I enjoyed reading the critical essays to get ideas for what other literature I could connect this text to, I would never have my students just read a series of critical essays about the work. Furthermore, I don’t think I would just use the essay questions at the end of the chapter either. It reminds me of the 5 paragraph essay format which we are obviously not fans of. I think it would be much more interesting to use the different critical lenses that we studied in class: feminist, Marxist, etc. to examine this text. I think that having them do so would be much more interesting than just having them write any old critical essay.
Chapter 7: Woman Hollering Creek and More
I didn’t really learn much from this chapter. In fact, I found Jago’s “Warning” on page 83 to be a little bit ridiculous: “Do not even think of assigning Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories to students unless you have read it from cover to cover” (83). Really? Would you ever really assign a piece that you had yet to read? And if you did, would you not read the assigned pages prior to class so you could figure out a way to deal with the issues represented in it? I feel like this is a part of a teacher’s job as a professional to know what works with her students and what will not. I just think its ridiculous that Jago even feels the need to comment on this: maybe there are teachers out there that assign reading that they have never read before? I don’t know. Furthermore, I don’t think you need to assign a text cover-to-cover to have it be useful in the classroom. If one of the stories from the beginning of this text works with an inquiry unit, why not just use that story from this collection and forget the rest? There is just something about the reading every work cover-to-cover mentality that just reminds me of centering the text, which is something I strive not to do while planning inquiry units. Of course I’m not saying that you shouldn’t read a text in its entirety, I just think it is a possibility to pull a story or two from a collection, and just those that relate to the topic you are inquiring into in class.
Note: I thought it was really interesting that there is a video tape of Cisneros giving a reading of her work from 1996 (pg. 89). It might be interesting to watch that in class to show students what it’s like to hear the work out loud from the author, similar to hearing a poet read her work (like “We Real Cool”.)
Hannah
ReplyDeleteChapter 3-“A Feast for the Senses”
I just want to start out by saying that this chapter has inspired me to read more of Cisneros’s poetry. I loved “Good Hotdogs.” It reminded me of all the little things I cherished when I was a little girl, and it made me think back to the great foods we ate and the special moments I spent with friends. I think this is a piece that students can really connect with a "get" - taking away the intimidation factor poetry often has - I'd love to see what else her poetry has to offer.
I love the idea of approaching writing with the five senses. In my senior year of HS I took a writing workshop class and we did a sensory narrative in which we had to describe an experience and along with it, all the things we heard, saw, smelled, tasted, and felt. We talked about how using the senses can really help put the reader in the experience with the speaker or writer. I wrote about a study hall I was in for the first half of the year. At the time Jay and I weren’t together (but we wanted to be-oh high school love!) and he chose a seat in study hall right behind me and to the right. I did my homework most days sitting there silently as I listened to him tell select stories to the people around him. It was one of the most intense experiences of my life – I wanted to laugh, cry, scream all at once. Writing about that was such a challenge, but I remember my friends reading it and sharing that they could feel the tension, anguish, and excitement I was feeling. After writing this piece I was a fan of approaching writing with the senses, and I think this poem would be a great conversation piece to introduce this. However, I think the symbols are unnecessary – if someone told me to do that, it would feel like a schoolized way of breaking down a poem. I’d rather just asking students to close their eyes while I read and tell me everything they see, hear, smell, taste, and feel as I read. I did this with “The Red Wheelbarrow” last year in my 9th grade class and students came up with some great things in our discussion that followed.
The interview was a great piece for teachers to have, but not crucial to engaging with THOMS and Cisneros’s writing. After this section Jago questions, “Would it be better simply to focus on skills and make sure they at least know how to spell by the time they leave high school?” To me the answer to this is a loud and clear no. I think the poem she included written by Brian, whose attendance in school is a miracle, argues the point that it is not the writing (as a skill) that “can save Brian’s life,” but rather the telling of his story, the use of writing as a means to explore his life, and his use of writing to make meaning and work through the hardships he’s experienced. Jago says that “the world would be a better place for all if we could find more room for voices like Brian’s to be heard.” Yes, it would be, and we need to give students space to tell their stories and make their voices heard. That’s what English should be about, and I am certain that our students’ worlds will be a better place when we do this.
Hannah
ReplyDeleteChapter 4 – “Teaching Literary Terminology in Context”
This chapter was a bit of a struggle for me. The title suggests that we’ll be learning how to teach literary terms in context, not in isolation, but the chapter for me points to teaching literary terms for the sake of teaching literary terms. Yes, Jago suggests that “the language of literature helps readers express what they see in what they read,” and I would agree that it does, but do real readers in the real world outside of school ever sit down to identify literary terms or discuss the use of pathetic fallacy? I never did outside of school, and so for me, these terms are not necessary for us to “express what we see in what we read.”
Jago writes that “the study of a poem should never be an exercise in identification” and yet she goes on to provide us with a lesson that does just that. What we risk when we place literary devices before poetry is a loss of the beauty and experience of reading a poem. These types of approaches to using poetry as a means to highlight alliteration, personification communicate to our students that there is no other reason to read a poem. It also adds to the intimidation factor that so many students have with poetry because they feel like they always need to pull something out. This is the way I was asked to construct my 9th grade poetry unit last spring during student teaching. I did it to some extent, but I placed the poem before the literary device. Talking about rhyme, tone, metaphor, simile, came later after we had discussed what we thought was meant or how we personally responded. With my 11th graders, who I was told to teach them how to answer Regents questions about poetry, we did exercises in poem analysis and literary device identification. Do I need to even tell you how this worked out with the students?
Reading “Peaches-Six in a Tin Bowl, Sarajevo” without the lens of personification gives me a very different experience than I would have in Ms. Jago’s classroom where I was given a definition and then told to identify it in the poem. This piece stands alone in its amazing imagery and meaning – I wonder who students would see as the other peaches in their bowls? What they think this might mean in the bigger picture of their lives? That’s what’s important to me. And from there, we can easily see how peaches might represent people.
We’ve also talked a great deal in our program about how the naming of a thing must come later – it won’t have power for the students if we name it outright. Just a thought to keep in mind for literary terminology.
I thought the background information section on 44 was interesting. I was saddened to see that Jago chose to share “what she knew” with the students. I feel like the background information she included in this section doesn’t obviously relate without lengthy explanation, and for me, does nothing for the reading of the poem. I think for me background information will only be necessary if the students make it necessary – if they ask what inspired a piece or what was going on at the time it was written. Reading works by Shakespeare always resonated more with me when I was encouraged to read it for what it was – and for what it could glean on my life – rather than what it meant in relation to the monarchy. I hope we all keep these things in mind when pondering the use of background information.
Hannah
ReplyDeleteChapter 5-“The House that Everybody Knows”
This chapter has a lot of interesting approaches to teaching THOMS. One of the things I loved most came in the opening pages – talking about THOMS as a picture book. I know its publication as a picture book was for younger audiences, but it made me think about how THOMS can be a starting point for our own students to tell the stories of their own lives, and how they could turn these into picture books, giving us snapshots of major moments, important people, or special/painful memories that they have that have made them who they are. If we’re doing a unit on identity or influences on our lives, this would be a great way to have students explore their past, their neighborhood, their families, their friends – this is something I wish I did in high school – maybe I’ll still do it! Our ideas for using photos inspired by the “personal writing” section in this chapter could be a great starting point for a project like this if any of our students decided that this is what they’d want to do. This book is rife with inspiration for personal writing. I wouldn’t want to miss an opportunity to take advantage of this wealth!
Another point that struck me was Jago’s suggestion that THOMS be read in one sitting, and not chopped up into multiple sections. I’m interested to hear what everyone else has to say about this. I think I read the book in three sittings. I don’t personally think I’d take a chunk of time to read it all, and thinking back to my own HS experience, I’m not sure I would have done it then either. But I do think it’s more powerful when it’s read in larger sections rather than a vignette here and a vignette there. I can see how it would start to lose its effect. Maybe we could talk about 3 sections this book could be broken up into based on Esperanza’s growth and experiences? Maybe the naïve stage comes first, then the effects of that, and her final decision stage?
A final issue I’d like to take up is in the “questioning the author” section. Here, Jago gives us questions that she suggests “encourage authentic classroom discussion” (55). This list includes questions like “What is the author trying to say here?” “What is the author’s message?” and “What does the author mean when she says x?” If there was anything I learned from my research on discussion, and I’m sure Brooke you will agree with me, authentic discussions often come from the personal or the controversial. This list does not include one question that asks students to make a connection between the text and their world – it all focuses on authorial intent. Not discrediting the value in exploring authorial intent in context and when it’s important to students, I don’t think these questions are going to spark discussion. These sound more to me like short-answer questions on a final test. This book is chock full of opportunities to get students to think about their lives and the world at large. Are we really going to spend our time looking into the author’s message and intent as our “queries?” This doesn’t fit into our idea of inquiry at all – in fact, the word “query” should be banned from this section!
Hannah
ReplyDeleteChapter 6: “Taking a Critical Stance”
Oh, Jago, you had me at bildungsroman! (Right, Brooke? Haha) Just kidding. I am not surprised that Jago chose to include critical analysis essays in this book – it is clear to me now that she centers the text at all times in her classroom. She writes, “I believe that reading what others have said about a writer’s work can help students refine their own thinking” (63). I would like to refine this statement and suggest that reading essays like these give students the thinking about the book. This is the type of approach to teaching literature that communicates to students that there is a right answer, or answers to be found within a text. This eliminates any potential for reader response to be successful. I found myself, as I read the two essays in this chapter, wondering if I had gotten this book wrong, or why I hadn’t come to the realizations that these analysts did. (ex: when I read “Esperanza comes to realize that she must leave Mango Street so that she will not be entrapped by poverty and shame or imprisoned by patriarchy) I thought back to the days of English when I was told what a text meant, and I remembered that I wasn’t reading THOMS for an answer. I read it for an experience, I read it as an opportunity to reflect on my own life, and think about different perspectives. I think the activity we did in 513 with the multiple perspectives handout would work just fine – having students talk about it on their own – and definitely using the feminist and Marxist lens. For me, in my classroom, hearing and discussing what other members of the class have to say about the text will be valued more than what these analysts have to say.
In the margin of my book when she began to list essay topics, I wrote that I think an essay would kill the reading of this book. This book is full of beauty, of experience, of opportunities to take these stories back to one’s own life and world and use it to examine, reflect, and critique those spaces. To take an analytical approach to THOMS and write an essay about “current immigration laws” is to kill the beauty and potential of this text. For me, not one of these essay topics lined up with what I want students to take away from this story. I did appreciate the list of other coming-of-age stories this work would do well with. Need to read more of those – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is the only one I’ve read – but again, it’s all about a female character. Perhaps one of these titles has a male protagonist?
Chapter 7: “Women Hollering Creek and More”
Women Hollering Creek sounds like it shares many similar themes to THOMS, but I wouldn’t teach it alongside this text, because it’s isolating the readings to represent a single group and the stories of a single author. If we are to deepen and complicate our inquiries, we should have multiple perspectives represented in the texts – as we said last night in class it is these texts that will make that deepening and complication happen. I’m also confused by Jago’s warning. As Brooke has already spoken to it, I’ll leave that alone.
In response to Brooke’s questioning of a teacher not reading a text before the students do, I once read a really interesting article about the experience of a teacher who was reading a text fresh with the students – experiencing it for the first time right along with them. Now naturally you couldn’t do this with a book you knew nothing about (you would have to know what types of issues/themes you would confront just in case), but the teacher talked about the power of this approach, especially in the eyes of the students. To have a teacher mucking through a text right alongside with you would be totally different. You definitely couldn’t have any predetermined destinations or answers for them, and I feel like it would give them great ownership over the meaning-making and discussions, because the teacher is totally level with them. Might be something to try one day! I’ll try to find the article if I can.
Jess-Post 2: Chapters 3+4
ReplyDeleteChapter 3: "A Feast for the Senses"
The title of this chapter alone made me excited to read what was to come. "Good Hotdogs" was a feast for my senses and like Jorge,made me want a hot dog after reading it. Isn't that the main goal of sensory work? Awesome job Cisneros! Writing for the senses is such an important and powerful technique and I think it is vital for students to comprehend, experience, and produce it. I think that the conversation Jago had with her classroom was a powerful one and the students seem to understand the poem without much in the way of directing. If this were my classroom, I would even take this a step further and have my students create their own sensory poem based on an object(s) of their choice. It could be anything from a watermelon to a sunset. As long as it has personal meaning and memories connected to it.
In Cisneros interview she brings up many great points but one in particular stands out to me. When asked about "re-education in multiculturalism" and how her work contributes to it she states: "I want people to recognize themselves in "the other" in my characters. I think that once you see yourself in the other,in that person who is most unlike you,then the story has done its political work" (p.35). This reminded me a lot of our discussions in all three classes as students being ethnographers. Many of the texts that students read will be full of events and characters that they struggle to completely connect to so it's our job to allow students these opportunities and lead discussions that will help make that happen.
Chapter 4: "Teaching Literary Terminology in Context"
Jago brings up a good point in this next chapter about teaching literary terms in the classroom: "Banishing these words from our classroom vocabulary makes students less, not more, articulate about literature" (p.40). While our studies and discussions support us to break free of the traditional style of teaching, the traditional material still needs to be taught, but in a meaningful way. Many teachers feel the need to have students write definitions, take a quiz, or complete a worksheet with fill in the blanks. However, none of this is necessary if "...you use the terms regularly"(p.45). Reading "Peaches" and having a class discussion about personification, then having the students create their own poem using personification is a great way to "teach" the term personification without the "teaching" part. I think that sometimes dissecting a poem can be tricky because you want the students to enjoy it for what it is, but you also want them to understand the deeper meaning based on each line. It reminds me a lot of "Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins.
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
I think that we have to be careful when introducing poetry because we want it to be something that will stick. I don't want my students to get in the habit of dissecting when I simply want them to appreciate, consider, and discuss.
Jess-Post 3: Chapters 5,6,+7
ReplyDeleteChapter 5: "The House That Everybody Knows"
One of the main reasons THOMS is such a success in the classroom is because students of all backgrounds are offered the chance to create similar vignettes about things that are meaningful to them. Jago brings up a great point in her discussion about the difference between "house" and "home" (p.52). It is clear that the students can interpret and understand this vignette just by their discussion. I think that a great activity to go along with this discussion is to have students freewrite and share (if they choose) about their home or if they have lives places that only felt like a "house" to them. Many students I'm sure have moved around a lot by the time they reach high school so I think this would be a great exercise to get them thinking about how Esperanza is feeling and how it connects to their feelings. Jago states that she is "...constantly looking for ways to encourage authentic classroom discussion, the kind in which students actually talk about the things in a text that they care about rather than the things I have determined they should care about" (p.55). I think activities that involve personal experience and opportunities to share them as well as connect them to the text is the perfect way to facilitate authentic class discussion.
I'm not sure that I am on board with Jago's idea of "Think alouds". She mentions that this is a technique she used for her students that were resistant to reading THOMS and I'm not sure this activity would be best suited to help them. I think that students will be able to see that "reading" really means "thinking" (p.56), through personal connections and the freedom to make these connections on their own. As a student, I would much rather do the personal writing about my name, or the writing involved in our lesson using "Hairs" than write down each idea that comes to mind.
Chapter 6: "Taking a Critical Stance"
I appreciated the reviews of THOMS by the various authors and I think the one that caught my attention was by Thomas Matchie. I never thought to compare THOMS to another canonical text such as "The Catcher in the Rye". (can't use italics so quotes have to do) As soon as I read the title, I automatically started thinking of the connecting themes in both works. The struggle associated with coming of age, feeling like you have no one, trying to fit in but at the same time be different, etc.
I was also taken aback and frustrated by the excerpt from Rick Martinez who discusses Cisnero's achievement and the award she won. The foundation was seen as being "politically correct" by awarding a "prestigious award" to a Hispanic. This is a great example to bring into the classroom and discuss. I think that students will embark on a great discussion about racism today, but I think that they will also appreciate the authentic-ness of the example in that it has to do with the very author they are reading. We talk about fake scenarios in 513 and how they may or may not have a place in the classroom, and this just affirmed my belief that they do not. There are plenty of examples and scenarios that really happened that deal with the same issues as the ones that were made up.
Chapter 7: "Woman Hollering Creek and More"
ReplyDeleteWhile this chapter did discuss more about Cisnero's other works and not THOMS I think it mentions a few guidelines that must be followed regardless of the work we are teaching. I think Jago's biggest and best point in the chapter deals with reading a text through "teachers' eyes" (p.84). In 517 we read "Of Mice and Men" through both a student's and teacher's perspective. I think that this was a valuable experience because it allowed me to wear two hats and interpret the text within these two spheres. When we introduce a text, I think we need to have a couple set ideas and concepts that we want students to come away with, and then let the rest fall into place. I think that if we are able to back up what we are doing with logical explanations and proof of growth, there is no reason we can't use works like "Woman Hollering Creek" if they are appropriate for our specific class meaning age level, personalities, backgrounds of students, etc. There is a lot to take into consideration but I think that the result is definitely worth the time and energy.