Diana Mitchell looks
at ‘ways into novels and short stories’ and presents ideas/activities for
the classroom and gives examples of appropriate texts that match with the
activities. I like Mitchell’s suggestions of ‘questions & issues’ , ‘3
words’ and ‘word collage’...I think they would engage the students.
Ken Watson’s ‘Instant
Book’ in helping weaker readers gain
a sense of the novel as a whole, or revision activity for senior classes – find
equivalent passages in novel: student in class – paste onto cards, cue lines,
and use as readers theatre activity.
Eva Gold’s
suggestions for deconstructing texts which looks at the presence and
authority of the writer e.g. read other texts against the original, authorial
hide and seek, mapping out and diagramming of qualities of characters, their
actions and their effects (dynamic structure); looking at looking at structural
patterns through simple chapter summarisations.
Ernie Tucker on wide
reading in the classroom, and the necessity for free reading time, where reading is seen as a social activity
for enjoyment and students select their
own texts. Use class blogs for sharing reflections. Use simple rules, bring
your own book, or choose from classroom options. Read 1st 30 pages –
give the book a fair go! If you still think you have not made the right choice,
give your reasons and choose again. Have students use post it notes (which can
be later used to help plan writing or talking) – encourages economy note
taking. Include in reflections: ‘If i had difficulties, these are the possible
reasons....’ I believe all students should be provided with free reading time,
whether it is for 10 minutes during a short home room time, or on entering the
classroom and part of a settling routine across K-12.
Use reverse programming. Take evidence of what students have
done and compare with outcomes required by curriculum. ‘What I haven’t covered
well, or not at all, enters my futre planning. ..its the action research cycle
of asking a question about an aspect of the curriculum and putting it into the
feedback loop’
Tucker suggests 10 adolescent books every English teacher
should read:
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt; The Nargun and the Stars by Patricia Wrightson; Of a Boy by Sonya Hartnett; Ivan Southall especially Josh; Roll of Thunder, Hear
my cry by Mildred Taylor; The Astonishing
life of Octavian Nothing traitor to the nation by M.T.Anderson; A Swift Pure Cry by Siobhan Dowd; Falling by Anne Provoost; The Giver
by Lois Lowry; and Loose Lips by
Chris Wheat.
I did appreciate Ernie’s comment that these are books that
“I think make us better English teachers; they’re not necessarily the books
that work best with our classes”, as I did imagine that some of the older texts
(that I have read during my own school days) would be quite difficult to engage
the students today. I must admit there are only one or two here that I haven’t
read!
Chapter 29A
continues with a list of 5 pages of recommended
texts for wide reading provided by Deg McPherson, Helen Sykes and Ernie
Tucker.
Chapter 13 looks
at poetry by Louise Wakeling who talks
about ‘facing down the fear: teaching poetry in the classroom”. I enjoyed this
article. I think poetry, as the author notes, is undervalued, despite poetry
being “is probably the most dynamic,
economical, creative and powerful art-form...owing to the fact that ideas and
emotions are fused and distilled in the most intense and economical
ways...poetry is the form that ordinary people...still commonly choose in order
to express the ideas and emotions associated with major events in their lives. As Wakeling states poetry is always
evolving, so we see manifestation of
popular culture – spoken word or performance poetry (potential for social
satire, hybridising of theatre, stand-up comedy, music and poetry), slam
poetry.
Teachers need to take up the challenge...to prove to
students that poetry won’t be boring, that it has some relevance to their
lives....need to use good models as fundamental to the way poetry is
taught......need to encourage students to commit themselves to writing as a
discipline, through the process of drafting, researching, reediting and reading
their works, and to model such commitment in the classroom....compose with your
students e.g. experimental poems in which arbitrarily appropriate language ‘bites’
from writers such as William Shakespeare, and then improvise around them (Gale
Nelson, Brown University).
Like plays, poetry is written to be read aloud. Teachers
need to read poetry aloud to students ...encourage more risk taking in composition
at every level, more inventiveness in engaging students interest in the ideas
explored by poets...
What to model...there should be few forms of poetry that are
out of bounds in the classroom..e.g. Walt Whitman, Charles Bernstein, Allen Ginsberg,
Joanne burns, the roman poet Catullus, works in translation by ancient Chinese poets
such as Li Qi or Du Fu, contemporary Australian poetry, William Blake, Thich
Nhat Hanh, Hafiz ‘last night’s storm’, Andrew Marvell, translations of Beowulf
in a unit on heroes, or environmental poetry by American poet, Gary Snyder,
Australian poet Mark O’Connor, working class poets such as Pio and Charles
Bukowski, William Carlos William...introduce variety of poetic forms e.g. the
sonnet, the ghazal, haiku, perosna’s interior monologue, employing word pools
and the principle of randomness as a creative stimulus for composition....teachers
should try their hand at writing themselves.
Try introducing poetry through the study of lyrics, such as
Nick Cave’s ‘There she goes, my beautiful world’ or Bob Dylan’s ‘Desolation row’
or Joni Mitchell’s ‘Big yellow taxi....students can combine music with poetry
by composing lyrics and performing them...or transform a favourite poem into a
music video. The author goes on to list some ideas to apply in the classroom
and weblinks and journals as resources.
Chptr 13A Further
classroom resources: Poetry by Wayne Sawyer
Sawyer lists recommended selection of texts to consider for teaching
poetry, and mentions briefly a number of approaches to teaching poetry
including DARTS, recreation activities, workshopping, oral performance/readers
theatre, writing poetry and analysing and critiquing poetry.
http://educationnorthwest.org/traits