Junkyard Quote 2 - Week 7

"everything they did was gourmet with 'presentation.'" ~ my friend Kim describing her the room service at a hotel in U.S. Virgin Islands

Junkyard Quote 1 - Week 7

"I'm not a kid, I'm a man. I have my wisdom teeth." ~ kid, I mean a man, in my class.

Improv - Week 6

Beginning
by James Wright
Contempary American Poetry


The moon drops one or two feathers into the fiels.
The dark wheat listens.
Be still.
Now.
There they are, the moon's young, trying
Their wings.
Between trees, a slender woman lifts up the lovely shadow
Of her face, and now she steps into the air, now she is gone
Wholly, into the air.
I stand alone by an elder tree, I do not dare breathe
Or move.
I listen.
The wheat leans back toward its own darkness,
And I lean toward mine.

* * * * * * *

In Medias Res

The silcon fibers twist and spit
dropping the connection.
Blue flickering
scream.
An afternoon of thought and heart, broken
against electricity.
The strumming machine slips into heated dark
closing away a finger-typed world.
Sliding in the chair, the woman shadows
over the desk
her face disappearing in the wooden grains
of academic pursuits.
Molten fingers brush over mouse and keys,
marbles chasing the rolling sheen
of a whitening screen.

Response to Jeff and Rachel's Dialogue - Week 6

Thanks to Rachel for her writing and taking time to improve this little poem.

Revision with help from Rachel. Thanks!



New Moon Closet Case
The relentless moon wants rainbows,

but finds no bed with this gothic company.

a Blue Dog bites at his tween's cliffhanger.

Trite vampires recline against soggy old leather brains,

and werewolves are galvanic with the reinvention of a dark youth.

His smiling fantasy shape shifts the sphere into a fiery night light.

The father brushes of his intellect

opens the burning sheeting,

and reads witlessly.

He feels no guilt in this carnage, as all are at rest (in bed).

Here is a prime example of how a little peer revision can improve  our poems.

I am especially grateful when someone offers up advice by rearranging my lines.

as I learn best by example.   Rachel points out, with a few revised lines of her own, that the poem had too much passive language. Making the verses more active improves them greatly.

  It still is not finished  It lacks a strong sense of place, but it has begun to take on action.
Action is something I always enjoy in a poem. Thanks Rachel. I will take some time to look at your journal again to see how this exercise worked out for you, and give some response.

_________________________________

I particularly like the dialogue Jeff and Rachel have begun. It is a great example of how our blogs can really serve us as writers and teachers of poetry. Seeing your writing with fresh eyes is often helpful. Editing and revision, in my opinion, are the most important steps of the writing process. Rachel's revision was helpful to Jeff because it was constructive and insightful. By modeling a rewrite, she was able to get Jeff to see her perspective without being seen as overly critical and harsh. Modeling is a great tool to use when assisting other writers, and especially young students.

Sign Inventory - Week 6

"Something Big" by Charles Sweetman
for Jonette's Poetry Workshop


1. Catalog of Dreams - Appear like a banking/auditing ledger. They are succinct like the accounting jobs described in the poem.

2. Of the five names mentioned, three are not typical "American" names: Leilany, Dorman, and Karmody. They are wholly different from Jones and Gracie. They could be a reflection of the changing population and incorporation of other cultures into the American culture.

3. Gracie promotes her own dreams through Dorma's failure.

4. The co-workers response to Dorma's failure is indicative of a funeral. They "jump into action, baking casseroles and pies" because "that was how sorry we were." Their actions are typical responses of co-workers when there is a sudden tragedy - baking food for someone you only know to a certain extent.

5. The whole poem is confined to one stanza. There are no pauses or stops. It is as if the events roll from one day to the next, one thing to the next.

6. All the lines in the poem are complete sentences with appropriate grammar and punctuation with the exception of "And waiting." This is the only fragment in the entire poem.

7. The tone of the poem is conversational as if the speaker is talking about any day at the office.

8. The inclusion of the "Mardi Gras King cake" is a strange image. The Mardi Gras King is typically someone who has "made it" who is considered important and, if they are not one already, becomes a celebrity. It is strange that Gracie would make this cake for Dorma's failure.

9. The individuals become one unit after Dorma's failure. The speaker's voice changes from the "I" to "we". Why do they feel the need to band together?

10. Transitional phrases, "then" and "One night," are used to separate the action in the poem instead of isolating each action in a stanza.

Junkyard Quote 4 - Week 6

"I'm a fountain of knowledge, drink from me." ~ from a random t.v. show I woke up to this evening.

Random - Obituary for the English Language

A friend sent me this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/13/AR2010091304476.html

Jukyard Quote 3 - Week 6

"I escaped the Grim Reaper's bony grasp by mere inches yet again this morning. Oh, how I loathe the morning commute." ~ my friend, Alison

Junkyard Quote 2 - Week 6

"I've been put on post-grad meet 'n' greet tomorrow for fresherz crew. I'm on the look out for a replacement. Maybe someone a little more aerodynamic." ~ Quote on a friend's blog. (He's studying at Newcastle in the U.K.)

Free Write - Week 6

Café Temptation

I’m waiting on my wife, he says.

Smiling to the older lady wearing a

creamy cardigan against her dark skin

even though he peripherally peeks at a younger woman

sitting with coffee. She lounges attractively studying words

or reading the table. He isn’t sure which.

The lady is talking religion.

John 14 something. 

Rotating his silver band, he focuses on making small talk.

It helps him avoid temptation.

(Written after observing three strangers in Barnes & Noble.)

* * * * * * *

7th Grade

The teacher tried pacing

often beside their straggling microscopes.

Meeting resistance

noses up, they proudly defended the fermented

table. Lingering giggles

applauded their scalped cow-eye.

She paused

long enough to take the

yoked sample and paper-toweled their grade

with antipathy.

(Written from a memory of dissecting a cow eyeball in 7th grade.)

Calisthenics - Week 6

Original directions from my printer manual:

1.      Click (windows button) or click Start and then Run

2.      In the Start Search or Run box, type control printers.

3.      Press Enter, or click OK

a.       The printer folder opens.

4.       Right-click the printer, and then select Open.

5.       Cancel the print job:

a.       If you want to cancel a particular print job, then right-click the document name, and then select Cancel.

b.      If you want to cancel all print jobs in the queue, then click Printer – Cancel All Documents.

1st Draft:

Click Start and Run

Search box, type control printers.

Enter or OK.

Folder opens.

Cancel print job.

Right-click the document name

Select Cancel.

All printing in queue

Find Printer

Cancel all documents.

2nd Draft: (I tried to make it less boring.)

"Temp Staffer’s Revenge"

Click Start.

Then run Search box.

Type control parameters.

Enter OK.

The queue opens.

Select Cancel Potential Jobs

A particular printer needs 

Management.

Highlight document name.

Choose the simile for terminate.

For every available position

Annihilate All.

Smile.

15 Minute Coffee Break.

Click Start.

Random - "Howl" Flashback

Just happened to be watching late night television and apparently there is a movie out about Alan Ginsberg's poem, "Howl," and the obscenity trial surrounding the publication of his poem. I didn't know about it. Then again, I don't really watch that much television.

Pedagogy - Week 6

This is going to be a free form entry. I'm going to try not to edit my thoughts.

I've been thinking about my lesson plans for next week. Even on a "Fall Break", I am thinking about lesson plans. It's amazing how that part of the brain - the teacher part - never really turns itself off. It would be same if I was sitting on the beach or in a bar. Part of my brain is always churning through ideas. I really want to incorporate new things into my lessons. I am good an improvising - as a teacher you have to be. Even the best laid plans can be totally annihilated within ten minutes of class. This is one aspect of teaching I love. The X-factor. The unknown. It changes from student-to-student, class-to-class, and day-to-day. That being said, I always try to have something ready. Occasionally, I fail. We all do. And the kids pick up on it. Still, I think that failure is a lesson in and of itself. If I can model how to recover from a failure then, perhaps, my students will have some way to cope in the future if they, too, should fail. I've been trying to rework how I am going to teach poetry. Last week, I wrote about how the 10th literature teachers were teaching thematically instead of in the traditional structured units. I think I am going to talk to them on Monday about possibly teaching a little poetry before we work into the longer short stories and novel lessons. I really agreed with the point made in class that poetry is easier in that it is shorter and more concise. Perhaps, if we can work with our students moving from smaller forms of literature to larger forms, they will not feel so intimidated when presented with information. And if the other teachers aren't willing to listen, at least I have the freedom to restructure my small group classes. Just food for thought. Not sure if it made any sense but let me know what you think.

Junkyard Quote 1 - Week 6

"I am digging holes for plants. In rock. Rock infused with roots. There's a dead plant there, and I say, 'look, they're going to die here', but no, no, that plant just didn't have enough soil. So. We just have to dig the hole in the rock twice as large. This is an unfun afternoon." ~ a message from a friend

Improv - Week 5

Sylvia Plath's "The Colossus" (Contemporary American Poetry)

I shall never get you put together entirely,
Pieced, glued, and properly jointed.
Mule-bray, pig-grunt and bawdy cackles
Proceed from your great lips.
It's worse than a barnyard.

Perhaps you consider yourself an oracle,
Mouthpiece of the dead, or of some god or other.
Thirty years now I have labored
To dredge the silt from your throat.
I am none the wiser.

Scaling little ladders with glue pots and pails of Lysol
I crawl like an ant in mourning
Over the weedy acres of your brow
To mend the immense skull-plates and clear
The bald, white tumuli of your eyes.

A blue sky out of the Oresteia
Arches above us. O father, all by yourself
You are pithy and historical as the Roman Forum.
I open my lunch on a hill of black cypress.
Your fluted bones and acanthine hair are littered

In their old anarchy to the horizon-line.
It would take more than a lightning-stroke
To create such a ruin.
Nights, I squat in the cornucopia
Of your left ear, out of the wind,

Counting the red stars and those of plum-color.
The sun rises under the pillar of your tongue.
My hours are married to shadow.
No longer do I listen for the scrape of a keel
On the blank stones of the landing.

* * * * * * * *

Graduation 

I watch carefully. Closely.

A mother with dyed hair, thick like yours,

Wears a flowered shirt designed a decade or so ago.

She stands next to you, glasses in place

on a nose similar to yours.

She is where your stiff expression comes from,

the one I walked on eggshells for.

On your other side, tall and lank, he

smiles proudly behind his leathered face and spectacles

There I find your grotto-blue eyes

and your flashy dimples that won my smile in return.

Your humor is your father’s, not your mother’s.

I watch them and catch your laughter.

We smile a consolatory smile

as I see who you belong to.

And I wish I had known back then.

Your mother’s attention drawn in a scowl

as she turns to you. There is a huddled moment

before she looks at me, brow softening pity.

It would have made all the difference, you see,

if you had just introduced us.

She would know more of me than just a look,

and I - I would have never doubted

your motives, your love, your reasons

All the things you compartmentalized.

I see, through the crowded party, more of you

than I ever knew. It is fruitless to waste wishes

on things that cannot be changed.

I was cheated. They were misguided.

Yours are the parents I never knew.

Sign Inventory - Week 5

“Morning Song”

by Sylvia Plath

1.      The poem begins and ends with similes.

2.      There is a persistent “s” sound throughout the poem. It reminds the reader of the wind or perhaps a whisper.

3.      She uses kennings to redefine common words: moth-breath and cow-heavy.

4.      The third stanza is the only one in which all three lines are used to complete one sentence. The other stanzas are broken by multiple sentences and enjambments.

5.      The third stanza is also unique because it shows a lack of connection the subject has to the “baby.”

6.      The title, “Morning Song,” is reinforced at the end of the poem with the line “try your handful of notes.”

7.      The single cry of the baby becomes absorbed by the voices in the beginning of the poem; however, by the end of the poem, the voices have disappeared and baby’s cry is the only sound.

8.      The reference to the Victorian nightgown juxtaposes the baby’s nakedness. The Victorian’s were infamous for covering everything on the body and even furniture. The fact that the subject is “covered” so completely and the baby is not forces the reader to consider what a grown-up is confined by that a baby is not.

9.      “New Statue” is a strange reference. Statues are inanimate objects, forever fixed in the position they are carved in. How is a baby, who is animate, like the statue?

10.  The drafty museum and blank walls is another odd image. One expects a museum to have something on its walls – unless one is walking through a hall of statues?

11.  The poem moves through a list of hard tangible materials to intangible materials: gold watch, statue, mirror, roses, sea, floral night gown, cat, window, stars, balloons.

Response to Rachel's Pedagogy Piece - Week 5

From Rachel's Pedagogy Piece - Week 5

The exercise on pages 72-74 in The Writing Experiment made me think of all the uses of collage in the high school classroom. Everyday, we ask the students to collage by taking bits of information needed to pass a test. We ask them to paste the bits according to no real categories at all, but instead how it will be presented on the test. But, what if we asked them to collage in order to create their own relationship between literary periods, terms, and ideas? A collage to me, and in this exercise, is a way to take things you do not understand and arrange them in a way that gives it meaning to you. What a great solution for the cram sessions and study sheets we make for the students. Next week, we are preparing for the Georgia High School Writing Test. Due to this exercise, I'm thinking how I can apply this to analytical writing. I could have students cut out images and words that will give them a visual image of what they are being asked to do on the writing test. Perhaps some will relate to this relevant exercise.

**************************

I think Rachel has a great idea and I would love to know how it works in her classroom. It would definitely be a great way to differentiate her classroom. A collage would help reach those students who are visual and kinesthetic learners but I would still have a traditional study guide or activity for those students who are auditory learners. Perhaps, separating the class into groups (even giving the students a choice of which group to join) would be best. Setting up three stations. If no one chooses a station, then it will just make the teacher's job easier. This way all learning styles are being integrated into a review session and students will feel less stressed because they had a choice in how they were reviewing.

For my small group, special education students a collage is a very good way to go. Many of my students work best with a hand's on approach but they would need more teacher guidance than a general education classroom. I would probably have to model the collage for the class, then do a class collage, and then my students would be able to work individually on their own collage.

Rachel - if you try this let me know. I would like to see how it worked out for your general education students. I could always take what you do and break it down to work for my smaller groups.

Pedagogy - Week 5

For the last few years, the World Literature teachers in my school have followed a curriculum map that focused on units, rather than chronology or themes. Poetry has been the last unit of the school year. I assume that is because it has been viewed as one of the less important units of the year. Persuasive writing and narratives have always been considered the most important. To be honest, I think this is because these two subjects are what appear on the graduation test. The writing exam requires a persuasive essay on a given topic and the English graduation test is 120 questions with narrative passages. This is only my third year teaching high school, so I never put two and two together until this year when the 10th lit teachers decided to change how they are teaching poetry. Instead of a separate unit, poetry will be taught "thematically" over the course of the semester (for block classes) or year (for traditional classes). I put thematically in quotes because the instruction this year is thematic in terms of genres of literature but it is not true thematic teaching. It's very hard to teach thematically when other subject areas teach chronologically (i.e. social studies). If the ideas behind these standards we are supposed to be teaching is to actively engage our students in a cross curriculum education, don't you think it would beneficial to plan with other subject areas and all teach in a similar pattern. I would love for a student to be learning about ancient Greece in history while reading Antigone in literature and discussing the development of ancient medicine in science. That would be fantastic and a way teachers could really integrate thematic teaching. 

Junkyard Quote 4 - Week 5

"Daddy, I want this arch-chi-tetchure book" - a little boy in Barnes & Noble.

Trying to spell the word "architecture" phonetically is difficult but I wanted to capture the little boy's pronunciation of it. Little kids have such a different perspective on words. It's almost more organic. They are still trying to figure things out on their own. What I found amazing was that his father did not immediately correct his son's language. He smiled and squatted down next to him, and together they went over the syllables in the word. It was very cute and a very good way to correct his son without immediately saying "You're wrong."

Junkyard Quotes 3 - Week 5

"That was a long, 19-filled weekend. Very...eventual" - a friend's Facebook status

 (I'm definitely doing something with this.)

Calisthenics - Week 5

Playing Colosseum

In armored vestibules we stood

keys primed and orbiting the Leviathan doors.

Literally mutating the ills and terrors

of our pretend predecessors 

inaccurate as only ten year olds can be.

Superior, we servants illuminated the

caged generals, savage beasts who altered our

whole existence

The hallucinogenic moans of muses

we did not know,

only the cries of the mob

hungry for our peony entrails.

Knowing our faltering world was at a close

we sat in hushed tones waiting to be

regimented in our final duties.

We were pirates

and laborers

and soldiers

and Christians

and slaves

and thieves.

Doomed by the tantalizing impulse of thumbs,

we were leveraged like animals into

the bright arena of Rome.