Without Further Ado...

Well, here's the draft of the article I submitted for publication.  There are some interactive links, some of which I've already featured.  Like always, I'm open to comments, criticisms, cookies, and cash.

“All Work and No Play Makes Jack (or Jill) a Dull Writer: Wordplay in the Secondary Classroom”

            Yes, I am that idealistic geeky English teacher, occasionally fantasizing that I am Robin Williams’ character Mr. Keating in the classic film Dead Poets Society.  After twelve years of unsuccessfully convincing my students to call me “O Captain, My Captain,” I still hold to the belief that I can get my students to “savor words and language” (Haft, Henderson, Witt, Thomas, & Weir, 1989).  Regardless of ability or inherent wordsmithiness, I encourage students to play with words on many different levels.  On Fridays, we set aside time in my classroom to play with words.  But why?  Aren’t there roughly sixteen kajillion “testable” language arts objectives to cover in the first semester alone?  Yes, but that’s okay; I’ll explain.

            Wordplay is defined by Figgins and Johnson (2007) as students “exploring the possibilities of words on the page in front of them as those words collect, collide, and constrict, then converge and ultimately, connect” (p.29).  Huh?  Just wait.  Garcia et al (2007) define word play in two senses: “[1] as having fun and [2] to refer to the ‘looseness’ or ‘play’ that is needed in rubberized brake pads….If there is too much play in overstretched rubber bands, they are ineffective, while if there is no play, they are useless.  Language is much the same.  Without a sense of play, babies could not learn to talk nor could adults adjust their language to talk about new concepts” (p.51).   When we get a new computer or cell phone, most don’t bother reading the instruction guide.  Instead, we play around with the new toy until we understand how to manipulate it.

            Sure, but why play with words?  Why not just teach them the core curriculum and be done with it?  Roger Shanley found that word play activities addressed state core language arts standards, were more informal and comfortable for students to work with, but at the same time promoted student creativity (2007).  Author Phillip Pullman said that “The most valuable attitude we can help children adopt – the one that, among other things, helps them to write and read with the most fluency and effectiveness and enjoyment – I can best characterise by the word playful” (Pullman, 2005).   Play is work in disguise.  Playing with words is working to master the language.  To fulfill most academic assignments, students need not extend themselves to their linguistic boundaries (Pomerantz & Bell, 2007).  The language is flat and voiceless.  In order to improve writing (and it may appear to be taking a step backward), students must return to the basics of language, which includes, first and foremost a positive attitude toward language (Pullman, 2005).  Figgins and Johnson (2007) show that “students’ relationships with language are more likely to change when they are permitted to play with it, but teachers must construct multiple classroom situations for experimentation, and thus change to take place” (p.29).

            What I can do as a language arts teacher is provide a time and a place for students to take risks and play with words in a safe environment, allowing them to grow as writers (Kazemek, 1999; Whitaker, 2008).  By doing so, students build their confidence, their vocabulary, their understanding and mastery of different genres, and they start to develop their own personal voice.

            So where do you start? Like the rest of you, I have students who don’t speak English and students who hate English mixed in with students who love language almost as much as I do.  How do you level the playing field?  I have found that playing is the best way to break down barriers on the playground, in the sandlot, and in the classroom.  Pullman noted that word play “begins with nursery rhymes and nonsense poems, with clapping games and finger play and simple songs and picture books.  It goes on to consist of fooling about with the stuff the world is made of: with sounds, and with shapes and colours…and with language.  Fooling with it, playing with it, pushing it this way and that, turning it sideways, painting it different colours, looking at it from the back, putting one thing on top of another, asking silly questions, mixing it up, making absurd comparisons, discovering unexpected similarities, making pretty patterns, and all the time saying “Supposing…I wonder…What if…” (2005).

            So we play with how words sound, how words look, and how words taste.  I’d like you play along now.  And, no, that’s not a suggestion.  Put down this article and grab a pen and paper (or scribble in the margins).  We’ll start with a couple pre-writing assignments:  

1.      Write down 3 different letters of the alphabet.  (Consonants work better.)

2.      List the objects in your pockets/wallet/bag.

3.      Write down a handful of at least three actions you enjoy doing.  Be specific.  Don’t just say hiking”; instead write “hiking The Narrows in Zion National Park.”

            Now that the assignment is over, we’ll proceed.  The most basic play involves actual sounds.  To quote scriptures for my own purpose, “Hear my words…and give ear unto me, ye that have knowledge.  For the ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat.   Let us choose to us judgment: let us know among ourselves what is good” (Job 34:2-4).  Even the least of us enjoys sounds that resonate in our ears and syllables that slip off our tongues.  And I try to get my students to acknowledge that through play.  We start with Internet funnies like Neil Cicierega’s Potter Puppet Pals video "The Mysterious Ticking Noise" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4) and this version of The Vestibules’ “Bulbous Bouffant” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uuCNAwXGaQ).  If you haven’t seen these clips, pause again and go watch them.  If you have, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

            After we have heard how awesome the sounds of words can be, we create our own Cool Word Lists.  Here is an example of the start a collaborative list collected by 9^th graders:

abhor

abridge

adjudicate

adroit

alibi

ambivalent

amble

ample

bamboozle

behemoth

beluga

bombastic

bouffant

bulbous

burgle

catastrophic

chortle

cohesive

confluence

connive

conundrum

cordial

cudgel

curmudgeon

deluge

dilapidated

dilapidated

discombobulate

divulge

Eskimo

facetious

fidget

finagle

flabbergasted

flagellum

fortuitous

furrow

galoshes

gargantuan

gratuitous

gregarious

hullaballoo

imbibe

implore

incarcerate

infiltrate

ingenious

Jacuzzi

kumquat

lackadaisical

loquacious

lugubrious

luminous

macadamia

machination

magnanimous

malignant

maniacal

menacing

miniscule

mukluk

nefarious

odoriferous

ostentatious

pandemonium

parabola

parsimonious

perfunctory

pilfer

pique

placate

plethora

protuberance

pulchritude

pungent

recalcitrant

reciprocate

regurgitate

robust

saunter

serendipitous

shabby

spatula

stamina

stupor

surreptitious

thwart

ubiquitous

vagabond

vagrant

voluptuous

(Sorry, the chart's format didn't translate into Blogger.)

These lists are stored in their individual writer’s notebooks, to which they add more words over the course of the school year.

            Another method for collecting cool words comes from Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge’s Poemcrazy (1996).  She suggests having a physical word pool that students can draw from when they need to find a word of inspiration.  And so my classes gave birth to Chuck three years ago.  Our “word chuck” is really just a black plastic bucket with duct tape patches where students, when they collect a word they deem worthy of sharing with the rest of the world, or at least their fellow classmates, write the word on the back of a raffle ticket and “feed” Chuck.  When feeling uninspired students pull out a handful of tickets to see if anything strikes their ignition spark.  Collecting words gives the students an opportunity to play with words in an isolated manner, without connection to anything else, helping them to see value in individual words.  When they start manipulating two or three or fourteen to create meaning, you can tell they start to get words.  Former students who fail to dodge me in the grocery store will still ask how Chuck is doing and if he has been fed lately.  It also allows them to develop unknown vocabulary in a nonthreatening way.

            Once students have a comfortable grasp of individual words and sounds and cadence, it’s time to put them together.  Again, I like to start on a basic level with tongue twisters.  Several resources are available online as well as in the children’s section of your local bookstore; however, my favorite is Dr. Seuss’ Fox in Sox.  Students roar as they witness how tied up I, the supposed word-guru, get when trying to demonstrate these delectably scrambled sentences.

            From there I move on to plays on words, an essential element to any type of humor.  Bring in comics, Laffy Taffy wrappers, joke books (Kazemek, 1999), especially anything that includes bad puns.  This low form of humor works on many levels (and could be used as a springboard for many other language artsy lessons like allusion or parody).  Chocolate Moose for Dinner (Gywnn, 1976), Olive, the Other Reindeer (Walsh, 1997), and the Amelia Bedelia series (Parish, 2003) are a perfect place to start regardless of whether you are working with first graders or freshmen.  Students enjoy reading and identifying them, but not as much as they do when they try to create them individually or collaboratively.  It could be used as non-fluffy extra credit, too.  They actually have to think about crafting language.  Hmmm…go figure!  My personal favorite is David Lubar’s Punished! because it includes puns, oxymorons, anagrams, and palindromes.  Making students aware of the absurdities of the English language heightens their awareness of rhetorical devices in “higher” forms of literature, speech, and writing—especially when you require them to include them in their writing assignments.  Unfortunately, it also results in a flood of bad Internet jokes in my inbox, too.

            Although by no means a new way to play, students love returning time and time again to the comforts of alliteration.  Again, a plethora (love that word) of resources exists such as Stan and Jan Berenstain’s The B Book (1971) or Nicholas Heller’s Ogres! Ogres! Ogres! A Feasting Frenzy from A to Z (1999) that illustrate effective uses of alliteration.  Now we’re going to pause again so you can write and play along.

            Take your first letter and come up with a line of alliteration.  Come up with at least ten words that start with your letter (sound).  Try fitting some of them together.  Now, take your second letter and create a line that could be included in the Ogre book or fit into another alliterated tale.  Try one more by creating a whole paragraph! Or even a story!  Yes, they should make sense.  Sometimes we’ll roll a letter die to determine the letter for the class.  Competition between groups or individual students brings out some amazing writing.  Here is an example I wrote while I was playing with my Central Utah Writing Project fellows:

“A Sudden Slayer Snuffing”

                The somewhat psychotic slayer slipped silently onto the sad scene.  Surreptitiously, she spied the sortie of zombies sipping and slurping slimy substances from something, or someone recently smothered and smashed and squished.

                Suddenly, she shouted. “Stop, you spleen suckers!”  Screaming sadistically, she sent a smattering of shotgun shells into their subhuman skulls.

                Stunned for second, the simple, slobbering subjects smiled stupidly.  Sammy the Slayer shortly shrieked in shock then slumped slowly.  Someone, or something, had circled, sneaked up, seized, and strangled her.

                Suppertime!

Other sound devices that could be addressed in similar fashion could include, but are not limited to consonance, assonance, rhyme, rhythm/meter, or repetition.

            Another student favorite is onomatopoeia.  Just saying the name of this technique brings smiles, if not giggles to everyone.  Go ahead and try saying it with a scowl.  Nope. I can’t do it either.  And that’s because sounds can inspire.  Let’s play some more together.  Choose one of the actions you listed in your pre-writing.  Reflect for a few moments.  (Put the article down again, if necessary.)  Now write the words for your activity sounds.  In other words, “onomatopoeiafy” your action.  Then play with the structure.  Rearrange images.   Use a thesaurus or a Chuck if you need help finding the right words.  String the ideas together to create a poem.  Here is one example I got lucky with when playing with sounds:

“For Zachary”

Not even

the crack-sing-smack-sting-

barehanded snag of a foul ball

while balancing a foot-long

with yellow mustard, onions

and sweet pickle relish,

nor the

sky-slash-earth-crash-

explosion of light and adrenaline

while lightning’s intensity charges each arm hair

through the double-paned window drizzle

and safety of four walls,

nor the

sit-back-deep-black-

deep thought expanse of infinite stars

while a dying fire toasts backsides

like perfectly golden marshmallows

slipped between grahams

is worth experiencing

without a son to pass it on.

            After the students have had some practice playing in a structured setting (with my guidance), I let them try to fly on their own.  I’ll provide word games to play and struggle with and conquer.  For beginners, or independent learners, word searches and crossword puzzles suffice.  I also like to divide them into groups to play board games such as Boggle, Scrabble, Mad Gab, Taboo, Scattergories, Bananagrams, or others.  If you stop and think about it, most decent board games are based on language and thinking.  Commercially produced grammar games such as Grammar Punk! Work as well if you can’t give up control of your classroom.

            Magnetic Poetry is also extremely popular.  I have several sets on a 4’x4’ whiteboard on one of my walls.  When students have free time, they congregate ad try to outdo each others’ creative endeavors.  They take possession of their creations and get upset when I don’t preserve the “masterpieces” from the manipulations of other class periods.  I even have them fooling around with the online version (http://kids.magpogames.com/createpoem.cfm?kit=4).  Go play if you need to for a minute.  I had to (again) as I was writing this article.  In about ten seconds, I actually came up with the phrase “winter window wish.”  There’s no way I would have come up with that unless I was just scrambling words around.  I have no need for it now, but it’ll probably make an appearance somewhere down the road.  It’s in my notebook.  Students also take advantage of these playful platforms to collect phrases and images to use in their writing later.  Writer’s notebooks fill up with ideas that they have conjured while simply playing.  Found poetry in its several forms also provides an arena for students to feel comfortable using others’ words, changing them, and making them their own.  Meaning is broken down, absorbed, re-created, and reproduced through simple play.

            In his book On Writing, Stephen King said, “When it’s on target, a simile delights us in much the same way meeting an old friend in a crowd of strangers does” (2001).  One of my personal recent favorite similes comes from the Travel Channel’s Man Versus Food.  At the end of one show, someone asks the host how hot the chicken wings were.  He responded, “It was like licking the sun.”  Similes, like any other literary device creates imagery that students love holding onto.  I like to point out particularly powerful ones as we read.  From Maniac Magee: “…screaming like an Aztec human sacrifice about to be tossed off a pyramid” (Spinelli, 1999).

            I could ramble on describing and sharing the different types of play my students engage in, but I think you get the idea, and I need to end.  However, before I do, I need to emphasize the most important aspect of play: modeling.  If you want your students to “think for themselves” and “savor words and language” (Haft et al.,1989), you have to play as well.  Apart from providing the time and the opportunity to play, you, as the teacher, have to provide the example.  Even in a safe environment, playing with words and creating silliness requires taking personal risks.  When students see our own processes while playing with words, when we as adults take risks in front of them, it helps to ease their stress levels and helps them to open up and let loose as well.  Playing will force students and teachers alike to step outside the boundaries of everyday discourse and strive for something more creative, more imaginative, more risky.  The irony, though, is that while this advanced word choice and construction occurs, the users feel more at ease because of the context of the discourse.  The structure of play allows and encourages taking risks.  It also has an “important role in the development of learners’ identities, mulitcompentent selves, and communicative repertoires” (Pomerantz & Bell, 2007, p. 575).  Fears break down, inhibitions about composition crumble, and students are empowered through the power of play.

References  (further readings and examples included)

Berenstain, S. and Berenstain, J. (1971). The b book. New York: Random House

Creech, S. (2001). Love that dog. New York: Scholastic, Inc.

Dermon, E. (1976). Potpourri. English Journal, 65(4), pp. 80-81.

Edgar, C. & Padgett, R. (1994). Educating the imagination: Essays and ideas for teachers and writers.

            New York: Teachers and Writers.

Figgins, M.A. & Johnson, J. (2007). Wordplay: The poem’s second language. English Journal, 96 (3), pp.

            29-35.

Garcia, M.B., Geiser, L., McCawley, C., Nilsen, A.P., Wolterbeck, E. (2007). Polysemy: A neglected

            concept in wordplay. English Journal, 96(3), pp.51-57.

Geisel, T. aka Dr. Seuss. (1965). Fox in Socks. New York: Beginner Books.

Graves, M.F. & Watts-Taffe, S. (2008). For the love of words: Fostering word consciousness in young

            readers. The Reading Teacher, 62 (3), pp. 185-193. doi: 10.1598/RT62.3.1

Gwynne, F. (1976). A Chocolate Moose for Dinner. New York: Aladdin.

Heller, N. (1999). Ogres! Ogres! Ogres! A Feasting Frenzy from A to Z. New York: Greenwillow Books.

Haft, S., Henderson, D., Witt, P.J., & Thomas, T. (Producers), & Weir, P. (Director). (1989). Dead poets

            society [Motion picture], United States: Buena Vista Home Entertainment.

Janeczko, P. (2005). A Kick in the Head. New York: Scholastic, Inc.

Kazemek, F.E. (1999). Why was the elephant late in getting on the ark? Elephant riddles and other jokes

            in the classroom. The Reading Teacher, 52(8), pp. 896-898.

King, S. (2001).On Writing. New York: Pocket

Koertge, R. (2003). Shakespeare Bats Cleanup. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Lubar, D. (1999). Pardon my French. The ALAN Review., 26(3), pp. 5-6.

Lubar, D. (2005). Punished! Plain City, OH: Darby Creek Publishing.

O’Neill, M. (1989). Hailstones and Halibut Bones. New York: Delacourte Press.

Parish, P. (2003). Amelia Bedelia Collection. New York: Greenwillow Books.

Pomerantz, A., & Bell, N.D. (2007). Learning to play: FL learners as multicompetent language users.

            Applied Linguistics, 28(4), pp. 556-578. doi: 10.1093/applin/amm044

Price, R. and Stern, L. (1996). Grab Bag Mad Libs. New York: Scholastic, Inc.

Pullman, P. (2005, January 22). Common sense has much to learn from moonshine. Guardian.        Retrieved from http://books.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,5109668-99819,00.html

Rex, M. (2009). Goodnight Goon. New York: Scholastic, Inc.

Riordan, R. (2005). The Lightning Thief. New York: Scholastic, Inc.

Shanley, R.W. (2007). Paradoxical oxymorons. English Journal, 96(3), pp. 12-14.

Spinelli, J. (1999). Maniac Magee. New York: Brown Books for Young Readers.

Stokes, J. (1978). Loony Limericks: From Alabama to Wyoming. Garden City, NY: Doubleday &     Company.

Walsh, V. (1997). Olive, the Other Reindeer. San Francisco: Chronicle.

Whitaker, S. (2008). Finding the joy of language in authentic wordplay. English Journal, 97(4), pp. 45-

            48.

Wooldridge, S.G. (1996). Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life with Words. New York: Three Rivers Press.

Biographical Sketch:

            Joe Anson is not only a lover of words, he is a father, husband, baseball fan and teacher as well.  He teaches English to seventh and ninth graders at Spanish Fork Jr. High.  When he is not grading homework or doing his own homework (he is currently working to finish an Ed.D.) he likes to read, cook, play with his kids, listen to music and find cool new words.  His favorite word at the moments is cantankerous.

More "Fun" with Sound

Honestly, this one is just plain annoying, but it drives home the point that words and rhythm have lasting power.  Sometimes, no matter how hard or how long you try to pry the demons from your head, the words and their significance (or at least their cadence) stick around for a while.

Have the students share other songs, jingles, phrases, etc. that get "stuck" in their heads.  Then turn them loose into other teachers' classrooms.  Heh heh.  Playing came serve multiple purposes.  Thanks, Rillene.  Payback can be fun!

More Playing with Sound

Here's one of my students' favorite examples when we play with the sounds of everyday words.  And it is completely blubber free. 

No individuals, Potteresque or otherwise were harmed while borrowing this clip from Neil Cicierega and YouTUbe.  Try having your students come up with some sort of cadence that is created by names or words that reveal details about character or theme.  It can get pretty interesting.

Macadamia!

I've been thinking about writing up an article based on my presentation from March 19, 2011.  And because I'm in that mindset, I thought I'd try embedding this video.

Stay tuned for the article.

My Rough Ideas about Literacy

Well, as promised, for good or ill, here is the response I wrote to the given prompt.  Note that I don't think is complete...just a few thoughts for discussion.  Thanks also to the three of you who responded.  Please feel free to put in your two cents.  And if you don't agree, don't worry; I won't rip your limbs off or boil you in your own juices or even un-friend you on Facebook.  I'm just looking for a conversation.  Also note that this was originally written about eight or ten days ago.

What is literacy? What are all of the sub-components of literacy? What is reading? What is writing? How would you characterize or recognize a ‘literate’ person? Please describe a ‘literate’ person that you know.

As a language arts teacher, I didn’t want to botch this since traditionally people think about reading and writing when it comes to literacy.  I’ve honestly been percolating this post for a few days, and I guess I just have to spit it out now.

Literacy, in my humble opinion goes beyond simple readin’ and writin’ at an eighth grade level.  It’s more than just getting through high school written exams, or even doing all the assigned reading in college.  Literacy is about making meaning.  When you read, you take in somebody else’s ideas, add them to your own schema, and create new understanding.  Writing takes your own ideas and communicates them (in some form of media) through careful crafting (at least we hope it’s done well) so that someone else can connect and create understanding in line with our intended message.

However, literacy and being literate goes beyond traditionalist definitions of these concepts.  Literacy also implies being able to navigate a certain set of parameters specific to a given context regardless of the medium in which it is performed.   For example, it seems that more and more in order to survive in this world, you have to be computer (or Internet) literate.  You have to be able to use the system as it was designed with all of its terminologies, etiquettes, and protocols.  Survival requires constant learning and adapting to new developments in this field.  More information is disseminated from online platforms now.  Since I’ve started my graduate work at USU in 2006, I’ve learned three different systems—the first one I don’t remember what it was called, then Blackboard, and now Canvas.  My dad, who is an extremely literate person in certain areas, has come to me and my sister to learn social platforms and video sharing sites because his boss wants his employees to be able to connect to the younger generation.  What does he do?  Plan the logistics of bus and train routes.

With the push for more literacy in various fields, a literate person is more than your typical well-read book nerd or Trivial Pursuit champion.  A person who is well-rounded and can make and interpret multiple modes of communication in multiple settings would be a literate person.  In a real-time example, you need to have someone who has experience with classical and modern literature, politics, art, pop culture, sports, and just about anything else.  A literate person is not only book smart but has practical knowledge.  As I am literate in YA literature, baseball, and grilling steaks, I still need to contact someone who is Hyundai literate when my car acts up.

In a more focused setting, such as my classroom, I focus on literacy through reading and writing; however, I still use multi-modality in my teaching.  Graphic novels, photo essays, online discussions, and other forms of new literacies are starting to come alive.  As fast as I can learn them, I like to incorporate different genres and media with my students so those who may not be strong or comfortable using one form of literacy may be able to create (or understand) in another form of literacy.  I’ve read some of Thomas Newkirk, Ralph Fletcher, and others’ works that emphasize needing to head this direction, especially with boys and nontraditional learners; but I’d like to learn more about this.  I’ve heard of the New London Group and their push for incorporating multiple literacies in learning, but I still have yet to dig in.

And herein lies my problem with multiple literacies.  There are more literacies than can be learned by any one person any more.  In order for me to stay afloat in what I do, I have become a Joe-of-all-trades, Master-of-None so I can keep my fingers in all the pots.   And keeping with my mixed metaphors, there are just too many pots, and I haven’t learned how to grow new fingers yet.

I could probably discuss literacy for days, or at least hours without coming up for air, but I digress.  In summary, literacy is not a simple matter.  It’s a good thing we have a whole semester to discuss it.

What is Literacy?

Yes, I realize that it's been nearly a month since I've written, so I've decided to try an interactive post of sorts.  Since I've started back up with the Ed.D. assignments, I've been doing quite a bit of thinking, reading, reflecting, etc. that have kept me from posting more regularly.  Of course I'm familiar with the bit about good intentions and pavement, so I'll just skip all that guilt crap, although I will have some more interesting posts when I can buy a minute or two of my life back.  (Don't ask, "What life?").  Really.  I have a few things from my classroom to share. I might even use pictures.  For now, quit bellyachin' and be content that there's actually something new here.

I'd really appreciate for all of you (yes, all four) to join in this conversation.  I recently addressed an anticipatory prompt in my Theories and Models of Literacy class the following:

What is literacy? What are all the sub-components of literacy? What is reading? What is writing? How would you characterize a literate person? Please describe a "literate" person that you know.

In a few days, I will post my response.  In the meantime, I'd like to hear what you have to say.  This generated quite a good conversation on the discussion boards.  Honestly, I am interested to hear your thoughts and opinions.  Don't worry, there is no one right answer, there will be no quiz on Friday either.

Please just post your thoughts as a comment; or I guess, if you are too shy, you could email them to me. You don't even have to address the entire prompt; a neat little slice would suffice.  Thanks.

P.S.  Yes, I know I could do this on the English Ning, but this is more intimate.  No super weirdos (unless you count me).

Hands

A couple weeks ago I went with a few colleagues to The Literacy Promise, a conference in SLC.  Most of the sessions were enjoyable, but one that I went to stood out to me.  Those of you who teach English should know who Penny Kittle is.  If not, repent immediately and go purchase, read, annotate, and devour a couple of her books.

Her session addresses using writer’s notebooks in the classroom.  A short lesson in revision struck a chord with me, and I’ve decided to share it with you.  By the way, if any of you in the area get a chance to attend The Literacy Promise (held every two years), it is worth the cost.  Get your administrators to spring for the registration in April 0f 2014.

Anyway, as my friend Nacho says, “Anywhays…”…

Penny started before her session by graciously chatting with me about a few teachery writing-type things.  And she signed my book.  I am such a geek!

This particular segment started as she passed out a copy of Sarah Kay’s poem “Hands,” which we then watched the author perform via YouTube.  Check her other stuff out as well.

We were asked to annotate the poem as we read it through the second time.  We traced our hands—not to make Thanksgiving turkeys, mind you, but to give connect us to our past.  We brainstormed any connections we had to our “Hands” annotations, as well as any other images, stories, etc. that came from our hands.  We, in five minutes, circled words and phrases, jotted noted, drew diagrams, vomited our ideas onto paper.

She then gave us an additional five to choose one point from the mess before us and start writing an anecdote about it.

We stopped mid-idea.

And then we had to revise what we had barely eked out of our pens as quickly as we could (two minutes).

Then we turned and talked to a neighbor, not about our stories, although it was what came naturally, but about what we revised, how we revised.  Here I go flashing my geekdom, but I rather enjoyed that little chat with my pal Cassie.  In those two minutes, I saw my revision process as I never had before.  I was systematic; there was a method to my clichéd madness.

Now, I’m not going to go in depth with my geeky revelations, but I thought I might share that process with the few that have ventured this far.  I tried this activity with my 9^th graders…and it worked.  Of course, I extended their time.  And the best part by far was the conversation generated by them about their processes.  Whole-class discussion was mediocre, but what occurred between braced faces and zits was almost magic.  Almost.

So I guess I’ll share my product-somewhat revised, even though it’s not what you’re looking for:

 

                When Amy and I were first engaged she would always gush to her girlfriends how much she loved holding my hands.  She’d yank me over and showcase my palms and knuckles like I was some kind of livestock.  Some might have been offended, but I didn’t mind.

Until then I had never really thought about my thick, gnarly, knuckle-popped sausage-finger hands: the hands that couldn’t type quickly without inserting invented letters into words; hands that couldn’t quite coordinate themselves to play the piano with any semblance of finesse; hands that didn’t have much mechanical dexterity other than a death grip of a vice.

My hands, the chunks of flesh that survived pocketknives and scout camp, electric shocks, and even meat slicers; the hooks of flesh madeover with scars and burns, scratches and stings, paper cuts too infinite to count, the knuckles bent and bruised and bloody and busted (and probably broken at one point or another)—are no big deal.

They’re just my hands.

Just my hands—smeared with ink and nervous sweat as they fumble to keep other smaller, more delicate hands close and safe from monsters under the bed, and first days of school and overly obnoxious barking neighbor dogs.

But when the human stock show closed, and we walked away, my fingers interlaced with hers, I knew my hands, though not too pretty to look at, just needed to be good enough.

I might turn it into a poem.  Whaddya think?

Found Poetry?

There comes a time in every book’s life—every book that has been loved—that is, where decomposition becomes inevitable. And more frequent is the case when you own a classroom library where hordes of seventh graders teeming with pent up, book-destroying energy pillage and plunder because they don’t have access to many books at home, they’re too lazy to go to the library by themselves, or I just happen to have shelves of freaking awesome books. Remorsefully, I have to “put down” several books each year. And unfortunately, those put out to pasture are, more often than not, those that are in highest demand.

Most teachers would tearfully bury each work in the recycle bin, sigh, and mope for a day or two until the next book orders arrive. Not me. I like to make use of the remnants of the shredded pages. I use them to teach with: lessons on voice, imagery, dialogue; the list goes on. Recently, one of the ways I have used these adulterated pages is through found poetry. I first discovered found poetry in a teaching reading methods class several years ago (Thanks, Dr. G) and used it frequently when I first started teaching. Then someone (or lots of someones) in the lower grades abused this awesome technique until my students had been beaten to death with it (along with haiku, PowerPoint, DOL, etc.).

But found poetry is a chance for students to play. And I like to play. With words.

So, for those of you unfamiliar with this technique, let me quickly explain the steps.

1. Give the students a block of text from something already published. Novels with beautiful similes, metaphors, personification, and other rhetorical devices work wondrously well. I let them use a page from a novel (front and back).

2. Have them circle any and all cool words or phrases that stand out to them. They don’t have to be big words, just ones that pop off the page at them. Hint: pages with a lot of names are more difficult to use, as are tables of contents or other copyright pages.

3. Rewrite the list on a separate sheet of paper.

4. Rearrange the words and phrases to construct a poem with new meaning. Key: the new poem does NOT have to be similar to the content of the original page. In fact, it’s better if it doesn’t.

5. You can add small words, change tense or number, delete parts, whatever. Get the students to manipulate the words to make sense. Have them play with punctuation and form.

6. Add a thought-provoking title.

7. Share. Publish.

Below is an example I did in front of my 7^th grade students yesterday. My words were found in Louis Sachar’s Holes (pgs. 85-86).

Original word list:

laughed

from a can

come to him next

didn’t even want it

trouble

sure to come back

unclear

spilled

after

it all happened very fast

sorry

approaching

wrong place

wrong time

bury

unthinkable

flies

unearthed

empty

stole

Here is what came from my excavation:

“Repentance”

it all

happened

fast—

wrong place,

wrong time—

unthinkable moment

approaching

sorry.

don’t

want trouble

to come back

thirsty

I’d like to see what you can do. Use my word list, or come up with one of your own. You don’t even have to obliterate a book to do it. Attach your creation here so I can share and you can say that you’ve published a poem. Maybe there will be prizes!