If there was ever a good time for someone to use an inappropriate word, like the n word, I guess it would be when you we're learning how to write and perform spoken word poetry. I don't mean that there is ever an appropriate time to use the n word, but what I do mean is that our words have power, and this can provide us with an opportunity to learn and grow. The more I learn about spoken word, the more I have come to understand that a great piece has the power to transform our perspective, and speak out against social injustice.
The power of our words, social injustice, and service to others can all come together when helping students to create spoken word poems. These are big ideas and take several lessons, even weeks to weave together, which is exactly what we're attempting to do with our ArtsSmarts grant from the Saskatchewan Arts Board. I see myself as the person who will lay the solid foundation of learning for our poet artist, Jordan Schultz.
Several weeks ago it came to my attention that someone in our class used the n word. I investigated and came to the conclusion that some of my students do not understand the power of the word, nor the history behind it. On a superficial level, they understand that the word is a no-no, but they are 11-13 year old children who do not have enough of an understanding of history to comprehend the pain this word inflicts. In fact, they hear it in music all the time, which seems to have created confusion.
The aim of our project is to create accepting and tolerant communities where we all see the value of other cultures, so this is teachable moment #1. I went searching on the internet for lessons on teaching about the power of our words. I came across a great website by the National Aboriginal Health Council. They have posted three lessons on bullying, and I used the last lesson on the power of words. Here is the lesson that I used:
If you read through the lesson you can see that the aim is to have students become more in tune with how it feels to say mean things as well as good things. As a teacher, it felt strange to have the students look into each others eyes and say, "You're an idiot, and no one likes you." It was also strange to have them write mean sentences on a paper and pass it on. I really had to encourage them to write and pass the paper on because it seemed so unusual to our regular school work. I really like the way these lessons unfold, and I do believe that they get the point across.
I tied this lesson into the story about the 13 year old Saskatchewan girl who wore the hoodie Got Land? Thank an Indian to school. After the news story broke, her Facebook page was flooded with mean and racist comments. After doing these lessons and using this news article as a foundation for our discussion, the students came to understand the power of words. They came to see themselves as having the ability to make a person's day brighter or more tortured. A pleasant side effect of this article was that the students were enraged that this girl was bullied about her hoodie. So now we have many of the ingredients for a great spoken word poem: an understanding of the power or words, a story that has sparked an outrage - a passion to speak out. We have also been learning about descriptive writing and poetry techniques such as alliteration and repetition. Now they just need time to write, and time to hang out with Jordan to work their pieces and find their voices.
As for the n word - we have gone briefly into the history, and after this project I can see that reading a book like Underground to Canada might be the next adventure.
Once again I have to thank The Saskatchewan Arts Board for their funding and support. Without their funding we would not have the help of the artists to tie this learning together into something meaningful and memorable. We are planting seeds that will take root now and influence over a lifetime.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Flashlight readers
When I was a kid I couldn't read. The letters and words were a jumble on the page. I'm sure looking back now that I must have had an undiagnosed learning disability. When I was in grade one, I resisted learning to read and write. I left my homework at school and lied to my parents about having homework. Eventually my teacher contacted my parents and I had mountains of catch up to do. To me, reading was hard and something of no value. I resisted learning because it was so hard and I didn't see any kind of a pay out in it for me.
I remember "reading" my take home reading books to my mom. She had four kids all under the age of five, and I was the oldest. Whenever I had to read to her she was always ironing, folding laundry, or doing something. She would listen and help me if needed. I never read. She might have thought I was reading because I made it sound like I was. I didn't make up stories and breeze through the books - I would have been caught. Instead I read and stumbled along. I pretended to sound out words and I fooled her night after night.
My resistance to reading continued on into grade five. I know it was grade five because I can remember having to do a report on vikings and trying to use an encyclopedia. I pretty much copied that report word for word because I couldn't read well enough to understand what the encyclopedia said. I see the same resistance in my own son, who is seven. He has an amazing memory and would rather memorize every word than read it. This leads to guessing based on the context of the story and the first and second letter of each word. He doesn't want to sound words out because to him that's not reading, and it's not fun.
Eventually I became a prolific reader. The summer before grade six my mom made me a deal. She said she'd pay me a dollar for every book I read. Now a days that would probably be more like ten dollars so it was a sweet deal for me. The first book I read was Ms. P. and Me. It was a thin chapter book with bigger print. I had to tell my mom the story and then she gave me a dollar. It wasn't all that painful because I liked the story and I liked retelling it to someone who seemed interested. The next book I read was Misty. I loved that book because I connected with the main character because she wanted a puppy so bad that she bought one and kept it at a neighbor's house. It was a pretty easy way to earn another dollar. And on it went all summer. I devoured one book after another telling my mother about the stories and earning a dollar a book. After a while I didn't even care about the dollar because I had developed a love for reading.
I eventually read my way to The Outsiders, which led to That Was Then, This is Now, and Tex. I started talking to my friends about books and swapping books with them. I received The Amityville Horror from Angie and would stay up late in the night reading and rereading that book because I loved the feeling of being scared stiff.
Katerine Paterson said,
I remember "reading" my take home reading books to my mom. She had four kids all under the age of five, and I was the oldest. Whenever I had to read to her she was always ironing, folding laundry, or doing something. She would listen and help me if needed. I never read. She might have thought I was reading because I made it sound like I was. I didn't make up stories and breeze through the books - I would have been caught. Instead I read and stumbled along. I pretended to sound out words and I fooled her night after night.
My resistance to reading continued on into grade five. I know it was grade five because I can remember having to do a report on vikings and trying to use an encyclopedia. I pretty much copied that report word for word because I couldn't read well enough to understand what the encyclopedia said. I see the same resistance in my own son, who is seven. He has an amazing memory and would rather memorize every word than read it. This leads to guessing based on the context of the story and the first and second letter of each word. He doesn't want to sound words out because to him that's not reading, and it's not fun.
Eventually I became a prolific reader. The summer before grade six my mom made me a deal. She said she'd pay me a dollar for every book I read. Now a days that would probably be more like ten dollars so it was a sweet deal for me. The first book I read was Ms. P. and Me. It was a thin chapter book with bigger print. I had to tell my mom the story and then she gave me a dollar. It wasn't all that painful because I liked the story and I liked retelling it to someone who seemed interested. The next book I read was Misty. I loved that book because I connected with the main character because she wanted a puppy so bad that she bought one and kept it at a neighbor's house. It was a pretty easy way to earn another dollar. And on it went all summer. I devoured one book after another telling my mother about the stories and earning a dollar a book. After a while I didn't even care about the dollar because I had developed a love for reading.
I eventually read my way to The Outsiders, which led to That Was Then, This is Now, and Tex. I started talking to my friends about books and swapping books with them. I received The Amityville Horror from Angie and would stay up late in the night reading and rereading that book because I loved the feeling of being scared stiff.
Katerine Paterson said,
“It is not enough to simply teach children to read;
we have to give them something worth reading.
Something that will stretch their imaginations-
something that will help them make sense of their own lives
and encourage them to reach out toward people
whose lives are quite different from their own.”
we have to give them something worth reading.
Something that will stretch their imaginations-
something that will help them make sense of their own lives
and encourage them to reach out toward people
whose lives are quite different from their own.”
Paterson is a also credited with saying that we need to create flashlight readers instead of stoplight readers. When I first heard this it made me think of me, as a kid, reading in the middle of the night and hoping that my parents wouldn't catch me.
When I first became a teacher I loved to read childrens books just so that I could use them in the classroom. When creating thematic cross-curricular units, I always wanted a great story to bring it all together. A great book can help you wind curriculum connect together and get kids thinking on so many different levels. It can help open and build great discussion, and it helps us to see different perspectives and different view points.
I remember one beautiful summer evening when my husband, who is also a teacher, stayed up in the loft of the cabin all night long. I called up and asked what he was doing, and he told me he was reading Loser by Jerry Spinelli. He read it in one sitting. After that kind of marathon reading I HAD to read it too. Another night he read Holes by Louis Sachar in an entire sitting. This made me have to read it as well. We used to spend a lot of time reading kids' books, sharing, discussing, and getting excited to read with our students. That was at least five years ago and I can tell you that we don't read kids books anymore - unless it is to our own children.
Many of you know what has changed. The curriculum now only allows for the reading of one novel study per year. The Ministry and divisions push leveled reading and the testing of reading. Reading has now become all about strategies and grade levels. In my 15 years as a teacher I have watched this shift happen and I find it deeply disturbing. At some point we have forgotten that reading should be enjoyable. We have become a system that is creating stoplight readers who don't ever become flashlight readers.
As a teacher I feel my autonomy to make decisions based on my own expertise and experiences has been thwarted. I now read in small groups, small little guided reading books, at scheduled times. I spend hours and hours testing kids on their reading. But I don't see kids who love reading. I see kids who see it as a mechanical process - another boring task that has to be stroked off of the daily schedule.
I miss the days of reading great books, of developing a passion for books with kids. I used to catch kids and make them readers. I loved those days. We can have reading strategies out the wazoo, but if kids don't see value to reading, why would they read? I long for the days that the pendulum swings back and we decide that reading great books with kids, and building a love for reading is the "new direction." I hope for the sake of all children that we come around to seeing that we should be creating flashlight readers.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Exploring a foreign world
Hip hop, graffiti, rap; it's the stuff of movies, music videos, and part of a world that seems foreign to many of us. Many people have biases about the culture of graffiti, rap, and to some extent hip hop. They may see it as "thug" activity, and chose to learn little about the history or cultural influence of these genres.
Last year I applied for and received a TreatySmarts grant through the Saskatchewan Arts Board. During our project we touched on graffiti and hip hop as we delved into Spoken Word. I was fascinated with the "free wall" behind White Buffalo Youth Lodge and somewhat surprised that a person could paint so beautifully with a spray can. It tested my biases about the quality of artistic work in the graffiti world.
We were able to work with Amanda Murray, hip hop dancer for a brief afternoon. Her robotic moves were so slick and cool that I wished that we could have spent a lot more time learning the art of hip hop.
This year I applied for an Arts Smarts grant, also through the Saskatchewan Arts Board. We were successful in our application and started out the new year working with three artists to explore rap, graffiti, and hip hop. Jordan Shultz is a spoken word artist who works with ordinary household items to create rhythms to go with his pieces. Mike Mirlin is a dance instructor at Georges Vanier School, here in Saskatoon. He will be our hip hop guru. Pavlo Isak is a graffiti mural artist who got his start in grade seven, and just to challenge everyone's assumptions right off the bat, I can tell you that Isak is currently doing his residency at the University Hospital in oncology. That's right, he'll soon be a doctor.
Throughout the project we hope to explore culture, the globalization of culture, how culture is expressed through the arts, and how culture is expressed through the hip hop, graffiti, and rap/spoken word.
Last week was the first week that our students were able to meet the artists and begin work with them. In that short time, we've already explored the music of Stomp, created our own short hip hop dance pieces, and learned a brief history of graffiti.
Dianne Goulet, our grade eight teacher, and I have met numerous times to map out the direction of our project and the various starting points for the three pillars. We decided to start by asking a few essential questions: What is globalization? What is culture and how do I express it? Is graffiti art or vandalism?
We had the students view two videos on globalization. Find the link here and here. Students jotted a few notes during the video and then afterward we mind mapped our knew knowledge. We viewed a powerpoint on graffiti that asked the question is graffiti art or vandalism. Most students decided that it depends on the location, if permission is granted, and on what the subject material is. We had students try to establish a definition of culture and to define their own culture. This was hard for many of the students who were born and raised in Canada - they felt like they had no culture. I suspected this would happen and plan to find ways to get the students to see that they have their own cultural biases and therefore do not realize that their way of life is not the way that all children around the world experience life.
The artists have all been in to work with the kids. Pavlo came in and spoke the the students last week about his start to graffiti and showed them his work. We had a provocative discussion about tagging, aliases, free walls, the underground nature of graffiti, and the reasons why someone tags or graffiti paints. Before his visit, our students participated in the One Word project. We had them come up with one word that described them and explain why that world defined them. At first we thought the world should be a virtue and that creatively spelling it would help to make it more of an interesting alias. This was a difficult task for many kids, I think because many of them have limited vocabularies - they are only 11 to 13 years old. The students then attempted to create a tag from their name. Pavlo instructed them on letter style, proportions, and how to work into 3D. It was a great session. The only down side so far has been that I've had a parent question our judgement in encouraging kids to tag and graffiti. I can see how some might make the assumption that if you learn about something, you are encouraging kids to do it. We are, for the record, not endorsing the tagging of schools, private or public property at all. We are encouraging kids to learn about ideas and issues outside of their own world, to form opinions, develop a moral compass, and to seek to understand before judging. I believe that looking at a bigger picture is where the good learning happens, and it's the exciting part of my job.
Mike came in twice last week and had the kids doing cool robotic moves on the first day, and collaborative pieces on the second day. I walked into the grade 8 session and was blown away by all of the student engagement. I did not see one student hanging back. It was awesome. My class was a bit of another story. I have a few shy kids in my class, as well as a few students who are struggling to get along with each other. My hope would be that I will see the most amount of growth in self esteem and getting along with each other in my room. I had a few kids that just didn't want to participate and in my mind, I debated what to do with them. I think that I will allow them to sit and watch, but from opposite ares of the rooms so that their power is as diffused as possible. Mike will be back today, and I am looking forward to seeing in which direction he will go today.
Jordan has come to work with our students three times now. The first two sessions were mostly about finding beats and drama games to get the kids warmed up and comfortable. In some ways, poetry is where you are the most vulnerable. When you read your poetry to others, the spot light is right on you. It's probably more scary to some than dancing or the graffiti art. I hope that the positive experience that many had with the spoken word project last year helps them to open up and dig in more quickly. I do have to say that creating music with the kids has been fun and rewarding. It wouldn't seem like making a good sound with a plastic jar of dried peas, a pack of markers, and a bottle half full of water would turn out well, but it really did. For the last session, we had kids make poems ahead of time to share and work on with Jordan. They were awful. Almost embarrassing, but it was my fault. I didn't give them enough time and I did no pre-teaching. I did learn that I will have to do some work on poetry writing and descriptive writing before we can dig into the meat of the project. The poetry writing may be one of the harder tasks. I have a large class, and conferencing with each student takes a long time. Somehow Jordan and I will need to break the students into smaller groups so that meeting with them in smaller groups is more manageable.
As I write this blog, I realize just how much we have covered in the last week and a half. There is so much to cover that it seems like we've only scratched the surface.
On Friday, our project team and community supporters will have a planning meeting in the morning, and then all three artists will work with our kids in the afternoon. I think that the kids will be treated to turn tables and rap. There will also be a documentary maker out to document the project for the Arts Board, which is an exciting honor.
So we will continue to explore the foreign world of hip hop, graffiti, and rap. The kids will also be exploring culture and cultural expression in other parts of the world, like the Pacific Rim and Canada. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but it will be good work, and exciting to help develop and watch unfold.
Follow our class on twitter @StAnne6_7Class
I want to thank the Saskatchewan Arts Board for their support as well as to acknowledge their sponsors:
The Saskatchewan Arts Board is governed by The Arts Board Act, 1997, and funded by the Government of Saskatchewan through the Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport, with additional support from the Saskatchewan Lotteries Trust Fund for Sport, Culture and Recreation as a result of the Arts Board's partnership with SaskCulture Inc.
Last year I applied for and received a TreatySmarts grant through the Saskatchewan Arts Board. During our project we touched on graffiti and hip hop as we delved into Spoken Word. I was fascinated with the "free wall" behind White Buffalo Youth Lodge and somewhat surprised that a person could paint so beautifully with a spray can. It tested my biases about the quality of artistic work in the graffiti world.
We were able to work with Amanda Murray, hip hop dancer for a brief afternoon. Her robotic moves were so slick and cool that I wished that we could have spent a lot more time learning the art of hip hop.
This year I applied for an Arts Smarts grant, also through the Saskatchewan Arts Board. We were successful in our application and started out the new year working with three artists to explore rap, graffiti, and hip hop. Jordan Shultz is a spoken word artist who works with ordinary household items to create rhythms to go with his pieces. Mike Mirlin is a dance instructor at Georges Vanier School, here in Saskatoon. He will be our hip hop guru. Pavlo Isak is a graffiti mural artist who got his start in grade seven, and just to challenge everyone's assumptions right off the bat, I can tell you that Isak is currently doing his residency at the University Hospital in oncology. That's right, he'll soon be a doctor.
Throughout the project we hope to explore culture, the globalization of culture, how culture is expressed through the arts, and how culture is expressed through the hip hop, graffiti, and rap/spoken word.
Last week was the first week that our students were able to meet the artists and begin work with them. In that short time, we've already explored the music of Stomp, created our own short hip hop dance pieces, and learned a brief history of graffiti.
Dianne Goulet, our grade eight teacher, and I have met numerous times to map out the direction of our project and the various starting points for the three pillars. We decided to start by asking a few essential questions: What is globalization? What is culture and how do I express it? Is graffiti art or vandalism?
We had the students view two videos on globalization. Find the link here and here. Students jotted a few notes during the video and then afterward we mind mapped our knew knowledge. We viewed a powerpoint on graffiti that asked the question is graffiti art or vandalism. Most students decided that it depends on the location, if permission is granted, and on what the subject material is. We had students try to establish a definition of culture and to define their own culture. This was hard for many of the students who were born and raised in Canada - they felt like they had no culture. I suspected this would happen and plan to find ways to get the students to see that they have their own cultural biases and therefore do not realize that their way of life is not the way that all children around the world experience life.
The artists have all been in to work with the kids. Pavlo came in and spoke the the students last week about his start to graffiti and showed them his work. We had a provocative discussion about tagging, aliases, free walls, the underground nature of graffiti, and the reasons why someone tags or graffiti paints. Before his visit, our students participated in the One Word project. We had them come up with one word that described them and explain why that world defined them. At first we thought the world should be a virtue and that creatively spelling it would help to make it more of an interesting alias. This was a difficult task for many kids, I think because many of them have limited vocabularies - they are only 11 to 13 years old. The students then attempted to create a tag from their name. Pavlo instructed them on letter style, proportions, and how to work into 3D. It was a great session. The only down side so far has been that I've had a parent question our judgement in encouraging kids to tag and graffiti. I can see how some might make the assumption that if you learn about something, you are encouraging kids to do it. We are, for the record, not endorsing the tagging of schools, private or public property at all. We are encouraging kids to learn about ideas and issues outside of their own world, to form opinions, develop a moral compass, and to seek to understand before judging. I believe that looking at a bigger picture is where the good learning happens, and it's the exciting part of my job.
Mike came in twice last week and had the kids doing cool robotic moves on the first day, and collaborative pieces on the second day. I walked into the grade 8 session and was blown away by all of the student engagement. I did not see one student hanging back. It was awesome. My class was a bit of another story. I have a few shy kids in my class, as well as a few students who are struggling to get along with each other. My hope would be that I will see the most amount of growth in self esteem and getting along with each other in my room. I had a few kids that just didn't want to participate and in my mind, I debated what to do with them. I think that I will allow them to sit and watch, but from opposite ares of the rooms so that their power is as diffused as possible. Mike will be back today, and I am looking forward to seeing in which direction he will go today.
Jordan has come to work with our students three times now. The first two sessions were mostly about finding beats and drama games to get the kids warmed up and comfortable. In some ways, poetry is where you are the most vulnerable. When you read your poetry to others, the spot light is right on you. It's probably more scary to some than dancing or the graffiti art. I hope that the positive experience that many had with the spoken word project last year helps them to open up and dig in more quickly. I do have to say that creating music with the kids has been fun and rewarding. It wouldn't seem like making a good sound with a plastic jar of dried peas, a pack of markers, and a bottle half full of water would turn out well, but it really did. For the last session, we had kids make poems ahead of time to share and work on with Jordan. They were awful. Almost embarrassing, but it was my fault. I didn't give them enough time and I did no pre-teaching. I did learn that I will have to do some work on poetry writing and descriptive writing before we can dig into the meat of the project. The poetry writing may be one of the harder tasks. I have a large class, and conferencing with each student takes a long time. Somehow Jordan and I will need to break the students into smaller groups so that meeting with them in smaller groups is more manageable.
As I write this blog, I realize just how much we have covered in the last week and a half. There is so much to cover that it seems like we've only scratched the surface.
On Friday, our project team and community supporters will have a planning meeting in the morning, and then all three artists will work with our kids in the afternoon. I think that the kids will be treated to turn tables and rap. There will also be a documentary maker out to document the project for the Arts Board, which is an exciting honor.
So we will continue to explore the foreign world of hip hop, graffiti, and rap. The kids will also be exploring culture and cultural expression in other parts of the world, like the Pacific Rim and Canada. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but it will be good work, and exciting to help develop and watch unfold.
Follow our class on twitter @StAnne6_7Class
I want to thank the Saskatchewan Arts Board for their support as well as to acknowledge their sponsors:
The Saskatchewan Arts Board is governed by The Arts Board Act, 1997, and funded by the Government of Saskatchewan through the Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport, with additional support from the Saskatchewan Lotteries Trust Fund for Sport, Culture and Recreation as a result of the Arts Board's partnership with SaskCulture Inc.
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