Pre-Writing

When I get a writing assignment, I cannot get it out of my head. I mull over what to write every day. It occupies me when I am driving, walking, shopping, all the time (I am not kidding!). I do not necessarily pre-write my ideas, but rather think about ideas.  I know I have found the right topic, when I think about the topic and it feels right.  If an idea does not feel right, I immediately dismiss it. I am a strong believer in listening to my heart, in all aspects of my life.  I could not write something wholeheartedly, if I feel reticent, for it then becomes a struggle.

For example, we have an assignment for our Children’s Literature class. We have to pick a genre in children’s literature, research it, and write a paper on the research, followed by a paper in which we write an original piece of writing in the style of the genre we picked. I have been struggling since we were told about the assignment, on which genre to pick.  An ABC book would be fun to do, but I feel I would be taking the easy way out.  I also was thinking of doing a picture book. Which child does not love to listen to a story and follow along with the pictures? Even as an adult, I enjoy reading them and listening to them being read.  So what makes me go back to poetry all the time? I am not good at writings poems at all. If anything, my poems are childish and awkward in character.  I do not like to read adult poetry. It is all gabberdiegook to me. It intimidates me, and I always find my intellect lacking for not being able to understand what the poet is trying to convey.  However, I LOVE children’s poetry! I love the play on words, the humor, the rhythm, the nonsense words, and the way the words are arranged on the page.  I don’t only love to read poetry to children, but I love to write poetry with children.  I remember one instance, where we wrote a poem on “Fall”.  Each child would give me one word that described Fall.  This resulted in a beautiful descriptive poem that we hung up in the classroom, and which the children often read.  This example is what made me decide to do pick poetry as my research topic.

I make sure I have my sources printed, read, and highlighted. Then I do my pre-writing, which for me is more of a ‘free-write’. During this free-write I do not worry about the quotes, but I concentrate on what I want to say in my paper. It is a big mumbo-jumbo, sort of a mess. But when I am finished and I read what I free-wrote, the message of what I want to say comes out loud and clear.  This free-write gives me focus. It tells me what my angle is, and gives me clarity on how I want to organize my paper. The thinking part and the free write are actually my two favorite parts of writing, for I do not need to worry about topic sentences, the correct punctuation or the dreaded thesis sentence. This free write is just for me!

Now that I found my topic and did my free write, it is time to start with the ‘real’ work. I am actually looking forward to writing about children’s poetry, and I am even more looking forward to writing some poems myself. I am already thinking about it!

A Post About Writing

Writing. I dread it and I love it. “How can that be?”, you ask. Easy: I love it when I can express something in exactly the way I want to, and I dread it because this does not happen too often. Combine that with the fact that English is my third language, and you can see why I am so conflicted about writing.

My children, who are 20 and 22, are wonderful writers. They have an enormous vocabulary, and their sentences flow beautifully. They sound so smart, for their arguments are detailed and concise and they know how to get their points across with the fewest possible words.  They have an arsenal of words at their disposal that they can use at the most opportune times.  Their writings are well thought out and elegant. They make writing look so easy!

Then there is me. I stumble and trip as I write. I struggle to find the right words to express my opinion, which frustrates me to no end, for I love words! I love how one word can encompass so much.  For example, the word ‘elaborate’: with this one word I can describe something that is full of detail, and meticulously constructed.  One word. Or the word ‘grief’, which describes such depths of despair and pain, that it seems like the word is not long enough to describe so much.  I love that about words!  That is why word choices mean so much in my writing.

Then there is sentence construction. My sentences are choppy and simple.  There is nothing elegant about my writing. When I was in High School in the Netherlands, we were taught English. But what we weren’t taught was how to use the punctuation in English. So up until four years ago I was still under the impression that punctuation in both languages was the same. But it isn’t. This trips me up big time! I still struggle to find the right places to put the commas, the colon, and the semi-colon. I do not think this is an area where I will ever feel comfortable.

When I started my college career, at 47, it was my son who helped me the most. Not only did he help me with Math, but with English as well.  It was Greg who taught me what topic sentences were, or that the thesis sentence appears in the first paragraph, not in the last. He also taught me to be specific, and to watch out for using too many words, when only a few will do.

I will never be able to write like him, but I am starting to feel comfortable with my own style. I give my writings a lot of thought, I am honest, direct, and simple. I think I do get my point across, although not as eloquently as I would like. I have come a long way in four years, and I hope to continue this journey of growth.

Last Book Club Meeting

 Our main topic of conversation today was that we all have to make smart choices in life, in order to live the life we want. Throughout the book we meet characters who visit the shop. Most of them want things handed to them on a plate, and do not take responsibility for their lives. The one character who has taken responsibility for his life, and made the right choices, was a millionaire.  I think this made a big impact on Jimmy. 

In my previous blog I mentioned that I thought Kevin was smoking weed, and that was a correct assumption.  He ends up arrested and in prison.  This goes to show you that, even though Kevin was supposed to be smarter than Jimmy, in the end he was making the wrong choices, and he ends up in prison.  Jimmy, on the other hand, took Duke and Cap’s lessons to heart and realized the importance of good role models in a young man’s life.  In the end of the book he takes on a mentor role with a new young man in the shop, Ernesto.

We also talked about the role of God in the life of Jimmy.  This topic came up because of the visit from Sister Smith to Jimmy’s house.  First of all, I wondered why Duke never discussed God with Jimmy. He did tell Jimmy to go to church, but he never mentioned God or spirituality and what role they play in life. Does believing in God automatically make a person make the right decisions, or at least make it easier to choose the right thing?  I also thought it was interesting that Duke was talking about choices and sex, and made Jimmy think about the practical things in life, and made it clear that Jimmy was in charge of his life. Sister Smith on the other hand, is preaching about God and the Bible and is not making an impact on Jimmy whatsoever.

I did not enjoy book club. It was a hassle getting everyone together at the same time, and I did not think everyone was invested in it, which affected the conversations negatively.  Doing this book club made me think of collaborative learning and it made me realize that, in order for a literary circle to be successful, there must be guidelines to follow.  I felt like we were all lost on what to talk about and how to run a book club, so maybe a few pointers on these issues would have been helpful.

Third Book Club Meeting

We held our third book club meeting via text again. It was problematic to meet this way, but with everyone’s schedule being different, and everyone living in different towns, it could not be helped.

We discussed how Jimmy’s and Kevin’s character are changing.  Jimmy is thinking about what Duke and Cap are saying, and he is even talking about these talks with his mother.  He seems to be taking the lessons from Duke and Cap to heart.  Kevin, on the other hand, is not.  He came into the barbershop one day with bloodshot eyes, and I think he might still be smoking weed.  In the beginning of the book I liked Kevin. I thought he was working well at school, and he was just caught once with pot-bad luck for him.  Now, however, I do not like him much anymore. He is snooty and arrogant, and I have the feeling he is looking down on everyone in the barbershop.  When Duke invites Jimmy and Kevin to go to a basketball game, Kevin does not show up. I think this was rude and inconsiderate.

I also get the feeling that Duke prefers Jimmy over Kevin, and I don’t know why I feel that way.  Jimmy thinks the opposite is true.

Should we level books?

I don’t know about you, but I love to read children’s books. I don’t only love to read them, but I also love to listen to someone read them out loud to a group of children.  Listening to a person read a book out loud, with intonation, in a child friendly voice, taking their time to show the pictures, relaxes me.  Reading a picture book, and looking at the pictures, gives me enjoyment and makes me aware of how a child would listen to the story.

If I enjoy reading children’s stories as an adult, then I would assume a child would enjoy reading an easy book as well. Not necessarily for the content, but because he can read it fluently, and he doesn’t need to worry about encountering words he doesn’t know. Easy books build confidence in young children. They feel so good that they are able to read this book without any trouble. And confidence is needed to be a good reader! Leveled books gradually increase the difficulty in the material the students are reading, and I think this system is very effective in creating good readers.

It is imperative for the children to read ‘just right’ books. Children do this by reading a certain book, then deciding if it is too easy, meaning they can just fly through the book, without having to stop to question anything. A ‘too hard’ book makes them stop too often to question either a word, or a sentence. ‘Too hard’ books are not enjoyable to read for them and they do not learn from them.  The goal is to find a book that is ‘just right’. This means that the student can read the book, but still have questions to work out. Figuring out these questions are strategies that a good reader needs to have to make them independent readers. The students will build on these strategies to strengthen them as readers. Every level of book will teach a reader new skills, yet they use the skills they learned in previous levels.

Leveled reading encourages children to take charge of their own reading, because they have to decide which books are too easy, too hard, or just right for them. This puts them in the driver’s seat of their level of instruction, and makes them self evaluate where they are in the reading process. I find this very empowering! Yes, we all like to read easy books once in a while.  It is like eating dessert; once in a while it is ok, but a whole menu of desserts would make a person sluggish and bored.

Second Book Club Meeting

We just had our second book club meeting. This time we decided to meet online, which did not work out as well as we had planned. I felt that we were not as focused as when we were meeting in person. I guess we live and we learn!

We discussed what success meant to us. In "Handbook for Boys", by Walter Dean Myers, Duke is talking about the rules he has for everything, including success. He mentions to Jimmy that he first needs to find out what success means to him, since it means something different to everyone. To me, success means raising caring and responsible kids, having a loving relationship with my husband, living in a nice little house, in a welcoming neighborhood and have friends and family whom I am close to. I would like to make a positive difference to the world, whether it is by the way I live my life, or in the way I will teach my future students. Jimmy does not give the question of what success is much thought at first, thinking it is an easy thing to figure out. We were wondering if he thinks Duke and his friends are successful, or if he thinks the drug dealer with the big car and the hootchie mamas on his arms is more successful. Considering he lives in Harlem, some of us thought Jimmy would look up to the man in the flashy car, with the flashy ladies, but some of us thought he is looking up to Duke at this point. Jimmy is a good kid, and I believe Duke is making him think about his life in a different way. He is making him think that life is not what happens to you, but that you have a hand in making things happen. If you have a goal in mind, and work at it, it will work out better for you than if you deal with life as it happens.

Does Collaborative Learning Support Literacy?

Collaborative learning. The words conjure up painful group projects. 

I hate group projects! 

And according to other group members I worked with, so do many other students, especially in college, and especially if everyone gets the same grade for the project. Who has not been involved with a project, and two of the members of the group are not pitching in, and resentment starts to build?It can be extremely frustrating and I do not think it produces the individual student's best work, since concessions usually have to be made to include everyone's ideas. 

However, that said, I do believe that knowing how to work in a group is a necessity. And I think that the purpose of group work at school is more to learn how to communicate effectively than the beauty of the end project. I think for that reason, collaborative learning can support literacy, if taught correctly.

For collaborative learning to be successful, the teacher needs to thoroughly teach the students how literary circles are to be done. The teacher does not want this to become a "free-for-all". Mini lessons on how to talk in a group setting, for example, would be great. Students need to listen to each other, and build on each other's ideas. Once ideas start flowing, the conversations become 'seriously fun'! 

I think another important element in running successful collaborative learning groups is to pick books according to the interests of the students.  This way the students will want to read the book and talk about it. The fact that the groups then consist of students with similar interests will only make the conversations flow smoothly. And who knows, the conversation might even spill over to 'free time'!

Does collaborative learning work in every classroom? Not necessarily. Sometimes the energy between the children in a classroom just does not lend itself to unstructured learning. I can imagine children taking advantage of this time away from the teacher to get into trouble, or sabotage the group. In this case, I do not think the collaborative learning would invite higher thinking, but a teacher led conversation would. One could argue that especially students like this would benefit the most from collaborative learning, since  they do need to know how to effectively communicate with other students, using polite conversations. They would be right. Once they are taught how to have these conversations, I believe such a class would eventually also be able to work in collaborative learning groups. 

I would like to see such a literary circle in action! I wonder how much 'on task' and invested the children are in the books they are discussing. I would like the teacher to have a few ideas for questions in a basket on the table, in case the students get stuck. Sometimes the questions a teacher asks invite deeper thought and I would love to be a fly on the wall to hear these conversations. What am I saying? I will not be a fly on the wall....I will be the teacher in the classroom! 

Book Club Meeting 1

Book Club Meeting 1

Today was our first book club meeting. Danielle, Stephanie, Taylor and I are reading "Handbook for Boys" by Walter Dean Myers and everyone likes it, except for one person. The book is about a boy who is rescued from having to spend time in jail for assault by an older man. The boy has to work in the man's barber shop, and while doing so, listens to the old man and his friends impart bits of wisdom.

During our meeting we discussed the characters. Jimmy, the main character, is twelve years old, and has quite a temper. He gets in a lot of trouble because of it. He lives with his mom, who works as a waitress, and they have a close relationship. They live in an apartment in the Bronx. His mom and dad are separated, and his dad is trying to get back together with his mom, which she does not seem to be too happy about.

Duke is the barber who saved Jimmy. We all liked him. He has an easy way about him, is very sincere in his desire to help young kids stay out of trouble and get a college education, which he will bankroll with the money he received from the sale of his wife's beauty school.

Cap is one of Duke friends, and nobody in the group liked him much. He is a grumpy man,  yet I believe his heart must be in the right place, or Duke would not be his friend.

Kevin is another young man who Duke took under his wing. He was caught by his mother when he was smoking weed in his bedroom. His mother called the police and Kevin was charged with possession. Kevin sounds like a serious boy, because he keeps asking Jimmy if he is keeping his grades up. Kevin seems to be taking his studies seriously.

As we were talking about the book, Danielle mentioned a connection she saw between the book and a boy at the school where she does her fieldwork.  The boy in question is in sixth grade and he was talking about how he had never been happier than when his uncle came out of jail. Danielle said that she wanted this boy to read this book. A book like this might be helpful to this boy.  She was wishing the boy had a place like Duke's Barbershop to go to. A place where people were looking out for him. A place with good male role models, who want the boy to stay out of trouble and make the best of his life.

We agreed that Duke seemed to having a positive influence on Jimmy. Jimmy takes the tidbits of wisdom that he heard that day home with him, and he keeps mulling them over in his mind.  The fact that he is thinking about what Duke and Cap are saying, and following up on this conversation with his mother and his uncle, seems to be a step in the right direction.

I love this book so far. I love the way it is written. The narrator of the story is Jimmy and the book is written the way I would imagine Jimmy to speak. There is a lot of vernacular, which makes the characters come alive. We were thinking that the vernacular would be difficult to understand for students in 'white suburbia'. More the reason for them to read it, if you ask me!