I have been meaning to blog for a while, so I've got a lot I want to share (though I've limited it to two topics). So buckle up and keep your
arms and legs inside the ride, because here we go:
BBF was over a month ago, so you can see how long I've been
procrastinating. This year's event was not quite as spectacular as last year's,
but still a darn good day. I unfortunately missed out on the first talk I
wanted to go to, as it was filled up, so I went and did some reading in Copley
Square, noshed a bit, wandered around the booths, and chatted with a stranger
running one of said booths about graphic novels. Next up was a talk called
"Memoir: Descendants" featuring Eileen Rockefeller, Najila Said
(daughter of famous Palestinian writer Edward Said), and Monica Wood. My
favorite was Said, as I found her discussion of her confused identity to be
fascinating. Her father was Palestinian but Episcopalian, her mother was
Lebanese and yet Quaker, and Said grew up in New York surrounded by Jews (and
acknowledged that she herself looks like she could be Jewish) and went to a
school with lots of WASPs. She struggled to figure out where she fit in, often
feeling like an outsider, and also dealt with an eating disorder. Some
interesting quotes from her (because yes, I am a dork and bring a small
notebook with me to the festival):
·
"We're given categories, and if you don't
fit into them, you don't know what to do with yourself."
·
She said to her father, "I want to be Irish!"
To which he replied, "You are Irish--you're Palestinian. What you want to
be is a WASP."
·
"I felt horrible, and dirty, and
other."
One thing that Rockefeller said that struck me was,
"I'm still becoming myself; I don't know if I'll ever stop becoming."
And Wood talked about how she found it easier to write her memoir than her
works of fiction, partly because there was something comforting about
revisiting her childhood memories. Another interesting idea from her:
"Writing always asks the past to justify itself."
Next up was "Best American Sports Writing," at
which point a couple of friends joined me for the remainder of the day. I
mainly wanted to attend this one because the great Globe columnist Bob Ryan was
the moderator. He is quite funny (he told us, "One of my friends is here
from the most forlorn city in America: Cleveland"), though he does stumble
over his words quite a bit (surprising for someone who's on TV all the time).
One point that was discussed was that the book they were promoting was
comprised largely of stories that just happened to include sports--sports was
more of an entry point to larger stories and ideas, and many of the authors
included in the book do not necessarily write about sports for a living. One of
the panelists said, "We don't give a damn about sport, it's just an excuse
to write about other things." Another one was discussing his book on the
epic demise of Curt Schilling's 38 Studios, and how awkward it was to talk to
Schilling about it. His summary: "I love the Red Sox; let's talk about all
the lives you ruined." He discussed how the problem with this business was
that Schilling thought he could basically will it into success. While this may
work when you're an athlete, it doesn't cut it for a business owner. Schilling
had "rampant and destructive optimism."
The final talk of the day that we attended was "True
Crime." Kevin Cullen spoke about his latest work on Whitey Bulger. He had
some humor for us, when saying that the two big obsessions in Boston are the
Red Sox and Whitey: "The Red Sox are having a better year....Whitey might
wanna think about growing a beard." But he also got very serious, and made
it clear how much he despises both Bulger and the FBI agents involved with him.
He said that some members of the FBI have tried claiming that Bulger only
killed other gangsters, and said that, besides this not being true, he also
does not want his government deciding who lives and who dies, and that what
they were doing at that time. The author of "The Bling Ring" was also
there. Another writer, Mirta Ojito, talked about how "words
matter"--the things we say in casual conversation, especially around kids,
are more influential than we might realize (her book is about teenagers who
killed a man).
Didn't get any books signed this year, but we'll see who the
event attracts next year!
I've been working lately on finding ways to give my students
more choices in the learning process. With my sophomores I've given them some different
options on writing assignments (both creative and formal) so that they are
still achieving the same learning goals but can do so in a way that is more
likely to interest them. With my seniors, I recently tried something new (which
I'd like to modify for my sophomores eventually). My friend Ms. K and I love
swapping ideas about education, and I have picked up some great things from her
over the last few years. One of her big innovations is something called
"EdCafes." This is a form of student-led discussion that emphasizes
student choice. What I had my students do was sign up on a calendar for a day
to lead an EdCafe (between four and six students would go on each day). On the
calendar was written which chapters they'd be discussing and where in the room
they'd be stationed (the filing cabinet, the podium, the closet I've dubbed
"Narnia," etc.). The night before their EdCafe, they had to email me
their topic and its title, and if they got it to me by the deadline I'd send
them feedback in case it needed to be strengthened.
On each EdCafe day, the student leaders would stand up and
inform the class of what they'd be discussing and where. (I would also have
this information projected on the board.) Then the rest of the class would
choose which EdCafe to attend (I stressed that it was important to choose based
on interest rather than friends) and move the desks around. The leaders had to provide
their groups with a handout and then stand up and present their thoughts on the
topic to their groups for 1-2 minutes. Then they could sit back down (much to
their relief) and facilitate a group discussion, which the group members were
expected to take notes on (by the end of the four sessions they were required
to have at least a couple of pages of notes). I floated around the room
listening in on snippets of the discussions/presentations and sometimes nudging
the groups along if they got stuck or off-topic. When the discussion time would
start winding down, I told the groups to work on coming up with a takeaway from
their discussion, which the leaders presented to the class and which I typed up
to project onto the board.
I'll admit that a few of the EdCafes were only so-so; it was
clear when leaders were not fully prepared. But a lot of them were very
interesting and successful. Students were almost always engaged--it's not as
though they would start chit-chatting the second my back was turned. The
students were truly listening and responding to one another, and having a group
leader helped get them to delve deeper into the topics. Some of the discussions
were still going strong when I told the groups to write their takeaway, and I
felt sad about having to cut them off.
Another interesting observation I made was that successful
EdCafes can come in different sizes. Some of the best discussions had five or
maybe six students, while others had only the leader and one other person. One such
tiny EdCafe was really wonderful to watch, because not only was the dialogue
between the two girls flowing superbly, but the non-leader is normally rather
quiet in class, and I enjoyed seeing how comfortable she felt to speak freely
and express her ideas in this alternative setting. Other students who are
similarly quiet on normal days showed great leadership when running their
EdCafes, and I loved seeing them step up to the challenge. One girl is quite
shy, and looked terrified when I told them they'd need to stand up during their
presentations, and yet she presented for probably almost three minutes. I made
sure to tell her afterwards how thrilled I was to see her crush it like that.
I enjoyed giving my students this kind of freedom and seeing
most of them rise to the challenge. I told them how important it is for them to
take ownership of the learning process and to learn to work more independently,
as these are skills they will need in college and beyond. They still had some
scaffolding in place, because independence is a learning process, but soon enough
they'll be better at figuring these things out for themselves. I also had them
choose their own topics for their essays, but required them to submit topic
proposals and thesis statements so that I could conference with each student
and help them craft stronger arguments.
I told my dad about what I'd been up to with my classes, and
he said it was so interesting to see how much my charter school education has
influenced my teaching practices. Independence and public speaking were two
concepts I was VERY familiar with growing up. Every year, even in elementary
school, we had to present an "Exhibition of Mastery"--mine were on
such topics as Civil War photographer Mathew Brady and female sports
journalists (for which I did a phone interview with the great Jackie
MacMullan). As I've written about before, the workshop/project classes we took
(I did theater for three years) taught us to take charge of the learning
process. We often had to find the resources we needed in order to accomplish
our goals. In our classes we were encouraged to share our ideas. Independence
became second nature for us. And in this day and age when kids are coddled far
too often, I've realized how important that independence is. I want to keep on
experimenting with these different methods of giving my students more choices
and encouraging them to take more ownership of their education so that they
will know how to think for themselves rather than just depending on strict
guidelines. If I can make them more independent thinkers, I will know that I've
accomplished something meaningful.
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For more on EdCafes, go to http://whatisanedcafe.wordpress.com/
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