Boston Book Festival '16

Nothing like the Boston Book Festival to make a gal want to blog again. Those of you who really know me understand that this is one of my favorite days of the year. I told my students it's like Nerd Christmas. Last year, I went to the ticketed kickoff event and saw the queen herself, Margaret Atwood. There's no way this year could top that, but it was still a fabulous day. J came too, but we ended up going to completely different events. It was great at the end of the day (and briefly during lunch as I scarfed down a hot dog) to chat about what we had learned. It was a fun way to share an experience but in different ways.

First, I went to the YA Keynote with Kami Garcia, one of the writers of the Beautiful Creatures books. I'd read the first one, and must admit I didn't think the writing was all that good, but I was still curious about what she had to say. Plus, since I teach young adults, I figure it's a good idea to go to at least one talk related to the kinds of books they read. When asked how she felt about the movie made out of the aforementioned book, Garcia said she liked how they brought the scenery of the world together and loved the young male actor, but had some issues with the movie. However, she was glad it brought her book a wider audience, and remarked, "Complaining about your movie is like a first world problem."

Garcia talked about how the writing process is really tough for her. She suffers from anxiety and has ADD, so she has a lot of self doubt nagging at her all the time. But she works hard to push through it, reminding herself that if you get something down on paper, no matter how bad it is, you can work on fixing it. You just have to start somewhere. She also said that though some people talk about having a muse, she does not: "There's no magical being that comes and sprinkles fairy dust on you and then you're Neil Gaiman." Sigh, if only.

Speaking of Neil Gaiman, the next session I went to, "Turning Classics Inside Out," featured a protege of his, Kat Howard, as well as Alison Case and Elizabeth Nunez. Case's book was a reworking of Wuthering Heights, meaning I will never, ever read it--WH is one of my least favorite pieces of literature of all time. Nunez's book updates and replants Shakespeare's King Lear in the Caribbean. And Howard's book Roses and Rot, which I bought and am currently in the midst of, reworks fairy tales and the Scottish ballad of Tam Lin (which I'd been unfamiliar with). It's pretty interesting so far. Case and Nunez talked about this idea that authors plant seeds of ideas in their books, then leave space for the audience to jump in and try to fill that space with their own ideas/interpretations/answers. Nunez said that Shakespeare was excellent at doing this, which is why his work has lasted. The authors also talked about how they worked to make their books accessible to people who had never read the source texts. Though Howard said she also added "Easter eggs" for people who are familiar with Tam Lin, so there's that added layer for them.

The third session was one I was really curious about: "Injustice, Incarceration, Invisibility," featuring Eddie Glaude, Jr., Elizabeth Hinton, Shaka Senghor, and Mychal Denzel Smith. They discussed the issue of mass incarceration of black men and other related issues. We obviously have a huge incarceration issue in the country, with more incarcerated people than anywhere else in the world, so  was interested in their take on this. The audience, while mixed, did have a white majority, but Glaude reminded us that he refuses to sweet talk white people about these issues. I've seen a lot of pieces lately on the kind of thing he was talking about--it doesn't matter if these issues make white people uncomfortable--they aren't the ones suffering from a racist system. Smith talked about how policing and incarceration are made to enforce systems of inequality. Hinton brought up that we need to empower people to solve the problems in their own communities and police those communities, so that we're not just going into other people's communities and doing all of that for them. Some of the issues of incarceration that they discussed are that when people are in prison, the dehumanization leads to their talents being largely ignored. There is so much untapped potential languishing away or being punished. Also, I don't remember who brought it up, but one of the authors/scholars argued that by not allowing people who've been convicted of felonies to vote, black people are further disenfranchised--and no, it's not a coincidence that very white states like Vermont DO allow them to vote. Plus, these are people who are still required to pay taxes, even though they have no say in how those taxes are spent.

One of them said that President Obama is a sign of progress that has made us think that there's been more progress that we've actually experienced. His being president is a singular achievement--it doesn't solve everything for black people. Glaude said that whenever we advance in this society, we are also held back by a reassertion of what he called "the value gap"--basically, the belief that white people matter more than others. For example, though Lincoln did so much for black people in this country, he also still believed that black people were inferior, and this kept him from being the kind of person his idea of democracy required. I think this value gap certainly applies to Obama's presidency. Yes, it's progress that he holds the highest office in the country. But America still has a huge race problem, as Black Lives Matter and other groups have been working hard to remind us. And it is no coincidence that the "birther" controversy happened with the first black president. Some people do not want to accept that he could be a real American and run our country. This is similar to why the Republican-led Congress has been more obstinate than perhaps any Congress preceding it--there are still some congresspeople who buck at the idea of answering to a black man. Thus, our progress has exposed just how far we still have to go.

A point I was very pleased about was Smith's assertion that we need intersectionality--it's not enough to just fight against one system of oppression; it's much more effective to work to end different ones at the same time. Racism intersects with patriarchy, transphobia, etc. The authors also talked about the need to let go of your privilege if that privilege means people are suffering on the other side of it.

When it came time for questions, I went up--I was very nervous, especially since we were in huge, packed Trinity Church. Basically, I said, "I'm a high school teacher, and I'm lucky to teach a diverse group of kids. Recently, when we were talking about fear, one of my students, who's a young black man, said that he's afraid of being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong people. We address race to some extent in my classroom, but I'm curious if you have any suggestions about how I can better address that young man's concerns and issues of race in a way that will be both engaging and meaningful to both my black and white students." In response, they talked about the need to honor students' experiences and believing them (which I certainly do). They also talked about needing to be willing to make people uncomfortable--it's important to talk about the brutality and the actual realities people face. They said to face it head-on, and don't sugarcoat.

The final talk also dealt with current societal issues: "Is This Any Way to Elect a President?" While I have the names written down, I could only see a couple of the people on the stage from my spot in the very last row to the right, so I don't actually know who said what. They offered some insight into this election cycle. Some of their thoughts:

• Part of the reason it has taken so much longer for the US to have/consider having a female leader than many other countries is our president is also Commander-in-Chief. We're used to associating women with pacifism, and many people aren't comfortable with a woman leading our armed forces.
• Republicans have misunderstood their base: many of those people are not ideological conservatives
• Part of what motivates Trump is wanting to prove people wrong. For example, he thought he'd get big donations from other rich people, but didn't. This added to the chip on his shoulder. So then he said he wouldn't be taking donations, and it made him popular...
• They brought up something about President Obama similar to the previous session: said his election showed us how much racial anxiety our country still has. People have hated it when Obama spoke up about black issues (like when he talked about Trayvon Martin), and his approval ratings went down. Obama also didn't want to be a litigator on race, but at times was pushed into it. Similarly, they think that if Clinton is elected (*Editor's note: dear lord, let it be so...), it will be hard for her to engage in issues around gender because people, led by Trump, are questioning her very legitimacy as a candidate.
• Hating the Electoral College is not a modern phenomenon--people have sought to abolish it since the end of the 18th century! But keeping it is partly motivated by race--it has given whites more power.
• Trump becoming more unhinged (like in 2nd debate) isn't good for people's faith in the democratic process (no kidding!)
• "We're historians--we predict the past!"
• Trump is performing for the people he wants to sell to in the future
• Trump was helped by media--he's good at getting attention, so he got all this free media coverage from it. Marco Rubio eventually tried to tap into that, but couldn't beat Trump at his own game.
• The Republican Party has been a coalition of a bunch of different factions that don't go together for a long time
• Europe is having similar negative reactions to an influx of refugees and immigrants, which people like Putin have been stoking

Hopefully this has piqued your interest enough to make you want to check out the Book Festival next year! Almost every single one of their events is free. You may even get to meet one of your favorite authors and get your book signed, or you could discover an amazing author you'd never heard of before. Happy reading!

BBF and EdCafes

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:

 Boston Book Festival

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."

Maybe my interest in her is due to the fact that a number of the books I have taught deal with the subject of "otherness." In addition, growing up Jewish in a very non-Jewish area made me aware of my otherness, even if it was something that I did not struggle with nearly as much as Said did.

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!

 Increasing student choice

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.

 

A few examples of handouts:

 

 

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For more on EdCafes, go to http://whatisanedcafe.wordpress.com/

Of bibliophiles, Studebaker-lovers, and decorated pumpkins

Happy Hurricane Day, everyone! All the schools are cancelled, and everything in Massachusetts is pretty much coming to a halt--even the MBTA is shutting down at 2pm. So this means I now have time to get some important things done: grade lots of papers and blog. (I could have done some of said grading last night, but chose instead to celebrate the upcoming day off by playing Cards Against Humanity with some teacher friends. I stand by that choice.) And this past weekend was FANTASTIC, so I have plenty of great things to share with you.

On Saturday I went to the Boston Book Festival in Copley Square. It was my first time going, and I am already looking forward to the next one! I didn't get to visit too many of the vendors, but maybe I'll block out some time for that next year. I attended several talks, the first of which was called "The Short Story," with authors Edith Pearlman, Jennifer Haigh, and, one of my favorite authors, Junot Diaz. The discussion was very interesting, and thankfully I'd had the foresight to bring a little notebook in which to record ideas and quotes from the authors throughout the day. A few from this one:

Jennifer Haigh:

• "I write the stories that fascinate me."
• "A sentence in a short story has to travel a very long way."

Junot Diaz:

• Said something about "the multiple realities we all exist in." Don't recall the context, but thought that was a really interesting idea in itself.
• When talking about how some people don't like to read much while they're writing, but he does: "I totally don't give a crap if other people's voices are in my head."
• Talked about how novels can't be perfect, and they reflect our imperfections. Short stories, however, can be perfect, because they are short enough that the writer can hold the whole thing in his/her head and consider each sentence carefully. He says short stories are "strangely inhuman." Also, if you're too controlling, you can't write a novel.
• Mimicking reviewers who criticize him for returning to writing short stories after his previous book was a novel: "I don't understand why he went back to stories after escaping that ghetto."
• Going along with that, he does not like the hierarchy that people project onto different types of writing, how novels are usually more highly regarded than short stories.
• In talking about his character Yunior, he said that, especially in his newest book This Is How You Lose Her, Yunior uses his body to try to avoid dealing with the problems in his life. I'll need to pay more attention to this as I continue reading it.
• Also, when the authors were asked how they locate themselves in time and space in terms of their identities as writers, Diaz, who is a Dominican immigrant, said it's hard to categorize yourself when part of a 10 million person diaspora. I guess that, as a Jewish person, I found this to be a very relatable idea.

After the talk, the authors went outside to the Brookline Booksmith's tent (they are one of my favorite bookstores) to sign books. While the two women sat behind a table, Diaz stood in front of it, the better to interact with the long line of people waiting to meet him. He was so kind and gracious and signed all three of my books, plus took a picture with me. I was utterly starstruck. It was wonderful to see that he didn't look like a guy who was just there to sell a few books, but rather really cared about having that personal connection with the people who cherish his work.

 The authors in the beautiful Trinity Church.

One of my signed books!

After that, I met up with a couple of colleagues as we headed over to see "Great Brits and Books." However, we were disappointed to discover it had already filled up. So instead we headed over to "Serious Satire." I'd never heard of the authors before--Lizz Winstead and Kevin Bleyer, both formerly of "The Daily Show," and Baratunde Thurston of The Onion--but I quickly became a big fan of all three. They were absolutely hysterical, and I now want to buy all of their books! The end of the talk did get a bit too political, perhaps because we're all just so caught up in the circus of the upcoming election, but overall our Plan B turned out to be excellent.

Some gems from this one:

• Kevin Bleyer:
• After sharing this quote from Benjamin Franklin: "I confess that there are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them," he said, "He sounds like a Republican endorsing Mitt Romney."
• "Is there ever a hero of a joke?"
• Thurston:
• "Presidents are supposed to suck. They're designed to disappoint you."
• Talking about all the problems in our country: "Honey Boo-boo? We did that!"
• On President Bush: "He was good for shitty comedy writers."
• Winstead (my favorite of the group):
• When talking about getting gifts like toy stoves and life-like baby dolls: "Anything my mother was sobbing her life over, I seemed to get as Christmas gifts."
• "The media is now a character in our world." (So true! I though this point was spot-on, and I want to find a way to bring that up with my students.)

I then ventured over the "Graphic Novels," as I've used a few as supplemental materials in my teaching, and my friend Ms. K is a big fan of them. However, this talk was a biiiig disappointment. The first person had no stage presence and was super awkward. Her story/comic that she shared with us was cool, but she didn't discuss her process, her thoughts on this form of storytelling, etc.--she just read the story. And one of the guys was dull and weird all at the same time, and I finally just had to leave. I headed over to "Jewish Jocks," as one of the authors there wrote a book I really like, called How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization. The demographic there was largely older Jewish people, so I felt a bit out of place. But I found out I was sitting next to the wife of Larry Summers, the president of Harvard. We were chatting about how the upcoming storm would give us more time to grade papers, and she asked where I teach, and when I asked her the same question, she responded with Harvard. Then Summers came over, as he was one of the panelists, and when she referred to him as "sweetheart" and wished him luck, I put 2 and 2 together. A woman in front of us asked her what they thought of him being portrayed in a movie ("The Social Network"), and she said they thought it was very funny.

Quotes from the panelists and moderator:

• Moderator: "We're going to be considering a book called Jewish Jocks, and we're off to a good start because no one laughed."
• After Steven Pinker's somewhat rambling talk on Red Auerbach, Franklin Foer jokingly said that they'd told him, "We're going to give you three minutes to link Red Auerbach with genocide. GO."
• "I didn't think Sandy Koufax had his priorities straight."--Summers, on Koufax's decision to not pitch in the World Series on Yom Kippur.

After this fun and thought-provoking day, my colleagues and I grabbed some dinner and planned out an apocalyptic novel, starring us, on a napkin. All in a day's work.


If you're still with me, I'll try to keep the rest of my update quick. Sunday was Pumpkin/Studebaker Day, a tradition in my family. Since I was a kid, we've been going to the Studebaker show at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, as my uncle almost always goes and enters one of his cars. Unfortunately, with the grey weather, he decided not to take the car out this year, and many other people made the same decision. So my dad and I just took a little walk around the park, as we always do (it is gorgeous there in the fall, and I highly recommend that you visit if you ever have a chance!), and then took our usual tour of the museum, which used to be the Anderson family's carriage house. After taking a quick look at the few cars that came, we headed over to Allandale Farm, another important part of our tradition, and picked out a few pumpkins along with some yummy grocery items (we found something called falafel chips--they intrigued me, so I had to buy them. Must try today....). I decorated my pumpkins with glitter and melted crayons, an idea I found on Pinterest.

 The Larz Anderson Auto Museum

 The car with the toilet is always everyone's favorite.

 bicycle

 A beautiful Packard.                                                                                   Now that's a trunk!

Another week in the life of a teacher.

Quotes of note:

• A former student was chatting with me, asking me how things are going, and then she inquired, "How's the synagogue?"
• Played some music during class while the kids were making flashcards, and Hanson's "Mmmbop" came on. A girl asked, "Is this the Jackson 5?" While I'm thrilled she's heard of the Jackson 5, I still felt a little piece of my soul wither away. And I told her this song was popular when I was a kid, and she asked, "When were you a kid?" like I was from the Stone Age or something.

Caught my CP1 classes trying to trick me into thinking they'd done their homework yesterday. Gotta love making the homework question about something that happens in the last two pages of the chapter. When almost every response was irrelevant to the question, I just kept asking each one, "Did you read the WHOLE chapter?" I was not pleased with them, to say the least. Luckily though, they have overall been doing a good job with this book, and today was a much more productive day.

I'm so excited to go to the Boston Book Festival this weekend! I've never been, but it sounds fantastic, and a few of my English teacher peeps are going as well. I'm planning on going to four lectures: "The Short Story," where one of my favorite authors, Junot Diaz, will be speaking (I am ridiculously excited about the prospect of meeting him and getting my books signed), "Great Brits and Books," where I'll get to see Maria Tatar, "Graphic Novels," and "Jewish Jocks," where Franklin Foer, author of How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization. I am so ready to geek out all day long, and I'll be sure to post and update afterwards.

I also wanted to share with you a letter that I read after seeing it shared on Facebook. I read it with my advisory today, and plan on talking about it with my other classes next week. It is an open letter to Ann Coulter, who, during the last presidential debate, referred to President Obama as a "retard." The letter, which you can read here, is a beautifully written piece by a man with Down syndrome who is a Special Olympian. He reminded the ever-classless (and that's me using every ounce of restraint that I posses) Ms. Coulter that such words should not be used as insults, that comparing people to individuals like him, who have to overcome so much and yet still "see life as a wonderful gift....should be considered a badge of honor." As an English teacher, I strive to teach my students about the power of words. Often we talk about that in a positive light, trying to get them to understand that with great communication skills paired with powerful ideas, they can rock the world. But it is important to also remember just how powerful words can be in hurting and degrading others. I talked to my students about this, reminding them that they have no idea how hurtful it can be when people use words like "retarded" and "gay" as insults and turn them into synonyms for "stupid" and "wrong." I asked them to be more conscious of their language, and to speak up when others use this language. I told them that I have asked people, including friends, not to speak that way. Not in a confrontational or angry way, but in a gentle manner that still conveyed that I'm not okay with what they said. Hopefully that message gets through to some of them, because it's important to start a ripple effect in trying to solve these types of issues.