"Part of my job as a teacher is to awaken students to the joy and love that they may take for granted, so I use poetry and narrative prompts that help them "see" daily gifts, to celebrate their homes and heritages."
-Linda Christensen
I loved reading this quote by Christensen; I thought, "yes this is how I would like to practice teaching– I want to be this kind teacher!" Then it occurred to me, although it may seem obvious, there are different kinds of teachers who hold different beliefs and value different things. You may be thinking "duh", but this concept had yet to fully settled into my bones. You know when you know something but you don't feel it– it doesn't fully resonate with you? Well, I had not really come to the conclusion, that you may feel a pull to teach for different reasons than others and this may seep into your praxis, on my own time with my own mind. I couldn't help but wonder what Christensen's results would be on the Curriculum Ideology Inventory we completed last class. I would think she would fall under Social Reconstruction, but possibly she would find herself under Learner Centered? Thoughts?
Although my above, lets call it, "mini awakening" may seem silly or obvious I think it is coming from my history of exposure to teachers or teaching practices. I had never met/ read/ heard anyone refer to their purpose of teaching as "awakening students to joy and love." I always thought this was something that was slightly implied but not a practical reason to be a teacher; love and joy are not enough. Shouldn't you have history with tutoring or teaching others, shouldn't you be a genius with grammar and a master of writing essays? And maybe this emotional aspect isn't enough, but it sure seems important to Christensen and it feels important to me. It had me wondering, why do people become teachers? Why are you becoming a teacher? Why is this profession important to you?
I was particularly a fan of the chapter "Knock Knock": Turning Pain into Power." I am so inspired by the way Christensen asks her students to share their fears and the way she too opens and shares hers. In this moment, I could almost feel the honest vibrations of that classroom. Then, when Christensen quotes her student Lester, who takes up the voice of his father in his poem, I teared up. (35) It sounds cliche but it's true! This was powerful poetry!
I guess all poetry carries this power, but this is an area of literature and writing that I do not feel as comfortable with. For me, poetry has always been taught in the context of rules: line count, stanzas, iambs. However, after reading Christensen, I don't feel like these structures are the most important part of the poetic craft. Poetry is something I would love to become more comfortable with and, after this weeks readings, feel is necessary to find my own rhythm within; I want to exude an authentic relationship with poetry to my future students.
I was encouraged by how both Christensen and Kati Macalus referred to poetry as this place for authentic emotion. To take a quote from Macalus' blog, "the labor of poetry is finding ways through language to point to what cannot be put into words." I think there is certainly a lot of truth here and an area I would enjoy exploring more. In addition to the quote I picked up from Macalus' blog, I really resonated with her proposal that "poems can alter the way we see the world." I have certainly felt a variant of this within my own writing/ reading. She refers to the space "between language and experience" which I believe is a beautiful place that calls for feeling. I have used this mindset, if that does it justice, many times in thinking, in writing, and in reading. I think it's a beautiful place :)
Christensen definitely seems like she's a Learner Centered person, but through this lens she gets at elements of Social Reconstruction. You can see it in the massive amounts of self-identifying that her students do in their work. All of these poetry assignments are introspective. She's not asking them to write about abstract topics. It's all very grounded in the reality of student life. This writing builds the classroom community and also succeeds in teaching grammar and other technical aspects of language without the joyless recitation part.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see that you're receptive to the wonder and excitement that comes with trying a new approach to writing. I'm hoping that in class this week my lesson will be able to awaken some of that altered place where emotion and language mix and facts and observations become more than the sum of their parts.
Maddy and Katie,
ReplyDeleteI feel so sad that I am not in the class anymore because it seems to me that I have missed some important part of the course, discussion and share each other thoughts. However, I am grateful to see what is going on on this blog and listening to what you guys are discussing about: Curriculum Ideology Inventory. Do you have any copy of that so I could see the inventory.
Being excited to be a teacher is something I have on a daily basis. I learn something new everyday and I always appreciate what I learned. This course is one of the best courses I ever took. Nothing about this course that is a dry academic.
I'll see if I can find my copy of it, Deba. It's in one of my piles so if I find it I'll show you what we mean.
DeleteYour "duh" moment is not silly at all. I know exactly what you meant! The way Christensen describes how to teach poetry, it feels almost as if she is throwing away all the structure that you are referring to with stanzas, iambs, etc. I felt the same way that I couldn't believe that she was suggesting to focus more on the content and message of their poetry than conventions. I feel as though through our experience in high school, those were the only things we focused on. I do not recall a time that I had to write a poem of my own. Maybe this is why I never had a strong interest in poetry until I went to college. Also I love how you mentioned that teaching for "love and joy" is not enough. Personally any time I tell anyone that I am going to be a teacher we get the same 5 responses: "you aren't going to make any money, are you crazy, why would you want to teach high school kids, it's not worth the aggravation, the burnout rate is ridiculous you might want to have something as a backup". It is a really powerful question to ask yourself, "why am I going into education?"
ReplyDeleteMaddsters, I'm so glad you started with the quote from Christensen, because I think it's interesting how much it clicks with me. One of the biggest things that motivates me to learn more about poetry an how to use and teach it is that I want my students to be able to "celebrate their homes and heritages" whatever way they desire, and some of them will use poetry. I feel as though it will be a disservice to students if I don't learn more, and I thank you for posting that piece.
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