Theory in Practice; The Leap!

I think the above image is a pretty fitting description of how I feel as we near the final stretch of this first year in grad school. Imagine that this dog hasn't been fed in days. It's low on energy, running on stomach acid, and can barely inspire itself to stand up and respond to the its master's whistle. If it can only summon the energy for one last heroic leap through the flames, overflowing food dishes, warm fluffy beds, and lots of pats and admiration await it. This is what pushes it through that ring of fire, despite the risk of being burned should it fail.

As anyone who has followed this blog or my teaching saga knows, the word logistics haunts my waking nightmares. Well let me just toot my own horn here for a second and share a LEAP this humble teacher took in this area! Taking to hear the advice of my math coach, I spent some time really thinking about the groupings of my students and the order in which I wanted to introduce them to things in workshop settings. I applied this same logic to a language arts engagement, and observed thrilling results.

Wanting to help the students form a more solid understanding of the slippery definition of "theme" in literature, I decided to use a book that is relevant to our civil rights discussions and contains powerful themes. It was actually recommended by a peer in my cohort! The book was Minty by Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney. Stealing yet again to craft this patchwork that is becoming my practice, I took the Alphabet Box shown to us by Dr.K (or Dr. Fisher??), and had the kids pull what they considered powerful or theme words as we read. I thought carefully about my groupings and decided to go heterogenous in age and literacy development. The first week, I read the book three times over three days to the three different groups. I intentionally left some of my less confident language arts students in the later groups, and the impact was better than I could have hoped for. Naturally as I read the book to the small group, other kids working independently around the room couldn't help but listen in. The next day, when it was their turn, the kids in the second group felt confident about facing the new challenge. Group three was the last group intentionally, and it was perfect. They had TWO eavesdropping experiences to process the story and the activity and what “theme” is about, so they were ready to rock and roll when it was their turn.

If that's not enough to make any teacher proud, get this: the second week I met the same groups in the same order to create Found Poems from their alphabet boxes. I showed them a few mentor poems as examples of freeform poetry, and set them loose. I was actually shocked with how game the students were to take on the found poems, and how beautifully they manipulated their found words with their own and explored the heavy themes of Minty. They BLEW ME AWAY with their poems and I think you will be blown away, too.

My two youngest students produced my two favorite poems (shhh) which are as follows:

The Fire
By I----- M------

Eight ashes go up and down.
When the sun comes out,
fire burns in the valley,
rips the trees souls.
The birds screamed
Hide, Hide!
Minty bites down her
lips with every whip.
Out with the sun,
in with the moon,
and freedom is the
sweet tune.


The Listening River
By C------ S------

The glossy river runs away
South just another feeling
to Minty. “I wonder is the
North Star trapped like me”
And the muskrats “don’t
struggle to escape. Soon you
will be in freedom just like
me.” The quiet river flows
like the cold cold wind.

And while I am proud of them, I am also proud of myself. I not only planned, but followed through in implementing a plan that spanned over two weeks. This is serious growth for me. Not that I am cured of my flighty ways, but this experience proved to me that I can not only do it, but that taking the time to do it can yield exciting results.

Similarly, the in-the-moment responsiveness I excel at has not gone away, proven by a fun and unplanned teaching moment that is probably my favorite one of the year. We had a costume day, and I threw together a last minute Amelia Bedelia outfit. Yes, I have a big floppy black hat and an apron lying around, doesn't everyone? Without even intending to, my impersonation of Amelia Bedelia turned into a fun and lively review of idioms as my students tried to help explain some basic ones to poor baffled Amelia. When I went for my session with the K-1 class, I found they had no idea who Amelia Bedelia was, so I HAD to read them the book. As I was reading, I changed the pronouns around so it sounded like I was telling about my own story. I positioned it as "people get so mad at me and I don't know why. I only follow directions! Maybe you can help explain it to me." They were crawling over each other to look at the pages and set Amelia straight on her many confusions. I think it was an introduction to figurative language they will remember! I certainly will!

I know I sound like I am patting myself on the back, but 30 minutes before I began composing this, that was the last thing I was thinking of doing. Keeping up with all of my responsibilies as a student and a teacher and a human being needed by friends and loved ones has left me feeling defeated and on the brink of giving up. Words like "worthless", "typical", "pointless", and "why bother" were floating through my head as I questioned my right to even be in this profession. Shout out to my fellows in this cohort for helping me turn my attitude around. I am so glad I took the time to read their blogs before starting mine, because their words helped renew my own energy and motivation, and help me realize that seeing myself in deficit will get me no closer to my goals. So like this dog, I am taking one last deep breath, zeroing in on my prize, and leaping.