Friday, October 22, 2010

Readings for 10/25

MGRP

I literally laughed out loud while reading that poetry was a good way to ease into writing. What? Is Allen ON something? There are very few poems that touch me when I read them and I certainly don't like to write them. Perhaps I'm just insensitive. Perhaps my love of sci-fi leaves me predisposed to ignore anything that doesn't happen far, far away. I don't know.

Luckily, Allen presented some very doable forms of poetry I think I can probably work with. We'll see, I guess!

Invitations

I first learned about invitations for the tradebooks class, which I took two years ago. I remember the things we read from Van Sluys. I think invitations are a bit hard to wrap your head around, particularly when there's so much other stuff that has to happen every day at school. Once you try making one I think you'll see where they can have a place. When I took the class the instructor insisted that our invitations be on a social justice issue. The process of creating the invitation was worthwhile, though I have no clue if what I think will be interesting will be interesting to students.

One thing that struck me as I was reading: differentiation. When Lynne and I did our presentation on differentiation last spring we learned that differentiation is not about giving everyone a fun activity, but about making sure each student learns a certain minimum (and much more) by engaging them in the way they learn best. This brings me to to the invitations. I think it would be very tempting to create fun invitations that really didn't involve much deep learning. The point of the invitations is to give students the opportunity to get even deeper into the thinking process regardless of the topic.

I really enjoyed making one on a social justice issue two years ago, so I'm hoping I can do one with some other topic to get some broad practice.

4 comments:

  1. I liked the Van Sluys idea for social justice (the ebonics one that her kids did sounds advanced but cool) and poetry. Unless the school has invitations already made, it is time consuming to make a class set on different topics and subjects. Also, invitations will have to be tailored year after year depending on your students' needs and interests. I think that's a reality.

    Poetry is SUPER hard as a way for people to ease into writing, especially if you're like me and didn't get much exposure as a kid. From what I observe, I still don't think poetry is really big... the kids who like it are the ones who do a lot of reading and writing on their own at home. I may not be a confident poet, but I will make sure to use poetry in teaching non-fiction!

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  2. Patti, I always appreciate your insight. You have a unique, experienced understanding of so many of the issues that come up in our courses and I am thankful for and value your input. In this case I enjoyed your exploration of differentiation, concerning snares and value involved. I don't really have much to contribute but to say thanks for writing -- I enjoy your posts.

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  3. Patti, I agree, that writing poetry and reading poetry is kinda...well....blah, but I, like you, see this types of poems Allen presents to us very easily accomplished. I also took the tradebooks course and made a critical literacy invitation. I love the idea of them but I am saddened I have never seen a teacher use them. Hopefully, I will soon enough!

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  4. OK - I'm writing to say that I agree with Arthur - your posts are always enjoyable to read and your input to our class discussions is invaluable. But, come on - do you really believe that you're incapable of writing poetry? I would love to read your own personal version of "I Am A Person". You can so do this!

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