Breakdown

Breakdown by T. Ott was a graphic short story that had no dialogue, just one character, and an interesting plot. The story portrayed an astronaut stationed in a space station by himself, with no other human contact. In the second panel with the astronaut, it is depicted that the "Emergency" light is blinking in the space station and upon further inspection it seems that a meteorite has hit the space shuttle and the astronaut needs to go a look at the damage. However, by the look on his face, the astronaut seems confused, and almost doomed, with how to handle the situation. He goes out and sees the damage that was done, and there is almost a state of panic that is depicted from the astronaut. Then, he starts seeing fish and squid around him, then he is touched by a mermaid. You don't see the reaction of the astronaut when he meets the mermaid, but he does try to follow her as she floats away. Then, after watching the mermaid float away, the astronaut disconnects himself and floats into space.

I have to admit, I was confused by the story when I first read it--and it still doesn't make sense to me how a mermaid, fish, and squid were in space and how it relates to the story. However, some of the themes that I came up with were: loneliness, darkness, sadness, distance, and loss. I was taking most of the themes from the title, and also how I saw the astronaut.

As for activities, I was mostly thinking about keeping it in the realm of freewrites, and some prompts I came up with:

• Why do you think the piece is called Breakdown? Consider the characters and the sceario of the story, and how would it translate into this universe?
• Imagine that you are the astronaut. What is going on inside you head?
• Since the story does not have words, what dialogue and storyline would you put in?

Best American - The Encirclement

The Construction Zone:

The Encirclement by Tamas Dobozy

Summary:

Blind wanderer, Sandor, makes his way around America on the charity and kindness of strangers eager to aid him. He follows Professor Teleki, an historian and lecturer who travels and shares his experiences during the war. However, every time Teleki begins to talk, he is interrupted by the blind man, who accuses him of lying to his audience, and the audience, eager to hear what the blind man has to say, urge him to continue in his accusations. Sandor’s claims of Teleki’s dishonesty become nation-known, and as Sandor’s stories are so specifically detailed, and told with such conviction, the nation believes him over Teleki. Teleki decides to end his tour and hide from the ridicule of the horrific, unjust accusations, but before doing so, he holds one more lecture. It is here, during Sandor’s final, most convincing speech, that Teleki realizes the man is speaking of his own experiences. He descends from the stage and finds the man who is not physically blind, but morally, and hugs him before escorting him from the auditorium, from his own public confession.

Teleki realizes that Sandor, who travelled across the country on other’s good will, also confesses his sins on the good will of others. He realizes that Teleki allows others to help him so that they may help themselves, as Sandor learned to help and forgive himself as well.

Themes:

Self discovery

Forgiveness of others; path to forgiveness of yourself

Blind “wise” man

Death and rebirth

Coexisting

War

Destruction

Sacrifice

Relationships

Learning from others

Learning about yourself from others

Activities:

Running with the idea of learning from other’s experiences, we could brainstorm within small groups when this may be beneficial, and share personal our experiences. As an entire class, we could talk about characters in a novel we are reading: how do they learn or do not learn, when perhaps they should, from one another. A critical question to build the activity around may be, “can we truly learn from others, or is it our own experience we need to finalize our understanding?” Have students write a 2 page short story about a time they thought they were able to understand someone’s situation, but it wasn’t until they experienced it for themselves that they were truly able to understand. As a class, discuss some of the reasons which prevented them from understanding this other person. Was it fear? Lack of a willingness to step out of one’s comfort zone? Social implications? Even though we may not truly understand someone’s situation, can we still learn from it? What is the difference between the two?

• Group discussion


• Class discussion


• Story about own experience to get students to consider why/what the difference is between fully understanding someone’s experience, and having the ability to learn and apply someone else’s experiences to ones on life


• Regroup as class – discuss difference between “understanding” and “learning”

Best Nonrequired Reading & Lesson Ideas

The Tiger’s Wife begins in 1941 as the Germans are bombing a city. A lone tiger escapes a local zoo and begins a trek for survival. The big themes are war, bravery, death, identity, and the intersection of superstition. The narrator relates events in the early years of his/her grandfather’s life. Described like a local myth or folktale, the characters and scenes move back and forth between fact and fantasy.

Lesson Plan for High School Students

Big Ideas:

War

Essential Questions: How does war change people? Are society’s rules suddenly different? Imagine the big picture (war) and move the camera in to view the small-scale, everyday “wars” between neighbors, friends, and family. Are the answers to the questions above the same?

Focus areas: Discuss the significance of bombs through the eyes of the tiger, body parts in trees, desensitization.

Bravery

Essential Questions: What does it mean to be brave? What do gender roles have to say about bravery?

Focus areas: Discuss the bravery of the tiger, the deaf-mute girl, the blacksmith, and the villagers.

Death

Essential Questions: Do life and death have the same value in times of war? Why? How do you know? What does this story say about death? How? Why?

Focus Areas: How is death viewed by the grandfather, the deaf-mute girl, Luka, the tiger?

Identity

Essential Questions: Who or what is the tiger? Who is the tiger’s wife? Who is the narrator?

Focus areas: Who killed Luka? What happened to the tiger?

Intersection of Superstition/Mythology/Spirituality

Essential Questions: Is the tiger real? Are Luka and the deaf-mute girl real? Is the story real?

What larger roles do these characters play in the story?

Part 2. Ties to Macbeth

War

Essential Questions: What is acceptable in times of war? Narrow the focus of war to the level of kings, families, neighbors, and friends. Who are the victims in both stories?

Bravery

How does Lady Macbeth use ideas of bravery, masculinity, and gender roles to influence Macbeth? What similarities do you see in the blacksmith?

Death

How is death viewed in Macbeth? Is death real or imaginary? Is death more real in The Tiger’s Wife?

Focus areas: apparitions

Identity

Who or what are the witches? What else could they represent? Are the ghosts/apparitions real? How do you know? Compare the witches to the tiger.

Superstition

What role do the witches play? How do they advance the story? What can they tell us about the people of the time period? How is the “tiger’s wife” like the witches? How are the stories similar?

Activities: (Break into groups of three)

Part 1: Each group will construct a short story containing a combination of any two of the themes above. It can be a complete work of fiction or a transformation of an existing story.

Part 2: Each group will come up with a symbolic rendering (art, poetry, mixed-media, video, music, or visual representation) of their story.

Part 3: (Individual)

Each person will choose one theme (war, bravery/gender roles, death, identity, or superstition/mythology/spirituality), and write a brief essay about how it has touched his/her life.

"Vanish" (BANR): Identity Sticks Like Glue

Evan Ratliff's "Vanish" is a psychologically thrilling short story like I've never read before. Why? Because it's not fiction. This piece is about a real manhunt. A contributing editor for Wired magazine, he agreed to be the hunted man in a contest sponsored by Wired. Anyone could win $5000 if he/she could find Ratliff within one month's time, say the password, and take his picture. This operation was created to try to answer the question, How hard is it to vanish in the digital age? How much can our "digital fingerprints" tell others about who (and where) we are? Ratliff chronicles his paranoia-inducing adventure as he takes a hop, skip, jump, and back-hop across the U.S. From gift card transactions to fake IP addresses, Ratliff does his best to leave no traces. Spying on the pursuers' clue-sharing on Twitter and Facebook groups keeps him one step ahead. I won't spoil the ending for you, but you should read this at least to learn about how you can be tracked down.

As for themes and activities, you could always give yourself a month-long vacation and try this yourself with your students as the contestants. Just kidding! Certainly the theme of identity could be explored in a 21C, technology-saturated world. I think there is a crime component as well. Is it lawful to use a pseudonym and lie that you don't have your ID on you? What about giving false information online about yourself?
I would love to read any student freewrites with the author as the hunted one. I think it would be neat to compare "Vanish" with a crime short story of the 1930s or 40s. A man running away from the law is a typical plot of the genre. It would be interesting to focus on the technology and methods of how the cops catch the crook. Relationships can also be explored in "Vanish." Ratliff chooses only to contact those in his closest confidence during the hunt. He was really alone. To make any contact or connections could show his location. For this to work, he had to be a nobody. An unnoticed nobody, that is.

Finally, "Vanish" could be used with Macbeth to show the isolation of crime. Ratliff has to be someone other than himself. Macbeth must act like he didn't murder Duncan. He tries to cover up his crime. Ratliff tries to cover his tracks. The concept of masks comes to mind. Has does Macbeth hide his true emotions? How does Ratliff try to look unlike himself? How do students act differently online as opposed to in person? How do they act at school and at home? What tools do they use to create and maintain the mask? What are the consequences of betraying one's true identity/character?  

Poverty: More Than You'll Ever Know

After reading the Intro and chapters 1 and 2 of the Poverty book, I was somewhat overwhelmed. I am grateful that I have not experienced poverty. However, I struggle to understand how I can help students that are dealing with poverty. The stories in chapter 1 were heartbreaking. And for people to understand the many other types of poverty besides financial makes it even worse. There's another problem. A student is not going to come up to me and say, "Hey, Teach. I want to let you know that my family's broke and I spend 6 hours a night taking care of my siblings and the house because my mom works evenings and my dad left us when I was 2." I don't think this stuff is going to be on an IEP. So how do we help our students when we don't know what's going on? As for Ch. 2, I have no real understanding of the casual-register style of storytelling. How am I supposed to work with both casual and formal registers when discussing my class readings? How does that affect student writing? Obviously, this is uncharted territory for me and I will have to do more reading and observing.

The Best American Nonrequired Reading

This has got to be one of the best books I've laid hands on. Seriously, I love it. We always discuss in class how "text" comes in a variety of forms, but I think we often forget about all the written text that surrounds us which goes unnoticed. In the first part of the book we're introduced to ran dom texts such as, "Best American Farm Names" and "Best American Lawsuits"; all of which provide humor. Readings like this should not go ignored in our future classrooms... they are both engaging and interesting, and could easily be added into a variety of lesson or unit plans. For example, if you're doing a unit on poetry, why not include "Best American Poems Written in the Last Decade or So by People Living or Fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan"? Not only does that tie in with the poetry unit, but it also provides the students with a different insight from the lives of soldiers or civilians living in the war. This book opens up a lot of oppurtunties, and I'm excited to read what more of my classmates have come up with in terms of how to use it for classroom activities.

After reading Chapter 8 “Instruction and Approving Achievement,” I thought that the point about measuring IQ based on content is relevant when dealing with poverty, especially with students. It is the time old question of street sense versus book knowledge. The beginning of the chapter claims that we test students based on what they should know if their parents were educated. There are many homes where a child may go home and the parents cannot help them with their homework because the mother or father cannot do the work or, worse yet, read the assignment. Another problem that the chapter presents is the teacher’s responsibility in being able to teach cognitive ability instead of assuming that every student in the classroom is competent in being able to do what their peers are capable of doing. Some students may have been able to “jump through the hoops” with little detection of their struggles. Teachers are also responsible in creating a safe atmosphere that is predictable and dependable so that students can learn from important ‘mediation’ skills from the teacher.

Payne Chapter one and two

I thought I had a pretty good idea what poverty looks like before I read these two chapters. I figured that no matter what the situation that there is always someone to help and always a way out of things. My ideas were completely disrupted with these two chapters. I found myself floundering when asked the same questions at the end of each case study. It was hard to imagine that these people didn't necessarily have anyone to turn to and didn't know how to get out of the current situation. I think it will be a challenge to try to break through some of the generational mindsets that students will bring to the classroom. I am not sure how I will deal with issues like students coming to school hungry and not knowing who their fathers are or where their mothers are. I know these issues exist. I remember sitting in a classroom during my observation and a student was making fun of another students father. The student who was being made of informed the class that she could not know any of these things about his father because he didn't even know who his father is. That moment was huge for me because I saw not only his response but the response of his fellow students. The thought of this boy not knowing his dad was not uncomfortable to any of them, not foreign in any way. I realized at that moment that I have no idea what poverty looks like and the two chapters on poverty confirmed that for me. I am extremely uncomfortable with dealing with this issue, but, it is when we are most uncomfortable when we are most aware and willing to change.

Reinventing English: the Amorphous Discipline

This was a tough read. For Cliff to believe that rape is sometimes justifiable in war makes me wonder what his parents were (or were not) teaching him. How does one get to that state of mind? I won't spend time asking the why's and how's about the other student profiles. I will say that we as teachers will have students who, may I be frank, are messed up. I say that not to judge, but to say that we can help them. The degree that we will earn is different than a school counselor's. Yet we can't only deal with the "academic" part of a person. The kids we have coming into our classrooms are humans first and students second. In the same way that a breakfast-free stomach will distract and concern a student during the school day, so will the constant remembrance of the verbal/physical fight a kid's parents had before she left for school (and the fears of what will happen when she gets home) will plague her mind.

And this is where the author's second point comes in. What exactly is this discipline we call English? For once, there was something in one of our readings that I thought about before the class. The broad view of what English is is why I like it. At its core, English is about language and all the things that go with it. How do we communicate? We speak (and listen), write (and read). And now in the 21C, we create texts (and consume texts [I'm using the broad definition we talked about in class]). Since language and texts do not exist in a vacuum, we are required to deal with the real world in English. Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle! That's a lot to fit into a class period.

Yeah, it is, Rocky, but that's why we want to teach. We want to prepare our students (or should I say, the next generation) for the real world (good, bad, and ugly parts included; batteries not included). Through our language exchange about literature, we can discuss, debate, question, and explore the "big issues" that we are dealing with today. Our classrooms can be the environment where kids formulate ideas and opinions about topics from racism to the American Dream to the quest for power. I need to make one point about this. I am not suggesting that any indoctrination occur in the class because of these discussions. I believe schools should be places where children are presented with many ideas and perspectives. I use "presented" specifically. Teachers can give their students "presents" of having a place and time to learn about the big issues. The student has the choice to receive the gift, unwrap it, open the box, and take it out of the box. We can encourage our class to go all the way in that sequence, but they need to make up their own minds on these things. This is America, folks. You are free and welcome to think as you please.

To wrap up, language is social. And as Dr. Shields claims in Trans Gram, language is related to social power/status. We can help students climb up this language ladder and use language (in all its forms) to produce positive change in the world. Sounds great in theory, right? Let's be the group of teachers that actually practices it. We can do it. Ready, and...go!

Ruby Payne: Resources and Language

The first two chapters from Ruby Payne’s Framework for Understanding Poverty amazed me. Every time I’ve heard someone say something like “they need to get a job” or something along the lines of “pulling themselves up by the bootstraps”… I was angered and offended. These first two chapters illustrate the inappropriateness of trying to prescribe solutions from a middle class mindset to someone entrenched in profound poverty. As future teachers, this awareness will help us look for cause and effect in our students’ struggles. With an understanding of differing resources, we can help students and parents find workable solutions. In some cases, the best we can do is to provide the student with a positive role model and emotional/intellectual support.

The language portion was especially interesting for me. I have noticed this phenomenon, but I never had a term to accurately describe it. I never realized that many students come to school or the workplace without an understanding of the formal register. It’s another important factor in social mobility; without it, a person is stuck.

Reinventing English

The most influential aspect that I found in the chapter “From Comfort to Contact Zone” from Reinventing English is the importance of remembering my students are teenagers and are therefore humans. They struggle with issues, feel a variety of emotions, and ultimately experience a life that is outside of the classroom. My classroom must reflect this through what and how I teach. I too believe that I “should prepare students for postsecondary education, but I should prepare them for life first (p.9).” This returns to the themes presented in Teaching as a Subversive Activity, that teachers need to equip students with the skills and tools to “survive in the real world.”

Some extremely important skills that I want to my students to develop are empathy, self-reflection, and inquiry. The ability for students to empathize with other students is crucial for developing a safe and comfortable learning environment. This will take students outside of their narrow-minded views and beliefs and help them realize that students can differ from them. The suicide note mentioned in the first chapter of Reinventing English was extremely powerful and heart-breaking, for it showed a student who was rejected and ridiculed by his peers because he was “different.” As the author states, this does not make his actions justified, however, it does provide moving insight that should impact our classrooms.

Self-reflection is necessary because it allows students to see who they are, realize why they act the way they do and make the decisions they do, and help develop their own identity. This can be accomplished through many forms of writing as well as reading a variety of literary texts. Having self-reflection in the classroom will again aide in the development of a learning community, where students know more about themselves and their peers.

Inquiry is one of the greatest tools for learning. When students are asking the “tough questions” and then attempting to discover the answers or possible solutions on their own is when true learning occurs. By talking about real life issues, issues that students experience in their day to day activities, will provide the emotional connection that is necessary for student and purpose driven learning to occur. When they see that the content of their discussions can be implemented in their “outside-of-school” lives it will carry more meaning for them.

All these tools coupled together is what I hope will be present in my future classroom. I find it essential that I remember to put the “life” of my students constantly at the forefront of my mind. If I am able to do this then the instructional techniques and methods I use in my classroom will be a reflection of that goal. Developing the “people skills” in my students will be the foundation of my classroom.