quote from Unless

awesome catalogue card from the Catalog Card Generator (with thanks to katie the scrapbook lady for pointing the way to that)

twilight season

this bloggy baby is going to have a snooze for a while while i work on some other things, but before i go i do just have to say that the spring sun and the fresh air and the sometimes rain apparently mean only one thing to me: it’s twilight season.  this is when i read the twilight saga for the first time one year ago, and even though i’ve read it again (and again) since and listened to the soundtrack all through the year in all sorts of weather, and moved on to New Moon and Eclipse developments and other YA reads and more and more vampire fiction…. my Twilight belongs in Spring.  the songs sound better, the air holds the mood and the story breathes. If I could hop the ferry to Forks in the next little while, i will seriously think i’ve died and gone to heaven.

take care, for now, my reader friends and teacher friends. you can always find me here.

this, my “innovating style”

maybe you met me and my post-it notes last year…

“No one understands your relationship with paper but you… The fact is, your piles of paper make sense to you and represent ongoing, intellectual, active thoughts… You need it around because it enables your specialized thinking to work… Malcolm Gladwell… says of people like you, “They can’t file because they haven’t yet sorted and filed the ideas in their head.  It isn’t a sign of disorganization, but rather a sign of complexity.””

from Organizing for Your Brain Type by Lanna Nakone

ha!

making thinking visible

meet my twilight:

(and no, they’re not colour coded.  i did think about it though )

my point…

back to basics here soon.  the release of the New Moon movie had brought with it a new round of criticism of the books, especially adults sounding off on how “lame” and “dumb” they are, and/or how they will not be touching the books with a ten-foot pole, so to speak.  so i am feeling some renewed energy to get back to my original premise for blogging here – which is looking at the comprehension strategies at work in the reading of Twilight, and how using each of them, alone and in combination, makes Twilight a full and enjoyable reading experience.  again,  at no time, in no way, am i trying to say, “Hey, this is English Literature at it’s best!  Twilight should be filed next to Shakespeare under ‘talented authors and texts that will stand the test of time’”, so don’t get your knickers in too much of a knot.

i recognize that “vampires” is not to everyone’s taste, and that might cause some of the distaste.  however, i confess to having a bit of a prepossession for that narrow genre – Bram Stoker got to me early, really early; Anne Rice dug in deeper, and now Twilight, True Blood and the Vampire Diaries are cherries on top.  but that genre issue nonwithstanding (and knowing there’s not a terrible lot of vampiric vampire activity in Twilight, what with the “vegetarians” and all), there is still an awful lot in the series that makes them easily relatable, prime for connections, which brings the story into the “enjoyable anyway” category….  if you haven’t gotten too old or hardened of heart {yes, i said that}.  hm.  maybe it’s something to ponder that some segment of the adult population are simply too grown-up, too disconnected from their own young selves, to bring those connections to the surface, too conscious of what they maybe subconsiously group into accecptable subject matter and otherwise.  but anyway, those are wild wandering of the mind, not ground in a psychology or human behaviour background.  this is my blog, i can muse out loud.  plus, the series isn’t MARKETED TO YOU, you crusty grown up.  they are certainly telling you you shouldn’t be interested!  but at the same time, some issues in it are still mature for young teens to read.

hm.  a pickle, to be sure.

teaching with intention

i love how she explains the shift in her practice, and how she explains her choices.  being able to articulate the rationale behind our choices in the classroom and being able to understand someone else’s choices, i think, is so important to being a reflective and intentional teacher. i LOVE how well thought out the things she’s relinquished control over are, proving that she is, in fact, in control. this teacher is ensuring that her students have a learning environment that works for them, pushes them and nurtures them, and she clearly works every day to make it continue to happen that way.

Elementary, My Dear, or Far From It: read her Out of Control post

the outside of enough

“Lord Liverpool gave him a long, hard look.  Then he said, “The matter shall not rest here, Mr. Norrell.  But whether it is Strange or not, one thing is clear.  Great Britain already has a mad King; a mad magician would be the outside of enough…”

p. 694

a leftover piece of the funeral

“It is these black clothes,” said Strange. “I am like a leftover piece of the funeral, condemned to walk about the Town, frightening people into thinking of their own mortality.”

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, page 528, Chapter 48 – The Engravings  Late February-March 1816                                                                   c 2004, Bloomsbury Publishing

interpreting texts

literacy teachers (which means ALL teachers ) stand to learn a lot from Margaret Atwood (of course – who else?).

today’s example brought to you by the current issue of maclean’s and the ontario elementary language curriculum:

“After so many books, she has learned that it is useless to try to point the reader in one direction or the other — they will take away exactly what they want to. “You’re not in control of how people read a book. They’re doing their own interpertation,” she says.” from Sister Atwood’s Travelling Salvation Show Maclean’s Oct 12th 2009 page 68.

Making Inferences/Interpreting Texts

1.5 develop and explain interpretations of

increasingly complex or difficult texts

using stated and implied ideas from the

texts to support their interpretations

Reading: 1. Reading for Meaning: Making Inferences/Interpreting Texts  1.5 “develop and explain interpretations of increasingly complex or difficult texts using stated and implied ideas from the texts to support their interpretations” from the Ontario Language Curriculum document (this example is Gr 7 if you’re persnickety)

consider how this does not discuss “the” interpretation but “their own” and “interpretationS” i love that freedom.

!!

there’s no end to how much i LOVE this. this reflects a personal philosophy and style, as well as something i was able to learn a little more first hand from some the wonderful people i worked with last year.  i think the biggest challenge for classroom teachers is that to do this, we also have to trust ourselves.   it does not always have to be planned, and long-range planned, and substitute-teacher planned, and short-range planned and visual-agenda planned {are teachers planners by nature? it’s getting a little out of hand} and scripted ahead of time {and yes, planning is important and perhaps teaching with INTENTION moreso}.  we 100% do need to trust our students, and trust ourselves to teach them well.

go with them moment. let them show you the need. meet them and teach them where they are. listen.  HEAR THEM. we teach kids, not curriculum, right?

Trust: Two Writing Teachers blog