Practical Theory - English

Save the National Writing Project

chris@practicaltheory.org (Chris Lehmann) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:48:09 -0700

As a former English teacher, and as someone who believes that programs that work should continue, I'm very deeply dismayed by the Department of Education's decision not to fund the National Writing Project. NWP has, for many, many years been an unequivocal good in education. There are few pure wins in education, but NWP is one of them.

If you need more convincing, SLA teacher Zac Chase has made the argument in a much more compelling fashion. Go read what he wrote. Here's a sample:

Were this simply an impassioned plea, I would have hesitated to write. The data speaks for itself, the National Writing Project has offered a significant return on investment in its 36 year history. Federal funding for the NWP must be maintained if we are to continue striving to meet the Projects goal of a future where every person is an accomplished writer, engaged learner, and active participant in a digital, interconnected world.

Then, when you're done, write to your Congressmen and Senators. Urge them to to sign Rep. Miller's Dear Colleague letter. The National Writing Project is an important organization that has created a national network of teachers who share a vision and a plan to help students find their voices, both on and off-line. They deserve our support, and we all benefit from their continued work.

RIP, Kurt Vonnegut

chris@practicaltheory.org (Chris Lehmann) — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 09:49:25 -0700

Live by the foma that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.
- Book of Bokonon 1:5 (Cat's Cradle)

Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. Its hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Its round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, youve got about a hundred years here. Theres only one rule that I know of, babies God damn it, youve got to be kind.'
- God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

Thank you, Mr. Vonnegut, for a treasure trove of books that made us think, laugh and question. You will be missed.

And so it goes.

Update: Kat (my wife, for those folks who don't know) was a publicist for Showtime when the channel made Harrison Bergeron into a TV movie. As such, she got to spend a ton of time with Kurt Vonnegut. From Kat... he was a wonderful, kind man, capable of being a curmugeon when he had to go in front of the camera, but he was incredibly lovable. He spoke in aphorisms, he was brilliant, and everyone hung on his every word. When he walked out of a press conference, even though there was another press conference right after his, all the reporters followed him out of the room to keep listening to what he said.

My wife -- who has worked on amazing projects with many, many incredible people -- considers working with him to be the highlight of her career. And she -- who I have never seen star-struck or even star-impressed -- loves and values the picture she has of the two of them together.

Image source: http://repos-fs.matrix.msu.edu/cls/a0/a0/cls-a0a0r9-a.jpg

Book Meme

chris@practicaltheory.org (Chris Lehmann) — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 23:13:00 -0700

I got tagged by Brad Hoge over at the HUN Blog with the book meme. The English teacher in me thought: how could I refuse?

1. One book that changed your life? Tough one... I think I'm going to have to go with Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks. It really changed the way I thought about the classroom and teaching. Ten years later, I still think about the lessons that book holds.

2. One book you have read more than once? (Well, aside from the one I just mentioned...) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. I first read that in high school, and it could easily have fit under the first question. I read it in college, read it again at night when I was at the training session for my first job, read it again my first year teaching, and then taught it for the last few years at Beacon. What blows me away is that I've really identified with different pieces of it at different points in my life.

3. One book you would want on a desert island? World According to Garp by John Irving. I've read this book more than any other book, I just love the story, I love the writing, and I love re-reading it. After all this time, the characters feel like old friends. (Close second -- Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson.)

4. One book that made you laugh? White Noise by Don DeLillo. Yes, it made me think and question and write too, but it's also just really funny, satirical and spot on.

5. One book that made you cry? I'm going way back to the first book I remember making me cry -- A Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. I read it when I was in sixth grade. Wasn't expecting what happened. Was completely blown away. That was the first book that made me cry... there have been a lot since then.

6. One book you wish had been written? "Hamlet" or "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" -- heck, if you're going to dream, dream big. (O.k. -- I'd "settle" for Moral Leadership by Thomas Sergiovanni or The Schools Our Children Deserve by Alfie Kohn.)

7. One book you wish had never been written? Anything Ann Coulter has ever written.

8. One book you are currently reading? Deadwood by Pete Dexter.

9. One book you have been meaning to read? The Story of Science by Joy Hakim. I'm halfway through it.

10. Now tag five people. I'll tag SLA teacher Marcie Hull, fellow principal Steve Poling, charter school planner Amy Hendrickson, DesignShare's Christian Long (once he gets back from his travels), and fellow English teacher Bud Hunt.

A Literary Map of Manhattan

chris@practicaltheory.org (Chris Lehmann) — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 21:26:31 -0700

Found a wonderful new site via Technology & Learning's Site of the Day -- the New York Times' Literary Map of Manhattan. Starting at the top of the island, it has 99 entries of the addresses of imaginary New Yorkers, complete with a quote from the text. One, it serves as a wonderful display of the amazing hold on our imagination New York City has had for well over a hundred years. Two, it is a loving, romantic tribute to the city, somehow, and just looking at all the texts over so much time, mapped out onto the streets of the city made me really miss New York City today. And three, it's just a really clever use of the technology to demonstrate the imaginary New York City, created by so many authors.

It also made me think about how incredible a "Literature of New York City" course would be. Jon Goldman, one of Beacon's teachers, did a New York Stories senior English class a few years back, and the kids loved it. It's one of the classes I wished I'd gotten the chance to teach.

Here's just a few of the texts that I loved when I read them that the New York Times cited in their map... what a course they would make...

Ralph Ellison -- Invisible Man
Langston Hughes -- "Theme from English B"
Jonathan Lethem -- Motherless Brooklyn
Saul Bellow -- Seize the Day
Judy Bloom -- Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (hey, I loved Judy Blume as a kid!)
J. D. Salinger -- The Catcher in the Rye
Sylvia Plath -- The Bell Jar
James Baldwin -- Go Tell It on the Mountain
Kurt Vonnegut -- Slapstick
Michael Chabon -- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Isaac Bashevis Singer -- Enemies: A Love Story
Caleb Carr -- The Alienist
Henry Roth -- Call It Sleep
Jay McInerery -- Bright Lights, Big City
Henry James -- Washington Square

It really is a city like no other, and the literature of the city speaks to that. Thanks to the Times for putting together this very cool resource.

Making the English Classroom Relevant

chris@practicaltheory.org (Chris Lehmann) — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 00:56:00 -0700

The Reflective Teacher commented on the blog after my entry the other day about his post... and s/he said:

Thanks for the link, and thanks even more for the "really interesting to read" comment.

I'd also like to know what makes the teaching of English more vibrant, vital, and relevant. It's the missing link, I think...making the lessons make sense, be fun and playful, and be necessary (and clearly useful) every day. Students complain that my class is none of these things, and I'd like to be able to turn that around.

Here's my response:

For me... it was always about making it relevant to their / our lives. And for me, that's why we read. I don't read Hamlet (for example) because I'm really dying to know about what some writer thought about some prince 400 years ago... Hamlet is a fantastic text because it still lives and breathes and tells us something about our lives today.

So when I was doing lit discussion (which was a lot) I always (or usually) started them off with a journal entry that took the theme of the reading and took it to the lives we live... so to continue the lousy Hamlet analogy... when we read "To be or not to be..." I asked, "Have you ever had a moment where you were so scared by the circumstances in your life that running away or even dying (the ultimate running away) felt like an option? How did that feel? If not, how do you think that would feel?"

(Now... that's a powerful, powerful question, and you better be able to handle it and actually, you may want to talk to your dept. chair before you tackle that one, but hey, we'll continue just for the sake of argument...)

But kids respond... because it's a powerfully HUMAN way to feel... and we spent time talking about it... and then we read the speech with the lens of our own lives as the backdrop (and the play too) and now there's a reason to look at iambic pentameter and the politics of Denmark and all the other English-geek stuff that we love because looking at all those things have something to tell us about the way we live our lives today, because after all, if Shakespeare was writing about that feeling... and some 400 year old character of a prince in a play written in a language that only English teachers seem to understand... well, maybe I'm not so strange for feeling that way too. And maybe Hamlet is worth reading because he's a little like me. Or maybe Claudius is... or maybe Ophelia is, only I don't want to end up like ANY of them, so maybe now we can talk about how not to end up like any of them.

And man... when that discussion happens, you've got them.

I'm jealous of you in a lot of ways. I made the decision to leave the classroom for the chance to make a bigger difference as the principal, but even writing this email made me remember how much I just loved the moments when it was my kids and me and some book that I hoped we could dissect to find some new meaning for each other in our lives.

Enjoy every moment in the classroom -- it's sacred time.

Amazing English Teacher Blog

chris@practicaltheory.org (Chris Lehmann) — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 17:36:23 -0700

Thanks to Tom Hoffman for the tip, this is Tim Fredrick's ELA Teaching Blog. It's a fantastic read, and he's a powerfully thoughtful writer and pedagogue. Go read.