The Culmination

Throughout this course, I have seen how there are distinct strategies for literacy instruction. However, I have also seen how all of the strategies intertwine and build upon each other. The following is a summary of what I now understand about language, literacy, and learning as they apply to my teaching.

COMPREHENSION: Comprehension is more than just having a baseline understanding of a text. It means understanding, evaluating, and using a text to further learning. In order to comprehend, we must forge some sort of relationship with the text.

In my future English classes, I will implement frontloading, during reading, and after reading activities to assist students in understanding plot, characters, and theme. In my government classes, I can see how several comprehension strategies could help when reading primary documents such as legislative bills or proposals.

VOCABULARY: Vocabulary seems to me a foundation for comprehension. We communicate by using words, and if you don't know the meanings of those words, comprehension becomes pretty much nonexistent.

I plan to implement A LOT of morpheme instruction in my classes. I took an entire class here at USU on Latin and Greek morphemic elements, and that has been, by far, one of the most helpful classes of my life. I feel that devoting a large chunk of time to this type of instruction is worthwhile since it will help students in every subject, with every text they read, and in every day of their lives.

ORAL LANGUAGE: Speaking is one of the primary ways we communicate with one another, so a mastery of the skill of oral language supports that main goal of high literacy levels. By talking something out, we understand it on a deeper and more influential level.

I have endured the many criticisms of English majors, one of which is that we are so anti-social: we just want to curl up in a lonely, isolated spot and read. Blah, blah, blah. Although there is some element of truth to that, the thrill of books comes more for me after I have read them and can TALK about them with others. I hope to instill that excitement in my students by using well-structured whole-class and small-group discussions.

LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY: Students can neither comprehend texts or express themselves through oral language if they are required to do so in a language or dialect which is foreign to them. Each person has his own primary discourse. This is not something we as teachers should be afraid of. Rather, we should be excited by how dynamic and varied language can be. Although I do believe we should strive for some semblance of consistency, sundry approaches to expression are what make interactions with others so interesting.

WRITING: Oh my. Writing. As I've told my friends many times before, I chose to be an English major for the reading and not for the writing. To my dismay, they came as a packaged deal. As much as I still loathe writing sometimes, I appreciate the vast opportunities writing has given me to strengthen my comprehension, vocabulary, and expressive language skills.

I believe that which challenges us is actually best for us, so I plan to implement writing into my classes on a frequent basis. I like the idea of using the six traits of writing as a way for students to target various aspects of writing. Because writing is such a complex process, breaking it down serves to make the task more managable.

DIGITAL AND CRITICAL LITERACY: I love the digital world. I love the fact that, as I am baking cupcakes right now, I can pull up a webiste on the Internet and find a yummy frosting recipe. I love that I can talk to my friend in France and keep up to date with the happenings in his life. I love that I can have access to endless information about any topic I can think of ... INSTANTLY. However, I feel exhausted living in a digital world, as well. I'm sure my students will feel much the same way as they, too, will have endless streams of information poured upon them throughout the day. This is why critical literacy is so important; developing the ability to analyze and evaluate the credibility and usefulness of any one perspective can save us from buying into just any old "authority." I think critical literacy is about students gaining the confidence to critique information and perspectives while finding some solidarity in their own lives.

Overall, I have found both the theoretical and practical measures of this class intriguing and useful. Thank you, Amy and fellow classmates, for helping me to put the pieces together.

Observations of a Pre-service Teacher

As a pre-service teacher, I am spending loads of time in high-school classrooms observing the daily goings-on of public education. I am intrigued by many of the methods used by teachers to accomplish whatever objective it is they wish to work toward. A particularly interesting lesson popped up last week as I was observing an eleventh-grade English class.

First of all, this teacher is very passionate about getting students to learn how to have a discussion, a really good, meaty, make-you-want-to-extend-the-class-hour sort of discussion. So, throughout the school year so far, he has focused on teaching what he believes to be the key aspects that comprise a good discussion. They are:

1) Safety This means that you disagree and question what is being said, but you don't necessarily attack others or, on the other end of the spectrum, simply agree with whatever it is they are saying.

2) Authentic Participation This means that you participate, but you give others the chance to participate as well. You seem honestly involved in the discussion, and you don't try to take over the whole discussion.

3) Challenge This means that, during a discussion, you ask questions that can be answered, but not easily. They are usually open-ended questons.

4) Ownership This means that you talk about the topic the whole time, but you also bring in relevant examples and logic from outside the text (or whatever is being studied) to support your ideas.

Okay, so there's the background for the lesson I witnessed. Students were asked to have a small-group discussion in groups of four in front of the class for fifteen minutes and would be graded on the four aspects of discussion listed above. I have heard this strategy often called a "fishbowl discussion." Not sure how much I like that label, but that's beside the point. Anyway, their topic for discussion? Chapter 21 of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Group after group entered the "fishbowl," but most sat silently for a while. Some of the groups forced their way into a topic, but struggled to continue discussion for more than a few seconds. There was a group that performed particularly well, feeding off each other, really listening to each other, and responding with thoughtful comments. After the fifteen minutes, other students observing the fishbowl would critique what went well and what could be improved.

Interestingly enough, I observed this lesson just two hours before attending my Language and Literacy class in which we talked about oral language, specifically discussion in the classroom. How convenient! In terms of what we discussed in class that day, I can see some of the pros and cons for the high-school lesson I observed.

PROS
The four aspects the eleventh-grade teacher thought so crucial for good discussion were mirrored in what we pre-service teachers came up with. We were asked to think of a memory of a really good discussion we had in school; then, we were to list the reasons why it was a good discussion. Many of us said everyone needs a chance to participate, which directly relates to the idea of authentic participation. We also said that a good discussion involves personal experiences and insights, also known as ownership. We also looked at a quote from Judith Langer which states, "Teachers who beat the odds expect their students not to merely learn together but to sharpen their understandings with, against, and from each other." This relates to the idea of safety in that students should not simply nod their heads in agreement 100% of the time, nor should they rebuke what is being said 100% of the time. This high-school teacher has really narrowed in on specific techniques he believes will foster excellent discussions, and, they apparently correlate to what we as college students believe as well.

CONS
As good as the intentions and the content of the lesson were, however, it was evident that the students were not making too much progress toward the intended objective. Of course, discussion is something that must be practiced in order to improve, but I think there were a few key points that could have been included in this lesson to foster better group discussions. One, taking into account the gradual release of responsibility model, a teacher should first model what it is he wishes to see students do. Then, he guides the students as they practice until they can eventually perform a task without any support. The students in the English class were probably in the middle stage in which some support was still needed. It might have been helpful to have at least one discussion question to get students talking in the beginning rather than waiting for them to come up with their own questions. Also, when silent lulls begin to crop up, give the students some options, some lifelines to get them going again. For instance, when a group seems stagnant, they can appeal to the audience of other students for outside ideas to get their minds thinking again.             

MY ENGLISH CLASSROOM
I find it nerve-racking to critique and evaluate other teachers, simply because I often wonder if a lesson would have looked any different had I been in charge. So, all I can do is ponder the ways in which I can make my own teaching better. I spend quite a lot of time thinking about how discussions will turn out in my classroom. I predict that a HUGE majority of the time spent in class will be discussion-based because talking about books, writing, and other English-y things is essential for learning. I'm not sure I would use the fishbowl method to assess students' speaking and listening skills, but I might use other methods such as giving each student in the group a role to fulfill. These roles might be READER, SCRIBE, or PRESENTER. That way, everyone has a responsibility in making the group discussion work.

In my observations of other people, I have noticed that everyone likes to talk, and most like to listen, but how much a person speaks up or how invested he is in the discussion is based on two things:
1) To whom the person is speaking. Some people don't feel comfortable talking to strangers, people of another background, or even to large groups. Finding the right dynamic of personalities and numbers is important.
2) The topic of discussion. Obviously, people are not going to be invested in a discussion about a topic that bores them, confuses them, or leaves them feeling like the topic is non-applicable to their lives. Finding ways to get people interested and passionate about a topic is the key.

For tips on how to lead discussion in the classroom, visit Iowa State University's webpage.

English is Cool!

Grammar. Probably the number one reason most students despise English class. That, and all the "thee"s and "thou"s sprinkled through Shakespeare's writing. Oh, and let's not forget the fact that most, if not all, English teachers are crazy, obnoxious, and sometimes borderline nut-so.

So, why is English, more broadly Language Arts, so important? Think about it: Whenever you speak, you use language. Whenever to write a text message to your friend, you use language. Whenever you read the menu at your favorite restaurant, you use language. You receive and produce language thousands of times EACH DAY. As you read this post, you are using language skills.

But the Language Arts are more than just language. Language is more a means to an end. We use language to communicate. That's why we read books and write papers. Have you ever just wanted to know what someone else was thinking? By analyzing characters and situations in books, we can often transfer that knowledge to our own interactions with other people. Thus, books help us be mind-readers.

Okay, so maybe you won't be able to read your mom's mind, or your brother's mind, or your best friend's mind, but you can get a little closer to understanding why people do what they do, and, they, in turn, can come to understand you a little better.

A group of high-school students in Long Beach, California, discovered this cool aspect of English when they were in Ms. Gruwell's class. They learned to empathize with each other through writing. Here is a brief look at their story:

FAMOUS ENGLISHERS

There are many other people out there who love and live English who aren't just the stereotypical English-y types. Here are a few examples of people you may know who were English majors in college:

J.K. Rowling                                                                   Dr. Suess

 

Reese Witherspoon                                                                                Steven Spielberg

Notice how all of these people are in the story-making business? Either they write stories or they bring stories to life. Gotta know some language skills to do that!

EVERYDAY ENGLISH

For the next few days, try to identify references to literature or English you see around you. These often occur on billboards you drive by, in the music you listen to, and oh so often on the TV shows you watch. Here's a great example: have you ever seen this on the door of a flower shop?

Yep. That's Hermes. Hermes is the Greek messenger god, and he comes straight out of ancient Greek literature. Even though he's thousands of years old (well, actually, he's immortal), he has made his way onto nearly every flower shop in the country as a symbol of speedy and reliable delivery. How's that for pertinent?

FUNNY BONE

Although English can, at times, be serious, it also has its humorous side. Here are a few funnies when you get the inkling to laugh about the subject:

MY OWN LOVE AFFAIR WITH ENGLISH

As Henry David Thoreau said, “It is life near the bone where it is sweetest,” and I believe that literature, writing, and teaching are those areas of life that sit near the bone. English has molded me into the person I am today. It has helped me connect to those people in the books and also to people in my life. It has given me understanding, confidence, and happiness. English is my oxygen, and without it, life would be short, dismal, and purposeless. I hope you can find some application of English to your own life, and that you will find pleasure and fulfillment in what it has to offer.

Additional Resources

Interesting Facts about English



Statement of Teaching Philosophy

            My teaching philosophy stems from my deep belief that literature and language can be sources of creation in a world focused on destruction. I want my classroom to be a place in which confidence, compassion, and broad world views are created within my students in order to help them navigate well throughout the rest of their lives.

            In order for students to develop a sense of self worth and self understanding, I envision my classroom as a haven where students can escape the pressures of the outside world. In having a safe place to think deeply and critically without distraction or disrespect, my hope is that students will apply the morals of literature to their own lives in order to help them sort through the difficulties they face daily.

I also believe that encouraging students to be more responsible for themselves will foster greater self worth. Therefore, I will expect students to be prepared with note-taking supplies each day, to turn in all assignments on time, and to understand that leeway such as extra-credit and late papers will not be a part of my class. In this way, students will take more pride in their work and will feel a greater satisfaction upon completing a task. I want students to be challenged but not overwhelmed.

 If nothing else, I want my students to start practicing the art of empathy. By realizing that, at some point in history, an author felt the same emotions as they, students can begin to see how connected human beings really are even through barriers of space and time. I envision myself throwing out questions about a text that encourage students to think critically; this means that I plan on conducting class discussion on a daily basis. I see class discussions revolving heavily around character analysis and author biographies in relation to the text as a way to show that fellow human beings should be the focus of our lives.

            In order for my students to construct a solid mindset about the world, I plan to integrate many disciplines besides English into class lectures and discussion. I envision my lesson plans including topics such as history and how it influences the particular piece of writing we are studying. I see myself presenting many paintings and sculptures and discussing how visual art and literary art tend to change and evolve simultaneously. I see assignments asking students to research current political controversies and show how they relate to a novel, play, or poem. I see students doing exercises dealing with math and music to learn how those are the keys to unlocking poetical form. In this way, both the students who are fond of English and those who are not can find application and meaning in the discipline by referencing other topics that may be of interest to them.

            In order to assess a student’s progress in both self and world discovery, I will require a large amount of reading and a large amount of writing. When reading texts as a class, we will follow an intense reading schedule so as not to run the risk of losing comprehension, or worse, interest. Also, most works that are read will be accompanied by some form of writing task, whether it be an essay, a journal entry, or a creative writing assignment.

            In essence, I hope students leaving my class will find themselves with the confidence to tackle daunting projects, an insatiable desire for literature, writing, and learning, and a capacity to empathize with those around them.  I want them to leave having proven to themselves that they achieved great things—they did it—and I was simply the coach cheering them on in the background. 

Writing as Assessment

 

Benjamin Disraeli once said, "The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write a book about it." Writing really is one of the best ways to learn, but, let's be honest: WRITING IS HARD. Even writing this blog post is hard. But, even though writing is hard, it is so useful and so worth it in the end.

Now, Mr. Disraeli, in the classroom, I don't think I will be asking my students to write an entire book in order to become acquainted with the material, but there will be significant amounts of writing. Why? Because I know that those things I wrote about when I was in middle and high school are the things I remember best.

In my English classes in middle school, I mainly remember poetry writing and some expository writing. My seventh-grade teacher did a poetry-writing unit in which we wrote haikus. To this day, I don't know why I love haikus so much. I loved them so much in seventh-grade that I kept my final copies of my haikus. Here is one example from my seventh-grade self:

Mountains

Towering Giants

Snow-capped in bright, white powder

Ruling all over

 

Ok. So maybe not so profound, but I still remember writing this poem and loving it.

 

 

High school brought about many, many, many, many, many, many essays. In my English classes, we wrote an essay about nearly every book, play, poem, or theme we discussed in class. We also wrote two major research papers, which ended up being my favorite writing assignment throughout all of high school. These research papers were way more intense than anything I have written in college. My classmates and I contemplated having t-shirts made saying "I survived Mrs. Pedersen's research paper." Yep. Super intense. But wonderful.

 

my friend's To Kill A Mockingbird final project

So, there was a lot of traditional writing in my high-school experience based heavily on content and mechanics. However, my teacher (my mom) understood that not everyone expresses themselves best through writing, nor is it necessary to always display your mastery of a concept through the medium of the written word. She also had us complete projects that showed our understanding of a book or any other concept in the class. For instance, when we read The Giver by Lois Lowry, our assignment was to create a diorama of one scene in the book. I had a blast using my brother's action figures along with some Barbie furniture to create a scene. Another project was to create a paper-plate mask after reading the masquerade scene in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. When I finished with this project, I felt like I understood the idea of identity and how we choose to present ourselves or conceal things about ourselves. A friend of mine who was in another section of my mom's class made a large picture frame by hand to represent the knot-hole tree in To Kill A Mockingbird and the symbolism of "framing" in the novel. He still has it, and it is GORGEOUS!

I think the combination of traditional, formal writing along with hands-on creative projects help to enrich our understanding of English---what it's all about, and how we can have a part in it. These two types of assessment measure many of the same abilities. Just as with essay or research writing, the projects assess a student's understanding of themes, understanding of characters, ability to organize ideas, ability to produce a finished product, and so on. Most of the national standards for writing correlate to "writing" in other venues. For instance, the Common Core standards require students to:

 

click here to see Common Core Writing Standards 

•  introduce a topic
• develop a topic
• clarify relationships
• use techniques such as metaphor, simile, analogy
• gather, integrate, and organize information

I believe all of these standards can be met through conventional writing as well as alternative methods. Sometimes, students can write with words, but other times they can write with images or with sound or with paint or with any other substance imaginable. To "write" means simply to express.

In order to give my students an opportunity to express in-depth understandings of English, I will ocsillate among expository writing, creative writing, hands-on projects, informal writing, artistic renditions, etc. Through these methods, I hope my students come to see that expression is exercise. Writing in any form takes effort, but the rewards of writing outweigh the costs.





To Read is to Live a Thousand Lives in One.

 

WARNING: this could be a very long post.

Why? Because the topic for today is ...

Yes, reading. Possibly my favorite topic. Ah, bliss! I will preface the rest of this post with the fact that I suffer from severe bibliophilia. It's a rather lovely disease, actually. Symptoms may include:

• an insatiable desire to collect books, often multiple copies of the same book (I own somewhere in the ballpark of 30 copies of Huck Finn)
• an inability to stop talking about the current 3 books you are reading at the same time (The Iliad, The Scarlet Letter, The Bookseller of Kabul)
• the inability to resist going into a bookstore or library (um...daily occurrence in my life)
• the inability to resist buying something at a bookstore or checking something out of the library (bought a book about automotive repair last week so that I didn't leave the bookstore empty handed---what will I do with that?)
• knowing you should go to sleep but staying up all night to read "just one more chapter" (thus, the reason for my bloodshot eyes every day)
• carrying at least one book on your person at all times (this is why some women have HUGE purses---to hold their books!)
• hoping that your dentist/doctor is running late so you can read some more while sitting in the office (love when this happens!)
• suffering from separation anxiety when you aren't near your bookshelves (lately I've been contemplating moving my bookshelves from my living room to my bedroom, just so they'll be near me as I sleep)
• the craving for a whiff of that "old book smell" (I've never tried cocaine, but I bet it has a similar effect)

To read more about the life of a bibliophile, read Liraz Taler's article from The New English Review entitled, "You May Remove the Causes but Not the Symptoms."

THE JOY OF READING

Obviously, I have had a plethora of positive experiences with reading. I was lucky to have two parents who adored reading as well as many friends who perused the pages often. As such, I was always encouraged to read. There was also that small factor of my mom being my high school English teacher and my friends being in her classes with me; we had to encourage each other to read, or we'd fail the class!

My religion has also been influential in encouraging me to read. As a member of the LDS faith, I read often from holy writings such as the Bible and the Book of Mormon. The Church also publishes several magazines containing inspirational articles and updates in the Church that are mailed to my house each month. Beyond that, when I was a young teenager, I read a verse of scripture in another of the holy books, the Doctrine and Covenants. It reads: "Seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom." Wow. I realized then that in addition to being fun, reading is important---important for gaining wisdom, and important to God. I have never forgotten that verse.

My best experiences with reading have come from reading fictional novels, mainly those that are considered classics. As Henry David Thoreau said, "For what are the classics but the noblest recorded thoughts of man?"

I enjoyed reading from the time I was very young, but I really enjoyed it once I got into high school. My mom/teacher often assigned each person in our class a different novel to read, one that she felt would be most applicable to our individual lives. That's probably why I almost always enjoyed reading in that class. (except for the time we read Call of the Wild. Bleh.)

My favorite book (for now) is Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Every page of that book was like a creamy, sweet, melt-in-your-mouth morsel of chocolate fudge. Mmmm...

 

Over time, however, I have developed a love for reading other types of texts. My latest interests are the magazines Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. My dad is a subscriber, so after he reads them, he mails the issues to me. The stuff in there blows my mind. This year there was an article about two new types of space satellites, one called CubeSat, which is a four-inch cube, and another called Squidbot, which propels itself through space like a squid propels itself through the ocean. Who wouldn't want to read when fascinating information like that is out there for us to learn? 

 

 

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PAGE

Of course, I didn't love EVERYTHING I read in school. To this day, I still abhor reading textbooks. I feel like reading textbooks has always been a duty to fulfill rather than a learning experience to be enjoyed. I have a difficult time internalizing information if it lacks a human or emotional aspect, and textbooks are intentionally designed to make human influence seem invisible to the reader. Most of my textbook-y teachers simply said, "read chapter 8 for tomorrow" or something like that. There was no purpose for the reading. It was easier when an English teacher said "read chapter 8" because I already had my own purpose in reading the text: to discover meaningful ways for the words to inspire me---that was easy. On the other hand, though, I'm sure I can be inspired by protons, neutrons, and electrons, (I really do find them fascinating)but probably not by reading about them in a textbook. The only time I remember really loving an assigned textbook reading was in my tenth-grade biology class. My teacher assigned us to draw or trace all the organisms in the chapter, color, and label all their parts. It was a great during-reading activity that made me focus, that gave me a purpose. This activity helped to increase my comprehension. I still have all of my drawings: a bacterium, a virus, a mushroom, etc. Perhaps I should frame and display them in my house.

IN THE CLASSROOM
I suspect the way I feel about textbooks is the way many of my students will feel about literature. A friend of mine has told me time and again how he sees no point in reading about "stuff that never even happened," referring to many of the fiction books or short stories he was forced to read in school. He loves to read non-fiction, historical stuff that's "REAL," he says. I could argue forever that a book like The Scarlet Letter is REAL in its themes, its characters' predicaments, and its setting until I'm out of breath, but it is usually wasted on students like my friend. So, what do I do?

Well, the neat thing about English is that I am not held to teaching from a specific text. I am expected to teach certain skills, but, for the most part, I can use a wide variety of texts as an avenue for teaching those skills. Now, this doesn't mean that I don't feel it is important for students to read those canonical texts, but I will not leave them to simply dive into the pages with no interest whatsoever. This will require a great deal of frontloading, support during reading, and follow-up. For instance, here are several examples of before, during, and after activities I might do with students to pique their interest in a typical English class text:

1. have students read non-fiction texts that reveal cultural aspects of the time period of a novel
2. introduce characters to students prior to reading by having them read character quotes
3. show parts of film adaptations of a novel
4. have students connect the story/poem to a modern-day parallel
5. teach vocabulary before and during reading
6. have students create a tangible represenation of the reading
7. have students write in response to their reading
8. discuss with students the values of becoming better readers and the values of various types of texts

Those are just a few ideas.

There are also several practices I would avoid if I wish for my students to perceive themselves as good (and improving!) readers:

1. Do NOT encourage Cliffnotes/Sparknotes as a replacement for reading the actual text. This goes for "modern-day" versions of Shakespeare, too. How are students supposed to gain confidence in themselves as readers if they don't actually read the text? I kid you not, during my clinical observations of a high-school teacher last week, I witnessed a horrifying scene. After assigning the next reading assignment in Huckleberry Finn, he actually said, "I don't care if you just use Sparknotes from here until the end of the book. I just want you to get the gist of the story."

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Why? WHY? Why would you say that? EVER?!?!

I wanted to stand up and tell those students that, even if their teacher didn't believe they were capable of reading the book, I did believe it. These kids are not stupid, but if their teacher has no belief in their smartness, they probably won't either. Encourage Sparknotes for those students who need a little boost AFTER they do the reading, not instead of the reading. Grr...

2. Do NOT only assign books that students will immediately connect to. If a student lives and breathes football, by all means, assign him a book about football. It might spark his interest in reading. However, if he tries, he can probably also find application in a book about the Civil War. The parallels between the Civil war and football may be less obvious, but they will come. He can learn about brotherhood, friendship, teamwork, and rivalry from a Civil War book just as he can from a football book. I want my students to feel like they have the abilities and confidence to make connections to people and events both close as well as distant from their immediate lives. I want them to see that different people are interesting, and reading give us access to many different kinds of people.


NEARLY FINISHED...
To wrap up, I simply want to share some applicable quotes about reading that we could share with students to get them thinking about its importance:

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”  ~Charles Eliot

"Through literacy you can begin to see the universe." ~Grace Slick

 

Also, check out NJToday's article "Celebrities Promote Reading and Libraries" which tells what the NY Yankees are doing to promote literacy.

                   

A (Semi)Formal Introduction

Howdy! My name is Sara Pedersen. I am a preservice English teacher who will be completing student teaching next semester. Just a little more about myself...

I am from a small town in Idaho called Montpelier (not a very English name, but rather French). I lived in Idaho until I came to Utah to attend college. Now, I am very proud of my Idahoan heritage; Bear Lake County is home to genuine, hard-working people whose hearts are outreaching and sympathetic. I cannot deny, however, that language and all things literary are not held in high esteem in this area. Shakespeare is just a deranged guy in tights, and "ain't" is as common a word as "the." Trying to explain to my friends back home why I have chosen a major, career, and lifestyle of English is a difficult task. However, I'm finding that it's not really easy to explain to anyone. For someone who studies words all the time, it's interesting to me how they sometimes fail to convey what it is you want to say. But...I'm going to try!

I could just start by saying, "English isn't math, and that's good enough for me!" That would encompass a lot of my love for English, but it wouldn't cover quite everything. English, to me, is primarily a way to create empathy. Whether through reading, writing, speaking, or listening, we attempt to learn something from someone else, to feel what someone else is feeling, to weld ourselves with someone else. That might sound flowery, but aren't English major stereotypically flowery? Flowery or not, it's true.






MY SENIOR ENGLISH CLASS

The first time I really saw this empathy-thing at work was in my own high school English class. We read a poem one day entitled "The Woman at the Washington Zoo" by Randall Jarrell. Not that any of you that are are not English-crazed will read this, but here is the full text of the poem for your pleasure:

The Woman at the Washington Zoo
 by Randall Jarrell

The saris go by me from the embassies.

Cloth from the moon. Cloth from another planet.
They look back at the leopard like the leopard.

And I. . . .
          this print of mine, that has kept its color
Alive through so many cleanings; this dull null
Navy I wear to work, and wear from work, and so
To my bed, so to my grave, with no
Complaints, no comment: neither from my chief---
Only I complain, . . . this serviceable
Body that no sunlight dyes, no hand suffuses
But, dome-shadowed, withering among columns,
Wavy beneath fountains--small, far-off, shining
In the eyes of animals, these beings trapped
As I am trapped but not, themselves, the trap,
Aging, but without knowledge of their age,
Kept safe here, knowing not of death, for death--
Oh, bars of my own body, open, open!

The world goes by my cage and never sees me.
And there come not to me, as come to these,
The wild beasts, sparrows pecking the llamas' grain,
Pigeons settling on the bears' bread, buzzards
Tearing the meat the flies have clouded. . . .
                                           Vulture,
When you come for the white rat that the foxes left,
Take off the red helmet of your head, the black
Wings that have shadowed me, and step to me as man:
The wild brother at whose feet the white wolves fawn,
To whose hand of power the great lioness
Stalks, purring. . . .
                             You know what I was,
You see what I am: change me, change me!

Well, we read that poem in class, and a girl, whom we had all known as super-shy since preschool, who never spoke in class, who never volunteered to share anything, rose her hand to speak. With tracks of tears lining her cheeks, she told us that she felt like this lady when she wrote, "The world goes by my cage and never sees me." She felt imprisoned, anonymous, overlooked, forgotten. Well, most of us had gone through school thinking she had wanted it that way. How stupid of us. No one wants to be ignored or friendless. Anyhow, knowing this, many more of us invited her to do things with us on the weekends, to go to TacoTime with us during lunch, and to speak up more in class. We found out she was brilliant. Yes, brilliant...and kind and funny beyond all belief! She is still one of my very best friends, and she is preparing to graduate from USU with a journalism degree this spring. All of this, because she knew that someone out there felt the same as she, and that person took the time to put it in writing. Empathy gives way to miraculous events.

Now, I understand that there is more to English than just feeling some tingly feeling when you read a book or a poem. It's all about that broad umbrella term "literacy." I see literacy as a person's interaction with a text (whether that be the written word, an image, an oral story, an advertisement, a home mortgage, a restaurant menu, etc.) that allows for personal satisfaction, the ability to function in society, and the understanding to enable change and growth in the world. To be literate is to be smart! Not smart as in the Ken-Jennings-trivia-kind-of-smart (although I really do think Ken Jennings is a genius), but smart in that you can "read" the world and make smart decisions accordingly. Obviously I think literacy relates fully to English. I think we can pretty much sum up a day in English class as a day in Literacy class.



Believe it or not, there is more to me than just English. I do occasionally put down my book to adventure out into the world. For instance, I love the Utah Jazz. I love watching the games, going to the games, and even thinking about the games. I also enjoy booing Lebron James and Kobe Bryant. I also love to sing. I sing quite a bit at graduations, funerals, in churches, and most of all, in my truck. My truck is the sacred place for belting out country songs (especially those sung by Kenny Chesney). In addition, I very much enjoy traveling. Just a few places I have been: Italy, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Mexico, Jamaica, Haiti, and many states on the east and west coasts. I am on my way to Israel, Egypt, Turkey, and Greece in October. So excited. I am also a big fan of small-town entertainment, mainly rodeos and demolition derbies. I don't know why, but watching guys get bucked off bulls and seeing cars become mangled masses of metal excites me. Other hobbies of mine include crocheting, playing piano, painting ceramics, Swedish weaving, mowing the lawn, baking (and eating!) cheesecake, and shopping at thrift stores.