47.1 Summer 2010

StatementThe Journal of the Colorado Language Arts Society

Summer 2010, Volume 47, Number 1

Inside this Issue:Articles:

Part Two of WeighedDown by Our Training asLiterary Criticsby Sarah Zerwin

Putting Public SpeakingBack into ELAby Erik Palmer

The Power of ClassroomAssessmentby Stefanie Fuhr

Student Contest Winners:

Promising Young Writers

Middle School Writers

High School Writers

NCTE Achievement Awards

Columns:

YA Literatureby Dr. Marge Erickson Freeburn

Finding Balance in theNew Digital Landscapeby Philippe Ernewein

Fretting About OurFuture as EducationalProfessionalsby Mike Wenk

Summer Cover ArtworkTitle: “Untitled”Artist: Akira Ragoschke, grade 7School: Stuart Middle School - Commerce CityTeacher: Jennifer Shaver, Art Teacher

“The focus of the art assignment was to learn to draw from direct observation of an object. The students learned how to deconstruct an object into parts, observe the position of the parts and compare the parts of the object to determine proportion based on the size relationships that they were observing. We focused on talking about how hands can be used to communicate. Students were introduced to the finger spelling chart of the ASA and were told that they could choose symbols that they found to be interesting or they could arrange the hand symbols to represent their initials or a word that they liked. Behind each hand position is a letter representing the meaning of the hand position. In addition to working on observational drawing, students then had the challenge of assembling the drawings into a unique and interesting composition creating a front, middle and back space through overlapping. Students also were exposed to the idea of using patterns to create value and contrast in a work of art.” - J. Shaver

Statement Vol. 47, No. 1 1

StatementThe Journal of the Colorado Language Arts Society

Summer 2010, Volume 47, No. 1

Statement ColumnsMaking a Statement: Fretting About Our Future as Educational Professionalsby Mike Wenk ........................................................................................................................................................... 4

YA Literature: Update, Catch-up, Reflect, and Rec-reateby Dr. Marge Erickson Freeburn ...........................................................................................................................13

Finding Balance in the New Digital Landscapeby Philippe Ernewein .............................................................................................................................................23

Feature ArticlesMoving Forward: Part Two of Weighed Down by Our Training as Literary Criticsby Sarah Zerwin ....................................................................................................................................................... 6

Putting Speaking Back into English Language Artsby Erik Palmer .........................................................................................................................................................16

The Power of Classroom Assessmentby Stefanie Fuhr ................................................................................................................................................... 20

Student Contest WinnersPromising Young Writerscoordinated by Sarah Woodard .........................................................................................................................24

Middle School Poetry Contestcoordinated by Leslie Thompson ........................................................................................................................27

High School Writing Contestcoordinated by Andy Levine ...............................................................................................................................32

NCTE Achievement Awards in Writingcoordinated by J. Stuart Boyd .............................................................................................................................34

ResourcesCall for Manuscripts ................................................................................................................................................. 2

CLAS Fall Conference Information ......................................................................................................................11

CLAS Fall Conference Registration Form ............................................................................................................12

CLAS Membership Form ........................................................................................................................................40

2 Statement Vol. 47, No. 1

Call For SubmissionsStatement is published three times a year, and is one of the benefits of being a member of the Colorado

Language Arts Society. The mission of Statement is to advance the teaching and learning of English Language Arts in Colorado. While we welcome readership beyond the Centennial State and we encourage submissions from outside of Colorado, what makes our publication most relevant for our members is content which addresses the interests and issues of Colorado teachers.

Theme for Fall / Winter Issue: Words

In Choice Words (Stenhouse, 2004), Peter Johnston writes, “The language that teachers (and their students) use in classrooms is a big deal” (10). It is a big deal because schools can serve as a counterbalance to the bloated rhetoric and vapid conversation that children may encounter in their lives outside of school. It is a big deal because patterns and rules can lead students to a world of meaning; building background knowledge through wide reading and explicit instruction can unlock understanding of critical concepts. It is a big deal because just the right word, spoken or written, can extend a curfew, circumvent an argument, or land a job. It is a big deal because democracy depends on everyone being able to participate in the dialogue of our country. It is a big deal because children are listening to what we say. So, the question is, what are your students learning from you about words? Deadline: September 15, 2010.

Theme for Spring Issue: Teacher Idea Exchange

Often the most useful and most engaging professional development comes when the presenter says, “Now turn and talk to another teacher.” We can learn so much from our colleagues, when we have the time to talk. Consider this issue your chance to talk to a colleague who teaches in another school, in another district, even in another region of the state. What’s your best teaching tip? What resources (i.e. technology, programs, guest speakers, PD, etc.) should other teachers hear about? What’s a lesson you’re particularly proud of? Articles should be approximately 500 words; contributions are welcome from pre-K through college. Deadline: December 31, 2010.

Recurring Topics for Articles

The theme is only one source of inspiration for contributors. Statement is also seeking articles that address a variety of topics, especially written by Colorado teachers, but also from writers who can speak with authority about current issues or best practices in ELA. Contributors may wish to consider:

• Teachingideas • Quickteachingtips• Currentissues • Interviews• Outstandinglessonplans • Vignettesfromtheclassroom• Bookreviews • Technology• ExpressivewritingbyColoradoteachers • Reviewsofprofessionalresearch

Submission of Photos and Artwork

We are always seeking original artwork or photos: classroom images, Colorado scenes, artistic representations, etc. We value contributions from youth and adults equally. We also enjoy featuring the work of professional Colorado artists. Please send images to the editor as a jpeg attachment. Student work must be accompanied by a “permission to publish” form signed by a parent.


Editorial Information

Statement Editorial Board MembersJessica Cuthbertson Nicholas Kawalec Katheryn KeyesDistrict Coach, Secondary Literacy Reading Teacher Instructional CoachAurora Public Schools, Aurora Adams 50, Denver Adams 50, Denver

Vince Puzick Shari VanderVelde Mark OvermeyerK-12 Literacy Coordinator Writing Consultant and Coach Elementary Literacy CoordinatorColorado Springs School District #11 Mesa County Valley School District 51, Grand Junction Cherry Creek Schools, Denver

Julie Meiklejohn Editor-in-Chief Layout EditorEnglish Language Arts Teacher Mike Wenk Kate MurphyEast Otero School District, La Junta English Language Arts Curriculum Specialist English Language Arts Teacher Jefferson County Public Schools, Golden Smoky Hill High School, Aurora [email protected] [email protected]

Before the Bell Becoming Better Teachers ELA in the 21st CenturyJosh Curnett Dr. Gloria Eastman Phillipe ErneweinEnglish Language Arts Teacher Associate Professor of English and English Education Dean of Faculty Training & DevelopmentEaglecrest High School Metropolitan State College of Denver Denver [email protected] [email protected] www.rememberit.org

Teaching and Learning YAL Update Poems, Poets, PoetryRick Wing Dr. Marge Erickson Freeburn Jim HobbsAir Academy High School, Colorado Springs University of Colorado, Denver Eaglecrest High [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Barb Doerr Dr. Jill Adams Lary KleemanRetired, Cherry Creek Schools, Denver Metropolitan State College, Denver Arapahoe High [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Statement, The Journal of the Colorado Language Arts Society, is published three times a year. ISSN: 1085-2549. The subscription price is included in the membership dues. Single copies are $10.00. To join, visit www.clas.us.

Reproduction of material from this publication (excluding poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction) is authorized if: a) reproduction is for educational purposes; b) copies are made available without charge beyond the cost of reproduction; and c) each copy includes full citation of the source and lists Statement as the original publisher. Address other requests for reprint permission to the editor.

Statement is a member of the NCTE Information Exchange Agreement.

The Colorado Language Arts Society opposes discrimination against any person and promotes equal opportunities for access to its activities and publications.

Formatting Issuesand Submission Process

Submissions to Statement should be in MLA style, using in-text documentation with a list of works cited if needed. Documents should be single-spaced and formatted in Word. Charts, graphs, or illustrations should be sent as separate files. Manuscripts should adhere to the “Guidelines for Gender-Fair Use of Language” which can be found on the NCTE website at: http://www.ncte.org/about/over/positions/category/lang/107647.htm.

Statement is a refereed journal, meaning that at least two outside reviewers will read each submission. Once the manuscript has been accepted, the editor may consult with the writer regarding revisions, and may share comments from the editorial board as an aid to revision. In light of deadlines, we reserve the right to make minorrevisionsorformattingdecisions.Becausewerecognizethat

Guidelines for Contributors

many of our contributors are not professional writers but instead actual educators, we will collaborate with contributors to ensure that the article meets the personal standards of the writer as well as the high standards of our readership.

In the body of the email which contains the attachment of the manuscript, include the title of the piece, author’s name, author’s job title, affiliation or place of employment, city, state, email address, and website (if there is one). Also include a statement verifying that the manuscript has not been submitted or published anywhere else. Contributors will receive an email acknowledgement once the manuscript has been submitted. Please direct all inquiries or submissions to the editor, Mike Wenk, at [email protected].


I’m worried.

We’re on the verge of another school year, and yet, as I write this column, I am dreadfully pessimistic about state of education. That’s not my typical back-to-school attitude.

I should feel rested. I should feel energized. I should feel ready. Another summer break has wrapped, and teachers across Colorado are gearing up for a rigorous and gratifying year of teaching and learning.

My pessimism has to do with the 2010 state legislative session. Many of you know that a bill was passed to abolish teacher “tenure.” Senate Bill 191, sponsored by Michael Johnston, enjoyed bipartisan support and received Governor Ritter’s signature. It proposes a new system of evaluation for teachers and principals, basing 50% of the evaluation on assessments.

The bill’s supporters, which include many teachers, say the current system protects poor teachers, and that no one should be afraid of an evaluation if they are performing the way they are supposed to perform. After all, this is how businesses operate. If you don’t perform, you are fired. We see it on The Apprentice with Donald Trump all the time. And, of course, it happens in the “real world.”

For a long time, teachers have successfully resisted this kind of reform. Teacher organizations told the public and politicians that it is tough to define effectiveness. We are dealing with human beings, after all, not widgets. We get kids who are broken, from families who don’t value education, and we’re expected to perform miracles.

And that’s the reality. We do get kids of all types. And those kids deserve good teachers. Perhaps the teachers unions believed this message was sufficient: leave us alone – we know what’s best for kids.

But in this era of high stakes testing, that type of assurance wasn’t enough. The politicians detected an opportunity. And the unions waited too long to initiate any kind of real reform.

And so we got Senate Bill 191. For better or for worse.

Making a Statement: Fretting About Our Future as Educational Professionals

by Mike Wenk, Editor

Michael Wenk is pursuing his Ph.D. in Literacy at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His email address is [email protected].

There are many who now wait eagerly for this bill to prune the dead wood. The really lousy teachers – we all know one. They’ll finally be pushed out the door.

And the belief about the rest of us is that we’ll improve. We’ll become better practitioners, because we’ll have assessments and data to inform our instruction. We’ll be more nimble, because our jobs are on the line. School buildings will be competitive, which is what drives our free market system in this country. We’ll rise to the occasion, year after year, with constant, never-ending growth on assessments.

Proponents of Senate Bill 191 say this is what’s best for students. Every child deserves an effective teacher. How can you argue with that?

You can’t.

But what you can argue with is this: more emphasis on assessment is not necessarily good for our kids:

• Many teachers already feel pressured to teach to the test.This will only up the ante. Think poor teachers won’t find ways to game the system? And it won’t even be unethical or illegal, just teaching to the test, figuring out what you need to say and do to get your kids across the finish line. Not exactly the reflective practice Sarah Zerwin engages in as she describes the transformation of her instruction in this issue of Statement.

• Teachers are already drowning in data. We’ve had CSAPfor over a decade, and the state of Colorado has mandated that districts also adopt other measurement tools. According to the test scores, student achievement doesn’t seem to be improving significantly. And this is after educators have spent countless hours analyzing the test, which the state keeps close to the vest, to determine what is important. And believe me, much of what’s tested is important. But what gets left out? Erik Palmer’s article in this issue describes how high stakes testing has left speaking skills in the dust.

• SenateBill191makesittheworkofanEducatorEffectivenessCouncil to decide which measures will determine student growth. The simplest measure will be a standardized test.


But what about other data, the kind that we gather in our classrooms? The kind that is complex and varied and informs decisions in the moment? How will this be quantified, recorded, and standardized so that every teacher’s evaluation stacks up fairly to the evaluations of their colleagues? In her article about assessment in this issue, Stefanie Fuhr writes about the importance of classroom assessment, and how an effective teacher uses it to make sound instructional decisions. Not as a matter of job security, but because it truly is what’s good for kids.

• Proponents of Senate Bill 191 argue that a principal’sevaluation of a teacher will matter, too, so it’s not just about test scores. But when you look at how principals are evaluated under the new system, you realize that, again, it’s about test scores. If the principal wishes to keep her job, she will very favor the teachers who can help her keep her school’s test scores growing. So who in the school stays and who goes?

Thinking of collaborating withanother teacher? Don’t do it:inadvertently, you may help

them keep their job and it maycost you yours.

“

”• WhentheRIF’scomedownduringbudgetcuts,youryears

of service won’t help you. Mostly it will be about your test scores. (Or those fishing trips you take with your principal.) And you will have to compete against your colleagues for better scores, because your job depends on it. Thinking of collaborating with another teacher? Don’t do it: inadvertently, you may help them keep their job and it may cost you yours. And what about cross content efforts to promote literacy or numeracy or other important content? Might not be able to do that either, because your own subject matter becomes paramount. Remember, competition is good for kids.

• Otherdecisionsteachersmayhavetofaceasaresultoftheintense pressure to keep test scores growing: do I sponsor the yearbook? do I coach a sport or sponsor a club? do I attend the school play, the track meet, or the concert? do I serve on PTA? do I spend time just talking to kids?

• How is affect measured, the thing that my colleague once told me is what kids will remember long after they leave your classroom? In what ways will the new evaluations take into account the relationships teachers build with students?

I’m thinking of the advice and listening ear a teacher offers a teenager as they endure a rough patch with their friends, or the tons of encouragement a teacher provides for a 5th grader about an area of interest, or the way a teacher in 1st grade can make reading FUN!

About the same time Senate Bill 191 was emerging, I found the May 2010 issue of Educational Leadership in my mailbox. In her column, Editor-in-Chief Marge Scherer rebuts a recent Newsweek article (and cover art), which purports that the way to save American education is to fire bad teachers. This particular issue of Ed Leadership advocates supporting teachers, not firing them. Scherer writes, “Supporting teachers is neither dramatic nor easy. It certainly requires more time, more concerted effort, and more understanding of the nuances of the difficult work of teaching than does criticizing teachers as a group” (5). The issue of Ed Leadership contains articles that describe how teachers might be evaluated, how professional development might improve practice, and how incentives (not punishments) might entice teachers to take more chances in their profession.

But in the Race to the Top, maybe it is too difficult to see that teachers might need more time to plan, to collaborate, and to learn about their craft. And in the Race to the Top, maybe what gets lost is that teachers might need help, before school, after school, and during summers, to ensure that students are constantly growing. It might not just be a lousy teacher: the failure might be systemic. Can a senate bill fix that?

Over the next three years, as the Effective Educator Council defines effective teaching (with teacher representatives adding their voices), I will monitor their progress and hope for the best.

I am by nature an optimist, particularly where youth is involved, but, heading into this school year, my head and heart are packed with pessimism. I’m trying to keep my pessimism in check, but it just cannot be contained. I’m worried…

(we won’t get Race to the Top funds) (even if we do get Race to the Top funds, the money will eventually run out) (the teacher effectiveness bill will become an unfunded mandate) (state or national assessments won’t measure effective teaching) (districts will rely too much on standardized assessments) (so much data will be generated, that, like teacher portfolios of a few years back, evaluators won’t be able to keep up) (principals will hire and fire who they like and who they can afford) (teachers will be demoralized and many good teachers will leave the profession) (students will rebel against “one more assessment”) (achievement won’t budge…)

I am hoping for the best (but preparing for the worst).


In the autumn 2009 issue of Statement, I wrote about how our training as literary critics may limit the ways secondary English teachers are able to imagine teaching literature to our students. I wrote about how we can neglect to

support our students as readers when our ultimate goal becomes parsing a piece of literature into its literary elements. Our goals should include making life-long readers who are able to identify, consider, and analyze the ideas that great authors present in works of literature. Our goals should include teaching students about the vital role that stories play in our experiences as human beings. Our goals should include showing students how literature gives us unique access to the human consequences of the events of history. Finally, our goals should include articulating to students that practice and experience with sustained attention toward a complex text is absolutely vital to their future success because the most complex text they’ll ever need to read and analyze is their own life.

My last article attempted to describe the problem as I see it, as I’ve struggled with it in my own classroom. This article attempts to share how I’ve endeavored to address this problem as a teacher.

I’ll start with a quick disclaimer: I have in no way completely figured this out. I struggle constantly toward inspiring my students to be the thoughtfully engaged readers I know they can be. I don’t always get there.

I once conducted a survey of my junior American Literature students to get a sense of their track record as readers in school. I asked them how many books they had read in 10th grade. Only one of my students reported to have read all of the books in the previous year and only a handful were able to give me any of the titles of the books from their 10th grade classes. Twenty of the thirty who completed the survey reported that they either read none of the books in the 10th grade or that they couldn’t even remember if they read or what they read. Many of my students clearly had a history of not reading what they were asked to read in school.

My results may or may not reflect the truth about the students sitting in your classroom, but if your goal is engaged readers, and a sole focus on literary analysis as we’ve done it traditionally might not get our students there, what to do? My approach centers on three concepts: choice, de-centering the role of the teacher, and asking different questions.

Moving Forward: Part Two ofWeighed Down by Our Trainingas Literary Critics by Sarah Zerwin

Student Choice

As a student in both high school and college, I rarely felt that what happened in my language arts/literature classrooms had much to do with me. My teachers and professors chose the texts, built the syllabi, and decided how I would show them what I knew and was able to do. As a student, I didn’t think that there could be another way to go about this; all I knew is that I cared very little for what was going on in my classrooms. As a teacher, I fight against this, seeking other ways to get my students more engaged than I was as a student.

Examining my four years teaching Advanced Placement Literature and Composition helps to illustrate how my teaching evolved toward student choice. I was hired at a high school several years back to start an Advanced Placement English Literature course. My colleagues helped me determine a balanced range of texts for the course that extended the existing literature curriculum at the school. I asked the school board for approval of twelve major texts. In the first year I taught the course, I proceeded chronologically through these texts, including short fiction and poetry from a college-level literature anthology along the way. But in the next two years, I began pairing texts in interesting ways, such as Beloved and A Tale of Two Cities, novels that contain characters who struggle intensely with the past. Characters who embody culture clashes guided my pairing of Bless Me Ultima and Things Fall Apart.

In my fourth year, I turned the pairing over to my students, challenging them to select ten texts from the list, arrange them into five meaningful pairings, and then clearly articulate their decisions on the pairings. I also asked them to adhere to the same scaffold I had always used to design my syllabus from year to year: maintain the balance between pre/post 1900 texts and male/female authors, with at least half of the texts by authors of color. Since I had been playing with the arrangement of the texts within that framework determined for the course from the beginning, I figured that there was no reason why I couldn’t turn that same decision-making process over to my students and let them craft their own course within a pre-determined scaffold that fit into the wider curriculum of the school.

Instead of putting together every detail of the curriculum, and debuting a finished product to my students at the beginning

Sarah M. Zerwin teaches language arts and advises the school newspaper at Fairview High School in Boulder. She recently completed a doctorate in secondary literacy at CU-Boulder. Her email address is [email protected].


of the school year, I fashioned a scaffold that required student involvement to build our curriculum for the year. I found places where I could turn decision-making over to the students to get them more engaged in what was going on in the classroom, inspiring their sense of ownership for their learning.

Reading Friere’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed later helped me to understand this evolution. Friere characterizes his view of the “banking model” of education, where essentially the teacher possesses the knowledge, deposits that knowledge into passive students, and then asks for the knowledge back on exams. The teacher never asks students to truly know or understand anything. All knowledge begins and ends with the teacher. He describes two stages within this banking concept of education “in the action of the educator”:

During the first, he cognizes a cognizable object while he prepares his lessons in his study or his laboratory; during the second, he expounds to his students about that object. The students are not called upon to know, but to memorize the contents narrated by the teacher. Nor do the students practice any act of cognition, since the object towards which that act should be directed is the property of the teacher rather than a medium evoking the critical reflection of both teacher and students. (67-68)

Without involvement in the process of determining how we might proceed through a set of texts for the year, my students were not learning much about how works of literature might connect with each other, or about why it was important that the overall scaffold for the year required a balance of texts on a few significant scales. Without having to truly engage with the scaffold by trying to put a set of texts into it, my students were just passive receivers of the decisions I had already made about the course. They did not have to think critically about the big picture of the course.

I value student choice when it comes to which texts we read in a literature course. I left the school I discussed above to pursue a graduate degree full time, but had I stayed, I would have added a handful of texts each year to the approved offerings for the class to widen the range of texts my students had to choose from as they built our syllabus each year. Student choice achieves two important outcomes: students develop ownership over the course and the course material differentiates for the particularities of a specific group of students.

I know it may not always be possible to offer the same sort of choice I describe, where students build the entire syllabus for a school year. Teachers work within various sets of guidelines, from district curriculum that specifically lays out literature for each class across the district, to expectations within a school that all teachers of a particular class teach the same texts at the same time. Student choice need not look like I describe it above. The truth is that students will be more engaged in books that they choose to read. Wherever we can ask students to choose, we should. Even choice among a small list of options builds more student ownership and engagement than no choice at all: “Regardless of the reading level that students may be expected to attain, the chances are poor that they’ll ever read outside of school unless they can be induced to read of their own free will” (qtd. in Newkirk 180).

De-centering the Teacher Creating curriculum around a work of literature is one of my

great loves—as a child I made board games and painted works of art and composed musical “masterpieces.” As an adult, I build curriculum, which is truly a creative outlet and artistic expression for me. I know I’m not alone. We have all witnessed the absolute joy expressed by a literature teacher when s/he describes all the things s/he does to “teach” a particular text. We build these seamless, gorgeous units with what we consider utterly captivating activities for our students to experience.

But what we consider captivating is not necessarily what our students consider captivating.

I once came up with what I thought would be a fascinating approach to frame my teaching of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I used an essential question that I thought my students would love to consider: What is truth? I developed a set of experiences

I fashioned a scaffold thatrequired student involvement tobuild our curriculum for the year.

I found places where I couldturn decision-making over to the

students to get them moreengaged in what was going onin the classroom, inspiring their

sense of ownership fortheir learning.

“

”around that question: discussion questions, journaling prompts, essay prompts, and an assignment to collect moments from the text that were connected to that question.

Then I wondered why my students weren’t reading. My first clue was their lack of anger toward what Kesey’s book argues. If what Kesey says about America is true—that we’re all just caught up in the machine—we’re all in trouble, aren’t we? I was livid at the prospects of it. But my students didn’t seem to care. In working to come up with an approach to the text that I thought would intrigue my students, I developed the perfect approach to intrigue ME.

But I’m already an engaged reader. Here’s a process I’ve used to center on my students’ ideas

about a text instead. We all read something (a song, a poem, a short story, a novel). Then, we clump up around a chalkboard or white board and two volunteer scribes capture our ideas. I remind my students that all ideas are valid in brainstorming and ask them to shout out what they notice about the text that seems important, interesting, boring, funny, confusing, etc. After about fifteen minutes when the board is sufficiently covered, I invite the students


to begin to discuss what they see. “Does someone want to explain why you put something up there? Anyone want to ask a question about something?” The scribes try to capture the conversation by underlining or circling things that we talk about and drawing lines to mirror the ideas we connect in our conversation. The end result is a list of topics about a particular text that students find important.

In the context of my AP Lit class, I used this list to schedule discussion days for the text. Pairs of students would choose a topic from the list generated by the class and sign up for individual discussion days. We would always leave one day open for me, and the class would tell me the topic upon which they wanted me to focus.

My classes did not start with this method working exactly as I describe above. I lead the discussions on our first text to model what I would later ask my students to do. I also clearly defined the expectations for facilitating discussions in class. Students had to submit lesson plans to me and they had to include several important components in their discussions: an essential question to frame their discussion, an activity that would get the class into the text looking for relevant textual evidence, and a clear procedure for how they would fit everything into the class period, including a wrap-up discussion at the end focused on the essential question. We also continually discussed and assessed how the student-facilitated discussions were going.

Teachers may worry that they lose control over the focus of a text with this method—the students might miss something critical if they choose all discussion topics, right? Yes, they could. But isn’t it true that we could spend an entire year on a great work of literature and never get to every possible angle of it? The goal here is to focus on the process: the thinking process, the process of how to respond critically and thoughtfully to a work of literature, and of how to be an engaged reader to make that happen.

The benefits of this approach far outweigh any drawbacks. I taught essentially the same set of texts in my AP Lit class over four years using the above method where my students were in charge of the focus we took toward our texts in class discussion. Every text was a completely different adventure each year due to the different students that populated my classroom. For example, a group of students one year wanted to facilitate a discussion on the Biblical references in Ellison’s Invisible Man. I had studied the text in college and read and taught the text several times, but I had never considered the Biblical references. I didn’t think that there was much there when my students brought up this discussion possibility. But staying true to my method, I let the students follow this focus on the text. On their discussion day, they absolutely blew me away with a focus on the text that I had not yet considered. But most importantly, the group of students in charge of this discussion were on fire—excited, engaged, full of examples of Biblical references that they had found in the text and anxious to see what their classmates would think of them.

This approach for AP Lit led to impassioned writing when it came to the literary analysis that they practiced in preparation for the AP Literature exam. By focusing first on their ideas about our texts, my writing instruction revolved around helping them

to develop those ideas into well-reasoned, well-supported arguments. Even though my department had not yet done any vertical alignment toward the AP Lit course and my class was the first experience students had with the level of literary analysis that AP Lit exam demands, my students always scored well above the national average for the AP Literature exam. I credit their success to their hard work, their real engagement with our texts, and how the class demanded that they bring their ideas about our texts to the table. I still had a few students who did not read and who did not achieve the kind of engaged habits of mind I encouraged for all of my students, but on the whole my students were successful as thinkers and writers because I placed a premium on their ideas about literature and worked earnestly to de-emphasize mine.

In my high school literature classes, I never actually read the books but survived by listening carefully to my teachers’ interpretations and returning those ideas on exams and in essays. When we elevate student ideas about literature (and de-center our own), we call upon students to truly examine the texts in front of them.

Ask Different Questions

There are times when we do need to teach students how to analyze a text in a literary way by pointing out its literary components and how those components enable the text to communicate a theme. As I argued in my previous piece, this goal is clearly articulated by the external exams that drive AP and IB literature classes. But for students not in those courses, perhaps literary analysis need not be the end goal. We can use literature to teach students to think critically and analytically without starting with a list of literary terms and definitions. (And we can also teach literary analysis without starting with a list of literary terms and definitions.) We can ask students different questions about literature that privilege other kinds of reading purposes. Even if the goal is to prepare students for AP and IB exams, these different kinds of questions lead to more impassioned literary analysis from students, who with practice grow confident about their abilities to take risks and develop literary analysis that begins with their unique responses and ends with well-developed interpretations of complex literature.

In Teacher, Edmundson wonders what would happen if we asked students, “What would it be like to believe this book? What would happen if you used it as your secular Bible? Could you live it?” (238). He goes on: “by setting [literature] in context, placing it in history, assigning analytical essays of whatever level of sophistication,” we literature teachers “actually demand[…] distance, detachment: Don’t, whatever you do, be influenced by this. Don’t adapt it to your own situation, use it as a map of your world, then go somewhere with it” (238).

If we ask students, “Do you believe this book?” they first need a clear understanding of what the book is arguing. This demands an engaged reading. If we ask students, “What would it be like to live this book?” students need to figure out what vision of the world the book is suggesting and then place it alongside their own life to see how well it matches up with what they know to


be true. This demands an engaged reading. This invites students to do what Billy Collins asks of his students in his “Introduction to Poetry”—to “hold [a text] up to the light / like a color slide,” to “press an ear against its hive,” to “drop a mouse into a [text] / and watch him probe his way out.” Instead, we often teach them to “tie [a text] to a chair with rope / and torture a confession out of it.” We teach them to “beat[… a text] with a hose / to find out what it really means.”

Why don’t we ask students these kinds of questions? Edmundson argues that, in general, teachers do not ask

these questions, in part because they are afraid of what will happen if they do. They do not want to be ‘responsible’ for students’ screwing up their lives because they give themselves over uninhibitedly to Whitman and try to live as the old queer anarch would, or to Dickinson, who created her own God and her own cosmology and lived with them. Many teachers, I suspect,

don’t trust kids to sift these matters for themselves. Nor do they even really trust other adults to do it. The idea of a society full of people running amok, using the poets and artists to remake their own minds, individually and with only their own judgments and disasters and disappointments as inhibiting walls, can make teachers crazy (238-9).

Many times in my teaching career I did not talk about reading with my students in the context of viewing a book as a guide to life. I did not think about how the way we often approach teaching literature puts it at a distance from students and their lives. This approach told students don’t get into this. Don’t drop yourself in and wiggle around. Just analyze it. Pick it apart. Look at it through a microscope.

Often we give students the literary analysis microscope as the only way to view a text. But Edmundson reminds us that “If you set theory between readers and literature—if you make a theory a prerequisite to discussing a piece of writing—you effectively deny the student a chance to encounter the first level of literary density, the level he’s ready to negotiate. Theory is used, then, to banish

...these different kinds ofquestions lead to more

impassioned literary analysis fromstudents, who with practice growconfident about their abilities totake risks and develop literaryanalysis that begins with their

unique responses and ends withwell-developed interpretations

of complex literature.

“

”

aspiring readers from literary experience” (Why Read? 41). Perhaps all the theory that we typically put between our students and the literature does “deny [our] students a chance to encounter the first level of literary density, the level [they are] ready to negotiate.” The result is students who do not read for any purpose relevant beyond an analytical task. Deliberately asking students different questions, questions that demand more engaged, felt readings, may inspire them to read for purposes that are real and relevant to their lives as human beings.

Pulling It All Together

I have attempted to pull together these three areas for my students in a year-long course for seniors who are not in the AP or IB courses. We developed this course two years ago to address a gap in our language arts offerings in 12th grade, hoping students could develop agility as readers, writers, and thinkers. To do that, they must examine audience, purpose, and form of the texts that they read and write. Audience and purpose drive the form of a text—understanding this as a reader makes it possible to read a text effectively. Understanding this as a writer makes it possible to produce a written form that meets the needs of a particular purpose and audience. Given these as our primary goals, the course is not solely about literature. The first semester focuses on nonfiction and research, persuasive writing, and the kinds of personal narrative writing demanded by most college application essays. Students use the same reading, thinking, and writing skills with short fiction, novels, film, and drama.

The semester begins with a heuristic—a thinking procedure that they can apply to any artistic text in order to derive an interpretation. It centers on their own ideas about the text and that engages them in the kinds of questions that Edmundson suggests. We start small, with song lyrics, to introduce and practice this heuristic. I select a model song to start with as our text—we listen and we read the lyrics—and then I take them through the process:1) What do you notice about the text that seems important,

interesting, confusing, boring, funny, etc? (Two volunteer scribes will capture these ideas on the front board.)

2) What do you think this text is arguing? What message does it seem to be communicating? What idea about life is it asking us to consider? (The scribes write ideas on the board; I remind students that there are a variety of possible answers.)

3) Look at the first list we generated about what you noticed about the text. Which of those characteristics seem to help the text communicate its ideas? (The scribes draw lines to make connections here between characteristics of the text and ideas that it seems to be communicating.)

4) As students complete the previous step, there’s a natural opportunity for some instruction on elements of songs. Here as students identify aspects of the lyrics and the music, we can name them and talk about how they are working in the song to create meaning. In this way, we talk about the song elements in context.

5) (My favorite step) Okay, do you buy it? Is what this text suggests


about life TRUE? How well does it reflect what you know to be true, based on your life experience? (Discussion ensues. Scribes capture big ideas on the board.)

6) What could you now write about this text? (Students generate a list of possible topics for a critical piece written about the text.)

We use the last five minutes of class to review the steps of the process they’ve just experienced. I explain what a heuristic is and I let them know that we’ll practice this same process many times with songs, short fiction, novels, and film.

After that introduction, they practice this process on their own. Small groups of students select their own songs and prepare group presentations where they play one minute of their songs and then explain what their group came up with as they went through each step of the heuristic. Next we read some short stories together and use the heuristic to discuss them. I model a discussion based upon the heuristic for the first story (using step three for in-context instruction on the elements specific to the genre of short stories), but then small groups of students are in charge of facilitating the conversation using the heuristic for the remaining stories.

As a writing task, students write their own very short fiction and also submit a written explanation of what their story attempted to say about life and how they manipulated the story’s form in order to communicate that meaning. We move to novels, which they will read in small book groups, using the heuristic to form the foundation of their group conversations about their texts. I have a list of four novels that are reserved for this class. I present the four to them and ask for students to choose the one they each want to read, and then organize students into book groups based upon those choices. Along the way, book groups make presentations about what they’re reading and engage the class in conversations about the ideas their books are asking them to consider. This will culminate with a critical, source-based essay connected to the book. It could be literary analysis, or it could be something else. Students work out possible topics in their book groups and present these options for the whole class to consider.

We also watch a film together, and I ask them how the heuristic would need to be different to apply it to a film. I hope that by this point, students are able to identify that the difference comes in the elements that are specific to film. Perhaps they choose to write papers that analyze films that they watch on their own.

Students Have the Final Word

I want to close with a chorus of voices from my classroom—students reflecting on things we have read and doing the sort of connected, engaged reading I know is possible when we de-emphasize literary analysis as the sole purpose of teaching literature in school. Since our students want meaningful classroom experiences with literature, how can we reconsider what we’re doing in order to deliver those experiences to them? (All student names are pseudonyms.)

Works Cited

Edmundson, Mark. Teacher. New York: Vintage, 2003.

Edmundson, Mark. Why Read? New York: Bloomsbury, 2004.

Freire, Paolo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 30th Anniversary Edition. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group, Inc., 1970/2003.

Newkirk, Thomas. Holding on to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones: Six Literacy Principles Worth Fighting For. Portsmouth, NH: Heineman, 2009.

Amy: I want to read a lot of good, interesting books, not boring ones. I think we can make that happen by deciding on a book as a class.

Kevin: The scene in the book that Ellison describes where the invisible man is trying to give his high school graduation speech really affected me. I read it during my lunch break at Target and it literally made me sick. I got a nauseous feeling in my stomach for the entire night. It was just so awful to actually see how convinced he was of his own inferiority to these disgusting men of “high society.” Through all of that abuse and humiliation he was still more concerned about having these white men judge him as worthy. Somehow it never occurred to me that a soul could get that beaten down.

Marie: So, so what? So what if Holden is insecure? So what if Holden’s lonely and depressed? So what if he has no respect for himself? I believe this book should make teenagers think about what it is we go through every single day and how we are all affected by the things people say and do around us. Holden is an example of a boy lost in his teenage years yearning for love and respect but not receiving it. This book made me think about my daily actions, how I treat people and how people treat me, and how what I say and do and what is said to me affects me in the long run. I’d like to say we’re all stronger and smarter than the influences around us, but we aren’t, and I think Holden proves to us that we all have to work together and care for each other to make our lives happy and successful.

Elle: This year I really want to focus on actually learning to like to read instead of just reading for the grade because in past years it’s been hard for me to get interested in the books.

Richard: I hope to get as much out of this class as I can; the more I speak and read the more I come to know myself. If you don’t know yourself then you can never get anywhere. I will be able to contribute thoughts and opinions on the class. If we all thought for ourselves once in a while, we’d be way better for it.


2010 Fall Conference

Gene Yang began publishing comic books under the name Humble Comics in 1996. In 1997, he received the Xeric Grant for Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the

Geeks. Since then he has written and drawn a number of stories in comics. His most recent graphic novel, American Born Chinese, became the first graphic novel to be

nominated for a National Book Award and the first graphic novel to win the American Library Association’s Printz Award. In addition to cartooning, Gene teaches computer

science at a Catholic high school in Oakland, CA.

SAVE THE DATEFor information and updates, visit:www.clastalk.ning.com

Check out our featured spakers...

OCTOBER 29 & 30, 2010Inverness Hotel, Denver

and Graphic Novelist,Gene Yang!

Carol Jago has taught English in middle and high school for 32 years and directs the California Reading and Literature Project at UCLA. She is currently president of the National Council of Teachers of English. Carol served as AP Literature content advisor for the College Board and now serves on their English Academic Advisory committee. She has published six books with Heinemann including With Rigor for All and Papers, Papers, Papers. She has also published four books on contemporary multicultural authors for NCTE’s High School Literature series. Carol was an education columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and her essays have appeared in English Journal, Language Arts, NEA Today, as well as in other newspapers across the nation. She edits the journal of the California Association of Teachers of English, California English, and served on the planning committee for the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Reading Framework and the 2011 NAEP Writing Framework.

Our first fall conference is all about exploring new territories in education. Successful teachers are true explorers in every way: we take risks, break the mold, develop new ideas, and constantly look at “tried and true” methods with a fresh approach. That sense of exploration is what we would like to celebrate at this conference. In keeping with the theme, we want every teacher who attends to walk out of every session with new ideas to try in the classroom. We are actively recruiting presenters to help you do just that!

Teri Lesesne will join us courtesy of the NCTE co-sponsored speakers program. Teri is a Professor of Children’s and Young Adult Literature in the Department of Library Science at Sam Houston State University. Author of three professional books and numerous review columns and articles, Teri maintains a popular blog about books and reading at LiveJournal. She is the chair for the Standing Committee Against Censorship of NCTE and has served NCTE in a variety of capacities. In 2007, she was awarded the ALAN Award for her contributions to young adult literature.


Please complete a separate form for each registrant. Additional forms are available at http://clastalk.ning.com. Confirmations will be delivered by email only. Final postmark deadline is October 1, 2010. Refunds must be requested by this date and will be issued after the conference. To obtain a refund, contact Tim Hartman prior to the deadline. Please enter your name as you want it to appear on your conference nametag.

First ________________________________ MI _______ Last______________________________________________Home address___________________________________ City____________________________ ZIP______________School name____________________________________ District____________________________________________Phone (H)_______________________ (W)______________________email___________________________________

Circle Level: EL MS HS UNIV K-12 Retired

Registrant Information (check all that apply):First Time Conference Attendee: _____ Returning Conference Attendee: _____Early Career Teacher (0-3 years): ______ Pre-service Teacher: ____

Membership information: Prices listed are annual dues. Members, please check the mailing label for your membership expiration.

Status:____ New member _____ Renewing member _________($30)____ Retired _____ Pre-service teacher with instructor’s signature _________($15)____ Current member____ Nonmember (pay nonmember fee) Membership subtotal $_________

Conference Registration: On-site registration will be an additional $20.00. New and renewing members may register at membership rates if dues accompany this form.

Friday 6:00 p.m. Saturday Pre-conference (Carol Jago) Member ____ $45 ____ $95Nonmember ____ $55 ____ $125Pre-Service ____ $25 ____ $25Pre-Service Nonmember ____ $40 ____ $40

Other events: You must register for the conference to order a luncheon ticket. No new tickets will be sold at the conference, but occasionally a ticket becomes available for purchase; check the CLAS registration table.

Saturday’s luncheon with Gene Yang ____ $35

Subtotal $__________

TOTAL FEES $__________

Check our web site for conference updates! http://clastalk.ning.com Mail this form with your payment, postmarked by October 1, 2010 to:

Tim Hartman Questions: Contact9765 W. 77th Drive Tim Hartman, Registrar tghartman@comcast,net 303-421-7121Arvada, CO 80005 Alice L. Smith, Conference Chair [email protected] 303-885-7841

Colorado Language Arts Society Regional Fall ConferenceOctober 29 & 30, 2010Denver, CO - Inverness Hotel

Registration Form


YA Literature: Update, Catch-up, Reflect, and Rec-reate

by Dr. Marge Erickson Freeburn

Summer offers many choices and opportunities. If reading is one of your chosen summer pursuits, recent YA fiction will reward you with excellent writing, compelling stories, dynamic characters,

diverse viewpoints, issue-driven conflicts, creative problem solving, and time well spent. No quizzes, discussion questions, or essays required. The titles highlighted here are just a sampling of the many summer reads you might enjoy.

Immortality / Life After Death(Beyond Vampires and Werewolves):

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin. 2007 paperback, Squarefish Publishers. Fifteen year old Liz is dead, killed in a car accident, and now lives in Elsewhere with her dead grandmother. In Elsewhere, everyone grows younger, eventually becoming reborn. Liz deals with the disappointment of missing all the normal teen-age and young adult experiences. The story becomes philosophical as Liz develops new relationships before eventually growing younger toward rebirth.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson. Henry Holt and Company, 2008. Jenna Fox awakens from a year-long coma, and feels strangely unfamiliar with her body and her mind. She watches family videos and tries to regain her memory, continuing to have odd sensations that make her wonder what really happened.

Adventure:

We Were Here by Matt de la Peña. Delacourt Press, 2009. Miguel is only 14 when a judge sentences him to a year in a group home, where he meets Rondell and Mong. After the three run away, they try to figure out where they are going and how they can live. The journey takes them from Stockton, California to the Mexican border, and from life to death, and from naiveté to self discovery and the meaning of life.

Dr. Marge Erickson Freeburn is a lecturer at the University of Colorado, Denver, School of Education. Her email address is [email protected].

Peak by Roland Smith, Harcourt, Inc. 2007 paperback. Peak’s father, a famous mountaineer, offers him the chance to become the youngest person ever to summit Mt. Everest. The high altitude adventure changes Peak’s idea of the world and his place in it.

Fantasy:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Scholastic Press, 2008, the sequel Catching Fire, 2009, and August, 2010 release Mockingjay. Each year in the dystopia Panem, the government holds a televised tournament to decide the economic fate of the twelve provinces. Each province chooses 2 contenders toparticipate in the life or death battles. Katness and Peeta are initially enemy combatants from the impoverished Twelfth Precinct. Eventually they join forces and outwit the government to win. The government enslaves them as ceremonial warriors. But as they discover more about the tyranny, Katness and Peeta learn how to destroy it.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore. Harcourt Children’s Books, 2008; Penguin Paperback, 2009. In this romantic fantasy, individuals with unique talents are known by having eyes of two different colors. Katsa is a 15-year old woman warrior whose “grace” is killing people. She serves as an assassin to a tyrannical king. While on a mission, she meets Prince Po who becomes her lover and partner, and who uses his own ‘grace” to fight alongside Katsa to change her world. A prequel, Fire, was published in 2009.

Technology and Society:

House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer. Simon and Shuster, 2002.

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult. Atria Books, 2004; Pocket Paperback, 2009. Both of these novels deal with ethical questions. The main character in each is kept alive as a source of body parts to keep another individual alive. House


of the Scorpion also deals with issues of drug production as the economic foundation of country, and the power of an individual to change society. In My Sister’s Keeper teenager Anna is aided by a lawyer as she sues her parents for ownership of her life, a decision which may result in her older sister’s death. As in Mary Pearson’s Adoration of Jenna Fox, these well-written stories explore the medical dilemmas of bio-engineering.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. Tor Teen, 2008. Read this before its technology becomes obsolete! In the time of upgraded security deployed by the Department of Homeland Security, terrorists are fair game. Techno-geek high school student Marcus is in the wrong place during a suspected terrorist attack in San Francisco, and is arrested, interrogated, and detained for six days. After being released he uses the technology on hand to fight back.

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. Simon Pulse, 2009. Deryn Sharp trains to serve on a British airship and hopes that no one will discover that she is a girl. The Archduke Ferdinand is assassinated, and the entangled allies kidnap the crown prince, Aleksander. This is a steampunk depiction of an alternate World War I in which the forces of the Darwinists who rely on newly evolved animal species (including the living, breathing airship), battle the Clankers who rely on machines in a war that will determine the course of civilization.

Family and Friends:

The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon. Aladdin, 2009. Sam Childs, 13, is caught up in the Chicago Civil Rights struggles of 1968. This is the story of family relationships as Sam tries to decide which path to follow: the non-violent patient way of his father and Dr. King, or the energetic and assertive path taken by his older brother and the Black Panthers.

All the Broken Pieces by Anne E. Burg. Scholastic, 2009. This novel in verse depicts the new life Matt Pin struggles with. At the end of the Viet Nam war he was airlifted to the U.S. and adopted by an American family. In spite of his acceptance and his success as a baseball player, he is tormented by terrors and nightmares. His family takes him to a veterans meeting where he hears the soldier’s stories of injury and rejection. By hearing their stories, he begins to deal with his own memories.

Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick. Harper Teen, 2009. Matt Duffy, a young soldier recovering from a brain injury, tries to remember what really happened and who’s to blame for an Iraqi boy’s death. When he returns to his unit, his memory clears, but then he questions whether he can fire his gun again, even to save his buddies.

The Great Wide Sea by M.H. Herlong. Puffin paperback, 2010. Ben’s mother dies in a car crash. With no warning Ben’s father sells their home, buys a small yacht, and takes Ben and his two younger brothers out of school to sail the world. The voyage is long and dangerous. Ben and his brothers awake one morning to find that their father has abandoned them. Incredibly the boys survive, and eventually learn their father’s fate.

Marcello in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2009. Marcello Sandoval, who has Asperger’s, syndrome, has been protected and given a private school education. In the summer before his senior year, his father insists that he work at the law office to get a taste of the “real world.” Then Marcello will be able to make an informed decision whether to finish at the private school, or attend and graduate from a regular high school. Marcello learns a lot about people and the world. The reader learns more about his parents through the subtle nuances of the story.

The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X. Stork. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2010. The young adult characters are fascinating and philosophical: Pancho, whose goal is the revenge killing of his disabled sister’s murderer; the terminally ill DQ; and the young health care aide, Marisol. DQ’s mother, Helen, forces him to undergo experimental chemotherapy despite the gruesome side effects, raising questions about how much care and concern can be tolerated before it becomes abuse.

Teen Parenthood:

Jumping Off Swings by Jo Knowles. Candlewick Press, 2009. Four teens mature and discover the real meaning of friendship as Ellen decides what to do about her unwanted pregnancy. No easy answers in this multiple perspective story.

The First Part Last by Angela Johnson. Simon and Shuster, 2003. Bobby, 16, is a sensitive and intelligent young man struggling to raise his daughter. His parents are supportive, but do not take over his responsibilities. Eventually the reader learns what happened to the baby’s mother, and can begin to hope for this young family’s future. Read more in Heaven, 1998, and Sweet Hereafter, 2010.

After by Amy Efaw. Penguin Group/Viking, 2009. No one could imagine that Devon could do this horrible thing— leaving her newborn in the trash to die—especially not Devon herself. With the help of a skilled psychiatrist, Devon realizes and finally accepts responsibility for her heinous act. Difficult to read but an incredible acknowledgement of the trauma some teens experience.


Make Lemonade Trilogy by Virginia Euwer Wolff. (Make Lemonade, Henry Holt and Company 1993; True Believer, Simon Pulse, 2001; This Full House, Harper Teen, 2009) These verse novels tell the story of LaVaughn, an intelligent but poor high school girl who wants to go to college and become a scientist. Wolff ’s beautifully written poems follow La Vaughn’s story and that of her supportive mother, her overly religious friend Annie, and Jolly, the young mother and her two children that LaVaughn babysits. Each volume depicts LaVaughn’s persistence and growth toward accomplishing her goals.

Some Classics Retold:

Ophelia by Lisa M. Klein. Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books. This version is told from an empowered Ophelia’s point of view, beginning as a ten year-old child, and depicting a wealth of womanly experiences after her “suicide.”

Hamlet by Neil Babra and William Shakespeare. No Fear Shakespeare Graphic Novels, Spark Notes Publisher, 2008. Also in the series: Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, and The Taming of the Shrew. Not a substitute for a live performance, but these modern language versions with graphics are very accessible.

From the Adult Best Sellers Lists:

Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. St. Martin’s Griffin Press, 2007. Sixty years after the French round-up and deportation of the Parisian Jews, an American journalist, Julia Jarmond, uncovers the story of a hidden child and family left behind.

The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. Ballantine Books, 2009. This novel tells the story of a Chinese-American boy in Seattle who witnessed the roundup and removal of Japanese citizens to internment camps during World War II. Long after the war, in 1986, the widower Henry Lee remembers his Japanese-American school friend Keiko, recovers mementos of their friendship, and eventually rekindles their love.


Recently, I had dinner with a woman who was in my language arts class 21 years ago. Kelly had contacted me to tell me about her marriage and her master’s degree, and to tell me that I was the most important teacher in her long educational career. (When merit pay gets put into place, how much of a bonus will something like that be worth?) She told me that I had taught her the one thing that was most responsible for her success.

I had to think. Was it alliteration? Iambic pentameter? Identifying gerunds? Using graphic organizers? Identifying the theme of a novel? Onomatopoeia? As it turns out, it was none of those. She told me that I taught her how to speak well and she credited speaking well for her successes in life.

When a student looks you up 20 years later, it is a powerful and moving experience. I hope all teachers have an experience like that sometime. But I was also struck by what she picked as the most important lesson of all. It struck me that, as language arts teachers, we short-change the number one language art: speaking.

What percentage of all communication is verbal? Eighty percent? Ninety percent? More? If you count the number of words received and sent in a day, are most of them written and read or are most spoken and heard? Yes, we read and write emails and read papers and books, but the vast majority of our communication is oral. And I believe the most important communications are oral. The résumé gets you in the door, but how you interview gets you the job. The board of directors has your memo in front of them, but your presentation during the meeting is the key. The jury has seen some documents, but the attorney’s speaking ability controls the verdict. In your classroom, it is your oral communication that controls the room and impacts the lesson. People who speak well do better in life than those who lack sufficient speaking skills.

Speaking well is becoming more critical in the 21st Century as we connect with videoconferences and podcasts. Recently I came across a survey of Silicon Valley employers. You might expect they would place a high value on math and engineering skills, right? Company representatives were asked several questions about desired qualities in prospective employees including the question of what business communication skills they would like to

Putting Public SpeakingBack into English Language Arts

by Erik Palmer

see in college graduates. Their answer produced some interesting results:

Employers sought improved oral presentation skills more frequently than they did written skills. Their comments expressed a need for stronger skills in public speaking, enhanced interpersonal skills, increased confidence, and improved interviewing skills. Several wrote that students needed more presentation skills, highlighting the ability to use software tools like PowerPoint. This was surprising because the popular press talks more about a lack of writing skills among college graduates than about insufficient oral skills ( Journal of Employment Counseling, March 1 2005).

It seems that the state of Colorado has gotten the idea that oral communication is important. Have you seen the new state standards (http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdeassess/UAS/ AdoptedAcademicStandards/Reading_Writing_Comm_Adopted_12.10.09.pdf )? “Reading and Writing” has become “Reading, Writing, and Communicating.” Instead of six standards, there are four, and Standard 1 is Oral Communication. “Grade Level Expectations” at all grade levels include phrases such as “Effective speaking in formal and informal settings” and “Deliver organized and effective oral presentations for diverse audiences and varied purposes.” The Common Core State Standards Initiative (http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards/english-language-arts-standards), an effort of governors and state commissioners of education from 48 states, also has an emphasis on speaking skills: “Including but not limited to skills necessary for formal presentations, the Speaking and Listening standards require students to develop a range of broadly useful oral communication and interpersonal skills.”

Oral communication is, then, the predominant way of communicating, the most desired skill in business, and a major part of the new standards. In spite of that importance, how much of a language arts class is devoted to teaching speaking? A very small percentage, right? Why is that? Why don’t we teach speaking?

Let me suggest three reasons. First, we assume students can talk. In fact, the biggest part of classroom management is getting them to STOP talking! But listen to students talk: “His dad was like drunk so he was like raised by this other woman but then he ran

After a successful career in business, Erik Palmer went into teaching. He was primarily a language arts teacher during his twenty-one year career, but also taught science, math, and social studies. He incorporated speaking activities into all of those subjects. As a consultant, he has worked with teachers in districts in the United States and Mexico, and has worked directly with students in many different classes and schools to teach them oral communication skills. Erik can be reached at [email protected] or on the web at erikpalmer.net.


Know SomeoneWho is Interestedin Joining CLAS?

To support language arts teachers, The Colorado Language Arts Society is proud to host three state conferences, manage a variety of state and national contests and scholarships, and produce a newsletter, website, and scholarly

publication.

Please visit us atwww.clastalk.ning.com

for more information.

away and Jim was like this slave who was running, too.” Assuming students can speak well is the same as assuming students can read or write well. Every student who comes into your class already knows how to read or write at some level, but you work hard to improve their skills. Shouldn’t we purposefully teach speaking skills to improve our students’ level of speaking?

Second, speaking is not tested on state mandated tests. We can’t deny that we make decisions about what to include in our curriculum based on the test. There is not enough time in the year to do all that has to be done to prepare students for the test and certainly no time should be given to extraneous material. After I did a presentation about speaking at the CLAS conference, I had a teacher snap at me, “That’s what I don’t have time for!” I could see her frustration. I will leave it for someone else argue that the purpose of education should not be to prepare students for a test, but rather to prepare them for life; Kelly, my former student, thought that learning to speak did the latter. A few forward-thinking school districts are beginning to see the importance of speaking skills. Academy School District 20 in Colorado Springs now has required formal speaking assessments for students in grades 7 and 11. Sadly, for most teachers, state tests may have forced us to ignore oral communication, and we don’t make time for it.

Finally, many teachers don’t know how to teach speaking. I know I never had any classes in my certification program or subsequent district in-service trainings on teaching speaking. Every class at every grade level in every subject has some speaking assignments: book shares, research presentations, Socratic seminars, reading aloud, and so on. A rubric is occasionally handed out that offers some clue about what might be included in good public speaking. Most of the rubrics include “gestures” so it seems that gestures might be important. Beyond that, our knowledge may be lacking. How do you teach gestures? Did anyone show you? Were you ever given a lesson on how to use gestures effectively? Have you ever taught a lesson on facial expressions? Body gestures? Hand gestures? Imagine handing a student a writing rubric with a category for subject/verb agreement without ever teaching students about subject/verb agreement. Unfair, right? It is equally unfair to hand out a rubric that assesses gestures without specifically teaching about gestures, but that is quite common. And what of the other components of effective oral communication? Do we all know what is involved and do we all have strategies for teaching these things?

If you wanted to find out how to teach students better oral communication skills, you would have a difficult time finding resources. The catalog of resources put out by the NCTE has over 200 book titles listed, but not one of them is on oral communication. Yes, zero books on teaching speaking. If you check Amazon.com, you can find 61,000 titles that have to do with public speaking in one way or another—mastering negotiations, building PowerPoint presentations, leading sales meetings, general speech situations—but none on how to work with students. Go to the website of one of the nation’s largest teacher supply stores, Lakeshore Learning,

and type in “public speaking” or “oral communication” and you will come up empty. My local teacher supply store has books of speaking activities with pretty reproducibles, but they don’t tell you how to teach students to do those activities. I have found books for debate coaches and forensic coaches in my searches, but for the regular classroom teacher, nothing. (I offer a list of resources at the end of this article.)

To fill the gap, I ended up writing a book: Teaching Speaking—To Any Age For Any Purpose (Aurora, Colorado: Gregory and Ross Publishing, 2010). I wanted all teachers at all grade level and all subject areas to have a guide for improving oral expression in their classes and beyond. I wanted to provide teachers with a theoretical way to understand the components of oral expression as well as a workable way to put that theory into practice.

So how do you teach speaking? The first step is to move to a multiple trait understanding of oral communication. When I started teaching 21 years ago, I gave a piece of writing one grade. A paper with great content but disastrous spelling and sentence structure got the same grade as a paper with poor content but perfect spelling and sentence structure. Somewhere along the way, rubrics evolved and instead of a holistic grade, rubrics were created that broke writing into pieces: the six-trait writing rubric, for example, which assesses content, organization, word choice, voice, sentence structure, and conventions individually. Now a student can be clear on his or her strengths and weaknesses, and teachers can give more meaningful feedback.

Now look at this generic speaking rubric developed by the district language arts committee of a major suburban district in our state (emphasis added):


Advanced:• The student delivers speech effectively to inform, explain,

demonstrate, or persuade• Thestudentorganizestheformalspeechusinganintroduction,

body and conclusion with transitions and well integrated evidence

• Subject,vocabulary,anddeliveryareadaptedeffectivelytothe audience and occasion

Proficient:• Thestudentdeliversspeechappropriately…• Thestudentorganizes…withtransitionsandevidence• Subject,vocabulary,anddeliveryareadaptedappropriately

What would it mean to effectively deliver a speech as opposed to appropriately deliver a speech? Perhaps more importantly, subject, vocabulary, and delivery are all together even though they are very different skills. Would you hand out a writing rubric that said, “Content and punctuation are appropriate for the purpose”?

Writing a speech and delivering a speech are two radically different skills, similar to the difference between the content piece of writing and the punctuation piece of writing. Delivery alone has several components (poise, voice, gestures, speed, inflection, eye contact), yet the rubric fails to assess these independently. I have collected rubrics from many different classes and many different schools, and I have yet to see one that correctly identifies and categorizes the elements of effective oral communication. We have to move to a multiple trait conception of speaking as we did for writing.

The second step is to make some changes to our curriculum. We need to commit to putting more emphasis on speaking skills. Some of our favorite units—ones we have taught for years—may need to be de-emphasized. Yes, you love your haiku unit and you believe your students love it, but haiku will not be as important in life as strong oral communication skills. Perhaps integrating speaking into units that emphasize reading and writing is the best compromise.

The third step is to purposefully teach speaking skills. You teach a lesson on punctuation; you teach a lesson on effective visual aids. You teach a lesson on thesis statements; you teach a lesson on being poised and eliminating distracting behaviors. You teach a lesson on word choice; you teach a lesson on making effective hand gestures. We need to define and then teach the individual speaking skills in the same way we teach reading strategies or writing skills.

Let me give two examples of speaking skill lessons. The first one is on a component of building a speech; the second is on the component of delivering a speech that all teachers seem to know about.

I am amazed at how often speakers give speeches that seem designed for some audience other than the one being spoken to. Often the speaker seems to have no idea about the level, interests, or mood of the listeners. Did you ever have a staff meeting on a Friday afternoon with densely-packed PowerPoint slides on some new district initiative? How did that go over? The first step in all effective oral communication, then, is analyzing the audience. A speech must be built for the specific audience being addressed. From my book, Teaching Speaking:

Imagine the following situation: In Classroom A an eighth grade civics teacher tells students they will have to research a landmark Supreme Court case and give a speech on the case in class. Can you predict what will happen? The students will dutifully look up information, copy it all down, give a speech full of words they don’t understand, look at their notes and occasionally at the teacher, and their classmates will be bored to tears. In Classroom B an eighth grade civics teacher tells students they will have to research a landmark Supreme Court case and give a speech on the case to the class. The teacher goes on to analyze the audience with them. He explains that the listeners are thirteen years old with no

Evidence Outcome from Grade Level Expectation for 8th grade: Students can give a planned oral presentation to a specific audience for an intended purpose.

Rubric: 4—All content has been modified to be on the level

of the audience; all vocabulary is understandable by the audience; there are several places where connections have been made between the content and the audience to make the content relevant to the audience

3—Majority of content has been modified to audience level; most vocabulary is at audience level; there are a few places where connections have been made

2—Some content has been modified but much of the content is not grade level appropriate; much vocabulary is not at the audience’s level of understanding; one attempt to make content connect with audience

1—No evidence that content has been modified to be grade level appropriate; vocabulary is not on grade level; no attempt to connect content to this specific audience

Evidence Outcome from Grade Level Expectation for 5th grade: Students can use appropriate eye contact.

Rubric: 4—Every audience member was looked at some point

during the speech; eye contact was continual3—Most audience members were looked at; minimal

reading of text and majority of presentation included eye contact

2—Some audience members were looked at; lots of reading from the text and less than half of the speech involved eye contact

1—Never looked at audience members; read the speech to us without looking up

Speaking Rubrics


law school experience, so language has to be seriously modified from the research stage to the speaking stage. He explains that the audience is unfamiliar with history, so context events must be explained. The teacher reminds students that, because the class has been studying the court system for four weeks, they can assume that their classmates already know many things about the topic. It will not be necessary to explain how a case gets to the Supreme Court, for example. The teacher suggests that the audience only has a slight interest in the case students are going to present (or in any case for that matter). They will only start to care if they know how the case affects their lives. He makes it clear that most members of the audience care much more about other things than they do about Supreme Court cases, so the speech has to be built in a way that somehow connects the case to them. In a case about illegal search and seizure, the teacher suggests posing a question about whether it should be legal to take a student’s cell phone and look at the text messages, for instance. The teacher builds into the rubric a category for “audience” and explains to the students that they will be scored on how well they have geared the speech to the audience. This discussion will guarantee that speeches in Classroom B will be significantly better than the speeches in Classroom A.

In the delivering a speech category, one component that is in almost every rubric I have seen is eye contact. To teach the importance of eye contact, I walk a little closer to some unsuspecting student. I look at him. And I keep looking. Invariably, the student reacts. Perhaps the leg starts jiggling. Maybe he begins to shift a bit in his seat. A nervous smile appears. The student glances up and looks away and glances up again and looks away. There may be some squirming. This little demonstration makes clear that where a speaker looks is very meaningful. Then I follow up with a simple activity: Let student volunteers speak for two minutes on a topic they love (favorite sports team, store, class, grandparent, etc.). At the end of the speech have students in the audience raise their hands if they thought the speaker looked at them at some point during the speech. This creates a great visual of where the student was focusing as she spoke. (Typically, a student giving a speech will look primarily at the teacher. She will look at her notes, then at the teacher, and repeat that process several times. We have done a great job convincing students that we are the only one who matters in the classroom.) This simple lesson gives a great starting point to purposefully thinking about eye contact.

The bottom line is that we have to increase our instruction of oral communication. The state standards demand it, and the future lives of our students demand it. It can be done. With a small amount of instruction, all teachers can more effectively contribute to creating competent oral communicators, if we rethink our approach and purposefully teach communication skills. Correctly identifying the traits of effective writing and targeting lessons to those traits is a great strategy for teaching writing. Correctly identifying the traits of effective oral communication and targeting lessons to those traits will lead to success in teaching speaking as well. And for teaching them how to speak well, one day our students may thank us…

Activity Books: These books tend to be short (50-100 pages). They are 8 ½ by 11 so the pages inside (graphic organizers, word searches, crossword puzzles) can be copied. They contain ideas for classroom speeches and some instruction to the student on how to speak well. Examples include:

Making Speeches. Frank Schaffer Publications. 48 pages. Offers ideas for types of speeches and graphic organizers.

Public Speaking for Kids. Jaffe, Charlotte. 64 pages. Forms to fill out to prepare for speech types such as Current Events, Campaign Speech, and TV Review. Student instruction on voice, body language, eye contact, and speed.

How to Prepare and Give a Speech. Kramme, Michael. 94 pages. Speech ideas (e.g., Eulogy, Demonstration); word searches, crossword puzzles with activity terms (e.g., evidence, organization).

Oral Language Development. Teacher Created Resources. 80 pages. For grades K-2; speech ideas (e.g., Favorite Memory, Reciting Nursery Rhyme); graphic organizers in shapes (e.g., Personal information Speech has a house shape with lines inside for writing ideas).

Oral Communication and Presentations. Teacher Created Resources. 112 pages. Ideas (e.g., Commercials, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Pantomime); forms for speech preparation and for students to critique the speeches. Specialty Books: These books are specialized and perhaps written by a debate coach for other debate coaches, for example. They can have reproducible pages but are most often 6 by 9 and less activity-oriented. Examples include:

Debating in the Middle Grades. McAlpine, Jim. 79 pages. Includes rules of debate, debate terms, graphic organizers.

Forensics. Oberg, Brent. 186 pages. Intended for students in forensics; explains types of events and tournaments; sections on how to prepare for Extemporaneous, Original Oratory, Oral Interpretation of Literature, etc.

General Information: These books are for a general audience and serve as guides for improving personal speaking. Examples include:

Speaking with a Purpose. Koch, Arthur. 180 pages. A good general guide for anyone trying to improve their speaking skill; generally has the concept of the two distinct parts of speaking.

The How of Wow. Carlson, Tony. 278 pages. Focus is on writing a speech; intended for professional speakers or businesspeople who are called on to speak often.

Real Leaders Don’t Do PowerPoint. Witt, Christopher. 246 pages. Very strong on building a speech but weak on delivering a speech.

Resources for Teaching Speaking


Everywhere we hear the cry for data-driven dialogue, which is supposed to lead to data-driven instruction. And as much as I agree that good, solid data absolutely must inform our instruction, the data we often analyze,

like computerized-based assessments and standardized tests, offers a limited view of our students. Richard Allington calls this kind of data-driven dialogue, “data rich, information poor” (email). Data like this often gives us a one dimensional look at a child, leading to the application of surface level solutions to complex problems.

Empowering Teachers to Analyze Data andMake Sound Instructional Decisions

At the beginning of the school year, teacher collaboration in my school starts with analyzing CSAP results and scores from a district mandated computer-based test. Our state requires districts to use assessment tools to generate objective data (even as many experts argue there is no such thing); this data appears to be objective by the organized way the assessment tools reports scores. My district generates data from multiple choice tests, and my school uses this data to create SMART goals (Strategic, Measurable, Attainable, Reliable, and Time-bound.) Teachers are trained on how to analyze results of a computerized test. In one meeting, teachers and administrators reviewed the results of one subtest, concluding that certain students lacked the ability to “determine importance.” A rich conversation would have involved asking certain questions, like: what do we notice in the classroom? what does determining importance mean? how do we teach it so that students learn it? However, instead of a rich dialogue around our interpretation of determining importance, the conversation focused on separating struggling students into groups that a volunteer would pull out to teach.

Peter Johnston, author of Choice Words, makes a strong case of the limitations and distractions these tests pose when they serve as our only data source. “Administrators easily lose sight of the fact that teacher knowledge is central. The electronic worksheets show what kids know about letters and sounds and so forth, but if the children are writing, the teacher will already have this information and a tool for teaching” (email). Gathering data from authentic student writing makes testing unnecessary, and the same principle can be applied to reading: “Again, if a teacher doesn’t know how to engage children in productive dialogue about their reading,

The Power of Classroom Assessment

by Stefanie Fuhr

and thus get information about how they understand, then that is the problem to solve. If they can do that, then the test provides no further information” (email). Like Johnston, I am concerned that these assessment tools are promoting a very narrow and scripted type of instruction. I also believe that using skill-based tests as our main source of information doesn’t promote the type of thinking and collaboration that would likely lead to long-term academic solutions.

As teachers of 21st century learners, we must engage in meaningful dialogue about what we see in the classroom in order for professional learning communities to work. In his article “Teachers as Evaluation Experts” Johnston states, “Teachers should not expect this expertise to be gained without effort. There is much to know. If teachers are ever to gain public trust and win professional status we must show that we are responsible” (49). We cannot respond to outside data by saying, “But I just know that s/he can do it.” We have to prove it by collecting the data in various assignments, performances, portfolios and observations, and then make reasonable inferences. As I have worked on collecting classroom information, I have been surprised at the shift in my thinking: instead of using assessments to determine a child’s ability, I am now using it to specifically instruct to that child’s needs. It reorients me as a teacher to pay attention to each child’s strengths and build on them through explicit, differentiated instruction. This type of assessment is ultimately respectful of the best information we have on what is involved in reading and writing – it does justice to the content. This kind of assessment is good for us as practitioners – it respects the involved work that we do.

Meaningful Classroom Data

The updated Standards for the Assessment of Reading and Writing (http://ncte.org/standards/assessmentstandards) has influenced my approach to assessment data. The updated assessment standards created by IRA and NCTE speak to the importance of classroom assessment: “The central premise of the standards is that quality assessment is a process of inquiry. It requires gathering information and setting conditions so that the classroom, the school, and the community become centers of inquiry where students, teachers, and other members of the school community examine, individually and collaboratively, their learning and ways to improve their practice” ( Johnston, et al).

Stefanie Fuhr is a 4/5 multi-age teacher at Peabody Elementary in Littleton, Colorado, and is also a member of the National Writing Project and NCTE. She wishes to thank Ben Blair and Melody Sinclair, who helped with major revision and editing of this article, and for feedback, Michelle Comstock from the Denver Writing Project and her colleagues: Barb Bernhard, Amy Carrington, Leah Montequin, and Sara Tierney. She can be reached at [email protected].


Relying on solely a multiple choice test to tell us what a student knows about determining importance doesn’t make sense to me. Information that is generated every day in my classroom fleshes out a richer portrait of my class, and orients me as a teacher to differentiate my instruction to meet the needs of each student. For instance, after teaching a lesson on double column notes, I asked my students to apply double column notes while researching the 13 Colonies. By organizing information in this way, students are digging deeper into the content by pulling out the key terms and then writing what they learned about these terms. After looking at their notes, I was able to pinpoint which students were able to determine importance, and which ones still needed to practice this skill, and then respond to their particular needs. Through a portfolio assessment, I can observe a student progress from attempting to pull out important information, to mastery of pulling out important information from a variety of resources. With this kind of assessment informing my instruction, my expectation is that students who were unable to determine importance at the beginning of the year on a computerized test will be able to at the end of the year.

Data is more likely to be information rich if it includes the everyday information teachers collect in their classrooms. As Peter Johnston writes, “The most powerful assessment for students’ learning occurs in the classroom, moment-to-moment among teachers and students” (“Nontechnical Assessment”). Rich information about students might include answers to questions like: what is the child doing right? how can we use this to move the child forward? what triggers a child to perform their best? what are the most effective teaching strategies we can use? In the classroom we need to use various tools as we assess student growth, like anecdotal records, reading/writing surveys, portfolios, rubrics, and performance based assessments, and actual student work that shows evidence of not only a product but the learning process.

In my classroom, this involves more of a project-based approach to content area work. As we study topics like the 13 Colonies or the stars, students spend time learning how to read nonfiction text from textbooks, nonfiction library books, and the internet. They also utilize United Streaming videos to gather information on their topics. They work on dissecting information through discussion and note taking. The discussion allows for clarity and expansion of understanding. Recently, in a unit of study around stars, students asked if they could start a blog about stars. As I read their blog entries, not only was I amazed at how much more they knew than I did, but also how much information I was able to gather about their learning.

It’s this kind of information that drives instruction in my class. When I sit down to confer with a child around their reading, the information they give me is key to where I need to take them next. When I ask a child, “What’s going on in this text?” and I listen to their answer, I can get an understanding of their ability to summarize and comprehend the text they’re reading. When they hand in their school reading log, I can look at their comments to see if they’re digging deeper into their text by asking questions, making

connections, looking for hints, and stating opinions with support. I write all of this information in anecdotal records and then use this information in a variety of ways. I may offer the student a learning point during the conference.

Instruction may come directly from me, but if I pay attention to my classroom data, I can also facilitate student-centered learning. For example, after reading aloud The Yellow Star: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark by Carmen Agra Deedy, I was able to assess which of my students were able to dig deeper into a text. As I was reading, I’d pause for students to write down their thinking. After reading the book, kids went to our blog site and discussed the book. Not only was I extremely impressed with the deep thinking initiated and generated by the students, I was able to notice some misconceptions that needed clearing up. One student blogged about the idea that only boys had to wear the Star of David due

As I read their blog entries, notonly was I amazed at how

much more they knew than Idid, but also how much

information I was able to gatherabout their learning.

“

”to a part in the book where the king is trying to figure out how to hide the Jewish Danes after a law is passed requiring them all to wear the yellow star. As the king looks up at the stars, as the legend says, the king decided to hide them amongst their sisters. This student’s thinking, as well as others’ confusions about this scene, changed my next lesson. I pulled the whole group together, reread this scene, showed them the blog, and then had the kids think aloud. One student shared with the class: “When the king asked himself, ‘Where would I hide a star?’ I thought a star is like a person who is Jewish. Then the king said of course, you would hide a star amongst its sisters. Well, that didn’t make sense. Then I remembered at the beginning of the book, when the author said there were all kinds of Danes, like young Danes, old Danes, tall Danes, etc. But what if its sisters were the people around the star? When all the Danes put on the stars the Germans didn’t take anyone away. I think they didn’t take them away because, it’s a whole country. Who would be dumb enough to take the whole country away?” I couldn’t have said it any better than this student and, as often is the case, the class taught the lesson that day. On a related note, this student’s computerized tests scores show her to be an average to below average reader.

Overemphasis on CSAP Data

And then there’s CSAP. In my experience, many teachers look at the results and feel compelled to defend their students. I feel


Works Cited

Allington, Richard. “Re: Questions about Professional Learning Communities.” Message to author. 3 Sept. 2009. Email.

Anderson, Carl. Assessing Writers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2005. Print.

Deedy, Carmen Agra. The Yellow Star: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark. Atlanta CA: Peachtree Publishers, 2000. Print.

Johnston, Peter. “Re: Computerized Tests.” Message to author. 22 Apr. 2009. Email.

Johnston, Peter. “Nontechnical Assessment.” The Reading Teacher. Sept. 1992: 60-2. Print.

Johnston, Peter. “Teachers as Evaluation Experts.” The Reading Teacher. Apr.1987; 744-8. Web. Nov. 2009.

Johnston, P., Afflerbach, P., Krist, S., Pierce, K.M., Spalding, E., Tatum, A.W., & Valencia, S.W. (2010). Standards for the assessment of reading and writing (Rev. ed.). Newark, DE; Urbana, IL: International Reading Association; National Council of Teachers of English.

proud when a student does well, but also horrible when she or he doesn’t do so hot.

And yet after reading Standards for the Assessment of Reading and Writing, I am starting to understand my vital assessment and instructional role in defining a student’s abilities. In the past nine years we have relied heavily on standardized tests to provide data about the students in our classroom. And though tests like CSAP can give us one set of information in regards to how we are meeting standards and comparing ourselves to other schools, it has been far too overvalued. “Teachers’ observations are often described as ‘informal’ and ‘subjective’ and contrasted with test results that are considered ‘formal’ and ‘objective.’ The knowledge constructed in such a discussion would be quite different from that constructed in a discussion in which teachers’ observations were described as ‘direct documentation’ and test results as ‘indirect estimation’ ” ( Johnston, et al). CSAP cannot be the end-all be-all, for which we spend way too much time preparing kids. Instead, it needs to reclaim its place as one data point amongst many data points, like classroom assessment.

Now, when I look at CSAP results, I’m going to compare them to the classroom data I’ve been collecting. One place in particular that I’m going to do this is in writing. In Assessing Writers, Carl Anderson shares his description of what writers do when they write well: “To me, the most fundamental characteristic of a lifelong writer is that he initiates writing throughout his life” (16). According to Anderson, a Lifelong Writer Writes Well When She:

• Communicatesmeaning• Usesgenreknowledge• Structuresherwriting• Writeswithdetail• Givesherwritingvoice• Usesconventions(17)

Using Anderson’s definitions of strong writers, let’s look at these possible scenarios. Let’s say Student A scored “advanced” on the writing CSAP. My classroom data on this student would rate her strong in writing voice. But in my classroom this child did not have control in the other areas Anderson talks about. In particular, the characteristics of a lifelong writer were lacking. If I look at data this way, I can find more value in the CSAP test. The test rating and my evaluation seem to be at odds; still, I can use CSAP data as a starting point in conversations around this student. It is my job to raise the bar of her learning by providing the tools and instruction she needs to be an advanced writer. Yes, she scored well on this particular test, and I know she exhibits a lot of writing strengths. But, I disagree with CSAP’s evaluation of her. One test cannot determine a child, teacher, or education system’s future success or failure. Our data collection needs to be richer by including writing portfolio, anecdotal records, and self evaluations of the student’s writing process and product.

Let’s say Student B scored advanced on the CSAP test and using Anderson’s criteria I would also evaluate her as an advanced writer. Not only did she write well, but she initiated her writing. She was constantly drafting, revising and editing independently as

well as listening to others’ suggestions. Once again I supported my evaluation by looking at individual writing portfolios, my anecdotal records, and self evaluations of the student’s writing process and product. Anderson’s criteria are real-life writing objectives, and need to be included in the data we collect around a child’s learning.

As I teach I must look at the information I gather daily in my classroom. For example, using Katie Wood Ray’s ideas around units of study, my students and I spent six weeks studying and writing realistic fiction. During this time, students looked at mentor text, practiced various mini-lessons, wrote drafts, revised and edited these drafts, and then brought their piece to a final copy. They then made their writing public online. This process taught me so much about my students as writers. One student struggles with grammar and conventions. And yet, because I believe in Carl Anderson’s thinking points around what a writer is, I noticed that this writer understood the structure of realistic fiction, and he revised at least five times, wanting very much to convey meaning in his piece. Because I know this child’s strengths and motivations, I was able to confer with him about his strengths and give him instruction on how to use conventions to improve his meaning. A multiple choice test or high stakes standardized test will never give me this kind of information.

So, Who Really Gets It?

My personal journey regarding assessment data continues: from a fear of outside assessments determining poor collaboration, poor instruction and someday a poor reason to pay bonuses to or fire educators, to searching for sources to help me collect the rich information generated everyday in the classroom. After finishing the writing portion of CSAP, a student approached me very excited about the writing she did during the test. She was wondering if she could take that particular piece and work on it more. When I told her no, she wondered if the people who scored it would give her the feedback she needed on this piece so that she could use it to improve her own writing skills. As frustrated as I get with the assessments and data we emphasize, I’m happy to know that my students are still very capable of understanding what information they need to improve their learning.


Finding Balance in the New Digital Landscape by Philippe Ernewein

Philippe Ernewein is the Dean of Faculty Training and Development at Denver Academy. He presents annually at a variety of educational conferences. Philippe also writes a blog about education at www.rememberit.org.

I recently heard Dr. Ned Hallowell, author and ADHD expert, describe the New Digital Media as a societal behavior modification experiment that none of us volunteered for (Learning and the Brain Conference, Boston, MA, Keynote Speech, 11/21/09). The speed of information has been steadily increased over the last 10 years and we have in turn tried to keep up. Mail is no longer delivered once or twice a day by a mail carrier; it now arrives every single minute of the day, delivered digitally to our inboxes.

Upon hearing this, my mind immediately turned to our students. If I am often overwhelmed with the speed of information (as I answer three emails, six more appear), I wonder how this seemingly relentless bombardment of information is impacting students’ attention and learning. How is this influencing their ability to prioritize and make decisions about what is important in meeting learning objectives and what just needs to be deleted?

As recent publications by the MacArthur Foundation and GoodWork Projects have stated, New Digital Media (NDM) – social networking, cell phones, video games, as well as the Internet – is not a fad (Weigel, et al 2009). It is a game changer that is having an undeniable impact on our learning environments. I often wonder how educators can harness this new and powerful force in order to support student learning:

• CanweincorporateTwitterintowritingassignmentsandaskstudents to compose their answers in 140 characters or less?

• Duringgroupworkcanstudentstexteachotheranswerssothey have a running record of their ideas?

• Willteachersbeingavailableon-lineforafewhoursaweektohelp students with homework increase the quality of student work and ultimately increase classroom time on content?

• CanablogorWikisupportstudentstoworkcollaborativelylong after the school bell has rung?

The tools of the NDM must of course be balanced with the core reason we entered this profession in the first place: spending face-to-face time with students, engaged in teaching and learning. As John Naisbitt wrote in 1982, the more “high tech” humans have, the more “high touch” humans want (Naisbitt 1982). In our classrooms we must balance screen time with teacher time.

I’ve heard stories of students sleeping with their cell phones under their pillows in order not to miss a status update; anecdotes like this make me believe that fostering a balance between high tech and high touch is more critical than ever. Our classrooms can be those places where students (and teachers) disconnect from technology and reconnect with each other through lesson plans that make time to read our writing aloud, to discuss books that activate our imaginations, and to brainstorm ideas together about how to create a balanced learning environment of high tech and high touch.

Works Cited

Hallowell, Ned. Keynote Speech. Learning and the Brain Conference. Boston. 21 November 2009.

Naisbitt, John. Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives. New York: Warner Books, 1982. Print.


Promising Young Writers Contestcoordinated by Sarah Woodard

This year’s judges included: Pamela Coke, Colorado State University; Dana Nardello, Aurora Public Schools; Beth McCrea, Jeffco Schools; and Alicia

Urie, Boulder Valley Schools.

Mismatched Treesby Carly Fabian, Falcon Bluffs Middle School

Nominating Teacher: Sarah WoodardNo matter how social, confident, or outgoing a person

might be, we all need a private refuge – far away from the influence of others or any kind of invasion. These places are where we can go when we need to think, relax, or disconnect from the confusing world we call home. For many, solace is found indoors. Perhaps it is a couch in a basement; perhaps it is curled up in a ball in a bed. But the only place I find completely capable of calming me is a little clump of bendy willows in the midst of a Colorado suburban greenbelt.

Since I first entered into middle school, I started riding the school bus. The route to my bus stop passes through a grassy patch that I have spent a huge part of my childhood in. I have learned every stick and rock; every dandelion and twig. I had little time in the morning to admire this enchanting spread of grass in a sea of concrete, but after school, I had that wonderful time.

Many times I had sat on the great weeping willow’s branches, looking over dandelions spread out on the grass, like canary yellow poker chips. Groups of young willows stood in little masses dancing in the wind. The vines that surrounded me swayed gracefully, like hair underwater. Behind this tree that I sat in, was another odd clump of short trees. They were different from the others, like the fingers of several gloves. Some were auburn, some were greenish yellow, and some were common pale willows. Staggered along were aspens and other deciduous trees. Something about the mismatched way they all mingled together had a sense of hominess.

One afternoon, walking home from the bus stop, I was stressed. I had a pile of homework to do, a heap of chores to finish, and a conflict with a friend all hanging above my head like a cloud of bees. As I turned onto the black path leading into the greenbelt, I paused a moment to admire a sight of beauty before having to tackle what lied ahead. As I turned my eyes away from the weeping willow, my head froze at the patch of mismatched trees. I was wrecked with curiosity and could restrain myself no further. I burst into the odd little wood. The tress smelled musky and ripe. The light was green

and patches of the sun shone upon the stringy grass. Barely a stride into these woods was a little bubble where the ground was covered in grass but no trees. At the end of the bubble was a smooth granite blob, sitting like a pillow on the bed. I threw my book bag onto the grass and sat a while. Like magic, the cloud of bees dispersed and all I could think about was the musky smell, the grass brushing against my jeans, the rustle of little leaves and the kiss of sun illuminating my tee shirt.

After that, the mismatched wood became my haven from stress. Eventually, I was able to finish my homework here and think things through without other things looming over me. Nature made me feel like my life was in order. Time was meaningless here and would pass conveniently slow. I was secluding alone with ladybugs and willows. Even in the winter, the patch could block me from the Rocky Mountain snowstorms and give me a rock to sit on.

Over time, the place had become an outdoor bedroom. Whether I had to think deeply about a social problem, get some homework done, or just clear my mind and stop stressing, the patch was always there. Sometimes, though, I become afraid when I see the community park workers; their trucks parked and billowing toxic gas into the air. But luckily for me, they are usually just there to there to clean up trash, mow grass, or shovel snow. But every once in awhile, they cut down an old tree. I know that my little patch of peace would be disturbed if I lost a single tree, so I cannot help but worry.

While I find solace in my bedroom or in my living room, no place on earth is quite like the little patch of trees in the greenbelt. I like the heat in the summer and the cool in the winter. I love every bird that flutters above me. I love every squirrel that watches me from a tree. Without this little patch, I don’t know how I can get through these awkward years that are adolescence.


My Dusty Corralby Sara Gallegos, Manzanola Junior/Senior High School

Nominating Teacher: Melissa Dowd

Most people think,My place to be,Is sitting happily in my fantasies.

O how wrong they are, when they see me out on a steel bar,Whooping and hollering as they go,Flying around the barrels and poles.

I grin like a madman,hoping and praying,Thinking my horse is going to win it.

And when he does,I cry with the rest of them,Glad to see he’s safe and now happily munching,On victory.

Owl’s Masqueradeby Devon Izmirian, Bear Creek K-8

Nominating Teacher: Laurel KennyIn her glossy, feathered gownshe glides and rides the fierce wind down.Yellow eyes, age-old and wise,pierce through.A cream mask hides all but her eyes and beak, curved into a knowing smile.She’s at every night ball,with the dark as her shawl, elegant and unknown.Mysterious,Forever seeking,Twisting her head this way and that;Never quite seeing behind.Always questioning, wanting to learn more; But asking the same question, so ends up where she was beforeShe spoke.Stunning, graceful, striking, but beware.Incur her wrath and this lady fairShall strike.

On to home we go,singing like a flock of larksI check back often,looking at the pair of pricked ears,Over the trailer wall,and smile like an idiot.

We release him into the corral once we get back,He throws back his head and rears,neighing in delight.I smile and watch as he kicks up the dustAs he races to his herd.

This is my home.This is my dusty corral.


Ocean Air, With You I Shareby Tymira Smith, Falcon Bluffs Middle School

Nominating Teacher: Sarah WoodardI picked my way carefully up the limbs of the bone-white

tree, stained over the years by sea salt. The aged bark was smooth and flawless underneath my palms. I situated myself high among the branches, leaning against the trunk. Inhaling deeply, I smiled. Several scents reached me. The ocean was prominent, followed by the smell of the small café nearby. Opening my eyes, the vast expanse of glittering blue off the California coast seemed never ending. Seaport Village is my haven.

I leaned over the side of the massive white tree. The wind stirred both my hair and the leaves. The tree seemed to be just as alive as I was. It was almost as if its breathing was keeping time with my own. I looked down at my mom, sitting quietly below me. She seemed perfectly happy to watch my father and me enjoy ourselves. Periodically, she would snap pictures of whichever of us wasn’t paying attention to her. Her favorite shots are the spontaneous ones, where her subjects are completely oblivious that they’re on camera.

I don’t know how long I stayed up there. Hours, days. Time ceased to mean anything to me. All I cared about was relaxing every single muscle in my body while I listened to the cries of the gulls. Out ahead of me, large naval vessels were coming into port. All those disciplined men were out on deck, flaunting their dress whites. At this point, my eyes locked on my father. As a past Navy man himself, I could tell this meant a

lot to him. My mom often directed her camera out toward the open water, hoping to catch a good shot. I’m happy to say she did. One of the larger ships with all her men lined up on deck happened to be sailing at the most perfect spot possible. Ol’ Glory was flapping in the breeze, folding over perfectly when my mom took the shot. Our flag was caught flying directly across the front on the ship. That particular moment captured in time almost brought tears to my eyes when I saw it. I may not have ever been in the Navy, but I’m very proud of those who were and are.

Seaport Village is much larger than the small piece I have but only mentioned here. Small shops line the boardwalk as well as cafés and various other places with bits and baubles of every kind. My mom and I bought a pink nail polish that shifts its color to purple when the sun’s caressing rays kiss it. That’s our favorite, and I’m delighted to say that we still have it. Various entertainers are scattered throughout the Village. I distinctly remember a juggler and a magician, both of which have been there each time I’ve had the opportunity to travel to California. But, although there’s more than just that particular tree overlooking the ocean, I can’t help but love that part. It makes me feel perfectly in tune with myself, like for once, I truly know who I am. Not many places, and very few people, can do that to you.

CLAS Fall ConferenceOctober 29 & 30, 2010Inverness Hotel, Denver

Register Onlinewww.clastalk.ning.com


The Middle School Poetry Contestcoordinated by Leslie Thompson

This year’s judges included: Jesse McKean of Mountain Books and Jacqueline Scott of Mountain Connection.

Mirrorby Samantha Roper, Cimarron Middle School1st Place 7th GradeNominating Teacher: Renee Lewis

The mirror seeks out your emotions,Fright, agony, pain, envy,

The demons that haunt you,The never-ending changes that await you

The mirror digs deeper,It travels underneath

The barrier ofWho you are and

Who you might be

The mirror soothesThe petty

And the ShallowFor their purposes are only for looks

Looks that deceive even the mostKnowledgeable soul

The mirror finds Differences between one another

Faults and flawsThat tears some apart and yet

Brings others together

The mirror compels you into thoughtsOf reality

Of ActualityOf fantasyOf reverie

The mirror can only undertake what we desire it toWhat you notice in the mirrorIn what you notice in yourself


I Stare Into the Mirrorby Beau Hombach, Cimarron Middle School1st Place 8th GradeNominating Teacher: Andy Levine

I stare into the mirror . . . He stares back

I put on my mask . . . He disappears

The mask hides him . . . I know he is there though,

he’s always there, he’s always been there.

No one sees him . . . just me and the mirror.

The mask is on . . . I walk to school

he hides in the shadows, unseen.

Friends pass by,

they wave and say hi

they too wear their masks.

I walk into class, the teacher asks, “How was your weekend?”

Our masks answer, “Good.”

For many this is a lie.

We all walk home, our masks peeling from our face

Our true selves, the person we see in the mirror every morning, start to emerge.

I finally reach home.

The mask is now gone, I look with a blank expression at the mirror.

This is me, the mirror doesn’t lie.

I am me for the remainder of the night,

But when the sun rises tomorrow,

the reflection of us, the image in the mirror that is truly us,

Disappears, and the mask goes on.


Oppolaritiesby Carly Beemster, Cimarron Middle School7th Grade Honorable MentionNominating Teacher: Renee Lewis

Blonde hair, flowing dressBig blue eyes and a golden ring

Cheery face, hiding sorrowA normal girl, hidden talents

Right hand is left handLeft hand is right

Turn around, it’s all the same

Teardrops fall, both happy and sadWhen days are dark,

there’s always a bright sideWhen the days are bright,there’s always a dark side.

Yin and Yang, black and whiteLight and dark, life and deathGirl and woman, boy and man

Opposites and Similarities

The sun sets, the moon risesThe moon sets, the sun rises

It’s always reversed

Everything changes, good or badIn the life beyond the mirror,

Left is right, right is left

When everything’s upside downSo is a frown, but also a smileUpside down, turned around

Sometimes total opposites,Sometimes identical twins

Different or the same,Everything’s still a reflection

Mirror, Mirrorby Matt Hearley, Cimarron Middle School

8th Grade Honorable MentionNominating Teacher: Andy Levine

Mirror, MirrorWhat do I see?Mirror, Mirror

I see MeAs I look into the past

I see a tormented soul that almost didn’t lastI look deeper, and deeper

And what do I seeThose big old jerks,That roared at me,

“You Nerd!”“You Freak!”

“You don’t deserve to be here!”But guess what they were right

I am a nerd I am a freak,And a smart one at that

Who didn’t deserve to be there,I deserved to be somewhere else

A better placeMirror, Mirror

What do I see?A smiling face just staring at me,

With hugs and hi’sAnd welcoming faces all around

It’s paradise, it’s paradiseNo sneers

No nasty commentsNo jerks to turn me into the monster

That I never really was


Murder Imageby Jenny Bell, Cimarron Middle School7th Grade Honorable MentionNominating Teacher: Renee Lewis

A new moon is rising, dull and deadThe haze an ideal, cloaking disguiseFootsteps echo, though softly I treadWith a dark plan to be their demise

Deserved demise, I coldly smirkNot a thing could be more truly toldSnake that they are, an unfeeling jerkIs masked by their looks of solid gold

I often wondered about it allFor how can appearance be such a lie?From that came the thought, the plan, the gallTo end the days they shall see pass by

I slowly glide across the threshold The blade within my ice-cold graspI climb the stairs, with lush thoughts of coldAnd focus my mind on the imminent task

The silence I hear as I open the doorI value as much as great fortune and fameI stand beside them, prepare for the gore,And steady my weapon to vanquish their game

At that moment I saw a most eerie thing:A mirror with me staring coolly backIt seemed to be saying with vindictive ring:“Do this and you I will surely pay back”

Ignoring the sight, I return my gazeTo the sleeping cold viper below“This is your chance,” I think in a haze“So finish before you dare go!”

The blade plunged into their precious skinMyriad time, I couldn’t keep trackAnd the scream that emerged from them far deep withinI relished and savored, for of it I lack

When silence crept out and chilled my soulI looked at the devious crime I had doneI had, by all means, reached my cruel goalYet I felt as a universe without its sun

As I raised my glance to the scene of the crimeAnd gazed over the crimson red sightI saw in the corner the now spattered-red mirrorThe sole witness of the occurrence this night

What I saw in the mirror punctured my heartAnd fully, completely, shook my coreI guess you could say ‘twas the mirror imageThat brought me, unwillingly, to the death’s door

The Mirror and The Imageby Kristen Ramirez, Cimarron Middle School

8th Grade Honorable MentionNominating Teacher: Andy Levine

A mirror is one thing.An image is another.A mirror, which creates a double.An image, creating the way people look at youThe mirror something so simple,Is compared to something so complete, the image.A mirror creates questions about our appearance.An image creates questions about who we are.But both betray the image of your personality.Is what you see the same as what you want?if not then the image changes.Many times this image will change.But does it ever come to your liking?If not, why so?Why can you not find yourself?Maybe the thoughts of others, affect your own.So in the end are we really ourselves?Or someone unfamiliar?Do we ever know?Or does it remain a mystery?Can you change once more?Or do we remain the same?


Parodyby Alexandria Clark, Cimarron Middle School8th Grade Honorable MentionNominating Teacher: Sadie Levine

To look within myselfIs but an unexpected journey.I see the depths of emotionWhipping among the tendrils ofInterlocked heartstrings.But to look outside me,And be forced to releaseThat piercing clarityIs to face a horrid reality.To stare into the eyes of A reflection,It is not I.It is a drone, a clone, a copy,A hollow shell of the original.She sways and movesAnd twirls her luscious hair.She sticks out her tongue,Speaking,“I am superior.”Or so she says.She looks at me disdainfully,Her eyes swim with petty emotionI stare at her intensely,Scrutinizing the cold planes of her face.She is so very audacious,I note with irritation.In no way does she actually think.She is a soulless husk,A pitiful parody of life.Inside, my thoughts playA tiring game of tag,Caught between nauseous disgust,Or a plea for escape.I vow to not become her!Never shall she inhabit me!I am overwhelmed with fury,Slapping my hand across our face and eyes.Ah!Sweet, sweet relief!She is gone with this black curtain,Banished to the shadowed cage of my conscious,Never to become me.I drift away from this cursed room,Carefully shutting the door.But as in my wakeI spy thatDeceptively clear glass pane.I smile, for it is but a Dead end portal to nowhere,

The doorway to a meaninglessPhysical being.I hear her feeble knocking,As her fickle strength wears away.

Rata,tat,tat . . . .

The Mirrorby Devon Agan, Cimarron Middle School

8th Grade Honorable MentionNominating Teacher Andy Levine

Without sandthere is no mirror

Without lightthere is no reflection

Without an imagethere is nothing to reflect

Without eyes There is nothing to capture

Without the mindthere is nothing to understand what is captured

Can eyes both capture and reflectCan my eyes capture the reflection of me

in the mirror of your eyesAnd can your eyes capture you in the mirror of mine

And will our minds understand what is captured


The High School Writing Contestcoordinated by Andy Levine

This year’s judges included: Suzanne Lustie, Professor; Levy Jones, Freelance Writer; and Grayson Hill, Solomon Hill Design.

Ascensionby Kelsey Leas, Arapahoe High School

Nominating Teacher: Annette Cladny

The silence can never be filledIt transcends all elseThe stillness envelops the soul Lives changedWith each passing season

The snow frosts the trees The only sound is the pounding of my heartI am utterly aloneOn top of the mountainMy body tingles with excitement The anticipation of flying downOccupies my mindWind rushes at my faceI begin to soarSnow flies up behind me I am one with the mountainMy life is changed

Snow meltsEverything is fresh and new Moist and greenThere is new life on the mountainNo air could beat what I’m breathing in Hiking up the muddy pathsTo reach the final destination

I am alone with my thoughts As I look out at the world below meI am one with the mountainsMy life is changed

Sweat drips drown my neckThe air is thick and warmThe lake glistens and looks invitingLike a hidden secret of the mountain

I dip my feet into the glass-like waterProviding a release from the heatThe secret is shared only with meI am one with the mountainMy life is changed

The leaves are rich in color Yellow, orange, redThe mountain is a sublime imageThe fallen leaves are scattered on the path I go out of my way to crunch themA stream trickles byWind blows through the treesI am one with the mountainMy life is changed

The silence can never be filled It transcends all elseThe stillness envelops the soulLives are changedMy life is changed


Land of the Beautifulby Leslie LoganArapahoe High SchoolNominating Teacher: Annette Cladny

In the midsummer, my family’s Subaru Legacy was parked on the side of a dusty dirt road as my mom, my sister Emily, and I slowly explored an old graveyard. This road trip was a longtime dream of my mom’s. All the stops we made were historical places mentioned in the Little House novels by Laura Ingalls Wilder. So far, we visited a couple of houses on our drive up and Walnut Grove where On the Banks of Plum Creek took place. As we strolled through the tree-covered graveyard, constantly slapping at aggravating mosquitoes, the names of four Ingalls and other nonfictional characters arose all within a twenty-foot radius of each other. Camera clicks captured the moment in the small rectangular snapshot.

Across the dirt road, there was a fence that separated the graveyard from the rolling plains. They stood as emanating golden hills of adventure and new experiences. The back of my neck shivered with curiosity as a breeze temporarily relieved us of the dry heat. I glanced at my sister and then laid my eyes on my mom and asked if Emily and I could hop the fence while she continued to loom around the graveyard. Nervous for the answer, she surprised me by quickly answering with the wonderful, simple word, “Yes.” Before she could tell us to be careful, Emily and I sprinted to the fence and quickly found a way over, cautiously avoiding the sharp rusty barbs. We looked up and realized we had hopped into a world of glittering sunlight. The wind swirled around my face, brushed my hair, and silenced any other sound I heard except for my breath and the rippling grass. I inhaled deeply, smelling dryness of the grass. With a fresh breath, I launched into another sprint towards the top of the hill. The chest high grass slapped at my shins and left little scratches as I weaved to the peak. While I waited for Emily to catch up I gazed at the land of the beautiful just as the pioneer women may have done years ago. Beyond the telephone poles and dirt roads lay the land of our history. The history of the courageous pioneers who saw these golden hills and decided that this was the place they wanted to raise their families and live their lives. Could they have ever imagined after years of experiencing roaring fires, crop failures, and blistering blizzards, that more than a century later the same breathtaking effect would occur? Emily, breathing hard, stood beside me and silently stared at the land. The sun’s beams radiate and the cast rays creating the most beautiful painting of the most beautiful homeland that anyone could ever desire. Standing there seemed like a step back in time, at the top of a hill where others had surely stood, looking at the mesmerizing place we live, imagining the past and the musing over the future.

Our Hillby Caryn ShebowichArapahoe High SchoolNominating Teacher: Marlys Ferril

I see the bullet against the pink of the clouds. One last thought before it hits me: Mary. I clutch my breast pocket as our sun sets.

***

I reach the top of our hill. Every night I sit on the crest, just like I would if he were here. We used to watch the sunset together. We’d meet at the corner of the cornfield right when the sky was turnin’ pink, he’d slip my fingers between his, and we’d climb our hill to the very top to watch the clouds paint a picture for us. It’s been a long time since I heard from Jim. When he left, he promised to write as often as he could; I’m sure he just hasn’t gotten a chance lately to sit down to do it. In his last letter he asked me to live life as though he were here again: “Just go on living,” he said, just like always. When Mama died: “Just go on livin’.” When the house had to be built up from nothin’ after the fire: “Just go on livin’.” Even when I tore my skirt on the fencepost rushin’ out to meet him one night, “Just go on livin’” came out of his lips before I could get in on word of complainin’. He whispered the same thing in my ear right before he left. Then he squeezed me real tight, kissed me soft on the forehead, mounted his horse and rode off West, straight into our cloud picture, till I couldn’t see him anymore. The sunset hasn’t been that bright since he left. When I sit here I’m waitin’ for him to come ridin’ back over the hill. It’s silly, I know, but I dream about him galloping back during one of our sunsets, tall and thin with his brunette mop bouncing up and down, just like it did when he left. What I wouldn’t give to see those bouncy curls right now…

It’s almost twilight. I stand up slowly, keepin’ my eye on the horizon as the last bit of color sinks from sight. I turn towards my gate. I hear horse hooves. Spinnin’ back around, I see my dream comin’ straight out of the sunset. His curls don’t bounce and his face is dark because of the sunlight behind him, but I can see he’s tall and thin as I rush to meet him. I’m nearin’ the horse. Somethin’s no right. The soldier hops down and turns to me; it’s not Jim.

“You’re Miss Mary Shell?” I nod my head. He hands me a letter. “Jim wanted you to have this. We found it in his breast pocket.” I don’t understand. Why couldn’t he come? Jim. Why couldn’t you come? “I’m sorry miss. He’s gone.” I shake my head. My stomach drops lower than the bucket I lost one time in the well. “I’m sorry, miss.” Hands shakin’, I unfold the letter. To my Mary: Just go on living. Breathin’ heavy, I gather my skirt and walk slowly back to the house. The soldier mounts his horse and rides off West, straight into our sunset.

I’ll be back at the hill tomorrow.


NCTE Achievement Awards in Writingcoordinated by J. Stuart Boyd

Impromptu Pieceby Katherine Lawrence, Peak to Peak High School

Nominating Teacher: Heather CyrSome media forums imply that the United States

is declining in stature on the world stage. Write an editorial for your school newspaper arguing either for or against this position.

For the past one hundred years, the United States has enjoyed a position of unparalleled power. Since the First World War, Americans have basked in their economic, cultural, and military superiority, to the point where it is taken for granted that the US is and will always be a superpower. It’s a subconscious assumption: of course we can do that, we’re the United States. However, there has been a growing tide of voices disturbing the surface of this preconception, voices heralding the sudden and disastrous decline of America’s position in the world. Without our total dominance over the world’s economy, values, and military potential, they cry in distress, what will America become? But in emphasizing the potential for decline in America’s traditional sources of power, they overlook the most vital source of power in the modern age: our relationship with the other nations of the world and their perceptions of us. What is truly occurring in the twenty-first century is not a shift of traditional power—economic and military—to other countries, but a shift in the structure of power itself. The true superpowers of the future will be those that recognize and nurture the new source of influence: international relations and the power of perception. The twenty-first century’s unique problems demand an unprecedented level of international cooperation, and the only way America can regain its stature and influence over these issues is by refocusing its efforts on its image in the world and its relationships to other nations, which requires humility and, to some extent, the abandonment of traditional sources of power: the only way we will maintain power is to relinquish it.

If the nineteenth century was the British century, and the twentieth was the American century, then the twenty-first will be the international century. Not only will economic and cultural superiority be more difficult to maintain, they will be increasingly ineffective in creating solutions to the fundamental problems of this age: global warming, nuclear proliferation, and poverty. The first half of the decline of American power, that of traditional sources, has occurred largely through

technological development and its role in globalization. Globalization, as described in Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat, was catalyzed by the spread of fiber-optic cable and the Internet, enabling operations to be carried out anywhere in the world. This has, as Freidman is fond of saying, “leveled the playing field,” making an Indian worker just as accessible and useful as an American worker—but often for much cheaper. When companies are no longer confined to physical connectivity, they can redistribute operations to a plethora of countries around the world: the headquarters of a traditionally American company may still be in America, but their workforce no longer has to be. Outsourcing has already taken its toll on the American economic system; just visit Rust Belt cities like Detroit to see that when jobs leave, influence and superiority are soon to follow, and that influence and superiority are now more likely to relocate to India or China. These two nations in particular are bearing the brunt of globalization, and they’re booming: China has enjoyed double-digit growth for over a decade, becoming a world economic power to rival the US or Europe, and India is not far behind. In addition, globalization allows for cultural trends to flourish, countering the forces of Americanization that have spread so pervasively. When the flow of information and goods was top-down, from America to the world, American trends like fast food and Coca-Cola became integrated into pop culture in a vast array of nations around the globe; technology like the Internet allows the flow of information and goods to be increasingly bottom-up, because diverse and far-flung cultural groups can more easily unite and propagate their unique traditions. Thus, technology and globalization have already begun chipping away at American economic and cultural superiority, and there is no evidence that this trend will not continue or even accelerate in the future.

Compounding America’s loosening grip on twentieth-century power is the second piece of the shifting power structure: the international nature of twenty-first-century issues and the diplomatic relationships that will be essential to solving them, or in other words, the power of perception. There are three major problems in the world today that are necessary to ensuring peace and progress for all nations: global warming, nuclear proliferation, and poverty. All of


these crises are, as Gillian Sorenson, former Assistant Secretary General of the UN, would say, “problems without passports.” They know no borders, and they affect less developed countries as much as more developed ones because they have widespread and intricately connected effects. Poverty in Mexico affects us through drug smuggling; pollution from China blows across the Pacific to our shores; instability and radicalism in Pakistan and Iran present a serious nuclear threat to nations near and far. Because these issues are international in nature, they require international solutions, involving the close cooperation of nations with diverse cultures, priorities, opinions, and populations. In order for America to influence the direction of these issues—which is critical for its security and prosperity—it must be willing to cooperate with other nations, and vice versa. For the past eight years, the image we have presented to the world is one of a lone wolf, not considering or even caring about cooperation. America withdrew from diplomacy and the UN and instead turned to military action to spread our democratic system to an area with radically different cultural values, the Middle East. We’ve given the silent treatment to Iran and North Korea, bullying and threatening our way through crises. The Bush Administration refused to accept global warming as reality by withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol, turned from nuclear disarmament to unsustainable nonproliferation, and showed little commitment to ending poverty apart from perpetuating a largely ineffective aid system. While the blame for the soiling of America’s image abroad certainly doesn’t belong to any one person, party, or policy, the effects are undeniable: America has lost much of its credibility on the world stage.

In order to ensure successful resolution of the triple crises of global warming, nuclear proliferation, and poverty, credibility is key. If we can reestablish our reputation as a nation that listens and cooperates, rather than one that dictates and enforces, we can gain allies and more successfully influence the direction of international policy to preserve not only our success as a nation, but the success of the world as a whole.

The modern century is one that poses unprecedented and inescapable challenges, challenges that will require a fundamental change in America’s power structure if it truly wishes to be successful. No longer can the US rely on guns, dollars, and Big Macs; we must seek to strengthen our diplomatic army and exert the power of perception instead. But behind any idealistic attempt to redefine our nation’s image, the question remains: how? How can we best repair the world’s perception of America as a nation? That’s a question that I hope will occupy foreign policy experts for years to come, and a question that I have neither the time nor the expertise to answer. However, I can mention one factor that will be critical: America must embrace humility. We must recognize that our stature on the world stage will decline, in the sense that we will no longer be the preeminent superpower; however, our stature will increase in a more subtle yet much more valuable way, if we successfully resolve the crises of our era and become a critical cog in the intricate machine of international relations. If we relinquish our visions of grandeur and embrace a new America of substance rather than size, if we give up our obsession with our own interests and embrace international responsibility, we will finally be a country truly worthy of power.

On Englishby Tom Roberts, Arapahoe High School

Nominating Teacher: Marlys Ferrill

I’ll be the first to admit that I have an unhealthy obsession with grammar. I dream fondly of semicolons and am always equipped with a trusty red pen for emergency corrections. When I see a slogan that says, “Walk tall, baby,” I think about how it would look with a slight shift of a comma: “Walk, tall baby.” A lot of people don’t seem to be aware how one little punctuation mark can change the meaning of an entire sentence. Or when people jovially conclude an email with “Your awesome,” I have little choice but to respond, “My awesome what?” Most people think I’m nuts, extremely annoying, or, most often, both. Yes, I am a grammar geek and darn proud of it. But, really, few causes are nobler than the defense of good grammar.

I secretly wish I were really old so I could complain about the present status of English compared to the high linguistic standards from the good old days of telegraphs and Model Ts. And let’s face it: when it’s necessary to abbreviate a word

as short as “you,” there is a serious problem. When I receive a text message or email full of cryptic alphanumeric “words,” my instinct swiftly urges me to either throw myself off a cliff or correct every misplaced apostrophe and incorrectly used homophone.

Honestly, I couldn’t tell you why this aggravates me so much. It’s probably a fairly unhealthy obsession, but bad grammar awakens an uncontrollable beast inside me. People hate being corrected, especially on something generally viewed as trivial. That’s why I try not to correct strangers; I fear for my well-being. I’m not trying to imply that people with bad grammar are stupid, far from it. However, when no effort is made to correct mistakes or errors are created intentionally, that’s when the bright red Sharpie makes its necessary appearance. Like many other pedants, I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve defaced an ungrammatical sign (or two, or three, or seventeen) in public before.


L’Hautbois

Sweet melodies do haunt my sleepCathartic waves across the ocean

A choir of angels serenades me as IGaze into the clouds

Oh, bow, how you tie the knotThe union of myself and Heaven

Gentle airs across the breezeWhisper me a symphony while I wait.

Strands of memory drift lazily byLike delicate notes sliding down the

Curves of a treble clef.An impenetrable wall of sound

Is all that I require.The vibrations forever separate us,

The most fortunate Divorce of Figaro.

As the final notes eke,Silence becomes eternal

And I am part of itAnd it is part of me.

Without music, I am at war with myself.

Le Basson

Stakes driven through my veinsFurniture chanting savagely

Sinister noise driving, writhingThe incessant buzz of discordant concertos

But I cannot awaken.

Harsh sunlight hammered into eyesSeen better by a blind man

Nocturne becomes rhapsodyThat fashioned by Beelzebub

No matter where I standIt follows me au fin de la Terre

Piercing but never shrillThe polluting noise of scandal

Saccharine chords boring into my skull.

Hell’s violin of broken stringsRarely sighs and never sings.

I Ravel in my misery withinA Cage of obsidian Glass.

Without music, I am at peace with myself.

The deterioration of our already illogical language is no passing fad. Every day, pseudo-words like “lol” are becoming ingrained into the English lexicon. Mix up some “omg” with a surprisingly rich variety of swear words and gossip, and you’ve got the formula for 99% of all high school conversations. The infiltration of laziness and web speak into modern English does create a sort of exclusionary code that can only be understood by a very select group of people. I just nod and smile whenever greeted this way, secretly wracking my brain for a way to decipher. “Languages evolve,” they say, “We don’t talk like they did in Shakespeare’s time.” No, they’re right, we don’t. But when human contact is reduced to a series of perplexing acronyms and single-letter abbreviations, good luck figuring out what on earth anyone is saying. Grammar crusaders are simply trying to preserve the sanity of future generations and the integrity of the world’s richest language. It is a thankless job, but we all have our time to be martyrs.

As communication becomes more instant, it also becomes less involved. It’s all about getting the word out quickly rather than putting effort into making something poetic and meaningful. When you strip a language of its grammar and its vocabulary, you create Newspeak, completely incapable of emotional delivery. Much as I would love to have Big Brother controlling my thoughts, I think the free exchange of ideas afforded by a complex, colorful language is preferable. There are over five hundred thousand words in the English language, and the ones that are underused are quite lonely; they need to be let out more often.

We all make mistakes. But the next time you purposefully omit a period in an email, remember that someone is watching you. And that every step you take toward the bottomless abyss of poor grammar is one step closer to falling off the edge. What do “u” think?


Faithby Meghan Callahan, Arapahoe High School

Nominating Teacher: Marlys Ferrill

The fluorescent lights were harsh and jarring, beating like false suns with the all-too chemical hum of industry. It was so bright in the room it burned my eyes; there were no clouds here to dim the intensity, and I longed vaguely for the relief of rain.

There was not so much as a speck of grime anywhere, and I remember wondering if the reason that hospitals were kept so clean was in an effort to scrub out the dry scent of fear. The business men in their plain gray suits must not have realized that disinfectant and old bleach stank of terror already. Years later, I would keep my house half-shrouded in dust, and people would wonder, and people would ask, but I could not make them understand that the acrid feel of cleanliness gave me nightmares.

The waves were small, near non-existent that day, as the poisons dripped slowly into my veins, tiny swells of hot, freezing pain. I kept my hairless head pulled inside my sweater, and counted mica flecks in the tiles on the floor, telling myself over and over that if I ended on an even number this would be the last time, that I would get better…

And he did not come. Everyday, everyday that I had sat under the cold

administrations of the needle, he had been there with me, burning blue eyes and angel bones of his back beneath the thin cotton of his shirts. We did not speak; I did not know his name. But often we smiled, and once or twice when I had started crying, he had reached across the aisle and taken my hand. We must have been a strange sight, cold fingers intertwined, twin IV drips of toxins running up our sleeves, gaunt frames bent towards one another in a gesture of prayer.

Someone asked where the boy was, and the nurse, lurking with her clipboard in the corner, shook her head. The look she gave, half-pity, half-sorrow, over the lipstick smudge of her mouth, was more than I could stomach. Other words followed then, but they were meaningless noise, like wind chimes, and I returned to my counting.

It was years later before I would cry for him. I did not cry when the tests came back negative, and I

left the rectangle prison of the hospital for the last time.I did not cry the first day I brushed my hair again, an

unruly short tuft on my head, like grass.I did not cry at my graduation, not even after the party,

when only the drooping roses and I remained. I did not cry when I moved from home with everything I

owned in small brown boxes, sealed in and quiet. And I did not cry when the man with the slow voice and

warm dark eyes asked me to be his wife.It was fourteen and a half years later, when I was being

wheeled into the hospital once more, that I saw him again.

I drew in breath to push, and there he was. His smile was the same, the sky-blueness of his eyes were like the mirrors I remembered, and his hair had grown in. It was golden.

And I wept then, not for the pain, but because he gave me strength to bear my daughter, strength to look into her small face and feel that the world I gave her was not all hell, strength to see there was a heaven beyond the circles of emptiness we knew. When he turned to go, the angel bones on his back were gone.

Two long wings sprouted along his spine instead, curving in perfect white clarity, beaming with the cleanliness that was not agony and the purity that did not know sorrow.

And I cried.And that day, I named my daughter Faith.

plague

we did not need fleas carried on the backs of gutter-soaked ratsslippingstinkinginto cities

no

we, with diamond-hard eyescarved carrion with our tonguesdevouredbones and sinewand drank blood like the finest of winesheads togethermurmuringas poison, sweet and deadlyhung from our breath

and the people eatingand the people being eatenwere often one in the sameskeletons embracing their mutilators digging claws of boneinto oozing fleshwe were insatiable and the grief or the ardorof the dead was none of our concern


Sherlock I’m sitting out on the back patio because it is the middle

of summer, and because it is evening the breeze is cool against my skin. It is the type of summer evening that, by rights, shouldn’t really be called an evening at all, because it is so beautiful it simply isn’t conducive to sleep or anything resembling dull winters’ nights, and is actually an extension and cooling of the day. The concrete under my bare feet is still warm, having basked all day in the lazy sun, and I remind myself absently that I should repaint my toenails because the pink nail polish is chipping off at the corners, especially on my big toe where I jammed my foot against the washing machine that morning.

I look out across the lawn and the wild, sweet-smelling grass to my garden, where brightly colored flowers are like neon spots of paint in the coming twilight, blossoming in the rich earth. A couple of robins are trading gossip at our bird feeder under the beech tree, stuffing their fat beaks full of seeds and chortling at their good fortune. I close my eyes and lean back drowsily in my chair, listening to their soft chatter.

Sometime later (I’m not sure how long because in summer, keeping time goes out of style) I hear the clinking of ice in a glass and I open one eye to see a cup of ice tea set before me, already sweating as its coolness meets the summer heat, and a tall, narrow man folding himself into the chair beside me.

He doesn’t say anything, because he of all people understands how important silence is, only stirs his own tea languidly and takes a sip, shirtsleeves rolled up to his elbows and fingertips stained with ink.

I wake myself up a little and take the glass, the tart of the lemon and the grains of sugar mixing pleasantly on my tongue. Instead of replacing it on the table, I hold it up to my neck, where my hair hangs heavy and lazy against my skin. “How was the last chapter?”

“You were mistaken in one of the expressions; in Egyptian, the phrase cannot translate literally.” He set his tea down, soft, almost musical English accent gentling as he went on. “But it was quite well-written overall. I think it will make a fine book.”

“Thank you, Holmes,” I say, smiling because his praise is so rare, and his calm gray eyes return my grin. He takes his pipe out of his pocket and strikes a match. It flares, smoky and orange, before he buries the flame within the bowl, and the gentle aroma of his tobacco swells around us. “I’ll call Pete tomorrow; he said the publishers want it as soon as possible.”

“I can imagine,” he says drily, “considering you ended the last book with the beginnings of a likely slaughter.”

I laugh, and tease him. “Oh now, you know I don’t like to explain my results before they are finished, my dear husband.”

(“What in God’s name have I taught you?” he murmurs under his breath…)

“…but you did get to read it before anyone else.” He nods, grudgingly. “The essential mystery was

elementary, but I do hate to be left cold before potential

and sometimes we could hear prayingor screamingand we laughed thenhowled until tears like acid poured down our pox-marked cheeksthe lie of sorrow was bitterand hopejust a word

and when we walked the streetshunting in hot moonlightno one noticed our comingwe and they and us and them and i and me…all the samebecause no one could escape the allureof the disease

and we let it rot usslowlyfrom withinturning hearts into hives for wormsand breeding our misery

and we became as soulless as the stripped-ivory frameswe left after we had gorged

and as meaningless as the cackles we screamed to the unfeeling dawn

and we wasted awayinside each otheras each otherbeside each otherall nameless ghoulswearing masks of deathcrumblingtogether

we did not need fleas

no

we already had

our plague.


murders.”“How are the bees?” I laugh, inquiring into his work

instead. “Active as ever,” he sighs, but I know his irritation is

pretended because he loves the busy little beasts as if they were his own children. “I’m working on their diet, as you know. It is strange how different flowers affect the taste of the honey…” And he tells me about the monograph he’s writing about wildflowers and I lose myself in thought contemplating the bunch he brought for me last week, soaking up water from the vase on the table through their delicate-hardy stems.

At some point in the reenactment of the development of his thesis, he takes my hand in his own long fingers. I don’t comment, and I listen to the conclusion of the paper, languidly watching the shadows grow longer and longer, lulled into drowsiness by the gentle cadence of his voice. For a few long minutes after we’ve exhausted the monograph, the silence stretches comfortably between us, and then he stands up, yawning.

“Are you going somewhere?” I ask, surprised.“Watson is meeting me here in about ten minutes to give

me the first copy of his version of The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire. Droll, is it not, that my dearest friend and my wife are both writers?” He lifts my hand to his lips. “However…” and his breath is soft against my skin, “after our meeting, I have no doubt Watson will try and cajole us into celebration of your book and his own modest tale. Would you be inclined to attend dinner, and perhaps the symphony? They are playing a beautiful Italian opera I think you’d enjoy.”

“That sounds lovely,” I reply, and he kisses my hand formally before releasing it to me, knocking his pipe against the side of the table. He pauses for a moment, as though he were about to say something else, but then to my surprise he leans forward and kisses my forehead. “Holmes,” I say softly, “don’t leave without me.”

“Wouldn’t dream of leaving the home without my other half,” he answers sardonically, but his voice softens as he opens the back door, and I can barely hear his last few words even through the quiet air. “Come and find me if you want me, wife. I’ll be wherever you left me last.”

And I close my eyes again and enjoy the parting few bars of birdsong as the robins wing towards home, and when I come to myself again I am sitting alone on the dim patio, with a half-finished glass of ice tea, and a huge volume in my lap. I brush off the title, The Complete Sherlock Holmes, and go inside to open it; the light is no longer bright enough for outdoor reading, and I have a meeting with a Sussex vampire I cannot afford to miss.

CLAS Fall ConferenceOctober 29 & 30, 2010Inverness Hotel, Denver

Our first fall conference is all about exploring new territories in education. Successful teachers are true explorers in every way: we take risks, break the mold, develop new ideas, and constantly look at “tried and true” methods with a fresh approach. That sense of exploration is what we would like to celebrate at this conference. In keeping with the theme, we want every teacher who attends to walk out of every session with new ideas to try in the classroom.

Register Onlinewww.clastalk.ning.com


oin CLASRenew Yourself, Your Teaching, and Your Profession

What CLAS offers you

a Rejuvenation, inspiration, ideasa Links to Internet and other resourcesa Updates on CSAP, standards, and legislationa Licensure Updates for English teachersa Conferences Fall Writing Conference Regional Spring Conference Colorado’s Teen Literature Conference (co-sponsored)

a Publications Currents newsletter Statement journala Contests for your students High school writing (co-sponsored with the Colorado Writing Project)

Middle-level writing Elementary storytellinga Grants Kirby Writing Matters Gilbert Fellowship Bellin Grants for teens

What you can offer CLAS

a New ideas to meet professional needs and strengthen the organizationa Presentations at conferencesa Diverse, transcultural viewpointsa Representation across grade levels and throughout the state

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Contact Jill Adams, CLAS Membership Chair at(303) 862-0382, or at [email protected] forms are online at www.clas.us. Please send the check and hard copy of the form to the address below.

MEMBERSHIP FORM

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47.1 Summer 2010

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Transcript of 47.1 Summer 2010