How does your investment in your research question and the students' background about your topic affect the research?
Not at all.
Just kidding. I have come to realize that my investment and repeated attempts to use book clubs has affected my research in a variety of ways. As a result of doing book clubs several times I fear that I at times jump into the middle with students. What I mean by this is that I don't always give them enough background or set it up with enough information to help them anticipate what the experience will be like. This was particularly true last fall.
Of course, the upside of my repeated use of book clubs is that book clubs have a reputation in my classroom. Students have heard from previous students of mine what to expect, what book clubs are like, which books to read, which books not to read...you get the idea. I've also come to realize that some of my students have previous experience with participating in book clubs. Some have been in a book club in a previous teacher's classroom (there are a ton of Cindy groupies in my district). Some have been in a book club with their friends. Some have seen their parents (usually mothers interestingly) participate in book clubs. All of this is a great asset to me.
Of course, I also have students participate in discussions in my classroom that are supposed to prepare students for this type of discussion. Yesterday during inquiry group Renee gave me a great idea or at least the start of an idea that I need to flesh out a bit more. She is going to use literature circles to help set her students up for writing circles. I have been attempting to use writing groups in my classroom and I wonder if I should be making a clearer link between the norms established in writing groups and those that students will eventually establish in book clubs. Mirroring these two activities will be useful to both, I suspect. Thanks, Renee!
What about Dragon Boy? It all really comes back to my friend, Dragon Boy. Every class has a Dragon Boy; he may be named Wears-the-same-sweatshirt-every-day Boy or Changes-her-hair-color-every-week-to-confuse-me Girl, but every class has one. Would more scafolding have helped Dragon Boy? Maybe. Should I have made my expectations clearer to him? Natalie has asked me about parameters and maybe clearer parameters would benefit Dragon Boy and those like him who are not ready for the expectation that students should maintain a mature conversation about the novel and the "difficult" topic it presents. Now, I just have to determine what those parameters are and how to keep those from stifling the conversations of students.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Day 3: Morning Pages
Think of a Volvo. Nothing flashy or glamorous. High end without being trendy or frivolous. Reliable and safe. Structurally sound with a roll bar to create a cocoon of protection for the passengers. Safe enough to survive a crash or minor collision and return to the road with a new fender or bumper. User friendly, mechanically sound, but can still create a thrill when racing down the highway.
Book clubs are much the same. They have been around forever (at least it can feel that way). Road tested by thousands and thousands in all sorts of circumstances and settings. No one views them as a flash in the pan or an expensive, untested venture. The structure or foundation is solid enough to withstand minor tweaking or the occasional Dragon Master.
Book clubs are much the same. They have been around forever (at least it can feel that way). Road tested by thousands and thousands in all sorts of circumstances and settings. No one views them as a flash in the pan or an expensive, untested venture. The structure or foundation is solid enough to withstand minor tweaking or the occasional Dragon Master.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Day 2: Morning Pages (again posted in the evening) :)
Question: What, if any, parameters do you put in place to help monitor the discussion of controversial subjects in your book circles? Interpretation of artworks such as this one [Julian Schnabel's "Christ's Last Day" at the right] would certainly be a hot topic in a public school setting--how do you handle the idea of censorship?
What a fantastic question, Natalie! (Plus, I like the inclusion of the artwork.) Actually, the personalized nature of book clubs helps deal with the issue of censorship, at least in part. As a result, I have yet to establish any strict parameters.
At the beginning of the process Cindy and I conduct “book talks” where we describe the plot, the setting, and a bit about the protagonist of each novel. We also pass out a packet with a synopsis of each novel for students to review. Finally, we answer any questions students have about the novels. This provides ample opportunity for me to “warn” students about books that deal with topics they may find too uncomfortable to discuss. For instance, I know that as soon as I mention that the novel Feed uses profanity many deeply religious students stop considering the book altogether. Similarly, once I mention that Postcards from No Man’s Land deals with bi-sexuality some students rule it out entirely. This means that when students list their top three choices I am (almost) guaranteed that they are agreeing to discuss the controversial subject in a mature (as mature as sophomores can) way.
Also, having parents sign a permission slip means that they are aware that their son or daughter may be tackling a difficult topic. The aspect of choice (I am not forcing anyone to read anything) seems to have alleviated any parental concerns as well.
This even has helped with dealing with my administrators. One assistant principal sat in my classroom as I gave the book talks this fall and she later commented on how glad she was that I gave students “the heads up” about profanity and other uncomfortable topics.
I realize that I have painted a fairly rosy picture here. Censorship is an issue I am concerned about with book clubs, but possibly not in the way this question (or my interpretation of the question) suggests. Students censor themselves. Indeed, this is the very reason that we are asking them to discuss difficult topics in their book clubs. Cindy began with the hunch that book clubs could be a way to help teach students to participate in civil discourse—a practice that seems sorely missing from our culture.
Much to my dismay, when we first attempted this process in the fall of 2006 most book clubs would avoid the difficult subject entirely. The proverbial elephant in the room was an issue in several groups; they would talk about everything, but the difficult subject. In other groups, they simply giggled uncomfortably about it, but refused to have any sort of meaningful discussion. Some of this behavior was surely the result of the secretive way Cindy and I went about presenting the project.
We had better results this spring when we were open with our purpose and told students that we wanted them to discuss the difficult subject. This seemed to be liberating for many groups, yet some groups still struggled. Interestingly, several groups said that they knew what the controversial subject was “supposed to be,” but just didn’t see the big deal with it. One group seemed to miss the point of the book entirely. Still other groups struggled to maintain a mature discussion of the controversial subject or the book itself for that matter.
In the end, censorship is a concern for me; just in a different form that we typically look at it. My puzzle is how do I help students to not censor their discussions and deal with those "elephants" presented on the pages of their novels in a productive manner.
What a fantastic question, Natalie! (Plus, I like the inclusion of the artwork.) Actually, the personalized nature of book clubs helps deal with the issue of censorship, at least in part. As a result, I have yet to establish any strict parameters.
At the beginning of the process Cindy and I conduct “book talks” where we describe the plot, the setting, and a bit about the protagonist of each novel. We also pass out a packet with a synopsis of each novel for students to review. Finally, we answer any questions students have about the novels. This provides ample opportunity for me to “warn” students about books that deal with topics they may find too uncomfortable to discuss. For instance, I know that as soon as I mention that the novel Feed uses profanity many deeply religious students stop considering the book altogether. Similarly, once I mention that Postcards from No Man’s Land deals with bi-sexuality some students rule it out entirely. This means that when students list their top three choices I am (almost) guaranteed that they are agreeing to discuss the controversial subject in a mature (as mature as sophomores can) way.
Also, having parents sign a permission slip means that they are aware that their son or daughter may be tackling a difficult topic. The aspect of choice (I am not forcing anyone to read anything) seems to have alleviated any parental concerns as well.
This even has helped with dealing with my administrators. One assistant principal sat in my classroom as I gave the book talks this fall and she later commented on how glad she was that I gave students “the heads up” about profanity and other uncomfortable topics.
I realize that I have painted a fairly rosy picture here. Censorship is an issue I am concerned about with book clubs, but possibly not in the way this question (or my interpretation of the question) suggests. Students censor themselves. Indeed, this is the very reason that we are asking them to discuss difficult topics in their book clubs. Cindy began with the hunch that book clubs could be a way to help teach students to participate in civil discourse—a practice that seems sorely missing from our culture.
Much to my dismay, when we first attempted this process in the fall of 2006 most book clubs would avoid the difficult subject entirely. The proverbial elephant in the room was an issue in several groups; they would talk about everything, but the difficult subject. In other groups, they simply giggled uncomfortably about it, but refused to have any sort of meaningful discussion. Some of this behavior was surely the result of the secretive way Cindy and I went about presenting the project.
We had better results this spring when we were open with our purpose and told students that we wanted them to discuss the difficult subject. This seemed to be liberating for many groups, yet some groups still struggled. Interestingly, several groups said that they knew what the controversial subject was “supposed to be,” but just didn’t see the big deal with it. One group seemed to miss the point of the book entirely. Still other groups struggled to maintain a mature discussion of the controversial subject or the book itself for that matter.
In the end, censorship is a concern for me; just in a different form that we typically look at it. My puzzle is how do I help students to not censor their discussions and deal with those "elephants" presented on the pages of their novels in a productive manner.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Day 1: Morning Pages Posted in the Evening
What is my plan? Good question.
The first step for me is to register back in with the AI and my research. I took a bit of a hiatus from it, but I have been assured that I don't need to feel guilty about that. ;)
I need to comb through all of the information that I collected this spring from students (after I pick it up from FCHS this afternoon :) ) and determine which information I will focus on during this two week period. This will be more of a challenge because of the shear volume of data I collected—teacher-researcher notes, discussion log records, mandalas, found poems, etc. And sticky notes...I almost forgot about the plethora of sticky notes I collected!
As of this moment I think that I will focus on looking over the t-r notes and discussion log records as this will give me more insight into the content of students' book club discussions and allow me to determine how well we met our (Cindy and me--although it sounds as though I am using the royal we) goal of helping students discuss challenging/difficult/controversial subjects productively.
The first step for me is to register back in with the AI and my research. I took a bit of a hiatus from it, but I have been assured that I don't need to feel guilty about that. ;)
I need to comb through all of the information that I collected this spring from students (after I pick it up from FCHS this afternoon :) ) and determine which information I will focus on during this two week period. This will be more of a challenge because of the shear volume of data I collected—teacher-researcher notes, discussion log records, mandalas, found poems, etc. And sticky notes...I almost forgot about the plethora of sticky notes I collected!
As of this moment I think that I will focus on looking over the t-r notes and discussion log records as this will give me more insight into the content of students' book club discussions and allow me to determine how well we met our (Cindy and me--although it sounds as though I am using the royal we) goal of helping students discuss challenging/difficult/controversial subjects productively.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)