Reading Reflection

There's so many readings to write about, that's it's difficult for me to select specific readings to respond to. The academic readings, even the more anecdotal research ones, were interesting in hat I'm an English teacher, but face the same trouble that most academic writing does: dryness. It's rare that I've found academic writing with "life" in it. However, I'll attempt to address those two here, though I'd rather be discussing the King or Lamott pieces.

In the first week's readings I found myself grappling a lot with the Nagin article, "Learning to Write." I found its description of the history of writing instruction to be worthwhile and good reflection for me as a former K-12 student, and current educator. However, my notes in the margins were often in response to what I saw occurring in my own classroom. What are my students struggling with? Does it align itself with what Nagin is describing? Furthermore, what is Nagin discussing that I myself have tried to articulate or teach, but did it have access to the current discourse at the time. Referencing Hillocks, Nagin poses the argument that "writing should be a form of inquiry" and that approaching it this way has the biggest gains for students. This idea is something that I've been working to incorporate into my curriculum planning more--making sure that there is a larger, investigatory process, that students are addressing that is the actual driver of the unit of study.

There are many ideas to consider in Write Beside Them but the one hat stuck out to me is the idea of story. I mentioned in an earlier class session (and my brief intro) that I often view life as a narrative. What we (humans) are engaging with in life is the living out of a narrative that overlaps, crashes, and merges, diverges, etc. from other narratives. I find this idea present in the idea that when we are writing, what we are actually doing is attempting to tell a story, and that this is the case regardless of the type of writing we are doing. I'd like for this to be something that I can bring to my students--an idea that we are writing our stories and so have a great deal of say in what happens. 

Process Narrative

I had a difficult time coming up with how I wanted to do my process narrative. I knew that I wanted to examine the fact that what I was doing was a memoir, so I did a lot of playing around with the idea that I wanted to create a image to accompany the creation of my text. Below is the image and brainstorming process of what I've done. I think the way I'd like to see this evolve is to either create a Show Me transition screen, perhaps creating the same process in real time, or do something using the same format Professor Stepanian used in class.

Evocative Draft

­­­I've had the luxury of forgetting. A student approached me asking me about a point of history that stood out in his reading. “They keep mentioning it. What is it?” It had meant so much to my adolescent self. And yet, my words fumbled. I closed my mouth, perhaps I smiled, and attempted a response. How ashamed of myself I would have been. Was it a hate crime? Not by legal definition. It had occurred in New York City, yes. In a tucked away section ignored, hopefully, on better days, but not forgotten. Oh, no, it was a police raid. Yes, that’s it. Policemen barreled in beating patrons bloody and throwing them in the back of wagons. Perhaps I should exclude this? I’ve picked up inklings. But the world is such a dark place—prepare him as of now. He may—will—need as much of a head start as possible. More than your luxury requires of you. He’ll be alone for a time—but, with offerings, spit, and faith in the night, not too long. 

Education Philosophy

Below is a draft of my educational philosophy statement. Ideally, I'd like to draft this to include specific statements for instruction of reading and writing.

Overview:
Teachers are students. This aphorism is perhaps the best way to sum my expectations as an educator. My primary role is to educate my students, whether it is as a “guide on the side” or “sage on the stage.” Ideally, educators must vacillate between these two paradigms, keeping enough of a balance so that our students are never bystanders as a part of the educational process. They must always be at the center of the work that we do. However, a secondary role (perhaps more essential in ranking) that educators must always keep in mind is that we should always be in a position to learn—especially from our students. Though we may have achieved a certain modicum of success, our goal is to transfer this ability to our students. We can only do this if we are constantly working to improve our practices, learn from one another, and continue searching always. We must learn to combine the abstract with the present details in order to create the change we seek to see in our students, and the world at large.

Thirty-One

I spent Saturday organizing my books. Most bibliophiles would presume that someone that owns as many books as me would already have them in a very particular order. Organized by subject, sub-topic, author, and publication date. What's that you say? You know someone who has it in alphabetical order? Obscene. I'll be by in the hour to take away their Bibliophilic Association of America Membership Card.

I guess mine would have been taken away too. It was really a disgrace the other day when I tried to find a book and it took me 15 minutes of pulling items off the shelves, asking David if he's seen it, accusing David of having moved it, and finally giving up. And then start searching again 10 minutes later, because I know I saw it on the top right of one of the cases when I was clearing stuff off the table. Eventually I found it, though nowhere near where I expected it to be. Wanting to avoid such a situation again, I felt that perhaps it was time to organize my books.

Now, I don't know how others approach their spring cleaning. But I find that generally, in order to organize something, you have to make things a bit messier for awhile. In this case, a lot messier. I first removed every single book from the case and began making "piles" of subjects to sort them into. Fiction, Poetry, Philosophy, Gender Studies, Drama, etc. You get my point. However, the only place I can sort these many books (I have well over 300, even after I did some "cleaning out" a year ago) is my bed. I pulled back the curtain to let in all the sun I was missing out on, and began covering my bed with books.

Hardcovers, trade and mass market paperbacks. Brand new books from B&N and Borders, used books from the Strand and my college library. Books I had read, books I had started, books I never got the chance to read. Books that I had borrowed or had been lent to me with a recommendation. I tried to sort them into categories, but soon the piles began blurring into one another. If I stacked them too high, they would fall over. If I wasn't careful where I put pressure on the bed, the books would slide into each other, unable to tell where one group began and another ended. Occasionally I had a dilemma about how to catalog a book--Does this go into philosophy or gender studies?--but I tried to be decisive.

With almost all the bookcases emptied and dusted, I sat down in my computer chair to relax. I turned the chair and noticed something that I'd somehow missed:
While I was sorting books, I'd been putting all my notebooks and journals onto the table. One atop of another, atop of another, until then there was this tower. How many are there? Thirty-one. Yes, there are 31 notebooks, 1 set of cards and envelopes, and 1 journal that belongs to David. Thirty-one journals that I bought or was gifted. Not a single one of them is completely filled. Heck, some of them I haven't even written in yet. Of those written in, I have notebooks that go as far back as when I was in high school. Random entries from when I was trying to instill the habit of writing everyday. We can see how that went...

I wasn't sure if I should keep them or burn them, so I went back to work. Once I'd finished un-shelving and dusting, I began sorting the fiction titles by their author's last name. Going around the table, I soon had 12 piles of letter groups. I seem to have a lot of books written by people whose last names begin with a C, F or G. And then the re-stacking began. By the time I'd filled two bookcases, my back was starting to ache. But unready to deal with the 31, I pushed forward. Slowly the books began to reappear on the shelves, and all I was left with was the Pile.

I began flipping through the journals, reading a sentence here, a paragraph there. Just musings about how my day went, what I hoped college would be like, ticket stubs of movies and readings I'd been to. To save shelf space, I thought of ripping out the pages I had written on, and gluing them into another notebook. Or maybe just throwing them all away in a very Goldberg-Buddhist moment. I couldn't part with them though. Though the idea of continuing a journal that I left off 7 years ago seems off, there is something satisfying by that prospect at the same time. Now, I don't know if I'll actually do this. But recently I've been writing in a notebook that I purchased at the end of February. So far, it's been going rather well. Perhaps it's the start of a new approach. Or maybe 7 years from now, I'll just toss them all away, and start anew.

Now I just need to actually read the books.

P.S. Though all I did was rearrange them and dust the shelves, I'll be damned if they don't look brand new.

P.P.S. For those wondering how Pride and Prejudice is going...don't ask.

Subspace Highway

Last Sunday, I spent the late evening walking around Union Square with my friend Graham. Though I don't think I told him about the goal of this blog, I did mention my desire for some new reading material. So after browsing the shelves at the Strand, we headed up the block to see if there were any comics I've been missing out on. Aside from wanting to buy two of James Jean's art books, Graham suggested that I give Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life a shot.

The first volume--of what will be a sextet on July 20th, 2010--has at the very least proven to be as interesting as Graham said it would be. Precious Little Life begins the love-adventure of Scott Pilgrim, a 23-year-old bassist who has literally just met the girl of his dreams: Ramona Flowers. A punkish, American, rollerblading, delivery girl for Amazon.ca. Boy meets girl--pretty easy, right?

It would be, except that Pilgrim's story begins not with the fact that he has met Ramona, but that he is dating a high schooler--Knives Chau. Sweet and innocent, Knives is the perfect balm for Scott who has been without a girlfriend for over a year--presumably after a horrible break-up. And then there's the fact that in order for someone to date Ramona, they have to fight and defeat her seven (or six) evil ex-boyfriends. Scott's life just went from what Knives would describe as "so amazing. Soooo amazing" to really complicated.

Bryan Lee O'Malley has made an interesting choice for his second original published piece. I'm inclined, if I must, to label this book of sequential art as OEL (Original English Language) manga. As usual, the label does not quite fit. Very much in line with his publisher's, Oni Press, original dissatisfaction, O'Malley's mix of late-80s to mid-90s pop references, manga-esque artwork/layout and mix genre topics make for anything but a dull read, if a bit choppy at times.

O'Malley frequently breaks one of the first rules I learned in English class: "Avoid using brand names in your writing." However, breaking rules are sometimes the only way to get anything worth reading written. The amusement I felt while finding and understanding these references to my own childhood made the rule seem unnecessary. For example, when Pilgrim refers to an old character from Disney's Ducktales:

Aside from being winks at the audience, O'Malley uses these references to flesh out both the tone of this volume, and just who Scott Pilgrim is. Whether it is Scott's inability to stay focused, being made fun of by his friends, or his complete failure at his first attempt to talk to Ramona, O'Malley uses these brand names and trademarks of geekdom to add depth to how Scott thinks, and how Scott sees himself. Not just as a way for the reader to label him.

Another example of this can be seen in the panel on the right. Ramona asks Scott what the "X" on his parka stands for. "Well, obviously one of us went to Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and one of us didn't" answers Scott. "Obviously one of us is a total nerd" says Ramona. Again, though it could easily be something that would wear a reader out, O'Malley's references only endear one further to Scott's socially-awkward plight. After all, this "gifted youngster" does put his skills as "best fighter in the province" to the test. Only time will tell if such references will resonate with future readers in the years to come.

As always, the strength and interest of the protagonist relies heavily on the supporting cast. With plenty to choose from--a hard-edged female drummer, a kid sister, a Sex Bob-omb fanboy--I'll be most looking forward to Scott's landlord/roomate and friend Wallace Wells.

Though defined several times in this first volume as "Scott's gay roommate", the tone in which the characters explain this exudes a camaraderie and friendship that is always refreshing. Wallace is introduced to the reader, after all, at the same time that we find out Scott's sleeping arrangements: they share the same futon [left panel].

Wallace's friendship with Scott seems to be the only one where Scott is treated as if he is on equal footing (socially, if not financially). Wallace's sarcastic and understanding of Scott's eccentricities makes him not just an essential character, but another one I want to see more of. He seems to offer himself so easily to the fellow characters and the reader, that it really is hard to resist him. Especially if when I get to watch him do this:

Finally, I was at first taken aback by O'Malley's style. In a medium like sequential art, that is no small problem. I found the style reminded me of Eiichiro Oda's work, which I always found difficult to fully enjoy. And then I saw this page [right]. Aside from Ramona's oddly nonchalant stance in the first panel, the lines and panel-by-panel breakdown made me interested to see what else O'Malley could pull off. For some this may seem odd, as many will most likely be impressed with the video-game-like battle at the end. I'll look forward to seeing how this work is poured into other such scenes.

I'm not positive that the word prolific should be tossed around just yet. I'll definitely be interested to see how this series develops, and what O'Malley has planned for when the series is completed this summer. I may even try and go check out his first piece now.

*And for any of you who may be interested, here's the trailer for the movie that debuted either this morning or at some point yesterday.

Unformatted

Desiring something a little more "serious" to read, I picked up Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was very tough going in the beginning, and by actual page standards I think I'm only on about page 25, but I think I've finally hit a place where I am comfortable with the text. Meaning that, I don't feel like I'm trying to translate sanskrit when I look at the words. However, This is what I have learned thus far:

1. I do not like anthologies in general, and especially on the Kindle. I was never big on buying anthologies because their size alone made me feel that I had to classify the book as "at home" reading. If the book is too big to (a) fit into my bag, or (b) fit into my bag comfortably, it ain't going anywhere. And if it doesn't go, it doesn't get read. One would be correct in observing that this is not the case with the Kindle. The Kindle can hold up to 1,500 eBooks and never grow larger than .5 inches in width. So I started reading Pride and Prejudice from a copy of the Complete Works of Jane Austen I bought when I first got my Kindle. What a great deal! Five books for less than what a Penguin Edition of one costs! However, there are no page numbers. And with no page numbers, those 20,000 locations look mighty foreboding. So I cracked and downloaded a free copy of just Pride and Prejudice. I can breathe much easier as I continue to not read.
2. It isn't all in the formatting. When I first noticed problems with how the formatting appears on some eBooks, I was able to overlook the problem. Sort of. But as I was reading and finding many formatting issues appearing on the screen at once, it was beginning to be annoying. And then I realized that I was allowing myself to miss what I was reading by getting hung up on how the text looked. So I'm thankful that reading on my Kindle is forcing me to face that limitation.
3. Sometimes it is the author's fault. I majored in English Literature in college, and rarely did we sit down and discuss what a writer did incorrectly*. Unless you break into a discussion about juvenilia. So when I sit down to read a book and the author--a well-respected, creator of canonical works at that--does a bit of jumping around and I can't follow it, I just think that maybe that one professors insinuations were correct. Maybe I'm just not that bright. Do not fall for this. Writers are not perfect, and a reader's ability to understand what is going on is not solely their responsibility. No, I don't expect Austen to show up and guide me through the piece. But I do ask that when you begin a new paragraph, stick to the topic at hand! (And yes, plenty of writers still do this, and no it isn't wrong all the time, but damn it if I was not incredibly frustrated for the first few days of trying to read this book).
4. I didn't realize how much I love footnotes. As I continued to read, I began to notice that I was longing for my Penguin Edition footnotes, explaining to me that when Austen mentions Miss Lucas, what she is actually saying is: Charlotte Lucas, oldest, unmarried of Lord Lucas' daughters. Maybe this doesn't seem like a big deal when there are only two Lucas daughters, but with there being five Bennet daughters, it's nice to know that the title isn't used for every young woman, or just for who happens to be present in the room at the time. Needless to say, I'm glad for one of my friends, whom I know see as my living historical footnote.

As I previously mentioned, I'm hopeful that I've finally found my place with this book. Let's see if I'm right. But only time will tell. I've got the apartment to myself for the next week, so perhaps I'll get to it. Maybe I'll even have a review by the end of the week(end?).

* This is not completely true, as a professor of mine was kind enough to give an after class lecture on "bad poetry". Oh captain, my captain...