Too red for Redneck?

Earlier today my Ag Academy class and I spent 3 1/2 hours together while the sophomores in our school took the PSAT. When we entered our last thirty minutes, the kids and I had all we could take of researching American authors. One of my students talked me into watching this video on "The Turtleman." The student recommended it because this guy was the epitome of being a "Redneck," a word that is not considered a derogatory stereotype in our little South Georgia town. No one in the class wanted to be this man, however, but we did top off a lengthy day with a laugh. Oh yeah, be sure you listen for the part where turtle man mentions his chainsaw accident.

Viewing "Stitches": A Memoir by David Small

A few weeks ago I read a review on NPR about David Small's memoir, Stitches. Small is an award-winning illustrator of children's books and also published illustrations in major periodicals such as the NY Times, Washington Post, and New Yorker. His memoir is illustrated and reads much like a graphic novel. Last week I walked into our local library and saw it on the new books shelf, remembered the review, and decided to try it for myself.

First, I must say that I have little experience reading graphic novels and am not drawn to them, but the uniqueness of this book drew me. After reading, I began to think quite a bit about how to read and write this type of work.

How quickly should I be reading this book? It moves much faster than anything written traditionally with words--I found myself scanning much of the pictures and moving on without really stopping to think much about some of them. I was almost finished reading the book when I realized how quickly I was moving through it--should I have forced myself to focus more? Does the use of pictures facilitate my understanding of meaning in a way that I "get it" without having to process so many words/letters (themselves symbols)? My brain processes pictures and words differently--am I missing something with the pictures I would not have missed by reading it in words? Am I gaining more meaning by reading the pictures than if I read the words? He does use words, but many pages are only illustrations.

Small had cancer as a young boy and lost one of his vocal cords and his thyroid after surgery. I get the idea that turning to illustrating was a way for him to regain his voice figuratively as a teen and an adult. This book is another way for him to have his say, yet what he has to say is extremely personal. To say he portrays his family as dysfunctional is an understatement: his grandmother had to be placed in a mental institution, his mother struggled (and hid) her sexual identity as well as her own severe health issues, his father was never home (to avoid his wife) and his parents tried to hide from him that he had cancer. How does a writer/illustrator who chooses to write autobiographically in this fashion decide what to illustrate and what to leave alone? How does he know what his audience can handle? How does he write about such serious issues in this format and have his audience take them seriously? How does he avoid appearing narcissistic? I wish I could ask these questions to Small myself. He does choose his demons carefully, and demons they are. A narcissist would not write/illustrate a family in this way--he preserves their humanity, though they are deeply troubled and flawed.

I want to keep thinking about how he emphasizes in pictures his eyes, his parents' eyes; how he screams visually while having only one vocal cord; the literary allusions; his dreams. His book reminds me that our worldly experiences are dystopic; nevertheless, while these experiences are a part of him, he does not choose to choose to live the rest of his life defeated by them.

Today I Am Hopeful

Often I find myself wondering if what I do for a living (educating teens) is futile or if I am making a difference. Students never make me feel this way. I enter this blue funk when adults with whom I engage in the business of education do something so asinine that I have to leave their presence or be fired for what I say. The inactivity of adults in "charge" drives me crazy as well.

A colleague of mine is so angry at the bureaucracy of education that she is actively engaged in researching options for establishing a magnet school where she lives. I believe she will do it. Her determination was palpable when I talked with her. When I see teachers who love students so much that they are motivated to act on their behalf, to make sure they are cared for and have an opportunity for an education in an environment that appreciates their uniqueness, I am hopeful.

Teaching Induction and Deduction with Candy Bars

With the Georgia High School Graduation test just around the corner for my 80+ juniors, I decided that now would be a fortuitous time to work on a review of persuasion. Today we focused on logical persuasion, specifically inductive and deductive reasoning.

As I love to have my students collaborate, I divided them into six small groups. Groups 1-3 received snack-sized Snickers bars while groups 4-6 received snack-sized Twix bars. I asked each small group to come up with a Top 10 list to promote their respective bars. They were to make observations about their bars based on size, taste, smell, ingredients, nutritional value, packaging, or even promotional advertising for the bars. Then the groups wrote their Top 10 on the board. (Of course they were allowed to eat their bars).

Then we discussed the differences between deduction and induction. I gave them several examples of each. For example, if I were a CSI working a crime scene and found a pool of blood, spent casings from a missing gun, and a dead body, I can come to the conclusion that a murder has occurred (induction). I reminded them that when they were writing to an audience that was not likely to agree with their position, then induction is a good type of reasoning to use.

Understanding syllogism for a deductive argument was a little more difficult. The idea of a major and minor premise was more difficult for me to explain. We again used some examples: Major premise: Dogs usually have four legs and can bark. Minor premise: Rover has four legs and barks. Therefore, Rover is a dog.

After I assured them that they were already experts at arguing (or at least their parents might say they were), I reminded them that they use this type of reasoning all of the time without even being aware of it. How do they know they will receive detention if they are tardy to class? They know that they must be in class before the bell rings. They know that if the bell rings and they aren't in class, they have to see an administrator for a pass. They also know that they only get one warning for tardies, so any tardy after that results in punishment. Therefore, if a student has already had one tardy, he/she will be assigned detention on the second tardy (inductive reasoning).

Now, back to the candy bars. I asked them to again return to their small groups and come up with one argument about their candy bars using inductive reasoning and one argument using deductive reasoning.

1. Deduction:
Major Premise I: Some people are allergic to peanuts.
Major Premise II: Some Snickers bars have peanuts. (Others have almonds.)
Conclusion: People who are allergic to peanuts should not eat Snickers bars.

2. Induction: (This one made me smile.)
Observation: Snickers bars contain milk and peanuts.
Observation: Milk has calcium, and peanuts have protein.
Conclusion: Snickers bars are nutritional.

Dust Bowl Video Compliments of New Deal

I started doing a little research on background information to help my students understand the historical context of The Grapes of Wrath. This semester one of my classes is an "Ag Academy" class filled with students who are pursuing a career pathway in agriculture. I teach the same curriculum with these students but try to choose reading selections that are appealing to their love of agriculture; thus, The Grapes of Wrath seemed a natural choice. Students have knowledge of the Great Depression, but the impact of the Dust Bowl is not as well known.

Sometimes the Internet takes me on a circuitous research route--I go in search of one thing and find a different gem altogether. Tonight I was searching for a children's book on the Dust Bowl, and I came across a 25 minute video about the Great Plains called "The Plow that Broke the Plains." It is a documentary sponsored by the Resettlement Administration, a New Deal program. It has more video and music than dialogue and vintage farm machinery going all the way back to a horse-drawn plow. It essentially gives the agricultural history of the Great Plains leading up to the Dust Bowl. Scenes from dust storms are effective. Best of all, I found it on Google--not YouTube or another site. On good ol' Google. I'm embedding it in the blog for you to see. Now I have to research the films that Google has available online to see if there are any others I can apply to my curriculum. Another plus is that the video can be broken down into segments, so I can choose which segment I want to play if I do not have enough time to watch it all in class.




I also found the film on another website, the Prelinger Archives, and it has a better picture than the one I saw on Google.