Interpreting Texts, Making Meaning: Starting Small

Activities

Sample Literature Workshop In Action: Shared Reading with "We Real Cool"

Each day, students will engage in Literature Workshop activities, usually with the same task: determining and defending whether or not a given poem is explicitly urban. They will read a poem from the suggested poems list (either individually, in a small group, or with the entire class) and then begin to write interpretations using the reading log model. For some works, such as Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool,"(28) it might make sense to do a shared reading. The poem isn't explicitly urban (it does not contain the word "city" in it once, nor does it bear any specific place names or markers), but it is possible that—given their associations with pool halls, "sin," and/or people who "lurk late," student readers might draw parallels between Brooks' poem and their own urban lives. Once the poem has been made unfamiliar—or strange—students might be in a better frame of mind to assess the poem's urban qualities.

A shared reading of the text will begin with the teacher-facilitator reading the text out loud once. Then, any unknown words will be defined. (In the case of "We Real Cool," the word "thin" usually needs explanation, as Brooks writes: "We thin(29) gin.") Once we have defined all necessary words, we will move into our text "remix." Students will begin calling out words or phrases one at a time—making space for others as they feel compelled—"We" / "Sin" / "Lurk late"—repeating any words or phrases as much as they desire. With a text so short, it is possible that the activity could fade away after just one minute.

The real magic comes in having students write a story that comes to mind after this free association activity. Maybe the story will be urban in nature; maybe it won't be. Simply ask students to pick a few words or a line from the poem. Then, instruct them to write silently and without hesitation for at least five minutes. This will build students' writing stamina, and it will also allow them to draw out whatever hidden meanings they think the text has based on their initial readings (and initial interpretations) of the text. Once students pair share and compare, they should have sufficient evidence to answer a whole-class question: Is this poem an "urban" poem? After engaging in such an activity, the strange becomes familiar again and students' perceptions of city life are expanded.

Poetry Writing in the Style of Richard Wright

Students will continue to explore creative interpretations of their urban locations by writing poems. This writing won't happen every day, but it will occur often enough that students get a sense of poetic devices and form. Koch writes that, though a poem might be difficult for a student to comprehend, once they have worked through it under the guidance of a master reader, they will be ready to think about the way the language is structured. In Richard Wright's urban haiku(30)—for example—the students will likely notice the odd arrangement of words (a careful arrangement of seventeen syllables split into lines of five, seven, and five syllables in that order).

Then, they will notice the juxtaposition, at times, of images that are urban and yet not—a skyscraper and "the spring sea," for example.(31) After discussing and digesting Wright's haiku, they will try their hands at writing their own. We will have generated a list of what "urban" is or means earlier in the unit. I'll have saved those words and/or phrases to use as topics for poems. As instructors, my co-teaching partner and I will write along with the students and model adherence to the basic form of five, seven, and five syllables. Lets pretend the topic is "streets." I might write:

A sidewalk crack forms The dandelion: bursting through— Beautiful mistake

Or:

The elotero: Slinging corn for the masses on my street corner.

The two haiku above take on the same general subject in two different ways. They can be interpreted on a literal level or on a more metaphorical one. For example—the dandelion may be representative of public art in blighted areas of the city; and, the elotero (one who sells Mexican-style corn on the cob) is both a legitimate street vendor and representative of the pervasiveness of drugs in some Chicago communities. I'd love to guide my students toward recognizing the complexities in their communities. With Wright's and teacher-created haiku as models, students should be able to get there. These interpretations of city life provide students the opportunity to express themselves—to become visible— and will add depth to class discussions in subsequent lessons.

Week One Paideia Seminar: H.D.'s "Cities" and Virginia Lee Burton's The Little House

This unit is designed to honor students' intellectual abilities and curiosities. To this end, student-centered discussion (rather than only didactic instruction) is a key component. In a Paideia seminar, discussion is democratic and—eventually—mostly driven by students. Teachers must model and define good discussion behaviors (reading/preparedness, listening, use of evidence/reasoning, leadership, and conduct) and provide a structure for discussion. By participating in such seminars, students become empowered to take interpretative risks and think critically—as they will at the end of Week One, thinking abut H.D.'s poem "Cities" and Virginia Lee Burton's The Little House.

In the beginning, teachers facilitate this discussion by developing three types of questions to discuss: opening, core, and closing. Eventually, in my classes, I have students develop their own questions using stems aligned to each question type. Opening questions are general, open-ended, and invite students to participate using familiar ideas; in a literature-focused seminar, they are usually geared toward discussing the text's main idea and/or examining the author's approach. Core questions are the most specific kinds of questions; in a seminar focused on poetry, students would be asked to examine a given line or phrase, for example. Finally, closing questions are reflective and invite participants to make the types of connections teachers call "text-to-self" or "text-to- world."

In this first seminar, the adults in the room (my co-teaching partner and I, in my case) will take an active role in the facilitation. By the end of the unit, students will be developing the questions and keeping one another in check. The discussion, which will last an entire class period, can be adapted for any bell schedule structure. I suggest, though, adhering to the following ratio for seminar structure: 10% of the class focused on goal-setting and reflection before and after seminar (See Appendix 1) and 90% of the class discussing equal parts of opening, core, and closing questions. See Appendix 2 for a list of sample questions for this first seminar.

Unit Closing: Poetry Chapbook

By the end of the unit, I'd like my students to create class chapbooks of poetry about the city they live in. They will write short reflective essays to accompany them that articulate their own interpretations of urban life and how their interpretations were informed by the poetry we read in this unit.