Bringing it all together

What an optimistic title for this blog post, more importantly for this endeavor: "Bringing it all together." Those of you who know me well can appreciate the irony of this ambitious statement -- I never have it all together. In fact, the wingandaprayer method has served me well lo these many years of teaching, and I kind of like it.

At the risk of sounding too cavalier or casting myself in the wrong light, let me qualify that statement: After 21 years in the classroom some things become second nature and no longer require the legwork required in the early years of teaching, but I am forward thinking as teachers go: I am not a "file cabinet" teacher, and rarely do I execute the same lesson plan twice.

Teasingly, I describe my family as a group of complexity seekers: we are always looking for a better way to accomplish some task. From gumbo recipes to the vacation plans, we are quick to ask, "You know what we should do next time?" This familial trait carries over into my classroom: as soon as we finish an assignment, I am quick to ask my team how we should modify it for the next year's students.

Case in point, let us consider one of the major tasks of each year. As educators we are called upon by local, state, and national standards (if not the ethical standpoint of a modern educator) to encourage critical, independent thinking and thereby promote lifelong learning - a welcome relief from the days of rote memorization and skill and drill instruction. Yet students often fail to appreciate the liberation offered to them; instead they "just want to know the answer."

This conflict finds particular application in the study of language and literature. Despite our attempts to teach the type of thinking mentioned above and to bolster students' confidence in asserting their own, reasoned interpretations of literature, many prefer to rely upon the intellectual welfare offered by Spark Notes. (Or Cliffs' Notes, Baron's Guide, Pink Monkey, Novel Guides, etc. - they are all the same...) So quick to give up on their own ideas and adopt the easy answers and interpretations offered by these study aids, many of my kids resist the offer of free thought. (Ironic isn't it? But that's another post...)

Back to the topic at hand: my goal is to use the technology skills learned over the last two summers to create a product that addresses the conflict of critical thought and literary analysis. My hope is to create something that (in no particular order) 1) addresses the need for support while working with complex literature, 2) includes the role of direct instruction in understanding literary trends, 3) exposes the simplistic and reductive nature of superficial study aids, 4) offers some better alternatives that encourage deeper and more complex analyses, and 5) combines together to encourage students confident literary analyses.

What form this product assumes is yet to be seen: I've seen the videos offered on the Library2Play3 website, but I wonder if there is a better vehicle for delivery -- Maybe an interactive flipchart to be used on my ActivBoard? Hmmmm: anybody have an idea?

Whatever incarnation it takes, I know that the more technologically advanced and savvy the end product is, the better it will catch my students' attention. And as so many of their "cheats" to critical though come through electronic sources, I hope to show a better way to use those same mediums for a better outcome. So that's my plan for now, but given that my life is under constant revision, look for changes along the way. And when I'm done, too: I can hear myself already, " You know what I think we ought to do next time???"