Real News In Schools Returns

New posts will resume in Fall 2014. Stay tuned!

 

Literature to Life: Common Core Literacy Standards Through Arts Education

How many of your students have read an entire book independently – not the Sparks or Cliffs, not the wikipedia synopsis, but the full text written by the author. During my years as a public school teacher, I tried a variety of creative inspirational methods to entice my students to read good literature, whether classic or contemporary. But someone else had a better idea, a great idea, and I was lucky enough to find it.

A school board member sent me a memo on Literature to Life® produced by The American Place Theatre http://americanplacetheatre.org. My students enjoyed theater and I enjoyed theater that came to us, saving me from the avalanche of field trip paperwork. But there’s a reason why I endorse this particular program and chose it as this week’s blog feature. The strength of Literature to Life is its ability to spark student interest in reading by appealing to students themselves, rather than through a formula designed for teachers to convince, coax, or cajole their students to read.

Literature to Life® is unique in that it turns original prose text into dramatic production. A remarkable stable of actors memorize pages of material from such works as The Giver, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Things They Carried, The Kite Runner, and Black Boy, to name just a few, and bring the words to life through dramatic performance. Obviously, it would be impossible to perform an entire work, but the excerpts are the authors’ original words – no paraphrasing or summarizing.

Literature to Life is a national program that reaches underserved students in over 25 states. The following paragraphs contain just a few personal recollections, as

my own district continued to fund many of these workshops over the years, that illustrate the unforgettable excitement generated among my students and how reading suddenly went viral with every

from performance of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

performance.

I had prepared my eighth grade students in a collaborative ELA class for a performance of The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd using the study guide written and provided by the Literature to Life staff. They were not strong readers, nor did our school own copies of the book, so my intent was merely to encourage student interest and ask them to analyze the parts they would see performed. The day after the residency workshop, led by a Literature to Life Master Teaching Artist, I noticed a few of these students had brought copies of the book to school, proudly carrying them under an arm, not tucked away in a backpack. They had asked their parents to buy the book for them, and I’m sure it was not a call these parents were used to getting. Each day, a few more copies appeared despite the fact that this was not required reading. I remember the vision of the sea of “Secret Life of Bees” book jackets moving through the hallway within a week.

On another occasion, an older, higher performing class was given a “free choice” reading assignment. I had given them a

from performance of Secret Life of Bees

list of suggested titles, many of them contemporary fiction. At the time, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safron Foer was not well known among teenagers, but I included it on the list because Literature to Life was coming to perform it later in the year.  Despite the choices of more popular or familiar titles and authors, the anticipation of the impending performance was enough to evoke my students’ curiosity. The work was too

from Black Boy by Richard Wright

new for shortcuts like detailed online summaries or the movie version, so these tenth graders read it the optimal way: opened the book, become curious, interested, entertained, exposed to new ideas and written expression, and finished the book. Once a few students chose the Foer book and began the buzz, others, including the skeptics, chose it, and another great work went viral. I still remember how impressed the program’s teaching artist who ran the Q & A and residency workshop was with the quantity and quality of my students’ questions and comments. They had taken student ownership of the literary experience.

Another golden moment for literacy came one year when my eleventh grade American Literature students were studying A Farewell to Arms and I had given them a short excerpt to read in class from The Things They Carriedby Tim O’Brien. Perhaps I had not told them it was from a longer work, but many months later, Literature to Life performed it. My students, inspired by the excellent performance, actually felt “cheated” that they had not had the opportunity to read the entire book. I had to ask their help inconvincing the department chair to use some of our precious book budget fund to order a class set so they could study the work in its entirety. With all due respect to Ernest Hemingway, the students suggested that O’Brien replace him in the future!

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriett Jacobs

While the real advantage of Literature to Life is its service to student literacy, the company’s selections of such literature as Black Boy by Richard Wright and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs help teachers meet the Common Core State Standards requirement to tackle complex Informational Texts as well as the Common Core’s requirements for Literacy in History/Social Studies.Many works, such as House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, support multi-cultural education requirements; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz addresses the new anti-bullying curriculum requirements currently under adoption in many states.

For complete information on this program and others available through American Place Theatre, including the Living Library Program and Professional Development Workshops, visit http://www.americanplacetheatre.org/programs

Watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpYjA8nWwAg

Literature to Life

Performance of Black Boy by Richard Wright

Watch for more news on Nepperhan Community Center After School Programs

In the meantime, get to know this extraordinary educational support community in Yonkers, NY by glancing through their website:

http://www.nepperhancc.com/after-school.html

Job Information for New Teachers

This article gives hope and information for new teachers seeking jobs in New York City (found on Nepperhan Community Center Facebook page)

http://www.ny1.com/content/news_beats/education/167036/doe-hiring-new-teachers

Note for career changers

Many of us have friends who have lost jobs over the past few years during the economic downsize.  Please remind them, if they are looking to update old skills or learn new ones, that career counselors are recommending courses and programs at WCC to their clients.  (see previous feature on WCC)

Using Drama Techniques as Effective Education Tools

David  Kener, former Director of American Place Theatre’s Literature to Life (more to come in fall feature of RealNewsInSchools), sent me this link to a NYTimes education series on the use of drama in education. http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/drama-strategies-to-use-with-any-days-times-part-1/#comments

I highly recommend the programs offered by the educational theater companies listed below (for academic subject matter as well as building learning communities), after many years of personal experience working with them in my classroom:

Literature to Life school programs at http://www.americanplacetheatre.org/,

Manhattan Theater Club http://www.manhattantheatreclub.com/education/education-overview

Hudson Valley Shakespeare Co. http://hvshakespeare.org/content/education

Look for a feature article on education artist specialists in upcoming fall issues of RealNewsInSchools!

This summer i…

This summer issue of
REAL NEWS IN SCHOOLS is dedicated to teacher health and well being.

FEATURE TOPIC: CARE for TEACHERS

CARE retreats, workshops, and symposiums provide information and practice for improving the mindset and health of teachers and other education professionals. Experts, from brain scientists to social scientists, present the latest studies on focus and concentration, social and emotional effects of school settings, and strategies for teaching students to improve concentration, self-monitor behavior, and experience the joy of learning.

Last year, I began researching teacher burnout and discovered the Initiative on Contemplation and Education in Garrison, NY, along with research conducted at Penn State University by Dr. Patricia Jennings, and Dr. Mark Greenfield on prosocial classrooms. After attending some CARE conferences, I was exposed to studies on the relationship between neurological processes when experiencing stress and the brain’s ability to process new information (Dr. Dan Siegel, Dr. Adele Diamond, Dr. Richard Davidson, etc.). Strategies in stress management for teachers and students included exercises in staying present, e.g., meditative or physical practices.

In my own experience at the 2011 CARE summer retreat and fall presentations, the sense of support for humanity in education was palpable, a refreshing comeback after the recent years of what I viewed as stress-based and fear-induced education. The CARE fifth annual summer retreat will be held on August 10-15, 2012 at the Garrison Institute.

CARE for Teachers: Fifth Annual Garrison Institute Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education Summer Retreat AUGUST 10-15, 2012

Phone: 845-424-4800 ext. 134  Email:education@garrisoninstitute. org

Open to the public

Professional development training for teachers, promoting mindfulness through contemplative practices, helping teachers better manage students’ and their own emotions.

from CARE website http://www.garrisoninstitute.org/contemplation-and-education/care-for-teachers
CARE for Teachers (Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education)

Teaching
    is
    one
    of
    the
    most
    rewarding
    professions,
    but
    it
    can
    also
    be
    one
    of
    the
    most
     stressful.
    CARE
    for
    Teachers
    is
    a
    unique
    program
    designed
    to
    help
    teachers
    reduce
    stress
    and
     enliven
    their
    teaching
    by
    promoting
    awareness,
    presence,
    compassion,
    reflection,
    and
     inspiration
    -
    the
    inner
    resources
    they
    need
    to
    help
    students
    flourish,
    socially,
    emotionally,
    and
     academically.

CARE
    introduces
    emotion
    skills
    instruction
    to
    promote
    understanding,
    recognition
    and
     regulation
    of
    emotion.
    To
    reduce
    stress,
    and
    to
    promote
    awareness
    and
    presence
    applied
    to
     teaching,
    CARE
    introduces
    basic
    mindfulness
    activities
    such
    as
    short
    periods
    of
    silent
     reflection,
    and
    progresses
    to
    activities
    that
    demonstrate
    how
    to
    bring
    mindfulness
    to
     challenging
    situations
    teachers
    often
    encounter.
    Through
    these
    activities,
    teachers
    learn
    to
     bring
    greater
    calm,
    mindfulness
    and
    awareness
    into
    the
    classroom
    to
    enhance
    their
     relationships
    with
    their
    students,
    their
    classroom
    management,
    and
    curricular
     implementation.
    The
    CARE
    program
    also
    promotes
    empathy
    and
    compassion
    through
    caring
     practice
    and
    mindful
    listening
    activities.

More informative links from CARE for teachers:

care4teachers.org

http://www.garrisoninstitute.org/cae-resources/bibliography

http://www.garrisoninstitute.org/contemplation-and-education/ce-videoaudio

RECOMMENDATIONS for further study on improving concentration through stress reduction and self-monitoring techniques:
Mindful Nation by Congressman Tim Ryan
Mindsight by Dr. Daniel J. Siegel

“Presence in Teaching” (research study) by Dr. Carol Rodgers and Miriam Raider-Ro

CARE Participants 2011

My Recommendations

My Recommendations – MindUp Curriculum and CARE conference

The MindUp Curriculum: The best gift to education since Socrates, in my opinion, and the cost is minimal. This curriculum (published for all grade levels by Scholastic, Inc.) addresses what every learner needs to know: how the brain works, techniques for self-regulation, how to monitor and improve one’s ability to focus, and more. The program, funded in most part by the Hawn Foundation, has been successful, according to teacher testimonials, in improving students’ learning readiness, behavior self-regulation and monitoring, stress relief and prevention, and academic improvement. 

Check out these links: http://www.thehawnfoundation.org/mindup and http://www.thehawnfoundation.org/curriculum

I recommend attending a conference on MindUp. I heard of it through a CARE (Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education) workshop held at the Garrison Institute in Garrison, NY where the keynote speaker, Dr. Dan Siegel, asked a room full of educators, “How many of you were required to take a full semester course on brain anatomy?” No hands. Check out this year’s CARE conference August 10-15, 2012 at 

http://www.garrisoninstitute.org/contemplation-and-education or their blog at 

http://www.garrisoninstitute.org/contemplation-and-education/ce-blog for more information.