My new and now dear friend, Dr. Joseph McCaleb, posted this prompt to the National Writing Project's iAnthology. I'm posting my response to the prompt here and on the Ning. I'm sharing his prompt here because I think it's worthy for all of us think about as we get "back in the saddle":

Joseph McCaleb, Director of the University of Maryland Writing Project, a good friend, and our guest this week offers a perfect prompt for a fresh school year.

At the dawn of a new school year, educators face many challenges and potential distractions.  One important act of a professional leader is to focus on a worthy target.  

In setting that focus, consider these questions, as well as ones that come out of your own heart and mind.  Respond to the one that calls your name.

Where is the special window of opportunity for me? 

What opening can I see where my gift, my expertise, my passion can best be directed? 

What’s the next step in moving into this opening? 

What support might I request from NWP or my local site?

 Is there a friend who helps me articulate the expression of this enactment?  What would a dialog with him or her say?

The word "focus" sticks out to me. Probably because I feel so unfocused. I feel unfocused because I have too many projects going on. This has been going on for so long it's beginning to feel normal, and I wonder what it feels like to focus intently on one thing. I wonder what I could accomplish if I thought about one thing deeply. Instead, I accomplish a lot, but I don't get to spend the time I want--the thinking time, the focus--that is necessary. Since I lack focus, I look at the next question and think that it's hard for me to see the opening. I'm not exactly sure what my passion is. Actually, I think my passion is helping teachers to see how much they have to share. As I look at the next questions, I feel stuck here yet again. It's hard for me to see this path. Right now, as I organize a study of high school writing in a large district, I know that I need help from my local site. Desperately. I think asking for their help will help with continuity within our site. 


I have a friend who helps me articulate the expression of this enactment. He would say, "You can do this. Look at what we've accomplished." We take turns providing these pep talks, and I appreciate it. He indicated the other day that I seemed a bit down. I didn't realize that I was "down on my self." I was glad he told me, and I think it's just a phase. I do worry that this phase of feeling unfocused will become more than that. Can lack of focus turn into burnout? Is lack of focus the first step on the road to burnout? 


Thinking I don't want to post this. Not really sure what I said. But, I would write anything for Joseph McCaleb. 

What is Literature?: Sorting into "Yes" and "No" Piles

That's the question I posed to class last night. Then, I asked them to create a "Yes" pile and a "No" pile of literature. As I listened to them last night, and as I read through their comments this afternoon, I have so many questions.

One thing that came up last night was that romance novels, or smut, or Harlequin novels, for many, were not considered literature. The argument was that these books were not well-written and they use stock characters. Michael mentioned that Western novels do the same thing, yet we didn't mention that particular genre in our "No" pile. I was also interested in that comics were in the "No" pile, but graphic novels were in the "Yes" pile. Also, book series, were mentioned in the "No" pile. Great Expectations was listed in several "Yes" piles, yet I couldn't help but notice the irony in the fact that so much of Dickens work was serialized. Was he the Stephanie Meyer of his time? No vampires of course, but he kept his audiences asking for more.

There seemed to be an unstated thread that it might not be literature if the book was too entertaining. In most "No" piles, the list was filled with non-fiction texts--how-to manuals, cookbooks, and even travel guides.
I read much more non-fiction than fiction these days. It may be a phase, not sure. Right now, I'm reading A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson and Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel. In a sense, I suppose, they are history books. Does that mean they are not considered literature?

Two of my favorite "travel books" are Charles Kuralt's America and Blue Highways by William Least-Heat Moon. Another item in the "No" pile was maps. Least-Heat Moon talks about maps frequently in his books (thus, the "blue" highways that he drove based on his map). Do maps tell stories?

How do our definitions of literature affect how we approach the teaching of literature? I feel like maybe they were left wondering what the point of this conversation was. In fact, I feel like I need to return to it briefly tomorrow night and have them talk about why they think I asked them to talk about this. Why would it be important as a literature teacher to discuss the question "What is literature?" There didn't seem to be a lot of questioning going on. But, maybe I wasn't reading that correctly.

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What's the purpose of having a narrow definition of literature? And, what are the consequences of narrowly defining "literature"?

What are your responsibilities as a teacher of literature?

Did you feel open to including books into your literature category?

I shared this post with a teacher and she said, "If I didn't allow kids to read how-to manuals, they wouldn't read all year." I'm not sure that she's always thought that how-to manuals were literature, but they are that now. How does her definition of literature affect the students in her classroom?

Can you have a personal, aesthetic interaction with a how-to manual?

NCTE writes, "Literature is that collection of texts that best help us develop higher levels of literacy."

According to NCTE, literature affords the following to students:
1. an aesthetic stance
2. empathy
3. conversations about purpose, values, and self
4. reflection
5. multimodal experiences (students bring with them classroom knowledge about a variety of texts--Gee)

Why does literature matter?
What are the criteria for "literary quality"?

Many of these questions come from the NCTE draft report, "The What, Why, and How of Teaching Literature"

Getting Ready

Well, the big day is finally here. I've sort of dreaded this day for a long time, but now that is is here, it's not so bad. It's the start of our participation in the Local Sites Research Initiative. I'm organizing a study of high school writing in our area. This began last fall, actually more than a year ago. Our site had Teacher-Consultants (TCs) participate in the National Writing Project Scoring Conference, then our Missouri network hosted a scoring conference in September. It just felt like at our Ozarks site that we needed to use this knowledge that we were bringing back. So, Debbie Jones (and Thomas would have joined her but he was moving into his new house) led a Saturday Seminar on scoring. Then, Thomas led a session on scoring at his district's professional development day. That day must have caught the curriculum coordinator's eye. Thomas received excellent feedback. The next thing I'm doing is typing up a three-year plan for the district professional development based on scoring. By December, we were pretty sure that the district wanted to do this.

Then, there was a deadline from the NWP about the LSRI grant which would support the study of the effects of NWP professional development on students. I knew this would be a lot of work, but I also thought there was so much potential to be learned. We would do a study in ONE district; we had supportive administrators; we had the right facilitators; we had to apply for the grant.

And, we got it. And now, this week, after Institutional Review Board acceptance from the district and the university, and with meetings, we will meet the teachers we will be working with and hopefully gain consent for them to be involved in the study. We need 20 teachers. Then, on Friday, I'll attempt to obtain consent from a comparison school.

I actually feel less nervous than I thought I would. It's because I believe in what we do. I think the professional development stuff will be great. (trailing off because she never got back to this even though she wrote it Tuesday morning).

Writing Envy, Being Alone, and Things Which I Cannot Solve on My Own

I'm envious of Sara C. Allen now. She just writes what she thinks, and she is consistent. I really do envy that. I have a huge self-censorship problem. There are lots of things that I want to write about, but mostly, I stop myself. In an odd way, I think that I don't want anyone to know too much about me. Not sure why that is, and as always, I don't want to get locked in to too much self-analysis this morning.

Here's what I want to write about this morning. I want to stop myself, but I'm not going to. Here goes:

As a child,  I remember reading alone in my bedroom. Or spending the day at home alone. I loved doing that. Now, not so much. It's not so much about being alone, because I'm not. There's just too much for one person to do. I promise I'm not looking for sympathy. I spend a lot of time thinking about single mothers. I don't really know how single mothers do it. Or, especially, how single mothers with very busy jobs do it. There is no way they could possibly sleep. So, I sleep some, and I don't feel like I accomplish enough at work.

Here's what I really hate about being alone. There are some things I don't want to do, and I don't want to know how to do. I don't want to move furniture. I don't want to take the lid off the toilet and try to figure out why the tank is not filling up with water. I especially don't like it when I know that I can't do something on my own, and then I have to ask people to help me. I called three people to help me move furniture, and it was painful. I felt terrible for asking. No one could come which made me feel even worse. Okay, so maybe I am having a little bit of a pity party.

I called my dad about the toilet and said this, "I don't mean to be vulgar, Dad. I don't mind being alone. In fact, in a lot of ways I like it, but this is the kind of bullshit I cannot stand." He said, "I don't do this kind of stuff either. I call the plumber." That was the moment I realized I could not remember the plumber's name, and his number was not in my phone. Eventually though, if you stick your hand in the toilet long enough, you can get it to work.

I also took the next step in the evolution of a white middle class (I guess) mother. I took my daughter to a restaurant and watcher her eat dinner while I drank a glass of white wine. This I had not done before. It seemed like potentially a step in the wrong direction. But, I sort of enjoyed it.

How "Present" Are You?

It was interesting to hear that Thomas and Sara were going to begin blogging. I knew Sara did already, but the fact that they made this pact to blog each day is neat. It's a writing group that doesn't really meet face to face. I wonder if they talked about responding to their posts. I've been thinking about blogging a lot lately for much the same reason as Thomas--140 characters isn't enough. I'm reading some great ideas on Twitter, and I want to write more.

As I've explore Twitter, it's made me think more about blogging. With blogging, it was very difficult to build an audience. With good writing and consisting posting and consisting response to other people with more active blogs, you could eventually create a following. I see a lot of potential for Twitter to drive traffic to a blog and to the writing that you are doing. The writing still has to be worthwhile and interesting, or people won't return.

(This is as far as I got yesterday, but I'm posting anyway. I guess that's why I like Twitter. I have time for 140 characters.)