I Answer with My Life: Life Histories of Women Teachers Working for Social Changeby Kathleen Casey sits on the shelf behind me. I read this remarkable book in the year I finished my Ph. D., and I was wondering if it had been all worth it. I had reached a summit, achieving the educational goal that had consumed me for years. And as I began to climb back down from that peak, I felt directionless without the compass that the degree had become. This book helped me find my way again.
The teachers it depicts "answer with their lives" -- meaning, they act rather than simply talk, and their lives reflect their philosophies. I had become more of a thinker than a doer, and something didn't feel right about that. So, this book offered me a different perspective, and reinforced what I felt deep inside: that words and actions need to match. I decided to work to become more like the teachers in the book. I’ve kept that book on my shelf as I have moved about the country. When students ask me, "What do you think, what is your philosophy?" I hand them the book. "I hope you can look at my life and see what I believe." That is, I now think, the highest goal.
I’ve taught at a number of different universities, colleges, technical colleges, and high schools, but no matter where I have taught, and what else I have done, I have been a reader, writer, editor, and a teacher of readers, writers, and editors first. I read. I publish. I edit. I write. And I model for students the possibilities inherent in a literary life. Art can save the world; I know it because it has saved mine. Ultimately, I believe that all courses should use writing as a means to learning content as well as to improve writing skill. And a course that uses writing as a primary means of learning should be different than other courses. We need to read together. We need to read and write with our students. We need workshop space. We should use interdisciplinary teaching methods as well as offer interdisciplinary material. Creating art about texts, building web pages, blogs, doing desktop publishing, conducting hands-on research experiments, and writing, writing, writing—these are all ways to challenge students. The walls of the classroom should be permeable and what is learned in theory should be practiced in role playing, through creative projects, and through service learning. The structure of the course should, finally, reflect the content.
For example, I often use a creative response assignment like this one: the students prepare a visual representation--collage, drawing, painting, or cartoon--of a poem. Before class starts, they hang their art work around the room and, then, circulate, looking for repeated symbolic patterns in their classmates’ offerings. Next, students explain their representations. Then, I have them write in class about the symbols they see before them. How do they help us understand the poem? Ultimately, we discuss the relationship between symbols and meaning. And then students write their own poem using key symbols. Similarly, many of my assignments draw on student creativity and imagination to reflect on metaphor, symbol, and representation.
Overall, I feel that teaching should be much more like coaching basketball. Sure, I could stand at center court during practice, describing to students how to dribble effectively. Or I could take the ball and show off my own talent by throwing free throw after free throw. Or I could show students examples of good games in writing or on film. All of these would help. But students would never learn how to play unless they did it themselves. The more time students spend on the court playing the game, the better they would become. Therefore, in my classes, I provide models for students on how to do good writing, analysis, debate and close reading--but then they must do it for themselves. Reading and writing are skills anyone can learn, and students must practice to improve! Like the teachers in the book I keep on my shelf, I answer with my life. Get out there and do it!
No comments:
Post a Comment