Oldies, Buuuut...Goodies?!

Oldies,...

Last week, I became fascinated with a "drama in poetry" book by Mel Glenn. The title of the book is The Taking of Room 114. A friend of mine, and fellow teacher, came across it in a used bookshop and thought she might find something in it to share for our poetry study at school. After she read it, she knew the content was definitely not for sixth graders. It was geared more towards high school students. Still, she was kind enough to share it with me and thought I'd find it interesting. And I did.

The Taking of Room 114 is a about a history teacher who takes his class hostage one day. Each poem is a different perspective from different people, primarily from students. Every student has their own tale to tell about their own lives before the actual incident takes place. Glenn does an incredible job of saying so much in just a few lines of poetry. The reader completely understands the situation. I found it fascinating that it was a satisfying tale. I liked it enough to seek out a copy of my own and look into what else Glenn has written.

Mel Glenn has written several "poetry dramas," and I've read two, so far, and have another on my TBR shelf. These books are not recent releases (published in the late 1990s). In fact, when I decided I wanted my own copy of The Taking of Room 114, I had to search online for it and purchase a good, used copy from a third party seller through Amazon.

My search also brought me to his award-winning poetic drama, Who Killed Mr. Chippendale?: A Mystery in Poems, which I really enjoyed. A high school teacher is shot on the high school track, early one morning before school, and no one knows who killed him or why. Again, you hear from different characters through poetry. The cast of characters include students, faculty, the police, and a guidance counselor. It really is quite good, and my favorite of the two! (And much easier to get your hands on.)

This type of poetry is a shorthand of prose. I think it's much more difficult to convey a message with a few lines than to write pages of descriptions. I didn't expect to like Glenn's style as much as I do. So, if you're looking for something a little different, but well-written, I definitely recommend Glenn's Who Killed Mr. Chippendale?: A Mystery in Poems for a tasty literary snack.

Buuuut...Goodies?!

Speaking of 'oldies', I just finished reading Flowers in the Attic, by V.C. Andrews, published in 1979. I found a copy of it at a library sale, and I had heard several of my book club friends express how they loved it as teenagers. Now, mind you, they didn't say it like it was a great book. These grown, college-educated women would giggle when they mentioned it and talk of how they used to hide it from their parents and read it. I knew the premise was about children being locked in an attic, but I had no idea what was in store for me when I read this novel. Or why a teenager would feel the need to hide it from their parents. But I found out.

Flowers in the Attic is a horrible and completely fascinating story about four children who are locked in their grandmother's upstairs room and attic, while their mother tries to find her way back into her very rich father's good graces. He doesn't know she has four children, and he wouldn't approve, so the children are hidden away in an unused bedroom on an isolated wing of the father's mansion. Only the mother and grandmother know the children exist in the house.

Seldom have I read a book where I was so mortified and intrigued at the same time. The grandmother is pure evil, hiding behind the guise of a devout, pious, religious woman. (Religious zealot would be an understatement.) She controls the children by telling them God sees everything they do, and He punishes those who disobey. There are even paintings depicting hell and demons in the room, to remind the children to be good. And all this? Is the very least of it.

While I could not put the book down, and devoured it in a couple of days, I don't think I'll read the rest in the series. I considered it, but find that the ending of the first book satisfies me enough to let it go. It was a bit heart wrenching to get through the first one, and I'd rather leave it at that. I'm glad I read it,...I think. I mean, it's written well,...but the content isn't something I'll be able to forget anytime soon.

After I read the novel, I read online that Andrews once said she wanted her books to be fast reads, something you couldn't put down. Well, it certainly was that.

Now, I want to bathe my reading brain in something light and airy and happy. Let's see what I can find on my TBR shelf that suits me...

Happy reading!

The Pied Piper of Poetry?

We had "Electronics Day" at school last week for the sixth graders. As a reward, they were able to bring small electronics to school and enjoy them during the day. Most of the students brought something that played music (MP3 players, cell phones). All day long students kept coming up to me in the hallways and in the classroom to show me that they had the song "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons on their music device. They had the biggest smiles on their faces.

Earlier in the school year, I had introduced the students to the song "Radioactive" as part of a poetry study. I had so many students who said they didn't like poetry that I wanted to show them poetry comes in many different forms. I let them listen to the song. I put the lyrics up on a screen and we analyzed them - talking about what the words meant and what the song was trying to say. My students really liked the song. I showed them the music video afterwards, and we compared our analysis of the lyrics to what the video showed. We discussed what the visual images represented and talked about the video's message.

"Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktvTqknDobU

While I knew the students were familiar with the song from our study, it wasn't until later in the day that I truly understood what was really going on with everyone showing me that song on their playlist. In the afternoon, I had this conversation with a student that summed up what many of my students were thinking:


Student: Look at the song I have on my ipod!

Me: That's great! I'm glad you like it!

Student: The first time I ever heard it was in your class, remember? Remember when we studied it for poetry?

Me: Yes, I remember...

Student: Because we studied it in class, we liked it first AND we understand the song, AND now EVERYONE likes the song - it's EVEN on the RADIO! That means you are the coolest because you knew it was a good song first and you made it popular! 


Well, I had to chuckle (and was a bit flattered) that my sweet student thought that I had single-handedly made a song popular...and that I was "the coolest." I realized, though, there was something really important going on behind those big smiles and "thumbs up" I was seeing all day. I understood the "bigger lesson" my students learned from a song.

The BIGGER lesson:

Television and movies (and, in my opinion, society in general) bombards our young people with the message that being "dumb" or "the class clown" is funny...and that it's cool to be ignorant. They watch reality shows where people have no intellect, no common sense, and no talent (and, most of the time, no class)...but these people are popular (and on television) for being stupid and acting stupid. It sends a bad message. How often do young people ever get the message how great it feels to be smart?

The lesson my students learned was how great it feels to KNOW something, to UNDERSTAND something, and to FEEL GOOD about themselves for having that knowledge. They walked taller, they felt smarter, and they were proud to show what they knew and to share it with others who didn't know. "You don't know this song? Oh, we learned it in Mrs. H's class. Let me tell you what the song means, you'll really like it!"

The old saying, 'Ignorance is bliss' is a lie. Ignorance is just ignorance,...but knowledge?

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!

If you don't believe me, just ask my sixth graders...

Little Book, Big Impact

I just finished reading The Sport of the Gods, a short fiction novel by Paul Laurence Dunbar. A friend of mine told me about it and shared her copy of the book with me. She told me it didn't take long to read, and it was very good. She was right.

The book was originally published in 1902 and tells the story of an African-American family living in the South and working as servants. Their lives are better than most of the people of their race during the time period after emancipation. All is well until the husband is falsely accused of stealing by a man he has served faithfully for thirty years. The story tells what happens to the family as a result of "the crime." It is well-written and powerful. Very powerful.

While I did not know about this novel before now, I was already a fan of Dunbar's poetry (Maya Angelou credits Dunbar's poetry as being one of her influences). I was introduced to a poem by Dunbar when I was in my first year of college. My literature professor gave us the poem without the title and without the author. We were given a blue book (notebook paper in a testing booklet) to write our own interpretation of the poem. Once we all gave our interpretation, our professor then told us about who wrote it and when it was written.

The poem had such an impact on me that I include it with my poetry lessons to my own students. I teach it in the same way it was taught to me. I allow the students to interpret it on their own before putting it in a time period and revealing the author. I also have the students make masks using character trait words to describe, in writing, what they show to the outside world on the outside of the mask and write words on the inside of the mask to describe how they really see themselves.

It's a good lesson...for us all.

We Wear the Mask 

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes, -

The debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

and mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,

In counting all our tears and sighs?

Nay, let them only see us, while

     We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries

To thee from tortured souls arise.

We sing, but oh the clay is vile

Beneath our feet, and long the mile;

But let the world dream otherwise,

     We wear the mask!

~ Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872 - 1906)