Kaleidoscopy (9/20/7)

Scanning the room to give you the global picture - the Language Arts Lab, class of many courses:

Literary Magazine
Summarizing a review of previous Wolfmoons and other similar publications, the Block 6 team concluded:
Wolfmoon, Volume 1
Hand-drawn, casual doodle-like illustrations are a plus
Loosey-goosey, zany layout is a plus
Tactfully falling letters let tact fall freely

Home-copied print and paper not a plus
Organization is lacking, index inadequate
Proofreading imperfect

Wolfmoon, Volume 2
Slick paper looks classy, especially on cover
Index and table of contents improved
Advertising spots do not detract and produce cash
Themed pages work when possible

Lines idea too limiting
Too much formal structure in layout
Proofreading imperfect

Contrapuntal
Editorial commentary and section introductions are interesting
Lots of quality content, none too long
Student art cover works well

Horrid haiku(s)

Wolfmoon, Volume 3
Should be carefully proofread before publication
Should include more informal illustrations and highlights
Should have a freer layout
Should give attention to overall organization of pages and pieces

Communication Applications
Summarizing a comparison of important features of oral and written communication:

The Duh Difference - Oral communication is oral, using the speaking voice and the hearing ear; written communication uses the written word and the reading eye.

Different tools - OC uses vocal sound (tone, volume, rate, enunciation, etc.) whereas WC uses diction and syntax and literary techniques. Overlap: OC, especially when formally prepared, uses many of the tools of WC, and WC may use sound devices and other similar tools of OC. OC may also use body language, gesture, facial expressions, and other physical tools that, as far as we can see for now, have no parallel in WC.

The matter of time - OC also makes use of pauses and rhythm. And rhyme, of course. There is, of course, rhythm to the written word, thousands of so-called sound devices in writing, and pauses are at least implied. (Poets even have a word for a pause- caesura- but don't let anyone tell you to put a comma where there should be a pause. Wrong, wrong, wrong!) It's not so much that WC doesn't have these tools to use; rather it's that the reader doesn't physically hear them.

This delicate distinction is perhaps made more clear by recognizing the way OC exists in time. In OC, the pauses and rhythm, for instance, occur in real time. This can lead to awkward silences on the one hand and unintelligibly rapid speech on the other, and one person's awkward silence may be another's dramatic pause. It leads to silence-filling catch phrases like "like"and "you know" and "um." With WC, time is not the master. Writers have more time to think about what to say and how to say it, to perfect their language, including the way it would sound if it were read aloud. Readers, likewise, have time to re-read, to leave the communication and return, to consult resources, and many other options the time-ly nature of OC does not allow.

Another element of the operation of OC in time is that there is no white-out in OC. OC is instantaneous, and once your words are out there, they're out there. You can correct them or explain them, excuse them or expand them, repeat them or regret them, but you can't erase them. This feature of OC intimidates many beginning communicators and makes public speaking a frightening experience for some.

This instantaneous, no-whiteout quality combines with another feature of OC to tangle and tie the tongues of the timid and seal the lips of the reluctant. OC is inevitably more personal communication than WC, for just as surely as there is no white-out, there is also no anonymity. This factor allows the speaker to make use of his or her personal qualities, including appearance, movement, and all of those vocal and physical tools the writer has no access to. A writer may more easily disguise himself or herself than a speaker and can establish a certain distance from her or his words, but a speaker is there in time and space, making the words that make the meaning. The advantage is clear, but the discomfort of this inescapable personal connection is the source of the frequently heard safety valve phrase, "Well, I'm just sayin'..."

Formality - Where OC can be as formal as WC at times, WC tends to be more formal because it is free from the pressures of existing only in present time. Without silence fillers, awkward silences, mispronunciations, or verbal blunders, WC is certainly more fixed and also likely to be more formal.

Feedback - Among the most important tools of OC, used to great effect by the best speakers and unavailable to writers, is the presence of instantaneous feedback. A speaker is continually informed by her or his audience about their collective and individual response to what is being said. Furrowed brows, glimpses at one's wristwatch, heads nodding or shaking, and a thousand other indicators offer a speaker the opportunity to edit and revise his or her communication. The poor writer, on the other hand, does not even have control over what audience he or she is addressing. Anyone can go the the library and choose any book. The writer must assume and identify an audiences, address them as effectively as possible, and make choices to that end. But if her or his choices are not working, it will not be known until far too late to fix.

Burther flurring - With the advent of text messaging, IM, and other new communication media, there is an interesting blurring of the lines between oral and written communication that will bear further inquiry.

Anthropology anyone? - At another level, the differences between a culture with an oral tradition and one with a written tradition suggest additional valuable insights. With the development of a written tradition comes a change of emphasis from story to history. A culture of story values more the truth in a narrative than the truth of it. The wisdom of an oral tradition lies in ever-changing and adapting narratives rather than a single, fixed account or in formulated conclusions, laws, or beliefs. Oral wisdom, therefore, lives in the present and in the relationship of teller and told, speaker and hearer. Oral tradition makes wisdom an element of a community, not the possession of a particular formal statement. In a written tradition, the accuracy of certain words themselves is invested with high value, but in an oral tradition value is invested in interaction and adaptability.

Mystery and Suspense
Having read mysteries featuring the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, this group explored some of the techniques that make these works so appealing to young readers:
1. They start in the middle of some extreme action. English teachers call this technique of beginning in medias res.
2. Something scary or dangerous always happens to the investigators themselves in the course of the books.
3. The settings and events are purely fictional, not occurring in relationship to any particular place or time in history. Thus, they exist in every place and every time.

More to come.







Creative Writing
The "personal responses" of these readers of an essay turn out to read like reviews or summaries or evaluations of the essay. The essay is their focal point rather than the response of the writer to the essay. Thus, for now anyway, the editor is electing not to publish them because the teacher apparently did not make his instructions clear and because there are plenty of evaluative reviews already published here.

Old Words in New Places

Posted by Mr. B

In my compressed English IV class, students have recently read excerpts from the ancient Anglo-Saxon poem "The Seafarer." Before reading it, we discussed the almost incomprehensible difference between their world (British Isles before 1000 C.E.) and our own. To read this poem is to look at a snapshot of these ancient people whose lives were so different from our own and whose language was also vastly different. To say that the roots of our language and the precursors of our culture are located among these folk is an all-too-easy generalization that has little strength of meaning if we do not comprehend their astonishing differences from ourselves.

But if we have a sense of our enormous distance from these primitive people, then the slightest connection with them becomes a matter of significance. So, reading lines from "The Seafarer," when we discover feelings of isolation and despair that we ourselves have felt and when we recognize in them the passionate calling to dangerous paths that we know well, something unexpected is happening. When the ancient writer asks, "Who could believe,/ ..., how wearily,/ I put myself back on the paths of the sea." we answer, "We could. We know." When we note that, like ourselves, they use numbers imprecisely for effect ("the sea...showed me suffering in a hundred ships,/In a thousand ports...", that they make metaphor like we do ("My feet were cast/ in icy bands, bound with frost,/With frozen chains,..."), that their lines and rhythms of speech ring with familiarity, we witness a sort of miracle - that language can bridge so much time and change.

To further explore the ancient connections that language alone reveals, Mr. B made an alphabetical list of all the 172 words used in the first 43 lines of "The Seafarer." Using only those words, we wrote poems of our own. Here are three of them read aloud in class today:

A Journey Through Life

No more a sheltered youth
I drifted around seeking
For comfort, in the coldest hearts.
Often smashing me into drowning waves
Of misfortune, tossing and towering
Over me, I was suffering from hardship.
I was left to feel as if torn into
salt and left in the sea. Icy and cold, freezing,
But eagerly I am bound to feel the passion and pleasure
Of laughter instead of pain and sorrow. So I tore
Through myself, anxious to begin a thousand
Journeys of more suffering sorrow and pain
Knowing I was no more a sheltered youth.

by Alicia J.

time, the coldest comfort
I was under a weary hunger
frozen in a blackened grave
it was there I sweated wearily to night, sailing on
anxious, suffering, an icy hailstorm
where time was drifting, I left, knowing laughter
left me, the coldest, seeking a hardship
to cast chains around me to comfort me and put me in a quiet night

I, seeking passion from the icy night, was called for a thousand journeys,
sent with gulls perched with misfortune from pleasure, but I groan
on and taste the drifting snow, salt is the taste,
no more knowing of the wine who cast me in chains,
put ports around me, and called birds to put pain on me.
I, roaring with laughter, sail on and watch waves with time, the coldest comfort,
who will offer no passion, only laughter, cold, blackened laughter as time
sails on.

by Dante R.

Smashing sorrow with passion I feel
an anxious beat in myself. I dashed
around misfortune with laughter instead
of pain. I willed myself to feel comfort as
bands of fear begin drifting over me.. In the
icy heart of Fate I taste sorrow on a
knowing horizon for night can blacken
a soul. A thousand waves of misfortune
swept through me. Fairness left. Sorrow
so wretched swept in. Wearily I tore
myself from freezing desolation.
Instead I perched proud towering over
suffering. The chains of pain cast back
to an icy grave.

by Natalie P.

And if that doesn't convince us all that diction - choice of words - is very important, what will?

How This Class Works (9-14-7)

Posted by Jasmine H., Block 6

Explanatory Note: The dialogue between writer and editor that makes up the bulk of this post is exactly the kind of dialogue that occurs routinely in the Language Arts Lab. There are students sometimes who complain that the teacher always tells them their answers are wrong and who elect not to speak out any further. The teacher maintains that by questioning and seeking more from students' answers he is taking them seriously, seeking to more fully explore and understand what they are saying and helping them learn to express it. It requires a great deal of trust on the part of a student, but it permits some lively and intense learning.

Mr. B separated us into groups and had those of us in creative writing read an essay he had written that summed up the main point he has been trying to teach us since school began. (See Choosing: The Way We Read and Write on the Resource Blog to read it yourself.) Then we were supposed to discuss whether an essay could be considered "creative writing".
[Editor's Note: So could it? How? What is this "creative writing" you speak of?]

And then we were to give our responses to the essay.

Some of us thought the vocabulary and fluidity of the essay were really interesting.
[Ed: What vocabulary? Why interesting? What is fluidity and can you show us examples from the essay? The opinions are only valuable to the extent that you can support them.]

Other quotes from the essay that we liked were:

"And what seems like weeks of energetic, earnest teaching and richly evocative learning experiences swirl down the Friday afternoon toilet bowl."
[Ed: Why did you like it? I suspect that it was just the fact that it mentioned swirling and the toilet bowl which are sort of titillating, borderline potty words. Am I right? I could have written (and thought about writing) "wash down the drain." Would that have been better or worse? Why?]

"...we give ourselves access to those unitended choices that are so rich an element of every artist's work."
[Ed: Out of its context, I'm not even sure I know what this is about, and I wrote it. I suspect that it says that by asking the question of choices, "we give..." That doesn't seem to be a reason to like this quote. Is it the word "access" or "rich"? Is it the generalization to every artist? Examples don't carry much weight without explanation.]

"The expectation, the goal, is to find the solution."
[Ed: I couldn't decide between "expectation" and "goal", so I used both. The sentence remains short anyway. Is that why you like it? Does it have some special place in its context? If you don't tell us why you like it, we can't learn much from your liking it.]

The choices he made when writing the essay make the essay creative.
[Ed.: Which choices? What do you mean by "creative"?]

The essay didn't follow any particular literary rules;
[Ed.: It did, too! Literary rule #1: Be concrete. Literary rule #2: Consider what will affect your audience when choosing what and how to write. Literary rule #3: Start with something that will catch the reader's attention. Literary rule #4: A paragraph is not a certain number of sentences; it is a complete thought. What rules are you talking about? If it broke some, which ones? Literary rule #4: Break rules for effect. ]

it just sounded like personal thought
[Ed. What are personal thoughts? What are the other kinds of thoughts?]

and almost blog-like which in turn resembled a more creative piece.
[Ed. Huh?]

We liked it!
[Ed. And I'm certainly glad you did, but without more concrete detail about what you liked and more explanation of why you liked it, it sounds like shallow flattery. I do love flattery, though, shallow or otherwise. And I hope you recognize what a really important contribution you have made by daring to put this out here and letting me turn it into a writing lesson. Thanks for being bold enough to write, especially on a day when your table group is only a part of the action.]

The Art of Writing (9/12/7)

Posted by Xavier L.
The Art Of Writing
(Teachings of the great and powerful Mr. B Destroyer of Sameness and Unopened Minds)

What do we have to think in order to read literature and understand art? We have to believe the artist made a choice in what he or she wrote, sang, painted, or performed. In writing and reading, we believe authors wrote what they wrote to create an effect and that the different choices and decisions help to amplify and expand that effect. It is even possible with some choices the writer had not though of, choices can from their passion and heart. Yet, we believe their choices are to create an effect so we can understand more completely the beauty and significance of the story or poem. This is what Mr. B was telling us today in class, and he has been trying to distill this idea for weeks, possibly even years.

There are those who maylook at a work of art and, instead of questioning it and trying to understand it, they think it's stupid. To those that think that, Mr. B gives you a piece of advice "hold up a mirror".

Mr. B told us of the time he and a math teacher had a discussion while carpooling to school. Of a computer malfunction, the math teacher said," I know I'm a reasonable person and if I put my mind to it I can figure a way to fix it." Mr. B then got to thinking and observed that in the science and mathematical world when you make the choice to beileve you can solve the problem a lot of times you can. It is straightforward. And there is expected to be a single solution. In writing it is more than that; it is almost more complicated.

Cody mentioned a philosopher named Heidegger who said the mind has two aspects.One is like a two-lane road where you know where to go while the other is a fallow field where whatever grows will grow.

The Whole Picture
Poems , Mr. B tells me, are musical and very intentional with the use of sound. It is very important not just read a poem but to read it aloud or you won't get it. Poems have another dimension to them, an artistic spirit where the writers may make unconscious (or inspired) choices. To understand a poem (or other work of art) better, you begin by reading alound and then letting it be, sitting with it open to its possibilities.

Next, you must be sure to understand it literally or the connections you make will not have a foundation.

To An Athlete Dying Young
We went through the poem line by line [Editor's Note: No, we didn't! We went through it sentence by sentence, and that is essential!] clarifying the literal meaning of it.

Sentence 1: The scene is of celebration and the next sentence emphasizes that. Though there was foreshadowing of death as people usually bring others home to bury them and may "chair" them through the market place. Irony?

Sentence 2: Literally: We carry you in your coffin shoulder high. We set you down at doorway of a stiller town we presume to be a graveyard.
Note: "To-day"? What does that mean? A choice of the writer for affect? stumbling block?

Sentence 3: "Betimes" is shorter version of "before times" meaning "early". "Laurel" whose leaves are used to make victory wreaths, grows early and could fade away fast. Paraphrase: "Smart move kid to die before your glory fades away. "All glory is fleeting;" it withers quicker than the rose.
Sentence 4: Eyes that night has shut won't see his record get beat. Earth stops up his ears so that silence sounds no worse than cheers.
Sentence 5: "Rout "is "defeat" as one army routs the other.
Sentence 6: So set your foot on the doorsill (threshold) of (not just the blocking of the sun) but of death. The lintel is above the door, like when the children of Israel painted the blood on the lintel to mark their homes from the Angel of Death.
Sentence 7: The strengthless dead will flock to him when he dies, gathering around his early laurelled head (meaning very young).

When the literal meaning is sure, figurative meaning and interpretations follow.
We ended the class by interpreting the poem with our ideas. Tanyelle said that the "stiller town" gives her a picture of a graveyard, especially in New Orleans, where it is called the city of the dead. Hannah mentioned that this stepping through a doorway makes her think he is going through a door of life after death or going to a better place.

This is Mr. Bentons' method to teach the reading of literature and poetry.

Crammed Full (9/13/7)

Posted by Amanda L., Block 3

Groups reading and thinking
decisions flowing
people thinking
choices
changing .

Secret descriptions and
decryptions
being broken down
shortened for better
understanding.
conversation about words
on the pages before us.

Students understanding
our decisions
and others’
choices
creative writing science
fiction literary
magazine
bringing descriptions and
conclusions
from page to
our own separate
inseparable tables

Papers postponed
for time is crammed
so full

Reading Housman (9/11/7)

Posted by John S., Block 3

The day began as usual for the students of Mr. B’s 3rd block Language Arts Lab with the 16 or so creative-students scattered about the room, having multiple private conversations that, in all probability, had very little to do with the classes they were attending. Then, Mr. B called us all to attention and the day began.
The day’s lesson was primarily centered around A.E. Housman’s poem, “To an Athlete Dying Young” (see tviewlalabplus.blogspot.com) and how authors make very active, very deliberate choices in their work.

Stoney asked a rather nice question involving literary works in general, he asked if it was wrong to misinterpret what the author said in his work. Mr.B replied that sometimes it’s impossible not to misinterpret the message, but we always learn more if we look for and try to recognize the choices that the author made when trying to send his or her message. If we do not look for and seek to understand the choices that the author made, we can’t possibly understand all the author tries to communicate. Or at least we cannot understand as completely.

Mr. Benton was also accused of booby-trapping students with his questions in order to lead to certain responses that he had already planned for. He said no, he doesn’t try to control what we are saying, purposely steering us to say one exact thing for him to lecture about. He doesn’t know what we are going to say, but he doesn’t leave the subject entirely alone either. He presents us with information to think about, questions to consider. He stated that he is not merely random but purposefully random, leading the class to hunt down that wild geese that come up in conversation in ways that address the basic understandings he is teaching us.

After a quick lesson about how to read poetry:
Step 1 – Read the whole thing aloud uncritically, without analysis, getting acquainted with its sound and with any emotions or connections it evokes.
(repeat)
Step 2 – Read again very carefully (sentence by sentence, not line by line) being certain to identify its literal meaning, checking the meaning of words, clarifying sentence structures, and so forth.
Step 3 – Read again raising questions, possibilities, and connections, looking for figurative meanings and implied connections. Ask what the author has accomplished by choosing this word (this image, this structure, this order, this syntax, etc.) over other possibilities,

For instance, when, the market-place that the athlete was “chaired” through came up, Amanda mentioned that the market place was always crowded. Like the funeral he was soon to go to, the market-place was crowded with buyer and sellers, and the funeral was crowded with mourners. (lines 1-2)

In response to Housman’s choosing to have his young athlete carried through the marketplace and on to home, (line 4) Nana mentioned that in Ghana, when you die, the people take you to the place where you were born to be buried. Associations of going home, eternal home, and others are brought to mind by the action, and it serves as a foreshadowing of the other home to which he is to be brought in the second stanza.

As for the runner’s being cheered by man and boy, (line 3) Amanda asked what about the girls? I do not believe that question was effectively answered, (if I am inaccurate please correct). [Editor’s note: In the reading of poetry or observing of visual art, there are always questions that cannot be answered satisfactorily. It can be no other way.] Sierra noted that men and boys are the runner’s peers, that, perhaps, identifying them as cheering brought a strength to the celebration. It was noted that choosing “man and boy” instead of “men and boys” accomplished an individualizing, personalizing sense of the crowd.

Mr. Benton called attention to the uncomfortable fact that “To-day” was spelled with a hyphen instead of being written normally, and he did not have a satisfactory explanation of what Housman might have achieved by choosing this spelling.

The repetition of also mentioned “shoulder-high” in lines 4 and 6 serves to connect the two processions toward different homes and is just one of several reinforcements of the parallel events.

Kalish opined that line 9 (“Smart lad, to slip betimes away”) literally meant, “Good thinking, Dude! Dying early saves a lot of heartache.”

As for "laurel" (line 11) Jaime notes that the plant that the wreaths placed on the heads of winners in ancient times (probably in Greece and Rome) were made of laurel. Eric sparks a conversation about peaks (in response to stanza four’s suggestion that dying at the peak of one’s success might be a good thing) suggesting that a longer life may offer many peaks. Mr. B argues the point with a story about high school football players’ never again being so glorified and successful as when they won a state championship.

Where the laurel which “withers quicker than the rose” is associated with victory, it was noted that the rose is often what is placed on the coffin of the deceased.

When Mr. B. confessed some discomfort with the poem’s structure completing a sentence (of complete idea) in each stanza, Stoney revealed to the class the meaning of “enjambment,” – the carryover of an idea from one line to the next - and it is revealed that there is no enjambment in the poem.

Amanda suggests that lines 13-14 may mean that athletes die before they’re famous, before their record is preserved, etched in history. Mr. B recognizes this possibility says that it makes him think of dying before the athlete’s record was beaten. Perhaps by choosing this language, Housman gave the reader access to both interpretations.

When we got to lines 15-16 (And silence sounds no worse than cheers / After earth has stopped the ears part) your present author stated that it meant you don’t really care what people think of you when you’re dead. This reading brings more than just the deafness of the dead into play.

Mr. B noted his fondness for the sound of line 19 (Runners whom renown outran). Amanda observes that Housman’s choice of “wore their honours out” brought the notion of boasting runners and how they “wore” their renown outwardly in the form of medals and ribbons as well as using them up.

Near the end, Mr. B says that even though the author might not have thought of all the things the reader might see when examining his poem, that looking for messages and choices leads to understanding the poem more accurately and completely.

At the end of class Mr. B improvises a poem involving cows and bells just before the school bell rings, and then all of third block left for 4th block (I hope they did anyway).

Reading Poetry (9/7/7)

Posted by Sarah W., Block 3

"All art is incomplete and waiting to be completed." - Mr. B

[Editor's note: Actually, he stole that idea from Jacob Bronowski and an essay/speech published in his book The Visionary Eye.]

In the first part of class, Mr. B. informed us of three important bits of information:
1. This and the new resource blog (tviewlalabplus.blogspot.com) that we are all strongly encouraged to read regularly and submit comments to.
2. The upcoming learning opportunities at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth on September 26 and October 10. ( see Learning Opportunity Announcement on tviewlalabplus.blogspot.com)
3. The first meeting of the year of the Lupine Literary Luncheon League in the library at B Lunch next Wednesday, September 12. The LLLL is a book discussion group planning to begin the year with reading and conversation about Sophie's World byJostein Gaarder. (see
When we came back from lunch, we were given copies of a poem called "To an Athlete Dying Young" by A.E Housman. Mr. Benton read the poem aloud, and explained to us that the first thing you ought to do when you read a poem is to read it aloud. This technique, I learned, makes much more of an impact on the reader. We then went around the room and many people gave their insight on how it made them feel.

Nana said it made her feel "very sad" and she immediately connected the feelings she had for the poem to how she felt about a student who died at Summit High School on September 6th.

John's feelings about the poem differed from Nana's, as he stated he felt "calm and peaceful," after hearing the poem spoken aloud. The second time Mr. Benton read the poem, John said his feelings changed when he realized "they were taking his body (the deceased athlete) to his grave."

Sloane said she felt "sullen" and attained a "strong negative feeling" in the poem.

When I listened to Mr. B read the poem, I felt a sense of extreme loss and hopelessness voiced in the poem. I also felt somewhat like Sierra did because I did not quite understand what the author was trying to portray and what he meant in several sentences. When Sierra voiced her concern about this, Mr. B explained that not even he understood it fully and that part of interpreting and understanding poetry is that it is indeed difficult and that poetry is complex. Writer's do what they do for a reason, especially in poetry, when every word counts and is important to the meaning and affect it has on the reader.

This made more sense to me. Poetry takes time to understand. However, when one is willing to take the plunge and try to interpret it, they may be able attain the meaning and understanding that the author intended to bestow on his or her reader.

After we discussed how the poem made us feel, Mr. B explained that once you begin to want to piece the poem together, you should read it sentence by sentence. We began with the first sentence:
The time you won your town the race / we chaired you through the market-place; / man and boy stood cheering by,/ and home we brought you shoulder-high.

Mr. B wondered why the author used the word “chaired”. This word seemed weird and uncomfortable. We then speculated that the author may have used this word as opposed to others to leave an impression and image in the reader’s mind. To see a chair, to hear how close is a cheer, to condense the image of someone hoisted on the shoulders of others who are cheering with joy in a single word. We found in the dictionary that "chair" is used this way in British English, and we wondered if it was used that way before Housman. We learned that the Oxford English Dictionary would let us know.

For the reader to stop, and re-read, and wonder exactly why the author would use that word instead of another, is an essential step in reading poetry or any other literature. This further supports the idea that authors choose their words extremely carefully when writing because they do want to make the reader think and wonder and contemplate.

By this time, the bell had unexpectedly rung, and we had to wrap up this intense conversation. Hopefully, we will pick up on this Tuesday, because I found this discussion quite interesting and I feel it will help me immensely in my creative writing when we start to write.

Hey Mr. B, Sometimes I don’t think you realize how much your lessons really do change the way we think about poetry [and other stuff]. Just wanted to let you know I did get something out of today's lesson. I'm glad I'm in your class this year.

Boxing Day (9/5/7)

Posted by Alec H., Block 3

The day starts where we last left off, ending the poem we started the day before.
Everyone struggles to remember what was written as the sound of a faucet drips from around the room. Maybe it was the brains oozing from the heads of those struggling to remember what they wrote, as the 3 day weekend took its toll. (see resource blog tviewlalab.blogspot.com)

We went over the Mustn'ts and the Should'nts. (see resource blog tviewlalab.blogspot.com)

We discussed the concept of the Boxes, what they are for, and why they are here.
Some said the boxes were a sort of security, protecting your thoughts from others, that you feel safe in the box, but you never think inside it. Perhaps, Mr. B. suggested, having the security of a classroom environment (or being safe inside the box) allows one the freedom to think outside the box.

From alien hideouts, to portals to other dimensions, boxes could be whatever our imaginations named them. Even the word "box" could lead us to new ideas and connections: Boxing, boxers, lunch boxes, chicken bocks (bock-bock-bock-BOCK), springboks.

Don't think inside or outside the box,
think about the box.

There and There and Back Again (9/6/7)

Posted by Jessica J., Block 6

Hey there, it's Jessica J., and I'll be the blog entry writer for today.

So first off, once we get started, [Editor's Note: The photo posted above was taken before we got started when the teacher was warming up the audience and rewarding those who were paying attention already with the crafting of a moustache from a length of red twist tie he found in his pocket.] B wants to get us thinking by asking us what we learned last class.

Johnathan answers,"See things differently," and that sets B off, pointing out that Johnathan is not specific in his answer. B wants so know exactly what things and in what different ways. He explains that we have learned in school is, when you are asked what you learned, to answer what you learned about. That doesn't tell what you learned, and it doesn't make you think much. But it usually gets you off the hook. What you learn about is the subject, but what you learned is a different matter.

The class joins in, and we slowly transform the original answer into something more interesting, more accurate, more reflective. It more or less went this way:
What did you learn the last time this class met?
"Different ways of thinking"
"We learned about different ways of thinking."
"We learned different ways of thinking about boxes."
"We learned that there are different ways of thinking about boxes."
"We learned that seeing boxes as more than boxes enriches our learning."
"We learned that seeing boxes as containers of ideas allows us to expand our understanding and imagination."
What else?
"We learned that people have different motives for participating with boxes."
"We learned that being motivated just to have fun, for example, when Brandon knocked over his table's stack of boxes, can be a positive thing."
"We learned that even what might appear to be destructive and not motivated to learn can enrich the learning by generating a sense of spontaneity."

Johnathan argues for a second and then B cues him to start a "Shut-up Argument." The Shut-Up Argument involves two parties repeatedly telling one another to shut up. The winner is the one who gets the loudest, threatens the most, keeps on the longest, or somehow forces the other to stop arguing. Another familiar argument is the "Junior Debate Club Argument" in which the participants try only to show their opponents to be wrong or mistaken. The winner is the one who most effectively demonstrates her/his superiority. We learn that the "Shut-up" and "Junior Debate Club" arguments are not for our class (although they can be fun at times) or for the academic or intellectual community. B suggests that when Hannah B. writes in a blog comment that she is not going to argue with him, he thinks that she believes arguments to be impolite or disrespectful like the two already identified.

The arguments we want to have in our learning community, the arguments we want to make, allows all the participants to learn something and understand. There are no losers. It's not a competition. It's a way of seeing others' ideas as..... hmmmm ... more than just opposing ideas, as receptacles of understanding. Argument in an academic intellectual community is a matter of making a claim and proving or supporting it; it such a community, others will make counter claims and prove and support them. And each and all will to understand better.

After this B starts to talk about the board and why there was a new blog address now for the resources (tviewlalabplus.blogspot.com) and, of course, it never fails, Cody interrupts and asks why Carl Jung is on the board under the addresses. Because it's Cody, B answers that Carl is not himself on the board but that the letters that spell his name are. He also points out that Cody did indeed pronounce "Jung" right. B reports that those who pronounce "Jung" correctly will always appear smart whether they are or not and that those who mispronounce it will always appear stupid no matter how smart they may be. Laughter follows.

So everyone is coming back (intellectually) and B lists some of the postings on the new resource blog. He paraphrases Margaret Mead's quote that the only thing that has ever changed the world is a small group of creative people. I don't know about everyone else, but that made me start thinking of getting up a group and working on world hunger. But thats besides the point. [Editor's Note: Or is it?]

B mentions another resource blog item, a quote from "V for Vendetta" that takes him directly to alliteration heaven. This was followed by a punch to my head to get me to move, calling me a slug, and an actual audible burp. Very nice.

Focusing again. And summing up: Phrase we may not use- "We learned about...". Phrase we may use- "We learned that..." When writing, we do not want the big picture, the big picture sucks. We want specifics. The best advice B ever got and could ever give about writing, two words... Be Concrete. (in order to make the most impact)

Unexpectedly, in the midst of all this, B (connecting concrete to cement to asphalt) throws out a joke to liven the mood. Hilarious. I laughed for a good 15 seconds.

Focusing again. What does it mean to be concrete?
Be visible, touchable, tasteable, audible, smellable. Be one and only one unique thing.
You don't give much room for misinterpretation, communicating exactly what you think, showing not telling what you see to the observer or reader so that she/he may also see.

All art has meaning, it makes some kind of commentary on the Big Picture, on life and history and good and evil. If it had an explanation from the artist, (instead of a concrete image) it wouldn't be as effective. If you want to have an immediate impact, you may want to paint that picture in their head and explain the bigger ideas, but if you can lead them to the bigger picture, let them see it for themselves by the choices you make, that's what makes effectice writing. Others have called it, "Show me; Don't tell me" writing.

B ends the class by reading from the end of an essay "Simple Art of Murder", (see resource blog) and asking us to take note and some notes,. Here are a some phrases that caught my ear as the class reported their impressions:
-cool spirit of detachment
-death isn't funny but someone dying for so little is
-in all art, there is a quality of deception
-the detective is the hero
-complete, common, unusual, man of honor
-man of honor in one thing, he is that in all things
-lonely man, his pride is that you see him as a proud man or be sorry you ever saw him<--favorite -range of awareness that startles you, but it belongs to him by right in the world we live in -without him the world is not worth living -contempt for pettiness -safer place with him It was a really good essay from what we got to hear and then, sadly, the bell rings, sending us back off into the routine fashion of high school, waiting yet another day to enter this class once again.

This is Jessica J., signing off.

A Night at the Modern

Posted by Mr. B.

You guys missed a seriously cool learning experience last night when you declined my invitation to go with me to the program at the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth. (Not to mention that if you had gone we would have had time to visit the Ron Mueck exhibit and the rest of the museum and to eat a burger at Kincaid's!) AND I sent my van to Chicago today so I won't have as much room again.

First, there was something good about being in the museum after hours. No big deal, but a good thing. The program began with a lecture from Dr. David E. Whillock, Professor and Associate Dean of the College of Communications at TCU. He spoke in a sort of lecture-for-note-taking way that was easy to follow and arrange in outline form. And he repeated some phrases like he was dictating them to note-takers. (Members of his class at TCU were there and taking notes, and so was I.) So, he didn't speak to entertain; he spoke to inform. I was glad of this because I went there to gather information (which was very entertaining for me).

In the lecture, he outlined some of the history and characteristics of the literary genre "hard-boiled detective" novels, stories, and films. I'll publish my notes on tviewlalabplus.blogspot.com soon along with the announcement of the lecture and film series from the Modern. I also picked up copies of an essay "The Simple Art of Murder" by Raymond Chandler. Willock quoted liberally from the essay, and I will, too. READ THIS QUOTE:

In everything that can be called art there is a quality of redemption. It may be pure tragedy, if it is high tragedy, and it may be pity and irony, and it may be the raucous laughter of the strong man. But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective in this kind of story must be such a man. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor- by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world. I do not care much about his private life; he is neither a eunuch or a satyr; I think he might seduce a duchess and I am quite sure he would not spoil a virgin; if he is a man of honor in one thing, he is that in all things.

He is a relatively poor man, or he would not be a detective at all. He is a common man or he could not go among common people. He has a sense of character or he would not know his job. He will take no man's money dishonestly and no man's insolence without a due and dispassionate revenge. He is a lonely man and his pride is that you will treat him as a proud man or be very sorry you ever saw him. He talks as the man of his age talks- that is, with rude wit, a lively sense of the grotesque, a disgust for sham, and a contempt for pettiness.

The story is this man's adventure in search of a hidden truth, and it would ne adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure. He has a range of awareness that startles you, but it belongs to him by right, because it belongs to the world he lives in. If there were enough like him, the world would be a very safe place to live in, without becoming too dull to be worth living in.

The film that followed was "Murder, My Sweet" from 1944. It was entertaining and a perfect example of the remarks Dr. Whillock made about the genre. The nest session in the series will be September 26. Especially if you are taking "Mystery and Suspense" you will want to check out my notes on the resource blog and, if possible, make a reservation with me for next time.

Dr. Whillock told me the last session (November 7) when he screens "Body Heat" (1981) may have a little too much - what? - sex, violence, nudity for high school students' parents to want them to see. So, I won't extend the usual invitation for that night.