NCTE on Visual Literacy in the Classroom

NCTE's latest blog; yet again, relevant to our class (PEOPLE).

Howard's causing a crisis.

Ugh. I'm going through a sort of crisis with Howard's article. Not because I disagree with anything she says, but because postmodernists (typically the theorists/friends I'm drawn to and love) absolutely delight in jarring me out of complacency. And sometimes, even as a self-proclaimed queer, I just want life to be easy; this is one of those times that I'm feeling very resistant to the idea that something is simply a social construct that we can only make sense of through our own rhetorical designs.

I want, in this case, for things to be "cut and dry" as Josh said in his post; whenever I run into one of these crises caused by pomos, I immediately get flustered--What? How can I be a feminists if women don't exist! Well, then I'll just have to quit everything! Of course I eventually come to terms, understanding that, just because something is a social construct, doesn't mean very real, lived experiences don't develop from them.


But I'm still in crisis mode.

How do we teach students to write their own-original-but-heavily-influenced-and-perhaps-not-original-at-all-but-that's-ok sentences rather than being "gatekeepers" of a gated community to which we don't even belong?

Picture Projects

First image NO copyright. Second image FREE!
Check out Dick and Jane and Sally.

Words, words, words (c)

"Berit Kjos compares the Harry Potter books with Dungeons and Dragons (1975) in that regard:

• Both immerse their fans in a plausible, well-developed fantasy world, replete with an evolving history, a carefully mapped geography, and wizards that model the thrill-packed and power-filled way of the mythical shaman.

• In this fantasy world, adults and children alike are led into imagine experiences that create memories, build new values, guide their thinking and mold their understanding of reality.

(Jenkins, 1993) (c)

What is not protected by Copyright?

• Works consisting entirely of information that is common property and containing no original authorship
  

JOE HOVAUGH settled into the garden on his knees and began pulling at the wet, slippery weeds that had sprung up between the neat rows of beets. He trowelled his way around the zucchini and up and down the lines of carrots, and he did not notice the big Indian at all until he stopped at the tomatoes, sat back, and tried to remember where he had set the ball of twine and the wooden stakes.

The big Indian was naked to the waist. His hair was braided and wrapped with white ermine and strips of red cloth. He wore a single feather held in place by a leather band stretched around his head, and, even though his arms were folded tightly across his chest, Joe could see the glitter and flash of silver and turquoise on each finger. "If you build it, they will come," said the big Indian. Joe rolled forward and shielded his eyes from the morning sun. "If you build it, they will come," said the big Indian again.

"Christ sakes," Joe shouted. "Get the hell out of the corn, will ya!" "If you build it..." "Yeah, yeah. Hey! This is private property. You people ever hear of private property?"
Excerpt from Thomas King's short story "A Seat in the Garden"

I'm not sure if my intentions are going to come across with this post; it's probably obvious that I'm playing around with the concepts we're discussing in class --- (re)re)appropriation, intertextualtiy, and so on.
I also want to think(link) more about the intersections of Capitalism and Christianity...I'm thinking about the concept of ownership, property, rights, power...

I was thinking in class that I may need to get the names of Judith Butler, Leslie Feinberg, Jacques Derrida, Allison Bechdal, Riki Wilchins, Kevin Kumashiro, Dorothy Allison, Ani Difranco, and, and, and...tattooed on me if we want to think about how culture shapes identity. We cannot separate ourselves from the culture we live in; I used to think I was authentic, but the people around me, the ones wearing Nike logos, were not--but truthfully...nothing about me is original, really. The words I use, the way I've come to understand my idenity has been informed by the theorists, friends, and writers and artists and activists I've come to know. So, how do i give credit where credit is due?

NCTE on board with Wikis

This blog from NCTE appeared in my blogbox today. It seems appropriate per our conversations in class. And by the way, thanks for the lesson on linking! That was sooooo much easier!

Visibility (PEOPLE Blog)

"They call it climbing and we call it visibility.
They call it coolness and we call it visibility.
They call it way too rowdy, we call it finally free." -LeTigre


"When the spirit of appropriation is reduced to another corporate slogan or commercial strategy, its rhetorical value is minimal as Elbow asking student to utilize collage for coherent meaning...In these kinds of scenarios, appropriation serves only to reinstitutionalize the already accepted form of discourse. Appropriation is not applied in order to make a new rhetorical turn; it is used to keep the same rhetoric already in place." (Rice 58).

Tom, Don and I went out for drinks last week and we got on the topic of "femme." I tried to explain my identity as a queer fat femme and this article assists me further in doing so: femme is the reappropriation of feminine; to take what has been culturally deemed feminine and appropriate expectations or standards for women and queer them to both challenge femininity and reclaim it. Tattooed arms mark my otherwise invisible femme self, just as some fashion choices accentuate womanly tits and ass (as expected) right along with the fat I'm supposed to hide.

You call it coolness, I call it visibility.

"When working with appropriation, it's not enough to simply cut and rearrange words or images. Writers also must remiagine the logic of structure as well..." (Rice 59).


Structure. Lack of order. Clarity. Visibility. Self. Writing. Keyboard. HTML. Code. Cultural code. The Machine. The Self.

PEOPLE Program and Alverno

Just so y'all are aware, I'm using this page for both Alverno English Methods and the Professional Development course at UW-Madison for the PEOPLE program.

I'll try to specify for which audience I'm writing, however, I don't mind if either set of students reads/comments on any of my posts.


Amy

Forced Fun

FORCED LABOR

ALSO FORCED

FORCED ALL YEAR LONG

FUN STUFF

ONE SENTENCE LONG FUN

In the beginning, my students loved the idea of blogging. In fact, I remember one student saying, as we set them up, "This is the new facebook!" Fast forward about 100 days and it was no longer the new facebook. Rather, it was pain-in-the-ass homework that was forced.

I feel like a cool-hunter who, once they find what's cool, they also kill it.

Is it possible to use what belongs to youth without killing it? Can we, as teachers-- authority figures--ask students to organically write something--something that is not forced?

PEOPLE Response 1: Yancey

So I read and wrote a response with pictures and links and it was everything Yancey suggest we embrace as writing teachers.

But I wrote this response in Vista, Word 2007, which sucks big time, and I could not transfer it. I'm still working on it. More to come, hopefully.
-a

Queerness in our classrooms

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the specific part of Cho's stand up that I wanted in an isolated, cut-down, youtube clip, so, in order to find the part I'm interested in, please "fast forward" to about the 7-minute mark, and watch to about 8:20. Of course you're welcome to view the whole thing, but it's not all relevant to my argument (also, be forewarned that's it's serious adult content!).


"There are so many gays all over the world! But not Korea! But everywhere else."

I've been thinking more about our discussion last week regarding issues of queerness and the classroom, especially when thinking about queerness within multicultural settings. Here's what I've been thinking about (feel free to read on or not; this is just my own thoughts, nothing required):

From my own experience, I've found that many identity-groups will use that specific identity-category as the excuse for hating queers. When I started working at Metro, a school that is 99% African-American, I was told that issues of homosexuality were deeply frowned upon in the Black community and that I should not address them. When talking to one of my best friends from high school, he told me he'd kick his nephew's asses if any of them even thought about being gay. When I asked him why, he responded, "We're Hispanic. Clearly, you don't understand what it means to be Hispanic!" And Margaret Cho's parody of her mother speaks to the same issue.
So, I started thinking about all of these similar experiences and wondered about white people. We all know that white folks are just as homophobic and heterosexist as anyone else, so why is it, when white folks are homophobic, it's not often tied to a racial identity?
I think, and I could very well be mistaken, that this is because whiteness is invisible (I'm specifically talking about mainstream whites--not crazy supremacists). It is because whiteness is invisible that racism functions so well. We don't ever have to think about our privilege; it just is. Therefore, when whites are homophobic, they *may* cling to other identities such as religious, political, or class identities (i.e. "It's against the bible!").

To say we cannot address issues of queerness in our classrooms because we work with a particular group, especially of a specific race, who is not accepting of it, is troubling for several reasons:

1. This assumes that there are no queers who identify within that group (there are, indeed, gay Koreans, etc.).
2. This allows us to remain neutral, thus not an ally, to those queers within that identity group; we are essentially supporting homophobic practices.
3. This stereotypes that group as being closed-minded bigots incapable of forward and/or different thinking.
4. This assumes that the people of this group cannot/should not/are not capable of being challenged.
5. This assumes that there are no allies in this particular group.
6. This may also perpetuate more racist assumptions about that group.
7. This assumes that individuals do not think for themselves.

I am the Gay/Straight Alliance faculty advisor for Rufus King and the majority of our GAY students are of color--exactly what I was told, in my first year of teaching, would not be the case.
To say that being gay is not ok with the Black community, the Latino community, Asian, etc., is obviously a myth that allows homophobia to thrive.
It puts us, as teachers (especially if we are "outsiders"--racially, culturally, etc--to those we teach), in an uncomfortable place because we don't want to be culturally insensitive; however, I've found that it is simply a myth, fueled by homophobia, that XYZ groups are *particularly* homophobic. One's race, religion, sex, or class does not make one homophobic. One's homophobia makes one homophobic.

I firmly believe that it is our duty to recognize the diversity of all of our students, and this includes challenging homophobia when we see it in our schools.

For more resources: http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/home/index.html

Newsweek's Annual List of Top US High Schools

http://www.newsweek.com/id/201160

Rufus King is at 271; the first WI school to appear! Hurray MPS

Milw. King's Jessica Holden honored for hard work and dedication | Article | Preps On The Net

Milw. King's Jessica Holden honored for hard work and dedication | Article | Preps On The Net

Shared via AddThis

Welcome LTM 622!

Hello Ladies,
It was a pleasure meeting you all tonight. I think this will be a fun semester!

Let me know if you're having any problems with this whole blogger-thing!

-a

Comic Creator

http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/comic/index.html


Check this out! I can't wait to try it with my freshmen!

Checklist for White Allies Against Racism

Checklist for white allies against racism
How often do you behave as an ally to people of color?

Adapted from notes from John Raible: "I devised this checklist after thinking, as a person of color, about the white people I know with whom I have developed some degree of trust. I wanted to articulate the specific behaviors I see them engaging in which lead me to appreciate their actions on behalf of students of color and against racism in general."

Read through the checklist to get a feel for what constitutes "ally behavior" on the part of white anti-racists. How many apply to you! Use this scoring scale: 4 = all the time 3 = most of the time 2 = some of the time 1 = rarely 0 = never
Part 1
1. _____ I am present at meetings to make sure anti-racism is part of the discussion.
2. _____ I demonstrate knowledge and awareness of the issues of racism.
3. _____ I use the language and political worldview of anti-racism.
4. _____ I continually educate myself and others about racism.
5. _____ I recognize my own limitations as a white person doing anti-racist work.
6. _____ I raise issues about racism over and over, both in public and in private.
7. _____ I realize "it's not about me." I can be objective and avoid over-personalizing issues that people of color raise.
8. _____ I can identify racism as it is happening.
9. _____ I can strategize and work in coalition with others to advance anti-racist work.
10. _____ I attend to group dynamics to ensure the inclusion of people of color.
11. _____ I support and validate the comments and actions of people of color and other allies. (But not in a paternalistic manner!)
12. _____ I strive to share power with people of color.
13. _____ I take a personal interest in the lives and welfare of individual people of color.
14. _____ I use my privilege to communicate information from the dominant group to people of color.
15. _____ I hold high expectations for people of color.
16. _____ I reach out to initiate contact with people of color.
17. _____ I listen carefully so that I am more likely to understand the needs of people of color.
18. _____ I can adopt and articulate a person of color's point of view when it may be helpful.
19. _____ I can accept leadership from people of color.
Part II (Includes the characteristics in Part 1)
1. _____ I work side-by-side with people of color on tasks, projects, and actions.
2. _____ I can debrief with people of color to give and receive "reality checks" and affirmations after meetings, events, and actions.
3. _____ I readily understand–with no explanations necessary–a person of color's position or perception.
4. _____ I have joking relationships with individual people of color.
5. _____ I can vent with and be present for people of color when they need to vent feelings about racism.
6. _____ I debate issues with people of color and take their ideas seriously.
7. _____ I take risks in relating to people of color and take their ideas seriously.
8. _____ I demonstrate shared values with people of color, for example, impatience with the rate of change, anger and injustice, etc.
9. _____ I know the private lives and families of friends who are people of color.
10. _____ I can relax and socialize and be at ease with people of color.
Part III - The following are some problematic areas where white people seem to get stuck. Do they apply to you?
1. _____ I am not clear on the words people of color prefer to use to identify themselves.
2. _____ When people of color point out racism as it is happening, I feel personally attacked.
3. _____ I rely on people of color for education about my own (& institutional) racism.
4. _____ I use meetings and organizing time to establish my anti-racist credentials.
5. _____ It is important to me to point out examples of "reverse racism" when I see them.
6. _____ I have been told I act in a racist manner without knowing it, but I think I'm being an ally.
7. _____ I speak for people of color and attempt to explain their positions.
8. _____ I focus on mediating between people of color for other whites.
9. _____ I see my role as interpreting the behavior of people of color for other whites.
10. _____ I prefer to spend anti-racist time & energy dealing with my personal feelings and issues rather than moving the anti-racist agenda forward.
11. _____ I intellectualize about the struggle rather than live it daily.
12. _____ I wait for people of color to raise white people's awareness.
13. _____ I know well fewer than five individual peers who are people of color.
Copyright 1994 by John Raible

snycorva.cortland.edu/~russellkCreated by Kathryn RussellSUNY Cortland - PhilosophyLast modified on 1-04-01

From a prior student of mine...

Upon thinking about diversity and what it means to be and to work with and for the "Other", I asked an old student of mine, now attending Harvard University, to reflect upon her experiences growing up in MPS and going to the most diverse school in the state. I thought this may be useful to you, as future teachers. Here's her response...

***

It's sort of difficult for me to describe clearly how important it was to go to school in an incredibly diverse and open environment, because up through high school I'd never really known anything else. The student population at every school I went to in Milwaukee was tilted heavily towards the "other" with respect to race, income, and family background, so I didn't see the environment at King as any different from the schools I'd previously attended. Now that I'm at Harvard, though, I miss King's environment. Although the most obvious difference is that Harvard is much, much whiter than King, I think the more salient feature is that there's just so much privilege here. The first week of my freshman year, I was sitting around talking with a few people on our floor. Two kids got into an argument as to who was less spoiled, and they started giving examples of just how difficult their lives were. The first said, "I have to pump my own gas!" (Never mind that his dad bought the car and paid his credit card bills.) The second said, "I have to clean the pool!" That was probably my first "What the fuck am I doing here?" moment, and one of the first times I realized just how different my environment is here in Cambridge than it was back home in Milwaukee.The other reason I have difficulty talking about what King's environment went to me is because I don't fit perfectly on either side of the dividing line between the privileged and the marginalized. (Of course, I don't believe that it makes any sense to sort people out into the Man and the Other - but that seems to be the way a lot of people talk about privilege and marginalization.) On the one hand, I'm privileged to be white/Asian, to be upper-middle-class, to have educated parents, to be in good health, to have a two-parent family, and so on - so maybe I'm the Man. On the other hand, I'm female, I'm gay, I'm not-quite-white - so maybe I'm the Other. But from both perspectives, I think King was a good place to be. The diversity is good for people who don't fit the straight-white-Christian-male model, I think. I came out in high school, and although there were only a few out students (especially women), I found it a pretty accepting place to be out - especially compared to some of my friends from more homogeneous areas. I almost never felt that I was second-guessed because I was a woman, although I've felt that way in other settings (for instance, the national debate circuit). On the other hand, the diversity is also good for privileged people - I think that a lot of the passive racism and sexism and classism and heterosexism I see here at Harvard can be directly explained by the fact that a lot of people were simply never exposed to an environment that disrupted their assumptions about race, or gender, or class, or sexuality. It's hard to buy into stereotypes about black folks when your school is 65% African-American; it's hard to keep using "gay" as an epithet when you know that someone else in the room is gay. This is also where anti-oppressive education comes in. Not every classroom is going to have a gay student who's willing or able to call out other students for homophobic behavior, and in those classrooms, it's especially important that the teacher, as the authority figure and the adult, play an active role. I didn't entirely realize that I was gay when I started high school, but it was still incredibly reassuring when Amy, on the first day of her ninth-grade English class, laid out an explicit rule that it wasn't acceptable to use terms like "gay" in a derogatory manner. When you're in a position of privilege, it can be difficult to remember that not everyone is as comfortable in their own skin as you are; being in any kind of minority can often add to the already intense social pressure and stress that most kids experience during high school. So a good teacher, I think, goes out of his or her way to establish that it's not acceptable to pick on people because of their race or gender or class or sexuality. This is really, really tough, because it requires you to admit your own privilege - and a lot of us white upper-middle-class liberals feel awfully guilty about that. It's very difficult for me, as a white/Chinese woman, to admit that black students might someday see me as the oppressor, even though my intentions are good; I've been angry about white racism since the day my first-grade teacher told me about Martin Luther King, Jr., and the civil rights movement, and admitting that I might be some small and well-meaning part of the problem is not only embarassing; it also calls into question a part of my self-understanding that's very important to me. But the best teachers I've had have recognized that and gotten over it. While it's legitimately uncomfortable to admit that you don't know everything about working with black students, it is infinitely more uncomfortable for your black students if you're not willing to get over yourself and figure out how to make your classroom safe for them.

Effective Teachers are Effective Allies

Kumashrio's article is a useful tool to identify the ways in which we do or do not employ methods of anti-oppressive education in our own classrooms and reminds us that there is not, and never will be, one "quick fix" to the multitudes of problems that have arisen out of a culture that is rooted in racism, sexism and colonialism.

I've been thinking about oppression in the classroom for quite some time and did my Masters study on the topic; through both my research and from personal experience, I've come to this very simple conclusion: to be an anti-oppressive educator, one must, first and foremost, identify her/himself as an "ally": an ally to "the Other". From here, we'll stop wasting our time over who is at fault, who feels guilty, and get some real work done. I have seen too many people become paralyzed by guilt, or by playing defense, thus refusing to listen to what Others (those who are different from the Self) have to say and validate their lived experiences as meaningful and telling. And if one wants to be defensive, ignore that oppression really exists, or wants to chalk it up to "anger", "laziness", or "complaining", then one will never be an effective teacher.

While there are, of course, weaknesses and pit-falls in every approach and every theory, using all of the cited methods of anti-oppressive education, while simultaneously questioning the methods and critically thinking about the implications of our actions, can reduce the amount of oppression students will inevitably experience in middle and high school.

I'm in a unique and special situation at Rufus King High School, unlike the rest of the city of Milwaukee, where people of different racial, gender, class, and religious backgrounds work, learn, and collaborate together to make what has often been said to be "one of the best high schools in the state" ; and to ignore our diversity or to suggest that our success is not partially due to our collective, continuing labor to unlearn our bigotry and to recognize and embrace our differences, would be a grave error.

Educators and administrators at King have implemented several programs, spaces, and opportunities for students and faculty to work in an anti-oppressive environment—or at least one that attempts to resist oppression. We implement the International Baccalaureate program, which has a strong focus on global education. Our after-school clubs (run by volunteer
faculty members) include: The Gay/Straight Alliance, The Black Student Union, Latinos Unidos, The Asian Club, Friends of Islam, The Jew Crew, Bible Study, The Gospel Choir, The Culinary Club (with a focus on making/learning about foods from around the world), Key Club (emphasis on local, community service), Amnesty International, and more. We have a diverse and (mostly) open staff that is willing to work together along with four specific Special Education programs (Blind, Deaf/Hearing Impaired, Autistic, and Emotionally/Behaviorally Disturbed).

A story: just a few months ago, my colleague and friend came to me with a note he received in his mailbox. It was from one of his prior students, an African-American autistic girl, coming out to him as lesbian. This was a unique position for him, as he's straight, white, masculine male who never thought of himself as someone a student would feel comfortable coming out to. My colleague came to me, asking what I recommend he do with the letter—this student, because of her autism, communicates mostly through letters, and is extremely isolated. Should he talk to her? Write her back? Say anything at all? I recommended that he acknowledge the letter simply by thanking her for trusting him. He did so and she now comes to his classroom every so often to talk about the latest episode of The L Word or Gossip Girl. This same girl also came out to one other teacher—another straight, white, masculine male who also said he wasn't exactly sure how to approach the situation. But he, too, simply acknowledged her courage and kept his door open.

These two men are not angry or defensive with her for revealing something to them that they cannot relate to, and, instead, offered her two spaces for her to feel safe and herself.

To be an effective teacher, your door needs to be open to all students; and not in a generic, "I-love-all-children" -kind-of-way, but in a genuine, honest way, in which you recognize your own privilege, your own power, and simply become an ally to those who experience the world differently from you.

***

Here's an e-mail I received from a colleague today:

In November, the Rufus King Jew Crew along with members of the Black Student Union, welcomed Mr. Israel Siriri to Rufus King. Mr. Siriri leads the Jewish Abuyadaya community in Uganda and reporters from Channel 10's Black Nouveau were on hand to film the event and interview Mr. Siriri. The broadcast times are listed below. We'll be busy with conferences for the first broadcast but it will be shown two other times to accommodate our exciting schedules.

Viewing times: Israel Siriri on Channel 10’s Black Nouveau Wednesday, February 18^th at 6:30 pm. The Siriri spot will be on at the top of the show. The program will re-air on Channel 36, Thursday, February 19th at 12:30 am and Sunday, February 22^nd at 4:00 pm.

In solidarity.