Maggot Moon Reaction Piece Frick, freaking frack.
This book was tough. Disturbing. I really hated it. Well, maybe I just hated what happened to its characters. And how unlikely it seemed that anything good would ever happen to Standish. Standish narrates the book, which creates an odd, fragmented storyline in which the reader is introduced to concepts a little out of order… often out of focus and a little scrambled… just like words would be to a dyslexic mind. Pretty smart of Gardner, really. Standish Treadwell has one blue eye and one brown eye. Hector is gone. Raspberries helped them become friends. When Hector was here, Standish wasn’t bullied, but now he is. Mr. Lush is a scientist who was banished to Zone 7 when he refused to do something the Motherland wanted him to. Even the teachers bully. His mother and father are gone. The moon is in the basement. Grandfather shoots rats. Hector and Standish built a toy rocket ship in the attic and dream of croca-colas and ice-cream-colored Cadillac’s. Standish figures out the secret. He comes up with a plan. Standish lives in the Motherland, in Zone 7. He goes to school, lives in fear, and keeps secrets. This is a dystopian book. The motherland is obsessed with creating a pure race and keeping its citizens and its enemies convinced of its supremacy. Imagine Nazi Germany (the wall helps build this image) but it seems to be set in England (the fish and chips and the zones give that away). There are greenflies (the police), obstructers (rebels), and mothers and sons of purity (sheep). It’s really hard to talk about how I felt about this book without giving away the ending. When everyone who wants to read it has done so, we are definitely going to dissect it further. For now, I want to focus on the illustrations in Maggot Moon. The illustrations in Maggot Moon start appearing on page 31 of the book. The first illustration is a hole in the wall. A rat’s hole. Over the next 80 pages or so, the rat appears and disappears, as if investigating his surroundings. Around page 100, he finds a bottle, which a few pages later, turns out to be poison. The rat tips over the bottle, and drinks the poison. Dead rat. Around page 150, a fly appears. The fly lays eggs in the dead rat’s mouth. Over and over again (172). The eggs are spilling out of the rat’s mouth. The rat’s belly swells (196). Maggots come out of the rat. The maggots get bigger (200). One maggot takes center stage. It hatches. It flies away. Gross… but symbolic. The rat is a person who rebels. It’s someone who knows it’s dangerous to go poking around for the truth, but who has to do it anyway because he can’t be a sheep. By the time he’s located the poison, it’s too late. He knows it’s poison. He knows it will kill him, but he has to drink it anyway. He has to hope that his death will reveal the greenflies for who they really are and show the maggots on the moon to the other rats… Maybe that’s not a correct interpretation. What did you think? The reader KNOWS what’s going to happen to the rat. She knows what the fly will do. She knows that there is no hope for the rat. Maybe this is why the images bothered me so much. I knew what was going to happen to Standish. I could tell. I saw it coming from a long way off and there wasn’t a frick-fracking thing I could do about it. In response to Maggot Moon, I drew a two-faced moon. One side shows Standish hanging from above, holding on to a fake moon. The entire picture is made up of words rather than lines. The words on this side of the mood are words that reflect the world as the sheep see it. (Motherland, supreme race, moon landing, mothers of purity, trust, reeducation, etc.) The other side of the moon is the world as Standish sees it and everything that the greenflies are trying to hide: hoax, machine guns, over-boiled cabbage, cigarettes, maggots, rats, sheep, holes in your heart and head. A maggot from the true side digs through society’s false façade to show that the truth will come out eventually.
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Week Two Assumptions before Class: What might literacies-based teaching of literature look like?
Element 1 – Before Reading Wells’ Paper Element 2 - After Reading Well's Paper What is literacy today? Literacy is reading, writing, viewing, visually representing, listening and speaking. It’s interpreting what’s going on around you (In text, images and sounds) to make sense of the world. It’s using text, images and sounds to communicate. Literacy is writing, reading, listening and speaking. It’s collaborative communication. It’s how we store memories and make the world a better place for ourselves and the generations to come. What is literature? Literature is anything that can be read, viewed, or interpreted and given meaning. I’m somewhat inclined to say that literature must include text, but we read icons, don’t we? When’s the last time you read the little words under the speech bubble icon in your phone? You don’t know that’s how to get to your texts because the word messages is there. The big green speech bubble icon is what you read. I feel like my definition of literature is pretty accurate. I would definitely add numbers to my definition of literacy. Math and reading expressions, equations, amounts, etc. is a type of literacy, so numbers could be considered literature. Isn’t that counterintuitive!? How do we connect real world/ out-of-school learning? Get the kids interested in what they’re learning. Make sure it applies to “life outside of school.” Teach them things they can and will use. Bring “life outside of school” into the school. It is essential that students aren’t taught the exact same thing in the exact same manner day in and day out. (“Down with direct instruction!” it seems to cry.) Students all have different personal experiences, exposures to literacy, and are at different ZPDs. As Wells said, there isn’t a formula for creating perfect lessons to teach children. Teachers must work together to come up with inquiry-based projects that suit the students’ ages, past experiences, and ability. Effective teaching of literacy means equipping the students with the ability to read, view, and listen to literature, to process it, and to create something with that newfound knowledge. It means not teaching them what, but teaching them how. Teaching isn’t giving the students information and telling them what to think. It’s providing an opportunity, teaching a process, scaffolding, and in effect, teaching them HOW to think and to construct meaning collaboratively. What is the most successful balance of the actual (in classroom) and the virtual (online?) I don’t think there’s a percentage. I am definitely more of an “in person” person when it comes to learning. Is there necessarily a clear dichotomy here? What about when students are online in the literal classroom, sitting next to their peers? I still don't know if there's a magic number out there. It's more about how you use your time with your students, be it online or in person. They need to use that time collaborating, researching, discussing, creating, presenting and reflecting. That can be done in an online community or in the classroom. I would definitely like to hear everyone's thoughts about this. What would literacy-based teaching look like? Keeping in mind my current understanding of literacy instruction, literacy-based teaching would involve personal choice, research and exploration, and the creation of some sort of product to demonstrate what was learned. Dialogic Inquiry! When I was reading Well’s article, I kept thinking about inquiry-based learning, where teachers create projects or problems for the students to solve or research. Through the process of research and discussion, the students make discoveries and master the teacher’s objectives. Dialogic Inquiry is the same and emphasizes collaboration and discussion. Wells would say that literacy-based teaching would look very individualized. It should be tailored to individual students’ abilities and interests. Personal choice, small group work, and project-based learning are all things you could expect to see in a literacy-based classroom. Perhaps most of all, students would collaborate with their teacher and peers. Why is collaboration important? Tomasello argues that humans have the ability to participate with others in collaborative activities with shared goals and intentions: shared intentionality. Participation in such activities requires not only especially powerful forms of intention reading and cultural learning, but also a unique motivation to share psychological states with others and unique forms of cognitive representation for doing so. The result of participating in these activities is species-unique forms of cultural cognition and evolution, enabling everything from the creation and use of linguistic symbols to the construction of social norms and individual beliefs to the establishment of social institutions (2004, p.675). "Not all who wander are lost." - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring My photo of Devil's Lake State Park in Baraboo, WI converted to a watercolor with Waterlogue. Finding Pi When I was twelve, My mother taught me about Pi. Never satisfied with the “just because,” She explained the why. “Draw a circle and a line Through its center point. This is the diameter.” She magicked diameter into A string and pulled It to her. Holding the abstract term in Her right hand, I began to understand. Diameter became real. She picked herself up and Inched around the misshapen wheel. Once Twice Thrice And just a little bit more. “Three times and a little bit more. Equals Pi, 3.14 Circumference = 2πr And 2 times r = d d times pi = circumference, AKA Diameter’s journey.” “But why go around in circles at all? Diameter cuts from A to B, So what’s with the circular sprawl?” “That’s not her story.” “But why?” The earth is not flat. Diameter needs Pi. Pi gives us circumference, The Earth’s equator. All lines of latitude and longitude Population and flavor. Diameter can cut through the planet, From one pole to the other. But you can’t dig a hole to China, You’ll miss all that’s out there. You need to understand Pi So you can move on From volume and area and Go back to the why. Why is there hunger, poverty and pain? Why am I here? What can I give and gain? Then, If you don’t like it, Take it apart and build it again.”1 “Not all who wander are lost,” Said she. “It’s not the destination. It’s the journey. So keep asking questions, and Don’t be afraid to wander. If you’re going around in circles, You’re not lost. You’re just looking for Pi.” -Jill Zappia Created by Jill Zappia Reflection on Navigating EarlyThis week I read Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool. Set in the post-WWII era and told in first-person narration, it tells the story of Jack Baker, a teen-age boy who was uprooted from his Kansas farm after his mother died and sent to a boarding school in Maine, to be near to his father's Navy base.
Jack (Jackie), is completely lost. He's been torn away from the only home he's ever known and struggles to make sense of his young mother's death. Jack makes an unlikely friend in Early. Early Auden is an enigma. Every inch of his four-foot, seven inch frame is full of strange habits, stories and numbers. Early lives in the janitor's workroom because it's big and warm and away from the other students. He sorts jelly beans (into rows of ten when he's concentrating on a problem and by color when he's upset), is a master craftsman, and listens to "Mozart on Sundays, Louis Armstrong on Mondays, Frank Sinatra on Wednesdays, and Glen Miller on Fridays. Unless it's raining. If it's raining, it's always Billie Holiday,"(30). It's fairly obvious to the modern reader that Early has autism. Because this story is set in a time before autism was recognized, he was just considered strange. Vanderpool paints him as a lovable, intelligent, and misunderstood character. As the story progresses, Jack (and the reader!) begins to understand him and what seemed strange starts to make perfect sense. Perhaps what is most strange about Early is his fascination with Pi. Pi is the number of times a diameter will go around its circle. It's first three numbers are 3.14, but it doesn't end there. The number pi is impossible to write in its entirety, because it goes on forever. Early has a special connection to numbers. "I've always just seen numbers differently than most people. Fisher says it's a gift. He says when he sees the numbers that start with 3.14, it's just a bunch of figures that don't mean anything more than numbers. That made me sad for him. For me, they are blue and purple and sand and ocean and rough and smooth and loud and whispering, all at the same time," (125). When a math teacher claims that Pi will end, Early storms out of the classroom. He later tells Jack that Pi can't end because that's not in his story. Jack listens to Early as the story of Pi unveils. Pi is not a what to Early. He's a who. "Early circled the number one. 'This is Pi. And the rest of the numbers are his story. The story of Pi begins with a family. Three is the mother. She is beautiful and kind and she carried him in her heart always. Four is his father. He is strong and good. And here' -- Early pointed to the number one, in the middle-- 'this is Pi. His mother named him Polaris, but she said he would have to earn his name,"(31). Early tells Jack (Jackie as he calls him) the story of Pi in segments. Pi travels to far-away lands, gets lost, is captured by pirates, escapes a volcano, saves a fair maiden (well, the Haggard and Homely Wench, but she turns into a fair maiden!) meets a white-haired ancient, get's trapped in catacombs of sorrow, and becomes hopelessly lost. Having used the constellations to find his way all of these years, Pi can no longer see the stars. He can't see Ursa Major, the great mother bear, who will guide him home. When Jack's dad doesn't show up for fall break like he planned, Jack follows Early into the Appalachian mountains in a row boat. Early fully believes in Pi's existence and seems to think that if he can find the huge black bear that's been terrorizing the Appalachian trail, that he will also find Pi and prove that he is not dead and that Pi does not end. What happens in the woods is truly amazing. Early's story starts to come true. And Jack realizes that Pi is real too. Could he still be alive? This story is about living with loss, the journey of letting go, the power of friendship (Semper Fi!) and hope. I kept thinking about my mom while I was reading this book. She's a 7th grade math teacher and is a big reason behind why I became a teacher. I remember learning about the concept of Pi when I was eleven and wondering where the number 3.1415926... came from. So she showed me. She took out a tupperware from our cabinet and grabbed some yarn, a pencil and a pair of scissors from a drawer. "Draw a circle using this tupperware," she said. Then, "Now cut the string so it goes straight across the center of the circle." She proceeded to teach me the concept of Pi and explained its purpose and everything you can do with it. I wrote the poem "Finding Pi" after reading Navigating Early. The poem starts off with my mother's explanation of Pi and my reaction to her lesson. The mother in my poem is my mother, but she's also partly Jack's mother, and probably your mother too. “It is necessary ... for a man to go away by himself ... to sit on a rock ... and ask, 'Who am I, where have I been, and where am I going?” ― Carl Sandburg The standard outcomes for ECI 521, Teaching Literature for Young Adults are impressive, both in quality and sheer amount. The outcomes are spread out in a table, organized into the areas of professional, personal, and virtual goals and can be found here if you want to take a gander. I spent a good amount of time reading over these standards to both reflect on my current teaching practices and to anticipate how ECI 521 will encourage and equip me to master these standards.
While skimming the spreadsheet, I made some connections to what I’m doing in my classroom. As a professional, I feel that I am a strong leader in the classroom and my school community. I serve as the LA department chair, contribute to my PLT, and lead my 6th grade team. After reading the professional outcomes of this class, I’m eager to learn more about how I can contribute to professional development at my school. I want to improve in “modeling collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.” As for my literate self, I love to read and I often read what my students are reading. (Yay YA Lit!) The National Council of Teachers of English goal number three is that I experience a wide range of literature consistent with my own and my students’ motivations, interests and intellects. I help coach Battle of the Books at my school and I try to read as many books off the list as I can. I read with my 6th graders during SSR and I’m attempting the 40 Book Challenge at my school. Reading is a catharsis for me, so it’s not something that I ever really had to force myself into. I love it. As far as the “wide range of literature” goes, I definitely can improve there. I don’t read many graphic novels and I usually avoid nonfiction. It’s definitely important that I branch out with what I read so I can reach all of my students. My virtual self is probably what has grown the most in the few years since I became a teacher. I love technology and love finding ways to use it to increase student engagement, provide authentic writing opportunities, and make the learning and assessment process more efficient. I use Twitter to stay connected with other educators and to network. I use Edmodo to collaborate with colleagues and as a collaborative workspace for my students. This year my students used Animoto to create book trailers, used Google docs for writing groups, and had my students blog through the eyes of a character using Weebly. I know there’s so much more out there for me to discover! Rather than getting bogged down by the desire to learn about each and every new technology, I want to figure out ways to use these technologies efficiently to encourage collaboration and to improve my students’ skills, not just to use technology for technology’s sake. Thinking about my current practices and comparing them to the course outcomes helped me pinpoint some things that I’d like to focus on during ECI 521. I’d really love to discuss the role of technology in teaching literature. As I mentioned before, my students blogged this year through the perspective of a character; I would love to expand on that practice. How can I use student blogging in my classroom? How can I work in the community and my school to usher in change so that students have access to computers that we would need to make this possible? Is a BYOD policy practical or possible? I also know that I want to use more diverse literature in my classroom, both in terms of cultural diversity and by introducing the students to multiple genres. I especially hope to find a graphic novel (or three!) to use in a lit circle unit next year. Additionally, I would love to discuss the role of social media in story telling (i.e. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries) and see how this practice could be pulled into a 6th grade classroom. Overall, I’m excited for changes that this class will bring to my own classroom next year and am ready to start the journey! I started a class for grad school this week.
Wow. I forgot what being a student felt like. It's exciting to be taking a class. The Hermione Granger side of my personality is waking up and she's excited for assignments and reading and writing. (I'm a nerd. I know.) But I've also never taken classes and worked full time all at once. It's week one and I'm sitting at my desk at school staring at a stack of essays, folders full of literature circle jobs to grade, book trailer submissions on my Edmodo page, and a list of students to email... and it seems like a lot. I have three weeks left with my sixth-graders, and am sure I'll find a way to make everything work... but geez, I sure wish I had a time-turner. Anyway, my first assignment is a pre-assessment. I looked at the standards-based outcomes of ECI 521, Teaching Literature for Young Adults, and completed a "Funds of Knowledge Inventory" assessing my current abilities against the outcomes of this course in the areas of professional, literate and virtual self. Here's a picture of my initial reaction to the outcomes. I'll analyze them further, looking for themes and patterns and will post a more coherent explanation tomorrow. |
Jill Zappiateacher, grad student, bibliophile Archives
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