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Artist Guy Laramee carves and illustrates incredible sculptures out of books in his duo series The Great Wall and Biblios.
You're opinion?
Blasphemy? Intriguing?
I've always considered the Google Lit Trips project to be a sort of "3-Dimensionalizing" of place-based storytelling. Literally turning books into 3-D landscapes certainly turned my head a bit.
To me the best new ideas start a serious tug-0f-war within my paradigm set. I find myself intrigued when I can not simply respond with quick default opinions that have not been challenged recently.
I LOVE having my paradigms shaken, whether I wind up reaffirming at deeper levels or readjusting and refining my understandings.
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Google Lit Trips: Reading About Reading
Click for more epic fails, videos, and wins. (Share this post and make someone ROFL!
___________ Add this one to your Irony collection!
My collecting habits are becoming a big problem. Like most New Yorkers, I live in a tiny apartment. I don’t have enough wall space to hang the art I have, bottles of perfume overflow from...
__________ Perfume that smells like old books! Now that's romantic! Seriously! I'd really consider buying some.
And by the way, no matter what they told Kramer, I still think a perfume that smells like the beach would be great!
For the first day of Page-Turner, our new books blog, we asked cartoon editor Bob Mankoff to make a selection of New Yorker cartoons about the literary life. Here are his picks....
__________ They say The New Yorker cartoons are an acquired taste. I agree in the sense that they are often quite subtle and often are funnier on second reading.
But I suppose that can be said of all good writing.
Caught this article in passing and am passing it along here for TWO reasons. First, it features a few literature specific cartoons. And second because it marks the recent introduction of the new Page-Turner book blog from The New Yorker. I'm certain I'll be returning here often for inspiration.
~ http://www.GoogleLitTrips.com ~
The late 1800s marked the height (or length, as the case may be) of beards. Then, in the beginning of the 20th century, facial air fell out of favor, and for a long time it seemed like the collected wisdom of the great bearded age went with it.
________ I'm just saying,... Oh, I dunno what I'm just saying! Except I grew my beard to honor Mr. Kay, and have worn it for 40 some years.
J.K. Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series, delivers her Commencement Address, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination,” at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association.
__________ Every once in awhile, I come across an articulation of the value of great literature that makes my heart sing. Though I must confess that I never got past page 50 of the first Harry Potter story, I was always appreciative of the power that J.K. Rowling had for bringing reluctant and uninterested readers back to reading.
In this Harvard commencement address, Rowling absolutely nails it! Speaking to a group of graduates, most of whom probably feared failure more than most, she proclaims the power of failure and imagination. She builds a case for empathy and doing something of greater value than merely heading off with a set of impressive credentials to make a lot of money, but rather heading off to make a difference.
As I watched Rowling build her case, I couldn't help but think that if I were teaching high school seniors, AP or otherwise, I'd work into my lessons a collection of the most incredible commencement speeches I could find and have my students contemplate the advise given by those who articulate best the greatest definitions of success.
And, I'd justify it on many fronts including the new requirement for reading more nonfiction and informational texts, enjoying the irony that in this nonfiction, there is a tremendous emphasis upon the greatest truths as they are expressed in the greatest fiction.
See: http://bit.ly/L3s5M0 for Google Search result for other "Great Commencement Speeches."
"How does art inspire science? It may seem a difficult question to answer with any empirical evidence, but in a new research project Scottish scientists aim to do just that. Launched yesterday, What Scientists Read? will aim to find out what influence literature has on scientists and the decisions they make."
__________ Encouraged and eager to follow this study. Click the link to What Scientists Read?"(http://www.whatscientistsread.com/)
to explore an extensive website devoted to this study.
My guess is that there may be a significant gap between most people's immediate assumptions regarding this question and the reality.
Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/04/07/A_Selection_of_Poems_by_Billy_Collins Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins reads his poem, "The Lanyard." ---...
__________
Like all Billy Collins poetry, this one brings together both a bit of humor, nostalgia and a thought-provoking heartfelt sincerity that is easly accessible for most students young and old.
This video is an excerpt from the 30 minute video of his entire reading at the City Arts Lecture series in San Francisco.
Stanford scholar Reviel Netz discusses why some of the greatest mathematicians were also some of classical history's most poetic storytellers.
__________ Thank you Corrie Goldman!
Okay, so today's scoop.it for Reading About Reading is all about Math! This article took me on a bit of a wild string of contemplations...
I remember when I first heard the term "elegant proof" in a math class. I was a high school kid taking a required geometry class, and found myself actually intrigued, for the first time, by the notion that math proofs could be elegant, or that math could be interesting at all. Until then, it was too easy to simply dismiss math, particularly algebra as having no particular value in the real world other than as an annoying obstacle in the obstacle course of meeting graduation requirements.
In the arrogance of youth, as I watched math teacher after math teacher stumbling through feeble attempts to justify the value of abstract math, never even pausing to question whether I was actually the one who was not even making a feeble attempt to try to find a reason to care, it was just too easy to justify my desire to latch on to any and all rationalizations for not engaging my mind in the challenges of abstract thinking that math requires.
But then there was Mr. Tinling who didn't teach geometry as obstacle course, but taught geometry as mysteries to be solved; by clever use of mathematical patterns and clues that could be detected and pieces together by a kid who was so intrigued by the "TRUTH" of math. And, it was so cool to discover that by just knowing a few basic theorems, a math detective could root out the pieces of a complex match challenge, mix theorems together and amaze oneself by a string of deductions and conclusion leading to a mystery-solved sort of intellectual satifaction.
Mr. Tinling, unlike too many teachers, taught math from his heart. He was funny. He cared about math of course, but his love of math was less apparent than his love of kids. He reveled in appreciating, encouraging, and complimenting every move in the "right direction" that we made in our developing understandings. He just loved seeing that flicker in our intellectual lightbulbs as they struggled to become solid beams of comprehension. And, he'd beam at our every move in the right direction whether we were "at grade level" or not.
He knew the truth of the the phrase "They won't care how much you know until they know how much you care."
He knew his subject; he remembered the frustration of learning difficult concepts, he knew the associated defense mechanisms for dealing with those frustrations, and he knew just what we needed to keep from giving up and believing that we "just weren't any good at math."
In a way, he was selling confidence more than he was selling "test passing." And, we bought it... and we passed those tests.
He was an "elegant proof" himself, that great teachers are artists, as are great poets. _ _ _ _ _
Years later, I met a guy named Burt Dixon who taught math at a nearby high school. He reminded me a lot of Mr. Tinling, except that unlike Mr. Tinling who probably had at least a 30 year headstart on life over me, I probably had at least a 10 year headstart over Burt, at least in teaching. In conversation one day Burt told me that he started every school year by requiring his students to write an essay taking a position on whether or not bowlers were athletes. After jumping to one's default opinion on the matter, Burt would guide his class discussion to the point where it was pretty easy to see that a solid argument could be made for either side of the question. And, that became immediately intriguing to his students as he led his class to understand that it probably wasn't a "right/wrong" kind of question, but rather a challenge to collect evidence, to weigh and test the evidence, and to build a "proof" based upon reasoned analysis. Because the bowler athlete question unlike essentially all math questions, doesn't really have a "correct" answer, the kids found themselves more interested in the quality of their evidence and analysis as well as their realization of the importance of well reasoned counter evidence and arguments.
Burt was an artist too. His students began the year learning that in some ways math was simple in the sense that some careful thinking and learning of a few basic "investigative tools" generally guaranteed that we could solve the mystery of math.
Mr. Tinling and Burt sold confidence unlike another unamed math teacher who proudly started every semester by giving a math test on the first day designed specifically to have every single student fail. His reasoning? "That way they're convinced how much they need to learn this stuff!"
That teacher was no artist. I actually think he meant well, but unlike a good math proof, he failed to test his own thesis to see if his thesis was supported by the evidence. It wasn't. Kids who had relied upon struggling and sooner or later giving up in defeat, simply gave up sooner rather than later.
But, his counter "argument" was the old, "Kids these days (harumph!)..." _ _ _ _ _
Okay, another contemplation triggered by this article has to do with questionable modeling I've seen too often in Language Arts classes. One example that truly bothers me is the English teacher who tries to show compassion by sharing his or her feelings that they, too, "just aren't any good at math. "Stop it!" Just STOP IT!" Your comppasion is just reinforcing beliefs that it's okay to believe you can't that is too prevalent in young minds struggling with difficult challenges in life.
It's crude, but I have a metaphor for well-intended but counter-productive comments like this by educators who should know better.
"Don't pee in the pool of other curricular areas."
_ _ _ _ _
So...whether we specialize in literature or math or science or whatever, we're in the business of helping kids to connect the dots of what it is to be a successful human being. Encourage, promote, let 'em know you care about THEIR SUCCESS in every curricular area whether or not they've met with success there or not.
I always loved promoting all subject areas in my high school English classes. Here's a quick example from the The Grapes of Wrath Google Lit Trip...
Chapter 26: Grapes of Wrath math
You do the math.
Ma is able to purchase 2 pounds of hamburger, 1 loaf of bread, 5 pounds of potatoes, and (maybe) 1 pound of coffee for $1. Sounds cheap! But, remember, it took 7 people about 6 hours to earn that dollar.
Try this.. Brainstorm your best guess as to how muchthose items would cost today? Don't worry, your best guess is good enough.
If it took you and 6 friends 6 hours to earn that much, how much were each of you paid per hour that day?
Still sound cheap? _ _ _ _ _
Well, that was a long ride on a wild set of contemplations stimulated by this article. But, it's good to see that great math has much in common with great literature and that recognizing this, sort of supports the idea that it really is one world out there where "everything" is related in some way. And that when we begin to see the interrelatedness of all knowledge, it really does seems to make a lot more sense.
Of course, I'm not sure how to assess this, given tests that measure whether we know WHAT or HOW much more effectively than they measure whether we really know WHY (we should care).
"Click through to see what books your favorite writers curled up with, in many cases offering an interesting view into their personal lives and mindset. Head to Legacy Libraries where you can create an account to see if your own library matches that of any famous faces."
_________ For all you English majors (and others actually)... This article has extracted a collection of titles found in Famous Authors' Libraries.
Though I've always been one to believe that great literature is great literature regardless of the personal lives of the authors who wrote the stories, getting a sneak peak behind the scenes in the lives of our favorite authors has always been fascinating to me.
It's intriguing to see what the great authors read. This sampling comes from Legacy Libraries (http://www.librarything.com/legacylibraries) an incredible database of information about the libraries of many famous people.
Be careful though, there's something terribly addicting about exploring the libraries of people we've known about only through their famous work.
~ http://www.GoogleLitTrips.com ~
Bloggers and Pinterest users are going crazy over this poster, created by artist Mike Andereck for the volunteer-driven Colorado organization Burning Through Pages.
___________ Just plain cool. Sell the love of reading. Sometimes I think it's almost just that simple. It's not of course, but selling the love is an under-rated strategy in addressing issues of literacy and the actual value of reading.
HELENA, Mont. — A federal judge on Monday dismissed a civil lawsuit against author Greg Mortenson, calling claims "flimsy and speculative" that the humanitarian and his publisher lied in his best-selling "Three Cups of Tea" and "Stones Into...
__________ It's not the bigger case that brought Greg Mortenson to the scandal pages which in my understanding was more about bookkeeping issues than about any malicious intent on the part of Mortenson.
This seems to be about Mortenson's successfully surviving a nefarious scheme to take advantage of Mortenson's vulnerability resulting from the bigger case.
Perhaps I'm biased in Mortenson's behalf. I've seen him speak multiple times and his message is more than admirable. He is inspiring. His message is a noble call to care about others.
He has brought a story to life that attracts readers of all ages to read, to care, and to act on their caring through the Pennies for Peace Project.
He has made right the issues associated with the older story of faulty bookkeeping. And he does not deserve the malicious attacks by the opportunists in this case.
I have read tens of thousands of heartfelt, inspiring, personal stories from people all over the world.
__________ Just a quick scoop...
It is imperative that we keep a love of literature alive. Another articulation of what we may be abandoning if literature is not appreciated for what it does for humanity better than any nonfiction or technical writing.
As educators, our job should be to help our students know AND to care.
If we don't sell the value of great literature, who will?
And if we don't market the value of great literature, who will we blame if it falls out of curricular favor?
Throughout history, books have been banned for various reasons -- for sex, for language, for racism and for viewpoints. In British Columbia this week, a quote from Dr.
__________ If literature's challenge to our current understandings of the complexities of being human are threats to our children, how many existing wrongs will ever be righted?
How many great works of literature address issues of inequality?
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"The Great Gatsby" trailer has arrived with the familiar and era-appropriate tones of the Jay-Z and Kanye West collaboration, "No Church in the Wild." You crazy for this one, Baz Luhrmann!
__________ Sure to rekindle the flames of pedantry and pedagogy alike. Film adaptations of great literature have always sparked controversy in English department meetings.
So did you watch the trailer? Would you consider seeing the film? Showing it to students?
I've found myself on both sides of the discussion regarding film adaptations. I loved DiCaprio's Romeo and Juliet. Other English teaching colleagues for whom I have great respect did not.
I liked the film adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird, as most English teachers do. But, I missed the dimensions abandoned by the exclusion of the powerful roles played by Aunt Alexandra, Miss Maudie and the extreme reduction in the roles of Dill Harris, Calpurnia, and even Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose.
When I taught Animal Farm in a satire course, one of my favorite learning experiences was that at the end of the unit I'd show the Ted Turner TNT adaptation. As an intentional spoiler, if you haven't seen it, TNT put a happy ending on the story based upon a simplistic assumption that the pigs were commpletely at fault, the other animals were completely without fault, and that if the good wait (and suffer) long enough, the bad will self-destruct. What I liked was the outrage my students felt at the insult to Orwell's intention. They knew the text! They recognized the insult. It was joyous to see their analytical critique of the film's many and serious shortcomings.
But, there is more to the book vs. film adaptation than the simplistic "purist" vs. "interpretative license" debate.
Expecting film adaptations to "be" visual mirrors of text is unrealistic.
So, after the kids thoroughly thrashed the TNT adaptation, I'd ask this question. "So, I'm kind of wondering if there were scenes in this version of the story that were not in the original text yet Orwell might have liked anyway in the way they expressed his intentions?"
The stunned pause was wonderful? "Wait a minute? Didn't we just prove this was an awful adaptation? And, now you want us to think that Orwell might have appreciated parts of the movie's inaccuracies?"
"Yes."
"But..."
When the shock wore off, they'd eventually discover several scenes that, though not in the text, did reflect themes important to Orwell.
And have you considered that it is the text version of any Shakespeare play that is the "adaptation"? The stage version is the original.
Whether I wind up liking it or not, I'm looking forward to seeing this adaptation.
In any case, we would be well-adviced to use a bit of caution in expressing our strong opinions about film adaptations one way or another in front of our students who might just find that adaptations not in alignment with our personal opinions, to be exactly the bridge they needed to developing an interest in exploring the original text.
Discover the artisanal craft of pencil sharpening with the man known as "the number one #2 pencil sharpener."...
__________ Would you pay $15 for an artisanal pencil shapening? That's right. David Rees has found a niche where I would guess the competition is slim.
Would you recognize the distinctive qualities of a expertly sharpened pencil? I'd love to buy a classroom set of those super cheap single-blade, single-hole, plastic pencil sharpeners that sell for about $.40 and pass out these detailed instructions on how to get a perfectly sharpened pencil.
What an experience for "paying attention to detail." What an opportunity to include "informational text" reading into the curriculum! What an opportunity to let students come up with their own extremely detailed example of process writing.
London, October, 2010. Local people trying to save an old building from demolition called upon me to help. I'm a historian, and years ago I'd written about a Victorian doctor who'd worked there.
__________ How perfect this one is for a Google Lit Trips guy like me! This summer, I'll be speaking about Google Lit Trips at the Geo Teachers Institute in London on June 20th and 21st. I must make time for a run over to see these remarkable locations.
btw... It will be a great 10 days this summer.
On June 18th I'll be speaking at Bournemouth University in Bournemouth. (see http://symposium.bujournalism.info/)
And, on June 13 and 14, I'll be speaking at the Google Geo Teachers Institute in Dublin.
Can't wait!
Kids around the world log reading minutes in an effort to set a new world record for summer reading and be featured in the Scholastic Book of World Records...
__________ Sending kids off to summer "away from school"? Wny not encourage them to participate in this summer challenge from Scholastic? Let your kids know. Let their parents know.
An interesting idea for socializing summer reading. Kids log their summer reading and win rewards while sharing the enthusiasm for recreational reading with others.
~http://www.GoogleLitTrips.com ~
"Every writer, no matter how serious, needs to let off a little steam now and then. Those oh-so-important mental health days might be filled with hobbies (from baking to beekeeping) or drinking (every writer’s default hobby), or just plain goofing around with friends. Luckily for us, some of these author’s kookiest, most candid moments have been captured on film, so we can all feel a little closer to our favorite literary heroes."
__________ Just a silly and somewhat amusing collection of authors captured in odd moments. Most bring a smile to one's face. One makes the collection of questionable appropriateness for children. Though the same has been said for that particular author's writing.
New Jersey Arts Education Census Project surveys nearly all schools to compare arts education offerings.
__________ So why do so many people actually believe it is a good idea to that cutting everything not directly connected to raising scores?
I'd like to see a study that questions whether the intense focus on raising scores, particularly in reading, actually raises an interest in reading or actually lessens that interest.
What's that old saying? Penny wise and pound foolish?
In the last post we discussed the different images and words that the terms Literacy and Literature conjured up for you. The findings so far are very interesting indeed…and THANKS so much for...
_________ Went kind of nutso on the previous scoop.it commentary. But don't worry there won't be a test on it.
Then I came across this article that offers an interesting take on the distinctions between literacy and literature education.
As I work on the Google Lit Trips project, I often find myself contemplating the Venn diagram that shows both areas of common and uncommon attention within the reading foci of literacy and literature.
They are both important, but they are definitely distinct. The author of this article builds a case for a "downside" to trying to blend both literacy and literature education in a single environment.
I'm not sure I agree entirely with some of her conclusions. However, she does end her comments with a truly thought provoking and pedagogically challenging conclusion...
"…that whatever texts are brought into the classroom (whether they count as literature or not – a discussion for another day by the way), are reduced to classroom texts. The stories, the poems, the novels, the plays, the music, the nursery rhymes, become vehicles for an educational agenda which goes something like this…
a story becomes a reading comprehension
writing becomes a spelling test
a rhyme or poem becomes a phonics exercise
a play becomes an argument-based essay and so on…
I think we need new spaces in education that allow for students to engage with texts of one form or another whether stories, poems, music, art, mathematics and so on that don’t end up reducing their true value and transformative potential. What do you think?"
I really have to think about this. The literacy skills certainly are important and do require an evolving skill set for understanding increasingly complex reading. Yet, at the same time, there seems to be a quite obvious concern that trying to do both, particularly when current assessment structures are more concerned with literacy-side evaluation that literature-side value, that we might, in our good intentions, inadvertently "end up reducing their (literature's) true value and transformative potential."
It is a delicate balance for sure.
We've brought together some of our most beloved literary characters to make this film and help get books into the hands of kids who need them the most.
__________ It's all about children's books... What a very cool video featuring characters from several popular children's books. Can you name all of the characters and books referenced in this video?
After viewing the video, explore the website. These folks are doing great work!
European Narratology Network (ENN) Location-Based Storytelling 18 June 2012 In Association with the Narrative Research Group (NRG) and Centre for Excellence in Media Practice (CEMP), Bournemouth Media School Venue: The...
__________ Just had to scoop this one! Why? Because I'll be speaking at this symposium at Bournemouth University in Bournemouth, Great Britain.
Also, by the way, I'll be at the Google Headquarters in Dublin, Ireland the week before and in the Google Headquarters in London two days later speaking at the Geo-Teachers Institutes in both cities.
Crowdsourcing a novel is nothing new. Plenty of people submit ideas to Kickstarter and Indiegogo to come up with the funds to make a work happen for micro-famous authors.
_________ An intriguing invitation to participate in a crowdsourced writing experience. Your kids could join, or even better perhaps create a public blog space where they can be the sole editors, while the public is invited to visit and read the story as it develops.
By making the class members the only participants with editing privileges, student accountability is assessible. By making the space open to the public an authentic audience student engagement and sense of responsibility to audience is enhanced.
If possible, a mediated comment permission from the public would allow authentic feedback while also allowing an ability to filter out immature and/or inappropriate comments.
The alphabet from Kuwait's landscape using Google Earth [ full size image here: http://goo.gl/cCsbc ]. I first started this 3.5 years ago, reached about half the letters and kinda gave-up / slept on it.
__________ For early literacy enthusiasts! Teaching the alphabet in the REAL WORLD. What a wonderfully engaging approach to the most essential building block of literacy.
This video uses Kuwait's landscape as captured on Google Earth to create a wonderfully pleasant high altitude cruise around the country "seeing" the alphabet in buildings and landforms. Just charming!
I've always found "ABC Books" fascinating as I stumble across new (to me) and creative ways of presenting basic alphabet recognition to children.
On a slightly related note... I remember stumbling across "Uncle Shelby's ABZs" by Shel Silverstein. Silverstein known for both his wonderful children's books and his edgy Playboy cartoons, brought those two worlds together in "Uncle Shelby's ABZs"
Not for young children by any means, but not at all pornographic. Just funny in a satirical sort of way. I used to share it with my high school creative writing classes as an example of finding a creative approach to storytelling by finding an example of escaping "the box" we all profess is where the great thinking happens.
This video is another fine example of that kind of thinking, but it is beautifully done, shows a bit of geography, and even a bit global awareness of a part of the world that we all would be better off knowing more about. And, it's perfectly appropriate for even the littlest letter learners.
Here's another variation done entirely in The Netherlands: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasdebruin/3831046964/in/set-72157622073049692/
From this must read article...
"...As individuals, we learn our most lasting moral lessons through stories. Storytelling, in the form of confessional narratives and traditional fiction, gives us a fuller understanding not only of others’ experiences, but of ours as well. The whole point of reading novels is not to find resolutions or solutions, but to broaden and heighten our understanding of shared struggles and problems. They remind us of what is important in life, admonish us, point new directions for us, engage us in self-reflection, and sometimes inspire us to lead lives of moral integrity. Many writers try to connect moral ideas to the practice of everyday life, to link stories and experiences in meaningful ways..."
"...Education and learning are more than simply enabling the students to regurgitate facts and figures; they are fundamentally about the intellectual and personal changes students undergo as they develop new knowledge and new abilities. Moreover, students are more than mere receptacles of learning; they are responders who are highly involved in creating meaning, in finding common ground, and in discovering shared assumptions. These beliefs shape my approach to the teaching of literature. In teaching literature, I do not test students’ accuracy and measure whether the student gets the “right” meaning because there is no single meaning. In fact, as a teacher I believe that doing so destroys students’ interest in and enjoyment of literature..."
"...Undergraduate literature courses should have a strong emphasis on reflective practice. I argue that the opportunity to structure the curriculum to include civic engagement may be among the most important roles for literature programs. Our aim in literature teaching should be to expand the students’ awareness of themselves as persons, to relate the values and ideas expressed in works of literature to their lives, and to prepare students for roles as effective citizens..."
__________ As the common core standards in the United States call for more emphasis upon nonfiction and technical writing and reduced attention to fiction, this exquisite articulation of the REAL value of literary study clarifies why literature deserves a greater role, not a lesser role, in a well-designed 21st century curriculum for all global citizens.
~ http://www.GoogleLitTrips.com ~
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