Final Letters and Reflections.....

It has been wonderful working with all of you this semester and getting to know so many new faces as well. Please cut and paste your letters here....

The Power of Words...

THE VOICE YOU HEAR WHEN YOU READ SILENTLY

is not silent, it is a speaking-
out-loud voice in your head; it is spoken,
a voice is saying it
as you read. It's the writer's words,
of course, in a literary sense
his or her "voice" but the sound
of that voice is the sound of your voice.
Not the sound your friends know
or the sound of a tape played back
but your voice
caught in the dark cathedral
of your skull, your voice heard
by an internal ear informed by internal abstracts
and what you know by feeling,
having felt. It is your voice
saying, for example, the word "barn"
that the writer wrote
but the "barn" you say
is a barn you know or knew. The voice
in your head, speaking as you read,
never says anything neutrally- some people
hated the barn they knew,
some people love the barn they know
so you hear the word loaded
and a sensory constellation
is lit: horse-gnawed stalls,
hayloft, black heat tape wrapping
a water pipe, a slippery
spilled chirr of oats from a split sack,
the bony, filthy haunches of cows...
And "barn" is only a noun- no verb
or subject has entered into the sentence yet!
The voice you hear when you read to yourself
is the clearest voice: you speak it
speaking to you.

~~-Thomas Lux

Read this poem several times. Read it out loud. What is your reaction to this poem. What does it make you think of? Think of it in terms of your barn, your vocabulary and what this says about the comprehension of anything. What is YOUR reaction?

Beyond Words....

There are so many layers of meanings for words, never mind when we string these words all together into sentences. It is no wonder we have communication difficulties because each word is so different for each person. What do I mean? I am talking about each person's individual schema. What do we have stored away in our minds for background knowledge and how does that dictate or mold how we come to understand a certain word or phrase. Take a word,barn, for example ...what do you do to make sense of it? Think about the word, the context, what images it stirs up for you, what it reminds you of or makes you think of. What do you see, smell, hear, touch when thinking about this word? What do you feel? Is it a pleasant feeling or not? Why? Write down your thoughts. Show us "your" barn. What does this word make you think of? How did you come to these conclusions and what strategies did you use to arrive there?

Noticing....

As you get deeper into your integration experimentations, what are you noticing? Are you seeing things in a new way? Are you finding that the topic is around you in a way that it never was before? Are you having more conversations about it? Are you thinking about it more? Are you reading about it more? Have you taken any notes or written anything down to keep track of your process? What do you notice about yourself as a learner? Are you putting it off until the last minute, or are you truly giving yourself the luxury of thinking about it for awhile and letting it simmer? Has this "thing" that you have randomly chosen become a part of your everyday life and thinking? Have you forgotten what it was you had chosen? Has your focus changed? In what way?
You do not have to answer all of these questions, but I am hoping that one of them will allow you a "way in" to thinking about what you are noticing....so you can tell us all what you are noticing!!

Beginning Thoughts.....

Hello Everyone,
Thank you for taking the time to experiment with this blog. Each week I will post something for you to respond to. This will allow us to keep our conversations going on line and make another place for us to share ideas, thoughts and interests. This week I want you to think about our Integration Experimentation. Is there something in your life you have always wanted to know more about, but have not made the time to do so? Here is your chance. Through this process we will look at the connections we make in the world of literacy as we become more aware of what it is we are interested in and how those connections allow us to have meaningful learning experiences.
Why The Sea of Literacy? Well, in thinking about it I was struck by the fact that all of the water sources eventually end up in the larger sea. We have looked at some of the smaller bodies of water in detail. We have looked specifically at reading and writing. This year we are looking more globally at the big picture, or what I think of as the sea of literacy. As you know things come and go in terms of instructional practices, best practices, reaseach-based as quickly as the tides change. What though, remains constant for you in your teaching? What are the parts of the Sea that always ring true for you? What is literacy and how do we become literate?