Careywebb

A Recipe for Addressing Youth Violence taken from the cookbook: Literature and Lives:A Response-Based, Cultural Studies Approach to Teaching English by Allen Carey-Webb

Take a classroom with an equal mix of African-American and White students from the Detroit area ranging from freshman to senior year

Pour in Native Son by Richard Wright

Add A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

Watch the video Eyes on the Prize

Mix well with cross racial dialogue

Fold in Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A.Gang Member by Sanyika Shakur aka Kody Scott

Write feelings and accounts in journals and discuss in open classroom about developing respectful relationships, safety issues, survivor process and provide info about resources available in the community

For variations add or substitute one or more of the following:

TheAutobiography of Malcolm X

Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. by Luis Rodriguez

The Outsiders, That Was Then, This is Now, Rumble Fish by S. E. Hinton

I Won't Learn From You: And Other Thoughts on Creative Maladjustment by Herbert Kohl

Boyz N The Hood

Strapped

Menace II Society

Voices from the Future: Our Children Tell us about Violence in America by Susan Goodwillie

Other resources found on pages 71 - 78

Mix these with liberal doses of discussion and writing

Author notes: I chose to write this as a recipe because that is how I see a classroom. You start with a classroom of students and add "ingredients" such as video, literature, essays, etc., and mix it up with discussions and written works. The topic determines how "hot" the discussion will be or how revealing the written works will get. Sue Fraser

"A Letter From A Homeless Child"
My name is Jody. I live by Little Chico Creek With My Mom and my sister. We have been homeless for one year. I used to live in a house with a swing in the backyard. I had a dog, a cat, and a tutle name Jo-Jo. I always had something to eat.

Now, I walk to school with holes in my socks and my shoes.

I sleep on the ground next to my mom and my sister. I don't have a jacket. I only have two pairs of underwear. My mom helps recylce the trash in the neighborhoods. She said some day we will have enough money to buy a car, or rent an apartment, or even eat sundays. I have been homeless for a year. My name is Jody. I'm the kid without a jacket and holes in her shoes. You won't recognize me. I hide in the crowd of the other kids. Just please, don't make me take off my shoes. My feet haven't been cleaned in weeks and my little toes poke out of the holes in my socks. My name is Jody, I'm homeless.

(Writer's Note) I did read more than just the first chapter of the book, but I found Carey-Webb's chapter on homelessness very intersting. It pulls away the viel of a parallel universe that exists right here, in our faces every day. I couldn't help but notice, after I read this chapter, that I was more aware of the homeless people I see in Chico. I now always wonder how they got there. I also now recognize the judgement I once, and sometimes still do, pass on them. However with reading this book I have really wanted to get to know one of them better. They are humans with needs.

There's one man who sits on the corner of Broadway by Zuccni and Vine everyday. Everday I pass by him, and everyday he smiles at me. Now he waves and asks how's mu day going. I have come to enjoy my brief passing time with him. The other day Grilla Bites messed up my order so I ended up with two sandwitches. I gave one to him and he was thrilled.

Teaching students about homelessness seems incredible to me because it's right in your face. It's somthing that is often overlooked, and yet it's a huge issue in many cities. The letter I wrote is meant to humanize the homeless child and state, I do exist. I hope it works, and I will have to try to get to know the man I pass by a little better each day. ye

Quick Writes Based on Chapter 3: Genderizing the Curriculum
Books:

A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf

Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls - Mary Pipher

Ophelia Speaks: Adolescent Girls Write About their Search for Self - Sara Shandler

A Room of One's Own

Do you feel that some of the things that Woolf is saying are still happening, ie: lack of freedoms, personal space

What does it mean to be Shakespeare's sister? Name the earliest women writer whose name you know.

Describe a successful woman you know. How does she manage her personal and professional life, children, etc.

Reviving Ophelia

What is your reaction to Pipher's views that girls are discriminated against? Does it feel accurate to you? Why or why not?

Write about a discrimination that men feel, or effects of culture on teenage boys.

Ophelia Speaks

Do these stories feel accurate to you? Do you now any of these girls, or feel you are similar to them in any way?

Write your own story of search for self- to be an extended assignment.

Writer's note: Amanda Runyan I wanted to write about some of the books that Carey-Webb mentions. In this chapter he writes of personally not having a great success with 'A Room of One's Own' in his classroom, but I would like to attempt it. Paired with these contemporary texts I think it has a lot to say about societal views of women that can be compared to current views. I wanted to show that there are so many different ways to go with the study of gender. The other texts are very popular books that he recommends. Reviving Ophelia was written by a psychologist, but it has many stories about teenage girls. I read it as a teenage girl, as did many of my friends. Ophelia Speaks is a book compiled by a teenage girl with stories of struggles and discoveries. It is an excellent place to get short personal accounts for a classroom. There is another book I did not include entitles Ophelia's Mom, with stories women wrote about their teenage daughters. In 'Literature and Lives,' Carey-Webb writes of the success he has in class discussions and writing assignments that analyze personal views. It is much like Gaughan's obsession with quick writes. Some of these conversation items, like how are men discriminated against or does this type of genderizing still happen, can open up some interesting conversations. These questions are listed as quick write ideas, but they are also discussion ideas. I used this genre because interesting conversations are what English classes survive on.

Reflection by Allen Carey-Webb (well, more like Nikolais Linsteadt)

Teaching is an experiment. I spent most of my years as a new teacher trying out new things and deciding what worked and what didn’t. What I’ve found over the years is that it doesn’t do any good to try to teach something that doesn’t relate to student’s lives. One case of a failure to do that was when I tried to teach A Room of One’s Own. At the time I was learning about women’s literature myself and realized that all I ever learned in college consisted of white men who died at least a hundred years ago or more. That whole time was another learning experience for me. I eventually realized that there were gender issues in almost every piece of literature I would present to the students. Macbeth provided an excellent opportunity to not only question woman’s roles, but to look at how Macbeth defined manhood and restricted himself through that definition whether it was imposed by his wife, himself, or the people around him. Students can relate to this. Most, if not all, students have seen advertisements and can relate to the image of womanhood or manhood portrayed. It determines how they are supposed to act and limits them to a specific set of acceptable behaviors. Just like my earlier class on the homeless, this was something they could see in their own “backyard,” in my case literally. Once the text is made relevant to their lives and accessible it becomes easier to lead discussion and get them to think about the major issues the text presents without feeling like you are pulling teeth.

Writer’s Note: I decided to do a reflection based response because I would like to know what goes through this guys mind. He is almost exactly like Gaughan. He takes as many risks as possible with the same goal of confronting students’ beliefs and assumptions on hot issues in the contact zone. He seems so determined it reminds me of the diary book that every pre-credential student has to read before entering the program. I can’t remember the name off the top of my head but it was about a woman teaching in a “disadvantaged” area to kids in the lower rung of the totem pole at the school and they compiled responses of the students into a book. Yeah, that’s the one. Basically, I like the way Carey-Webb approaches learning and really tries to get a better understanding of the courses and then tries to relay that information on to the students in the most interactive way possible.

A Review of "Literature and Lives" (Ashley Purdy)

This book draws from many different techniques used to have students connect to literature. The very title suggests this point that literature and life go hand in hand. To English teachers, literature is their life, but students obviously don't have the same passion. A way to connect them to the literature is to connect to their passion in some way. This book shows you how by discussing topics such as gender and homelessness, topics relevant to the student's lives, but not necessarily talked about in a classroom. This book provides a solid introduction in drawing parallels between the classroom and student's lives. It is entirely student-centered, as any book about teaching should be. I would highly recommend this book to others.

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I thought a review would be a good approach to this book because a good review of a book, or a friend's recommendation can make one remember the book and they are then more likely to read it or remember the review if they come across the title in a bookstore. I think this book was really helpful in its approach and other people could benefit from it as well.
 * Writers Note*