"Supreme Efforts of Care and Honest Utterance": Grasping The Singular Power of The Spoken Word in School Spaces
"Supreme Efforts of Care and Honest Utterance": Grasping The Singular Power of The Spoken Word in School Spaces
"Supreme Efforts of Care and Honest Utterance": Grasping The Singular Power of The Spoken Word in School Spaces
come along
and listen to what they have tried to
say.
They believe that when someone
comes along
and hears what they, the poets,
think
desire, or despise, a trustworthy
conversation will become possible
They believe that important, truthful conversation
between people fosters and defends
the values of democratic equality
They believe that other people deserve
supreme efforts of care and honest
utterance (p. 208)
In light of Joes spirit and lifes
work, I would like to explore here some
emerging insights related to poetry
within public school spaces. These insights are drawn from work I am pursuing with an inquiry group of middle and
secondary teachers who are exploring
the complexities and possibilities of incorporating multimodalities into their
English and Reading support classes.
I have been drawn to consideration
of the poetry and experiences of two
boys who conveyed to me and others in
the inquiry group compelling insights
about the synergy between old and
new literacies, between spoken words
and written words, between individual
creative processes and public performances. Like the student poets Jordan
writes of, their work suggests this faith
in the power of poetry and this yearning toward the kinds of communities
that can be created by, for, and in support of words spoken and words heard.
The digital poems of two boys, Michael and Jared, provided compelling
windows into their literacies and lives
for both Mira and other members of our
inquiry community. Both boys were 8th
graders at the time of the study. Michael, who is White, was part of the
troduced. Jared, who is African American, participated in this project the following academic year. Conversations
with both students, classroom observations, and interviews with Mira provide
further insight into the ways in which
the students took up invitations to do
this kind of work and how their engage-
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Knobel , M. & Lankshear, C. (2007). (Eds.). A new literacies sampler. New York: Peter Lang.
Kress, G. & Jewitt, C. (2003). Multimodal literacy. New York: Peter Lang.
Jordan, J. (1998).
Maso, C. (2000). Break every rule: Essays on language, longing, and moments of desire. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint.
Robinson, V. T. (2009, July 14). A teacher. A mentor. A legend. Facebook posting.
Schmich, M. (2009, July 15). Brothers death hits harder than most. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 20, 2009:
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2009/jul/15/news/chi-schmich-15-jul15
Wissman, K. (2007). Making a way: Young women using literacy and language to resist the politics of silencing. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 51 (4), 340-349.
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